gendao

Well, just thought it'd be helpful to add a rough timeline to give people a more realistic picture. In fact, I think it'd be great if you could outline some of the various signs and symptoms you personally experienced in opening your MCO - and after what points in time? Given that you are probably one of only a few on here who has actually opened their MCO. It's something that we as Taoists are all familiar with and talk about...but only a few have actually attained. Even after years of reading & dabbling around. But, I think what's really required is a year or 3 of dedicated practice and focus. The technique itself might not be that complicated...what's difficult is doing it, for an hour or more, day in & day out...for months or years... I've been at it for 2.5 months now, and have improved my stillness a lot, but only just now barely felt anything in my dantian. And maybe it's even mostly just my imagination at this point. Point being, this is not a quick, overnight process (IMO) - but more of a spiritual marathon.

Interesting how high a lot of spices are in ORAC value... And don't forget sprouts, chia seeds or pinole (chia seeds mixed with other herbs to form a more complete protein). ($18/lb here)

Max in a Maui graveyard, hehe, sounds interesting... So, I guess Andrew Lum is the guy with the yellow leis...and Patrick Moon is the guy in the black suit? Interesting,

Actually, that sounds like a cool tip, and I doubt you'd rack up any bad karma for it. Yea, the white is just the base etheric layer around the body, nothing special. I have to focus just to see that under good conditions. I saw the ancestral orb, and also some colors, at a KAP workshop. Basically, the first layer around the body is the white one. Then you have colors. Then above that in an arch above the head, you'll have ancestral orbs/spirits. Then more stuff above that, I forget what - you'd have to ask Santiago...

Thanks a lot Max!Just curious, where did you get the 5 hrs/day for a month figure from? And do you know anyone who actually did that - and attained the promised results of extraordinary health and some abilities? I agree too, you'd have to slowly work up to 5 hrs. I don't think I could even do that just once right now, much less 30 days in a row! Although I think I can crossover my sitting meditation skills to it pretty easily. Pietro - I think the TV could distract Kan's mind and get it out of the way initially...although later on it could become more distracting itself. Well, I'm tempted to add this to my routine now, given the results that Max has touted and Kan directly experienced. But can I squeeze yet another hour of meditation in per day???

Interesting, wow. Apparently, it worked for Kan and enabled him to recover from paralysis and opened all his channels: If that's not a testimonial to "holding the ball," I don't know what is! How does zhan zhuang compare to seated or sitting (half-lotus) meditation though - in terms of restoring complete health and opening channels? And can 5 hrs/day for a month be redistributed to say, 1 hr/day for 5 months? The total still being 150 hrs?

Yea, that makes a lot of sense. So, my gameplan right now is: 1) Build up dantian and gain sensation there first. 2) Once I can feel it start rotating (typically after about 100 days, according to JJ Semple), then get it to rotate in the "up back, down front" direction (if it isn't already doing that naturally). 3) Expand this dantian rotation to the Little Orbit pelvic rotation. 4) Expand the Little Orbit to the Microcosmic Orbit. 5) Expand that to the Macrocosmic Orbit.

That's an old agrarian culture tradition where kids were seen as your personal labor force and boys simply made better farmhands. In addition, boys were also saddled with the responsibility to provide and care for his extended family and parents in their old age - as defacto 401K retirement plans. Hence, boys were favored because they were far more useful as familial "pack burros" who could carry a lot of "weight" (Confucian obligations to his family). It's similar to how I'm sure a big, strong male slave was worth far more on the auction blocks than a female one. This is changing now though, and girls are actually becoming favored in the more modernized cities, like Shanghai - because they are seen as potentially having more future career potential. It's all about betting on the winning racehorse...

Right sorry, what I was referring to in there was the Buddhist saying: We are the architects of our own lives. Nothing happens to us without our consent and usually, intent & cooperation. Of course, this is usually our Higher Self making all these calls, not us consciously. And aye, there's the rub!

Actually, it has more to do with the fact that the Chinese have been reproducing there uninterrupted for 6000 years, while Americans have only been reproducing here for only a few hundred (after killing off the 50 million natives). The Chinese actually now have the lowest birthrate in the world, with their 1-child policy.

Yea, I'm not sure if the primal screaming actually released that much anger, or just expressed it? I kinda just threw that in there as a sidenote.. But, my main tool was ThetaHealing and a healer friend. Which does not transform the anger, but just resolves the issues causing it in order to release it. ThetaHealing is a particular modality that utilizes the theta state - which it believes to be the optimal state for healing. I find it a great tool for clearing deep-seated issues and reprogramming yourself. Very simple, yet very powerful. Anyhow, I do love the Italian passion and zest for life. So, I hope you never lose that. Whereas anger typically results from feeling powerless due to a lack of personal power. What did all the recent public suicide shooters (Columbine, VTech, Sodini) have in common? They were all socially-ostracized omega males who felt very powerless. (Lol, not saying you are anything like that.) But, if you fulfill your potential of personal power, you should naturally not find much reason to get angry anymore. And so not even have to deal with it or worry about "transforming" it. (Although, you may still have to release old anger stored in you.) Well, that's one of the main deficiencies anger stems from. There's also a number of other factors as well, namely lack of understanding about how our lives actually work due to "the Earthly veil."

Thanks for the re-clarification guys. AugustLeo - Are you talking about this book? And has anyone else felt this turning of the dantian ball yet? I haven't.

I personally use ThetaHealing...and also have an energy healer friend that uses a similar method intuitively. With these methods, you basically find & "surgically" remove the various issues causing the energetic blocks or bad qi. So, last year I released a lot of enraged anger from this lifetime (and a few past ones). This year I've released more "low-level" anger (resentment, rejection, regret, grudges) from mostly past lifetimes... I'm sure there's many ways to skin a cat, though - and those other methods may help as well. I've also spontaneously done primal screaming and growling, too. After this, I want to work on boosting my kidneys next.. These 2 seemed to be my 2 weakest organs.

Very interesting how the colors you saw in your aura correlated to those of the chakras that you felt sensation in. That's great confirmation. I also agree with your Buddhist sayings. I believe that all conflict in this world is actually cooperation between our Higher Selves in that higher realm to teach us lessons down here. Our Higher Selves orchestrate our lessons and "growth opportunities" down here (in concert with each other), while we must navigate and surmount these challenges here. So, that Buddhist rhetoric rings particularly true. And I believe that the ultimate solution to every conflict is finding the root cause underlying it and resolving that issue within yourself. Since that is the reason they occur - to focus our attention on certain personal issues (that often repeat in our lives until we resolve them). Very cool auric viewing though. I've only seen some white and an ancestral orb once. I would in fact like to greatly improve my energy-viewing abilities, because I think that would allow me to improve my qigong skills immensely. Because if you can see exactly what you're doing, it becomes much easier to do it right! Obviously, you and your brother were born with your higher chakras more open, you lucky bastards..

Nope, the easiest way to tell Buddhists from Taoists in China is that Buddhists are clean-shaven (often even their heads), while Taoists grow their hair and beards out. SB - Interesting, can you post a link to that Sutra?

"Haha Lung" has an interesting book on martial arts secret societies and their connection to post-Ming politics...branching even to Sun Yatsen.

Excellent article! I've been focusing on liver cleansing myself over the past year or so.. Yup, typical physical symptoms include skin blemishes and bad eyesight. But another factor to consider here is that the liver can be an emotional battery for anger, resentment, rejection, regret, grudges, rage, hate, etc. And these emotions can all be stored up from past lives too! So, draining these negative emotions can help heal your liver on a deeper root level.

Ya, I don't know if my vote counted, cuz I got some sort of error message... Anyhow, pretty cool to see that at least 6 folks here have (easily) broken the 100 day mark of daily practice! I'm starting to agree too how daily practice can really increase your meditative gong fu, too. In fact, today was probably the first time when I had a stretch (during meditation) where I really found it rather pleasurable and didn't want to move. I don't know if there's a true shortcut to enlightenment & immortality or not, but I do feel like this "old school" route does at least give you concrete progress. Which is what I'm after - not just transitory peak experiences/states - but sustained steps that I can keep building on. So, how long are you guys practicing each day?

Seriously? Sheesh! But, you must have done many other practices before, then? BTW, so are people normally running a circuit that goes down the spine and up the chest? Which the "backwards-flowing" method then reverses to up the spine and down the chest?

It seems that slow movements may reprogram the fascia (body), and slow breathing could reprogram the energy body/mind?

Since your conditional ED only happens under these specific circumstances, you likely have some sort of psychological (not physiological) hang-up with the act of sex. It is probably subconscious and could be due to your Higher Self, post-kundalini consciousness or karmic baggage. But seeing as how it followed your kundalini awakening, I'd guess it's probably related to that (although possibly related to the others indirectly, if the awakening could be causing such old baggage to arise).

Can someone explain to me what "dependent origination" is? That everything is connected as one? And is Vajrahridaya saying that Buddhism believes in dependent origination ("universal unity?"), yet is atheist (does not believe in a Divine Will/God)? Which raises the question by some of: 1) How the entire universe could arise together, if there was no "Creator/God?" 2) And does Taoism assume a Creator or not?

Nice meditation. Anyhow, the thing about these meditations (and why many may not have attained results yet)...is that they typically take about 3 months (~100 days) to start feeling "directional" eddy currents in the dantian or some circulation in the MCO. And most people simply haven't meditated for 100 days straight yet (myself included, lol). I mean, if we made a poll for that alone, I'll bet maybe only 10% or less TBs here have done that before. mantis - How long have you been meditating daily?