SELECTION OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
JANUARY 2010 PART 2
An Intensive Chi Kung Course in Malaysia
Question 1
Could you please give me details of the following key factors? Is it enough for my father to attend one course only and do the exercises back home?
— Nodir, Kazakhstan
Answer
Yes, it is sufficient for your father to take just the Intensive Chi Kung Course. He has to practice what he has learnt at home.
In fact he does not have to practice everything that he has learnt. If he can practice just a part of what he has learnt, actually the first part, and be able to generate an energy flow, he would have good health, vitality and longevity.
This is because the course provides material from beginners' level through intermediate level to masters' level. What your father needs most is found at the beginners' level, which will be taught at the beginning of the course, and will be repeated throughout the course so that course participants can know it very well.
At the intermediate level, course participants learn to develop internal force and attain mental clarity so that they will have better results in whatever they do in their past-times as well as daily work. At the masters' level, course participants learn to expand their spirit into the Cosmos to experience spiritual joys irrespective of religion. It is hard to believe that so much can be attained in just a few days.
Many people, like your father, come to the course with specific objectives, like overcoming certain diseases and maintianing good health. Just a part of the course -- the part that teaches them to generate an energy flow -- will be sufficient to fulfill their needs. Then, will they be wasting their time learning the intermediate level and the masters' level when only the beginners' level is sufficient for them?
Of course, no. We aim for excellence. We provide a most comprehensive course on chi kung for partiipants of different developmental levels so that they can choose to practice whatever skills and techniques that can best fulfill their particular needs and aspirations. For those who suffer from some illness, we help them not only to overcome their illness, but also to have vitality and mental freshness to enjoy their life after they have recovered.
Moreover, even if we just focus on overcoming illness and leave aside other aspirations, the intermediate level and the masters' level, being more powerful, will help course participants overcome their illness faster. In other words, for those who are sick, even when they forget the intermediate and masters' levels of the course and practice only the exercises at the beginners' level, they will still be able to overcome their illness. If they include exercises at the intermediate and masters' levels, they have more powerful tools not only to overcome their illness, but also to enrich their lives and the lives of other people.
Question 2
Or would you recommend longer stay in Malaysia? How much will it cost to take a course and approximate living expenses for the whole stay period?
Answer
It is not necessary for your father to stay longer after the course. If he continues to practice at home what he has learnt at the course, he would have good health, vitality and longevity.
But if he can stay for a few days or longer after the course for a holiday in Malaysia, it will be very beneficial. He will be on his own during this extended stay. He can remain in Penang, a beautiful place for holidaying, or he can visit other interesting places in Malaysia like Langkawi and Malacca.
Traveling in Malaysia is safe and easy. He can make his traveling arrangement with the travel agent in the hotel in Penang where he stays for the course. 100 euros a day is sufficient to cover for staying in a first-class hotel and enjoying three delicious meals. The fee for the Intensive Chi Kung Course is 1000 euros.
But his main problem is language. English is widely spoken anywhere in Malaysia, but not Russian. My secretary is still trying to find a Russian translator for him. If we can't find a Russian translator here, it will be difficult for your father unless he comes with a translator.
Enjoying good health, not just overcoming illness, is the first fundamental aim of practicing chi kung.
Question 3
I am suffering from anxiety disorder and instability of emotions. I also have high frequency sounds in my right ear and sometimes high blood pressure and thinking problems. Sometimes I have extreme fatigue and panic attacks. But chi kung made the symptoms a little better.
— Den, Latvia
Answer
If you practice high-level chi kung, most if not all your health problems should be gone within a year. If conditions are favorable, your problems can be gone in three months.
Enjoying good health, not just overcoming illness, is the first fundamental aim of practicing chi kung. If you have spent some time practicing chi kung diligently and are still sick, you should review your practice. Obviously some things are not right.
Question 4
Can the chi kung exercises that I practice help me to overcome my diseases?
Answer
The answer is yes and no. Yes, if you practice correctly. But judging from the way you practice as described in your e-mail, you are unlikely to overcome your illness even if you continue practicing for a long time.
In Golden Bridge training chi may be consolidated into jing
Question 5
Can you give advice in my situation? What exercises must I do to cure myself, to normalize yin-yang harmony? My financial situation is very poor so I can't spend money on medical treatment.
Answer
Honestly, my best advice for you is to learn from one of our Certified Instructors.
It is not cheap when compared to the fees charged by most other chi kung teachers, but you will find it one of the best things you have ever done.
Learning chi kung, like learning any art such as swimming and playing the paino, is not just learning techniques but acquiring skills. You can learn techniques from a book or a video, but skills are best acquired from a competent teacher.
To overcome your illness, it is not what techniques, like "Pushing Mountain", "Lifting the Sky" or "Three-Circle Stance" that you mentioned, but how skillful your practice the exercise. You and many people may find it hard to believe, but if you are skillful, any one of the techniques you have mentioned will help you overcome your health problems.
Question 6
I am planning to go winter swimming. Can you advice some self regulation exercises to normalize my bio-energetic processes while in ice water?
Answer
If you are skillful, any chi kung exercise will normalize your bio-energetic processes. Similarly, any chi kung exercise will overcome your health problems and give your mental clarity and vitality.
An analogy will make this clear. Suppose you want to normalize your economic processes. You also want to go for a holiday or buy a new car. What you need is cash flow. There are numerous techniques to get your cash flow. You may become a clerk, a gardener, a lawyer or a doctor. If you are skillful, any one profession can generate enough cash flow to overcome your economic problems.
The same principles apply in chi kung. To normalize your bioenergetic processes, as well as to overcome your emotional instability, sounds in your ear and occasional high blood pressure, you need energy flow. There are many techniques to generate an energy flow, like "Pushing Mountain", "Lifting the Sky" and "Three-Circle Stance". If you are skillful, any one chi kung exercise can generate enough energy flow to overcome your health problems.
I would suggest that instead of going for winter swimming, you attend my Winter Camp. You will probably generate more energy flow in one day using the techniques and skills you will learn at the Winter Camp than practicing for three months what you are now doing. It is hard for many people to believe that this can be true, but it can be easily verify from direct experience.
Editorial Note: Den's other questions will be posted in the January 2010 Part 3 issue.
Relatively speaking, Three-Circle Stance training focuses on chi more than on jing
Question 7
When we use weights to enhance our internal methods, does this work by aiding in the consolidation of jing, or is it that we cultivate more chi in order to support the weights?
— Sifu Jonny Say, Scotland
Answer
This is an academic question. Its answer has no practical significance, but satisfies intellectual curiosity. This means it does not matter what the answer is, the practical result is the same.
In other words, it does not matter whether using weights to enhance internal methods work by helping to consolidate jing or by cultivating more chi, the result is still that you have more internal force though you spend less time in the training. Even if the actual working involved is neither consolidating jing nor cultivating chi but some other factors, the result is still the same.
Nevertheless, I shall answer your questions as they are intellectually interesting -- provided you or others who wish to benefit from them do not become a slave to intellectualization.
It works by the consolidation of jing, but the cultivation of more chi is also involved because jing is the result of condensed chi. In other words, in order to consolidate jing, there must be the cultivation of chi, just as in order to consolidate ice, there must be water.
To go deeper, one may ask where the consolidation of jing or the cultivation of more chi takes place first. I believe first chi consolidates into jing, then more chi is cultivated to replace the chi that has been used to change into jing.
For example, when one practices an internal method, like Golden Bridge, without using weights, chi flows smoothly. When weights are added, some of the exsisting chi consolidates into jing. Then more chi flows in to replace the used chi.
Question 8
Does it become li when someone uses excess weights before he is ready or lifts weights with tension?
Answer
Yes, if someone who is not ready uses excess weights or lifts weights with tension, he will develop li, which is muscular strength, instead of jing, which is internal force.
Even if he is ready, i.e.he can train internal methods competently, but if he exerts muscular tension, he will develop li instead of jing. Thus, it is crucial that those training internal methods must be relaxed.
LINKS
Selected Reading
- Eighteen Lohan Hands
- Amazing Techniques in Shaolin Kungfu
- Combat Application of Taijiquan
- How to Plan a Training Schedule
- Practicing is Something I Look Forward to Everyday