Creation

Nothing like some Santana to raise the vibe of a thread

Mal, Here is a fun video that you might find pertinent. EDIT It occurred to me that when freeform reads the above sentence he will not feel the fun of which I speak... So, I'll add a bit that hopefully will feel less dead and zombie-like. I especially like how at the beginning Deida says (more or less) that trying to pin down masculine and feminine is meaningless, but then encourages stereotypical behavior toward the end. I think this gives a lot of insight into how Deida communicates. You can't take what he says too seriously or literally, it's just pointing at the moon. He gives definitions of masculine and feminine that are very general (consciousness and radiance), but then illustrates them with stereotypes. But if you look a little deeper, I think you find that (borrowing freeform's example) that each of the five elements has a yin and a yang manifestation. freeform, We should compare notes about what you felt from that vs. what I was feeling when I wrote it. If you feel so inclined, please PM me.

A very astute and thought provoking observation. I for one am much inclined to religious devotion/worship, and am eager to find the right way in which to give this impulse expression. ("Right way" meaning most efficacious for my spiritual evolution.)

I have recently been inspired to experiment with testicle breathing, so I was pleased when I saw this thread. I noticed that when I exhale and push all the air out (like in KAP) I have to engage my abs, which draws the testicles up. But if I breathe in a more relaxed way (i.e. the "70 percent rule") this muscle is not engaged. Perhaps this more relaxed way of breathing is what Chia and Winn had in mind? As for the testicles rising and falling without engaging the abs, if you put your scrotum in warm water the testicles drop, and if you put it in cold water the testicles rise. The rising and falling here is due to the expansion and contraction of the scrotum, as opposed to abdominal force. Perhaps this is the action that one wants to gain conscious control over to practice according to Chia and Winn's instructions? Little1: It's interesting that you say the movement doesn't matter, as you are the resident Chia-expert around here. What would you say the mechanism of moving the cold energy up is? Mental intention? Mal, It's interesting that you practice the opposite of what Chia and Winn say (that is, exhale and testicles rise, inhale and testicles drop). Is this the way they teach it in KAP2? Is the rest of the procedure the same (that is, draw the cold feeling from the testicles to the perineum, then into the sacrum, up the spine and into the head)? Does the action of the breath pump the cold energy upward in this method?

I'm glad I listened to this. It is quite wonderful. Thanks for posting. Does anyone else have Imee Ooi videos to share?

Hi the latest freed. Welcome to the forum. Thanks for taking the time to share your heart with us. It is always a pleasure to make the acquaintance of a fellow Wayfarer (read: fellow freak ) What are your thoughts about cultivation practice beyond Taiji? I understand not wanting to jump head first into all the new-agey stuff out there. OTOH I don't know how focused on the Tao your Taiji school is (many really aren't at all).

I like it here, if anyone cares. Off Topic threads get less views and replies. I have a personal interest in hearing as many people's replies to the original post as possible.

I just realized why I was using words like honest and pure and innocent to describe a openly hedonistic atmosphere (which seemed very strange to my conditioned, rational mind). I was the type of child who wasn't really a child, in that I always thought of myself as an adult and tried to act like an adult, as far back as I remember. Recently, I have been understanding what it means to really be a child, and to really grow into adulthood, instead of continuing to be a child pretending to be an adult. On the spiritual path there is the stage where one must grow beyond the desire for sensual pleasure. This is part of spiritual "adulthood". Until then, one is a spiritual "child". So when I look at the hedonistic atmosphere of TTBs in days past, I see children playing, not caring so much what the adults do or say. That is why I think of it as pure and innocent and honest. I was never like that as a child so it has a special resonance with me. Nowadays, we are fortunate to have some spiritual adults around here, who really have moved beyond hedonism, however honest or pure. But far more often posts give me the vibe of a child pretending to be an adult, my own posts chief among them. That is why I think so highly of the way the forum used to be. Wow. I'm really glad I had the opportunity to see that about myself.

Rainbow Vein, you objected to this claim. Do you know something I don't? I can't think of any young women that have ever been on here except Makyea, who left soon after she came, and perhaps MichelleD, who might have been a troll. You know, having read through a great deal of threads from the whole span of this forum's history, I noticed something. In the first 2-3 years, there was this air of open, honest hedonism. It wasn't like "If I shove an aneros up there I will get closer to enlightenment." It was just taken for granted that everyone wanted to have mind blowing multiple orgasms, and this was a valid thing to discuss on a Taoist forum. It was so honest, so free of judgment. I wasn't there, I'm just observing from the present, but it really seemed like there was this sense of community, of everyone knowing and trusting everyone else. Now that this has been lost, someone show up asking about it and it's like "Ugh, not this again."

Hi BBBF. Did you see this quote on the wiki page for the 2nd law? "There are almost as many formulations of the second law as there have been discussions of it." It all depends on your view of the ontological status of things like probability, temperature, and entropy. One viewpoint is that thermodynamics is the science of ignoring all the information you don't need (precise locations of atoms, etc.). In other words, thermodynamics is for agents that only has information about macroscopic variables, and any situation in which said macroscopic variables are sufficient to predict the future values of the macroscopic variables is the domain of thermodynamics. In such situations, there is a tendency toward equilibrium or colloquially "disorder" because that state is overwhelmingly more probable than more "ordered states". "The 2nd law of thermodynamics has the same degree of truth as the statement that if you throw a tumblerful of water into the sea, you cannot get the same tumblerful of water out again." -James Clerk Maxwell In this viewpoint, entropy is not a fundamental physical quantity, so an intelligence capable of operating on the microscopic level will be able to do things that appear to macroscopic beings to be impossible (i.e. decrease entropy). It all depends on what "level" you are operating at. Something that operates at a more refined level will have it's own conception of the 2nd law, that something at an even more refined level will be able to violate. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell%27s_demon I leave it to you to read between the lines regarding qi as you see fit.

Susan and markern, Thanks for sharing your experiences and insights. _/\_ Michael, This is exactly what I needed to hear. I even knew that when I posted my question, but I still needed to hear it. I'm especially glad (and not at all surprised) that you are the one who said it.

Hi Eagle Shen. Thanks for your post. Sorry it took so long for me to say that. But it really did mean a lot to me, especially the quoted parts, though I don't have much to say in response. By the way, do you happen to know the title and artist of that painting in my avatar? I found it from a google image search for [some variant spelling of] Guanyin, but the website it took me to just had her there for show. She also comes up if you do an image search for Shakti. The scholar in me disapproves! Om Manipadme Hum.

Ozzy with a twist: There is a big debate about whether or not this person is a cross dresser. Either way, Randy Rhodes would be proud.

Hi Riffraff. Welcome to the forum. i don't mean to drudge up the stuff you just got away from, but why are people arguing about not jacking off for a week? Isn't that just something someone might decide to do? At any rate, like Rainbow Vein said, this forum also goes around and around about the exact same topics related to sex like clockwork. Celibacy vs. retention vs. it doesn't matter, the 100 days, is Chia's stuff safe, etc. Incidentally, I initially heard about the Aneros on this forum. A few years ago many of the members were experimenting with them. They sound like they can be a useful for men to really get in touch with their sexual anatomy and potential and the more "yin" side of things.

Shaktimama, I'm curious, do you find that these observations still apply when genders are reversed, that is, that a young woman would be initiated by an older man and that spiritually minded young women are attracted to older men? Back to the topic... This thread is especially interesting to me because I have always preferred to be in the company of those older than myself. But I can't help but think, what could a young man like me offer an older woman? So what I wonder is what would an older women be looking for in a younger man? Also, what type of older woman is attracted to younger men? That is to say, if a younger man is interested in older women, what should he be keeping his eye out for?

Zeppelin has many different sounds: blues rock, hard rock, metal, some softer rock here and there. That's one of the things I love about them. I wouldn't call any of it heavy metal. But The Wonton Song, Immigrant Song, the Song Remains the Same are definitely metal in my book. My favorite Epic Zeppelin Metal Masterpiece: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFRFtnTd620 I personally find things like death metal to be horrid, but I love more melodic types of metal. I was once fond of listening to instrumental melodic metal while practicing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh5806nSayk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie8-_s-FgSw Metal mostly affects my lower chakras. Some of it has a balancing and energizing effect, some has a disturbing and irritating effect. It also depends on my own state at the time. I do notice that if I listen exclusively to harder music it starts having an imbalancing effect, and that I need to switch over to something that stimulates the heart and upper chakras. Here is a fantastic tune that has some of both: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM8ZXesus6I

I wish I could send out a memo to every fellow Waysun Liao fan to use the Pinyin "jin" instead of the Wade Giles "jing" so as to avoid confusion with the jing of the 3 treasures. Also, it is my observation that Liao's nomenclature of jin being the external projection of qi is not standard in either medical or martial qigong circles.

Hi EagleShen. Would you please elaborate on the above sentence fragment? I have recently perceived this theme of hyper-sensitivity in myself, and would love to hear more about it from someone who has experience in how to deal with it. Thanks, Tyler

OK. Sorry about the accusation. Best wishes to you.

Apparently you have come here with the sole purpose of smearing Verdesi. If you had actually wanted to investigate him, you would have read the threads on him here. If you had done this, you would know that saying Pietro is Verdesi is completely absurd. If you care to see this for yourself, I'll save you the trouble of searching: http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?/topic/3121-a-little-on-david-and-course-costs/

Can't say that I did Michael teaches how to do stillness movement while walking. I have found that the rhythm of my legs moving can has the same effect as music or a mantra. Not as much potential for spontaneous movement, but that is secondary anyway.

Trunk, These videos are incredible. Especially the beginning of the second one: WHOA! Maybe that has more to do with it being so appropriate for me right now than transmission, though. Thank you for posting.

http://www.taoiststudy.com/content/damo-qigong-taoist-internal-alchemy-workshops-2010