by jon2658 » Tue Jul 05, 2005 5:43 am
hi...thats a fair question, i think. i do have senior teachers, the problem is, that they all live in london. I live in wales, about 150 miles away, so the teachers only ever come down about 4-5 times a year and teach us chi gung. i do however, do a lot of breath work within aikido- we have really good teachers there all the time who, i think, seem to know what they are talking about. i also try to go to as many seminars as possible- eg, bk frantzis- his seminars are really good. yes, i do use books too. i find that doing all of the above, seems to reinforce my practice alot. sometimes something doesnt quite make sense to me and its only through a cross reference of my own practice, seminars, my teachers, and, yes, books, that i am able to make sense of my experiences. for example, when i first started, i had great trouble understanding how you drew energy through your feet, up your legs, to the centre. i remember one of our teachers trying to explain it- i didnt really understand. it was only through daily practice, additional research that i was able to grasp what was being taught and do it for myself. of course, in an ideal world, we would all have a chi-gung master, who could teach us-= 6hours a day on a daily basis, but that aint always possible, i think you know that. however, i do feel that books are useful and i wouldnt dismiss them; although, they will never take you to the higher levels they will give you a great foundation, but as i have explained, i would never use them by themselves. as you have said, daily practice is the key. it is the most important thing, and even without a chi-gung master to aide you i think you can still achieve an awful lot more than if you did nothing at all. i find that books, my martial arts instructors, seminars, etc, all compliment my chi gung, and that is the key word- compliment! they are not, and never should be the basis of your trainin, i think. tell me about yourself. how is your chi-gung going? i am always interested in hearing from other people, to compliment my own experiences, lol!