Aetherous

This says a lot about the current status of human medical knowledge.

This only becomes true if you keep saying so.

According to Tibetan Buddhist teachings, enlightenment is not a state of mind. It's our natural state (the opposite of any fluctuating state of mind). Just two things obstruct this natural state, like clouds covering the sky and blocking out the sun: 1) negative emotions, and 2) conceptual thinking...such as the sense of self, which is basically the root of the negative emotions. So, one attains enlightenment by transmuting negative emotions, in one way or another. It's not only that...but it's said that enlightenment has certain qualities. Some people can appear to have no negative emotions, no matter what happens...but in fact they're either stuffing them deep down, or else are sociopaths. That's the opposite of enlightenment. An example of an enlightened quality is a type of loving-kindness that doesn't discriminate...it's given to all, no matter what they do. This blossoms naturally when the obstructions are cleared. It should be fairly easy to notice a person who is enlightened...they have deep love for you. They help you. They're not caught up in various drama...ever. The only reason it's hard to tell who is enlightened, is because there actually are barely any enlightened people around. 99.999999% of us have negative emotions in abundance that we have a hard time dealing with. Appearances can be deceiving. So anyway, how does one reach enlightenment? Learn the teachings of what seems like a legitimate school for enlightenment, so that you know the goal and the way to achieve it...then do it.

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Yes I've had a couple of similar experiences with dreams. Best wishes for your mom, to be very well!

If that's the case, then why does your reality suck?

Agree to disagree.

At least personally speaking, it's not just your case that I advise against it. For all people semen retention is both harmful and useless. This perspective is from 1) a legitimate alchemy school, 2) Ayurveda, 3) Chinese medicine, 4) personal experience.

The spiritual paths that aim for a kind of depersonalization, do it in the proper context (Tibetan Buddhism for instance). The way they do it causes a reduction of suffering, which is the entire point...if your suffering is increasing, perhaps due to not being your same old self, this is not the same type of "depersonalization" that they do. Not at all. They become free of a concept of self, which is tied to negative emotions, making themselves feel more liberated. Depersonalization is actually not becoming free of the self concept...it's just basically not being 'in your element'. "You" feel like you're not "your old self", you could say...that has nothing to do with no-self ideas in Buddhism. It's more akin to what various cultures would call "soul loss". In other words, Buddhism does not cause depersonalization as we describe it here. It's about something else...contemplations, practices, realizations, which cause less suffering. Depersonalization requires therapy and/or proper practice and understanding of spiritual paths. For getting back to normal, a simple method that psychiatrists use with good effect is to have relaxing sessions where you kind of meditate on the senses in a pleasurable way. For instance, you have some incense or essential oil that you smell. Listen to some calming music. Eat a fruit really slowly and notice every detail about it, as if seeing it for the first time. Get some light massage. Doing things like this is kind of like telling your spirit that the body is not such a bad place to inhabit, so the spirit comes back in, and you're repersonalized. The mind shuts off when there is pleasure from the senses, so the body is allowed to go back to its normal mode of operation...with your normal personality. ... Also, it's normal to feel kind of numb or emotionally ineffective right away after a shock, like being dumped. As time passes, you will go through the stages of grief. This frozen feeling is just shock...it might take 10 years to process the break up, like it did for one of my relationships. For most people, it takes 2 years. Anyway...for the time being, I say treat yourself well.

This is unfortunate, because they are absolutely wrong. It's very bad for a person's health to retain semen during sex or masturbation. It's also useless, spiritually and alchemically. It's just one of those false practices that are out there, which everyone obsesses over because of how seemingly easy it is to do (you mean I can still have sex?!), and how challenging sexual issues are. If you're starting to have health issues due to your age, you should look into other things. For instance, have this daily. That's much more effective than any semen retention, and sometimes even more effective than actual celibacy. Get light exercise like walking a few miles and doing low to moderate full body resistance training. There are proven ways to lengthen your life as well as increase its quality. Just some suggestions and also a hint that these ideas about jing are wrong. Jing is not semen. Retaining semen won't add years or quality to your life. I suggest you don't have other men sleep with your female partner, and only you do it, and stop worrying about semen. #unpopular-yet-absolutely-true-opinions

Some of it involves training your attention. So an example of that is noticing new details about something you're looking at...a leaf for instance. You can try to notice a new detail, and that trains your attention away from the mind and its past/future "black holes". Black holes are basically experiences from the past or ideas about the future which suck your energy and attention away from peace and clarity in the present moment. So, that's one example of training the attention. I like how it goes into detail of how and why to do it in the various ways it describes...more helpful than just being instructed to "focus on one thing". The other half of it is training your interpretation...so for instance, you contemplate various things like gratitute, compassion, acceptance, love, forgiveness, etc. An example of a practice...instead of walking around with a mind full of concerns and a face glaring at everyone, you could consciously try to look at the next 10 people you walk by with pure compassion, acceptance, love, and forgiveness. That look changes your way of being from destructive, to healing. Those are some basics from memory. I actually haven't read the entire new version of the book yet, I only read the older one.

I've had supremely great psychological results working with this style of meditation. Buddhists call it 'calm abiding with an impure external support'. (A pure support would be a statue of a Buddha for instance...impure just means any random thing, which is fine.) Really healing for the mind and emotions! The way that the book describes the how and why of the practice is quite beneficial, too.

Dear Taomeow, What are the most important aspects of feng shui that taobums could realistically apply to their homes, in your opinion?

Nice to see what was very likely the root of the school I'm learning from.

I'm with skydog. Although, there is reality and working with it, for ones own benefit, and then there is reality and not working with it, to ones own detriment. Oh also, about exchange of energy...imagine agreeing to exchange energy (lets say in the form of trading different foods with another person) in a world where you go pick a piece of land, build your own house out of the wood on the land, hunt fish and grow food right there, drink unpolluted water right there, etc...without owing anyone anything. That's how the world is supposed to be. It's easy to agree to an exchange in that situation. But when they make even existing cost money, I can understand the outrage...because honestly, no one owes other people to exist. To live somewhere. To eat and drink normal amounts. Those are basic human rights, believe it or not...and they are stripped from us by capitalism. Basically, there's not an equal exchange in our societies today. If you're born owing others, what are you getting out of the exchange? It's more like theft than it is exchange. You can feel this more if you don't have an income, or have a really poor one. For instance, I am currently working a job that does a lot of overtime, and I'm making 10 an hour. With taxes of course, it's less. Having accumulated student loans, that's literally not enough to support myself. Ridiculous that most of my life is going to this job that actually isn't earning enough to support my life. In such a situation, you know intimately that the way things are is screwed up. But like I said...you can either work with reality, or not. Complaining doesn't get you money...unless you write a book. Working with reality also doesn't mean "get a job"...it means figure out a way. NFL players for instance, make tons of money, and they just play sports part of the time. They work with reality.

Then you'd probably want to create somebody.

Rotator cuff issues can be taken care of with physical therapy. There are ideas on youtube...basically you do very light resistance exercises through all ranges of motion for the shoulders and arm. This is like an internal massage for the muscles, and it resets them...rather than massage which is really just rubbing the skin and doing nothing. You should probably see a professional, because maybe it's not the rotator cuff exactly. I don't think standing practice or really any qigong will ever take care of those issues. If it's flaring them up it probably means you're standing with tension and a weird posture...maybe that means you have a leg length difference or misaligned pelvis, and that's throwing your spine and upper body kind of out of alignment. If that's the case, then it could be the case that standing isn't the best idea. If you want to fix that, find someone (probably a PT) who knows muscle energy technique...it's very easy to get the hips and leg lengths back into alignment. There is absolutely no problem with lifting weights, even heavy weights, and doing qigong at the same time. It's actually really good. The only issue I would ever see arising is that in becoming more assertive, the emotions can be very slightly more turbulent...that's all. The ideas of internal versus external are absolutely false. I didn't really get lactic acid buildup at all when lifting. I did stuff like squats, deadlifts, etc, in a progression rather than ever doing more than I could handle...those exercises are better than doing high rep bicep curls for instance which will absolutely cause sore muscles. Stretching after lifting is a great idea...if you don't have range of motion in your movements, you'll end up hurting yourself (I've been sidelined for 6 months now unfortunately, due to having tight hips and ignoring knee pains during squatting...thankfully no ligaments were torn...gotta stretch!).

I don't understand... On the other hand, in the US we have some toxins. I say we get rid of them all and enjoy a natural world.

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Of course I am not an adept...far from it, and myself and the adepts know this intimately...but I do know what I've been taught regarding the results, from a couple of different legitimate schools. I go with their teachings, and no personal offense meant, have no interest in your own. Really, I do not care to be taught by you, and I hope you can agree to disagree with me at all times. I don't have interest in debate with you. So, legitimate schools. For instance, we could take Tibetan Buddhism and the idea of "the wisdom that knows the multiplicity of phenomena", or simply the idea that a Buddha is literally omniscient. These things are their teachings. If I'm wrong in what I say, if teachers of various schools are lying about the result...at least it's pointing to a further destination, which helps those with integrity avoid the trap of thinking they are already accomplished, when in fact they aren't.

It does.

Vata dosha (internal wind and nervous system energy) has its seat in the intestines and colon, so that explains the lower belly area rumbling. Internal practices specifically alter the internal energy flows of the nervous system. I think if there is gas it means excess or disturbed vata...this is very common even for people who don't do internal practices; the stress of modern and unnatural living can add to the issue. This self massage oil is an option to treat that, but Master Google can tell you of other options. Also, in my experience, if you eat something first thing upon waking you'll have less rumbling throughout the day...and doing the umbilical rim massage in the book Unwinding the Belly can help release these intestinal winds to some extent.

Genuinely interested...what is loading a posture? What other skills does a person develop by doing zhan zhuang (aside from building qi and developing somewhat of a rooted stance which can be applied to martial arts)?

The title of this thread makes me think about how spiritual adepts know literally everything. Literally. Everything. Is. Known. By. Them. That's what an adept is. Where are the spiritual adepts? Who knows? ...they do!

Sometimes check your alignments in front of a mirror. It's not like zhan zhuang is rocket science, so you're good!