Aetherous

The way I was taught reverse breathing didn't involve that at all. It was soft and natural...but not natural in the sense of it being entirely spontaneous. It's a method where we alter something, so in another sense, it's unnatural...in the sense that all "methods" are unnatural. Seems to me like we could find that reverse breathing is in line with Daoist principles. Still...just doing one method isn't the Dao.

Yep. From what little I know, he's right. I also have to read his books, though, to discern more. My understanding is that "occult" here refers to Western schools of thought (Golden Dawn etc)...as opposed to the source of Kabbalah, in Jewish culture. You may just be saying the same thing he is here. Is there a kind of academic standard to use "Hermetic Kabbalah" as opposed to using other terminology? You think he's just anti-Christian? My impression was that he was trying to ascertain the truth of the Kabbalah by going to the sources of it, and then bringing greater accuracy to the modern practice of it.

Could be. Although...it's said to be "in the middle". They may have also counted down from C7 (which was an important landmark to them) or T1, which is where we find BL-16 du shu, or BL-17 diaphragm shu. This was one commentator's idea, especially pertinent as the passage is referring to the gaohuang which was said to be "above the diaphragm and below the heart". From below, the coccyx and sacrum may have counted and that may have been done in a less scientific way than we know today (in fact, they said the entire spine has 21 vertebrae, something we know is way off), which might be the reason for why DU-4 is called mingmen. This was an explanation I heard once, but isn't in the comments in Unschuld's Su Wen. No one really knows. One commentator even said this passage was referring to the brain and they counted up from C7.

Oh yeah, that was just to show the search for "mingmen" throughout the entire Nei Jing. You can browse the English translation of the Su Wen by doing a google search for "unschuld su wen pdf"...I can't post it here due to it being copyrighted. I haven't found Unschuld's translation of the Ling Shu in pdf...the hardcover is quite good, because it has the hanzi alongside the translation, unlike his Su Wen. As for his variety of translation, it's not that good and is almost unreadable, but it's better than anything else out there. I'd need to see a bunch of sources that use the term xiao xin. Especially if it comes from Daoist neidan or cultivation sources, since they were known to make all terminology cryptic. It's a really challenging subject, and maybe impossible without a lineage that has perpetually passed down the keys (that's not an insinuation that I know of one...I don't). Who can be certain of anything? Perhaps no one...but I'm pretty certain mingmen isn't inside of the kidney organs. As for Starjumper's comment that reverse breathing isn't a legitimate technique...I am betting that the immortals Chung and Lu would ultimately agree (the following image from Eva Wong's "Tao of Health, Longevity, and Immortality"): Since we don't understand the Dao fully, we're really discussing a side path here. It may have been part of the legitimate training, but we lack the entirety...so Starjumper is right to that extent.

Yes, this has been a topic that's confused many medical practitioners even up through today. False ideas get passed alongside true ideas throughout history and muddy the waters. The diagram is bogus...or if it's actually something seen by everyone with inner vision (funny how we only hear about this particular vision from one source), we can at least say with certainty that the terminology is off. I'll explain why the mingmen is definitely not in the kidney... First of all, it's best to go read the Nan Jing's 8th difficult issue and commentary for oneself (you can do it by searching for "eighth difficult" here and going to page 107). When we read the source texts for ourselves, we can see what's true and what isn't more clearly. We should give precedence to whatever text came first, and to the text itself over commentators if there is a disparity, if we're going to be accurate in terminology. One thing that's super confusing about the mingmen: the Classic of Chinese Medicine, as far as I know the first place that "mingmen" is ever written about, the Nei Jing, said really only one thing about the mingmen...that it's the eyes (which some commentators thought to mean BL-1 acupoint)...it's also said that it has some connection to the bladder and small intestine channels, and is only mentioned when giving a description of the pathways. No explanation is given for why the eyes are called that. One can do a search in the Nei Jing here: https://ctext.org/huangdi-neijing?searchu=命门 The chapters it's found in are: Suwen chapter 6, Ling Shu chapters 5 and 52. Really, the Nei Jing came first...the Nan Jing is thought to have come about a couple hundred years after, and seems to have been a gathering of attempts to understand little details about the Nei Jing, in my opinion often getting it wrong or introducing some concept that wasn't in the Nei Jing (perhaps from a different school of medical thought). Something I just realized...it's interesting that "mingmen" isn't even mentioned in Nan Jing's 8th difficult issue...that was a commentator who made the correlation (perhaps inaccurately, since "mingmen" is the eyes). The commentators say "to the left is the kidney, to the right is the gate of life"...the Nan Jing doesn't. For Nei Jing purists, or for Canonical purists who claim that only the Nan Jing and Nei Jing are classical texts, any idea of "mingmen" outside of it being the eyes would be considered false. So here's the progression of ideas throughout history: Mingmen is the eye, says the Nei Jing. "Moving qi" is between the kidneys, and below or behind the navel, says the Nan Jing. Mingmen is or is associated with moving qi, say some commentators. Already, this seems like a contradiction of the classics. A quote being attributed by commentators that claimed, "To the left is the kidney, to the right is the gate of life". I'm not sure where that quote comes from. People misinterpreting that quote to mean the right kidney is the gate of life, despite the moving qi being "between the kidneys", and despite the quote not saying the gate of life is a kidney. Mingmen gets associated with kidneys due to the misunderstanding. People eventually thinking the mingmen is both kidneys. Or thinking it's inside of each kidney. People claiming to have inner vision, allegedly seeing "gate of life" in both kidneys...despite inner vision not providing any info on terminology. We went from it being the eye, to this. I think as cultivators we're most concerned with the "moving qi"...and the description of that moving qi is basically that it sustains life, as Nan Jing's 66th difficult issue also says ("the qi moving below/behind the navel and between the kidneys constitutes man's life"). It makes sense for people to make the correlation with the "gate of life" considering that description of the moving qi, but cool to understand that it's a misunderstanding of terminology over the years. From the article: To be clear this is from the Nei Jing Su Wen chapter 52. Unschuld translates it as, "To the side of the seventh joint, in the middle there is a small heart". Commentators have argued over what the seventh vertebra is referring to, whether it's the lower or upper part of the spine from counting up or down the vertebrae...and this section might be discussing the location of the gao huang...in which case, it'd be the upper spine, and it's a place between the heart and the diaphragm. My thinking when it says "small heart", if it's referring to the lower spine, is that this is the small intestine...because it's the heart's yin yang pair. Why would anything else be called a heart? But really, this section is another one of the more challenging aspects of Chinese Medicine, of which there are many different ideas throughout history. No one is clear on it, just like we aren't clear why the eyes were called the mingmen, and modern day experts simply point out the variety of historical ideas and add their own commentary.

I guess we just have different opinions on the matter. Mine is that a bridge is created by closing the gap, or pulling the two cliffs together. But really..."magpie bridge" is a term that was originally super obscure, so at least personally my conjecture on bridges over gaps is just entirely made up. Who really knows? I just know how I was taught once by one teacher. Either way, my own view is that it doesn't matter...any way it's practiced brings the same result.

At least in the Nan Jing, it's the "moving qi", not a structure. Very interesting about the Wim Hof methods stimulating epinephrine. This is odd terminology...where does calling it this come from, and what is this?

This is my own thinking: If the upper bridge has to do with the mouth, which is basically an abyss that must be crossed over somehow, wouldn't it make sense for the lower to be similar? Why would you need a bridge at the perineum? Some descriptions of the ren and du mai say that they first emerge at the perineum, so it does make sense to me that people would think that's an important spot...however, ren and du are already together there, so what are we doing trying to bring together what's already linked? Regardless, I just go off of the method I was taught and try not to add too much of my own ideas to it, and if a certain translation or interpretation matches it, then it makes enough sense to me. I think it doesn't really matter anyway, since contracting the anus naturally stimulates the perineum. And since if you're drawing the navel in, it naturally causes a little clench below. I personally don't think any of this is in need of such precision. I also question if it matters at all, considering that the entirety of Daoist neidan is basically a lost art as far as I know.

I've seen it referred to as the anus. The way I personally was taught was to very gently close or tighten the anus, not the perineum, so I go with that.

Here are some further ideas on this subject, of which I certainly don't know the full story... Some posit that the small intestine is the actual mingmen fire, not the kidneys...it's the true fire (I think it's "true" because it's the "emperor fire" in terms of the five elements, as opposed to minister fire) within water. Think of each kidney as being a broken line (of course they are water element, yin) and between them being a solid line (small intestine is fire element, yang). Eva Wong's "Tao and Health Longevity and Immorality" is one example of a book that uses terminology like "true fire"...good to look through that. Small intestine and kidney have a relationship due to them being taiyang and shaoyin, in terms of the six divisions. Heart and kidney are paired as shaoyin, and the heart's yin yang pair is taiyang small intestine...all four organs have unique interactions with each other (which Guohui Liu's "Foundations of Theory for Ancient Chinese Medicine" goes into a little bit in chapter 6). Here's a medical example of taiyang and shaoyin interactions: when a person catches a cold and has certain symptoms like spontaneous sweating and aches, it's thought that the exterior layer of the body, which is called taiyang and is associated mostly with the bladder channel, is affected. The major aspect of the treatment is to give them cinnamon twig...this increases the heart's functioning and warmth, so that it radiates out to the extremities and exterior. This example is heart (shaoyin) fire warming the bladder (taiyang) channel. Similarly, how kidneys get their warmth/function/yang is from the small intestine fire...aka, the mingmen fire. A medical example of that is the use of aconite. Or a cultivation example...reverse breathing, or I think really most practices where we work with the dantian. The idea of the mingmen being associated primarily with the kidneys was from a commentator on the Nan Jing's 8th difficult issue, who said, "to the left is the kidney, to the right is the gate of life" and people thought it meant the right kidney is the mingmen...but that was just additional commentary, and extrapolation on that. The actual text of the Nan Jing says it's between the kidneys. This is why in medicine they chose DU-4 in the center as the point to call "mingmen" and not something off to the side, or even associated with the kidneys. Not only in medicine, but also in neidan texts, the mingmen isn't the kidneys: I guess an argument can be made for trying to physically stimulate the kidneys based on this idea that the mingmen is between them...but I personally think it's more important to stimulate the small intestine. Inhaling into the lower abdomen while also contracting the space (drawing the navel toward the spine) creates the most pressure and activity internally. When it's done right, we feel heat in the belly...among other signs. I wonder about the significance of the navel, not only due to the fact that it's where the small intestine is located, but also because of the umbilical cord previously having been there... As for the anus being related to the practice, look into the "lower magpie bridge".

It stokes the mingmen fire.

Yes, I think so. The way I was taught was just drawing the navel in toward the spine on the inhale, then letting everything relax on the exhale. So maybe it was less about expanding on the exhale...but I think as long as the inhale has the contraction, it can be considered reverse breathing. Edit: I forgot that I was also taught to gently contract the anus on the inhale, too. But there are other forms of breathing out there that utilize the navel without the lower aspect, which have the same effect.

I love salmon sashimi...if fresh caught, it's so energizing.

Yup just cooked in a pan on the skin side...there's a fancy term for this version in French called saumon à l'unilatérale. If you say it in English it doesn't sound as sophisticated. It was taking too long so I threw it in the oven for a minute at the end...but really the albumin was mostly from when it was pan frying. Apparently people brine the salmon filet first in order to prevent the albumin from leaking out so much. I like my salmon with just some lemon juice on top.

Yeah I could definitely have done something about that albumin. Got to refine my salmon cooking!

Looks like it turned out not so bad...got to try it.

At this point, I do think this is all in your mind. I experienced similar paranoia at one point, and ended up being hospitalized twice because of what I believed was happening (delusions). If your experiences seem a little weird, just ignore it and don't feed into a story of powerful people messing with you. I know how hard it is to realize that all of our fear is from the mind making up stories, and in psychiatry they actually teach not to confront a person with delusions with the truth...but I think the sooner you can realize what's going on, the better. If you don't believe what I'm saying and trust your own experience more, I understand...but I hope that this idea, that it's all in your mind and that you can be free of it if you just let go and forget about all of it, sticks with you so as to help you. Best of luck!

If you know about research and statistics, you recognize the bell curve... "Average intelligence" is exactly in the center. To the right is above average, and to the left is below average intelligence. If you think of yourself as "average intelligence", and if you truly are, then ~50% of the population can seem stupid to you, because they're actually lower intelligence than you. Severely low intelligence is more rare than just being slightly dumb...the majority of lower intelligence people are only a little dim. Dim enough to walk in front of a cyclist without looking. Of course, this all seems even worse when you're actually above average intelligence.

I'm not sure what you're asking...the language is unclear. Try your best to find a way to be calm and peaceful. Often times, the mind can get overwhelming, and stories that we tell ourselves can get amplified...so best to have no-mind, just forget about all of whatever is going on, and just focus on normal things in the real world.

This seems to be a great realization. Thanks for sharing!

I just saw this: Here are the actual links: https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Massive-Explosion-Destroys-House-in-Southern-New-Jersey-487560821.html https://www.nj.com/gloucester-county/index.ssf/2018/07/it_breaks_your_heart_married_couple_killed_in_mass.html https://nypost.com/2016/08/25/company-that-price-gouged-epipen-is-clinton-foundation-donor/ What those three links don't provide is information on Carole actually being a witness. She's just a retired school nurse, with no seeming connection to HRC. The following link does tie it together, with the fact that she contributed to a report on Epipens (on the acknowledgements page under "Certified School Nurses"), in what seems like a very small role in comparison to others... http://wethepeoplefree.com/whistleblowers/repost-by-permission-us-federal-witness-due-to-testify-against-hillary-clinton-for-drug-crimes-killed-in-massive-explosion/ If we found out that she was actually set to testify, that would just be another coincidence for the Clintons.

I haven't read them yet, but I think these two books explore this topic: https://www.amazon.com/Qabalah-Gates-Light-Occult-Reconstructed-ebook/dp/B00JTKGLZK/ https://www.amazon.com/Qabalah-Paths-Light-Occult-Reclaimed-ebook/dp/B07C9TPRCF/

http://www.newsweek.com/ben-shapiro-why-arent-democrats-proud-be-american-opinion-1010981 Written by Ben Shapiro, someone on the right...but it does seem to be accurate regarding both sides in America. What do the leftists here think of this article?

They could be, but I think they tend to be called by the name of their country: Brazilian, etc.

Glad you like the links. Here's another I stumbled upon this week: https://www.holydaimon.com/ Translated works on the subject of the "Holy Guardian Angel" by someone going by the name Frater Acher.