Chris Wreede

Would you recommend any of the other books on his website by Golden Elixir Press?

Taiji ruler – good for solo push hands training

A slower approach

More of a qigong approach

awesome soundtrack

youtube…

The taiji ball master

The same dude

A different approach

master of the heavy ball (bad audio)

master of the really big heavy ball

a western approach

discussion board

http://rumsoakedfist.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=9744

Actually, I think He did practice Taiji with it, but never taught any of his students how to use it. Apparently he used to throw it up in the air and bounce it off his body (the stone ball), its like the Harlem globetrotters of the taiji world.

Fu Zhen Song was famous for practicing his dragon Bagua form with a 25 pound granite ball. Good training for core muscles and balance! Kettlebells also work well for this.

It seems that the quote attributed to Lao Tzu may actually be closer to this excerpt from Lu Dong Bin’s Hundred Character Tablet:

“Sit and listen to the stringless music.
Clearly understand the Universal way.”
– Translation by Zhongxian Wu, posted by Craig on a different forum.

This sounds also like what Michael is referring to as a…[Read more]

Here is a quote by Karl Paulnack from a speech to parents, Head of the Boston Conservatory. He doesn’t mention ancient China that may have been more advanced than the Greeks at the time, but their accomplishments in ancient times and the focus it had are related on a deep level:

“One of the first cultures to articulate how music really works…[Read more]

Point taken from both responses – thanks.

I like the way verse 41 has such a rhythmic cadence 3-5-5-2 (at least in this random translation by Derek Lin I found on the net).

Also how the whole verse seems to describe the “unseen quality of virtue given substance”, or the “(physically) silent tone” as Michael mentioned that is also central to…[Read more]

These are the only ones I could find that contain the word music:

Chapter 2

When the world knows beauty as beauty, ugliness arises
When it knows good as good, evil arises
Thus being and non-being produce each other
Difficult and easy bring about each other
Long and short reveal each other
High and low support…[Read more]

Good advice on restoring normal sleeping patterns. Meditation definitely helps too, but when the body is in self sabotage mode, the problem becomes actually doing the restorative activities, not falling asleep. In these cases though consistently taking one step in the right direction will eventually produce positive results and turn the…[Read more]

Use the speaker phone! The radiation is much less concentrated when it is farther away from the head and body.

Alchemy is inherently a method of accelerated change, of accelerated spiritual evolution, but contains within it safeguards for moving too quickly. While it has the possibility of causing imbalance in a person through unleashing some hidden or buried aspect of their personality, it also has the tools to balance that. I have found that if a…[Read more]

The way implies constant change, is there a risk to change?

When the way is lived as the way, the question answers itself

The author of this article that Michael posted teaches Wu style Taijiquan in Kansas city, and was the first teacher that charged money to teach Six elbows Kung Fu in North America that I know of, as well as openly calling it by one of its names not normally advertised to the public. The form is also called Tai Xu quan and after viewing some of…[Read more]

According to the author Daniel Levitin, who wrote the book “This Is Your Brain On Music”, the only thing in common between experts in any field whether it is sports (martial arts), music, or meditation, is over 10,000 hours of practice. That means three hours a day for 10 years, or 1.5 for 20 years etc.

It is after this amount of time that…[Read more]

Primordial qigong sometimes would seem to cause things to go into overdrive for me, such as a run of bad events. These are usually followed by some good events though that balance it out.

Sounds like something surfacing from deep inside. I always find it helpful to interpret the “feeling” of the dream rather than the actual events.

If you are familiar with any acrobatic practices (capoeira etc.), it is cool to feel yourself doing the movements (spinning, flipping) while lying in bed before going to sleep…I have found myself…[Read more]

I think that “surrendering to someone else’s music beat” depends on how you look at it. You have a choice to dance or not and if you choose to do so, your movements belong to you. I think that is why people dance out of free will, because they enjoy contributing to the group qi field, and stop when they aren’t feeling it. Though, I agree that…[Read more]

The idea below reminds me of the concept of the “Ghost River” in the Yi Jing (Karcher version):

>>>”Ultimately this is due to the fact that these disasters are caused by a rotational ‘spin’ that is worked into the gravitational field. Gravity pushes the air, the water and the liquid mantle under the crust around in circuits.
When those…[Read more]