vonkrankenhaus

Why would people be having sex if they didn't want children? And why wouldn't they try some kind of less invasive thing first? Every woman has an indicator on their body that shows pretty much exactly when they are ovulating - would it be of help if they could see and use that as a guide? -VonKrankenhaus

Re: ----- "But its hard to believe because basically your tellng me that out of thousands of years of chineese qigong systems developing that Mo Pai Nei Kung has surpassed them in leaps and bounds." ----- I'm confused by this. Is this about the guy in the YouTube video doing acupuncture and lighting a bit of paper on fire? Nothing he did in the video is all that unusual - why is there all this speculation about one documentary video? Could someone explain this thread and this phenomena? -VonKrankenhaus

What is the purpose or reason for vasectomy? Is it "birth control"? Or is it something else? -VonKrankenhaus

If the goal is to increase testosterone, then sexual abstinence will not accomplish this goal. The testosterone spike they are seeing at roughly 7 days is temporary, and is a spike in hormonal compensation. With further abstinence, testosterone levels will drop lower. Also, hormone levels, sexual desire, and so forth, are directly related to dietary intake and activity of all sorts. Reproduction is a casting off of excess. Starvation pretty much brings sexual activity to a halt. So attempting to practice "controlling" various hormonal functions without proper attention to environmental intake as food can result in imbalance and conundrums of logic. Of course, the same thing goes for "medications", and there are many medications that can make qigong practices into a sort of irrational circus routine. But basically: Abstaining from walking does not produce strong leg muscles. The key to "controlling" hormonal functions is in understanding what they are and how/why they arise. Without that, "controlling" is just an idea, and any practices that result could be just so much back-and-forth and devoid of logic. For example - eating hormone-treated tortured animal bodies produces excessive protein intake and possible hormonal imbalances that are not most efficiently addressed by any form of posture or exercise as much as they would be by just not eating like that. There are many foods and chemicals being continually consumed by rote which produce results in the human body at odds with any past or current goals of internal cultivation. None of us will be able to exercise these away. So many are building structures out of themselves that they must then try to erase or change in order to progress in human development. This is counter-productive. The amount of activity necessary to redress these biological contortions is beyond the capabilities of any style of QiGong. -VonKrankenhaus

Re: ----- "Expansion is yang. Contraction is yin." ----- Is Diffuse Yang? Most would classify "diffuse" as "yin". Is Solid Yin? Most would classify "solid" as "yang". Is expansion associated with diffusion? Is contraction associated with solidity? In physics, probably yes, to both. So how could it be explained to scientists that expansion, such as what happens to molecules when water is heated, causes Yang, when solidity, the opposite of expansion, is also labeled Yang? -VonKrankenhaus

Re: ----- "Front is yang Back is yin Expansion is yang Contraction is yin Structure and action have their stand alone attributes. There is not difference in the concept of yin/yang between the west and east. No double standards....!!!" ----- There is no double standard. Just a minor paradox. We have a choice to look in terms of physicality or in terms of action. In terms of action, expansion is yang. But in terms of physicality and structure, expansion is yin. We can say that Heaven is active and thus yang in comparison to the Earth, which is less active and thus yin. But if we look at structure, Heaven is diffuse and "blown apart" while Earth is dense and compact. Looking in this way at structure, we could say that a bone is more yang than a teardrop. If we are talking to people educated in the science of dualistic materialism, we are better understood when using a physical/structural basis for YinYang classification. They seem to have less of a problem seeing the structure of, for example, "Heaven", than they do seeing the metaphysical action of "Heaven". If we look at structure, the back of the body is contracted in comparison to the front. The nervous system, epitomized by the spinal cord, has a more solid and compacted structure but a more expanded and less active function than the hollow (expanded) digestive organs with active functions located in the front of the body. I very much understand the traditional classifications based on energetics (metaphysical), but I very often use a more modern classification based on structure (physical). I will be sure to adjust my useage to the content and expectations of a particular thread here from now on. -VonKrankenhaus

Re: ----- "What about chemistry? How do we know what elements are yin or yang?" ----- To determine yin & yang of chemical elements, we can look at a variety of factors - such as atomic weight, spectroscopic analysis (color), interaction, and so forth. If we see denser elements as more contracted and more yang, and less dense elements as more expanded and more yin, then we can also use where various elements have settled in the Earth as a guide. Very hard elements like nickel and iron (yang) are at the core of the planet, while lighter elements like hydrogen and helium (yin) are in the atmosphere. Some elements in the periodic table are so yang (contracted) that they have begun to exhibit radiation, which is very yin (expanded). These elements are generally found within (yang, contraction) the Earth, but have started to irradiate out to the periphery (yin). Note that I am using physical (structure) determinations of YinYang here, and not the metaphysical way of determination by action (common in CCM, old Taoist sources, etc). I am doing this to more efficiently interact with people educated in science and scientific classifications based almost completely on physicality. That mentioned, elements may not be stable and immutable at all, and may all be examples of long-term and short-term transmutation, with lighter elements transmuting into heavier elements and heavier elements eventually changing into lighter elements. We can observe yin & yang in chemical combinations, wherein more similar elements like hydrogen and helium do not combine well, but elements that are more polarized from each other, such as hydrogen and oxygen, do combine well. We can apply YinYang to any area of science, but thus far in this thread, the very basics of YinYang classification have not really been straightened out, so we may enter quite a bit of confusion (that would be additional to the ordinary running confusion of this thread). -VonKrankenhaus

Re: ----- "The laws of yin and yang only apply to all things with a physical form. The non physical is unaffected." ----- I understand the context here, but this is just not true. ----- "What we have done has caused the original spirit to become the guest of its own house. Being guest gives up ownership and responsibility of being a divine spirit. We become mortal in this world if the error is not corrected." ----- In fact, we have abstracted ourselves from natural order. This started as a survival tactic, especially in the North and NorthWest during the last ice age. Adjustments made for conditions long ago were retained when it was found that they also caused side-effects that diminished people's opposition to being governed. These were then implemented and developed further into the situations we see today. The same thing also shows our freedom, if we use that. -VonKrankenhaus

Holy Shit. I think this thread must be one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. -VonKrankenhaus

Re: ----- "Please don't answer completely off-topic to an already completely-off-topic post." ----- I'm sorry. I truly thought my post to be on-topic. Not necessarily obvious, but I did think it to be relevent. It represents, to me, a different scope in considering the initial inquiry about yang chi - yin chi in "Immortality Cultivation" such as may be seen in the Secret of the Golden Flower and other sources. I do apologize if my post was, or even seemed to be, irrelevant. -VonKrankenhaus

Re: ----- "Your body isn't really yours. You stole it. Killed other living beings and ate their dead bodies and assimilated them into you. Plants used solar energy, soil, water, air, etc to store it away in the first place." ----- In fact, we are eating the entire Earth and cosmos - from the iron core of the Earth, through the metals and minerals of the crust like sodium and potassium, to water and oxygen at the surface, to proteins, fats, carbohydrates, heat and gases in the air, and various forms of vibration including solar and cosmic radiation, plasma, subatomic particles and cosmic rays from Deep space. And the evolution of Earth life is seen in miniature during our gestation - water life, vertabrates, amphibians, mammals, and we reach the primate stage at birth, then develop as humans in our life. In the womb, it is all dark. We are born into a world of half light and half dark, and then we are born in a world of all light. Our "food" evolved before us. All animal life comes from the vegetal. During galactic summer, the vegetal was big and full of liquid, and we were "dinosaurs". Then, in galactic autumn plants and their fruits contracted. Eating these, we became mammals. When the fruits of recently evolved plants contracted even further into galactic autumn, into seeds and grains, we ate these and became "apes" and further, "Mankind". We are already Immortal. Our normal lives are Immortal. -VonKrankenhaus

Re: ----- "The back is yang to the front's yin. It's a classic, basic principle of Taiji. Like I said previously, the front is the soft, vulnerable side, the side we want to protect. The back is the hard, protective side, the side we turn toward danger and "evil" influences." ----- If we are looking in terms of exansion and contraction, the front is expanded and the back is contracted. We don't turn our expanded side to danger. This is opposite from TCM YinYang classification which sees Heaven as Yang and Earth as Yin. This is opposite from looking at them in terms of expansion and contraction. It is looking at their action. Not their physicality or structure. Which way is more practical? If we are adapting YinYang thinking to western terms, some have felt that structure would make more sense for people accustomed to physical descriptions of phenomena as opposed to metaphysical descriptions of phenomena. The same issue is found in the classifications of organs by both structure and function. -VonKrankenhaus

Astral Projection - where are we projecting from? What are we projecting? What about Astral Reception? Would it be esier to recieve, or project? If we recieve some information as a "psychic", did we first project to the place and time the information was from? Or did we percieve it "directly"? -VonKrankenhaus

Re: ----- "So there is this matter of the serpent being raised upon a pole." ----- This is about time as measured by the precession of the equinoxes. The serpent is the constellation Draco. The "Pearl" of the Chinese, and the ball at the top of the staff in the West, is the ecliptic pole. The time of the serpent is the time the pole star is in Draco, which spans thousands of years. This is the time of the Fall of Mankind described in the Bible and other ancient texts and legends. After this time, civilization and agriculture (slavery) became widespread. -VonKrankenhaus

Re: ----- "I still am of of the opinion he is Yanging our chains Impossible to be so off" ----- This is an homespun american phenomena, from America, Land of the Free, and Home of the Brave. But they do not say free of what, nor what we would be braving. We are finding out. -VonKrankenhaus

Re: ----- "I have noticed often that I hold unconscious tension. I relax and whenever I tighten a muscle again, for example in a Qigong practice to create what is known as the Qi-belt, my muscles stay hard. So I ask myself the question what is responsible for muscles tightening and possibly staying tight? Is this memory in the nerves that flow through our muscles?" ----- Muscles contract due to hormone responses to stimuli. When cells contract and expand, they are responding to differences between intra and inter-cellular fluids. These fluids contain hormones, like neurotransmitters, and salts and minerals (calcium, sodium, potassium, etc). Some of the minerals that cause contraction, such as sodium and calcium, are used in buffer reactions to overloads of liquid and the metabolism of simple sugars, and also acids like phosphoric acid, lactic acid, etc. When these minerals are depleted, muscles contract strongly to counteract the difference, which produces teporary expansion, and cramping results. Muscles that stay contracted and hard most of the time - that is the result of imbalance and extremes in intake, with meat and salty foods causing general contraction, and liquids, sugar, and chemicals causing general expansion. If we stretch and contract a rubber band over and over, it becomes rigid and cracks. -VonKrankenhaus

Re: ----- "It's about changing and manipulating your own hormones. In 9 words. Everything else is bullshit . 4 words." ----- and: ----- "funny. But doesn't work: spirit-shen has no hormones, and at least half of neidan works solely with yangshen... Hormones are really peripheral even at the beginning: there is a change, but it's like the reflection and there are many other, more important systems of the body, that are changing." ----- I try to write this in terms of modern ideas and not so much anything specific to any given practice or tradition, with the exception of using Taoist symbolism for illustration: Hormones are primary to one's interaction with the overall environment (IE: Themselves). Environmental "stimuli" trigger hormonal responses that literally cause thinking (neurotransmitters, brain) movement (corisol, adrenal hormones) and so forth. Without hormones - no response to the environment in the physicalized being (IE: where we are now). The very first response, a "yes" or "no" response, is a hormonal response. The "overall environment" we are responding with is equal to what we are made of ("food"), which equals a range from the iron/metal core of the planet, and goes through salts, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates, fats, water, oxygen and other gases, and all the way to vibration like heat, light, cosmic radiation, "spirit", and to the Infinite. Essentially, this is what we are a condensation of, and Life is our un-condensing or "return". To gain conscious control of hormonal functions is human function. Animals do not attain such control. Thus, the human being is the first species to have conscious control of evolution. Cultivation involves gaining full, normal human control, consciously. Our hormonal responses determine the scope of our responses in the environment. If we do not have control over emotions, which is the function of the organs, then our response is abstract and complex, and reality is hidden. Our response is more horizontal - more about what's "next to" us. If we gain control of this, the response simplifies. We are "letting go" when this happens, which changes our scope of consciousness within the range that is ultimately (by function and destiny) going from the core of the planet to "Infinite Space". We can get to a points where all we see is change, transformation (IChing, 5 phases). This is part of a map of the coming and going of The Infinite (One, God, etc). We can get to a point where all we see is the interplay of complimentary opposites (YinYang). The TaiChi symbol is the map of this last "ultimate" stage of consciousness, where we reconcile all dualities and become like the hollow circle at the outer edge of the TaiChi symbol, or "One", or some say "God". These symbols and understandings are a map of the "coming and going" of "God". Cultivation is how we "travel" the territory shown by these maps. This includes qigong and various meditation practices which aim to correct hardnesses and imbalances ("gaps") of functioning that are impairments due to loss of good connection with/in the environment (our "larger self") due to a variety of factors. One obstacle to the cultivation of "Immortality" (the full return to "God") in the old days (actually, fairly recent, by evolutionary standards) was the behavior of other humans who weren't making this travel smoothly - people who increasingly attacked and opposed and tried to control others. So becoming impervious to this, first by protecting, then by immunity, then by being something and somewhere else, has been part of various practices that have developed. This is "martial arts", etc. The most effective parts of ancient cultivation are right now extremely obscure. What I see people discussing and practicing is just a very small part of total cultivation. The true and basic methods of cultivation follow the Way of all coming and going directly - our interaction, and thus consciousness, with the overall environment (the Universe), whereas specific cultivation like I see being discussed is to maintain our coming and going destiny with various obstacles and leading to the resolution of all antagonisms. This means "harmony" must be achieved, and this is the goal of the Manifested Universe. We play this out between Heaven and Earth as Mankind. True cultivation is the living of normal human life. When this cannot be done smoothly, when "normal" human life is not easy to attain at any given time due to environmental factors and extreme conditions, then deliberate practice technique emerges, guided by reality, to solve specific issues. -VonKrankenhaus

Re: ----- "Actually, Naidan is a form of Qigong for refining the Jing, Chi and Shen(精氣神)" ----- Yes, part of Qigong (but not "part" if people think Qigong is just Iron Shirt or Tao Yin). And very misunderstood because so much is missing from it, and attempts to find the missing parts have depended on 1. scholars going through old translations of already obscure writing, and 2. People looking for some undiscovered master or school or family that knows them. Notice the "questions and conclusions" near the end of Yang Jwing Ming's books, for just one popular example, and the speculative nature of much of Mantak Chia's stuff about the "Immortal-ist" produce (or, "exrtaodinary abilities, results, etc) of Nei Dan Inner Alchemy training. They don't know. I hope to get into discussing some of the missing parts of this practice on this forum, somewhere, but being new here, I am first just reading what's generally going on here first and testing some waters. -VonKrankenhaus

Re: ----- "tell me about your statement of more yang attracts less yang . More yin less yin etc ." ----- Big Yang attracts Small Yang, and Big Yin attracts Small Yin. Just a way of expressing relativity within YinYang. You yourself told you about it thus: ----- "When I use to ride sport bikes every day I'd notice how others sport bike riders would tend to be attracted to me and me them in terms of who's more yang or less." ----- So if you are the Big Hotshot, then the Little Hotshots are attracted. And, because Yang attracts Yin, and Yin Attracts Yang, then maybe, for example, some nearby girls took notice of the overall action. (An Aside: In fun, if you continue to call me "Vonkrackenhaus", I will then maybe call you "TaoMonster" ) Never forget - If you are the Big Hotshot, you have nowhere to go but towards becoming a Little Hotshot, and eventually, No Hotshot at all. The Wise develop as the "No Shot" after having been both well enough. -VonKrankenhaus

Re: ----- "after reading all this thread, I'm interested if someone can give just one example of what a neidan practice is and how it is radically different from qigong. And not just metaphorical quotes from texts but one example of what a simple neidan practice is." ----- These can each be seen as part of qigong. Generally speaking, Wai Dan practice is external and concerning the muscles and tendons, and Nei Dan is internal and concerning the marrow. "Iron Shirt" training is an example of Wai Dan. The focus of Iron Shirt is more dealing with the physical body. Nei Dan is more internal, and concerned with the development of the Energy Body, and further, to the development of the Spiritual Body, much like that depicted in The Secret of the Golden Flower illustrations (if not fully in the somewhat inaccurately translated texts commonly available). Ultimately, these are inter-related. Even though for most martial-arts people, for example, the more external Iron Shirt is emphasized first and is more primary to that stage of interest, it would be incomplete and non-sustainable over an extended time without Nei Dan practice as well. -VonKrankenhaus

It seems that the inter-personal arguments and vigorous assertions about YinYang are perhaps the most revealing demonstrations of YinYang in this thread - far more than the content thus far, and good reason for us all to be humble and reflect on the scope and universality of Truth. -VonKrankenhaus

I just want to write that, as a human being, and as a man, I am deeply moved in reading this thread, and I very much appreciate the opportunity to read all of this. Thank You, to Manitou and rene and everyone participating. -VonKrankenhaus

Re: ----- "Ive asked many many times for the so called "LIST " of whats yang and whats YIN but to no avail" ----- I'm working on a new post that will include a few ways that this has been classified, because this is an important topic, and the way the thread has been careening around, it seems to me like clarity is coming a bit slowly. Not that I hold clarity above others on this in any way, but because this is a fundamental concept that needs to be grasped very clearly in order for any application of it to be more than just a mish-mash of assumptions. I just want to make sure I have whatever I write backed up somewhere first, in case a Soaring Crane with a phone swoops in and edits it back to the Infinite Void. -VonKrankenhaus

Yang attracts Yin, Yin attracts Yang. "Big Yang" attracts small Yang, "Big Yin" attracts small Yin - is one way we could express "relative attractions". I'd like to see these two statements disproven clearly and obviously, if anyone would like to try. The magnet examples of "TaoMaster" do not make sense to me because the poles of the magnets do not seem to be labelled - just the entire magnet, making it impossible for us to see which pole (+ or -) he is putting together. -VonKrankenhaus

Re: ----- "The responsibility of our health and the health of our families lay in our hands alone. It is up to the individual to truly become free from institutions that do not have our best interests at heart. " ---- Excellent. But that is complicated by things like this: http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/06/17/judge-orders-custody-justina-pelletier-returned-parents/mDWtuGURNawSuObO0pDX4J/story.html -VonKrankenhaus