The Morning of the Magician

There are two major types of chi kung practice. They have many names but I will call them Moving Form and Quiet Form. Moving form chi kung deals with the physical movement of the body in set patterns, Quiet form deals with moving awareness through the body in set patterns. These forms are also called external and internal chi kung for obvious reasons. Both forms utilize breathing techniques and pay close attention to correct posture and muscle tension. The forms can be and often are combined by advanced practitioners. For beginners it is helpful to practice one or the other form until a degree of competency is achieved.

The Web That Has No Weaver. Why Chinese Medicine Uses Poetic and Suggestive Words and Concepts.

I think it would be helpful to say a few more words about why Chinese medicine uses poetic and suggestive words and concepts as opposed to precise words and definitions like western medicine. When a human being is seen as a dynamic field of energy existing within greater fields of energy that over laps and interact constantly in innumerable ways how do you explain that dynamic in words and concepts. It is to complex and our knowledge to inadequate to think or pretend that we can understand it enough to be able to predict its movements or manifestations precisely. Therefore the Chinese use poetic terms and talk of "tendency and patterns". I think this is a very honest and humble way of confronting the vastness and complexity of creation and our very limited experience and knowledge about ourselves as energy and ourselves in relationship to the greater fields we exists within.
Even seeing ourselves as just material/psychological beings medically I believe we could benefit by introducing more poetic words and concepts into our medical vocabulary and paradigms. A human being is a complex and dynamic creature and what effects one person one way will often effect another person very differently. Thus the saying: "One man's medicine is another mans poison." There are so many variables and dynamics involved in each individuals life that precise meanings are in fact often counter productive when trying to understand or explain that individual human being. I say beware of cookie cutter concepts or solutions. One size fits all kind of things are especially dangerous when exploring medical problems. I think it is more helpful to say that nothing is true for everyone all the time and as Freud said; "Everything has multiple causes and effects," That last quote is a paraphrase.
The Chinese say that it is impossible to have a healthy human being in an unhealthy society. And if you want to be balanced and healthy than you are called to the task of helping your society become balanced and healthy. I can understand from that concept why only certain aspects of Chinese medicine are allowed within China historically including modern times. Chinese medicine is revolutionary medicine.
If you start trying to understand a society and the people relationships within it you find that ignorance, inequity, corruption, exploitation and stupidity are rampant. Than you see how that plays out in your own life and family. What are you to do? See why I consider Chinese in it's purest form revolutionary medicine?
One of the many reasons I admire Chinese medicine is because of it's understanding that in order treat a person effectively you have to understand that person and their relationships to the energy fields and societies they exist within. Even more importantly the client themselves must be encouraged to start to take responsibility for understanding and changing their own life and relationships. So the real Chinese medicine practitioner must be an educator and a coach.
It could be that a clients suffering comes from eating or drinking things that are toxic to them. Or it might be that they do not understand that they are breathing in away that is causing them headaches or other painful conditions. . That is they are inhaling in away that has their Diaphragm go up and exhaling pushing their diaphram down. By making sure their diaphragm goes down on the inhale and up on exhale many medical problems would ease up or resolve themselves. The Chinese medical practioner helps the client understand their situation and suggest ways to change it. The client experiences what happens when they change their diet or breath differently. And would know more what to do or not do to ensure a better quality of life. This is preferable to taking medicine to mask a symptom. Ignorance is far from bliss.
The danger of practicing real Chinese medicine is when it challenges your assuptions of who you think you are. Or when family or social relationships are examined. Families and governments can be very difficult to deal with when they are being examined or challenged. Also let us face it, most people do not want to do what it takes to know themselves. Never mind Socrates, and look what happened to him. (smile) It is far easier to go for treatment and take herbs or pharmaceuticals than to examine and change your life n'est pas?

In Search of the Miraculous. Chinese Medicine

Remember, God treats you like you treat your lover. Being a good lover is the highest form of humanity as far as I am concerned.Sometimes being a good lover means letting go of each other. Such is life.

Before I share the first chi kung exercise it is important to understand a couple of fundamental differences that separate Chinese and the western medicine. I am going to be a bit repetitious but as they say " Education is repetition." Western medicine understands and relates to a human being as a physical/psychological/social organism. Chinese medicine understands and relates to a human being as a radiating field of energy that exists in and as a series of interrelated fields of energy all of which exists in an all encompassing field of energy. A human being has a physical/psychological/social manifestation but the key in Chinese medicine is the energy field not the manifestations of the field. If the energy field is strong and balanced health will manifest. If it is not, illness is inevitable.
A western medical professional will treat a person physically and or psychologically. They might use herbs, and or pharmaceuticals,and recommend exercises of one type or another. The west has a plethora of psychological treatments available. But their is no commonly agreed upon energy therapy in mainline western medicine. That is changing but very slowly and erratically. Touch for Health which is energy work, is being done now by many nurses and in some hospitals. But that is the exception not the rule.
The ideal Chinese medicine practitioner will do much the same as a western practitioner only using Chinese equivalents. Chinese medicine does not, however, use or prescribe pharmaceuticals. In china there are hospital and doctors who combine Chinese and western medicine but the two mostly kept distinctly separate. A client in china can chose one or the other. The two types of medicine are to different to be combined at this point in time. Another very big difference is that a Chinese practitioner who is knowledgeable and cares enough to take the time will also use chi (energy work) and recommend various types of chi kung exercises, external and internal forms. External chi kung can be compared to yoga and the client is taught a series of body movements and breathing styles. Internal or quiet form is done by the client being taught how to move their awareness through the body in set practitioner for set periods of time depending on the intent of the client. Both forms have the client pay attention to breathing diaphragmatic and correct posture. I will say more about this later.
Chinese medicine in the best sense of the word helps a client understand who and what they are in context of the great energy field we exist within. And to understand how being out of balance with any part of that field of energy will produce illness of one type or another. The Chinese going back well past a thousand years recognized that a persons social relationships are a prime determined when it comes to health. If a man or woman's social relationships are not harmonious illness will sooner or later manifest. Therefore in Chinese medicine, helping a patient to learn how to understand and navigate the often treacherous social seas is vital. So theoretically Chinese medicine should encourage a client to examine carefully all their significant social relationships. Unfortunately this aspect of Chinese medicine is hardly ever practiced in china or anywhere else by Chinese medical practitioners that I know of. Chinese society has historically worked against the idea of psychology considering it an invasion of privacy. That is why you will not find the same plethora of psychological methods as you have in the west. This is changing but very slowly. When the west has a fully integrated energy component and China has a solid series of psychological methodology available both societies will benefit
For the most part Chinese doctors in the west take a pulse diagnosis ask a few questions occasionally palpate and than either prescribe herbal medicine and or acupuncture. Hardly any of them mention the reality of energy and things like chi kung. As my dear late father use to say when speaking of the difference between the ideal and the reality; " manys the slip between the cup and the lip." I urge a return to acting on the ideal.
Another very real and important difference between western and Chinese medicine is the way they describe the manifestations of health and sickness. Western medicine uses words and concepts that are very precise in their meanings. Chinese medicine on the other hand uses words and concepts that are poetic and suggestive and not at all declarative. The Chinese speak of tendencies rather than precise realities. This different way of speaking drives a lot of western doctors crazy. (I am speaking poetically of course:)
A Chinese medical practitioner will use words like "liver rising or he has rebellious chi or she has wind heat." For a lot of western people it feels like Alice in Wonderland. They have an impossible time understanding most Chinese doctors at first and many turn away as a result. Never mind that we can rarely understand or believe in western doctors and more of us are turning away from them as well. What a predicament we find ourselves in. We may really need medical help but oh how difficult and rare it is to find it. So, if we can not find others to treat us and our family and friends, than I say we become our own student/teachers and healers.
Several years ago when my grandma was going through a heart surgery procedure my mother was with her in her hospital room and told me this story. The Indian western trained doctor came in and was telling my grandma a bunch of stuff he felt she needed to hear. She kept nodding her head and agreeing with him. As soon as he left the room my grandma turned to my mother and said; " He is full of shit." She survived the surgery but died a few months later. I tell this story to illustrate a reality that to many people in western hospitals experience when it comes to communications between doctors and patient at very critical moments. I wonder what would have happened if the two of them had really tried to understand each other?
What is true of the relationship between a western doctor and patient as far as communication is concerned, is also common among people who go to Chinese medical doctors and practitioners. And often the results are the same. We must learn to communicate effectively with each other. The practitioner and the client are equally responsible. The need is to great to blame or ignore. We must take responsibility for becoming much better at communicating with each other, to much depends on it. Indeed our health, as was stated above, is directly effected by our relationships. And study after study indicates that good communication skills are key to good relationships.

Meetings With Remarkable Women and Men!

The photographs going from top to bottom and left to right: My Gibeaut. Yulan Fucius also known respectfully and with love as Lady Fxi.  River Gibeaut. Sheik Fazal Inyat Khan. Sheik Hazart Inayat Khan,. Sheik Nur-al Jerrahi and Kuan Yin.













 










My intent for this blog is to be a non-commercial free space where people can come to learn chi kung and other healing techniques, inshAllah. It is dedicated to helping people find and share information about how to help themselves and each other through difficult life/death situations. A big part of this blog is dedicated to chi kung or qi gong (pronounced chee kung) in general and medical chi kung in particular. But chi kung is only part of what is here. It is also includes information and access portals via numerous links to many other helpful and effective paradigms and techniques which I believe can be of great benefit for people in various forms of distress.
So it is my wish and  hope, inshAllah, that many of you reading this will find in my blog a place where you can deepen your understanding and experience about some of the things I think are helpful to study and practice in relationship to healing and transforming yourself and others, if that be your interest and desire. Breathing techniques, posture training, communication skills, Buddhist philosophy and psychology, Sufism and much more, inshAllah are here in a variety of forms.There are for sincere students, treasure here. I invite you to come in and  have a look around.

Now for a little about chi kung.

What is chi kung? Chi kung is an ancient and integral part of Chinese scientific and healing culture. Chi means energy or life force and kung means theory and practice or science. So loosely translated chi kung can mean the science of energy or the theory and practice of energy cultivation.
Many western people have a hard time understanding chi kung because there is no western equivalent. Sense yoga has been a part of western culture for a far longer time it might be helpful in the beginning of your understanding to see chi kung as similar to Chinese yoga. It has been called many names by it's practitioners before chi kung. But chi kung is now the widely accepted term used for the study and practice of energy cultivation. India and China have a long history with each other and yoga and chi kung practitioners have influenced each other for hundreds if not thousands of years.
Like yoga, chi kung recognizes a human being as a radiating field of energy that is an integral part of larger and smaller fields of energy. These interrelated fields exists within an all encompassing field of energy. Mystics call this field many things from God to the Void. Scientist in the west might call it the unified field. The Chinese call the energy field of the earth, Earth energy and the rest of creation Heaven energy. They say all existence is comprised of Heaven and Earth and exists within the Void.
Western medicine sees and understands a human as a physical/psychological/social being. While western scientist can understand man as energy and part of greater fields of energy, western medicine does not. This is slowly and erratically changing. Touch for health and Reiki and chi kung are showing up more and more in individual western medical practitioner treatments. But for all practical purposes there is no integrated energy medicine in the west like there is in Asia.
What benefits are there to understanding and practicing chi kung? Well lets think about that. If we are in fact, energy beings and our energy field does manifest as a body/mind than it makes sense that the stronger the energy field the stronger and healthier the body/mind. By the same logic the weaker the field of a human being the weaker the body/mind manifestation nest pas? So if you want to maximize your health and strength, than learning how to cultivate your energy field is very important. It is particularly important if you are sick or hurt in any way. Chronic fatigue and in indeed, any autoimmune problems are clear examples of problems that desperately need chi knug treatments and practices.

I believe we live in very difficult and dangerous times. Our civilization has become more of a cage than a home for most of humanity. The institutions that were created to help and guide us through times like these are, to say the least, suspect. They have far to often, hurt more people than they have helped. Religion has in many instances become a place of exclusion and repression. Schools have mostly turned students into test takers, dropouts, and cynics. Medicine, including alternative medicine, is like playing Russian Roulette with your health and your wallet. As for the political leadership here and around the world, I find them corrupt,criminal and contemptible in the extreme. The age of Trump is upon us and I feel all to strongly the palpable fear he and his kind have created in so many peoples hearts.  Sadly even marriage and the family are for many people often more myth than reality when it comes to being a safe place of love , trust, and openness.
   Now that I have said the above I must also say that there are many many exceptions, thank God. We have people like Bernie Sanders and religious leaders like the Dali Lama and literally millions of other good decent people here and all over the world who are standing up to say no to fear, prejudice, ignorance, and intolerance. They are saying yes to love, unity, participatory democracy and peace. I stand with them and this site is my way of doing so.

   Our species has created a real mess on this planet environmentally and it's not clear if we and most other animals can survive much longer as a result. This is not the time to go to sleep in front of the television. we need to act. That said what do we do that wont be more than a bandage on a potentially mortal wound? I suggest we need to become student activist.  We need to be activist who act creativity and compassionately on our best understanding  to help heal the environment and comfort and support those in desperate need of help. At the same time we need to try to be good students of the problems we all face, committed to deepening our understanding by spending the time it takes to do so. As students/activist we can continually resound more effectively  because we learn from each interaction how to let go of what doesn't work and embrace what does. I suggest we search within ourselves and within the treasure house of humanities knowledge for ways to turn our lives and our world around before it's to late.
   The Sufis say that a good student can learn from anything, even a sign on a road. Bad students learn very little even from the best teachers. So I am dedicated to trying to continue to be a good student of life.
 
 So to repeat myself, I say we learn how to be good students of the games of Life. Lets play. Perhaps we can turn this cage into a womb, or we can make friends with the beast and turn it into something a lot more useful and beautiful. Who knows what is possible until we try?

I think some of the best games life has to offer deal with being mystics, healers, explorers and adventurers. Let us set out from the safe harbors of our beliefs and cultures and see what we find beyond the horizon. Let's be like travelers who meet in oasis's and taverns and camp fires and exchange information and stories from and about the lands and adventures we have encountered on our travels. Let us particularly share stories and information that can help straighten and heal the planet and all the beings on it.

I come in a good way

There is an expression that is used by some tribal people when entering a village for the first time that I like and use. "I come in a good way" or "I walk in a good way". It means I come in peace and my intent is good and harmonious. So I come in a good way and I walk in a good way to be with you who read this blog.

I will post as many chi kung exercises as I can on this blog. I will also post non Chinese exercises and practices as well when I think they will be helpful. I urge anyone who practices an exercise to share their experience with us. Anyone who knows good healing energy exercises feel free to post them here. Before I post my first exercise I just wanted to let you know about how I see the social world we live in and explain a bit of my intent.

A little more about me.
 I am an American of European and Native American blood. On my father's side I am French/Shawnee and on my mother's, English/Cherokee. I spent a lot of time outside the US and entered the dervish (Sufi) path in 1972 after meeting and living with Fazal Inayat Khan. ( grand-son of Hazart Inayat Khan). You can learn more about them at their web site. http://www.sufimovement.org/ I had my first introduction to the healing arts at his school ( Four Winds) in southern England. I took hand (joined) with Sheik Nur al-Jerrahi (Lex Hexon) and the Halveti-Jerrahi Dervish order in New York City. You can find more about them by visiting their web site. http://www.nurashkijerrahi.org/lineage.htm My most loved Sufi teacher is Sheik Gemel a Turkish sheik of the Halvetti-Jerrahi living in Toronto Canada. I love and honor him in this world and the next for his friendship and guidance. I have always considered myself a student of Jahladin Rumi and Shems of Trabiz. They are Sufi mystical teachers from 13th century Turkey. I urge you to visit a web site devoted to them.http://sunlightgroup.blogspot.com/
I have been a chi kung student/teacher for over 20 years. I have had the honor and pleasure of being of service to many people over the years using numerous paradigms and techniques I have learned and experienced during my long journey of exploration and adventure. Chi kung and especially  medical chi kung has always been an integral part of my teachings and treatments. I have taught and used various forms of body/mind/spirit and breath work in my practice and whatever else seemed  intuitively appropriate at the moment.. I have a medical degree in massage therapy and went for awhile to a Chinese medical school in Toronto Canada.
 I was first introduced to the power and beauty of chi kung by Mr Hilton Tam from  Hong Kong but who lived and taught in Cleveland Ohio.He was and is my most loved and effective teacher, friend and inspiration. I am sad to report that Mr. Tam has left this world. I am sure we will meet again, inshAllah. It is through Mr Tam that I came to know and love Kwan Yin the Chinese Goddess of Mercy. ( fourth photo )  I will be posting a number of her pictures on this blog. I have had the privilege and pleasure to have studied with many other teachers, Hanna Kruger and Lady Fxi being two of my favorite and most inspiring.
I was happily married to a wonderful woman named My for about eighteen  years. She is for me a living representation of the Goddess. I have gladly dedicated my life to her. My has responded to my love with her love and together, we have created a small sanctuary of bless for ourselves in this very chaotic and dangerous social/political world. I bless the day the Goddess sent her into my life.

There is a Sufi saying that " God treats you like you treat your lover." I believe that. If you do nothing else, do that and your life will be much better. There I think that is enough for now. (smile)
If you are in the Astoria Oregon area I live and teach and practice  there, inshAllah. Feel free to contact me. Rivgibeaut@msn.com or through this site.


The Guest-House
This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain the all! Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture. Still, treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice –meet them at the door laughing,and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.
(Mathnawi V, 3644-46, 3676-80, 3693-95)Coleman Barks, "The Essential Rumi," Castle Books, 1997