Rating: 
Summary: The Most Complete Book on Qigong
Review: Quite simply, this book covers more aspects and types of Qigong than any other book available to the english speaking public. I am a practitioner of the huge Universal Tao System and this one of the only books that that is up to par with Sifu Mantak Chia's books. Furthermore, it uncovers very, very secret practices from the Taoist Internal Alchemy, Chinese and Tibetan Tantrism, Shaolin Secret Arts and even Dzogchen(!) many of which have never been publicly published before. Some of these practices are so secret most practitioners have either: never heard of them or had concluded they had been lost. Yet, Sifu Shou-yu Liang and Sifu Wen-ching Wu have found it in their hearts to share these profound practices with the rest of the world. They are both incredible masters in their own right, not to mention winning numerous qigong and martial arts awards under their belt. Their schools are well known and respected worldwide.
Really, Qigong Empowerment is set of 5 books. After reading the introduction you will then be able to choose which books you want to read. If you are feeling unhealthy you might go to the Medical Qigong Book; if you practice a style of martial arts you may go to the Martial Qigong Book. All five books are really amazing though.
Each practice is outlined in a very logical and practical manner and really pretty easy to understand. There is also a healthy amount of philosophical explanation and theory. So even the teaching method is complete here: they give WHO founded the particular technique and how it was passed down, WHAT it is in clear explanation, WHERE it is from exactly, and HOW it should be done along with safety tips, and to top it off, WHY you would want to practice such a technique with some examples of the benefits.
If your new to Qigong start here. It will give you the proper understanding of Qigong far from those videos at whole foods with some guy waving his arms around. This is real Qigong which involves leading the Qi with the Yi (heart/mind intent) It will also give you thorough understanding of each of the most common Qigong schools.
If you already experienced in Qigong or any type of Martial Arts -- buy this book right now and prepare yourself to experience some of the most amazing abilities humans are capable of. The title says it all: Qigong Empowerment!
Rating: 
Summary: Perhaps a bit too much...
Review: Several sections in this book are very useful and I enjoyed the historical background on the various types of Qigong. However, I found the book to be too "dense" with exercises rather than going into the details of a few major types. I also believe some of the exercises shown are NOT going to be beneficial to practitioners, particularly those in the martial section using things like staffs to pressure areas of the body.As someone who has practiced Qigong for a while I also found the lack of warnings and/or instruction of the proper methods of developing into the exercises to be a little scary. Many exercises can cause harm if not done properly, just as meditating with bad posture will do more harm than good. The book is useful to someone who has been doing exercises for a while and might be looking for a big picture of what has been done historically but I wouldn't recommend it to a beginner. Better to stick with Frantzis or Wong Kiew Kit and find a good teacher.
Rating: 
Summary: Very good effort
Review: The buddhist section is refreshing and overall the book is well layed out and easy to follow, a good addition to my library. Their must be a typo though on page 105 because with out the tongue up how can the chi flow down? It doesn't follow the generally accepted method.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad
Review: This book does not deliver much knowledge to the average westerner who is seeking self-instruction in ChiGung. In my opinion, the authors did not consider that western people LEARN in a way that is different from that of eastern people. There is a clear effort to teach, I just think that the method is wrong.
Eventually the authors tried to put too many irons in the fire. It's not a bad book, it's just bland.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad
Review: This book does not deliver much knowledge to the average westerner who is seeking self-instruction in ChiGung. In my opinion, the authors did not consider that western people LEARN in a way that is different from that of eastern people. There is a clear effort to teach, I just think that the method is wrong.
Eventually the authors tried to put too many irons in the fire. It's not a bad book, it's just bland.
Rating:
Summary: Not the best book for beginners.
Review: This book explains lots of training methods for both beginners and advanced. The weak point of this book is, that it doesn't give out enough information and preparation practise for many of the training methods and neither tells the purpose of these practices, which is indispensable for the training to be efficient and useful. For example the small circulation (or microcosmic circulation) requires numerous of preceding knowledge and training, including profound understanding and practice of emryonic breathing, which requires that you are able to feel both upper and lower dan tians. Also before embryonic you need to practice profoundly both normal abdominal breathing and reverse abdominal breathing to get the fundamentals right. And the Grand circulation (or Macrocosmic circulation) which is explained right after the microcosmic, comes only after several months or years of small circulation practice. Which would have been good to mention.
So unless you are advanced in the practice of qigong, i wouldn't recommend this book. You should first get familiar with books like "Qigong meditation, Embryonic Breathing" by Dr. Yang or any book by the same author.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book
Review: This book has a wealth of information on various energy cultivation techniques. Being able to use and incorporate various different methods strengthens ones practice. The different hand positions were my favorite. Beginner or advanced, the techniques here help strengthen the core.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book
Review: This book has a wealth of information on various energy cultivation techniques. Being able to use and incorporate various different methods strengthens ones practice. The different hand positions were my favorite. Beginner or advanced, the techniques here help strengthen the core.
Rating:
Summary: This book is a must have for anyone..
Review: This book is not only well written in every way, but it is effective in every way. Martial artists to everyday citizens can benefit tremendously from this book. From the written material on energy meridians, techniques to cultivate and use energy, to concepts on different frames of thought on from Buddist, Taoist and other philisophical venues. All are written in depth, and are easy to read and understand. From a martial artist standpoint, this book has phenominal information on Iron Shirt Wushu training methods that, unless you train with them already, have to be seen or tried to be believed. Given that I train in Kenpo now, I found the concepts of strengthening the body against aggression of any kind to be beneficial. No matter what style of system of the martial arts, anyone can find benefit with these strength training concepts. One thing to keep in mind, the information within this book is, at it's core, a Chinese Medical reference book. It is mentioned throughout the book that many of the ideas in this book are used in Traditional Chinese Medicine. In the end, this is a book based on medical principles and was written as such. A lot of the content is of a graphic medical nature; just something I thought I would mention in closing. Thank you.
Rating:
Summary: Fantasic Resource
Review: This book is simply amazing. It guides you through practical exercises for cultivation of energy, whether you are interested in healing, martial arts or spiritual development.
The book begins with exercises / meditations to help you get into the right state of mind for qigong practice.
The initial exercises guide you through working with "six healing sounds" but rather than just focusing upon the sounds for each organ, you are guided through chi kung practices that clear and strengthen particular organ and work with the meridian related to the particular organ.
The next section guides you through the practice of microcosmic orbit, and methods for accumulating energy.
The next section guides you through Tantric Buddhist Qigong, from breathing, working with a spiritual flame, nine seals, and more.
In the next section you learn how to create qi balls, how to absorb the energy from different natural sources, fun things you can do with qi, how to activate it and project it through your body.
The following section guides you through different exercises which increase your awareness of energy, developing your ability to sense it and see it, and how to scan a body, as well as how to strengthen your energy field.
You are then guided through different exercises related to martial arts applications, such as iron shirt, iron palm, eagle claw and more.
The book includes acupuncture charts - illustrations of 14 meridians.
Highly recommended!
|
