Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ Spring Forest Qigong Visualizing the energy

I`m quite new to Small Universe Meditation. I find it difficult to visualize my energy going smooth and systematic in that exercise. It`s like resistance.
Is there anyone that has had same experiences and progressed with better exercise after some time?

Is Qi Gong really to be pronounced CHEE KUNG? I have thought CHEE GONG.

Hi John,
I haven't had the experience you speak of, but I would like to offer that it is best to just keep practicing, relax, and come to each session without any preset expectation, or notion of what it should be. If you follow the teaching, everything is fine. You don't start out in any meditation technique, and experience it as the ultimate example of what it is. You are starting a journey of transformation and opening. You start wherever you are, and the process takes care of itself. Your experience will change over time. Not from wrong to right. It is good as soon as you engage, at any level. Try to remove any tension in your alignments. The smile is great for that.

Qigong is pronouced CHEE GONG. This is closest. Many people say chi kung.
Same for kung fu and gung fu. The Chinese character is the same in both, and is pronounced gong( same say more like gung). Gong is closest to the actual Chinese pronunciation. Sometimes, differences in terms and pronouncing them stem from Cantonese vs Mandarin words, and then shifting that to English. The character 'gong', depicts a carpenter's square(pictographically), and represents work or work/skill. The larger qigong associations as well as SFQ, use 'gong', and 'qi' / qigong. I believe things will eventually standardize to this.
love,
gallen

Hi

Yes, the technique and improvements will come with time I guess. As it has for Lin. It`s me trying to make it perfect (too soon).
I practise Qi Gong 1 to 1,5 hours each day and I`m very happy that I see it just as a lifestyle, little stress about doing it :-)
What`s a bit hard is pressing yourself for a better sitting position. I`m far away (I think) from full Lotus position. I haven`t reached semi-position yet, I will go for reaching that position for 1 hour in the coming time soon (I started SFQ in April and free style position in June). I was empty of Omega 3 capsles for one week, that sure made the sitting meditation remarkably more painful (seal-oil is best for the bones).
I think it`s important to press yourself to sit best longest possible, but not if it makes too much tensions.

I`m not sure, I think I value the active exercises more than sitting meditation (Along I also use headphones with brain synchronization technique).


Thank you very much for taking interest and information
John

I can relate to the struggle. Small Universe can be a challenge. I have been doing the 1 hour version mostly lately. I still do the half hour version sometimes and I even will sometimes either with or without the recording, do just a few cycles (either when I miss a "full" practice session or to give me a "booster shot" during the day.

I had a big breakthrough yesterday with SU: I have sometimes gotten through the shorter version without losing my place (after the Master Lin's coaching stops--he does 3 cycles with coaching and then says, "Now do the rest by yourself"), but rarely. Never with the one hour version. With that one, I either "doze" or just lose my place multiple times. Sometimes as many as 5 or 6 or maybe more, but never less than 3 or 4.

Until yesterday morning's meditation!

I did lose my place one time (more than halfway through!), but quickly found my way back (I somehow was at the spinal cord, when the lower tantien "om" was sounding. Don't know if I skipped ahead or actually lost a bunch of breaths. I think I would prefer the latter because it would mean I was so lost in the meditation -or maybe the emptiness- that I lost some time. Which I like, actually!). And then for the rest of the meditation, I was right on the energy center for every one. It was kind of like riding a horse or some other kind of natural "flow" sport (sailing which I have done or maybe surfing, which I have never done).

And when the hour was up, it did not feel at ALL like an hour! It felt very good and very short and I could feel a bunch of blockages unblock. That was my best sitting Small Universe ever and I know it was a result of much practice with it without giving up (and a lot of sessions where sometimes struggled the whole way with stray thoughts, fidgeting, losing my place, dozing etc. A LOT! MANY!).

Now, I must add here that this is all on top of a three week period following my participation in the recent Triple Fortune weekend with Paul Scheele, Marie Diamond and Chunyi Lin. I had a remarkable healing experience there that I intend to share in another post in a topic I will start. Meeting Master Lin, experiencing this remarkable healing and a lot of the learning that I experienced that weekend has given me a HUGE supercharge of motivation, momentum and inspiration and I am sure that has something to do with what I feel was a breakthrough.

I also helped someone with a qigong healing for my very first time a few days ago. More on that also in a future post in thread of its own (or related one).

But boosts or now boosts, I feel fairly certain, that this is like anything else : with practice comes results. Because it is "passive" (although there is a lot of activity going on inside), it is not the same kind of results one gets from doing more on the outside. And it can be more subtle. And therefore less "inspiring" sometimes.

But I am convinced that as Master Lin says, the most important Qigong work really does come from the meditations. Don't get me wrong: the Active Exercise is VITAL for most of us for much of our development (depending on condition, blockages, previous energy work etc) in order to get the powerful results from the meditations. But after practicing SFQ now for almost 2 years, I can tell you the powerful 1-2 punch of SFQ is in the strong relationship between the Active Exercise and the meditation, most importanly, the Small Universe.

I encourage to keep doing it. Do as much as you can as many times as you can. One of the coaches at the SFQ Center told me "even 1 or 2 cycles (i.e. 10 minutes or less), will produce results". I love this advice, and it has helped me maintain consistancy and momentum over a period of time. At one point, I had cut up some mp3's of the SU recordings (both with and without coaching) into small segments (3 minutes and 10 minutes, as well as a 48 minute version that I used that had only the om's and mo's without coaching or ending). I had that on an old mp3 player that I no longer use. I might still use these with my iPod (where I have almost all of my SFQ materials now). But I have gottent to a point that I can do at least 3-10 cycles without any recording, music or coaching. I sometimes will "play" Master Lin's voice in my head for those sessions.

You might also try doing it standing up in a posture (could be "holding the ball" or even "Forming of Yin and Yang") right after doing the Active Exercise. I found a lot of good, strong results with this early in my SFQ practice. I was more used to doing standing meditation because of Zhang Zhuan qigong standing from my Tai Chi and Bagua practice from years before. And like you, I had trouble with good sitting postures (right now, I am in a kind of modified half-lotus which has one leg fully on my thigh and the other (my right foot), kind of tucked up into the left leg, so it is almost a full lotus. It hurts a bit when I am done, but I feel good while sitting in it).

One of my early Small Universe Meditations was an hour long session while standing. Though I might have lost my place a few times, it was fewer at that point than while sitting. Less tendency to doze (for me). I also had a BIG release of energy during that session where I shook uncontrollably and cried like a baby (it actually felt quite good and I was prepared by many of the remarks of Master Lin, plus some previous experiences with such energy release).

Standing allows energy to flow freely (as probably lying down does as well, but that can lend itself to falling asleep) and can easlly follow the Active Exercise (it flows directly from the Active Exercise).

And since Master Lin gives "permission" (one of the things I really like about SFQ is how "permissive" or flexible it is. For me, that has been a real motivator in keeping up my practice), to do it "sitting, standing or lying down", I think for many people, standing at a certain level might be valuable. I know it was for me. Maybe it will be for you.

The most important thing, is to quote my wife's Tae Kwon Do teacher of years ago (he is now deceased), a Master Kim of the DC area, "Remember important Winston Churchill one word saying: 'DON'T GIVE UP!' " It is possible that in Korean, this was one word. In any case, I like the way he put it and the way my wife tells it.

Don't give up! Keep meditating! You WILL experience results.

Thank you a lot for your writing.

I can say that I just do my best and am not able to discuss in the same details as you since I struggle as I have written..
I don`t even know the difference of 30 min and 1 hour version. I guess 30 min version is one sirculation for the energy to go around the whole body.
And I have never done Self Concentration meditation, except during Telephone Healing Sessions

I don`t know how to feel unblocks in my body and I do the breathing too fast. I can feel major differences in the body if I hold the breath, it feels like locking the energy out from the universe, noticing that I see as a positive developement.
I also have had some 1 hour meditations where it has went much faster than other times. Having no pain is important, as mentioned using Omega 3 oil (seal) I think helps alot, so I can press myself in better position. I tried semi-Lotus yesterday, my legs shaked 30 - 40 min, then I quit it. But it wasn`t that painful, because of Omega 3 I think.

Standing meditation I find odd, but I will try it after a while.

The difference for me is that I don`t do the "om" sounding. I don`t know how important this is. The reason is because I have Holosync meditation sound (headphones) during the practise. Something I like very much.

Some more things;

Less consumption of alcohol helps alot. I have heard that drinking alcohol locks the body for the spiritual world. I have decreased alcohol and I don`t think it`s so good anymore.

What does it cost to participate in a retreat / seminar with Chunuy Lin?

I have ordered Feng Shui, and will begin exploring that quite soon, hope it`s as good as the testimonials.

Do you know which Master Chunuy Lin is using?

Is there anyone that has read his book Born a Healer? Is it worth to use money on and read?

I have Level 2, but have no people to practise with. Something that perhaps is too early anyway.
It`s interesting stuff all this, I think it`s very interesting to discuss SFQ and hopefully Feng Shui too.

Sometimes I think to myself that practising may be waste of time, almost everybody else is not doing things like this and a lot of people still have a lot of energy and are happy. But I guess that the rewards of doing it takes time, like with Lin. And keeping up with it in times like that is a major key.

Thank you for your sharing of knowledge.

I started practising SFQ regularly in the Easter. I`m not able to maintain it every single day, especially not the Active Exercises, but almost every day.
I will try out the SU cd, both standing and sitting. I have noticed that it was easier to feel the energy in the specific places when doing the 'OM' sound.
It`s interesting to read what you think of Holosync. I`m to begin on Awakening Level 4 these days. There`s great testimonials and they speak highly of it themselves. Bill almost promise golden years if you 'just' put on the headphones. I can say that when I started doing SFQ it took me to new levels and his talk makes more sense. In June I started sitting in Freestyle position. It`s strange that that program doesn`t say specifically that you should sit in that position or better (though I see why). Because I don`t think some headphones can take all the credit for a persons positive development. Bill speaks about his transformation and that it really began when he started using Holosync (before he had meditated for 16 years), but I assume he has been doing Lotus position or something for many years in his progress.
If that`s the case I think the company really should point out the importance of sitting correctly (they vaguely mention it).

Otherwise it`s also interesting to read about Feng Shui and it`s a bit scary to read what the program says about the influence energy in rooms have on us. I`m sure bad Feng Shui around myself has set me back some.

Two more things, which thoughts do you have about nutrition?
I`m about to start reading a book called The Ph Miracle. I know for sure that alcohol is negative, but never imagined it in such a big way as it now seems like.
Taoism says a lot about Ph and food (an own direction in Taoism).

There`s a saying from them,
'When you do Outer exercises
you also should do Inner exercises.
When you do Inner exercises
you may forget about doing Outer exercises'

You have studied and done Tai Chi and some more. What the taoists actually are saying is that practising Soccer, running etc (that require movement) harm the body and draining it for energy.
The saying can also correlate to our discussion about what`s most important, Active Exercises or Meditation (or both).