spyrelx

Thanks -- I'm really looking for a ming men practice. But I'm lost on the arm positions. Left hand is "straight up" AND "pointed to side"?. Where's the arm? where are the middle fingers pointing? Elbow bent? Right arm at 45 degrees. To me right arm straight out to the side from my shoulder would be 90 degrees, so 45 degrees is midway between that and pointing to the floor? I know it's tedious to explain but I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

Chia's empty force breathing is similar I think. If I remembe correctly, you exhale all your air and then hold your nose while "sucking in" (even though you're not taking in any air). You don't hold your nose with your hands though, instead you just internally close the nostrils. I've done something like this during big draw practice and it seems simlar to what you're doing. You can combine it with reverse "breathing" (even though you're not taking air in, you're chest gets bigger) and focus on running energy up the spine.

Just found Frost's web site. Looks interesting but don't really want to get the whole book. Can you describe the "gate of life meditation?". Thanks. Also, where's your quote about gods from? Thanks

What exactly is sperm snarfing?

I love mate out of that straw thing. It's the best way to drink it. You can even drink regular tea that way. Yoda, green or black, it's all good for you. Just stay away from those caffine pills (and go easy on the coffee).

Hey Matt, I just read Taoist Secret and it seem kind of ambivalent. I mean I still think, on the whole, they're sayin keep your tubes intact. But I'm not criticizing you at all. There's lots of paths. And you seem to have it together. But I would like to hear more about why you did it, what (if anything) you feel -- on a physical, emotional, energetic, life, level. I've considered it myself and am wondering. Thanks

Don't know of any studies, but I thought in a vacectomy the balls tended to atrophy and you stopped making sperm (yeah, sometimes they can reverse the procedure and you can start up again, but not always). So I think this is kind of antithetical to taoist practices, which wants you to KEEP PRODUCING SPERM (with all the associated homonal stuff) but channel some of that energy into spiritual/energetic development.

Sunshine, I agree with everything BobD has said above and reccomend rereading those posts. The way of energy is all you need to read. The way forward is to practice, not do more research. ZZ involves standing with a quiet mind. If you're not doing that, you're not really doing ZZ. That doesn't mean you can't do inner smile, MCO or other meditations while standing. I do them all the time. But it's just a different practice. It's like saying "I learned to sit in lotus position to do zen mediation. Can I sit in lostus and do the MCO?" Well, yes, of course you can. And it's beneficial. But it's not zen. My suggestion is start with any sort of chi kung warm ups you like, including ocean breathing, healing sounds, whatever. And THEN practice zz the way it's described in the book. Do that for a few months and then add or subtract whatever you like.

Try rubbing camphor all over your penis and see what it does to you. That's probably akin to the menthol rug munching treatment. I'd stick to saliva but what do I know? Do let us know if it's actually worth a try.

My two are 1. Standing Meditation 2. Sex Not necessarily in that order. Standing meditation gives you all the benefits of exercise and all the benefits of meditation in one package. Even when you're meditating poorly you're workng your structure. And even when you're standing badly you're often meditating well. Ken Cohen's right, it's great. Of sex what can I say that hasn't already been said? I'm serious though. It can be, I believe, your entire pactice if you do it right. Cameron, two questions for you if you don't mind: What's "water practice"? What are the Royal Court exercises? (perhaps there's a link you could post?) Thanks

Really great post peter, thank you. I'm not really up to sun and moon alchemy yet, so I'll just file it away. But it's good to see there's chinese daoists doing similar practices. Gives me even more faith in the "7 formulas" tradition. Just a few random observations/questions. How is it he achieved bigu but drinks . . . RED WINE? That seems bizzare. If I don't drink for a few weeks and then have a glass of wine I get pretty looped. This guys taking almost no food but chooses alchohol as one of the few substances he imbibes? Weird. What is it your doing in China again? (just curious).

Great article, not just about writing but about meditation as well. Thanks for that.

Trunk said: "I keep my breathing centered in the lower tan tien . . ." I'd like to talk a bit about breath. I notice that I don't breath much at all during standing meditation. Also, rather than having my breath centered in my lower belly, I find that my breath appears kind of shallow and centered in my chest (or perhaps both the belly and my chest). I've gone through periods of worrying about this, and tried to center it more in my belly, but that always feels kind of false. I should note that in everyday life I'm normally a belly breather. I also don't think this has to do with tension, since I seem to breath this way during standing regardless of whether I'm tense or not. Indeed, the MORE relaxed I am, the less I seem to breath and the "shallower" my breath becomes. I'm wondering If anyone else has any thoughts or experiences regarding this.

Here's some answers "regarding the positions above: second postion: do I just turn them down from the position before..." You just relax your arms and move them down to the side, and out a bit, and hold your palms out to the floor, as if you were feeling energy come from the ground. "do the tips of the right and left fingers show towards each other..." Not really, see above "are the arms still in a round position?" See above. The arms aren't flexed straight, but their not rounded as in the horse stance. They are just out to the sides a bit, but otherwise relaxed. "third position: fingers pointing directly up, elbows directly down???" Yes Remember, all these positions should be as relaxed as possible. If you feel like you are tensing a muscle to hold a position you are probably doing it wrong. If I can I'll try to post pictures from the book (no promises, I'm hampered by time constraints and my own lack of technological skill, but I'll see what I can do).

I've posted my thoughts about Ron on the taousa forum. He was a great man and will be missed. spyrelx

Hey MatthewQi, Just read your "rambling" post above. It was one of the wisest things I've read on this board. Thanks.

As I've said before, I highly reccomend "The Way of Energy". It's a simple, clear, powerful and well-illustrated book about standing meditation. And the practice I do is largely from that book. They start in "wu wei", just standing quietly with arms to side. Then they do 4 postures in horse stance: 1. arms up at chest height, palms facing in (classic horse) 2. arms down palms facing floor 3. hands up near shoulders with palms out (like a fly on a wall) 4. like position 1 except arms down by the dan tien, palms facing in. The idea is to move from 1 though 4 holding each for whatever length of time you've worked up to (e.g., 2 minutes each, 5 minutes each, etc.). I usually do about 20 minutes total, give or take 5 minutes. Like most standing meditiation practices, they just advocate a calm mind during it, i.e., no visualizations, ect.. "Just stand". For my own practice, sometimes I do quiet mind and sometimes I run the orbit. Ocassionally I'll do something els (e.g., Ken Cohen's "three tan tien meditation" or an inner smile meditation) but usually it's either quiet mind or the orbit. HOWEVER, I kind of discovered something that I'm convinced is built into the Way of Energy 4-part practice but is not explicitly stated in the book. In position 1 the back channel is activated, in position 2 the central channel is activated, and in position 3 the front channel is activated. I often feel them/concentrate on them during these positions. You can either run energy through them or (what I would reccomend) just be aware of them with a quiet mind. When you get to the position 4, all the energy naturally collects in the dan tien! It is an extrordinarily elegant practice.

Yeah, you have too much time on your hands.

I agree with DustWalker, the book is pretty much crap. Yoda . . . what can I say? Good luck with the hairlessness. And please, whatever you do, NO PICTURES.

That's a great rationalization for an additction. But that's what it is Ronnie boy. Sure, if you know what you're doing, you can spin health out of crack. Sure ya can. You're not addicted. It's not wasting you. You've got it all under control. Good luck pulling your pod.

I disagree. Certainly watching porn and ejaculating is worse than watching it and not ejaculating. But looking at it, whatever other practices you do, is, I believe, ultimately depleting -- in a very big way. The very act of looking --- oogling, slathering -- over it pulls energy away from you. All you have to do is compare the porn experience to the love making experience, or even the porn experience to non-porn single cultivation and you can feel the difference. Also, you didn't address the other issue I brought up, which is the drug like addictive nature of porn. Anything addictive depletes you. In very subtle but powerful and long term ways. Try to go a month without porn and see how well you handle it. I bet you can drop alcohol and pot easier than you can live without porn. In my experience porn is akin to cigarettes in its addictiveness (and in it's ubiquity -- it's everywhere and virtually unavoidable, a very tough drug to quit).

There's no question porn is depleting. It may help to think of those pictures as hungry ghosts or low astral beings out for your jing. I mean, could you invent a better hungry ghost than an image that appears over the internet and steals your energy? The other way to look at porn is that it's a drug. A number of people used the term "addiction" loosely but it is accurate. I mean, how long can you go without looking at it? And how much does it gnaw at you? Just ask yourself how you would feel if every time you looked at porn you were instead doing a few shots of burbon or a few lines of coke. You'd probably say "I've got a big problem" and check yourself into rehab. I'm not sure porn is all that different.

Pure bullshit wrapped in insanity. It's the sort of thing that makes conspiracy theorists look like level headed conservatives.

I figured one of you guys would know this. I want to put up a personal web page, just some pictures, text, etc. and I seem to remember that there are services that will give you the space for free (probably because they stick their advertising in there) but I don't know where to look. Does anyone know about this? Thanks.