Aetherous

Nah I'll continue to delete mine. Sorry not sorry.

I've only learned kneeling prostrations so far...totally not a physical exercise kind of thing involving pushups. But very good for a person to do.

It can help to just slow down. Not necessary to change what you do in life, but just take your time at it and aim to be more chill and easy going. Instead of rushing about like a chicken with its head cut off, for instance, just go from point A to point B and perhaps breathe and notice something pleasant around you. Take time for little pleasures, like a cup of tea, within your day. Flow smoothly. Also, you don't know when you'll get done with work...but you do eventually get done. And then you have some time when you could meditate or practice at that point. Or...if you know you have to be up at 6am or something, then you can go to sleep and get up a bit earlier in order to fit in a practice then. There is time for what you want to do. Time management is hard. But you can make time, and your schedule will fit around it...you'll make it happen.

I was going to say...exhaling the stale winds and then sitting is probably my favorite in terms of how I feel. But add in these other methods such as prostrations and dedication of merit, and it works even better. Tibetan Buddhist methods can bring such relief to the emotions.

Agree with your post. IME, I'd say Daoist Traditions is 90% CCM (along with TCM for boards), and 10% Jeffrey Yuen's Daoist medicine/personal style. Just want to paint a clear picture of it here in case others become interested in the school. There is a good amount of JY influence, but not overwhelmingly so, and definitely not to the point where it's no longer CCM. But it is true that there is his influence at the school...only sometimes, like 10% of the time. Or in other words: if you're really motivated toward CCM, it will not interfere with your education, but only enhance it by offering extra things to consider. Also, his style is often "classically" based, rather than Daoist...but more in the style of the Nan Jing I think.

Welcome. Just want to say...these things are what every normal person struggles with, so don't think it would scare anyone away here. I had a psychology professor who called it "self medicating". If you don't have a very strong inner peace or serenity, then it's only natural to seek out something pleasurable when there is even a hint of pain. And perhaps it's even healthy to do so! If you find a spiritual path that can help you gain a strong sense of inner peace, as well as keep you busy with productive things in life, then perhaps over a few years you'll be able to not need external sources of pleasure so much. That's my experience at least.

I've definitely felt the primary pathways when having needles manipulated...or even felt the whole Lung meridian when having the pulse taken. They aren't exact but are pretty accurate. Felt the kidney meridian with the kunlun practice leg shaking. With lower dantian breathing, once qi comes out of the lower dan, then I feel it rising roughly along the Du (up the back) and the Chong (internally)...which are 8 extra meridians. One can feel all sorts of things throughout the body with spiritual practices, that doesn't always correlate to various maps of the body. Perhaps this is yuan qi and jinye flowing through the sanjiao (which is throughout the whole body). Perhaps it's also simply the nervous system firing in new ways. But yeah, the primary meridians exist somehow. They tend to be along palpable depressions between muscles and/or bones.

Lots of American's ancestors had nothing to do with it. If mine did, I'd probably write an apology...but wouldn't give $5,000. That's just a scam. Also, anyone with a brain knows they have no legal power to deport American citizens.

It's not an opportunity...it's some sick old dude using you for his perversion. There is literally no chance that he's legitimate, because Rosicrucians don't do any of the things he did. He vamps on his students, and as a Rosicrucian is incapable of generating his own energy? Like I said, absolutely a fraud. That applies to anything in life, though. For instance, if you have a job...if you just let go and go at it 100%, doing everything you have to, it will help you not be dominated by your "ego self". But being vamped by some sick old pervert is NOT the way. Seek out any legitimate Rosicrucian organization instead of this guy (although, many organizations argue with each other about the others being illegitimate...doesn't matter...any of them will be better than this current situation of yours).

He's an absolute fraud...stay far away!

It always feels great when I go to my profile and see 3 stars out of 5...like I'm a bad movie on Netflix. Thanks daobums.

What techniques conserve yuan qi? Placing needles at the superficial depth, and taking them out as soon as the pulse changes (as in some Japanese styles)?

You're probably going to be wanting to fill in the gaps in qigong and other "cultivation" training regardless of what school it is. The tuition difference between schools isn't a huge deal if you know about income based repayment. The sinology aspect of the Portland school seems great, because understanding Chinese characters and language makes for a very deep understanding of the medicine. Also cool that they taste all of the herbs and experience them! The dual degree option at Texas seems great, as well...because something like 1 in 4 CM grads aren't practicing after 5 years, due to the fact that the medicine isn't well accepted in this country, and because they mostly need to build their own practice from scratch. Tough choice between those two schools. Maybe you can visit and see what the schools are like in person.

Found a random yijing thread... Anyone check this version out? Its clarity really appeals to me (although I'm interested more in philosophy and not at all in divination). Also...does anyone have good resources for Chinese numerology in relation to the yijing...as well as info on the trigrams, or basically how and why the yijing was created as it is?

Release date is in a few days, on the 21st. Heads up!

Maybe there is immortality of the light body, but not the physical one. Not like I know.

Even Chinese Medicine works with yuan qi...the lower dantian area deals with it. If you're alive it's not lost, because your continued life depends on it. Is it possible to replenish it instead of just slowing its use? Some say yes. But theoretically that would mean you can live longer than a normal person, like beyond 120 years...and who has proof of that? Also, the Daoist neidan practitioners say that they do replenish it.

Pinyin is boss.

Sweet changes.

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As an herbalist, he knew what he was doing. Lay people have no idea about diagnosis, or about how Chinese herbs are supposed to be used. It's not a matter of simply taking tonics and then having better health...the opposite can happen.

One issue with receiving instructions is that usually every detail is said for a reason. When there's an old translated text that might not be legitimate in the first place, there are contradictions within it...or at the very least, there seem to be. Or more importantly for us, some details aren't noticed, due to being not so obvious upon the first thousand readings. Usually a teacher can point those things out, but in the absence of one, you can go on forever without even seeing what's right on the page. For instance, TY says the following in a brief paragraph in Chapter 1: "Therefore, during the training both eyes should turn inward to the center (between and behind them) in order to hold onto this One which should be held in the original cavity of spirit (tsu ch'iao) with neither strain nor relaxation; this is called fixing spirit in its original cavity which should be where (essential) nature is cultivated and the root from which (eternal) life emerges." Upon first reading, it might make sense to "focus in the center of the head". But that's not picking up on the fact that it mentions turning the eyes back toward that area as a key aspect. Using the eyes isn't all, though...it mentions holding onto the One in that area. What does that mean? Do we know what the One is? It also mentions to do this without strain and relaxation...are we sure this is the most correct translation? Could it mean that "focusing" or relocating our awareness is a form of straining, and would be contraindicated for the practice (in SOTGF terms, it would not be "turning the light around"; in other terms it would be "inferior virtue" of doing, rather than "superior virtue" of non-doing)...and perhaps "relaxing" in this chapter means losing awareness such as passing out or going off into thoughts, rather than simply a state of being relaxed in the conventional English sense of the word (which would be ideal)? (On the subject of translation...maybe the eyes turning inward isn't such a physical movement of them, as it is a diminishing of awareness of the visual sense...I don't know, but it's another thing to question about this short paragraph) Just wanted to point out this example. Also, I think all readers of this book might be missing the point even from Chapter 1...thinking that fixing spirit means something other than what it actually meant in the teachings this book came from. Spirit is a translation of mercury...and this is an alchemical text rather than a practical one. Anyone who has read it knows that it's obtuse, and only small aspects of the book give very clear instruction on various things. So perhaps we have to understand symbolism of these alchemical things in order to understand the overall point...in order to actually practice, instead of practice the wrong thing.

Something interesting that I recently realized (sorry if this seems like a "duh" moment)...but previously I always assumed that chicken eggs were unborn chicks that just weren't given enough time to hatch. In actuality, most chicken eggs aren't fertilized, so they aren't actually an animal. In this sense, they're similar to milk...a product that comes from an animal which is not an animal itself. Apparently hens lay like 200 eggs a year naturally. Hopefully that makes things easier for vegetarians who like eggs, but don't like eating living beings. Don't know how I got through life without ever really understanding this until now!

Just found ming used a lot in the Shang Han Lun (the classical herbal text) with the meaning being, one's life. Cool to see the actual character being used there.

Yeah there is absolutely nothing at all wrong with wanting to learn from these schools.