cheya

Welcome, taiwabbit! Taiwabbit is a great name. Won't be forgetting that one! Looking forward to your contributions.

Welcome to the board Jadespear! You may be experiencing chi sensations, or it could be something else. Rapid aging isn't something usually associated with chi development, but tingling in your hands and rapid aging are both symptoms of diabetes. Please get your blood sugars checked just to be sure! Good luck!

Hello alleswasderfallist, As I understand it, Tai Chi Bang or Stick develops more the yang chi, and tai chi ruler more the yin chi. There are some great YouTube videos on bang practices, especially look for ones by Charles Tauber (and of course Feng Zhiqiang!). Tauber is great! He also makes BEAUTIFUL custom tai chi rulers and bangs.

A fellow Bum asked for a two-year update review of Masterworks International's Tai Chi Ruler practice. Well, it's still GREAT! It has vastly deepened my energetic sensitivity and my ability to both sense and run energy in my bodywork practice. The chi sensations continue to evolve, as does my ability to attend to them. The six exercises are very easy and pleasant to do, but are also effectively "teaching me chi", if that makes any sense. One of my friends says "Ah, the Chi is speaking to you! Very good!" The MI DVD says the rocking motion activates the heel channels, (qiao mai), which stay activated through all 6 exercises, some of which focus on other vessels. The rocking clearly acts as a chi pump, and it is also clearly independent of the physical breath: "breathing" from the heels! Keeping the attention on the weighted foot is a huge help to entraining with the energy. Any time I lose the chi sensation, I just go back to the feet. (Of course the constant rocking motion is also stimulating K1, Bubbling Springs, Yong Quan.) One of the most useful things this practice taught me is to wait for the chi to arrive. That's a further step in the practice of slowing the movement of the ruler until it matches the movement of the chi through my body, which I discovered more or less right away. On the DVD, demonstrator Phil Young moves the ruler much faster than the chi moves in my body, so I slow it down. Otherwise I lose track of the sensation. Someone suggested matching the rhythm of a rocking chair on a summer porch, or how you'd rock a baby's cradle. The best example is the second exercise, something like shaking a liter of water, side to side, up and down. The chi moves like water sloshing in a row boat rocking on the waves. It moves to both the hand and the foot on the weighted side, but it takes a little longer to get to the foot. The practice improves dramatically when I remember to wait for the chi sensation to arrive at the foot before rocking back in the other direction. Another name for tai chi ruler is "Guiding Chi Needle." The hands, ruler, movements, all guide the chi around the body, at whatever speed the "energetic viscosity" of your body allows. I've found paying careful attention to that speed is critical. An acupuncturist friend took my pulses before and after a very brief ruler demo which was just long enough to activate the energy (30-40 seconds). She said even just that short bit brought up both my yin and yang kidney pulses, which impressed her, because the kidney pulses aren't thought to be that amenable to rapid change. Raising and balancing of kidney chi may underlie yet another name for ruler practice: "Immortal's Wand." This practice nourishes me. The energy that moves through fills, full-fills something my body craves that I can't even name. When I feel it start to circulate, my whole body heaves a sigh of relief/contentment, and muscles I didn't even know were tight, just melt. I do the practice at night just before bed and have absolutely no trouble sleeping. Masterworks International says its version cultivates the eight extraordinary vessels, but I can't say I've really got discrimination between the vessels down yet. The Microcosmic Orbit is very easy to feel in the first exercise. The DVD illustrates which of the EEVs are cultivated by each exercise, but there is always more than one EEV involved, because the rocking is always pumping chi in the heel channels. Sometimes I can roughly track that circuit along with another, like the circling around the waist area, or the up and down circuit of chong mai. But mostly I just feel washes of energy with concentration on parts of some circuits, and with time, those washes of energy include more and more of my body. Also over time, the dantien sensation is becoming much more prominent. The chi sensation is very strong, very.... viscous, almost, but it's pretty global. When it's moving up and down (which is most of the time, due to the rocking) it is a MUCH broader flow than an acupuncture meridian sensation. Wang Fengming likens meridian energy flow to a river with the towns along it being points, and says the TCR eventually induces a flow that's more like a flood, inundating whole regions of the body. Moving around my waist (dai mai), it's like waves of thick fluid moving around inside a huge donut, not like a line or even a firehose diameter. It's just big. And it feels really good. PS Now we could say that any practice done every day for two years will have many benefits. But finding a practice you are happy to do for that time can be a challenge. MI's Tai Chi Ruler has been that for me. I've looked at maybe seven other versions of tai chi ruler, and not been interested in any of them. Fun to watch, got a few hints, not my practice. The best of the lot is Special Taoist Taiji Stick and Ruler Qigong, as imparted by Feng Zhiqiang, and demonstrated by his son-in-law, Wang Fengming. (I'd still like to see Ken Cohen's version...) All the versions probably develop the same energy, but the MI version just suits me better.

Maybe it's good for us to see all this spam once in awhile to greater appreciate what our mods are doing for us! Ten pages of new posts since yesterday - 8 pages of spam! That was a lot to plow through! Thank you Viator and JaRPanda!

Hey MichaelJ, You've done a really great job of describing what I experience doing Tai Chi Ruler practice. Is it "chi"? I don't know, but it sure does feel good! Welcome to the board!

Hi Terry, I get people all the time who have overdone yoga poses, so this very minor pull on my client was no surprise. He did NOT get it from injury with the Rumble Roller, which he raves about. He got it from a neural reboot exercise (the Bretzel?) that he says he "overdid". Guys do that in yoga too. Mostly guys. :-) By the time he got in for his appt, most of the strain was already gone. Anyway, I look forward to your knee comments on Cheng's video, as that is one of my concerns. (I do wish you were able to base your comments on the actual lessons rather than on the infomercial.) I know many of the things my knees should not do, and haven't heard any of them advised yet, of course still early in the process. I did see knees over shooting toes a few times on the models, but for me I am more interested in the reboot part than the tai chi part, which is just a way to focus on posture. But I figure if my client did these exercises for 3 months on a new set of knee joints, it can't be that bad! Have you looked at any of Cheng's YouTube videos? He has one on foot problems I'll try to see next time I get to town (can't do videos on my stone age internet connection.) Also one on kettleballs, not my cup of tea.... Really glad you introduced the topic!

Hey guys, focusing too much on the Tai Chi part of Tai Cheng may be missing the point. I understand how that IS the point for professional tai chi practitioners, but not necessarily for John and Jane Smith who might profit very much from this program, despite the very evident marketing hype. Let me tell you my story, currently very much in progress. A new client came in with a slight strain he claims he got from overdoing the Bretzel exercise in his TaiCheng practice. Huh? He said that the Bretzel was part of the "neural reboot" part of the program. I never heard of Tai Cheng and had no idea what a neural reboot might be, so I asked him to bring some of the equipment with him to the appt. Turns out this was a 70+ year old man with a double knee replacement who took up the Tai Cheng program because he was cripped up from the surgery. He recently finished the 3-month program, which he started because he liked the idea of "taking off the parking brakes", ie softening and releasing the tight muscles that were limiting his movement. That's the neural reboot part of the program. This big man was surprisingly fluid for a double knee surgery. He was in very good shape, and had amazing posture, especially for a 70 year old! His muscles were quite soft, even though obviously very strong, all of which he credited to the tai cheng program. He brought with him an odd foam roller: unlike the familiar blue ones, this one was only 18 inches long and covered with knobs. Rolling on it was pretty intense! That is the Rumble Roller, which does not come with the program (the blue one does), but is recommended as soon as you get comfortable rolling on the blue one. The client said that the neural reboot part of the program is designed to work systematically through your body, releasing chronic contraction in major muscle groups, starting with the calves, and then going to the quadraceps, the rotator cuffs and then the back, all done systematically over the course of 3 months. Each daily session, you do some neural rebooting (which initially involves foot stretches, leg swings and lifts, arm and shoulder rotations, stretches, and some cross crawl exercises in addition to the foam rolling) and then each day you learn a new tai chi move, which are later combined into longer sequences. You learn the moves on a tic tac toe grid, which you create (with blue painter tape) on your floor, basing the spacing on your own body width. So you know exactly where to put your feet for each move. (Doesn't cost squat.) According to BeachBody, "Mark Cheng became fascinated by Chinese martial arts early in childhood, gaining his first exposure to Tai-Chi from his father. He later went on to study acupuncture and other forms of Chinese medicine, specializing in orthopedics, eventually earning licensure to practice acupuncture in the State of California and a Ph.D. in Chinese medicine and acupuncture. Through his involvement with Chinese medicine, he also became fascinated with strength and conditioning training, studying closely with Russian Kettlebell Challenge founder, Pavel Tsatsouline. Under Tsatsouline, Dr. Cheng met Functional Movement Systems founder and physical therapy guru, Gray Cook. While studying with Cook, Dr. Cheng became increasingly fascinated with Tai-Chi as a means of functional movement training and injury rehabilitation." Well, to make a long story short, I bought the program. I'm only on the third day, but I can see how Cheng is subtly working the kwa in the two tai chi posture/moves he's covered so far. Even if the tai chi may not be "classical," he's using these posture/movements to improve function and posture in his students, and I expect that will be worth it to me both as a therapist and as an aging body. I'll let you know how it goes! PS for Terry and Debbie: When I mentioned to a well-known Australian tai chi and tai chi ruler teacher that I was learning the Masterworks International version of tai chi ruler, she replied that, compared to their Australian version, the MI version was like comparing "chalk to cheese". I have both programs now, and the MI "chalk" version has mega transformed my chi practice! I don't use the (ex-spen-SIVE!) Aussie version at all. Different strokes!

Hi Effilang When I was introduced to qigong in the early nineties, I learned simple practices from Roger Jahnke, all fun, no problem. Then the friend who introduced me to Jahnke wanted me to stand like a tree. Even though I could stand for hours to shop or do massage, not even 3 minutes into standing like a tree, I wanted to barf. (I pretty much HATE barfing!) So I stopped. I'd try again and again, same result. And every time I'd stop. Finally, I did what your Abbot did. I got myself a bucket. OK, so I'll barf. I didn't throw up, and, standing through that urge, the sick energy just blossomed into a huge energy rush! And that was the end of ever wanting to barf during practice.

Twicken's book is looking better and better: Here are 3 reviews from Singing Dragon's website! (Contents below reviews) 'In the Daoist tradition, cultivation practices centered around the Eight Extraordinary Meridians provide one of the pathways toward enlightenment or immortality. The ancestral founder master of QuanZhenNanZong (the Southern Complete Reality School), Zhang Ziyang, stated that those who are able to open the eight extraordinary meridians will obtain the Dao. I recommend David Twicken's Eight Extraordinary Channels to Chinese medicine and Qigong practitioners interested in working with the physical and spiritual layers through these extraordinary meridians.' - Master Zhongxian Wu, lifelong Daoist practitioner and author of 11 books on Chinese wisdom traditions 'Twicken illuminates the missing link between Chinese medicine and Taoist spiritual practice, making it essential reading for both healers and adepts. His book is far superior to existing Eight Extra Vessel literature with its wealth of historical detail and rare clinical protocols that penetrate deep ancestral and constitutional issues. In my 35 years' experience, any healer who opens their Eight Extra Channels will quickly improve their clinical success rate. More important, they will open wide the Eight Big Rivers of pre-natal Jing that are key to whole body enlightenment and long life.' - Michael Winn, founder www.HealingTaoUSA 'Eight Extraordinary Channels is an insightful and eminently practical presentation of the core meridians in the human body that hold most of life's potential. It covers the eight channels in theory, clinical application, and Daoist self-cultivation. Clear and systematic, the book is a potent resource for anyone involved in Chinese medicine.' - Livia Kohn, PhD Contents The Classics of the Eight Extraordinary Channels. Chinese Dynasties. Introduction. 1. The Acupuncture Channel System. 2. Three Layer Theory. 3. Three Ancestries. 4. Introduction to the Eight Extraordinary Channels. 5. The Cong Channel. 6. The Ren Channel. 7. Du Channel. 8. Wei Channels. 9. Yang Wei Channel. 10. Yin Wei Channel. 11. Qiao Channels. 12. Yang Qiao Channel. 13. Yin Qiao Channel. 14. Dai Channel. 15. Clinical Applications. 16. Treatment Methods. 17. Needling Methods. 18. Case Studies. 19. Tables. 20. Nei Jing Tu. 21. The Heavenly Orbit. 22. The Wei and Qiao Channels. 23. The Belt Channel. 24. The Chong Channel. 25. The Macrocosmic Orbit. 26. The Nei Jing Tu. Conclusion. Bibliography. Index.

Welcome, XiaoYaoYou! I wanna know/do/grok all that stuff too! I read what I could understand of the Chase/Shima book, and especially liked that chapter on the spiritual use. It was way too short! Have you tried contacting the authors? You're way ahead of me in practice, but I'll be interested in what resources your query pulls in. Here are a couple: David Twicken has a book on the Eight Extras coming out in July. http://www.amazon.com/Eight-Extraordinary-Channels-Qi-Jing-Mai/dp/1848191480/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369871391&sr=1-4&keywords=David+Twicken David is an acupuncturist and has a Eight Extra training program for CEUs and also teaches qigong, so he may have some leads for you. Here's Amazon's blurb on the new book: "The Eight Extraordinary channels are amongst the most fascinating, ambiguous and clinically important aspects of Chinese medicine and Qigong. This book introduces the theory behind the channels, explains their clinical applications, and explores their psycho-emotional and spiritual qualities. The author also describes how to cultivate the channels through Nei Gong. As a practitioner of Chinese medicine or acupuncturist, the key to creating effective individual treatment plans is having a wide understanding of the channel pathways and the points on the channels. David Twicken provides treatment strategies, methods and case studies, offering a variety of approaches so as to give the reader a solid foundation from which to confidently create good treatment plans. Offering a historical perspective as well as modern insights, this book will be essential reading for novice as well as experienced practitioners." Another resource: James MacRitchie describes practices to deveop each of the eight extras, and it's all free! He's at http://globalqiproject.com/ Now that you've done your intro post, how about starting this topic in the general discussion? More people will see it there than here in the lobby. Great quest!

Here's another aspect of this that I've been chewing on for a long time. Others probably won't see it this way, but here's what I see. Most of the mods have been people who were doing really high quality posting. When they started being mods, their Taoist content posting dropped dramatically. I know they worked hard on the board, devoting many many hours to it, and some in particular often were harrassed by pigheaded souls unhappy with particular decisions who seemed to think that all the mods had to do in life was answer questions and justify decisions. Moderating seemed to take a lot of time in technical or refereeing stuff, leaving mods (a lot!) less time for the juicy content posting they used to do. Finally they resign from modding, and then we don't hear much from them, sometimes for a very long time! That makes me sad! So I actually DON'T want Lerner and Zerostao to be mods! So who could moderate? Picking the most level headed, wise, and mature content posters may help the board with moderation, but I think it lowers the level of content posting, and even ends up driving these people away after the board "uses them up." Picking people who like to post a lot but don't seem to add much to content doesn't seem likely to raise either the moderating standard or the content standard... and certainly we don't want folks who tend to be contentious to be mods! If modding the board uses up all the best content posters, what happens when we run out of willing people? Do we need to pay someone to moderate? Of course then we'd all have to pay to play, or at least to post. Does anybody else see this as a problem? Or maybe there's some way to have moderator helpers, a way to take some of the load off the mods. More appreciation would probably help, and maybe even more pressure on pigheaded (sorry, that's the word that keeps coming up for me) folks who can't just surrender to the fact that thetaobums IS a sort of dictatorship, in that we are having a conversation in "Sean's drawing room", not in city hall! It is NOT a democracy. So get over it! I don't have the computer system, tech skills, or the time to help with modding, and frankly, I'd rather post content than try to make decisions about okay vs not okay. But I do really appreciate the time and energy many good mods have put into making TTB the great board that it is, and I'd like to see us find ways to ease the toll the job seems to take on these generous people.

Hi Cat, Dr. Joel Wallach of "Dead Doctors Don't Lie" fame, says that we crave sweet and salty taste because of nutritional deficiency, and that if we get enough minerals in our diets, we won't have these cravings. He calls it "cribbing", which is what livestock do when they don't get enough minerals--they start chewing on their corrals! (Wallach was an internationally renowned veterinarian before he had to become a Naturopath. Read his story!) Before refined sugar and refined (white) salt were available, sweet and salty taste meant the food had minerals! Brix is a measurement of the minerals in plants. You can test the brix of produce by squeezing some juice onto a brix refractometer. High brix means high mineral content. Insects attack the plants that are low brix, low in mineral content. Their job is to recycle the unfit plants, and that's what tastes good to them! The minerals in our agricultural soils were already exhausted back in the 1940s, and it's much worse now, as most minerals are not replaced, so the plants don't contain them either. Eating well-raised organic produce and nutritional supplements should reduce or even end craving for sweets. But just getting organic doesn't cut it. I saw some of the worst-looking, worm-eaten "organic" beets in the supermarket this week, I could hardly believe it. They may have been "organic" but they sure would have flunked the brix test! Back when organic first came in, most farmers didn't understand yet they had to feed minerals and organic material to the soil to get healthy plants (high enough brix that the bugs weren't interested), and so their produce looked awful! One of Wallach's solutions (besides buying his very good but very expensive supplements) involves putting wood ashes on your garden, which most rural people used to do, back when they heated with wood and raised their own food. If you're interested in this subject, and you like good stories, I HIGHLY recommend Wallach's book, "Dead Doctors Don't Lie". It is utterly WAY fun, and explains in detail his life story and how he came to his conclusions, and why he went to multi level marketing for his supplement line, totally understandable considering his history. This story about an audacious modern-day nutritional cowboy detective was one of the most interesting autobiographies I've read, and Joel Wallach is one of my heros. (Working my way slowly back around toward the OP) Another Wallach book, Hell's Kitchen, addresses the obesity epidemic. We keep eating and eating because our bodies know they haven't got what they need yet. The minerals we need are just not in the food. And that's also why we're sick. Different bugs and disease are trying their best to recycle us! He's pretty convincing.

Supplementing chromium and the amino acid glutamine can help reduce sugar (and alcohol) cravings. Some Five Element practitioners recommend eating millet for sugar cravings. Eating sweet potatoes really helps me not want the cake/donut/cookie genre... Juice fasting for two weeks got me completely off sugar, caffeine and chocolate for a couple weeks, but then it slowly came back. Getting off that stuff is rough. I used to say I wanted to be reincarnated in a world where expresso coffee and vanilla ice cream were considered a food group!

Okay, I don't know exactly what the "subtle energy body" is. But here's what I'm interested in: learning to feel, activate, and balance first my internal energy system and then that of others. I'm not real interested in visualization techniques as I've found sensation-based techniques much more effective. I've found a few books that address this in useful ways for me, and I'd like to know what books or media have helped others. Here are three books that have particularly helped me. Energy Work, by Robert Bruce. Bruce's Tactile Imaging method was amazing in teaching me to mentally activate acupoints and reflexology areas. Bruce's tactile imaging uses sense of touch, rather than visualization, to stimulate the flow of vital energy throughout the body. You learn how to wake up energy centers and move vital energy throughout the body. Bruce's easy-to-follow illustrations and exercises encourage safe, rapid results. (Bruce used to have his Tactile Imaging tutorial online, titled "NEW energy work", and you may be able to find it on wayback if you don't want to buy the whole book.) Juice: Radical Taiji Energetics, by Scott Meredith. This book is a huge help in watching and moving the energy, finally offering a(n unusual!) framework that fits the way my practice has already been developing. It focuses on ways of paying attention to the energy, and what to look for, a different set of points to focus on (niwan, lingtai, dailing), and cultivating the energy paths. "Real taiji is about energy cultivation and deployment." He says it's about learning to feel and focus within yourself. "..the mechanism of true Taiji... functions to get your mind fully and pervasively interpenetrating your body exclusive of any blocking physical tension or muscularity so that spirit energy is connected seamlessly from feet to hands." We could say he trains you to feel the energy states and surges with in your tai ji practice with the goal of energy deployment in pushhands and beyond. Helped me connect even more with the energy coming up through my legs, and his descriptions of energy phenomena matched my own experience in many ways, which no other book has done. Heavenly Streams: Meridian Theory in Nei Gong, by Damo Mitchell. I've only just finished reading this through the very first time. Mitchell gives a series of training exercises to develop the ability to feel and evaluate your meridians, along with the elementary Daoist theory necessary to determine which meridians you need to work on. Mitchell uses a sensation-based technique combining breath and intent, first to observe the activity on the meridian and then later, to activate it. He embeds the meridian work in an excellent and useful overview of Daoist theory, combined with many exercises and illustrations designed to develop the foundation skills needed to succeed in the advanced work. These three books are all practice-based. Don't know that you'd get much just from reading them, but they might inspire you to get started!

Hi Eugene and Hydrogen,Opening the Energy Gates was huge for me, but so long ago I tend to forget. The first method is a dissolving method, looks like zhan zhuang, but lots of "doing" involved besides just holding the posture. Starting at the top of your head, you locate and "dissolve" seemingly endless points, working your way down through the body. I never did have the patience to get the dissolving part of this practice down. Probably should go back now that I can activate points... The second part is the three swings, which were what did it for me. I did those most days for a couple of years. I remember my utter astonishment when I first felt the energy currents flowing up my legs. It was like "holy crap, this really DOES open the energy gates!" Back then I guess I thought the names of these things were kind of, well, fantasy descriptions designed to get you to buy the book/do the exercises. But not so. These exercises really do open the energy gates! The last part is the spinal stretch, much potential, but I only got as far with that one as keeping my back supple. Which is actually a big deal... The new edition has lots more material. And the DVD is a big help. Funny, I had both the first edition book and the tape on my shelf for nearly ten years before I let them start me on this journey!

Hi Liminal, I guess I did kind of skip over the wonder of being able to mentally activate points and meridians. Thank you for bringing that up. I learned mental activation of points a few years ago with Robert Bruce's Tactile Imaging method. Damo's method is different, but the two are similar enough that when I read Damo's method, I said to myself "Yep, that'll work!" Now all I have to do is DO IT! Glad you like the book, and I'll be real interested to hear how you do with it.

Hi JustARandomPanda, I just posted something on Heavenly Streams yesterday in another thread: http://thetaobums.com/topic/28303-training-the-energy-body-books/ I've only just finished reading this through the very first time. The purpose of the book is to learn to balance your own energy system using 5 element theory and activating the appropriate meridians internally. He starts with a very useful overview of Daoist theory, placing the human energy system within it. Then he offers a graduated progam of exercises and illustrations designed to develop the foundation skills needed to succeed in the advanced meridian work. After teaching enough 5 element theory that you know which elements and meridians you need to work on, he gives a series of training exercises to develop the ability to feel and evaluate your meridians. You memorize the pathways of all the meridians both by the book and by internal feel. Then he presents a simple sensation-based technique combining breath and intent, first to observe the activity on the meridian and then later, to activate it. Lastly he covers the most-used points on each meridian for self-treatment of many different conditions as defined by a five element/TCM perspective. This is a very easy book to read through. But, depending on the skills you have when you start, it's describing a 1-4 year program! It's entirely about application, and that means a LOT of focused work! He's an excellent teacher, he's done an amazing presentation job, and it's all doable. But making this real is going to take a lot of work! I'm very taken with the book. I've already learned internal point activation on myself and I can activate the points on others with my hands, laser pointers, tuning forks, etc. But I've been wondering for years now if there wasn't a more organized way to select points than just clearing out gummed-up meridians, or the formula approach, "use these points for a headahche." I didn't want to go to acupuncture school, and so Damo's Heavenly Streams seems a course of study perfectly designed for my situation! And I really like the way he trains you right up to the internal meridian and point activation. This one's a keeper. PS: I LOVE your new name! Makes me smile every time!

ChiDragon wrote " "to mentally activate acupoints and reflexology areas" will make acupuncture and acupressure useless.....!?" Hey, CD, It's all about energy activation. Who cares how we do it! Who even cares what we call it! It's way fun! Wanna play? :-)

Hi DMW, This question has occurred to me also. I JUST got Damo Mitchell's newest book, Heavenly Streams:Meridian Theory in Nei Gong. I've only read about a third of it, but Damo has done an excellent job of relating overarching Taoist theory to meridian theory and personal energy balancing. He starts his explanation with tao, wuji, yin yang, 5 elements, and shows how the human meridian/energy system relates to/is part of/ and is influenced by the whole cosmos. I've read a lot of this stuff (with widely varying degress of understanding), but this is the best and most useful explanation I have read. Useful both because the explanation is linear, and because he gives simple exercises to bring the student/reader along with his explanation. This fellow is a really good teacher! I'll do a thorough review once I've digested the book a bit more, but you might want to look into it, as I think it addresses your question pretty well. Aren't you studying acupuncture?... seems like they would address this right from the git go...

Damo Mitchell's newest book is out! Heavenly Streams: Meridian Theory in Nei Gong. Here's the blurb: "The art of connecting with, feeling and adjusting the energy body using the consciousness is a key aspect of Nei Gong and Qi Gong. It sits somewhere between Qi Gong, meditation and the lesser-known art of Shen Gong, and although it is known in China it has never before been written about in an accessible way in the West. Damo Mitchell provides step-by-step instructions on how to experience the various elements which make up the energy body, explaining how to identify and feel these, and how to diagnose imbalances and restore harmony. He describes the nature of the five elements, the meridians and the meridian points, inviting the reader to experience them through guided internal exercises using the body, breath and mind. Instructional drawings and photographs are included throughout the book. Connecting the fundamentals of Chinese medicine with the lesser-known spiritual and esoteric aspects of practice, this book will be of great interest to intermediate and advanced practitioners of Qi Gong, Nei Gong, Taijiquan and Chinese medicine."

Hello, thetaoiseasy, Your saying "heavy energy is in fact fuel for your spiritual energy" reminds me of TTC Chapter 28, (at least Wayson Liao's translation of it), which has always held a fascination for me. I'd love for you to expand on how the heavy energy is fuel for your spiritual energy, and how/if one can encourage that "fueling". Is there a "doing" involved in this process? I don't know if this is related, but years ago, one of my teachers said he could "burn" habits that he wanted to get rid of, using the energy to power his teachings, or maybe he meant energy/spritual transmissions. Or, he said, he could sacrifice some aspect of himself (personality) to use as fuel. It came in a very dense teaching, and only stood out enough for me to be curious some time after he passed. Any comments or clarification would be very much appreciated!

Hi Zerostao Someone from PlumPub told me to do this to search their site, and it does seem to work pretty well with TTB. Say you want to search Spiraltao's posts on Bagua. Put this in the google search field: site:thetaobums.com Spiraltao Bagua You might have to futz with the search terms, but it usually works for me! Maybe Sean or one of the mods knows how to search in-site....

Taomeow, I've very much appreciated the perspective and balance you've brought to moderation. Especially that sword-like quality.... :-) Thank you for sticking with it so long!

Hello Dominicus, What a wonderful project! For ideas and feedback on the physical aspects, you might check out Earthaven Ecovillage southeast of Asheville. They've got a lot of experience in the various iterations of green building, and a dear couple have a small Zen retreat going right next door. They have built a wonderful Zendo for sitting, as well as an amazing eco farmstead (my words, not theirs). Many blessings on your endeavor!