Floating Monk

The Gift

Hello Chi Kung (Qigong) practitioners and interested parties.

I had the opportunity of working with a new student today, his friend had purchased a video and he was practicing the program.  He emailed to see about private study, interesting enough he lived just about 2 miles from my home.  I was interested in seeing now he was doing based on following the DVD.  He did pretty well, I made a few changes and provided quite a lot of insight on what chi kung is, how it works, and more.  I discussed the structure and helped to cement the idea of the energy being inside of the structure.

One of the points that someone who purchased a video in Florida sent me had to do with the material on the DVD.  The practitioner asked if there was more material, stating that amount of material on the DVD was rather brief.  I explained then, as I am now that it is not the “amount” of chi kung exercise in terms of minutes and movement that make for a good training DVD.  The thing that makes our DVD great is that it limits the amount of information.  I made the choice to explain this art/practice/exercise/program in smaller pieces because of wisdom given to me by the Grand Master over 20 years ago.

Grand Master Yee stated that “if a person does “just this” this series of simple movements, they will live a long, healthy and happy life.  That series of movements is what I have placed on the first DVD.  If a person practices “just these movements” and (this is important) does them correctly, daily and with patience and attentiveness they will never need any more chi kung than this.

A great program is a great program because “it works”.  It is a shame that the Western mind tends to think that “more is better”.  If we look to the general workings of our culture and he upbringing we have received, almost regardless of generation, I can understand why most people think that more is better.  However, that is not the case with chi kung, certainly not in the early stages at least.  The DVD being mentioned uses 6 specific motions, combined with closing movements as the foundation for further training.  What is missed is the fact that these 6 motions, done correctly, over months and years have the ability to enhance the bodies natural chi or energy in a very effective way.

I have to go “old school” for a moment to drive this point home.  Chi Kung, at least within the system that I trained was not a given, ther was no such thing as a chi kung class.  If you trained with the Grand master for a number of years, and you were deemed worthy of learning his chi kung, little by little he would teach you.  What the Master provided, literally every single word he said, was something that the student trien with great effort to remember.  What the Master was giving you in teaching you chi kung was “a gift”.  This was very clearly understood and anyone who was fortunete enough to obtain this knowledge, even a very small morsal of it was very, very grateful.

It was only after much discussion, by this I mean years, with the Grand Master about Chi Kungs that were coming into the marketplace, that he finally allowed this information, our information to leave the temple (schoo, temple for those who understand the referrence).  For someone to be able to purchase a DVD with the 6 standing chi kung motins on them and not have to spend years training kung fu to get them, is a gift that they may not have the capacity to appreciate.

more in the coming days

Sifu Jeff Larson   also see “chiforhealth.com”