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te-he-heee

I read the book. Jim's story reminds me of Forest Gump for some reason, 'xept that Gump had a happy ending. Criticising Asian culture through your own American paradigm is sheer stupidity. Publishing it, well... That being said I enjoyed the book, although reading it many times felt like spying on the neighbours, too much personal detail about people that were his friends and companions, thumbs down on this one. BTW (and I don't think that much about this topic!) I had this weirdest dream last night, J Chang being treated for severe illness. The cause of the illness was some sort of punishment for the endless rants on internet forums about the sacred Mo Pai school go figure out that one

雷神道 Lei Shen Dao ? 雷神 Lei Shen is a daoist deity that is associated with thunder and lightning

i feel we're slicing this forum too thin already next thing you know, we're gonna have exclusive subforums for spring forest mopai sm you name it

Think of it this way, you may admire Christianity as much as you want, but without baptism you're not a Christian! Not even if you have a Christian bumper sticker. Or Christian Bible. Or garnments. Or icons. Or attend a Christian Church. You can like Islam, but without official conversion you're just a fan! Just sayin' We're fans, how about that! E.

the taobums 欢迎你

Well, I'd take them as proper questions, and not rethorical ones ~ however it's still a tall order, for the little that I know.

@steve My perspective on neigong and Chinese daoist cultivation in general is nowadays more in line with the little I had the priviledge of understanding and witnessing from an authentic lineage. It is so far away from what we think we do here, that there's no term of comparison. Walker's post reminded me of the saying: 门内看行道,门外看热闹. Of course I try to avoid thinking in absolutes, and acknowledge that there are many ways to do the same thing, with the condition of learning it from a competent source. If memory serves, Liping described his training during childhood as 'torture'. Many of the nowadays olimpic athletes would say more or less the same. So where's the Ziran in it?

I've been toying with the idea of building that Memory Palace since my childhood, i was hoping to use it for school Coincidentally or not, I just got my copy of F Yates book on Giordano Bruno this month, and have been toying with the idea of building an inner temple for magickal purposes as well, might just give it a go Nice to see there are other people out there doing it Btw, that's how Giordano Bruno 'discovered' soul travel for himself, visited other worlds, and wrote about it in books that criticised the Church's view, which in turn got him arrested and burned at the stake

i think he was still merciful to you haha that's how they put it, anything under 45 min is useless glad you could share, I'd be happy to hear more about your ZZ training in China if you're ok with that

no worries steve, i sometimes have problems communicating too yet, to my knowledge, neigong training is just as intense..

I like the thoughtful and detailed reply, Steve, I'm a type that likes being inside the body and body oriented practices, and would never abandon that for living in the head, it's too damn limiting, what I was pointing at are some factors of my personality that could be favouring rising Qi as it is, sometimes it's difficult to get personal experiences across, and rising Qi has most certainly not been the only one that I've encountered with the ZZ, I feel somewhat embarassed to say this, because you guys put alot of thought and compassion into giving advice, but it wasn't really that necessary.. I trust my own experience and feelings, and I'm opened to compare and share notes with others'. Speaking of which, I never involved mental activity into ZZ, sometimes I'd just watch TV or a movie and just standing ~ it was an experiment that proved that at least to me ZZ is about standing (with the right adjustments though) period. I remembered something I read in a book about a Taiji master's child, that would confess: father makes me stand like this everyday for an hour, and I have to comply else he just beats me. Haha. Do you imagine that kid focusing of specific points and breathing patterns? But his father knew, he just had to stand, as a tree, and the inner strenght will grow with time. I have reasons to suspect that is the way most of the grand masters of Taiji or Wushu in China learned as kids And as kids, their training would be measured Not in minutes, but in Chinese hours, that is, cycles of two hours. The idea of 认真 in the Chinese tradition is really tough and harsh training, our Western attitude is way way too mild. Standing for 5 -20 minutes in 站桩， in China...? Is that a joke? But we here think that's how we're 'training' to become immortals or have superpowers. I exaggerated just a tiny bit, to get the idea across... a huge imbalance between effort and expectations.. Edit just to complete the idea: there's nothing 自然 about it, or mild and sweet in real training to them, there's alot of forcing and straining and pain, that you have to outgrow and step over your own limitations. That's how you develop, that's how you grow. Please do not confuse the stuff that the Chinese teachers teach to the Westerners, with the real training that they themselves have undergone (and possibly teach their on offstprings in). Anyway, this is still Just my 0,2's

sorry snowmonki, English is not my mother tongue, sometimes it gets out of hand, the second statement is more true to the situation I'm experiencing. just trying to say there's always a way to overdo things, thanks for the pointers though. edit: I also did say COULD cause SLIGHTLY high bloodpressure I guess I focused on different words in that sentence

Don't worry, it's not like I have a problem with it, just posted about some SUBTLE changes I found occuring every now and then.

Look up Initiantion into Hermetics by F Bardon, it has many common points with Qigong 5 element training and applications: here's a taste, maybe to incite Mo Pai lovers: ~ this is a level 4 (out of 10) accomplisment: "Magicians trained in this line can condense an element to such a degree that it becomes a material power. That is why you can light a fire with the help of the fire element at the greatest distance. At first, practice drawing a fiery ball down from the universe directly without having it pass through the body, and compress it to a small bead so as to grow a glowing spark. Put this spark in a cotton ball that has been soaked in easily inflammable liquid such as ether, alcohol, or petrol. A second spark is to be prepared in the same way with the air element, and the very moment both sparks touch the cotton ball, it will catch fire and begin to burn. Having succeeded in this little trick, the magician can make an attempt with the wick of an ordinary candle, and later on with a paraffin lamp. He can do this near and far."

Hey thanks for the input, however what I experimented is also double checked with the traditional approach, ZZ's effect is Supposed to raise your Qi, I didn't invent that, that's how it's done and one of the reasons why. Of course they do complement it with other routines for sinking Qi, but I don't have access to them... You can focus on whatever you want during ZZ, the Qi will still rise, it will follow the circulation between heaven and earth, that's how plants and trees break the gravity pull and grow. At least that's my experience and research, maybe there are different ways to do the same thing, I dunno. @steve, no I don't have any sinking Qi practices, I feel my energy makeup favours the rising Qi, I'm also a brainy type and have occasional anger issues, that would sum it up, I have no idea which is because of what. On a general note, I see people insisting not to go over the 20 min timeframe, would you guys think that's reasonable? Is it possible I've overdone it? 'Cuz from what traditional schools seem to say, one 40 - 60 min is the least you can do if you are serious about it.

Been practicing for more than three months, up to one hour two session per day. It's a great practice, it teaches your body about alignment in a very straightforward way. Increases stamina, physical power and clears the mind. It brings your mind inside your body ~ something many meditators need !! On a downside, with time it starts to pull all of your energy up to the head, could cause slightly high bloodpressure. Overdone it can become unballancing, you need practices that work the energy different ways, in order to complement the upward pull. Overall, once you want to give it a try, work it up to an hour, and keep it that way for three months. Then you decide how good is it TO YOU.

I love science

I dunno. I mean I like Tao Medicine as a lifestyle, however Western Medicine saved my ass countless. My loved ones included, which is NOT something that I can tell about Tao Medicine. SM seems to be a working healing system, at least based on the testimonials that we get here, but most of the Qigong out there does alot better as 'just' a healthier alternative lifestyle period. Also Western Medicine is not belief dependant, so you can believe in Buddha or Allah or be a Christian fundie and still feel confortable about receiving it, I don't know about Tao Medicine. Even by my being involved for so many years in cultivation, when health issues come up I'd go for Western Medicine without hesitation. I avoided proper treatment in the past because of bias against Western Medicine, but life and experience taught me better than that. I think Qigong does alot of good in improving chronic problems though, which should Not be adressed via medication alone.

Two-three definitions of obsession: "I almost have it!" "I almost had it!" "The one that got away.."

I really wanted to write something here, something worth thinking pondering. We can't change the world, or other people's mind, I don't know if the changes that occur in the world, and inside mass people's heads could be induced by individuals. There is a theory that says they are induced by 'abstract ideal objects' floating in a world made out of ideas, the 5th dimension, and those 'objects' have a dynamic of their own, and modus operandi. The changes that occur in our world happen via the interaction of their world and our brains.

there are general rules and general advices Only when it comes to general wellbeing if you're looking for specifics on cultivation you'd pretty much have to adress this issue (and whatever else) with your teacher, and follow the instruction of that practice if that isn't available, you'd have to listen to your body more

PC muscles are quite easy to control, including the testes and the sphincters, it should be natural to us, like it is with many 3rd world country 'uncivilized' people (hint on 'uncivilized') it's not a big deal, and attaching the term 'practice' to it is as ridiculous as saying flexing your biceps is a 'practice' all the more so saying it's dangerous, LOL contract the underbelly for starters, and pull it up, then gradually use the abs less and less, you'll get it don't worry, I did it as a kid always, having fun in front of the mirror... "practice"..te-heh... amateurs...

I agree. I used to come often to this forum for new and interesting info's and perspective, but recently this place has gone... wow... I mean I don't know why I come here anymore. Many of the folks that used to contribute with meaningful insights aren't posting anymore, and I don't blame them, it takes alot of energy to battle ideas with trolls and the like. Pity common sense don't sell that well...

What Seth said. This topic has been discussed many times and probably will so indefinately. Also the cultural barrier is thicker than you imagine ~ of couse few people even think about it.