A Revised Introduction to This Blog

My intent for this blog is to be a non-commercial free space where people can come to learn chi kung a.k.a qigong  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 (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. (gigong in Japanes)

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 national 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 respond 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 not mourn or complain or drudge our way through this life lets do the unexpected and instead play our way through life and make this a win win game. 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 lovers, 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. 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 on the web.  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 almost 30 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 an Ohio medical degree in massage therapy and went for awhile to a Chinese medical school in Toronto Canada. My primary purpose in going to Toronto was not to attend a school but rather to meet and learn from other chi kung practitioners. And I did meet a number of really good Chinese chi kung practitioners and doctors. I became good friends with a few of them and learned a lot.
 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 am 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

Love in the Heart

   The middle dan tien is located in the area of the heart. This exercise takes place there. It can ease anxiety and sooth distress of the soul. It's really rather simple, easy and effective for most people myself included. If you are good at visualizing it is even easier. You can do it anywhere and as long or as short and as often as you please. Some people do it here and there all through the day and even trough the night. It is accumulative in its effect. The more you do it the easier and stronger it becomes. There are no wasted efforts. So here goes.

   I love Quan Yin so I start off inviting her into my middle dan tien. Many people invite Mother Mary or Jesus or Buddha or a Saint or some other holy being from a tradition that touches their heart. It doesn't matter who you call you will eventually be able to see or feel their presence in your heart. Belief is not required. I find that beliefs are not our best guides because they seem for most of us to come and go through us repeatedly on an irregular cycle.

  In qigong we are taught that intention is the best guide once you have set it as your pole star. The key for  success with qigong is to arrive at an intention and then base your present choices and actions on what best serves the realization of your intention. The question in any situation that arises becomes clearly and
 simply does it serve or hinder the manifestation of my intention?

   So why call a particular person or being to your heart? Relationships are with other beings especially people.  It is easier to call an energy in the form of a person or being who most personifies it. Then eventually when the energy is present and active within us the person or being fades away and we begin to develop a personal relationship with the energy form itself.

   Ultimately I feel that beliefs about God and other important experiences are just so many stories we tell ourselves and each other because the reality is impossible to put into words. These stories become doctrines and ideologies and more often than not hinder good relationships.

    Energy is without form but it does have qualities and aspects and dynamics. So given a central tenet in qigong that intention or Yi guides energy or Qi what you want is to call a particular kind of energy to your heart area.

   Over thousands of years of exploration the ancient ones who explored and practiced what we call qigong have handed down many of their findings in relation to energy and human interaction with it. They found,and modern qigong practitioners affirm, that we can indeed use our creative imagination and visualization abilities to enhance our ability to call to us various kinds of qi.  They say that with persistence and patience the kind of energy we want will eventually come to us.

  Poetically you could compare qi to wine or milk. We call a water and order a particular wine. He brings a bottle and pours wine into our glass. Some people don't care for wine, they might like milk or tea. It doesn't matter to the waiter he will bring whatever you love.  Some people like a particular kind of delivery system and that is cool because it doesn't matter if what comes is delivered in a bottle, a jug, or a teapot.

   It doesn't matter if you believe what your reading. It just matters that you take a drink or preferably two or three before you come to any conclusions. So back to it shall we?

  I started out using my creative imagination to visualize Quan Yin in my middle dan tien ( heart ) Later after a few practices I just see her there and I feel her presence radiating out and filling first my middle dan tien or heart and then I feel her loving energy filling and nourishing my lungs and soon my entire torso is experiencing the warm radiating flow of her love energy. I effortlessly notice the energy flowing through my throat and neck up into my head. Her qi love flows gently down my leg into my feet and down my arms filling my hands with qi. I keep a soft awareness of Quan Yin in my middle dan tien or heart during the whole time I am doing this practice. When I find myself inevitably wondering away from my intention of keeping my awareness mostly in my middle dan tien or heart I go back to it. I rest in the loving interaction of the qi with my entire body being as long as I desire.

   Usually I do this exercise for a predetermined time because I like having definite beginning and ending points. That is my preference not a requirement for anyone else. Life is personal and I believe strongly in the inherent right of self determination when it comes to most things especially spiritual and energetic exploration. After I have accomplished my intention I say thank you thank you thank you to the energy and move on.

Big Surprise For Me

   I was just looking at how many times this blog has been visited and was surprised. I am bringing the site up to date so I had to go into the edit section to change my location and other things and I stumbled on a section that showed the number of visits to RiversChiHouse since day one. My site meter went down years ago and I had no idea about the current count. The last time I looked a number of years ago it was about 25,000. I just forgot about it because the numbers didn't change. It turns out the company I used went out of business.
  When I went into the stats on the site Google kept I was shocked to see I have had 42,332 visits since I started it on July 30 2009. I had no idea. I thought the site was basically being ignored for the last few years. The biggest reason I abandoned the site was I figured since there seemed to be no significant numbers of new visits why waste my time posting very much. So I found another visit meter and placed Googles numbers in it and we shall see who the Mystery send here., inshAllah.
    I just hope some people who came for a visited were able to find some help here.
    I am going to systematically go through my blog and make sure all the links are working. It will probably take a month or so to get the time and desire to do that.
   If you read this and have found anything in RiversChiHouse that was useful please let me know.

New Whole Body Breathing Qigong

   On September 24th I decided to renew my commitment to qigong exploration and practice. For a number of years I let this blog go and have only posted periodically. I did that because I felt I posted everything I knew or could find relative to qigong practice and healing. I was very comfortable with my choice.

    Times change. Because of a car crash in July that totaled my car and sent me to the emergency ward and into PTS  I have decided for my recovery to practice what some in Qigong call the 100 Days. That means you commit to practice a form of qigong twice a day everyday for 100 days. I have decided to start posting again because I am approaching Qigong like a new student and at the same time an old student. Martial arts sometimes call that practicing with a White Belt Attitude. A White Belt is a new student who full of passion and commitment to learning martial arts. A White Belt Attitude is when a veteran student decides to approach the arts with a fresh and new attitude of commitment to learn and practice. So that is what I am doing.

   I have refined my Qigong practice based on my practices over the last 22 days. So here is the update.

   I am doing who body breathing qigong.

                                  Whole Body Breathing

I recommend Whole Body Qigong to everyone because it is very simple and uncomplicated yet incredibly powerful in its results.

   First state your intention for this or any other qigong practice. You do this because in Qigong you learn that energy can be led by intention. The Chinese word for intention is yi. "Yi leads Qi" as Qigong practioners say. so your yi is paramount in Qigong.

  You do not need to match your breathing with your moving awareness from your extremities to your dan tien and back from the dan tien to your extremities to benefit from qigon. You just need to move your awareness into and out of the dan tien the whole time you do a practice. This is not about your lungs it is about your dan tien. The dan tien will nourish your lungs as it grows stronger. You can as an alternative approach just match how you breath no matter how shallow or deep to your moving in and out of the dn tien.

Awareness and qi moves much faster than the breath. Qi is continually flowing in and out of our body. One of the most important areas qi flows in and out of is sphere shaped area about the size of your fist about an inch and a half below our bellybutton. This area is called i the lower dan tien. The lower dan tien  is a natural energy storage area that supplies energy to the rest of your body as needed. Our intention is to strives to strengthen and enhance the dan tien so our body can receive more energy where it needs it .

   This exercise is excellent for nourishing the lower dan tien and thus benefits our whole body.

   So sit up straight and comfortably on a padded chair. Sit towards the front edge of the chair. Make sure your back is straight your head is aligned with your spine. Let your lips and jaws relax and become slightly open. The tip of your tong is touching your upper palate behind your two front teeth. Your anus is slightly contracted. The fingers of both hands are spreed slightly apart. Your thumbs are laced together but not touching. Your right hand is slightly above your left hand. Your hands are a few inches above your lower abdomen. Women do it with left hand over their right hand.

    Use creative visualization and your kinetics sense to help yourself see and feel a radiating bright golden sun in your lower dan tien. If it is difficult to see a golden sun don't bother trying to see one. Seeing a sun makes the practice stronger but it is much more important for you to feel or sense the area about an inch and a half below your bellybutton and about two inches inside your body. Once you feel this area strongly you can add the sun if you like.

   Your intention, as you inhale, is systematically and repeatedly with every inhalation, to guide the energy or qi from your extremities to your dan tien. You do this by moving your sense awareness at the beginning of the inhalation from your extremities through your body to your dan tien in your lower abdomen.

   In other words you move your sense awareness from the tips of your fingers and thumbs up through your arms and into your torso and down into your dan tien. Simultaneously with that, your awareness moves from the tip of your toes up through your legs and down from the top of my head through my neck and torso to my lower abdomen into your dan tien.

   An analogy would be to say it's like consciously trying to be aware of the feeling of air flowing into your nose and down your throat into your lungs.

   Its like your dan tien is one strong lung and the top of your head is a large nose and the tips of your fingers and thumbs and the tips of your toes are also noses. You breathe through all of the noses at once and they all lead to your lung in your lower dan tien. See now that's not to complicated is it? Its actually a lot of fun to play around with once you get into it.

   So on to the exhalation. At the very first moment you start to exhale you try, but not to hard, to consciously notice that the energy collected in your lower dan tien radiates or explodes strongly, naturally and effortlessly out through your whole body to the top of your head and the tips of your fingers and thumbs, and the tips of your toes. Try but not to hard to be aware and follow the path of the energy flowing out of your dan tien to your extremities.

   You know how normal and natural it use to be to breathe in and out of course. It will be just as natural to lead your awareness into the dan tien and watch it flow naturally out from it. As we inhale air through our nose or mouth it flows into our lungs. As we breathe out that air in our lungs moves out of our lungs and joins with the blood and circulates effortlessly through our body nourishing and strengthening us. It's sort of like that with qi or energy moving in and out of our dan tien.

I do this for 32 minutes twice a day. You can do it for just a few minutes or as long as you feel comfortable.

   I end the practice by placing my awareness into my dan tien. Then I take three complete breaths as I intentionally lead any excess energy or qi generated by the practice into my dan tien where it can be used as needed.

  At the end of the practice I thank Quan Yin or the Mystery and get up and stretch and move my body in dance like movements for a couple of minutes.

   In the morning after the first practice I do a 32 minute Quan Yin meditation. It's optional for me after the evening practice.