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[irwinbluesky]

Hi Michael,

    Thanks for responding and trying to help me.

    I am in the 3hour+ club and today is day number 65. I understand what you say about the neck. I do hold it tight and hold myself in a way that makes it hurt more. I need to pay more attention to that. As far as sending energy to others, I dedicate 3-4 forms a day to others.

    The hardest thing is that I get no positive results from doing the forms. I don't feel more energy. However, I was getting worse on a daily basis but that has stopped and now I am just feeling awful. My eyesight is still getting worse.

    I do mainly think about my illness because it is in my face. As soon as I open my eyes, I am looking at it. That makes it hard to ignore. I do an activity and I notice how weak and dizzy I feel. The best I can do with the visualizations is just state that I am doing the sun, now the moon, now both. I listen to Master Ou's chanting CD for an hour while I do 3 forms in a row.

   I was reading Master Ou's books but I have quit that for now because until there is a better translation or explanation, what I read disturbs me. For example in the Path of Life, and this is my understanding of the text, Master Ou writes that in the new world there will be no suffering except for Master Ou. So I will be happy because Master Ou will suffer. I can't handle that. And although women and men will be equal and happy in the new world, women suffer now because they had to be tempered because of their "insatiable avarice" which would have "destroyed the sexual balance of the world." (page 125) This bothers me even more. It sounds too much like the Bible where women suffer today because of Eve disobeying God. Women's suffering is justified because of something inherently wrong with women. I have emailed Olivia and hope she will clarify these issues.

    Finally, I need to look at myself and understand that the reason I am ill is because of my negative self talk, including not feeling deserving of good health. Unless I deal with that, it doesn't matter how many forms I do a day or how "correctly" I do them. The problems I am having cannot be healed by something outside myself.

   I look forward to any response you might have.

   Thanks, Irwin

[Biyu]

Hi Irwin

"Another problem I have is that my sleep is not good. I awaken many times a night and can't get back to sleep. This is not a new problem but it is not helping. I would appreciate any suggestions". post on October 31, 2012, 03:31:28 PM

I would like to share my experience and opinion with you :

1. Dig your foots into warm water in a bucket every night before you go to bed. The water tempeture should be bearable and hot enough to make you sweat. Time is around 20 to 30 minutes. During this period, you may need to add some hot water to maintain the tempeture to your acceptable level. Water level should at least cover your ankle below your knee. Usually, I used to reading Master Ou�s books while I am doing so.

In your situation, I would recommend you listen Master Ou�s music/chanting rather than reading Master Ou�s book as your eye need more rest. Or/and you may consider doing some yoga for your eyes (you know how to do that, don't you?), UNTIL you feel the muscle in the backside of your neck ache, then you can massage that part muscle let them relax. The purpose of the exercise can connect the nerves of eyes' muscles and the nerves of backside neck's muscles, it help improve eyesight according to a expert, 中里巴人, （p.145,<<求医不如求己》），who specilize in teaching people how to keep in good health.

2. Master�s Ou�s music is very powerful method for curing sleep difficult problem in the world I would say. Everytime I listen Master Ou�s music I fall into sleep very easily in anytime in a static state. You may want to read the following testimonial through http://www.pangu.org/english/testimonial/Fang2012.html.

I always listen Master Ou�s music when I go to bed. When I woke up during the night, the first thing I did was to switch on CD player again. My conscious mind may fall into sleep but my unconscious mind is still awake, so even I fall into sleep, some part of I still can listen to Master Ou�s music, which means that I keep charging energy from the music while I am sleeping.

Besides, I read one article from a specialist mentioned that people with sleep problem normally is linking to their stomatch problem. She recommended a small bowl of millet congee each night will help. I have not tried this method yet though I did have stomatch problem as side effect of the medicines I took. Because I don�t want to get up from the warm bed and go to toilet during the night. In my deep thought, the true reason maybe just because I am lazy.

Anyway, above methods should be done everyday in a period of time to achieve a good result. They can be used in your whole life time. In my point of view, they are no harm, no side effect.

Wish you all the best!

Biyu

[Jason]

Hello Irwin,

How are you doing?  It would be great to hear an update from you.  I hope you are feeling better.

Jason

[irwinbluesky]

Hello Jason,

  Here is my update. Three weeks ago I stopped doing Pangu after 66 days of about 3 hours a day. I could feel my neck getting tighter with the movements and no matter what modifications I made, I could still feel the pull and pain in my neck. I have done other qigongs and none of them affected my neck like Pangu. Maybe the muscles I have to use to make the circles affected my neck in just the right way to cause them to tense up and cause the increasing pain and pressure in my neck and head. Then doing the movements over and over reinforced the pain. Pangu is the easiest qigong I have learned but because of its single form, I couldn't find relief for my neck. In the other qigongs I did, there were several different movements in each form so if one move was hard on my neck it only lasted a few seconds.

    I have also discovered that of the 3 qigongs I have learned, they all share common understandings. First, having love in your heart, an open heart, kindness and compassion are the most important parts of the practice, more important than the movements. Secondly, they all believe in service. Thirdly, the more qigong one does the quicker the healing. I have learned that whatever I do, having a practice of at least 3 hours a day is important to heal from any kind of health issues. Last, they all encourage the practitioners to heal others.

    I am going back to yoga, pranayamas and bits and pieces of the qigongs I have learned. So far, yoga is the only practice where I actually felt better while and after the practice. What is hard for me is doing the 3 hours again. Pangu is so simple that doing 3 hours was easy for me. I have not yet been able to do the same with yoga. However, today I was extremely dizzy and nauseous so I did 15 minutes of a pranayam and I felt better. That never happened with Pangu or the other qigongs. Maybe it is my own mind playing tricks on me because in reality all these qigongs and yoga are really coming from the same spiritual source. The important part of the practice is to have love in your heart and be consistent, be it yoga or pangu or any other practice.

  My sleep has gotten better since I started a certain Ayurvedic practice. Many toxins are coming out and I can feel a real healing crises upon me, but in a good way. Maybe this is what I have needed all along.

  I may one day come back to Pangu when my neck heals. However for now, I am going to try to make yoga work for me using all the good practices I learned from Pangu.

   If any one is interested, I could keep you updated although this might be a conflict of interest with this forum.

   Thanks for everyone's comments to me. I have read them all and they have helped me.   Irwin

[Jason]

The main thing is to do what you need to in order to feel healthy. 

I know for me that Pangu Shengong was a life saver.  I wasn't functioning very well at the time I started and it has gradually made me feel peaceful and content with my life.  I would encourage you to do one moving form a day.  That should not hurt your neck too much and you will still have time to do other great practices like yoga.  Just a suggestion.  The cumulative practice will add up over time with plenty of time to integrate the changes and it won't put too much pressure on getting results quickly.

[Michael]

Hi Irwin, I don't think that talking about your other cultivation practices here on the forum is a conflict.

Also, you mentioned in your previous response to me that there were two parts of The Path of Life that bothered you. Actually, they bother me as well, but maybe not as much as they do you, at least not now after several readings over several years.  I don't expect to read a translated book written by a person from a totally different culture and time period (can you imagine Guangzhou in 1949? I live here now and it's not easy, we're basically talking pre-industrial revolution, like plantation southern USA in 1850), and think that there will not be ideas presented that conflict with my own ideology. For me, it's not terribly important to focus on those few parts of the book that bother me when I like about 90-95% and I have benefited from its writer so much.

So then I ask you, why focus on the negative without balancing it in context? Perhaps for you there is not as much positive context as there is for me because I've spent a lot of time around Teacher Ou and realized a lot of benefits over the years from him directly as well as from his teaching generally. The thing that bothers me the most about The Path of Life is the idea of every culture on earth ending up in the same "heaven", so to speak. I can't accept that, but it's not terribly important because accepting or believing everything or anything in The Path of Life is not a requirement to practice PGSG. The only requirement of belief for PGSG practice is kindness and benevolence.

Even Teacher Ou says to consider The Path of Life as a work of fiction and just consider what it says as a kind of philosophical perspective. I don't agree with everything in it, but I probably agree with it more than any other philosophy book that also has its message and perspective.

Irwin, I am very glad to talk to you and doing so has made me ask myself something. Since I read your last post, I ask myself every day, "Do I want to be here? Am I grateful for my life? Or am I just pissed off and frustrated because everything I try to do seems to reveal more dilemmas and unsolvable problems?"

I just wanted to share that with you because talking to you made me thing of something I never seriously considered before. Like you, I have a serious cervical spine problem and I have wondered for years why it won't heal. Maybe there's a connection? I don't know.

Best,
Michael

EDIT: About Guangzhou in 1949, it was developed. I was really talking about rural Guangdong, which is where Teacher Ou grew up (it's described in The Path of Life vol. 1 and 2), in a place called Xi Qiao Shan maybe 30 miles south of Guangzhou. I am guessing that it was not very developed at all until the 1980's, but I'm not certain. I would be surprised if private homes had electricity when Teacher Ou was in prison there in 1974.

[rliang]

Hi Irwin,

I don't think there is a conflict of interest in talking about your other cultivation method.  The bottom line is, the teaching of PGSG transcends culture, race, gender, practices of different faith, and etc because it truly advocates universal love( kindness and benevolence) for everyone.
If you read some of the testimonies, there are PGSG students who also practice/teach tai-chi, yoga, or other forms of chi-chong. 

As Jason has suggested, try to continue practicing PGSG once a day, and maybe that will take the edge off of whatever might be holding you back.  You might be able to remove your expectation mentally as well.  You could also compare the difference between practicing 3 hours a day vis only once a day.  There is a big difference in the result you get when you WANT to practice versus when you think you have to practice.  I hope this makes sense.

Cheers and I wish you all a healthy and happy New Year!

[irwinbluesky]

Hello,

   I think you are all correct, maybe I should make sure I do one form a day and not stress myself with doing more. Two weeks ago I restarted my pangu practice. I did 1 form a day for a week and increased to 4-8 forms the next week. Then I crashed again as before. Vertigo came back and the weakness that has been so debilitating to me has become so intense that I can't do more than 1 or 2 forms. Not only that, I can't drive or work. This was why I quit to begin with. After 66 days of 3 hours + of pangu, I quit because the pain in my neck got too bad to function and my eyesight got much worse. I keeping reading more new testimonials of people who have miraculously healed in a short time. I find these testimonials not useful.

    I am working on my attitude about myself. I think that is the key to my health crises. I believe that the people who have healed quickly have good feelings about themselves. That is not something any one else or any practice can give me. I have no faith in any of the practices I do, even more reason to look at my attitude towards myself. Wouldn't it be great if someone could touch you and all is healed! But it took me 62 years to get to this state of health, my own doing. As Marley told Scrooge in the Chirstmas Story by Dickens, he forged the chain he wears link by link. I hurt my health day by day over many years.

    I am also doing about 2 hours of pranayamas a day. They are easier to do than the forms when I feel like this and I can do them throughout the day at any time, for example, walking, lying in bed or driving in a car. I can even do a pranayama while I do a moving form.

   Thanks for your comments,  Irwin

   




   

[Saber]

Hello Irwin, my name is George, I am also 62. I have read your posts with interest, and if you are still reading the forum, I wish to share my opinion. This is my opinion only. I have seen and listened to many people over the years who have had different illnesses that have been cured by practicing yoga or qigong exclusively, but I have heard many more that used qigong in concert with surgery, chemotherapy, diets, and other "western" methods.  My perspective is that the universe presents us with many options, including seeing the doctor or dentist.  For example, while my dog has had qi healings and is calmed by Master Ou's chanting, last month she needed to have her teeth cleaned by a professional. No amount of qigong would have eliminated the tarter from her teeth. I should say that I also go to the dentist.  What I am suggesting is that it may be time to for you to consider combining the best of what the healing world has to offer.  Practice your energy healing and get advice on surgery and/or other physical treatments.  Personally my qigong is like putting fuel in the tank, it keeps me going, but I still need to watch my diet, lose weight, see the dentist, have massage therapy and acupuncture, watch my blood pressure, and take vaccinations on occasion. It is humbling to admit that we may need help from others.  Don’t be afraid to pursue all options.  This reminds me of the story of the man caught on the roof of a building during a flood. The man called out to god and asked him for salvation from the flood. After a while a helicopter came by and dropped a basket for the man to climb into, but he refused to do so, believing as he did that god would rescue him.  Later, with the river rising, a Coast Guard boat came by and invited him in, again he refused saying that he had prayed to god for relief.  As the water continued to rise, a group from the local sheriff’s office brought a boat by to rescue him, but again he refused, and as a result was eventually washed away and drowned. When he arrived in heaven, a bit confused, he had the chance to ask god why he had not come to his rescue.  God replied, “Son, I sent a helicopter and two boats to pick you up.”  Of course the morals of the story are many, but on this physical world we may need some physical help as well as spiritual. 

[irwinbluesky]

Hello George,

   I agree with what you are saying. However, my health problems are only symptoms of something deeper. I have two friends with cataracts with also similar eye issues as mine. They both chose cataract surgery. One is now legally blind and the other is still having problems seeing after several months. I could have hernia surgery. My friend did with similar problems as mine. She now has a huge bulging hernia that they cannot fix. My point is that without getting to the root cause, the problems will get much worse with surgery. So my main problem is this deep weakness and dizziness. The medical world doesn't know what it is so they offered me drugs. This is how I turned to pangu and yoga. However, there is still something missing. I find myself into the 16th day of  a deep flu with no signs of getting better. I stopped all practices because I am too weak to do them. I completed one moving form at the beginning but it was too difficult with no positive feed back. So I am looking into why I need to be sick. What do I get out of it? If I can solve this, then everything will fall into place. I am eager to restart yoga and maybe qigong but for now I see my real work. Neither practice could stop this flu from coming on.

   So my discouragement has turned into an insight into how I can heal myself.

    Have a nice day,  Irwin

[Michael]

I hope you feel better soon, Irwin.