Trunk

Way too heavy! Don't do it! This ain't like regular weight-lifting, the amounts of weight that you might be good at with weight lifting would injure you through clubell like movements. Totally different thing. And injury at the level of joint takes a long time to heal. Start way light, like 5 pounds. Give it time, then move up slowly.

The most basic ?'s are always the toughest. There is something about up and down .. that the earth has a "gravity", a heaviness, a force and subtle substance, that can both sink and rise. And that there is some lighter subtle substance above, "heaven", and it has a "gravity" that rises, and it can also sink or rise. There are subtle rivers that go up and down that have to do with the earth and the energies above the earth. You can start to feel these when you do standing meditations. The internal martial arts work with the body very specifically to integrate these forces ("heaven" and "earth") through the tissues, layers, of the body. Through fascia, tendon, ligament, bones. Getting the heaven-earth flows working through, all the way through, these layers is what I mean by "integrating heaven~earth with the human body". This is done through specific systems of movement, and the movements have rules, structure. Some sorts of movement will get this to happen, others will not. Scotts work is really progressive, ground breaking, impressive and important. He's opening up the fascia, which is important and often difficult. He's doing it in innovative ways. And his work would likely be good for a person's chi flow. But the heaven~earth integration is simply not part of his system. Really effective work at this (heaven~man~earth), you're not going to get from a video nor website, nor written text, nor a weekend workshop. Gotta study consistently (like, once a week or more) in person with a good teacher over a long period of time. Its not in the hatha-yoga type systems, and it does require specific form. The internal martial arts do it to a level that is effective martially. I don't say that to encourage anyone hurting each other, but it is a very real, tangible, effective test. It gets done without injury through benevolent push-hands work, and similar. No one gets hurt. Trunk --- (edit later on) --- Its not that a person can't feel, develope, any heaven~earth integration on your own. Various of us can and do. Standing postures, various movement, etc. It just doesn't compare with working with a teacher (who is from an effective lineage) consistently.

I recently got a (password protected) diary program from download.com, and find it to be really helpful.

"Freedom from fear reactivity" is cool, and working the fascia like he does is bound to do some very significant and effective emotional clearing, and improvement in health and chi flow. But that is not heaven~earth integration. Its not that he's calling heaven~earth integration something else; its that heaven~earth integration isn't in his system. And its not even about talking about it or not: Its about whether the structure of the exercises promote heaven~man~earth integration, and they don't. He doesn't have the knowlegde about practices (movements, postures, attention) that integrate those forces through the human tissues. And I'm not knocking Sonnon's work, he is really onto some great stuff. He's just not a tai chi master nor a xing yi master.

Seems to me that Sonnon's work, including clubells, works on the joints and fascia. Clubells (though I haven't tried them, I suppose) through the swinging do work the joints and fascia, opening as well as strengthening. Taoist work also works the joints and fascia. Jing, or nourishment, or whatever stuff, goes through the layers of fascia~tendon~ligment~bone. The thing with Taoist work, that Sonnon doesn't do, is do it through exercises that integrate heaven~man~earth, so that those layers mentioned get heaven~earth integration. This is a large part of what makes the Taoist internal martial arts so powerful. I've been thinking about getting clubells, as I've started swimming a lot and want to keep my shoulders loose. If any of you find links to clubell video clips, please post them! Trunk --- edit later in the day --- I went and bought a simple 10 lb dumbell at the sporting goods store. Since my interest is really simple right now (very gently stretch my shoulder joints), I think dumbells can do it. I found that 10 lbs is even on the hefty side for me, beginning, with this small goal. Turns out my housemate had a 5 and an 8 lb, and they worked great. Nice. (Spending $20 instead of $200.)

1. Exchange of sexual energy with your partner helps to balance and take the edge off. 2. At least sometimes have intercourse culminate in the yab yum position, that lends to more bliss-to-stillness resolution of intercourse. 3. Take time off between sexually active times to return to solitary stillness (through whatever phases of physical work-out, etc, qi gong, meditation that you have to). Unless - in the long term - you get fluent at returning to stillness, cultivation doesn't lead to anything. Trunk

Got a yoga ball yesterday, for supported bridges. Works good for me. Thanks to you guys for the tip.

Continuing to work with the yoga ball, and exploring breathing more into the belly while in that posture. Getting a lot out of it. Thanks, again, for the tip towards this approach to bridging (that i used to think was the "sissy way" ).

All this stuff.

Good idea! Maybe this could be in the Articles section, as an article. That'd work! I gotta add Yi Swallows Chi to my list, between core channel and the 10,000 other things.

This helped me process jing through the spine better.

I've been doing standing ab.wheel, up to a wall, lately. I saw the trick of doing it up to a wall in an article at dragondoor.com; a useful idea, i think, as i'm less likely to hurt my face this way. What has really surprised me, though, is how much the standing ab.wheel exercise processes sexual energy that's in the stomach region, and even into the lower tan tien as well. Hadn't expected that, and its really effective. Kneeling ab.wheel, I didn't find to have that effect at all. So, it gets entry in the "Dealing with the Force" methods, along with squats and kettlebell swings. (As always, comments, constructive criticism, & ?'s welcome.) I'd be surprised if there are many other exercises that ever get in that essay; those 3 cover it from pretty much all the angles. If any of yous guys was to try it, I'd be listenin & curious. Trunk p.s. If someone wants to take a picture of your self doing one of these up to a wall, that I could paste into the essay - that'd be cool. (I'd ask that you choose a distance from the wall that might be reasonably accessable to an average joe. My website isn't geared to the extreme athlete.)

The 9 bottle wind is similar to "vase breathing" in the 6 Yogas of Naropa system. The point of alternate nostril work is to open the thrusting channels, left and right. (Later, through meditation, the energies of those opened & filled channels are brought together into the central channel.) If that's the case, then you'd breathe down the left side when inhaling through the left nostril, straight down through the left middle, through the major organs on that side as deep as you can go. Similarly, right side for right nostril. Glad to hear a correction if I'm wrong on this.

It was definately the same unique noni-juice bottle, so - yup!

Generally beneficial, imo. If it gets to be too much, cut back on your practices for a little while. During formal practice (at least over the course of your week or so), its important to work out your whole body, at various levels, pretty thoroughly - which will gradually diminish the expressions being of kinks. Its all of it, though: Grace, kinks, and just good fun. Also, eat healthy.

Welcome aboard!

lol! The beauty, and great advantage, of these online discussions is that it really takes half a dozen or so very different views to get a rounded look at any topic. Dig it.

Wow. Excellent, excellent post. Thanks for sharing.

Top 10,001: 1. I'd have to say that core channel practice (deep-centers, bindus) and how that connects with emptiness & light is #1. 2. In my current view, the 10,000 practices are in support of, leading to, that. And are all good.

Peter, Nice post! Curious: How has that been going for you? Interesting line of investigation. I look forward to reading your future posts (if you are so inclined) as things progress. Trunk

Its impressive how effortless much of it is, at that level. The coordination, leverage, take over. His handsprings, etc, do themselves to a large degree. He's not muscling-through a bunch of heavy clunking around. Wow. (And i saw that noni-juice bottle at the end! )

Plant It Herbs

There are the meditative states where breath stops, or sometimes nearly stops as one approaches those states. It goes to a very rich deep place. Could be that you are going that direction during standing meditation. (?) In any case, what you are doing seems to be working for your body, and that's the main thing. When your body is ready for something else, things'll shift, and then something else will be right. There is some physical integration that comes from doing the lower belly breathing. It does tap into the more physical layers, and so integrates.. whatever you're working with, with that. For me, the lower tan tien is more and more the pivot point from working with earth energy through the legs and the higher energies that are drawn from the upper. It could be that some moving work, especially in which your legs are moving (and so the ltt engaged) could be complementary work in which its more natural for you to do lower belly breathing. Trunk

The new local phone book arrived on my doorstep today, with Ronald Reagan on the cover! I couldn't believe it, I burst out laughing. Found a picture of my American hero on the web, printed it up, glued it over RR's mug. Nifty color printers. Trunk