freeform

your pizza is all over the place;) I think @mcoolio is wanting to read some menus and yelp reviews before settling on his choice… I’m sure he’s not expecting all that in one meal

It’s like we’re all in a pizza restaurant… and TT asks everyone why we came here. One says ‘for fun’, another says ‘to chat’, yet another ‘coz we’re hungry’… ‘to get out the house’… ‘to socialise together’… ‘coz of the hunky waiter’… ‘for the virgin blood’ (‘damn it - not again Barnaby!’ Everyone exclaims)… But TT scowls away coz no one expressly says “to get pizza”. Isn't it implicit that Nei Dan is all about immortality? (Whatever that actually means) So who’s showing the biggest signs of psychological issues round the pizza table?

Not that simple, no. What does immortality mean? Is a ghost immortal? Is Voltaire immortal through his works? Is Genghis khan immortal through his progeny? Is the immortality of the Hun the immortality you’re talking about? Do you mean you continue living physically for eternity? What happens when the sun finally implodes? Do you mean spiritually immortal? How is that different from the transmigrating immortality of the soul? What does that mean? Connecting the outflow of your toilet with the tap on your bath is still ‘plumbing’. Is this the aim of your plumbing art? Sorry but it’s not that simple, not for me anyway.

And these are freely available. It just takes effort… and doing stuff most people simply don’t want to do. It’s really as simple as that. I get dozens of emails every month with people asking for help. I offer help. It’s not the magic pill they hoped it is… “yeah but I want the kind of help that’s in line with what I want”… One in 10 actually listen, actually put the advice into practice, and their life transforms for the better… The rest carry on searching for that magic pill that conforms to their preferences 🤷

Aren’t you the one wanting payment for revealing your own secrets? My reason for avoiding taboos is simply out of respect to my teacher’s wishes. Whether I agree or not. What is yours? Financial?

You can get all that from freely available material.

I didn’t say that. There are no safeguards for generating power. The example I used is an aspect of how I’d go about generating the prerequisites for Yang Qi in aid of spiritual growth. Sacrificing a virgin could also do it. Qi pills could do it. Transmission from a teacher could do it. I don’t care about generating power for its own sake. My tradition is only interested in it as a tool to aid in spiritual growth. Hence the lack of virgin corpses at my teacher’s place 😅

I also find secrecy a little stifling… but some of it really is warranted - especially when it comes to ‘experimenting’. I once got a small part of one practice wrong - and hey presto I started bleeding out of all the orifices in my head Heart attacks on the cushion are not uncommon. Liver cancer (and various others) are not uncommon. At a certain point you’re creating a mini reactor inside yourself. It’s no joke… not something to play with. It’s all fine saying ‘bla bla bla - we’re not 10yrs old’… but would you be prepared to say that to a grieving mother after a failed daobums ‘experiment’ kills her baby? How would organising this experiment affect your soul journey? I’ve shared practices that are worth experimenting with many times on the forum. They’re just not that exciting and mentally stimulating for most

Why aren’t these arts freely available? There’s two aspects: secrecy and access. First and foremost, the most important thing to remember is that no one owes you anything “But please please please - I really really want it” - yeah even then. “But it’s for the betterment of all mankind” - I doubt it… when people play that card, it’s usually a front for their grandiose view of themselves as a saviour. Access. Why aren’t heart surgery techniques freely available? Because you have to prove that you’re smart enough, responsible enough and hard working enough to be allowed to do such risky stuff to people. If you walk into an operating theatre off the street and demand to be shown heart bypass techniques, you’d probably be escorted out by security. Remember - no one owes you anything. Many masters would love to pass on their art to students that can be trusted - but they must prove their trustworthiness first - with no expectation of what they get out of it. People pretend it’s about money… but that’s just an excuse - a strawman their mind creates to excuse the fact that they’re not prepared to jump through the hoops required. It’s a selfish view (self-ish in that it’s in service to one’s ‘self’.) Most people expect masters to trust them with precious jewels, but they can’t be trusted to even prepare the ground for the teachings to begin. If I say that you must train cardio until you’re able to run for 30 minutes without heavy panting - that’s when the complaints start. “You’re not showing me the super secret methods!!” Or I may say that you must take on a responsibility in your community - one that benefits other people. “Yeah but where are the super secret methods!!” These aren’t just tests - some of these are prerequisites… in fact a lot of the ‘secrets’ of making a method work are within these boring prerequisites… For example - if you’re a young man and you don’t get out of your comfort zone enough to be of service to something other than yourself, you have no chance of generating Yang Qi to any great extent… oops there goes one secret. But of course it’s a distasteful secret that won’t even make it past most people’s filters. People want some secret mechanic… something they can manipulate to gain an edge, or to get some power. There are such things too - but what’s the point of showing these (often dangerous) methods if you’re not prepared to do what’s required for growth? Methods without personal growth results in people becoming monsters… power without growth always turns towards darkness (and usually goes unnoticed). And when that happens within a lineage there are knock-on effects beyond our comprehension… effectively poisoning the spring. So that’s one reason for secrecy. I’m not suggesting that there are also guarded secrets that are designed to maintain power - that also exists. But these days that’s less of an issue than it was in the past. These days people are lazy - you can give them all the secrets and they’ll try and find shortcuts and not get anywhere and then think their teacher is withholding something. These discussions about money make me laugh… money is by far the least ‘expensive’ exchange

No - you can certainly make headway… you’re just bringing up people like John Chang who’d be like the First Chair violinist for a top orchestra… vs the awful screeching you’d manage from a book or even video (violin is very different to piano! Which is why I made that specific comparison.) This internal stuff takes decades of hard work… if you’re doing it to burn newspapers or zap people, you’ll quit way before acquiring any skill. It takes time, discipline and sacrifice (of both money and a ‘normal’ life). 2 to 6hrs a day, every day for decades on end… and beyond the very basics, it’s really difficult, uncomfortable work. Not fun, not relaxing, unpleasant and not respected by 99.9% of the world. If it’s not a deep calling inside of you - then it’s far better to get into a sport you enjoy, and use your efforts on helping others in some way. But if you still want to have a go - then you should In terms of recommendations, I tend to recommend Damo, because his training was most similar to mine - and coz he’s a decent person. He has lots of free stuff on YouTube - anchoring the breath, sinking the qi and the kidney and spleen practices are good if you want to dip your toes. There are other recommendations all over the forum though

There’s qi that governs bodily processes - that’s intrinsic. There’s qi that’s cultivated (over and above what’s required) - not intrinsic, and it takes at least a couple of years of training to begin to generate to any great extent.

Could you learn to play the violin from a book?

I guarantee that (all going well in your practice) you’ll look back at your current understandings and cringe a little - knowing how little you understood really… Then 5 years after that - same thing - and so on for all the years you’ll have left on earth. Knowledge, understanding - all that sort of thing will change - SHOULD change. It’s not really that important.

There’s a very well known teacher (not naming) who was trained from a very young age under a strict master. He became incredibly skilled - but as a result of missing out on normal human experiences developed what I’d consider an unhealthy obsession with sex in his adulthood… An addiction to prostitutes in my opinion is unhealthy. Some say that this ended up costing him dearly. Personal growth, development and maturation are just as important as some esoteric mechanics, in my opinion.

I don’t think it’s a problem to not have what it takes for Neidan (I certainly sometimes wonder if I do!) The problem is in the ‘blind leading the blind’ bit. If you have little experience, you shouldn’t be leading anyone in anything. Talking with great conviction about stuff you’ve only looked up the dictionary definition of is problematic. If your ophthalmologist became one by just reading the dictionary definition of ‘ophthalmology’ - would you trust him with your eyes? Of course it’s fine not to know, not to have experience in… it’s even fine to discuss stuff you can’t do and don’t really understand. But it becomes problematic when you overvalue your inexperienced opinion and start to spread it to others as the truth.

Creating the cauldron (building the LDT) is required in several traditions I’ve been part of. There are ones that don’t do this… some consider the perineum to be the LDT… some only work on the upper dantien and the various energetic structures there. Some assume that there is already a Dantien and nothing needs to be built. I’ve trained with teachers of each of these methods… and I’ve always found them problematic… either they had no qi or gong or any internal growth/transformation… or they had some very weird and questionable moral development… or all their students (that actually did the training) went mad… The ones that do build the Dantien - also a mixed bag… but they all at least had gong and genuine qi. Filling the LDT is very far from the end result… it’s simply the preparation of one of the required ingredients… it’s just that it takes around a decade to fill. In a way it’s an earlier stage than ‘Neidan proper’. You don’t really fill the upper or middle dantiens… not if you don’t want a heart attack or an aneurism!

Though it’s easy and fun, correlation is probably the worst logical tool you could use to understand anything even slightly complex. Combine that with using dictionary definitions as your main source of information and that just makes it even worse… It’s like looking up the definition of ‘ophthalmology’ and thinking you now understand how eyes work. And the tingling sensation has nothing to do with qi (not really anyway) - just signals from your nerves Sorry @ChiDragon - I enjoy your enthusiasm and your help with Chinese translations - but it’s worth pointing out to people unfamiliar with your ways that you’re talking with great conviction about stuff you have zero actual experience or understanding of.

Yes, some. My teacher considers certain Shen gong attainments necessary… and they’re not strictly ‘alchemy’ - but are part of some alchemical traditions.

I’m not sure what’s happening from a materialist perspective to be honest - but there are clear correlations as you say. But then again some of the things don’t track as well… for instance from a CM perspective kidney depletion makes your lower body weak and painful (lower back pain, knee pain etc)

Yeah. I’m not a big fan of the ‘Jing to Qi to Shen’ model. It doesn’t really work like that in practice (ime)… you could simplify it down to that level - but it creates a lot of confusion. It’s more like ‘full’ Jing upholds the Qi generation… ‘full’ Qi upholds the Shen generation… then Ling, Yuan Shen etc. But that’s not even the full process - there’s all sorts of gathering of ingredients, fusions, refinements, aging and maturation… and many other side branches that may or may not be useful (eg generating inner sight… working on the Chong mai, memory, Ming, meditative methods etc). When it comes to the ‘Jing to Qi’ step, I personally prefer to think in terms of qualities rather than conversions. Sinking - rising, condensing - expanding, settling - stimulating etc etc. True conversion comes much later in the alchemical process. Qualities have several counterparts on various levels - both on the substantial level, the energetic level, the mental level and the spiritual level… The biggest error is to think of Jing as ‘just’ a substance. The substantial aspect is just the tip of the iceberg. Working on the substantial level (methods) initiates a process that then has to continue on various other levels (eg changes in lifestyle or in psychology) The key quality for ‘full’ Jing is settling. You can think of settled Jing as a still lake… but then desire, fear, compulsiveness, overthinking, stress, emotions, inner turmoil and drama - these all cause ripples in the lake… and an unsettled lake will not allow for Qi production (at least not to the extent that’s required). One of the reasons many teachers start out with Yang Sheng practices like Qigong and Dao yin is that they help clear out some of the ripple-causing aspects… they help to generate Qi and create some of the conditions necessary for you to be able to settle. So in a way you’re generating Qi even before doing anything on the Jing level!

Some teachers also report that the penis shrinks down to its pre-pubescent state over time too

Yeah - and fear is what drives kidney issues! People think it’s the emotional feeling of fear - but the more insidious issue is a bit more subtle than that… It’s like the unconscious fear that you’re not enough in some way… Or something isn’t as it should be. It’s usually buried under lots of other stuff - often we have compensatory behaviours masking fear… you don’t feel strong enough so you pump up your muscles and create this bravado act… But the motivation comes from fear - and so it will always deplete. Or you will sometimes see these people living an ultra-healthy lifestyle - every little thing is controlled… but over time they still become more brittle, more fragile and their health suffers - not because they didn’t get some fancy micronutrient just right - but because their health kick, their day to day life is being driven by fear… fear of growing old and dying.

@Zacison Yeah kidney depletion takes time to resolve. Patience is key. Working on your mental attitude is also helpful. Watch out for times when you ‘grip’ with your mind… this mental gripping can happen whenever you’re trying to achieve some aim (usually out of fear…) ‘forcing relaxation’… using this grippy quality of mind to try and relax yourself does just the opposite - you may get good at numbing yourself - and that can seem like relaxation (but it’s not) you can’t get truly relaxed by any means other than simply letting everything be as it is (acceptance) - combined with patience… then relaxation happens of its own accord. As a technical person, it’s easy to fall into this pattern of trying to make your mind do what you want it to do like it’s a machine… but it’s not a machine - so an attitude of acceptance (of what is) is the only thorough way of letting things relax on a deep enough level that it becomes nourishing. Good luck

Ahh ok - thanks. I just wanted to check whether this might be practice related or not… but sounds like the stresses of life finally got to you! You seem to be doing the right things already… daily walking is great… see if you can speed up the pace until you start getting warm but can still breathe through the nose… only as long as it doesn’t affect your vertigo! Build up gently. Some other suggestions would be - making sure your diet is healthy and nutritious. What I’d call a winter time peasant diet - lots of bone broths, root veggies and generally hearty, nourishing meals. Sweet potato is great for regenerating Yin! Goji berry tea - hand-full of gojis simmered for 20-30 minutes - then drink it as a tea - you can do this daily. Make sure to get organic goji that don't use preservatives… preservative tea isn’t great 😅 Two supplements that almost everyone needs are vitamin d and magnesium. Magnesium is absorbed well through the skin so you could try baths or foot baths with magnesium flakes, or there’s magnesium sprays. How often do you laugh? Do you have a friend you can laugh with? Seek out some opportunities to laugh a lot Rest is also key… short naps… just enjoying some music… or even just resting with nothing to do. It’s good you cut out most stimulation - that’s important. It sounds like you’re pretty sensible and been doing the right stuff - so now it’s just a case of time. Don’t add pressure on yourself that you must heal from this asap - just find a good rhythm with your day to day life - and try to see beauty within the mundane

How dare you! Only joking Happy to help if I can. When you say “armchair practitioner” what do you mean?