Bubbling Well

[kudzu28]

Hello to all!
I am new to qigong and live in a rural area, so I have no sifu or master to learn from, and have been reading all I can get my hands on about the subject for the last 6 mos. This forum has been tremendously helpful. I have just been lurking and reading your posts for the last month. Thanks SO much for all of your wisdom and experience. I have been practicing from very basic DVD's (Gary Garripoli, Matthew Cohen, and now 8 Pieces of Brocade). Your forum has really driven home to me the importance of sticking to the basics and the seriousness of trying to do anything too advanced, such as leading qi to the head or legs.

My question is this: in the standing 8 Pieces of Brocade, in the fourth, fifth and sixth pieces, it mentions when you are supposed to concentrate on the Bubbling Well. If you are moving your mind from the lower dantien to the Bubbling Well, doesn't it have to move through your legs to get there? I just want to be safe and not damage myself or my legs!
Any insight you have will be greatly appreciated. BTW, I am using the book with the DVD.

Thanks,
Holly

[joeblast]

if you're a beginner then you wont have significant enough reserves to hurt yourself, along those lines. stand, get your posture neutral so that you have minimal strain, breathe calmly, deeply, and think like that picture of dr yang standing like the mountain - just be the mountain, dont worry about the cliffs and valleys that are on the way down

[kudzu28]

Thanks Joeblast!
That's a great analogy.

[joeblast]

np! the key is to relax, relax, relax. hehe another thing that works is to imagine you're standing on stilts.

[kudzu28]

It seems that to relax is the hardest part of all of it! I've gotten better at it though, and I have noticed that since I have started the 8 Pieces of Brocade, which is only about 2 weeks, I produce more saliva to swallow to the dantien, so that's a good thing.

The "Monkey Mind" is there from time to time and I have to remember to "give it a banana"! I have learned so much from this forum. Thanks so much.

[Dvivid]

If you think about the meridians, qi gets stuck in the meridians. If you think about yongquan and laogong, qi gets stuck in the gates.

The YI leads the QI.

So just lead the mind through the gates and beyond and it will follow the most beneficial path to get there naturally.

[kudzu28]

Thank you Dvivid. I will keep that in mind

[nitsuj]

For example...
On the fourth piece, as I exhale and gently turn my head to a side I bring my attention to the bubbling well. I don't guide it FROM the lower dan tain. As I begin turning outward, my mind is on the center of my feet. As I begin to move inward my mind is just below my navel. I don't trace a line from one spot to the other. I put my mind in the desired target location and expect the chi to make it's way there on it's own. Maybe this is way too simplified, and perhaps completely incorrect. I hope not.

[joeblast]

that's why embryonic breathing is probably the practice I wind up recommending most often that will significantly enhance the benefit of doing...anything at all! think of it like an electromagnet, at a certain (lower) rate of current the magnet is a certain strength, increase the current and increase the strength of the magnetic effect. embryonic breathing is "increasing that current."

let's put it in a grounding perspective. or an analog, a lowest energy state in terms of output/usage. aligning the solid structures properly lessens the need for support from the tissue. when the tissue is relaxed and supple, there is less restriction on energy flow. that allows what is built from the dantien to be more robustly generated, especially when the embryonic breath is used.

just like you can step on a hose and restrict the flow of water, just like you can kink an electrical cord enough to stop the flow of electrons, just like breathing hard necessitates tensioning the airways as structural support - tensing muscle has a similar reducing effect on the flow of qi, although I'm pretty sure you couldnt intentionally tense a muscle enough to stop the flow altogether

so for #4 there, proper good relaxed posture combined with efficient breath should give you a proprioceptive boost...let your ankles relax, dont stop the embryonic breathing, and your yongquan wing up being the analog of the points of contact of the electromagnet...you dont need to "try" to feel it, it simply appears out of the background. that's what a lot of these practices are, in a sense: calming until the background becomes the foreground. whether its in the subtleties of connective tissue or the depths of your mind, relaxing to a point where the background becomes the foreground will always be a place where you can make strides.

[kudzu28]

Thanks so much for the advice.

What i have actually been doing is what nitsuj described, not tracing a path from one spot to another and guiding the chi, but just switching my mind from the dantien on the inhale to the bubbling well on the exhale.

[Dvivid]

Try this:

Dantien on the inhale,
3 feet below your bubbling well on the exhale. Grow roots.

[kudzu28]

Thanks Dvivid! I will try that tonight!

Grow roots...goes along with what I've heard and read about being rooted. Also, did I read or hear somewhere that doing this draws negativity out of the body and into the ground?

thanks again!
Holly