markern

HAHAHA sounds good

Very good place to start. Bruce Kumar Frantzis has good material on this I think. I think so to. It sounds to me like springforest qigong could be exactly what you need. It seems that your goals are firstly to heal body and mind and to master the basics of taoist meditaiton. Springforest qigong gets awesome feedback for doing just that and some more. It can be learned well through DVDs and such. It gets a bit more murky how springforest works as an alchemical system long term although but it certainly does a whole lot of good for many people, very consistently good feedback. Starting with dan tien breathing is also very good as breathing is key to getting good effect from most other practices, it has a quick and very significant effect on your health and daily life, teaches you basic concetration and relaxation and makes your energy flow where it is supposed to. I belive, and so do many others, that some sort of stillness/emptiness meditation is key. Excellent start and key to long term progress. By that one can both refer to just anapanasti like watching to breath to let things sort themselves out and energy work itself out but also more insight based practices such as zen or taoist sitting and forgetting. After doing lots of active enrgywork it is important to let the energy play itself out in a form of meditation where you do not get much involved but just observe. In order to advance long term some sort of practice where you just open to reality and investigate reality as opposed to just moving energy around is key IMO. Once you have gotten going at home you could also consider doing a workshop. Stilness movement is taoist system that has gotten great feedback on this board and whos teacher Michael Lomax posts as Ya Mu here. His basic system can be learned at a weekend workshop and one can develop it further by more workshops. KAP is appears to me to be a very good system and can be learnt at a distance through skype but is not as purely taoist as springforest or Stilness Movement. You could also learn Kunlun from a book I think or at least from a short workshop. A great meditation to start out with and to keep as a side practice later on as well is the secret smile. It will realy sort out your emotions, cleanses your channels and smoothes things out and makes them safe. If you search for it on this forum you will find instructions. The inner smile is another great practice to begin with.

What of Chias stuff does Santiago teach? I know CHias stuff quite well and there ain`t much or anything of it in KAP as far as I can tell.

Figured I should try a salt bath since everyone seems to recommend it for just about anything. So will any sort of salt do? And how much do I need for it to be meaningful?

I am going to try intu-flow for some time. THe otehr day I was feeling very tense and I tried to do movements like I saw in Sonnons intu-flow video on youtube. It was profoundly relaxing for me. I think there are many types of tension and stress different certain types of stress and tension can foten be relived best with different types of exercises. I changed my focus from yoga to tai chi temporarily because it relaxes me better but intu-flow like movements were much better than tai chi so I am going to try it for some time. What I found was that I also got more grounded from it than I have from tai chi and intensive practice of embraing the tree and grounding i s abig issue for me now. My awareness also returned to my body while normaly it seems somehow outside and in mye head nad slightly in front and above my head. I think thats were most of the grounding came from. It did not really pull energy down so much as just return awareness to my body and then naturally energy aligned itself iwth my awareness again. In addition I felt more rejuvenated and energized than I have in about a year from doing anything. I think this has to do with the fact that I must have a lot of energy stagnation and that getting the flow going did wonders. I also go a lot more energy to my head of a type that I desire to have there unlike the excessive energy in my crown and this temporarily relived my memory and concentration problems and my feeling of burn out more than I think anything else I have done. So wow, at least now this seems like the perfect thing to do for me. So I am wondering from the perspective of those who have practice intuflow for sometime if something along those lines corespond to their experience. I think I might be a special case of having needs that are particulary met by it but in general does this sound like what you get from intu-flow? I am also wondering how much it needs to be practiced long term. For now I will do it A LOT if the benfits stay the same but once the particular problems I have. But long term I still think there are other practices I would like to focus on the most while still retaining some of the benefits by practicing some intu-flow every week. It seems like it addreseses the problems I have now very well but that eventaully these will disapear and althoguh still a great practice not necesarilly what I will get the most from in the future. What I will be doing will probably be yoga 3-4 times a week with quite a lot of dao yin/yin yang yoga long held gentle strethches in addition to more dynamic stuff, a little bit of tai chi and some qigong. How much will I then need to practice intu-flow to get meainingull benefits? Would 3 times a week of 15 minutes do the trick?

I think once it actually happens it is so powerful you will no. NOt a grenade but a nuclear bomb you know. An if you read around about various peoples experiences it is not that hard to get the picture. Read pathnotes by glenn morris or some of his descriptions online for example. THere are plenty of others too. I think smaller "teasers" can be more difficult to discern but even then there is a certain electricity and power and innate intelligence to the energy that can make you presume they are kundalini "precum"

Sounds like ggod advice to me. I think there is a lot of confusion about this stuff. You do not as much destroy the ego as see through it and then loosen its grip on you and retrain it to serve higher aspects of yourself. Any sort of feeling of attacking yourself or your ego will also be very counterproductive IMO. In reality it can easily just become self hatred and denial camuflaged as spiritual. There are a couple of good resources for sorting out what one actually wants to do with the ego and how the personality and psychology fit together with enlightenment etc. JAck Kornfileds book a Wise Heart - Budhist psychology for the west goes in depth on the buddhist perspective on these things and although slightly differently worded then in taoism I believe the basic understanding of this relationship is the same. Shinzen Young also has some excellent articles on his homepage and some lectures that you can get hold of that goes into these things with exceptional clarity. Daniel Ingram also deals with the realtionship between ego and enlightenment in is free ebook. THat book is a masterpiece on how to do vipassana/insight meditation and has some extremely useful discusiions about what exactly enlightenment is. Jack Kornfields book a path with heart is also an excellent book to read for an overview of spiritaul life and how to manage it well.

Look into the thinking patterns that subtly underlie the nervous feelings. Try to change them into more rational thoughts. Tehre are some acupoints for the solar plexus. THe spleen and pancreas are very related to it and the spleen sound whhhoooooooo (six healing sounds on youtube to here the sound) help balance the spleen and pancreas and so helps the solar plexus. Certain asanas are good for SP also. Self massage. MAybe get a stomach massage. Acupuncture.

In the forum at aypsite.org there is a thread started by me about multiple orgasms where a couple in thier 50s 60s also spontainiously ended up having tantric sex and the man tantric multiples. YOu could probably find it if you search my (markern) posts at aypsite.org.

Yes I am going to take KAP at a later point. I am actually getting private lessons with Santiago about grounding. Which reminds me I need to send him a message.

THanks. But is this any different than swimming in the sea?

Thanks But I want to take a bath right now and I think I only have very ordinary types of salt. Will that still do ok even if not ideal?

Yeah I thought Pathnotes was very well written. He had a special writing style. Anyway I never could spell at all. Speaking of laywers and auras I have worked in lawyers offices a few times and I think that must have been where I really experienced auras for the first times. Murderers have tend to have this intense dark or greyish fog arround them. Very uncomfortable. Also some of the guys that have just been kicked around by life for years also have a different but horrible aura. Both types are extremely uncomfortable to be around. And I was not very sensitive at the time. I think I will need some sort of energy protection to not get soaked in bad energy.

THanks for this information. But it is not clear to me if one remains bad at reading and writing. I am studying to be a lawyer and in my native language I write very well and speak and argue very well and I hope this will remain so as I will need it. I will also need to read a lot of documents, and read them fast, as a lawyer so long lasting reading difficulties could become problematic.

Can you elaborate on that? I remember Dr Morris wrote something in pathnotes about people going through periods of spelling and reading problems and that he got problems reading books, but he also claimed Kundalini could increase your IQ by 20 points. What are the intellectual effects of cultivation and especially of Kundalini, short and long term?

Cool! Inner smile is great to but it is different from secret smile. I try to do both. I think sitting in stillness is recomended at all levels but not sure as I am not much of a taoist.

Not sure what would be a next good step for you but how about sitting in stillness a little bit, 10 min or more, to let stuff integrate and happen by itself a bit more. I think when one does a lot of active alchemy that is still very useful and important. It seems like you want to follow an alchemical path, taoist presumably, so you could do a stillness movement workshop. You could also add in some secret smile as it is both a meditation that makes you feel great and sorts out your emotions and in addition makes alchemy much safer. Since you are doing springforest maybe it is time for you to get some sort of transmission or chakra opening from Chunyi Lin or Jim Nance. BOth did third eye openings on Drew and he seems to think that was key for him. Maybe it will get you the ability to O at D with girls at McDonalds as well.

What would qualify as an ambitious routine?

Hi Fiveelementtao! Your posts and perspectives are very interesting and I enjoy reading them. They do make me want to think mixing stuff through well whenever I do it.

These things always goes in cycles I find but since you have "broken it in" you will no doubt get it going a gain in a day or a week or something. HAve you considered doing a vipassana retreat? If you do one you should be able to build up enough concentration and disolve enough blocks to make everything else, like SS, go much easier. And your mind will be much stiller and not eat so much jing. Many of them are free you know. These things always goes in cycles I find but since you have "broken it in" you will no doubt get it going a gain in a day or a week or something. HAve you considered doing a vipassana retreat? If you do one you should be able to build up enough concentration and disolve enough blocks to make everything else, like SS, go much easier. And your mind will be much stiller and not eat so much jing. Many of them are free you know. You could also press acupressure points for confidence, do the lung sound and colour for confidence, or do some sort of asana like warrior two or a qigong pose or two that creates confident energy and then circulate that for lack of an emotion.

Actually one of mantak chias students/teachers first reached first path (first level of budhist enlightenment) doing vipassana like stuff (possibly with some energetic stuff added not sure) then lost it (not that uncommon) but got back to the same place doing Chias meditations. This is interesting because it shows that budhist enlightenment and taoist enlightenment is the same, at least at the lower levels. It is also interesting for the debate about stilness type meditations vs energetic practices as some, like Michael Winn, claim that stilness practices can not produce the same results. This guy had practiced quite extensively in Kabalistic, egyption, african and yogic systems in addition to what he did with buddhism and taoism. He said that the energywork at the lower levels could be very, very different but in his experience the closer you got to the top the more similar they became and at the level of the start of actual enlightenment exactly the same. Furthermore, he had gone through al the Jhanas in budhism. In CHias system he went through all the jhanas by following fusion to get to the first and then jumping jhanas upwards with the various kan and li practices. I am sure the jhanas had slightly different flavours when reached through different means but budhists say that this happens in buddhist practice also depending on which object of absorption you use to get there. FOr example if you use a coulored disc your experience will be slightly different than if you use an emotion or a candle flame. Essentially though the jhanas will be the same. Varjhadirja (spelled right?) on this sboard went through all the budhist jhanas when he did Sidha Yoga, now he practices tibetan budhism and has gone through them in that training as well. So we see then that the deepest meditation states up untill actual enlightenment are the same in budhism, yoga and taoism and that quite possibly, depending on the faith one have in his claim of lost and regained enlightenment (he was very humble and down to earth and seemed to have no desire to claim anything special for himself and had his experience verified by his lamas) also the lowest level of enlightenment are also the same. However, as mentioned, he did say that a lot of the energetic work to get to these places coupld be quite different. He also said that all that work could play a major role in how the person actually turned out once enlightened because it would influence the personality and energy of the practioner, although the enlightenment would create a similar core, these differences might make a big practical difference. Still, he combined various stuff he learned from several of these traditions and has held workshops on the realtionship between the jhanas and the microcosmic orbit (and presumably other taoist stuff) and incorporated several yogic techniques into this (like chanting) he also practices regulary a lot with budhist monks but also comes to tao garden from time to time and presumably learns more taoist work there. Based on this it makes sense to me that some energetic practices from various traditions would not go toghether well but also that are a lot of benefit from mixing certain stuff as well. KAP has also mixed a lot and if such mixing in general is dangerous the practioners should have exploded by now while the opposite seems to be the case. My own meditaiton teacher has also trained extensively in various taoist practices including Chias stuff but has also been a monk in the tibetan tradition for 4 years. He says he has never had anything but benefit from integrating what he learned in these two traditions and for him the energywork was essentially the same. Taking into acount that he has done both systems to very deep levels he should know what he is talking about. He also said that he had found as big differences between certain teachings and traditions in tibet in terms of how energy and elements where worked with and explained as he had encountered between budhist and taoist teachings and that training in tibetan energywork with seemingly contradictory explanations of centers etc. where of course done regularily. Furhtermore, in tibet you find practices that are extreemly similar to indian hatha yoga, you also find practices that are extreemly similar to qigong. THese work perfectly well togheter in tibet. And also one of the AYP practioners said that the"kunlun energy" he experienced when doing kunlun was something he had encountered several times while doing AYP.