rex

Depending on the Buddhist tradition and how the body is viewed there's no tension. In the tantric traditions body, mind and energy are seen as inseparable so it's perfectly legitimate to do practices that maintain and refine the precious base for spiritual practice.

Non taken Spectrum, I got and get the results I deserve. Any difficulties encountered are all grist to the mill in learning how to live with sexual energy and attendant desire. I can't ignore it so I may as well work with it. The way I saw it when first starting out was that any sexual activity would be driven by a lot of desire anyway so why not engage in desirous activity that wasn't depleting? I'd known plenty of people who engaged in plenty of regular sex who were still obsessed so questions of recycling sexual energy and exacerbating desire seemed irrelevant. Rex

Excellent point. Circulating the energy for me has nothing to do with spirituality but is an entirely pragmatic and perfunctory affair.

Happy New Year everyone! I can move energy up the spine and down to the navel though never had a CCO or BO (except under the armpit variety). I've experienced an outside gets inside thing where my brain seems to resonate at the same frequency as the surrounding air and there's a tangible sense of space. One problem with moving the energy down to the navel, especially if pr0n is being used, is that some of the energy can get stuck at the heart or place where intense desire is experienced, adding fuel to the fire. Then, as Trunk points out, there can be the danger of being constantly revved. To avoid this I ensure that a short while before the critical moment all visuals and fantasies are dispensed with and focus is purely on sensation. As the energy descends I can be aware of the energy being drawn to the physical heart but can now direct it straight down to the navel and avoid overheating it. I'm pragmatic about pr0n and see it as just another coloured cat to get the energy moving though not something that should be relied upon exclusively. Without being too puritanical about it a distinction can be made between healthy and unhealthy desire though as for corrupting the mind it depends purely on the nature of the pr0n and the quality of the desires provoked and re-enforced.

Courtesy of e-sangha: http://www.lamrim.com/index2.html http://www.dharma-media.org/media/index.php http://www.mahabodhi.org/talks_mp3.htm http://www.kalachakra.com/home/index.html http://mangalashribhuti.cleverspin.com/MSB_PL/list.php http://phayul.com/onlineradio/ltwa.aspx http://www.kunkyab.org/ http://www.buddhistmedia.com/default.asp?lang=eng

Just a few bullet points on video remakes: * Revise the material based on peoples experiences over the last decade or so. * Studio production over iffy workshop filming. * Give a context of where the material being presented fits into an overall approach. * Classify the material into essential; nice but not essental; nice if you want to do x etc. Personally I owe Mantak Chia a debt of gratitude for his work though funnily enough I've never seen him as teaching Taoism at all but a 'spiritual technology' of energetic techniques derived from Taoism. The inner smile, healing sounds and fusion are great to do to get clearer before doing a main spiritual practice.

This 'what is' is very enigmatic. I suppose it's the source that impartially supports, without announcing itself, the limitless perceptons of beings (and more ...). As Dudjom Rinpoche wrote: No words can describe it No example can point to it Samsara does not make it worse Nirvana does not make it better It has never been born It has never ceased It has never been liberated It has never been deluded It has never existed It has never been nonexistent It has no limits at all It does not fall into any kind of category Very clear summary - nice one! Probably just words getting in the way It does sound absolutely outrageous doesn't it? I was being a bit facetious - sorry. Personally for sanity's sake I keep the bedroom department strictly separate from formal spiritual practice. Aroused energy in single cultivation can be accompanied by all sorts of fantasy. Unaroused energy and mixing kidney and heart energy is another matter. Thanks! I put it down to drinking that strong mug of tea.

Cheeky, but funny. Sounds more like a Golden Dawn 'becoming more than human' ego-maniacal enticement. Escapism and transcendence are not necessarily the same. Absolutely! Nice one! Trouble is the wine always seems to be run out and the party peters out. Then I have to go back to a shit job to earn more money to get more wine. Both luxury and poverty have their traps - though I'd rather be rich and miserable than poor and miserable. Strip this of the Buddhist terminology and it might even be something a Daoist would say: Transforming Suffering and Happiness into Enlightenment Unless of course they become one and the same in single cultivation. Dual cultivation of course is preferable otherwise one would quite literally and metaphysically be a wanker. Like absolutely again!

According to one Buddhist legend a long time ago in a galaxy far far away there lived a princess called Yeshe Dawa who asked the local monks what she needed to do to become enlightened and benefit beings. On being told that she had to wait to be reborn as a male she basically said sod off I'll do it as a woman. She did and became Tara vowing always to benefit beings in female form. There are other legends on the origin of Tara; another states that she manifested from one of Chenrezig's teardrops. In tantric Buddhism one of the root vows is not to denigrate women. The feminine principle is venerated as being one of the sources of refuge and a source of inspiration, wisdom and activity.

This link was posted on e-sangha showing a monk doing some yoga from the Chakrasamvara cycle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG6w036k8u4 From my limited knowledge the clip demonstrates some interesting themes: relaxation; use of sound; shaking; pressing/hitting energy points; patting; channel dregding and expelling stale air from the thrusting channels. Interspersed with the action are what looks like scenes depicting yoga from the 5th Dalai Lamas secret temple. The monk warns viewers not to copy this without proper instruction otherwise the consequences could be serious for health and well being - estoeric energetics aside the leaping and landing could do serious mischief if misapplied. Have a look you'll see what I mean - Ouch!

It took me years to be able to sit comfortably cross legged. Sitting time went up in increments from 5 minutes to about 2 hours. Zafus don't work for me but it's good to have a comfy cushion or cushions that keep the hips higher than the knees. Any pain from sports injuries can be compensated by placing cushions under the knees. A rug or towel to cushon the ankles from the floor is also good. Also, for me, there can be a tendency to lean forward too much. Sitting upright in a cross legged positon gives the body that triangular geometry which according to Buddhist cosmology is characteristic of the humans living in the Jambudvipa continent i.e. us!

Michael have you ever listened to Shulamit? Her website is here: http://www.kabbalahofprayer.com/products/kabbalah-cds.html The instructions on her Beyond Words CD say that the sounds/vibrations have to be listened to by the body so headphones can't be used.

"Thats right folks, no sudden movements, just go back the way you came." Now that's funny Lotusbud! Thanks for your further comments Freeform. I think I understood what you are saying and the process seems useful in understanding our own internal representation of 'out there' though it might just be a tad too self-referential and be like the Zen saying 'washing blood with blood'. Thanks for sharing your method Chris. It's much safer though not necessarily comforting. This isn't a bad thing as the idea is to reduce our insularlity, not reinforce our cocoons. Still as you say it isn't easy. I may try resonating with this tree from which I once got a real sense of anger after pruning it. It needs pruning again and I'll see how best to proceed. Of course my better half thinks I'm bonkers but I'm reminded of all the work of the Findhorn Community in Scotland who got hold of a load of supposedly infertile land, communicated with the rocks, stones, trees and plants and are now growing all sorts of things in abundance, some of which weren't deemed possible to grow on the soil or even in the locale.

Thanks everyone for the informative and impassioned responses! No need to apologise Wayfarer, what you said was relevant and valid - and what a cautionary tale! Freeform your generous account raises perhaps unanswerable questions on the nature of identity and an individual's connection to more universal forces; at some point, depending on one's world view, the jump can be made from the personal to the universal and this is where different questions and concerns are raised depending on whether one's coming from a dualistic or non-dualistic viewpoint. What I was trying to do was explore methods used to have a genuine energy rapport with other energy forms as implied in the titles of various chi kung forms. Michael I haven't a clue whether this involves lending your body to an outside agency; or a transmission of energy that's translated into human movement; or some form of energy field overlap that leaves signatures in the fields of the participants. This is probably closed door stuff though what is secret in one tradition can sometimes be found taught openly in others. Shamanic methods are hinted at heavily, if not overtly, in various sources: the elemental animals in Mantak Chia's Fusion book and Lesser Kan & Li; Earle Montaigue's reptilian brain and it's activation by bagua animal forms; John Du Cane's Five Animal Frolics and Master Zhongxian Wu's Shamanic Tiger Qigong - there was even a Tai Chi workshop given in London a few years ago by Rene Navarro involving a shamanic journey. The shamanic world view has a lot to teach on the interaction of our energy system with the environment. Humanity is said to contain within itself all the orders of life that went before it and on which it still now depends. While I would decry atavistic devolutionary possession (an inherent risk in the Visual Magick method) I think that some form of energy rapport with other natural orders of life is transformative and good for all life on the planet. Isn't humanity said to be a bridger between worlds? It also stands to reason that this rapport is best done within the wider context of a coherent spiritual world view with mutual respect and co-operation. Then contact is made safely and with the proper 'introductions' otherwise I'd imagine chi kung energy hoarders on a power trip would get short shrift.

I know what you mean. However behind all the different forms there does seem to be some common themes: gathering energy, circulating energy, purifying energy, connecting personal energy to universal energy, storing energy etc. I suppose the key is to determine what a particular form is trying to do in relation to these. As for real tangible results I think it depends on what the goals are of one's personal practice, martial, medical, spiritual or any combination of these. Apart from a subjective improvement in the quality of one's life having, someone in the know validate your results is a real blessing though hard to come by. This validation can come from unexpected sources not necessarily connected to chi kung circles such as healers and people with clairvoyance etc.

I remember reading a post by Ian saying that real yoga has yet to appear in the West. IMHO it just has. Check this out: Yantra Yoga for beginners Unlike other tibetan tsa lung/trulkhor courses there's no access restrictions either.

A lot has been going on at the same time here in the UK as well. There's something about November and this time of year. At any rate the air is very energising at the moment. They might do on-going classes and other sessions so it's probably worth contacting them via the details near the bottom of this page which also has further info on the system: http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/ths/230574555.html Can't say for sure what the course will cover. Surely the basic eight movements. Different breathing techniques and channel purfication exercises may also be covered and other aspects that aren't covered on the video. Got this blurb from a UK site: "Introductory workshops We all know how to breathe, but, because breathing is tied to our emotions and our mind, it is often disordered. The first workshop teaches movements and positions that introduce the different components of breathing, as well as mobilising the joints, stretching the muscles and regulating the flow of prana. This is not only indispensable for meditation and contemplation, but one can truly learn and experience relaxation with presence for the three aspects of our human condition, body, energy, and mind. We begin the 3 groups of preliminaries, in particular the 8 movements. Only when this is clearly introduced can we proceed slowly and gently to apply and deepen the experience of breathing in the Yantras and eventually in the Pranayamas. Introductory workshops are suitable for people with no previous experience or for more experienced Yantra Yoga practitioners who wish to refresh their practice." This style of yantra yoga has five groups of movements of which the eight basic movements form part of the first group. One of the functions of yantra yoga is to get the internal winds to abide in the central channel. Another is to harmonise the internal elements. There's no visualising yourself as a deity or anything like that. I was pleasently suprised to see this course advertised as being open to everyone as in the UK transmission from Chogyal Namkhai Norbu is required. Maybe it's only for the second groups of yantras and up.

Oh aren't the dates there? It's this weekend (11-12th). The Song Mountain Monastery page looks worth keeping an eye on. That guy must be doing something right to be looking like that at 99 years old!

Looks like a naga to me. later edit: image removed - well it is full moon

Just got this book after seeing it recommended by someone I particularly admire and mighty pleased am I with it too: http://www.amazon.com/Taoist-Qigong-Health.../dp/1590300688/ Just a cursory glance through it and there's chapters on each of the main organs from a TCM/Taoist perspective, moving postures, healing sounds, and even some pressure points and hand mudras. There's a website with further information though it looks like registration may be required to access some areas : http://users.erols.com/dantao/index.html

Man's work is not merely to exist on this earth, to scratch ignorantly at its surface, to mutilate Nature in every possible way, to fight and rob his neighbour, but to develop the powers surrounding him, to manipulate those forces that he may truly and deservedly claim his right to inherit the earth. A garden which has been neglected for years and is overgrown with weeds, when taken over by an intelligent human being who will work hand in hand with Nature, may once again become a thing of beauty and joy. Thus the earth, which is man's garden, must be sown and cultivated by him, perfected by his art. Archibald Cockren

Course in Multiple Mentality: How To Do Six Things At Once Taken from this website which appears to be a real treasure trove: http://www.rexresearch.com/1index.htm (And no - I have no connection with this site).