Encephalon

This presumes that biomechanical integrity is evenly distributed amongst the population. It ain't. My skeletal system has always been my weak link; I've got osteoarthritis (wear and tear) throughout my body. But I'm sure that running DOWN Colorado mountain trails was the source of most of the damage.

I suppose I am obliged to assume some measure of culpability as I was the one who first posted the article. But I don't truly feel that I was motivated by my consternation with the darker side of Christian history, any more than I resent the Japanese over their Chinese occupation. My beef with Catholicism, as I stated earlier, is their refusal to join the 21st century, to redress their mysogeny, their absolutism, and their failure to respond meaninfully to ecological constraints, not to mention their obstructionist posture regarding pedophilia amongst the clergy. I understand that their legal fees with this little problem amount to almost a half billion dollars (not that they'r lacking for cash). There are plenty of elements within the Catholic Church that do take contemporary issues seriously and struggle to define their faith as a means of addressing them. But the bureaucracy lives on, and its behavior is indefensible. As Erich Fromm wrote decades ago, the European adoption of Christianity was largely a sham. And, for the record, I think the argument holds that the entire Abrahamic tradition has outlived its utility. I think it takes extraordinary moral development to abstain from smacking some one or some thing that desperately deserves it. I've tried to reign in my own egotism and belligerence in this forum, and I've got a boatload of work ahead of me still. Thich Nhat Hanh I am not, but I'm probably less egotistical than I was six months ago (although a case could be made that I've just become more sophisticated with my barbs).

I just got in here. Happy to see this book/teaching on the list. www.neikungla.com has a profile of the teaching that is very concise and informative and can be read in 10-15 minutes. It's by Sifu Jim Borrelli, one of Master Chu's students who also helped write the Book of Nei Kung. Contrary to what was suggested in here, this nei kung is not an external system; it is internal martial arts chi kung. I posted Frantzis' description of the differences in here a few weeks ago. I'm still trying to quantify my own experiences of the mental benefits, but things keep getting so much better that I am constantly compelled to hold off as my grasp of its subtleties becomes more refined. I had no idea what the microcosmic orbit was until I had been practicing this technique for almost two years. When I started going crazy buying books on Amazon by Taoist author/practitioners, I started focusing on MCO and it came to me in a matter of weeks. Nei kung was responsible, of this I"m certain. It's remarkably easy to learn, uncomplicated and extremely powerful. I am constantly hearing about 'secret' postures that render remarkable energy flow, but they often seem very much like the postures and movements in this system. Also, for those of you with osteoarthritis, there's very encouraging news posted at www.chutaichi.com by a physician who healed his ankles with nei kung and Master Chu's tai chi. He was looking at a fused ankle complex before he found nei kung. He now has full athletic ability. I spoke to him on the phone. Up to now there hasn't been much evidence of reversing bone on bone degeneration.

"I find it works best lying flat on the back." I think you may have isolated it for me. Standing or sitting in half lotus doesn't give birth to movement of energy. I can sit and focus on specific gates, and I'm grateful for that in spite of my impatience, but there is very little movement along meridians. I've seen this suggestion somewhere in my library before and I paid no heed. Thank you so much for this advice.

I think there's a false dichotomy here. Ferreting out the wisdom of nature is not about seeking legitimacy for unbridled instinctual behavior. Human beings are the only species on earth that can bring self-awareness to the earth's living processes. There are compelling theories that humans are in fact the world's nervous system with the most sophisticated means of cognition, but cognition is life itself, according to the Santiago theory of cognition, regardless of the level of complexity of the nervous system.

There's a Thai woman who does traditional Thai massage, right along the meridians, and it hurts like a mother. She grinds her knees into the back of your calves!! She's on the NW corner of DeSoto and Nordhoff (in Chatsworth, for you Angelinos) and I'm tempted to stop in next $day. It's been ages since I've been there, and the last time may not have been too healing as I had about four very large bong hits before going in Thanks again.

Making instructions available would be a generous act for us all. Before you do, though, I should say that I've blown a small fortune on my library, so if you're taking it from written materials, let me know. I do have terrific meridian/gate maps and regard them as essential to my own progress thus far. I can make the Yongquan pulsate at will, and with patience I can get all the gates (a la Frantzis) pulsing nicely too. Coursing through the meridians is a different story. Maybe I'm just looking for more speed and am being impatient.

ABSORPTION Crimson light through pine shadows. Setting sun settling into the ocean. Night follows the setting sun, Day follows the fleeing moon. All too often, we tend to think of absorption as a static thing : Water is absorbed into a sponge, and there it stays. But true absorption is a total involvement in the evolution of life without hesitation or contradiction. In nature there is no alienation. Everything belongs. Only human beings hold ourselves aloof from this process. We have our civilization, our personal plans, our own petty emotions. We divorce ourselves from process, even as we yearn for love, companionship, understanding, and communion. We constantly defeat ourselves by questioning, asserting ourselves at the wrong times, or letting hatred and pride cloud our perceptions. Our alienation is self-generated. In the meantime, all of nature continues its constant flow. We need to let ourselves go, enter freely into the process of nature, and become absorbed in it. If we integrate ourselves with that process, we will find success. Then the sequence of things will be as evident as the coming of the sun and the moon, and everything will be as it should be.

Great response. I've only done nei kung - Embrace Horse - for less 2.5 years, but a lot of body work and yoga before that. My leg meridians are stubborn, not opening up as quickly as my upper torso. I'm learning SFQ these days so thank you for that encouragement. I'll have to stick with Burmese style sitting meditation - full lotus is just too hard on my knees and ankles. Thank you, and everyone else, for fine feedback. I felt similarly in that most of the duration of my standing sessions would be taken up with areas around the head and shoulder girdle and less time would be left for the pelvis, legs and feet. I asked my teacher about this and he told me not to worry about it - that my attention would naturally be drawn to the areas where work needed to be done at that time. This has proved to be the case (even with my patchy practice schedule). Thanks for sharing this experience and feedback. I can completely relate.

In the absence of "Embrace Horse" I want to find a system, preferably on DVD, that can get her chi flow going in a seated position. Her natural advantages are a fierce determination, incredible health and vitality (she's a triathlete), she's well-educated, and she'll have a lot of time on her hands. I'll most likely get her a copy of "Energy Work" by Robert Bruce as I've found his instructional style very effective, and I may go ahead and loan her my Gary Clyman DVDs. Any other reasoned recommendations by TTB instructors would be invaluable. Here's a chance to work with a lab rat of high caliber. Thanks in advance. Uh...PS - She's never done energy work

I want to thank everyone for your thoughtful advice. She's purchased several items and supplements off the list of recommendations you all offered. I'm going to be training her three times a week starting next monday. Here's a link that shows what she and her husband went through. Dialogue begins at 1:10. Her injuries were underreported. The EMTs told them to buy a lottery ticket because the luck factor was off the charts. http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?co...8241&ref=mf

I don't have a clue. Sorry.

This really boils down to "Y Axis vs. X Axis." If you live on the Y axis, you subscribe to a top-down authoritarian hierarchy, traditionally patriarchal as well, where you're role in life is determined by a pecking order of subservience; who to take orders from, who to give them to. If you live on the X axis, you share responsibilities not just for yourself and your kin but for the entire web of life. It is an interdependent and participatory experience that eclipses hierarchical authority. The pope may very well be right insofar as many millions are concerned. Most folks cannot get their spiritual juices flowing with commie abstactions like peace, social justice, environmental sustainability. Many people still need a personified deity to feel connected and significant. I concede that Christianity has greater numbers of adherents than Buddhism or Taoism for some very significant reasons.

Yes indeed, the Abrahamic tradition has done such a marvelous job of solving all the horrible problems created by naturalistic worldviews. Or, as Gary Snyder once said, "Otherworldy philosophies end up doing more damage to the planet (and human psyches) than the pain and suffering that is in the existential conditions they seek to transcend."

SHAPING Potter at the wheel. From centering to finished pot, Form increases as options decrease; Softness goes to hardness. When a potter begins to throw a pot, she picks up a lump of clay, shapes it into a rough sphere, and throws it onto the spinning potter's wheel. It may land off-center, and she must carefully begin to shape it until it is a smooth cylinder. Then she works the clay, stretching and compressing it as it turns. First it is a tower, then it is like a squat mushroom. Only after bringing it up and down several times does she slowly squeeze the revolving clay until its walls rise from the wheel. She cannot go on too long, for the clay will begin to "tire" and then sag. She gives it the form she imagines, then sets it aside. The next day, the clay will be leather hard, and she can turn it over to shape the foot. Some decoration may be scratched into the surface. Eventually, the bowl will be fired, and then the only options are the colors applied to it; its shape cannot be changed. This is how we shape all the situations in our lives. We must give them rough shape and then throw them down into the center of our lives. We must stretch and compress, testing the nature of things. As we shape the situation, we must be aware of what form we want things to take. The closer something comes to completion, the harder and more definite it becomes. Our options become fewer, until the full impact of our creation is all that there is. Beauty or ugliness, utility or failure comes from the process of shaping.

I shall not post again before consulting with thee.

HEALING Fire cools. Water seeks its own level. No matter how extreme a situation is, it will change. It cannot continue forever. Thus, a great forest fire is always destined to burn itself out; a turbulent sea will become calmer. Natural events balance themselves out by seeking their opposites, and this process of balance is at the heart of all healing. This process takes time. If an event is not great, the balancing required is slight. If it is momentous, then it may take days, years, even lifetimes for things to return to an even keel. Actually, without these slight imbalances, there could be no movement in life. It is being off balance that keeps life changing. Total centering, total balance would only be stasis. All life is continual destruction and healing, over and over again. That is why, even in the midst of an extreme situation, the wise are patient. Whether the situation is illness, calamity, or their own anger, they know that healing will follow upheaval. Deng Ming-Dao

At the risk of sounding both pedantic and retarded (simultaneously no less!) I have to quote Occam's Razor again, or at least appeal to it and let you guys google it for yourselves. It's yer Rhomboids! I know we personal trainers have a reputation for being dipshits, but some of us know a thing or two. You can cite chi kung esoterica until you're blue in the face, but it is always prudent to consider the least complicated explanation first and then move down the list of probable causes. Almost everyone has discomfort between their shoulderblades. Even Bruce Frantzis says to pay particular attention to this area in the energy gate dissolving process because the whole area has a large number of minor energy gates. But in the majority of cases, the discomfort is a result of relative weakness of the rhomboids in relation to stronger surrounding muscles. I had the exact same symptoms until I did my homework and composed a strength training regimen for meditators. The problem was gone in 4 or 5 weeks. It's never come back, probably because I do so much Embrace Horse. http://www.floota.com/RhomboidStretch.html My apologies if I sound pushy.

You're asking for some fairly esoteric material which could most likely be rendered by extremely high level practitioners (who may have better things to do than poke around in here). However... "Qigong Empowerment: A Guide to Medical, Taoist, Buddhist, Wushu Energy Cultivation" by Masster Shou-Yu Liang is not only one of the best qigong references in print but it's full of the kind of "protection" practices you speak of. It's kind of pricey, but good public libraries carry it. Good luck.

Always happy to hear that others have the book as well.

It's time for this thread to be given a proper burial. The end.

Occam's Razor - the concept that the least complicated explanation is often the most likely. Lot's of perfectly strong, healthy, active people suffer from relative weaknesses in smaller muscles. The back is vulnerable to this phenomenon. A chiropractor who is also an athleste can isolate this weakness and prescribe a strengthening regimen. Bent-over flyes for the rhomboids and hyperextensions for the spinal erectors/glutes is my semi-educated guess (as a lowly personal trainer). I'll email you a beer if I'm wrong.

You might click on the LATOC site for a comprehensive explanation for why moving to CA may not be in someone's best interest, although there are plenty of advantages that exist as long as our beloved "Suck the planet dry" economic model continues. CA is broke, will most likely get bailed out. It's extremely expensive too, but if you're tired of shoveling snow, it's kinda nice. It's currently 66* and sunny here in LA. It's just that it's all so unsustainable, by any criteria. Humboldt County, on the coast, or Sonoma County, both up north, are my favorite places. Taoists regard vennison as a healthy choice, and since I'm not going to be completely vegetarian, especially if I succeed in moving to the mountains, I'll want to take advantage of this ample resource. I don't want to consume industrial meat products any longer, but I want to be able to feed my loved ones when SHTF. I also want to explore the spiritual side of hunting down cute little animals and murdering them in the snow.