Maddie

So what is it about cultivation that would increasingly cause one's energy to set them apart from society?

Even though this was not the original topic of my thread here, I was pondering if another effect of cultivating for a while is ..... well .... just being "different" than other people??? I feel like its very rare that I run into someone that I feel that I can relate to. Then again maybe its this way for others on this site too which is why we all gravitate to TTB's? I just can't shake the feeling that I feel very different than most people, and also that they feel it too and it makes them feel uncomfortable around me? Does anyone else feel this way? Does seeking the Tao really set one apart that much?

Hmmmm maybe that is whats happening to me now then?

I don't know a thing about Kunlun , but I do know that in every new form I've learned it certainly took more than two days to notice results.

I think I'm going through another one of "those" episodes, as I have been doing a lot of work on my solar plexus chakra, and for almost a week now I am simply exhausted. Think its related? *edit: after thinking about this a little more, I'm glad I keep a record of my practice on here, it makes good reference material. I now remember back in October when I was working on my sacral chakra that if you read many of my posts prior to that I seemed to always feel guilty for having a sex drive. Then I began to work on it, and got really tired as I guess the blockages were being cleared out, and now I realize that its natural to have a sex drive, its normal, and I don't sweat it. Now that I'm doing the same thing for the solar plexus, I guess thats whats going on.

dp

LOL omg you crack me up

At the moment I'm working on cultivating self love and self compassion, anyone know of good ways to do that? I was reading this book yesterdy and I forgot the authors name, but it was good, it was called "Love just because" and she told the story about this woman who's liver just failed on her. She got a transplant and after a year that liver was beginning to fail on her too. The woman had heard that in Chinese Medicine the liver was related to anger, and realized she had, had a lot of self/repressed anger stored up inside her. She realized a lot of her anger was self anger, and as she realized this she began to release it and forgive herself. The doctors were amazed because after she did this her liver became healthy again and they did not need to do the transplant. :-)

Um please tell me how does one achieve this lol

I'd agree with you, testicle breathing does take the amount of time you mentioned. So I guess one might call this "penis" breathing? lol, because what I'm saying is from personal experience :-)

Good suggestion

I've done a little candel training, but so far can't extinguish anything. Though I have been able to bend the flame, and do some cool stuff with smoke from incense by throwing chi at it. Also hanging a mobile and spining it with chi is a realitvely easy exercise to do that gives you a good feel for projecting chi.

I had sort of mentioned this in another thread but I felt that it was relevant to this as well, and its what I'm going through at the moment. I believe that to cultivate love and compassion requires opening the heart chakra. I feel that my heart chakra is in pretty decent shape, but that this issue is still tricky for me, and the reason being is that I'm working on my solar plexus chakra. I've read it many times that you have to work on your lower chakras first, because if you don't, they can cause issue for your higher up chakras. How can you practice unconditional love and compassion for someone from the heart chakra, if your solar plexus is petty, greedy, controlling, and you have ego issues? I think sometimes the pre-requs for cultiviating love and compassion is to first get rid of the "junk" that gets in the way.

I'll have to second that, this happens to me now and then, and when it does it just breathe that extra chi in "mr. happy" out and store it in my dan tien, mr. happy calms down, the dan tien has more juice, and the people did rejoice :-D

I look at the ground a few feet in front of me.

Hey Blasto, as a man in my mid 30's I'd have to say that I found your experience and perspective on things very interesting, insightful, and humorus as well :-)

For a while now I have been curious to reconcile the indian chakra yoga system with the chinese meridian system. I think that what the indians call chakras, and the chinese call the extrodinary vessles are probably very closely related if not the same thing. http://acupuncturetoday.org/mpacms/at/article.php?id=31543 This is a very interesting article where this dr. of TCM explains how the Yin Wei Mai and the solar plexus chakra have very similar funtions. Also consider how the governing , thrusting and conception vessles go right through the whole chakra system. This is something I'd like to know more about.

Why do you have this opinion? I find it interesting that for example the solar plexus is considered of the fire element, relates to digestion and metabolism and turning food into energy. The middle burner (jiao) the the triple burner is said to be where the fire chi is, relates to digestion of food, metabolism, and the conversion of food into chi. Kind of interesting eh?

I don't think location is it, because when I've done the version of ZZ that I do, no matter where I've done it, and I've done it in several places that were very far from eachother, Alaska, Washington, Texas, I get the same sensations, but I must include that when I ususally begin many new types of qigong that I often feel a little odd at first. I've also noticed from doing my curent ZZ practice that when I finish I feel like I have cotton in my ears, and they ring a little. ???

Yea it seems so simple that its complicated lol, amazing that you can change so much about yourself by simply standing lol. Yea that the mind can change energy method is western psychology which though useful for its theory in my own experience has been very limited in its application. The energy can change the mind approach is the eastern energy work method, which is the only way I've really made any changes in my thought process.

Yes I pratice daily, and usually in the same spot. I do not find it difficult at all nor am I tense. The only concentration I have is if I'm holding the ball at a certain spot/leve I'd focus my breathing there. If I am in wuji posture on inhale I focus on my dan tien, and on exhale on the bottom of my feet. I've noticed that if I hold the ball for 5 min I generally feel ok, but if I try to do it for 10 min I feel odd. When I say odd I mean that if I do hold the ball in front of a new area of my body, then I usually feel very tired, shaky, nervous, and feel strong emotions associated with that area. For example in "The Way of Energy" it starts you off holding the ball in front of your middle dan tien/heart chakra area (the book does not call it this, but that is where it is). I noticed that I began to get quite emotional and feel lots of hatred for no reason at all, I got very tired for a while, and felt just unusual. After a while these symptoms went away, though for a while I had stopped doing ZZ because it was to hard to deal with. Last week I began holding the ball in front of my sacral chakra area, for a few days I got super horny all the time, it even woke me up at night, I got tired again. This week I have been doing it at my solar plexus, again feeling tired, shaky, nervous, angry, irritable, and realzing very acutely my self-esteem issues, and things like this.

Yup basically pretty much any digestive issues are going to be spleen meridian / soloar plexus /middle burner (jiao) issues. And while I do realize our thoughts affect our energy, I also realize our energy affects our thoughts. The only way I've been really able to change my thought process effectively is to change the energy first, and then the thoughts follow automatically.

If you do standing meditation and use the hold the ball posture at the solar plexus level (I have found this to be very effective) you can do it with out any specific mental focus at all, or you can focus your breathing in the solar plexus at the same time. Usually in the ZZ posture I focus on the solar plexus at the central channel in the center of your body. When doing the MCO I I get the front and back of the solar plexus, (and every other chakra for that matter) but if I'm working on the solar plexus I pause at this area front and back longer and give the chi more time to work on balancing the chakra. I've also found that eating spicey herbs and pepers add a lot of yang to my solar plexus, after eating spicey herbs I can feel my solar plexus being very hot as the spices pass through my duodeum section of my intestine. This done on a regular and consistent basis is very beneficial as you build the fire chi stored in the middle burner (jiao).