The immediate physical aftereffects of the Nei Gong seminar have, sadly, basically completely disappeared by now. I’m not entirely sure what the implications of that are: worst case would be that going was a no-op, but hopefully there’s knowledge, behavioral, and physical restructuring which are still having an effect?

Speaking of behavior, I’ve tried to change my start-of-the-morning schedule to replace 10 minutes of reading Twitter with 10 minutes of meditation; that’s probably a good change straight up (honestly, replacing Twitter with almost anything is probably good…), but I do feel physically different after the meditation, and those effects are lasting for several hours after the meditation itself: e.g. I feel different walking from the train station to work. So that’s something to build on. And sometimes I’m meditating longer; that gives me more of the physical sensations through my torso and limbs (Yang Qi?) but not yet as much as I’d like in my Dantian.

I’m still feeling like my thighs need a bit of a break, so I’m back to doing Lotus Wu Ji three times a week (Sunday / Tuesday / Thursday). Hopefully I’ll be able to work that in more days, though, as I get stronger. I am trying to work in more meditation sessions on other days, though.

In terms of Tai Chi stuff, one note from the Saturday class: In sweep after Two Feet Up, move your right foot forward a bit so that, when doing Protect the Heart Fist, you have space between the two feet to make it easier to turn the waist when striking. (At least that’s what one of the relatively advanced students told me.) And, in that strike, you strike with the right arm turned so the back side is in the striking direction.

We’re getting near the end of the spear form; I’ve missed enough classes recently that I’m not super optimistic that I’ll be able to reliably do the whole form after we’re done. We’ll see; hopefully at least it will be something to build on. On which note we’ll be doing the Jian form next; that one was really hard to learn the first time, and I more or less gave up about two thirds of the way through, we’ll see how it goes the second time.

Today was rough; I normally do allergy shots on Wednesdays but this week I did it today instead, and maybe because of that I had a really hard time doing Wu Ji over lunch. And almost certainly because of that I was very tired when I got home, so I decided to skip Tai Chi. Hopefully just a one-time thing, though…

This week was mostly about continuing reverberations from last week’s Nei Gong course.

I did keep up my Nei Gong practice, doing at least a little bit of it every day since the course ended. Not sure how long that’s going to last, but hopefully I’ll end up at a steady state that has me doing more Nei Gong than before the class. And hopefully doing better Nei Gong; I’m certainly doing things in a more varied way, at least. Though it’s also not feeling nearly as effective as it was during the course; not sure how much of that is because even an hour of practice isn’t the same as five or six hours of practice, and how much of that is because practice on my own isn’t as effective as practice with expert guidance.

And I’m back to doing my normal Tai Chi. (Well, except for Sunday, because it was raining pretty hard out.) On Saturday, I was definitely still on a Nei Gong high, because the Silk Reeling Exercises felt a lot more intense than they normally did, and the form felt somewhat more intense. It’ll be really good if I can hold on to some of that feeling, both because it feels good, because I suspect that it’s reflecting energy flowing better through my body than it had before, and because it’s feedback giving me potentially healthy guidance. (E.g. there were a few random moves in the form when I lost that feeling of energy, I should figure out what was going on there.) Though, jumping ahead, the Silk Reeling and the form weren’t nearly as intense in the Tuesday evening class tonight: the feeling was still there somewhat, but definitely not the same thing.

On Sunday, I did breathing meditation lying down for 30 minutes; that was also pretty intense. I guess / hope it’s a feeling of Yang Qi, and I guess I shouldn’t focus on the sensations too much, and I’m honestly not sure how much time I should spend on lying down practice because it doesn’t seem conducive to gathering Qi in my Dantian, but still: it’s interesting / pleasant enough for me to want to keep on doing it sometimes. (But I’m also starting to mix in more seated breathing practice.)

What actually hasn’t been going super well has been my Wu Ji practice: my thighs have been feeling weak, so I’ve been dropping out after about 12 minutes. Part of this is that I’m going noticeably lower than I had been before the class; maybe also I’m doing other changes in how I hold my body / muscles, and if so I’m not sure if my thighs being under stress reflects something good or something bad? But I also feel like my thighs are just over-tired right now, so maybe I should actually back off on the Wu Ji a bit, spending more time doing less strenuous practice until they’ve recovered.

Also this morning I was reading a section in the Comprehensive Guide talking about Qi Gong sequences, and it mentioned that you should drop into Wu Ji after every posture, so I did that today; so even though I didn’t have a single Wu Ji session that was as long as I’d been doing, it at least added up to a more reasonable amount of time.

Other notes from tonight’s Tai Chi class: my teacher was talking about opening up the Live Gate in a move where I don’t normally think of that as a key component, and I used that as an excuse to work on spreading my lower back a little more (sideways as well as vertically) during a few different moves; seems worth continuing to experiment with, it did at least feel differently stretched. And actually the Qi Gong practice in the Tuesday class went as well as I can remember it ever going, my Dantian did feel a little more full than normal?

Pictures from the April Minecraft session:

As we discovered in March, the train tracks under the water had gotten flooded. We started rebuilding that tunnel then: we recreated the floors, walls, and ceiling, but the water stayed inside. So I decided to fill the entire tunnel with glass and then dig it out from the dry sides, hopefully that would force out the water.

Lots of water around.

There’s some sort of weird glass block with water inside in the middle here.

After a few attempts, I managed to destroy blocks in a way that didn’t leave water flooding back in.

After restoring that (and taking the train around in that loop, just to verify that it still worked; it had gotten slightly broken and/or underpowered in a couple of locations, so I actually did have to restore a couple of places), I went back towards the mountain area, to check on what Dan was up to.

You can see a few of Dan’s structures here. (Hmm, I should clean up the bottom of those big stairs.)

A view looking down from the other side of the formerly desert area.

Looking down the pit that Dan had made last time.

Dan isn’t at the bottom.

A pedestal he’s built nearby.

This sculpture is new too, I think?

Here’s a closer view of that sculpture.

It took me a little while to find Dan, he’d built a bunch of stuff. But eventually I noticed an entrance hidden in the grass:

Easy to miss this one unless you’re right there.

There’s actually a big drop down from the entrance.

Here’s the view up towards the entrance from the bottom.

Here’s the room at the bottom of the entrance, with a hall coming off of it. (Lots of white!)

I’ve finally found Dan!

A closeup of one of the nooks in the hallway.

Here’s Dan in the midle of digging out another room around the bend of the hallway.

Done with the stairs down to that room.

Pat had to leave before I could take pictures of him, but I did get some shots of the tomb that Miranda is continuing to excavate:

Lots of torches on the floor of this one.

Almost positive I’ve taken a picture of this one before.

Bookshelves visible at the other end of this passageway.

That is a lot of bookshelves!

To be completely honest, I’m not sure what the role is of the rowboat and armor here.

A closeup view of the armor.

The tower of books is just as imposing from the back!

My notes on four of the five animal frolics, as learned in the Lotus Nei Gong course I just took. (The frolic we didn’t cover was the monkey, which is apparently about moving the blood.)

Tiger:

Extend fingers into claws, like gripping the top of a jar. Grab Dantian, make small circles with your hands, circling forward and unwind by going higher. Wind it in, still circling forward unwind again, and at top, lunge forward onto left foot. Pull back right arm, palm still facing down, stretching inside of rib cage; look back as you pull. Then left, then right. Then use both arms to pull back to the middle, shifting weight back some; circle arms out to the right and forward. Then same thing, but circle back to the left. Then pull back with both arms and step up with right foot.

Repeat: small circles, unwind, wind in, unwind, then lunge forward with right foot. Left, right, left, center to left circle, center to right circle.

Then: step up, unwind again and wind back.

Shift weight to right foot (or maybe step forward?), with left unweighted next to it; circle arms over so right arm is extended with claw up, left arm bent over right arm with claw down, close to shoulder. Focus on spot on left, lunge forward with left leg, swinging your arms over with right arm pointing at spot, left arm 90 degrees.

Step up with right leg, ending with weight still on left; left arm extended claw up, right arm bent over. Focus right and lunge right, coming down with left arm at spot and right arm 90 degrees over. Then left again and right again.

Come to center; unwind/wind back and then drop into Wu Ji.

Bird:

Raise arms, opening live gate; expand shoulders, imagine rubber sheet over arm, stretch the top especially at the wrist. Then go down: shoulder down, then elbow, wrist and hands go down left, stretching an elastic sheet under the wrist. Repeat twice more (3 total).

Step forward with left; flap with arms at 90 degrees, one forward and one to the side, flapping left then right then left. Then flap up with both arms forward; coming down, go up onto left food, with right foot off the ground pointing back, and with both arms going back along your back (palms up), imagine Tian Tu teaching towards Huiyin.

Repeat on other side; step forward with right, 90 degrees right left right, then both forward and back, stepping up onto right leg.

Step forward with left, twist to the left; if you’re feeling flexible, lower down until your right knee touches the floor and your butt is on your left heel. (But staying higher is fine, don’t lower your knee unless you’re flexible enough to also lower your butt.) Cross your arms in front of you (crossing on forearms near the wrists), with the right hand on top; uncross them, with the right arm kept bent and your left arm opening, pulling your right elbow away from your left hand, with your right hand pointing at your left hand. Close and do it two more times. Then step forward with your right foot, twist and close your arms with your left arm on top, and do the same thing on the right side.

Then flap three times standing on left foot; arms out to side, right foot off the ground but heavy and pulling you down on the downward flaps. Then same thing standing on right foot.

Then both arms rigid pointing out, like pole between index fingers; twisting dive bombing motion from the Dantian, starting small and getting bigger. No fixed number of turns. Then go down into Wu Ji.

Deer:

Make horns with your index and ring finger; should go up, with middle two fingers curled down but not curling at the expense of bending the fingers. Thumb also sticks out. Put up next to your head, thumbs pointing at temples, elbows further back than normal.

Send a pulse of energy up inside from pressure on your Yongquan. As it reaches the top, stretch up through your body, raising your arms, standing on your toes. Rotate your Dantian forward, turning it into a spine wave; do that twice more. Then sink down. Repeat this whole thing twice more.

Step forward with your left foot, landing on the heel. Then press up from your Yongquan on your right foot twisting pretty far to your left, led from the Qi. End up with your weight forward on the left foot (which is now flat); twist your spine (including your neck) left, looking back over your left shoulder. (Still with hands making horns by your head.)

Repeat on the right.

Do the same thing on the left, but don’t twist as hard; then do three spine waves kicked off by forward Dantian rotations. Repeat on the right.

Paw your right foot back with a sort of scraping motion, then stomp down with your right foot and lunge forward with your left foot, turning your torso to the left and sticking up your arms, with your right arm arcing over the top and giving a ribcage stretch while your left arm is more going straight in line with your body. Repeat on other side: paw and stomp left foot, lunge right and stretch arms.

End by pawing and stomping right, then stomping left next to it, then dropping down into Wu Ji.

Bear:

Raise arms to diaphragm level and let hands hang limply. Make everything heavy; as always, sink flesh around bones.

Step forward with your left foot: a relatively short and heavy step. Sink all your weight again, over your left foot; your right heel should come up naturally. Lean forward/left and fold into your Kua. Push back up from the sole of your left foot.

Repeat on right side: short heavy step, heavy weight on right, fold into right Kua, push back up.

Then similar on both sides but when you fold, lean forward so that your back foot comes up and you’re balancing over your front foot.

Then step forward with your left foot; lower your fingers so they feel like they’re sinking into your feet. Raise your arms up so your hands are beside your head; you should feel like you’re stretching out an elastic (or some mucus or something) from your fingers to your toes; you also want to feel a stretch in your chest. Your weight should remain over your front foot. Then let your hands go down. Push back up from your left foot, step to the right, repeat.

Step to the left and grab your Dantian with both fists, with palms up and knuckles touching in front of your abdomen. Drag them (and your Qi) up, still touching; when they reach your chest, arc them away and up until they’re making a circle above your head, still touching. Reverse and go down your body. Then step right and do the same thing.

Step up with your left foot, do one last bear sink, and go into Wu Ji.

I spent the last five days at a Lotus Nei Gong course taught by Damo Mitchell (with the help of a senior student of his). I’ve been impressed by Mitchell’s books, and I liked him quite a bit as a teacher: good at explaining, funny, and I really liked the mixture of stuff he taught, going over core practices, teaching us (most of) one important sequence, occasionally lecturing on basic concepts, and mixing up the difficulty level nicely. (I’m definitely more prepared than I was for the Nei Gong course I took a couple of months back, but this one was also less physically stressful, except for one morning.)

My Wu Ji positioning was pretty good; I was told to go a little lower, and sometimes my tilt wasn’t quite right but I got corrected to tilt both more and less at different times, so I’m okay on average? The tip that I picked up on the tilt was to ease up on my lower back, and I think I can feel what that’s talking about: if I stand what feels straight up to me, I do feel a slight tension in my lower back, and I can lessen that by tilting a bit. Also, my hands weren’t nearly low enough, and also should be wider, a little wider than my body, and I should make sure to keep my neck up.

Sessions regularly got kicked off with a set of stretches, I should probably try to do those. The main theoretical concepts that were discussed were about Yin Qi and Yang Qi: letting your mind sink to your Dantian to build up Yin Qi, having it go from there into the rest of your body, opening up space in your joints to let the Yin Qi flow in there (at least I think it was the Yin Qi?), how opening up your Lao Gong helps you manipulate Yin Qi, how Yang Qi leads to various sensations which you should basically ignore (which is too bad, I can feel those and they’re kind of fun!), how Yang Qi will open up the meridian on your back and that’s super important, once it’s there then other meridians will start to open. And, once you’ve done that, opening up the meridian in front is the next major goal, and doing both of those will make a significant difference in how you feel; Mitchell presented that as in reach, even in reach within a couple of years, but also something which almost nobody in the class had yet reached.

So then there were techniques in support of that: lots of stretches, for example, to open up joints, lots of sinking the mind to your Dantian. And sinking was emphasized as a key: if you just place your attention in your Dantian then it won’t really be there, part of it will still be in your head. Don’t trust your mind: instead, do a combo of paying attention to where your body can feel contact from your mind and then letting that feeling skin. Also in support of this was a technique during sitting meditation: once it has sunk, then open your hands at your diaphragm with your Lao Gong down, that helps keep the Qi down there. And then you can move your hands to hold your Dantian like a ball, and play around with it. Also, if your Qi is sunk, you can do reverse breathing (but don’t do that if your Qi isn’t sunk): don’t make a big physical production of it, instead make sure that your attention is in your Dantian and then, when you breathe in, think of a bag contracting around where your attention is.

We also spent significant time on the Five Animal Frolics, though we only learned four of them. I’ll do a separate post with notes on that.

It definitely made me want to keep on doing the Lotus Neigong stuff. I think I’m going to replace the silk reeling exercises that I do at the start of that with stretches, and I’ll sometimes replace the Qi Gong sequence I’ve been doing with the Animal Frolics. (And, when I’m doing that, I’ll do the long Wu Ji before the frolics, with only a smaller bit at the end, that’s what we were doing in the class. Though the bit at the end is very important, it lets your body learn from the frolics!) And I’ll see if I can find more time to work in bits of practice, e.g. maybe doing some sitting practice on days when Liesl is walking Widget?

====

Here are my complete notes:

First day:

Wu Ji: sink back more, arms noticeably wider, tilt forward a bit more than I had. When sinking into my feet, let my weight spread the bones of my feet.

Sink the Qi by noticing where my mind interacts with my body and letting it relax and sink down. Seems like a pretty key practice. Don’t try to directly place my attention on my Dantien, that won’t have the desired effect.

Reverse breathing: after sinking Qi, inside of abdomen contracts around where my attention is. Don’t move outside muscles. Not worrying about that so much for now, I’m not good yet at sinking my Qi…

Afternoon: in Wu Ji lean forward just enough to relax my lower back. Arms are spread pretty wide to the side, a little wider than my body. Got corrected on my neck once, I should indeed force it back and up a bit.

Felt like I’d sink my Qi correctly once, pressure inside my abdomen.

Second day:

Wu Ji: got told to lower my hands a bit more.

Third Day:

Open up space between joints, sink the Qi, have the Qi full up space between joints. This is probably what’s going on in Silk Reeling Exercises, with the gathering energy between exercises? So the exercises open up space, but we need to get Qi in there?

Should probably work in something stretchy, a Daoyin, hopefully I can find a good description of the animal frolics?

Cleansing: feeling a surprisingly concrete line going down my body.

Fourth day:

Morning was rough, but I made it through.

In Wu Ji I got corrected to not lean forward as much.

Maybe it’s the long days but if we do something quiet at the end day, I do feel like my mind is in my abdomen more. And having my palms at the diaphragm open and facing down might be having an effect?

Fifth day:

Interesting lecture at the start. I shouldn’t try to do the Microcosmic Orbit with my mind, it doesn’t help. But opening the channel in the back is key (and it leads to other channels opening.). Opening the Mingmen involves stretching it; so it can vibrate like a guitar string.

Separate note about animal frolics.

One hour practice: 35-40 minutes moving energy through the body. Wu Ji counts as this.

Spend remaining time on body work (e.g. Dao Yins) or sitting practice: they don’t stimulate the Yang Qi.

Dangerous to spend more than 35-40 minutes on Yang Qi exercises without support. Can start by foods to support kidneys, Yin, and blood.

Practices:
1) Wu Ji
2) Sitting practice we did to train sinking of the mind
3) Dantian work: rolling hands, for example
4) Animals

Avoid cold food until Dantian is consolidated.

One thing I was thinking about following up on the Qigong special class last week: she mentioned breathing through the hollows in your body. And, when I’m meditating, I actually do feel something in time with my breathing in the palms of my head, a sensation that could reasonably described as breathing through my palms. Makes me curious what the mechanism is there; and, as the meditation goes on, sensation starts spreading up my arms, like something is coming in through my palms and going up. Interesting feeling, at any rate.

On Saturday, we spent extra time on Kick with Two Feet Up: turns out that lots of us aren’t doing it right, either not swinging our arms over from behind or not hitting our leg / foot before we land. Something to work on!

On Sunday, I tried doing my Lotus Wu Ji before my Tai Chi instead of after; a lot easier, felt just like a weekday, so I guess the reason why I’ve found it hard in the past is because I was tired. The main thing I noticed during my Tai Chi practice on Sunday was that I’ve gotten sloppy again on the weight transfer in Six Sealing Four Closing, I should make sure to transfer weight solidly to my right foot.

This morning I was rereading the section on Wu Ji in Mitchell’s book, and the pictures there were more upright than I think I’m being when I look at myself in the mirror when practicing in my bedroom on Sundays. So I tried not leaning my torso as much, and it was a lot easier. I also accidentally noticed most of the way through that my center of gravity was higher then normal; I’m pretty sure that also helped making it easier, and that was a mistake. But I think the leaning less that I was doing today was probably correct? Hopefully I’ll learn more at the seminar next week…