dwai

People with real Fajin capabilities will knock the opponent out cold. A split with short power to the head will do that. It is a fight stopper. Unfortunately, sports like MMA cannot sell if one knocks out the opponent with one slap to the head. Other capabilities are real, but repercussions of using short power or cold power is pretty severe. I mean, do you want to go to prison for manslaughter or homicide? I don't think so. I know, many will roll their eyes and be condescending about this. But it is real. At a beginning level, it is about coordinating the whole body movement at once and using simple concepts like leverage, structure etc. At higher levels, it is energetic. If you want to find out what it is about, go find a good teacher. I can recommend a few myself...but you should expect to "eat bitter" if you want to learn from them. They don't really give a crap about proving their abilities to anyone. Many such people tried in the 70s and 80s in the chicago area with people like Master Liao, Ron Hoffman and Master Jose and went back in stretchers...

My teacher has a few practices on his website that might be of interest to you. They are under the meditation section... You could also do the single form practice...they are sort of standing practices but not static however. http://www.gbolarts.com/pages/notes_archive/tc-archive.html These are very gentle yet very powerful.

Do you spend time in places where you might have to resort to fist fights? I think often we tend to waste our energy on things that are unlikely/implausible under normal circumstances. But Taiji practice will result in you being able to walk into a situation and "read" the energy/conditions. But it takes time. When we start, you won't realize it, but suddenly one day you'll just know (feel in your gut, in your bones) how things will transpire. You won't have to think, you won't have to analyze - you'll know. A more immediate effect you'll find is that you can sense people's intentions better - I have a theory as to why it happens - but that doesn't matter. I"m sure other far more senior (than myself) internal artists here will be able to vouch for that.

I found this point interesting - "anticipation of violence". Is that something that bothers you/weighs you down? If that is the case, doing Taiji or Bagua etc will help you not worry about it. Especially when you do some reasonable amount of push hands practice. The constant "threat anticipation" will diminish, and eventually go away and only appear when absolutely needed. Push hands practice will develop two "powers" - Ting Jin and Tong Jin (listening power and understanding power). These manifest themselves beyond just push hands or martial interactions. They will show themselves at times of need - in your everyday life as well. Also, learning Taiji properly will result in sensitivity to energy (thereby ting jin/tong jin coming into play at times of need). This sounds kooky, but actually it is very tangible and has helped me many times (averted some very damaging situations at work and in personal life).

Qi and Jing are actually strong when you are younger. What decays our jing and qi is the process of thinking. When we are younger, we are relatively untouched by concepts such as "I have to get rich(er), I have to acquire these possessions, I have to do this to prove myself, etc". These concepts are artificial concepts instilled by our societies. I consider getting to this stage as "losing our innocence". Prior to that, we have a natural ability to trust, to have hope and to be able to accept things for what they are (at face value) instead of trying to read deeper meanings/motives to them. So, your Qi and Jing will decay with time, unless you can keep your mind clear. I believe this was part of your "De" (translated from chinese as virtue). The De is a complete part of the Dao within all of us - but with time (and the kind of mentality I pointed above), it gets dirty...hidden under layers of junk. Your relatively pristine De will get covered under the junk too, if you don't keep it clean.

Bihar School of Yoga has some good teachers and good system. A famous teacher in India is Ms. Shamim Akhtar. Swami Satyananda Sarasvati and Swami Vishnudevananda were great stalwarts in the Yoga traditions of modern India. Definitely worth looking into. From what I've seen, its not crazy like "Hot Yoga" and is not overtly physical like a lot of other yoga systems are. Bihar School approaches yoga from a very organic and sensible angle.

Doing something like Taiji or Bagua will help you "relax but not be a wet noodle" (it seems it's important to explain what relax is not in Taiji as much as it is to explain what it IS). What it does is integrate your whole being...and you don't even realize it. Even when we're seemingly not making any progress, we are actually making progress (in fact more progress happens when we don't feel the change apparent). If you are looking to feel "stronger", then too it is a good idea to practice the Internal arts. Master Waysun Liao, the Master of our style of tai chi (Temple Style Tai chi) expresses this in his books as "converting from a rabbit to a Cat". That is the internal alchemy...where the very fiber of your being is being transformed with practice. It makes you stronger, more centered, more self-assured and more powerful. Yet this can be in a very non-threatening way. You would become the person that calms situations down as soon as you enter a space. The stillness acquired via internal arts is also reflected back on our environment... Okay...enough plugging for Taiji. Enjoy your practice and don't take things too seriously

To harmonize with Dao, you need to connect to Yuan Qi. To connect to Yuan Qi you need to first feel, then flow and then refine and strengthen your own Qi. By strengthen I mean increase the vibrational frequency of your Qi. Things like weightlifting will increase muscular tension, which results in reduced Qi flow and Qi sensitivity. To feel, flow and grow your Qi you need to stretch gently, relax but not be limp. So, someone suggested Daoist internal practices such as taiji, bagua etc - I would recommend that too. Body building (muscle bulking up) is bad for your Qi and therefore bad for harmonizing with Dao. Doing free-hand exercises like how traditional Martial arts training occurs is not bad, because it balances strength training with stretching and flexibility. And the strength training is done with your own body weight - thereby resulting in lean, powerful physique as opposed to bulky balls of muscle

There are different ways to do the self-inquiry, imho. Any repetitive action done meditatively will result in this - but we have to be aware of this (not fall into a funk of day-dreaming). The elongation of the gap between thoughts - that is the silence. To know where the thoughts came from, to know where they go. That reveals the nature of that which is thinking the thoughts. That revealed, then it too falls apart. Then what remains is the "Self" (my 2 cents worth)

This is what my Sifu tells us all the time - it's time to stop thinking and start feeling, then following and eventually flowing

http://brihaspati.net/downloads/Hatha_Yoga_Pradipika_Yogi_Svatmarama.pdf

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16:48:32 is the same as 1:4:2. one way I've learnt pranayama is with glottis control. Then the purak (in breath) start with 10 seconds and build up to as long as you can without exerting. Pranayama is to be done feeling comfortable. I don't know what your source of 320 cycles it, but for all practical purposes, I would consider 16:48:32 to be the duration of the pranayama. Do as many as you are comfortable with. There SHOULD NOT BE any exertion. It should be done easily and comfortably. If you are exerting, then reduce the duration of the puraka (inhalation) and thereby the kubhaka (retention) and rechaka (exhalation). Most people have trouble with the retention and exhalation (I used to struggle most with the exhalation -- used to be hard while maintaining proper glottis control). So it's a good idea to start small and build it up over a few months time. My teacher is to time the number of cycles for us, since too much would "burn" the Nadis. Doing 10-20 cycles of pranayama this way, in vajrasana, cycling through four mudras would start raising energy very powerfully up the central channel to the crown point (took about 2-3 months to really take effect). A more advanced technique is to do an antara kumbhaka (retention with full breath) and add bahya kumbhaka (retention after exhalation) for 1-2 seconds. Remember, Pranayama is even more powerful than Chinese/Daoist techniques and it's not a good idea to do these without a qualified teacher's guidance.

In Indian traditional medicine (Ayurveda), these are classic symptoms of Vata aggravation (Vata = the Wind element/humor). Typically by dressing appropriately and eating the right kind of food, this kind of mental anguish can be eliminated. There might be something to the claim that many of our phobias and manias are rooted in our lifestyle choices - what we eat, when we wake up, how long we sleep, what we wear, where we live etc.

I know...*sigh!* But by know you'd think almost everyone would get that fact (that they exist) ;-) But on a serious note, to be clear, when I first read the OP, I was thinking, whats the difference (between self-consciousness and self-awareness)? Then after reading further I realized the "self consciousness" being referred to is sort of a pathology (psychological, but a pathology nonetheless) that plagues many people. For all intents and purposes, the terms consciousness and awareness are used interchangeably. So, towards that end, they are non-different in my opinion. The issue then is with the predicate and whether the combination of the two point to - a) consciousness/awareness of our self-hood or self-consciousness Like many have noted, there is a difference between the two To delve into "option a" is a complicated discussion that's probably been beaten to death here on TTB over and over again. "option b" is a pathology of course, and it reinforces that which obscures the Self-hood of "option a". Hope I made sense. P.S. - To further elucidate my point, it seemed to be that we become "pathologically self-conscious" when there is an image to uphold. Like Matt pointed out, when there is judgment involved - "how will I be perceived if I do this, or say this, or wear this etc". The scale of this changes as we grow. The flip side of self-conscious (in our mundane everyday context) is self-confidence. If one is self-confident, the self-consciousness fades away (or at least doesn't take on the menacing pathological demeanor that it's notorious for).

First define the "Self", then we can proceed. Different people have different definitions of the term "Self" ;-)

Here's a nice article that covers this to a certain degree. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rajiv-malhotra/dharma-religion_b_875314.html P.S. I have often used the word "dharma" as an example of how it's translation does it injustice. Many words in the Indian lexicon have meanings/implications that change with the context. Which is perfectly clear to the native speakers, but leaves non-speakers/non-native speakers perplexed and confused. Same is the case with other Asian languages such as Tamil, Chinese, Japanese etc. For instance if I say to someone "the tiger's dharma is to eat meat", it might not make sense to anyone who is non-native what that means in actuality. I could go on and on, but I will give let you have the pleasure of embarking on the journey of discovery all by yourself.

To show you where English is inadequate you have to learn other languages. If you know Sanskrit or other Indian languages it will be evident to you. Perhaps even Chinese, Japanese or Korean. There are a whole slew of words in Sanskrit-based and Chinese languages that are untranslatable into English. When translations are made, the corresponding words are inadequate. Good for you that you have been exploring consciousness for aeons. Unfortunately for you however, that fact stays sort of "hidden" behind your bluster and raucousness. GIH, you are one of my favorite commentators on TTB. But I think you tend to get carried away. Whether that is by design or by accident is irrelevant, since your often cogent argumentation gets lost in the tirades that spew from your keyboard :-) At least you don't try to drown original thinking in inanne reams of quotes from other people... Perhaps if we dial back the rhetoric and actually participate in constructive discourse, the topics will be better served?

It's not really a big deal. I'm a native Bengali speaker who grew up in Southern India where Kannada is spoken, so I learnt that. I had to study Sanskrit as part of my schooling. Also, Hindi and English are part of standard education, so I had to study both.

Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali, Kannada

You are making it quite apparent where the "buffoonery" rises from. Also, I am very well acquainted with the English language. It its various inadequacies and lack of logic is very apparent to me. I do have the experience of being fluent in 4 other languages besides English. I'm sorry to inform you that English is by far the most "stupid" of them all. Another problem with your line of thinking is, well, the "native english speakers" didn't really start exploring consciousness until a good 2-3 thousand years after the Indians and Chinese did. So, we do have what one would call a gigantic head start over you "great ones" :-) The smarter ones amongst your ilk (like many members of this forum) tend to realize that and try to assimilate what has been done (concepts like antahkarana and manasa among others) from both Indian and Chinese languages.

Just because you want to use less sophisticated definitions doesn't mean others should. If you have limited vocabary you will be limited in both understanding and expression.

That is the definition of mind per Vedanta, Yoga and Indian internal traditions. The capacity to know, experience and to will is of what is called the "antahakarana", of which the mind is an apparatus. As such, the "mind" is just a tool, a sensory apparatus.

The mind is a stream of thoughts, constantly flowing in our consciousness. There is no "location" of the mind, it is everywhere our consciousness is. The thoughts are objects that have labels but no physical "form" (as they don't exist in mundane space, only in time). We often mistake our mind as being consciousness. The mind is nothing but a stream of thoughts. It's role is to bridge the physical body and material universe with consciousness. Consciousness stands on it's own, mind doesn't exist in the absence of thoughts.

You should check out John McLaughlin's DVD titled "Gateway to Rhythm" -- http://www.amazon.com/John-McLaughlin-The-Gateway-Rhythm/dp/B000SUKPFM/ref=pd_bxgy_mov_img_y