Orion

I don't know much about Osho himself or his movement, I just see his quotes circulating around the internet and I find myself disagreeing with them a lot of the time. I'm not typically someone who argues with reality all that much because, well, I guess I just don't care... but the holes in a lot of what he says are obvious. And I wouldn't go calling myself a guru. But I guess some people feel the need to lead and others feel the need to follow. What more is there to say. I'm just not a big fan of raving fanaticism.

Here's an interesting topic for practitioners of oriental medicine. Blood transfusions. Aside from all the modern stuff we know about blood donation, like screening for diseases, allergies, etc... I'm interested in discussing the more subtle ramifications. Because blood not only contains acquired nutrition, but a person's jing, I'm wondering what receiving someone else's blood would do to a person energetically? Yes, on a physical level it's probably nourishing, but what does it mean to have another person's yin and essence flowing through you like that? Is the impact of their essence temporary or does it permanently add something to your body? From a modern science perspective all blood is more or less the same as long as it's the same type and cross-match, but I'm curious about the energetics.

Sorry, I didn't mean jing Some colleagues of mine were saying that because the blood contains the shen (in relation to the vessels, and the heart), it's not uncommon for recipients of blood transfusions to have odd dreams relating to the donor.

What if your activity level increases? Such as going for a long walk, exercise, or mentally demanding tasks? Is that one meal enough? For your one meal, what do you tend to eat? I'm just wondering how anyone can have one meal per day for years and not eventually lose serious weight or suffer malnutrition. The reason I ask is because I like this idea.

I've often wondered if Fuxi was a Naga. There are still religious sects in Asia who hold yearly Naga festivals and give them offerings, claiming to know where some still live and visit this dimension. I was told by some followers, in rough translation, that they live "one level above us", and they have superior knowledge. They are serpent like, so maybe the legend of Fuxi and the original three emperors has something to do with that. The legend goes that the Chinese learned the first 60 something herbs and basic acupuncture points from Fuxi, as well as basic agriculture. This all happened over the course of 100 years or so. Wouldn't be surprised if those teachings included philosophy and spirituality as well.

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How to summon entities? Find a teacher.

Not everyone can do the lotus. Most of us weren't raised from a young age to sit in this position, so our bodies don't adapt too well. I think it's more important to be comfortable than to sit in proscribed positions. Half lotus or full lotus are useful energetically but not totally necessary IMO. I've had some really deep, wonderful meditation experiences and qi gong sessions sitting in a chair. If you're really hung up on being able to do the lotus for a long time, then doing deep leg and lower back stretches regularly will help you out. I'd even say start doing yoga.

^ Yes.

Jupiter conjunct Venus at the time of a Full Moon is very auspicious in astrology. Yes, it could mean romance, but in general it symbolizes a lot of harmonious and beautiful energy. Being in Leo, these planets will evoke good relations between people and will bring out the best socially charismastic qualities. It's also a great combo for partying I associate this cosmic event with positivity, abundance, and high energy. It's a great time for ritual, communion, or any kind of energy work. Tonight I'm going to go for a walk in the woods to enjoy what nature has to offer. The true full moon is tomorrow evening but it'll be while the Sun is still setting where I am, and I prefer to enjoy it in darkness while it's still waxing.

If it's a minor hernia, it can repaired by doing exercises that tonify and lift spleen qi. If it's major to the point you are experiencing prolapse, then surgery might be called for.

Schisandra is *very* astringent though, so much so that it's classified under the astringent category. Sour can astringe but nothing like schisandra. I think the only herb more astringent would be wu mei (sour plum). All I'm saying is that if you use a strong astringent, be sure there's not excess, especially heat. Don't use it if you're sick, it'll retain the pathogen in your body. Schisandra will compress heat conditions which can cause a lot of internal damage. I speak from personal experience from ignorantly abusing this herb. True cinnamon generates lifegate fire. It also directs the effects of herbs there, in small doses. Is your intention to send all of the herbs you're taking to the life gate? Do you have a deficiency there? If not, you'll might just create excess internal heat, which schisandra will hold there. Herbs can be a tricky business.

Bitter tends to be drying and dispersing, so it would help the spleen function when used in moderation... but it is also cold and descending. The energetics of spleen qi move upward, because that is where the yingqi (nutritive qi) goes after the spleen processes it, also knowing as the qingyang or clear yangqi. Too much bitter will affect this dynamic. I am not aware of bitter herbs, as a rule, being used to treat dampness. We'd use aromatics for that.

I'd call it poisoning, personally. In North America, the incidence of IBD has increased by 300% in the past 12 years. That's crazy. Clearly the food system has a problem that's being swept under the rug by cronyism and bunk science. Europe also has IBD but not at the levels we have it. I've noticed the same thing about women. Also, a history of sexual abuse, as there tends to be liver qi involvement.

I really enjoy eating the new, tender dandelion leaves which grow in the spring, but I also harvest the overwintered roots because all their sugars have been used up and you're left with a pure, bitter medicine. Those roots tossed into a hearty stew are so amazing during liver season. I also try to eat collard greens, kale, chard, beet tops and carrot tops... they're all bitter and help things along. I used to *hate* bitter. I remember the first time my herbal teacher fed me a raw dandelion root I almost hurled. Now I munch on the leaves while I'm gathering the rest. My family really grew up on the sweet, refined carb diet and bitter was such a foreign concept. Really love bitter orange as well. Bitter tends to be cold and descending... so it tames all kinds of upward heat, like hyperactive liver yang, heart heat, etc. Good for the summer time (which is why the Table of Changes says heart = bitter = summer time). Just beware that if you eat too much it can damage spleen and cause diarrhea... which can be avoided by simply combining bitters with other flavours. Watermelon pith is bitter... not the red flesh but the whitish-greenish flesh. It's very cold in nature, and it's one of the natural world's BEST remedies for sunburn. If I've been at the beach all day I eat watermelon, including the pith, while I'm there, and my skin suffers less damage. In TCM we use xi gua pi (watermelon pith) to treat summerheat disorders like heat stroke. What else... oh, bitter melon, obviously Cabbage, lemon and lime (especially their skins and rinds), artichokes, chicory, ferments.

There are two meridians that run to the tongue... spleen and heart. A spleen dominated tongue is into the addictiveness of sweet, whereas a tongue governed by the heart meridian makes more conscious food choices. This is something an old teacher of mine taught me. When you introduce more bitter into the diet, it tends to enter the heart meridian (bitter is the flavor of the heart, from the Table of Changes) and awaken the Shen (spirit) to improved consciousness. Bitter also acts on the liver, releasing its grip on any organs it may be assaulting, the primary of which is usually the spleen. When the spleen isn't distressed, it tends to back down from its sugar frenzy. Scientifically... weak digestions prefer simple carbs because they're easier to break down. Bitter often aids the digestion of more complex nutrients like protein, which eases sugar cravings quite a bit.

One thing I've learned concretely in the past few months is that you can never outsmart the body. Its intelligence for what it needs will always be greater than your logical mind in trying to figure it out... which is why following bodily signals is more useful than coming up with hard-and-fast diet plans. The body is so dynamic and its requirements are always shifting. I don't believe anymore that micro-management makes you more healthy. It just increases tension. There are obvious things we can do to help ourselves out. I just mean, there is no "miracle" diet. And, if you want to have the same level of energy that you had as a child, it's called a time machine. Being a child under 10 is the closest to pure yangqi as you'll ever get in this lifetime. Once you reach adulthood it becomes a matter of managing a gradually declining yang.

I've been enjoying this lately: Blueberries Raspberries 1 whole avocado Half banana 1 tablespoon raw honey 1 tablespoon bee pollen 1 tablespoon almond/cashew butter Some lemon juice Home made milk kefir A bit of water

I've never met a long-term vegan in my practice who I'd call healthy, but I live in a northern climate. In such locales, I think veganism is good for short term use only, then after that its value depreciates as a healthy force for good. It makes more sense to be vegan in hot climates where consuming cold, raw food is compatible. If you look at where vegetarianism and veganism tends to be practiced in the world as a culture, this rationale lines up. The whole "detoxing" craze is mostly non-sense. The most unhealthy people I've ever met are those who are obsessed with "cleansing toxins". You have a liver and kidneys for that. Just eat clean, balanced food and you'll always be detoxing. *shrug* I go vegetarian for spiritual purposes, but it's always in warmer weather and not forever. If I went vegan at all, let alone in the cold winter months, I'd start getting very sick. Sorry, didn't meant to shit on your thread if that's what happened... I've just seen too much to not say anything.

If you're thinking of poisoning yourself then you're already being poisoned by your Self. Maybe work on transmuting that and you won't need to ask this question again.

I've always wanted to take part in Burning Man, but it's a very privileged event that takes a lot of financial and material resources to take part in... which is one of the biggest critiques people tend to direct at it. The same can be said for most major festivals. I've done harm reduction at some festivals here on the west coast and those let me get in for free as a volunteer. But because of the United States of Arrogance, there can't be official harm reduction units in American festivals because they are seen as endorsing drug use, which the DEA doesn't allow. Burning Man's Zendo Project is totally renegate and I support it... they use the same model as one of the major festivals in Canada that I attend, but they have no ability to get you in at reduced cost. I see all the wonder, beauty and amazement that happens at Burning Man, and from everything I've heard it sounds like an epic adventure. I just wish it wasn't so positively middle/upper class... there are so many barriers to entry.

Because potassium deficiency is rare and taking high doses of it can cause life threatening electrolyte imbalances. Food sources are better.

Schisandra is quite astringent and holds stuff in. We use it for "leakage". I'd say if you have a clean diet and lifestyle, it shouldn't be a problem. If there is any dampness or internal heat, schisandra will mess you up by holding it in and compressing it. He Shou Wu lubricates the bowels and can be damp forming. Schisandra astringes and holds fluids in. Goji berries are very yin producing. I'd say the combo you're using is good if you have a yin or body fluid deficiency. Otherwise you're just going to create a lot of internal dampness for yourself.

I don't know how else to word this, so I'll just say that ethics which arise from Source truths come as a natural evolution along the path. They are self-evident and require no instruction, they are just a reflection of what some might call the Buddha Nature, the true nature which lies beneath egoic endeavors. Structural ethics, i.e. those that society and religion provide, can be guidelines, but they are not ultimate truths. They can even be a bit narcisstic with power-playing gravitas. I have found that a lot of the ethics I was taught growing up have come into conflict with developed spiritual truths, the latter of which have won over. If one is operating from the Truth, then the "right thing" arises naturally, and does not stem from righteousness... which probably explains why a lot of enlightened people end up being killed by the State. They're just emptiness in action.

I've unfortunately (fortunatley?) been learning a lot about this in recent months, very intensively, as I developed the most severe form of ulcerative colitis and almost died. I've been stuck in bed for months and researching all areas of the health world, communicating with experts all over the map, and cultivating my own healing process. First of all, most modern allergies are due to the food itself. People used to ferment things a lot more than they do now, including wheat products. The tradition of letting kneaded dough sit out for half a day in the open air -- that no longer happens in factories. At the turn of the 20th century most people in the west were eating bread that had gluten content of about 5%, now it's 60% or more. A lifetime of exposure leads to sensitivity. It's also how the food is grown. In most parts of the developed world now, wheat is GMO, sprayed with glysophate. The GMO wheat survives this process and then those chemicals make it to market. Corn has a similar fate, as does soy. Sugar does as well, unless it's organic sugar. Sometimes gluten free products still cause a gut reaction because they were made using GMO sugar, from sugar beets or cane sprayed with glysophate. The other problem is that people eat like crap in general. If you've eaten a lifetime of bad food, you may have corrosion in the gut, which leads to leaky gut. With leaky gut, food particles pass the epthielial barrier causing immune reactions, and then bam, one day you can't eat that food anymore. Not everyone has this susceptibility, otherwise we would all be having problems. There seems to be some combo of genetic disposition, food, lifestyle, and where we hold our stress that contributes. For instance, I hold a lot of my stress in my gut (liver / spleen dynamic), so I've probably had this coming for years. I'm a TCM practitioner, and I can tell you that straight up classical TCM does fuck all for things like IBD. I've been to 5 different herbalists, and it doesn't work, neither does the shi liao diet. Most people I've connected with who have UC say the same thing. China never had IBD until about 20 years ago, now people there are developing it as China adopts the same farming practices and modern eating culture of the west. The old models just haven't adapted to the understanding of what has happened to our modern food systems. Practitioners that incorporate other modalities into the work are more successful. Acupuncture doesn't do much either. My energy body is doing well, for the most part, but my bowels are still sorting themselves out. So before you consider herbs and acupuncture, consider a diet that restores gut lining. No one single diet protocol has fixed this for me, I've had to make a lot of personal modifications... but you should look into the GAPS diet, the SCD diet, and perhaps the Low FODMAP diet. If you heal the gut, food sensitivities tend to go away, unless you were born with them, then it's a kidney essence issue from your parents and that's hard to fix. You also have to include home made ferments in your diet regularly, something most westerners no longer do. Home made sauerkraut, water or milk kefir, kombucha, kimchi, yogurt, etc. Store bought stuff is mostly dead on arrival. You need to find the cultures and make it yourself. From that list, milk kefir is the most superior. I have not found kombucha to be very useful for repairing my gut, but it makes a nice tasty drink for the summer time. I was lactose intolerant until I started taking 48 hour milk kefir, and now I can handle some dairy again. Probiotic bacteria and yeast help form the gut barrier which protects you from allergic contamination, as they exist in our gut in the trillions. Taking kefir and sauerkraut has put my IBD into remission, along with diet modification.