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Month 3 focuses on the lower half of the body and its connection to the earth. I understand that Bruce wants us to spend time and notice this process:
–the countdown to distraction
–the complete going away
–reemergence
–getting back to stableHe explains that this process will repeat itself throughout our meditations.
Since we have moved to awareness of the whole body at once (second half of month 2) and taken away the laserlike focus on parts, I have found it very difficult to stay in the present moment. How much scanning should I be doing instead of this general focus?
Hi, Joan.
I usually start by scanning, then connecting the scanned parts to the tantien. That takes several sets of 10 breaths. Then I work on the general focus and trying to notice when the distraction begins. I rarely lose focus completely so I’m working on trying to notice when thoughts arise. I found it helpful to use the breath to keep connected to the body.
I don’t know if any of this is helpful. If you’ve studied any kind of brain science, you can see that were creating and reinforcing new neural networks, and that takes time.
Good luck and best wishes, matthew
Hi Folks, I’m still working on the last “week” of month 2.
Connecting the entire upper body to the dan tian has been a challenge.
My question for you folks who’ve moved beyond this is:
Is the connection of all parts to the dan tian a completely unambiguous experience for you? I feel like I could work at this stage for quite some time before moving on to the lower body and month three.
Is this connection to dan tian something to cultivate over a longer time, or do you think I should get it very clear before moving to month 3?
Thanks!
SteveMatthew: would you elaborate on your method of “connecting the scanned parts to the tantien” ?
Thank You.
Hi, Steve.
I’ve been tai chi for 24 years, studying with Bruce at seminars and his senior students at Brookline Tai Chi since 2001. I’ve been working on the energy of the tantien that whole time. I started in a “fire” school, doing “old-school” taoist meditation of the micro- and macro-cosmic orbit. That never really worked for me: it felt too forced. But I’ve kept my tai chi and chi gung practice up and in those 24 years there were maybe a total to two weeks that I didn’t do tai chi or chi gung. I just really love to practice.
I say all this not to brag or show off, but to set up what I’m about to say next.
It took me a really long time to get a clear, unambiguous sense of the tantien. It wasn’t until about 10 years ago that it really came. Working on Bruce’s nei gung has been, for me, like taking off the veil. Little by little, slowly but perceptibly, my sensation of chi, awareness of the tantien, and all the other things Bruce teaches have slowly become more clear. Every month I feel progress. I practice around 90 minutes a day. 30 minutes sitting; 30 minutes yoga/stretching followed by some tai chi or chi gung; and 30 minutes of bagua. I’m also part of the bagua mastery program. Then I do longevity breathing for about 20 minutes on the train on the way to work.
I’ve found that everything Bruce teaches hangs together. My meditation really reinforces the bagau and vice versa. I’ve backed off on the tai chi/chi gung practice to focus more on bagua for the next year or so. I’m really interested in the moving meditation part of it.
I think everybody’s different and I’m sort of slow at this. It’s taken me a really long time. So, you have to figure out what’s best for you. If there’s a small sensation that you can build on, enough so you know that you’re on the right track, maybe that’s a good start. I have to say that if I waited for the connection to get very clear, I would have been waiting a long time.
For me, I place the center of my awareness in the tantien. It’s like that’s where my core awareness is, then a reach out and feel all the parts I’ve scanned and connect them with that core awareness. One of the things I’ve found is that I thought for a long time, without really considering it too deeply, that my core awareness, my center, was behind my eyes somewhere. Once I got over that, I can put it pretty much anywhere, but the tantien has a really interesting, unique kind of feeling when it’s my center.
Anyway, that’s probably a longer answer than you wanted, but that’s what came out when I started typing. I hope it’s of some use.
best wishes,
matthew
Matthew, thanks for that response. I’m a week and a half or so behind where Steve is. But, I think his concerns will soon be mine.
I’m doing two 20 minute sessions, one AM and one in the evening. I’ve pretty much decided to just adhere to the schedule set forth as much as possible and not get hung up on any idea of approaching perfection (possibly even competency) before moving on.
Currently am working on head, neck and shoulders simultaneously and have some flashes of having them all in consciousness at the same time. I’m easily encouraged. From a newbie at this thanks again for your time in sharing your experience.
Thanks, Matthew for sharing your experiences. That reinforces my decision to keep within the monthly schedule without looking for perfect understanding before moving on.
One technique I have used for the tantien comes from Yang Yang in his book Taijiquan: The Art of Nurturing, The Science of Power. His teacher, Grandmaster Hu Yaozhen taught him a technique called “three natures return to one”.
“When you are relaxed and maintaining proper structure in your sitting posture, you may (1) think, (2) look, and (3) listen to your dantian…Just repeat to yourself, “think dantian,” look dantian,” and “listen dantian.”
Thank You Matthew!
That puts things in perspective.
I’m going to try and get this upper body and dantian connection a little more stable before I move on. I too have noticed my awareness is located behind my eyes. I’ve been working on sinking it down to dantian, most times its like I’m looking down or awareing down from my head to the dantian.
Thanks to Kevin and Joan for sharing as well. I think I’ll move to month 3 before too long .
Joan, I do that “three natures return to one” as the closing standing meditation part of hunyuan (primordial) qigong, its great for nuturing your dantian and nuturing your awareness of it. Trying to connect my whole body through the dantian is a new challenge though! Best of luck to all.
hi, i have been previewing month 3 and will probally start this weekend.month 2 was a time for some experiments that didnt work so im gonna focus on the current instructions,try to feel, count ,listen,breath focusand the other ten things and take each session and try to make it a little bit better and deeper than the last one
This was my first day of the first half of month 3. I’m somewhere in the middle as far as progression through the course, I think. Just wanted to see how those ahead of me approached it.
After “locating” the lower dan tien I worked down through the hip joints, genital region, perineum, anus, knees, calves, ankles, feet and soles of feet. Then focused a bit on the LDT connecting to the Earth. Bruce talks of working on the front of the body as well and working that down to the soles of the feet in the first half of the month. I had a few minutes remaining so did the crown of the head down to chin.
My feelings are that as this segment goes along the connecting of the LDT to the Earth will go quicker and leave more time for moving down the front of the body. Regarding that, also wanted to ask if anyone was connecting those front body parts to the LDT or just treating it as what, I believe, you call a scan.
Thanks in advance and happy Easter weekend!
Been working on connecting the lower half this week with some success.i’m having more definition connecting to to dantien,probally due to breathing exercises in the past ,both breathing in to the dantien and reverse breathing along with some of the standing neigong i’ve tried.thought i would try the month three guided session but had more luck on my own than wiyh bruce trying to direct it i’ll try that again in a couple of weeks.hope everyone has a good holiday weekend!happy earth day and an early birthday wish to bruce!
Yes, I am actually working on connecting the front of the body to the LDT. I guess I should go back and listen more carefully to the audio, but I thought that was the next thing. I “connect” by holding the physical feeling of all the parts from an awareness located in the LDT.
Is that how everyone else understands the directions?
I think i’ll go back and refresh the directions too, i might have misunderstood a couple of points!
The Second Half of Month 3
I understand that we are scanning the front and sides down to the feet and connecting the lower dantien to these parts.
Opening up collapsed parts with breath seems to be the main focus of these two weeks. By breathing into the midriff, ribs, sides of neck and other areas we open them up when we notice they have dropped down and collapsed.
I need some clarification of what we are doing because somewhere in Month 2 I missed the fact that we were only doing the front of the body and now in Month 3 we are doing the sides in addition to the front. I thought we were becoming aware of the whole body at once in Month 2.
……..hi Joan, I know how you feel. In fact, having felt a bit unclear with my own practice – I’m making time over the Easter break to re-listen to all the audio. I’ve just re-listened to all the month one stuff (including the introductory blurb) and that really helped reconnect – I noticed points that didn’t ‘stick’ the first time round, and I’m sure I’ll find similar with month 2 (and probably 3 too!). I’ve been surprised just how much content is folded into Bruce’s audios. Indeed, I’m sure that in the same way that re-reading books often opens perspectives missed the first time round, similar is true for these audios.
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As I understood month 2, we were doing the whole body. In month 3, we are starting again with the front in week 1 and adding the sides in week 2. I’m just finishing up week 1 and will start week 2 next seek.
There is a lot of content here. I get the feeling Bruce is working from a general outline and kind of lets the moment decide exactly how he expresses the content. There is repetition, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. It will be interesting to see where this all leads by the end of the program: 18 months is the duration of the instructions as I understand it.
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