RSVP for the MIT Qigong Charity Fundraiser!

 The First Annual MIT Qigong Charity Stand is Approaching!

April 18, 2011 from 7-8:30p
MIT Student Center Room 306

Help raise money for Boston Childrens Hospital!
Stand for as long or short as you like
Bring a friend and introduce them to the benefits of natural qigong

RSVP Today: info@apricotforesthall.com
Minimum $15 donation for participants
Paypal accepted (mention in RSVP email)


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Donations of any amount gratefully accepted from non-participants!!
Click for Youtube Trailer
info@apricotforesthall.com

Wang XiangZhai: Controlling Distracting Thoughts

While practicing, you must calm mind, get rid of disturbing thoughts. 

As this kind of exercise stresses two aspects: not only training body, but also spirit, controlling distracting thoughts is quite important. But people's thinking is extensive, especially adults used to having many distracting thoughts. So usually getting rid of distracting thoughts is not easy. Many people practicing methods of nourishing health consider it a serious problem. They put a lot attention to tranquilizing mind, but they don't realize that the more they try, the bigger burden it creates for their spirit, it is like using bandit to fight bandit, one bandit goes away, but the other comes and stays - before one thought disappears, another arrives. So during history, those who studied the art of nourishing health established many methods, like concentrating on outside or inside, which can help beginners. But from my own experience I can say, that only using natural method of not controlling, not fighting with coming thoughts, not stopping thoughts which are leaving, can lead to stabilizing the spirit. When the distracting thoughts are strong, you can imagine that the body is like a great melting furnace, in which all objects of the universe are melting. This way, there is no need to fight with distracting thoughts, and they diminish - there is not need of effort to control them and they are controlled anyway, the goal of tranquilizing mind is achieved.

Sifu Hendrik Santo: Loose & Quiet

To Join the MIT Qigong Mailing List:
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/qigong

    Date: 3/28/11

    From: Jim (info@apricotforesthall.com)

    Subject: Loose & Quiet

When it comes to Qigong there are a few CORE principles that one must follow otherwise the result will be a depleted body rather than a nourished natural body. My teacher has always made it clear to me that we do not force anything and our goal is to be physically loose and mentally quiet. This is the foundation of Yang Sheng (life nourishing) Qigong! This method breaks any obstruction within our body and allows the Qi to grow and flow smoothly with the blood. Below you will find notes from my teacher regarding Qigong.

***

Notes come from the Cho family heir; Hendrik Santo (Sifu):

1, When the mind is quiet, the spirit will settle, when spirit settles, the Qi will grow itself to full. When the Qi is full, the Blood circulation will be strong, and thus both Qi and Blood will smoothly flow. This is how to grow the Qi.

2, Blood and Qi have their own natural path and both need to flow smoothly. One must never interrupt the natural flow of the Blood and Qi. What we can do is to help remove any obstructions and let the Blood and Qi naturally develop and expand. This is how to lead the free flow of the Qi and Blood.

3, The goal and cultivation process of Qigong is relax the physical body, quiet the mind, and let everything flow naturally. Only pay attention to these three things.

In other words, The training of Qigong is an act of Let Go and Just BE. This will lead one's body, mind & energy to return and vibrate (or resonance) with nature's frequency. We are not trying to create anything. Only to help the mind, body, energy return and balance with nature's vibration.

This is also called Wu Wei or Non Doing. One is not doing anything but achieving everything! But one is helping lead the body, mind, energy to return to its natural state and let it grow or repair itself on its own.

***

Looking forward to training with everyone tonight!!!

Time: 7:00-8:00

Room: Student Center/Room 306

Cost: FREE FREE FREE

Peace,

Jim Roselando
www.ApricotForestHall.com

The Power of Group Meditation

It is a mistake to think that you cannot practice for lack of time

The real cause is agitation of mind

To meditate with a group will certainly strengthen your practice. At those moments when you feel bored or agitated, if you were alone you might be inclined to give up and stop. An agreement to meditate with another person for a set time keeps you in place. When you stand with others, the pretexts that arise in your mind for quitting meditation are more often simply observed, rather than acted upon.

Here's a way you can keep from getting too lost in your thoughts. See your thoughts go by as if they were autumn leaves floating down a stream. But focus on the stream. The leaves drift by, being moved this way and that by the eddying water. On some there are drops of water that glisten in the sunlight. Let the leaves, the thoughts, float by, but keep your attention on the water itself. Don't get angry because your attention gets caught, for that anger is just another leaf. Don't get frustrated, because your attention will get caught thousands of times. Each time, very gently but firmly bring it back to the flowing water, deep soft breathing into the dantian. 

Journey of Awakening (A Meditator's Guidebook) by Ram Dass

Mindfulness of the Center Leads to True Mastery of Movement

Ideas from Master Cai 
Compiled by Jan Diepersloot

If you have injury in the body and blockage in the meridians, you don't have enough qi in the body to heal yourself when you're moving because you're using energy when you're moving. Movement is already directing the qi, the classics say. We believe that the qi must first be generated in stillness so it will naturally well up and circulate. Then, it can be used in movement and can be directed. Particularly as we get older, the main job is always to generate the qi and develop our mental abilities, and not to deplete our energy through excessive use of movement. In wuji meditation we learn to control our movement by gaining control of the stillness at our center. Otherwise put, to control your center, you must be still in body and mind. Thus, mindfulness of the center leads to true mastery of movement. 

Wang XiangZhai on Strength and Combat

First one must make the strength equal all over the body, the muscles agile, and the bones supporting the frame of the body, so that the muscles can contract, stretch, relax, and tense in harmony. Strength should come from inside and be issued outside. In movement, slow excels over quick, be relaxed rather than impatient, the movement should be slight and the spirit full. In trial of strength, one should not have unilateral strength, furthermore, one should not have sheer strength. First of all, one should perceive by intuition whether the strength of the whole body is all-pervading or not, whether the strength can be issued out at any moment or not, and whether one can react to the atmosphere or not, furthermore, one must not let the mind break and the spirit disperse. Have light and heavy forces ready to be issued out, when one part of the body moves, the whole body moves. The strength is consistent, resulting in nimble and heavy insubstantiality, and round and whole substantiality. Up and down, left and right, front and back, do not forget them. To sum up, what cannot lead to comfort, happiness, and gaining strength does not deserve to be called boxing. If one does not have the basic mechanical ability, then no matter what the movement is like, it is all wrong. The same applies to using strength and not using strength. The movements of an ordinary person cannot have strength without constant unilateral tension that disturbs the blood circulation. Every kind of strength based on constant unilateral tension is stiff and inharmonious, and besides that, harmful to health. Having strength without constant unilateral tension is namely having strength without using strength, and when using it, one gains strength. That is what the natural instinctive strength is like. It is like seeking all kinds of real things from the unreal, which is hardly possible to express in words. Anyway, ‘Dachengquan’ is beyond the external form of being good or bad, it actually depends on dealing with the mind. In a nutshell, having a fixed form and fixed techniques are all false. Skills reaching the level of no-mind are getting very rare, this is what the above means.

Master Fong Ha in Boston (March 27)

Master Fong Ha

Yi Chuan Seminar 

Nam Psi Academy

33 Harison Ave

7th floor

Boston MA.

Sunday

March 27, 2011

10AM till 4 PM

Cost: $89.00

Lunch: Bring your own

Contact: Sifu Donald Wong

Cell: 617-605-0268