Maddie

My experience meshes with this assertion. I have found that qigong helps maintain the more strenuous activities like kung fu training for longer periods of time. By longer I mean both in any given session, and also in terms of the number of consecutive days. The hard and the soft really do compliment each other. The hard kung fu training builds muscle tone and "energy strength" for lack of a better word. Perhaps jin is the term I am looking for?

I know that a lot of kung fu people do qigong as part of their training, but what I do not understand is how exactely the two are related. How does qigong benefit kung fu or other hard exercises?

When I first began qigong I had a somewhat similar sensation on the back of my neck at C-7 but not as severe as you describe. After doing MCO for a while it cleared up.

It seems like I have some sort of blockage in my neck, specifically like, at the base of my skull. Everytime I do exercise it feels like I can't do as much as I could because that area always feels tense, or like energy can't flow through it. I've been to a chiropractor and he hasn't been able to do anything. It feels like my tendons are not right, or are really tight around it. Not enough oxygen maybe flows through it and I'm always breathless and specifically in the upper extremes of my chest because of this. I am really tense in my shoulders as well and all the parts connecting to the area, ie from the base of my skull and back of it, down to my shoulders and upper chest and upper back.. so I always feel like I have to raise my arms and look up, because my flexibility is also really low there.

 

Is it a thyroid problem? I do take a lot of iodine.. though iodine does seem to activate it too.

From your description, off hand it sounds like a throat chakra blockage, based upon all the problem areas and symptoms you described. Do you also feel it difficult to express yourself, feel like your not listened to, ect??

What are the symptoms of having a heart center blockage? is that the same as your heart chakra, and/or middle dan tien? Reason I ask is because I was at my new job today, it was very quiet, nothing in particular going on, nothing bad, and I just started to feel extreme greif/sadness/dispair/hoplessnes, it was horrible, and I don't really know why? If I have been running my MCO more often could that have something to do with it? Could it be the sign of a blockage being cleared, or of just a blockage?

I guess the meat of the matter is what are some of the most effective ways to sublimate sexual energy into jing and jing into chi? I have so far heard of full lotus, MCO, testicle breathing, big draw, stillness, ect... What in those of you who do this expereince is/are the most effective ways of conversion?

Its interesting that I have gotten back several references to the Liver in regards to these problems. One thing I have noticed is that the last several times I have done my inner smile/healing sounds I have spent most of my time on the Liver cause I found so much junk in there. Two days ago I spent a significant amount of time on my Liver, and yesterday I was so exhausted and felt so crappy that I didn't really do anything at all. Just spent quite a bit of time again working on my liver. Hope I don't get exhausted again lol.

You're on the right track.. For me it took a divorce drama to get things really flowing. But fear not, trust in the Tao!

I'm not sure if you want to go into your personal life, but if you wouldn't mind, I'd be interested to hear how a divorce got things moving in that area of your life?

As a pre-teen (eight or nine, maybe?), I discovered I cannot sit in full-lotus because my left hip simply doesn't want to rotate into that position -- I learned this because I had an older step-sister who into mysticism and yoga and Buddhism and incense and Janis Joplin and psychodelics tarot and such, and she was convinced that my life would be horrid & empty if I didn't overcome my karma and acheive this position.

 

Throughout my life, I have found other occasions/motions where this physiological limitiation came into play -- such as a high sidekick with my right leg, for instance. Even sitting "Indian style" for more than a few minutes causes a sensation like a large needle being jabbed directly into my hip joint. I asked an accupuncturist about it once and was told, "Then just don't try to do it!"

 

That step-sister, who would sit in full-lotus for hours at a time as a teenager, is now in her mid-50s and, for the first time in four decades has been clean & sober and out of jail for nearly a year (she is suddenly a born-again Christian). I, on the other hand, have led a fairly kind & wholesome life (especially since my teen years!) rich with spiritual exploration and "soul-searching" but have just learned that I have overwhelmingly bad karma which, curiously, seems to be concentrated in my left hip joint.

 

Reality is a strange thing, no?

Hmmm that is interesting because it sounds similar to myself. Before I ever attempted full lotus I always had a very hard time with doing high side kicks in karate because of my hip joints. I read that the hips are realted to the root and sacral chakras and those chakras are realted to sexuality amongst other things. Sexuality has also been a problematic area in my life as well, so I've wondered what the connection was/is. I also have this feeling that my Karma sucks bad, and since most of my issues tend to be lower chakra issues, I guess my bad karama is mainly contained in that area of my body as well.

Also makes me ponder what a yoga instructor I was friends with said. She said that sometimes in class certain posses would relase energy blockages spontaniously and the student would have an emotional reaction.

Good emotional health is vital. This is of course connected to physical health, but if sexuality IN ANY WAY is a problem then you probably have emotional blockages. I guess I would suggest the Small Universe meditation, lotus sitting and loys of walking, along with any organ-healing techniques like the six healing sounds.

 

And be prepared to spend some time with it. It may take a few years to cool down excess desire.

Oh I have emotional blockages fo sho lol, which was the primary reason I got into qigong in the first place ... emotions / sexuality. So yea I agree with your assesment. Just seems like I am making progress, but it sure seems slow *sigh. Something you said made me ponder something. So lets say I have emotional blockage x,y, and z. If my chi level is relatively low then those blockages do not offer a whole lot of resitance and remain mild nucances. But when I retain for a week or two then blockage x,y, and z suddenly become X,Y,Z!!! Perhaps the increased energy from retaining for a while makes the blockages which already exist much more obvious and uncomfortable.

Just wondering if a blockage in the sacral chakra would casue one to be unduely focused on sex AND have a difficult time getting into full lotus as the sacral chakra is related to the hips?

Has anyone else has the experience that if they retain for a while, and the libido gets really high for a while, that not only the desire increases, but that sexual thoughts become more bizzare? and aggressive?

From time to time I've wondered how much outside spiritual influences make problems in my life, but for the most part I feel like overcoming myself is far more of a challenge than anything like demons are.

he said you could actually see them clear as day infront of your face when you become a certain level.

Well then I suppose being at a low level has its advantages sometimes lol

Hi i was speaking to my teacher about meditation and he was saying demons are very real things. he also said you can reach a point where your own personal demons will manifest and come out infront of you and hopefully by that time you will know what to do about them. i would like to ask can someone give me more information about this topic as im a little warry when i practice meditation now. im a bit on edge because of it. please answer asap

Well I'm not sure if he meant metaphorically or not, but I have noticed when I do the inner smile, I tend to dig up a bunch of gunk to deal with that I often did not even realize was there.

One question I have about meditation is how do moving Qigong exercises supliment or help one's meditative practice?

You are probably not cultivating enough or properly then? How long are you meditating in stillness per day?

 

Retention without adequate cultivation simply results in sexual frustration - as your prenatal jing is still being converted into postnatal jing (from arousing thoughts) - which then only wants to leak out in sexual fluid. The more you build up postnatal jing, the hornier you will become. Hence, you must disengage your mind and cleanse your heart of passion when you meditate - to prevent mental arousal (and the resultant sexual cascade) to begin with.

 

Yaaa, no one said this was easy...

(But, I am no teacher and this is simply my current understanding. Just throwing it out there - you still be your own judge.)

Well here is my daily routine more or less. 8 Brocades (20 min) Standing meditation (15 min) Inner smile (20 min) Stillness / Dan Tien breathing (15 min). So I'm not sure if I should be doing one of those more or less?

It seems like a catch 22 though. Its much easier to sit in stillness when I have not reatined too long, and then as time goes by its harder to do that.

Drew told me a good thing to do was sit in full lotus, but its hard for me to do that very long for now. So are you saying that just sitting in stillness meditation will do the trick as well?

Her is a version of standing meditation that specifically adresses prosperity:

 

 

http://umaatantra.com/tantra_articles/prosperity_tantra101104.html

 

 

 

 

I am looking forward to the day I can look up in in the oxford english dictionary and find uncrapify

 

 

 

I once saw a book called how to deal with difficult people. There is actually litterature on social and psychological strategies to handling all sorts of challenging social situations.

 

ONe way you can get your wife into spirituality or at least closer to what you are doing is to start having karezza or tantra sex with her. Once she experiences the more blissfull internal valey orgasms as oposed to the regular ones she will have had a taste of spiritual bliss and might be open to more. She will probably also start to feel your energy more.

 

reuniting.info has some interesting info about karezza

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back when I was meditating regularily I had a lot of bliss streaming out of my root chakra. I sort of figured that was were most or all the bliss came from.

 

As for mundane reality I am in a similar situation as you are. What I have found is taht learning to move from teh dan tien is absolute key. When movements are initiated from the periphery of your body you are more in your head and disconnected from your body and life. When you move from the dan tien your mind is quite stilled just by not having to be so concerned with moving your body as this becomes even more delegated to intuition. You will also be much more rooted and physicallised (maybe thats not a word either?).

 

I also experienced much more connection to daily life and materiality when I did standing meditation. The root chakra really does work like that. Get back into it somehow and keep on doing it. It will feel very good and is all round very good for any person I think to be connected to mundane reality in addtion to more spiritual realites. Bridging the gap would be the key task I suppose.

 

 

You could also check out the Maori warrior dance "the Haka". It only takes a minute or two and is very grounding and makes you ready for fighting and winning.

 

Are there any fields of work you can get into that would both interest you AND make you good money?

Wow I loved that link. I have just recently restarted standing meditation with the root visualization . Just had an intuitive feeling lol. I really liked that article. It seems there are too many really spiritually brilliant people who are worthless in the real world. These same people tend to think something is wrong with the lower body, yet it is a part of us, a part of life, we need ALL of ourselves.

As far as my wife goes yea she loves the actually bedroom practices due to the long lasting amount of fun she gets to have, but she does not seem to put 2 and 2 together to get 4. I think the main problem is her fundamentalist christian background. She might be ok for a while and then someone will come along and tell her that what I do is satanic and then shes off.

As far as fields of work, yes, I want to become a Naturopath/TCM practitioner, and plant on going to school for that soon, as I just recently finished my Bachelors degree.

In short, to truly quench your sexual desire - you must fill your jing up. Because ironically, the more jing you have, the less you desire sex (apparently).

 

To fill your jing up, you must be still & conserve it. And then practice this for a long time until it's full.

 

But it is simply not something that you accomplish immediately with some mind-driven "pop Tao" technique.

About that last statement....??? The longer I retain, I assume the more Jing I have, due to the fact that I'm not using it up to make more sexual fliuds, yet the longer I retain the stronger my drive becomes.

Sorry if this question has been asked before on the forum... I'm almost certain it has, but I searched for "third eye" and for "third" and it gave no results, so maybe the search is wack atm?

 

On two occasions recently, when meditating, I've been struck by an intense tingling between my eyebrows. I wasn't focusing on that area before I felt it - I was just doing noting. Usually I can feel some tingling there if I point my finger at it, or focus on the area a bit, but this was a much more intense feeling. After a little time of feeling the sensation it also felt like my head was really stiff. My questions are:

 

* Did this have something to do w/ the third eye? Something w/ the third eye "awakening"?

* What does it mean to have your third eye awaken? What happens as a result? A link to more detailed posts about it would be great too since I'm sure there's something about it.. just not sure what info is good and what isn't.

Yea I know this search engine does not work well. What I usual do is go to Google and just type in "tao bums...." and then what I want to look for. I usually get good results that way. Google the latest threat on "Third Eye" and there is all sorts of interesting stuff about that there.

As to your questions.

It did have something to do with the third eye, but not about it awakening, just there was more chi there than usual. I have this happen to me frequently sometimes when I try to and other times when I don't, such as doing the MCO.

As to your second question read the thread I mentioned. Drew Hempel seems to know quite a bit about this topic so see what he says about it.

If something is not working, read the instructions again.

Also, I found that studying the description of the practice repeatedly, after longer periods of practice, it's also very helpful.

Integrate the practice with the rest of the system, if you want it to work.

Also, you might want to read the Mantak Chia article, from the article section.

Yea I do go back to the book often to make sure I'm not missing something, but perhaps it just takes more practice. I do also use the rest of the practices as well, including inner smile, healing sounds, MCO, 8 Brocades ect.. I have found the full lotus to be very effective as well, but I have a hard time doing it for enough time. I

I also read the past threads about Mantak Chia's system. You seem to know a lot about his practices. Can you go into more detail about what Testicle breathing does? Does it convert sexual fluid to jing, jing to chi? What has been your experience? I noticed the Big Draw is effective for me for a while, but after about 2 weeks, its simply not enough and I have to relase. Are you theoretically supposed to be able to retain/convert indefinately?

I'm looking to hook myself up with tea, I'm a newbie to teas though. What I would like are suggestions or mixes of different teas that go well togther that I could try.

Thus far I know that I like Chamoile, Oolong, Green, Licorice.. Maybe a few others but I don't currently recall. Otherwise I was also curious about teas that "are good for chi" if that makes any sense at all. I suppose any tea would be healthy unless it was poisonus or taken in huge, huge doses.

I use tea a lot to accomplish various goals. Chamomile is good to relax ye, and for settling the heart meridian when over stimulated, and strengthening the stomach meridian as well. Green as lots of antioxidants, and cancer prevention properties, Licorice is good for the kidney yin, and adrenal glands. I like Ginger tea for the digestive system, dandilion/milk thistle tea to clean and strengthen the liver, echinesea tea for the immune system, nettle tea to cleans the kidneys and for hayfever symptoms, kava tea to destress, and the list goes on and on. What are you goals, or do you simply want a nice tasting cup of tea to enjoy?

Lets talk about the healing sounds a bit, I've seen a few variations so I wonder if the healing sounds can be subsituted for other sounds or whatnot.

 

Anyhow this is what i've found:

 

Fear is stored in the lungs. The lung sound transforms fear into courage -Lung sound: Place your tongue behind your closed teeth and, with a long slow exhalation, made the lung sound "SSSSSSSSSSSS" (like the sound of steam from a radiator). (White light)

 

The kidneys sound transform the emotional energy inside the kidneys into gentleness and generosity.

Kidney sound: Form an "O" with your lips as if preparing to blow out a candle. With a long, slow exhalation produce the sound "WOOOOOOOO." (blue light)

 

The liver sound transforms the emotional energy inside the liver into kindness -Liver sound: Place the tongue near the palate and, with a long, slow exhalation produce the sound "SHHHHHHHHHH." (Green light)

 

Heart sound: With the mouth wide open, exhale a deep breath slowly and produce the sound "HAWWWWWWWW."(Red light)

 

Spleen sound: While moving the hands under the ribs, place the tongue near the palate, and with a long, slow exhalation, produce the sound "WHOOOOOOOO" from the throat, like the sound of an owl.(Yellow)

 

Is this information correct?

That pretty close to what Mantak Chia teaches except the lungs store sorrow rather than fear (think of being deflated). Fear is what the kidnyes store (just think of you get scared so bad you pee your pants lol), and you got the sounds right, just the one I learned from Chia for the kidneys is chooooooo but most of it is still the ooo sound. But yea and you got the colors right as well. Out of all the pratices I know of, for me this is by far one of the most effective of getting rid of unwanted emotions.

neg. / pos.

Kidney : fear / gentelness, will power, wisdom

Lung: sorrow, grief / courage, righteousness

Liver: anger / kindness, decisivness

Heart: love, happines / hate, cruelty, over-excitement

Spleen: worry / trust, openess, comfort

Yup, "root" chakra is def linked to mundane and physical realities. But don't get confused between the latter and "metaphysical realities." Therein lie so many pitfalls.

 

"Money", for example, is a "metaphysical" reality (to the extent that we attempt to share/impose its meaning as "wealth" or "value" by attributing such to it, even when it seems to cause us the reverse).

 

While it often can be used as a "currency of exchange" for physical material benefits, it is NOT them, i.e you couldn't physically eat a dollar, nor can you pay someone to love you. Do you see what I mean?

 

A neat book on chakra correspondences is by Anodea Judith. I can't attest to the full "traditional" equivalence of her stuff, but IMO very much worth looking into.

LOL I have her book, but I found your reference to money as metaphysical quite interesting, I shall ponder that.

Holding the ball works on the whole energy system. Most of us have problems passing qi through the middle dantien. I'm not qualified to give you a proper answer to your request on the subject. There is an interesting article related to MD and MCO written by skilled taobum posters at:

 

http://www.precisiondocs.com/~altaoism/index.htm

Holding the ball a little lower and smaller has helped a lot with my breathing. Does anyone else get really hot from doing ZZ? Like even when they are just in wuji posture?