Trunk

Probably the tastiest ch. herb is lychi berries (pin yin: Gou Qi Zi, latin: Fr.Lycii Chinensis). They are super nourishing, full of all sorts of really good stuff. They're sort of like extra-nourishing red raisans. --- later edits --- In Los Angeles Chinatown, they're like $4-$7 / pound, depending on quality. .. and, btw, good idea to include soaked-overnight ch.herbs in blend, that I otherwise would not eat raw. * puts some he shou wu in bowl w/ water *

Chia's IS123 has some similarities to authentic systems, provides some topic introductions, but also has a lot of mis-direction (some quite dangerous, some not) and a lot missing: there's nothing like studying with a good teacher, long term, in person. (Sure, get what you can from Chia's videos, but be careful not to hurt yourself with his IS1 and I would recommend you search elsewhere for authentic training.) Tendon changing is a big part of the puzzle. The fascia, and also the joints as nexus of connective tissue. "Tendon" is code for "connective tissue": fascia, tendon, ligament.. actually, going into the bone is part of the culmination of that. The bones get addressed in a different way than the usual muscle-bone leverage thing. But, yes, you're on the right track that "tendon changing" is a BIG part of the puzzle. --- later edit --- I've only had a little exposure to Scott Sonnon's work, but it looks like his stuff is innovative in working the connective tissues & joints (though his system doesn't have the heaven~earth part of it). Might effectively complement your tai chi (or other internal MA). A simple tip that goes a long way is to warm up all of the major joints (ideally through circular movement) at the beginning of each qi gong / internal martial art practice session.

A friend told me about this exercise, I found a picture of it on the web. Duck Walk Place your hands interlocked behind your head and squat down, with your back straight, you then walk forward in a squated position. http://www.precisiondocs.com/~altaoism/images/SquatWalk.jpg

Online, here. http://www.rmaxinternational.com/home/

Glad that Chris chimed in, cause I hadn't a clue! (Hope both you & your wife are eating well during this pedal-to-the-metal time, though.) Wow!

Congrats, Hagar.Good to hear from you.

Yikes! (Stolen (scroll down, right under the picture), with an acknowledgement.) Occured to me that JrH & HS would be the best time to learn this one, 'd really help integrating adolescent power smoothly.

I wonder if my L'Equip R.P.M. would blend an avacado pit. I threw one away today, and thought about this issue. It was a monster pit; the idea of eating one is pretty new to me. If (any of) you eat an avacado pit, I want to hear about it! --- later edit --- btw, I'm getting so much out my blended food! I am totally sold. My energetics are smoother, I can feel channels are being opened. All really good. Only thing (as Yoda already mentioned) that sometimes I feel rev'd and I find that I need to take some breaks and eat some heavy food every once in a while. Definately my body is changing for the better, quickly, as a result of blended + often raw diet.

Neimad, You've really inspired me to check out Sonnon's stuff more! Trunk

Well, it looks like I'm late to the party with this one. But I'm really diggin' it, its kickin' my ass! - and looking fwd to getting smooth LTT breathing while walkin low.

What product and/or linked article?

Here's a qi gong variation of kneeling ab-wheel. Kneeling, you roll out a very modest distance - enough to engage your abdominals, but not nearly anywhere so far as in actual strength training. While holding that position, you then breathe down through your abdominals, in a sort of moderate version of scrotal compression / Dr. Lin's sexual chi kong breathing. Experiment with moving the ab-wheel several inches in either direction, and repeat. Further experiment with the breathing method in wheel positions incrementally closer to the knees, to as close as several inches (keeping some pressure on the wheel so that the abs are engaged). That's it. The obvious purpose of this training is to be able to maintain healthy jing flow, and top~to~bottom integration, while in the midst of abdominal muscular contraction. This has applications in smoothing out arousal. CAUTION: You'll find that once you get the jing flow really through the abs, that you'll relax and your strength will give out to some degree, so don't put yourself in such an extended position that you'd put your back in danger when that happens. Again, this method is a qi gong variation, not strength training - so don't get all macho about it and extend the wheel to your muscular limits. Just go out about half as far as you would for strength training. Oh, and here's me workin' on the ab-wheel (Just the regular "kneeling ab-wheel for strength", I don't go out quite as far for the qi gong variation.)

A political vid of by-gone days, the Scott McClellan drinking game!

Yeah, TDS is the bomb. Better link, btw.

I just found Air America online. Fun to hear a liberal host kicking ass. --- later edit --- yipes. for about 5 minutes.

That says a lot.

I've been continuing to mess with this technique, and find that its really good for qi gonging through my abdomenals. You might check out "Lin's Links" for a description of how this fits in. Back in the day at the HT forum, it was a big big break-through learning about Lin's method. The linked page makes it very accessable. I've also started doing it without the wheel. Just on hands & knees, a little presure of hands twds knees, and do the breathing technique. All this stuff is now on the Dealing with the Force page (along w/ squats, kb's).

I think these are good threads (America, China, other), but they have a different dynamic than cultivation discussions. Kinda wish they were all moved to "Off Topic". Its just cleaner. Call me British or whatever.

Interesting. Hadn't heard of it before. Closest I know of is the common licorice root, which is very sweet, but the molecules are like super-duper large so they don't spike then drop in the bloodstream. But I wouldn't consider licorice necesarily a general use sweetener. ("Stevia", thought it was a person from just the title.)

So, in exploring acupoints on the orbit, I massaged under the chin (the boneless area in a bit) and the nook at the top of the sternum. Which led to a new appreciation of the resonance of the throat and essence, meditations on the cervical vertebrae and .. sound. Experimenting with sound... I'm basically doing tones while I either the entire little orbit, or back & forth from one pt to another on the little orbit. This sounds nothing like the kidney sound, but sounds a lot like a certain styles of Tibetan & Mongolian singing. These styles of singing are famous for producing two tones at once (which I am not doing), but the immediately striking quality to them is the depth of the low tones. I'm getting results, and I'm excited enough about the things I ordered from Amazon, that I'm listing them here even before I've received them! I ordered from Amazon: Tibetan Tantric Choir Tuva: Voices from the Center of Asia Orphan's Lament Humming Your Way to Happiness Check out some of the sound clips from the CDs. These sounds are expressive of male vitality. The last link is a how-to book.

Karen, Nice video. I'd love to get my blues guitar + tuva up to casual performance level. Trunk

Late to this thread, but you clearly have this one wrong: White doggie is round-house kicking w&b doggie's ribs. Youch!(Obvious if you know tae kwan do like I do!)

Anyone try this? There's no system nor presentation that I know of and - obviously - the legs have less rotational freedom than arms. And you'd have to be careful to not twist (injure) the joints of your rooted leg. But... Fun idea to experiment with.

Welcome. You find a variety of people, good resources, and a remarkably flameless atmosphere.

Yup, has similarities to Scott & Helen Nearing. But his detailed description of his view (philosophy), really just observations of character, community, economy, ecology, is unmatched. Berry's descriptions will give a kind of bedrock clearing of this whole vague big bewildered what the hell are we all doing?!? sensation. --- later edit --- Berry writes both fiction and non-fiction. His fiction is just 'ok'; I don't particularly enjoy it nor find it special. His non-fiction is what I'm referring to here.