1st Month Has Ended

The first month of training has now ended here at the Retreat Center. Time goes by so fast, it doesn’t feel like its been a month at all.

(Shifu's 5 Animal Sports Qigong DVD)

This past week after meditation we began training the first part of 5 Animal Sport Qigong. This is a set of medical qigong created by Dr. Hua Tuo nearly 2000 years ago. It is designed to improve health by stimulating the various organs of the body. The set consists of movements patterned after 5 animals (tiger, deer, bear, monkey, bird) each of which relates to one of the 5 elements (wood, water, earth, fire, metal) and 2 organs (liver and gallbladder, kidneys and bladder, spleen and stomach, heart and small intestine, lungs and large intestine). We have begun training the first part of tiger.

Meditation is getting pretty intense. I still cant seem to quiet my mind for long because I’m constantly flooded with thoughts. I thought meditation was supposed to be calming but its actually making me more emotional. After reading a section on the emotional mind in Shifu’s Tai Ji Theory book and talking to Shifu I’ve learned that meditation consists of 4 stages and the first stage is Self-Recognition. This is the stage where the mask that we all wear drops off and were forced to face and recognize our true self as it is. At this, the first stage of meditation, the emotional mind is excited and more active than usual. I’m definitely at this first stage.