Sebastian

If you're going to do this, remember to maintain vigilance at all times....

I like Ni Hua Ching's version, which arguably contains his family's interpretation of it, so it is a more personal piece. You could say it has less direct translation than others. However the interpretation is informed by a few things : his own experiences, his family's lineage, and he is also a living Daoist Master, definitely not a scholar. With that, I think he at least has his word to say. I like taking this book of his on vacation trips. It includes the Hua Hu Ching as well. http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Works-Lao-Tzu-Ching/dp/0937064009/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1457878323&sr=8-4&keywords=ni+hua+ching

Well you do it without preaching.... You do nothing basically. If you preach these things to those bullying you, then, yes, I think they could bully you more. I was bullied through high school. For me this change of approach was the turning point. I gave others no power over me. No matter how cruel people are to you or much they dis-respect you, Life cannot take anything from you without your consent. You can choose to be undisturbed, shrug it off you could say. Folks will realize they have no power over you and loose interest. I also confirmed this in multiple work situations when I was working as a project manager. Some folks were pushing me, trying to see if I would snap at them or loose my cool. Not being affected by it and just doing the task at hand gained their respect. Sometimes it was hard earned, sometimes it wasn't, it made no difference to me. I viewed at their problem, not mine. Sometimes those who were the toughest to me at first became my closest allies.

Quoted for Truth... and for the win ? This is very good - it this hits the thread title on the head without hitting it. Another metaphor is getting bullied - When you strongly resist what's happening to you and completely give power to others over you, they will keep exploiting you. What happens if you turn your mindset 180 degrees... ? If you show total indifference they will realize they have no power whatsoever over you, and then they will go bug someone else. Because It's really not fun to bully someone that doesn't react or doesn't care. So the word "indifference" is very close, yet still a little bit too far. "Neutral" is closer because it implies slightly more attentiveness. So perhaps.....Staying neutral and indifferent to thoughts, yet sincere. The latter means not to deceive yourself basically..... Or "flatten and round the mind" as was shared recently in the practice logs by TheTaoIsEasy.

I don't know what Dao is, but I don't think it's something to fight about. It's like the air that we breathe, the earth that we tread, the Sun that shines on everything. We are all nurtured equally by Nature, no matter what one may argue. Those who have authentic spiritual lineages don't get special favors. If we all come from the same source, breathe the same air, tread the same earth, what is there to fight about ? Perhaps every person has their own understanding of nature, or Dao, and there are as many facets of understanding as there are human beings on the planet. Perhaps Dao can not be conceptualized by simply one mind, it takes the whole of existence to experience it. No one person can be right and everyone else wrong. I don't think the Dao speaks intense language or preaches systems to reconnect to oneself, when Dao is already there to be enjoyed by all.

I see this term "powerful" used many times by various QiGong masters and systems, so I think it needs to be defined. What kind of power are you looking for ? Raw sensation of Qi, Health Benefits, Opening Energy Centers, entering a deep transe ? From what I've experienced, usually the more subtle is the more powerful, meaning the more refined an energy is, the less you will feel it. So even though you might say it's not powerful because you don't physically feel it, it is more powerful in another sense because the energy you are feeding of is highly refined and more beneficial to you. Master Lin's energy is very subtle for example, unless you are advanced energetically to pick up on it. Folks with more aggressive energies like Kundalini might make you feel like they have more power, but there's more than meets the eye to things energetically. The carrier of energy is indeed stronger in the case of Kundalini, but you need to look at the information embedded inside. It's like a radio wave that contains bits of information. Some energetic payloads may be more refined than others, for example some contain entire lineage systems (like Stillness movement), but others contain very raw and un-refined information. So focus more on the quality of information that you are receiving once you've decoded it so to speak, not the heat or random weird sensations that accompanied the delivery. When you do movements it's the same, your internal energy responds. Usually the meridian system responds better to subtle movements. Hitting the gym on a rampage might get you a great high after, but it's not quite as useful to you energetically. Power is not everything. Love vibrates very highly. Unconditional Love even higher. And Love won't make you feel that it's powerful, it won't daze you or send you in a transe. Think about why you need power and what it will give you.

Here are a few suggestions that you're welcome to try out: * When doing your regular Qigong, imagine that your legs dive 9 feet inside the earth. Alternatively, you can imagine that roots stem from the soles of your feet and dive into the depths of the earth. When you breathe in, you breathe in golden yellow energy from the these roots and their ramifications into the lower Dantian. * Go for a walk in nature. Notice the sky, the trees, the plants and the birds. When you see a flower, visualize yourself as one. Say "Breathing in I see myself as a flower", "breathing out I feel fresh". This excercise is really refreshing, and I did it every morning when I walked to work in he USA. I would also smell the roses from people's gardens when they bloomed facing the street. * Sit in normal meditation posture on the ground and imagine Yin Qi from the earth rising when breathing in and slightly feel it brushing the perineum. * Write a poem about mother earth. Sing about the flowers, or the earth. In a prayer, address yourself directly to Earth. Love the earth. These things actually ground you believe it or not. Grounding means not forgetting your roots. Of course there are many other ways, but I like cycling through the above. Lying on the earth in Yoga Shavasana pose and relaxing body part by body part is extremely grounding in my opinion.

We eat it ?

I would also venture to say that it is one of the most powerful exercises as Walker stated. MIT is crazy about it in the USA and you can see a lot of their students standing like a tree in front of the campus, there is even a student club. Their daily regimen is 20 minutes standing a day. Folks who made this their staple practice always demonstrated highly robust health to me, and a lesser need for sleep than other people. Even local raccoons wake up early in Taiwan to stand like a tree in the park with folks doing qigong.

I would do this, my friend. 1) Forgive yourself. Don't judge yourself for what happened. You did the best you could with the information you had at the time. 2) Forgive the situation. Any person in your situation would react the same, cope similarly or worse. Forgiveness is the first step towards acceptance, what you need here I sense. If you can't forgive yourself you're in resisting mode. You've resisted this for so long and it's made things worst. Remember that what your resist persists, so let it go, and accept everything, the situation, the emotions, even the resistance. Then you'll feel better, you can open your heart and go help other people that carry traumas from childhood.

Researched this more and found a few good ones, evidence action living goods Thanks

As some have mentionned, don't get attached to states in your practice. There are practices that can lead you to bliss, however one day you will do the same practice and not achieve the same result, so you will feel cheated and lacking something. Hence the cheese you were eating has somehow become venom. But you need to ask yourself what you gain by pursuing bliss. Because one day you will loose bliss... so what will you do ? Double the dosage of whatever you were doing ? Solid bliss is being unmoved by outer circumstances and inner feelings to me. It is of a more subtle yin and inner aspect. Anything gross and reproducible is fleeting and will be ultimately unreliable.

Yeah, I think any system focused on pushing qi up the spine will benefit health. You could say it's a direct focus of some qi-gong forms, like SFQ, or an indirect focus of others (traditional forms focusing on the lower Dantian with quiet sitting) or even a by-product of other systems which are focused on loftier goals like spiritual immortality. But it's hard not to encounter the MCO at one point in Daoist cultivation.

Regarding food, eating less will boost energy too. Try to eat to 70% full. If you stop just before you feel full, then your body keeps the sense of hunger, which increases your saliva production and improves your digestion. Usually when we feel full, we were already full 10 minutes ago. At that point the liver is congested as it needs a lot of energy to handle digestion, hence less for ourselves. Of course don't eat crap. But eating quality healthy food at only 70% of capacity is optimal for general health maintenance. I got this info from my Daoist Master, but this seems to be an agreed upon fact upon many TCM doctors. It's also common sense.

If you want loads of raw energy, then I recommend what Soaring Crone is a proponent of, Zhang Zuang. Some call it the lost art of recharging your batteries. In general, standing with bending the knees slightly every day will achieve this for you. This stance is common to most qi-gong exercises, as it gets the vitality flowing from the soles of your feet into your energetic system. Standing with knees locked is like an open circuit though. I recommend to balance Zhang Zuang with closing exercises, or general movement qi-gong to convert the Jing to Qi, because this builds up vitality and hence sexual energy pretty strongly. You can start with 5 minutes a day of hugging the tree and see how you feel after one week. Usually the more you bend your knees, the more the pressure on your toes and hence the flow of qi. However, never strain your knees and never go past the tip of your toes. Because I think it's unhelpful from that point on. But usually masters of this art require very little sleep, like Soaring's master and a few others I met or heard about.

Thanks. I also do a closing qi-gong after meditation with gentle rotational exercises, patting and tapping for about 15 minutes. It's the SFQ closing exercise basically. I know that what you suggest is really the best though. I try to go for a short walk to settle the chi afterwards. If I can't go outside, sometimes I just walk inside my house very slowly akin to walking meditation. It seems Motion - Stillness - Motion fits the best for me in terms of a practice structure. On a finer level, the ideal routine for me is something like this Qigong - Stillness - Closing or "Waking Up" Qigong you could say - Taichi or Walking I don't do the last step nearly as often as I should though. I think it's something great that's underrated.

In Spring Forest Qigong, the Master recommends doing qi-gong or any kind of active exercises before meditation, and not the other way around. That's what the Shaolin Monks do. It makes sense, movements tire you slightly and lead to rest / stillness. Sitting full of energy may lead to restlessness. Immediately before meditation, you could do joint opening exercises and rotational exercises.

As an average Joe, I notice that the quality of my life is connected to how much I can dis-identify from ego at any given time. Energy practices are useful but if you keep a sense of being a victim and lost at the center of the Universe, then life is going to be very small and lonely. To succeed in our field I think you need to keep doing energetic practices while being on the lookout for ego at every step of the way. If you don't, usually ego will sabotage everything and make you feel like a failure, at least temporarily. If you watch the entire process of ego trying to use practice against you, then you'll be fine. If you can watch stories about your life and they have no pull on you whatsoever then that's a level of temporary enlightenment in my book. Energy can be blissful but taking a step back from the stories in your mind will relax even more and give better direction to your practice.

I remember listening to one of his audio talks once, when I discovered his stuff a long time ago in the USA, and he was strongly implying that most raped women were the ones who caused it. If not directly asking for it, he said that they were the ones that caused it on a sub-consious level, they were asking for it without knowing. No comment.

I'd say that cultivation requires moment to moment awareness and discipline. You can go astray at any moment, and for any reason... Hmm that hamburger looks appetizing etc... Once you are achieved though, the need for discipline is likely gone. You're living spontaneously and wouldn't do anything to hurt your deeper being, or against your or others interests. It wouldn't occur to you anymore.... I may be wrong though .. haha.

I think we may need to re-assess the value of genius in our society. There are already many people displaying genius in many fields. Yet not all of these geniuses have left the world a more beautiful place. I used to over-respect genius and viewed it as a tangible proof of achievement, to my detriment. Genius in itself is not a bad thing, but it's not the entire thing I learned. Maybe we should praise kinder folks who are average in every way instead. A definition for Genius could be a creative homage and service to life. Drawing people in with beautiful words to ultimately abuse them is not That. This Osho example shows that the Truth is not always so eloquent. Decorated words usually carry some hidden agenda within them.

Hey Guys, Please tell me what is missing or wrong in this. My understanding from SFQ is that the bladder and stomach meridians act as the "garbage collector" meridians: * The bladder meridian collects the garbage from the back side of the body * The stomach meridian collects the garbage from the front These two meridians both start from the face and dump the garbage in the toes. What's confusing is that I also heard that 30% of the toxins in the body come out from the breathing system (lung / Large Intestine Meridian) and that 70% of the toxins come out from the liver. So I'm trying to understand how these two meridians "connect" to the liver or lungs, or what the role is of each. Is one western understanding and the other eastern ? That would solve this Because It seems like double function to me right now, since 100% of the toxins are supposedly purged by sweating / defecation (30%) and the rest via the liver (70%). Thanks guys, Seb

Just practiced today, and thought of the title of this thread, which was extremely helpful. Think about any issue you may be currently be having.... then say, Not Two. For example, let's take disease. If you are One with your disease, then where is the disease ? You find that disease isn't something external you need to resist, it's just one of your body's energetic patterns, it's your body itself. So what the heck is there to fight against ? It's just you. Your body's energy can transform if you let it. Now take something not attached to your body, like a significant other. Although you may feel physically separate, the issue you are facing is always your own, even if "the other" caused it. Not two. The other is in you and you are in the other. One.

Same here .... been practicing qigong exclusively for the hair follicle related benefits. I know it sounds random, doing all these strange movements to entice hair to grow, but seriously, no matter what these enlightened masters tell us, life is only as good as what you look like at the end of the day. Caution Though if you feel like venturing down this path: Hair growth may not be only localized only up there... There is a non-negligible 60% chance that you may end up looking like Wolverine. ;-)

Yeah exactly, that Master Zhang. Maybe ask him if he also trained with him ?