Aetherous

w-reckless, I agree with joeblast...the one-breath is necessary. According to the story, Max was struck by lightning which fused his third eye, in Michigan. I will keep cultivating here in the UP.

That's an interesting point. I agree. I didn't mean "drive" to mean "sexual desire."

I don't think masturbation is weird. Of course it's not, because nearly everyone does it (seriously, like 99% of human beings do it...and animals do it as well). I think that "thinking" things are weird is denying a part of who we are.

Lets see the info. You may be misinterpreting it. That's what he's saying?

That was a cool post, Stig.

That doesn't make much sense, does it? "Guys who have a lot of sex drive, have weak sex drive." I disagree. If someone feels the need to drain it 5 times a day, that's a lot of force that could be going somewhere else. If someone never feels the need to drain it, that's hardly any force at all and is going to go nowhere. If you dam up a river, it'll end up taking another pathway, or maybe the reservoir will overflow. Someone who begins with a lot of jing (a fast moving river with a nearly endless source), will have much more success in whatever pathway they want to forge. Someone who has a little trickling stream could build a huge dam, yet not much will happen, because they didn't have the supply. I disagree. It applies to anyone, since the way it works is always the same. If you have sex drive, then you will of course feel the compulsion to use it...of course you will have the motivation to "chase after it." That's what "sex drive" means. Strong sexual energy is that. It's potential energy. Like a rock sitting at the top of the hill. If you give it a little push, it wants to go down...changing it to kinetic energy. A rock at the top of a one foot hill has a lot less energy than a rock at the top of Everest. It will accomplish a lot less. So the person who needs to drain it 5 times a day will have a huge mountain of potential energy to be working with...it'll be very useful if they can ever figure out how to redirect the movement. Hopefully with our practices, we're kind of putting a trampoline at the bottom of the hill, so that rock will reach way up into the sky instead of going straight down into the earth. But for the person who never feels the sexual need, they will have a tiny one foot mound of dirt, that the rock will just roll down and not even bounce off of the trampoline. There will be no air time! Celibacy may be good, but when things are forced over a long period of time, you end up re-training the body. Retraining it to have no sex drive...no fuel to blast off! Haven't you seen the posts of people here, where they say that they were celibate for years, but when they ejaculate now they feel totally drained for weeks? That's a prime example of this. Once again, this is just my view. Consider it if it makes sense. I hope I'm not too influential.

Little1, It's all about potentials. Someone who feels the need to masturbate or have sex a lot has a lot of drive. A lot of potential. That drive can be used for the spiritual path...they can use their drive to make their spirit indomitable. Think of someone like findley, who although very misguided and irrational and immature at times, is really determined and lets nothing hold him back. He has drive. On the other hand, someone who stops having sex or masturbating, stops utilizing their drive. They deny themselves. And they lose their potential. They become complacent, and that may look like refinement to some, but to me it looks like a lack of balls. There is less fuel for awakening in this person, even though the little bit of drive that they do have is being transmuted instead of being wasted away on ejaculation. This is why the dual cultivation that some are discussing is much more effective. Because you are increasing your drive greatly by being around the opposite sex...it's just natural for the male potential to increase around the female. Then when you add in good practices to that, you get good progress. This is just how I view it. Just another perspective to consider.

Guys who are totally celibate tend to be less "ballsy" in their nature. Less masculinity and drive. Probably because of the "use it or lose it" principle. I wouldn't say it's more refined...rather, more repressed. This is just how I sense things.

An nice run on sentence, starting at 12:56. "The contemplative practices of themselves, I think, make one vulnerable to the unconscious...so that the undigested emotional material of a lifetime...the dramas that we couldn't face as children and repressed into the unconscious (which are then stored apparently in the body and nervous system) are still lingering there with their energy, and influencing our decisions and attitudes towards life...but chiefly reinforcing the separate self sense, and the ego and its projects...which are opposed to contemplation."

I really liked the advice in the book to pay attention to itching. It has really opened me up. It can be hard to constantly remember to do this, but it's so worth it.

Interesting combination. I can't imagine the taste, so I will have to pick up a lime tonight.

It's okay to erase the past.

Think for yourself. Everyone is human. Consider what people teach you, but be careful not to take it any further than that. This is your life, so take responsibility for it, and don't try to pass that off onto another human being...who will always not care about it as much as you.

White Tiger, I agree. It's hard to say that there was truly one root tradition and it split up into all of the various traditions. We can't know that. It could just very well be that it's just a common human phenomenon. Like you said, "principles of nature which are pretty universal". However, in all of the various traditions, there are things that work and things that don't. The universal parts. True elements of the practice. This is the root. The true spirituality, devoid of the extra stuff. That part is the same everywhere.

You'd have to ask those guys, I'm not affiliated.

It doesn't mean being lazy.

Thanks freeform! I was wondering after you wrote that if I should look into Keeney's books.

It says somewhere on the Dragon Gate Sanctuary website, that Max gave Christopher Lee Matsuo his permission to sell the videos of him. Lots of cool stuff there, it seems. http://www.dragongatesanctuary.com Vajrasattva once recommended a book, "Bo and Bon". That is probably the best bet for learning about these things. I haven't read it yet, but it's on its way.

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Tao teaches that bowing benefits the person who is bowing more than it does the person being bowed to.

Freeform, that was one of the greatest spiritual writings I've ever read. Thanks.

A westerner who quotes the westerner's book of the Tao, to a Chinese who was raised in the actual culture? Not a good approach. The only thing that will be accomplished is you will look foolish and arrogant. You don't have to accept anyone as your master, but just be respectful and treat them as if they may know more than you. Be humble and wanting to learn. When they share, then you can decide for yourself whether they're worth listening to or not. Listening to someone doesn't make you their student.

I actually had nothing better to do today than go back and read all of my posts. It's always a good learning experience to look back. There was some (barely any) drama (when did I say there was none?), but there was absolutely NO going back and forth. It happened exactly as I recall: Now, why are you trying to find fault in me, TexasNative? What is the point? It'd be one thing if you were right, and if it served a useful purpose...but you aren't, and it doesn't. I realize that talking to you is engaging in drama...but I don't see how people can get so aggressive and irrational. If you continue, then this will have been my last reply to you, since it's useless to talk to someone like that. Plus, I don't actually care how complete strangers view me, so why try to convince them otherwise?

My experience (which isn't much in comparison to some, but whatever)... If you just do it for a longer period of time, while stopping before the orgasm point a few times...smile big and true with the whole head, and breathe in and out (not forcefully), then you don't have to worry about it whatsoever. Of course you should be practicing other things, too...like meditation, qigong, etc. The biggest point that people should understand is: semen is not jing. I agree that it's much more damaging to get all worked up over losing your seed, than it is to lose the seed. Biff's posts are interesting and he seems knowledgeable to me.

Sloppy Zhang, It's not like I don't recognize or remember what I've said. I just disagree with saying it was "back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, etc." It was more linear... 1) This practice rocks! Woo hoo! 2) Oh wait, what's going on...something seems wrong? Hmm, well, I will keep trying. 3) Maybe this practice doesn't rock? Things are getting worse! I need to find something else to practice that is better! 4) Fuck it, who cares...this is it. 5) Practice. This pattern of events has happened ONCE, and is documented here on the taobums. I don't really want TexasNative to go back and prove it to me...what a waste of time. But go ahead, if that's what someone wants to spend their time doing...that's their choice! It's always a learning experience to look clearly at the past, and is helpful to see our patterns of behavior. Anyway, I see no point in continuing to argue that I haven't been a flip flopper. Seriously...what am I defending? The former Scott? He is gone and has nothing to do with me now! So yeah, I will just decide to not get engaged in that particular discussion anymore. That's all you got out of it? It wasn't just to tell my story, it was using a story to illustrate points. To potentially help people break the cycle they're in. Maybe in the future I will just make up stories so people don't accuse me of being too egotistical? Anyway, it's becoming pretty clear to me that people choose their life. TexasNative chooses to harbor the bitterness. Gloria chooses to engage in the drama. We can be free of it just by recognizing that we have chosen it, and choosing something else. I'm not talking about new agey power of attraction manifestation theories...it's more like self help stuff...it's just about people being unconsciously addicted to negativity because it's "who they are", and them not being able to change. Desperately grasping onto their old self, and not letting it go. I type, hoping that people unite the conscious and unconscious parts, and can then choose to be well and not browse the taobums lashing out at people over useless topics.