Although he wasn’t wearing his clerical garb, I already knew that he was an ordained Catholic priest. He had traveled hundreds of miles to learn Shaolin Kung Fu from me, and we had communicated via email.

But qigong is a big part of the kung fu that I teach, and I wanted to be sure he understood what he was learning.

“Yes Sifu,” he said with a big smile. “We’re cool.”

And that’s how our lessons progressed, with me calling him Father, and him calling me Sifu. I’m not Catholic, but I used his title out of respect. And I assume that he called me Sifu for the same reasons.

When I taught a Sufi Sheik, I called him Sheik.

When I taught a Protestant minister, I used the title Reverend.

When I taught in a synagogue in New York, I used the title, Rabbi.

This should give you a pretty good idea about whether you need to be Buddhist or Taoist to practice qigong, but my aim in today’s walk-and-talk is to clear up any confusion about the relationship between qigong and spirituality/religion.

Hopefully, what I share with you in this video will not only satisfy your curiosity but also give you a good explanation to share when people ask you about qigong!

Now I’d love to hear from you. What do you think about the intersection of spirituality and qigong? Let me know in the comments below!

TRANSCRIPT:

Do you need to be Buddhist or Taoist to practice qigong and tai chi? We’ll talk about that and more in today’s walk and talk video.

I’m Sifu Anthony, and I’m here in Monterey, California and it’s absolutely breathtaking here. So I just had to go grab the camera and take you guys for a walk and we’ll talk about this question, which I get all the time and I just got today, so I thought it’d be a good topic to talk about.

So, we’ll go for a nice long walk and we’ll talk about this topic: Do you need to be Buddhist or Taoist in order to practice qigong or tai chi?

So first I’ll give you a simple answer and I’ll give it to you in terms of my own school of qigong. The type of Qigong I practice is called Flowing Zen Qigong. So that’s my amalgam of the many different styles and techniques that I learned from many different masters over many different years. I call what I teach Flowing Zen Qigong.

Do you need to be Buddhist or Taoist to practice Flowing Zen Qigong? The answer is hell no! Absolutely not! That is not how I teach. I mean anybody who knows me knows that I’m just a very no-nonsense kind of teacher. I will teach some of the ancient philosophies but there’s no way you need to be Buddhist or Taoist and my teaching itself is not religious.

Now, this gets confusing in the West because we muck up the difference between religions and philosophies and so again, from my school, my perspective– absolutely not. I do not teach anything religious.

Is what I teach sometimes spiritual? Well, yeah that’s the nature of things. I mean, especially meditative arts when you get into this place it can be spiritual. But you know what? Look, walking here out in nature. That can be a spiritual thing. Why is that? It’s because you just connect with something larger than yourself. It doesn’t mean that this place is a religious institution, it’s not. Spirituality is a connection with nature. That can be spirituality, for sure.

So, if you’re practicing Flowing Zen Qigong and you connect with nature or you connect with something larger than yourself you might have a spiritual experience. That doesn’t make me a religious leader and it doesn’t make you a Buddhist or Taoist, right?

And in fact, I think to just drive the point home I’ll mention that I have taught religious leaders of many different traditions. So, Catholic priests, Buddhists, and Taoists including a monk, a Sufi Sheikh, so a Sufi leader, lots of you know, Protestant ministers, and some rabbis. In fact, I was invited to teach at a rabbi’s synagogue, so I taught qigong in his synagogue!

I mention this because it proves that the Qigong I teach is not religious, that these religious leaders feel safe learning it and even sharing it with their people. So, you know, you can stop worrying about it so much.

Why is there so much confusion in this world, though? So, this is clear from my school of Qigong– it’s not religious. But why is there so much confusion? Well, part of the confusion is that we have different types of Qigong that are categorized as either Buddhist or Taoist.

We have Buddhist qigong- like an example is the Eighteen Luohan Hands that I teach.

We have Taoist qigong. An example is the Twelve Qigong Treasures that I also teach and they’re characteristically a little bit different.

So characteristically, Buddhist Qigong that came from the Shaolin Temple, in particular, is a little bit more staccato. So, there are stops and starts to it, like lifting the sky, where it’s not completely circular to the movement. So, it goes up, there’s a little pause at the top and then comes back down.

And then Taoist Qigong, especially if it’s dynamic qigong, that you can see… you can see the movement tends to be more circular. So, the movements themselves– there’s no stopping and starting, it’s just circular completely. That’s a very cursory explanation of the difference between Buddhist and Taoist Qigong.

There are these different categories, or they’re really just lineages of Qigong. You’ve got lineages that came from the Shaolin Temple- and I belong to, that’s one of the lineages that I claim, right back to the Shaolin Temple. And then there are lineages that came from the various Taoist temples throughout China and we’ve got a very long history.

But here’s what you also need to know (especially the Shaolin Temple) it was sort of a crossroads of sorts where a lot of things went to Shaolin. There’s a saying in China that all roads (they’re referring to martial arts) lead back to Shaolin. And that may or may not be true, but I think that we can also say that all roads lead to Shaolin in the sense that it was just a place where lots of different techniques and traditions came and parked for a while, and then the monks there took what was useful.

They didn’t care if it was Taoist Qigong, if it was useful to them, they mixed it in with what they did. So, even separating the difference between Taoist and Buddhist Qigong is not always easy, they cross paths many times. They’ve been bred together many, many times for hundreds, probably thousands of years. So, you can’t just point to this type of Qigong as being Taoist and this type being Buddhist. It’s just not that simple.

This is where some of the confusion comes from though, is that there are these different schools or lineages of qigong. And then we also talk (as Qigong teachers) we talk about these philosophies, right? So, we talk about, for example, the philosophy of yin and yang. Which is what? Right, it’s a circle, you know, the yin and yang symbol. The circle with the black and the white. So, what is that philosophy? Where does that come from?

Well, that comes from Taoism. That’s one of the original Taoist philosophies. It happens to be very, very useful for both qigong and tai chi. It’s something that can help you to get more out of your practice.

Okay, so the Buddhist and Taoist thing is there, but it’s maybe not that important, it’s not that relevant, it’s more of a historical thing. The philosophies are important, so you may learn about yin and yang in your qigong, but that does not make you Taoist. Not by any means. That’s not a Taoist ritual, that’s just a basic philosophy that really is not… you’re hard-pressed to call it religious. And nobody’s asking you to convert to it.

If you want to translate the philosophy of yin and yang into your own other philosophy, that’s fine. But what we’re trying to do when we mention that, like the theory of yin and yang, is to help you to understand what you’re doing with qigong so that you can get better results. At least that’s what I’m doing with my teaching.

If I’m going to present to you a philosophy like yin and yang, or let’s say the theory of five elements, which is not necessarily Taoist although it connects to Taoist traditions. If I’m gonna teach you the theory of five elements, it’s so that you can get some benefit from it because it’s gonna help you with your practice, help you get better results, that’s what I want. Right? That’s what I want as a teacher, so that’s why I would be sharing it with you.

So, I think, for the most part, we as Qigong teachers are sharing these ideas with you to help you, not to convert you or to spread some sort of religious ideas or anything like that.

Let me also make it clear that there are some teachers out there who do incorporate more of a spiritual tint into their teaching. My teaching for many years has been mostly about healing. What we would call medical qigong. That was you know, what drew me to qigong, that was a lot of my early success with qigong.

Now the older I get and the more I teach I would say the more and more spiritual I get for myself, and it leaks out into my teaching. But it’s non-religious. It’s just you know, connecting with something larger, it’s mindfulness, things like this. Being a good person- that’s spirituality.

So, there are some teachers out there though, that incorporate more of a spiritual angle into their qigong teaching. I’m not one of them, I don’t push it hard.

But to give you an example: Falun Gong (which is a famous style of qigong) was really persecuted in China because the leader (the founder) was not only very, very spiritual, but he was political in some of the things that he was saying, and you know in communist China that’s a no-no, you can’t do that. So, they cracked down on Falun Gong.

But there is a religious tint to it and you have to decide for yourself whether you like that or not. Or, sorry, let me correct that. There is a spiritual tint to it. I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether or not it’s religious. I think it could go either way in terms of Falun Gong, and that would be the same for some of the other types of qigong out there. It’s really up to you to decide whether or not you’re comfortable.

So, that’s what it really comes down to, is are you comfortable with the teacher and the way they present it? Qigong is not one thing. You can’t just say Qigong is this or that. There are so many different styles, different ways of presenting, different teachers. So, you can’t say qigong is this or that.

But I think we can very safely say, especially in the West, that qigong is not really religious, it’s not something that you should worry about. You definitely don’t need to be Buddhist or Taoist. That’s not what’s going on here. There’ll be no Buddhist chanting in my school. I think in most schools. I’m trying to think of any of the teachers I had that. If they incorporate that. Maybe sometimes.

But you just have to decide whether you’re comfortable or not, and I think that this is a good way to figure out whether or not you connect with your teacher or not. So, you can ask them questions and if you don’t get good answers from your teacher, if you don’t get answers that you like, I think you should find another teacher.

I think it’s very important to connect with your teacher, to understand them, they should understand you. You should be able to ask questions like this, like, “Hey, what did you mean by this when you said that in class” or “Is that a Buddhist thing? Is that a Taoist thing? What are you asking of me?” You should be able to ask questions like that and get satisfactory answers from your teacher.

And if you don’t get satisfactory answers, that doesn’t mean they’re a bad teacher, but maybe they’re just not the teacher for you, and I think it’s very important for you to go find a teacher that you connect with, that you can feel comfortable within class, that you can relax totally, because that’s such a fundamental thing in pretty much every school of qigong, you need to relax deeply.

If you can’t relax, if you’re like, worried about “Is that a Buddhist thing? “Is that a Taoist thing?” “What are we doing today?” “I don’t feel comfortable.” You’re not going to get the best benefits from Qigong. Go find another teacher.

There are so many teachers out there these days. You can learn online, you can learn in person, you can shop around. It’s not like the old days. I mean, I had to travel to Asia to learn this stuff. Those days are gone.

So, find a teacher that you connect with and ask them the questions that you want to ask them. If you’re my student and you’re wondering, I think I’ll give you a pretty good answer, but the simple answer is no. You do not need to be Buddhist or Taoist to practice qigong in my school, nor tai chi.

We’re just a bunch of people trying to get healthier and happier through these ancient arts, make them our own. We may have spiritual experiences, like, I think that coming here at dawn and practicing some qigong could be pretty spiritual, but I wouldn’t call that “religious”.

So, there you go. I hope that answer is helpful for you and I look forward to connecting with you again in another walk and talk.

END TRANSCRIPT

The post Do You Need to Be Buddhist or Taoist to Practice Qigong? appeared first on Flowing Zen.

Sex in America

In Greece, women go topless on the beaches. In America, just a picture of a woman — not even a topless image, mind you — can make some people squirm with discomfort.

Why?

America is #1 in a lot of things.

We are the undisputed champions of baseball, basketball, and REAL football. We have the #1 military in the world. Oorah!

And until very recently, we were the fattest country in the world.

But when it comes to sexual satisfaction, we’re not #1. We’re not even #2. In fact, we’re hardly on the list at all.

It’s probably no surprise that Greece, Brazil, and Italy are at the top of the list of the most sexually satisfied countries in the world.

But get ready to have your mind blown:  Switzerland and Germany are also way ahead of us in sexual satisfaction.

What gives? Is the beer THAT much better over there?

In a previous article, I started a conversation about sex in America. I talked about how there is an imbalance in the way that Americans manage their sexual energy.  And I talked about how we could learn a thing or two about sex from the ancient Taoists.

Hormones and Health

When your sexual energy is blocked, then your health will suffer. In my article about the 12 things that are blocking you from healing, I listed sexual fulfillment as one of the 12.

And it’s a big one.

When your sexual energy is blocked you’ll experience all sorts of negative symptoms, from frustration to lack of creativity to low back pain. But it’s even worse than that.

Blocked sexual energy affects your hormone production. It’s hard, if not impossible, to be full of vitality when your hormones are aren’t working correctly.

How to Get Unblocked

So how do we start getting unblocked? How do we begin to heal our society? How do we save America from the sexual frustration terrorists?!?

As we must do with all change, we must start with ourselves. Change comes from within. Here are some ways that you can start to heal and balance your own sexual energy.

1. Do Qigong

Qigong is the art of cultivating your internal energy. If you haven’t already learned some qigong, then stop what you’re doing and go sign up for my free online qigong course, or go learn Lifting The Sky for free.

There are advanced qigong exercises that are specifically designed for cultivating sexual vitality (more about those below), but you don’t need those. Even a simple 2 minute daily qigong routine will help tremendously.

2. Sleep More

In our culture, we say silly things like, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”

No, you won’t.  But you may in fact die sooner because you don’t sleep enough.

In the qigong tradition, sleep is considered to be one of the major ways that the body restores and heals itself.

It’s also super important for hormone regulation. That’s why morning sex can be so powerful.

Get more sleep for 30 days in a row, and you may find that your libido suddenly gets stronger and healthier.

3. Exercise Your Pelvic Floor

This type of exercise, which involves flexing the pubococcygeus muscle, is often called “kegels”. But it’s not just for women.

The ancient Taoists encouraged both men and women to practice this type of exercise.

There are many versions, but the easiest way to get started is to simply stop the stream while urinating. This is a good way to make it a habit. Stop and start the stream several times each time you go to the bathroom.

Later, once you’ve got the hang of it, you can flex the pelvic floor without urinating. The beauty of this exercise is that it’s invisible, so you can practice it all day long!

Don’t tense the body or legs while you do this. And try not to hold your breath either. Lift and hold like this for 10 seconds, and then release.

For men, it should feel almost as if you are retracting the testicles up into the body. For women, it should feel (or so I’ve been told) that you are drawing a small egg up into the vagina and toward the cervix.

The ancient Taoists go one step further for women. Basically, they talk about doing kegels with resistance. This technique is beyond the scope of this article (and beyond the scope of my experience), but in short, it’s involves doing kegels with a jade egg in the vagina.

4. Practice The Small Universe

The Small Universe is an advanced Taoist qigong exercise that I’ve already talked about in depth. It’s not for beginners. If you mess with this technique before you’re ready, you’ll probably just block your energy even more.

But if you already know the Small Universe, then it’s an awesome choice for cultivating sexual vitality. If you’ve been practicing the Small Universe for more than a few months, then you should have already seen some improvement in your sexual vitality.

Men should experience harder erections, a higher sex drive, and greater control over ejaculation. Women should experience increased wetness, a stronger libido, and increased pleasure. At higher levels, when both partners are practicing the Small Universe, sex can become a deep, spiritual practice.

5. Practice The Small Wheel

If already you know the Small Universe, then the Small Wheel is easy.

The Small Wheel involves circulating the energy in a circle from dantian, down to huiyin, up to mingmen, and then back to dantian. So rather than the larger circuit that we do in the Small Universe, this circuit is smaller.

I feel like I should reiterate that this is not for beginners. If you don’t know the Small Universe, then you shouldn’t mess with the Small Wheel. Beginners should focus on simpler and safer techniques, like Lifting The Sky, and the next exercise, Belly Breathing.

6. Learn Belly Breathing:

Belly breathing is not necessarily a qigong technique. Singers do it. Some yoga schools also do it. It’s a skill that you had as a baby, and have probably lost. But it’s easy to regain.

Learn to breathe from your belly, regardless of the method. Belly breathing stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, encourages the relaxation response, improves digestion, and (drumroll) nurtures sexual vitality. Here’s a trick that will help.

Lie down and place a heavy book on your lower belly, just below your belly button. Breathe naturally, but gradually allow your breathing to come from your lower belly. The book should rise as your breathe in, and fall as you breathe out.

7. Take a Chill Pill! 

Stress creates cortisol (also known as the stress hormone). And cortisol messes with your sex drive (and your health).

You need a solution to stress in your life. Obviously, I’m a fan of qigong and tai chi.  Maybe your choice is yoga, or some sort of meditation. Great. But you need a solution.

If you don’t have a solution yet, then try my free class.

From there, I highly recommend that you commit to doing 2 minutes of qigong every day.

Stress management is more important than all the other things on your to-do list.

8. Hang Out

Humans are social animals. Spending time with other humans can have a dramatic effect on cortisol (see above) and oxytocin (see below). When you lowering cortisol levels and raise oxytocin levels, your libido (and your overall health) will improve.

9. Hug it Out

While you’re hanging out with friends and family, go ahead and hug!.

Hugging stimulates a hormone called oxytocin, sometimes called the “cuddle hormone”.  This hormone is associated with all sorts of benefits, including stress relief, depression relief, weight loss, and pain relief.

And yes, pets count!

10. Walk it Out

Exercise is important, and there’s no simpler form of exercise than walking. In the world of Chinese medicine, the only form of exercise that is better than walking is qigong. And even if you know qigong, you should still walk every day.

I have and Apple Watch, which are also digital super-pedometers. They measure all kinds of things, like distance walked, number of steps, number of flights climbed, calories burned, etc.

They say that a healthy person should take 10,000 steps per day. Unless you’re already very active, you’re probably going to get a huge wake up call when you first start using the Fitbit. You’re probably closer to 2000 steps than 10,000.

Increase the number of steps, and you’ll gradually watch a lot of your sexual blockages melt away. You’ll also have more energy, and sleep better. Sounds like a good deal to me!

11. Get Your Yoga On

The ancient Taoists didn’t talk about yoga, which is an Indian art. They talked about qigong, which is a Chinese art.

But yoga can definitely help.

I’m not a yoga expert, but if I look at the art from a Chinese medical perspective, it’s clear that the postures help to open up the flow of energy through the body. This, in turn, will help to gradually clear some of the sexual blockages.

Personally, I prefer qigong and strongly believe that it will be bigger than yoga one day. But to each their own, and if yoga works for you, then keep working it!

12. Meditate

Lately, people are talking about sitting meditation being the cure for just about everything. And it can be true — for some people.

Not everyone is ready for sitting meditation. If it doesn’t work for you, then don’t feel guilty about trying something else. (I recommend trying forms of moving meditation like qigong and tai chi.)

If sitting meditation calms you, gets you into a deeply relaxed state, and helps you to quiet the mind, then it’s also going to help you to unblock your sexual energy. So keep going!

13. Men — Ditch the Tightie Whities

Believe it or not, tight underwear constricts the flow of blood and energy to the male genitals. Wear boxers, or boxer briefs, not “tightie whities”.

14. Squat

Squats are great for lots of things, including sexual health. If you know the qigong exercise called Three Levels To Earth, then practice that. If not, just learn what they call an air squat. This a conventional, physical exercise, and it won’t have quite the same effect as qigong exercises, but it’s close enough for jazz.

Squatting opens up the pelvic area (called the kua in qigong and tai chi terminology), massages the internal organs, and promotes a healthier production of hormones. I recommend doing them throughout the day. If you sit a lot for work (see #15), the get up and take a “squatting break” at least once an hour.

15. Sit Less

Sitting is the new smoking. That’s what all the research says. Sitting is killing us by slowly messing with our hormones, our metabolism, and our energy levels.  This can wreak havoc on our libido.

The solution is to take breaks. Every hour, without fail, get up from your desk. Walk around, do some squats, do the 2-Minute Drill, or whatever. You might also consider getting some sort of standing desk. Or better yet, get your boss to buy one for you!

16. Masturbate

Practice makes perfect! One of the best ways to harmonize and unblock your sexual energy is to masturbate.

Hold your horses, men. Notice that I didn’t say anything about ejaculation. And with good reason. According to the ancient Taoists, men must be extremely careful in how often they ejaculate. If you ejaculate too frequently, you’ll drain your energy. (On the other hand, if you ejaculate too infrequently, your energy will stagnate.)

Two thousand years ago, the Su Nu Jing (素 女 經) , a classic text on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), advised how frequently a man should ejaculate to maintain optimal health. The following chart shows the guidelines from that classic text.

Your miles may vary.

For women, the same rules don’t apply. According to the ancient Taoists, women lose energy from menstruation and child birth, not from orgasm. This means that women have a carte blanche when it comes to masturbation and orgasm.  There’s no such thing as “too often”.

This is a big topic.  If you’re interested, I’ll write a separate article entirely on masturbation.  Let me know in the comments below (or send me an email if you’re too shy).

17. Just Do it!

I saved the best for last.  Having sex — satisfying, intimate, passionate sex — is part of the solution.

Part of what’s causing our sexual blockages is that Americans just don’t have sex often enough.  We’re too busy, too stressed, or too tired.   Whereas other countries are doing it a few times a week, we’re doing it a few times a month, or with many couples, a few times a year!

There’s no easy fix for this one.  It’s a complex problem.  My best advice is to work on the tips above.  Start with yourself.  As you clear your own sexual blockages, you may be surprised to find that things suddenly start to flow more smoothly with your lover.

What Do You Think?

Do you have anything to add to the list?  Did I miss anything?  Go ahead and add it to the comments below.  I’m interested in hearing from you.

From the heart,
Sifu Anthony

The post 17 Ways To Unblock Your Sexual Energy appeared first on Flowing Zen.

If you’ve been paying attention lately — if you’ve been mindful — then you’ve noticed a sudden increase in media attention about something called mindfulness meditation.

Mindfulness has become a buzzword.

Celebrities — from Oprah, to Steve Mcqueen, to LinkIn’s Jeff Weiner — are talking about it. Time Magazine recently released a cover story titled “The Mindful Revolution.”  Huffington Post is calling 2014 the “year of living mindfully”.

Mindfulness is the latest craze sweeping across America. (I love my country.  Where else in the world could something like mindfulness become a nationwide craze?)

I wholeheartedly support this craze.  Planet Earth certainly needs more mindfulness.

Here are 5 things that you should know about mindfulness.

1. Mindfulness Meditation is Not New

“Sifu, when are you going to teach us some of this new mindfulness meditation stuff?” a student asked me.

This happened shortly after Time Magazine released its special issue on mindfulness.

I actually chuckled out loud in response.

Let me explain.

Mindfulness is an ancient concept that traces back to the Buddha, who lived roughly 2500 years ago. Just because the media is becoming more mindful of a particular term doesn’t mean that it’s new.

This doesn’t mean that when people talk about mindfulness they are talking about Buddhism. In fact, the word is popular precisely because of a guy who wanted to promote “Buddhist meditation without the Buddhism.”

That guy is Jon Kabat-Zinn, a scientist who studied at MIT. In 1979, he created something called Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (or MBSR for short).

MBSR has become a movement of sorts, and it has made its way into hospitals, universities, and living rooms all across America. There have even been a few scientific studies done on MBSR, which is where  some of the recent buzz comes from.

But MBSR does not own the term “mindfulness” any more than Protestants own the term “prayer”. In other words, you can practice mindfulness meditation without learning or practicing MBSR.

2. Mindfulness Isn’t Just Sitting Meditation

When people think of meditation, they usually think of sitting meditation.  But did you know that you can practice mindfulness meditation while walking, or cooking, or gardening?

This idea of meditating while in motion is also ancient, and it’s especially important in the Zen tradition.

The Zen tradition began in China roughly 1000 years after the Buddha died in India.  In many ways, Zen was an ancient mindfulness revolution.

At the time, Buddhism had strayed from its mindfulness roots.  It had become heavily ritualized, with Buddhist monks spending too muchtime chanting, reading sutras, and generally being rather unmindful.

The Zen tradition changed all this by emphasizing mindfulness.  And not just sitting meditation, but also moving meditation.

In fact, in the Zen tradition, everything, from washing your bowl to sword fighting, is meditation.  

In a nutshell, Zen is all about staying mindful, staying completely in the present moment, whether you are washing your bowl, or practicing martial arts.

3. Qigong is Mindfulness Meditation

Did you know that the patriarch of Zen Meditation was also the patriarch of Shaolin Qigong?  Yep. Same guy.

Don’t be ashamed if you didn’t know this historical fact.  Many people who practice Zen meditation don’t even know it.

Bodhidharma was that guy. Imagine an enlightened drill sergeant, and you’re on the right track. (If you’d like to learn more about Bodhidharma, then please read my article entitled The Man Who Made Shaolin.)

Bodhidharma revolutionized Buddhism in China by emphasizing mindfulness.  And one of the forms of mindfulness meditation that he taught to the monks at the Shaolin Temple was Qigong.

In fact, it’s likely that he taught them Lifting The Sky, the very first Qigong exercise that I teach to beginners.

Historically then, qigong was a form of mindfulness meditation.  The #1 mistake in qigong, tai chi, and meditation is that students aren’t mindful.  (If you’d like to read an article I wrote on that subject, then please click here.)

So anyone practicing qigong can rest easy.  When you hear Oprah or Dr. Oz talking about the importance of practicing mindfulness meditation, you can pat yourself on the back (assuming that you did your qigong today!)

4. Tai Chi is Mindfulness Meditation

What about tai chi?  Is that also mindfulness meditation?

Historically, tai chi is a form of kung fu that traces its roots back to the Shaolin Temple in China.  However, the development of tai chi was more heavily influenced by Taoism than by Buddhism.  Thus, the Tai Chi tradition probably wouldn’t use the term mindfulness.

But it’s just a word.  The question that’s important to us in the 21st century is this:  Does practicing tai chi develop mindfulness?

In my experience, the answer is a resounding YES!  In fact, I find Tai Chi to be one of the most effective forms of mindfulness meditation.

Sitting meditation is an advanced technique.  It’s also hard.   Many people aren’t ready for it.  (My article entitled Why Sitting Meditation Isn’t For You explains this in more detail.)

The flowing movements of Tai Chi are a wonderful way to slip into mindfulness.  There’s a tai chi phrase that sums this up:

Seek the stillness in the movement.

The flowing movement of tai chi is actually wonderful for creating internal stillness. In other words, the movement can help to quiet the mind.

5. Mindfulness Is Our Future

Although the term mindfulness traces back to an ancient Indian word (sati in ancient Pali; smṛti in ancient Sanskrit), the concept does not belong to India.  Nor does it belong to China.

It does not belong to the East.

One might argue that mindfulness is now more widely embraced in the West.  Even if that’s true, mindfulness does not belong to the West.

Mindfulness belongs to humanity.  It is the future of our species.  For too long, humanity has been lost in thought.  Our  Monkey Minds have run amok. In order to evolve to the next level, we need mindfulness.

I believe that we will have no choice but to embrace mindfulness.  Humanity is on a trajectory that it cannot sustain, and much of this is due to a lack of mindfulness. 

For example, it is a lack of mindfulness that leads us to destroy the rain forests that provide the oxygen that we breathe.

Mindfulness is in the news right now largely because of the health benefits that it conveys.  And that’s important.  Certainly, it’s a huge part of my own mission with my teaching.

But mindfulness is about more than just health.  Mindfulness is also about living a richer, more meaningful life:

• When we are mindful, we don’t just gulp down our food and swallow it; we savor it, not just for the taste, but for the nourishment that it provides.
• When we are mindful, we don’t just interrupt a friend while they’re talking; we listen, deeply, not just to the words, but to their underlying message.
• When we are mindful, we don’t just rush from place to place; we walk mindfully, aware of our surroundings, the sky, the ground beneath us.

Practicing mindfulness during your Qigong, Tai Chi, or Meditation practice is wonderful. It is an important step, and one that much of humanity has not yet taken.  But it is only the first step.

Things are changing.  If you have read this far, then it’s likely that you are part of that change. Congratulations.  You are a member of the mindfulness revolution. Now go wash your bowl. 

From the heart,
Sifu Anthony

The post 5 Things You Should Know About The Mindfulness Craze appeared first on Flowing Zen.

Today is Valentine’s day.  While I sometimes feel like this holiday is more about selling cards, flowers, and chocolate than it is about love, I still think it’s a good time to talk to you about qi and sexual energy.

But first, I should mention that I’m terrible at talking about sex.  Just ask my students.  The other day, during an advanced class, I turned beet red while talking about the sexual vitality that we cultivate through the qigong exercise called The Small Universe.

Hey! You try getting in front of 25 adults and talking about sex without sounding like a jerk!  It’s not easy.

I’m American.  And the truth is that Americans are conflicted when it comes to sex.  On the one hand, we expect to see sex everywhere — on TV, the Internet, in magazines and books, and in movies.

On the other hand — we’re super puritanical.  When I was in Europe years ago, I couldn’t help but notice that women on the beaches walked around topless.  Meanwhile, in the good ol’ U.S. of A., we freak out when a woman dares to show a bit of side-boob while breastfeeding in public.

In other words, we’re prudes.

My premise in this article is that there’s an imbalance in the way Americans manage their sexual energy. As a culture, we’re repressed.  Our sexual energy is stifled.  It is not flowing as smoothly as it could.

Answer the following questions:

• Do you get easily frustrated, even by small things?
• Do you lack motivation and drive?
• Do you have difficulty making decisions, even minor ones?
• Do you lack creativity?
• Do you have a growing sense of disconnectedness?
• Do you experience a background static of anxiety?
• Men — do you have low back pain or prostate problems?
• Women — do you suffer from severe PMS, fibroids, or endometriosis?

These are some of the symptoms that can arise from stifled sexual energy.  Sounds pretty bad, doesn’t it?

It gets worse.

If a person’s sexual energy gets stifled badly enough, then it can lead to major distortions not only in their health, but their psyche.

And that’s when the really awful stuff happens.  For example, in schools, churches, and organizations all around the country, the result of extremely distorted sexual energy can be seen in behavior like sexual abuse and/or rape.

Perhaps now you can understand why I think that this topic is so important.

So here we go.  Let’s talk about sex.  I’ll be brave, and face my “talking about sex” fears.  And you’ll need to be brave too, because it’s a difficult topic.  But we can do this.  We’re adults, and we can find a way to talk about sex in a productive manner.

East Vs. West

The ancient Eastern masters, especially the Taoist masters, viewed sexual union as a way to harmonize the body’s energy (qi).  Basically, they viewed sex as a form of qigong — a way to cultivate energy for health, vitality, and even spirituality. 

In other words — pretty much exactly the opposite of what Western culture teaches. We live in a culture that, not so long ago, told pubescent boys that they would go blind if they masturbated.  Or worse, that they’d go to hell!

Of course, that didn’t stop them from doing it.   It just made them feel ashamed, which in turn distorted their sexual energy.

Teenage boys are full of hormones and sexual energy.  Where do we expect that energy to go?  Into sports?  Video games?  Homework?

Young boys need to be taught to manage their sexual energy, not stifle it.  And by “manage”, I don’t necessarily mean orgasm.  If you think that orgasm is the only way to manage sexual energy — well, then you’re probably a product of Western culture!

Our culture is terrible at managing sexual energy.  And it’s not just teenage boys.  The same is true of young women.  It’s also true of older women.  And older men.  And middle-aged men.  And middle-aged women.

In other words — everyone.

As a culture, we have a lot to learn about how to manage our sexual energy.

When The Energy Gets Distorted

Ask yourself this question:  Why are there so many cases of child sexual abuse among priests? 

The ancient Eastern philosophers would say that this is happening because the sexual energy not just of the priests, but of the organization, is distorted.  To solve the problem, we need to harmonize that energy.

Let me be clear that I’m not suggesting that priests or nuns should give up their celibacy.  I honestly don’t think that that’s the root of the problem.  Monks and nuns in the ancient Shaolin Temple were celibate, similar to modern-day Christian priests and nuns.

But here’s the difference — the Shaolin monks and nuns practiced qigong and meditation in order to manage their sexual energy.  As a result, they were able to channel that energy in healthy ways, like into their spiritual cultivation, and also in to the practice of Shaolin Kung Fu.

A lot of my students are older, and some of them have told me that they are sexually inactive.  But being sexually inactive doesn’t mean that you can skip the sex conversation, just like you can’t skip it if you’re a priest.

The same goes for those who would prefer not to be celibate, but currently don’t have a sexual partner.  You can’t just stick your head in the ground and pretend that you’re not a sexual being.

One way or another, your sexual energy will express itself.   It will either express itself in a healthy way, or in an unhealthy way.

How To Harmonize Sexual Energy

If you practice qigong, tai chi, meditation, or yoga, then you’re already working on your sexual energy.  That’s a great start.

But there are Taoist qigong techniques that are specifically designed to harmonize sexual energy.  If you’re interested, I’ll write a sequel to this article and talk more about how these techniques can help us to cultivate and harmonize sexual energy.  Want more on this topic? Then let me know in the comments below.

**EDIT** The follow-up article, 17 Ways to Unblock Your Sexual Energy, can be found here.

From the heart,
Sifu Anthony

The post Let’s (Try To) Talk About Sex appeared first on Flowing Zen.

The techniques were kept alive mainly through an oral tradition, from master to disciple. But typically, you would have to wait years before a master would teach you advanced techniques like these.

Some ancient manuscripts recorded the techniques. But these manuscripts were incredibly hard to get.

Even if you got your hands on a manuscript, it wouldn’t have done you much good. Qigong classics were intentionally vague. This was known as “Hiding Secrets in the Open”.

The secret was there for all to see, but they were impossible for the uninitiated to decipher.

In this article, I’ll break with traditional and reveal the actual techniques of the Small Universe in a clear and intelligible way.

In part 1 of this series, I talked about the risks and the benefits of an advanced Qigong technique called the Small Universe. If you haven’t read it, then do so now before continuing.

Seriously. Go read the other article first. It’s important. I’ll wait.

So why do it? Why reveal the secrets now, especially after highlighting the dangers of practicing them without a master?

Everything on the Internet is True, Right?

We live in the information age. It’s an amazing time to be alive. With a few clicks, we can get information on virtually any subject.

But is it quality information?

We all know that the Internet can sometimes provide awful information. This is especially true with esoteric arts like Qigong, Tai Chi, and meditation. If you go searching for information about the Small Universe (also called the Microcosmic Orbit), for example, you’ll find a ton of terrible advice out there.  (I covered this subject in part 1 of the article.)

So my goal is to contribute quality information on this subject, not for self-instruction, but for education, edification, and also for posterity. Of course, those who have already learned the Small Universe from me will benefit greatly from this page, which will serve as a valuable review. And those who hope to someday learn the Small Universe from will be inspired by reading these secrets.

Now, on to the techniques.

The 7 Techniques

In my school, we use a series of Qigong techniques to open the Small Unviverse. Practicing them in the correct series allows us to safely and effectively induce the breakthrough of the Small Universe in a relatively short period of time. If the student has already laid a solid foundation by practicing basic Qigong techniques like the 18 Luohan Hands, Flowing Breeze Swaying Willow, Sinew Metamorphosis, and/or Bone Marrow Cleansing for 2-3 years, then the Small Universe breakthrough can be induced in a matter of days (with my help, of course).

This is quite remarkable. In the past, if a master had the breakthrough in a decade, it was considered amazing. To do it in a few days, even after 2-3 years of diligently practicing the basics, was unheard of. But then again, maybe we never heard of it because they kept it secret? Who knows?

The series of techniques are as follows:

1. Belly Breathing
2. Dan Tian Breathing
3. Path Breathing
4. Submerged Breathing
5. Long Breathing
6. Forceful Small Universe Breathing
7. Gentle Small Universe Breathing

1. Belly Breathing

Before we can do any of these techniques, we need to master Belly Breathing. Actually, Belly Breathing is not a Qigong technique. It’s just mechanical. It involves breathing from the belly as opposed to the chest. Good singers do this even if they’ve never heard of Qigong.

If you’re like most people, you’ve spent years breathing incorrectly. To correct this, you need to practice two preparative exercises. The following two exercises are safe for everyone to practice, even from this website:

Preparative Exercise #1 – Book Breathing
Lie down and place a heavy book on your lower belly, just below your belly button. Breathe naturally, but gradually allow your breathing to come from your lower belly. The book should rise as your breathe in, and fall as you breathe out. Practice this for 5 minutes a day, separate from your normal Qigong practice.

Preparative Exercise #2 – Sitting Belly Breathing
Sit upright (but relaxed) on the edge of a chair with your back straight. Place both hands, one on top of the other, gently over your dan tian. Try to recreate the feeling of the Book Breathing exercise. If you cannot feel your breath coming from your belly, then go back to the Book Breathing.

All future progress depends on your ability to do Belly Breathing easily and smoothly. If you can’t do it well, then you won’t benefit from any of the other stages. Spend time with these preparative exercises. You’ll be glad that you did.

For those who know the following exercises, Three Levels to Earth and Lifting Heels are also excellent for helping to pave the way for future progress. These two exercises from the 18 Luohan Hands help to bring the energy around the Ren and Du meridians. So if you want to prepare yourself before learning the Small Universe, you may emphasize these techniques as well.

Warning: If you skimmed down to here, then let me be absolutely clear: Don’t try the following exercises on your own. You’re going to hurt yourself. You can practice the preparative exercises listed above, but not these. If you want to understand why, then read part 1 of this series.

2. Dan Tian Breathing

Dan Tian Breathing is a fundamental Qigong technique where, not surprisingly, you breath energy with dan tian. Whereas Belly Breathing is mechanical, Dan Tian Breathing is energetic. The difference may seem minor, but it’s not. It’s the difference between tapping into a flow of Cosmic energy, or just standing around and breathing for 20 minutes.

Dan Tian Breathing Technique:

1. Stand Upright.
2. Relax.
3. Smile from the Heart.
4. Clear your mind of thoughts.
5. Gently place both palms over your dan tian, one on top of the other.
6. As you breathe out gently through the mouth, gently press the palms and help the belly to “deflate”. Gently visualize letting go of negative energy, stress, tension, etc.
7. As you breathe in gently through the nose, gently release the palms and help the belly to “inflate”. Gently visualize taking in fresh cosmic energy from all directions toward dan tian.

Closing visualization:
At the end of the session, gently visualize a golden pearl of energy, full of vitality, at dan tian. The energy from dan tian radiates out, in all directions, like the light from the sun.

The technique is simple, but the skill is extremely subtle, and thus easy to miss. Remember that everything must be super gentle — the breathing, the pressing and releasing of the hands, and the visualization. If you’re forcing any of these, then you’re doing it wrong.

A heart-to-heart transmission is useful to acquire this skill. Once you get it, you’ll have the ability to tap energy from the cosmos. As I tell my students, I honestly don’t know how it works, but I know from experience that it does work. It’s an incredible technique, and I hope that you get the opportunity to learn it one day.

3. Path Breathing

With this technique, we breathe energy down and up the Ren meridian (see part I of this article).   So we bring energy down to dan tian as we breathe in, and then back up as we breathe out.

Path Breathing Technique:

1. Stand Upright.
2. Relax.
3. Smile from the Heart.
4. Clear your mind of thoughts.
5. Gently place both palms over your dan tian, one on top of the other.
6. As you breathe out gently through the mouth, gently press the palms and help the belly to “deflate”. Visualize negative energy flowing up the Ren Meridian, and out the mouth.
7. As you breathe in gently through the nose, gently release the palms and help the belly to “inflate”. Visualize fresh cosmic energy coming in through the nose, down the Ren Meridian, and down to dan tian.

Closing visualization:
At the end of the session, use the same visualization as in Dan Tian Breathing.

This is the first time we are focusing the Qi along a path. In Dan Tian Breathing, the flow of Qi was general. Here, it’s more specific. Because we are directing Qi to a specific channel, the technique is much less forgiving of mistakes, which is yet another reason to learn it from a master.

4. Submerged Breathing

With Submerged Breathing, we sink the energy from dan tian down to hui yin, the energy point at the perineum. This must done gently. It can’t, and shouldn’t be forced.

Again, I’ll sound a warning. If you try to do this on your own, you’re likely to mess up your energy system. What’s worse is that it may take months for you to realize that anything is wrong. Don’t practice this without direct instruction from a good teacher. I don’t know how to be any clearer than that.

Submerged Breathing Technique

1. Start with Path Breathing for a few breaths.
2. Then shift to Submerged Breathing as follows.
3. As you breathe in, gently bring the energy down the Ren channel from your nose to dan tian.
4. As you breathe out, gently “sink” energy down the Ren channel from dan tian to hui yin.

Closing visualization: At the end of the session, gently visualize a beautiful, full, silvery moon at the bottom of a lake at hui yin. Let the pleasant moon energy gleam up at your body. At an advanced level,you may feel a coolness at hui yin.

When you finally get the hang of Submerged Breathing, when you first feel the energy sinking down to hui yin, it’s a wonderful feeling. But if you don’t have enough energy at dan tian, then you probably won’t feel much. In that case, you need to continue building energy at dan tian so that you have something to sink down to hui yin. You can build energy using Dan Tian Breathing, or other techniques like the Warrior Postures, One Finger Zen, Lifting Water, or the Three Circle Stance.

5. Long Breathing

In this technique, we “breathe” energy from hui yin all the way up to bai hui at the top of the head. It’s a long way, hence the name. The technique is as follows:

Long Breathing Technique

1. Start with Path Breathing for  breaths.
2. Then shift to Submerged Breathing for a few breaths.
3. Then shift to Long Breathing as follows.
4. As you breathe in, gently bring the energy down the Ren channel from your nose down to dan tian.
5. As you breathe out, gently bring the energy from dan tian, down to hui yin, and then up to bai hui.

Closing visualization: Gently visualize energy pulsing at ming men, the vital point opposite your navel.  When this has been accomplished after some training over a few (or many) sessions, gently focus at ling tai (opposite tanzhong, or solar plexus).

In the learning stage, you’ll first breathe energy from hui yin up to ming men rather than bai hui. Then, once you get the hang of that, you’ll breathe the energy from hui yin up to ling tai, the energy point in the middle of the back. Then finally, you’ll breathe it all the way up to Bai Hui. It’s a bit like the mercury (or whatever they use these days) gradually rising in a thermometer.

6. Forceful Small Universe Breathing

This technique “forces”the full connection of the Small Universe. The Small Universe, as I described in part 1 of this series, is a continuous flow of energy in an orbit down the Ren Meridian and then up the Du Meridian. But there are two gaps in the flow — one at the perineum, and one between the upper and lower jaw. With this technique, we connect the upper gap by lifting the tongue to the upper palate, and the lower gap by lifting the muscles near the anus.

The breathing mode for this technique is called “Reverse Breathing”.  It’s the opposite of Belly Breathing (sometimes called Natural Breathing because babies do it naturally), hence the name.

Forceful Small Universe Breathing Technique

1. Start with Path Breathing for a few breaths.
2. Then shift to Reverse Breathing as follows.
3. As you breathe in gently through the nose, your abdomen deflates and your chest inflates gently (the reverse of what we’ve been doing so far). The energy flows from hui yin up to bai hui. Gently grip your toes, lift your perineum, and touch the tongue to the roof of the mouth while breathing in.
4. As you breathe out gently through the mouth, your abdomen inflates and your chest deflates. The energy flows from bai hui down to dan tian. Lower the tongue while breathing out. The perineum and toes should be relaxed now.
5. As you are breathing out, you should also save 30% of your breath. So you breath in 100%, but breathe out 70% and save the other 30%. As you “save” the breath, swallow your saliva, and feel as if it is dropping all the way down to hui yin.

Closing Visualization: Gently feel a beneficial, glowing sun at bai hui. Later you may experience what they call The Opening of the Five Petals.This opening is spontaneous, but may be gently induced with gentle visualization. Meanwhile the flow of the Small Universe continuously round the ren and du meridians is realized.

Compared to the previous techniques, this one is much more complicated. It’s hard to remember all the steps, let alone do them. This can lead to some serious energy blockages if you do it incorrectly. A master’s supervision is critical. Even with a master’s supervision, it’s still challenging!

I typically have students practice Reverse Breathing for a while without worrying about the perineum, toes, or tongue. Once they can do that well, then they can add those details one by one. I also encourage them to leave out the “swallow” until they are ready.  Another secret is to practice the technique called “Gathering Qi from the Cosmos”, which helps to teach Reverse Breathing in a very gentle way.

This method is relatively forceful, but it’s also very, very powerful.  For some masters, this is the only method they had, and it worked well. We are lucky to have both the Forceful and the Gentle Small Universe, which is as follows.

7. Gentle Small Universe Breathing

With this technique, we go back to Belly Breathing (rather than Reverse Breathing).  The technique is much gentler, and also simpler, than the Forceful Small Universe. I spent years practicing this technique — mainly because I was terrible at Forceful Small Universe Breathing.  But hey, it worked!

If you’ve done the other stages well, then this one should be easy.

Gentle Small Universe Breathing Technique

1. Start with Path Breathing for a few breaths.
2. Proceed to Submerged Breathing for a few breaths.
3. Proceed to Long Breathing for a few breaths.
4. Proceed to Forceful Small Universe Breathing for a few breaths.
5. Proceed to Gentle Small Universe Breathing, as follows.
6. As you breathe in gently through the nose, the tip of your tongue touches the upper palate, your abdomen inflates, and the energy flows in to dan tian.
7. As you breathe out gently through the mouth, your tongue relaxes, your abdomen deflates, and the energy flows from dan tian down to hui yin, up to bai hui, and out your mouth.

Closing Visualization: Gently visualize a smooth, continuous flow down the Ren meridian and up Du meridian. Later just enjoy the realization of the Small Universe.

What is the “realization” of the Small Universe? It’s when it flows automatically, and you just enjoy it. You no longer need to actively visualize because the Small Universe has its own momentum.

Putting It All Together

Once you’ve been through all of the techniques, it may not be necessary to continue using each of them.  This depends on your developmental stage.  If you succeed in opening the real breakthrough of the Small Universe, then you may only need to continue practicing one of the final two techniques.

At an advanced level, you can add the Goat-Riding Stance.  The techniques are done exactly the same, except for the addition of the stance.  Adding the stance magnifies the power of the technique, but also magnifies the risks.  Both your stance and your Small Universe better be really good before you even attempt this!

Closing

So that’s it. We’ve talked about the risks and rewards of learning the Small Universe, and we’ve talked about all 7 techniques. I hope that I’ve succeeded in educating you about this amazing Qigong technique. I also hope that you’re excited to learn it — not so excited that you try to learn it from a website, of course, but excited enough to keep practicing the basics. In a future article, I’ll talk about the Big Universe, and how it relates to the Small Universe.

Drop me a comment below if you have questions.  Or if you haven’t already gotten your free ebooks and free lesson, then make sure to grab them here.  If you liked this article, then please share it using the Facebook, Twitter, and Email buttons below.

The post 7 Secrets of the Small Universe Qigong appeared first on Flowing Zen.