the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

are you doing this?

the reason I started doing it was 1. laziness 2. try to see what happens if i just work on qigong and don't have to worry about anything MA-related. 3. more interest in health and less in MA.

I go back and forth between them. Most of them are seated, but as of a week ago 'the universe' gave me the message to lie down for meditating. There are some types of meditation where the intent is to actually fall asleep during, so that while the physical body and mind are 'out of the way' the spirit can accomplish more with the meditation - that is the one I am currently doing, although not all my lying down meditation is that way. Some are about paying attention to the tightness throughout the body and releasing it before you begin the meditation - not having to support yourself makes that a lot easier to identify the spots in the body.

As a general rule we break down meditation in Hermetics as follows:

1. Lying - entirely qualitative / out of body projection (falling asleep can be a problem)
2. Sitting - mostly qualitative / some quantitative (i.e. power development) due to gravity acting upon the spinal column vertically
3. Standing - some qualitative / mostly quantitative due to the ability to train the ligament network in posture, our resistance work comes in here (harder to focus completely due to need to maintain body position/maintaining limited awareness of surroundings/maintain equilibrium to stand, all of which distract from reaching a deep state of samahadi/one pointed focus)
4. Moving - very little qualitative / almost entirely quantitative due to ability to move the energy through the tendons strongly (most health practices involve movement)

FWIW, more than an hour, or two, of sitting per day appears to be really bad for general health over time. Most of the better health/longevity practices involve movement.

Ok thanks a lot. For me, I'm not really trying to accomplish any kind of biomechanical or brain state kind of goal (although I would definitely like to do those).

A long time ago, I impulse bought a "Tai Chi" magazine, and in an article they did these lying down qigongs (perhaps for senior citizens or others who have movement difficulty). I think that's where I got the idea. I was surprised at the ease/effectiveness. At first I'd try a santishi kind of "standing" (lying down), which was interesting. Then I'd just try a palms or hands-in-circle over lower dantian kind of relaxed pose.

Hey Peacedog - that's a great list. Any idea why the gravity on the spinal column adds to the quantitative part? Is it just that there requires some effort to keep the (sitting) posture?

Lying mostly just gets me asleep... Not sure how to do qigong lying down!

when lying down, bed time or just for a rest i feel the buzz in my body and playing around with it, doing imaginary waveing/circleing with the arms/hands/fingers, raising the legs left/right, or imaginary doing some moves from the taiji form. i move the buzz(electricity) as i want to and trough the limbs(nervous system) as i lying completely relaxed.....I have not tought of this as Qigong, but i guess it could be counted as such

I usually take short breaks while working, often while keep sitting down and do movements, stretching and loosening etc. There are some exercises I do for hands and wrists, and some other for spine and scapula. Loosening the muscles around neck and jaws are important as well. I stiff up easily in that area if I am not careful. I usually work from home nowadays, but earlier when I worked for others, there were people wondering what I was doing...

edededed,

I think so. The pull of gravity on the spine seems to engage the ligament/tendons in the body that lying flat does not. I'm not sure it is any more complicated than that.

Trick wrote:when lying down, bed time or just for a rest i feel the buzz in my body and playing around with it, doing imaginary waveing/circleing with the arms/hands/fingers, raising the legs left/right, or imaginary doing some moves from the taiji form. i move the buzz(electricity) as i want to and trough the limbs(nervous system) as i lying completely relaxed.....I have not tought of this as Qigong, but i guess it could be counted as such

Yeah I don't see why not. It's a lot easier to not mix it up with your MA interests this way, I find. If you're standing, you probably want to do something else.

Interesting, thanks Peacedog!