Neigung Core I thru V Simplified

I’ve been thinking about the neigung sets lately. Each of them has many, many components and layers of understanding. There is so much detail to learn that we often miss the forest for the trees. I think there is a simpler way to look at the neigung sets.

First let’s define them.

Core I: Opening the Energy Gates
Core II: Spiraling Energy Body
Core III: Marriage of Heaven and Earth
Core IV: Bend the Bow and Shoot the Arrow
Core V: Gods Playing in the Clouds

Next, let’s think about the big picture: what’s the most basic goal of each set.

Core I, Opening the Energy Gates, is our safety net. In it, we learn to bring energy down the body to below the feet. That’s it. All of the exercises and dissolving practices are simply designed to bring energy down.

In Core II, Spiraling Energy Body, you do the opposite: you bring energy up. But, you do this is a particular way. You have to build on Core I. You have to learn to fill a “reservoir” of chi below the feet so it fills and begins to rise. If you just bring energy up, you’ve missed the point.

In Marriage of Heaven and Earth, Core III, we mix the energy that goes up and down. Here the down energy is created in a more sophisticated manner. You want the down to be created by filling a “reservoir” that’s above the crown of the head. Just like in SEB but want to fill this reservoir and have it bring energy down. The energy that you fill to the top with is the energy that filled the reservoir below the feet which is the energy that you learned to bring down in Opening the Energy Gates. Each set is building on the previous. Without completing the previous step, you can’t progress correctly.

Core IV, Bend the Bow, is really part of Marriage of Heaven and Earth but there is just too much material (detail) to learn so it was broken out into a separate neigung set. The main point of BTB is to connect everything first to the spine and then to the lower tan tien.

Core V, Gods, is everything else. Well, sort of. Gods Playing in the Clouds is usually described as the most advanced qigong set taught by Bruce Frantzis; however, Bruce hasn’t taught the complete set so no one really knows what is supposed to be learned. I suspect it integrates everything including the side and central channels as well as the three tan tiens. My guess is that at the end of it you should know what the tai chi space is. That’s the bridge to meditation that you are supposed to find.

I’ve substituted Bagua as THE most sophisticated neigung set since it includes everything in Gods and more. In the absence of teaching we fill the void with speculation. What’s a Taoist wannebe to do?