Maddie

Ok in a nut shell there are the three treasures, jing, chi, and shen. Shen is translated as "spirit" but it does not hold the same connotations as in the West. Shen can denote our mind, emtions, perceptions, ect.. It is the most refined and less dense of the three treasures, and is said to reisde in the upper dan tien, or the heart depending on your source. It is said that the state of one's shen can be seen in the eyes. If you to go to a TCM doctor he will look in your eyes to see the state of your shen. People who have mental illness or act in irratic and hystarical ways are said to have scattered shen, or their shen has departed. If you have a lot of time on your hands and like to read a lot this link will tell you all about shen and shen disorders. http://www.itmonline.org/shen/index.htm Here is a shorter version which I also like. http://www.fivespirits.com/shen.php

I get Deja Vu from time to time, and sometimes I get the feeling that I had been in a certain situation before where I made a mistake, and had an impression of what the mistake was, so I then would take measures to avoid that mistake, and it has saved my butt several times lol.

A while back I kept looking at the clock when it was 10:29 which is my birthday lol

If I remember what Drew said correctly, I think if you keep sitting in full lotus, the conversion process automitically continues so after the jing is turned into chi, then if you keep at it the chi turns into shen.

I think I'd have to second that. I almost stopped a while back due to warnings n such. But rather than stopping due to the warnings, I decided to focus more on some of the foundational practices and keep at it, and while I am still no expert I have made a decent amount of progress. Someone on here said a little while ago that if you are learning to ride a bike and if you should fall down, you don't throw away the bike and quit, you keep practicing until you get it right, and I think I'd have to agree based upon my own experience. I think the main difficulty I've personally noticed and it would seem that others indicate as well with these sexual practices is not having enough of the fundimental foundational work completed before attempting retention.

Hey I like this explination a lot, but by what means do you recommend to acheive this state?

Hey everybody thannks for the replies. Niklas I found your answer interesting and will try that approach. Tao Apprentice I understand what you are talking about, it seems that it is not too common a thing to find someone else interested in these things, so thus we tend to not have a lot of close friendships. Goonis I also like finding pleasure in the small stuff, sometimes I get odd looks lol. Yesterday I was doing the 8 brocades at the park in the morning after dropping the kids off at school. After I finished I saw a little green frog hopping through the grass and stopped to watch it. This park happened to be in Yuppie-ville so all the soccer moms jogging were sort of looking at me watching the frog with this (?)"whatever" above their heads lol. CowTao sorry but I did not understand your point?

hmmm good suggestions I second those

When you mentioned premature ejaculation based upon my limited experience in TCM it makes me think that this might not be a sexual kung fu issue, but a kidney yin deficiency. One of the symptoms of kidney yin deficiency is pre-mature ejaculation and easy arousal. For this you may want to get a Chinese herbal formula from an acupuncturist to build up your kidney yin.

Yea that seems to be what I have observed. I must admit that the temptation to see if I could manipulate this to my favor did cross my mind breifly, but then I figured that even if I were sucessful, that the karma payback for doing such a thing would be pretty bad, so I decided against such experimentation.

My basic approach to most things these days is one of energy balance. I keep working to balance all my internal organs, and as a I do problems work themselves out. As far as this topic goes I have worked on this through the Lung meridian. One of the positive virtues of the Lungs is pride, but the good kind which is healthy self esteem, as opposed to the negative kind which is arrogance. So I breathe in a decent amount of respect, both self respect and respect for others, (for if we respect both ourselves and others we have balance, but if we only build respect for ourselves we become arrogant) and breath out sorrow, low self esteem ect.. One thing I have really really noticed is that intellectual understanding of these issues does not remove them. The only thing I have found that actually fixes such problems is simple practice. Breath in the good, breath out the bad. Its so simple that our egos don't like it, but isn't that the problem in the first place here? lol. Don't get me wrong, I do like to have a good intellectual understanding of these processes, but that is not what fixes things. I have basically taken this approach with just about every unwanted emotion and thought pattern, and it does seem to be working very effectively. So try the inner smile to your lungs, and doing the lung healing sound as well, and observe what results you get.

I started Qigong because I had a few different goals. The number one goal of mine was and is emotional and sexual health, balance, and stability. The reason being, it has been these issues that have been the most problematic for me in my life. When I began Qigong I was on anti-depressants, sex obsessed, and felt like crap. I also got into it because I was taking Karate and wanted to be a bad-ass fighter, and had heard that Qigong could make you that way. I also felt rather lost in life and was hoping Qigong could help me to gain some perspective as well. Since that time I no longer take anti-depressants, have dropped the desire to be a bad-ass as my emotionas have balanced out. Sex may still be a little tricky at times, but I am no where near as obessed with it as I was before I began. Yet there is still a lot of progress to be made, yet I feel confident now that I can make progress since I have already made so much. One more reason is because I can not afford medical insurance, so I have used Qigong to keep both myself and my children healthy, and I pretty much do not need to bring them to the Dr anymore.

This is a topic that I have also been pondering a lot lately. Also I decided to experiment with some of what Drew mentioned as well. I work at a pizza place and there are these two young girls who work there as cooks. Now I have always had a tendency to be somewhat sensitive towards other peoples energy, and since beginning Qigong even more sensitive the longer I practice. So anyways when I first started there about a month ago I just knew that one of the girls there was very horny, and in fact I over heard her telling her friend this later which just confirmed what I had already felt. The longer I was feeling her particular energetic state I also began to feel this way. Since I was at work at the time and did not want to feel this way I decided to try a Drew Hempel on her, and while it may have not been as dramatic as Drew's version, we both ended up having internal climaxes, though I doubt she knew why she was having one. So as far as I was concerned problem solved, for we had both exchanged energy, the frustration was gone, and the people did rejoice, or so I thought. Thing is that now, once her and her friend show up to work they are both extremely flirty with me. They find excuses to hang around me, and talk to me. As far as the other one goes, I'm not sure why as I did not do any energy exchanges with her, but the only thing I can guess is that since I practice retention and am not constantly squirting out my juices like most of the other guys there most likely are, my energy field is probably quite strong in relation to others. Weird thing is that when they first show up they are super flirty, and as they hang around me being flirty I sort of feel things start to balance on their own. I am not trying to do any energy exchanges, they just sort of seem to happen on their own. Then after this exchange has seemed to reach a certain level (where I assume some sort of balance is acheived) the flirting sort of tappers off, and they go about with actually doing their jobs lol. I have also noticed that on delieveries my tips seem to average out higher than most of the other drivers. I guess the stronger energy field from retention has a somewhat positive influence on people. On the other hand I have also noticed that if I do ejaculate, not only does my energy field feel weaker to myself, but the flirting dies out, and the tips seem to drop down to the same level as the other drivers. But I do not feel bad about this, as I see it as yin and yang just wanting to balance themselves, its part of nature. If the pizza girls are a bit too yin and I am a bit too yang, and if us just being in proximity helps the both of us to feel more balanced then that is a good thing.

Well I can sort of make my practice go for a while if I so desire and have the time. If I really want to draw it out I can go on just what I mentioned for two hours. Usually I do not have that much free time on my hands, sometimes I have very little free time so I have to be flexible enough to modify my practice according to my time limits. If I am really strapped for time, then I'll pick the practice that I feel like I need the most. So for exaple if I feel stiff and crusty, I may do the 8 Brocades. Or if emotions are the key problem then I'll do the inner smile and healing sounds. If my libido is acting up and turning me into a dry humping lap dog, then I may do the healing love stuff. In a perfect world though I'll try to do all of it.

I'd like to hear other people's personal experiences with the Zang Fu (the five main yin organs and their corresponding elements). I'll share what I know and have experienced and would be interested to hear your knowledge and experiences also. The five Zang heart, lungs, liver, spleen, kidney, and the five Fu, small intestine, large intesting, gall bladder, stomach, urinary bladder. The five elements, fire, metal, wood, earth, water. 1. Heart/Small intestine pair, fire element (pericardium/triple warmer): Positive emotional attributes: Love, joy, compassion, patience, peace. Negative emotional attributes: over-excitement, hate, cruelty, haste. Mental function: healthy interaction with the outside world. Sound: Haaaaah In my own experience and observation I have found heart blockages to be central to relationship issues. My father is a very hard hearted person, and has had a lot of relationship issues in his life. A few years ago he also had a heart attack, and I beleive the two to be connected. I have had my own issues and most of them tend to be a lack of true love in my heart ( which is a hard thing to admit to one's self). Our society promotes high stimulation, constant excitement, but does not foster true love and compassion. Thus it is easy for our hearts to be full of its negative attribute (being overly stimulated) and lacking in the more positive emotions of real love. We tend to equate sex and lust (stiumlation) with love. Both are heart issues, just as the north and south poles of the earth are both magnetic poles, but totally opposite from eachother. 2. Lung/Large Intestine pair, metal element: Positive emotional attributes: Courage, pride, healthy boundries. Negative emotinal attributes: Sadness, sorrow, greif, low-self esteem. Mental function: Cultivation, discrimination. Sound: Sssssss The lungs, and particuarly their emotion of sadness has probably been the most problematic emotion I have dealt with in my life. When I began Qigong originally it was because I was severely depressed. I felt constant sorrow, and my breathing was usually quite shallow. Additionally I did not think and feel too highly of myself. This also produced relationship problems because since fire (of the heart) melts metal (of the lungs) I subconsciouly hoped that a relationship and love (heart issues) would make me happy (end the sorrow of the lungs). But natrually stimulation and excitement did not melt away my sadness, but rather scorched my lungs and only made my sorrow worse. I also had poor boundries and had a very difficult time telling people NO. This is currently the organ system I am working on now. I am working to increase pride (self respect as opposed to arrogance) and remove sorrow. I am also working on letting go of things that are not good for me, since the other metal element organ is the large intestine (emotional constipation). I also used to get colds often and easily and my skin was not very clear (since the lungs are connected to the nose and skin as well), but this has begun to improve as I have been working on the lungs. 3. Liver/Gall Bladder pair, wood element: Positive emotional attributes: Kindness, forgiveness, generosity. Negative emotional attributes: Anger, frustration, feeling "stuck". Mental function: Planning, decision making, strategy. Sound: Shhhhhhh The Liver was one of the early ones I put a lot of emphasis on due to my short temper. In the past I was quite short tempered with those closest to me, such as my kids, which naturally made me feel quite bad. I also had a very difficult time making decisions and planning things. Since I have worked on the Liver my temper is way more mellow and patient, and I am more decisive than I used to be. I feel more kind in general. Used to if I saw a homeless person holding a "will work for food sign" I would feel angry and think to myself "bum". Now when I see one I often feel more kind hearted towards them, and even gave one a dollar last week, which felt quite good actually, even though I am quite strapped for cash myself. Dandilion and Milk Thistle are good liver cleansing herbs that I have had good results with. 4. Spleen/Stomach pair, earth element: Positive emotional attributes: Trust, openess, sympathy, comfort. Negative emotional attributes: Worry, pensiveness, ungrounded. Mental function: clear thought process, study/learning. Sound: Huuuuuuu My wife and my mother tend to worry excessively. They also both have metabolism problems on oppposite ends of the spectrum. My wife is overweight, and my mother is underweight. The fret and stress and ponder and worry about everything, yet in a non-productive way. I constantly tell both of them to work on their spleens lol. I also used to be more pensive about problems such as finacial difficulties (which I always seem to have) but as I have worked on my spleen I worry less, and trust that things will be ok more. Ginger is a great herb for the spleen and stomach. 5. Kidney/Bladder pair, water element: Positive emotional attributes: Calm, Gentle. Negative emotional attributes: Fear, paranoia, phobias. Mental function: Will power, wisdom. Sound: Chooooooo One thing I notice about American society is that people are paranoid lol, and that calmness is a very rare characteristic. In our society we are scared of everything. Scared of the terrorists, scared of burglars, scared of loosing our homes, our jobs, our money. Scared of accidents, scared of diseases, and on and on. Seveal years ago I had this general paranoia of being out in public, and of random people. Of course it was unfounded, but so is most fear. As I worked on the kidneys this has faded.

If you think about it the virtues of the organs and the negitve aspects are really the same thing, just opposite poles. You have the Liver/Gall Ballder which are resonsible for decision making, planning, and kindness. These are all good things obviously, yet if you feel stuck in making good plans most likely you will feel frustrated, or if your more yin then perhaps hopless. Frustration and hoplessness are symptoms of depression which is often associted with the Liver meridian. I believe that if you can remove the blockages which for instance in this case prevent you from making good plans, then once those blockages are gone, then you will by default begin to plan well. Also using the Liver as an exmpale, if you are full of anger, then there is very little room for kindness, yet if you can remove that angry energy from your liver, then kindness will be what remains. Of course it is good to increase the virtues of the organs as well. What I do often when I combine practices, I might breath in with the inner smile focusing on the positive virtues in that particular organ. So with the liver I might breathe in kindness, decisiveness, ect... as part of the smile. Then on my exhale with the healing sound I visualize and feel all that I want to get rid of going out on the exhale. I breath out anger, confusion and frustration with the Shhhhhh sound. With the Lungs if we have a good degree of self-respect and courage then we will not feel bad about ourselves and go around feeling sad and gloomy. In the case of the heart its negitve emotion is usualy caused by an excess. So if the positive emotion of the heart is Joy, then if we over do it then we get into over-excitement. See the connection? Same thing just different poles. In the case of the spleen, if we are full of trust that life will work itself out, then it would be rather difficult to worry. Yet on the other hand if we are full of worry, then we need to get rid of that emotion that is taking up space in our spleen so that trust can by default fill up the space we make. With the kidneys if we are very calm, gentel and wise, then it is very difficult for us to be irrationally fearful. We will feel calm, not paranoid. If we are full of wisdom then we will realize that most of the things we worry about are groundless. So I think it is important to be balanced in our practice. Just as we exhale we should inhale. Just as we remove negative energy, we should fill ourselves with positive virtue. In my own experience I have mainly used the inner smile on the inhale to focus on increasing the positive, and the healing sound on the exhale to remove the negative. I have been doing this a lot lately, and have found it to be extremely effective.

I am of the opinion that full lotus is good, but I can not really do it yet lol.

Yea Michael Winn has said to NOT use the million dollar point. When I first began doing this stuff I tried doing external finger locking a few times. I did not like it. The last time I did it, the next time I pissed blood came out so I gave that up quick. Now I do internal locking where you squeeze from the inside the muscles of the perenium (the same muscles you use to stop going pee in mid stream). Also very important you should have your MCO open so that once you do stop ejaculation you move ther energy into your orbit (very important) as the goal is not stopping ejaculation but moving that energy through your oribt. As far as the problems you are having now. You might want to give yourself a little break from that for a bit so you can recover and not permantely screw yourself up. You also might want to visit an acupuncturist as it sounds like you may have done some damage to your channels. Hope you feel better

Is Taoist Kung Fu synonymous with internal martial arts? Are all the taoist martial arts, internal? Are there any "external" taoist marital arts? I found this video very interesting, I appologize if it has already been posted here before. Once you watch the first part you can just follow the links to all 5 sections. It is aboaut Wudang mountain.

I recently moved to Washington state. I have studied mainly Karate, and a little BJJ, but I am becoming more intrested in studying internal martial arts and wanted to know if anyone knows how to find a good teacher or school for this?

I know what you mean, for I feel that I have spent a large amount of my life in this state as well. I feel that only lately am I slowly beginning to come out of this "fog". The means which I have used to accomplish this is simply by doing qigong dilligently, trying my best to do practice daily, and just like a tree grows, little by little, changes are taking place. Being American sometimes it can be hard to be patient and let the changes take place naturally lol (we like instant enlightenment), but then again that mind set is part of the problem (ironic eh?). I'm not going to endorce any one specific type of Qigong because I think likely most types of Qigong if practiced diligenty will produce healing over time. My personal routine mainly consists of 8 brochades, inner smile/healing sounds, MCO ,and healing love, but like I said I think its less the specific routine I do, and more just having the dicipline to do it daily. Good luck to you in your endeavor to escape the matrix lol.

There are lots of remedies for the common cold as has been seen just on this thread so far. As far as herbs go, again a lot of good herbs that produce good results. In Traditional Chinese Medicine herbs are prescribed depending on the cause of the cold, as there is not just one type of cold in TCM. There can be internal wind, heat, wind-heat, dampness, ect.... So a doctor of TCM would prescribe herbs depending on what internal disorder was the source of a particular cold. From the more general western herbal perspective, Ecanesia and Golden Seal are very good immune system boosters. If you are familiar with the specific source of your cold, for example dampness then a good drying herb such as Ginger would be appropriate. If you had Liver wind then maybe a good liver detoxifying herb would be called for such as dandilion or milk thistle. Often the lungs are affected and licorice is good to tonify the lungs, and a natural decongestant such as nettle leaf helps with the immediate discomfort of nasal congestion and mucous. If you have a lot of mucous, which is a symptom of dampness a spicey herb such as a hot pepper is good to breaking up the mucous, inducing sweating, and cleansing the digestive tract (which houses a lot of our immune system. If you want to really keep it simple I really like "Airborne" that herbal mixture that you sizzle in water and drink. It contains a lot of the herbs mentioned above, is easy to prepare, and very effective.

Is the question how to heal yourself of a cold or others? As far as myself goes I've noticed regular Qigong practice is great preventative medicine. It keeps my immune system strong, and its rare for me to come down withi something, and if I do I tend to bounce back quickly. If another person gets sick, such as one of my kids for example. I have found Chia's "Taoist Cosmic Healing" book to be very effective. Its all about projecting your chi into others for healing purposes. I have had rather remarkable results on my kids and others with this technique. I'd recommend anyone interested in healing others check it out.

I've found that in the short term (like I got to deal with this right now) the Big Draw if done right is very effective in helping with this.

You asked the question that has pretty much been the major problem I have been seeking a solution for ever since the beginning of my pracitce. After having asked this sort of question for a few years now, and also after having really not recieved any good answer I have been trying to figure it out on my own. I'm not sure if you read my musings on the Middle Dan Tien thread but I feel like my experimentation has been leading me to get the results I want in that direction (the results I want are the same as you seemed to indicate). After much trial and error, experimentation, and meditation I seem to so far have made the most progress in this area while working on the Middle Dan Tien area (including the organs that fall with in its area, heart, lungs, ect.) I theorize that if a man's middle dan tien is blocked then it might increase the pressure seeking to escape through his more opened lower areas. Additionally one of the major problem areas of the heart meridian is over excitement. Over excitement would definately describe my reaction to seeing a good looking woman. I also think that sometimes we guys seek women/sex as a way to boost our morale when it is low. The lungs are also in the middle dan tien area and their main problem emotion is sadness. So if we are feeling lonely, bored, dull, (all the various flavors of sad) then I think our lung meridian causes us to feel in such a way that we want to reduce those feelings (fire "the heart" melts metal "lungs" = excitement reduces the blahs). The middle dan tien / heart center is the part of us that desires to connect with others on an emotional level. The sexual organs (in the lower dan tien area) also want to "connect" but in an obviously different way (not good nor bad just different). So lets take person X with a closed middle dan tien relative to his lower dan tien. Person Y has a more open middle dan tien relative to thier lower. It is reasonable to assume that person X is going to be attracted to others sexaully faster (energy follows the path of least resistance) and person Y is going to be more likely attracted to others emotionally sooner. Most often person X is how men are wired and person Y is how women tend to be wired. So all of that is to basically say that I think that if we work on removing blockages from our middle dan tien area our energy will then have more than one gate through which to easily exit. The method which I have been using to accomplish this is a combination of heart and lung healing sounds and inner smile, as well as breathing into the middle dan tien much like we do with our lower dan tien. This has so far been seeming to move me in the direction I want to be going in. Hope this helps, and any other insights would be appreciated.