Maddie

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/substance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adenosine_triphosphate ATP is a molecule made which in turn is made of atoms, which have weight and take up space so fit the definition of substance.

Really?

Isn't emptiness both a Taoist and Buddhist concept / goal?

Does anyone else combine Vispasanna with their mantra? If so do you find it effective?

Yea I was contemplating how many various topics have come out of the sexual energy thread, but I guess that's what generative energy does haha.

Hmm yea that sounds very interesting. Yes I am studying acupuncture which makes this book seem all the more interesting :-)

Hey Lindelani. I'm a TCM student, and ideally you want yin and yang in your body to be as balanced as possible. So anyways I'll try to do my best to answer your original question of yin and yang (its funny I woke up pondering this lol). You can think of Yin and Yang simply as the polarity of opposites. They are the two forces of the universe that are constantly in motion. They oppose each other but also balance each other. Some examples are , male/female, light/dark, sun/moon, up/down/ left/right... ok you get the idea lol. The original model of Yin and Yang was the light and sunny side of a hill way back in ancient China. Now as far as the notion of good and evil. Yes I have heard of this interpretation so in one sense you could say it does apply. But in Taoism the idea of good and evil is not really the same as in the west. What I mean is in Taoism they tend to not want to label something as good or evil because a lot of what is called good or evil is not absolute but a matter of perspective. A good example is Darth Vader lol. Ok so everyone is like "yea he is the evil bad guy". Ok, but then you watch Anakin turn into Darth Vader and he is not thinking he is doing evil, but he thinks he is trying to save Padme's life. He is actually wanting to do something good. So anyways you get the point (I hope) haha. Now in Chinese medicine the balance of Yin and Yang is very important. If someone's yin and yang is more or less balanced they are said to have good health. If one (or both) become unbalanced it causes health problems. Actually the imbalance of yin and yang in almost any case causes issues. As far as your question how can you balance them with in you there are several ways. But keep in mind that since yin and yang are always in motion you can't just balance them once and think your good, its kind of an ongoing effort. The TCM approach uses acupuncture and herbs, The qigong approach uses movements and meditations. The typical teenaged boy approach is to chase girls haha. So there are lots of ways. :-)

Yea the word "vs" is in there but not really one I would have picked. I think Buddhism and Taoism compliment each other wonderfully!

well since ATP is coming from the western as opposed to eastern point of view pinning it down can be a bit ambiguous, but at the very least I'll give my rationale for classifying ATP as jing. If you make the distinction of jing being electrochemical potential energy and qi being electromagnetic energy then you would have to consider ATP as jing. I would see the qi coming from the ATP going through the electron transfer chain and then giving off that electron in the process of turning into ADP. I would venture to say the qi is produced when that electron is given off. At least that's may take on it.

Funny you mention the motivation part cause I had not thought about it until you mentioned it, but yea I do have a bit more motivation lately.

lol I'm very familiar with what ATP is, I am in med school after all ;-)

I'm not sure if this is applicable to this conversation or not, but based upon my personal experience lately of a combination of celibacy and meditation my desire to learn seems to have increased a lot. Also I feel like as I keep doing this my understanding of cultivation principles has improved. I suppose that is the reason monks do all that cultivation along side their studies, or at least part of the reason.

I believe ATP would be a sort of jing.

Yes, this used to bother me too, until one day I mentioned this same question to someone and they asked me if I remembered being born lol. No I don't, but obviously I was :-P.

I like what you shared, and found it particularly interesting as just recently I have begun feeding hungry ghosts. The ceremony involves saying some mantras over the food you give them, so yea very cool :-).

Oh, its been a while since I read the book but I could have sworn Dr. Yang said it stores qi too.

I've practiced RAB quite a bit in the past, but I want to make sure my theoretical understanding is sound. So from what I understand about RAB theoretically is that it not only builds qi, but also helps to store it efficiently. Is this a correct understanding? Are there any other benefits as well?

I believe the Buddha said ignorance is not seeing things as they really are.

That is why I meditate in the first place :-)

Hey Sun, um I wish to point this out politely and in no way want to appear rude but the simple fact that your view on this topic differs from mine by definition makes it a controversy http://www.thefreedictionary.com/controversy I appreciate your input though :-)

Yea I think people keep missing one vital point I was trying to make.I realize this topic is not new (ok one thing I didn't realize is how apparently controversial this topic is lol). The main point I'm trying to make is how clearly I was aware of having my energy drained! Yes I have other theories, but what is not theory is what I personally observed happening to me. It was clear as day, there was no ambiguity. I literally felt and sensed my energy being absorbed by my roommate. I've also pointed out several times that I know for a fact that she did not do this intentionally. What is also a fact is that after this happened I became extremely tired. As far as my other theories I'm not claiming those to be fact, but then again I do think they are pretty reasonable and well thought through theories. The statement that people do this unintentionally is important because I want to be very clear that I'm not blaming anyone of being evil or anything like that. Perhaps that's why this topic is controversial? Is my intention being misunderstood? The good news is that in the midst of this episode I think I also may have found the solution. Now that a little more time has passed since I did the Lung meditation I feel even more confident that this might be a reasonable solution to this problem. Just as an aside as to the Lung meditation it produced some interesting though unintended effects. The first thing I noticed was that feeling of being drained diminished. Then I went home after class and saw on the news the photo of this baby that is missing in Kansas. Upon seeing this I just started crying. Granted its a sad story, but I do not typically react this way, even to sad news. Then I remembered I had just done a Lung meditation. At present I am feeling quite a bit better and not as drained as I had been. It might sound like I'm jumping on some kind of paranoid vampire band wagon but from my point of few I see in retrospect that this had already been happening and does happen frequently but I was less aware of it than I am now. What changed? More meditation improving my perceptions I assume. I assume that this is why Vampire movies and shows are so popular. It's likely a conscious expression of what people are only subconsciously aware of. The only other reason I can fathom that this topic is not popular is the same reason talking about aliens is controversial. The idea of both is very disempowering. Though from my point of view knowledge is power and if you can recognize something then you can take steps to deal with it, not be afraid of it (thus my insight into the Lung meditation).

I'd like to hear them as well. What I'd also like to know is why this topic seems to generate so much more contention than pretty much any other topic I've been involved with here?

To be honest I don't really know much about what Drew's life style consists of by and large as I have never met him. As far as his forum messages go, um yea I'd say they tend to be pretty impressive, He seems to have one of the sharpest intellects on this forum and his posts are usually very interesting and highly informative. Yes, whats that have to do with this topic?

Wonderful choise of words, and interesting timing. So after my last post I thought "ok well now I have the problem identified (to the best of my knowledge), now what to do about it". So I thought how I would treat this if a patient was complaining of these symptoms. At about the same time (I was in class) the professor was discussing now the Lung is the most external organ and controls our wie (defesive qi). So I was like "oh if your having a problem from the exterior strengthen the lung". In contrast for the past couple days I had been doing a Spleen meditation as the Spleen makes your qi, but this was not helping. Then I realized that you can tonify your Spleen all you want, but if you Lung is weak its like pouring water in a barrle with holes. So upon hearing this, and being tired of being tired, I began to do the Lung meditaion right there in class (healing sound and inner smile) and with in minuets I began to feel better. After several minuets I began to feel human again lol. So I figured I'd found the right organ to work on, as having worked on the Spleen for two days straight had not really gotten me anywhere. So yea your comment about boundries is very timely and appropriate :-). Also it makes sense as I've noticed the only place I have any grey hairs is precicely along my metal element meridians... hmmm. But anyways, I could feel that after only a few mineuts of doing the Lung meditation that constant feeling of being drained constantly lessened significantly and I began to feel somewhat energetic again. :-)

Maybe because we are awake enough to realize whats happening. I suppose a vampire does not bother a sleeping victim. Though I don't think I'd use the word "fear" for how I feel about is as much as frustration. * This got me to thinking. I had wanted to move this discussion to this thread as its about vampires, but have noticed how the discussion on the sexual thread continues as well. Then I realized how relevant vampirism is to sexual energy. The vampire shows and movies are usually very sexual and now it is more clear as to why. The vampire myth is an analogy of people wanting to steal other people's energy, espeically their sexual energy as this is the base for other forms of energy in cultivation. Another jing product other than the notorious semen is blood. They "suck" the vicitims "bloood" (jing) jing being the source of sexual energy. Sexual energery, specifically/especially male sexual energy is yang jing. Vampires represent yin, (sleep during the day, avoid sun light, pale, dead) need/want yang as they are so overly yin.