soaring crane

haha a Baugua reference?

Also yes, horse balm is good western stuff. Must contain horse chestnut and arnica to be effective. Chili is a plus

Po sum on! (thanks to bka for turning us on to it)

Soups! :-) With a little rice ...

I wouldn't touch them, thank you very much. But whatever floats your boat (A friend of a friend is basically a vegetable today because of some really dumb experimentation with them)

I was thinking about this while out walking on my meadows. I don't know anything about Fuxi (the Zen master) or his relationship to martial and physical arts, and so have no way to speak to the original intent of the poem, but it's common Daoist methodology to apply broad universal, macrocosmic concepts to the physical, personal experience, and especially to martial and medical applications. Dismissing Mark's work here is akin imo to dismissing all Daoist meditation techniques that function through an interpretation of the Yiching (and the original Fuxi's bagua) because there's nothing in the text that specifically describes bodily functions or structures. It's just a history book after all. Daoist methods are all ultimately a form of interpretation and interpolation of broad concepts and sometimes cryptic texts. And of course the same is true for the Daodejing and Zhuangzi. So, for me, Bearded Dragon's explanation of the text is illuminating and interesting on a macrocosmic level, while Mark's provides a very cogent practical application that can accompany me in my practice. It was there in my qigong earlier, out on the meadow, before it started raining and I had to come in. Also, yes, thank you, Mark

Fliegenpilz, haha! Just don't eat them. Many mushrooms grow in rings because that's how the mother organism develops underground.

The article (and presumably the study of thirty American women) is full of qualifiers like 'most', 'tended to', 'may be', 'it is possible', etc... Shaky grounds for a shotgun therapy like testosterone to address a problem that in many (I know, another qualifier) cases may well have a socio-psychological backgound. Did they ask the women how happy they are in their relationships? What about their often puritan/Calvinist upbringing in the US? Taboos? The article serves the purpose of getting Daily Mail readership to talk about sex (aka click-bait), and the study seems geared toward creating a therapy that could well be appropriate for a tiny number of women but which will be marketed to all and sundry. Just like Viagra. Ka-ching! <deleted some stuff about sex and female orgasms> something to add: The whole discussion could obviously result in many women feeling needlessly insecure about their bodies, adding yet another layer of societal damage to people who are already insecure and fearful enough. And the industry knows this and exploits it. It's the no-cebo effect. Instead of instigating a healthy self-healing process through positive imagery, they make people sick by convincing them there's a problem where there isn't one. And then they gleefully sell the conconctions and contraptions they thought up to combat the problems they invented. Am I too cynical? Yes, sometimes, I suppose.

Heaven help us

Try, and fail Try again Fail a little better (can't remember the original ... when it occurs to me, I'l update)

cool :-) The fields behind my house are covered in (fungal) fairy rings. All that's visible is a dark grass circle. The fungi change something (ph?) in the soil that makes the grass grow darker. The rings are always about 3 meters in diameter.

I find your body work description spot-on, Mark. High caliber stuff, really. Thank you :-)

The one time I got into something like retention practice, one wet dream meant having to start over from the beginning. The goal was the standard 100 days (and involved some practices that made it virtually impossible to acheive) and if an accidental discharge occurred on the 95th day ... it was back to day one. I didn't succeed, and now think the whole approach is unnatural and unnecessary. To the OP -- you're going from one extreme to another. That's generally a bad idea. There is no sperm in your blood, central nervous system, or brain. And there's not supposed to be, either. Sperm is in your testes, and then it's out of your body, it's pretty simple and is true for every species of animal that reproduces with sperm/egg. There are hormones associated with your sexual drive, however, and you're taking measures guaranteed to throw them into a crisis. My suggestion is to stop the obsession, get a nice girlfriend (or boyfriend, or whatever), enjoy sex and develop a healthy relationship with your body (and mind).

They're a bunch of narrow-minded church bulletins. I wouldn't call them pertinent the OP at all. Precisely the opposite of what he's looking for, in fact. Perhaps his inspiration for asking in the first place? (simple speculation on my part)

~~~~~ minor moderator message ~~~~~ This is just informational and a little pre-emptive. I think this thread has the potential to become a battleground and I would just like to encourage contributors to stay to the main topic i.e. do you know of any strictly Christian qigong instructors/masters, past or present. If not, I'd suggest it's better to simply leave the subject alone than to begin a debate on what consitutes Cristianity or Qigong, or whatever. This is a brand new member who clearly doesn't have a lot of experience with forums like this, but is perfectly within his right to ask whatever he wishes. There have been some very excellent replies so far, and everyone has been quite helpful, but I can sense the energy turning. ~~~~~~~ peacefully yours, Soaring Crane ~~~~~~~~

It can be a little daunting in the beginning, you're certainly not the first to ask a basic question like that. You go to the General Discussion forum: http://thetaobums.com/forum/1-general-discussion/ And scroll down past the various sub-forums (in this case, it's Buddhist, Hindu, Esoteric and Occult, etc...) until you get to the actual General Discussion threads and see the "Start new topic" button (It's black with white text), click that and I think you'll figure it out from there BUT before you post in General Discussion, consider the possibilty that your thread might be better suited in a different forum. Also, it happens from time to time that a moderator makes that decsion and moves a thread into a more appropriate forum. That's only for for organisational purposes.

Hello Christian, and welcome to the forums! Glad to have you aboard, I hope you'll find what you're looking for :-) Please take the time to read the two posts pinned at the top of this Welcome page and take a look at the forum terms and rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you, SC and the TTB team ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Special Note: all female members are more than welcome to join the discussions at our new Women’s Cultivation forum, moderated by rainbowvein and zanshin

It's all good, thank you. My question was legitimate, not rhetorical, and I wasn't asking on behalf of the mod team. It's a good subject of discussion :-)

Hello Marshall, and welcome to the forums! Glad to have you aboard :-) Please take the time to read the two posts pinned at the top of this Welcome page and take a look at the forum terms and rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you, SC and the TTB team ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Special Note: all female members are more than welcome to join the discussions at our new Women’s Cultivation forum, moderated by rainbowvein and zanshin

Hello moodlover, and welcome to the forums! Glad to have you aboard. Yes, we're lucky to live in an age of boundless information. I guess that could be seen as a burden in some ways, too. Please take the time to read the two posts pinned at the top of this Welcome page and take a look at the forum terms and rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you, SC and the TTB team ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Special Note: all female members are more than welcome to join the discussions at our new Women’s Cultivation forum, moderated by rainbowvein and zanshin

Hello Dekans, and welcome to the forums! Nice introduction, glad to have you aboard :-) Please take the time to read the two posts pinned at the top of this Welcome page and take a look at the forum terms and rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you, SC and the TTB team ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Special Note: all female members are more than welcome to join the discussions at our new Women’s Cultivation forum, moderated by rainbowvein and zanshin

Can someone please put this in a nutshell for the comprehension deficient members. Members like for example. Is the OP making the case that the TTB admin is corrupted by power?

Here's another thread, with the same participants but more information http://thetaobums.com/topic/24191-huang-ting-wei-ching/ I have the Michael Saso book, it was one of the first classics I ever read, found it very illuminating but couldn't quite put the whole of the instructions into practice. But it's a very good book by a high quality ecpert. You could enjoy Embryonic Breathing from Yang Jwing Ming too

You can filter out the cackling hens. The message is clear:

I like all of it, especially that ^^