Sloppy Zhang

In opening the energy gates of your body, he gives another metaphor for dissolving practice- Clench you fist really, really tightly, so much so that the knuckles turn white- this is analogous to "ice". Relax your hand so that while you still form a fist, it is loose and has no tension- this is analogous to "ice to water" Relax your hand even more, opening it and letting the fingers spread wide apart, but don't force it open- this is analogous to "water to gas". I actually used this metaphor/image (don't try to picture it, feel how it feels instead, experience it) to make the most advancement in my dissolving success. Basically, I did what I did with my hand at any point in my body that felt tense. It really helped me more. It can also help with physical problems. A couple weeks ago I woke up in the middle of the night and was about to have a Charley horse, but dissolved it pretty much instantly and had no problems.

Could you talk a little bit more about what you don't get? **disclaimer** I've only learned the water method through books and have never had an in person teacher that's affiliated with any of Bruce's schools/methods*** I don't know how much help I can be. Just reading the book, the method and philosophy really clicked well with me, so I didn't seek much supplemental material to explain. Basically, in general, you have 8 different "bodies". Starting with the physical, they get more and more subtle, as well as larger in terms of how much space they take up as well as being higher vibrations. Most people have blockages in the various layers of these bodies which impede energy flow, which therefore impedes your ability for your awareness to perceive them. Blockages manifest in a lot of ways- as feelings of tension, as strength (a tense strength, like if you flex your muscles really hard and go "grrrrr" rather than, say, a relaxed and explosive strength of a sprinter or swimmer that's crouched and waiting for the gun), or if you can't feel. If you can't feel an area at all, it means that your awareness can't perceive it, and that's not really a good thing- you want to reach a point where your awareness can be constantly pervading everything. Tension means energy can't flow freely. So when Bruce says you go somewhere with an agenda, I think he means that when you examine a blockage, you aren't just looking at it and going, "hmm, a blockage, it's preventing energy flow and constricting my awareness!" Instead you go in and say, "hmm, I have a blockage here, my energy isn't flowing and my consciousness is constricted.... let's get rid of this blockage so I can be healthy!" Then, you use the outer/inner dissolving method to get rid of it. He says to use the outer dissolving method for the physical and (I think) qi body, but once you hit the emotional body, you can start using the inner dissolving method, though you can still use the outer dissolving method, and he says that at a certain point the two can happen simultaneously. (I think here I should note that I haven't really used the inner dissolving method, as I haven't reached a solid point working with "the mindstream" which he talks about in one of the later chapter of "Relaxing Into Your Being" and reading the sections on inner dissolving in "The Great Stillness" he always talks about the mindstream, so I never really tried because I figured I couldn't do it right anyway until I get the mindstream thing down) But that's not to say that "observing" is not important. Because it is important. But part of observing is following the blockage and trying to get out as much of it as possible. So, you might dissolve it and feel you've dissolved it all. But as you feel further down, you feel more of a blockage. So you gotta dissolve that. He describes it as a downward spiraling process. Each step you get deeper and deeper and deeper until you reach nothingness. All the while you are releasing bound energy. Also, as you release a blockage, you could start feeling various bodily sensations, energy sensations, emotions, thoughts, etc etc. These are considered to be experiences which are tied up with the blockage, so as you release the blockage, you release these thoughts. From personal experience, sometimes I'll get the most random thoughts and memories pop into my mind. Completely off the wall things that I would never think about, and have no reason to think about as they had no prompt other than working through some certain problem. Old injuries, old incidents, old memories, emotions, regrets, thoughts, etc etc all pop up even though your only goal might be to release the body. From Bruce's methods point of view, experiences and energy can be stored in the body, so as you release the body you help to release these. And as you release the physical body you can move into the more subtle energy body. And from there you can get even more subtle, as you piece through the 8 energy bodies until you finally reach the Tao. But I also think that at certain points you can feel large blockages in various bodily levels even if they are "out of order". And that's kind of my one grievance with the way Bruce's books progress- he's really REALLY big on never ever progressing to a later step until you've mastered the step you are on now, which is good in normal cases, but sometimes you run into a problem which just can't be solved with the level you are on. But, when that happens, in my experience, just apply the main principles: To be supple and flexible is to be a student of life, to be rigid and hard is to be a student of death (paraphrased from Dao De Jing I believe). When you have a problem, take some time to observe it. How is it making you feel? What thoughts are brought to mind? How is it affecting your energy? How is it affecting your body? As you identify them, dissolve them, let the energy flow freely, and you'll be fine. For me it got to the point where as soon as I started worrying too much, I just automatically let it go. Same thing with emotional/physical stress from day to day life. I start to get frustrated or whatever, and I instantly think, "whoa, tension, dissolve, dissolve....." and I'm good. Basically, dissolving is the keyword for Bruce's method (at least as I understand it through the books). So many things happen on their own if you just get out of the way and let them happen. I used to have really bad posture, but as soon as I started dissolving key muscles, my spine just suddenly moved into place and I had perfect posture. It was really surprising. If you just get out of the way, your body corrects itself. Yes, I've surprisingly come across a number of texts and instructions that describe various practices that I've discovered naturally just by practicing the dissolving process. I think this is very important. Just taking a look at his website and some of the courses/seminars he offers, it's very clear that he's marketing a certain package. Even reading his books he sometimes goes overboard in creating some package that he is trying to toss to people. And to some extent, it's understandable- someone who doesn't know what Daoism is at all sees two or three methods that are separated only by a few nuanced points, and it's easy to lump them all together as the same. So to a certain extent, he's gotta swing far in one direction just to get people to budge a few inches. There was an article the Michael Winn wrote a little while ago about "fire" and "water" in Daoism, and he took some issue with some of the language that Bruce was using, noting that in order to "dissolve" in the first place, you need the "fire" that is brought by awareness. Bruce's response (paraphrased, of course) was that they do it in a watery way. In general though: This is what I would keep in mind. Keep dissolving. Keep letting go. If it feels like you can let it go- do it.

Hm, yeah, I'm a big fan of the series, and when I saw the previews I'd say the animated series was near perfect as it was, but noooo, we can't have a "cartoon" be popular.... gotta make it "live action".... There are just some things you can do in animation that you can't do in real life, or that are hard to do in real life, or that just look cheesy and stupid in real life. I thought the animated series had great continuity when it came to the bending and keeping everything very stylistic, but really cool. The whole series just fit together really nicely. It's sad that greed ruined another good thing So I had no intention of seeing it in theaters, and now, probably never will see it at all.

So, a little while ago I chanced on something on tv, some ABC thing I think, that involved people being "supermen". One of them was a lady who was a "mermaid"- she had a giant fin on her legs and would free drive to ridiculous depths without air. She said that you have to relax and open up as much of the lungs as possible to get as much air (reminded me a lot of daoist breathing, and the longevity breathing that B.K. Frantzis teaches), and then she said you need to hold you breath past this point where the lungs start convulsing. She said that the lungs and diaphragm start freaking out, but if you can get past that, you can hold your breath for a ridiculously long time- I forget how many minutes, while still swimming around like a fish. So, might be something to it.

Goooooooood..... goood.... let the hate flow through you.... - Darth Sidious No, I am a Jedi, like my father before me. - Luke Skywalker

This is actually good advice..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHzAMMDvdqg&feature=popular Seems to work for this old guy.

I'm not an energy healer, nor do I know of any excellent ones that can or would treat your condition. I WILL say however, that B.K. Frantzis' book "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body" is really, REALLY very good at helping you to develop inner body awareness, and an ability to relax tension and release energy from within your body. I'm not sure what you did to screw yourself up this way, I'm not aware of any specific techniques to heal problems caused by MCO or something, but I do know that if you can get the hang of releasing energy, and grounding it out, it will do wonders. B.K. Frantzis also has two other books, "Relaxing Into Your Being" and "The Great Stillness", which teach really simple but powerful breathing exercises, introduces bagua stepping techniques, and leads into the inner dissolving process to dissolve emotional issues. So if Energy Gates helps you, check out these two books as well. To that extent, starjumper's tai chi suggestions is really good. The Energy Gates book teaches principles that apply to the internal arts, so if you can apply what you learn in that book to your tai chi practice, you will really be helping yourself out. If you want good resources on the Yang style, The Essence and Application of Taijiquan is a really good book written by Yang Chengfu, and his stop disciple, Fu Zhongwen, expanded on some details of the exact same form, with very detailed drawings for each step: Mastering Yang Style Taijiquan Success in learning from the sources I've suggested, and success in this energy cultivation in general is, in my experience, directly related to how much you can let go. It goes double whenever there is a problem. Don't aggravate it. Your body wants to be in balance, and will return to balance if you let it. How long it takes to return to balance depends on the severity of the problem and on your ability to let go.

So when I was just starting out on this path and I didn't know much, I didn't have a problem with accepting things like, there might not be a universal truth, you should try to remain a student and learn from everything, look at things with a fresh mind (the humility of a child, one might say). However, as I practice more, live more, and accumulate a variety of experiences, I can't hep but think that I might know certain things. I might say to myself, "well this might not work for everyone", but maybe some part of me is still thinking, "I'm right and they're wrong, they just don't see my side yet!" So when I started, and looked out at religious debates, philosophical debates, things like that, I thought they were all silly. I thought it'd be so great if everyone would return to being a beginner. But as I gain my own experience I realize that each of these people arguing certain things have reasons to believe whatever it is they are saying. I have my own experiences which back up what I say and think, as I'm sure others do. I'd like to keep the fresh mind that I started with. I don't know anything. Not get involved in any arguments or judgments because, what do I know? A whole lot of nothing. But.... I do know stuff, and that stuff has been validated by practice. I used to look at people involved in crazy confrontations, and think, "wow, they really lost sight of the path, they get all caught up in stuff..." I used to look at teachers who thought they had all the answers, and I thought, "wow, I don't think I'll ever become that arrogant!" But as my experience grows, I see how I CAN become that arrogant further down my line. And why wouldn't I be? As a more experienced person, I'd have dozens, hundreds, thousands, of experiences which back up what I'm saying. And who dares question me? Some dude who took an intro yoga class and think he knows what I should be teaching???? So where does this leave us? What do you guys think about this? How can you simultaneously have a fresh, open mind, while at the same time make progress in whatever it is you do, and accumulate experiences which validate those methods?

No, I'm not. I'm saying do something that isn't going to make you feel like shit. On the one hand, you lament the fact that nobody likes love and that you don't want to be a dick. And on the other, you lament the fact that you aren't getting laid because you aren't the right person to get laid. In case you haven't noticed, but the solution to each one involves breaking the other. Which means that you either sit here in misery and confusion for the rest of your life, or you change your worldview. You realize that women aren't just into painful relationships (okay, some might be for psychological reasons, but not more so than men). You realize the world isn't "evil" or run by "evil" or that you need to be "evil" to get ahead. You realize that you have to be confident in who you are, and love yourself before anyone else can love you. You take whatever cards you are dealt and play them to the best of your ability, and play them confidently with no compromises. You're talking to a girl that isn't so into you. Okay, move on. Oh, you're talking to a really nice girl, you're getting along great. You ask her out. She invites you over. You have fun. She's not looking for a serious relationship. You are. You move on. You talk to another girl who isn't that into you. You move on. Meet a nice girl, she's sick of dating guys who are dicks, sees you're a nice guy, you get into a relationship. Maybe you have sex, maybe you don't. But you don't really care because it's the relationship that matters. Maybe it lasts, maybe it doesn't. That's life. You try. You fail. You try. You succeed. Maybe you fail more. Maybe you succeed more. But if you only try once or twice and fail both times and never try again then you will ALWAYS fail by virtue of the fact that you quit. You seem to have this idea in your head that if you go out and try to meet girls you somehow have to compromise yourself. If you are so un-confident that you feel the need to change in order to pick up a girl, you aren't going to get many girls, and the girls you do, you are never going to keep, because on some level they are going to sense that you aren't confident enough. If you think you have bad luck, you WILL have bad luck. Why? Because when you are un-confident, women can smell it. Subtle changes in your voice, posture, mannerisms, etc. Subtle cues that you give off that women consciously or subconsciously pick up on let them know whether you are on the level or not. I'm all for free thinking and being different. Not being part of the crowd. Word. That's legit. I respect that. But being different DOESN'T mean you repel women. Being different ATTRACTS women because you set yourself apart from all the other guys who are trying to get your attention. The QUESTION is whether you see that apart-ness as a GOOD thing or a BAD thing. If you think it's a GOOD thing that you are apart, and play it confidently, it's a good thing. If you think it's BAD and get all nervous, it's a bad thing. Sometimes a girls(s) I know will catch me meditating on a bench somewhere. I'll just be sitting with my eyes closed. They ask me what I'm doing just sitting there doing nothing, and I say I'm becoming one with the universe. They look at me and say I'm weird. I smile and say "thank you". Depending on who she is I may even give her a little wink then they laugh and smile and say "whatever" and we keep talking. Point is, I don't let it hold me back. I address it when it comes up, then I let it go and move on. Don't get attached to it, and don't let it hold you down. Because if you go "oh my gawd, she thinks I'm weird, I'm never going to get laid, and she's never goig to want to be seen with me!" then you've already lost. And guess what? Girls are just as much concerned about what guys think of them as guys are of what girls think of them. When they meet a guy who doesn't care what other people think, who acts according to the situation confidently, without getting all worked up over little things, it makes them feel better. Because if YOU feel okay about people thinking you are a little weird, it makes them feel more open and relaxed around you, and more willing to "be a little weird" around you too. I've learned crazy things about some of the most unlikely women. Some really attractive women that have "weird" hobbies, "freaky" obsessions, random, off the wall thoughts. Really, it's "normal" stuff, but they are so afraid of their image. Just smile and listen. Try to get them to talk about themselves, and be open to it. People, not just women, like to feel comfortable in situations.

There are LOTS of girls who don't have sex until college age. There are LOTS of girls who don't have sex until *gasp* they get married! And *gasp* sometimes that's not even until their mid or late 20's!!!! Seriously. If you're in college, it's not a big deal if you're a virgin. Some of them think it's cute. You can tell them you don't have much experience, but are willing to practice, even if it's long and hard That's the thing. You have to play it with confidence. Your view of women, and humans in general, is dangerous and, no offense, misguided. You are going to wind up hurting yourself a lot of you continue on with this thinking. The reason people are attracted to what can be viewed as "evil" is because "evil" people DON'T CARE. The bad boy doesn't care if you think he's a bad boy. The bad boy doesn't care if he misses a goal in soccer. The bad boy doesn't care if he's never had sex. They play it off in an unaffected way, and carry on with their lives. If someone brings it up, the "bad boy" doesn't let it affect him. THAT'S what attracts people. The attitude of, "if you don't like me, you can go fuck yourself and I'll carry on with my life". (I'll give you a nice guy translation: "If you don't like me, that's fine, I don't need your approval. I'll be over there. Bye.") But guess what? Nice guys can have a confident attitude to. Seriously. Being a nice guy does not mean being a doormat. Nice guys get plenty of action.

I hate to tell you buddy, but that's a skewed point of view from a limited perspective. From MY perspective, what you say is wrong. I'm a nice guy. I get plenty of girls. I'm telling you, it's about confidence. Even if you lose a soccer game, if you play the loss off confidently, it's not a big deal. If you ACT defeated, dead, and emasculated, you WILL be defeated, dead, and emasculated. If you don't let it affect you, then it gives you an air of impenetrability. "He lost, but it's like.... it's like it didn't even bother him!" If you're a virgin because you haven't gotten any, and you won't ever get any unless you aren't a virgin, then HOW THE HELL DO PEOPLE HAVE SEX? If you are so concerned about being a virgin, go fuck somebody. You're at college. It's not that hard. In fact, at college it's harder NOT to fuck somebody. If you only want to have sex with "the right one", then go find the right one. That might involve having, yes, patience. It might involve, like, not having sex with someone. If having sex is so important to you, then go have sex. If it isn't, then don't care one way or the other. If you want to find a girl, go out and find one. Keywords: Go. Out. Look at where you are now, and DON'T BE THERE. Physically. Mentally. Emotionally. Stop being where you are. You aren't going anywhere, and you aren't going to get anywhere. You can be a nice guy and get girls. Trust me.

What attracts women is confidence. It doesn't matter what you, as long as you do it confidently. And it isn't just women, people in general are attracted to confidence. Part of being confident is being comfortable in your own skin. It's having that self stability. Which is something that meditation can bring you, conveniently enough. There's this perception that being a "nice guy" means being a doormat. And that's not the case at all. It's about being confident. You can be a nice guy but not meet any girls because you don't go out and meet girls. The thing about "bad boys" is that they go up to women and they don't care if the women reject them. They just go "pfft, dumb bitch." And move on to the next one. Yeah, they're assholes. But they don't let failure stop them. They keep going until they reach a success. It doesn't matter how many times you fail. Eventually you will succeed. And as you get more practice, you succeed more often. "Bad guys" don't let failure stop them, and they try enough until they figure out what works. People who are too self conscious, or "nice guy" who don't just want to use women wind up not trying because they are afraid of failure, or don't have enough experience to find out what works. So it seems like they don't always get the girl. But, look, women like nice guys. They might be attracted to someone who is confident, but in the long run, women like nice guys. People in general like people who are nice. No one wants to be hurt or used. You just have to get out there and meet people, and have the confidence to do so. See what you said (emphasis mine): You can do ANYTHING confidently, and you will get rewards.

Are you at a college with a large fraternity/sorority community? I don't want to stereotype, because I know a some good people in the Greek system, but the Greek system is usually not a central location for, eh, good qualities. Lots of substance use (legal and illegal), lots of sex, little care for anything really substantial. If you attend a college that is dominated by the Greek system, or you go to a college that is, err, less academically oriented, you really, REALLY are going to see a horrible side of life. I go to what's considered a more academic university, but even at my university there is a very, VERY large group of.... unsavory people doing unsavory things. But again, it's what's most available to you, so it only SEEMS predominant. Not all people are like that, and hopefully when some of the people you see grow up, they won't be like it either- or at least they will see the long term repercussions of their ways.

Hey, I wasn't the one who..... brought it up...... But you don't have to keep responding! You can just.... pull out.... and wait for a more constructive post to......... be written (thought I was going to do something there, huh? )

I'm sorry, I can't stop. It's so hard.....

You're doing it wrong. It's gotta go in. The air.... that is.... when you play it.... the jade flute.... of course....

Yes, because telling other people to get over something whenever you act out of line usually works *warning, offensiveness ahead* "Blondes are dumb." "Hey, I'm offended!" "Hey, stupid slut, which actually doesn't have anything to do with women, how about you choose not to get offended you dumb bitch, which doesn't even make any sense because you're not a dog!" You cannot imagine all of the ensuing hilarity that my mind is coming up with while imagining various cultural misunderstandings right now..... You should talk to her in a different way each day. One day, try obscure Chinese euphemisms. The next day, shift gears to a more clinical approach. If that's too cold, get hot and heavy with some dirty talk. Then maybe ease up with some modern euphemisms. Followed by a return to the olden days by visiting classical Western terminologies.

I couldn't get through it. I got about a minute of the way through, and then just couldn't keep watching. I dunno, seemed kind of hokey? Not to sound cliche, but it's like that adage where you can realize you don't exist, but that doesn't change the bus that's speeding towards you, or the charging rhino, or whatever it is you want to use. If you don't exist, then why are you spending so much time talking about it.......? I'm not one to understand Buddhist apologetics, though, and whenever Buddhist terms start flying in threads, it gets way too complicated for me, so I just back out. Translation- I don't know shit, so don't get angry with my opinion! Not trying to sound negative, just adding some yin to the yang, or yang to the yin, or my two cents. I just can't sit through videos like that.

I completely agree with this, but at the same time other people have meanings of various words as well. And some words are just considered vulgar by more people than others. Case in point, in the orgasm without ejaculation thread there was some discussion about the word "slut". It was used, some people mentioned that the word could be considered offensive, and the rebuttal was that the original use was not intended to be taken as it is popularly taken. But you can't ignore the fact that if I call a woman a slut, even if I say it really, really nicely, most people are not going to receive it as a kind word.... even if I really mean to say she's just really, really good at sex.

Yeah, I think "jade stalk" is just another euphemism. Perhaps more poetic than saying, "check out my pole" or something, but still, a word that's not clinical, but not vulgar. HOWEVER, in general I do agree with what you are saying. I think there are several areas of culture, not just sex, that are pushing on our language's limitations. Pretty soon here we are going to get a massive shift in language and vocabulary in general as our culture outgrows our language. I also think that, of the categories you listed, Trunk, they all stem from category one. Sex isn't really something to talk about, and the only time you are really allowed to talk about sex is in an emotionally detached, clinical setting. If you aren't discussing it professionally, then you are discussing it, as you put it, in a vulgar way. Heck, people even refer to having sex as "doing the nasty". I mean, sure, some people can get pretty nasty when they get it on (not to be confused with the "let's get it on" that some referees say to start a mixed martial arts fight, though there is humping and proper hip action is a must), but the usage of terms in that way kind of reflects the attitude that it is, well, nasty, and not fit for conversation outside of academia.

You can't find anyone in COLLEGE? What college are you at? There are lots of groups that have memberships in most major colleges across the nation. Even if you're in a medium to small sized college, there's an excellent chance that there's a couple groups that are politically minded. A LOT of people use college as a springboard to get into new subjects and join new groups. Yes, even people with conservative parents. They just do it sneaky like.

You're still stuck in the same terms. What's "a majority"? We already know the majority isn't really the majority.... We already know that everyone has a diverse group of opinions.... We already know it's a matter of perception.... And weren't YOU the one who said that being the "bad boy" was cool? Find people who think that it's good to be openly critical about the state of the world today. Seriously. Find like minded people. It will make you feel so much better.

But what's "popular" is another perception told to you by a limited group of people. There are LOTS of people out there who don't like what's popular. You need to find a nice, anti-establishment girl. Find a free press group or some kind of political group that aims to bring awareness to the state of politics. Find SOMEONE who shares your ideals. Finding like minded people is the first step to realizing that there are lots of different people out there. If you aren't proactive, and just accept what people give you, you are just going to get the same stuff over and over.