Doctor Shaft

Agreed. To go along with that, not everyone really agrees on this, but orgasm can have detrimental affects as well. I say detrimental because it's not really "bad", but if you get locked in a situation due to semen retention like you describe, it can become detrimental. In short, you don't want to get caught up in cycle like that. From a more Taoist perspective, Trunk's site goes into more depth and detail about the dangers of semen retention and what to do. Quick question. Are you "retaining" or are you simply practicing chastity (i.e. no masturbation, no touching, no sexual touching of self, etc.) I was under the impression that semen "retention" was something more specific and different.

Well, it's not that we don't know of the Internals... it's just not mainstream. Keep in mind, Karate/TKD/TSD/ etc., are all pretty young martial arts, comparatively speaking. It's rapid spread has, at times, led to a lot of dilution. And, then again, I don't think its had a lot of time to also employ some of the more internal aspects as much. But given time, I hope that will change. Many of the higher level students do find themselves delving into the internal aspects of power generation, qi gong training, etc. For a while, I believe Hwang Kee's Soo Bahk Do Association had a Taiji form as the highest level hyung (kata, etc.). I'm not sure if internal politics or nationality issues have come up recently to change that, but at least some of the Korean Karate eventually finds itself influenced. Karate is often considered "hard", and is taught that way for the majority of a practitioners life, yet as I continue to practice, I'm actually learning that all of that hard stuff is rather low level, and I now spend more and more time discarding it (and hence enjoying the frustration of having to retool everything yet again).

I agree with Sloppy Zhang. I'd say that at a high level, martial arts generally head in the same direction. I look at it as a web. In the center of the web is our goal for martial efficiency. To get to that goal, there are a variety of paths one can take. These paths are what form the web. Karate will start you at one point, but as you learn more and more and head towards the goal or the center, the defined lines that once said "Karate" start to dissolve. That is where I am now in my own training. I'm a Tang Soo Do practitioner (which is, for all intents and purposes, karate). When I was 5 years into my practice, karate was karate. It was very much different from, say, boxing or wrestling. At year 17... the lines are starting to blur. Sure, I still very clearly see the difference between the arts... but their movements no longer surprise me, or impress me. This is not due to arrogance or some idle notion that karate's moves are just superior. It's just that mechanics are starting to look the same, or I can at least see where it's going. So the notion that a bunch of masters would agree, and students would argue, seems to be correct. I'm constantly augmenting and learning skills for people that practice different things... and then I quickly see that it matches a movement or an application in something I've already done before. Granted, I'm no where near as proficient as the other practitioner, but that's more due to emphasis rather than the name of the art we practice. I'd say the "No" part of the answer comes up more in the philosophy or approach to training than actual technique itself. Where different styles clearly diverge is both their starting point (what skills will the beginner learn and create a base from), and also the philosophy to how and why they will learn the skill. What are you training for?

I'm pretty much a neophyte when it comes to taoist literature, and the such, but I become far more interested in it after being led there through my martial arts background, and reading a variety of books, some on explaining Chinese Medicine, others on Taoist practices, etc. This site has been invaluable in discovering new things quickly.