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my bad, S.Agostino indeed... sometimes i think RJ is pretty on the spot when he says if we haven't tamed the white tiger, we can't hope for very much... re morning wood, it's because during the night the body produces sexual hormones... in the first period of the night, from 22:00 to 01:00, there is the producing of the melatonine hormone. in the second period of the night, from 01:00 to 03:00 there is the production of sexual hormones. in the third period, from 03:00 to 05:00 it's when the miracle happens - pinoline... our bodies work this alchemy daily

I didn't say 'morning wood' isn't pleasurable, did I? I'm not trying to convince anybody. Who got it, got it, and that's it. After all, it's about personal research, putting time into practice and study. But think about this: there are some taoist masters that say there are 1001 uses for sexual energy, and we know only 2 of them: having sex and making babies. Sexual energy is the most conditioned energy by our mindset, culture and society. There's nothing natural about what we are doing with it now. Initially you can consider sexual gongfu as a means by which one learns about the initial/original posibilities of sexual energy. But it's not mandatory, as someone here said... different people need/want different things... Yet, regarding the highest of achievements, whenever I looked into other traditions, wherever you go on this planet, there are regulations imposed on sexual energy... either by society or religion, or by the mystic paths. For example, in nagualism, sexual energy is considered this way: it has been given to us for two distinct purposes - to perpetuate consciousness (by having babies) OR to enhance our own consciousness (by growing our inner spirit)... That's why for me this subject is very important, and it has too little to do with making love. It has to do with fuelling your cultivation.

Ok, let's start all over again... and let's try dropping what we think we know, and think like a child. 'Morning wood' is different. This is the kind of energy that is suitable in alchemy. No sexual thoughts or feelings, the organs activate from within their own inner power. I use this image because we are more aquainted to it... Celibacy and chastity doesn't mean to refrain from sexual energy - it's the opposite. Without sexual energy, there is no alchemy, and we need that alot, tons of it. In an interview in Switzerland, M Chia was asked who are the people that work most with their sexual energy. Re replied - 'Monks, because they don't have sex to consume it, so they really need to find a way to deal with it, draw it upwards, thru prayer, chanting and meditation...' When the mind is pure, the heart is pure, the body is clean, then the JingQi is in an optimum state. It's first class fuel for cultivation. Chastity, oh chastity... Thomas of Aquino is said to have asked God: please make me a chaste person, but not now.

My teacher told me that high level healing love is about chastity - can you imagine, Chastity...

http://www.health-science-spirit.com/heal-sex.html I found the article on another site. This is it. Gold. I think it has the refferences also, didn't have time to check. Re Xiantian levels of practice, we can encounter it in our daily life frequently: Virgins, and Pregnant/Nursing women. I think Shen laoshi has on his website made by Ken a pretty good description of the impact of alchemy practice on persons that are already in the Xiantian phase, due to physiological condition - in respect to Nursing women. If my calculations are correct, this has the potential of turning everything we know about this subject... to a new fresh direction. I looked into M Chia's material and asked my teacher about it, it seems there is a good deal about it in his system also, regarding the passage to Xiantian, related to a long period of celibacy... If i remember correctly, the first stage is the 100 days of avoiding sexual stimulation... Then the 1000 day gate. And so on. It's pretty interesting that these informations have been available thru workshops and seminars - thru bits and pieces scattered here and there, where the interest was serious, good pointers to further a personal research... Best of luck - my gues is that when you will get it, the world of retention/celibacy practicioners would be a much safer, pure and safer place I'll drink to that!

The Xiantian phase of the practice is described more in the upper Kan and Li levels, if you want to take M Chia's/ Winn's system as a refference point. I also found fascinating descriptions in other daoist schools... It's the reversion process, from the manifesting, into the un-manifest - i'm sure you have a suficiently good idea to get a search going on in that direction. Whatever I can say is only regarding my thoughts about it, and I'm sure they aren't entirely correct, so I try to avoid posting them publicly. On the other hand, you pretty hit the nail on the head regarding the hormonal level training... Again, a topic of a fascinating research. I'm still fuzzy about the concept, yet I think I can offer you a nice lead on it: it offers a thorough view on the relationship btween sexuality and energetics and hormonal level training - you'll find it in the Nexus Magazine, I don't know the exact number issue, it has been recently published in my country also, and i suspect you can find it on the internet also. Oh, here it is: http://www.nexusmagazine.eu/nx14_3.html The title is Neurochemistry and Sex. Darn good read!

I would say some forms of meditation use the ionization process, it's a more balanced statement. @Pietro, i don't think retention and celibacy are the same thing. Celibacy can do what you say, yet i think this happens only if the jing qi is polarized to a new, upward direction, thru meditation, chanting, praying. Regarding retention, i remember that the process is called 'the wisdom of the jade stalk' - the penis can grow big or shrink, adapting everytime to the lady's moon grotto - it's an ability related to this particular gongfu... What you describe - the shriking process - is related to the phase of Xiantian in alchemy practice... pretty far from where we are at the moment... Yet it if happens outside of alchemy practice, i would say it's un-natural and a sign of early aging... When the hormonal levels drop down, all the systems of the body follow... this is why masters say that yin only develops in the presence of the yang, and vice-versa.

Yes there are variations of the calculations. For example, a couple of years ago, prior to the workshop with M Chia, there was a seminar on feng shui and four pillars by a German FS teacher. Of course M Chia was asked about what does he think of the method of calculation and implications on practice. His answer was that it didn't matter so much how the calculation is done, but how can you work to improve your inner organ qi. It's interesting, because the system taught by the German teacher looks more accurate, yet is not so connected with solving the problem that it merely points out. The system I'm talking about is Joseph Yu's, a teacher with an fascinating story...

imho it's not a book to be read in one night... i studied it one summer, after a live seminar, and practiced as i went to and from work, in the bus. it made a radical shift in the way i understand the mind, the brain, and it's link to the physical and the spiritual... it's something that takes time. i'm still adjusting to that new view, almost organical.

heh, glad you like it, it's a good symbol...

If you'll start practicing from books, you'll say it's bad and new-agey. If you'll meet the man, and find a good instructor, you may beat the odds - here, the odds are that he's a con, and his teaching is fake. This is the general thinking... Good luck in finding your own truth.

make more space available inside - taking out the garbage

I think it does have a connection with what you wrote in your signature, it's what could make it work. Because even if you respect all the instructions below, you still have to deal with your conditioning, which is much deeper than the mind alone. It's organic... One way is to rectify it with Qigong and Martial Arts, which is External Alchemy. Another way is to rectify it with Inner Alchemy. The middle way I think would be to rectify it with Nutrition - we need to eat at least 2-3 times a day, so we have plenty of oportunities to practice. I have to admit that what he says is right: if you understand IT and put it into practice, the whole pattern of the energy of your inner organs improves. It's a progress that needs alot of gongfu, it's measured in years. One daoist master I respect once said that it's easier to move a mountain from one place to another, than to change/transform a person's temper and character... "1. Rely not on the teacher/person, but on the teaching. 2. Rely not on the words of the teaching, but on the spirit of the words. 3. Rely not on theory, but on experience. 4. Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. 5. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. 6. Do not believe anything because it is spoken and rumored by many. 7. Do not believe in anything because it is written in your religious books. 8. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. 9. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and the benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it." Kalama Sutta + Rely not on what you think, and rely not on what you feel.

i appreciate if you are trying to be subtle, yet i am genuinly curious... are you in, is it worth it?

What does kundalini mean to you?

That. If the concept of ellightenment has a lesser effect on your overall being than that hot babe, well, I'm not qualified to give a diagnosis for that:)

We haven't even learned the first letters of the 'practice alphabet', and still, so eager to come up with simple or fancy definitions... Why does this happen? When a higher truth is turned into everyday rubbish, our consciousness is violated... we may hardly enter again the state of purity that allows us to have a chanse at that enlightenment, no matter what it is. I like a saying that I've seen around in a fellow TTB's signature: since you don't know exactly what enlightenment is, just seek to evolve. I agree, in the sense that if you already consider yourself at the end of the road, you probably reached a dead-end. Like the people that think they are masters... Another saying that Ive seen around and liked, regarding this: If a person that thinks is a master is not also a student, that person is neither. I won't be surprised to see karmic consequences of this violation that I'm talking about, I'll wait and see how it work thou, maybe I can learn something. edit spellings

i think so, at first we move 100 times less than in 100 years ago before you learn to fly, crawling would also do nicely

you mean the order draconis et atri adamantis? are you in, is it worth it?

Exercise is supposed to be strenuous, otherwise if you get rid this and that, you loose the transformative potential. This is a major 'risk' for self-taught seekers, because we are more inclined to do things we can do, and avoid things we find hard to do. mm?

My people have a certain way they choose which chicken they eat. 1. They eat the chicken that makes alot of noise, and doesn't lay a single egg. 2. The next one is the chicken that makes alot of noise, and rarely lays any egg. 3. The next victim is the one that lays eggs, but doesn't cluck - the eggs turn rotten or eaten by other animal. 4. The last in the row is the chicken that doesn't lay, and doesn't cluck. Why? Because you never know... edit spellings

How about, treat power as a gentlemen treats a lady, and viceversa, and as a good husband treats his good wife and viceversa

'Cult' is an undestatement. Alas, there's no use spreading anything about it here. But from time to time I think about the all the poor 'shakti girls' that went there and got way too much than what they bargain for... They were thousands. All in the name of Karma Yoga... and awakening of Kundalini... Who/what can repair that, why was it necessary. Sad sad story.

I don't know either. M Chia is a Chinese after all, with all that this fact implies - pour les connaisseures. I suspect that there is alot more that is behind... maybe he'll decide to make it available, I for one hope so. We often confuse 'Easy to understand' with 'Dilluted'. And we go knocking on doors of 'Complexity' and 'Authenticity'. Unprepared... With a too simplistic understanding. The result, is what I've seen in friends that spent thousands of dollars with high level masters in China: nothing happens. And I keep thinking about the Chinese saying, you know, the one about the colour of the cat... At the end of the day, this may be the only thing that counts for something.

Sit.