Reddit reviews The Way of Energy: Mastering the Chinese Art of Internal Strength with Chi Kung Exercise (A Gaia Original)

Welcome! Several suggestions:

1. The Mind Illuminated. The main author Culadasa just went through a sex scandal, so don't expect it to make you a saint. But that said, it's an amazing manual for developing concentration ("shamatha"). And it is body based in that the main object of focus is the sensations on the breath. Many people have used this approach with great results. Once you build sufficient concentration on the breath at the nostrils, it becomes much easier to feel other body sensations. At the point you are at now, you lack sufficient "sensory clarity" to notice them.
   
2. Try a 10-Day Vipassana course. It's like meditation bootcamp, very hard core, but sometimes can be just what the doctor ordered. I was also a stuck in their head intellectual (philosophy major in undergrad). Vipassana courses start with meditation on the breath for 3 days, then it's all feeling the body head to toe for 7 days. Really helped me get into body sensations. Donation based, so you don't need to be rich to attend. Very painful if you don't have at least 1 hour a day sitting practice already though.
   
3. Autogenic training. Another great body based technique that induces deep relaxation. Needs about 2-3 months of daily practice to start kicking in. 15 minutes or so twice a day is best. More "self hypnosis" than "meditation" but really does work given enough time and (letting go of) effort.
   
4. Standing meditation aka zhan zhuang. This is probably the fastest way to get sensations of buzzing, tingling, etc. ("qi") in the body. Requires less time commitment too, only 20-30 minutes a day, but don't just stand there also relax deeply and feel into each part of the body one by one while keeping the form/structure. Can help to have a teacher, but not strictly required if you really work on having a long spine and relaxing into the posture.
   
5. Tense and release exercises. This is often found in "progressive muscle relaxation" but the best way to do it IMO is slowly. Try lying down and relaxing for a minute or two, then very slowly tense all the muscles in your right leg from your toes, foot, calf, shin, quadriceps, hamstring, inner thigh, and glute. Take 30-60 seconds to go from totally relaxed to 90% maximum tension, then hold for 10 seconds, then slowly release the tension taking 30-60 seconds to return to relaxation. Compare how your right leg feels versus your left leg for a minute. Then do this with your left leg. Repeat for right arm and left arm. Then whole body. Now do a body-based meditation, feeling into the muscles and relaxing them--it will be much easier. When you are tensing or relaxing, it should be continuous, not static, so it should be very slowly getting more tense or getting more relaxed. That will build incredible muscle control and mindfulness. Once you get the hang of arms and legs and whole body, you can do specific muscle groups too which can be quite interesting.
   
   Best of luck!

Learn about doing shadow work. Rather than reading a text, you can watch videos about it online.

But ultimately, you have to ask yourself the question, why are those thoughts appearing in your mind. Whenever there are thoughts in your mind that you cannot control, it is usually your subconscious trying to give you feedback (positive or negative) on what direction you should take.

The type of questions you mentioned usually pop up with self acceptance issues. Which almost everyone has. There is a part of you that you cannot accept, and you are rejecting it, and so it is invading your mind space, it is telling you that if you are not satisfied with who you are, then work towards the person you want to be. You have an ideal image of who you want to be, what is your role/hierarchy in the society. Anytime you find out that there is someone better than you, your subconscious mind causes a reaction because there is a mismatch with the perception of who you want to be.

Most people have this instinctive reaction, but if this particularly bothers you then you may have unresolved issues from your childhood. Or it may also be a part of your genetic make-up. It is okay to have those thoughts, try to be accepting of them, and understand why they are arising. Use that understanding to gain a better acceptance of yourself and be more "whole", so to speak.

Instead of reading texts, practice forms of healing arts like Qigong or Yoga which will give you good foundation on the road to self-acceptance.

Unfortunately, I don't know of any resources with TMI-like clear instruction ... this books really is in a league of its own ;) I have been practicing Zhan Zhuang using these videos. Before my first sit of the day, I'll do a few minutes of the warm-up exercise, 5-10 minutes of the posture, and a couple minutes of the cool-down exercise. In terms of books, I've heard that Energy Work is good, as well as The Way of Energy, which was written by the gentleman in the videos I linked above. I've also been practicing ashtanga yoga for almost a year now, and I'm just now starting to recognize that it may be helping a bit with the energy stuff, as well. There's a bit of a learning curve to the technique, breathing, and postures you have to go through before it becomes effective, I suspect.

Yes. Watch from 1 hour and 17 min in:

r/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhtU5ei6YaM&t=247s

In terms of learning to work with energy the number one most important thing IMO is to learn to really ground/root your energy. That can be done very deeply through standing meditation postures from qigong (called Zhan Zhuang). You can also directly learn to sink your energy.

A few good books for learning to do standing meditation and to ground

https://www.amazon.com/Way-Energy-Mastering-Internal-Strength/dp/0671736450/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1536310978&sr=8-1&keywords=way+of+energy

https://www.amazon.com/Opening-Energy-Gates-Your-Body/dp/1583941460/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1536311094&sr=1-1&keywords=opening+the+energy+gates+of+your+body

And for working with energy in general:

https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Promise-Qi-Creating-Extraordinary/dp/0809295288/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0809295288&pd_rd_r=f2a13599-b27c-11e8-ad5d-f9d1f1abea37&pd_rd_w=jSsme&pd_rd_wg=PHn62&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=6725dbd6-9917-451d-beba-16af7874e407&pf_rd_r=4E6D4PWEM54GBZ9TJKQP&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=4E6D4PWEM54GBZ9TJKQP&dpID=51wRmSyNaFL&preST=_SX218_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=detail

https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Light-Tao-Foundational-Practices-ebook/dp/B004J4WM6S/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1536311129&sr=1-1&keywords=healing+light+of+the+tao

https://www.amazon.com/Way-Qigong-Science-Chinese-Healing/dp/0345421094/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1536311155&sr=1-1&keywords=way+of+qigong

I am pretty new to it all but I really like Everyday Chi Kung and The Way of Energy, both by Lam Kam Chuen. It's pretty easy to develop a beginner's practice (and then carry it to higher levels) using these two books. You might also want to look at his standing meditation videos.

Seconding /u/gilbertgotweed's recommendation and would also highly recommend Bruce's book called Energy Works. There is some occult-oriented material in there but it consists of dozens of really practical, clearly written exercises without any window dressings.

I've re-read The Art of Chi Kung recently and it's two introductory practices produce a ton of energy. The Way of Energy and Stand Still Be Fit are resources I recommend time and time again, and for good reason. Rob Burbea's instructions on the energy body are fantastic as well. Twelvefold lower-belly breathing is easy to integrate into a seated practice as warm up too.

> Do you see the various different energy teachings as compatible?

For sure, though I'm wondering what you mean by compatible and if you had any particular practices and concerns in mind.

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https://reviewmeta.com/amazon/0671736450

https://www.fakespot.com/product/the-way-of-energy-mastering-the-chinese-art-of-internal-strength-with-chi-kung-exercise-a-gaia-original

Zhan Zhuang might be the best option for you. Check out The Way of Energy by Master Lam Kam Chuen. It's a simple and detailed book on Zhan Zhuang and how to start training by yourself. Remember to follow the book instruction precisely to get any result. I think the book fits your criteria of postures, feelings, visualizations, and explanations.

It's only $13 on amazon. If you want the over $25 free shipping, buy it with his other book Chi Kung: Way of Power, which teaches you how to apply power.

Good luck.

You should check out the book from the host of that series video, if its the same guy I'm thinking of.

https://www.amazon.com/Way-Energy-Mastering-Internal-Strength/dp/0671736450 by Lam Kam-Chuen, I've seen this come highly recommended from several Qi gong practitioners

Good luck

I have repeated rocking during meditation. Pretty much every monk I talked to told me to ignore it and just focus on the meditation. No one seemed concerned that it was dangerous. One monk told me that if I set a strong intention to not move, that could stop it, but he didn't say that I needed to stop it.

I have done some Qi Gong and it might be helping, not sure yet. The Qi Gong can be very spastic, like an exaggerated rocking of what happens in meditation, but maybe it will calm things down eventually. I like the simplicity of Qi Gong. If you're interested, this is a good book https://www.amazon.com/Way-Energy-Mastering-Internal-Strength/dp/0671736450 .

Would recommend Dr Lams book The Way of Energy and Moontagu's video on The Complete Basics of Bagua to give you some extra information to help. In the video he goes into really good detail about how to position yourself, which helped me as I had no mentor.


Good luck with your exercises :) and reach out if you need help!

I mean Zhan Zhuang as taught in this book:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Way-Energy-Mastering-Internal/dp/0671736450


Mostly as stationary postures to cultivate internal strength. I am a novice, excuse my ignorance!

Equanimity is a skill that has to be developed. Take it slow and don't push yourself too hard at once.

I've pasted an article below that is written by Shinzen Young that discusses how to integrate pain with meditation:

https://www.shinzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/art_synopsis-pain.pdf

One other thing is that you could try out standing meditation. One form I use myself is known as "Zhan Zhaung". It is a progression of stationary standing poses (each one more difficult than the previous). Zhan Zhaung can be easily combined with meditation techniques. It also helps to build strength in the body which may help with your back issues. A set of videos can be found on youTube. The first video in the series is posted below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y07FauHYlmg

If it seems like these standing poses may be interesting / useful, I'd also encourage you to find the companion book as it explains the techniques in more detail:

https://www.amazon.com/Way-Energy-Gaia-Original/dp/0671736450

Ah yeah. Address the posture and see if you still feel bad. It's likely you'll feel way better.

There are a lot of different things called qi gong. The kind I'm thinking of is stuff like that explicated in this fantastically 80s looking book. All jokes aside, that book works really well as a standalone guide to the basic practice, which works wonders if you do it for 15 minutes daily.