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Anonymous
Posted January 29, 2008
Taoism: The Gift that Keeps on Giving
This book taught me a lot about how a very ancient and revered spiritual tradition is still manifested in pragmatic, every-day life for millions of people all over the planet. The link to bettering your life on virtually every level is getting in touch with the energy 'chi' inside you and getting it to flow cleanly and smoothly. You can choose any number of methods. You want to get really healthy? Do tai chi or chi gung 'qigong'. Want to learn to relax into your stretching? Try Tao yoga. Want to quell some of your fears and manage your anger without prozac? Try breathing and meditating. Want to learn a martial art? Hard to beat the internal martial arts of tai chi, ba gua and hsing-i. And the really, really wonderful thing about any of the Taoist energy practices 'and I can say this because I have done many of them for over ten years' is that they aren¿t static. You never stop learning from them. They are, as the book says, ¿The gift that keeps on giving.¿ The revolutionary challenge is to take the inspiration that this book can give you, learn one or more of the Taoist energy practices and make them part of your daily life. Then the revolution starts becoming an evolution inside you that tips your life towards joy and freedom.
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Anonymous
Posted January 29, 2008
A book for everyone
This is the only book I have ever read which is a good complete introduction to energy practices. Frantzis has done a good job of simplifying all of this material to make it accessible to everyone while also transmitting enough information that the book has something to offer for everyone (whether you've been doing chi gung your entire life or just learned what breathing is yesterday).
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Anonymous
Posted January 29, 2008
A Very Good Starting Point
I've read the Author's other books, and they are very thorough and detailed 'which I think is a result of his position in the lineage' on their subject matter. The unfortunate thing about that approach is that many of the topics discussed are so deep, full understanding the material requires a lot of practice and work 'although to be fair I've only somewhat gotten to that point and it's had a profound impact on my own practice'. Chi Rev is a nice contrast to these other titles because it's much easier on the reader, and provides many thought provoking or useful little tidbits. There's an inevitable trade off between the amount of detail you can give to a complex subject and the range of topics that can be covered. This book represents the other half of the spectrum, and gives a larger overview of all things related to Qi. I found the book quite rewarding since it put a lot of the work I've been doing for a decade into a much broader context I never saw myself. At the same time, I think it would be just as rewarding to a beginner, as it has quite a few techniques presented in a much simpler fashion. It's fairly difficult to write a guidebook which can be just as valuable to completely different audiences, but that was done here, so my prediction is that this book will end up being quite popular. Only time will tell though. In conclusion, if you're able to successfully digest the material in this book, I'd recommend moving onto the Author's other books, that's where the real fun starts! *My only real gripe about the book is that I don't like the cover, but at least in this case I'm very grateful I don't judge books by their cover.
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Anonymous
Posted February 3, 2008
Great Tools for your Chi Gung Journey
For an overall introduction to the possibilities offered by chi gung, Bruce Frantzis' newest book is the best of the best. It's the most user-friendly of his books yet. He provides an excellent context so you understand what he means by chi, and how delving into the world of chi can improve your life and enable you to take responsibility for your health. Then he gives clear directions for 5 energy exercises that will give you immediate results. So you get both from this book: first the words, the explanation about why you would want to develop your chi, and then practices that actually give your body the experience he's been talking about. I've been doing Frantzis's Energy Gates exercises for a few years now, and was excited that this new book teaches three exercises from the Dragon and Tiger set, which are new to me. The exercises are simple but powerful, and I was surprised that doing even the very first step revealed structural imbalances that I hadn't noticed¿while simultaneously providing an avenue to correct them! Doing the exercises for just a couple weeks has already improved my ability to feel the energy in my other practices. I got so excited about this that I ordered Frantzis' new Dragon and Tiger Teaching Manual so I can learn the rest of the exercises. That's the greatest thing to me, that everything you learn from The Chi Revolution is remarkably useful as it is, and, if you get excited by your progress, you can go more deeply into any of the practices through Frantzis's other books and training programs.
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Anonymous
Posted January 29, 2008
Practical, tried and true advice
Bruce Frantzis is a martial artist and meditation teacher who has studied several religions and cultures. Whereas most authors, psychologists, fitness gurus, etc. are reinventing the wheel, preaching this autonomous system or that for benefits that are totally unrealistic (and we know it!), he suggests readers keep it simple and forget programs. He offers that we look to what has been known for millennia about things like graceful aging, good sex, getting in shape, healthy relationships, etc. if we want to wake up to a new life and be happy. As he puts it: 'When you don't feel good, your life sucks.' Easy read with fascinating subjects like karma and the I Ching to help put the mundane into perspective -- I especially liked chapters 12-14.
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