QA with Bruce

[Anonymous]

Hi Kumar

Regarding the goldilocks alignment of the occipit.

The instruction, “get this right, and the energy will drop”

Improving this alignment has creating a surprising feeling of water running downward through my center, with a sort of vibration, like a river. Its quite clear, and either on or off like a water faucet. It doesn’t flow everywhere, but its strong down the center. Any contraction will shut it down or send it off balance, I need to dissolve my head and not contract then it opens up.

Question;
Is this the way all energy gates behave, and as capacity increases, how its possible to move chi in all directions at will?

Thanks!
Eric

[Anonymous]

Hi Bruce,
In Module 2 you have spoken about recognising the positive, negative and neutral emotional aspects of the Heart, Kidneys and Liver. You also spoke very briefly about the positive and negative aspects of the Lungs. Would you expand upon the neutral emotional aspect of the Lungs and the positive, negative and neutral aspects of the Spleen and Lungs so all 5 of the main organs are covered? A brief but total overview would be extremely helpful.

Many thanks,
Ben

P.S. the gods have just shone so I’ll see you in Ibiza!

[Anonymous]

Outer dissolving
Dear Bruce,
Thank you very much for the very helpful instructions and guidance we have received so far. My question is regarding outer dissolving. It is about seemingly two different patterns of energy discharges and my ability to control them.

When I work on “hard spots” and they eventually become softer, sometimes I succeed with projecting the released energy out, even not very far. But more often, there is another current, which feels much more powerful and out of my control. For a while, I have had energy discharges going up and down my spine, seemingly not related to the spots in the body I was working on. At present, I am trying to release a lot of tension behind my eyes, and I am experiencing shooting energy discharges going inside, through my stomach, and down my legs. This is spontaneous, very pleasurable and out of my control. Should I try to learn controlling these discharges and projecting out?

[Anonymous]

A qstn about storing chi in the dan tien versus other places:

Preface: There are many ways a person can acquire chi, and different places one can store it. Personally I largely store chi either in wei chi [guardian chi] specifically, or else in a general distributed way throughout the chi body or etheric field. During yoga practices I often direct prana into various chakras, or else pranamayakosha or other koshas. When I go hiking in “big nature” [ a large forest in the Colorado mntns for example] I feel chi being acquired from the environment, some of which goes into my [lower] dan tien. I have a regular yoga asanas with deep breathing practice and acquire lots of chi or prana, and it goes many places, but I don’t sense my lower dan tien as particularly being one of them.

Question: Can you please speak some about storing chi in the dan tien versus other places one can store chi and like pros and cons of doing one vs another? Is there any special significance to people having a lot of chi in general but not necessarily a whole bunch in their dan tien specifically? Is the latter common in people who do yoga w/breathing practices?

Thanks,

Scott

[Anonymous]

How do we balance training of the downward and upward flows of energy? And how does this balance between them play out in the outer and inner dissolving?
From the EA curriculum, my impression has been that we mainly focus on the downward flow. Mentions of the upward flow are few and rare. At the same time, Bruce has said in the Training Circle that excessive downward training can lead to undesirable side effects like depression (or so I understood). And this is where the upward training could kick in. So how do we know when to start the upward training, how do we train the upward, and how we balance upward and downward?
Also, in the dissolving framework, there is predominantly the downward flow that is discussed; and I can’t recall any discussion on the upward flow. So how this downward/upward plays out in the dissolving, both outer and inner?

[Anonymous]

At this stage of my practice, physical alignments feel stable and pretty comfortable, standing and otherwise. Lately I have had a “rebound” effect from sinking chi exercises, some upflow /dizziness and some tension in the brain and spine. Any suggestions on the best way to work with this to reduce the rebound?

Thank you, Bruce, for creating this program and for all you do for us!
Katie

[Anonymous]

Hi Bruce

The second month’s practice for beginners’ qi qong indirectly answered my last month question about circling through the alignments so I had little time devoted to sinking my qi ; concentrating exclusively on the alignment of my head made it easier to focus on sinking my qi to my throat notch.

I noticed that I start generating considerable body heat after about 30 minutes’ standing. Your Energy Gates book suggests this can happen. However, I seem to be perspiring considerably more on my right side – by 50 minutes I am dripping beads of perspiration. Could this be related to a slight misalignment I have in my thoracic spine (kinked to the right)? Is this something else to note but not pay attention to while I am practising? Your advice would be much appreciated.

Best wishes

Geoffrey

[Anonymous]

Hello Bruce,

I practice some of the breathing exercises lying on my back. Is there a particular posture lying down analogous to the standing alignment that supports this from an energy perspective?

Thanks, Chris

[Anonymous]

I would like to say how grateful I am for the opportunity to study with you and go through the material in these modules.
My question is that my whole body feels like a knotted up piece of tension, especially inbetween my eyes in the front of the skull, the back of the top of my neck, the whole back of my neck, inbetween the shoulder blades, stiff lower back and with some continous pain in the L4. Putting attention on these areas can feel overwhelming at times. And I wonder if I will really be able to dissolve any of this. Your encouragement to keep practising a little bit each day is helpful and I find inspiration in presentations,.

[Anonymous]

Bruce,

Love the energy circle program.

1. You have been talking about dropping chi to tan tien. Can you drop tan tien chi to feet? Or would that drain out battery?

2. Can we sink chi down middle of legs? Similar to how we drop chi down the central channel?

Thank you,

Rob

[Anonymous]

Hi Bruce;

Was wondering whether you have the time/technical wherewithal to take a look at the practice videos I edited from your first cloud hands post? I spliced together ONLY the specific instructions for the moves and found that very useful as a learning tool. I would be happy to share them with the group but wanted your opinion/ok on that.

This can perhaps open a wider discussion about the best way to reach a wider audience for the system you teach. I think access is very difficult because of the complexity and precision of the moves but also because of the lack of classic “exercise video” formats which is what most people with a casual interest would gravitate to. I think this program is a great step in that direction but perhaps more could be done in terms of building up a systematic library of all the elements and how they relate to each other.

[Anonymous]

Katie, I too have felt some dizziness with the exercises I have done in Module 1 and 2.

[Anonymous]

Hi, have a good day.

I have a question, during standing qigong in process of sinking chi, some thought came out, not always good one. And i feel some energy rising into head ( and higher) with them.. Do i need to sink those energies, or let them go, or ? Thanx!

[Anonymous]

Module 3 Qi Gung question

I feel a bit silly asking this, but here it goes:
I have 4 cats, and when I practice standing Qi Gung, I almost always get one of them who comes, rubs against my ankles, and then lies on my feet.
Is there any problem with having another living being intersecting my energy field while doing sinking and dissolving ? (they clearly don’t stay at a fist’s distance from my body …).

Erwan

[Anonymous]

Part 2: From your years of experience practicing Tibetan Buddhism in addition to mastery in the Taoist lineage, are there any cautions for us who may be doing in-depth practicing in both areas (such as Ngondro as well as Taoist Qigong and meditation)? Is it possible that the “rebound” effect described above is related to this?
What are the benefits of these two tracks (Taoist , Buddhist) together?

Also wanted to note that In my own experience, Taoist Yoga has been hugely helpful for grounding and stabilizing in both Taoist and Buddhist mediation practices. Will you be offering more yoga training?

[Author]

Posts