Cameron

That's a more regular level. imo, someone should become very familiar with simple "healthy jing gong", promoting harmony and basic health, before they try retention. Make all of your tissues supple & free from obstruction, learn to blend and harmonize your energies, learn to stabalize into your centers. That should keep you busy for a few decades. 7822[/snapback] Yup

Team America was some fuckin' funny ass shit. LOL @ the sex scene.

Yes..get into it

Both of course. And sex with the universe all throughout the day! Seriously what do you know about this? It's more natural for me to have them loose but are there benifits to pointing the thumbs up?

The Earth Element!! And Zhan Zhuang!! Time to get grounded!!

I think it is important to chi cultivation but not necissarily shen cultivation. like that guy Sean invited here that ejacuates all over the place and says he is basically enlightened(or whatever ) Like yoda said doing zhan zhuang and ejaculating regulalry is like putting your foot on the accelorator and brake at the same time..pretty pointless. The method I read in a Yoga book many years ago which is probably pretty true for the general Qigong/Alchemy/whatever practitioner is.. Take your age..multiply it by two..then divide that number by ten. So if your 40..40x2=80..80/10 is 8. A 40 year old guy should wait 8 days before ejaculating. It's a general guideline but actually works out to be the same as ancient chinese physicians.

I am not attached to it but I usually face east. My guess is it's not that big a deal though. Ken Cohen has alot about the power of the directions and meditation for seeking guidance from the 4 directions. Native American Indians call these spirits the " 4 Winds". I haven't gotten into it but read Honoring The Medicine for more info on the power of the directions according to Native people.

Kettlebells and Clubbells are all I use for weights now. Bodybulding is a waste of time. Actually you can get big, strong, lean whatever just from bodyweight stuff but it's fun to have something to play with. Did some KB snatches and some clubbells swings and swipes today those are so fun.

Who practices the finger lock? Eric teaches it in Taoist Yoga and Sexual Energy. When you have lost control and reach the "point of no return", you use your 3 fingers to press the "million dollar point" and prevent the loss of jing. When I asked Eric about this years ago he said the finger lock was one of the best practices he ever learned from Chia. I used to practice it alot when I did alot of "solo cultivation" when I first learned the big draw but stopped it when I read Ken Cohen's chapter on sex in The Way of Qigong where he says the finger lock is dangerous and can cause jing stagnation. I beleive Michael Winn also is against the finger lock.

what was the question?

Ok, now for a serious question..who are the top rappers of all time? I don't mean best selling then you have guys like MC Hammer and Puff Diddy up there. So who are the best? Who has the best "flow". My posthumus list... 1. Nas 2. JZ 3. Beastie Boys(Get put up a couple spots for being white and no that's not rascist) 4.Emenem(He pushes the envelope alot but can't deny his skillz on the mic) 5. LL Cool J(Who can forget classics like Round the way girl and Ime gonna knock you out? He is an Icon.) So what do you think bitches?(It's cool to say bitches since this is a rap thread..bitch.)

Seriously..if you take the Lemurian and Atlantean mythology to be true-Michael Winn definetly does- Taoism comes from Lemuria which is like 100,000 years old or something. Supposedly Hawaii is what's left of it. And Atlantis is where " Fire practices" were developed along with technology. Fire practices are more what you read about in Hindu Tantra I think. So Tao/Water/Yin practices would be older. Of course this mythology may very well be complete bullshit. But I was watching a special about the 7 wonders of the world today and it is pretty hard to beleive the Great Pyramid was built by a primitive civilization, you know?

They are all owned by Dinosaurs! We have like a billion years to go before we are even representing on the large scale. How's that for some perspective Tao boy?

In addition, does anyone else see a direct mental correlation between the Fusion practice and sexual practice? In Taoist Sex theory, your trying to slow down the outward movement of sexual energy, then gain control of it and return it to the center. Whether you raise it up to the brain or directly to the cauldron it's essentially about returning your sexual energy to your own center instead of "losing it". In Fusion, your trying to return emotional energy to the center also instead of losing it .Getting angry or whatever. Your slowing down and recycling the energy to your own cauldron so it can be refined. Things change in Kan and Li or Emptiness meditation etc but is seems that these two foundation practices..sex and emotions..have very similar principles, no?

Had a nice convo with " The Sean" and clarified a couple things for myself. First and most important, my major goal for this 100 days is to really get the Fusion practice down . When I learned Fusion from Winn he sort of threw dozens of practices at you over a couple of weekends. It's an interesting experience but I don't beleive a weekend workshop works well for learning stuff like Internal Alchemy. I also am not a fan of the tapes and don't bother with them. Like I told Sean if I get deeper into Taoist Alchemy it would be live with Winn at Dao Mt not on tapes. However, I think Eric has done a fantastic job with this book to not only teach Fusion in stages(along with tons of other stuff) but really give a practitioner time to experience each step of each element and how it conencts to different parts of the body, hair, sexuality etc. Fusion, as one teacher told me, is the practice no one gives enough attention to and no one has mastered. Everyone wants Immortality or Enlightentment no one wants to deal with balancing and harmonizing the emotions. There is a reason fusion comes before Kan and Li. Winn sort of glosses over it but I think Fusion is clearly the work 99% of so called Tao people need to check out. And Eric's book is the best written work on the subject I have seen. The truth is all these so called high level people are kidding themselves. None of them have even a basic mastery of there emotions and Fusion. I could go pull a total stranger from the street they probably have better mastery of there emotions than these so called Tao people. The thing that suprised me is these fusion formulas do seem to work so people displaying there unbalanced emotions and attacking others with disrespect and arrogance on these boards must only mean none of these people actually practice Fusion. Eric has also done a great thing by teaching Fusion along side zhan zhuang and Sexual Alchemy. Without learning Fusion along with zhan zhuang and sexual practice, or rather not learning Fusion, there is a serious danger of fucking yourself up. You build up alot of Qi in zhan zhuang and sexual alchemy and other teachers basically just say use this Qi. Just have fun with it in your life. But anyone with any bit of experience knows when you start bulding up alot of Qi if your emotions are fucked up(anger, depression, worry, fear etc) you just magnify those emotions 100x...not a good thing. By learning Fusion in stages along with these other practices your really doing it the right way .This is how Qigong should be taught IMO. Probably most other qigong teachers don't know Alchemy so instead of teaching it they say go see a therapist if your emotions get out of control. In fact, this is exactly what Ken Cohen says in his book..if the qi becomes out of control and you can't handle your emotions go see a therapist to work them out. Now, I respect Ken but his book teaches Standing Meditation and the Big Draw and unless your already a saint chances are these practices will culminate in some sort of emotional overcharge. Unless your an athlete or heavy into martial arts then you have a clear channel or outlet for all this Qi. Eric says in "Taoist Yoga" that " Suppressed emotions control our everyday life. When we are angry, we dump our angry emotions on someone else. This makes us feel better for a little while, but the anger doesn't go away. This is how it usually works. In one way or another, we dump our negative emotions on someone else. In Western pscychology we dump our emotions on our analyst in hopes of making ourselves feel better. I understand that pscychiatrists and psychologists have some of the highest suicide rates in the world. Sometimes they just have no place to dump all the accumulated negative emotions that have been dumped on them. In Fusion of the Five Elements, rather than dumping our negative emotions, we seek to transform them into positive emotions.The process begins by collecting and harmonizing them. This leads back to our Orignal Nature. Negative emotions obscure it from us. As long as you are ruled by negative emotions, you will never see your Original Nature. You want to restore your Original Nature . Don't you want to know who you really are?"

Bliss is an experience and fun is an event. A meditation can be blissful. A Movie or baseball game is fun. Or Sexual Alchemy is blissful. A kettlebell workout is fun.

Ludicrous new album is on my list. He is from the ATL..my former place of habitat.. You just can't beat the deep meaning in lyrics like " I got hos in different area codes". Know what Ime saying? You know what I mean? Ya understand what I am tellin' you? You know SON? I could never really get into people calling eachother SON in high school. Holla!

What's the official TTB's favorite version of the kidney sound? Winn's version:" chooooooooo" Eric's version: " chuwaaaaaaay" Also Winn combines it with the sweet ass Bear movement for added benefit. But I kind of like Eric's too. Let the battle of kidney sounds begin.

No, it's brand new this season. I couldn't get into carnival but loved Deadwood. Pretty violent though. Rome is the best evah...probably not out on DVD until next year though.

Rome on HBO. Best TV show ever IMO.

When I learned the Bear years ago he taught to imagine a flowing river flowing down at your feet and you connect to the water element, do the sound and sweep any negative qi/heat whatever down the river. I liked this idea alot. The other sounds/movements didn't have as much concrete connection with the sound/movement/element. They are just moves linked to an animal.

To his credit he says you should do the basics for like 3 weeks or something before starting week 1. My guess is most of us have been playing with the basics in one form or another for over a year if not many years. I have to admit my orbit qi flow is nowhere near as clear as I think it should be but I really have not been practicing the orbit at all. Just saying I will do the orbit atleast 15 minutes a day(and always as the finisher after any excercise to balance and collect the energy in the navel) is important and has always been stressed in the HT system and in Eric's system. Don't leave energy in your head and heart!

Audioslave, NIN, Velvet Revolver, Weezer. I need to go to Barnes and buy some new cd's this week.

Because I have played with the final meditation and it is niiiiiiiiiiiiiice. But I think(hopefully)it will be much more powerful when I gradually learn all the steps in detail and not just skip around. Back to breathing into my hair and heart....

He is a hot shot and started a week before everyone else. No biggie he can give us some insights beforehand and tips. Luckily this is not a novel where we have to worry about spoiling an ending!