alexandrov

no offense bodyoflight but I think while this kind of practice may be useful for very few people it will likley do far more harm then good to the average westerner. Your views on sexual energy to me seems grossly oversimplified. Many people in the west have so many sexual blockages and problems already that if they are not taken care of before trying to eliminate lustful desires or activate kundalini that these practices will most likley backfire. As a person who has known many westerners (and been one myself) trying the whole eliminate lust business id say ive seen a 90% failure rate. And many times the failure itself is not benign and peoples sexual centers become all screwed up and blocked or they end up being perverted in some way or another. Even if none of these things happen these people tend to be very awkward socially especially when interacting with the opposite sex even if they were not before. Im not saying its a bad practice I just think its unsuitable for the vast majority of westerners living a modern lifestyle. ONE EXTREMELY IMPORTANT RULE IN CULTIVATION I HAVE REALIZED IS THAT JUST BECAUSE SOMETHING SOUNDS GOOD IN THEORY DOES NOT MEAN IT WILL WORK FOR A PARTICULAR INDIVIDUAL IN PRACTICE. If you think this practice is for you and you notice no detrimental side effects then i say go for it, however today there are so many people who stick to a practice because they have fanatically instilled some notion in their head that it will give them certain specific reults as promised WHILE IGNORNIG ANY DETRIMENTAL EFFECTS THAT MAY OCCUR BECAUSE OF THE PRACTICE. they ignore the detrimental effects because they believe so strongly that a particular practice WILL give them exactly what they want. thinking in terms of wasted energy etc is far too simple and is a very common mistake many people make in my opinion, for most westerners they need to focus on better QUALITY sexual energy and interactions before they start focusing on quantity, otherwise most of us just end up with a lot of very destructive energy inside ourselvs.

yes stop the excercises i can almost 100% guarantee its because of kegels or jelqing 5 years ago i did a lot of kegels religiously for many months and still my muscles around the prostate are not fully recovered and i still sometimes leak semen in the urine. Kegels can cause plenty of problems in some men, dont beleive every technique you read just because it might work for some does not mean it will work for you the same way. especially if you are experiencing something serious like that, your body is showing sure signs of problems. I say stop now before you cause yourself more harm. If the problem does not go away after a few months of rest i recommend getting a crystal wand to treat any trigger points you may have caused in your muscles. http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?/topic/1712-crystal-in-uranus-illuminating-the-male-pelvis/ crystal wand can be read about here It really seems to me that you like many men i have talked to have caused dysfunction of your pelvic muscles particularly the ones near your prostate. let us know what happens

thats a great observation, I had never thought of things in this manner

this is why hard pc or bs muscle squeezes ex chia et al can really cause serious problems in ones muscles

Ok so because of issues i have with my prostate and testes one thing I sometimes do is to put chi in my testes. this warms them up a great deal and also relives some pain temporarily. The technique is very simple and is just deep breathing combined with moving warm chi to the testes. The chi takes a while to travel down the veins/spematic cords or whatever to actually get to the testes but once its there it feels "right" and it feels like this practice helps my condition. One side effect of this practice is that during practice my testes can shrink to about 1/2-1/3 of their normal size and get pulled close to the body especially on exhalations. This goes away immediatly after practice and I think is do to large amounts of blood temporarily somehow leaving the testes and going into the body. Another side effect is that i will always get nocturnal emissions if I do this before going to bed. I am just wondering if anyone knows if what I am doing is safe or is something that has potential dangers? As a side note I have been doing chigung for years with no ill effects. The only problem I ever had was with the PC muscle squeezes from Chia, and not the energy exercises themselves although I am no fan of most of what chia teaches or any forceful techniques. other then that microcosmic orbit is open along with leg channels arms etc etc to the best of my knowledge. I have tried and heard of other testicle chigung techniques such as scrotal compression and testicle breathing etc etc, but this is far more powerful for directly effecting the testes and really really gets a lot of chi in the testes especially if done for like an hour. Also anyone know on a theoretical level what this is doing? thank you

I forgot to mention that I do not do testicle breathing or anything afterwards other then bringing the chi i put into the testes back out and putting it into the dantien. doing testicle breathing or bringing the hot sperm energy up may prevent the emissions when i put chi in the testes at night, i am not sure. But like I said I ejaculate like once a week right now and I dont put chi into the testes very often at night so im not concerned if it causes me nocturnal emissions if on occasion i practice at night. Also I am not trying to practice semen retenion right now. Just to clarify when i say i am putting chi in the testes it is not the same as testicle breathing and the prctice involves putting warm/hot chi from the dan tien down to the testes and increasing it there till the testes get warmer and feel full with chi (only way i really know how to descibe) for at least 15 min at a time. I think your explaination could possibly explain what is happenig in my case I am not sure, but like i said right now i am just concerned with fixing my prostate/testicle problems before trying retention and the like. In the past i did testicle breahing, the big draw, mco, pranayama to bring hot sperm into the body etc. I had relative suces with all of these except the pc excercises involved in the big draw which caused my prostate probs. Its funny i could do the big draw for long periods in the day but because the pc squeezes screwd up my muscles in the area i could still have emissions but almost nothing would come out. as a side note matt I just read on another thread your sucess with testicle breathing compared to the hot draw/big draw. I fin this very interesting and i personaly prefer more yin method myself. thanks for the help

Are you sure thats what the cold draw does? I was under the impression that the warm draw of bringing the heat (dense hot feeling chi) from the sex organs into the head then recirculating it through the body was a jing to chi conversion? I also thought the cold draw helped turn jing to chi as well? I thought the goal of both the cold and hot draw was to take the sperm energy "ching chi" and convert it to chi usable for the rest of the body? I mean jing is not sperm but I know that the energy from jing is used to create sperm if im not mistaken? Also this jing can transform into chi right? Or maybe what you are trying to say is that the cold draw takes sperm energy and converts it back to jing to be converted to chi? This is why I was thinking that possibly what I was doing is taking bodily chi and converting it to jing or somehow supercharging the production of sperm, I really have no idea though I only always get nocturnal emissions when i do this practice close to before i sleep. If I do this earlier in the day nocturnal emissions dont happen. I am not practicing semen retention right now and I ejaculate like once a week on average. I did not come to the conclusion that this practice is positive only that it seems to temporarily relieve some of the issues I have. I only do it very infrequntly and it is not something I do on even a monthly basis. It could very well be an imbalance I create by doing this practice, I am not sure. Everything I have stated about how I think that the emissions are possibly due to the heating of the testes caused by this practice are all merely conjecture on my part and I do not take them as facts. I am just trying to figure out what is going on when i do this practice. thank you all very much for your thoughtful replies and help

Hello great to have you here, I know you used to teach in the Washington DC area, wish you were still around! anyways you have many fans here, welcome!!!

chias pc exercises using hard pc excercises just like he recommends caused my problems if you want to know.

this techniques def does do something to the testes because like I said if I do it close to night I will always have a nocturnal emission. It could possibly be that the heating of the testes has a similar effect a hot tub would, thus making some sperm inviable (killing them) and thus they are flushed out in a nocturnal emission the same way they happen after you stay in a hot tub for too long.

no, I had problems long before I tried this excercise out, so there is no way it caused the problems, however there is a potential it could make things for me worse but so far it has only helped

by this I mean that I have prostate problems aka prostatitis and I have pain in the region as well as problems with sexual and urinary function. Just for clarification I am not using this technique to supress lust or reduce or increse sex drive if thats what you might be thinking. I do this excercise at random times really not in relation to my pain or anything. Intuitively I feel it can help with some of my problems, I did not learn this from a book or teacher or anything I just made it up that is why I am a bit concerned.

yes i think this is very true from people I have seen

no i definitely do not leave the energy there and always move it back to the dan tien. ya my situation is pretty much under control, though i am still trying to find a good acupuncturist or chi gung master in the washington dc area.

I am surprised no one mentioned this already I brush my teeth with sticks. I use licorice roots, peelu tree, and dogwood ocasionally (its free from my yard) It is a very old practice brushing the teeth with tree sticks. the native americans did it with dogwood primarily, in islamic countries its called miswak and they use various types of trees especially peelu and neem. its a big deal in most islamic countries and even prophet mohammad is said to have 4 main practices miswak being one of them. here is a link with some basic info http://www.dentalhealthsite.com/what-is-miswak/ and another one from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miswak ive been using this instead of toothbrushes for years. its much softer on the teeth and does a better job in getting rid of plaque for me. it is also used to massage the gums which i find is good for bloodflow. most kinds also have antimicrobial properties in their bark and wood. now if i try using a toothbrush it seems far too harsh for me licorice root (gan cao)is the one i use most often it has a sweet taste inside and a yellow color. The sweet taste is from glycerhizzya sp? a nonsugar sweet substance. the outside bark has a bitter taste anyways i was wondering if this practice f using sticks to clean the teeth would be as good as non glycerin soap in allowing the teeth to re-enamalize??? the sticks will clean your teeth pretty good. to use then you just chew the top of a stick for a few minutes then this portion magically turns into a brush

so sorry to hear about this Santiago, my greatest condolences and all my love to you, your son, and your family I had no idea this kind of thing was going on

over the past 2 years I have developed the ability to feel some of the TCM qualities in foods after ingesting them. One food I can not figure out is horseradish. All the sources I have found list it as a "hot" food, but I do not think it has the same effects on my body as say cayenne, garlic, onion, or other commonly known hot spices. Most other radishes are classified as having a cooling nature and I have found that radishes have the ability to "clean out heat" from my lower burner area. Based upon my own experience horseradish has this same lower burner heat clearing ability whereas things like garlic and onion create what I describe as "noxius stagnant heat" in the lower burner area. Any ideas?

This is most interesting It would be great if someone posts a review on this material

i have been thinking recently about having kids. not that im gona have any any time soon or anything, but i have been thinking more along the lines of the reprecussions of having kids. I have found that many of the rather ascetic or austere practices that may have spiritual benefit often are very materially/societally impractical or have some "material" reprecussions. For example long term semen retention is sometimes known to cause the retraction of the genital organs into the body......possibly permanently, and it may take away some of the male seondary sex characteristics if practiced to the extreme level. being vegetarian or avoiding certain foods (im thinking spicy mainly) may make your chakras glow brighter or whatever and you might have more pure chi, but often can lead to other imbalances like weak digestive fire, and weak kidney yang, lack of fat soluble vitamins etc etc. These kind of practices may benefit some people in certain situations but probably lead to more problems especially if practiced by ordinary people. For the common man with too little time to devote to serious spiritual practice the middle way seems to be best in almost all areas of life (this has been my own experience). If one has proper instruction from a real teacher and has the time and willpower to devote themselvs to rather austere practices and such practices do not put too much stress on the mind and body then what i have said may be invalid in such situations. Now my point here is this I dont want to have kids, because im too lazy and dont have the resources, but but if having kids conferrs some sort of material "spiritual" advantage such as being able to be reborn as one of your descendants than i may consider it. i dont want to end up being the guy who didnt end up having kids and reincarnated as an ant or whatever because i didnt create a "material" line so to speak to come back to. just an idea i dont know how valid it is. I think being ascetic for the sake of being overly ascetic or trying to seek some kind of spiritual benefit from it is generally to be avoided by ordinary folk. I know people who have screwed up their health, social lives, etc etc because they try to be more spiritual and they were not ready, did not have the time, could not cope with the stress etc. So the question is kids? have em or not? and why???

excellent thoughts, yes you basically summed up in a way something similar to what i was trying to describe in my original post, that there may be some evolved reason, being biological or metaphysical or whatever for us to have kids that has to do with our own individual immortality. ok i know my posts come off as cold but im simply trying to look at OTHER reasons for having kids beyond the normally thought of scope. I am not denying that having children is also about giving your all to someone else, etc. I am also not saying that if i was having children myself id approach the whole manner with the kind of reasoning i am using now.

ok ok its not that i would want to be one of my own descendants and more importantly let me state that i do not believe in the above theory about being reborn as one of my own descendants, its just a thought/question i have about the possibilities of reincarnation. I am not worried about becoming an ant per say that was just an example. the last part of your statement seems to reflect the tibetan buddhism theory on reincarnation ie tibetan book of the dead?? look im just proposing an IDEA, i dont believe in it, its just an idea i had, that i wanted some input on thats all. It just makes some sense to me that because people are so attached to their families and own bodies that they may try to take rebirth in their own bloodline. It could also make sense this way because your bloodline "karma" would be based on how well you raise your kids and also how much wealth you leave with them because that is your work and doing. again just an idea and i wanted input on it ok if you want to come in here and tell me about my train of thought and worldview based on a few small paragraphs that I wrote in a semi-sarcastic way then i might, again might, because i dont know much anything about you say that you jump to conclusions too quickly. Care to explain your statements? or would your rather just tell me im deluded without knowing anything about me or my worldview and leave it at that like you did? real helpful.... the original post i wrote is in fact written in a hurried and sarcastic manner and it is not 100% serious if you are wondering. Thanks for this Hagar

agreed, except for the embryo part in lower realm i have no idea about that non my advice to you is this just masturbate every once in a while. I read most of sivanandas stuff and if you practice a "sattvic" diet very strictly without listening to your body's needs you can become extremely unbalanced. especially if you are not doing certain yoga practices. being someone who has played around with diets, energy techniques etc etc. my best advice to you is to stop thinking about cultivation so much and first learn to have normal social interactions. because to you that is obviously very important. Just stop spending time trying to do things that wont DIRECTLY solve your problems. I honestly think the best advice i can give you is to be as practical as you can, and work on your self esteem and social interactions. It seems most of your posts are concerned with your lack of self esteem and your desire for a girlfriend. why not aim for these things first, become a more balanced person, THEN concentrate more on cultivation.

ok maybe freemasonry does not in fact go back to ancient egypt...i would not know, but officially most masons do not claim that they do go back to egypt. And even if they do not I think its a bit harsh to say masonry is a bogus tradition. how can you be sure of this? an interesting and not often discussed aspect of masonry from the former supreme commander of the southern jurisdiction of the scottish rite.......

this is something i often wonder and i think different systems are better suited for different individuals I am surprised freemasonry and rosicrucianism discussions have not appeared more on this thread. maybe some masons or rosicrucians with experience with the eastern traditions could chime in.......Darin? Jedi777?

please if you would more pie give us a link to an old thread or tell us more about your deep trance work I know you have talked about it before and even mentioned using a specific kind of chair to get better results as i recall, so i apologize for being lazy in advance. thanks