Soar

Of course it will decreae you chi, it is gradually killing you. What it does in the short term, I'm not sure, a chinese doctor once told me something useful to know . He said in small amounts it has a soothing effect on the emotional centre of the brain, but then after that it just acts as poison. But this is just the nicotine effect, there are plenty of other things going on when you smoke, maybe the nicotine keeps you hooked and the other posions and carbon monoxide and tar etc slowly kills you. Also I think it acts like a relaxant and a stimulant at the same time. Basically really try to stop using some basic psychological understanding, willpower and some practical techniques (read Allen Carr). But, if this fails you need to start becoming aware of why you need or crave the effect you get from smoking, which can take you into deeper issues inside of yourself. Personally for me, smoking had became so entwined with other things inside of me it took me 10 years to stop smoking and lots of help from various teachers and buddhism and taoism to uderstand and work through enough to be able to stop. Now I have been 100% free for ~2 years, and it just isnt even an issue, I dont miss anything about it what so ever. My practises and life develop so much more because smoking and having a mental crutch like that really interupts your spiritual or chi development. You just cant work through various processes if they get interupted by wanting a cigerette, or should i stop smoking or shoudn't I etc.. In fact the very fact that you are smoking usually means you are not aware of whole chunks of your inner world and your relationship with you body or else you just wouldnt do it. As complicated as it can get, it really comes down to if you actually really feel what it is like to smoke, and then what the after effects are etc, then it is rubbish and the body doesnt like it so why bother. Which is Allen Carrs conclusion, some people jsut need a lot more help to get to a point where that is obvious. A lot more I could say about it becasue I struggled with it for so long.. but you dont sound like you will have to go through all that, I hope not anyway,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loneliness Its a pretty subjective word , I think technically it fits well with kidneys, but it could also be used to describe feelings associated with any of the five elements/organs.

Still, I'm not sure if I would personally use the word loneliness for something solely kidney based, just because of the sadness I associate with that word, and I'm not sure if that comes from kidneys or not, maybe it can in some form. Isolated and suspicious fits kidneys very well for me which is pretty similar to loneliness, then feeling sad about being alone is moving away from kidney issues into the lungs etc.

Hmmm, I see your point, but if you consider all the other traits of the kidneys it fits in well. Not just afraid of being alone, but if you are afraid of people in general or entering a new situation and feeling insecure or suspicious, these are all states that have a lonely feel to them, or maybe the point is if fear, suspicion, insecurity of others persists long enough it can lead one to become isolated from others and develop into something more chronic like loneliness, mild depression, becoming withdrawn etc. The heart and lungs are more to do with sadness and maybe what you could call a temporary loneliness, or a loneliness that is more grief based.

Why can we not know such things? You dont give any reasons why through personal experieince some people could not come to know things for certain which others do not.

Yes but not through science. Spiritual paths have their own methods of inquiry.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3145952730483171546# 'Excellent video of poet Robert Bly being interviewed by Bill Moyers in 1990. They discuss what it means to be a man in today's society - the pains of being a man and the things that can be done to heal them.' Check it out. It doesn't deny that men have a hard time in our culture and leaves you with something deeper than just trying to be positive or learn social skills.

I see, well you dont seem that taken in by the video but i'll post some links of the same tricks being done by magicians anyway. http://www.ellusionist.com/electric-touch-by-yigal-mesika.html Im not trying to disprove chi or that extraordinary things are not possible. There is plenty of far out stuff in the mainstream traditions of Taoism and Buddhism that I dont have a problem with. If one does not adhere to a reductionist materialism of mind then lots of things can be accepted at least as reasonable. But, I'm still sceptical of people making extraordinary claims, there are plenty of people who are faking it trying to pass it off as something real, and plenty of people who have no interest in not being completely deluded about what they can do. For this, the Randis of the world can be useful, to expose frauds. OTOH Randi goes too far and I dont think he does fair scientific tests on people geniuenly trying to demonstrate something, and afaik he has wriggled out of some cases pretty dishonestly himself, eg. I'm pretty sure people could demonstrate fasting beyond what science would accept as possible and those that applied to do this with him were fobbed off. When presented with a video like John Chang's moving knifes balanced so precariously a breeze would move them, giving electric shocks easily done with gimmicks you can buy on the internet etc etc along with the most inept film producers and "scientific" testers it just says fraud so obviously. That you think he is not making a profit from this doesn't take away from how bad the video is. People mention John Chang and his tradition when buying into other peoples products so there is some connection there anyway. Well, yeah, if you are going to say hes absolutely legit then I would expect you to have some personal experience with him. You make it sound like asking for an in person demo is a big deal. If that is what they are teaching or using to establish their credibility then let them show you, or let their students show you. I've met many Tibetan and Taoist teachers in person that are very accessable and happy to demonstrate what they are trying to teach. Caveat emptor

I watched the whole video, and it is a collection of demonstrations that could quite easily be plain magicians tricks. What makes it even more dubious is the makers in the video claim they came back to test if DJ was for real yet dont do/show the simplest of things they could have done to make it hard for him to use sleight of hand, hidden props etc. While making it sound like they have done reasonable things to test is scientifically. The video really is terribly dishonest, whether intentionally or through gulliblilty. Since he is very reclusive what more research are you talking about? What makes you say he's absolutley legit?

Doesn't the newspaper demonstration especially, make you think.. ? There is a youtube video somewhere showing how easily this can be done with hidden chemicals in the paper. He could of at least shown there was nothing inside the conveniently wrapped up ball of paper, had other people give him some paper, no camera cuts, etc. I'm not saying its not possible but if his demonstration doesn't make you really suspicious you are being naive.

http://www.mahamudracenter.org/MMCMemberMeditationGuide.htm#_Toc420995624,'>http://www.mahamudracenter.org/MMCMemberMeditationGuide.htm#_Toc420995624, you are using this?, thats a really nice guide. So you noticed that you didn't notice? That is still noticing, its normal not to notice straight away, just whenever you do let them go. Also, maybe its because your practice is too lax or sleepy. But, perhaps I don't understand your question? The (1) Joyful Resting Meditation wasn't phrased like this. It didn't say to try to clear thoughts, it said not to follow thoughts, and "Just sit and relax in your own clarity." Basically it sounds like you are trying not to have any thoughts and see this as the goal? but.. "When the mind vividly, calmly, and unceasingly perceives forms, sounds, feelings, tastes, smells, thoughts, without anxiety or tension, then resting mind (shamatha or shinay) has been realized." http://www.mahamudracenter.org/MMCMemberMeditationGuide.htm#_Toc420995624

He has a blog at www.taichimaster.com with lots of nice free articles to read.

Have you read Iron John: A Book About Men by Robert Bly? http://www.amazon.com/Iron-John-Book-About-Men/dp/0679731199 Also hes got a free video up on google here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3145952730483171546# Check it out. Hes not going to tell you to just grow a pair.

I dont know anything about that dvd, I recommend the same books as sloppy. They will answer your zhan zhuang question as well. You dont stand up straight, your knees should be bent a little but not too much and the tailbone is tucked a little but some people tuck it too much, it's better not to think of pulling it toward the ground too much but rather allow it to drop as your body relaxes etc. Its difficult to give advice without seeing you, better to get a more complete overview than just a few sentences on a forum so have a look at that book if you can. I'm not recommending practising without a teacher though or at least without intending to start classes in the near future. I started of with Opening the Energy Gates and some videos and practised for a month or so before starting classes. Funnily enough I wanted to start with chi gung, tai chi and ba gua classes and my teacher wouldnt let me start ba gua for years. I was a bit upset because ba gua sounded so exciting but soon forgot about it when tai chi starting really working.

Simple answer is maybe. But your question depends on who is observing. A dance choregrapher for example would notice how well you copy the movement aesthetically and I think to score 90% in his opinion would still be difficult if you are self taught from a video. A novice ba gua teacher would see you copying the aesthetic form well but on basic body mechanics that actually matter, like how well your body moves as one, how rooted you are, on lots of subtle alignments, you are going to score way less than 90%. If a ba gua master gave you a 1% score I'd be happy for you. Whats difficult to impossible to learn from a video are the subtle physical alignments and internal components and these are what will give you benefits beyond just doing something meditatively. You may just end up with some nice moves and happily walk around doing your own meditation thing then who knows what you are really doing and what the benefits or risks are. As for learning ba gua you will unavoidably develop bad habits if you keep practising without guidance for a longer time with varying consequences. For example, you probably will not have or learn the basic physical alignments needed that allow you to drop your chi somewhat and end up stirring up more and more chi without a way to ground it or keep it smooth. This can feel good at the time and people carry on and put more and more into practising this way but it leads to problems. Even with a good teacher this is difficult to learn in ba gua. More problems arise when people try to apply the techniques that make internal arts what they are. Someone learns some basic moves more or less well and then reads about intention techniques and how to move your chi etc and tries to apply these. But this is where initial instruction to get started the right way and continious reality checks from teachers are really needed. You just dont get a felt sense experience from a video and thats exactly what you need to learn ba gua. If people try by themselves I think most give up after trying and not getting much reward, some may carry on doing some kind of practise that is not really ba gua but has some benefit for them and probably some minor negative effects, some carry on and get more and more lost in fantasies and the problems that entails and those that push things too much can mess things up in a major way. By the way, just going to a one off workshop or 1hr class occasionally with a good teacher can make a big difference. At least you get an initial reality check and the chance to get some felt experience of what internal martial arts are like.