Trunk

Hello Wu...G, welcome to the board. Clever monicker, nice avatar. I bought my first digital camera a month or so ago, and was surprised to find that a macro function was built-in. What are your interests? What's been your exposure to Taoism (or other related)? Trunk

I prompted a friend, some yrs back, to research this. Not sure where to look, but she found some services that consolidated most of her debt - some of it with near 0 interest. She called some place and got some professional advice over the phone. Sorry I can't be more specific, but you might try calling an accountant in your local phone book.

!!!

Yup. High level discourse.

That's putting it mildly. Everybody likes Furey's "royal court" of body-weight exercises (hindu squats, hindu push-ups, bridging), though.

Here's a clip of the Avatar's training.

Well, there is the website, AlchemicalTaoism.com, which is a compilation of many of the things from this discussion gang, over a number of years.

I ordered Kurz's dvd, inspired by this thread, and am only part (most) of the way through it - and I am very impressed. The basic approach is that if your legs aren't strong, they're not going to stretch all the way out (too much instability I'd guess, so they seize up). So, Kurz has a really comprehensive set of leg strengthening exercises, from many different angles and using a variety of techniques. The strengthening complements the stretching. Looks good for sexual health, too, as all that angular leg-work (strength & flexibility) works all through the hips and pelvic area. (Kurz's video will almost certainly be on the page with squats, kb's, ab-wheel.) Peregrino: thanks for trumpeting Kurz's product! (later edit) Gotta add a picture of Kurz, here. Notice how this pic demonstrates both strength and flexibility, and try to get an idea of how healthy that implies the whole pelvic insides are. That's where this guy's program is headed; it's a whole arsenal of exercises that leverage into the pelvis.

I think "grateful minion" is the pc term.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHAEL!!!

A friendly "hello" from Los Angeles *cough*, USofA *choke*.

Just to say what I've said before, in any way pushing the idea of retention is very, very dicey. For some small percentage of males it'll work out really well for, for the rest it will result in trouble. The better approach is to include exercises that assist jing to integrate smoothly without making it a direct sexual issue. And, definately, joint rotations is one of the best ways to do this. The common choice for joint rotations is Sonnon's Intu-flow. The J rotations keep the myofascial web supple, through to the joints (so that jing can flow into the marrow). All of that is ideal for resolving stress of growth during puberty and integrating for real deep health. Additional approaches to consider are here. - and here's the airplane ride thing, pulled from the other thread:

Just occured to me that it'd be really cool to have a Natural Living forum at TTBs, to talk about life-style more. Interest anyone? Sean? (should'a made this a poll)

imo (and I bet in the opinion of many here), stillness practice is a major part of practice over all, and the culmination of preparatory work.

There's a woman at Tao Garden (I keep forgetting her name) who'd do a special kind of spinning of babies. Holding them by their arms, or arm & leg, and do a fancy sort of "airplane" ride (you know, where you get spun around by one arm and one leg by an adult). The women of the local village would bring their babies to her for her to spin. It was wild to watch, but the babies loved it. To connect it to principle: think of the the joings re: the connective tissue continuum. She said that her husband did it to her children until they were too heavy for him to do it any more.

Impressive.

I didn't mention retention because it is so problematic, complicated, and can back-fire pretty badly. Very dicey. I was suggesting joint rotations specifically. During puberty the bones are going through some intense development, and there's often (obviously) a lot of emotional~physical stresses that can get bound up in the fascia etc. Just adding a few simple joint rotations to the exercise repetoire that youngsters generally get can make the whole jing integration of puberty go a lot smoother, avoid stress-warps in the myofascial web that often form during that time, and produce stronger bones. Exposure to a few simple joint rotation exercises is pretty mundane, very safe, and good payoffs - especially during that time. I'm not suggesting that kids be made to do some program, but if they're gonna be taught push-ups etc., they might as well learn to rotate wrists, ankles, hips, shoulders, neck. Then at least they know those, know what they feel like, and can do them if they want to. Just my 2 cents.

While the conventional ideas and sensations of self are gone, something still remains: there is a physical body, and there is a "vajra" body - the layered subtle bodies of an individual functioning in union with the Universal. This last part is tricky, because someone might experience the Unviversal without correspondent subtle body integration. That, if carried on for too long, leads to disfunctionality. The human wiring contains within it the capacity for Universality in a way that both transcends and sustains, strengthens, the individual subtle layers - though operating in supramundane reverse of their conventional course.

Agreed on both points. to segue to another cultural entry, one that's non-violent... People really get the most profound development in the body-changing practices when they start prior to puberty. If kids took up something as simple as Sonnon's intu-flow (even as little as 5-10 min/day) as they were entering puberty, they'd become titans in comparison to their peers. And it could be fun: just do the major joints, and look at this groovy stuff I can do with my neck!

Peace Prize to Pioneer of Loans to Poor No Bank Would Touch Always impressive what you can do with very little $ in a poor country.

I bowed out of studying shing-yi, cause my illness-stagnation issues were barring progress. My progress was stuck for years, so said, "bye". Though, clearly, the Kenny Gong lineage of shing-yi is the shit. I've done a lot of unwinding since then through other avenues, but now it's hard to go back. Saamchoy, done correctly, is fucked-up (difficult) and does a lot. The MMA guys are undeveloped on deeper layers. The high level IMAs can basically just touch someone, put their hand on their arm or where ever and the external guy loses all bodily power. I stand by my comment: no contest. Refer back to stories of Morihei Ueshiba throwing people around like nothing, even when he was an old man.

Good one!

I've met a few advanced internal martial artists and, imo, there would be no contest between them and an external. (The external wouldn't have a chance.) At least one of the big problems, though, is that it'd bring IMAs to a crowd that is really into kicking ass. And, with advanced level IMA.. that's just silly; you'd end up with a bunch of maimed & dead people. The guy I studied shing-yi with has said, "I don't teach bangers", and I couldn't agree more.