Walker

Well, that's just one side of a coin, and at the other side is the fact that you, as a practitioner of Longmen Daoist arts, are a benefactor of a line the traces directly back to Wang Chongyang, Ma Danyang, and Qiu Chuji, who all chose a staunchly monastic path and recommended it for some (but not all) of the aspirants they taught.

Thank you for sharing this. I think your observations are important. While it can be easy to say something like, "well, if these monks are susceptible to temptation, then they're not real monks, so monasticism is inherently hypocritical and maybe even itself a violation of natural principles," your comments reminded me that the whole point of any real monastic environment comes from honestly acknowledging how human it is to be susceptible to temptation. The walls (both literal and figurative) of any cloister exist precisely because the monks--if they are honest--are clear about how they will not make the progress they wish to make unless they separate themselves from aspects of the human world that they are not, at least at a certain stage of their path, capable of standing aloof of. It doesn't take a leap of imagination to see how allowing internet connections in monasteries is a bit like filling them with liquor cabinets and allowing overnight visitors in monks' and nuns' bedrooms. Sure, drinking a beer (or ten) and having a cuddle (or an orgy) are "natural" behaviors. Hell, maybe even some orgy-having, watermelon-fucking, cognac-swilling cultivators can reach their spiritual goals without giving up the booze and sex. But: monasticism has always existed for those who admit to themselves that they need at least a long, long break from access to those external things that will derail them focus on their inner lives. That's why it is important for all people connected to a tradition that has a monastic path to respect the monastic lifestyles. Nuns/monks, non-monastic clergy, and laypeople all have a part to play in this. It is sad when laypeople who call themselves "believers" or even "practitioners" not only don't respect the monastic way, but even throw themselves full force into becoming sources of chaos in monastic environments. Case in point: the person who narrated the watermelon story to me in person carried on a sexual relationship with a monk in White Cloud Monastery for years. She even took me to meet the dude once; in addition to this mistress he also secretly had a wife and child and as such was always busy trying to find ways to make money while living as a "monk" so that he could send it to his wife, who would show up at the temple and threaten to out him if the cash flow dried up. One day I went to visit my friend for tea (I swear, just tea... and maybe a few cookies... fuck it, I'm not a monk, I can have cookies!) and she complained bitterly to me about a much older monk in the White Cloud Monastery who saw her poking around one of the places where monks have bedrooms, looking for her beau. Her man wasn't in, and the old monk saw her, walked over and said, "I know who you're looking for, he's not home," apparently, she felt, with a look of judgement and contempt on his face. All she wanted to do was complain about this judgmental bastard, and when I pointed out maybe he finds it upsetting that she's there several times a week to get her fuck on right in the middle of his monastery, where he specifically moved in order to cultivate the Dao in relative peace, well, hmm, maybe she could turn the light of judgment on herself just a tiddily-tad. This flew right over her head, and in fact she complained about that incident to me several other times over the years, despite also lamenting the "even worse" antics of White Cloud Monastery, which are multifarious and are not limited to boning veggies on web cams. That internet-based temptation has been problematic for monks in the Eastern Orthodox church is sad, but it also makes me feel a little bit better about my own tradition, as it shows that this isn't simply a challenge that Daoist monasteries are, as a whole, failing to deal with effectively. I think one problem is that people remain too attached to the letter of monastic code written in ancient times, and not the spirit. I know many chain smoking Daoist monks. Why is this okay? "Wang Chongyang, et al, did not forbid smoking tobacco." Right, motherfucker, because they did not know about it! They also did not know about getting sucked into the WeChat hole and much other crap, but it doesn't take a fucking prophet who can talk to the ghosts of Christmas past to make a good guess about what Wang Chongyang mighta said about staring at a phone to play mah jiang or flirt with "the faithful" five hours a day. Point being: anybody who struggles to answer the proverbial WWJD question here just doesn't wanna deal with his/her addictions du jour. Anyway, I finally finished doing my research into Zhang Mingxin and Four Dragons. Holy fucking shit, that's a whole 'nother can of worms. Gonna need a whole new thread, and a few hours to write it all up. She wears blue but she's as red as Lenin and she's found a bevy of gullible American pawns only too eager to become "priests." Madness. Madness.

Jim Jarmusch? I'll have to watch this sometime!

I said "convince," you said "prove." My point is that he fails to make cogent arguments, therefore he has not established grounds for his tendentious rambling in things that normally convince people: excellent logic, strong evidence, successful appeals to conscience, poignant anecdotes, and the like. I would not say he is the only person here who fails at making cogent arguments. Read more carefully. Careful reading would be a good skill for a boy who wants to learn Daoist magic (or anything else) from books. Sure, it extends to those. We could talk about those questions. If it is important to you and you have something intelligent and convincing to say, why not make a new thread about it? Hmm, is your favorite superhero Projecty the Projecting Projector? No? Rearry? Oh, hmm, huh, no, no reason... By the way, I don't hate white people as a group, but I do find insular, paranoid, racist white South Africans who pronounce "white South Africans" in this Emperor Palpatine sounding-ass voice as "whet Seth Efrikens" rather distasteful. Are you perchance one of those? Emperor Palpatine had quite the magic powers, I guess... Liiiiiiaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. You directed us to the following video to show us your role model and source of goals: I direct everybody's attention to 18:00. Napoleon Dynamite-ass... I will not be responsible for peed pants (make it raaaaiiinnn!) Also, Boerwors you have plainly stated that your desire is to explore the far reaches of the universe as an immortal whose personality is never obliterated. You. Are. Seeking. Siddhis. Beware of self-deception and other-deception if you're really trying to walk the path you think you want to walk. I doubt they will serve you well. But then again, I'm no authority. Whuh-whuh-whuh-well, buh-buh-buh-but, obviously! Now you do! Toodles! I see the resemblance!

Sometimes good to take a break and get some distance. Stay safe and healthy!

@sean seemed to imply on the "No More Right-wing Bullshit" thread that this forum is not a place for "crypto-antisemitic conspiracy-theorists." I consider @gendao one of those. I have also reported his repeated anti-Christian ranting, which I see as belonging to the same spectrum of behavior as the racism and transphobia that was explicitly banned. I say this despite the fact that I am no fan of most of Christianity's iterations. @Earl Grey, you could maybe chill a bit with the yelling at idiots. They do need to be dealt with head-on sometimes, but there's a point to be made that yelling at them too much can make you seem more like them than not, and perhaps also makes some people uncomfortable. I don't know what the best way to deal with these incorrigible agenda-heads is, though. Good-old "civility" failed here over the years as well; it can win over reasonable people we don't agree with or at least help us to "agree to disagree" or just keep out of each others' hair; it doesn't work well with people whose reasoning is impaired. Treating trolls, cult recruiters, fools, maniacs, megalomaniacs, conspiracy theorists, bigots and perverts who gloat about sitting cross-legged in McD's leering at children as though they were remotely normal, well, normalizes them and their behavior. This behavior only gets worse when it is normalized, not better. That is why I think it can be necessary to conflict with such people openly. But if, after all the fighting, they never change, never accept defeat, never leave, and never get banned, the conflict seems only to simmer, or even grow and spill over. I agree that Gendao needs to stop swooping into thread after thread to "decolonialize" us with stupid, prejudiced, David Icke-esque caca. In a world with no such thing as a perfect option, I don't see why not to ban him. He doesn't seem to learn anything here, he hasn't convinced anybody of anything, he makes it so people can't have serious conversations about the very real problem of colonialism, he's a bigot, and seemingly his only supporter is a guy who took fifty pages of arguing to half-assedly admit that he's not really in the MoPai, but even so still continues to refer to himself as a member of the MoPai. Pretty crappy character witness. I think there is good advice on when, how, and why to ban in this article about the Reddit /relationships subreddit: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/10/reddit-moderation-relationships-subreddit-memes/600322/

It's cool you guys have enjoyed the conversation, but since this is an issue that has at stake thousands of dollars for people who get involved; however much time and social as well as emotional investment they make; and the reception of an ancient, living lineage with extremely strong and clear characteristics in non-Chinese-speaking countries, I hope that in addition to being stimulating I can shed light on perspectives that were expressed to me by Chinese Daoists over the years who believe that the monastic vows are extremely important. There are some serious issues at stake here and this conversation is going to get a lot more complex when the time arrives to write about them. As for celibacy, I think Socrates' advice is excellent... Unless one is talking about people who have joined a tradition and adopt an identity that not only implies but downright requires--stringently, repeatedly, and publicly--that its adherents forgo the opportunity to have sexual relationships. At that point (especially when speaking about purported monks and nuns who live off of donations and money collected for the performance of religious rituals and offering spiritual/religious teachings), we are no longer speaking about an individual choice, but a communal choice, in the sense that the ramifications of one's choice extend beyond one's own and one's sexual partners' bodies and sexual activities, and outward to the rest of the spiritual/religious community that supports the existence of monastic life. So again, given that Quanzhen Daoism has always made room for there to be non-celibate lay disciples (the sujiadizi I mentioned above), why are Zhang Mingxin, Four Dragons, et al now rewriting the script, and under what authority do they do so? At any rate, I will write more on this later, as the nun Zhang Mingxin has left quite a lot of eyebrow-raising footprints around the internet that are very germane to this topic. That is spot on. Hi Nathan, For whatever reason you have ignored my questions repeatedly. I am going to write about your grand-teacher and the issues I've raised here whether you reply or not, but I would like to remind you yet again that you are welcome to offer your thoughts before I write more. Also, Nathan, you replied "spot on" to Taomeow's post that covered a number of topics. What, exactly, did you think was spot on about it? Specifically, do you mean that you are familiar with the Daozang Xubian? If so, which of its texts, and by which author, do you feel are relevant to you, your teacher/grand-teacher, and Four Dragons? (I mean this specifically with relation to there being Longmen daozhang who are non-celibate and may not have to follow other aspects of the monastic code). Have you read them in Chinese or in translation? If the latter, where did you find them? Thank you.

You know, I had written some other stuff, but really, just two things: 1. You don't speak for "a planet that otherwise has no voice," that is just madness. Even as a metaphor it's ridiculous. 2. Why not give GSMaster's advice a solid try?

No, I've been watching from day one. I held my tongue when Zerostao made silly comments, because while they were silly, he generally seems like quite a reasonable fellow. You, on the other hand, remind me of a pitiful crackhead yelling about the apocalypse on the subway. I mean that 100% literally. If it stings, check yourself. If it doesn't sting, double check yourself. And if you still think the words "humanitarian" and "CCP" belong in the same sentence... Fuck it... Keep on doing whatever it is you do all day, because you're probably past the point of no return. At least real life batshit is a useful fertilizer. Batshit crazy? Just kinda sad.

Never even heard of this movie, but sounds... Interesting to say the least! I've met some pretty mad Daoist monastics myself. I know a few Catholic ex-nuns and I know a lot of Buddhists, too. From what I've seen and the stories I've been told, my armchair expert opinion is that monasticism can be a place to make great spiritual progress and become more sane; it can also drive people crazy as well as attract crazies who only get worse now that they've got dogma, a social identity that puffs them up, and a belly full of free food. In between the extremes, there are a lot of people just treading water. Longmen monasticism has a bit of all of that! In Complete Reality Daoism, 道長 is only ever used to describe those who have formally entered the monastic life. In Orthodox Unity and other schools, it is used differently, and may have nothing to do with asceticism. I think that is a good way. I see nothing wrong with people figuring out what works for them. My own main teacher instructed me to do so, and said that that's what all who have had success do, while the oral teachings and writings they leave behind are merely their own expressions based on their own experience. I remember well a very low-key nun on Wudang I visited a few times who would occasionally get asked by curious seekers (often those kind of surprised that the actual monks and nuns who were not affiliated with kung-fu schools on the mountain didn't, in fact, seem to ever do any kung-fu), "what exactly do you all practice here?" She would always reply very quietly and succinctly, "各有一套," or "each of us has our own set of practices," with a polite but firm tone of voice that clearly ended the conversation. But relevant to this discussion is also that she was very adamant about the fact that certain things, although they don't mean you can't cultivate, do mean that you're not really a 道長; and that certain other things mean you simply do not have 德, and are therefore walking in a direction that will not take you where your robes and funny hat imply you wish to go. Nobody seems to get excommunicated and even getting banned from a temple is rare (that I know of), so she quietly pointed out to me the people who I would be wise to avoid. Two of them were and are quite famous. Time gradually tends to reveal that which is not obvious at first glance, especially to a young, exuberant seeker with stars in his or her eyes. What I gradually learned about one of those men over the course of the years that followed made me grateful for the nun's simple warning early on. Well, Daoist religion is certainly not short on color! Yes, it is a complex situation, and I think there is a graduated scale between legitimate and illegitimate, but of course with some absolutes. The serious monks and nuns I know have never expressed a need for some sort of reform of the monastic code, and are in fact so firm in their support of it that I have had it said to me by more than one monastic that the Longmen rituals won't work if the Daoists performing them do not uphold their vows. They say this is because the spirits associated with the lineage will not respond (感應) when the strictures of the lineage have been violated. Thus, 德 is a key link between human and heaven, and it is necessary for a ritual to be 靈; one role of a true ritual master who can see is to actually get the immortals being petitioned to enter the temple. Lying and living a double life will, I am told, sever this connection. While humans are fairly easy to deceive, immortals cannot be deceived. I am indeed curious if whoever is minting Longmen 道長 that do not need to keep the monastic code has expressed the reasons for electing to make such a gigantic break with centuries of tradition.

Omg, Hyperbole made real. There is literally a volcano raising ash on one man's neighborhood, poisoning the air, wreaking havoc in his community, and threatening further explosions, While there is another man who sees this as a good time to start jibbering about the Catholic church and colonialism. I could see @gendao walking past somebody on the street who's just been hit by a car, looking down, noticing that the victim has a crucifix necklace, and going, "hmm, welll, see, did you realize that that's a colonial icon around your neck? No wonder you got hit by a car, it must have been the revenge of the aboriginal spirits, and how ironic that they would use industrial technology to exact vengeance! I would call an ambulance for you, but actually western medicine is high carbon footprint violation of natural principles. And anyway, if you weren't brainwashed by the Europeans you wouldn't be afraid of death. Plus, to be honest, I don't want to call 911 for you because I'm pretty sure they play subsonic brainwashing waves through the earpiece if you call the authorities. So sorry, I have to go, you see if I get to McDonald's after 10am they already switched from breakfast menu to normal menu and then I can't get my six Egg McMuffins and four hashbrowns that I need to eat to have enough energy to play World of Warcraft all day. Ta-ta!" Amazing. In one sentence: "That boy ain't right."

Gotcha. I will re-read Esposito's article when I've got a bit more time, definitely worth returning to. My thoughts off the bat: Syncretism has always been a part of the Quanzhen movement, going back to the very earliest days. It is part of the commonly accepted lore that one of Wang Chongyang's famous "seven disciples" (can't remember which one off the top of my head) achieved accomplishment only after receiving further instruction from immortals following Wang's death. As early as the third generation of Quanzhen one can find clear record of important Quanzhen Daoists who were also lineage holders in other sects (I wrote about this here maybe two months ago, I can dig up the post if you want and give a link). So, this is to say, I do not think any sensible person with a knowledge of Quanzhen history would ever point at a specific, discrete praxis and declare "that is orthodox Quanzhen cultivation." At the same time, they laity was an important part of the Quanzhen movement from the very beginning, with Wang Chongyang founding (iirc) three lay organizations called 會/hui where non-monastic students and disciples could congregate to receive teachings and practice. The idea of lay disciples of monastic Quanzhen figures seems to have always been a part of this movement, up to the present day; as some lay disciples have reached very high levels of cultivation, there are also lines of transmission that left the monastic fold long ago. I have never seen a member of Complete Reality Daoism question this phenomenon unless the lay teacher in question was in it for the money or--as I have personally been privy to, knowing the targeted victim personally--worse, such as sexual abuse of students under the guise of "transmitting the Dao." (This sort of thing also arises in monastic settings, of course). So, to recapitulate the above, there has always been lots of room for syncretism in Complete Reality Daoism, and there has always been a wide-open door for those aspirants who do not wish to 出家/chujia/become monks or nuns, and thereby lead their lives according to the strictures of monastic discipline. Those who walk through that door are often called 俗家弟子/sujia dizi, meaning " disciples with worldly families" or something like that. Sometimes they are also called 居士/jushi, a term borrowed from Buddhism that means "householder," from the Sanskrit uppasaka [sic]. However--and this is a big however--I have never in well over a decade of mingling with this world heard it be said that one can be an honest Longmen monk or nun while carrying on sexual relationships, eating animal flesh, indulging in intoxicants, and doing many other things that generally seem antithetical to an ascetic pursuit of spiritual goals. To be sure, there is an abundance of dishonest Longmen monks and nuns these days who fuck around as much as they please, including in their temples, including in the great White Cloud Monastery, including on goddamn video-chat with their girlfriends who later get pissed off and share their screengrabs of their monk boyfriends fucking watermelons during cybersex. Like, literally and for real: The above, much as I hate to admit it, is an affair that was narrated to me in person by somebody in White Cloud Monastery a year and a half ago--this isn't just some internet gossip, it's just par for the course in modern PRC Complete Reality temples, where you might have trouble finding anywhere quiet to meditate, best case scenario because the guy next door won't turn the sound off on his smartphone "beat the landlord" game, or worst case scenario, because he is roaring in the throes of passion as he discharges his precious jing into a helpless piece of produce. Despite the prevalence (now and historically) of monks and nuns who take vows that they are unprepared to observe, there nevertheless remains a strong core of monks and nuns who live by these vows, and they draw a very clear line between monastics whose path is 正 and those whose is 邪. It's not really very hard to do draw this line. If one vows before an altar under the observance of witnesses during a formal ceremony to abstain from doing certain things in order to simplify one's life and focus on spiritual attainment and be better able to live in selfless service to the community... and then one takes the donations said community gives to buy liquor, take girls out on the town at night while in lay garb, play video games all day because being a "monk" means you don't need a real job, etc... Then, well, that's 邪. Now, I understand, deeply, that there are those who may say, "but you don't need monastic vows to reach the Dao!" Others may go so far as to protest, "monastic vows are contrary to pursuing the Dao, they shouldn't exist at all for Daoists!" (A Zhengyi priest I met in Hunan called Quanzhen monastic rules "perversion"). And if you ask me, those are both points that are worthy of serious consideration! But, If one believes that monastic vows are unnecessary or even counterproductive, why would one join a monastic order? There are plenty of ways to cultivate the Dao without being a Longmen monk or nun. Claiming to be a Longmen monk or nun while either secretly breaking the vows or while openly saying "we don't need the vows" seems awfully strange. And I promise that I am not alone in these opinions, having spent thousands of hours around Daoist monks and nuns in China, many of whom are very forthright in expressing their worries about the chaos (亂 being the word used most in these conversations) prevalent in modern Daoist temples and monasteries. Anyway, Taomeow, can you give links to the Longmen initiation phenomenon in Taiwan you mentioned? To my knowledge there has been little to no monastic Longmen presence in Taiwan until very recently, and historically no in-country monastic line (there may have been a Longmen monk in Tainan in the late 1800s, but that is not historically well-established, and he did not leave behind lineage descendents). Thus one currently sees Taiwanese aspirants traveling to China (Wuhan and Laoshan in Shandong being to major destinations) and spending time there before being accepted as monks/nuns; their number is still very small. I do know a couple of young women who take part in Longmen rituals in Taiwan in Daoist regalia, but they fly Chinese monks and nuns over to lead the rituals, and are very quick to emphasize that they themselves have not become nuns (出家) if asked.

Before I reply, @Taomeow, can you please clarify what you mean by "syncretic" here? @Nathan, you've now ignored my questions twice. Why?

Nocturnal emissions with a dream, perhaps. Nocturnal emissions with no dream are called 滑精/huajing, which is different from those with a dream, usually called 遺精/yijing or 夢遺/mengyi. Huajing is generally understood to be primarily caused by weak kidney yang. There are various types of mengyi which are categorized by their causes, which can include excessive desire, built up jing fluid, kidney yin deficiency leading to a type of "fire" (metaphorically speaking) that disturbs the mind during sleep and triggers wet dreams; and visits from entities which in English I suppose we could call incubi/succubi. "Weak subconscious" arguably plays a role in all of this, but not necessarily the main role. For instance--supposing that we interpret the term "weak subconscious" in a similar way--a person with this problem may be more easily "seduced" in sleep by a ghost. However, strong qi in and of itself will protect the body from the advances of such creatures, and not everybody who has strong qi has a strong mind, just as not all people with strong minds have strong qi. Premature ejaculation is not generally treated as a symptom of qi stagnation or insufficient qi circulation in Chinese medicine, and since Chinese medicine is very good at treating this condition, I lend credence to its explanations. Premature ejaculation is also more about deficient kidney yang (leading to the inability of the body to "hold" jing in long enough) or kidney yin deficiency (leading to "deficiency fire," which means that the various sexual responses, including both arousal and orgasm, are too easily triggered, kind of like a fuse that burns way too quickly). Chinese medicine also recognizes the mental factors that dominate the thinking on this condition in western medicine, anxiety and excessive excitement being the main culprits.

Thanks! @Nathan, is that correct? Can you please explain why your grand-teacher said that westerners can be Longmen Sect daozhang but not maintain celibacy? And what vows do you take? Are there other traditional vows of Longmen monks/nuns that your grand-teacher said westerners can eschew? Thank you.

This is a good observation. However, that's not how the advice was presented. I don't pretend it is a one-size-fits-all cardinal truth (I don't think it is), and it always seems to be the case that a reasonable teacher will emphasize that there are caveats and factors related to an individual's constitution, age, diet, mental habits, sex life, etc, etc. At the end of the day, the most important constant seems to be having an experienced guide on hand who is capable of giving individualized advice to his/her students when need be. I cannot, and they would not help much. One is from within the Longmen school (not a branch of it that I have ever seen mentioned in English) and the other from Yang style taiji (a branch that believes that the source of Yang-style taiji was Zhang Sanfeng). There are soooo many different interpretations of what Longmen Daoism or Yang style taijiquan are that I think those two names in and of themselves are almost meaningless. Any two Yang style teachers in the same borough of New York probably teach entirely different things, to say nothing of a Yang style teacher in Brooklyn versus one in China. As for the Longmen, at this point I don't even know if more than 5% of practitioners even bother to read any of Qiu Chuji, et al's writings, and sometimes it seems like if a method ever existed in China, there's somebody out there teaching it and calling it "Dragon Gate"... I predict within 20 years we will see Dragon Gate chakra-balancing essential oil crystal reiki and Nine Dragon Gate Secrets to Getting Rich (I'm not joking). What I can share is this: both approaches involved the mingmen, with the understanding that it has a role in the conversion of jing to qi, and therefore prevents "spillage" while also taking advantage of what would "spill." The Longmen teacher still taught lower dantian focus and qigong, and combined this with intentional qi guiding using the mingmen. The mingmen is a key factor in this instruction, but not the only one. The Yang style taijiquan teacher eschews with any and all lower dantian practice and uses the mingmen directly. Neither method is simple enough to guess what it involves (it'd take a page of writing to try and clearly explain either), so I hope sharing what I just did does not lead to at-home experimentation. Also, practicing either method without a teacher to help guide the process would be dangerous. I am certainly not qualified for such a role, so I'm not going to add any more details. Finally, if somebody already has a good teacher who is teaching a practice involving the lower dantian, my intent is not to suggest that one should doubt one's teacher. I shared all of the above more for the DIY and "self-made-man" crowds.

Is there a chance you can type the Chinese characters of her name here, or link to a place where they are written? Why is that?

Hi Nathan, thank you for coming and offering to answer questions. What do you guys mean when you say "Longmen Priest?" Do you consider yourselves to be 道長/daozhang in the Longmen order? I ask this because Longmen daozhang are traditionally understood to be "left-home" (出家/chujia) Daoists who take vows with close semblance to the Buddhist monastic vinaya, which includes abstaining from sex, meat, alcohol, and even garlic and onions. Your teacher is pictured on his website with his children and you mentioned them here, too. Is he raising in them in the capacity of a monastic practitioner, or a householder? Does he teach people in your school that if they wish to become Longmen priests they must take monastic vows? If so, what are the monastic vows he transmits? Also, what does it mean that Lovitt is the "representative" of Abbess Zhang? What do you mean by "ambassador" in the above paragraph? Thanks.

_/\_ Not trying to pass anything off as cardinal truths, just sharing a little bit of advice handed to me along the way... And keep these 20 year old aspiring wizard boys from having to waste all their money on Tide

A warning that I have not seen mentioned here and which I have come across in China from martial artists, TCM doctors, and qigong practitioners is that regularly placing the mind upon the lower dantian (意守下丹田 in Chinese), especially in young men, can lead to excessive nocturnal emissions and premature ejaculation (I do not know what, if any, problems it could cause for women of any age). Various personal experiences from my own practice in my 20s as well as 30s lead me to put credence in this warning. There are instructions unique to different schools which can mitigate this problem and take advantage of its causes to transform what has built up and is destined to "spill" for other uses. There are also Chinese schools that teach to avoid placing the mind upon the lower dantian at all. As always, best probably necessary to find an instructor in person if possible (the perennial advice). I cannot offer further details, I apologize. To be clear, I don't know anything about breathing into the lower dantian, that's not what I'm talking about. But since whatever that is sounds like it involves keeping mental attention there, figured I should share this information.

That's a very cold herbal formula, hope you don't have to take it for too long! Then again... better'n not being able to breathe. In Beijing a few of my friends built these. Very effective, very cheap. You said you can't get masks, but maybe you can find those HEPA filters at a local hardware store and attach them to the fans I'm guessing you've already got due to the climate you live in. While they won't help you while you're outdoors, they'll vastly improve the air quality indoors (if you keep the windows shut). I had a different kind of inexpensive HEPA filter in my home in Beijing and highly recommend it. The difference is really noticeable!

We need a new response icon for laughing and crying at the same time. I predict it will swiftly become the most frequently used one of all.

I know, dear MegaMind, I know.

I see. Allow me to make a modification then. "Online student of legitimate student" =/= "Face to face student of legitimate student" =/= "Legitimate student" =/= "Formal disciple" =/= "Lineage holder" =/= "Lineage holder empowered by his/her master to teach openly" And, "Online student of legitimate student" < "Face to face student of legitimate student" < "Legitimate student" < "Formal disciple" < "Lineage holder" < "Lineage holder empowered by his/her master to teach openly" Ultimately this doesn't change much. Nobody in the English-speaking, so-called "Mopai" online is a formal disciple or above. Thank you for publicly clarifying the issue.

That is fine, MegaMind. I believe you. However, "Online student of legitimate student" =/= "Legitimate student" =/= "Formal disciple" =/= "Lineage holder" =/= "Lineage holder empowered by his/her master to teach openly" Also, "Online student of legitimate student" < "Legitimate student" < "Formal disciple" < "Lineage holder" < "Lineage holder empowered by his/her master to teach openly" Anybody who has spent any time in the milieu which John Chang occupies understands this. If you do not, either you are an outsider, and therefore ignorant by default; or else you have reason to know better, and are being willfully ignorant for some reason. Why you choose to persist in ignorance beyond me, but it is your choice. Again, I thank you for making it clear that neither McMillan nor Danaos were formally inducted into the Mopai in Indonesia, and that therefore not you nor any other online so-called "Mopai" enthusiast on the English-speaking internet is, either. It is good to have clarity on this issue. No further questions at this time.