Aetherous

Shiiiiiit that guy is fast.

Started at 17, and that was my most serious point. Wore myself out. Now I just keep on truckin.

Does anyone here actually specialize in this? If the docs they are seeing are saying "ankle surgery is recommended" and when it's a complete tear, then it seems that surgery is the best option. We are just taobums, not professionals (as far as I know)...why should anyone listen to us! I've never heard of someone miraculouly healing a complete tear...maybe it's possible, but the proof is in the pudding. Maybe try calling Chunyi Lin, and see if the tears suddenly go back to normal (I doubt it). The best I think you can hope for is quick healing from surgery through recovery. Seeing some chi healers would of course be beneficial, but not the magic bullet. Vajrasattva's advice is good, and I'm sure whoever she sees later (physical therapist?) would have her do those exact things. And Hundun's post rocked.

Corrective surgery!

http://www.dhamma.org/ is a place to find vipassana teachers and meditation centers. They're mostly free or charge a small amount, and last 10 days I think. They give you vegetarian meals, and basically almost the whole day is spent doing the meditation. I think it'd be great for you as long as you stick with it. Just an option...you're getting other great advice here. About what to do instead of drugs...take up a sport. Like running, soccer, martial arts...whatever. To be honest, I just got a job doing landscaping this past month and it's been great. Good physical work, working with the earth...if you do it a certain way (relaxed and with an inner smile, with proper alignment) it's like the highest form of martial art and qigong, in my opinion.

Vipassana would be good for you I think.

Yea except I don't like it when someone suggests to stop masturbating. It's not that simple for some people.

Take up standing, and go for walks. Gotta bring the energy down.

What's the point of arguing about it?

Well I'm not too impressed with Patrick for hogging Lama's topic with his own stuff. Make your own topic.

Ram Bomjon rocks. He belongs to an esoteric branch of Buddhism, and does certain visualizations of Gods praying in the midst of thunder and stuff...of course all in lotus pose. He doesn't meditate constantly. There's more info about him in other places on the net, and I think his website is still up where it tells more and has videos of him walking around. But yea truly an inspiring person who is even younger than I am.

I just got this book in the mail today. It was recommended in an Umma Tantra email newsletter...something which Vajrasattva from the board is involved with. The quality of the book is really lacking, but the content totally makes up for it. If someone is interested in chi, and haven't really found a good way to experience it, this is the ticket! It contains what looks to me like great instructions on all of the classical stuff (tendon changing, marrow washing, eight brocade, five tibetan rites) and then some! Practice guidelines take you to completion...it's really a home study course so that you don't require a teacher, although of course that's the best way to go if you can find a good one. Anyway, check it out if you feel so inclined.

I can relate. What practice do you do? Why can't you pull up their consciousness by raising your own? At least for myself, I've found that sometimes the best spiritual practices are in dealing with others...they test you to the core. Yeah I know how that feels. I was really on fire for spiritual stuff and ended up ditching my friends after like 7 pm so I could go do my practices, back in high school...they thought I went nuts. It hurts to hear that from your best friends, to have them not understand and talk behind your back...no matter how spiritual you are, it hurts. All of the above...if you feel like you should do it, then I think you should.

If you're going way out into the wilderness, it's essential to know how to find food. A good book for the states (especially I think around the Pennsylvania area...don't know where you live) is "Stalking the Wild Asparagus"...talks about foraging for all kinds of different wild foods, and how to prepare them, etc. One of my favorite books. It's good to know how to build a decent shelter, or find one. Caves are good. Pop up campers are the best. Know how to insulate the ground so when you sleep you don't lose all of your energy and heat. There's a lot of basic survival stuff that you should learn if you're doing it that way, so spend a good deal of time in the nature section of Barnes and Noble.

I will agree with that, for sure. But... I also agree with that. (edit) ...except it's not always as simple as "join the military and kill people". There are a lot of jobs. And even if you're in the infantry, you may not kill anyone.

The best way to find out how it will benefit you is to practice it yourself and see. If you ask your teacher, they may be telling you lies or at least exaggerating the truth. For a good overview on jing, qi and shen check out The Root of Chinese Qigong by Jwing Ming.

I'm wondering, when are cold blooded killers not angry or emotional? I think it'd work especially well for a real life encounter.

Anytime, glad to be of service. Good luck with whatever you choose!

Ah I see now that you said you DON'T want to go to school...already PM'd you saying that the main benefits of joining now are so that you can get a degree for free basically. For anyone else reading this...the pay isn't all that great, even with all the special bonus pays they give you in Iraq. There is still tons of stuff to spend money on over there, PLUS when you get back you will want to go on a spending spree no matter how disciplined you are financially. And more...you don't make that much. You can easily earn more doing a full time job in the states, like road construction or cooking at a restaurant, etc. You know, there are still apprenticeship jobs out there if you don't want to do college. Less girls, less parties, but you get paid and you get a decent job at the same time. Anyway back to the military: it's good for physical and mental training in the beginning, with basic training...then most soldiers start eating tons of shit and getting fat, especially in Iraq where they serve you more than as much food as you can handle...and then it's not as easy to work out over there. So yeah I'm kinda about the whole thing after having been in and been over there. If it's about patriotism, well, the war is kinda over and we're just waiting to get sent home right now. Of course people have differing opinions on that, and I used to as well, until I went over there and saw it. We are stopping the Iraqi Army and police from doing their thing, by being there and always doing it for them. Anyway, just my opinion on that. So yeah, what it comes down to is: do you want to experience the crappy life of a prisoner/slave and really earn your way into manhood, only to be treated like you're still a kid by your superiors, who are actually for the most part big pansies? Or do you want to live a comfortable life where you have freedoms, and not worry about being inferior to anyone besides maybe your boss if they're not nice?

Sounds awesome.

You should probably get good instruction from somewhere other than trying random practices from books. Especially challenging practices like microcosmic orbit. Wow, am I actually saying that!? I'm all for the do it yourself approach...yet it's hard to correctly do it yourself. So it's probably necessary to really research and try out different methods and teachers, and see what works. A lot of stuff is bad info out there. AND, it's not good to have heat in your head, no matter what practice you do or what tradition you're from. You should put the tip of your tongue slightly behind where your two front teeth meet the upper palate, keep it there all the time in a relaxed and natural way, that'll help energy come down, and also smile and laugh throughout the day (if you don't already). When you do embryonic breathing, don't force it. Just those three things alone are powerful practices when more energy awakens. You could try taking up a simple standing technique also, which is good for opening the legs and feet. These are all the basics...and any master of anything will tell you that mastery comes from a mastering of the basics! But they are powerful enough so that after just a month or so you will definitely notice better results. There are good resources here at this forum, just keep an open mind and try to see which you think is best. www.alchemicaltaoism.com is a great resource for free info. It's the work of Trunk, who is at this forum. My personal favorite thing is kunlun. Hope it all works out. By the way, Cameron is right in recommending stillness meditation. I had good results in balancing out kundalini problems by doing awareness watching awareness meditation...but that method is kind of tricky in its simplicity.

So many theories.

Very cool!!!!!!! A person who has trained this....can they just be walking around minding their own business, and if an attack comes out of nowhere, will it be stopped without them doing mudras/having intentions/etc? Sorry about the questions I'm just really interested in this stuff.