EagleShen

IMO be very careful using his books, it's really easy to get a lot of energy stuck in the head and/or cause blockages in the perineum with his approach, especially in regard to sexual cultivation. His approach is very Yang, and doesn't have anywhere enough of the foundational Yin aspect of daoist practice. There's a lot of doing and moving Qi rather than being and allowing Qi. Perhaps it's different learning from him. I had a lot of problems learning his stuff, the main one being a lot of energy stuck in my head - it did inspire me to spend 7 years doing martial arts to egt grounded tho. I've worked with a number of guys who have had similar problems. If you do dealt want to do his stuff, learn some good taoist meditation too. Some martial arts practice wouldnt hurt either.

Well said. We turn flowers into poo, and the earth turns poo into flowers, it's all perfect really .

Learnt a Tree QiGong practice as a part of Master Tao's Dragon Gate Dao Yin QiGong, you can work with different trees to treat/heal different conditions in the body. It's more like sharing energy with the tree rather than draining it. Yes, trees are amazing

Oh got all excited! Good motivation to revisit learning Mandarin .

Thanks for the review Immortal_Sister, I'm wondering how your further studies have gone? I've been considering getting the book and DVD of the women's practices for my lover, she's interested in finding out more about women's QiGong practices, she's already done a fair bit of women's yoga and QiGong (she's a TCM practitioner too) but is looking to expand her knowledge beyond the teachers she's had over the last 2 years. After reading your review I'm inclined to get it for her. I love it when Taobum members put up reviews of teachers work on here, super helpful.

All of my main Taoist teachers have emphasised the importance of 'living a normal life'. They also have an attitude of balance, ie it's important to spend time in retreat and it's important to bring it back into the world.

As i understand this passage, it'd be referring to the mixing of the male and female pre-orgasmic/ejaculation secretions, and the ability of both partners to be able to then absorb this combined essence into their bodies.

I've been wondering if a person's attitude to desire comes down to basic assumptions in their outlook on life. If you believe you were born here to learn to escape, then all attachment and desires are necessarily to be transcended through moving away from them. If you believe you were born here to bring bridge/fuse heaven and earth, then all attachment and desires are necessarily to be transformed through moving towards them. A thought

This rings in me like an elucidation of the first chapter of the Tao Te Ching, may have to track this one down as well! (ed note: nice use of fashionably deci belle, i got all inspired and thought i'd go for broke and use 'elucidation')

Totally agree. There is what i refer to as an 'effective philosophy'. The effective philosophy of the yang approach of 'forcing' is that the body does not naturally cultivate, you have to make it. The effective philosophy of the Yin approach is the the body naturally cultivates, you just have to untrain what's in the way. It's a far less perilous approach to err on the side of Yin, and to use Yang sparingly when it's most effective.

This This discussion reminds me of a famous painting with Confucius, Buddha and Lao Tzu in it that attempts to demonstrate the difference between the approaches. The 3 sages are all sampling out of a large cauldron labelled 'life' (or something). Confucius looks like he's just tasted the most sour thing you could imagine, and Buddha the most bitter thing ever. Lao Tzu, however, looks like he's just tasted the sweetest nectar. Additionally, i'm not entirely convinced the detachment is a particularly good translation, most people tend to think this means you don't feel desire, where as I understand the whole concept more as 'it doesn't rule you', ie you can still feel it, and in fact you could argue that only one who is detached from desire can actually fully experience desire. This is part of the reason i enjoy Daoism so much, as there is nothing which is not the Dao - and at the same time at the heart of mastering the mind is not being ruled by the 'ten thousand things' (including the 5 senses).

I like that, "making space for more", still there are Yin and Yang ways to do this, but this translation has at least a more neutral connotation than packing. Thanks.

Re packing and non-packing, it's a case of Yin and Yang practice IMO. The packing is a Yang approach, pushing energy into the LDT. The Yin approach is allowing the LDT to deepen so that it naturally stores more. Both methods would be employed in some training regimes. Many leap straight for the Yang approach in the quest for results or internal power, and miss the deep wisdom of Yin cultivation.

Thanks Taomeow.

There are two ways to look at it that bridge the 'contradiction'. One is related to the misconception most people have that they reincarnate. 'They' do not, and by 'they' i mean the personality, what most actually think of as themselves. What returns to source is the essence, that which simply is, the spirit i guess or whatever one chooses to call it. As i understand it, the energetic pattern created by the personality can exist on some level of reality for a period of time, potentially for a long period of time. This is very different to being a ghost, it's more like a psychic imprint. The other is that time is simply a perception, and that the seeming contradiction is purely due to a limitation of understanding. We exist both as a reincarnation moving through time, and at the same time anyone we've been and anyone we've been born from also exists simultaneously in the space-time continuum.

The Big Draw is a temporary measure IMO, once you have your pelvis open (dense and subtle matter) and can cultivate the heart/sex energy together, you can relax into it and simply allow orgasm into your whole body. Testicle breathing is a good one for doing this, it cultivates Yin Ching, which Chia doesn't emphasise enough. There is a great resource that one of your fellow TB memebers has put together: http://alchemicaltaoism.com/, has heaps of stuff and a lot more balanced approach than most books you'll get out there.

Most people just want to relax, get fit, feel good, and aren't interested in enlightenment or realisation of the Tao, this is a problem across all approaches. And it's not just reading them, but studying them deeply that the goodness lay. I'm not entirely convinced Hinduism in the west is in a particularly good state either, almost similarly people pursue the 'best' form of yoga when it is merely a preparation for meditation, they are fascinated by kundalini awakening and think the awakenings of kundalini are some kind of enlightenment, and i really doubt most people have read the classics. IMO Daoism is still suffering from the disruption caused to the tradition in China, but there are some amazing and genuine teachers out there in the world, and few of them have big marketing machines behind them because what they teach is too subtle for most, they are interested in quality students, not quantity, i've been lucky enough to study with one of them, and perhaps another. What they teach is very different to any of the modern qigong stuff i've read in books. Most people just don't take the time to get the subtleties no matter what the tradition, they miss the true art of the stillness, and they aren't willing to pursue their goal relentlessly and shy they away from the difficult work of truly facing yourself. Oh, and Zhan Zhuang rocks, even if you can't find a teacher (always preferable), like any physical art part of the key is self observation and correction, not 'just standing there'.

I was refined sugar free for a couple of years, tough but awesome, these days i eat very little, but now and then binge and regret it. It upsets the chemical balance in your body that's for sure. Regarding the fruit thing, i actually quite disagree that the sugars are as bad for you on a general health level, the reason being they are contained in a whole environment. One of the primary effects of refined sugar (aside from your body mistaking it for adrenaline) is that the sugars try to return to a more complex 'complete' state by stripping iron and calcium from your body. Most naturally occurring high sugar foods are high in these minerals, eg fruit, sugar cane, etc.. That said, some medical conditions are effected by particular forms of sugar regardless of whether they are refined or not. And being a Taoist forum, it's good to consider it from a 5 elements perspective. As i understand it sugar during summer is especially bad as it over stimulates the heart, but in moderate doses during winter it can be good for warming the organs, especially if one is prone to yin conditions, like feeling cold. Personally i think refined sugar is one of the most addictive and evil drugs we've created, subtle enough to be consumed everyday but ridiculously addictive and profoundly dulls the mind/body connection.

Bums! (so i decided to do a new thread rather than use the recent enquiry thread as the search is timing out and i get to express in the title my enthusiasm!) I did Master Tao's Dragon Gate Dao Yin Chi Gong course on the weekend (in Melbourne, Australia) and it was totally awesome, Master Tao is certainly a very highly cultivated individual (avoiding words like enlightened etc as everyone gets way to excited/critical when you start bandying words like that around, and really who am i to say?). He is the real deal as far as i can make out from my humble perspective. My energy and heart are feeling really clear, almost purified, in a way I've never quite experienced before and the warmth in my Dan Tien is very present and am able to drop deep into this awareness very easily. The practices were simple, powerful, and i have the experience of having been taught a lot more than was said - he actually doesn't speak very good english so the instruction was largely through a translator (anyone have tips on how to learn mandarin in 3 months?) but this did mean the instruction of practices was very succinct. I feel like my cultivation has gone vastly deeper to a whole new level in only a couple of days. His approach to cultivation is very Yin, which is what resonates with me. The weekend was on meditation practice and fasting, with 6 dao yin practices taught. The fasting technique is awesome, i'm still laughing about how cool it is and how remarkable it's made my body feel, it can apparently cure any cancer etc within 7-10 days, i'm not normally one to give credit to such things, but with only one day under my belt i'm inclined to believe it. I'll only say it involves consuming no food or liquid, not even water. Apparently his master fasts for up to 3 months at a time. He did a couple of energy healings along the way, and the chi radiating from him was incredible. I'm now totally sold on getting live teaching/transmission of Qi Gong etc rather than books or dvd's, his title of Master is well earned IMHO. There was some curiosity about lineage etc, but i didn't even ask, was too busy being present to my experience and perceiving/letting in as much as possible - next time! Anyway, if you're in Australia, and especially Melbourne, i can't recommend highly enough attending one of his classes (next one's probably in Feb or March next year) or even checking him our for a healing session if you've got something that ails you. http://www.daoyintherapy.com.au One happy little Taoist!

Hey Paul, Not sure exactly what you mean by bigu principles, a quick google revealed some info on both 'living on light' and 'living on Chi'. I'd say it would fall into the later, as Master Tao said, 'use your spiritual power to feed yourself'. We are also taught a swallowing the sun exercise to supplement, so i guess that falls into the former. As i mentioned, the workshop this weekend is not on the meditation and fasting, i'm not sure exactly what the topic is, i couldn't get a clear answer from his wife, i get the impression it's a bit more esoteric. The practices so far have been very subtle, very yin, but getting more powerful over time. Am about to embark on my longest fast which i'm really looking forward to. Hope that's of some help!

From my reading of it he isn't saying he's enlightened (he actually uses 'awakened', which i think is a very different claim, as in one can be awakened to the path to enlightenment), or in reference to the thread he links to, he 'has access to the original mind', quite different to being the original mind. Semantics perhaps, but noteworthy. He really says just that he doesn't need any information any more - he has access to a source beyond that, time to cultivate, to dig a deeply into the practice that has taken him this far, rather than widely into practices. I admire that, envy possibly, my mind often feels like a zombie filing cabinet/bookshelf relentlessly and mindlessly trying to consume as much information as possible. Anyway, hooray, TB = X+1, ignorance = Y-1, where X and Y may or may not have anything to do with each other, but if they did may be something like X=[Tai Chi (the symbol)]=Y Or something like that.

I just thought i'd bump this up as Master Tao has another workshop on this weekend (on a different part of the practice to what i reviewed above), i believe there are still spaces, so if you're living in Melbourne and interested (it's on from 1-5pm sunday and saturday) - and i could highly recommend it - head on over to:www.daoyintherapy.com.au. If there are any TB's going along, drop me a PM.

If you're getting that electric feeling (is that a song ), be conscious of where you're sending the energy, fill your belly full!

Intentionally pulling up the testicles can be really useful as a starter and to unblock and get your consciousness in there - but it's a bit like training wheels. After a while, you will find it's not necessary to contract them, and in fact you will get more energy flow if you don't.