About
Mountains & Rivers Neigong aims to provide foundational instruction in the transformational processes that powerful Chinese neigong 内功 combined with yangsheng 養生 (“nourishing life”) lifestyle practices can offer. We do this through a holistic training regimen that includes dynamic practices, standing practices, and seated meditation practices, each targeting different but mutually-reinforcing aspects of our psychophysical and energetic makeup.
Any serious training regimen needs to be built on top of a solid foundation of basic lifestyle practices and habits that promote general health and for this China’s rich history of yangsheng culture offers many valuable resources that go hand-in-hand with the Chinese internal arts.
Neigong
Here, neigong 内功 (lit. “inner skill”) practices refer to a variety of internal arts seeking to build qi 氣 and promote its circulation throughout the body’s energetic system in a way that can exceed what would be required for a baseline state of health. A multi-faceted approach is best to create a holistic training regimen that develops each of the body’s “three treasures” 三寶: jing 精, qi 氣, and shen 神. In our three-pronged approach we engage in dynamic practices to develop the Twelve Standard Meridians 十二正经, standing practices to develop the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, and seated practices develop the shen 神 and yi 意 (associated most directly with consciousness).
Dong Gong (动功): Dong Gong, or Dynamic Practice, is as the name implies, practice that involves the most movement. Focus is on the Twelve Standard Meridians associated with the body’s organ systems. In addition to opening, stretching, and strengthening the body, the meridians are purged and blockages are slowly removed, resulting in a state of freely circulating qi. Here we engage in movements that specifically stimulate and stretch the body’s jin 筋 “tendon” systems (here “tendon” refers broadly to ligaments, sinews, and other “stringy” materials in the body such as fascia, nervous tissue, etc).
Nei Gong (内功): Nei Gong, broadly meaning Inner Work or Inner Skill, is used here to refer to standing practices that are generally more intensely focused on a particular objective, e.g. activating the dantian, developing the Microcosmic Orbit, etc. Here the focus is on the Eight Extraordinary Meridians 奇经八脉 (particularly the Ren and Du Meridians). More stationary than Dong Gong, a meditative and focused mind becomes more important here and is easier to attain when standing in place, eyes lowered.
Jing Gong (静功): Stillness Practice, here refers to focused meditation done in a seated posture. True, deep stillness is too difficult to obtain without the motionlessness and stability offered in the seated position. Here the focus is on developing the mind, and cultivating shen 神, an energy associated with our conscious awareness. A healthy body with ample qi and unblocked meridians, as developed by the Dong Gong and Nei Gong practices promotes a stable mind, free of vexation. In turn, a still and stable mind promotes a body free from energetic blockage and that can easily cultivate qi. In this way, motion and stillness, yin and yang mutually reinforce each other. Stillness is also the gateway into more advanced practices that can take on a spiritual nature, such as Daoist “Inner Alchemy” (neidan 内丹).
A particular focus of Mountains and Rivers Neigong has been to seek and learn from masters who are adept at powerful forms of neigong which can have truly pronounced effects when trained diligently over long periods of time. These systems, based on the Yijinjing 易筋经 and other traditional energetic cultivation systems, are passed down via lineages with Daoist and Buddhist roots.
Yangsheng
Yangsheng (養生 “nourishing life”) practices and philosophy can establish the basis for a long and healthy life using principles and techniques that accumulated throughout China’s rich history, and include Chinese dietetics, lifestyle habits, Chinese medicine, and simple exercises that seek balance one’s energy system and harmonize the individual with the greater macrocosmic flow of nature. It is through these habits and practices that we seek to eliminate unhealthy patterns, stagnation, and “dampness” in the body and mind, in favor of the promotion of a state of health characterized by free flowing and circulating vital energy (qi) and non-dissipation. Getting this right is not only one of the keys to a long and healthy life, but also the foundation upon which we apply further transformation via more advanced energetic and meditative practices.
About Us
Brooks began his journey in the Chinese internal arts over ten years ago when he first trained with Wang Liping and some of his students who had spread his teachings in the West. Soon after, he traveled to the Yellow Mountain 黄山 region of China and was blown away by the Yijinjing Master and Classical Chinese Medicine Doctor Jiang Feng.
From that point onwards Brooks has trained diligently, often visiting renowned neigong masters and doctors who are sought after for their rare skills and coveted systems of energetic and meditative practice. A particular focus has been on systems of Chinese neigong that utilize the Yijinjing and other principles to promote robust health, longevity, and the foundational development needed for deeper systems of spiritual transformation such as Daoist neidan 内丹.