Kali Yuga

The identity is a burden. It is a mental construct. As the fate of all mental constructs, they are born only when one learns to use the tools that are words. And they if you do not willingly give them up, are stripped of you when you die. Suffering comes when one mistakes words and images for reality. and the indentity is nothing more than that - an image. As you come into this world, born beautiful and bright, there is no words; no identity, only you as what you really are - indescribable pure consciousness without differentiation. Only when you acquire the "learned self" that is a result of society's pressure upon you do you actually want or feel the need for an identity. An identity is a construct of the ego; it is nothing more than clinging to an image that fades in the wind. Identities of even famous celebrities, pop-stars etc are nothing more than images construed upon them that they live up to. It's all fake; no one really has any true identity because an identity implies a separation from one person and another;a division behind what has always been limitless. An identity has uses, but it is infinitely clumsy compared to a no-identity. He who has an identity feels shame, remorse, guilt, envy, and all the negative emotions because of the clinging to the imaginary false self. He who ascribes to no identity, however is free. He does not feel lack, or envy or anger at other slighting him, because he does not defend a ghost of his imagination. Just as the strong wind breaks the strong rigid tree; so does tribulation break one who has a sole identity. But the non identity does not break in the gale; it has no form and thus cannot be broken. An identity that you own, ends up owning YOU.

Back to topic. I was just wondering as I had engaged in sexual activity about an hour after practice. I've been doing ywang jing ming's "embryonic breathing" practice for months, basically doing reverse breathing while sitting and focusing on dantien, I could always get the chi to get very hot rather quickly. I'm still pooling all the chi at dantien and building myself a nice strong dantien before proceeding with anything else. After the "dirty deed" so to speak I've had my dantien hurting for the past two days now, and it seems like i'm getting the same heat sensations from dantien, at the soles of my feet. which has me worried as it seems to be chi pooling down from there. i'm trying to build my chi at dantien, and don't want it spilling down my other channels at the moment. so i thought it must've been the sex, and since it occurred so soon after training, that maybe something was happening to my dantien. not so sure what to make of it, just am afraid it would affect my progress in my practice. maybe you guys know more about it than I do.

I love the webpage design of your dao de wuliupai school. seems like it isn't so bad a school, and from the looks of it most of things there are behind-door kinda stuff. problem is the only western school seems to be in russia. LOL

There is no secret technique - no special practice. The technique is as effective as you make it. If you cannot get to that space then learn as a baby does. A baby does not read a book or surf the internet looking for a special hidden system selling the 5 hidden secrets and 7 special practices to make him walk. He does not intellectualize. He just learns how to walk. Learning to cultivate dantien is like the bird learning how to fly. Before you don't know how to do it - and then you simply do know. and there is no explaining it, you just can do it. You want the big secret? The special secret and technique lie within you.

Just because I do not reply within 24 hours means I'm trying to sell something? There are more important things than sitting in front a computer all day long. You see the technique itself has very little to do with it. The technique does not guarantee you anything. I have seen many people try to do it for years but never have any success. It is the person's ability to reach the state required. People can talk all day long, ask specifics about it, but if you can't do it, then you can't do it. It is not the technique that will make you succeed. This is not the 5 minute fix. There is no magic pill. I am even hesitant to post this because I'm not sure this even helps you develop along the path. I mean, everything is a personal effort and if someone comes along and shows you all the mechanics for nothing, it does not improve your standing as a seeker. A true seeker puts in practice and effort and experiments with his practice. Those who just sit around waiting for everything else to fall into their lap, not putting in effort, are less worthy. You see I am saying nothing that has not been said already. Focus on the dantien. Breathe there. Sit in at least half lotus. Full lotus is better. Your breath must be deep enough to reach dantien. Inbreath=focus on dantien. Outbreath=focus on dantien. Attention must not wander. You must lose awareness of everything else, even the darkness behind your eyelids. Its very easy to cultivate dantien. Its very hard to get to that form of consciousness with a mind that does not know silence. It is so simple that it defies intellect. Intellectuals tend to have a very hard time with this practice.

Technically you don't have a dantien until you make it. There is a certain level of consciousness associated with the technique of filling dantien with energy in sitting meditation, and unless you can get and stay there, you cannot fill dantien. The technique is so incredibly simple it eludes most people's understanding of it. If you know how to do the technique you can get very strong energy there very quickly I'm talking maybe 20 minutes. I'm not talking about your run-of-the-mill "oh i think maybe I can feel it" sort of thing but a "god it's so strong I can't deny it's there" sort of thing. The thing is that people just don't know how to let go of everything else and focus to what's on hand to actually do this. After awhile of cultivating dantien you feel sort of "pregnant". It's like your carrying around a baby and you can feel it there all the time. The energy is connected with your breath. everytime you breathe you will also feel a change in the energy.

It's a waste of time talking to this hack. This is why I never posted on bodyoflight's convo's either. It would be a better use of time to practice rather than waste your time trying to convince clearly prejudiced people that their shortsighted and ignorant view is in fact short sighted and ignorant. the way of the sage is to let the fool persist in his foolishness. remote viewing just to see people taking a dump? that is about the dumbest thing I've heard in a long time. you might as well watch porn and get enlightened. The power of indonesian masters is limited. John Chang is the single most responsible person for the reputation of Indonesia as having chi power. But his practice (by the way, which is chinese in origin) is far above your puny little tenaga dalam tricks. Whenever since has spirituality been a comparing of dick size? You fail.

Jerry Alan Johnson is pure GOLD. all of his stuff is jam packed with good info. can't wait for his next book on wai gong/nei gong.

Do what is natural for you. love without service is some crappy love. service without love is some crappy service.. take on only that which your heart feels it should handle.

You may think you have the answer; problem is what is the question? and more importantly, who is the one asking it?

When I did some dantien work + celibacy for about a week or so I hardly had any allergies whatsoever. Plus i got my morning wood back too, which was cool. turns out i was just too sexually active to even get morning wood, haha.

[yoda] define neigong before ask questions, you must. [/yoda]

Wow, Verdesi's reputation has really hit the dumps.

Getting trapped in the realm of words only leads one to more suffering.

Some heated discussion here, I will stay out of that. I would just like to comment. In life things are not just a slide on a scale. It is not necessarily all about hard work, or about laziness, because it is also about skillful means. Intelligence is what separates man from animal, which is why we can get so much done with so little. However, what makes intelligence matter is something I call cunning. Cunning is the artful, skillful application of that intelligence to achieve one's means. If you have no cunning, then obviously you are not getting the things and places in life that you desire. Cunning is like that critical strike, the effortless movement that produces all results. Cunning almost always beats hard work results wise. But not all the time. However, hard work develops character that cunning does not. With hard work comes discipline, however results with this way of doing things will pay off only in the long term. Look at buff people in the gym. They didn't get it all in just a week. With cunning comes speedy results, however the downfall of cunning is that those who possess it tend to be rather lazy because they don't need to work very hard to get what they want. The virtuous man is possessed of both of these qualities and not just one. He works both hard and smart. If one is cunning, he need not necessarily work very hard. Because with cunning comes the ability to make that clean killing strike that gets you what you want, when you want it. If you have no cunning then you have to work hard. It's obviously something very nice to have, but there are some things that can't be pushed in life. Nobody becomes an Arnold Schwarzenegger or a Qigong Master in a day. The greatest lessons are usually taught in the simplest of stories. Ever remember the Tortoise and the Hare? Obviously, the tortoise won because the rabbit was lazy. But in real life you want beneficial characteristics of both of these. You want to work hard, but you also want to be able to get things done quickly, with minimum effort. In this way, you can do it all and have it all in life: move mountains, make money, but still have all the time you want for spending time with the kids, and making love to your wife. You know, the finer things of life.

The absolutely best way to strengthen the solar plexus chakra is in fact not through energy practice. Energy practice only balances things for a while and builds upon the foundation you already have. The true method of obtaining strong solar plexus (and a stronger heart chakra by virtue of their immediate connection) is by shedding weak limiting beliefs and acquiring more faith in one's self, by the choice to own up to one's own self. It is self-responsibility. It is the transition from fear (the feelings associated with a sour solar plexus/heart connection) to the complete self love, self belief and reliance that is not dependent on externalized phenomena. No matter how much energy work you do if you have the same self-limiting beliefs etc. "people don't like me, I'm not good enough", it completely tears down any energy work you've done. It unbalances your chakra. The first and foremost method of keeping clean and nice healthy chakras is to think and feel the thoughts and emotions of a healthy human being. One has to understand that no matter how much qigong one does, the choices one makes, emotionally & mentally, are the activities who have the most impact on how energy flows. You could have very strong energy flow ,but if you can't handle yourself properly, you're just going to really stink up the whole room for yourself, and everyone else inside it. You'll be like a walking energy landfill. Living with a clean heart and clean mind is the most hardcore qigong because you never quit at it, it goes on 24/7. Lets look at severe depression. At its height its feel like a heavy black void in the stomach. Thats because one who has severe depression also has a filthy solar plexus due to the fact that that person has chosen to live and feel that certain way. Energy work is directly related to the emotional system. You cannot progress in energy if you do not progress emotionally.

Your words have spirit, I give you that. However one could only ponder how this is to be applied in real life. If a general religious mindset is problematic, then is it a virtuous practice to ignore it? If it creates dysfunction within society, is functionality observed by ignoring it? What do you do when society ostracizes you for being who you are? Evidently, the Sage hasn't lived in bible belt rural America. Obviously one should have no care as to what the next person thinks. However in my experience many good friendships I have had in life have been broken because of the other person thinking that his/her religious thinking was "superior" than my own and that I needed to be changed or saved. You see by virtue of their faith they believe they have the right to judge other people. If it were that simple that we could all get along. But the problem with many people of a religious mindset is that really their mindset is not conducive for a harmonious society. Really, the judeo-abrahamic traditions are the ones who really culprit, who have the view of total exclusivity. In traditional Islamic law, muslim women are not permitted to marry non muslims, however the muslim men can marry non muslim women. Where is the fair in that? It is not uncommon for christian men in my region of the world to be kidnapped and killed for fooling around with muslim women, hence the notariety of the muslim people here in Mindanao. You see, things are a bit more complicated than just "let them be", because only after everyone reaches that standard of openness and universal equality, can everyone get along despite having different beliefs. This is why mystics of all traditions have been more or less persecuted because they ride reality as it is and not how it is written in books or talked about. Sufis were declared heretics by traditional Islam for quite a long time before they gained acceptance. They believed that one could break the barrier between creation and creator. Which pissed off a lot of people because it did not adhere to the dogma. Mystics have the ability see through to the heart of things, and get their learning straight from the horses mouth. Hence why people can't tell them how to think, because they've been to places of spirit where most others refuse to go. There is a reason why everyone is religious but so few people are truly spiritual.

I didn't read everything that the others said, but let me take a crack at it. "Literal" time in itself exists only because we believe it exists. The concept of time exists for practical reasons, but in essence it does not exist. The essence of the Tao is that it is in perpetual transition. Time does not exist because the very second we talk about something, that thing has changed already! The illusion of things are that even as something seems solid, it is in fact not solid. Particle physics talks about this constantly, that at a molecular level, even the densest material, is not immobile but rather active and moving at incredible speed. With meditation (especially vipassana), one begins to feel the subtle nuances in one's body that hint at the fact that you and everything in your body, are in fact not material, but vibrational. I suggest that you all might want to listen to Shinzen Young's "Science of Enlightenment' series, last disc. He has ideas about science and meditation that are so mind blowing that they threaten the very fabric and foundations of modern science. He has good practice material too.

If you need a religion then obviously you are a sheep because you need to be told what to believe in by other people in order to believe it. The highest spiritual adepts are in fact not religious people. Rather they are highly spiritual. If you cannot tell the difference then I will not bother to explain because you cannot separate a consensus reality from individual reality. The highest attained people are not in fact those who follow religion because from the point of view of religion every single one of them is a complete heretic. If Jesus came back right now they'd probably nail him back where he belongs for being an Antichrist. If Jesus came back do you think he would be a christian? Jesus didn't give a shit and pissed of all the "highly religious" people of his time. Now, just who are the equivalent of the pharisees in our time? with all their grand displays, admonishments on how they think you should live your life and professing to be men who have the right to tell you just what God thinks? The Church. When you are starting off with the path, you find a religion. When your religion does not satisfy what you are looking for, you find your master. When you surpass your own master, the crucial point is that you forget what he taught you and find it all out for yourself. You must take your own path into your hands if you want to know the truth. Let me ask you did someone TELL the Buddha to sit under his tree? Was it part of some SECRET TANTRIC PRACTICE where he was required to take vows in some monastery and stay there 40 years in order to learn it?!? The truth is that it is the heretics who are the basis for religion. They are the highest because they dared to go farther where no one else could take them. They are the supreme rule breakers. Then everyone else just tries to follow them and but they never get anywhere near him. Then they make some twisted dogma that everyone else just follows, and then a millenium or two later people everywhere are giving each other massive guilt trips over enjoying sex. and raping little kids because somehow, priesthood and pussy don't mix. let me leave with this. Only true eagles fly, and everyone else is just a chicken.

All this sex yoga stuff and "retention practices" is over rated and just plainly ill-suited for a lot of people. I've seen more threads than I care to count all about how all of them screwed themselves up ala mantak chia style. It usually causes more problems than it solves, and if you do proper sublimination meditation practices, you will not feel the need to be a horny jackdog in the first place, resulting in the retention and extra physical and mental energy that you were looking for in the first place. The "retention" part and the struggle with retention, in my experience, is a shallow and mechanical method to try to solve something that has a much deeper cause. It just won't work. If you change that deeper part of your being then what you were trying to accomplish automatically takes care of itself. If you look at the work "retention", it means to retain. To retain is much like building a dam. If you build a dam, and the natural flow of water is very strong (which raw sexual energy tends to be like anyway), your dam is going to break, which equals your genitals getting screwed up. The key concept there is resistance, resistance against natural flow. You are resisting the natural flow of things, and if you look at it resisting nature is pretty much against the Tao. Let's say you have a container. If you have an inflow into this container, but no out flow, its means that it will overflow and escape eventually, no matter how large the container might be. But let's say you have an outflow, or a practice that takes that raw energy out its place and uses it to make something else. You can more or less then maintain your container without problems, and the end result is that now you have something special in your hands as well. In short, if the flow of energy itself changes of its own accord, then your problem has taken care of itself. Hence, proper meditation.

In short, if you are looking for purpose, then you are missing the point. If you don't get it, then more talking will not solve your problem. Language is the ultimate barrier to finding what you are looking for. Ponder on that.

Wrong. wrong. wrong. Meditation on dantien is THE building block for anything that you will be attempting to do, and yes things do happen as you continue the meditation. Stop thinking about where, how, why etc. The point here is to not find dantien, but to have dantien find you. When you have energy there, you will know it beyond all doubt. As your energy builds within dantien, you will be able to feel something very, very, special there. Something overt, and not something you have to look around for. It will increase in intensity to the point where even when you don't meditate you still feel it. I won't tell you what it feels like. Best to find out yourself. Really, the trick is to learn to love your meditation, and to not expect results. when you find yourself always looking forward to spending more time harnessing dantien, that is the time when you will start to notice things. Tip: when you do the meditation, make sure you breathe deeply, and properly. if your breath does not "touch" dantien, then do not expect to accumulate energy.

You've almost got it. But you need a synchronized set of certain body movements while holding that breath. Dantien compression is incredibly hard, and is not for your average bear. Most people will not be willing to undergo the effort that it entails, which is why unless you can be intensely dedicated for years on end, you can't expect to get anywhere with it. better go do tai-chi or some other stuff, it will be much more fun.

These really are the problems in our modern society. Men, who were never taught what it means to be a real man by those who should be manliest, their fathers, live life around in a blurry haze, never being able to stand up to circumstances in life, demanding and taking that which is his. This takes life defining experiences - experiences that are lost to our culture. In our society we have lost what was most common in tribal societies. We no longer have the rituals of initiation into manhood. We no longer go through arduous ideals in order to realize that strength that sleeps inside of us, that it has to awaken before one can become truly a man. instead we all are hypnotized by advertising, TV, movies, radio, Hilfiger among other things. To have true self value one has to look like an athlete, one has to have Nike shoes, one has to be all this bullshit that other people say you have to be. The basis of achievement in our modern culture is that you make money - which reflects a very materialistic and ultimately very puerile ideal system. In classical Spartan society one before becoming a real, true man, one would have to survive out in the wilderness with literally nothing except the clothes on one's back. Think of the incredible strength one has to summon up in order to live in that manner, and what it would prove to one's self regarding his own inner power. Now we don't prove anything to ourselves anymore. Compare this with our addiction today to McDonald's and World of Warcraft. We live in a culture of junk food, self ambiguity, and internet porn. before we had people like Benjamin Franklin. Now we have Kanye West and Lady Gaga. and we presume to be superior over people of the past. Our modern culture is no doubt convenient, but its also a big fucking joke.

The Star or Pentagram Exercise is the most fundamental exercise prescribed by Rosicrucians of different brotherhoods. It supposed to increase the flow of energy in the body and is supposed to bring wealth, fortune, and success along with good health. The fundamental principle behind this technique is that it is always in the ratio of 3:5. Thus for every 3 minutes in the active phase where your arms are out straight out, your body looking like a star, you will spend 5 minutes in the passive phase with your feet together 60 degrees apart, with your hands clasped above your head, palms pointing up. I had a teacher before who did this exercise for 2 hours a day, and he had the most incredible aura I've ever seen. My third eye was only partially open yet I could easily see his energy feet away from his body. Most people looked like a dim candle. When you have an aura like that, you want to spend serious time learning how to compress it.