Maddie

Yes they are, but he does not seem to put the same emphasis on the Cold Draw. I personally think its one of the best things to ever happen to me. I have almost completely eliminated my sex drive with it, its wonderful. I had been doing the Big Draw for a few years and it did nothing to reduce my sex drive, if anything it only made it worse. The Cold Draw on the other hand is something I have been doing recently for a couple months, and its fantastic. Its a pitty that it does not recieve more attention, because I think it accomplishes what most guys who are on this path are really looking for. Now I can go about my day and see pretty girls and feel neutral about it. Don't get me wrong if they are pretty I of course recognize this, but more in the same way that you look at a sunset, landscape, or archetecture that you think is pretty. You know its astetically pleasing to the eye, but you don't feel sexual desire for such an object. This has had the great effect of allowing me to focus on developing love in my heart with out the distractions of lust, desire, and attachment. My advice in learning the cold draw is to be patient with it, and take your time. Like anything new that you try to learn its kind of slow at first, and a bit tricky to get the feel for it. But if you are patient and stick with it, you will get the hang of it. I spent a few hours the first few times just trying to get the jing chi to my sacrum. No big deal I just stopped there, and patiently kept at it for a couple weeks until my sacrum opened more, and the jing was able to go high up my MCO. I have found from my personal experience that moving chi up the MCO is easier because it is less dense, and jing is slower and more difficult because it is more dense.

In regards to loneliness I have been working on my throat chakra, heart, and spleen lately, and this has been getting results. The throat chakra has to do with commuincation, so if we have a blockage there then we may feel cut off from others and ourselves due to lack of communication. The heart, or the "emporer" is incharge of our interactions with others, and the spleen is responsible for our sense of comfort and acceptence (and self acceptence). In the past I have found that the root of just about all my problems is internal, even if at the beginning I thought it was external. I've found flower essences and homeopahty to be very helpful in addition to Qigong practice.

Non, I would recommend the Larch Bach flower remedy for you, I think it would help a lot. http://www.anandaapothecary.com/english/larch-flower-essence.html the link is all about what it does.

I've been doing the cold draw (which is aka testicle breathing) a lot more lately, and the big draw a lot less and have been very happy to do so, I feel much more calm. The big draw had a tendency to agitate me more. Now that I have been doing the cold draw almost exclusively retention seems easy now.

I'm curious about something lately. Can doing a lot of healing such as Qigong, flower essences, homeopathy, ect... make you very tired as your body begins using your energy reserves for the healing process?

I think I remember hearing of some yogi guru who said that if we do not love ourselves then we seek love from an external source, i.e. another human being.... thoughts??

I sort of meant need as in neediness, being clingy, needy, ect... which is very similar to want, desire, ect..

I think I understand you?? I have pretty much gotten the sexual urge part of this under control well by doing the cold draw/testicle breathing. What I'm finding to be a bit more tricky is getting the companionship thing under control. If I could learn an internal alchemy method to deal with that I'd be pretty pleased.

That pretty much sums up my thoughts on this recently.

You know I've sort of been pondering this topic from a slightly different angel. I am in a really bad relationship, and hope to get out of it in the not to distant future. Thing is I have been pondering what it is to be sociable. Ideal I do not want to go out and get in another relationship, but as I ponder being singel again it seems to have this very strong draw on me. I can't exactely explain why but I have begun to view needing/wanting to be in a relationship with someone as a "weakness", maybe its stupid, but it seems like a position of "lack". I guess I think that if something in me was not lacking that I would not desire another person, because I'd be content with in myself. Now I know the hermits and monks do not get into relationships for the most part, and if they do it all their life then they never do. So is this the highest ideal? Is wanting and needing someone else a sign of too much attachment, or neediness?

Yes this is Yin deficiency.... this is a link to herbs for that. http://www.agelessherbs.com/YinValleyFormula.html P.S. I don't work for this company, but I do use them a lot.

If anyone read what I posted in the asking a girl in yoga class out thread yesterday, then this will make sense. I was at work today again, and around that Postal guy again. Today after getting rejected by the girl I felt something different from him, yet also very stong. I felt an intense loneliness. Everytimes he would walk by me I felt it so strong in my middle dan tien area and throat chakra. I know this guy is on some sort of meds for mental problems, and I also know that what ever he happens to be feeling radiates out very strong. I assumed the loneliness is due to him getting rejected by every girl on the planet. The pressure in the throat chakra was unexpected, but I assume he feels that he can not adequately express himself?? I'm just not sure why I feel his emotional energy sooooo strong?

If I think back to as far as I can remember I now realize I have always been somewhat sensitive to other people's emotions states, but for a long time I did not realize this, which was quite miserable. Since beginning Qigong a couple years ago, my sensitivity has increased, but so has my understanding as to what was really going on as well. Take for example that incident at work I mentioned. In the past I would most certainly feel that guys jeaoulsy, anger, lust, ect... but not realize that it was not originating in me, and thus think that those feelings were my own, and then wonder what the hell was wrong with myself for feeling that way spontaneously. It actually did catch me off guard for a few minuets, but once I headed out on the delivery and did the liver cleaning, then I knew what was going on lol. The fact that everyone felt more relaxed after Mr. Postal went home only confirmed two things, that I was correct about the source, and that other people were feeling it too, and just did not realize where it was coming from.

I have a book about yoga and chakras all together, and it says that the fish pose is for opening the heart chakra.

I've observed with myself and in others that a lot of what we men do in honing our social skills actually is just EGO issues. How many times have we seen a good looking woman and wanted to impress her in some way or another not necessarily because we truely liked her (perhaps we didn't even know her) but to "prove" someething to ourselves, or to our egos?

I was curious if anyone had knowledge or experience with the symptoms and/or side effects of progressing in cultivation? It seems that I will have four or five really good days of doing my Qigong, and then a day or two of feeling really crappy where I can not practice. Then this will clear up and I will resume practice again for several days until I feel crappy again for no reason that I can tell in particular. For example I might just feel really tired one day even though I went to bed at a normal time, or feel weak, or cold, or slightly sickly, or just generally bad. Its not like I get sick, because I don't get a fever or actually get ill in the real sense, but I just have this vauge and unusual feeling of not feeling good. Is this a part of the process of clearing your channels and opening blockages?

You know I can offer a different take on this topic, and yes I know it is not the origianl topic, but it still has to do with male/female dynamics, and how it can all relate back to Tao. Ok yesterday I'm at work, there are 4 guys and one young girl, so this made for an interesting situation to say the least. Let me break down the line up in order to explain how events played out. The line up for the guys follows... Me (unhappily married), Mr. Postal (not his real name, but most work places have that guy who you can just picture going postal one day), the assistant manager (a decent chap, late 30's, divorced), Tex (a married guy, roughly my age I believe who is good natured), and the "girl" (just graduated high school last spring and now in community college). So here is the back ground... Mr. Postal I've been told has so far hit on every single female unfortunate enough to work in this place, and so far his sucess rate is 0. So yesterday at work Mr. Postal is really trying to put the moves on the girl, he bought her a cookie so I guess he figured she owed him something. She goes to the assistant manager and tell him that Mr. Postal is creeping her out (as usual). The place is very slow last night, so we are all just hanging out and shooting the breeze killing time, chit chatting. Now I've had this unfortunate condition, which has only gotten worse with Qigong of being extremely sensitive to other peoples emotional conditions. So as this chit chat group is going along, first I feel an extreme degree of sexual tension, followed a few minutes later by an extreme feeling of school boy jealousy and resentment. Then Mr. Postal actually gives me one of his delieveries so that he can continue to put the moves on the girl!! So I go off on my delievery feeling this extreme amount of inmature jealousy (like middle school all over again) and I am thinking "what the hell is wrong with me!!!???". So I start doing the liver healing sound and inner smile as I'm driving, rather disappointed cause I seem to be back in the middle school level of emotional maturity. So I begin to feel better, and as I return to the store, I begin to feel it again! and I am soooooo disappointed in myself. Ok so fast foward a couple hours and now Mr. Postal has gone home. Suddenly the atmosphere has completely changed, and I no longer feel this school boy jealousy, what a relief. Then that is when it goes *ding *ding *ding, and I understand what was going on all this time. Appearantly Mr. Postal was getting very jealous that the girl had been talking to the rest of us and was not into him. He then began to radiate a very VERY powerful aura of jealousy/anger (which would be why I kept feeling I had to clean out my liver, and actually felt jealous about this girl!!! which was very disconcerting!!! (shes a nice lass, but the pierced and tattooed everywhere type, which is not my type at all) I was sooooo glad that guy left, for after he did the how place returned to normal so fast. But nevertheless it was an interesting insight into how irrational these things can be. I just wish I was not so sensitive to other people's emotions.

largetalons.bmp Napoleon "Do the chickens have large talons?" Farmer "I don't understand a word you just said" Im the farmer here

In the books that I have including Dr. Yang's, it always says that you should not practice when you are feeling tired, ill, ect... The original intent of my question though was to understand things that come up as a result of practice, i.ec side effects?

Well from a Qigong approach, when I want to do insight type stuff I focus on my upper dan tien and breathe. Certainly this is not the only approach, but I seem to get results from it. Of course if you choose to follow this method just don't leave too much chi in your head when you are finished, always bring the excess down to your lower dan tien at the end.

You could just ask her for her number, so when your not feeling so spacy, you could call her up and talk then lol.

Yes, well considering that there are so many styles of Qigong it might be easier to know some recomendations based upon what your goal is??

You are right, most people do not seem to be into this stuff, perhaps you could go to a yoga class, you might have a greater chance of finding someone into that stuff there.

Yea actually it did for a while, a little less than a year ago, it just seemed like every single time I looked at the clock poof 10:29 lol, and I pondered what this might mean, I still don't know haha

I have had some problems of this sort in the past and have tried a variety of methods to deal with them. One of the most effective I have found in my own expereience is Feng Shui cures and space clearing. Incense, espceially sage, sprinkeling salt on the floor and putting it by the doors and windows, and in containers around the room, metal pots of water by the foot of the bed, and things like that help. Good Taoist or Buddhist calligraphy scrolls can help as well. I can not afford such things, so one time I meditated into a deep state and then took my caligraphy set that I got at Barnes and Noble and sort of made a spontaneous symbol as my chi led me, this proved to be very effective as well. Sometimes just fixing bad Feng Shiu can help a lot. I also did a visualization in which I visuallized my home surrounded by an amry of Terracotta warriors standing shoulder to shoulder not letting anything evil into my home, and that helped a lot as well. I have also had a few experiences of attack by negative entities where I visulaized myself in Samurai armor and began attacking them with a samurai sword, this helped too. Another time in my appartment in Alaska I was up late at night in the living room after everyone else had gone to bed and I felt this sort of native american woodland spirit trying to enter our place. I grabbed my samurai sword and sat with it in meditation and opposed this thing, and it departed. So those are just a few techniques I have used in the past to deal with this sort of thing, there are others as well, but I don't want to ramble on lol.