Maddie

It does. Without desire there would be no motivating factor whatsoever to have sex in the first place.

According to the Buddha dhamma that is totally the reason that any universe comes into existence, is due for the desire for there to be one in which to be reborn into, which of course is within and part of Samsara and therefore not Nibbana, not enlightenment.

According to the Pali texts, yes this is the case. Basically according to the Buddha once one has attained Nibbana they have let go of desire, and there is then therefore nothing in the mind with which to have desire for sensual things.

That's exactly what I was going to say lol ! :-)

This is a theory I have come up with on my own based upon my knowledge of TCM and my personal experiences with Karma clearing practices such as the Zhunti mantra. My theory is that inherited karma is stored in the Kidney meridian system. This is partially based upon the Kidney's being the repository of Jing or the inherited essence from one's parents. It is further reinforced by the experience of either me or a few other people that I know having to urinate very frequently when doing karma clearing practices such as the zhunti mantra which is a mantra that is supposed to be specifically for this purpose. I have also noticed this happening when practicing a lot of mindfulness meditation which is another practice that is effective at resolving old karma. I would be curious if anyone else has had similar experiences.

I would agree in general it might be good to get a doctor to rule out anything more serious, but the reason I am not concerned with it being a health problem is because I have noticed a definite correlation between intensive zhunti mantra practice and frequent urination in both myself and others over the past several years to repeatable to be a coincidence. Additionally I am a health care provider.

Interesting. Something I hadn't thought about until you mentioned it was that while playing Zhunti mantra in the back ground I like to do a lot of mindfulness meditation due to how much stuff Zhunti brings up. That being said, I tend to focus on my breath where ever I feel it the most and while playing Zhunti I feel my breath the most in my chest and solar plexus area.

I'll speak from an acupuncture and TCM perspective since I am an acupuncturist. I would suggest both you and your wife would benefit from acupuncture and herbs. The most likely cause of your wife's low libido is Kidney yang deficiency and herbs can be especially helpful in this regard. As far as feeling addicted to masturbation I think mindfulness helps a lot. When you feel the urge to self pleasure observe the urge, be aware of the feeling at least for a little while before indulging.

The ego is the mental functions that you think are "you"

I think the question posed by the OP is actually a very good question. I started my whole journey with qigong but while I still find it interesting tend to do a lot more Buddhism and yoga for reasons that have already been listed.

After doing a rather extensive study of this topic I think I'd have to say I've been most impressed personally with Paritta chanting.

Is anybody here knowledgeable about Chinese folk religion? I'm sure it has influenced and been influenced by Taoism but I believe it predates Taoism as well. Are there any similarities to Hinduism in India with all the gods and goddesses and such? How is it actually practiced? I'm sure it varies from place to place within in China a lot, but what are some of the basic concepts, ideas, gods, and practices?

So if all the reading came up with some interesting insights you'd like to share I'm all ears! :-)

Something interesting to consider world wide is that Chinese folk religion, as well as other religions of antiquity had as a large part of their focus the gods. Then around 500 b.c.e around the world with the Greek philosophers, the Buddha, Lao Zu, Confucius, ect. changed the focus from the gods, to humanity.

Found this old thread but though it was interesting. Another interesting topic to consider is the commonalities the Veda's have with the other Indo-European traditions?

I have two thoughts on this. First of all as an acupuncturist I've helped a lot of couples with fertility issues so definitely something to consider for this kind of situation. Second as a Buddhist yes reincarnation is very much a part of the process of samsara. As far as Taoism goes I don't know for sure but sometimes when I think of the yin/yang symbol with the polarities turning into each other, it would not seem like a stretch for life to become death and death to become life? no?

Is yin and yang exclusively Taoist per se? Or from Chinese thought in general and Taoism simply makes extensive use of it?

Maybe to help narrow down the topic of bit more into differentiate what would be the difference between taoism and Chinese folk religion?

I've wondered before if Taoism is China's Hinduism?

Sounds like good stuff, but how does that differ from Buddhism? or basically any other religion?

I thought I would ad that this also raises the question between western vs eastern Buddhism I might say.

I thought I'd come back to this topic after going back and forth on how much of an issue I think this is (a lot currently) and also after experimenting with various methods of protection. I'd say at this point I think I find the chanting of religious texts to be the most effective form of protection in my experience. I have experienced pretty good results from chanting Pali Paritta verses, but I even have experimented with the Catholic rosary and had some pretty good results from that as well. I have found that mantras seem to be effective for accomplishing other goals but a little less so for protection. If anyone else has any experiences or insights to share I'd be happy to hear about it.

Well in the Mahaparanibbana sutta that talks about the Buddha's passing the devas did rain flowers down upon his body so that might be a loose reference to the flower part. As far as the statues and incense I think those were later developments.

I admittedly do not know much about Hinduism but I was recently reading that in this Kaliyuga that chanting (specifically the Krishna mantra) was said to be the best practice one can do. Is anyone who is familiar with this willing and able to elaborate on this? Thorough explanations will be appreciated.

This was my gut feeling as well that meditation was digging up too much, too quickly. A couple weeks ago I did the Zhunti mantra extensively and had a similar experience. Considering the purpose of the Zhunti mantra is to purge karma as well it seemed to confirm to me this was the problem again.