Maddie

My grandfater was a WWII vet, infantry on the front lines, tones of medals including a bronze star for valor in cambat, he was in Normandy, across France, Hurtigen forest, Battle of the Bulge, across Germany, ect... So what was he like? He was one of the meanest sons of a bitches I've ever known. He was a chain smoking alcoholic, bigoted racist, hated everyone thing and everyone. My father said when he was a boy, my grandfater would come home super late every night drunk as a skunk and beat the crap out of him for no reason at all. Of course this screwed up my father, who is a total arse, and then my father abused me when I was little, which is a lot of the reason I got into Qigong in the first place, in order to heal that damage which really is just second hand abuse from my messed up Grandfathter. Of course I loved listening to my grandfater tell war stories when I was little, as almost every boy does, and I'm sure its why my focus during University in histroy was upon WWII, but our family line sure suffered because of it. After my parents got divorced, my mom went out a couple times with this ex speical forces guy who was in Vietnam. One time they were at a picnic and a helecoptor flew over and he dove under the table and low crawled across the ground. He could not sleep laying down, or with his feet covered because in the jungle he always had to sleep propped up against a tree because the VC were in the area. When I was in the Army I was deployed to Bosnia right after their civil war ended with IFOR in 1996. Granted Bosnia for the US Military was realtively tame on the war scale. Yet there were land mines everywhere, you always had to be aware of where you went so you didn't go boom. A few guys got killed by mines. A couple times we were put on alert at our base because of possible terroist attack, and your thinking "oh crap I might have to shoot someone in a second, or be shot at". So when I got back to Germany where we were stationed it took me a while to be able to walk on grass and leave the sidewalk due to paranoia of mines. I would also wake up in the middle of the night groping for my weapon (which we did not keep by us in Germany) because I'd have a dream that a Bosnian militia group was over running our permemter. Now keep in mind Bosnia was a very tame experience and it still had a small effect on me for a little while. I can only imagine what a real war would do to someone.

I've noticed an interesting sensation... For a little over a week now I have been doing sitting meditation in the lotus and half lotus, getting good results, but I have noticed something... All my life I have had somewhat of a duck walk with my feet going out to the sides. Now sitting in either the lotus or half lotus position (being generally uncomfortable as it is anyhow) seems to be the most uncomfortable for me in my hip ball and socket joint, especially on the top part of it. When I get out of the sitting position its very sore and stiff and I sort of hobble around like a grandpa for a while, but I also notice that my feet are starting to walk more straight due to it and less of a duck walk. Since my main motivation for doing the lotus position was to over come lustfull thoughts and compulsions, and since I believe a lot of these come from sacral chakra blockages, and since I think that the hips are related to the sacral chakra, I'm pondering if perhaps all this might be somehow connected.... Does a sacral charka balance result not only in the lustfull thoughts and feelings, but the duck walk and the stiff hip joint? I have always had a problem in Karate making my side kick high. I can kick high with other kicks, but I always get in trouble with side kicks, because I might intend to aim for the abdomen in sparring, but usually end up nailing my oppenent in the nuts unfortunately :-(. So anyways not to get off topic, but just wondering how much or not this might be interconnected?

I know this was not the point of your post, but what exactely does the middle dan tien do? As I am aware the lower stores energy, and the upper is related to consciouncess, thought and perception. I just heard vaguely once that the middle dan tien has something to do with emotions, and I've also heart it compared to the heart chakra, but in reality I don't know what it does?

Isn't passitivity / assertiveness and decision making and planning the domain of the Liver? If so, I would suppose that troubles with these issues might be aided by working with the Liver and its meridian.

http://www.meditationexpert.com/yoga-kung-fu/y_microcosmic_circulations_and_playing_with_your_qi.htm I have been reading a lot from this website lately (MeditationExpert.com) and its been really interesting, I think he is a Zen guy. Just a couple things he has said have confused me though. He sort of poo poos the MCO in this article saying that it will happen automatically on its own if you practice emptiness meditation, and does not recommend trying to do it. He also said that Taoism is lower level cultivation. Of course I read master Alex Anatoles book "The Truth of Tao" (tao.org) and he sort of poo poos Buddhism for this and that reason. Interestingly enough, master Anatole does not seem to do the MCO either, but emptiness meditation instead. hmmmmm. Any thoughts?

Oh a couple other things I forgot to mention. I've also been attempting the MCO but can't seem to get the chi to rise past the sacrum??? Also the full lotus is great for reducing desire as you stated, but does it also make .. er. "mr. happy" smaller?

Hey Drew I've been loving your advice, and am grateful for it. I got a couple other questions. Is half lotus still beneficial even if less so? because I can do that quite a bit longer than a full lotus. Also what about standing meditation? Can that do the same thing, or is it different? I had tried doing it for a few months because I heard all the ranting and raving about it, but I don't know, maybe I was doing something wrong, but I found that when I got up to about 15 min of standing in the "hold the ball" position that afterwards I would be more emotionally agitated, irritable, ect.. Not sure why, but I stopped it because of that. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on that, as well as in regard to half lotus. Thanks

Which is what I was pondering in our national karmaic debt? I wonder how this will play out for the United States when this karma bill comes in the mail.

Yes true, I am aware that the Soviet Union also participated in the invasion of Poland, and that Nazi German had supporters in the West such as Henry Ford, and Limburg for example, but my main point was about the karma of nations due to their actions, which is why I was stating broad facts supporting the point of that topic ;-)

Also its not just the spleen organ, but the Spleen meridian as well ;-)

I'd also suggest martial arts at the same time as meditation. I suppose that is why Taoist and Shaolin monks do both, maybe to balance eachother? I've also noticed that if I do lots of meditation alone it makes me somewhat of a marshmellow, and if I do a lot of martial arts alone it makes me somewhat of a testosterone poisioned arse. If I do both at the same time it helps keep me in the "middle way" ;-)

How about a new spin on this topic? I have been pondering the karma effects of our wars since World War II. The reason I say since World War II is because that one was pretty cut and dry. We were attacked, Hitler was evil, (probably the reason my focus while majoring in history was on World War II). But what about the karma the United States has earned since that time? Germany invaded Poland and a bunch of other nations, got some really bad karma, and was just about destroyed. Ok so we invaded Iraq, Afganistan. Not saying we are Nazi Germany but and unprovoked invasion is an unprovoked invasion, karma is karma. In World War II we fought the bad guys; now I hope we are not becoming the bad guy/ getting bad karma ect.. I'm not implying that pacifism is of the Tao, look at Sun Tzu and the art of war, or that the military is not of the Tao either, for Taoism has a god of war. For me war and the military is not the point, for me the concern is karma, and specifically that as a nation the US is accumilating bad karma by its military actions.

As a recent University graduate who majored in history, with an emphasis on World War II and military history, I'd like to clarify a point. The United States has always had a standing army. Prior to World War II it was usually a very small one composed of a cadre of professional soldiers. During times of war the militia was called up to greatly augment the regular army, and then after the war was over the militia went back to the farms. Then came WWII, and the United States got caught with its pants down. Our standing military was so small that it took a couple years before it was large enough to really go on the offensive (that is why WWII started for America in 1941, but we did not land in Normandy until 1944). Then after the war was over Truman and Stalin couldn't play nice with eachother so the Cold War began, thus keeping the military at a realtively large state for such a long time that now it has become part of the establishment and the idea of not having a large standing military is just too much of a paridim shift for most people to accept (I think Rush Limbaugh would have a stroke at such a suggestion.... hell lets suggest it then ha ha) so yea there ya go.

Is that what holding the ball at the chest level is supposed to be doing? working on the middle dan tien? and is that the problem I was having a blockage in the middle dan tien? What exactely does the middle dan tien do anyways? what are the symptoms of a blockage?

I have five kids, and I use Qigong healing on them all the time. I've used qigong healing for all sorts of ailments, nausea, constipation, diarrhea, colds, coughs, fevers, headache, pains and aches, infections, sore throats, ect... I mainly use the colors of chi described in Mantak Chia's Taoist Cosmic Healing book (one of the first Qigong books I got). In order for me to not get too depleted I usually draw chi in through my feet and project it out from my palms. Sometimes the results are amazing, they come to me sick and after a 15-20 min session the symptoms are gone. It keeps them out of the doctor and saves me a lot of money. My most interesting example is that my first four children had to be under biliruben lights for a week after they were first born because my wife and my blood types are different, so the babies had bad jandice. By the time the fifth one was born I had already begun Qigong. Since jandice is a liver issue, I flushed my babies liver with chi, and she was the only one of our children that did not get bad jandice and have to be under the lights. Every now and then I try to get the kids to do the 8 brocades with me, but since they almost always groan that does not happen too often. But yea qigong healing is great if your a parent, I love it!!!!

Thanks for the tip. I stood in the holding the ball position, and lowered my elbows to the diaphram area as you said and noticed that it loosend up my breathing significantly. Yes previously breathing in that stance was quite stiff and labored, lowering the elbows makes a lot of difference. Thank you :-)

One thing I've noticed is that every time I get up to 15 min of ZZ (holding the ball) my emotional state tends to become problematic. Anyone know why this might be?

One experience I have not shared too often for obvious reasons ..... Back when I was in the Army my buddy and me on our free time would slam an entire bottle of Robituson DM and then proceed to astrally travel together. I only did this a couple of times, and it was impossible for me to do this with out a large does of Robituson. I know we were both truely out of body because we could see and communicate with eachother and then once we were back in body we would both confirm what we said to eachother and saw, and once my buddy kicked the door open while out of body (needless to say it was rather unusual). My buddy said the Dexramenthophine in the Robituson is what indused the out of body state, but I have no idea. But it did significantly change my outlook on things for sure.

What I do is just transmit the chi energy out of my third eye instead of storing up the chi energy in my lower tan tien -- this is easier because my parents, in their 70s, need the chi energy. Drew Thanks again for your very informative answer, I learned a lot from it. So what is it that you perfer to transmit energy out of your thrid eye? to help your parents, or do you not want too much energy in your lower dan tien for some reason?

Ok to answer your origianal question without philisphical commentary.... here is what you do ( I was in the Army, did basic blah blah blah) Push ups- if you can't do a real push up do girly push ups, if you can't do girly push ups, then bench press as much as you possibly can until you can do girly push ups, and then do as many girly pushups until you can do real push ups, then do as many of those as you can. Sit ups- if you can't do those do crunches, and leg lifts lying down. Running- slowly build up your distance, don't do too much too fast, and brisk paced walks are also good if you can't run very well. Healthy Diet- no junk food, ect... One last thing. I personally do martial arts, finding a good martial arts school might help as well because they work you out really good (just make sure the instructor looks like he/ she is in shape, no pot bellies) and you can make friends, and doing excersice in a group is easier than doing it alone. ;-) Hope that helps

Hey You have a good question, and I'm sure you will get a lot of answers, so here is mine lol. I am also a scorpio and have a hard time calming down, (mind always going). Before I began my current Qigong routine I dabbled with various styles to see which one tickled my fancy. Still meditation (sitting or standing) was hard because I had a hard time being still. Tai Chi was rather complex to learn, and part of my problem in the first place was a lack of patience required to learn it, plus you should learn from a teacher and I couldn't do that. Yoga was too still abd didn't have enough motion for me (though it is relaxing). So what I eventually made my regular practice was the 8 Brocades, which have helped me to be able to begin to do meditation. I like the brocades because you move, but the moves are simple to learn, you don't have to go to a class to learn it, its easy to memorize so you don't need a video or book for very long. Each movement is designed to work on a specific meridian, its good for your health and mind. So from one scorpion to another I'd recommend beginning with the 8 brocades or some other type of moving physical qigong. ;-)

Oh one other thing I forgot to mention in regards to what you talk about with pervs sucking off your energy. Well I don't know much about such things, but in regards to personal experience I have noticed this, that there are certain people that after I have been around them I have a much more difficult time with the bizzare sexual thoughts n such. Also sometimes I'm out in public and may be close to someone and just get a nasty dirty vibe from them in a sexaul manner even though we may have not said anything to eachother? Is that sort of what your talking about Drew?

Hey Drew Thanks for the info that you gave me about using the full lotus. It has been helping me quite a bit so far. I had a few more questions about something you mentioned about the converstion of sexual fluids to jing, to chi to shen, and going the opposite dirrection from shen, to chi, to jing, to fluids. You also mentioned (or something like this, I may have the exact details wrong) about heart chi turning into liver chi, to kidney chi, to fluids. This is something I'd really like to understand better. Here is what I've noticed from personal observation (but don't know what it all means yet) I've noticed that when I'm uber horny if I release usually there is a large amount of fluid. So then is it the sexual fluid that causes desire? What I don't understand is why the older I get the more bizzare my sexual thoughts become when I do get uber horny? Also I had been doing a lot of full lotus for a week and been feeling better and better, but then my wife wanted me to do my husbandly duty, so yesterday we got busy and all seemed fine. Now today the urges and bizzare thougths were back again and strong this morning. But I remembered your adivce and immediately got into full lotus for as long as a could bear, which helped a lot. So what happened? Did getting aroused with my wife cause more sexual fluids to be made? thus increasing desire? Is that why I had to get in to an emergency full lotus this morning? Did the full lotus convert my fluids into jing or chi or something which is why I feel better now? Also some clarification about the heart to liver to kidney to fluid thing you touched upon would be appreciated as well. Also you mentioned doing Tai Chi, could the 8 Brocades be used instead of Tai Chi? As the 8 brocades is what I'm most familiar with and tend to do daily anyhow. Thanks again

Drew Thank you very much for you detailed reply. I will begin to do the full lotus as much as I can. A question about possesion. Do you mean possesion as in a spirit posseses you, or possesion as in you are possessed by your own emotional energy? As to the standing moving aspect. I have already been doing the 8 brocades fairly reguarly, can I continue that in order to obtain the results that you recommended I could get from Tai Chi? Just asking because I am already very familiar with the Brocades. Thanks again

I was reading some of the replies and I have a question for Drew or anyone else who can really give me some good advice. I read where Drew was talking about Perverts, and converting jing to chi and / or chi to jing. He also mentioned that perverts had their electromagnetic essence stuck in their lower chakras. So here is my dilema / question... I really struggle a lot with unwanted sexually realated thoughts. As the thoughts first begin to arise I;ll try all sorts of things to quell them such as Qigong, meditation, homeopathy, flower essences, gemstones, ect... But eventually none of that stuff really has done any good for me so far. I usually don't get any peace from it until ejaculating, but of course the relief is only temporary. What really bothers me is that the thoughts that bother me are of very unusual fantasies which freak me out, but they are strong and consistent. I read that Drew said sitting in a full lotus was the answer, but one I can't really do that for more than a minute, and two what are you supposed to do in one, just breath, empty your mind? do the MCO? Is this a sacral chakra thing? a meridian blockage, or what? I would really appreciate some help here as this one topic has been a long time source of mental anguish for me.