Hua Dao

Here's a great pdf article: http://www.studiebord.nl/download/demo/070...alAddiction.pdf "Understanding And Treating Male Sexual Addiction Through Traditional Chinese Medicine" It also goes into some daoist/chinese thoughts on the 5 shens, 3 treasures, and the effects of desire etc. which could add some insight into why we meditate/cultivate. .

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You inherit the genome from the parents, every day of one's life you duplicate the 'epigenome' which is the altered genome, when you have children you pass on your epigenome. 'Jing' is involved in or rather the energy for proper replication in cells, if it is too sparse and spread out through the body cell replication doesn't copy the epigenome properly and certain genes become hidden or turned off, resulting in a mutated cell and altered genes that are copied to the next generation. The optimistic view is that by living a healthy life you can un-hide and turn on genes changing the epigenome for the better. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/genes/issa.html

Its a good book for someone studying xingyi but if you're expecting a good daoyin qigong it's not really in there it's more like basic jibengong exercises: shoulder, waist, neck, and knee circles; toe touches, arm swinging, cat style push-ups etc.

There are a few different daoist models that I don't think truly contradict each other on this. The 3 hun correlate with jing, qi, and shen, shen in this term is more related to the central shen and the stimulation of the pituitary gland. While jing is connected to the adrenals. The 3 hun are inside the body and need to build up to move on to the next level above. The 7 po relate to the 7 chakras. Sexual desire in the po has its counterpart inside with the hun. This is where the comparison of hun to 'ego' or 'super-ego' and 'po' to 'id' comes from. Animals are said to only have 'po' and not 'hun'. Hun is the human soul. Po is the physical manifestation of jing in the body. Po like the auras can be seen, hun cannot be seen. If a person dies in a terrible way the 'po' can become a ghost. The po can be trapped in areas of the body through trauma and is what is seen and felt when released through different body-work methods. If po is looked at as the physical or external manifestation of jing near the outside of the body (weiqi), then hun is dealing with the ethereal and internal manifestation of jing to qi that moves on the inside. "In the cultivation of Tao the integration of Hun and Po considered to be very important. One needs to place the animal souls beneath the guidance of the spiritual souls so that all can benefit. This brings true significant harmony." The hun we have control over so it can be used to control the po or instincts like using the hun to take over control of the breath and other autonomic functions of the po. When we die our consciousness heart/shen dies, the hun returns to the heavens, the po remains with the body for a year and then goes back into the earth. Here's another very similar model: "Taoist View on Life and Death: Life: Man, like all living things, belongs to the world of nature and has limited life cycle. Hence, man should learn to love his body and develop both its physical and spiritual potentials. Whatever human desires should be kept in moderation. Man should perform charitable acts, be modest and thrifty, and love his fellow human beings in order to achieve an inner peace. Taoism believes that man embodies the ying and the yang. The yang component comprises the three Hun (三魂) and the ying component comprises the seven Po (七魄). The three Hun (魂) are made up of:Tai Guang (胎光), Shuang Ling (爽靈) and You Jin (幽精). The seven Po (魄) are made up of: Shi Gou (尸狗), Fu Fu (伏夫), Que Yin (雀阴), Tun Zei (吞贼), Fei Du (非毒), Chu Hun (除秽) and Chou Fei (臭肺). These are the filthy elements inside our body. As recorded in the book You Yang Za Zhu (酉阳杂俎), "The three Hun form the skeleton and the seven Po make up the flesh". A process of ying and yang combining (a merger of heaven and earth) makes Man to give him a physical form, and that is when the three Hun are assembled. Thereafter, every seven days brings into the body a Po; and within a period of 49 days, the entire seven Po would be assembled. That moment is called the Full-month (弥月). Death: is not the ending of life but the beginning of a next stage in life: the "spiritual stage". Taoists are therefore advised to undertake Chao Yu (超幽), a ritual that would allow the deceased's spirit (the three Hun) to transport itself from the realm of Jiu You (九幽) to the Dong Hua Ji Le (东华极乐) realm, the eternity of the other world. However, the seven Po linger after death and Taoists believe that a ritual should send off each of these seven Po once every seven days. Only when that is done at the end of 49 days, is the deceased fully at rest and also capable of blessing the living descendants from that other realm." The 7 filthy elements likely relate to unblocking the chakras. ?

A little more detail: Draw in through the eyes - liver/hun; Close off the ears and listen inward- Kidneys/zhi; Breathe in through the nose, inhale longer than exhale- Lungs/Po; Close the mouth gather and swallow the saliva - Spleen/ Yi; Touch the tip of the tongue (tip of the heart) to the soft palate, roof of mouth to close the opening to the Heart/shen. In the Lungs/Po, Po is the physical soul that comes from the earth, it is the physical movement of 'jing' in the body which is connected to the 'wei qi' that travels under the skin and controls the opening and closing of the pores. So there is also a closing off of the pores and drawing the 'jing' back to the dantian or mingmen area between the kidneys. Qigong or Daoyin is a little different than meditating where you are sending the jing and weiqi to the extremities. The heart/shen stores long term memory. The kidneys remember the short term memories. The Spleen/ yi is the intellect that stores the memories of your interests or studies. The lungs/po are the body's instincts or natural ability to survive- it controls the weiqi which protects the body without having to be thought about by the mind(shen). (In chinese martial arts a great deal of strategy is put into tricking an opponents 'po' and striking where their weiqi hasn't gotten to.) The liver/hun is the creative, dreaming mind. It comes from the heavens and doesn't come into the body until 3 days after birth. (While the 'po' is thought to arrive around the 3rd trimester and the 'shen' doesn't truly manifest until around the age of one's earliest memories as it is the 'po' instinctual soul that is keeping you alive and controlling all your actions.) The 'hun' is active when you dream, it can leave the body and is responsible for the out of body experiences. Alcohol disturbs the liver and brings the 'hun' out when you're awake which is responsible for the inebriated state of mind and why when you're sober the thoughts you had while drunk typically contradict your reality. The 'hun' needs to be kept in check by the mind (shen) but the closer you can make the reality of your life to live in accordance to the hun's desires the happier and healthier you will be. The Po and Hun can get a little more complicated- there are actually 3 huns that correlate to 3 passes in the body and there are 7 po's that correlate with the 7 chakras. The spleen is another problem or block in meditation that is easily affected by one's diet. The spleen is related to the mouth and saliva and using the digestive enzymes to break apart food. The pancreas and small intestine are connected to the spleen which is figuring out what the food is, then breaking it apart, then the small intestine decides what to absorb and excrete. The spleen/zhi also does the same with problems or situations. It is like your sub-conscious or gut feelings. When it isn't functioning properly you have worrisome or obsessive thoughts that go around in circles.

In Daoist meditation you want to cultivate the 5 shens/spirits and then unify them into the one central shen. The five shens reside in the 5 organs and each has an opening to the outside that needs to be closed and turned inward to meditate - hun/liver - eyes - draw back in through the eyes and don't look outside, zhi/kidney - ears- close off and don't listen etc. Then when you're closed off to the outside it is very easy for the dream-like and imaginitive 'hun' spirit to become active and distracting so you need to quiet and calm the 'hun' which possibly has been poorly translated as the 'ego mind'. You don't want to attempt to quiet the 'shen' consciousness mind (you), only the 'hun', so you have to understand the difference between the 2. The state of wuwei is achieved when the 5 shens have been cultivated and unified into the central shen/spirit that resides in the heart. All decisions are instantaneous and correct without doubt or inner debate. All physical actions are agile and done with minimal required energy and follow the most appropriate path in that instance. Thought without thought. Doing without doing. Typically we have an inner dialogue that slows down thought -heart communicating with spleen, or not acting quickly or lack of motivation - heart miscommunicating with kidney, or imagining into the future or the past -heart being taken over by the liver/hun.

There are various western remedies for mercury poisoning, dmps chelation is one that can't be used if the patient has amalgam fillings as it may dislodge the fillings from the teeth. There is a homeopathic formula that can do the same if used when you still have fillings.

The quickest way to get the spirit grounded again is with acupuncture- common points are baihui, yintang, SP6, LV2. I don't know how you would do it with qigong, like was mentioned it will probably just make the issue worse. The acupunture works good with one treatment. Maybe you could use accupressure on those points - baihui on the top of head, yintang on the forehead directly in front of 3rd dantian, LV2 on top of the foot should be real sore and easy to find same with SP6.

Just go with the Mayway teapills the bigger economy size for the first then the you gui wan. You might find them at a local health food store. Cinnamon is a yang warming herb, so to some extent trust your food cravings if you want spicy warm foods maybe thats a sign that your yin is re-building. The advice of pro-hormones etc. is stupid it's like adding gasoline to the flame to get it to burn hotter, where building up the yin is like stockpiling wood so you can ensure it will burn for a long time. Also avoid energy drinks.

I say in this day and age to take the herbs. I'm 34 and I do. Depending on the person they (yin herbs liu wi di huang wan) can work quick in a week or two but also sometimes need to build up as they are a tonic and tonify over time. Yin excess is pretty evident when you are urinating every 30 minutes, so that is one way to know its built up enough. The yang herbal formulas (you gui wan) though are only slightly different and just add a few warming spicy herbs to the yin tonics so there isn't a huge difference when you switch to the yang formula. Still think about abstaining for awhile. Men are on an 8 year cycle so a lot of changes happened at 32 that you weren't used to so you have to moderate yourself now but you should find that you can maintain a certain level until you turn 40 then you have to cut back again. Food that is wet cooling green is yin food, food that is red, spicy is yang. Let your palate guide you to a certain extent.

Cordyceps is more of a lung strenthening stamina herb so maybe a little but that money would be better spent on 'liu wei di huang wan', there doesn't have to be any symptoms of yin deficiency because you were still fine just using up the yang side so you don't notice until they are both gone. Ideally though you shouldn't take any herbs until after the age of 40 so the best advice is don't have any sex or try for awhile and let it sort it self out with a good diet. If you want to try herbs after the 6 flavor pills for awhile you would switch to 'you gui wan'.

You should really see a good TCM doctor. You have essentially put out the flame and it's a long road to get it back. A lot of the advice is only going to make it worse. You were likely very yin deficient which most men always are, which is the aspect that maintains or keeps in check the yang fire. You don't want to keep increasing the yang you first need to completely rebuild the yin and then start to gradually increase the yang. You might need to take 'liu wei di huang wan' '6 flavor pills' for several months along with some treatment. Eating red meat probably isn't going to be good, milk or things that have mucous probably isn't good because your spleen likely isn't working right so your not really getting the proper qi from the food you're eating. You need green vegetables, kidney beans, mung beans, eat white meats for awhile. How is the summer weather treating you? are you hot or cold? Sweating a lot? Hot but not sweating?

There are some daoist schools that say that when the lustful thought enters your mind the jing is transformed. Something to think about. Also in another thread I thought someone mentioned you were young, 19 or something? You should spend time standing with your tailbone/sacrum lifted back so there is a pronounced inward curve in your lumbar spine, this will close off mingmen point and rather than building up the yang flame it will instead build up the yin side and will actually focus your body towards converting jing to qi which should build up in your dantian. Your jing should be fairly good at your age and theoretically this will help to calm down your desires. Basically try doing a low horse stance with buttocks sticking back out and hold for as long as you can.

I think your money would be better spent on Da Liu's book "The Tao of Health and Longevity". It has the 8 brocade plus some other interesting taoist exercises. I have read the previous edition "taoist health exercise book" which is basically the same. It's interesting but probably not the best for self instruction but still not bad.

Has anyone ever ran into or heard the saying 大鼻子嘮道 "da bizi lao dao"? (I think I have the characters right.) 'The big nose like to gossip, chat up Daoism' Basically it's somewhat derogatory towards all the foreigners who visit and have a much greater interest than the chinese do in Daoism. I guess it's humorous when we assume every random chinese person has an interest in it.

I also thought of something else that might make more sense: if one has had proper instruction in yoga particularly the balancing postures such as the 'tree pose' they would have been taught the same methods of grasping the ground, pretty important for 'rooting' in yoga as well, and like all of yoga very 'intense' in the beginning but relaxation is found through practice.

I can't disagree with anything you said just emphasize my previous post. Just like the palm cupping to draw in through laogong doesn't require any tension the same goes for the feet. A wet bare foot shouldn't leave a print where the arch of the foot is just toes, balls, outside edge, and heel. There isn't really a lifting of the arch, if the foot is structurally sound, the point is naturally lifted, the problem as I said is that most of our feet have lost their natural position. Initially when re-learning how to grasp the ground there will be tension, cramping, and pain as you re-develop the tendons. There is very little muscle usage in this it is the (key word) tendons that will ache from the toes all the way up to knee. As I said it can take awhile but one moment the pain washes away for good. The key point is from the chinese: 'the 7 balls (5 toes +2) of the feet are pressed into the ground' if the 2 balls of the feet come up even slightly it is incorrect and would denote tension, even a feeling of the arch rising is incorrect and unnatural the arch is naturally up if the foot is correct. Practicing barefoot on hard rough ground can help to bring the point home. Trust me this is good gong fu (time spent practicing), especially when it's only 1 to 2 weeks to achieve a permanent change in your practice. After the 2 weeks it will once again be 2nd nature like when you were young.

I don't know exactly what you're trying to achieve but fwiw when standing one should really grasp the ground with all 10 toes, enough so that the arch of the feet slightly lifts off the ground but the 2 balls and heel remain firmly down. This activates K1, which is the counter point to Laogong PC8, which when observing nature people naturally cup their palms and point PC8 towards a camp fire to draw in heat through the point. If you spent any significant amount of time walking around barefoot you would still naturally grasp the ground with the toes and keep the strength in the arch, unfortunately wearing shoes eliminates the need to protect the toes and causes the arch to weaken. Re-training the tendons in the feet to grasp takes about 1 to 2 weeks of near continuous practice while walking etc. to become natural again. Your feet will be rooted and won't slide around or splay out or in afterward. There is a feeling of pulling up on the outside and sinking down through the center of the legs.

First off as Patrick mentioned, how common is that? Second the answer was in my post: 'the 'jing' in a women resides in the blood'. Maybe the ejaculating could lead to a yin defiency if done in excess but women should be more concerned with heavy menstruation and do something to fix it. From Cohen's book he describes a practice that female daoist nun's did which is rubbing their breasts every day which simulates breastfeeding, releasing the hormone prolactin which brings on a menopause type phase and infertility while they keep up the practice, which was done in order to conserve 'jing'.

I never got the precise answer on that but one idea could be that they lose it everytime they have intercourse which more than likely means that the kidney's start functioning more like a man's which throughout a man's life the right kidney (yang) is the flame of the fire, which we generally shouldn't have a problem with although we can burn it out too fast, use up all the fuel and extinguish the flame. The problem men really have to worry about is left kidney becoming yin deficient and keeping the fluids in our body in order to control the yang flame. During and after menopause women start to heat up and start having a problem with fluids in the body controlling the flame, so the fluids lost during sex could be problematic. Basically they start drying up and suffer the same problems men have to deal with for our whole lives. Also when speaking of the kidneys it also includes the adrenal glands which sit atop the kidneys. So after menopause they aren't going to have that seemingly endless supply of cortisol and adrenaline hormones.

That's a typo, that should be 'zuowang'.

Lin, I also view the cultivation process as something that is a natural process, although there are things that can be done to help it and ease it along. The jing converts to qi which fills the lower dantian, but from my understanding after that the qi needs is blocked at the middle dantian which is where the conversion of qi to shen takes place, with shen residing in the upper dantian. What happens at the middle dantian is an issue with the heart/mind as you describe, but also in our school there also needs to be a build-up of qi throughout the whole body, which can be seen in the evidence of the opening up of the small capillaries. "Since ancient times, Chinese doctors have known the importance of blood circulation. Indeed, the whole system of meridians (jingluo; major and branch vessels) was based on an attempt to map the blood vessels (see: Drawing a concept: jing), and to influence the circulation within them by using acupuncture, moxibustion, and herb therapies. A well-known saying regarding the circulation is: "The qi moves the blood; the blood carries the qi." Put another way, the qi and blood flow together through the vessels, including the major vessels (jing, mainly arteries) and the minor vessels (luo, mainly veins). Within this flow of qi and blood, one can distinguish two types of qi: the nutritive qi (yingqi) and the defensive qi (weiqi). The nutritive qi is said to flow within the vessels intermingled with the blood, while the defensive qi is said to flow at the surface of the vessels. The concept of microcirculation merely adds yet another dimension to the description, and refers primarily to the flow of blood through tiny vessels invisible to the naked eye, such as the capillaries." The evidence of qi built up in the whole body is seen on the palms of the hands. After cultivation practice the hands are red and if you press on the palm a white spot appears momentarily. In the beginner the palm is mostly white with red splotchy patches, the intermediate level the palm is mostly red with pinpoints of white spots throughout the palm, the high level the palm is all red and not the usual bright red but a deep crimson that is like the color of a liver. I was curious if you've seen this with the palms of the buddhist teachers you've met? .