Questions about pain possibly from practice

as it turns out,

galactic cores, innumerable within the deep field…

produce radial non- black hole like jets

fields, electric fields, and emissions…

if some of these were in fact some sort of wormhole…

how astounding is it that they are truly whirling H2O, alchohol, and formaldehyde…

if formaldehyde could be implemented in a true cryogenic…

would this indicate that the life force intelligence of a higher creation has provided

1) water
2) alcohol
3) cryogenic building blocks

for space migration?

or maybe the universe is not multi connected, and this is delusion…

“ALIEN” 101

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/M87_jet.jpg

>>>I also learned IS1 and Tao Yin from Chia’s books,
>>>and they are very achievable through just the books.
>>>The descriptions of the postures in IS1 are
>>>very thorough, and I feel like I can do them
>>>pretty well for never having had a lesson.

As an FYI: The books give you a good *starting* place, but they do not substitute for live training. In fact, it is *impossible* for a person to learn to root correctly without live training.

Although it may look like it’s a sales pitch to get folks to take my IS1 class, I’m actually being quite honest about this. I was not able to learn it myself when I was first learning IS1 until I spent a significant amount of time under an instructor’s live guidance. Moreover, I can say from all the students I’ve worked with live (either in the class or through private lessons), the IS1 rooting skill can NOT be learned solo. You need live interaction with another person who already knows what they are doing, so that they can: make subtle posture adjustments, push on you, and give you (in the moment) instruction as you are being pushed.

If you do not get this live instruction, you can not learn to root correctly. If you can not learn to root correctly, you only get 10% of the benefit of the practice. It’s certainly better than nothing, but realistically not much better than a beginner level despite what a person may lead themselves to believe.

I recommend you connect with a Healing Tao Instructor certified in IS1 somewhere [does not need to be me ;)] if you are serious Jeff about learning how to do this practice properly.

Adel, who posts on this forum sometimes, just got certified in IS1 recently. Maybe she’ll add her thoughts onto this thread.

Qi,
Steven

That looks like a really fast pace.

He basically covers:
Fundamentals + elem. Cosmic Healing + Healing Love + Fusion 1
all in the First Week.

Then all of the Iron Shirt line (Iron Shirt 1, 2, and 3) in Week 2.

For comparison, at the Healing Tao Retreats in NC, Michael spends an entire week on the Fundamentals, and an entire week on Healing Love. That’s 2 weeks and still only half of what the Professor covers in Week 1.

In Week 2 at the retreats, Andrew and I team-teach the Fusion 1 + IS1 course (Andrew does the Fusion 1 and I do the IS1).

So Andrew/I spend the entire week just doing Fusion 1 and IS1.

In the Professor’s offering, you would have already done Fundamentals, Healing Love, Fusion 1 + more . . . all in the first week, and then Week 2 the entire Iron Shirt line.

By the way, the students in our Fusion 1 + IS1 course relish having the “Fusion 1 time” to rest from IS1. If you do IS2 and IS3 along with IS1, you will be destroyed by the end of the week (in my honest opinion) . . . that’s assuming you don’t just do a superficial treatment of the rooting material.

In short, I think “The Professor’s” course sequence might be good for someone already proficient in the material who is looking for an intensive, but I wouldn’t recommend it for a new person. Even Master Chia does not cover the material that quickly.

Other options:

1. (Best option): Continue working on your own through the Fundamentals series. HOWEVER, regardless of if you are currently working on QF1, immediately now buy the QF4 DVD by Michael. This DVD has no prerequisites of QF1-3. It contains a series of basic warmups to get you into your body, and Michael also teaches 3 Yiquan “standing-in-stillness” postures. These latter 3 are basically standing meditation postures, like what you do in IS1. They are kind of a “wimpy IS1”, so they are not bad to start with. Get that DVD and start practicing them immediately while you continue to work through QF1-3. Even working with that regularly will start to help you get out of your head. There are other standing postures that are more effective, but these are accessible to you right now without any background.

Then (ideally) sign up for Michael’s Qigong Fundamentals course next summer 2015 (and if you have the time/money, the Fusion 1 + IS1 course that Andrew/I teach). When I do IS1, I give a serious course and spend a lot of time on structure and teaching how to root.

2. (2nd option): I also do privates where I live in Michigan. You could email me to arrange something and I can focus specifically on IS1 (or anything you wish), either a weekend or week-long trip. Email: steven [at] spiritualtao [dot] com

3. (3rd option): Fly to LA next summer to connect with Master Chia on his world tour. I think it will be end of May. The first two days will be Fundamentals. Days 3-6 will be other topics still yet to be determined by the organizer David Twicken and Master Chia.

4. (4th option): Fly to Boston in October. There is a retreat offered there that is more at a beginner level. They would teach the Fundamentals level material. They bill it as an Asc. Instructor training, but it is also perfectly fine at your level for a new person and teach both groups. Unfortunately, they are not covering any IS1 at that time, instead focusing on the Fundamentals. However, you could also ask while you are there if they would give you some IS1 privates. Email in advance and ask about that option.
Boston

I think probably any of these four options would be a much better option for you, than the retreat offered by the Professor. Not saying that I think his classes would be bad, but probably not appropriate for you at this time.

>>>For a person with excessive mental activity,
>>>would it be benificial to take up Iron Shirt practice first?

Getting out your head is probably the most important thing to do, especially for people that are highly intellectual, mental types. You can get started with standing meditation immediately without any prerequisites at all. Just don’t do any of the qi packing / breathing techniques listed in the IS1 book. They can be dangerous without Fundamentals background and dangerous if done improperly (actually they can even be dangerous when done *properly* . . . a whole another long story, which is why I don’t teach them).

Qi,
Steven

It depends on the course material quite honestly.

Some of the alchemy, especially from first formula, can be learned via good DVD/audio materials and you don’t necessarily need live instruction. Michael’s DVD/audio sets are really good, as well as the 3 meditation CDs of Marie’s. Basically the difference between live and doing the homestudy is that homestudy learning is much much slower. Somehow when you are live, the higher vibrational frequency of the teacher and the group cauldron shorten your learning tremendously. Once you start learning it live, you almost don’t want to waste your time with homestudy anymore, except as a review. It’s just too slow and you don’t have the opportunity to ask “on the spot” questions. Moreover, once you get into the K&L, it starts getting more difficult for people to pick it up using homestudy alone.

In short, a poor substitute for the real thing, but at least doable to some extent in the beginning.

The physical body line is a different story altogether.
Basically it is next to impossible to learn without live instruction.
Thinking that “you have the basics” by reading a book and trying it yourself, is like learning to play tennis with a racket and ball, but no live person to play tennis with. Without having live instruction, you’d be lucky to get a 10% understanding. I can’t count the number of people that have spent YEARS working on that stuff from books via homestudy, thinking that they have a pretty good understanding, and then when they take it live, it is clear that their skill is not much different that a complete newbie that is taking it brand-new. The only difference being that the homestudy person wasted years of time.

Different courses in the physical body line are “worse” in this regard than others. Tai Chi is “somewhat” doable via homestudy, but it takes a long time and you won’t be very good. Tao Yin, similarly. Iron Shirt 1 is much much worse . . . really you can only get about a 5% understanding (if that) on your own. You really do need live interaction with somebody . . . you just won’t get the root otherwise. This I can guarantee. Iron Shirt 2 (which I mentioned before on this Forum) don’t even waste your time on it without live instruction. Even with live instruction, it is *very* difficult to learn. In fact, I’d only recommend a couple of instructors for IS2 (ironically, even some folks who miraculously got certified in it, still can’t do it properly).

As to IS1, which is what this thread is about, you can NOT learn how to root without a teacher working with you. If you can’t learn how do the posture properly so that you can root, you are not really getting the benefit of the practice outside of the opportunity to do some standing meditation. And then it begs the question: if you are not getting the benefit, why waste years spinning your wheels? The money that a person might save by not taking a class live, is time wasted down the drain. And to me, time is more valuable than money. Money can be replaced, but time can not be. Most people have a finite lifespan, after all. 🙂

In my honest opinion, saying that you will do something “eventually” is equivalent to it never happening. Reasons you may have now for not doing something will get replaced by new reasons in the future. People have busy lives. It’s just a fact of life. People never have enough free time or enough money to do something. That won’t change in 1 year, 5 years, or 10 years. There are always ways to make things happen despite what circumstances a person’s life looks like . . . I know, I’ve taken 1100 hours now of live training, and most of those have been in periods where I legitimately was not in a position in my life where it was possible, but I did it anyway.

There’s a reason why Michael continues to see repeat customers at his retreats year after year . . . because once you pony up the courage to put aside your excuses and actually attend a retreat, you quickly realize how much time you had been wasting doing it homestudy, and you realize that you don’t want to waste time any more.

So on that note, Julia is right.
And I’ve met her live at a few retreats, in fact. 😉 She gets it.

S

If you are happy, then that’s the important thing.
Just encouraging you to keep an open mind, and not be too locked into a certain idea you may have of how things have to go. 😉

S

Hello,

Glad to see so many people interested in Iron Shirt 1.

When I started the HT, there was not a lot of comment on the practice. Whenever
I was reading a book about any of the practices it was always mentioned as a
prerequisite along with the Inner Smile and MO. There were tons of articles,
posts on the forum regarding those two practices but nothing on the standing.
Iron Shirt 1 is just not a sexy topic:).

The reason why I became interested in it was not from HT but from reading Robert
Peng’s book Qigong Master. His incredible experience began with standing practices.
First I started using his practices but since I really liked the HT I bought the
Iron Shirt 1 book. I read it many times to make sure I understand the posture and
began to stand in Embracing the Tree every day.

I had weak knees and hips but I was eventually able to work up to 20 minutes a day.
Results were good, I felt a lot more emotionally grounded – enough for me to feel
the importance of continuing the practice. My knees always hurt, they needed more
strengthening is what I thought. Luckily I had posted a bit about my experience on
the forum and was able to talk to others about their practice. Steven was teaching
the IS1 course that summer and recommended doing a live class. I figured that since
the benefits just from the book were good, so live would be even better. So I set up
a savings acct just for the retreat. 6 months later I was there.

Going in I felt really strong – I had been practicing daily for 6 months. Once we
got into posture and were pushed on – I fell right over. It was one of those rude
awakenings. What I had been doing for the past 6 months was basically:

Carrying over my structural distortions into my stance – I was practicing the poor
postural problems instead of correcting them. The problem is that whatever your
posture is it will feel “right” to you because it is your habit.

I was “put” into proper alignment (which was the same as the book), but when I was
in good alignment it felt wrong. I felt like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, they had
to be lying:)

(I was showing a girl I know how to properly stand in Embracing the Tree and had to
take a picture of her in her regular stance and corrected stance before she would
believe me that she was not also the Hunchback – good posture FELT wrong to her and
she needed proof :))

For me the bottom line is that it is almost next to impossible to learn IS1 from a book. You need to be looked at by a Certified Instructor to determine your posture.
For rooting – from my experience it is IMPOSSIBLE to learn without being pushed on
by an Iron Shirt experienced person. And the difference between homestudy and live
is like kissing someone you love as opposed to watching people kiss on screen :).

The benefits for me go on and on – it turns out I don’t have weak knees – the problem
was with my psoas muscle and how it was torquing my hips and legs. Through daily
practice I have been able to change my structure enough to feel while walking etc.
I have no more pain in both knees and hips anymore. My dentist was amazed too because
my bite has changed. After stopping use of a retainer in high school my upper and
lower teeth reverted to having a gap between them. The standing practices changed
my posture enough that now that gap is gone and my teeth meet comfortably. And these
are only physical changes add emotional and spiritual to that.

The benefits of standing practices take time. They are subtle and accumulate.

Also I have found that any of the other practices become so much deeper. For my I
loved all of the practices while doing them, but once you stepped out of your
meditative space and into the “real” world you lost that feeling. The rooting and
the grounding that come from IS1 practice make all the other practices become more
concrete – they stick with you more. You find that you go deeper faster and they
are easier to do.

After 2.5 years of practice, Iron Shirt 1 retreat twice, several hours of private
lessons I was able to certify this summer – tears of joy! So now that I have
that certification “under my belt” – if you ask me what my daily practice consists
of? My reply is still Iron Shirt 1, I do it every day and am getting better at it
still. I believe that the Inner Smile and Iron Shirt 1 are the two most important
practices in the Healing Tao.

Anyway, just wanted to put my two cents worth in,
Adel