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I've read some people mentioning this exercise but have found differing explanations and exercises on the internet. Which one is the real one? Who teaches it?

my kung fu school teaches it but for a very hefty price. I want to see if any of you know anything about it and can direct to another place I can learn it.

http://www.alchemylab.com/golden_flower.htm https://www.atlantic-university.org/free_intro_courses/IS535/pdf/Secret_of_the_Golden_Flower.pdf Which translation is best and why?

How does a person go about creating the dan-tien? Is this practice related:? http://imos-journal.net/?p=1554 Or this: http://www.connect.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=39881835771&topic=6160 ie here's another one: gathering heavenly energy into the head, and bringing it down to just below the navel... gathering Earthly qi into the feet and and bringing up it into the navel, and then qi into the hands from the trees, animals, people etc., then qi breathedin through the pores from everything else like the air. All of these united under the navel or just where the dan-tien would be.

Anyone tried it?

I've not "spilled my cup" at least through masturbation or intercourse now for 8 months. It did give me more energy at first but now it's really no biggie. In fact it can bother me at times as I feel castrated and I feel my sexuality diminishing one day (to a point that might be damaging), but the next if I give some thought of sex then it can awaken again. There are times when my organ just becomes irritable even though I have no desire in my mind for sex, it tingles, it itches, and begs release. What can I do? Then I go into a cycle of sadness and frustration mixed with fantasy. So far celibacy has done not much to help me with my energetic practice but it does give me some confidence, and a slight magnetism that I enjoy. An urge to unite rather than to just release, but much of that is centered in my organ but it's also more whole body oriented. I know I can't "get" a woman because getting implies that she has no choice in the matter or I try to force her or impinge on her free will. Im not aggressive because sex is sacred to me, and in fact much to ask for, very personal. and no woman is ever going to be interested in me, at least now she won't and that's for sure. and even so anytime later I highly doubt it. Im not going to release it because I'm afraid of what it will do. I guess the next step is another three months, but this time do it full out and not think of sex at all, regardless if I'm feeling castrated (always have anyway) and my sexuality and my organ retreats for longer than 'seems' right.

What is a Bigu diet specifically, and is there a connection with "The Three Worms" in Daoist concepts? http://www.ancientway.com/Pages/ThreeWorms.html About the Three Worms: This leads us back to the Three Worms. Parasites, which can include fungal, protozoan, and bacterial infections, all have different ways of affecting their host organisms. In some sense, the less powerful parasites are the most insidious in their effects. Visible worms, which can lead to painful cramping and passing of worms in the stools, are more easily diagnosed and eliminated than a fungal invasion, such as Candida albicans, a yeast who is currently a popular parasitic pet in the west. Candida can lead to a variety of chronic symptoms, hard to pin down and recalcitrant to treat. Depression, lethargy, digestive discomfort, chronic fatigue, poor memory, and all sorts of gooey discharges are all related to Candidiasis. And what does Candida feed on? Mostly grains and sugars! So the Daoists said there was a worm in each Dan Tien (Elixir Field--the three main energy centers). The one in the lower abdomen causes lust in addition to intestinal distress. The one in the heart center causes anxiety as well as heart and lung diseases. The one in the forehead (Third Eye) center caused psychic distress and attachment to worldly things. They feed off of grains, and endeavor to kill the body for their feast. To have any hope of living a long time, the Daoists counselled, one must abstain from grains while killing the Three Worms with herbs, exercises, and a diet of vegetables and mushrooms.

Well so far I've only seen people talking about "compressing" qi into the dan-tien. All I know is dan-tien breathing. How do you compress qi into the dan-tien?

I've been really meditating on the dan-tien everyday and it just doesn't seem to be doing anything special. Going to meditating classes though it seems to work really well when the teacher first tells you to open up the crown and get qi from the heavens and then root and get qi from the earth. But just focusing on the dan-tien by itself does nothing but relax the belly...

Note: I have posted this on thetaobums.com, abovetopsecret.com socialphobia.com and here. I made this more relevant to my social anxiety for the Social Anxiety websites. here it goes: I feel like I'm being targetted by an evil force that wants to stop me. Everytime I plan for something good in my life, or am about to get somewhere, something happens to knock me off course. It feels personal, it very much seems personal, like a conspiracy. Like there is some extraterrestrial, or demonic force. "The Devil" I dont know what it is. A space-age technology used by the government (or who knows WHAT) to control people like me who know a lot, or have got potential. It's been making me crazy. And I'm absolutely alone, and I can't find anyone who I can couple with or relate with. I know too much. In fact, I know more than people who think they know too much. The problem is I don't even have much power, but I have some ideas, I have an extremely idealistic mindset, one that's uncommon or at least never really considered. perhaps potential which a cap has been placed on. It's really driven me to the edge... back and forth, being suicidal, and then backing off, then again, then back, etc. etc. is this a test? What is this? Is this all MY own doing? is it the Supreme Universal Powers That Be? Am I so negative that I MAGICALLY attract negativity, moreso than anyone else? Ever since I learned about the So called theory law of attraction (which most books can't even complete because it's all about money and conspiracy and disinformation) I learned to be even more careful with my thoughts, such that, now that I believe my negative thoughts have effect on my world, that they create even MORE effects? To the point of making me fearful of my own thoughts, which just amplify? I don't think anyone has had to deal with this, or at least as extreme as I have. At least other people can experience RANDOMNESS, in my life there isn't any sort of randomness. It's just pure downward spiral, and things not of my control at all. Something mysterious permeates my life... Are my positive thoughts being so dumbed down that they literally have no effect or impression on my reality? I sincerely have been doing my best not to seem like a victim and get over the victim consciousness, but it seems like I'm always being tested? To a point where I have to just instinctually, or subconsciously conclude that I am a victim? How could I not, I ask myself? When all I've eben doing is trying to get over it, but I have been seeing nothing else lately, nothing that could convince me otherwise. Even changing my thoughts, yet it has no effect on my life, or nobody else. It seems like everything has been orchestrated, and set up to be against me. Is there such a technology that can alter a peice of your life, to make it so that in the end it's set up and orchestrated to make me fail, and just experience nothing but negativity, even if I do my best to be positive? I feel like I'm being silenced all the time, like I'm being repressed, held back, whatever. Is my aura being altered? Are my vibes being altered? Energy? It's not even something I can pinpoint exactly. It's a number of things. I don't have one problem, I have several, more than several. In fact my whole life is the problem. It's the state of the universe. I really don't know.... Of course I look crazy. Of course I seem to be insane. What the hell? -------------------- The relevance to my social anxiety? This same sort of negativity is found in all attempts at being social. Especially with women. To me it seems like I am just invisible to everyone. It's like throwing a huge steak in front of a starving vicious animal and they don't even notice. Its like coming up from behind screaming in a persons ear and he/she doesn't even budge, or even noticed anything. People don't even know they exclude me, yet they do in a very extreme and personal way. It's just mind-boggling.

how does one go about getting more prenatal chi? are there any methods?

There has also been research cited in Gabriel Cousens' book Spiritual Nutrition that suggests eating foods at temperatures higher than 105 degrees can even denature enzymes (protein) in the mouth/saliva, and the in pathway the food/substance takes all the way down to your stomach. Though of course that's a hard rule to follow as I still drink warmed teas. Gabriel suggests though that it's best to have food no lower than room temperature, warmer is better but not warmer than say 118. There's conflict about the true "raw food" temperature as 106 is actually the temperature enzymes start to break down, (not all but some) and the rest having different temperatures up to 118 where all enzymes and protein become denatured. Think about fevers. The temperature may not make all that much a difference as the heat quickly diffuses upon entering the mouth, and I'm sure the enzymes can be replenished enough if it's not too much. This just goes to show though, that hot or excessively warm temperature in food is not all that necessary,though at times it may help in certain conditions.

NEUTRAL FOODSTUFFS: Seeds Nuts Vegetables Cereal grains Beans Sea vegetables Temperate fruits (such as apples and pears) http://www.angelfire.com/id/croon/chinesemedicine/yangyinfoods.html There's also a list there of the natures of different foods. There are lots to choose from which are warming/hot in nature. Its also interesting to note tht all the yang foods are only animal foods while neutral are the veggies. Maybe that is only in relation to each other but if you further divide the neutral foods into yin/yang you'll find some are more yin some more yang. Of course there are different flavors like sweet, pungent, acrid, sour, salty.

yes yes. As I've said before though Gerard it can be worked around. How do you think animals eat? They eat raw foods all the time. With the elements you can make things work. I've now made a shift in my diet to include a lot more sprouted foods. So Im starting to sprout a lot.. and want to work my way into growing sprout greens like sunflower, chia and more. Then I can make a garden one day to grow baby greens. I also have been eating veggies only as condiments and focusing on the greens, fruit and nuts/seeds. The best greens are the baby greens, sprout greens and shoots, and microgreens like alfalfa, clover, broccoli, radish, sesame, etc. but when it comes to beans I don't really do well with beans unless they're sprouted like the Chinese bean sprout.. Just make sure the food isn't physically cold in temperature, and get some more warm/yang foods. A lot of the sprouts have a warming effect like broccoli sprouts, radish sprouts, fenugreek etc. Nuts/seeds, grains and beans are considered more yang and can be warming but it's hard to digest the starchy foods raw even if sprouted unless they are sprouted for a long time. Right now though Im only using fruits and low starch veggies and sprouts for carbs. It's still low carb as I only use low glycemic fruits with a salad. Like I said just make sure it's room temperature or slightly warmed and it's good. Also I've noticed that before my hands got cold but since I started eating more carbs in the form of low glycemic fruits I was a lot warmer. I'm still eating less carbs but Im just not denying myself carbs because I wanted to keep myself near ketosis. Ever since I did that my digestion also improved. Acid fruits are really good detoxifiers. Sweet foods tonify the spleen also. So I think there's something to that. I'm not against the use of herbs like medicine. Some things require heat to get a certain effect and that's ok. As long as the majority of my diet is raw I think it's good. The Essene Gospel of Peace states that the most holy diet is one that is vegan, not cooked and overly processed. I have a lot of faith in the vegan diet, and also the raw vegan diet. I've been raw for almost a year now and the muscle I have now is still pretty good. I don't exercise as much as I used to though because of my schedule but if I wasn't doing good I think I'd be losing a lot more muscle and would be a lot skinnier. I've had the distending underbelly problem too for some time but I think it's clearing up once I started eating more carbs in the form of fruit. Not in excess though of course because I still get bloated with excess fruits, heck excess of anything will do that, including emotional swings that will affect liver spleen harmony. I also attributed it to the use of coffee and teas. I stopped coffee but now I have to stop tea. I did it before and I noticed my digestion was a lot better. I also disinfect all my veggies with hydrogen peroxide, I soak and/or sprout any seed I have..and I try as much as possible to not eat anything that is too yin or cold, both in temperature and in nature.

probably just shaolin wushu not even genuine kung fu like the northern shaolin taught at my school.

Yin males don't get anywhere in this life but death. Being yin as a male, by birth, with their ancestral qi brings nothing but harm and death. Does a yin male need a yang female? Do you think that's the correct balance? What if it's not? What do you see yang females do? They find an extreme yang male who dominates them so much so that they transform become yin. So what does a yin male do? Why can't a weak yin male (which is a false yin) and find a true excessive yin and yang female who strengthens the already weak yin and transform so his yang is thereby strengthened? Perhaps it's because there's no way a male can do this. It's probably an exception. There will never be a female who would truly tolerate a yin male. Well for sure there are always going to be much more females with the same situation but opposite for them who are successful in this approach because by nature quantity of women are valued more than single men.

I've been having trouble filling up my dan-tian. I used to be able to use breathing to bring energy into the specific parts I breathe into but... that is no more. I could spend hours and hours breathing into a spot and it is nowhere how I used to feel, where I would feel the entire area resonating and tingling. That was back when I first discovered energy and energetic practices with Bruce Monroe's N.E.W. Energy Ways. There was a time even when I would go to my urban goju ryu karate classes... and as soon as I stepped into the dojo my whole dojo became resonant and blissful. I would feel electricity fill my whole dan-tian and I would be like "whoa..." lol. but I haven't been able to do this anymore. it's like my dan-tian has disappeared. that or maybe that whole area is ill. I've had a lot of tension around there also. I am also more skeptical than I used to be. I would always think well the feeling of energy is just my awareness stimulating my nervous system and creating a sort of feedback with a tingling sensation. Perhaps now it is my disbelief in a dan-tian or chi energy that doesn't let me fill it up anymore? Are we even supposed to store energy? I read we aren't even supposed to store energy, and that dan-tian is just a place to store energy and collect temporarily which will just circulate in the end off into other parts of the body. Maybe the ego gets in the way....

nt

I know this is a risky subject being male but this is an interesting movie I found googling: http://www.mooninsideyou.com/ What can we do to prevent menstrual pains in women, from a TCM, qigong POV? Dietary principles? Some people int he raw foods movement have reported being free of menstrual pain. Some believe once the sexual energy is transmuted, menstrual pains can be relieved. Or perhaps karezza or taoist lovemaking can help.

I am mostly daoist but I have been interested in advaita vedanta, jnana yoga and self inquiry, as well as buddhist meditation (mahamudra). I find these types of practices are lacking in popular taoism. I want to find a teacher and likeminded people.

I don't agree with putting down others to assert yourself, even if in a playful manner. If girls want to see muscle ("confidence", etc) then just be yourself.

self-inquiry/atma vichara?

I like this thread.

i ordered from coffeefool once because I'm a coffee fool. was not bad, but I was EXPECTING SWEET COFFEE like they advertised. I guess they meant "sweet" in quotations. I guess truly sweet coffee does not exist. It only can have an aftertaste of sweetness, or a hint/smell of something sweet.