The Singing Dragon new titles catalogue is available to view online and download. It features our complete range of titles coming to you over the next few months. There is plenty to look out for including new books on acupuncture, Chinese medicine, Qigong, Daoism, yoga, and complementary therapies.
All the titles, author names, and covers are interactive; just click on them to be taken to the book or author page on the Singing Dragon website.
spirituality
How to open your heart – by Rosemary Patten
We are full of complexities, a myriad of different functions that completes us make us part of the human race. Our bodies crave order and the status quo, yet our heart wishes to be free, joyful and loved. We are looking for that special something that unites us with nature and the heavens. Yet we become distracted with challenges of life, we twist and turn looking for that spark of our existence.
The Universal life force energy that unites us is drawn into us by seven main energy centres or chakras. Our heart is the link between earths’ energy and the heavens. When our heart is in balance we can love, be joyful, and can cry when life around us is tough. We can live each moment with pleasure, accept ourselves in the now and forgive our weaknesses.
People who have in the past inflicted pain and have indeed broken our hearts should be forgiven. We know in our heart that it is their failure to understand, they have taught us strong powerful lessons that we need to know. When we understand the people who have hurt us, we free our hearts from the pain and our heart has been healed. When we stay in conflict, we only continue to be unhappy. This negative energy emulates out to people, the world, the planet and the Universe. Everyone around us receives our signals as hostility toward them, people move away from us and our isolation grows as we push the hurt deep down inside us.
How can we forgive such terrible hurt? We are who we are and we cannot change, our scars are there, tight in our heart, locked deep. They are almost physical in the pain they inflict, too frightening to bring to the surface and assess. But if we do not allow ourselves to cry, to feel that which we shut away, and then let go with understanding and compassion, we will not be that person we want to be. The pain will not go away unless we release it and forgive those who have rendered us immobile.
We must forgive ourselves for hanging onto a hurt that takes our breath away- the breath of life. Start to see with different eyes, a world that is sacred and all things beautiful. We must learn to emulate our love outwards and love will come to us. There is no effort involved as our thoughts are more and more positive. We experience love in all its different forms; love of nature, art, music, mankind and the love of that special person. Love our amazing planet and love the Universe that created us and loves us back.
How can we regain this balance between heaven and earth? When you are aware of your thoughts, it releases negativity. Thinking on the following affirmations confirms your intention. We will attract positive thoughts towards us, a higher vibration that raises us up towards the heavens. The heart is the link between our higher self and earth, beginning our journey greater understanding.
How to open your heart
Affirmations – choose two of the following or use your own personal affirmations:
I release all feelings of guilt and start my journey to peace and love.
I accept myself and know that my heart is mending.
I can cry and can release those feelings of hurt.
I am surrounded by the beauty of nature and this makes my heart sing with joy.
I forgive those who have broken my heart they also are on a journey.
I embrace change and look forward to exciting new challenges.
I only surround myself with people who bring joy into my life.
Try to be aware of your thoughts, allow negative thoughts to come to the surface. Never suppress them, as they are low vibration and will be heavy. Picture in your mind’s eye a red balloon and place the negative thoughts into the balloon, allowing them to drift of up into the sky.
Whenever possible, change any thought to a more positive vibration by putting a spin on it. For example ‘I am dreading work today’ could change to ‘I am dreading work today so I will meet my friend at lunchtime, always enjoy her company. I am lucky to have such a good friend’. Now there is a reason not to dislike work, as you are now more optimistic!
Once you start bringing your thoughts to a conscious level you will feel you have more energy. The journey of forgiveness towards those who have hurt you in the past has begun. By healing yourself you will truly open your heart and bring true love and joy into your life. That joy and love can then spread through to all who come into contact with you.
Rosemary Patten is a master Reiki practitioner, aromatherapist, reflexologist, and author of Japanese Holistic Face Massage. She lives in Kent, UK.
Ten Methods of the Heavenly Dragon: An Interview with Robert Sheaffer.
Robert Sheaffer has been a seeker all his life. He has been fortunate enough to travel extensively throughout the world and to witness numerous traditional spiritual practices. His time spent studying with the Adept Shun Yuan of the Heavenly Dragon sect was one of his most profound and lasting experiences.
– You describe yourself as a Seeker. What, in your opinion, does this mean?
I think it comes down to being curious. The imperative to know drives me. I can’t hear a question that triggers an interest without immediately needing to pursue it. It’s a lust for knowledge and learning. This isn’t simply about learning answers – you can go and seek things out and think you’ve got answers, but after this there’s a lot of internal work to come to a point where you feel true understanding of something. And with this understanding it really truly becomes a part of you.
I was initially propelled on this path in my early teens. I remember reading about phenomena of a certain kind – such as the psychophysiological effects and health benefits of chi-kung practice – and getting fascinated by them. Despite reading about how difficult it was and how much practice and effort was involved in realising these things for yourself, I seemed to stumble into them with no effort and no preparation at all. Although the ‘attainment’ of certain skills, such as an ability to feel and gain some control over one’s internal energy, didn’t come very hard to me, I’m still here, many years later, working on really understanding them properly.
The discovery and development of the self through the internal arts is a lifetime’s work. For many people, the physical aspect is the crux of this work, but for me it just didn’t turn out like that. My methods are very physical, but it’s understanding them on many levels, that’s what keeps me occupied day by day.
– Your book, Ten Methods of the Heavenly Dragon, is based on your own experiences. How did you find the writing process – was it difficult, or cathartic? Did you discover anything new about yourself with the distance offered by time?
Well, I think we should go back to a step before this book began. I was writing something else, entirely. And that piece of work was a real struggle. And then this ridiculous idea hit me – why not write something from personal experience?
It was then very obvious what I wanted to write about. And the book essentially wrote itself. I turned up at the library as soon as it opened, I started working, and they would throw me out in the evening. Everyday I had this weird distortion of time. It was not quite automatic writing, but it was as close as it gets to it. Everything I wrote about in this book came back in a full sensory technicolour replay in my head as I was writing.
There was one particular section which was so sad to read at the time, that I had to completely rewrite it. This was towards the end of the book when we go to visit another teacher, who was severely ill at the time. It just seemed to bring my whole experience down to a really sombre place, and I had to really refocus on the positive aspects of that visit, see it again from an entirely new perspective. This was not a good time to relive, but the rest of it was pretty good.
– Many key events in your story seem to be determined by chance. How do you view these circumstances – do you think there was an aspect of ‘fate’ involved, or is this just how you wanted to live out this experience?
I don’t like the word fate because it’s usually used in conjunction with an idea of predeterminism. I think that existence is far more random. The key question is that when opportunities, or chances arise, whether to take them and run with them, or to resist? Hard experience has taught me that if you resist you crash. As long as you keep going with it, it’s all good.
– You begin the book with a quote from the Tao Te Ching “…when the inferior man hears of the Tao | He laughs aloud at it| If he did not laugh, it would not be the Tao”. Why did you feel that this was particularly relevant here?
Lao Tsu was trying to provide a whole picture of the world, the way it works and how we can live in it. Here, he’s hoping to talk to everyone. So if people don’t have different reactions to what he’s saying, when he’s talking to everyone, what he’s saying must be missing something. This is a necessary aspect of this message – that it’s taken in different ways by different people.
My book is written directly from my personal experience, but I know that there will be people that read it and think it’s fantasy. And that’s fine, as long as they enjoyed it.
– What do you hope readers will take from the book?
Different people are going to be carrying different things when they approach this book. But I think that I’d hope it inspires people to follow their feelings and be able to let go and keep letting go of resistance. The moment you try and force yourself in a certain direction or resist your inner feelings, things become difficult. Even if you can see that the next few steps ahead are going to be really tough, however difficult that is, it’s better than resisting and going the other way. Once you’ve begun letting go you do feel quite quickly the benefit of that in your life, the smoothness of being carried along. My message to the reader would be that once you’ve started that, just keep it up and keep letting it go.
© 2013 Singing Dragon blog. All Rights Reserved.
Request a copy of the UK Singing Dragon Complete Catalogue
Make sure not to miss Singing Dragon’s latest UK Complete Catalogue. If you have not yet received a copy, please sign up for our mailing list and we’ll send a free one out to you ASAP.
Readers in the UK and Europe who request a copy of the catalogue before February 15th, 2013 will also receive a voucher for a 15% discount on the entire Singing Dragon list of books, with free postage and packing.
Take advantage of this opportunity to find new, forthcoming and classic books on Chinese Medicine, Holistic Health, Taiji, Qigong, Herbal Medicine, Yoga, Spirituality and more. Also, sample health-promoting recipes with The Functional Nutrition Cookbook, and Make Yourself Better with Philip Weeks’ books. Delve into the history of Ayurvedic Medicine and the Mudras of India, and discover the Five Levels of Taijiquan, Daoist Nei Gong and Chinese Medical Qigong.
To request your copy of our Complete Catalogue, please click here. To receive your 15% discount voucher, please be sure to click the checkbox for “Singing Dragon” under area of interest or else mention this offer in the “any further comments” section.
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The Enneagram of Personality – From Psychology to Spirit
The Enneagram of personality is an ancient, beautifully accurate, spiritual and psychological model of humanity. Describing nine personality types and their interactions, it enables us to look deeply into our own character, harmonise our daily lives and our relationships both personal and professional, and understand our personal path to growth.
First described in the West by Gurdjieff, the Enneagram’s particular nine-pointed star is an ancient diagram, though no-one knows its origin. Not an arbitrary shape, it encapsulates the esoteric Laws of Three and Seven (octaves), is very like Pythagoras’ ninth seal symbolising humanity, and some researchers link ancient stone circles with the mathematics of the Enneagram.
Sufis have called the Enneagram ‘a God-given tool for personal moral healing’. A conversion concept including the diagram and nine personality types has been part of Sufi ethical training for 1400 years. Christian mystics of the Desert Father tradition, in the third and fourth centuries, worked with the concept of converting vice to virtue, using the personality traits now named in the Enneagram. It seems to be a wisdom which surfaces when and where it is needed – and in surprising ways – as of course all spiritual truths do.
The Enneagram describes, amazingly accurately, nine distinct personality types, their variations, and the spiritual states of being with which they are linked. Furthermore, the flow of connecting lines shows the inter-relation between different aspects of each personality. At first it may be hard to identify our type: unlike other typologies, Enneagram type is defined not by behaviour but by something which is so fundamental to our personalities that we may not be aware of, or may actively deny, it.
The central premise is that each of us has one of the nine possible ‘chief features’, a focus of attention so deep it is usually hidden from our conscious awareness, which sets the tenor of our whole lives. Originally a way of coping with the outer world, by the time we are adult it is an automatic biased perspective (the ‘false self’). The key words are ‘passion’ – through which we focus on the world emotionally – and ‘fixation’ – our mental focus. In the grip of our passion/fixation, behaviour is automatic and often harmful to our true well-being, though it was originally developed as a protection.
The beautiful part is that this ‘false’ personality shows us our own spiritual path: not an enemy to be conquered, but our best friend, showing us what lessons we need to learn and how to learn them. The different passions and fixations developed to protect their ‘holy opposite’ (Holy Virtue and Holy Idea), which were ‘forgotten’ as ego developed, and to which we long to return. They are mimicked as well as masked by personality.
Linking personality type to spiritual potential in this way, the Enneagram makes it possible for the first time to bridge the gap between psychology (who we are not) and spirituality (who we truly are): a continuum of healing growth.
All mystic traditions recognise three ‘organs of perception’. When unconscious the head produces fear, the heart yearning, and the belly anger. The nine Enneagram types are variations on these three basic emotions: according to our type, one of these is the ruling ‘negative’ emotion, whether we are aware of it day-to-day or not.
The central triangle of the Enneagram shows the core personalities of each centre. It also represents the trinity of Hope (3), Faith (6), Love (9), and would teach us to open all three centres.
I am often asked: ‘When I know my type, what then?’. We start with the personality. According to the Enneagram the resentments, desires and fears that go to make it up are actually distorted expressions of the energy one works with to get to the higher states.
Working with the Enneagram, with myself and clients, I have found it more creative to recognise your passion, put your attention on it, learn to observe it and see what it teaches you about yourself. Part of this learning is in meditation, developing a strong inner witness (that part of ourselves which is not our personality), and part in simple day-to-day self-observation.
This process itself loosens the grip of the automatic response: it also gives insight into how to work with our issues. Different issues define each personality type, and the same strategy for emotional, psychological and spiritual growth doesn’t work with all types of people. So the first step for all types is to observe the underlying placements of attention that support repeating behaviours and emotions.
Finally, though we are all capable of feeling all human emotions, we actually experience life in radically different ways, and have vastly different responses to events, even to conversations. The Enneagram, like any personality typology, can be trivialised. Though this cannot be helped, I trust that its real meaning will survive through those who recognise its spiritual origin. Studying your own and others’ types fosters skilful living, personal growth, better relationships, a deeper understanding of all humanity, and ultimately, despite our different personality types, the experience that we all are one.
Karen A Webb has been teaching the Enneagram in the Narrative Tradition for over 20 years. She graduated from the Enneagram Professional Training Program in 1991 and now runs Enneagram Studies UK, providing open and tailored Enneagram workshops and consultations. Karen is a passionate, lifelong student of spirituality, comparative religion and psychology and lives in Malvern, UK.
© 2012 Singing Dragon blog. All Rights Reserved.
Developing habits to restore calmness: Qigong healing sounds for children and adults alike
By Lisa Spillane, author and illustrator of Six Healing Sounds with Lisa and Ted: Qigong for Children.
The Six Healing Sounds teach children the calming benefit of pausing and using the breath to connect to the present. Observing the sensations of the body without thinking about the past or the future strengthens our awareness of the peace we have at the core of our being. In Qigong, negative emotions are not considered ‘bad’. Holding onto, cultivating and acting on negative emotions is when the ‘bad’ comes into things. Because negative emotions are part of the ego and have a role to play (mainly related to survival) it’s good to learn how to acknowledge them, listen to anything useful they are trying to communicate and then release the excess of them. Central to this practice is an acceptance that trying to resist, ignore or smother your feelings will only, in the end, make them grow stronger. Rather than letting negative emotions have the driving seat over your brain and body you can teach yourself how to regain calm.
The exercise that generates the most feedback from my book,
Six Healing Sounds with Lisa and Ted: Qigong for Children, is the one that helps children to stop worrying. Basically, worry happens when we meditate on fear, and being fearful gets in the way of clear thinking. When faced with a threat, the mind instinctively becomes more focussed on the urgent actions needed for survival and less inclined towards higher levels of thinking. This ‘fight or flight’ response far exceeds the requirements of our contemporary daily stressors. For children, things like spelling tests and unfamiliar situations and ideas can be interpreted as a ‘threat’, stimulating their adrenal glands and provoking biochemical changes in the brain that incline them to freeze, fight, hide or run. Over-stimulation of the adrenal glands takes its toll on the body, so it’s especially important to develop habits to restore calmness. Through a combination of smiling, deep breathing, visualization, positive thinking, gentle movements and sound-making Qigong breathing techniques help to reverse the body’s stress response and instead support its physical and mental well-being.
These exercises might seem strange when you first encounter them but there is a growing body of scientific research to support them. In my book, Ted overcomes his worries by doing the healing sound exercise for the stomach. The stomach together with the oesophagus, small intestine and the colon, make up what we refer to as the gut. We all know what it’s like to have ‘butterflies in the stomach’ and ‘gut feelings’, but it is a lesser known fact that there are about the same amount of neurotransmitters (one hundred million) in the gut as in the brain. These nerve cells communicate with each other via chemical and electric signalling, processing information and learning from past patterns. The healing sound exercise for the stomach helps children to establish healthy patterns for when they encounter worry. Instead of supporting an anxiety-driven chain reaction, they learn to pause, close their eyes, smile and breathe in the feeling of trust and openness into the belly. They think about their stomach smiling and filling up with a warm yellow light. Then, with eyes open, they exhale worry with a ‘whooooooo’ sound, imagining it leaving them as dark cloudy smoke. Doing this helps the brain and the stomach to calm each other down. Smiling produces serotonin and nearly all of that ‘feel-good’ chemical goes to the gut to help it with digestion. It also reduces cortisol, adrenalin and noradrenaline and it helps you to relax by getting the brain to release chemicals that not only make you feel happier, but support your immune system too. And, breathing deeply gives the brain a chance to see the broader picture, it’s calming and detoxifying and helps you to feel more positive.
Click to hear what the Six Healing Sounds should sound like!
Worry and anxiety is what keeps most of us awake at night. I know from personal experience and from the response of many of my readers that this practice works as well for adults as it does for children. I actually get a lot of adults telling me they’ve bought my book for themselves!
When you are doing this exercise, yourself or with a child, gently rub your stomach in a clockwise direction. Cast your mind on beautiful images of late summer (in Qigong, each organ is associated with a season) and as you smile, picture your stomach smiling too. Practising gratitude is medicine for the body and the soul so as you do this exercise, say ‘thank you’ to your stomach for all the hard work it does.
A little bit of time spent doing the Six Healing Sounds helps to promote relaxation both physically and mentally. It is also a great way to introduce children to the benefits of Qigong from a young age, and crucially, gives them tools to help themselves to deal with life’s challenges.
Join the Six Healing Sounds with Lisa and Ted: Qigong for Children community on Facebook!
Copyright © Singing Dragon 2012.
VIDEO: Yijing, Shamanic Oracle of China – An introduction by Richard Bertschinger
Richard Bertschinger studied for ten years with the Taoist sage and Master, Gia-fu Feng. He is a practising acupuncturist, teacher of Chinese healing arts, and translator of ancient Chinese texts. He has just published a new translation of the Book of Change, Yijing, Shamanic Oracle of China: A New Book of Change, which he has been working on for the past thirty years.
In this video, Richard talks about the essence of change as explored through the Yijing, and on the elemental energies represented through the book’s trigrams.
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Read a Preview of Yijing, Shamanic Oracle of China »
Copyright © Singing Dragon 2012.
Qigong is the source of Chinese medicine
Master Zhongxian Wu is the lineage holder of four different schools of Qigong and martial arts. While in China, he served as Director of the Shaanxi Province Association for Somatic Science and the Shaanxi Association for the Research of Daoist Nourishing Life Practices. He has now been living and teaching in the West for just over ten years, and in February 2012 will visit the UK for a series of lectures and workshops celebrating the new Chinese year of the Water Dragon.
We are honoured to publish this special extended interview with Master Wu.
Master Wu, thank you so much for agreeing to talk to Singing Dragon. I think you have just celebrated ten years of living in the West. Have you found over that time that our understanding of Chinese medicine has changed?
The Western understanding of Chinese medicine has definitely changed in the last ten years. I have noticed two main changes, with respect to the general public and the practitioners themselves. In terms of the general public, more and more people recognize the efficiency of Chinese medicine to meet their health care needs. More people are embracing Chinese medicine treatments because they want minimal unwanted side effects (or better yet, none at all) and also want to build up their health in order to prevent a future illness. In terms of Chinese medicine practitioners, I have seen that more practitioners are looking to understand the roots of Chinese medicine, and are emphasizing their own personal cultivation (for example through meditation, Qigong practice, studying the Yijing, Chinese astrology, etc.) to help them deepen their knowledge of Chinese medicine. Also, I see more practitioners are educating their patients about how important it is to strengthen their own Qi by improving their daily lifestyle habits and having a commitment to some internal cultivation practice.
How can Western practitioners best prepare themselves for studying Chinese medicine?
In terms of studying Chinese medicine, there is no difference in preparation for a Western practitioner or an Eastern practitioner. The best way to prepare is to do personal cultivation. In the Chinese medicine traditional education system, before the Master teaches you anything about medicine, they always first stress that you learn to be a good person and to cultivate your virtue. A good doctor first needs to be a good person, and have a good heart to help others. Traditionally, you didn’t learn medicine as a business venture to make tons of money. For the Master to share knowledge with you, he/she has to be clear that your deep purpose and drive is to help others. The HuangDiNeiJing (the Yellow Emperor’s classic text of Chinese medicine) emphasizes that you have to be careful not to teach certain skills to the wrong person – the wrong person, meaning someone who does not carry a high level of virtue.
You are lecturing at the Confucius Institute in London in February on the topic of Qigong as the basis for Chinese medicine. Can you say a little about why this is such an important topic?
Yes, Qigong is the source of Chinese medicine. The whole system was discovered by ancient enlightened beings who made profound connections about their bodies and Nature while in heightened Qigong states. According to the QiJingBaMaiKao (Investigations into the Eight Extraordinary Vessels), a book by the Ming Dynasty’s famous herbalist LiShiZhen’s, the subtle energies of the inner pathways of the body (for example the pulses, the points, the meridians, and even the organs themselves) may be seen only by those who cultivate Fan Guan (literally, ‘reverse observation’), or the ability to look within with clarity. LiShiZhen concluded that only high-level Qigong practitioners could see the meridian systems. Before the modern term Qigong became popularized, all Qigong cultivation practices (including seated meditation) were known as Guan, which itself means ‘observe or observation’, and implies self-observation.
Also, to develop an appropriate herbal formula for someone requires an understanding of Qi harmonization. Chinese herbal medicine was first taught by the ancient shaman king ShenNong (Divine Farmer). Actually, the first Chinese book of herbal medicine, ShenNongBenCaoJing is named after him and it is generally accepted that he wrote it as well. Our legends say that, through tasting the herbs, he was able to feel the different quality of Qi in each herb and understand how it relates to the Qi of the organ and meridian systems in the body. This kind of sensitivity and awareness was possible because he was a very high level Qigong practitioner, and was able enter into heightened states of consciousness and perception.
There would be no Chinese medicine without the ancient shamanic Qi cultivation practices of Qigong.
Would you tell us a little more about Qigong? Many people in the West are confused about what it is.
Qigong is modern, popularized term for an ancient method of physical, mental and spiritual cultivation. It can be translated into English as Qi cultivation, spiritual cultivation or working with the Qi. By the way, by Qi, I mean the vital energy of the universe that keeps everything alive. Qigong practice models a harmonious way of life and has been used throughout thousands of years of history by those who wish to attain Enlightenment.
Qigong involves working with the three parts of the body (Jing, Qi and Shen). In Chinese, Jing means essence and represents the physical body. The physical body is our structure and our container. It holds our essential life energy, our Qi body and our spiritual body. We can strengthen our physical bodies by practicing special Qigong postures. As I mentioned before, Qi translates as vital energy of the entire universe, including of course, the vital energy of your body. Your breath is deeply connected with the Qi body. Qi can also be translated as ‘vital breath’. In Qigong, we cultivate our Qi body by maintaining awareness of our breath and by learning techniques to regulate our breath. This will increase our vital energy or life force. The Shen means spirit, and represents our spiritual body. In general, our mind is related to our Shen. Once we pay too much attention to the external world or worry too much about what is going on in our life, we weaken our Qi. If we are always looking outside, we leak our spiritual Qi. In Qigong practice, we learn to look within in order to preserve our life energy.
How does it relate (if it does) to practices such as Yoga?
I have never practiced yoga, so I don’t have the personal experience to be able to talk about how it relates to Qigong. However, a number of my students are yoga practitioners by profession, and many of them connect their Qigong practice with their yoga practice. They have found that elements of their Qigong practice complement their yoga practice so that in general, the practices enhance each other.
What is the purpose of your cultivation/Qigong practice?
From the view point of Daoist practioners, the Daoist tradition is the immortal tradition. The purpose of Daoist cultivation practices is to become immortal. This often begs the question of what exactly is meant by immortality. In Chinese, the word for immortal is Xian, which is an image of a person who lives on a mountain. Throughout history, many Daoist masters have referred to themselves as ShanRen– Mountain People – because they spend long hermitages in the mountains (or anywhere in nature), cultivating their true humanity. Another word for immortal is ZhenRen– real or true human being. From the Chinese ideograms, we can see that the concept of an immortal is of one who has cultivated good health, happiness, and humanity and embodies these qualities in everyday life.
The idea of immortality or everlasting life has nothing to do with yearning to live forever. On a superficial level, of course no living being can escape death. Death is simply a part of the universal Five Elements natural cycle. However, death is always accompanied by the process of rebirth. In this way, there is no death. In the Immortal’s tradition, we have an expression – XinSi ShenHuo, which translates into English as “allow your heart to die so that your spirit will live.” I interpret this to mean that by embracing death and bringing it gracefully into our hearts, we understand the knowledge of immortality. This, to me, is enlightenment.
Yes, our lives are short – no matter how long we live, compared with the long stream of the time of the Universe, our lives are just a momentary sparkle. Sometimes, when people physically die, their spirits remain very much alive. The quality of our lives is not measured by the time we spend in this world, but how we learn to transform our personal emotional energy into a force that can help others.
You are also teaching a couple of workshops in the UK in February. They sound very interesting – can you tell us a little more about the practices?
Of course. I am excited to be teaching Fire Dragon Qigong in London and Five Elements Qigong in Oxford. Both are traditional Chinese Qigong forms.
Fire Dragon Qigong embodies the spirit of the rising dragon, which is an auspicious symbol of transformation in Chinese culture. Regular practice of this form establishes free flowing Qi in the 12 meridian systems of the body. It also helps transform areas of stagnation, thereby bringing the physical and emotional bodies into a balanced state of well-being. Actually, according to the Chinese calendar, the year of the Dragon begins on February 4, 2012. I will teach Fire Dragon Qigong that same weekend in honor of the Dragon and the great global transformation that will happen in 2012.
The Five Elements theory lies at the heart of classical Chinese philosophy and healing principles and is the foundation of Chinese cosmology and Chinese medicine. The Five Element Qigong form helps harmonize the Five Element’s Qi in our bodies and organ systems with the Five Element’s Qi of the Universe. Regular practice will help us smoothly navigate change in our lives.
What in your view are the greatest benefits of practice for people looking for a healthier lifestyle?
In the traditional Chinese healing system, the definition of medicine is something that embodies these three qualities: vitality, joy and harmony. Anything may be considered medicine, and doesn’t necessarily have to be a physical object. Instead, medicine is any object, event, thought or action that increases your vital energy, brings you joy (that you then can share with others), and helps you live harmoniously with yourself, with your family and friends (and society as a whole), and with Nature. In Chinese tradition, we consider Jing, Qi and Shen to be the best and most important medicine in the world. The greatest benefit of a regular Qigong practice is that you learn to access and optimize your own best medicine within – your Jing, Qi and Shen – to support your daily life.
Does a knowledge of Chinese medicine increase the benefits of Qigong?
Yes and no. In my experience, everyone who has a regular practice of a traditional Qigong form receives benefits from their practice. In ancient times, Chinese medicine was discovered through the practice of Qigong, and it gave a pathway of understanding the Universe through each individual body. In this way, the benefits of Qigong practice precede formal knowledge of Chinese medicine itself. In modern days, we often go the opposite direction, and use prior knowledge of Chinese medicine to help guide the practice. People who have taken time to study Chinese medicine may have a better idea of the specifics of how the Qigong form is working in their bodies. In spiritual cultivation practice, there is a phenomenon called “knowledge stagnation”, where having a lot of knowledge and thinking too much about what you think the practice will do becomes an obstacle to experiencing what is actually happening. On the other hand, advanced Qigong practitioners can use their knowledge of Chinese medicine to really deepen their practice. Either way, as long as you continue your daily practice with an open heart, Qigong will improve your health and deepen the relationship you have with yourself and with the Universe.
You have for some years been teaching an interesting Lifelong Learning programme, where students spend several days on retreat learning intensively from you. Could you tell us a little about this, and about the change and development you see in the students that follow through the programme?
In China, the traditional relationship between the student and Master is like parent and child, so that the Master can continue to give students guidance and support through their lives. Also, in different stages of practice of even the same Qigong practice, students will experience different phenomena, some subtle and some strong. Having step-by-step guidance helps the students understand the changes and keeps them from getting discouraged.
The purpose of the Qigong lifelong training is to create a family-style community of practitioners who are dedicated to supporting each other in their cultivation practice. We meet annually to share our experiences with the practice and to learn how to go deeper on this path to Enlightenment. Our intensive, week-long retreats provide the opportunity to learn a form in such a way that the practice becomes a part of the students, a part of their body and a part of their spirit, and this makes it easier for the practice to become part of their daily life. The retreats offer a different level of experiential learning than a few hours’ workshop or a weekly class can provide.
Over the last ten years of teaching in the West, I have seen many changes in my students – recovery from a disease process, increased energy, strength and flexibility, uplifted spirits, better relationships with others, healing practitioners who report greater success with helping their patients, etc. It is always nice for me to see how close my students grow towards each other during the retreats and how friendships grow into relationships that feel like family. We enjoy having a big Qi family!
Is Qigong a practice in which progress for all students occurs at roughly the same rate?
Not really. Different people have different bodies, different health conditions, different commitment levels (in terms of daily practice) and so have different experiences with their Qigong practice. Even the same person will have different experiences with their Qigong practice. Sometimes you will experience areas of plateau before you reach the next level, sometimes you will feel like you are moving ‘backwards’ in your progress and suddenly shoot forward, and sometimes it is just steady. After almost 40 years of practice, I feel I learn something new from my practice every day, even from the same form, again, again and again.
Would you tell us a little about your own experience with Qigong? How old were you when you began to practice?
I started to try some Qigong practice when I was about five years old, and began to take my practice really seriously when I was about 11. Originally, I practiced Qigong to have some fun. Surprisingly, I discovered many health benefits through the practice. In my first years of my memory, I was very sick, and every week I would have a terrible fever and my parents would take me to the hospital for medicine. I realized that I didn’t have to use medicine to recover when I was 11, and recovered through my Qigong practice even faster. So, I decided to stop taking any medicine and dedicate myself to my Qigong practice. Also, when I was young, I was very nearsighted and needed glasses. One summer break, I spent about one month in nature, practicing Qigong. At the end of the month, my eyesight improved so much that I didn’t need glasses anymore. Anytime I am feeling sick, have low energy, or something in life happens that affects me on the emotional level, I always practice Qigong and it helps me recover quickly.
Did you find it hard to keep up the practice during your education years, and how did you manage it?
Not at all. I followed the traditional way, as taught by my Masters, and got up early, at 4 am, to practice at least 2 hours every day. I lived on-campus during high school and university, and would be done with my practice before anyone else had gotten up. I always felt like I had more time to do everything I wanted than my classmates did. I think I had more energy than everyone else because of my Qigong practice.
Do you go back to China to visit the Masters who taught you?
Yes. Almost every year I go to China to see my Masters and spend time with them. It is the same way I go to visit my parents, just like family.
I know you are the lineage holder of several lineages. Would you tell us a little about what this means, and how the lineage holder is chosen?
In China, traditional arts and disciplines are passed on through a discipleship system. In this system, the acknowledged Master of a given discipline teaches a small circle of students. Traditionally, the Master will always design many obstacles for the students, making it difficult to continue studying. Most students will drop off because of these obstacles. When the Master feels the time is right, he/she will select the next “lineage holder” from the close-knit circle of students who have had the perseverance to carry on. The lineage holder is then responsible for preserving the entire system of knowledge and passing knowledge to others.
Your beautiful calligraphy appears on the covers of your books – would you tell us a little about the relationship between Qigong and calligraphy?
Calligraphy is a form of Qigong — it is movement within the brush and painting with your breath. When we practice calligraphy, we are working with our three treasures, Jing, Qi and Shen, which is the same as any Qigong practice. When we make a piece of art, we need to have the same three elements found in all traditional Qigong forms – correct posture, breathing and visualization techniques. In fact, in the Daoist tradition, we use the calligraphy brush as a tool for healing and spiritual cultivation. One special kind of calligraphy created by a Master is used as talismans for healing and for FengShui purposes.
It seems it all connects up – Qigong, Healing work, Calligraphy, Qin music, Yijing prediction, FengShui. Do they all support one another?
All of these are different styles of Qi arts and Qi cultivation. These practices are Qi vehicles for human beings to connect to Nature and live in harmony. On a superficial level, these practices may seem different or unrelated, but yes, they do connect up. The entire Universe is like an invisible Qi web, which connects everything. As LaoZi states in his DaoDeJing, the universal web is vast, and nothing can escape from it.
Master Wu, thank you so much for answering all these questions. We truly appreciate it, and the Singing Dragon in London is really looking forward to your visit in February!
Please visit Master Wu’s website at www.masterwu.net to find out more about his visit to the UK in February 2012 as well as his writing, teaching, music and calligraphy. You can find his four books published with Singing Dragon – Chinese Shamanic Cosmic Orbit Qigong, The 12 Chinese Animals, Seeking the Spirit of the Book of Change, and Vital Breath of the Dao, as well as his DVD Hidden Immortal Lineage Taiji Qigong – on the Singing Dragon website intl.singingdragon.com
Copyright © Singing Dragon 2012.
Singing Dragon author Master Zhongxian Wu on the Shamanic Root of Qigong 气功 and of all Chinese culture
Excerpted from the Introduction to Chinese Shamanic Cosmic Orbit Qigong – Esoteric Talismans, Mantras, and Mudras in Healing and Inner Cultivation by Master Zhongxian Wu.
The Shamanic Root of Qigong 气功
When I was a child in China, I was curious about the way that the local Wu 巫 (Chinese shaman) would give treatments to patients. How could an acupuncture needle release the pain when the Wu placed it in a suffering patient’s body? How could chanting, meditation, and use of talismans help patients recover from illness? Although I gathered more knowledge about the principles of Chinese medicine as I grew up, I did not get answers to my questions during my childhood. Ever inquisitive, I sought the answer to more questions: What are meridians? What are acupuncture points? Where did this knowledge come from? How did this intricately layered system of medicine develop? Through decades of dedicated Qigong and self-cultivation practices, I gradually found the answers to these questions. As my practice of ancient Chinese wisdom techniques deepened, I began to understand that ancient Wu 巫 (Chinese Shamanism) is the root of all Chinese culture.
In ancient China, shamans were respected as sages, or enlightened beings who understood the way of nature and how it related to human beings. Ancient Chinese shamans considered human beings as the precious treasure residing between heaven and earth. How then, does one protect this precious life? Through study and observation of the Universal way, the ancient Chinese sages realized that achieving harmony in the body is possible when a person follows the balancing principles of the universe in everyday living. With living in harmony as the final goal, the ancient shamans created an ancient life science system designed to keep the physical body, the mind, and the spirit healthy. Today, we know this ancient life science system as Qigong 气功.
Choose A Beneficial Qigong Form
The term of Qigong made with two Chinese Characters: Qi 气 and Gong 功. In English, Qi translates conceptually as vital energy, vital force, or vital breath, while Gong translates as working hard in the correct way. In general, Qigong 气功 means Qi cultivation. Any movements, postures or activity done in a conscious relationship with Qi can be called Qigong. If you are not yet aware of the Qi flowing through and around your body, you can cultivate this consciousness through correct traditional Qigong practice, and develop a better understanding of the internal and external Qi network.
Qigong is a way of cultivating knowledge and a method of practice that should be learned through correct and careful guidance and through personal experience. You will feel it is easier to merge the principles of your Qigong practice into your life and to feel its powerful effects if you have the support of an experienced teacher to guide you. People often ask me what kind of Qigong form will be suitable for them. I always suggest that they choose a traditional style of Qigong, one with deep cultural roots that has proven to be authentic over centuries of practice.
Chinese Shamanic Cosmic Orbit Qigong
Three of the essential practices of Chinese Shamanic Qigong are the Fu 符 (talismans), Jue 訣 (mantras), and Yin 印 (mudras). Talisman, mudra, and mantra are specific rituals common to ancient shamanism. In my tradition, we still preserve and utilize many special talismans, mantras, and mudras as specific techniques for cultivation and healing/self-healing. Fu (talismans) are Qi (vital life energy) energized diagrams, symbols, or Chinese characters used to channel a vital energy in order to create a harmonious Qi field for healing or living. Jue (mantras) are special syllables, spells or sounds used spontaneously to resonate with Universal Qi and to circulate the Qi within the energy network through the vibrations created by your voice. Yin (mudras) are ancient hand positions used to connect with universal energies and act as a vehicle to access ancient wisdom of the Universe that is bound within the body.
Chinese Shamanic Orbit Qigong is a time-honored, esoteric style of Qigong, which focuses on cultivating internal Qi circulation and attaining enlightenment. Ancient shamans discovered that the energetic patterns of nature are reproduced in all levels of the cosmos, from the largest, macrocosmic (Universal level) scale to the smallest, microcosmic (living organisms and the cells, organelles and particles within them) scale, they deduced that the flow of Qi in the body is just like the ceaseless rotation of the sun, moon, and stars. Therefore, in Qigong terminology, orbit refers to the Qi circulation in in the body. The fundamental concept of balance in Chinese wisdom traditions holds that you will maintain health and experience well-being if Qi is free flowing in your body.
My new book, Chinese Shamanic Cosmic Orbit Qigong, illustrates the details of the Shamanic Orbit Qigong practice, including talismans, mantras, mudras, movements, visualizations, and therapeutic benefits. I hope you will enjoy this book and gain great benefits from your daily practice.
Master Zhongxian Wu is the recognized master of multiple lineages of classical Qigong, Taiji and martial arts. He has been teaching unique and professionally designed courses and workshops to beginning and advanced practitioners, as well as for patients seeking healing, for over 25 years. In addition to Chinese Shamanic Cosmic Orbit Qigong – Esoteric Talismans, Mantras and Mudras in Healing and Inner Cultivation, he is the author of The 12 Chinese Animals – Create Harmony in Your Daily Life Through Ancient Chinese Wisdom; Seeking the Spirit of The Book of Change – 8 Days to Mastering a Shamanic Yijing (I Ching) Prediction System; Hidden Immortal Lineage Taiji Qigong: The Mother Form; and The Vital Breath of the Dao – Chinese Shamanic Tiger Qigong. He and his wife, Dr. Karin Taylor Wu, live in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of central Virginia, USA, and together founded Blue Willow Health Center. You can find more details about his teachings at www.masterwu.net.
Copyright © Singing Dragon 2011.
VIDEO: Lisa Spillane demonstrates the Six Healing Sounds – Qigong for Children
Lisa Spillane is the author and illustrator of the new book, Six Healing Sounds with Lisa and Ted: Qigong for Children, which teaches young children how to transform negative feelings into positive ones by using simple breathing techniques that are based on ancient Chinese Qigong exercises.
Using a special sound for different parts of the body, Lisa and Ted show that a “haaaww” can heal the heart and blow away impatience, and a “whooooooo” can steady the stomach and chase away worries.
In this video, Lisa demonstrates each healing sound from the story so that parents, teachers, carers and children can make sure they’re getting the most from them.
Click below to see how it’s done!
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Lisa Spillane qualified as a teacher of Art and Design at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in Dublin, Ireland. She also has a master’s degree in Education and is a co-founder and former Director of Artlink Ltd., a charitable company promoting access to art in the North West of Ireland. Having taught at a number of schools, Lisa went on to work for several years in Northern Ireland on community projects with children and young people. She learned Qigong meditation from attending classes taught by Grandmaster Mantak Chia. Lisa currently lives in Brussels, Belgium.
Copyright © Singing Dragon 2011.