(Part 2) Best energy healing books according to redditors

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We found 214 Reddit comments discussing the best energy healing books. We ranked the 82 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.

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Top Reddit comments about Energy Healing:

u/[deleted] · 12 pointsr/GetMotivated

I'm a traditional Wing Chun student whose Sifu studied modified under James DeMile (who trained quite a bit with Bruce personally and is attempting to make a documentary about it) before learning traditional and then Northern Shaolin and Hung Gar (mostly under GM Wing Lam). A lot of it is "common knowledge" within even the modified system, but what a lot of people are unaware of is that there are around 14 different styles of Wing Chun, so even the "modified vs traditional" debate that so often gets tossed out as "it doesn't matter" does, in fact, matter. For further independent reference, check out "Complete Wing Chun: A definitive Guide to Wing Chun's history and traditions". While I recommend this for anyone interested, I specifically recommend it for any modified students whose Sifus have neglected to educate them on their history. Another interesting but less useful book is "Wing Chun Kung-fu", which was essentially entirely ghost-written by Bruce Lee, but most credit was given to J Yimm Lee in order to get his career going.

(useless, that is, unless you've studied a martial art directly under a master; you cannot learn anything from a book or video without having learned it independently in real life first, so don't even try, you will fail)

--------------------------------------------

Most of the stories about Bruce's training come from GM William Cheung, Bruce's older childhood friend, and one of the five students whom GM Yip Man (yup, the one the movies w/ Donnie Yen tell some of the story of) taught the traditional Wing Chun he learned from Leung Bik, the old man in the shop in the movie who was actually an old man on a boat in the river in real life. Cheung was Bruce's surrogate older brother in their street gangs, and when Yip Man took him on as a student, Cheung was who taught Bruce everything he knows - at the time, and even some still today, Masters only taught a select few senior students, whose job was then, as payback for the preferential treatment, to then go and teach the rest of the students the beginner basics (a test of knowledge / skill for the senior student, as well). Literally, Bruce would follow William around the room, practicing what he practiced; and would also follow him around in their gang, doing roof-top sparring matches in the streets of Hong Kong, matches which traditionally trained William Cheung supposedly never lost more than a hundred of (but who knows, right?). This was also the time when masters would get shut and locked into theaters by 70+ armed men in assassination attempts, and make it out to live another day, so understand that this was a tumultuous time in the history of modern martial arts in China.

The long story short of Bruce's fall from grace is that at one point, Bruce stood in front of the school and was telling other students that master was sick that day, to come back next week, all so he could end up getting what amounted to private lessons. Curious why his students weren't showing up, Yip Man caught Bruce doing this, took him upstairs, and gave him a private lesson he probably never forgot for the rest of his life (read: beat the ever-living shit out of him). Years later, sort of the black sheep in the school, he was having trouble progressing - no clue whether this was a lack of skill / effort on his part, or if he'd lost the master's trust, but either way, Yip Man wouldn't permit William to teach him the third form, Bil Gee. After a while, Bruce was getting upset, as his stardom as a new cinema presence in China was going to his head, and he attempted to bribe Yip Man with a house/school in return for being taught the next form.

That was the last day that Bruce learned a lick of traditional Wing Chun - from then on, the only other Wing Chun he learned was modified, and unfortunately, due to the nature of how modified was learned by it's originator, certain techniques in modified are just plain wrong. It's also the reason why he was never allowed to call what he taught Wing Chun - he'd have the entire Wing Chun community up in arms if he did, because he never finished the system, and a lot of what he did was "unorthodox" because it borrowed what worked from other systems. Oddly, that's actually a major point of why traditional Wing Chun works so well, and why modified students get so bent out of shape when we insist on the distinction - it's the modified school that had a big issue with things like adaptation, elbows, and high kicks, although that has obviously softened over the many years since then, as well as they've adopted numerous techniques from Hung Gar in the south, covering up many of the original deficiencies in the style.

If you're curious about that story on how "modified/traditional" came to exist, let me relate the tale of how the moneychanger poked a hole in the wall of the doctor and his sons to steal the art from his neighbors during a time when it was only taught within the family, eventually beating up the sons, giving the father the insight to realize his art was being stolen, found the hole, and starting teaching incorrect technique and leaving out all of the footwork now that he knew he was being spied on (and seriously, foot work is the bee's knees when it comes to martial arts) - and how although he's a horrible person for stealing it, and when caught, wasn't confronted, but taught wrong techniques, and then went on to teach numerous people techniques that were purposefully taught to him wrong, he also learned enough before he was caught to have learned a correct thing or two, which allowed him to keep up the farce long enough to gain enough popularity that the sons of the doctor he stole it from decided they had to share their art, thus without his theft, NO ONE would know Wing Chun today!

For reference, the forms are: Sil Lum Tao - Small Idea Way, is the first form, Chum Kuen - Bridge Seeking, is the second, which is all Bruce ever learned; there is, in most Wing Chun, Bil Gee - Thrusting Fingers as the third form, and then the Wooden Stake Man, aka Wooden Dummy, which is a drastically changed form depending on your branch of Wing Chun. In traditional, we also learn to use Butterfly Swords (form name Bart Jarn Do), and the Dragon Long Pole, literally just a 7 1/2' long pole of flexible wax wood with a taper, that originated when a fleeing spear-fighter wasn't allowed to bring the spear-tip into the Buddhist temple, so he snapped it off and created long pole techniques with the haft.

As I mentioned before, Bruce called it Wing Chun Do for a long time, being very insistent that it was the Wing Chun Way, but not Wing Chun, until his change to outright calling it Jeet Kun Do so it could be his own thing that he could market on his own.

It's not that Bruce was a bad guy, or should be lambasted for any of this, but at the same time, giving him credit for the teachings is misleading at best, and disingenuous at worst. In the end, he was a movie star and a badass because he put insane amounts of effort into being the absolute best he could be. I don't mean to detract from that, or other's motivation, but in the end, Bruce Lee was also a con-artist and a seller of shit, who used "tricks" to seem much much faster than he really was, especially as regards "crossing hands" with other people. One of the exercises we do (of which there are literally hundreds of variations) is called "chi sao", or "clinging hand", but the exercises themselves essentially have one party passive while they other utilizes an economy of motion technique - one which quite specifically just lets you look really fast, but is actually about feeling when the partner moves their arm as a "trigger", shooting your hand forward at that point. If you're unaware of the exercise, however, it just seems unstoppably fast, when, in reality, it's just already set up to do that, uncounterable, from the start, as a training exercise. It's things like that that have to be brought up when talking about Bruce, because, like I said, he was a bit of a con-artist.

IN THE END, however, the most important thing is that Bruce was freakishly full of dedication to bettering himself, and didn't let his own failures and fuckups stop him from being the best him he could be. He proved that it's not the 10,000 moves you know, but the one move you practice 10,000 times. He proved that dedication can overcome anything, patience and perserverence are the most important things to self-betterment, and the only thing holding you back is yourself.

I'd just much rather see motivation based on what Bruce Lee actually did and accomplished rather than what he basically reposted from the Eastern common wisdom to a Western audience that had never seen it before.

u/dxnxax · 7 pointsr/energy_work

First, it's not your job to convince anyone. Suffice it to say, that if they are not convinced, then they are not yet ready for the truth and it is a truth that they need to get themselves to.

Second, check out this book linked in the sidebar:

https://www.amazon.com/Energy-Cure-Unraveling-Mystery-Hands/dp/1591799112

The Energy Cure by William Bengston. If you are a skeptic and looking for scientific proof that energy heals, pick up this book. It includes overviews of research in which mice with aggressive breast cancer genes were cured in full with only healing energy from hands.

u/chuckiestealady · 7 pointsr/TrollXChromosomes

I don’t wish to justify your sister’s avoidance but I was devastated to discover allegations of my late beloved grandfather’s possible sexual abuse involvement. The person who told me prefaced it with “Ooh there are dodgy things about him people have no idea of!”

I replied with a hopeful- “and I’m glad I don’t know them,” hoping she’d go no further.

She violated this boundary but there’s something cowardly in my attempt to avoid finding out the horrid things she accused him of. I hate her for telling me as it’s too late to verify its truth or- if needed - help the alleged victim. I wasn’t ready to let go of this image of the only man who truly loved me in a wholesome way.

Your sister might return to this once the possibility has sunk in and curiosity overtakes her.

In any case your recovery cannot depend on her or anyone else. Please seek help. Read books like The Body Keeps Score (by Bessel van der Kolk, on the effects of trauma) , Tapping In Resources ( by Laurel Parnell, on how to empower yourself with the strength and care you would receive from others) , and CBT For Dummies (by Rhena Branch et al, on how to apply Cognitive Behaviour Therapy to your thought patterns to think and feel more healthily and balanced)

u/repulsedmonkey · 7 pointsr/taijiquan

Don't bother buying an instructional book that attempts to show you where your hands and feet go--these never end up being useful.

Instead look at books that discuss theory/principles, or biographies of past masters or training experiences. These are more useful since they'll inspire you to practice more and become more skilled.

Some good books to start are

Neijiaquan: Internal Martial Arts - Jess O'Brien


Chinese Boxing: Masters and Methods - Robert Smith

u/antipeoplemachine · 6 pointsr/Psychonaut

I highly recommend Tai Chi Classics, by Way-Sun Liao. This book contains a translation of the original texts, as well as some context for Western people, and other supplementary information.

If you're young and spry, check out the Xin Jian, Er Liu form of Chen style Taiji. It's extremely energetic and beautiful. I practiced for some time and really started to feel like I was getting in touch with the subtle energy in my body.

u/Darkstar7175 · 6 pointsr/TheMindIlluminated

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.

u/GreedyButler · 5 pointsr/karate

Here is most of my library, broken down, with links and some thoughts on each.

Karate Specific

  • The Bubishi by Patrick McCarty (Amazon) - I think this book needs to be in every library.
  • Classical Kata of Okinawan Karate by Patrick McCarthy (Amazon) - One of the first books I purchased by McCarthy. Details older version of classic kata found in a lot of traditional styles.
  • Karatedo by My Way of Life - Gichin Funakoshi (Amazon) - Great read! I really nice view at the life of Funakoshi.
  • The Twenty Guiding Principles of Karate by Gichin Funakoshi (Amazon) - Another great read. While I'm no longer a practitioner of Shotokan, I believe the teachings of Funakoshi should be tought to every karateka.
  • Okinawan Karate : Teachers, styles and secret techniques by Mark Bishop (Amazon) - Great amount of historical content, and helped link a few things together for me.
  • The Study of China Hand Techniques by Morinobu Itoman (Lulu.com) - The only known publication by Itoman, this book detains original Okinawan Te, how it was taught, practiced, and some history. This was one of my best finds.
  • The Essence of Okinawan Karate-do by Shoshin Nagamine (Amazon) - Great details on Matsubayashi Shorin-ryu kata, and some nice historical content.
  • The Way of Kata by Lawrence Kane & Kris Wilder (Amazon) - Fantastic book on diving deeper into kata to find the application of the techniques.
  • Classic Kata of Shorinji Ryu: Okinawan Karate Forms of Richard 'Biggie' Kim by Leroy Rodrigues (Amazon) - Not quite accurate as to the title, this book details the versions of shorinji-ryu kata as if they were taught by a Japanese school. Still able to use, as long as you understand what stances and techniques have changed between Okinawa and Japan.
  • Black Belt Karate by Jordan Roth (Amazon) - This was a gift from a friend. I have a First Edition hard cover. Shotokan specific, and has some nice details on the kata.
  • Karate-do Kyohan: The Master Text by Gichin Funakoshi (Amazon) - Love this book, especially for the historical content.
  • Kempo Karate-do by Tsuyoshi Chitose (Shindokanbooks.com) - The only known book from Chitose, highlights his history, his thoughts and ideas for practicing karate-do as a way of life, and contains steps for practicing Henshu-Ho. Chitose is the creator of the style I study. I have this book for obvious reasons. Your mileage may vary.

    Kobujutsu Specific

  • Okinawan Weaponry: Hidden methods, ancient myths of Kobudo & Te by Mark Bishop (Amazon) - Really great detail into the history of some of the weapons and the people who taught them from Okinawa.
  • Okinawan Kobudo Vol 1 & 2 (Lulu.com) - Fantastic books detailing the kihon and kata of Okinawan Kobudo. Anyone who takes Ryukyu Kobujutsu, and doesn't want to spend hundreds of dollars on the original texts by Motokatsu Inoue, this is the next best thing.
  • Bo: Karate Weapon of Self-Defense by Fumio Demura (Amazon) - Purchased it for the historical content. Doesn't actually apply to anything in Ryukyu Kobujutsu, but still a decent read. I also have his Nunchaku and Tonfa books.

    Other Martial Arts

  • Applied Tai Chi Chuan by Nigel Sutton (Amazon) - A great introduction to Cheng Style Tai Chi, detailing some of the fundamentals and philosophy behind the teachings.
  • Tai Chi Handbook by Herman Kauz (Amazon) - More Cheng Style Tai Chi, but this one has more emphasis on teaching the shortened form (37 steps).
  • Tai Chi Chuan: Classical Yang Style: The Complete Long Form and Qigong by Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming (Amazon) - Just received this for Chirstmas, and looking forward to diving in. Includes some history of Tai Chi Chuan, Yang style Tai Chi, philosophy, and has instruction on the complete long form (108 steps)
  • The Text-book of Ju-Jutsu as Practiced in Japan by Sadakazu Uyenishi (Amazon) - I have a very old version of this book (1930ish). Picked it up for the historical content, but still a great read.
  • Tao of Jeet Kun Do by Bruce Lee (Amazon) - Notes on technique, form, and philosophy from Bruce Lee. Another must read for every martial artist, regardless of discipline.
  • Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: The Ultimate Guide to Dominating Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Mixed Martial Arts Combat by Alexandrew Paiva (Amazon) - Excellent step by step illustrations on performing the basic techniques in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. Easy to understand and follow. Contains several tips on what to watch out for with each technique as well.

    Health and Anatomy

  • The Anatomy of Martial Arts by Dr. Norman Link and Lily Chou (Amazon) - Decent book on the muscle groups used to perform specific techniques in martial arts. On it's own, not totally useful (but not useless), but with the next book, becomes gold!
  • Bodyweight Strength Training Anatomy by Bret Contraris (Amazon) - Brilliant book that details what muscles are use for what type of action, and gives examples on body weight exercises that pin-point those specific muscle groups. My best purchase of 2014, especially when paired with the previous book.
  • Martial Mechanics by Phillip Starr (Amazon) - Slightly Chinese Martial Arts specific, but contains great material on how to strengthen stances and fine-tune technique for striking arts.

    EDIT: I can't believe I forgot this one...

  • The Little Black Book of Violence by Lawrence Kane & Kris Wilder (Amazon) - Fantastic book about situational awareness, what happens during fights, and the aftermath. LOVED this book.
u/Fluffy_ribbit · 5 pointsr/streamentry

Damo Mitchell is the closest I've ever seen to someone putting out a significant amount about Nei Dan practice. Bruce Frantzis has a good amount of teachings on qigong. If you just want lots and lots of techniques, there's this, although I suspect you'd have a rough time making progress with it.

u/robot_one · 3 pointsr/taoism

I don't really like the other book recommendations in here (no comment on Livia Kohn's book, never seen it). None have very clear instructions or progressions.

Opening The Dragon Gate is an entertaining introduction into the practices - it's a biography of one of the practitioners. That lineage has a book out with specific practices and it has a comically long name.

While I think the lineage sucks, John Chang - Magus of Java - is very interesting. They don't accept students, so don't fall in love with this one. I found out about this lineage form this video. Take it with some grains of salt.

I think those are pretty solid representations of the practices. Mantak Chia is kind of new age, senior citizen practices.

----

You asked about specific practices though and I just gave you a list of books. So I'll try to address your actual question.

The main practice is meditation. Different schools have different meditations. Some of them are steeped in ritual, some are pretty bare bones.

Exercises refer to qigong and martial arts. Qigong is best understood as holding stances, focusing on breathing, and energy.

As for diets, Taoists traditionally abstain from grains. I know the esoteric justification for this, but it's hard to explain without defining a lot of terminology. I pass it off as a bit of dogma - even though I eat gluten free for other reasons. The gist of it though, not eating grains makes your mind more clear and makes you more balanced mentally and emotionally.

Sexual exercises are something popularized by Mantak Chia through a few books. I don't think it is inline with real Taoism. Most the hard core Taoists go celibate for some time to benefit their practice.

----

The theory behind all the practice is that they wish to change physical energy (jing), to energy (chi), and energy to spirit (shen) - through energetic practices, mainly meditation. They believe strengthening their spirit will allow them to attain consciousness after death and continue their practices, refining their spirit and reaching higher planes. They believe that without these practices you are continually shuffled through a cycle of reincarnation.

Basically, they go for a promotion in the spirit world.

Hope this helps.

u/KirinG · 3 pointsr/taijiquan

If you can get it shipped on time: this
is a pretty good video. There's a nice explanation for each movement in the 24 form, and it gets into basic postures and such. As far as books go, Yang Jwing-Ming is pretty popular, and most of his books are available for kindle. He also makes videos, I have never seen one, but this one sounds good for beginners.

u/Jewbot69 · 3 pointsr/IWantToLearn

Aaah!

As someone teaching myself, I should let you know, you already know how to do Tai-Chi! You just don't know that you know. ;)

Let's try some right now!
To start out, the element of tai-chi is water, and when you move, it will feel like water; With 'PUSH' and 'PULL' - like the moon's effect on the ocean.

The three main parts of your body that move with tai chi are the legs, the arms and the hips (later your entire spine starting from the hips).

The easiest way to feel tai-chi at any moment is in the wrists (later the hips).

try moving your hands back and forth from your wrists as if you were moving water between them (like a water bender). One wrist pulls, the other pushes. try this until it feels fluid.

now try this with your elbows and wrists.

now try this with your fingers palms and elbows and wrists.

now try this with your shoulders, elbows, wrists, palms, and fingers.

okay! now try with your S, E, W, P and F's.... but leading with your hips!! so you move your hips to lead your arms. It can be quite powerful :)

Edit: if you want to sincerely study tai-chi, I would recommend learning from Bruce Kumar Frantzis. He is a taoist lineage master (inhered the title from learning from masters) in the arts of bagua zhang (air bending) and tai chi chuan (water bending). He has a book out on learning BOTH of those art forms. I am reading it right now and its a great place to start! book

u/scott_sebastian · 3 pointsr/NevilleGoddard

I am very sorry about your father's diagnosis. Clearly, I recommend pursuing all of the pharmaceutical, surgical, and other scientifically-proven medical treatments recommended by your oncologist.

As an adjunct though, I would look into Dr William Bengston. He has used a visualization technique (called rapid image cycling) to ameliorate (and cure) forms of cancer in mice -- in 8 different double-blind hospital studies. He is currently carrying out funded research at Brown University (specifically about this phenomenon).

Here are a few of his experiments in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6047252/

https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/gtpp/Documents/jse_14_3_bengston.pdf

Here is his book (where he details the history and evidence of the phenomenon and outlines the specific technique):

https://www.amazon.com/Energy-Cure-Unraveling-Mystery-Hands/dp/1591799112

Once again, the most important thing is to follow the advice of your oncologist, but this technique shows much promise as a supplementary practice. Best of luck!

u/livinmystory · 3 pointsr/metaphysical

The Crystal Bible https://www.amazon.com/dp/1582972400/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_54E1Bb7GZTMB7

Crystals for Beginners: The Guide to Get Started with the Healing Power of Crystals https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075NF35FN/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_s5E1Bb3M1VZ9M

The Book of Stones, Revised Edition: Who They Are and What They Teach https://www.amazon.com/dp/1583949089/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_N6E1BbC7BKCGR

u/Thaurin · 2 pointsr/WingChun

Give Complete Wing Chun: The Definitive Guide to Wing Chun's History and Traditions by Robert Chu, Rene Ritchie and Y. Mu a try. It is a pretty comprehensive history of wing chun, from what I've read of it. As the foreword by Mark V. Wiley perhaps a little hyperbolically says:

> Complete Wing Chun is perhaps the best book written on the various schools comprising a single martial art form. The authors have done an excellent job in their tireless research and presentation of material into this comprehensive treatise on one of the most controversial and misunderstood arts of this century. This book is destined to become the classic reference on the subject, and has set a standard by which other researchers and practitioners wishing to uncover their art should follow. I highly recommend this book to all Wing Chun stylists and martial arts researchers alike without hesitation. If ever you were to buy just one book on the art, this should be it." --Mark V. Wiley

u/my_twinsoul_journal · 2 pointsr/twinflames

I have 2 versions of that Song!!! I love it! Thank you!

Thank you so much for the share, and the read. Everything will be alright, thank you for being strong and brave!

You may like an extra reading resource: 📚📚
Energy Boosters - Positive Vibes Only! ✨✨❤️❤️

u/Thomas_Amundsen_ · 2 pointsr/Buddhism

Healing With Form, Energy, and Light: The Five Elements in Tibetan Shamanism, Tantra, and Dzogchen will give you a little more insight and also describe practices to work with the channels, winds and drops. It's from a Tibetan Bon perspective, which is not very different from the Buddhist Tibetan Nyingma.

u/jplewicke · 2 pointsr/streamentry

These are the "find a therapist" directories for somatic experiencing and EMDR.

If you can't find a therapist near you, then it is still probably helpful to read some books about those approaches and why they're helpful so that you're informed about how trauma and treating it works as you work on it yourself.

Somatic Experiencing - In An Unspoken Voice.

EMDR - Getting Past Your Past and Tapping In.

DBT - you can get workbooks that you use yourself that go over the different DBT skills. I used this one with my therapist, but this one is also highly rated.

u/amazon-converter-bot · 1 pointr/FreeEBOOKS

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

amazon.fr

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

u/TheNecrons · 1 pointr/taijiquan

Hi! Of course it's possible to do Tai Chi for the reasones you said (health and stress relief). You just a good source (teacher or online), and put that into practice beginning from tomorrow xD. It has to be a simple thing: practicing the parts from the form once or twice a day, plus some song exercises (for relaxation and structure).

Let's start by searching for a good teacher. You said you are from north Texas. The Yang Family Tai Chi association (held by the lineage holder of the Yang family taichi, Yang Jun) has a center in Lewisville. Now I personally don't know how good are they. The fact they are the lineage holder is surely an up. But I don't know, you might it give a try if you want/can.

Other than that I personally don't know other centers.


Now, about online resources. Many will recommend you this Book by Cheng Man Ching (it has great reviews tho).

Another great master is Liang Shou Yu: this Book has great reviews. There's also a dvd version of this, at higher price.

There are also other materials, and also "online courses" (monthly pay), but for now I'd wait what others have to say.

Don't worry if many instructors seem to do the same movements in different ways. It doesn't matter which way you make the movements, the principles are what matters.

u/doubled_d · 1 pointr/manga

You're better off watching it in Kung Fu movies. That is where Taichi most frequently appears. If you want to go really in depth, here's a comprehensive book.

u/agaveamericana · 1 pointr/internal_arts

Wong Kiew Kit has some really good books. The most relevant to you might be The Complete Book of Tai Chi Chuan.

u/space_noodel · 1 pointr/Buddhism

Healing with Form, Energy and Light: The Five Elements in Tibetan Shamanism, Tantra, and Dzogchen provides very detailed teachings and practices related to the five elements. The disclaimer here is that these are Bon teachings. However, I have found them to be compatible with if not almost indistinguishable from how they are presented in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism.

u/serpentpower · 1 pointr/occult

Well there are a ton of books on the subject. The Serpent Power is probably not the best place to start because it is highly technical. I will recommend a few books to get you started. The thing is that books on this subject range greatly on topics covered. And there are a lot of "new-agey" type books also. They all range from technical instruction to feel-good stories about the authors life. If you let me know specifically what you are looking for, maybe I can provide more specific knowledge. Anyways, here are a list of books to get you started.

Kundalini Rising: Exploring the Energy of Awakening This is a great book because it is a collection of articles that cover all sorts of topics relating to Kundalini. You have a spectrum of new-agey authors to the scientifically minded authors, and all the gradations in-between. Highly recommended to get started.

The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga, C. G. Jung Transcript of a lecture given by Jung regarding Kundalini. Also a great starting point. He talks a lot about the chakras as well.

Kundalini & the Chakras: Evolution in this Lifetime was recommended by /u/Marc-le-Half-Fool above. I bought it and do recommend it myself.

The Biology of Kundalini This book in invaluable. It is available for free online as well as available for purchase. It contains very detailed descriptions of properly living with Kundalini (mindset, diet, exercises, much more).

Let me know if I can offer any other suggestions.

u/changee_of_ways · 1 pointr/taijiquan

I understand. I think a lot of people on the net forget that while most people live in urban areas, not all people live in urban areas, and that if you don't your choices probably boil down to Web/Print Tai Chi or no Tai Chi.

If Yang is what you are interested in, I'd start with Simplied Tai Chi it's a pretty decent book that covers the short form. There is a companion DVD, but I haven't seen it so I can't give you a review. You could also check your local library, they may have more materials

I'd always suggest working with a live instructor if possible, even if just to get the basics body mechanics down. Even if you are too far away from a Tai Chi instructor 6 months or so of Karate or Tae Kwon Do could give you a big jump if you work hard at it. Martial arts to a certain extent are martial arts, and a lot of the basics transfer. If that's not feasible, then go for it, as long as you listen to your body and don't do anything that causes pain what's the worst that happens, you get a little exercise, hopefully outside in some nice weather. :)





u/kteague · 1 pointr/yoga

I've never experienced a kundalini awakening. I do really like how kundalini-style yoga stirs the energies in the body though.

Kundalini yoga is said to be a more direct path to a kundalini awakening, but a kundalini awakening can arise in any form of yoga, it's certainly not unique to kundalini yoga only.

The book Kundalini Rising, a collection of essays on this understudied area, is probably the best source of information on this topic.

Gopi Krishana's autobiography of his kundalini experiences, in _Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man_, is also interesting reading (which he attained through hatha and primarily seated meditation). I've got a copy of this book, and kundalini awakenings are very rare and generally require a very dedicated practice, e.g. usually at the level of 2-4 hours yoga/meditation per day sustained for at least five to ten years.

Gopi's kundalini awakening nearly killed him. It made him extremely depressed for years. There are cases of permanent mental health disabilities and even death arising from a kundalini awakening. However, Gopi's book is also accompanied by psychological commentary by James Hillman, who posits that Gopi may have had pre-existing mental health issues before his kundalini awakening and his awakening may have helped him cope and be better able to live with those conditions.