Energy gates or Dragon and Tiger first ?

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I am not sure what to practice first in a training session Energy Gates or Dragon and Tiger. I tend to start with Energy Gates and then practice Dragon and Tiger.

What exercice do you start first with in a training session and for how long do you practice the individual exercises of Energy Gates?

Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Hi Dirk,

I usually start out with dragon tiger; I feel like the end with hands over the lower tantien is great segue into standing for energy gates. I do one set of DT and Im still learning Energy Gates. Then I do sitting meditation for about 30 min. This all takes me an hour or so.

Enjoy,

Kevin

[Anonymous]

………. I tend not to practice Dragon and Tiger in the same practice sessions as the other Energy Gates Qigong material. D&T is from a Buddhist tradition whilst the other qigong sets are primarily Taoist. There are differences in flavour and focus of attention at many levels, so I prefer not to mix them.

[Anonymous]

How did you learn the Gates qigong routine?

As a total newbie, I don’t know which one to start with: DT or Gates as there is no instructor in my area.

Any guidance would be very MUCH appreciated .

mark

[Anonymous]

There was an Energy Gates DVD with Bruce Kumar Franzis. I think it is no longer avaiable (I would surely be among the first to buy a new DVD covering the Energy Gates).
The CD ist still avaiable and quite good.
Then there is the excellent online course by Paul Cavel that covers parts of the Energy Gates program.

Dirk

[Anonymous]

….I would also thoroughly recommend Paul’s online course as a really sound foundation for beginning qigong – coupled with Bruce’s Energy Gates book. Originally, there was an Energy Gates video on VHS and for a while this was copied onto a DVD – perhaps it was withdrawn because of the dated presentation and production quality. It might be worth contacting Energy Arts to see if they have anything left in stock. Also, Brookline Tai Chi used to have a selection of DVDs to support their enrolled students – it might be worth contacting them (via the Brookline website). The Dragon and Tiger instruction manual and DVD are very good – even better if you can manage to attend a workshop with an Energy Arts instructor.

[Anonymous]

Hi Dirk,

I don’t think it’s such a big deal whether to practice Energy Gates first or last in a session where you also do Dragon & TIger. Just try both and see how you feel.

I personally use those two QiGong sets for different purposes:
I use DT when I don’t have a lot of time and I want to get my Chi going and well balanced at the beginning of the day. It only takes 20 minutes and then I’m off and running.
Energy Gates takes more time. My usual practice takes a bit over an hour. But the payoffs are much greater than if I did DT 3 times in a row. In particular DT does not have any noticeable effect on my joint and back pains, but Energy Gates does a fantastic work of it.

All in all : I do DT when I need a quick rev up of my Chi, and Energy Gates the rest of the time, as I feel it’s deeper and more powerfull.

[Anonymous]

Hi Erwan,

my experiences are similar. I do not notice a big impact upon the mobility of my joints after doing DT. But there is definitely a big impact on chi flow and general wellbeing. i also do DT in the mornings to get me started.

[Author]

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