cheya

After writing this, I reread the Sorcerer's Crossing, which I last read in the early 90s. It means so much more to me now! Abelar is are talking about "the double", which is the repository of your body's energy, and separating the Double (energy body) from the physical body so that you can move your attention back and forth between the two precisely. Reading this, I realized that is exactly what I've beenteaching myself to do in my chi and bodywork practices! Some time ago I noticed I could not think and feel chi flow at the same time. This helped me pay more attention to which state I was in. Then recently I discovered that if I got totally into Sudoku puzzles for an hour or two, I had trouble reconnecting with the chi flow. This fascinated me, that I could get so deeply into the left brain that I would have trouble switching over to the right. So I've been practicing, switching modes between deep mental concentration over to feeling the chi flow. To do that quickly, I use the short cut to chi flow provided by chinese exercise balls! (I know! What a weird chi practice! Do some Sudoku, and then play with the exercise balls to see how long it takes me to feel the chi flow!) Sounds goofy, but this is really helping me facilitate the right brain left brain switch! I'm in a Diamond Heart style inquiry group, working with questions like "What's right about limiting the immediacy of your experience?" and "How are you limiting the immediacy of your experience in this very moment?" This addresses the same thing, the ability to stay out of the thinking conditioned mind of everyday agreements, and remain AMAP in pure perception. (HA! Maybe someday!) An example of immediacy is seeing a spoon as color and shadow without the interpretation of it as a spoon. (Question: get stuck in that perception and how do you EAT?) So how to be able to switch intentionally between different levels of immediacy (uninterpreted perception) back to perceiving the everyday world in a way that allows me to function? Abelar says the Sorcerer's Crossing involves bringing the Double, the energetic body, into our daily awareness. Both at the same time? I don't know yet, but I'm hot on the trail. Are other people able to manage this? I tried the Tensegrity exercises for about 10 minutes, and was never interested in them, but I'm fascinated by the doorway Castenada's tradition opens into direct perception and dropping the conditioning that prevents us from "seeing" energy directly. Abelar says that actually doing that demands an enormous amount of energy, which you can acquire by doing the process she calls the Recapitualtion, which involves reviewing your entire life and drawing back all the energy you have invested in the past. Sorcerer's Crossing provides detailed instructions for the Recapitulation process.

Ken, I never heard of this book until your tip here, and it just arrived in the mail, courtesy Amazon used. This is a wonderful instruction manual! Very clear directions, 4 instruction levels that build on each other. Hand manipulations, chi kung exercises, and very specific tuina treatments for each level, including challenging conditions I face regularly as a bodyworker, like frozen shoulder, rotator cuff injuries, chondromalacia, and hypertension. What a treasure! I can hardly wait to try this stuff! I can tell already I'm going to want his Tiger's Mouth book too. Thank you so much for posting this.

Minkus, Thank you! The Relics Tour was in Asheville recently, and it was WONDERFUL! I floated for days in a great big heart grin. Then, slowly, the experience faded. I could remember that it was wonderful, but was not able to reconnect with that feeling. Your pictures bring it all back! My heart is glowing again. Thank you so much for taking the time to post this! Many blessings,

Hi Gossamer, For me, this book has been a doorway to enhanced experience of chi and deepening connection with Tao. It has truly changed my life. I recommend it highly, and, if you're serious, spring for the $50 version. It has the complete text of Liao's translation in the back, which I never expected to use. However, the book itself got me into comparing translations so I could see how Liao's translation, "informed by the oral tradition," differed from other translations out there, so the continuous text has been very helpful. The study edition also has a glossary of key terms, which I find very helpful to read through occasionally. I've read the book itself at least 8 times�there's lots more to it than meets the eye in the initial reading. There's a thread on Nine Nights in the book forum here.

There's a liquid form called Lugol's iodine that is used orally and topically. The same formula, dried in a coated tablet is available as Iodoral. Another form called SSKI, used both orally and topically. Using it orally causes constipation in some people, probably because it kills off all the probiotics, but possibly because it displaces bromine in the body, which slows peristalsis. Here's a link to Jonathon Wright's excellent article on the multiple uses of SSKI. http://www.tahoma-clinic.com/iodide.shtml

Iodine is effective against MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus ), a bacterium responsible for difficult-to-treat infections in humans, and hospital acquired infections. Good to keep on hand. Here's an interesting summary by Mark Sircus, Ac. OMD The End of Antibiotics and the Rise of Iodine as an Effective Alternative http://www.naturalnews.com/022800.html

In a word? Seaweed. Either that or radiation.....

Hi Innergy I'll pm it to you. It isn't pasting well, and I don't have time to futz with it. Anybody else want it, let me know. Be forewarned, I've cut and pasted to it so often, it is NOT a tidy document! But it does have lots of info.

Oooh, Froggie, one of my favorite topics! Check out colorpuncture, John Ott, and Dinshah Ghadiali.You can also look into syntonic optometry. There is so much fascinating stuff here! But maybe you just want to heal something particular? I've compiled a list of frequencies and what they are claimed to help... All the best,

Welcome Ken! I saw the title and the name "Ken" on this post, and thought to myself "THAT Ken?" And yes, it is! This gives me a chance to say thank you so much for taking the time and trouble to translate this blog and make it available for us to read. I understand you're busy, and don't have so much time to work on it, but just wanted you to know how much I look forward to the continued saga. Thank you!

Hi Nomad, Well, I for one am stuck on the pursuit of the wind chi sensation, and conversely, not very focused on sitting or quiet meditation. If you're interested in the connection between Taoist thought and cultivation of chi, check out Waysun Liao's book, Chi:How to Cultivate Your Life Energy. He is a native speaker of Chinese and studied with a Taoist monk as a teenager. Thirty years ago he wrote The Tai Chi Classics, which has been translated into seven languages. He has been teaching tai chi in the Chicago area for thirty odd years. For a more intergrated explantion of how he sees cultivation of life energy related to Taoist understanding, check out another book he wrote: Nine Nights with the Taoist Master. Changed my life. I reviewed it in the books section here, and there are a number of excellent reviews on Amazon. All the best,

Even before Trunk posted this, I had been thinking pretty much the same thing. Such a GREAT blog. Such a useless diversion to go into endless repetitions of discussions that have already been... ah ... amply covered... in a number of other threads! Thinking about it, I decided that the way to turn it around was to bring up some other aspect of the blog and try to get the conversation going in a direction that, well, at least I, like better, or find more interesting or helpful, and hope that someone else may be inspired to chime in on a new note. So, back to the Dragon Gate blog and the SMO. Had to read it again and use that great search feature that lets you get posts on one topic together on one page. Nice. First, it's encouraged me to go back to the book, Opening the Dragon Gate, for another look. I had originally read it and discounted its practical usefullness, considering it just a fable. With more understanding of who Wang Liping is in China today, and what he has meant to Shen Laoshi, I'm more interested in "mining" the book the way I have with Nine Nights with the Taoist Master. Found it interesting that Mr. Shen said that male and female practices (Nu Dan Gong) are different but also overlap. Anybody know more about this? At the end, in the section titled "Things I want to say", the list includes "topical essays" that look really interesting: "Topical essays. 1. Teaching Experiences. 2. How to enter the door of taoism. 3. Building the foundation. 4. Female Practice. 5. Health and wellness." But I guess we have to wait for our intrepid translator, Ken, to get to that bit. Wish I knew how to encourage him! Has anybody opened the SHO and had the experience that Mr. Shen describes, that it continues to run by itself and sort of cleans out the whole body over time? I'm also interested in the distinction he makes between visualizing the SHO and actually opening it. Okay, hopefully some others will chime in with what interests them most about this blog!Seems to me too rich to just let fade out!

Has anybody been using chiming Chinese Exercise Balls, aka Baoding Balls? I've had a pair on the shelf for years, thinking of them as a fun novelty, but recently I feel a definite energy flow when I use them. It's not specifically a meridian current, more global than that, up the arms to the front of the head, then back of the head, then down to the feet and back up in a circuit. It's pretty consistent every time I pick them up... Rotating a pair in each hand at the same time seems to intensifiy the effect. Using the balls seems to be helping my "bodyworker's thumbs", either from the energy activation, or maybe just because one direction of rotation makes the hand open widely, antidoting the continuous gripping motions in massage. My shoulder discomfort has disappeared since I started using the balls every day. (Could be partly due to doing gua-sha on the back of my shoulder with an ice cream scoop...but that's another post...) This reminds me of Trunk's tan tien twiddling, circling movements at the center of the body, but in a different plane, and more in front of the suspender and belt channels (extroaordinary channels)...activating different circuits? The chimes also create a subtle vibration in the hands, which probably contributes to the effect... Has anybody else noticed an energetic flow when using the exercise balls, or tried them for hand/wrist/arm/shoulder pain?

Vortex, Thank you for this! I had read that "in the old days" they had used walnuts, but, in typical modern thoughtlessness, had assumed that was before they had "anything better"! Thank you for waking me up on this! Do you know any sources for these wild walnuts? The source you linked to was selling kernals, but not whole nuts, and you might have to sort through a large number of nuts to find an appropriate pair. Did you get yours in China, or do you use some you found locally? Do you feel actually feel the chi movement in your body when you rotate the walnuts, or is it primarily a dexterity exercise for you?

Hi Trunk, You're the first person I've found that has said, "yes, I can feel that"! Questions: Do you notice a particular pattern of energy when the "balls do stuff to your body, not just your hands"? Is there a place of strongest sensation outside of your hands? Does the "not touching" version do stuff to the rest of your body same as the touching version? I can do the not touching version with small balls, but not with the 50mm balls that have given me the most chi sensation. I'm still a little spastic with the "not touching" version, so maybe that's why I haven't gotten an energy flow sensation with that exercise yet.

That's exactly the kind of thing I'd like to do with my massage clients who have arm and hand difficulties. Please let me know if it has helped her. Do you just do the two ball rotations or have you gone on to the three and four ball exercises?

Cissus feedback. My friend with the chronic rotator cuff problem has responded well to cissus and thinks it has helped him a lot, both with hisrotator cuff and with his knee, which is almost completely healed. The shoulder is better, but still problematic. His general energy level and endurance are much improved. I took it for three weeks for undiagnosed shoulder aggravations (got better) and knee pain (got much worse). I stopped taking it and my shoulder aggravation returned as my knees got better again, back to how they were before I started taking it. It occurs to me that, if cissus works to strengthen the muscles you are using, it might not be the best remedy for joint pain due to long time muscle imbalance, a situation where strengthening the overworked muscles (already shortened) may add to the imbalance and create more pain. Anybody else try it?

Where'd ya hear that one?

Actually, there were over 100 Rolls Royces. And they weren't identical. One, for instance, was painted all over with wild geese flying. That was my favorite. So long ago, I can't remember the others. Wild colors, amazing patterns. Can you imagine doing that to a new Rolls Royce!!!??? :-)

It's not at all like the Celestine Prophecy, and, if you're looking for adventure/suspense, it's not that exciting. For me, what has been so gripping is the expansion of the meaning of the text of the TTC, and also the very simple, fable-like illustrations of TTC principles contained in the side story that parallels the embedded text. If you expect the side story to be exciting by modern standards, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. Let me know when you get through the fourth night, and I'll ask you one of my main questions about what the Lao Tzu is saying in TTC Chapter 28.

Hello from Cheya A few months ago I was exploring my life goals/purpose, and after much searching I came up with something that truly surprised me: "Follow the chi 'til it leads to the Tao." Those words touched a deep longing, even though I didn't really know what following the chi to the Tao might mean. Then, last month I found a book that gives a road map for doing exactly that! Waysun Liao's book, Nine Nights with a Taoist Master, has inspired my chi practice and sent me looking for Tao friends on the path. For me, intuitively, feeling the chi has always been the most important thing, so I'm very excited to find Master Liao's specific instructions for developing the feeling of life energy and using it to connect with the Tao! Tao Gong! What a concept! I've been practicing mostly daily for about 3 years, currently doing some Frantzis Energy Gate exercises, along with mix and match from earlier teachers. Also, walking my dogs across the hill behind my home, a walking chi practice has emerged that seems related to the energy pump effect I get from swing arms and Energy Gate practices. Movement is an energy pump! Thinking stops it! (Okay, I know: DUH!) Having been totally focused on staying with chi feeling, now it's time to move it with my mind, and also to generate it (join it?) strongly without needing to move to maintain the sensation. That's where I'm at right now, looking for friends/teachers/info/resources focused on feeling the chi life energy and actually experiencing the Tao. I certainly can't call myself a Taoist or inhabit Taoism as I've usually found it. I'm not into ritual, or social gatherings to figure out how to do religion right. (Not that I'd find any of that stuff on a site called TaoBums!) But I sure do like the translation and interpretation of the Tao Te Ching I've found in Nine Nights. That kind of Taoist is a whole 'nother story. Literally. Otherwise, I'm a bodyworker, writing a book on sustainable health care, into nutrition, detoxification, light therapy, color puncture, and natural healing strategies, Osho Rajneesh, Carlos Castenada, and other stuff I'll remember and wish I'd included right after I push the send button. Many thanks to all those who had the vision to put this site online.

Hi Darin, Reading Nine Nights with the Taoist Master has heralded huge changes in both my understanding and my practice. On the one hand, it's just a simple fable with the Tao Te Ching embedded within the text. On the other hand, for me, it has been a continuuous learning experience. I look forward to hearing what you think of it. PS You've inspired me. I'm gonna post a book review.

Thank you very much for sharing this article. I especially appreciated this paragraph: "When you see everything around you--all that is animal, vegetable or mineral--as being imbued with Spirit, as being alive and sentient, as carrying with it a crucial and inseparable part of the Whole; when you view all of life as being inextricably interconnected by a thread, a spark, of something Divine, you cannot help but understand that that great beautiful Creation involves death and decay just as certainly as it involves birth and resurrection. Everything is indebted to everything else. Every part of Creation is indebted for its life to the other parts of Creation that have died and decayed so that it might live."

Hi JazZen, Osho has been huge for me, but I don't remember what he said about Tao. I've got to get that book. Thanks for bringing it up. Question: Would passive on the inside always look like passive when viewed by others from the outside? Is there a passivity of "not doing" where there is actually a lot of action going on, but it is not a "doing," rather an allowing of what is flowing through? How about utmost passivity inside while Tao animates the body's action in the world?

Rain, Thank you for this wonderful picture of smiles dancing. I forwarded it to my favorite friends so they can start the day grinning too.