Maddie

King raised a point that I have been pondering pretty much ever since I began qigong a couple years ago, and that is what constitutes winter officially? I was living in Alaska which my Finish friends who visited me there told me is pretty much identical to Finland. Now I live in San Antonio Texas which in my alaskaized eyes does not even have a true winter, but the wimps down here think they do haha. So what determines "winter" the sesonal climate, or the time of year?

I finally answered this poll. I guess I consider myself the third category of self cultivation. I do find Taoist philosphy interesting but my main focus is working on my "issues" which I suppose would come to no supprise to anyone who has read a few of my posts. Yet I see how the two can not really be totally divorced from each other cause the philisophical part has a big influence on the practice part, and the practice part puts the philisophical aspect in to practical use.

I think it is important to realize that there is not just one way to do the MCO, but many, and those various methods depend upon your goals. One point to start the MCO from is the Lower dan tien. Another (the one I am doing now) is to begin at the testicles (or ovaries if your a female). From the testicles I draw out all the jing into the perinium until I feel like I have most of it there. Then I begin to draw that big glob of jing up from the perinium. As to blockages, its most likely you will run into them, and usually not very far up (the sacrum being a common one). In my own experience I have gotten better results in trying the patient approach and not skipping ahead, but if I find a blockage I just take my time, being very patient at that point. If I can't get it past the blockage that time, no big deal I just let the energy go to work on clearing out the blockage. I have found in my personal experience that the bigger the blockage, or deficiency the more tired I feel after practice, as a lot of energy has been absorbed by the blockage, but this is not a bad thing in the long run, as things are getting fixed. I have found that beginning at the lower dan tien is easier because from there you are circulating more chi, which is lighter and less dense and easier to get past blockages. If you use testicle breathing (cold draw) as your primary energy source its more difficult because jing is more dense and moves slower and has a harder time getting through blockages, but the main reason that I choose to use this method now is because if you use up this energy in your MCO then it pretty much eliminates your sex drive which at this point in my life is what I am trying to do. Also since jing is more dense, and more physical you get more bang for your buck as far as clearing out blockages go. You will be able to tell when a blockage is getting cleared out because when you try to move energy through it, it gets way easier, you don't feel as tired after moving energy to that point, and the emotional/psychological issues associtated with that blockage improve as well.

A while ago when I began doing the cold draw up my MCO I had felt more tired than usual. I had suspected that the various points and chakras on my MCO were absorbing lots of this energy to balance themselves out. Gradually two things happened, first I gradually didn't feel as tired, and second, at the same time the problem issues associated with the various points got better as well. Today due to my concern that I'm turning into an anti-social recluse I began to reverse the MCO draw of my cold draw, as usually I didn't draw my cold draw up my back too far as the points there had a tendency to suck up a lot of the energy. So I wanted to add energy to the points on the front 'conception vessel' as well. The first point up the front is the sperm palace or pubic chakra. I delieberately chose this one as it has to do with being sociable, which I am not right now. Lo and behold after doing that I was too tired to do any of my other practices this morning, weird eh? I guess that when a point or chakra on your MCO is defecient not only do you experience the associtated "issues" but also when you try to add energy to it, it uses up a lot of energy at first as well.

I'm posting this cause last night my sister-in-law invited my to this pot luck at our appartment. So I went mainly cause there wasn't really much else to do. When I got there there were random people standing around, but the food was not ready. She went off somewhere with her friends, so I just sat there. On the table was a book about country homes, so for lack of anything else to do I picked it up and looked at it. As more people filtered in some of them began random conversations about their lives n such, making small talk about this and that. After about 20 miniutes I could take no more of this boredome and left. After about 10 min my sis-in-law called to ask where I was, and I just told her that I didn't really feel like mingeling. So why am I saying all this? I don't really care that I didn't talk to anyone, as they all seemed boring to me. The concern I have is not that I'm lonley and want to meet people, the conern I have is why do 99% of people bore me to death, and why do I not care if I really know anyone or not? Does this mean something is wrong with me? Am I becoming some kind of anti-social recluse? Why is it that I find most people boring? Good looking women will flirt with me, and I just don't care, or at worst find it annoying. I find the idea of going to a pot luck or some other group social setting about as fun as watching a water leak drip into a bucket. So what gives?

Also his books on the inner smile and the healing sounds are also very good.

Hey Dawg I loved that answer, it was not just one of the best answers I've heard on Tao Bums, but in my life I believe . Just the other day I had an experience about that little voice of conditioning that you were talking about. For most of my adult life when ever I see the typical busty hollywood type "blonde" bomb shell I find myself getting really nervous. So the other day I saw one of these and when I began to feel this way I asked myself why. What I discovered is that these girls are really not my type, BUT due to my father, the media, and most other media influenced males I have been around I was made to think that the highest calling in life was to get one of those kind of girls. I had never really stopped before and asked myself if I truely liked that type of girl, I had just assumed that I did cause that is what that voice in my mind told me I did, which turned out to not be me, but all of that conditioning.

From time to time I tend to sort of get lost in my own little fantasy world in my head. I am trying to figure out what causes this, and what I should work on to lessen this. I am thinking either or both the upper dan tien and / or the heart. I suspect the upper dan tien because that is where your brain and perception are located, so perhaps if it is over active one may live up there there and not come down to earth. The reason I suspect the heart is not only is it related to the mind, but also its problem area is over excitement. Since daily life can seem a little dull to some of the fantasies that we can dream up, or see in movies, I was wondering if its the hearts way of feeding itself with the over excitement it craves when its not in a state of balance. These are just some thoughts, and I would be interested if anyone else had some insight, or even better experience dealing with this.

I suppose that could be the case, but then again I could say why have I had these thoughts in the first place if there was not already a blockage in place. I have found that listening to my intuition has lead me right in the past about these type of things, and my intution tells me that the blockage is causing the thoughts rather than vice versa. *Edit: I forgot to mention that I am beginning to realize that along with other issues, it would seem now that upper dan tien issues have been quite problematic for me for quite a long time with out me realizing that they were upper dan tien issues. It seems that so much focus is put on the upper dan tien / third eye as a way of obtianing powers, and the like, but I feel that what is often ignored is the day to day problems that blockages in this area can cause if not removed.

I would suggest drawing jing through your MCO to the Ming Men on the back opposite the navel, here is the description of a blockage at this point from ... http://www.kheper.net/topics/chakras/Door_of_Life.htm Blocked: You are weak and insecure and easily swayed by others [Paulson, p.71]; you are easily taken advantage of [Chia, p.207]. As I have been doing the cold draw for the past couple months I have been making quite a bit of progress on issues that had been issues in my life for a very long time. I was not able to "think" my way out of it, but had to remove energetic blockages to really make true progress. Also I would recommend working on your Liver and Lungs, as the Lungs have to do with personal boundries, and the Liver has to do with assertiveness. The inner smile and healing sounds for these organs are very effective for this. I have also found the homeopathic remedy "phosphorus" to be effective in helping with this as well. This is not just theory for me, this is stuff I have actuall used to make progress in this area of my own life. *Edit: I also thought I'd mention that the homeopathic remedy "Natrum Muriaticum" is also effective for social acwkardness. Also the Bach flower rememdy "Mimulus" is also useful for such problems.

After doing some research into this problem a little more since originally posting, and this seems to be kind of like obessive compulsive disorder sometimes, which is why its so unpleseant, having thoughts that you do not like pushing themselves into your mind. I think this is likely a blockage in the upper dan tien. http://www.kheper.net/topics/chakras/Mouth_of_God.htm Malfunctioning: You may suffer from illusions [Chia, p.216] and fantasies, and perhaps mental unbalance [Colton, The Third Music] and schizophrenia I feel that the malfunctioning category best describes the unwanted thoughts and fantasies.

I found that article very interesting, I didn't realize that doing Wild Goose moved the MCO.

I know I was disappointed, I suppose I will go to this MMA place down the street, I figure at least you get some well rounded training, strikes, throws, ground work ect...

I just moved to San Antonio and found this cool Shuai Jiao place, but it is unfortunately out of my price range :-( , but I think its way cool

To basically have no sex drive so to speak of I have to do it at least once a day, sometimes twice. An interesting twist is that I have been very effective at eliminating my sex drive with this technique, but as all this energy is entering various points on my MCO its clearning out blockages which can also be a quite difficult thing to go through.

Hey Dawg, if I understand corectly you or somewhat isolated at the moment as you work on your spiritual goals. This raises a question I have? Do you get or feel lonely doing this? If not, why not?

I've been working a lot on my MCO lately using the cold draw as my energy source. Though I often don't do the draw very far up my MCO as I feel that a lot of my issues right now are Sacral charka issues, so I am drawing a lot of energy there to open blockages.

I have been trying this approach to ask myself why I feel the way I do as opposed to trying to make myself feel how I think I should. One thing I have noticed so far is that I want to be close to people but not close to people at the exact same time.... I don't get it.

hmmmm interesting.... I'll try that approach

I have a video tape version that I got from YMAA. It is the first 64 movements, and I have done it somewhat. I have not made it part of my regular practice but did enjoy doing it. As far as how it compares to Bruce Franzis I have no idea lol.

I have been doing the cold draw since early September (no loss, not even any self stimulation) so it looks like I finally found a technique that works in that regards. It has been very effective at minimizing my sex drive. Why would I want to do such a thing? Well a big reason is that I'm going through a divorce, and so before I left didn't even want to touch her cause she was mean and nasty to me. Second I am trying to use all that potent energy to heal myself on the inside. Third I don't want to rush out into a rebound type relationship situation, cause to me that says "I can't be complete on my own, I have to have someone else to make me happy". I'm 99% sure I won't do this the rest of my life, but I think for now it is what I really need to be doing, and this technique has worked wonderfully for that. I used to do the big draw, but that just kept me hot and bothered constantly, so I have found if you want to go a long time and keep desire low the cold draw is the key.

My western sign is scorpio, my chinese is tiger... You know this is interesting cause I was sort of pondering this in the back of my head, like what if these annoying thoughts n such are my bodies way of trying to get my attention about something that I need to know. In the past when I have stopped just trying to get rid of such thoughts, and actually try to decipher the reason I am having them, it often leads me to a blockage somewhere and then I get to work on that blockage and then poof problem solved.

I appreciate your answer Sloppy, but after some more work on this topic, I believe that this is a Spleen issues, since when the spleen is out of wack there is a lot of obsessive thinking that really goes no where, which describes what I am/was going through. It did not feel good to me, so I saw it more as an imbalance.

cause I'm wasting a lot of time when I need to get things done

for anyone who was paying attention I made it to Texas. Its been quite emotional for me because I came here to get away from my wife and her family who have treated me very poorly for a long time. What confuses me is that even though I hate the way she treated me, I feel really emotional anyways, not sure why considering how she has been to me for so long.