Well in my opinion this is trying to run before you can crawl.

Our system is made up of Naihanchi (2), Passai (2), Chinto, Rohai, Gojushiho, Kusanku, and Hakutsuru. All of these kata complement each other with concepts being learned within one kata, then reflecting through in the others.

I learned the ground gripping techniques (with the toes) from Naihanchi, and now practice this throughout the whole system. I learned many of the seated and ground work techniques from Gojushiho and Kusanku, which combined with the techniques of Naihanchi, Chinto, and Passai, are a great complement to each other. Our Hakutsuru is a kata that was formed from the best of our other kata, not the other kata as a preliminary to the Hakutsuru ONLY.

By training in a more advanced kata, your earlier kata should improve with the techniques that you learned in the new.

. . . We should not concentrate on the bunkai of an individual kata, but the bunkai of the whole system, which mixes and draws from our kata to achieve a limitless system.

Keep in mind that our Hakutsuru is from our other kata, and that the movements and methods learned within Hakutsuru will reflect back through the kata that formed it, while the theories that we learned in the earlier kata assist us in understanding the Hakutsuru.

Soken Sensei didn’t learn kata first. He learned to step correctly, then kata. After training (twice daily) for 10 years he then began to learn Hakutsuru. Not after 10 years of casual practice, or even 20 years of causal practice.

How can we then expect to obtain the same degree of proficiency without the mastery of the kata that were drawn upon to create Hakutsuru?

We cannot expect to have a full understanding of Hakutsuru without a full understanding of our other kata.

Steve Watson
To contact Mr. Watson, email: watto@midcoast.com.au

If a conversation is taking place about the Qi phenomenons and supernatural Elements, a typical person usually believes it is something related to the Eastern supertitious or religions.The word Qi or Ch’i (pronouced chee) in which has been explained in nearly every one of my articles that talks about the practice of Qigong. For every attempt of giving it a proper definition, Qi comes under a different translation or interpretation.

Knowledge of Qi does not limit only to the word itself but has been spanned more than 3000 years old of the oriental civilizations. Qi, also called Vital Energy or Bio-Energy, is a phenomenon that has drawn much attention in the West for the recent years. Acupunture, too, is now commonly known and there is hardly a doctor anywhere who has not spent some time looking into it. However, both of these works bring along doubts. Modern science pronouces the phenomenon of Qi medical and physical investigation. The original ideogram for Qi in its root should be rendered as “Vapor” in English. It has also been known at “Vital Energy” or “Vitality” in reference to my Qigong fellows. But Qi is very closely associated with breath (though it would be better to say that breath contains Qi). Chinese is not the only Eastern culture that has been aware of Qi, other cultures have given Qi the other names as well: Hindus call it prama, Pacific Islanders refer as mana, the Tibetans rlung (means Wind), Hebrews ruach (wind) and even the ancient Greek called it pneuma (spirit, wind). Qi is similar to how electricity flowing through a metal wire and it can generate heat or work or energy, but in fact none of these energy could identify Qi, or Yin Qi to be specific.

Our body, our world and life and everything in our surrounds, there are two types of Qi energy exist. They are called Yin and Yang Qi. Each of the component creates the interaction between one another that makes life possible. Our bodies are briefly capable of storing both pure yang and pure yin Qi in different areas, though this state of nonquilibrium is subject to entropy ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy_%28information_theory%29 ).

The questions remain is what kind of energy is Qi ? Is Yin a negative pole while Yang a positive pole in an electricity current? Clinical investigation in medical laboratories seems to indicate that the electrical resistance of the skin changes markedly at acupunture points. There are “electrical acupunture machines” that make use of this phenomenon to locate the points for neophytes. This is an indication that Qi and voltage are somehow inversely related. However, Qi displays neither voltage nor amperage; rather it is an entirely different phenomenon, based on very different forces. Innate Yin and Yang Qi in human body are limited under certain amount and are stored by the size of the Dantien. These two opposite energies can never meet. They normally run parallel to each other, yet never letting go of one another. By itself, Yang Qi cannot pass the limits of the body without sufficient amount of Yin. Some of us are born with a greater amount of Yin Yang Qi therefore they can bend spoons, levitate items, predict events in future, etc…how and why? because Yin is the only energy that can overcome, penetrate or take control of the strong and solid characteristic of Yang objects. We will discuss about Yin energy in a different time, in this article we learn about the Yang energy, healing colors and energy systems in the body.

Yang energy, if anything to describe such force, it should be the solar energy stored in our earth’s asmostphere. Yang energy is created by nature. Yang energy is hot, pure and if to be seen Indonesian Qigong master John Chan’s demonstration, it has the blue color. Yang energy has the capability of incendiary effects, as evidenced by the pyrogenesis demonstrations. In one of the cancer treatments by John Chan*, he successfully used an overdose of Yang Qi to dry up the cancer cells as they were exposed to strong beam power. While three of patients were instantly cured and still alive today, the other four died on the spot, their weakened frames unable to endure the blast of energy. Sometimes, it is the Will of heaven that every single life on earth must follow.

Nevetheless, practicing Qigong means we are getting closer to nature, delaying the aging process and leading a healthier life. Another importance skill gained from practicing Qigong is the ability to heal other people. Before taking the step deeper into the techniques, we must understand how the human body has different energy systems that circulate in every major organ system. A blockage in one organ often indicates blockages in other organs within the same energy system. Each energy system or channel also responds favorably to various colors. Knowing the relationship of our internal organs is very important for the healing process to be effective.

Five Internal Organs

Paul Luong — 2010

*John Chang is a Qigong Master whose story has been told in the book called Magus of Java

…Aug 24th

“What’s time is it?” , “9:26 pm”

…Aug 25th

“What’s time is it?” , “9:05 pm”

“Wow today is the past of yesterday!” — “What are you talking about??”

My friend was completely puzzled from my random response… as usual. And you, what do you think of time? or our world? ..yes, the physical world that our continual knowledge believes in, despite the fact that Hindus, Incas, Buddhist, Daoist, Mayas and many other ancient civilizations regarded the whole “world” as an illusion. How much can we truly ‘know’ for certain?

Weird..my pizza should have arrived by now

Some people, or theories postulate that there is no past and future but only the present. Isn’t it time like a river that each one of us either swims, floats, boats, or drowns in? We can embark and disembark at different points but it is all just the same river. Another example requires more work or imagination if you don’t have the tool: if you look through a lens at a holographic dish the entire hologram can be viewed at any point. Therefore, similarly, the universe is present at every point in time, and the past and future are likewise, present.

When was the last time you watch a video clip on youtube or a TV show? Technically there are just images lined up one after another in the interval of one second. Each second one screen comprises twenty four frames of celluloid film. Each frame, or moment, is a separate but complete piece of action that is perfectly still; There is nothing enters or leaves the frame, or appears or disappears. In the theater, the projector slides the frames past the lens rapidly so that the action onscreen creates the illusion of motion…

In our daily waking lives the thinking mind we own, sees everything constantly in motion and changing continuously just like the projector lens, but the still mind registers the present, which is like holding the film up to the light and looking at individual frame. Then the whole world’s movement stops and every moment is infinitely still and complete. There is no time, and nothing appears or disappears. You lose the still mind by following your conceptual thinking, which it believes that this is real.

The present moment is used simply to distinguish the past from the future. However, it is very difficult to pinpoint this very moment, because since a fraction of a second before the present moment exists in the past while a fraction after it lies in the future. The second one attempt to capture the present moment by exclaiming “Now!” as soon as the world is uttered, are already in the past. Both past and future depends on the present but we experience only the present. Only in the present are we really alive, as the past has already happened and the future has not yet arrived. Heard about World End 2012? If the sun were to explode right now we would not know about it for another eight minutes, as that is how long it takes for the lights to reach us from the sun. Then…then the Hercules constellation is 27,000 light years, which means that we see it as it appeared 27,000 years ago, before the first ever human city, or the invention of the bow and arrow! ..Then you see, the light from distant stars may take millions of years to reach us, so we actually just know how the stars looked in the past but not their present status.

Hercules Constellation

A week ago my girl friend and I went to the movie downtown Silverspring. She went to the second floor of the Majestic Theater waiting, while I was on the road making an attempt to cross the street to Chick-a-fil-a, hoping for success smuggling in the theater some chickens. We had a phone conversation while I was walking back. The traffic was bad, or at least in my field of view. Yet the traffic I was seeing was purely my own judgment of present. The traffic having passed out of my view is the past, and that which is yet to appear in the future. Suddenly, she told there was a fire truck heading on my crossing line and I should be careful. She also made astoundingly accurate predictions regarding the make and color of some cars approaching out of view. If I was not to know she was upstairs looking the theater windows, I would have been tempted to think it’s a supernatural skill or Divine being, when in reality it is just her several floors up with a much greater view of the street. Her present includes part of what I see as the past and future; she is also reading my future from my present. Higher up, at the roof top of the building, where there is an even greater view (symbolic of higher consciousness), future and present cease to be and there is only the present. From my limited perspective, at street-level, there appeared to be a past and future but it’s all just one and the same…

Time is connected to space and is relative to how fast an object travels through space. Ay yay yay I hate physics, maybe you do too. Let’s think of a simple fact to avoid confusion even though I’m quite sure you are in the middle of some right now. As we begin to reach the speed of light, time slows down, and when we become to the speed of light time becomes stationary… Or other word froze. So, in theory at least, travelling faster than the speed of light then we should be able to travel backwards in time. However, according to Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity, as we approach the speed of light the whole universe becomes concentrated into an infinitely thing consequently infinitely dense barrier in the direction in which we are travelling. The force of friction would increase accordingly so it is nearly impossible for an object to actually reach the speed of light. The physical world can be thus defined by space and time, but what happens when the consciousness is removed from the physical world ? … For my friends or anyone who knows about yin and yang, what if we enter the yin world, the world of unconsciousness whereas the boundaries of yang world no longer exist, where would we be? Where would we go? …And why we exist?

In the realm far, far beyond the gravitation of the earth (known to me as the pure Yin energy) where time does not exist, you cannot know which was yesterday, or today, or tomorrow. When time is gone, the future and past also go. There is only eternity. In eternity there is no yesterday and tomorrow, it is just here…and now.

Paul Luong — 2010

Last semester was a great solid training for all of the disciples in my Karate class at MC. Sensei put up many outstanding excercises for everyone, and we love each one of those workouts wholeheartedly. When the second term of the year started we welcome new comers, along with friends of our friends who love to join us for a lesson or two. Sometimes people came for their credit requirement, some came because they have an enthusiam for martial arts, and sometimes they come to learn new experience of what they studied some where before. Back then when I was in Vietnam, that reminds me of an person who came for the very same reason, but the intention was so much different.

I studied some martial arts with an old man, named Mr.An, who lived close to my house. He was a security guard for a nearby elementary school at night and apparently, he spent his whole life living a simple happy life without any fancy material possessions. To us, he was weird and creepy but as a teacher he was a great man. One day my friend and I were practicing in his back garden while Mr.An was busy teaching other students. In the mid afternoon, a person we did not recognize came in through the gate and stood by the hall. We presumed he was a prospective student as often many people came hoping to be accepted into the class. Mr.An nodded to me, telling me to go and greet the visitor. With a bright smile, I went over to say hello. “I would like to study with your teacher.” Said the stranger. This was not a problem as our class was open to anyone. I told the man this and politely explained how the class ran and how we were taught.

After a few minutes the man said, “I have studied some Qigong exercises before.” I politely enquired, “What sort of exercises were they?” The man slowly replied, “They were quite simple, some Standing Positions. I have been learning for 3 years but I would really like to have a teacher.” That questioned my curiosity and so I asked, “Who do you study that with?” The man smiled and said, “I found a book in the store and have been following it.” As my friend, Tuan overheard this conversation, he came over as well to greet the man. The visitor smiled again and said “Hello”.

“Standing postures are very simple and there is not too much you can do wrong.” Said the man confidently. Tuan had to patch up the idea because sometimes the basics c

ould be wrongly executed, too; thus he replied, “You still need to be careful as you can still make mistakes”. “I’ve been doing it for three years though” said the man puffing up his chest slightly. “Maybe so, but just because something seems simple, it does not mean that it is simple. Simple things are often the most difficult to reach”, Tuan explained. “Yes but…” started the man, “Please sit down and watch the rest of the class of you like.” interupted Tuan. “Erm, yes OK.” said the man taking a seat and with that Tuan walked off to me and we carried on practicing.

After ten minutes or about, the man asked me what the different people were doing. Some were practicing Qigong and some were doing forms. “Oh, I want to learn those” said the man pointing. “I would also like to learn that one as well” he continued pointing to another groupd of students across the yard. I just smiled.

Towards the end of the class the man told me, “I think I will stick with the Qigong I have. I feel good doing it. I would like to learn some of the martial arts though. I have also studied some for five years and so I have a good background.” Again I asked, “Where did you study?” and the man replied, “I have a book.” I said goodbye and the man left.

After the class had finished we were tidying up the training yard. Mr. An came over to us and said, “What did you think of him?” he asked. Tuan replied, “I don’t think he will come back.” Mr. An looked at Tuan, “And why do you think that?” he asked. “We he came looking for a teacher, but at the same time he thought that what he knew was so good. He only studied from a book and so it means he thought he is very clever and would not listen to any advice, so how can he learn? After a few minutes I did not want to talk to him anymore. Was I wrong”

Mr.An smiled and said, “Many people do not know how to talk to others. Some people are rude and do not even greet you properly, introduce themselves and thank others for their time. Sometimes though you find these people are OK, they are just naive and have never been taught how to address people. The important thing is they are honest and respect what you do.

Other people however, have a high opinion of themselves and think that they are very clever or gifted.. They say things to make themselves feel good and do not care about the effects of their words on other people. They can upset people easily and do not even realise it. These people are arrogant and ignorant and sometimes dangerous.

Actually, you were already teaching him by saying what you did, but he was too arrogant to accept what you were saying and too ignorant to notice you were trying to help him. In the end you were right not talk to him anymore, as he was not ready to listen to you. He said he has been studying his Qigong for three years but really he has been reading the same book for three years.

He did not come here to study, he just wanted to pick something interesting up, like the books he found at the store. But we are not bookstore and do not bartter and sell our skills. A lot of people do not realise this.”

I said, “Su phu, should I have spoken to him differently?” Mr.An smiled and said, “No you were right to be polite and explain, your job was to greet people and make them feel comfortable. You give them space to decide, everyone will eventually find their own way. But of course, if they can make their decision we can also make our decision: this makes everything fair.”

Paul Luong- 2010

At last Winter season has slowly faded away, leaving its place for the Spring to arrive. Many days I train at a nearby park seeing everybody loves to enjoy outdoor activities with friends and family, they even love lying down on the grass under the sunshine.

For us in America, we are fortune have four different seasons very clearly comparing to other tropical countries where there only are only two specific weathers, rainy or sunny months.

Summer in some place is hot, either burning or extremely humid thus it becomes very uncomfortable even to the local residence. In our area, fortunately we find that summers are always great and equally mean a lot of fun. Even better, day light saving time allows us to spend more hours under the sun. However, at some point or for some of us, summer is the time of suffering. Hay fever, bad cases of pollen allergy could literally make a day suck and ruin all the best moments.
Just a month ago we lasted through the biggest snow storm ever recorded, up to 24 inches of pure white occupied every exposed objects the eyes could see. When spring took it role a few weeks ago, I’ve been suffering the allergy symptoms in the worse possible ways. I look up in my dictionary and no, the words doctor or medication never comes to show. I’m maybe stubborn, but I’d rather treat myself with Qigong (Internal Postnatal Energy Training, read The purpose of practicing Qigong ?). Many of my friends know the benefits of Qigong and its purpose for a better life, but Qigong itself is also the greater natural medicine to almost every sickness in the world (What is Qi and how to feel your energy ball). Yes, even cancer. However, it is still the patient’s destiny whether he or she could overcome the own death or not, even with the help of a Qigong practitioner. Master John Chang once cured 2 out of 3 patients who touched the last stage of cancer. The third one, died. Not because there was something wrong, but his belief and will power did not stay with Qigong. He simply gave up hope and did not bother to follow the master direction to help himself. Why am I saying this? If we doubt Qigong how would it ever be possible for us to understand and work with Qigong to heal problems? Throughout the history, all Qigong masters healed their illnesses using Qigong or, alternatively, because of practicing Qigong, they were never ill. It’s now to see the reason why I am so stubborn, and no matter how much more you and I have to suffer we should still practice Qigong to solve the problems.

I know the allergy or hay fever of this time in the year is pretty annoying and probably stops many of us to enjoy the day. I, too, personally have my nose and eyes itchy. Random times in a day, I could think they are trying to irritate me until my very last breath. Slowly I also realize that I’m able to handle the situation much better. In fact, allergy is more irritating than it is harming us. Of course if someone is very weak, it can still be a problem nevertheless. Look at it from a scientific viewpoint, pollen allergy is absolutely not a poison, nor virus that tends to damage us. If not so, why everyone always sprints to a local CVS or pharmacy store to get some medicine for hay fever? These medicines, whether you realize it or not, only help to stop your feeling of the irritation but do not suddenly make you invincible. They cannot block the symptoms, only try to delay it. In the end, whenever you do not take the medicines, you feel much worse than before. It is simply because your body does not know how to cope with it and becomes dependent. For us, Qigong practitioners, the training is the way our body learns how to handle diseases from nature, by the power of nature. Therefore, even if we take not any medicine we can handle a lot more different sicknesses with our strong immune system.

From that point of view, I know I should learn how to cope with allergy by myself. However, I also realize that if I am busy doing things such as training, eating, using the restroom (erm…) , I do not feel the symptom that bad. Then when I sit still or do nothing, I start to feel the irritation making its way back to laugh on my suffering butts. Mind over matter ? So I learn to keep doing other things which that makes my focus will not be on my senses, and my mind is distracted from irritation. It is the same as, “Change your mind, change your world”, and in Qigong terms we say “One thought to replace ten thousand thoughts”.

Taking the concept to the next level, our life has all kinds of problems. We simply should not complain about it if already we have nothing constructive to say. The society of today, you see people complain almost everything in life, from government such as President Obama’s health care plan or at work where a customer’s action makes they feel annoyed, from family or other people they know. If we do the same as these people who complain, we put ourselves in a room, where all problems are always because of someone else’s. If we were into the shoes of the government, the job, the position of family or other people we know and complain about, I guarantee that these things would be much worse. It is very easy to point the finger at the others, but it is hard to find a way to deal with the problems. If we see everybody as a good person then we will not have problem with others. The problem is always ourselves. It is true. But, being nice to everyone is not always easy. That’s why we need wisdom.

I wonder how my above talk has anything to do with Qigong, allergy or hay fever. It seems I have totally lost the track myself. But if you learn one thing I found, that it is still difficult to handle the allergy because irritation does not depend on the Qigong practice. One time, the more I do Qigong with my mind set for the ultimate fight against allergy, the worse my battle becomes. The more I put my attention to kill this annoying symptom, the more it becomes stronger to kick my ass. Then I found that practicing, but also concentrating on the movements and its beautiful meaning does help. That is wisdom. No matter whether it is a Karate training or Qigong practice, if you just utilize the skills without wisdom you will find that sometimes things work and sometimes things do not work. Same for kata or form of a martial arts style, if you know only the surface but not the bunkai or hidden applications, you never get to be a martial artist. “Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.”

Regarding the allergy I have found that changing my focus helps me feel better, I can forget the irritation and slowly my body will cope with it. After many years then, it will eventually become nothing. Some problems actually begin from within our self and it’s only us to overcome. However, some of us may think, ‘haha it’s a waste of time I don’t have any allergy why bother’, or ‘its tooo bad i jst die’. If so, you should know how natures works. If today you become stronger against the allergy or hay fever, tomorrow your children and your grandchildren will have immunity from it. Now you know how some people cope better with allergy than the others and how it will benefit not only you but your own family in the future.

In the end if I have to say something, the less we bother the fewer the problem we get. We all live our own lives. If we cannot do anything to improve or help other people’s problems, it’s better we should not bother too much. At the worst, it takes your Qi, only makes you unhappy or even ill, or makes an enemy in your life. If other people do not like us, that is their problem, we should just do our things. The world has yin and yang, has bright and dark, has right and wrong. Sometimes, we have people who loves us, and some do not. It’s not thing we have to complain about, is it? By ignoring all the other problems we live in a peaceful and happy world. But it also does not mean we are allowed to be lazy or neglect on handling our own problems. Along the way, our senses become normal and empty. Just like in meditation, think as if we have no eyes, no ears, no tongue, no nose, no body and no mind. Being in the emptiness is the high level of Qigong as well as in meditation, in fact at this level our senses become more sensitive. We see further, not just with the eyes, we hear further, not just with the ears. But if we are unable to reach the emptiness, then we are always irritated by many unnecessary problems. Sometimes we need to let go, in order to gain, to be free in order to not be bothered. We should care, but care about things in a positive way where it benefits our fellows and others. In the end, it all will come back to ourselves.

(Paul Luong)
Images are photographed by Paul and the class of Karate Martial Arts at MC – Rockville
References are from Qi Mag, Issue No. 88, pp 1-2, Jul/Aug/Sep 2008 by Michael Tse

If you train Martial Arts, especially traditional styles, more than once in a while you would hear your Siifu or Sensei mentions about Dantien and tells you to focus your breath into it. Needless to say, you should instantly know, by common sense, that Dantian is not a type food or a beautiful girl as well as not a handsome guy. Technically, it is your centre just below your navel. But why is it that this place so important? Let’s flip the pages of history all the way to the very first chapters of civilization, of China to be specific.

Not just few years ago, but it’s way back to the ancient times when the population of China was occupied by peasants, poorest farmers of the lowest classes in the society. They call a day by starting as early as the fifth hour in the morning, sweating in the fields until sunset. Then, they return homes for some rest. If you are young, you would gather with your friends listening to stories of the village elders, while some others would enjoy the the cool night air that just silently replaced the heat of the day.

Out in this very moonlight, the weary peasants wind down and relax. And it was then, they becomes aware of something moving around inside their body, and it was more like steam instead of blood that flows. This strange steam could move up and down, into different organs, into legs and arms, torso and head. It always seems to relate to the body breathing and mind. The plain people noted all these unusual feelings, and in the end they discovered that everyone has a center, somewhere right below the navel, where it keeps the whole body warm and strong. They call this area “Dantien”. Dan means ‘the essence of energy’ or ‘crystal’, and ‘tien’ means ‘field’.

Now when you ask other senior disciples in class, you may get different answers about the location of Dantien. Some say it’s behind your navel, some say it’s a point a few inches below your belly button, or even next to your tailbone. However, the word ‘tien’ means ‘field’ as you have read, thus, Dantien is an area, not a point. Therefore, it is unnecessary to be strongly strict about the exact location.

Everyone of us was born with a certain amount of energy (Qi) called Pre-natal Energy. This energy is inherited from your parent and it stays inside your body, flows through your channels to create the life of you. When the Dantien is open, it can store a lot of energy (Post-natal Energy). You may see many of strong big person, but they may get sick much easier than a small baby. When you train, do weight-lifting, or the more active you are, the more energy you use and eventually that reduces your life. External training is good, but you must do it in conjunction with internal training, to replace and store more Qi than the amount you have used. If not, you will soon find yourself becomes tired, for the body is unable to handle the exertion.

How is that true? Let’s look at the closest friendly pet of human, a dog. Dog breaths very quickly in a fast pace, it opens its mouth wide to grasp for much air as many times as you could notice. They are active, always seem to be on crack, always running up and down, they are very Yang. Perhaps that is the reason they only live for fifteen to twenty years at most. On the opposite world, a turtle does not breath with its nose alone. It breaths through the skin, it uses the internal body, its abdomen just like our Dantien. Each breath takes approximately 2 minutes. It moves slowly and quietly, clearly to be very Yin. So on the average, turtle lives for more than two hundreds of years (Oldest Turtle in the World: LONESOME GEORGE) !

We are the same. If you go running, drill training, weight training until you become fatigue, then you might grow to be big and strong, but you are consuming your own energy while these exercises does not give you any. Quiet, slow, gentle are the ways to help you store your Qi to a higher level. People who could store more energy than their Pre-natal Qi, are able to open all the channels and acu-points inside the body. This leads to a healthy life, put asides other potential abilities of healing sick person, open the Sky eye and see different auras of different people, predicts the future (since Qi is universal energy, it is the bridge for your body to connect with the nature and receive its message) or release fragrance that smells like flowers at dawn (Fragrant Qigong is known to cure Flu and Allergy).

When you breath, you should not just use your lungs to grasp in the air, you should use your abdomen. The abdomen is deeper than the chest, therefore you can never do it quickly if you using the abdomen to breath in the correct way. Imagine that the pure air does not flow in and stop at your chest, it flows naturally deep down to your abdomen. Your breath becomes deeper, longer, more internal. This way the Qi sinks directly to your Dantien, strongly affects internal organs, particularly the kidneys, lungs and heart. In fact, now you are breathing with your Dantien. This is the ‘Natural breathing’ method that I have walked you through. In another article, we will talk about the ‘Normal breathing’ and ‘Reverse Breathing’. Nevertheless, despite of which methods you are doing, you must always do it naturally with a relaxing mind.

Facts

-Did you notice how the East has Lunar calendar that based on cycles of the Moon?  The peasants, of course, enjoyed the soothing and comforting moon light than the burning heat of the sun where they could relax and rest.

-Turtles do live long..

A 400 year-old Turtle

Paul Luong
(References are retrieved from Qi Mag Iss.51 and Illustrations are found from WWW)

Then we start to think, “wait a minute, I chew food everyday too still my teeth cannot break the keyboard”. Then, my instant thought would be no, you do not want to try that. Martial Arts looks as beautiful as the decorative branches and leaves, but if you do not have the strong understanding of where the roots are and how they draw the energy, you never get to have the fruits or maybe fall into injury yourself. You must see through the result to meet where the effort was. Having a strong hand does not mean particularly the hand is strong. The hand only simulates the delivery of the force which has been internally built up, along with the techniques. There are two type of Palm techniques, fall into two opposite categories of Qigong (pronounced chi-kun, Inner Energy exercise) : Soft and Hard.

The Hard Qigong forges the inner hand structure from daily practices on hard objects, and in the end result the palm delivers explosive force on whatever it tends to break. The downside of Hard Qigong Palm Technique is the hands often become bigger, covered with bruises and layers of damaged skin, as well as the force being generated is more purely physical. The Soft Palm Technique, delivers the same amount of energy but takes twice or more the amount of times of training. The hand of this style practitioner look soft, natural and nearly the same as before the training. Nevertheless if one concentrates and focuses the inner Qi (Energy – read What is Qi?) to the Dantien (read What in the name is Dantien?) and controls this very energy to the point upon impact, along with the universal power, the outcome is predictable, that is deadly. In many cases, people usually want the instant result for it is not easy to wait for something patiently, therefore most of the time Hard Qigong Palm Practice is preferred to Soft Qigong Palm Practice.

There are 7 different styles of Palm Techniques and their history are rather mysterious, some come from the Shaolin temple, others come from parts of the vast Eastern lands. The names of these styles could be very roughly to get translated to the English language, I only attempt to put the meaning as closely to the original meaning as possible, and they are : The United Double Form Palm, Mountain Shifting Palm, Heavenly Mantis Palm, Buddha Palm, Bamboo Leaf Palm, Iron Palm and the Cinnabar Palm techniques.

Cinnabar Palm Technique : sometimes also called Cotton Palm or Jade Palm, it is an absolute deadly style that has both Hard and Soft training methods. The Hard method requires the practitioner to make full contact with the object, while the Soft style does not require the physical impact, consequently it consumes twice or triple the time of training. When one reaches the very high level of Soft Jade Palm technique, he needs not to touch the opponent to cause the life threatening injury.

The United Double Form Palm Technique :
It’s a Hard style technique that strengthens the middle part of the palm, to become extremely solid. A slap of the palm could easily break any strong materials or even bones. According to the old writings, the practitioners of this style used to tie a big set of bamboo chopsticks together, then rolled it with the hands until the chopsticks become as small as the toothpick. One could also slightly rub other people body part to completely separate the joints and muscles. The tale of people who could easily bend bars of iron into circular shape also comes from the training of this technique.

Iron Palm Technique :
Movie has made this skill famous and it is really a powerful palm technique. Iron palm, too, has both methods of training. It is either Hard or Soft method. The hard method causes the palm to look very huge and ugly due to overburden and exertion to the hands, while the soft training keeps the hand natural and asks for a lot more years of practice. Old masters usually gives the soft training method one level higher than the hard method, for its difficulty and requirement of greater effort.

Mountain Shifting Palm :
It is a type of Palm Technique trains the wrist and center of the palm to break through any strong force. If you know Dragon Balls, yes master Roshi applied this method to Songoku and Krilin when they first started to train with him. However, in its true form, the practitioners place a big heavy rock on a rail consisted of two parallel wooden poles. At the beginning, he will not be able to move the rock any inches, if he does then the rock he has chosen is not good enough for the training. Everyday by consistent pushings, the rock will slowly shift away from its original position in a small distance. One day if he could push it 1 or 3 yards away with little effort, then he has reached the first level of success. It then is the time to change to another 600, 700, 800 pounds rock. To know if he has reached the master level is when he is able to apply one push and the rock moves 3 meters away or more. This way of training is very hard and needs an extreme level of patience, effort. However, one must not force his body into the unbearable condition.

Heavenly Mantis Palm :

Heavenly mantis palm, or also called Praying Mantis Fist is the technique approaches the circular movements of the mantis’s legs. Different from the fighting technique, the palm technique solidifies the inner side of the palm, along with quick turns in wrist movement, and the deadly force formed at the hidden angles. The victim may not be able to see what has hit him to cause the fatal injury. Heavenly Mantis palm has both Soft and Hard Qigong Methods of training.

Bamboo Leaf Palm :
It is a palm technique passed from generation to generation by the Shaolin monks. It is somewhat familiar to Iron Palm, but the offensive technique and defensive counterattack are much softer, hence it is a Soft Palm Technique. This training starts with a relax body as in the first step of Qigong practices. The disciple focuses energy in the lower Dantien level and uses his center of the palm to hit the hanging sand bag (or metal dust/iron chips). Force does not come from the hand or the wrist, nor shoulders or anywhere of the torso. The energy is directed from the Dantien level and quickly travels through the Front and Back Channels to gather at the palm center, then exposes at the end of the execution. The bag will not move at first, for the beginner level could summon very little of Qi. When one uses a gentle touch and the 220lb bag flies a meter or two, it means he has successfully reaches the 2nd stage of training. In a fight, if the defender focuses his Qi to the Dantien and executes Bamboo Leaf Palm technique, the opponent will be easily pushed away like a leaf. If the defender decides to kill his enemy, he slightly changes the way of executing Bamboo Leaf Pam by simulating the method of Taiji Fist: there is no forceful energy on the path the palm travels, then instantly it generates the strongest and fastest impact to the target, simultaneously the hands quick retract. This way there is no mark of the damage leaving on the victim body, but the Qi penetrates the Five main internal Ying organs (Liver, Heart, Spleen, Lung, Kidney) and the Six Yin internal organs (Gall Bladder, Stomach, Small & Large Intestine, Bladder and Triple burner). Results in later death or permanently damaged body structure, or severe wound.

Buddha Palm :

Also has another names Palm of Ru Lai, or Celestial Palm. Buddha Palm is similar to many other fighting technique that uses the side of the palm for offensive attack, such as Shuto in Karate, Knife hand in Taekwondo, etc… If one gains the master level of this technique, the side of the palm works like a sharp knife able to chop, cut everything no matter how tough it is. At the beginner the martial artist simply perform the knife hand attack to a pole of straw, then gradually move to a soft piece of board of the limber tree. If he notices a dent on the board then it is time to chop a big rock. This stage will definitely takes a year or two. Finally, if the technique could easily separate a metal dust held in a container into two part, then he has mastered the skill. Buddha Palm trains as the Hard Method however, the power it generates does not always require physical contact to injure the target. Such as when the Palm applies a strong force to the front and it becomes a blow into the volume of the compressed air, it by then pushes this energy toward and extinguishes a candle.

Yin Yang Palm Training
This technique belongs to the same family of Iron Palm using the Soft Qigong method of Bamboo Leaf Palm. It is sometimes practiced by the Taijiquan martial artist. Yin Yang palm has both methods of Hard and Soft trainings. This Kungfu skill trains both hands of the person internally and externally, in three different methods and results in different power in each hand. The Yin palm strikes someone, he will feel cold and it leaves a black mark. If the Yang strikes, the victim will feel hot, swollen and it leaves a red mark on the skin.

Passive Training I
1. Sit on a chair or in standing position, relax your body. Drop all the tension on the joints and shoulders. Place left palm faces down and right palm opens up, both resting on the thigh. Think of this poem in your mind three times : “Yin Yang two Qi pass through my hands. Left hand cold, Right hand hot.”

2. Now let the hands leave the thigh, lift the right hand up palm facing up and lower the left hand down palm facing down. Simultaneously reverse the movement of both hand, right hand moves down facing up and left hand moves up facing down. Repeat this movements.

3. After ten minutes, shake the hands loosely three times and upon the last stop, having the right palm up and left palm down once again, immediately imagine the right hand hot and left hand cold. Withdraw the hand and starts over at step 1.

Passive Training II
1. Sit on a chair. Place right palm out and left palm facing inward toward the chest, but hold both hands at the middle Dantien level.
2. For ten minutes, push and pull two hands in and out, still keeping the same palm direction as first step. Imagine right hand hot and left hand cold.

Active Training III
1. Once a day, face a tree and use the right palm to strike the tree 200 times (with an appropriate force that does not injure yourself) and the left palm loosely facing down at the side. The left foot is forward and the right foot is backward.

(Paul Luong)

References are retrieved from family Vietnamese martial arts scriptures and Qi mag Issue 48 March/April 2000 – qimagazine.com.
Images are obtained from WWW or photographed by myself

Every Tuesday and Thursday of this semester I would stay in my martial arts class after the last official session over for extra practice with my friends on katas and techniques. We enjoy going over and over different forms, as well as sparring during this hour. Once a friend and I did a long form continuously for a dozen times and we both got tired quickly, first because we have trained for almost 3 hours before that and second, we were trying so hard to completely imitate the movements of our Sensei.

We sat down on the floor. My friend were still examining his hands and making shapes from the kata. I, on the other side, was loosely moving my arms and body. Obviously, both of us were still going through the forms in our heads even though we were taking a rest. The friend suddenly said “Oh man I can’t get this right at all”. “Yeah, neither can I” , I quickly agreed with him. He continued “right! but you seem to pick everything up just fine” , I smiled and shook my head “Do you think you will ever do Seisan (name of the kata we were practicing) perfectly?”. My friend replied “If I practice hard enough and after more times I hope I will”, then he asked the same question in return, “How about you?”.
“No, I don’t really expect to ever do it perfectly,” . My friend looked surprised, but I continued with another question “How do you know when something is perfect?”. He thought for a moment then said “When all the movements we do in our kata are correct and the postures are right.”

My friend is right, but it is only the technical level that we were discussing. If we are trying to practice our form this way, then it will always miss something and will not have the spirit. For example, if you watched your Sensei or Sifu doing the form, were you only looking at the sequence and position of the hand and feet only? When you are watching, what did you feel?

You would think of it like a piece of music. When you first learn how to play a melody, you first must learn the sequence of notes. Once it is done how does it sound when you play it? People might recognize it, but if you compare your melody to an expert musician’s performance you will see there are so much different. So you ask yourself what makes this difference?

It is all to do with the musician’s emotions and how he or she expresses it through the music. This, of course, relates their spirit and energy. Each time they play the piece there will be slightly different because their energy is slightly different. To the untrained ears, we might not hear the changes, but other experts will notice it.

How does playing a melody have anything to do with learning a form? We first learn how to move our bodies to the sequence of the form, thus it is like learning how to play the instrument and follow the tune. That is the technical level. When we play the melody it will lack something and sound stiff. The same will be true of the kata. You will recognize it, but it lacks something. So you have to go onto the feeling of the form and this is about the energy, flow and spirit. Of course, first you have to copy and have to remember the form, the piece of music and its attitude. Without doing this, it will not be the same piece of music, it will not be the same form anymore. In learning form, we have to copy our Sensei. When you have received the kata fully, you start to look at the flow and energy. With these in place, you then start to express yourself through the form. Therefore, no one will be exactly the same. There is no end to this, so you will never have to seek perfection, and this is what makes it an art.

Think as if your master is the finger guiding you to the moon, if you only look at the finger, how do you catch all the heavenly glory ?

Paul Luong
Images are obtained from the WWW or photographed by me. Information is from multiple sources, mainly the quote of Bruce Lee that says
“It’s like a finger pointing away to the moon. Don’t concentrate on the finger, or you will miss all the heavenly glory”, from teaching of my Sensei, from
reading of martial arts articles, Qi magazines and self-knowledge.

Feng Shui, simply means Wind and Water. Together these two elements affect the life of every living thing in our world. If you are my friends in Karate Martial Arts class at MC, you probably should have a chance to gain some knowledge about Qi from Sensei Hardman (whom I’m greatly thankful for first introducing to me about Qi), and its practice called Qigong – the Internal Training.

If you are not, to define the the Qi (Vital Energy – chee) term may become a little difficult. It’s almost the same as the story of a blind man who surely said he knew about the elephant. He could touch the trunk, the legs, the tail, the ear of the elephant and believed that how the elephant looked like, but it is not the elephant. The same thing applies to Qi, it’s much bigger than the word itself. Every occasion one tries to understand Qi, it maybe different from time to time. Qi in our body is the energy that keeps us alive, to keep our heart beating, our brain functions, our mind conscious and our body moving.

In nature, Qi is the principle of all knowledge and it can represent Good and Bad. The Good Qi, as its name, brings you a good and healthy environment and bad Qi on the other hand will bring bad, unhealthy one. That to make you an idea of how Qi energy could affect us. However, if you strictly seek the fundamental, there actually is no bad or good Qi. Bad Qi comes from the exceeded level of Good Qi, while Good Qi is the balance of Qi in the universe. It’s just like having a piece of coconut dipped chocolate. At first, it tastes so great and sweet, it makes you incredibly happy. Then another 4 or 5 pieces later, you start to feel the bitter of the coconut, the unpleasant smell, the hot taste of that very same chocolate and eventually 10 pieces make you want to throw up. Yummy turns to Yikes!

We are very small, just like sand on the beach, dust in the desert. To live in harmony with our mother home, the Earth, it’s obviously not good to go against nature and be destroyed. Can we withstand the Earthquake? Tsunami? Can the shelter we live in stand strong against a fierce tornado? Every second the world changes. One thing is good today, maybe come bad tomorrow because it does not follow the moving of nature. Therefore, the ancient people observed and studied many situations and types of landscape, the position of the building, graves, houses and even palace to create an environment that peacefully joins with the universe, the big world of ours. The arts is called Feng Shui, the Art of Flow in my word or some’s. Later in the old days, the knowledge was even used in battlefields. Spartan!!! No, not trying to be funny at all, but if you seriously look at the strategy of the battle you will understand.

Feng – The Wind.

There are not many people that I know who would love to stand out in a chill windy day for even half an hour. Even at the beach, where the sun is shinning, the weather is extremely hot and you stand by for a long time, you will start to feel cold. It is even worse if you live on a beach without shelter, gradually you become weak. The wind blows things away, it has the power to separate our inner Qi and it is not very good for our health. If you live in some area that is always windy, you slowly lose your Qi and get sick very easily. When your health isn’t good, the sickness brings along bad luck.

Shui – The Water.

In its nature, water is cool and calm. It helps us reduce the affect of the wind. How long far could we go without having a sip of water? Not over many days at all. If you live near a river, it means the environment or your surrounding is much cooler and the Qi does not flow too much, hence things will be quieter. However, as I mention above, when something is too much, it becomes bad. An ocean, a waterfall do affect your Qi as well. The key to be in harmony is to create the balance. There is a fine line in between Wind and Water. Wind has its Yang element of the brighter, positive side while Water has the Yin element where it is darker (should you ever look at the color of the ocean), negative characteristic. Wing is air, Water is liquid. But if you know the Taiji Ying Yang symbol, the dark side has a bit of bright, and bright side has bit of dark. Therefore, both Feng and Shui share some common elements; both are moving and so can affect our energy, and our environment.

The Art of Flow
We cannot go with one element and ignore the other. That is clearly imbalance. The best environment is the one that has both wind and water control one another in a natural balance. Google feng shui and it will come up with thousands of result whereas most of them related to interior design. There are pages that simply tell you to put some object at certain place in the house, change color of a room, hang unique decoration at the front door or windows, etc…but you should not only consider the inside but also the outside of the house or where you live in. A great surrounding gives greater supply of Qi and good inner side guides us how to absorb this Qi energy. It is the same as having a good book, if you don’t have the knowledge to understand its teaching, the book is useless to you. In Feng Shui, if there is a blockage in any area, it can affect the health, and income events of everyone who lives there. To give you the first and most basic knowledge of the Art of Flow, there are three elements that aids to balance the Qi of nature:

1.Space
It does not feel very comfortable if you would ever live in a closet. But in the home environment, people usually pack as many as materials into their living place and accidentally create the tension in the house. Too many items that if one finds himself bumping into furniture, doors..will make the feeling of tense and stressed. Nevertheless, if there is too much space in the house, as if you are living in a castle, so much space that you almost feel lost is not good, either. The flow of Qi will make you lonely and depressed. I feel sad for M.J that he lived in a big house, big land but he was always lonely. We must have enough space, again, it means to have a balance of area.

2.Light
Vampires and other bunch of devil creatures or freaks live in the dark, so it is a common funny sense that we should not live in the dark, unless… Anyway in reality, if the environment is always too dark even in day time, it will make you ill, generates a lot of thinking, then you start to feel depressed or become very tired. It is best to have enough natural sun light passes into your room that you need not to turn on any lights. The sun should be able to shine into the house so that you feel comfortable, hopeful and always look forward to the future. However, if it is too bright, the key of balance is broken. If sun shines too brightly into the house, first thing that makes is the tiredness and you begin to feel drawn. Try to avoid any flashing lights in the house, same as how you avoid to look at the camera flash light too often, it affects the eyesight and create illusions.

3.Air

Practicing Qigong means to refresh the energy in our body, the small universe. It clears blockages of the internal organs and strengthen the Prenatal Energy that we were born with. Good fresh air brings energy, it makes you healthy. You never feel dull if the air is clean, instead you find yourself more positive and stronger. Those air refresher such as Glade or candle that you leave in the room, only to trick your mind to think that the air is good and smells pleasure. But you should already realize that the air you are breathing in this case is already very stale. Even for one who live in air conditioned buildings, or such as when you go to a doctor or office, it instantly makes us tired, weaker and in the long term some will develop sleeping problems along with lots of illness.
The stale air does not only make negative impact to the body but also makes the the house smell bad. Bad smell in return harms the body in a greater way, as the result one’s future will not be so good. That is the reason we should always have the windows open to exchange the air with the environment from time to time, even during the winter time. Doing so you are letting the house breath and to avoid bad health or any harms to the body that caused by bad air. If it is very cold, leave the heat on at the middle level instead of high level while the windows slightly opened, clean air gets warm faster than stale air.

Those are the most basic elements of Feng Shui and we now have a great start off for further articles. If you create the balance out of these three keys: space, light, and air at where you live, then not only you but anyone in that area will feel better. The visitors come to your house enjoy and are more relaxed. The Art of Flow is to live in a harmony environment where every principle is in control and supports the other in a completely natural balance. Later I will either write up articles or introduce more Feng Shui knowledge to you of how items in the house could affect your body and one another. But for now let’s keep the basics at heart!

Paul Luong – March 10 / 2010 4:00AM
Images are retrieved from the WWW and some knowledge/information are gained from these following sources:
- Yijing The Book of Changes
- Architecture and Feng Shui (Vietnamese)
- Modern Interior Design and Ancient Arts
- Qi Magazine
- and online dictionaries ^_^ !

What do you feel when you practise Qigong? There are so many answers. Sometimes you will feel warm, tingling feelings, sometimes you will feel emotional and maybe feel like crying. Sometimes you might even feel like laughing. Some people will say they feel peaceful, more aware of the Qi (read What is Qi and how to feel your own energy ball?) flowing inside the body, pulsing and some people will even see colours, pictures, people, scenery and even smell things.

There are so many different feelings. When you practise movement, we usually feel good, warm and the breathing is very deep. Sometimes though, you might feel stiff or ache. This is quite normal because when you move, you open your body up and allow the Qi to flow all around it and find any problems you might have. It is like water washing the dirt out of your clothes. Qi cleans up the internal organs and even your joints, muscles, skin and bones. Qigong is like giving your body a good service, the same you do with your car. If you always maintain your body and keep it in good condition how can you not be healthy? This is one area that Western medicine misses and is going in the wrong direction.

Practising Qigong movements rids us of bad, old energy, opening up the channels and acupuncture points and stimulating the internal organs. It keeps the flexibility in our joints and maintains our muscles and the whole body. Then we can be healthy. So when we do this we must have some sensations in the body.
This is normal because you are releasing all your problems, which have no other way to release or recover. Actually the feelings are usually good, just like having a good massage. That is why we must move regularly. If we do not move the body, we will become lazy and the more we do not move, the lazier we become. Move more and enjoy the movement and particularly the results and feeling. The second part to Qigong is meditation, which comes after the movement. This helps us to recharge our Qi and lets the Qi settle at the Dantian, the centre of the body (also read What in the name is Dantien?.

In Qigong we have a term, “Collecting Medicine”.
What is the medicine? The medicine is Qi, which we collect from nature. When we move, we collect Qi from nature and this penetrates the body and becomes part of the body and supports the energy we need and so we feel better. However, without meditation, the Qi is too active and so we can become too excited and use the Qi very quickly. Meditation lets the Qi settle down at the centre of the body so we can store it and not use it too quickly. When we start to meditate, we will feel warm and the breathing will become strong and deep. Even then we will feel stiffness and aching in the body. Again this is normal.

Many people today do not know the deeper feelings of the body. We should be able to feel the heart beat, the lungs breathing, even the liver and kidneys if we let our feelings go. In the beginning, you will feel the right and the wrong in the body. So you will notice things like your temperature, your breathing and the blockages in the body.

We must let go of all those feelings so the body can recover. The best method for clearing any problems is to let them release and then change the problem. After we let go the pain and stiffness will ease and then the warm, good, comfortable feelings will come. This is one of the principles of nature. If you can handle the difficulty then the situation will turn and become positive. The Qi will slowly flow through all the blockages and then you will feel much better. Also when you start to meditate you will have a lot of thoughts going through your mind. This makes most people give up as they think to meditate the mind must be completely empty.

Actually a lot of people, even people who are high level in mediation will have a busy mind when they start. Then later it clears up. I remember I was practising in the park once, when a man asked me “Do you need an empty mind to do meditation?” my answer to him was that meditation is about patience. He was very surprised by my answer as he thought that it was about emptying the mind. Therefore, many people with this concept cannot do meditation because they cannot empty their minds. Actually, if someone can empty the mind straightaway every time, then they do not need to do meditation. In reality, the mind cannot be totally empty. You can feel peaceful, relaxed, calm and enjoy the meditation, but it is very rarely totally empty.

However, some times it needs to be like this. For example, if you want to have dinner you need to either cook or go out to a restaurant, but without any preparation or action nothing will happen. So meditation is about patience. We just need to sit or stand, close the eyes and keep a good straight posture and then allow everything to happen. No matter what happens, it will be good for us.

The first thing to happen will be the blockages will clear and so that is why we feel things that are not good or uncomfortable, even painful. But this is good as without letting these go, we cannot become stronger and healthier. Then we can reach a level, which is better and more enjoyable. After all the discomfort has gone, we will feel more relaxed, calmer and the Qi will flow through the body. So some parts of the body will feel pulsing or twitching, or certain muscles will vibrate. This is because the Qi needs to go to the tense areas. It is normal and very common and this is why certain areas feel as if they have more Qi than other areas.

Once we allow everything to happen, then a lot more things will start. Colours are very commonly seen. Bright colours mean the Qi is strong and weak colours when the Qi is weak. Green colours come from the liver, red from the heart, yellow from the spleen, white from the lungs and blue from the kidneys. If there are different colours, then they are usually between two of the organs which means you can see more than one organs’ Qi. When you are very healthy, you should see a rainbow of colours. The deeper you go, the more you will see. Sometimes you might see yourself, your organs or skeleton. Sometimes you will not know what it is you can see.

Just let it happen because this is the process of meditation and it is the Qi stimulating the body that causes all these things to happen. Qi is not just energy. It is more than that. It can carry messages and information. Some see pictures of the past or the future, but you must not take them too seriously. So when you are patient and allow everything to just happen you will enjoy the “ride” of meditation. I remember one of my Qigong ancestors was a Daoist monk. When he sat down to meditate, he knew what was happening all around him for a about one mile. Why was this? It was because he was totally still and calm, so that he could pick up the messages and changes all around him. Of course, to do this you must have a very deep level of meditation.

If you can really let go and be patient, then you can reach a high level of human ability. But remember movement is as important as mediation so you can reach a high level with a healthy body.

Michael Tse

Dayan Qigong, was found in the year of 385, is one of the deepest and most profound internal meditative practices in the world. Each step follows closely to the movement of the Wild Goose (Dayan) in the nature. Dayan Qigong smoothly opens the 108 acupuncture points, along with all channel and organs in the body.

It used to be a secret arts and was passed only inside a family from generation to generation until the Grandmaster Yang Meijun began to teach it into public, at the age of 73, to preserve this very valuable skill (Read more at History of the 106 Year Old Grandmaster Yang Meijun (Dương Mai Quân) and Dayan Wild Goose Qigong (Đại nhạn khí công) ).

Because of its powerful techniques, disciples who practice Dayan Qigong often increase their Energy level to a very high level. This opens the Sky Eye and the flowery fragrance, along with healthy life and the ability to transmit Qi to heal sick people. The mind and body of the practitioners must have the absolute connection to the nature and understands the universal energy.

The demonstration above is performed by Robert Bates, a Dayan Qigong instructor in Bellingham, WA. Please note that this is a much faster version of the actual practice.

–Paul Luong