Saturday, June 22, 2019

wudang Qigong

The Way of Wudang Qigong

Wudang Qigong Master Chen ShiyuQigong is a practice that incorporates breathing techniques and specific movements and postures to help adjust balance in a practitioner’s body and mind, heighten feeling, internal awareness, and bodily communication, and to promote an overall more balanced and healthy existence. As a result of aligning the consciousness and the body in more harmonious communication with each other we find the body healthier, with a stronger immunity to protect against invasive forces like sickness and disease. As well as specific practices for attaining longevity and making the body and mind overall stronger, more robust, and proficient. Having more internal awareness and stronger bodily communication can also help practitioners to find their individual strengths and weaknesses, develop life goals, and learn to train their bodies and minds together.
Wudang qigong has two systems of qi gong practice: hard qi gong and internal, or soft, qigong. Hard qi gong can also be called ‘tong zi gong (桶子功),’ or ‘bucket’ qi gong. There are three levels of training in the practice of hard qigong; beginning with basic level training and moving to the more advanced stages.
Wudang Qigong Master Chen ShiyuThe practices of qi gong involve specific breathing technique, as well as the practice of swallowing air in order to cleanse the internal organs and digestive tract, gathering, distributing, and circulating qi throughout the body, storing qi, compacting qi, using qi for explosive power and protection, and strengthening the internal organs. Hard qi gong practice trains the tendons, bones and skin, while internal qi gong practice focuses on the cultivation of ‘essence’, qi, and ‘spirit’.
Combining these practices together with the conditioning of the skin, muscles, and tendons through repeated hitting with various technique and instruments and various movements can increase the strength of the external body and internal organs. The practice of qigong is meant to awaken and strengthen the vast potential each individual has; both internally and externally. It can also teach a practitioner how to be in better communication with their body and thus have better internal coordination as it has been conditioned to higher levels of health and power. Once a practitioner of hard qi gong has trained the higher levels of training they can then break objects over their body and be struck with kicks, punches, etc. without sustaining injury.
Internal qigong practice can also be called ‘soft’ qigong. Buddhist practice focuses on the cultivation of the mind or spirit with little attention paid to the body. Taoist qi gong’s main focus is on the body and health preservation. Both are considered internal/soft qigong. In internal qi gong the focus is placed on deep breathing without allowing the thoughts to wander too far. The practice of soft qigong does not require the use of large amounts of physical energy. This type of training can help to open the lungs and strengthen respiration, strengthen the organs, and also open the energy channels and meridians of the body. We practice both hard qi gong and soft qigong to connect the body as a composite whole.Wudang Qigong Master Chen Shiyu
The benefits of internal qi gong practice are vast. Internal qigong practice is beneficial for all people and can help with physical and emotional ailments that a practitioner may be suffering from. The main practice of internal qi gong is the practice of taking in healthy fresh qi and expelling the waste, toxins, and unhealthy qi that have accumulated in our bodies over time. Alongside this practice is the practice of collecting qi and storing it in the dantian to strengthen the body and revitalize the energy, and the spirit. After extensive practice and enough qi has been cultivated in the dantian of a practitioner they can then learn to use it to strengthen the five organs and also to use the mind an intention to circulate qi to open the body’s energy channels and meridians. The result being that a practitioner’s body and mind then gradually returns to the calm, soft, supple state of a child.
The practice of qigong is a practice that people of all body types, ages, and goals can partake in. The practice of qigong can help strengthen a practitioner's external and internal bodies, vital energies, spirit. By awakening the potential of our bodies, strengthening their immunity and inter-communication, and understanding them more we can eventually have success in having a clean and calm body and mind.

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David McAlmont


What is creativity? Singer and composer David McAlmont talks inspiration, collaboration and reveals his muse

In the latest in a series of interviews exploring pure creativity, and how it is conceived, nurtured and grown, The Drum catches up with musician David McAlmont.
Singer and composer David McAlmont, with one of the most unique voices in the music industry, has worked with collaborators from Michael Nyman to David Arnold. He recently formed new group Fingersnap with Guy Davies and, earlier this month, reunited with former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler for a UK tour to celebrate the 20th anniversary reissue of their classic album The Sound of McAlmont & Butler.
Where does your inspiration come from?
In the early days the songwriting always came from a navel-gazing point of despair and I got really sick of that, so I spent a good year (2005-2006) just recording other people’s songs. Then I decided the best idea was to have a big stock of lyrics and ideas written down that I could research instead of just trying to find them within myself.
This is something that really emerged when I worked with Michael Nyman. I’d listen to a song, think ‘this sounds like profound isolation’ and then go looking in the newspapers for a story about isolation. For instance a story like Samantha Orobator’s, who disappeared on a holiday in Amsterdam and the next time her family heard of her she was in a jail in Laos having transported heroin into the country. I researched the hell out of it, read everything, looked at the locations on Google Maps, followed the route.
Once you have all of that information you get into a bath or go for a walk – Spielberg apparently goes for a drive, composer Harold Arlen used to take a walk down Sunset Boulevard – and suddenly the couplet arrives. I shot out of the bath because the song was coming – it was like a birth. That’s the way it often works, so it was interesting to discover that lots of artists are similar.
So how closely do the two sides of creativity, the thinking and the doing, need to be aligned?
The doing is the execution, and the thing about the execution is that it seems so brief. If you get to that brief finishing point and you’re unhappy with what you’ve done, when the critics kick in it can be quite heartbreaking. But if the thinking, the process of getting to that point, is one you’re happy with, you can be confident and know your critics are wrong. There’s nothing worse than having a disquiet about the process when you’re doing the creative thinking.
Your latest project with Guy Davies has been very successful, and you’ve worked with Courtney Pine, Michael Nyman, Jools Holland... Who’s left on your collaboration wish list?
I was reminded of this the other night because I went to see the new Pedro Almodóvar film and usually the composer is Alberto Iglesias but this time it was Gustavo Santaolalla. He did the music for The Motorcycle Diaries and Brokeback Mountain and I love the sound he makes. I’d love to work with him.
How do you define creativity?
Creativity is necessary expression. My belief is that we’re all fingerprints, none of us the same, and so we all arrive with a unique message and we’re letting the side down if we don’t make it known. It’s what we do on this planet, we make things.
Can creativity be taught or is it purely innate?
Creativity can be coached. I’m a vocal coach and often people come to me who have been massively discouraged by a parent or teacher. When they were young and vulnerable, someone said ‘stop making that horrible noise’. Most people could sing with enough belief and the right coach.
Do you have a muse?
London is my muse. It’s such a vast organism that you can just about make a mark on it but you can’t ever control it. Often if I need inspiration, I just take a walk around London.
Photography by Anthony Elvy
This feature first appeared in the 13 November issue of The Drum, which is available to purchase here.

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