theileon

removed

well i thought i would provide my own experience of having only one kidney, having had only one for the majority of my life. my left one never grew and was a strange walnut sized object that constantly gave me infections in my early childhood, till the doctors realised what was wrong and removed it in 1992 when i was 10. As far as jing related problems go, i would say that i have suffered from a low energy until i came across chi gong/meditation. I have receding hair, at 27 years old I am missing around 20% or my head hair and in tcm this is an indication of kidney vitality. However different parts of the head are said to indicate the health of different organs, the 'widows peak' displays small intestine energy vitality, the top of the head the kidneys and the back the gall bladder. In terms of energy i do think i have suffered in earlier life, photos of me when i was young show i had the classic kidney/ liver weakness signs of pale skin and dark rings under the eyes. Pollutants certainly take more of a toll on me than other people it seems, for example drugs and drink always seemed to affect me more negatively than my peers. i dont drink anymore. These days however I believe have more vitality than the average 27 year old. Through meditation and chi gong i have built up my energy and certainly feel much more in my prime now than i ever did when i was 21...interestingly in a person who has only one kidney, the remaining one grows to make up for the other missing one. Kidney function tests (kidney yin) show i have 80% of a normal persons function. from a tcm point of view, the kidney yang being the adrenals is not necessarily affected by only having one kidney, as they actually sit on top of the kidney and are a seperate structure from the kidney itself. i have both of my adrenal glands. i trained kung fu in yangshuo china for a while...perhaps some people on here know the Gou family. the school there is run by 'papa' who is in his eighties and his two twin sons who are in their fifties, one of them, georgie, has only one kidney and is still truly powerful as a martial artist. he looked and acted more like he was in his thirties. i think that although one may have only one kidney, and in tcm the kidney is "the root of all yin and yang in the body" there are processes related to this statement that go beyond the mere physical structure of the kidney in isolation. other organs also play a part in vitality, the liver and kidneys are very closely related (being water and wood) and with a weak or stagnant liver one is likely to have little energy no matter the state of the kidneys. I think that as long as one knows their weaknesses they can compensate for them through energy work, diet, sexual moderation and can still lead a 'normal' healthy life. They may not be capable of huge feats of endurance but can work with rather than against their condition. This has been my experience.

so i am interested in getting into the full lotus as well as improving my flexibilty....i am quite a way off at the moment and am wondering what caused this stiffness in the first place. many people state that stiffness is due to blocks in the energy networks of the body, which have increased throughtout the persons life, perhaps why old folk are generally the most inflexible. this is interesting for me as i remember i was the only child at school who could not sit cross legged, even from a very early age. i was born with only one functioning kidney and from what i know of chinese medicine the kidney energy influences the level of flexibility in the body. but perhaps it was a blockage due to emotions that i inherited? i was wondering if anyone had any specific practices they use for targetting the energy networks of the legs for flexibility, rather than approaching it through muscular skeletal stretching methods. ileon

thank you for your responses...the reason i ask is that i am soon to start a degree course in acupuncture at a specialist college here ın the UK....most of my meditatıve work revolves around the Yogani AYP system and i was concerned that at some point ın the future my development ın Yoga would conflıct wıth my development ın the Chinese or Taoıst way of thinking/practicing...

i was just wonderıng peoples thoughts on acupuncture wıth regards to the dangers of the crossover between yoga (kundalini) and taoıst methods (chi).... is ıt safe to be stımulatıng chi wıth acupuncture when ınvolved wıth kundalını work? ı understand there ıs a sımılar system of poınt stımulatıon ın yoga (ayurvedıc) tradıtıons but wonder how closely they correspond. I myself have encountered problems when attemptıng some chi cultıvatıon methods such as scrotal compressıon breathıng wıth the AYPs of Yogani....would acupuncture ın fact help wıth regard to blockages/ ımbalances ın the body system, no matter whıch school of cultıvatıon a patıent followed? ileon

wonder if anyone can help with this.....seems i have got a lot of energy trapped in and around my heart. its is causing me to be short of breath. basically feels like ive got heartburn all the time, sometimes stabbing pains. have been doing Yogani type meditation and yoga but have combined it with Mantak Chia's methods, such as scrotal compression breathing. i think this has caused the problem. have tried directing energy to ming men as Chia suggests, also tried healing sound for the heart, still no relief.....any suggestions? thanks everyone, ileon

hello all, my name is Ricky, 26, from Brighton in the UK,....I practice yoga and meditation in the style of Yogani...I have practisced Falun Gong for a number of years...I have recently been learning about Mantak Chia's Iron Shirt and also the Six Healing Sounds....I have been trying to learn the basic of Chia's Taoist love techniques...thanks for welcoming me to the community, this is a very friendly site. Ricky