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I think the ego will always be there or you will cease to exist. The point is to balance the ego with the spirit. Then you can progress in the way you wish, yet be happy with all outcomes. Enlightment is to realise that there is no destination, nothing to strive for because it is all the same, the beginning and the destination are all the same place. To get hung up on achieving bogs you down, yet to get hung up with spirituality leaves you with nothing left. Having the balance leaves you with just enough to be happy. The yin way is constantly trying to balance them all the time, the yang way is to alternate between the poles of spirit and ego which balance each other out also. You can either slowly achieve constantly like water pushing through the earth, slowly but surely it reaches the end. Or you can burn a hole, go get more petrol and burn a bit more till you get through. Enlightenment is realising they both get through at the same time and giggling at the fustration you used to feel at trying to get through, because all your hard effort and racing is silly because once you get through that is the end. And the end is the beginning. So you can 'do' and 'be' at the same time. 'Having' for the sake of having is the only thing to avoid in my opinion. Only 'have' so you can 'do' and all the while 'be'. It doesn't mean you won't have desire or that desire is bad, but you will know that it is only a desire of the moment, and if you can look at the big picture tensing up and trying too hard is just silly. Everyone will die eventually so there's no need to rush it.

I agree with your original post. I don't think humans are anything better than anything else. And to say what that a human's astral experience is anything to go by is silly too. People say 'but look at our cities, we have dominated the earth'. But there are pretty huge ant nests too, in comparison to their size. Look at the populations of dust mites, there must be many more of those than us. How about deep in the ocean where we can't even go, how do we even know what is there. How silly people are to believe we are so great, we are really just legends in our own lunch boxes.

I have practiced Healing Tao for a long time and i know what you are talking about. Here are some things you can do. 1. Do these stretches for your neck. A) Left & right and around in a circle Then like you are shaking your head saying No.C) Then squeeze your shoulders up, then put them down and stretch your neck out. 2. Use fingers or knuckle to massage your throat chest, especially where the chi is getting suck. You can beat your chest link king kong too. 3. If chi is getting stuck in your head or heart. Do venting, lead the chi out to below your feet by concentrating there. Do healing sounds. This will work very well. Especially the heart sound. 4. I find if i overeat i get chi stangnation so don't overeat, stop when you are full. Most important thing is to relax more. Worry less about the chi and more that your body is relaxed. When you are relaxed the chi will flow in by it's self. If you do healing sounds this will help you relax. You can also do more inner smile. These two are really good i think. MCO does it's self when you do inner smile and healing sounds well. Sometimes i just do a few healing sounds and MCO starts running very fast without me even starting it.

I'm trying to look back through my posts to find some of the things that i've worked out from this forum along the way, but when i search for my posts it only comes up with 1! Can any forum techies assist? Thanks.

I don't think you should be restraining, rather losing the desire. There should be no restraint. Watching yourself is the key. When you watch yourself you lose alot of desire to express some things, there is no point.

TCM (including accupuncture, herbs, taoist & energy medicine, etc, etc) definately has benefits to improving your health, it is medicine after all, it's just slow working compaired to Western medicine. If i'm sick i want to use everything i can find to help me get better as fast as possible. Western medicine couldn't help me for my illness (even though i went to a massive list of doctors), and i had to rely on TCM, and eventually i recovered. Also i think TCM is more about general health so for me it has also helped heal things that i forgot were even wrong with me, things i was so used to living with they became normal, but they just got better and i was very pleased. I really can't understand why people what to knock Ya Mu. It seems very creditable from what i have seen, and if it works for some people that is great. If it doesn't work for you doesn't mean you have to knock it. It's a shame that anybody who feels that they really have something great they want to share with others, and spend alot of time making how to videos and writing books gets so much anger thrown his way. How much time does someone need to waste replying to every attack written about his methods, and if he doesn't waste his time by not replying the attack is automatically viewed as justified and right. Aaron why not spend your time doing something constructive in something that you feel is worthwhile rather than trying to crush the constructive efforts of others. It's a fact of life that these attacks are always going to happen, but why are you choosing to be full of negative energy when you could be positive? Are you enjoying yourself? You definately seem cultivated enough to know how to use your energy (P.S. I do have one little attack of my own If that is Ya Mu in that video that got posted on here where the guy is shaking from his energy, while his method must allow for a large cultivation of chi to be able to do that, from the looks of it his method has no use for cultivating fashion sense )

Check out http://www.yogebooks.com There are lots of cool spiritual books there that i'm sure many people will be interested in. You are supposed to buy them by the looks of the website, but if you just click on the book it downloads and you can read them for free. I found the ones by William Walker Atkinson particularly interesting. Enjoy!

Haven't read all the post but swinging your arms around in big circles fast works excellent. The centrifical force forces the blood out to your hands and you feel them tingling.

I know what you mean. I think it's too much yang but not enough grounding or yin (depending if you're looking at it from the angle of the 3 pure ones or the just yin & yang). You gotta not get lost in the point or chakra. You are putting too much energy into it and getting pretty full on results but you need to stay grounded at the same time. You need to feel your whole body, hear the sounds around you and see and smell everything all at the same time as you are putting energy into a chakra. This way you can get the correct level of the desired feeling without having too much of it. Plus you have control over the power of several chakras at the same time. It's about how much focus you put where, and realizing the point where you are controlling all this from. The fact that you say doing MMA (which is physical & grounding) has helped you, indicates what i say to be the case even more. IMO

There are many many references to becoming like a child in lots of spirituality literature. However now i have my own child I feel there are many changes that have occurred through my own spirituality practice that i feel are quiet the opposite of growing young, infact i feel as if it causes me to mature faster (whether or not that means age faster i don't know). Here are a few major points. When i was a teenager or even a young kid and was looking at girls, i would always check out all the girls features and try to choose the very best looking one. Girls that didn't attract me i wasn't interested in, and certainly wouldn't want to kiss or anything along those lines! There would be very few that would actually reach my standards. As you get older more and more women seem to become more attractive and you get drawn to them for different reasons, and you appriciate different things about them. Standards may slightly drop too but this is not the only reason. It is a relaxing of your mind, allowing you to see beauty in all things. The same is true for other men too. There were some kids at school who seemed strange, a bit dirty, or just unintelligent that i didn't really want to mix with, but later now i find myself enjoying things about them i never would have thought about when i was younger. Another thing is with my body, when i was young i would have big muscles, and was super fit, and would never let myself become fat, yet now i feel comfortable becoming a bit overweight and not so pedantic about my fitness. The same relaxedness through spiritual advancement has sped this up considerably. Most toddlers don't want to share their stuff they want to keep all the good stuff for themselves. They feel jealous of others taking the love of their parents, and choose all the best stuff to eat. All these things that young kids do are to help them in a battle where it is survival of the fittest. It is the desire and drive to survive. Choosing the best mate, the best friends, and the best fitness. The definition of best changes somewhat when you become older but usually it changes in a way that makes survival less important. When you look at old people it's as if they have given up battling for the best and make do. They feel happy with second best and i think as people become old and lose the fire inside, they also become more spiritually balanced as a natural result of becomming old. It is the same with spirituality, there is no need to strive because i'm already where i need to be. I'm not talking about qigong which is not really spiritual in my opinion anyway, it is beyond spirituality and overshooting the mark for the sake of health, it is scientific. Energy work is yang and actually makes me feel younger and creates tension in my body and the desires and drives that i had when i was younger. If i become more yin and heavy it's easy to be in a state of bliss but i get that feeling of everything is fine just how it is. Also I'm not talking about specific methods, like being aware, prayer, or any other spiritual method, i'm talking about the result of these methods, the enlightenment process, how your perceptions and decision making change as a result. Won't you automatically become spiritual as you age? By purposely practicing these things does it mean that we age faster? I have certainly matured faster. Anyone else's thoughts?

Go with what you're feeling, if it feels fine then its working properly. You don't need to be on the ground, you can be flying in an aeroplane and still have abundant yin chi. The whole thing is all in your consciousness anyway, yang chi, yin chi, hot cold, whatever, it doesn't matter you make it all happen so you can choose how much of whatever type of energy or feeling you want to have and change it any time you like. Environmental factors can effect you but while you are meditating you are in control.

Yeah i just saw this guy on TV yesterday he's amazing. I read in one of his interviews he says a balanced diet and lots of meditation is required. Mannn i wanna be able to do this stuff it's awesome!

That is good. Just don't become unaware of your surroundings you want to be aware of them too, even when you are in trance. Consiousness inwards and awareness out.

I find the nostral on top always ends up being clear. Also if i have dampness or weakness in my spleen from eating wheat or drinking alcohol and the liver invading the spleen if i sleep on my right side, i feel my spleen healing, which is very good for my nose too. Of course nose blowing can help too but i'm sure you already tried this I learnt nose picking off my baby too heheh, just don't leave your finger in there or it's even harder to breath

Yeah man i hear trees too. I was talking to my grandma who is very spiritual and is a big churchy, but she never talked to trees. I said if you just tried you could speak to them. If you don't try, how do you know it's not possible. I find there are all different types, nice trees who want to talk, and others who are quiet, shy, want to keep to themselves, or even angry! It's like i can get a whole big idea about them by just tuning into them. I haven't spent alot of time with it though, what are you're experiences with trees?

The science is deafening! Makes the sonic boom sound like a noisy cricket.

I'm well aware of all this but where you say all external has an internal element and vice versa is the main point i am making. You don't train internally if your main goal is to hurt somebody externally. You train externally and the internal will naturally grow in a way that is going to best benefit that external training. If you punch a bag 1000 times a day in the same way for 3 years your punch is going to be very fierce. You can't punch 1000 times a day and not develop that punch internally, unless you are not being aware of what you are doing and thinking about the simpsons or something. You don't need to specifically train internal for the benefit of external. Internal specific training is for health reasons, healing or if you want to try to effect somebody else internally. Surely you would of heard the story about the guy who tried for many years to pull out a tree and finally he pulled it out! That shows external and internal in perfect balance. With tai chi (and i guess bagua but i haven't done it) you need to take a chance. You need to put yourself out for a move and have faith that it will work. The better you are at it the more likely it will work but there is still a chance it won't work out right and you will get hammered. Boxing is more calculated, planned and strategy. In my opinion the chance you need to take with tai chi can pay off nearly 100% of the time if you use it sparingly, when you really need to, and when you really need to save your arse. The 'light' or 'god' that you cultivate within yourself will protect you when you really need it. Meanwhile, If you just use it in the ring fighting guy after guy your luck will run out and your gunna end up getting smashed, it's not for that. Thats why boxers box, and tai chi guys pull uncanny stuff out of their arse and can woop even the meanest boxers. But not time after time the luck runs out. Thats why the soft overcomes the hard, but the hard can beat the soft. I believe from all the internal stuff i've done, i can be free from harm even without any martial training so long as i follow the light, (it sounds like a christian thing even though i'm not) but it will deliver me from evil in any time of need. Whether the fight is prevented by my or anybody else or the guy just simply slips over, it works in funny ways. If i tempt it though, well i guess i was asking for a whooping! I guess the best thing i would like to say is that even though i cultivate internally daily (mainly because i enjoy it), it really is not necessary. It all does it on it's own, and if you want to be aware of it you can be, then you can see it doing it's self on it's own. What really is of the most benefit is developing your connection to your intuition, then you get the best result without even knowing why. That is how you become the master effortlessly. That should be the real goal. I just cultivate so i can understand it, but it's not necessary.

What do you mean by MASTERED true internal power? I don't think anyone can do a street fighter HADORKEN any more. I think the most effective thing you could get from internal power, other than the timing / structural benefit, is that you could calm an attacker down and avoid the fight all together. Internal power isn't shooting fireballs out of your hands, even that john chang bloke took a few seconds to start lighting some paper on fire. I don't think someone is going to stand there waiting for you to light them on fire after they start feeling hot. Besides that was dry paper and this is a moist human being. You'd be better off burning him with your cigarette. I think you are putting internal martial arts on a pedistal. Internal only serves to boost external. On it's own it's nothing.

I disagree with the 'correct' back alignment in that picture. I think the tailbone should come forward more. You can see the bottom verterba are not stacked at all. when the hip rolls forward and up then you don't need to use muscle to keep your back straight

If you wanna compete i'd say this pushing to the limit is good but not for long term, You can't push to the limit your whole life you'll break something. The best thing is doing something that is fun and you enjoy doing it. Then you get better at it without effort, and 10 years later you're pretty awesome at it. 20 years later you're near unbeatable, even if you quit and restarted a few times.

I did tai chi for a year taikwando for about 3 months and aikido for about 4 months (still doing it). Also i've done internal energy work consitantly and iron shirt less regularly for 8 years. My Tai Chi teacher was awesome and we did lots of push hands and sparing with the teacher but after that one year i would never rely on my Tai Chi in a fight, i would just get pounded. I did a hard karate when i was about 7 years old, for about 3 months and i think that is the best training for fighting i ever had. I've practiced hitting a bag every now and then and thats useful too. TaiChi is really just for fun, you can't really use it for fighting unless you've been doing it for many years like 10+. After that much time i guess you don't really use tai chi in a fight, it just does it's self. The internal work speeds up your progress and lets you stay in the zone mentally more easily, but it's freakin hard to stay in a meditative state when a fist is headed straight for your face. Aikido seems pretty good, my teacher is a pretty big guy and uses quiet a bit of strength/rooting as well as timing and going with the flow. Using strength makes it more practical unless you live in a meditative state all day long and can stay that way in a fight. After 4 months i dont' feel It wouldn't make me feel confident fighting someone with any martial skill, but someone with no training i guess i'd be a little more prepared. I guess my iron shirt would make me a little more resilient to punches and kicks but definately not impregnable by any stretch of the imagination. I'd say other than my hard karate training when i was very young, my tai chi teacher taught us nasty attacks like easy ways to break ribs, eyes, throat, snap fingers etc. If i was protecting myself i don't think i'd hesitate to snap someones extremities if i thought there was any chance of me losing. I'm trying to (rather slowly) develop iron palm so i think that would be very useful in a fight, but you still need the opportunity to get it in, but its going to be more effective than whirling around doing tai chi in a tight area in a nightclub or whatever. Internal martial arts i'd have to say are the most useless in the real world. They can help with your development of the external stuff, but shooting out chi to effect meridians and this type of stuff is just useless in my opinion. It isn't going to get you anywhere when a glass is getting shoved in your face. I rekon kick boxing is going to make anyone pretty damn tough. I don't wanna damage my body for when i'm older though.

Lots of metal at the hardware store. I made a wire one. I wouldn't suggest beating yourself with an iron bar, go try with sticks first.

I think you I know what you are talking about. And the breathing thing... What i guessed it was is that too much energy in the liver, and the lung is trying to compete with it, one is raising the energy and the lung is trying to lower it, creating tension within the body. If you have to think about breathing then something isn't right. Just let it do it's self. You've very excited and eager to see what's comming up next, but you should realise that you are feeding the tension by having this type of eagerness. Try not to amp yourself up, i know it's hard because the energy is surging in side of you but you gotta just relax and let it do it's self. When that happens to me i find if i buy some milk thistle herbs from the supermarket (just get the ones without caffene) it helps calm me down, or lemon juice in water or diluted fruit juice too. I know you're probably feeling awesome but it's not sustainable. Suddenly something will pop and more blockages will open and suddenly you will feel calm and at peace and be in the now. You can speed up the process by not being eager about whats next, just open your eyes as to what is there now!

I have seen the video before, it looks like it was off of a chinese tv news broadcast. It has a tai chi master (who i think was master zhang hao) who has a line of people all trying to push him over, but he stands against their force and then knocks them over, all the while standing on one leg and drinking a glass of water. I've tried searching google for ages but i can't find it. Anyone seen it?

I've got one of those electric bath scales and you need to tap on it to turn it on and let it zero it's self. The other day i just went to pick them up to use them, but before i even touched them they turned on like they were getting ready for me. Weird. i've been to church only once in the last 5 years or something but i remember the priest saying his toaster popped and the slice of bread came flying out of the toaster, then landed on the floor, but not flat, it landed on it's side just balancing there. And stranger things have happened than these things