Customer Reviews

Qigong Empowerment: A Guide to Medical, Taoist, Buddhist and Wushu Energy Cultivation

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2 star:		(1)
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Definitely the best book on QiGong available in English to date. And no doubt better than a lot, if not most, of the QiGong books in Chinese. The "varieties" of QiGong in China number in the THOUSANDS, this book presents some of the best in essence. This 348-page volume is divided into five chapters or "Books". The materials contained in Book 1 (Medical QiGong) are pretty basic, and commonly available, though useful for beginners. The last chapter (Book 5) on WuShu QiGong will be primarily of interest to martial artists and some athletes. The weakness here is that it covers only the "Hard" techniques, but does not include the "Soft" or internal methods like TaiJi and similar QiGongs. Toaist QiGong is covered in Book 2. Being an integral part of Chinese culture from the beginning, Taoism can claim to have the most elaborate and comprehensive QiGong practices. These emcompass the whole spectrum of physical to spiritual development purposes. The disadvantage of Taoist QiGong is that sometimes it can get overly complicated, and burdened by cultural dross. The authors however, have been able to present the information in a reasonably simple and straightforward way, easily comprehensible to those not steeped in ancient Chinese lores. The most unique part is Book 3, which is about Buddhist QiGong, more specifically QiGong as taught in some Tantric Buddhist traditions. Most of the information contained here are not easy to come by, even for students of Tantric Buddhism. This is really a pity as, in my experience, Buddhist QiGong has some of the most powerful and profound techniques. So the author really has done a great service to the general public by sharing such information in a non sectarian way. For some this section alone will justify getting the whole volume. Book 4 teaches the principles and techniques to develop (build), regulate and work with Qi (both within and outside of the individual) for a variety of purposes, especially healing. These really make up the foundation for any advance QiGong cultivation. After you have mastered them, the rest are easy. This section is invaluable to those involved in energetic healing work. ( If you find a QiGong teacher who teaches you these techniques early in your study, you most likely have a good and generous teacher, it may be worth your while to stick around.) The language used throughout the volume is simple and straightforward, the instructions are direct and easy to understand. The numerous photos, charts and illustrations are clear and helpful. Though the volume also contains a fair amount of philosophical and technical details, much of these can be skimmed over without impeding the learning of the QiGong methods, if you are impatient. You can always refer back to them later when necessary. An immensely practical book well worth the price.

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!

Combining a good deal of theory with a tremendous amount of well explained, useful qigong exercises is what makes this book the single most valuable book on qigong available. The authors cover in five separate chapters, the essential theory and practice of five major schools of qigong: Medical, Taoist, Buddhist, Healing, Wu-Shu.The section on Medical qigong covers Qi Permeation technique, various techniques for each of the six organ systems in the body, and the six healing sounds.The section on Taoist Qigong covers three levels of the Taoist system, including the Microcosmic orbit. Everything is presented sequentially to ensure safety. The final steps aren't presented with detailed instructions as they require, according to the authors, supervision.Buddhist Qigong includes Nine Segment breathing, Precious Vessel, Spiritual Flame, Great Perfection, Protective Qigong, and the Nine Esoteric Seals.The section on healing qigong is tremendous. Numerous methods of building, emitting, absorbing qi are given. Also discussed are various abilties related to scanning, auras, and protecting yourself from bad energy.The wu-shu qigong section was somewhat dissapointing. Most of it seemed very external. Still, many exercises are given.The only real downside to the book is that it is sometimes hard to follow based on the layout of chapter and subchapter headings, but a close reading will clarify any problems.Also, I would have liked some information about how to combine the routines into a daily practice.This book is not as detailed on theory as Yang Jwing Mings Root of Chinese Chi-Kung, but contains more actual routines. The two books complement each other well.

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!

This book contains no fluff or hype. This book is very straightforward and has page after page of highly useful information written by two men whom know what they are talking about. I only wish this book had came out when I first started my study of Qigong, I would have saved a lot of wasted time reading bogus books by questionable "masters" This is the only book on Qigong you will ever need.

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.

By far the best book I have found to date on Chinese Qigong. Its strength is in the many exercises described within its pages. The authors provide plenty of pictures to assist their written directions. The book also provides many exercises for beginners to build a foundation in qigong basics and methods of practice for more advanced students.

The value of this book is immeasurable. It gives the average student of qigong access to information that would take an individual years to acquire in study with many qigong teachers.

As an absolute beginner, I could not have chosen a better book. The explanations and instructions are relatively clear. I have only practiced the Medical Qigong so far, plus some of the finger activation methods from the Absorbing & Emitting Qigong book.
I am frightened of what is asked of me in the Buddhist qigong section. Maybe I will feel better about it when I have learned more.
I have to say, though, that everything that I have tried has worked. I use the sections I have practiced (and read) to help my Taiji Qigong practice and to help with specific conditions. I was skeptical at first, but I was willing to give the book a try. The remedy for headache didn't remove the headache, but it did lessen it enough that I could live with it. Doing it twice, an hour apart, was even better. I think that if my qi had been stronger, it would have been more effective. The remedy for insomnia works so well that I use it all the time, though when I am sick or haven't been able to exercise regularly, I sometimes need to do it twice.
I'm excited to think what I can learn if I keep working at it.

Most of the information you will ever need on qigqong is in this book.The book is scientific in its approach to qigong training and cuts out the mystical nonsense.Having practice qigong for more than 25 years i found the book a joy to read.My main interest is hard qigong and i found Master Liangs methods to be very good.They are safe to practice and produce real results.It may seem strange to bang your head against a brick wall but this was the method used by Master Ho,one of Chinas most famous qigong masters.He banged his head against the wall 300 times a night.Qigong does require sexual restraint and Master Liang does mention this in the Taoist section.Experience has shown me that without restraint the results will be poor.Its best to choose one section of the book to practice rather than fliting from taoist to hard qigong etc.One year of hard qigong practice will produce real results, if you follow the instructions to the letter.Cracking bricks under your armpits does tend to leave people slightly bemused!

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.