Trunk

I made this soup today and it's yummy. Herbs in the front L->R: - he shou wu (grind in a coffee grinder) - dang gui (this is the "fist" part, not the "fan" part - either part will do but the fist part is pretty hard so you'll have to take it out of the pot after a while, once it's softened, and cut it up) - shu di huang (that's actually sheng di huang in the picture, but shu di is better. Cut it up with cooking scissors) Ox tail marinated over-night in mostly red wine with smaller portion of red vinegar. Oxtail meat is sinewy and this helps soften it as well as gets more out of the marrow. (Thanks! also to Shaktimama for mentioning the importance of vinegar.) Put all that plus vegies of choice in a crock pot and simmer for at least several hours. Or use it as a base to add various other things to. *Yummmm* Good for the essence and blood. Nourishing, circulating. - Trunk p.s. Oh, yeah: I put miso and seaweed in there, but you could spice it up any way that you want. Added vegies of the day: yam and brussel sprouts.

awaiting rebirth of the coolest thread ever give me Haiku Chain!

When I talked with Max and described how I was doing the mane mantra, from top to bottom, he said it was similar to their 'waterfall' method. From what I've seen of Jenny's presentation, it's intelligent and well oriented. *whew!*

~~~ TTBs Moderation ~~~ I moved this thread out of the "Book Club" section into the main "Taoist Discussion" section. "Book Club" section is really for sustained co-reading of whole books (or as far as we can get). This thread topic is really just one specific item. (... maybe I'm being picky.) Anyway, could be you get more participation here. - Trunk ~~~ Mod Squad out ~~~

~~~ TheTaoBums Moderation Team ~~~ I ask everyone participating in this thread to take a few breaths, dispel any negativity you might have, and generate loving kindness. There have already been moderation actions (plural) behind the scenes to (hopefully) help facilitate this. If you could bring the discussion back around to a spirit of kindness and clarifying principle, not attacking each other, and just let whatever prior ruffles be water under the bridge, well... I'd really appreciate it. love, Trunk ~~~ Mod Squad out ~~~

Correct. Different things are appropriate at different stages. To use a metaphor, in the beginning stages people have difficulty lighting a fire and so you work hard in certain ways in order to get a fire going. Later stage, after kundalini awakening, it's like your whole house is suddenly on fire and so you do some of the opposite things that you were doing before. Meats provide rich nourishment and help you ground. Blood and yin Chinese tonic herbs also help ground and nourish. Also minerals. It's important to get minerals in liquid form (either gel caps or straight liquid). Posts re: minerals here and here. (Not that you'd avoid herbs at any stage, nor minerals really. But early stages you need less meat.) btw, I've found these acupts to be extraordinarily helpful.

Some thoughts: 1) Prevent burn-out. Some of the strategies for progression invert before/after KA (Kundalini Awakening). For instance, diet. Before you want to eat as high refined stuff as you can, maybe fast, etc. But K itself is very yang: wrathful, expanding, bright, - and it can deeply burn out your reserves over the course of several years. So, eat nourishing. If you're vegetarian, consider eating some meat occasionally. Chinese tonic herbs (mostly blood and yin tonics) are good during this stage. Here's another example (link). 2) Along with diet, to prevent burn-out, don't go pedal-to-the-metal. Prior to KA you generally have to work really hard to get things to open and refine and to make progress. After KA, the opposite: things open almost too easily. And your attitude towards training should shift accordingly: go slower, don't push yourself, give yourself these first several years to gradually slowly integrate the huge energy that you've already gained access to. Don't push it all the time. 3) Open all of your channels via self-acupressure (link). People tend to go into the ultra-exotic post KA, which can be a kind of excess yang. For you to do well long-term, you really need to integrate K in a balanced integral fashion. It needs to go into all of the rivers and tributaries so the right blendings occur such that you maintain health. Very few people have done that work and K certainly doesn't do it all for you. Basically, if you can integrate K in a balanced integral fashion then you'll make stable healthy profound progress. If not (and it's too often 'not') then there's a chance you'll have really amazing wild experiences for several years and then be messed up for a long time. - Trunk

~~~ TheTaoBums Mod Squad ~~~ Moderation action has been taken for Spirit Ape's offending post back in pg 9 of this thread. Just wanted to let people know, it's not ok. Also that the 'Report' button does work. - Trunk ~~~ Mod Squad out ~~~

A few thoughts... Both liver and spleen reside at/near the level of solar plexus. Other than already mentioneds, could be a liver~spleen disharmony or a liver (more generally, wood: Liv + GB) disharmony or a kidney~liver disharmony. It wouldn't be too surprising. We are in beginning of stages of spring, it is the season of transition from water to wood (kidneys to liver). Heavy stuff tends to get jammed up as it starts to express and circulate. That would be my guess and IF I'm right then maybe these ideas of method would help. ? - massage GB + Liv channels - qi gong / tai chi movements that rotate the waist - any kind of regular ol' exercise, your choice, but you have to include something that will get the blood moving, promotes general full body blood circulation.

There is Master Kim of SunDo.org. He speaks english. I saw him at a seminar in southern calif yrs ago, clearly had impressive development, was patient kind and english speaking. My impression is that Sun Do and Kouk Sun Do are basically of the same system - what the differences are and what the politics are, I don't know.

Here's an easier reference to the point locations. One graphic for the points near the hand, one for the foot. Also, I put similarly located pts in the same positions in the graphics. For instance, there's a point near the pinky finger in the upper left of the hand graphic, and a pt near the pinky toe in the upper left of the foot graphic. There's one at the inner wrist at bottom left, one at inner ankle similarly.

Couple notes: 1) The confluent acupts are all near the hands and feet, and in similar positions on the hands & feet. So, they're easy to reach and easy to remember. 2) I find that doing a little bit of wrist and ankle rotations helps flow this process along.

It's a meditation shawl, not a whole outfit - and he's got a variety of them, diff colors etc. Main outfit is invariably normal western attire (with the shawl draped around the shoulders during sits). In most of the meditation groups that I've been in, most of the people (teachers & students) wear some sort of large shawl (color & fabric: your choice). It's nice to wrap around you when you're sitting and after. Almost none of the external formalities from.. whichever tradition exist within Hard Light. No one ever calls Mark anything but "Mark". You could consider yourself of any tradition and could study in Hard Light. Yet the internals are ... vivid. I'll get off my soapbox now. - Trunk

Welcome! Quickly intro-scanned your site.. reads well, worth a better look when I've got a moment. And, of course, rockin' avatar. - Trunk

Yeah, my rxn is the same, still blows me away. My basic rxn sitting with Mark was: eyebrows halfway up my forehead and jaw on the floor. And the vids are of when he is "just talking", during lecture. Then there's the meditations. I found, of those two vids, the most distinct transition at around 8 minutes into the first video. Dug'm both.

Check out http://sundo.org/

I discovered Chris Smither in the 90's, happened to look him up today on youtube - found a newer song. Wow, how much goes into making that! He's a foot tapper - provides drums for his song. I think he has a special platform (maybe mic setup) to more effective sound his stomps. And the lyrics! Wow, that took a lot of work to map that all out and make it into something fun & clever that rhythmically rhymes! Yikes! And the practice to put it all together with the guts to do it in front of people!?!?! FUN!

Bumped into this vid, recently. Worth it to watch the full screen version at YT. ldPf3yqq3-8 Also rented Alex Grey's "Chapel of Sacred Mirrors" on dvd, recently. He really does a great job of using multi-cultural symbols, in a pretty spot-on way, while always returning to non-sectarian truths about the body, on many levels.

~~~ TheTaoBums Moderation Team ~~~ Correct. (And thank you for kindly acknowledging the positive on both sides of this issue.) TTBs is a level open playing field for discussion. Still some remnant of that banner description on the main page, under the description of "Taoist Discussion" (quote at top). This is a broad playing field, room for debate, different angles of view, segues, within a thread (happens all the time). There is no single microphone. TTBs has broader discussion boundaries than going to see a speaker at a lecture. Different format, broader dynamics. Might be an adjustment for those used to being in a class environment. Points based on comparative religions certainly doesn't break any TTBs rules. Nor points based on no religion, but simply one's own pt of view, experience. Incorrect. - Trunk ~~~ Mod Squad out ~~~

Welcome to TTBs. A number of good things to learn... - foundation meditation of following the breath - still standing postures, ck chu's book is good, but any simple instruction of simply standing and breathing - people tend to like spring forest qigong as a system. - hang out and you'll hear all kinds of tips here. - Trunk

PTI, but I've been distracted by my nose. I'll dig up some quotes later, but a few thoughts riffin', and I really don't know much about the eight extraordinary vessels (EEV), but... The only of the EEV's that have acupoints of their own are du & ren (the orbit). All the other pts for the other of the 8 are on other (regular) channels. The EEV are obviously deeper. They have to do with congenital jing, and big stuff like heaven~earth~man integration and the deeper meditations (central vessel). They "regulate" the regular channels, meaning they both buffer stress and provide back-supplies of vitality when needed... or something like that, I don't think I'm describing "regulate" correctly. (help!?) So, anyway, the EEV are important and fascinating for qi gong nerds. The thing is, with all this stuff... I mean, with the integral body - it all works together. I just don't believe that you can open the orbit (or any small set of channels) and solve all your woes. I think that probably practically much more effective is to work on everything in a balanced fashion... but how?, and is it too much for me to ever learn? Well, my understanding of the confluent acupoints for the 8 extraordinary vessels, is that it's a short hand way of giving a balanced activating treatment to all of the EEVs. I think it's interesting to experiment with vs. just the orbit. I think the EEV's are a cool topic and anyone who wants to say anything about 'm, I'm all ears. - Trunk

Welcome!

I've been doing some slow deep alternate nostril breathing (which included a gentle lifting of hui yin in the pauses between, mostly at the bottom of the inhale).. been doing it for.. 5,6? weeks or so. My impression is that the deeper subtle channels of the nostrils have to do with the left & right thrusting channels. And my impression is that there's a lot of alchemy with the nostrils and ren and the channels left & right of ren. .. and it's such a nice way to by-pass the eyes. Usually when consciousness hits the eyes it's just a mess from there, as far as stilling the mind goes. This is like, ok, not so much attn on the eyes and that allows ren to flow on past the face, or du turn into ren or something like that. The "sealing of the senses" like you were talking about before. Like turning off the juice from a propeller that creates turbulence in the flow.