The Way of Energy: Mastering the Chinese Art of Internal Strength with Chi Kung Exercise (A Gaia Original)

If you've heard about Zhan Zhuang (or Jan Juang) and want to begin practicing it, you're fortunate. You've also come to the right place. Dr. Lam's book is one of only two books I've found that explains "standing like a stake" in a clear, straigtforward manner. The other is "Opening the Energy Gates of your Body by Bruce Kumar Frantzis (BKF). If you decide invest the time to practice Zhan Zhang, the amount of additional time it'll take you to read both of these fine and inexpensive books is trivial and will repay you many times over. Both books provide wise counsel from a master teacher.As an Energy Gates practitioner I find a deep level of agreement between the two systems. There are differences in emphasis, but nothing in Dr. Lam's book and his I Chuan system (also see The Way of Power) strikes me as wildly different than what you'd get from BKF. Both books are incredibly clear and helpful. Both would enable a beginner working without a teacher to learn basic standing and obtain a great deal of benefit. However, at a certain point, everybody needs a teacher. Trying to learn and practice everything in the EG book and everything in both of Dr. Lam books by yourself would be very difficult. IMO, The odds of a beginner pulling it off are almost nil.But, with Zhan Zhuang, alone, the odds are much higher. Why? For the same reason it's kind of a magic bullet (albeit an incredibly slow moving magic bullet) for movement artists who study Tai Chi, Ba Gua and Hsing I. Even a beginner in Zhan Zhuang can precisely align his or her body and achieve great relaxation and energy flow in a very short time compared to attaining this level while practicing a complex form. And, inevitably, your standing practice will flow into all your arts and daily life. In short, you might find yourself progressing much faster than your fellow students who spend much more time just practicing the form.Differences:1. BKF focusses on alignments much more than Dr. Lam, even at the beginning level. Dr. Lam in the book is basically trying to get people practicing, and presumably their teacher will give corrections later. Per Dr. Lam, you can practice with your eyes open or closed. You can listen to music if that helps. You can even practice with the TV on!The thought of BKF telling someone that they can practice standing with the TV on strikes me as hilarious. OTOH I often stand aligned while watching a sporting event on TV and do other exercises, so Dr. Lam is probably offering some sound advice. Bottom line, learning more about alignments is one of the best reasons for somebody reading The Way of Energy to also read Energy Gates.2. Energy Gates has a strong emphasis on what BFK calls dissolving (i.e. freeing blocked chi). This is only mentioned in passing in Dr. Lam's book. It's probably something that he considers best left to the teacher. Also note that the more advanced level of dissolving presented in EG (inner dissolving of the individual Energy Gates) is not really a beginning practice - not that it would cause harm.3. Energy Gates standing tries to establish the downward flow of Energy very strongly, which BKF considers the safest way for a beginner to approach Chi Gung (or Nei Gung, to be more exact, working all the energy in your body simultaneously). Thus, the Energy Gates practitioner always stands in the Wu Chi posture.Dr. Lam on the other hand introduces more advanced postures that work the upward flow of energy once the student has been standing for half a year or more. This is one of the most attactive reasons for the EG practitioner to read the Way of Energy. Because unless he's had the opportunity to learn BKF's Spiralling Energy Body Chi Gung, he hasn't been taught anything about these other postures. I'm strongly attracted to working with Dr. Lam's sequence and plan to try working with them when my basic standing time is a bit longer than it is now.4. Dr. Lam suggests warming up before you stand, which in an ideal world is a very good idea. He presents some simple warm-ups and then for the experienced student he teaches Ba Duan Jin (8 brocades, Chi Gung). This section alone is worth the price of the book. BKF implicitly presents EG as the warmup to your Tai Chi or Ba Gua practice.5. The Way of Energy focusses on standing alone (plus the warm-up). The EG book presents a complete Chi Gung set including some movement exercises; Cloud Hands, the Swings and a spine stretch exercise. Again, it would be quite hard for a beginner to learn these from a book without introducing distortions. For example, the 3rd. swing isn't even taught in my school until the student is in the 3rd. level of Energy Gates and the exercise has been described by my teacher as "the hardest thing we teach". Just reading the book, you wouldn't assume that there's muchdifference between the third swing and the second.6. BKF comes down strongly against visualizations. I Chuan typically uses them. But this difference is more apparent than real. The visualizations of I Chuan are all easily imagined bodily actions and feeling that help you learn to put your intent into your body. For instance, it's not hard to imagine holding a large ball, and doing that gives you some insight into what you should be feeling in a certain posture. By the same token, Bruce is getting you deep into your body, but what he's teaching you (the energetic model of your body) is so different from your current model that you're probably going to be visualizing rather than feeling it to some extent anyway. For example, Bruce might tell you to increase the space in your midriff, specifically in the two cavities of your midriff on your side channels. An I Chuan teacher might tell you to imagine simultaneously sitting down and getting up out of a chair. Both of them are helping you to learn to feel the same thing deep inside your body that's not familiar to you yet. Both are valuable. Also, a key technique ofwhat BKF calls outer dissolving (feeling your tension move from solid to liquid to gas) is basically as much a visualization technique as most of the stuff in I Chuan.If you're doing Zhan Zhuang, buy both "The Way of Energy" and "The Way of Power" and also check out BKFs books, especially "Opening the Energy Gates..."

This book is a little jewel. Very clear to read, doesn’t go off obscure tangent, if explains in a methodical and simple yet profound way. I’m impressed and happy to know that I’m following a master in learning qigong. So many YouTubers share their way but with this book you know you’re in good hands. Have been practicing for about month and a half, only on the first position. Up to 12 minutes per session, then I follow up with tai chi. Each time I walk away refreshed and serene, I know that the practice will get better and better. I came to qigong because I’ve had nagging knee pain that comes and goes, so I hope qigong helps. This book is a must buy. I bought the paperback to have it close. Normally I read on kindle but I knew on this book I had to get the real deal.

This book has changed my life for the better. As a young kid, I suffered a lower back injury in a phys. ed. class. In addition, some members of my family have had intense lower back problems. My sports injury kept haunting me for a very long time. To heal/control it, I swam in college most days for about forty minutes. I tried yoga, which aggravated it, bicycled, which helped some, and did a bunch of therapeutic exercises, which didn't help much. Eventually, I discovered tai chi, which helped some. However, one day, about 20 years ago, I came across an article that mentioned that to improve one's tai chi, a person would have to practice standing. This statement intrigued me very much and made me look for a suitable source to learn. I finally discovered Lam's book and started practicing. Initially, I was surprised how weak I was. After only five minutes, I would stagger to the couch and collapse. My shoulders would hurt pretty bad while practicing. Yet, after a few months of doggedly hanging in there, I got stronger and could stand twenty minutes. Gradually, I became quite strong and healthier!! The most amazing thing was that my back quit bothering me. The episodes of intense back pain disappeared completely!! In my early thirties, I had so much pain that I envisioned myself in a wheel chair at fifty! Now here I am at 63, standing most mornings for an hour. I can stand on one leg for five minutes, and I can lift more than I could 30 years ago. Plus, I have become more flexible and a lot more patient and free of stress. Of course, sometimes, standing is boring or really challenging as time creeps by super slowly, especially for the first twenty minutes. After that, I sometimes slip into some type of time warp where time seems to speed up. Now I have gotten to the point where I can feel a lot of tingling in my hands, which get super hot. It feels like electricity flowing through my hands and lower arms. When my wife gets near me, she claims that I radiate heat, like a stove. If you have read so far without having been turned off by my ramblings, you will understand what I meant when I stated that this book has really changed my life. I will stand as long as I can because of the amazing benefits I have received from doing so. If you decide to get this book to improve your life, be very patient and increase your standing practice gradually over months. If you rush it, you may get hurt. At one point, I was too impatient and developed plantar fasciitis, which is an inflamation affecting your heals and part of your soles of your feet. I got rid of it, but it took awhile, and to do so, I had to restrict my standing practice for awhile. However, if you use common sense, you should be fine. After you have gotten stronger, vary your practice to keep boredom at bay. Also, include the warm up exercises, along with the eight brocades Mr. Lam has included in this book. Above all, persist, and you will enjoy a better life!

Very good and informative. Instructions needs more structure as there's no way to know how to proceed with continued practise. This is really a guide to accompany real training. Good as it is, it leaves many questions unanswered:1. Do you need to practise all exercises every day?2. Do you practise for no more than 20 minutes changing exercises or do you practise each for 20 mins?3. How do you continue long term? Once proficient, can certain exercises be dropped, or reduced?These are some simple basic questions that need to be answered for standalone students like myself. Clearly these things are left out on purpose due to the secrecy and paranoia of allowing this knowledge out. It is not made easy for those of us wanting to learn these ancient skills.

Amazing books bought as gifts. Highly recommend to ANYONE!!!Service and delivery was brilliant really. Arrived quickly and communications brilliant.Only slight downside was that one of the covers had slight tear and mark on top of the book where maybe it was packed inside the packaging a bit hasty, but these things happen and not enough to warrant any real complaint. So overall Very happy with the purchase and service, just a tiny imperfection, otherwise definitely would be a 5* rating.

I have some reservations about the execution of this book, rather than its contents. Earlier editions had a light blue font, which does not have any major advantages over the normal black one. Some of the transparencies for the drawings of the Eight Brocades were reversed, showing the right hand starting the sequence, while the text states the left.The flow of energy diagram when drawing energy from a tree was also wrongly shown.Apart from these issues, this is a book that will draw you into Standing Meditation, perhaps for the rest of your life. After the initial discomfort of assuming the postures fades away, you will start to feel the subtle effect of the Chi circulating in your body in a few months. Resist the temptation to "skip a day", as this will set you back.Master Lam approaches the subject in a very accessible way, where his humorous nature shines through. As the "advanced" version of each posture is also given, the student can progress to that higher level in their own time.

I bought as a present for someone. I already own the book and did not want to lend it. I have found this book very helpful. I have owned it for a few years. Its very easy to follow. I have only reached part of the way as it takes a long time to progrss. I wish I could find a class that teaches this way of Chi Kung. I wish the video was available to buy but it is on utube.

Excellent stuff. Very clearly illustrated and explained. Not too much information and the exercises and postures are easily followed. It goes through the '8 treasures', an exercise system to help free everything up before taking on the Chi Kung positions. And underlines how slow and profound the work is - with a hint of light humour. A process you can't hurry. So pleasantly laid out, the book's physical display is as light as the work. There are significant seasonable poems between the chapters. I first borrowed the book, began the process two years ago, bought the book this autumn, and started taking classes with the man himself in London.