Stages of Approach?

[Anonymous]

Greetings,

If a practitioner intends to go through the entire core program culminating in Qigong Tui Na and Therapy, is it important to go through the stages of approach in the order listed beginning with Dragon and Tiger Qigong?

I’ve been working through the Energy Gates book very slowly, in no rush. In fact, understanding the inestimable importance of deep awareness for the real efficacy of qigong, I have isolated my focus entirely to posture, settling, 1st stage longevity breathing, and scanning and sinking the physical body. I have not acquired the dvd yet nor have I attempted any of the movements. Before moving forward in this, I am wondering if it is strongly recommended by certified instructors that we start with Dragon and Tiger Qigong before moving into Energy Gates Qigong?

thank you,
james

[Anonymous]

Hi James,

I think Energy Gates is a great place to start. I really like that you are taking it slow and methodically going through the material. A lot of people when they first start are in a rush to move through the material quickly. As a result, they don’t get as much out of it.

Hope this helps,
Janak

[Anonymous]

Dear Janak

Thank you for clarifying. Perhaps Bruce placed the DT first knowing people are in somewhat of a hurry to get into movements immediately. Very skillful!

I understand people being in a hurry. It is a bit of a catch 22. They either don’t have a lot of time, or due to lifestyle choices they have developed an addiction to being active, especially mentally. This mental turbulence makes it difficult to settle either physically or mentally, and the introduction of gentle movements helps to soften things up. Then it becomes easier to stand for a while doing settling, breathing, scanning, and sinking. This addiction to turbulence is a real problem especially for the person wishing to make progress in meditation. A preliminary thought that helps us focus on the task at hand is to tell ourself that ‘all the things I have to do will still be there when I’m done here’, or ‘there’s nothing to do but settle and breathe and I’ll just do it for a couple minutes’. Pretty soon you find that when you arise from meditation or preliminary EG qigong settling, breathing, scanning and sinking, that your couple minutes has turned into a much longer period of time.

Thanks again for your reply. I will continue through the EG as a foundation for all the others then.

yours in space,
james

[Author]

Posts