Hey guys,

just wanted to ask, who else practices the Little Nine Heaven Qigong and your experiences with it?

I've been doing it almost every single day for the last two years and I love it. From all the great stuff Steve taught us, this is probably my favourite because I can really feel how I'm working IN instead of out

I also have a small question: How important is the number of the cleansing breaths in the end? Because, in the Qigong manual it says to do 3 but in the youtube videos and at the CKT Steve told us to do one. Is there any difference?
(Sorry if this is a stupid Q, I just don't know that much about Qigong-theory )

all the best,
Oliver

Hi Oliver,

I am using the Little Nine Heaven to since a couple of months.

I think it depends on how you feel. If you feel good with one deep breath in/out then do one and if not, do as many as you think its right for you! Just listen to yourself.

Thats just my opinion and my experience I did so far with it.

all the best
Sven

Hey my friend,

good to see another qigong lover & thx a lot for your answer! Of course, i also think that listening to your body/feeling always comes first, I'd still like to know the reason why it says three in the manual versus one in the ckt/video.

Maybe Steve or Ken could jump in?

all the best,
Oliver

Generally at the end of the exercise you close with 3 deep cleansing breaths with the hand raising up on the inhale and lowering on the exhale. it is fine to do more. you should feel more relaxed with each breath. hope this helps. Ed

@Edward: Thanks man, this helps a lot

btw, another question: What do you all think of meditation? Anyone doing Qigong & meditation?

meditation can be considered one type of qigong. meditation is the "yin" or quiet aspect of qigong compared to the "yang" or active aspect of qigong. when the body is moving we are using the qi,which can make it difficult to feel. when we are practicing meditation or stillness we can more ably feel the sensations of qi. meditation is a vast subject with many different techniques and aims of practice, from the very simple to the very complex. the meditation aspect of qigong is sometimes refered to as "neigong" or "inner training" as compared to "waigong" or outer training. ed

Thanks again Ed!

So, considering that the little nine heaven system already contains a moving and a still standing part, would you still recommend some type of sitting meditation?

i would definitely recommend a seated meditation practice. meditation is mostly a mind training practice, using a seated posture allows us to not have to think about the body after some practice in becoming comfortable in sitting. a 20 minute seated meditation practice per day is a good start. this has numerous health and psycological benifits, not to mention spiritual ones. a seated meditation practice does not have to be complex to be effective. mearly sitting quietly focusing on the breathing (such as counting the inhalation and exhalations) while looking at one point is good enough to gain the benifits of lowered blood pressure and relaxation/stress reduction among others. ed

Cool, thanks again Ed!

At least one study I ran across on the health benefits of meditation indicated that meditation practices work best when they are consistent with the practitioner's spiritual beliefs. In other words, zen meditation might not be as effective for a practicing Roman Catholic as meditation systems that exist within the Catholic tradition. This isn't meant to imply anything about the validity of any system out there, but to note that they seem to have more health benefits if the practice is integrated into the person's broader approach to spirituality and faith. I'll try to track down the reference if anyone wants them.

At least one study I ran across on the health benefits of meditation indicated that meditation practices work best when they are consistent with the practitioner's spiritual beliefs. In other words, zen meditation might not be as effective for a practicing Roman Catholic as meditation systems that exist within the Catholic tradition. This isn't meant to imply anything about the validity of any system out there, but to note that they seem to have more health benefits if the practice is integrated into the person's broader approach to spirituality and faith. I'll try to track down the reference if anyone wants them.

although i wouldn't say it's written in stone, i generally agree. its more effective to do a practice that you don't have an internal resistance too, because of religious or other belief. but in general meditation just means the the self regulation of attention on a single thing or concept, and is cross-cultural. the object of meditation is determined by the technique one is using. but the act of focused attention is the same. ed

Well, I was born into Roman Catholicism but wasn't raised very religious because of my parents. Also, I never really liked the church and actually resigned from it some time ago.

I was always attracted to Asian philosophies and Osho's works, I guess if I practiced some catholic meditation my body & mind would reject it much more

I agree that meditation as generally understood is usually simply focused attention, though it can be other things as well depending on what you are focusing on. This isn't the place to delve into those sorts of questions. That's why I focused on practices rather than meditation per se--that is, how you do the meditation and what its goals are in your own mind should be compatible with your broader belief system if you want to maximize its effects. It's a matter of taking a holistic approach to meditation, one that integrates into your larger worldview. And the example of Roman Catholicism vs. Zen was only a "for instance." These are two traditions with very different worldviews and very different meditation traditions (Thomas Merton notwithstanding), so it was a handy example.

Glenn, of course I understood that it was just an example, it's just that it fit my situation very well and i agree that this is not the place to talk about religion

all the best