Showing posts with label Dragons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dragons. Show all posts

Friday, November 28, 2025

Dragon Qigong, Swimming Dragon Qigong, Walking Dragon Chi Kung

"The Chinese Horoscope 2024 reveals that the Year of the Dragon, specifically the Wood Dragon year, will bring authority, prosperity, and good fortune."

 I have been studying books and videos on the subject of Dragon Chi Kung and Dragon Bagua Zhang, Swimming Dragon, Walking Dragon, and Tai Chi Dragon.


Reading "The Four Dragons" by Damo Mitchell; "The Swimming Dragon" by Tzu Shi Kuo and T. K. Smith; and "Dragon and Tiger Qigong" by Bruce K. Frantzis.

For full information on the books, instructional DVDs, UTube vides, links, resources, and quotations on the subject of "Dragon Qigong" see my webpage on the subject. 

I am also completing my own version of Lessons on Dragon Qigong with instructions on that webpage.  


"It is easier to leave a circle than to enter it.
The emphasis is on the hip movement whether front or back.
The difficulty is to maintain the position without shifting the centre.
To analyze and understand the above situation is to do with movement and not with a stationary posture.
Advancing and retreating by turning sideways in line with the shoulders, one is capable of turning like a millstone, fast or slow, as if whirling like a dragon in the clouds or sensing the approach of a fierce tiger.
From this, one can learn the usage of the movement of the upper torso.
Through long practice, such movement will become natural."
- Yang Family Old Manual, The Coil Incense Kung


"The East Asian Dragons are often associated with water, rain, vapors, fog, springs, streams, waterfalls, rivers, swamps, lakes, and the ocean.  Water can take many shapes and states, and Dragons are shape shifters and linked with transformation, appearing and disappearing, changing into something new.  Water is found in three states, depending upon the surrounding temperature: a solid (ice, snow), a fluid (flowing liquid), and a gas (fog, vapor, steam).  Since rainfall is often accompanied by thunder and lightening (thunderstorms and typhoons), the Dragon is sometimes associated with fire; and, since hot water and steam are major sources of energy in human culture, this further links the Dragon with the essential energy of Fire.  The Dragon is thus linked with the chemical and alchemical transformative properties of two of the essential Elements, both Water and Fire.  Dragons are generally benign or helpful to humans in East Asia, but their powers can also be destructive (e.g., flooding, tsunami, typhoon, lightening, steam, drowning, etc.).  There are both male and female Dragons, kinds or species of Dragons, Dragons of different colors and sizes, and mostly good but some evil Dragons.  Some Dragons can fly, some cannot fly; most live in or near water, a few on land.  The body of a Dragon combines features from many animals, representing the many possibilities for existential presence.  The Dragon in the East has serpentine, snake, or eel like movement qualities: twisting, spiraling, sliding, circling, swimming, undulating, flowing freely like water."
[See: The Dragon in China and Japan by Marinus De Visser, 1913] 





Dragon Chi Kung features exercises that involve twisting, turning, screwing, spiraling, curving, wiggling, undulating, spinning, sinking down and rising up, swimming, circling, swinging, or twining movements are often associated with snakes, serpents and dragons.  There are many Qigong sets and specific Qigong movements that have been called "Dragon" forms, sets, or exercises.  Baguazhang martial arts feature much twisting, turning and circling; and, also include many "Dragon" sets and movements.  Silk Reeling exercises in Chen Style Taijiquan include twisting, twining, circling, and screwing kinds of movements. 

Friday, May 12, 2023

Shifu Miao Zhang asked, "When you Meet the Black Dragon, What Will You Say?"

Fireplace Records, Chapter 24


Shifu Miao Zhang asked Chang San-Feng,
"When you Meet the Black Dragon, What Will You Say?"


Chang San-Feng knew of one grey Carp
Who struggled upstream
Until he broke through
The daunting Dragon's Gate;
And became himself a Wise Blue Dragon.

As a child he knew a few words
Of the Language of Dragons;
Spoken by Puff, the Magic Dragon,
who lived by the Sea
In the Lands of Honah Lee.

He knew of the Vast Ocean Dragon
Who's tides ruled fishermen's lives.

Chang did not know the Cold River Dragon
Whose floods drowned millions.

He read about the Deviant Western Red Dragon
From the Lands of Smaug,
Guarding Treasures beyond Measures,
Greedy and Angry in a burning fog.    

He once learned that
Yunmen's Cane transformed into a Brown Dragon,
Who swallowed the East Sea,
And rained on the Entire Universe.

He once heard the Lonely Dragon
Howling in a Withered Tree;
Who Saw all the World's Sorrows,
From his Eyes in a White Skull.

At the Edge of the Dragon Pool,
At the Midnight Hour,
The Dragon Master blew out
The Candle of Delusion.

At dawn, after dreaming of Dragons,
He awoke!
There was a Green Dragon
Curled up on his bed.
In fear, he brandished his cane;
Rebuffed, the Green Dragon Departed.


Shifu Miao Zhang asked Chang San-Feng,
"When you meet the Black Dragon tomorrow;
What will you Say?
What will You Do?




A Student's Considerations:

Literal and Figurative - A Balancing Act.
When Playing with Words we sometimes stumble and fall.
When we remember clearly, that's one way of knowing.
True or False, Correct or Incorrect ... useful duality in many ways.
Be alert and cautious around Dragon Masters.
Ideas about Things are Not Things Themselves.
Ignorance can cause Fear!
The word "Fire" cannot burn your fingers.
Dragons moving in the sea give birth to earthquake tsunamis. No!
Dragons symbolized Emperors in China.  

The Door to Past is Closed and Locked,
But we can still See the Past
Through the Windows of Memories.



Related Links, Comments, Essays, Resources, References


Koans: BCR 60, DSMS 28, DSMS N 104

Dragon Qigong  By Mike Garofalo.

Refer to my Cloud Hands Blog Posts on the topic of Koans/Dialogues.

The Daodejing by Laozi  

Pulling Onions  Over 1,043 One-line Sayings by Mike Garofalo

Chinese Chan Buddhist and Taoist Stories and Koans

Taoism

Buddhism

Fireplaces, Stoves, Campfires, Kitchens, Pots, Firewood

Chinese Art

Tai Chi Chuan and Qigong

Meditation Methods

Subject Index to 1,001 Zen Buddhist Koans

Koan Database Project

Brief Spiritual Lessons Database Project: Subject Indexes


Sparks: Brief Spiritual Lessons and Stories

Matches to Start a Kindling of Insight
May the Light from Your Inner Fireplace Help All Beings
Taoist, Chan Buddhist, Zen Buddhist, Philosophers
Catching Phrases, Inspiring Verses, Koans, Meditations
Indexing, Bibliography, Quotations, Notes, Resources
Research by Michael P. Garofalo

The Fireplace Records
By Michael P. Garofalo