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At Sivananda in Rishikesh they alternated between Asana and Pranayama. This was quite effective. I have had some good teachers (eg. Dharma Mittra in NYC), but r

At Sivananda in Rishikesh they alternated between Asana and Pranayama. This was quite effective. I have had some good teachers (eg. Dharma Mittra in NYC), but rarely do they get into Pranayama at all. The Mantak Chia book is exactly the kind of text I've been looking for. Thanks!

rramadass 7y ago
Please do not read Mantak Chia books on Qigong. He is considered a fraud by many. Just like authentic Yoga has been corrupted in the West by incompetent teachers and plain charlatans, so is the case with Qigong. You should always go to the original sources i.e. Chinese works where possible. To that end you may find the following helpful; 1) Qigong Essentials for Health Promotion - https://www.amazon.com/Qigong-Essentials-Health-Promotion-Guorui/dp/7507201007/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=qigong+essentials+for+health&qid=1562229876&s=books&sr=1-2 https://www.amazon.com/Qigong-Essentials-Health-Promotion-Gu... 2) Chinese Qigong Therapy - https://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Qigong-Therapy-Zhang-Mingwu/dp/7533103785/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=chinese+qigong+therapy+shandong+technology&qid=1562230053&s=books&sr=1-2 https://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Qigong-Therapy-Zhang-Mingwu/d... Some of them may be expensive because they are hard to get but no need to pay too much for any of them. You can get authentic works from the website "china-guide.com".
- nprateem 7y ago
  > He is considered a fraud by many. By whom exactly? People who are upset that he's selling books on the practices for less than $10 instead of $300? Apparently some schools' highest teaching is the Macrocosmic Orbit. Of course you'd be annoyed if someone was giving away your highest secrets in a $10 book - you'd struggle to find new students prepared to sit at your feet for several decades while you drip feed it to them (which is what I've heard of). There may be an issue with making sense of the volume of material he's put out and its repetitive nature, but to imply he's incompetent and a charlatan is just spreading FUD.
  - rramadass 7y ago
    He is a business man selling stuff to a gullible public. Because the nature of the stuff is so amorphous you can easily distort and invent it as needed. Note that the price of the book has got nothing whatever to do with it. You are probably referring to my first book recommendation which some enterprising soul is trying to sell for a huge markup (i.e. $300 because it is not easily available) but i just provided the link for reference. You can get it cheap if you search. Or you can read other cheaper equivalent books, one of which i had also provided as my second recommendation. Now you asked me to define "authentic" sources in your other post. For TCM/Qigong you would start with publications from mainland China preferably by doctors/professors from a Medical College/University/Hospital who study both modern and TCM medicine. You would then try to get at the root texts for the subject. With these sources in hand, you can now start your study. So here goes; 1) The root text for TCM is "Huangdi Neijing" aka "The Yellow Emperor's Canon of Medicine". Start here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huangdi_Neijing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huangdi_Neijing for your research. 2) TCM textbooks have been published from many doctors/institutes in China, two of which (related to Qigong) i had already listed earlier. Here is another recommendation - https://www.amazon.com/Illustration-channels-points-acupuncture-moxibustion/dp/7535710697/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=illustration+of+channels+and+point+for+acupuncture&qid=1562336185&s=books&sr=1-7 https://www.amazon.com/Illustration-channels-points-acupunct... Also check the website "www.china-guide.com" for authentic books on TCM/Qigong. Finally here is a paper named "The Man who Invented Qigong" which explains the origin of the word and its current methodology - https://www.qigonginstitute.org/docs/The%20Man%20Who%20Invented%20Qigong-1.pdf https://www.qigonginstitute.org/docs/The%20Man%20Who%20Inven...
    - nprateem 7y ago
      > He is a business man selling stuff to a gullible public. Because the nature of the stuff is so amorphous you can easily distort and invent it as needed. That is true. And the "amorphous" comment holds for any teacher. Had you really investigated his stuff (which I get the feeling you haven't) you'd probably have gone further. Chia's books contain a lot of repetition and in aggregate are confusing to follow. Some even contain such gibberish as claiming that water has a "crystalline structure". In my experience it's difficult to find a competent teacher who actually understands (and can teach) the overall system. However, the Microcosmic and Macrocosmic Orbits are effective as can be discovered with a day or two's effort and are widely referenced in much older sources as the Lesser and Greater Water Wheels/Heavenly Cycles. So it'd be unwise to throw the baby out with the bath water on account of someone being a businessman. The Fusion practices are interesting and insightful if done correctly and the Kan & Li meditations also appears effective (but I'm still exploring them). The Kan & Li is the mainstay of internal alchemy and is widely discussed in a variety of far older texts [1], so I doubt he's made that one up either. Michael Winn talks about how the Communist government gutted qi gong of its spiritual practices and that TCM is diluted as a result (one of your articles mentions a clampdown on it too). I believe Winn's been to China several times and has studied with a variety of teachers apart from Chia. His stuff stacks up so I'm inclined to believe him. While it's fine to reference older texts though, no one has a monopoly on our nervous systems. For me, the only thing that matters is efficacy regardless of lineage/culture. I don't care for names, superstitions, mythologies or rituals - I only seek (and keep hold of) what works for me. We are incredibly fortunate to live at a time when formerly secret knowledge is widely available. I would encourage the astute student to also study cross-culturally in order to find the most effective, personally verifiable practices available given today's opportunities for research. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Harmonizing-Yin-Yang-Dragon-Tiger-Classic-ebook/dp/B00DGY0TAS/ https://www.amazon.com/Harmonizing-Yin-Yang-Dragon-Tiger-Cla...

rramadass 7y ago

Please do not read Mantak Chia books on Qigong. He is considered a fraud by many. Just like authentic Yoga has been corrupted in the West by incompetent teachers and plain charlatans, so is the case with Qigong. You should always go to the original sources i.e. Chinese works where possible. To that end you may find the following helpful; 1) Qigong Essentials for Health Promotion - https://www.amazon.com/Qigong-Essentials-Health-Promotion-Guorui/dp/7507201007/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=qigong+essentials+for+health&qid=1562229876&s=books&sr=1-2 https://www.amazon.com/Qigong-Essentials-Health-Promotion-Gu... 2) Chinese Qigong Therapy - https://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Qigong-Therapy-Zhang-Mingwu/dp/7533103785/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=chinese+qigong+therapy+shandong+technology&qid=1562230053&s=books&sr=1-2 https://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Qigong-Therapy-Zhang-Mingwu/d... Some of them may be expensive because they are hard to get but no need to pay too much for any of them. You can get authentic works from the website "china-guide.com".

nprateem 7y ago
> He is considered a fraud by many. By whom exactly? People who are upset that he's selling books on the practices for less than $10 instead of $300? Apparently some schools' highest teaching is the Macrocosmic Orbit. Of course you'd be annoyed if someone was giving away your highest secrets in a $10 book - you'd struggle to find new students prepared to sit at your feet for several decades while you drip feed it to them (which is what I've heard of). There may be an issue with making sense of the volume of material he's put out and its repetitive nature, but to imply he's incompetent and a charlatan is just spreading FUD.
- rramadass 7y ago
  He is a business man selling stuff to a gullible public. Because the nature of the stuff is so amorphous you can easily distort and invent it as needed. Note that the price of the book has got nothing whatever to do with it. You are probably referring to my first book recommendation which some enterprising soul is trying to sell for a huge markup (i.e. $300 because it is not easily available) but i just provided the link for reference. You can get it cheap if you search. Or you can read other cheaper equivalent books, one of which i had also provided as my second recommendation. Now you asked me to define "authentic" sources in your other post. For TCM/Qigong you would start with publications from mainland China preferably by doctors/professors from a Medical College/University/Hospital who study both modern and TCM medicine. You would then try to get at the root texts for the subject. With these sources in hand, you can now start your study. So here goes; 1) The root text for TCM is "Huangdi Neijing" aka "The Yellow Emperor's Canon of Medicine". Start here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huangdi_Neijing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huangdi_Neijing for your research. 2) TCM textbooks have been published from many doctors/institutes in China, two of which (related to Qigong) i had already listed earlier. Here is another recommendation - https://www.amazon.com/Illustration-channels-points-acupuncture-moxibustion/dp/7535710697/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=illustration+of+channels+and+point+for+acupuncture&qid=1562336185&s=books&sr=1-7 https://www.amazon.com/Illustration-channels-points-acupunct... Also check the website "www.china-guide.com" for authentic books on TCM/Qigong. Finally here is a paper named "The Man who Invented Qigong" which explains the origin of the word and its current methodology - https://www.qigonginstitute.org/docs/The%20Man%20Who%20Invented%20Qigong-1.pdf https://www.qigonginstitute.org/docs/The%20Man%20Who%20Inven...
  - nprateem 7y ago
    > He is a business man selling stuff to a gullible public. Because the nature of the stuff is so amorphous you can easily distort and invent it as needed. That is true. And the "amorphous" comment holds for any teacher. Had you really investigated his stuff (which I get the feeling you haven't) you'd probably have gone further. Chia's books contain a lot of repetition and in aggregate are confusing to follow. Some even contain such gibberish as claiming that water has a "crystalline structure". In my experience it's difficult to find a competent teacher who actually understands (and can teach) the overall system. However, the Microcosmic and Macrocosmic Orbits are effective as can be discovered with a day or two's effort and are widely referenced in much older sources as the Lesser and Greater Water Wheels/Heavenly Cycles. So it'd be unwise to throw the baby out with the bath water on account of someone being a businessman. The Fusion practices are interesting and insightful if done correctly and the Kan & Li meditations also appears effective (but I'm still exploring them). The Kan & Li is the mainstay of internal alchemy and is widely discussed in a variety of far older texts [1], so I doubt he's made that one up either. Michael Winn talks about how the Communist government gutted qi gong of its spiritual practices and that TCM is diluted as a result (one of your articles mentions a clampdown on it too). I believe Winn's been to China several times and has studied with a variety of teachers apart from Chia. His stuff stacks up so I'm inclined to believe him. While it's fine to reference older texts though, no one has a monopoly on our nervous systems. For me, the only thing that matters is efficacy regardless of lineage/culture. I don't care for names, superstitions, mythologies or rituals - I only seek (and keep hold of) what works for me. We are incredibly fortunate to live at a time when formerly secret knowledge is widely available. I would encourage the astute student to also study cross-culturally in order to find the most effective, personally verifiable practices available given today's opportunities for research. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Harmonizing-Yin-Yang-Dragon-Tiger-Classic-ebook/dp/B00DGY0TAS/ https://www.amazon.com/Harmonizing-Yin-Yang-Dragon-Tiger-Cla...