Barefoot Doctor’s

QIGONGO

Companion Notes

Introduction & Foundation Principles

© Stephen Russell 

Welcome to QIGONGO

Here’s what’s in this first set of companion notes:

INTRODUCTION

How you’ll benefit from Qigongo Qigong – what exactly is it?

History of Qigong

Qigongo training – what does it comprise? Results - how fast will you see them?

What makes this in-depth system unique? 

FOUNDATION PRINCIPLES

Why counting counts

Posture, positioning and stance Focus, breathing and relaxation 

How you’ll benefit from Qigongo

QIGONGO - BAREFOOT DOCTOR'S ONLINE IN-DEPTH QIGONG TRAINING - for health, longevity, stamina, muscle tone, improved organ function, improved musculo-skeletal function, improved brain function, increased confidence, superhuman strength and resilience, suppleness and flexibility of body and mind, brighter eyes, better vision, better hearing, better feeling, more stabilized emotions, clearer mind, sharpened focused… uhm, oh yes: better memory, better and more youthful looks, increased courage, a more adventuresome life, and lest we not forget, lastly but mostly, the chi of a thousand warriors.

These claims may sound too numerous and hyperbolic to be true and they're not (too numerous or hyperbolic to be true). To the contrary, if anything the above is an understatement. Not in the content or meaning of the message but in the context or medium in which it's conveyed. Because no amount of words, however adroitly chosen or deployed can go anywhere near conveying the startling effects of practicing this qigong system even once let alone every day.

Truly, with no exaggeration, I put the fact that I'm still here on the planet at all down to the fact I've practiced Qigongo, every day without fail, bar just three or four days I can think of, for the past 40 years, and even though I'm him and therefore a tad biased, I can truly say it's the most effective, powerful, fast-acting, no-nonsense system of qigong I've ever heard of, save perhaps for one or two more extreme versions involving lifting heavy weights tied to the scrotum, and leaning your throat with your entire bodyweight behind it on the sharp blade of a sword, but then attaining to this level of skill is generally over-egging it a bit and mostly of little practical use in everyday life, unless of course you find yourself (as a non-neutered male) obliged to carry a heavy weight and your hands are full, or need a first line of defense against someone slitting your throat (and still have your hands full). 

So call me a bit suburban if you will, but as far as I'm concerned, and I've had a few decades to prove it to myself, though I'd not rate my chances in lifting much by virtue of my scrotum aside perhaps from my mood momentarily, indirectly speaking, the enhanced self-cultivation this practice has and does afford me is astonishing.

Qigong as I'll shortly explain derives from martial arts training, specifically the Taoist 'internal boxing' forms.

Most qigong systems are based solely on Tai Chi training as this is the most popular of the three and easiest to learn. To my knowledge there are no trainings or none readily available that are based on all three with an emphasis on Hsing Yi, probably the most powerful of the three, like this one is.

Hence most qigong tends to be soft and sweet. But that's only one side of the story. For the full effect you need both the soft and the hard, the yin and the yang.

I've scanned as many of the other qigong courses available as I could and though jolly well-meaning, and even quite esoteric or hifalutin at first glance, they're well-meaning flowery twaddle next to this system, as far as I'm concerned, hence partly why I call it in-depth qigong. But as I say, I'm biased (and in this instance quite probably remarkably arrogant and opinionated).

Perhaps the correct way would be to say it in the words of music producer Bastido Cartel in referring to the recent Lost Apes EP I produced, “You'll have to decide for yourself, but it's certainly not rubbish”.

But in any case don't take my word for it – or his.

The whole point of this is to do it yourself, make it your own, and enjoy the ineffable benefits for yourself.

 And though the thought of daily practice may initially seem onerous, perhaps for plugging you into unconscious associations with difficult episodes of so-called physical education classes at school, or for innate rebellion against 

anything that might actually do you good (we all do it), it is actually as the warning states, highly addictive.

So once you start, unless you're extremely contrary and strong willed to your detriment, you're so swiftly hooked you can't actually imagine how you could possibly function without it. Of course you can but only as a regular human – it's the superhuman (for want of a better word) dimension the practice affords you that's hard to do without once you're hooked. Not to mention the remarkable increase of ease and vivacity of your joints and muscles and general comfort in your skin, as well as all the aforementioned boons.

Qigong – What exactly is it?

Qi or chi (same thing, different spelling – I use chi to talk about chi but qi when talking about qigong, simply because I find it easier on the eye than chi gung or chi gong, which are ungainly to my gaze, while qi on its own seems like you've gone dyslexic and have forgotten how to spell key) – means literally breath. However it alludes to something far more complex than we normally think of as breath. But for a start breath is far more complex than we realize without or without chi, not that you can have breath without chi. In fact you can't have anything at all without chi. And I'll explain why shortly.

Chi is the ancient Taoists' way of referring to the effect caused by the Tao (the ancient Taoists' way of referring to the prime causal spark and thrust of existence and the world of matter) setting itself in motion.

The motion instigated by the supposed big bang, which has caused an entire universe of infinite proportions to grow from something smaller than anything we could conceive into something bigger than anything we could conceive, and which is still expanding exponentially by the nanosecond, and which is exactly the same motion propelling your heart to pump your blood at this precise moment and ideally for many many moments still to come, and which is exactly the same motion animating your thoughts, bringing people in and out of your ambit, along with all the opportunities, hassles, joys, irritations, laughter and drama that provides as well your constant entertainment and education – that's chi.

Cosmic and profound enough, you may think. But chi has something possibly even more magnificent and mysterious about it. Because not only is chi the primordial force of existence, the driving thrust of all motion, chi is also psycho- active.

And what do I mean by that?

In the same way breathing (on a mechanical level) is autonomic in that you breathe automatically, just as your heart beats automatically, your breathing is nonetheless susceptible to active intervention in terms of regulating tempo, evenness, fluency, smoothness, silence, and depth, cognitive adjustment of which factors has an instantaneous corresponding effect on the state of mind, not to mention benign effects on your physical health.

The flow of chi (as I say by which I mean the actual driving force of the universe) is also autonomic in that until you're trained or minded to become aware of it, it moves and operates through you automatically – were it not doing so, incidentally, you'd not be here for us to discuss it. And like the mechanical or physical aspect of breath, chi, the breath's 

metaphysical (meaning the realm above the physical, that controls the physical) aspect or counterpart is also susceptible to intervention.

By learning to actively amplify and intensify the flow of chi and to direct it, you imbue it with consciousness, or more precisely your consciousness acts as a catalyst on the latent consciousness inherent in chi, and it bends itself to your will – or to your willy in the case of those practicing scrotum-based weightlifting (willy of course being a twee English euphemism for the male membrum virile).

Before such psychic activation whenever you've wanted something your chi has been unconsciously, automatically mobilized in the direction of the object of your desire. This didn't mean you always got what you wanted, but simply that chi was mobilized every time.

However, be trained to actively intervene in the flow of chi and your capacity for intending things into real-life being increases exponentially. And because the chi is flowing more freely, fluently and forcibly through all parts of you including your brain, cleansing wherever it passes and freeing up toxins, your natural propensity for wanting things that are in accord with the 'great flow' grows as your tendency to want things that jar the 'great flow' wanes proportionately.

Chi – energy imbued with intention - is the active ingredient of true magic, whether using it to heal, or to prosper in any other way. Learn to channel chi and you're channeling with the Tao itself. And no better business partner can you have.

But what is gong? You may well ask.

Gong as in going going gong, simply means work as in stop procrastinating and get to gong.

Hence qigong means working the chi or working on the chi, or working with the chi – or if you fancy yourself as a bit of a servant of the Tao, even working for the chi.

History of Qigong

Once upon a time long, long ago, something happened but no one remembers what so they all made up loads of stories about it, many of which you'll find by googling it, some of which may even contain kernels of truth, but the actual truth is no one's really got a clue how qigong originated.

Some say it came from an advanced alien species hailing from somewhere in the Sirius solar system. Others say it was introduced into China from India and derives from yoga. We do know it's Chinese, it's Taoist, and it's pretty old – and that really is about all that matters on that score. It's evident, at least subjectively when you practice it, that it's ancient, profound and primordial – and that's what's important.

Because practicing qigong isn't about pretending to be ancient or Chinese, nor even honoring its ancientness or oriental origins, though obviously we respect these factors – it's about plugging into something universal and timeless, and as appropriate, relevant, and congruent today on any part of the planet as it was then in the mountains of Northern China. 

However Qigong was never a separate discrete system in its own right. That was a very recent development originating in Mao's so-called second cultural revolution in China in the mid-‘70s when he gingerly started permitting people to take up the old ways again, having banned them entirely until then. However they weren't permitted to honor the ancient backstory behind these ways, or any of the metaphysical understanding upon which they're based.

Hence whole chunks of arcane practices comprising esoteric and physical preparation for martial activity (boxing, fighting, warring etc), got lifted and repackaged devoid of context as 'medical qigong' for instance. Just as how Chinese doctors using acupuncture as anesthesia in surgery gained worldwide publicity and rightly so, for the ancient art of healing by needlepoint, Chinese doctors using qigong in hospitals gained similar for various simplified versions of qigong practice, since which time qigong has become a de facto separate training system to martial arts, which is a little bit like so-called mindfulness having become a separate discipline from meditation. Absurd in both instances but such is the way of this overly marketed, packaged world and many of the daft twits comprising it.

When I say martial arts, I'm specifically referring to the main Taoist so-called internal boxing forms:

Tai Chi Ch'uan (supreme ultimate fist)

Hsing Yi Ch'uan (focused intention fist), and

Pa Kua Chan (eight directions palm strike)

White Crane.

Narrow horse' stance means standing with feet at shoulder width, both feet facing directly forwards (as opposed to pigeon toed). Your knees are lightly bent, each knee slightly over its respective foot (as opposed to letting your knees caved in). Your sacral bone (base of spine) is held perpendicular to the floor or ground by gently tucking your pelvis in and under.

Forward stance' means you have one foot in front of the other with a distance of approximately one foot between them. The rear foot is turned out on the heel at roughly 40 degree angle. The front foot is facing directly forwards in line with your nose. The knees are lightly bent. The sacrum, neck, throat, shoulders (and tongue) are held as above.

'Feet together' stance means how it sounds, both feet are nearly touching with a gap of just ten inches of so between the two sets of insteps, and facing forwards, meaning neither pigeon toed or splayed, so that the outside edges of the feet are parallel to each other. The knees are not bent but nor are they locked tight. The sacrum, neck, throat and shoulders (and tongue) as above.

'Scissor' stance is too complicated to explain easily in words so check the film but at least you'll know what it's called.

These are referred to as internal not only because so much of the focus is on the movement of chi and taking command of the way it moves between you and the opponent, but also, more practically speaking, because your stratagem is to get inside your opponent's defensive boundaries, literally right up close as if about to kiss them with a full body embrace, and instead dismantle them with a series of discreet but potentially deadly and generally devastating strikes, low kicks, holds and locks, which because of enhanced body mechanics afforded by extreme proximity require relatively little brawn to execute.

And aside from the combative dexterity such practice confers, the health benefits are immeasurable.

However, commitment to training is required and needs to be strong to make you stay the course before seeing big results. Whereas, and bless those mid-‘70s Chinese neo-pioneers for this, by artificially separating off the preparation-for- combat exercises from the combat training itself, and just practicing the qigong, the health and wellbeing (pardon the now sadly hackneyed word) benefits are enormous without ever having to learn how to fight.

Personally I'd feel bereft not to practice the fighting forms each day directly after the qigong, as they comprise for me the free-flight thrill of an eagle soaring way up high, or the controlled excitement of the racing driver laps ahead of all fellow contenders. As well as which I like feeling well- prepared for most eventualities including the possibility of having to diffuse the occasional incident, without overly exerting or straining myself. 

However if really rushed for whatever reason, I'll always prioritize the qigong practice over the fighting forms. I can go a day without fighting practice and feel utterly fine bar a feint yearning. But going without qigong for me would be like spending the day walking in the hot desert without anything to drink. That's how addicted I am – my name's Barefoot and I'm a qigong-addict, and I'm proud of it (hyphenated phrase used there to preclude any unscrupulous jealous scumbag of a journalist pejoratively lifting my phrases out of context as they've sometimes been want to do).

But enough about me, let's focus on you and how it will look, you practicing this qigong, and how it will look you training in it in the first place.

Qigongo training - what does it comprise?

 Up at 4am, run 18 miles naked with a moderately heavy weight attached to your genitals – not.

In fact though extremely incisive in the sense of getting right to the nub of your personal bio-machinery and adjusting it with true precision and rapid effect, Qigongo Barefoot Doctor's Online In-Depth Qigong Training is a respectful sophisticated and elegant affair – a system built for intelligent adults, not a punishment course designed to break your

spirit and then build you back up as a foot soldier. Far from it. This is proper advanced major-general level fare.

Training consists of an initial phase lasting just six weeks during which, assuming you don't f**k about too much and get on with it relatively diligently and methodically, you'll learn all the fundamental moves of the six main sections including the healing sounds as combined with the five element movements of Hsing Yi, leading up to the basic but rightly renowned standing still, holding-an-invisible- friend-in-your-arms meditation.

This comprises the full training less various subtle nuances, refinements and additions to the six main sections, impossible to take in in the main training stage without going doolally from information overload, the full training in the healing sounds due its own showcase as a separate entity, and the nei-gong or internal work, half of which you'll know already if having completed School for Warriors 1,2, & 3, the other half of which is also due its own show as a separate or more advanced entity. And the same goes for training in the Tai Chi as a way of following up on this training, and/or School for Warriors – just to put it all perspective and context for you, as was initially intended.

The training is all done standing, though if physically up against it in that respect, can all or partially be effectively trained sitting down if necessary.

Minimum requirement will be watching and playing follow my leader with the film each day till you've got the moves down and then practicing them without the film, but checking back regularly in case you've misinterpreted anything and have gone wildly off course.

This practice session will take about ten minutes – once in the morning before going out to play with the world, and ideally again at night once you're done with all the noise.

This is an average duration. Some days the film is only three minutes long other days much longer. Some days you just learn one move, other days, a few. There's a reason for this (all to do with honoring the yin-yang flow) and derives from decades of teaching the system so knowing where to ease up and where to pile on the moves. So though not symmetrical in the short-term overall it has perfect symmetry, so go with it.

Each day you'll practice the moves already learned and then tag on the new one/s, then the following week, you'll continue practicing these moves while also learning the next group.

 And so on, so that by the time you arrive at week six, it'll be requiring perhaps one hour of your time each day, maybe a bit less. But as soon as week seven comes and you've completed the training, the entire practice without the training aspect will take approximately just 23 minutes each morning, and ideally (especially if you want super-rapid results) 23 minutes again at night, but the morning session is the crucial one.

Once you've made each section yours and especially once you've completed the training and made the entire system yours, and are therefore no longer restricted by having to be close to a screen or vice versa, you can do the practice outside, inside or in your lady's chamber, which is especially pleasant in clement weather and is a wonderful reason to get yourself out in the open air no matter the time of year, also healthy in itself.

Results – how fast will you see them?

As soon as you look in the mirror or feel yourself from the inside (proprioceptively) after the first session – but definitely give it a fat three months before evaluating its effect, as by then the change will be astonishing. This said, incidentally, according to corroborative feedback of all participants I've taught the system to at all my retreats (as it forms the basis of the retreat work), who've had the gumption to continue daily practice, which blessedly happens to be the majority (that's how addictive this is so beware).

What makes this in-depth system unique?

Me. You. The qigong moves themselves. The in-depthness of it. And aside from me having practiced it daily for longer and with more frequency than most contemporary teachers have had hot dinners, hence having an in-depth handle on it by dint of sheer repetition alone, and aside from having had forty years experience at teaching it, hence a well-honed ability to convey it with sufficient clarity and delight, the fact that unlike other trainings around, it's utterly mumbo-jumbo- and mystification-free, it's utterly non-flowery, it's utterly to the point, and perhaps most importantly it's the only system I know of that works in such a focused way on both yin (soft) aspect qigong, and the yang (hard) aspect qigong, whereas the others tend to focus merely on the soft.

Which is all well and good if you're a pastry but to be a well- honed superhuman you need the both.

Moreover qigong is marketed as a relaxation tool, as it's an easy sell to exercise-lazy stressed people. However marketing QIGONGO qigong as a relaxation tool is like marketing a million dollar Bugatti as a relaxation tool because it has comfortable seats to recline in.

Yes you'll be far more relaxed by doing it, but not in a soft, floppy, chinos-plus- denim-shirt dress-down Friday twee decaffeinated frappuccino sort of way, but in an actively relaxed, yet alert way, like a true Samurai warrior of the modern world, not just some human yoga mat.

During each session, you get to thrust back into the depths of your being and discern, clarify and focus your intention. So you can determine the after-effect of the session.

Hence no matter how vigorous the moves you've practiced, or rather how vigorously you've practiced the moves, if you've been doing a night time practice you can angle the effect to calm you and prepare you for a sound night's sleep, but determine your morning practice to provide you endless drive, enthusiasm and stamina for the day.

Hence there's no need for the nonsense purveyed by some teachers in suggesting separate morning and evening routines, as this approach is just for babies.

There is only one routine, practice it each morning without fail, and then practice it as often as you like at any time of day or night you like, or not as the case may be, just as long as you fulfill the minimum daily morning practice requirement.

This stuff is pure magic but it takes more than imagining yourself waving your magic wand – you do actually have to do the practice. 

And if you do, all the rewards you can possibly imagine and more will be yours, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade, and who knows if you really go for it, century after century. One old guy, Master Li, lived till he was 287 according to documented evidence, and only died of sheer ennui for everything becoming so samey and cliched in his eyes (as I'd imagine anyway).

Though there are six discrete sections of the system and all sections have a distinctly different flavor, there are certain foundation principles relating to posture, positioning, breathing, centering, and focus, applicable to all sections.

These will be explained before we start the qigong itself.

Then we will go through each of the sections and reveal the multiple layer treasure each conceals.

QIGONGO FOUNDATION PRINCIPLES

Why counting counts

All the moves are repeated a number of times. Counting the repetitions is the only way to keep the repetitions equal for both sides of the body, and equal in potency sequentially speaking. Sticking to the suggested number of repetitions guarantees a dependable duration for each session so you can reliably factor it into your daily schedule without messing up your time-table. And it gives the prefrontal cortex based 'monkey mind' something extra to occupy it so it's less likely to butt in and distract you from the requisite degree of internal focus.

The actual number of repetitions is traditional, based on Taoist numerology, and are in multiples of nine. Nine is the most strength-evoking number there is according to this system and is indeed a most magical number.

Take the nine times table for instance – and this is the only number that does the following, and you'll see something remarkable.

1x9=09               0+9=9

2x9=18               1+8=9

3x9=27               2+7=9

4x9=36               3+6=9

5x9=45               4+5=9

6x9=54               5+4=9

7x9=63               6+3=9

8x9=72               7+2=9

9x9=81               8+1=9

10x9=90             9+0=9

Notice that when we get to 6x9, the numbers reverse – 54 instead of 45, 63 instead of 36, 72 instead of 27, 81 instead of 18 and 90 instead of 90. While nine is the strength number, the yang, six is the reducing or flipping number, the yin, hence when 6 gets in the mix it flips the sequence. 

However though at some point in the history of metaphysical practice this was arbitrarily introduced and it wouldn't really fundamentally make too much difference if you did only say eight repetitions of each move, or did ten, I do strongly advise sticking to multiples of nine. It's designed for practice to only take as much time as needed and no more, and it does have strengthening power (if you believe it does). Plus it helps break the trance of the familiar, which when it comes to counting, because we have ten fingers we tend to count in tens.

Breaking such familiar patterns in a specific way makes space for creativity and originality of thought in general.

Posture, positioning and stance

Posture means how you hold yourself – specifically in this training, how you stand.

Positioning refers to how and where you position yourself within your skin.

Stance refers to the three main standing positions. Let's look at these and the postures they entail first.

The back of your neck is elongated (as opposed to compacted). Your throat is elongated (as opposed to squashed). Your shoulders are dropped and broadened (as opposed to up round your ears).

The tongue is lightly pushed upwards into the roof of the mouth in the dome behind the top teeth 

The weight of the upper body and head is sunk below the level of the navel so it fills the legs and leaves the upper body and head feeling light.

Likewise the 'extended squat' position. These will be self- evident when you get to them in the film version.

Positioning

Fundamental to all forms of Taoist practice, particularly qigong, is training in the optimal place within your skin to place your weight, your center of gravity, your awareness, your energy, and the point from which you're perceiving or bearing witness to your moment-by-moment experience.

Left unattended to you're all over the place like any regular Joe.

Optimized you have supra- or transcendent consciousness. Learning to optimize internal positioning lies at the heart of all Taoist practice – I refer to it as The Method, and Qigong practice is in fact more accurately seen as activity that provides opportunity for enjoying some concentrated moments of this, rather than this being something you do if wanting to practice qigong properly, though both are equally true, depending on your perspective at the time. Either way for Qigongo to work its magic to the maximum optimized internal positioning is essential, without which it'd be like driving that million dollar Bugatti from the passenger seat.

Rather than keeping your weight up in the upper body (something acquired bio-ancestrally from us coming up from all fours and becoming bipeds all those years ago collectively speaking and of course individually having each made that transition from crawling to walking, and this having been achieved by urging ourselves up and away from the ground, yet we now need to take command and trusting we'll remain bipedal regardless, allow that weight to succumb to the Earth's gravitational pull, and sink down into the lower part of the body and legs. This leaves the upper part and head relatively light and free, as mentioned previously.

Remember to engender length in the back of the neck and throat to counter any slumping tendency.

Sit yourself in the rear part of your body and skull, rather than the front: everywhere behind the side-seams. In terms of attaining and maintaining sanity, clarity, perspective and focus enough to be able to truly feel and say you're enjoying every moment of your precious life come what may (which is the ultimately definitive definition of success), learning to do just this is the most powerful tool you'll ever acquire. We adopt the qualities of our environment. If your environment is busy, noisy, weak-structured and vulnerable and susceptible to endogenous or exogenous upheaval, your mind will mirror that by being busy, noisy, weakly-organized, vulnerable and susceptible to upheaval. If your environment is tranquil, calm, still, quiet, well laid out and adequately protected to prevent or withstand upheaval, your mind, hence experience of being alive, will mirror that by becoming tranquil, calm, still, quiet, organized and sturdy.

In the human body, the frontal aspect is relatively noisy (noise of the organs and bowels, noise of the thinking, noise of the psycho-emotional conflict or turmoil in the solar plexus and prefrontal cortex), vulnerable and weak (in the sense of the abdomen, throat and face being unprotected). When you're positioned forwards of the side-seams, therefore, you and your experience of being alive become similarly noisy- minded, you're more vulnerable, and more prone to weakness.

Ironically this is how most people spend their lives, because unless you're trained not to, with all the sense orgains facing the front, life is perceived as in front of you, hence because life in front of you is intriguing and fascinating, it draws you unconsciously forwards to get a closer look. And then you stay there habitually, forgetting completely there was ever a choice – and need anti-anxiety medicine to calm your nerves.

Instead sit in your back – everywhere rear of your side seams, where its qualities of stillness, silence, security and strength imbue you similarly.

This is like sliding your car seat all the way back on its runners and tilting the rear of the seat back a bit more so you're driving like a racing driver (rather than like a nervous twillup).

I will tell you far far more about The Method and all its fascinating ramifications when it comes to creating The Method training. But for now suffice it to say use the qigong practice session to primarily practice The Method while doing the moves, and the moves and their effectiveness will be exponentially multiplied.

However doing so without attending to 'opening your heart', as in relaxing your chest so your wonderful love and joyous essence is free to flow freely to one and all and to receive likewise in return, might lead you to feel somewhat removed and sidelined in the general flow of chi. 

So while practicing, practice keeping your heart open and generously sharing love, and you’ll feel fully, healthily connected to humanity no matter how geographically or culturally isolated.

In daily life this is hard to remember to do, so use the qigong practice session to compound it, and it will lodge far more quickly and effectively as a skill.

Focus, breathing and relaxation

Focus

This is in two stages: while learning the moves and once you know them.

Because while learning them just learning them will naturally pretty much be your whole focus.

Breathing

It's obviously imperative to keep doing this come what may – at least for as long as you're alive or intend to remain so.

There are then a few ways to optimize the effects of this – adjusting the actual method of breathing, adjusting the tempo of the breathing, adjusting the tone of the breathing, and adjusting the level of cognition about the breathing (though this would probably be the first of these to attend to).

So firstly, become aware of breathing.

You'll probably at first notice you're holding or restraining the breath somewhat. We do this unconsciously when overly stressed in a bid to hold the world still for a moment, to halt the continuous flow of information in order to assimilate and get up to date. But it doesn't work, and instead exacerbates the stress, diminishes the ability to think clearly and hence operate effectively, and generally increases the amount of frequency of cortisol (addictive stress chemical) being released from the adrenals, which is damn bad for your health.

Allow the breath to come and go freely.

Let your belly swell and rise (or feel as if it's swelling and rising) on the incoming air, and flatten and fall (or feel as if it's flattening and falling) on the outgoing air.

Let the breath move silently and smoothly, and feel like silk being reeled from a cocoon. This combination will calm and decelerate your mind, soften the tone of your thoughts, and increase your mental clarity.

You'll find it obvious when to inhale and exhale during Gigongo practice – you exhale on the push and inhale on the pull.

The breath is drawn in via the nostrils and expelled again via the nostrils and mouth together.

As I say the belly is flattened on exhalation.

In one section of the sequence that focuses specifically on the breathing and strengthening of the diaphragm, this will be particularly noticeable. This way of breathing is the most efficient, though takes some time to train in if unfamiliar with it. However the above-mentioned section will help enormously with that.

Towards the end of the sequence is another form focused on strengthening the abdominal muscles which deploys 'reverse' breathing, in which you flatten the belly on inhalation and swell it on the out-breath. But this is solely to get one group of muscles to push against another for strengthening purposes.

And when doing the healing sounds, the only difference is that rather than the breath being silent on the way and the way out, it's just silent on the way in but on the way out is used to support the sound you're making, which is obvious anyway.

And aside from that there's not much else to say about the breathing save to reiterate keep doing it, it's the most important thing in life.

Relaxation

With the exception of the muscles or muscle groups actually being used all your muscles are held as soft and un-rigid as possible. Even when using tensile strength in a particular muscle group, let that muscle group remain relaxed albeit in the tensile state, same way good boxers or dancers are able.

It's imperative to keep the muscles as soft as possible at all times anyway to encourage the optimal flow of chi throughout your body.

This requires exercising some sort of vigilance, a willingness to remain cognitive of what's happening throughout your body at all times. You may think this would prevent you getting on with your life, or in this instance getting on with the gong, so to speak, but it's perfectly possible to remain cognitive of varying stress levels and attending to adjusting as required, while focusing on the move, or on whatever else you're doing – indeed it's imperative.

Key tension accumulation points are your face (especially around your eyes, eyebrows, cheeks, jaw and chin, in case me just saying 'face' confuses you), throat, neck (sides and back), shoulders, between the blades, chest, upper belly, lower belly, lower back, buttocks, rectum, pelvic floor, forearms, hands, lower legs, feet – in other words pretty much everywhere – so be alert. Or you can focus on just one spot, say the base of the occiput (rear skull bone), or center of forehead between the eyebrows, then relax that point and let the rest follow. And be sure to check at the end of each section. Then once you get used to that, check at the end of each exercise, then when used to that, check at the end of each repetition of each exercise.

Being in your back

Body

 Above all, this is an opportunity to be in your back. 

Originate all movement from your center just beneath your navel.

Lengthen the back of your neck, and your throat, like a tortoise peering out from its shell.

Sink your shoulders and sink the weight of them down below your navel, through your legs and into the ground.

Raise your breastbone without arching your back. Stay in your back.

Breathe fluently – stop holding your breath – relax your diaphragm and breathe freely in time with the movement.

Feel the chi moving through you – if you can’t feel it, pretend you’re feeling it, method act.

Feel the chi moving around you – if you can’t feel it, pretent you’re feeling it, method act it.

Soften all the muscles and sinews you’re not actually using directly in the movement.    

Remember, the chi is the Tao in motion – the chi is psychoactive – honor the Tao all around and within you.

Be aware of where you are – in endless space on a planet spinning on her axis at 1,000mph, orbiting the nearest star at 66,000 mph – honor the presence informing it all into infinity.

Relax all your vital organs and bowels. Relax your brain and nervous system. Relax your bones.

Relax your joints.

Relax your bone marrow. 

Relax your blood vessels.

Feel the chi move everywhere in every cell.

Lengthen the back of your neck and your throat like a tortoise peering out from its shell

Drop your shoulders and sink the weight of them down below your navel, through your legs and through your soles into the ground.

Raise your breastbone.

Breathe in through the whole of the front of your body at once, draw the breath into your back and back of your skull, breathe out from your back and back of skull through the front.

Let the in-breath draw you into your back, let the out-breath’s forward motion thrust you back inside like when taking off in a plane.

This is an opportunity to be in your back. This is an opportunity to feel the chi.

If you can’t feel the chi moving, pretend you can, method act it.

Originate all movement from your center just beneath your navel.

Soften all your muscles. Be in your back.

Breathe freely. Relax everything. Feel the chi moving. 

Honor the background presence, the Tao informing this whole experience.

Be aware of where you are, in deep space on a planet orbiting a star at the edge of a galaxy moving at ferocious speed against the background radiation wave.

Be in your back.

Be the background presence in your back. Relax everything.

Appreciate the gift of all gifts, beyond which lies no greater gift, the gift you already have and enjoy: being alive – existence.

Trust that all lesser gifts no matter how seemingly huge or important to attain to, will be brought you in the appropriate form, at the relevant time in the most elegant way.

Let go, feel the chi, let the chi carry you on its current.

Mind

Your mind will want to get busy, thinking about all the usual nonsense, which is counterproductive here, so we'll be getting it as occupied as possible on more useful focuses. Counting repetitions is one. Following the flow of chi is another. Remembering to keep gathering it back in your lower belly just below your navel and moving from there (as in instigating all motion from that point) is another.

Remembering to keep it in the back of your brain, rather than allow it to continue in the noise of the prefrontal cortex is another. And silently reciting positive, self-affirming thoughts synchronized with the moves is another. I'll not be mentioning these in the films as it's too personal so let's discuss these now, as you'll find them useful when in the mood.

I'll not presume to dictate at this stage of training what to 

think, as that's your business entirely, however you might for example while say doing the healing sounds be silently reciting 'this is healing me now' – obvious perhaps but you'd be surprised how much such obvious interjections benignly affect the effect, as it were. Or say when doing the upper- body strengthening gong, 'reciting this is making me super- strong', will help enhance the strengthening effect. It does sound obvious I know but try it, using your own value set to compose the lyrics and you'll see what I mean.

Final thoughts

No rush

Never rush the practice, but don't dilly dally along the way either.

4 ounces

This is (obviously) a metaphor and not an actual measure of pressure, implying deploying just enough pressure or force to complete the movement effectively yet respectfully (to your body and self). 5 ounces would be veering towards brute force. 3 ounces would just make you a flopsy. 4 is just right.

Daily practice

Do the practice every day without fail, come what may – it will always make you feel exponentially better – let no excuse prevent that. If however you do come up with an excuse that can't be refuted and miss a day, make up for it by practicing double the next. Take that on board and it'll be the most important piece of advice anyone's ever proffered you.

And now you're ready to start.

May it serve you as well as you'll let it and may you let it do so fully.

Barefoot Doctor’s 

QIGONGO

Companion Notes

Set 1

© Stephen Russell

QIGONGO – THE FORM

Set 1

The Waterwheel

Twisty-whisty, The Bird, the Taoist Foxtrot, Side Bend

The Waterwheel: standing in narrow stance drawing the hands up the front of the body, over the top of an imaginary waterwheel in front of you, then down the other side, and back in towards you underneath, just like a waterwheel, but rather than circulating water you're circulating chi.

Breathe in as the hands come up and out as they go down. Repeat between nine and eighteen times depending on how long it takes you to let go and feel the chi.

With each passing revolution you'll feel the chi between your hands more clearly. Once you feel it there also attune to it revolving within the body too, up the rear of the spine to the crown of the head on the ascent, and down the front of the spine on the descent. Each ascent increasingly refines and strengthens your essence, each descent progressively increases your capacity for graciously acquiescing to the 'great flow' (Tao).

Let this increase of refinement, strength, and grace be the motivation for your practice now.

This opening section, familiar if you've already done the Tai Chi 'workout', is intended to flop into so no effort is required, however as soon as you start it sharpens you up automatically in true Taoist style and makes you feel crisp and present.

The five exercises comprising the opening section (set 1) take your spine (the central support column of your entire physical self and central to all your other selves too, hence crucial to loosen it up at all times to prevent general rigidity of body and mind) through two planes of movement: lateral twist and side-bend.

This benefits all your internal organs as well, especially the kidneys, root of all vitality, which greatly enjoy the twisting and elongating motion, and to a slightly lesser degree the lungs, which benefit by the expansion afforded the ribcage, and to a slightly lesser extent, yet still significantly, the liver, spleen and heart.

Stance is 'narrow horse', feet at shoulder width, knees lightly bent.

 Make all the moves initially from just below the belly button and let the rest of the body follow. So with the twisting exercises your belly button turns from side to side and the rest of you follows. With the side-bend exercise you tilt your belly button to one side or the other and the rest of you follows. Focus on the belly button and let the rest happen by itself.

Keep your breathing natural, flowing and slow for these and otherwise don't pay it too much attention.

Remember to keep your spine elongated, shoulders dropped and broad, muscles soft, and weight sunk down low.

Use the movement as an opportunity to experience sitting in your back. Keep your chest soft and 'open' so your innate inner beauty can freely flow and mingle with the primordial quality of beauty latent or overtly expressed by the world around you. Slightly raise your breastbone to enhance this effect as if rising up to all that is beautiful.

But experience this and the motion and your response to the motion from the back of you – everywhere rear of the side- seams, torso and brain, and notice how this engenders stillness and silence within, as the habitual drama-making noise in the front subsides.

Count 9 repetitions – one repetition comprises a left turn and a right, hence count 'one-one', 'two-two' and so on.

Barefoot Doctor’s

QIGONGO

Companion Notes

Set 2

© Stephen Russell

QIGONGO – THE FORM

Set 2 Tiger Claw

One Inch Punch, Slow Rolling Punch Punching Behind You, Hip Punch, Curling Chest Expander, Rolling The Sky

Head Turner, Taking the Tiger Down To The Shops, Hanging Forwards & The Deer, Swinging Arms

You can feel things getting more down to business in the section. This is where you stand in the best known of all qigong stances, narrow horse, and start learning how to deploy tensile strength, based on the notion of imagining yourself pushing or pulling against an intractable force or weight, like pushing against a wall.

The push or pull however is not just in the arms, but uses the entire body's strength. Specifically the buttocks and pelvic floor, which are brought into play in a (playfully) contractive way, alternately tightening your buttocks on the exertion, then softening them on the release.

Likewise the breath: exhale on the exertion, inhale on the release.

Even though it's less obvious in this section because with one or two exceptions you're not turning or twisting, nonetheless instigate all motion from the belly button.

And again use the moves as an opportunity to occupy your back and experience life from there, with an open flowing heart effect going on in front of you, as it were.

This section strengthens and aligns all aspects of you and provides extra tone to your upper body and arms, while helping loosen your neck of tension.

These moves do not exist in isolation. Each is a metaphor for challenges overcome in daily life, as in if you can accomplish these you can accomplish anything – this is a good thought to hold as an intention as you perform the moves.

Barefoot Doctor’s

QIGONGO

Companion Notes

Set 3

© Stephen Russell

QIGONGO – THE FORM

Set 3 The Bear

The Hawk The Tiger The Rooster The Dove

This is the more challenging of all the sections to learn, coming as it does from the Hsing Yi boxing training but once you get the swing of it it's easy and peasy as pie. The forward stance is the one to adopt, knees slightly bent and all other postural considerations as usual, your weight placed approximately 40% on the front foot (hence 60% on the rear foot, unless of course you have a three or more legs in which case improvise).

The actual foot movement is more simple than it looks. You're merely exchanging back foot for front (or vice versa) and just as you settle back in you draw your back foot up with a slight stamp, leaving you sitting back on your rear leg, as it were, 60% of your weight placed there (40% in the front).

The punches or strikes are delivered not just with the arms and hands, but with the entire body weight behind them.

Tensile strength is deployed as if you're actually engaged in giving your imaginary opponent a thorough bashing and mashing, yet without any vindictiveness or cruelty – merely solid strength.

To execute the moves properly it's imperative you remain fully in your back.

Each of these five moves is based on a different animal. There are twelve animals in the entire Hsing Yi menagerie, and in a more advanced Hsing Yin specific training we may well get round to those too but these five are the important fundamental ones to elicit an increase of strength across the muscles of the back, shoulders, hips, arms and so on, as well as across the five vital organs. Be sensitive and you'll quickly discern which moves most affects which organ, because you'll feel the actual region of the body responding. Telling you now would be over-egging the telling of things – good to discern some of this for yourself and report back if needs be.

When performing the moves don't be shy about taking on the spirit of the animal in a totemic way. First up is the bear, then falcon, then tiger, then dove, then rooster. Bear is grounded and imposing so can afford to be kindly. Falcon swoops high through the sky with the whole world in its eye so can afford to be generous with its insights. Tiger can win any fight so can afford to be gentle. Dove brings peace so can afford to be dramatic. And Rooster is up at the crack of dawn, way ahead of the game so can afford to be patient.

Pay special attention during Dove to expand and stretch the ribcage as fully as possible to release tension from around the lungs and heart and increase cardiovascular and respiratory efficiency.

Barefoot Doctor’s

QIGONGO

Companion Notes

Set 4

© Stephen Russell

QIGONGO – THE FORM

Set 4 Surrender Upper Body Core Strength

This section works on your arms and upper body and abdominal core muscles, bringing an instant increase of strength and resilience – and tone.

A quick but pertinent aside here about vanity, as in the desire to look trim: though vanity is one of the seven deadly sins, in the sense of sin from the original Greek meaning distance between where your arrow lands and the bullseye, as in missing the mark when it comes to being fully present as opposed to stuck up your own backside imagining everyone's concerned with how good you look, rather than be in denial about it, use it to your advantage.

Everyone wants to look good. Looking good is one of the big drivers of human society. You naturally want to look your best as well as feel your best (the two go hand in hand anyway), so if you notice the drive to look good is prevalent at any time use it to fuel your practice. Because there's no doubt this practice makes you look good. For as soon as you start the moves, the feeling good aspect instantly takes over anyway and so organically does away with the narcissistic tendency without the need for self-flagellation. This is an example of turning everything to your advantage – a basic axiom of Taoist practice in general. You might even wish to state this to yourself while performing the moves, 'I turn everything to my advantage.'

When performing the first three moves, which focus on the arms and upper body, imagine you're pushing (and pulling) against an intractable weight. Don't strain but deploy all the tensile strength you can muster. Strengthening arms and upper body respectively increases your dexterity at handling things (literally), and stabilizes your emotional state, whatever state that is at the time.

In the latter part of this wee set, you're focusing on strengthening your abdominal muscles. The first of the three focuses on the entire abdomen, The second on the lower abdomen and the third on the upper abdomen and diaphragm, while also increasing the space around the top of the lungs.

These are the equivalent of doing sit-ups, but rather than be dangerous for the lower back as sit-ups tend to be, these strengthen your lower back.

When performing these three, the abdomen is pulled back using tensile strength on each exhalation, and then relaxed in the inhalation. Practicing these will help you retrain your breathing pattern in general.

Barefoot Doctor’s

QIGONGO

Companion Notes

Set 5

© Stephen Russell

QIGONGO – THE FORM

Set 5 Healing Sounds

Lungs (and large intestine) sound – SSSSSSSSSSSAH Kidney sound – FUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Liver sound – SHHHHHHHHHHHHAH Heart sound – HAAAAAAAAWWWWWW

Spleen-and-pancreas (and stomach) sound – HUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Energy Sphere sound - SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

This is the healing sounds section. The healing sounds are due a whole training of their own but can easily be adopted initially doing QIGONGO, and even without the backstory and depth of field provided by full healing sound training will grant you immeasurable boons in terms of health of body and mind, and hence joyfulness and enthusiasm moment by moment.

The moves again come from Hsing Yi boxing practice, one move for each element, each element corresponding to an organ, and you can feel the strengthening effect occurring around the respective organs as you make the moves (and sounds).

The sounds are a version of the vibratory frequency required to stir the chi in each organ, but more immediately are a carrier of intention, conducting your mind to the respective organ, for wherever the mind goes, the chi follows and where the chi goes the blood follows, bringing fresh nutrients and strength wherever it does flow.

Think of the sounds also as a form of sonic massage for each organ.

The lungs respond to the sound SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS- AAAH! Picture a squad of micro-entities jet-spraying your lungs clean from the inside.

The kidneys respond to the sound FUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII (soprano on the FU, diving down to deepest possible bass on the IIIIIIIIIIetc), visualizing a wad of solid heat drop down into your kidneys (kidneys love warmth).

The liver responds to the sound SHHHHHHHHHH-AAH! Picture the air blowing the area surrounding the liver up like a big balloon to afford the liver more lebensraum (space), while simultaneously expelling the residue of all toxin.

The heart responds to the sound HAAAAAAAAAAA (as in car/cardiovascular). Picture a squad of micro-massagers working this muscles from the inside and feel it soften and relax.

The spleen responds to the sound HUUUUUUUUUU (as in who). Picture the sound wrapping itself around the spleen like tight lagging or swaddling. While the liver enjoys life better with more headroom), the spleen enjoys it far better when compressed.

Your energy field, the expandable ovoid spherical (egg- shaped) force-field surrounding your beautiful person, and which protects you from all psychic dross, while making your aura sparkle and shine for better societal transactional lubrication effect, responds to the sound SHIIIIIIIIIIIIII (as in shit without the T). Picture your egg glowing brighter and brighter and shining father and father afield.

The stance is the narrow stance as for the previous set. Brace your lower back on each extension of the arms by tughtening your buttocks, pelvic floor and hamstrings.

The effect on the organs can be evaluated 24 hours later as it takes 24 hours for the chi to pass through them all and trigger a change of conditions.

Barefoot Doctor’s

QIGONGO

Companion Notes

Set 6

© Stephen Russell

QIGONGO – THE FORM

Set 6 Alignment

Monkeying Around Self Massage Closing

This section comprises the more semi-acrobatic aspect of the sequence and requires at two stages stretching the hamstrings and abductor muscles of the legs. It's imperative you don't bounce or force yourself lower than comes easily.

Daily practice grants exponential increase of suppleness in the fullness of time. This must not be rushed if unnecessary mishap or injury is to be avoided. If in doubt perform the moves as if you're a frail old person. If you actually are a frail old person keep doing it as you'd do it anyway and before you know it you'll no longer be frail or feel old, at which point do these as if you're still a frail old person. At least at first until your body's had time to learn to feel safe in the moves.

Stances for this section range from narrow stance through forwards stance, through scissor stance, through extended squat stance, through wide horse stance, to narrow horse stance, so lots of stance variation to enjoy.

The extended squat is particularly good for strengthening and reducing and/or preventing pain in the lower back.

The abdominal core strengthening move deploys reverse breathing, so look out for that.

The monkey doing push-ups move is not only strengthening for upper body, and loosening for hips, it's also there primarily to enjoy (like a monkey). At first you may find it challenging bending your arms much. If so don't bend them much but each day bend them a tiny bit more until before you know it you'll be bending them like a ninja.

And when you stand up from the squat at the end of the set do so slowly and expect to feel a momentary mild dizziness.

Give your lower back a moment to straighten itself out before moving into the next position (narrow stance).

When in the first standing position, as with the extended squat, feel free to repeat the affirmation I always repeat with it myself – obviously substitute your own words if you feel like – the sentiment is what counts here.

For the first standing position, repeat, 'I have the vision, I have the will, I have the power, I have the skill – I know what I want, I can pull off this stunt, and everyone and everything helps me do so.'

And when in the extended squat, 'I'm always in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing, in the right way, with the right people, and the result result'.

These are actually both part of a set of spoken word for the dance-floor I've used for years but they fit the need for both regulating how long you remain in the posture and for establishing the relevant tone for the respective positions.

This last part consists of a self-massage routine, worthy of a whole training in itself, lightly run through here but thoroughly enough so. This must be done with respect towards yourself rather than at all brutally (obviously). And for pleasure. You'll feel like you've had an internal shower afterwards and prepared for the final standing meditation.

These are performed in narrow stance.

Similarly, standing for a moment after the massage, start by repeating the Waterwheel nine to eighteen times as you did at the start and take note of how different it feels having completed the intervening sequence.

Then visualize a cocoon of light circling your entire body on the lateral plane in an anti-clockwise (counterclockwise) direction accelerating more with every breath, cleansing your system and energy field of all energetic, psychic and physical detritus, and then (once you feel clean enough), spinning it the other way (clockwise) to build up fresh chi and protection.

Then repeat this except on the vertical plane, by visualizing the cocoon spinning over your head and body, up the front and down the back, cleansing you as before, then spinning it the other way, down the front and up the back to build up fresh chi and protection.

As with all these contemplations, sometimes you feel them sometimes you're just going through the motions and imagining you can feel them. That's fine – the key is to practice every day without fail, as this facilitates an increasing frequency of feeling it for real, which can't be facilitated as reliably in any other way.

Narrow horse stance is adopted for this standing 'holding your imaginary friend in your arms' (my nomenclature, not traditional) meditation. Some would say the whole point of the preceding sets is to arrive here. I might myself occasionally except that's a linear view and therefore narrow. The whole point of every moment, no matter what you're doing in it, is to let it please you, to enjoy it in other words.

But it's true to say that this fabled meditation is a great opportunity for feeling your innate joy simply to be.

There are some lineages that prescribe standing like this for 40 minutes or more at a time. And while that can be hugely beneficial when in the extremely rare mood to do such a thing, this should in no way preclude you reaping the enormous benefits of standing like that for just a moment.

For in reality just a moment is enough to grant you access to the eternal moment that lies behind all moments, and is far more practical in any case for the majority of us who have tasks and obligations to perform on a daily basis, or simply have better things to do that stand around doing nothing for 40 minutes. However if you ever do find yourself with time and inclination for such endeavors don't hold back.

But do hold back in another sense, however long or short a time you choose to stand there for.

For the main benefit of this aside from its supremely stabilizing effect on both body and mind, is the opportunity it affords you for holding yourself in your back.

With your arms held out as if embracing your beloved, who's just a bit too large to allow your hands to meet, use the arms as a ballast against which you drop back inside.

While standing there, the first thing to attain to is a moment of absolute non-thought, not even the thought of 'here I am standing with no-thought'. This is both incredibly challenging and incredibly simple at the same time. Once you're in, you can't imagine how you ever found it difficult. But getting to that moment may take many moments and indeed many practice sessions. Once you get the knack however, it's easy as pie and makes you feel instantly high. But when I say high, I mean the kind of high you can only achieve by going deep.

It's the weight being fully sunk into the lower parts and legs, which allows the upper part to be free and airy – head as high as the sky, feet firmly on the ground.

Then with you in the back of you (body and brain), the front of you is quiet and in quiescence comes acquiescence – acquiescence to what is: this ineffable miracle of being alive regardless of the habitual drama generation in the front, regardless of all external factors.

In this surrendered state make clear to yourself how you intend the day to unfold – not in terms of details as that's tantamount to mere spiritual materialism, which drive depletes rather than builds your chi.

Intend the day and your life henceforth to unfold with supreme elegance and leave the details to the Tao.

Then focus on the chi coursing through your joints, your limbs, your organs, your blood, your nerves, your skin, your hair, your clothes, your surrounding field, the world all about you, and to the furthest reaches of the infinite cosmos.

Then dedicate this fruit, this sensation of wellbeing to whomever or whatever you feel to in the moment – it doesn't matter what as long as you recall that every manifest phenomenon is merely a material expression of the Tao

informing it, hence your dedication is ultimately to the Tao.

The transition from standing to moving into your life must be undertaken cognitively, seamlessly and contiguously. So it's not a matter of going, 'right, done my practice, now lets forget this superhuman state and return to being a slave' – instead intend to continue enjoying your superhuman state throughout the day and to share the joy it affords you freely with one and all.

And if that doesn't do it for you, you want some pleasing.

Again I iterate from the depths of my heart, may this serve you fully and well.

Post-finally, and why QIGONGO? It makes me smile, it's funny, it makes me think of dance music and dance and it came walking in Boulder, Colorado, marveling at American linguistic nimbleness and facility for coming up with names and copy for ads, going past a sushi takeaway joint called Japango and thinking, 'Qigongo, I must remember that for the qigong training'. It implies you take the qigong away and make it yours, or vice versa, it inspires a bit of get up and go, and it stops the whole thing getting too serious for its own good (yet another factor distinguishing QIGONGO from other trainings).

And may it serve you damn well