alexandrov

what about that thing Wang Li-Ping was holding every summer? is that still available? I am not sure it was a retreat per say though but I do remember members here discussing that Wang gave some pretty intense energetic transmissions. I think the whole deal costed like 5K total. Anybody recall this or know the details?

what about prahlad jani?

this is an interesting topic of discussion I was just wondering if anybody knows of any practical methods for getting rid of unwanted spirits? or should we just try to appease them? or should we only appease our ancestor spirits and get rid of all the rest?? lesser banishing ritual? mantras? burning sulfur? I have heard that many spirits are attracted to blood, semen, feces, vaginal fluids, old food and dirty environments in general and such and thus one should keep their house clean to avoid attracting such spirits in the first place.

what exactly do you mean by this? does this involve sleeping in the day and being awake at night? i often stay up all night and sleep in the day and sometimes (mind you very rarely) it can actually make my skin "glow" the next day if i pull it off right (i have not figured out what factors cause this), but most of the time it actually (and predictibly) just makes me look older. And 99% of the time i feel tired and out of it the rest of the day when i wake up regardless of weather i look younger or not.

and if you all are wondering where chogori's thread on haunted houses is... http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?/topic/13469-more-on-haunted-houses/ quite an interesting thread

ok so I have done more research on this topic and it seems dry needling is the same or at least very similar to ah shi acupuncture or acupuncture done on painful tender points. can anybody comment on this?

can anybody recommend a very high quality green/oolong/black tea? I have found tea ( any kind from camellia sinesis) really good at stopping dampness buildup especially during meals, but honestly i dont like the effects of the caffeine. However it just seems to work better then any other kind of herbal tea/drink I have found for the purposes of removing dampness. can anybody recommend any other herbs/herbal teas for removing dampness (non camellia sinesis)? thanks

In dry needling I have seen PT's go in like maybe around 1 1/2 inches deep maximum, but usually its more 1/2 inch to 1 inch range and they usually dont go straight in the will go in at angles.

what makes you say this?

From my understanding dry needling can be an effective approach to dealing with trigger points and myofascial pain on its own right. I have talked to and observed a PT that does dry needling and he DOES NOT consider it acupuncture and does not claim to practice acupuncture or any form or energetic medicine. The practice itself does not resemble acupuncture i have seen (its worth noting i have not seen all forms of acupuncture) as the PT moves the needle around in the muscle and does not leave it in very long (usually less then a minute per point). I know that a lot of areas where trigger points normally form correspond to acupuncture points. From your post above it seems that trigger point release with needles has been a part of oriental medicine for a while, is this correct? If you look into the history of using needles to treat trigger points youll see that it did in fact develop independantly in the west, and was recorded being used in europe for at least a few centuries. De baillou described the phenomena of trigger points in the fifteenth century and women's hair pins were used to treat trigger points in the lower back area in victorian england. I know that the american acupuncture association (or some association with a similar name) a while back tried to make pt's say they were in fact practicing a form of acupuncture. Trigger points can be released by manual pressure, with special lasers and other modalities as well, so in my opinion if you are releasing a trigger point with manual pressure or dry needling it can be considered trigger point release either way. Saying that sticking needles in people in a theraputic manner is necessarrily acupuncture or that PT's have tried to steal acupuncture and call it dry needling I think is a bit extreme. It is kind of like saying conventional massage therapists practice a corrupted form of tui-na or acupressure because they dont deal with acupoints and channels, and that they need tui-na certification to correctly practice. To me dry needling if its purpose is simply to release a trigger point is not necessarily acupuncture. Then again....it could be considered acupuncture, it really all comes down to how you look at it. I definitely agree with you that most acupuncturists who have had extensive western medicine training first tend to approach and practice oriental medicine in a corrupted and ineffective manner. Its like they have a need and fear to try and make everything so scientific and try to downplay essential modalities and concepts that westerners may have trouble buying into. Its disgusting. I think its especially dangerous for herbalism, because OM herbal formulas are prepared in specific ways to "guide" medicines to specific areas of the body and throwing this essential knowledge in the garbage heap and just focusing on the chemical substances in the herbs can completly destroy the functionality of a formula. As far as the nerve damage goes im interested, do you know of anyone who has been injured from dry needling, or was that just from MD's trained in acupuncture?? thanks for your post

ok this is a great thread I didnt know about a lot of the stuff you talked about above taomeow but i want to add something about the numbers i read on digital clocks. almost every day when i look the clock i will see 9:11, 11:11, or 1:08 i think those are the most common next most common might be 3:22 and 12:23 most numbers that end in 11 on the clock i see very often as well i think numbers that end in 26 and 36 might also be a common sight for me, but im not sure right now because im very tired and i am having trouble remembering.....as i remember and am able to think clearer maybe il have a better report........i hope that made some sense

this is a great thread As of right now I am very interested in finding the right mantra for me I am particularly interested in tantric sanskrit mantras from shaivism and vajrayana, but also others as well Does this go for mantras in vajrayana buddhism as well? If I get a mantra empowerment from a qualified teacher in a particular tradition is this sufficient to prevent any undesirable harm that could possibly come from using such a mantra? im beginning to think that anapanasati is the only practice I can safely do anymore.......... Right now I just want to be able to safely use one of those all in one sanskrit 100 megaton mantras as my main practice. One that is easy to concentrate on, that helps open up nadis/chakras, gets one in touch with some kind of superbeing/master (in a safe way) and that promises rebirth in some kind of pure land or higher realm. another thing about mantras I find is that the less syllables they contain the deeper I go, MUCH deeper and much more easily, and without mental "stress" also some mantras just flow much more smoothly when you say them so they put less stress on your vocal areas and produce less tension there.

many eastern saints are depicted especially in tantric traditions using this "devil mudra" it is also appearently used in some western occult traditions it is also known as the apana mudra or i think "evil dispelling mudra" ( i may be mistaken in regards to this latter phrase) http://healing.about.com/od/east/ig/Mudra-Gallery/Apana.htm this link describes how this mudra GROUNDS ENERGY just like markern said in this thread....... http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?showto...13068&st=20 I want to know what you all think in regards to the reason so many in both east in west mystics and others are depicted using this hand sign, its significance and its functions please do not post links to random conspiracy websites showing bush, obama et al. flashing this sign unless you want to post an explanation behind why you posted the link and how it is related. many religeous fanatic and conspiracy websites talk about this sign but have little evidence to back their claims thank you

thanks for the great info! yes according to wikipedia it is also known as karana mudra and is used to ward off evil. Yes you are absolutely correct in saying there are many seemingly similar gestures with the index and pinky finger up that have slight variations such as thumbs below or above the middle 2 finegers etc.

ok i just made a thread about this "devil mudra" here............ http://www.thetaobums.com/Devil-Mudra-apan...dra-t13100.html please feel free to post views, opinions, etc

First, I want to apologize to everyone for hijacking this thread multiple times and getting off topic. Also I want to apologize to Drew for coming off as rude, because I really was being very rude at one point and he was only trying to offer me his help. There was no justification for me to give him such attitude. Also I do not know the difference between sublimation and ionization so it appears it was my misunderstanding that spurred an argument. Again my apologizes for this and to Drew and everyone else. Now I am very interested in Jhanas and one of my goals is to try and develop them at some point probably using the traditional meditation approach ie no energy techniques. I just dont konw how feesable it is for me to develop them at the moment (with a normal busy life and all)

yes, for me the best streaches are doing the splits (front and sideways), and stuff like lunges, bodybridge, basically anything that streatches the inside of the upper legs, the lower abdomen and other areas close by. If you have done extensive extremely hard pc muscles excercises and have trained your pelvic muscles to function differently then before you started doing them it might be a good idea to do some internal work to try and loosen these muscles up, check out this approach http://www.pelvicpainhelp.com/ http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?showto...p;hl=crystal+in

I think insight is better for certain individuals, and jhanas are more appropriate for others such as myself. And a combination would of corse be what buddhists would say is necessary. But then again there are the people that say you need jhanas before you get real insight. And then some that will tell you high jhanas are not attainable for a normal person today.

no i can, as i mentioned in one of my previous posts, i answered your question, how about you answer one of mine? i will ask politely again "how is sublimating sex energy going to fix my broken ejaculation valves" or

i understand completely what you are saying, but how is full lotus any different from kechari, or pranayama or any asana geared at sublimating sex energy?

various forms of pranayama and getting close to khechari also work to sublimate the sex energy in a similar fashion full lotus would, in fact the energy produced from kechari (or close to it) and certain forms of pranayama I find more powerful then any other techniques ive tried including full lotus. Ive sublimated to the point that when i ejaculated through night emissions (again weak ejaculation valves, this has nothing to do with having semen build up) only 1 or 2 drops come out and its painful, so my point is in my case just reabsorbing sex fluid wont do the trick, its not the solution for everyone in every situation at every given point of time. but anyways I dont want to hijack this thread any furthur.......or we could have a discussion about attaining jhanas through energetic techniques such as shambavi, kechari, etc because that is technically attaining jhanas......

oh really? will that cause my dysfunctional prostate ejaculation valves to start functioning correctly? If so please do tell the mechanism of full lotus doing so. Drew come on, I mean seriously is full lotus your answer to everything? I appreciate your posts here and all you have to contribute but if you read my post before you would know I already tried sexual sublimation excercises to help my problem and they didnt stop it from occuring. So just how on earth is full lotus going to help me? many of the practices ive tried "eat up" sperm energy at a very fast rate probably faster then full lotus, and t they have not done anything to help fix the leakage OR any of the other prostate problems I have for that matter.

thanks for the advice drew, unfortunatley due to severe prostate probs I cant go celebate very long, umm the stuff leaks in the urine etc. And yes ive tried the whole sublimation gig VERY seriously before and although I can draw energy from sperm back into my body, it does not change the fact that my prostate ejac valves are screwed up and it does not stop the said fluid from leaking in my urine. Also the energy is of a very neurotic nature. I understand the basis for theories of using sexual energy to generate samadhi, it simply is not an option for me at the moment, although i do think that this kind of approach may be quicker or better suited for some. however if I could fix my prostate then that would be a different story..... thanks also for the website, I will check it out, yes from what i have seen most modern traditions focus on vipassana and other modalities.

I am very interested in developing higher level jhanas but I was reading that if you are living a normal life with normal responsibilities it really is not possible, and that retreat is needed, even if you are meditating hours a day because the stresses of everyday life will serve to cancel out the calm you cultivate in meditation. Is this true? I have read that in order to gain any level of shamatha above stage 2 or continuous attention one must spend weeks or months in retreat and that if one wants to acheive the 4th level of shamatha one must spend months or years in retreat. Is this so? I was wondering if you can go to a retreat reach a specific level of jhana, and then go back to normal life with all of its chaos and keep that same level of jhana when you practice meditation? Basically I dont want to put all the effort into attaining jhanas if I may loose them at a later time. Can anyone comment on this? thank you

that is my understanding as well, however after chigung there is usually a strong urge for me to drink cold water or eat cold sour fruit. It is probably because I think i naturally have a lot of firery energy, and I dont have that much yin, so possibly an attemptby my body to replenish burned off yin or something like that.