Nei Gong Notes, October 14, 2025
This week’s lesson was a Nei Gong one, on Yin Field Opening. Another Hunyuan one; seems pleasant enough, though I doubt I’ll particularly focus on it after the initial period.
Wednesday: I went through Sinew Work Principles video again; it’s still good, I’m glad I added a reminder to do it once a month or so. One random throwaway comment from the video that I liked was something along the lines of that the Qi in your Dantian should be like a hammock that your mind is resting in.
Thursday: My torso is still feeling a little bit of the effects of the Sinew Work Principles session yesterday, so all the more reason to keep on doing it! I went through the Chen pole weapons and Double Dao; I did 20 minutes each of Taiji Standing 4 and Joint Opening; I went through the 37 form 3 times and the Xin Jia form 2 times. In the afternoon I went through the Du Stretch video, I did 25 minutes of Awakening Dragon, 30 minutes of Yin Field Opening, and 30 minutes paying attention to the breath. And I reviewed the Hunyuan 48 in the evening.
Friday: I did 1h Wu Ji, followed by a quite unsuccessful MCO attempt. Which, on the one hand, wasn’t surprising: I hadn’t done as much Dantian Gong as normal this week, so I was thinking that I should put it off to Monday until I realized I had an allergy shot on Monday. When I started, though, by body was feeling good though, or at least interesting; I think that was more of the aftereffects of the Sinew Work Principles video, though it’s also not completely clear to me that that helps with MCO attempts, because that video is more about affecting my body via Qi than strictly about building Qi. At any rate, the attempt really didn’t work, though it’s not clear that the volume of Qi was the cause: the Qi went into the base of my spine too far forward, so it was wanting to do a circle around my abdomen instead of going up, and I was kind of denial about that for long enough that I didn’t get a good second try.
Saturday: I did 30m Advanced Dantian Gong, 20m Zhan Zhuang, had my regular Chen Tai Chi class, and went through the four Dragons.
Sunday: I did 25m Zhan Zhuang, and had my monthly Sunday Chen class; we’re starting the Guan Dao as our weapon for the next year or so in that class, it’ll be good to have a review of that since I’ve only done it once. And in the afternoon I spent 45m on a Scholar Breathing attempt; I got a little bit of light pulsing, and one bit of persistent light pull, but nothing super clear, certainly nothing that I would actually call Scholar Breathing.
Monday: It was an allergy shots day, so I just did the Du Stretch video, 20m Wu Ji, and 30m attention to the breath.
Tuesday: I’m going to a Chen Lao Jia workshop run by Chen Bing the rest of the week, so I went through Fang Song video of his today; pretty interesting, a quite different thing from, say, the Wu Song Shen Fa stuff from the IAA. (A little more like some of the Silk Reeling that my teacher teaches, but with a more explicit focus on relaxation.) I don’t think I’ll make a habit of doing those exercises, but honestly it wouldn’t be the worst idea? And then I watched a Lao Jia demonstration video of his, and attended a live Q+A that he gave. And I also did my Chen sword forms, but no Yang Tai Chi today. In the afternoon, I went through the 10min Stretch by Waterfall video; pretty good, I might do it again if I want that length of stretch? And I went through Rick’s October 4 Zoom course recording, and did 30m of Yin Field Opening.
It’ll be a pretty unusual week: because of the Chen Bing workshop, I’m honestly not sure I’ll be able to do any Nei Gong this Wednesday through Friday, and I certainly won’t do any IAA Tai Chi. (Hmmm, though I am supposed to watch an IAA Tai Chi lesson tonight; I don’t know what’s in that one, if it’s an isolated exercise then maybe I’ll be able to find time to practice it.) And I need to drop my wife off at the airport on Saturday morning, so we’ll see if I make it to my usual Tai Chi course then, too.