Sloppy Zhang

This is true as well. Sometimes I look back and think "why didn't I know this back then?" And I retrace the steps I had to go through to get where I'm at now. If I didn't go through those phases, I wouldn't have arrived at where I'm at now! Still more to go, but it's good that now I'm at a place where I can "look back" at something

Once you understand a principle, REALLY understand it, you can teach it wherever that principle arises. The external form doesn't matter, but the internal substance. I've explained stuff that I've learned through meditation/qigong/philosophy to friends by using examples of video games, music, math, drugs, fighting, sex, pen spinning, basketball, homework.... anything. Part of it is knowing your audience. I think a large component to "crazy wisdom" masters is that they aren't giving out the same external package each time. They're going off of the situation, they're bouncing their lessons of of the ideas and conversation topics of the people they're talking to. They seem crazy and out there because onlookers don't understand the message the teacher is giving. But maybe that just means the message isn't for them.

So, something I've always wondered.... What happens when you go to the southern hemisphere? Do all the directions and stuff get switched? Sure North American Indians may have come up with similar systems to the Chinese and north and south and the directions/origins of cold/warm winds.... but what about South American Indians? Native people living in equatorial regions? African cultures? Indigenous people of Australia?

Specifically consult these books: 1) Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body 2) Relaxing Into Your Being 3) The Great Stillness In about that order.

Ummm.... nothing special about the discussion. There have been longer, far more rude, and far more enlightening conversations about the topic out on the web (interesting how good and bad can come out of the same discussion!!!) For anyone who has ever been involved with them (raises hand) over any significant period of time (raises hand), they are fairly predictable. These guys have obviously had the same conversation with the same types of people over and over again, no new ground gets covered, and they just start dicking around in the thread. It happens.

First off, every system needs the basics. The basics you can find pretty much anywhere, for free or for very cheap. No point in spending $1000's of dollars to meet a teacher and have him say "yeah, you should work to a point where you can sit and follow the breath for an hour before you progress". You could have gotten that from a book! Get to a point where there is no place for you to go BUT a teacher. Get to a place where you are asking the right questions. Get to a place where every option, every stone you turn over, reveals things you have already encountered. THEN you can start shaking things up. So work on the public material first. There's a LOT of stuff out there. And every master will tell you that the secrets are in the basics. So realistically, all the info you need is already out there. If you want to do physical feats, the info is out there. Look at body building, nutrition, body weight exercises, cardio, etc etc etc. Those footless pushups, for instance, require the development of a lot of muscles and different kinds of strength that just aren't trained outside of specific training regiments. Basically, you've pretty much got to train to do them specifically. And the information is pretty much for free on the internet! But you're still going to need to work up to a point where you can do a certain number of pushups, sit ups, leg lifts, etc etc on your own. My point: you know where you want to end up, so work backwards, step by step, until you get to the point where you're at. The problem a lot of people face is they know where they want to go, but they don't know how to get there. Somewhere down the line there's a gap. Once you know how to get to where you want to get, all that's left to do is just to do it.

If there's an issue or question you'd like to take up with a seemingly knowledgeable person on this forum, shoot them a private message. If they haven't blocked you, and if you aren't a complete ass, most people are actually pretty helpful and willing to share. If you demonstrate that you are at a point where the knowledge they may impart to you is something that 1) you can understand, and/or 2) you're at a level to actually use, you might just find something very nice. A while ago someone made a thread for "tao bum pai", for consolidating information into one tao bum system. Obviously didn't work out. So many people coming from so many different systems and so many different paradigms. So many different worldviews. So basically, don't count on it. If there is a conversation that is going on that doesn't make sense, RESEARCH IT! It's the internet. There's information everywhere. Kunlun is an interesting example because it has held a major place on TTB's for a LOOOOOOOOONG time. There are many threads on it, most of them dozens of pages. Some people have gone back and deleted some of their old posts, so some valuable knowledge is lost. But a lot of it is still there. Enough to get a background in it, at least. The Flying Phoenix Qigong thread is HUGE, but as far as I can tell, contains tons of information. Michael Lomax (Ya Mu) has posted pretty regularly over the years, so if there's any questions about what he teaches, go to the source! Gonna involve some work. But I'm pretty sure forum searches and reading up on archives is MUCH easier than horse stance

So cruising through books or the internet, I always came across references to withdrawing the senses, doing it in certain ways or certain steps, etc. Never really paid much attention to it because my practice wasn't there at the time. These days, I've felt a very strong urge to "pull into myself", as it were. That reminded me of the whole "withdrawing the senses" thing. So when I tried to go back and look up info on it... I couldn't find anything! Ain't that the way it always goes? Anyway, any links, resources, books, websites, experiences, teachings, etc, with regards to this part of the practice would be very helpful. I'd prefer something Taoist, because that's mostly what I practice, but I figure other things are helpful as well, which is why I posted it in the general section Thanks all!

Well if you'd like other things to happen, you could always look in other places. Some interesting people making some interesting claims.

It ain't you, it's just boring Weeeeeeeeeell I guess it depends on what your focus is. For instance, B.K. Frantzis writes about how in some days during his training, he'd do a single Tai Chi move and take an hour to complete it. Why? Because he was at the point where he was working on such tiny refinements that, moment to moment, he had to make them as he went. He didn't want to go too fast and break connections. When he looked at the clock, he saw that hours had passed! I've experienced similar phenomena myself. When you become so absorbed in what you're doing that you don't look at the time. In the words of Qui Gonn Jinn from Star Wars- "Your focus determines your reality". If you are focused on the time, meditation is slow as balls. If you're focused on energy sensations, meditation will be pointless (especially the kinds you are doing). My suggestion, honestly, is to get "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body" and start with learning the breathing. Yes, the breathing- full abdomen, sides of your belly, lower back, and upper back. Why? Because it gets you to practice paying attention to your body. And, incrementally, it increases the amount of time you spend focusing, as well as your ability to relax while doing so. Then, when you move on to opening the energy gates, you'll have practice in 1) feeling 2) having the attention span to actually be patient enough for stuff to happen The methods you listed involve sitting and focusing at different points (if I understand SFQ correctly, and I can't say I've spent too much time on it). If you haven't done stuff like that before, it ain't gonna work. Also, when dissolving and stuff, until you build up to it, I suggest doing it in whatever posture feels good. Frantzis' material can be done sitting, standing, lying down, moving, or during sexual activity. Obviously some modes are more difficult than others. So if sitting makes your legs feel numb, lie down. If you fall asleep while lying down, oh well, at least you had a good nap!

Well the thing is they were more like things I saw in passing, and thought "I don't need this", so I never saved them or remembered them. Then I was like "I need some of that now, I think" and tried to remember what they were/where I found them... and then I couldn't!

If your diarrhea sounds like dubstep then there's either something VERY wrong or VERY right with you

Best to start at the beginning:

I discovered this in college.... Except I didn't go back to sleep after the first four hour chunk, I just got up and went to class Sometimes on weekends I'll get up for a bit, mill about, and then go back to sleep for another couple of hours. Pretty cool stuff!

Jerkin' it... without ejaculation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWzOQTFwRBE "There's no such thing as polishing the raised scepter of love too much... Also, practice makes perfect, so work on your control now, while you're a solo artist, and you'll be playing some long, happy duets in the future."

Especially since I started retention

This is why I stopped doing it. I was literally writing novel length entries for the details and plots of my nightly dreams. On top of that, most of the content was inherently meaningless or recycled crap. I had that realization after I spent a week in solitude. No human contact, and meditating through most of the day, while the night would be entering into lucid consciousness. I noticed that my dream content in those nights was composed of stray thoughts I had during the day. If you don't have a method of dealing with the content of your consciousness (some meditation method), lucid dreaming is going to be meaningless, and you're just going to be dealing with your own projections and expectations about what you think should happen. The chances of doing anything real are going to be pretty slim. I think. What do isolated/enlightened people dream about? As far as I have read in certain Taoist lineages, nothing. Their consciousness is clean and clear, so their sleep is deep, restful, and empty. Any dreams they do have, since their consciousness is so clear, are composed of higher level energies that they are easily able to perceive. None of the sub-conscious crap that clutters most everybody else.

Be less concerned with learning sleeping qigong and more concerned with learning the entirety of a complete system, of which sleeping qigong is just a part. I know that, for example, Michael Lomax's tradition has many different aspects and qigongs to it- running qigong, tree qigong, sleeping qigong, standing, walking, etc etc. But they're all just aspects of one overarching practice. I assume it would be the same with the Dragon's Gate lineage. I for one have done a LOT of dreaming and lucid dream work over the years since I started lucid dreaming as a child. I'm just going to tell you up front that, as far as my experience goes, dreaming/lucid dreaming alone is not a very viable strategy. It will be far more effective as a supplement to some other practice. Maybe at very high levels you can switch the ratio, where it is the sleeping which informs most of the practice. But unless you have a lot of experience in a practice in waking, or if you are a phenomenally experienced/talented dreamer, you won't get much out of a sleeping practice on its own. Then again, I have no knowledge or experience of methods from either tradition. You might have more luck contacting Michael Lomax through this board (Ya Mu), unless he hasn't been around, which might be the case, since I don't follow him, or for that matter, keep up with anyone's forum activity. I'm not sure how accessible the Dragon's Gate lineage is. From what I have seen, Michael is tremendously open and accessible. You should have no problem finding out information on seminars and events, and I'm sure if you could meet him in person and demonstrate that you're committed to a full practice, he seems like the kind of guy who'd share with you what you'd like to know. But that's just my impression. Not responsible for anything that goes on between you and him

B.K. Frantzis wrote an interesting article about this. There is "dabbling", where you do a little bit of everything, and your end knowledge is kind of shallow. And then there is cross training in multiple things to get a single focused better understanding of something, so where your end knowledge about an area becomes very deep. So if you're training xingyi, for instance, you might be interested in how your body creates and issues power. You might think of your aikido days, and look at how aikido handles the issue. Then during kettlebell training, you might be paying attention to how the force generated is the same or different in xingyi, and how it might change in aikido. Then you might look at how you handle all of those factors with added variables of endurance when you take up hiking. So yes, you are doing more than one thing. But you aren't really "dabbling" in the same sense.

Bardon recommended it in "Initiation Into Hermetics". Tried it for a bit. Found it pretty exhilarating. Then I just got lazy

Depends on how far down the rabbit hole you plan to get. In the tradition that Frantzis represents in his books, it starts with the physical body, then moves on to energetics, then into emotions, mind, psychic stuff, karma, and on down into essence and finally the Tao itself (or something to that effect, consult the section in the books on the eight energy bodies). So a beginner is going to start with the energies of the physical body, and work on blockages and energetics rooted there. So in that regards, yeah, it would be pretty far fetched to start talking about places where awareness can center that are not in line with the average person's routine physical modes of being. But once one progresses to the energetic body, or the emotional or mental body, then yeah, I'd imagine you'd get into where things are located that are not physical or, perhaps, not even within the realms of everyday consciousness Not that I'd know anything about that beyond just the theory

If you're looking to expand your practice of Frantzis' Water method, read and pay special attention to what's in "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body". I'd also suggest you read Vol 2, "Relaxing Into Your Being", as it gives you a better idea of the larger context, and it gives you some clues as to where you're going in the long run. But that's just me... As to the whole dantien thing, there's a lot out there. Yang Jwing-Ming talks about the "true" dantien and the "false" dantien. I do believe the "false" dantien is at acupuncture point. He says it's a real acupuncture point, but isn't going to be able to store any energy. Then he talks about the "real" dantien. Comparing notes, I do believe the dantien that Frantzis writes about is the "true" dantien that Yang Jwing-Ming writes about. Maybe I came into the days where there was more information about what the dantien is, but I've never seen anybody write about a dantien that wasn't pretty much the same "center of your being" that Yang Jwing-Ming writes about. So when I read it, I was a bit confused, only to find out I was on the right track all along But I'm sure it was something Yang Jwing-Ming saw that he felt needed to be addressed. Basically, stick to the breathing exercises that are presented in "Relaxing Into Your Breathing". That is your foundation. Learn to find and maintain awareness on your dantien. Then, for the dissolving part, consult the dissolving in "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body". A brief description of dissolving is given in "Relaxing Into Your Being", but it's much more full in Energy Gates.

Well, you know, sometimes you've got to wonder.... If you've got a system, say, of a religious nature, but not necessarily, and you have a lot of crappy people coming out of that system, and causing a lot of problems, but you've got a few "good people" coming out of the system, to the point where you have to hunt for the "right ones", then... well... maybe those "right ones" are being right/good IN SPITE of the system, and NOT because of it...? Just a thought. It seems to me that a good system should produce repeatable results. Judge a tree by its fruit, yeah? If most of the fruit is crap, maybe the good fruit you are eating fell off another tree? Even a broken watch is right twice a day, right? I dunno. Maybe I'm tired of being accepting of other peoples' crap too? Humans in general need to get a clue. A spiritual path, I think, should help in that pursuit. Systems that don't help people get a clue, or tell them that being clueless is, in fact, the way to be, and which might actively discourage people from getting clues...? Maybe they should be on their way out? I also have the public school system in mind as well. I know a LOT of smart people who came out of the public school system... but they were smart because of their own work, and the public school system did little for them except provide hurdles that they had to leap over (which they did, because they were amazing people themselves). But the people who aren't amazing? Aren't helped at all. I'm tempted to say that much of the Christian organizations work the same way. Intelligent, kind, caring, compassionate people are the way they are because of the way they are, not because the Christian system made them into that. Because there are a lot of ignorant, uncaring, not compassionate people out there, and I haven't seen the Christian system do much of anything at all in the way of helping that.

I'm told, from the novelist perspective, that writing to get money is not a good idea, because even if you get published, that ain't a guarantee. Stores like Barnes and Noble, when they pick up books, have to buy the same books for ALL of their stores. So if your book is a regional story or something like that, or only has a niche market that isn't going to do well nationwide, you might not get picked up. The upside is that if you do get picked up, your book is instantly everywhere that the store is!!! As for screenwriting, this is what a teacher in high school told be about it: There are two ways to go about writing something- you can write something that's never been done before, or you can write something that's been done before. The reason why so many crappy movies get made with the same characters and predictable plots is because they are guaranteed sellers. They're going to get at least a certain amount of money no matter what. Of course, the trap with that kind of thinking is eventually it's going to get stale. But hey, who's thinking about that? If you do something new and off beat, you're probably going to be more likely to be picked up by an indie production group. Of course, that means less money, so your idea better be cheap to produce Anyway, I went in to college and took several writing classes, as I wanted to be a writer. Still have good ideas and jot them down every once in a while, but I don't work on projects like I used to. It really is a craft. There is such a thing as good writing. A great story written poorly is just a tragedy. My advice is to learn how to write. One of my professors told me she had a friend who worked at a publishing company in New York. The woman would read novel subscription on her iPad on her way home from work in the train. Which means that if your story isn't good enough to keep someone's attention when their attention is already divided between reading+train+end of the day+ could be surfing other websites, you've already got yourself in a hole. I try to have that framework in mind when I write. Which goes back to the writing as a craft idea- you've got to build it, literally word for word, all the way up. Each word has to hook your reader and keep them following your story. As soon as you detach them, you're running the risk that you'll just get rejected. But I think like encephalon put it, a lot of people just quit. It really is work. Sometimes it's not the one with the best story that's successful- it's the person with the FINISHED story out there. Twilight sucked, but it was a finished product that could be marketed towards a target audience. Basically: 1) Learn to write 2) Learn who you're writing for 3) Know how to market your shit

Don't mean to sound like a broken record, but B.K. Frantzis talks about this in his book "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body". Basically, he stresses how the knee is a weight TRANSFERENCE joint, NOT a weight BEARING joint. But since many people are out of touch with their bodies and get into some crazy sports positions, and since it's apparently a pretty easy shortcut, we find ourselves just letting our weight drop only as far as our knees. Can't say I've had any knee problems in my life, but always been a bit stiff in the legs, and when I started to become aware of my body, I noticed how my tendency was to feel weight pooling in the knees. Basically, you've got to set yourself up so as you move your weight is going right down into your foot. When moving (in the book its taught via a kwa squat, but I extrapolate this to everyday life) you shouldn't feel your knee at all. The weight should transfer and go straight down to the foot be be absorbed through the ground. If you're feeling it in other places, it means you're shocking your system. I don't really have a good way of explaining how you do it. I never learned from an in-person teacher, so don't know what to tell you Just play with your body (sounds dirty....), your lower back, kwa, knees, ankle, and foot, and find a configuration that works for you. So in some sense, you're going to have to "re-learn" almost everything you want to do. But I think once you do that, and once you can make it second nature, you'll be set for life. I'm still young so I don't think about it as much as I should, but as soon as I start feeling stuff in my knees, I always reorient my position.