Maddie

I actually have done some detoxing, and bitters, and fasting. As far as my breathing goes I will pay more attention to that and see if that is indeed an issue. A few weeks ago I took some ginseng and that helped. Once it ran out I started to feel tired again, so I went and got some more and once again it is helping.

would being a generally low energy person be a lower dan tien issue? cause it seems like most of my existance is one of being tired :-/

Thanks taomeow I always enjoy your highly detailed answers :-)

Could you elaborate on these paths a little more, it sounds interesting I'm just not familiar with them? I think in the west we get too dualistic, as in either this is the right way OR this is. Instead I think one way is good for this, another way is good for that, depending upon your goals and what you want to accomplish. I agree the celibacy in and of itself is not the cure for a porn addiction, but neither is indulging in it. To say this or that is "normal" means that something else is not normal, but who is defining what is normal and what is not? Monks are celibate for a reason. To be honest I don't know for sure what all those reasons are, but I believe one of them is so that they can harness that sexual energy for other spiritual purposes. I don't think they do it because they think sex is "sinful" but rather they have other goals, and this is a means to an end. Of course if you want to have a "normal" sex life with a woman that is fine, but if on the other hand someone else decides that celibacy would better serve their purposes, then I don't think that can be said to be abnormal either.

This has been something I have dealt with too. Several years ago I went through my porn stage, but that gradually gave way to simply fantasising, which isn't really any better, just a different medium (one is a computer screen/movie/ect.. the other is your mind). What I have found to be very helpful is doing the cold draw to my sacral chakra (which is about sex) and my upper dan tien/ third eye (which is about visualization). Not only does the jing added to these area clear out blockages that are causing this problem, but doing the cold draw also removes energy from the sex organs which reduces desire as well.

Another note to add to my previous statement which that past several days of experience has still shown to be the case, something else.... Not only do I notice being tired when doing the cold draw to a new point on the MCO but the emotions of that associated point/chakra seems to really bubble up at the same time.... interesting. I pretty much just have to ride it out until the process is complete and then I feel much better.

The inner smile along with the healing sounds are two of my main practices, and I have gotten very good results with them.

I'm actually planning on studying TCM in Austin TX soon, its called the Texas College of Traditional Chinese Medicine. I did a campus tour, it was nice.

Last night I had mentioned that as I add energy to the problem chakra area that insight follows. Well lo and behold no sooner had I said that then today I as I spent a lot of time doing my cold draw to my sacral and solar plexus chakras that I had somewhat of an epiphany. I realized to day that a lot of my issues with sex n stuff have to do with guilt and shame about it. Its like the added energy there causes the gunk to bubble to the surface and help me to realize what I had sort of been in denial about up to this point. Why I would feel this way I'm not certain about, but I was raised by a mother who has a very negative attitude about such things, and so does my wife so for whats its worth I'm sure that has had an effect upon me. *edit: A lot of sources I have found say that the problem emotion of the sacral chakra is guilt, and the problem emotion of the solar plexus is shame, both of which I think are relevant here.

Hey I'm glad to hear your feeling better. Yea I think you may have a point as I am trying to avoid that stuff now, maybe that is the vibe I put off.

Actually I did understand your original post which is what my first responce was all about, then I proceeded to digress about myself lol, sorry. I understand your concerns well, and was trying to reply to some of the posters on here who had the "so whats the problem" attitude. Here is the problem with uncontrollable lust, it is an addiction, just like an alcoholic or a smoker. Your body becomes addicted to the hormones that you relase when you get sexually excited, and then has to have its "fix" a lot. That is one of the reasons at the end of my first post I recommended working on the heart meridian because that is where a lot of desire is housed. My acupuncturist gave me a herbal formula to calm my heart meridian when I went to him for a very similar problem. If you wanted to try the herbal approach you could get some Valerian root, or Kava or something like that which calms down your heart. Probably you may have noticed that when you feel lustful and begin to think about it, or look at porn you may have noticed your heart rate goes up. This is the "over excitement" of your heart, which is why the heart healing sound and inner smile as well as something like Valerian will help in the "here and now". But to get to the root of the problem (the source of what is causing you to get all aroused in the first place) you most likely will have to work on your sacral chakra (which is what I have been donig as of late, and am still doing now for similar reasons). If you do your MCO and/or cold draw you may notice that it is very hard to move the energy past your sacrum, and for good reason, because I think a large portion of the population, and especially the male population have sacral chakra blockages. Since the sacral chakra is the chakra related to sexuality, this would be the most probable one to work on. There have been many times that I may spend an hour trying to get my jing chi through my sacrum and it just does not happen. That is ok for as long as that energy is focused in my sacrum it is working on opening that blockage, and I have noticed change. Now of course the change is gradual and it won't just happen overnight, but it does happen if you are consistant and persistant. Our sacral chakra (which lies with in the lower dan tien area) is suppose to help us enjoy the goodness of life, relate to people, have a healthy sexuality ect... When there is a blockage there, these things don't happen. Instead rather than enjoying the goodness of life we either become severely ascetic and think the good things of life are bad and avoid them (blockage). Or we can think of nothing else than things that make us feel good and we lean towards hedonism (blockage of the other polarity). If both polarities are blocked we may swing back and forth from both extremes or feel them at the same time such as wanting pleasure a lot, yet feeling bad about it at the same time. Simply thinking about this problem or understanding it is not enough. We have to deal with the energy blockage, and clear it out, and then the though patterns that we want will naturally follow. *edit: P.S. the homeopathic remedy "Phosporus" is very helpful for this problem as well. You also might want to check out the Bach flower remedyies cherry plum which helps with self control http://www.anandaapothecary.com/english/cherry-plumb-flower-essence.html and/or white chestnut which helps with unwanted thoughts http://www.anandaapothecary.com/english/white-chestnut-flower-essence.html

Facinating , thanks

I agree, and what I have noticed in my experience is that lets say I have a deficiant chakra, or a blockage in an organ or what not. When I get to work on adding energy or clearing the blockage, insight comes with the process, but I do not usually get insight until I deal with the energetic root cause. I know its sort of a chicken or the egg situation, but this is how it seems to work for me. As I add energy to the chakra that is deficient, insight follows and thus I also learn the lesson.

Thanks, and I don't consider what I am doing as "storage" though. Several of my lower chakras on my MCO are very deficient, and I am using my sexual energy to fill them up so that they function as they should. I consider this more of "maintinece" than storage

Personally I have several reasons for avoiding sex for now. I am one of those that answered in the poll that I am not naturally celibate, but am now for cultivation purposes. For one I am using the potent sexual energy to clear blockages in my MCO, for healing, and the like. Also since my marriage is strained, and I am separated yet still techincally married I don't want to mess around in that realm for now, and even if I were not married right now, yet recently divorced I don't want to go through all the rebound drama that is so typical of people who have recently ended a relationship. I want to rather use this energy to help me to adapt to my new circumstances in a healthy and well adjusted way.

Of course having sexual attraction is natural, what is not so natural is when sex becomes problematic. You don't see animals in nature looking at animal porn, or becoming animal sex addicts. If you really want to use nature as an example you could look at it in a couple of ways. First of all most animals only mate at speific times of the year (mating season). Second a lot of creatures of the male gender die after they mate.... so what does that tell ya? But since animals usually only mate at specific mating seasons and don't waste their jing, you don't tend to see animals in the wild with cancer and all the health problems we humans have in our society.

Well its kind of complicated, cause your body uses jing to make sperm, which is why you don't want to ejaculate too often, and the older you get the less frequently you want to do it. As long as you don't over do it your body can make sperm mostly from post natal jing, or the jing that your body makes from food and air. If you are doing this your body uses a miniumum of pre natal jing to make sperm, which you inherit from your parents. But if you get carried away and ejaculate more than your bodies ability to create post natal jing, then your body dips into its pre natal jing supply and that is when you begin to have negative effects. As far as retaining jing, if you just hold it and thats it, then it can lead to stagnation eventually. If you retain it with the objective of transforming and transporting it, then you can use this energy for a lot of important inner healing and cultivation.

I realize that the last few posts offered good advice in theory, yet did not explain how to "not think about it" , or how to "clear your mind". I had/have been dealing with the same issues as you and let me share with you what I have found that helps a lot. If you are familiar with the cold draw aka testicle breathing this is extremely helpful with reducing the physical desire for sex. At the same time drawing that energy into your MCO is very helpful in balancing out the emotional/psychological aspects of our sex drive and sexuality. At first I thought simply reducing the physical drive itself would help, and to a degree it did, which is what I did the cold draw for. What I learned after that is how much of sexuality is not simply a physical craving but linked to emotional/mental issues as well, and that often the various manefestations of these desires are actually clues as to our inner state of energy balance or inbalance. If I find myself fantasizing about sexual things mostly, as though its in my head and imagination then I have found that, that is an indication that my upper dan tien is low on jing and wants more. I believe that the act of fantasizing about sex (as the upper dan tien is in the realm of visualization, imagination, abstraction) is a way that the upper dan tien feeds itself. On the other hand if I do the cold draw to my upper dan tien in such situations the desire to fantasize about such things diminishes. If the primary desire is for someone to love us, for compannionship, to love someone else, then this is our middle dan tien showing us that it is deficient. That would explain why when we are love sick it feels as if there is a void in our hearts, because literally there is, as our middle dan tien needs more jing. 99% of the time 99% of people seek to fill this energetic void by finding someone else to love them, and thus project their heart chi into their middle dan tien, filling the void. Again I have found that if I do the cold draw to my middle dan tien when feeling this way, this feeling also diminishes. If our primary desire is for the physical pleasure sensastions of sex, this could indicate one of two things or both. First it could be an indication that we have an excess of energy in our sexual organs. This is why when we have this feeling we feel as though we have to "release". In contrast to the deficiency symptoms of the upper and middle dan tien, this is an excess condition. It could also be that our lower dan tien is deficient and that we want the jing/chi that comes from sexual intercourse from a partner. In this case one can kill two birds with one stone. You can do the cold draw to the lower dan tien thus not only removing this excess energy from the sexual organs, but also filling up the lower dan tien at the same time, and again diminishing the desire for physical intimacy. It would also be wise if you have experienced the feeling of lust for a protracted amount of time to do the heart healing sound and inner smile as well, as being overly excited can be harmful to the heart, and also begin the chain reaction of causing you to be overly stimulated as well.

Those books you already have are quite enough to get you started for a while as those are all very good practices that will take you quite far.

I believe I noticed when I practiced the big draw that not only was my sex drive way higher, but I also seemed to get noticed by women more. Now that I do the cold draw not only is my sex drive very low, but I also feel invisible to girls as well. I suppose if you have a large amount of sexually aggitated jing such as you get from the big draw women feel this and resond (your field is large because you don't loose your jing). I suppose if your energy field is very calm and subdude such as you get from the cold draw women likewise feel this and thus lack intrest.

I've been pondering the effect practicing qigong may have on social skills? I have always been somewhat of an introvert, yet over the past couple years have been trying to work on my isues via qigong. I have noticed that lately if anything I have become more of an introvert and I'm not really sure why? Does doing qigong make one become more private and withdraw or is that not related? I don't want to come off as being rude or stuck up, but generally I just really don't enjoy small talk, chit chat, and socializing too much. Does this mean something is wrong with me? Is there a type of qigong to make one have better social graces? lol. OR is it possibly the other possibility that I considered which is ..... doing qigong causes one to see through the illusion that most people live in, and thus simply by default most people are not all that interesting to talk to? Is that perhaps why people who tend to be the exception are drawn to forums like this one where the few other people interested in such topics come to discuss? I did go out and by the Bach flower remedy "Water Violet" which is for people who are a bit aloof socially. I have had good experiences with flower essences in the past as they help bring your energy into the state its naturally supposed to be in, yet it will not bring your energy into an artificial state like pharmicutial drugs will, so I suppose that if my level of socialization is abnormal then this rememdy will help, but if what I said before is true then I reckon not much will happen? Time will tell I suppose. edit P.S. I can hold a conversation, I'm not autistic or anything, I simply don't usually enjoy going out to make conversation very often.

Ya lol, I actually remember that thread, and ironically I was one of the ones who recommended martial arts . So tell me I'm curious how have the katas worked for ya?

Yea thats exactely what I was thinking, all this stuff developed over thousands of years due to diligent research, practice and study, its not abitrary, rather its a highly developed system based upon lots of work.

LOL I think we have having a communication gap here, so let me try to re-explain what I mean. I do not think that I have some kind of special knowledge or anything like that. What I am trying to say is that by cultivating, your character benefits from the process.

Well basically I believe what cultivation is, is speeding up the natural process of development that all sentient beings go through in their incarnation. So when you cultivate you are actively working on yourself, your energy, your mind, your emotions, your understanding, ect... So naturally as you cultivate your character is going to develop as well, and the whole point of cultivation is to speed up the process of our development. Some of the biggest hinderances to our character development are internal energy blockages. As we cultivate and remove those blockages our character naturally improves. For example if you have a blockage in your liver and thus have the resulting anger issues. If you can remove this blockage then obviously your character would improve as you have a more healthy outlook on such things. If you have issues with sexuality and you remove a blockage in your sacral chakra area and then no longer have this issue, you have just improved your character. People who go through life and do not cultivate can go one of either two routes. The more negative route is that they do not respond well to the circumstances of life and thus earn to themselves more bad karma. On the other hand people who do not cultivate, yet live life well, learn lessons during the course of their lives and earn good karma, while they do not cultivate per se, they progress at a natural rate, yet had they cultivated that natural rate of growth and improvement could have been vastly accelerated.