The Way Is Virtue

'Laowai' doesn't seem too derogatory. Or is it? In Cantonese they call foreigners 'Gwai Lo', which I think means something like demon or ghost. I have learned a little Cantonese in the past and I have been surprised how often I have heard staff in Chinese restaurants or Chinese stores referring to customers as 'Gwai Lo', or even using various swear words in Cantonese in reference to the customers as well, apparently assuming that Westerners have no idea what they are saying. It's a strange world we line in.

John Chang was not demonstrating hitting people or throwing people around in those videos. This is what we are talking about. I'm sure John Chang would have to really limit the force he delivered if he demonstrated using internal force to hit or push someone as well. Using internal force to strike someone tends to penetrate deep inside their body and can be very shocking and can potentially damage internal organs, from what I understand anyway. I believe this was also mentioned in the book about John Chang, that he advised students about the danger of hitting someone once they reached a certain level in their internal cultivation practice. So, if you can't use strong internal force when hitting someone in a video demo, how can you tell what a teacher is really capable of just from watching a video on youtube? Maybe if someone is a high level internal arts master they may be able to tell, but I don't know if that is necessarily even the case. Anyway, I have said my piece on this so I won't belabor the issue.

Hi Stig. I clearly didn't say "your inquiry was disrespectful". I said that declaring teachers fakes without so much as even meeting with them and spending some time with them is very disrespectful. I'll say it again. In my opinion, internal skill is not obvious from just viewing a video demo, so passing judgement on internal skill based on a video doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. At lower levels fajin may use more obvious force, but at higher levels it is not so obvious. I think you do understand what I am saying though because I think it is a straight forward enough concept. So, you command and they jump, eh? No one is under any obligation to show you anything, Stig. I notice you didn't answer my question about whether you offered to personally travel to anyone and accomodate them at their convenience to give you a personal demonstration? That would be basic courtesy. Then you could personally assess in person whether they had any real skill. Seems simple enough. I wouldn't be pissed because I would go and meet a teacher in person and spend some time with them and judge for myself whether I wanted to learn from them or not. One doesn't have to spend years. Attending a workshop or making a short visit for a few days and such is usually good enough. If they weren't what I was looking for I would move on. Seems simple enough. If you need proof and a teacher doesn't want to show you anything in person then you can simply move on. You keep talking about these mysterious 'they' who do things like charge lots of money for services they can't substantiate. This is not some cohesive group of people who are all the same. They are all individuals with different backgrounds and different levels of experience. Making sweeping generalizations like you are making and using that as a basis to call them all fakes makes no sense. I'll say it again. I think it is very disrespectful to be slinging mud at teachers you have not met and spent any real time with. Again, pretty straight forward. If someone doesn't want to show you anything then the best you can say is you don't know whether they can do what they claim. If someone is willing to show you something and you find their skills lacking, then you can say you personally find their skills lacking. Again, pretty straight forward. I don't see the point of belaboring this any further. I don't think what I am saying is unreasonable.

That's not an excuse, that's a reality. Most masters will demonstrate some of their abilities (while holding back real force) on students however once they get to know them somewhat. It all depends on the situation and a person's attitude. If you approach a master in person with respect and show genuine interest in learning you are much more likely to get hsown something. From what I can gather, all you have actually done is issue a theoretical challenge on some internet forums and seem to expect others to just drop everything and accomodate you? That isn't likely going to get you anywhere. BTW, you keep referring to 'they' as if it is known who these people are you are talking about. I am not saying there are not people out there who exagerate their ability, but I do think there are real masters out there if a person is willing to put in the effort to seek them out and be respectful. A good place to start looking might be with some of Feng Zhiqiang's senior students. However, based on your demonstrated tendancy to ridicule and show disrespect for people you haven't even met I don't expect you will get a very receptive response. Then you can say you demanded that they go out of their way show you fajing and they said no. Well that just proves it's all fake, doesn't it?

Hi Stig. Well, I think we should be careful not to paint all teachers with the same broad brush, don't you think? Did you offer to visit Michael Phillips in person at his convenience and fully at your expense so he could demonstrate to you personally, and were you respectful about it? I don't know Michael Phillips so I can't comment on his skills, but it seems to me if a person is respectful and cordial enough you would be more likely to get some positive responses, assuming a person can make the time to accomodate you. Certainly there are some accomplished masters out there if a person looks around. I think how one approaches them can make a really big difference however. Respect and politeness are very important with many traditional teachers/masters. One thing to keep in mind is the chances are if a real master shows some real force someone may well get seriously hurt. There is a reason that some masters will ony demonstrate certain things on students they know well, as they know how much force a student is capable of absorbing and they know if the student knows how to fall properly without getting hurt, and that sort of thing. Issuing force to strangers could end up with someone getting seriously hurt. However, if a person is sincere in learning and is willing to put in some time to get to know a teacher, I think most teachers will start to show things once they have a chance to get to know the student a bit if the student is sincere and respectful enough. They will still always have to hold back when demonstrating issuing force however, because if they released real force people would very likely get seriously hurt. That is just the nature of the matter. I think if you are sincere in finding an accomplished internal arts master who can really issue internal force you will find one if you are patient and respectful enough. It all depends on approach. I think it is also worth keeping in mind that no one is under any obligation to show someone else anything if they don't want to. Taking a demanding or challenging attitude with someone you dppn;t know probably isn't going to go over too well with most anyone. So that makes it up to the person who wants to be shown something to be respectful and friendly enough and accomodate the person in whatever way they can that they want to show them something. On the other hand, if someone were making specific claims that they can throw anyone around at will with ease and they openly challenge anyone to try, then it would be reasonable to expect them to comply if you offer to take up their challenge. Not too many accomplished internal arts masters seem to be interested in such things however. Could it be because in order to cultivate internal skill to a high level you also have to learn to calm the heart and mind and cultivate spirit? Did you ever notice that taijiquan or other internal arts masters don't usually go around challenging other martial arts masters but instead often had to take challenges from other martial arts stylists who were out to try to make a name for themself? That does not seem to be the exception from what I have been able to gather. There may have been exceptions from time to time however.

So Feng Ziqiang, Huang Sheng Shyan (deceased now, I believe) and Zhu Datong are all fakes? Seriously? All three of these masters are/were highly respected internal martial arts masters. BTW, for traditional teachers, if one approaches them very respectfully and asks them politely if they can find some time to demonstrate some of their skills on you, if you are respectful enough and they think you are have achieved enough martial arts ability to know how to fall without getting hurt too easily they might ask a senior student to show you some things, or if they are not too busy and they find you likeable and respectful enough they might even personally show you some things themselves as well. Some may wait till they get to know you better first, so you may have to hanfg around for some time before they are comfortable enough wioth you to show you something. Traditionally one might not even be given the opportunity to approach the master directly without first being introduced by a close student to the master. Nowadays things have started to become less formal however with some of the newer gerneration teachers. However, most anyone may not respond too cordially if they see that someone is not really sincere or if they are disrespectful. A person who is disrespectful may well just end up causing trouble one way or the other even if the teacher tries to be polite and accomodate them. I can fully understand why some teachers might not respond too cordially to a disrespectful person. If someone is serious about trying to get a teacher to demonstrate some techniques to them, being very respectful and polite and friendly would probably be a good start. So when did you ask Mr. Phillips if he would be willing to show you some of his techniques? Regarding videos. I think one can't really judge a master's level by such things as most masters really hold back when demonstrating on students and guests, as people could easily get hurt if the master really released their force. The videos you see on the net are mostly just for demonstration purposes to give the general idea of what can be done, and the master will often demonstrate the way they want the student to practice the movement and not necessarily the way the master would actually do the movement themself, which may well contain much less obvious movement. Just thought I'd add that as an aside as trying to judge a teacher's level of attainment from demonstrations or instructional videos with students or associates doesn't really make sense to me.

Hi Stig. Rather than slinging mud at various people from your computer desk chair, why not contact Mr. Phillips and others you have implied are fakes here and ask if they would mind if you visited them in person for some friendly skills comparison? Then you can report back here and speak from real experience on how good or poor their skills are? Make sure to video tape the events fully without editing so we can see the actual results for ourselves. All I see all over the net is various people calling various teachers fakes and such but these same computer desk masters often never seem to be willing to get up out of their desk chairs and go respectfully compare skills in person with the other teachers/students they are putting down or making snide comments about. What ever happened to common courtesy and respect...? Sorry but this needed to be said, IMO. Real internal skill is hidden. If you want to test someone's internal skill you really need to go and meet them and at least push hands with them or maybe do some friendly sparring to see what internal skill they really have. If someone has real internal skill it shouldn't take long to find that out. You don't have to conduct a scientific experiment as anyone who is really interested in finding out the truth can just go and visit various teachers and experience the truth for themself. Sure it takes some effort and may cost a bit of money, but at least then one will be speaking from real knowledge and experience instead of just idle speculation...

Stig, I don't follow you at all here. Feng Zhiqiang is not talking through his hat. He has taken various real challenges from various martial artists of different styles in the past, and from what I understand has taken care of all the challengers fairly quickly with no problem. I believe he also just does enough when challenged to convince the opponent that they are out of their league and there is no point continuing further, and he has not tried to seriously hurt anyone. A skilled internal arts master does not need to cause serious injury to settle a match. It usually doesn't take long for an opponent to realize they are way out-matched. Also, there is a big difference between saying one should maintain a sense of an opponent when practicing as opposed to one putting the focus of one's practice mainly on applications and sparring and fighting and neglecting internal cultivation, which is the foundation of the internal arts. Without strong focus on internal cultivation as the foundation it will only be maneuvering and strikes and kicks and throws, not really different from other external arts like judo or sanshou or boxing, etc. Feng Zhiqiang has made a point of returning the emphasis in internal arts training back to internal cultivation and developing self defense skill naturally in the process. Once one has a solid foundation in internal cultivation one can then start learning more about the applications of the movements and that sort of thing. Feng Zhiqiang has more than proven the effectiveness of this approach. By the way, Dr Yang Jwing Ming is mainly an external stylist from what I have gathered. Taijiquan seems like more of a sideline for him, not his main practice. Not really a valid comparison of points of view, IMO.

The following statement by Feng Zhiqiang bears repeating: "MR.FENG: Although martial arts are about fighting, one should not think about fighting during practice. The fighting skill comes naturally after a certain time of correct practice. One should practice Neigong (Internal Methods), routine, pushing hands (Tui Shou). Pushing Hands should be practised in a cooperative way, to get the skill of "knowing the opponent" (Zhi Bi), without any thought of fighting. Then one should also practice single movements and their applications, free techniques, footwork." This is coming from Feng Zhiqiang who is a very accomplished and widely respected internal martial arts master. His words should not be taken lightly in my opinion. If one focuses too much on fighting in practice one will likely neglect and even hinder progress in internal energy cultivation and also the ability to sense and 'listen' which goes along with internal training. Jumping around and doing various strikes and kicks and throws may look impressive but does not demonstrate internal skill. Real internal skill is hidden and can really only be felt. You try to move the internal arts master and you can't budge him no matter how hard you try. You try to push the internal arts master and you find yourself flying backward with a powerful force although the master may have only barely moved. The higher the skill level the more it is hidden. If you look at videos of Feng Zhiqiang doing his taijiquan you might never guess he has attained a high level of internal skill, but those who have made the mistake of challenging him have felt first hand what real internal skill is. That's my two cents' worth on the matter anyway.

Since there has also been some discussion about empty force (Ling kong jin) in this thread, I thought I would add this story about Feng Zhiqiang that is from a translation by Chen Zhonghua of parts of a biography of Feng Zhiqiang by Pan Houcheng.: "Since reaching the age of 70, Master Feng does not use much obvious power during his push hands sessions any more. Some speculated that maybe he is getting on and lost his power. Nothing is farther from the truth. According to the theory of taiji, the highest level should be power with emptiness. The power is exhibited as one's soul, not the physical body. When he was teaching a seminar in Europe in 2000, he was doing some relaxing push hands with an attendee one day. His eyes were closed and his body relaxed. He was simply flowing with his opponent. He was so relaxed that it appeared that he was falling asleep. His opponent saw a good opportunity and gave a sudden powerful double-handed push to his chest. Before the hands reached Feng, his eyes opened. His opponent went flying backward and fell against a tree about 10 feet away. No one was able to see what Feng did. The opponent later reported that he was quite sure a beam of light like lightning shot out of Feng's eyes and blew him away. Could it be the Feng has reached the highest level of taijiquan?" Ok, that is only a story and is just based on some students' account of what happened, but it is an interesting story none the less. Could such an event as described above just be caused by psychological pre-conditioning only? Maybe. Exageration? Maybe. Maybe not. Without being there and witnessing the whole event and knowing the people involved it would certainly be hard to say either way. Apparently even those who witnessed the event were not even sure what exactly happened.

Here is an interesting interview done with Feng Zhiqiang where he explains the difference between external and internal martials arts, and also comments about issuing power in internal martial arts, amongst other things: http://www.chinafrominside.com/ma/taiji/FZQinterview.html Here's a few samples from this interview: Jarek Szymanski: Mr.Feng, it is known that you studied Shaolin Standing Post methods in your youth. How would you compare it to Neijia practice? MR.FENG ZHIQIANG: Yes, I learnt and practised Standing Post exercises of Shaolin school. The main difference between them and the methods of Neijia school is that Neijia emphasizes relaxation to greater degree. For this I think there is certain reason in dividing martial arts into External and Internal Families. It is also related to the methods of using Qi - External Family (Waijia) uses physical strength (Li) to drive Qi, while Internal Family (Neijia) uses Intention (Yi) to move Qi. Anyway, I had to give up all my external practise after I started practising Neijia. JS: Is Dantian movement usefull in fighting? MR.FENG: The body moves as a cordinated whole because of Dantian movement. While issuing power (Fa Li) Dantian turns and the whole body power is focused in one point. In this way the power issued can penetrate the bones of the opponent. While issuing power the body should be relaxed, but one should be very conscious about so-called "Shaking Power" (Dou Jin). This power has to be focused and not scattered all over the body. The more advanced one is, the smaller the shaking. When we were learning Taijiquan from Chen Fake shaking the body in Fa Li was the greatest taboo to be avoided. JS: What changes have you noticed in the last twenty years and how in your opinion will Chen style Taijiquan evolve in the next fifty years? MR.FENG: The recent years showed some phenomena that were not present when I was learning Taijiquan. Most of practitioners show a lot of Shaking Power. As I already said, the better the skill the smaller the shaking. Concerning the future, I believe there will be constant improvement in the skill level of the practitioners - they will realize the importance of Hunyuan. As old saying goes "Skill is satisfied only with clear understanding" - it is very important that the teacher understands and is able to explain clearly the principles of the art.

Hi ChiDragon. Yes, muscles have to tense to exert muscular force, but I don't think that is the goal in internal martial arts. I'm no expert by any means, but I know Feng Zhiqiang seems to have frowned on these sort of more overt external forms of practice and instead emphasizes relaxing, internal energy cultivation, and chan si gong practices. Other taiji teachers seem to take this approach as well such as the two taiji masters I mentioned previously. Do you practice Chen style taijiquan? Some traditional Chen style teachers seems to place more emphasis on employing more overt external shows of force than in some other styles, from what I can see anyway. Edit: I just posted a link to an short interview with Feng Zhqiang in this thread. Some interesting comments in that interview that are relevant to this discussion.

Mike Tyson was a powerful guy, but he uses brute muscular force and he does not practice cultivation of internal energy (that I know of). The fajin spoken of in internal martial arts involves the use of internal energy, not the external muscular power of western boxing. The examples I posted earlier of Huang Sheng Shyan (who learned directly from Chen Man Ching) and Zhu Datong are examples of masters using internal energy to emit power, and the use of internal energy to emit power is fajin, at least from my understanding anyway. There are no doubt different levels of attainment in this regard, but the use of internal energy to emit power is what I understand as being fajin. If someone truly knows otherwise then please explain. If you look closely at the videos I posted earlier in this thread, you can see at certain points in the videos that these two masters are able to emit powerful force with little to no external movement of their bodies. If someone thinks it is fake and that the only way to emit power for fighting is through the use of the body mechanics and muscular force, then they may want to keep looking for another internal martial arts teacher. The main source of power in true internal martial arts is derived from the cultivation and use of internal energy, and that should be where the main focus of practice is. The body movements and mechanics and body alignments in internal martial arts are mainly focused on proper body arrangement for the purposes of facilitating the cultivation and use of internal energy. Muscles should be not be tensed in practice and the use of overt muscular force should be avoided. Are these not the standard basic principles of internal martial arts training? Edit: By the way, different internal martials arts and internal martial arts styles seem to have different practices and techniques in regards to training 'fajin'. For example, some Chen style folks seem to practice a lot of quite overt sudden elastic flicking and snapping motions, but other styles seem to focus more on other ways to release power in differnt ways. I think it is interesting to note that Feng Zhiqiang (a prominent student of Chen Fake) seems to have removed the overt external sudden flicking body movements and loud foot stomping practices from his system and instead seems to focus more on internal energy cultivation exercises and chan si gong exercises. It seems Feng Zhiqiang was not too impressed with these more outward external ways of practicing power, if I understand his reasoning correctly that is.

Don't know if this all can be considered fajin, but GM Huang demonstrated a lot of different types of power release in these videos. Looks like he was having a lot of fun as well: It's also interesting how some tai chi masters (in this case Master Zhu Datong) get their opponent bouncing like a ball or spinning like a top: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmkFJ8obAQE&feature=related Edit: This is a bit clearer demo of some of his techniques: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kocYP6u6YEA&feature=related He is having a lot of fun in this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeodbargP8M&feature=related

That seems to be quite the absolute statement. Are you absolutely sure about that? If so, how do you know that for absolute certain?

Hi otp. Well he may have had a vision and he may also have met an 'old man' who gave him a copy of the dao de jing, or he may also have made this up and may just want to pass on his own views and ideas and try to give these views and ideas more weight by claiming such things. Without being able to at least converse with this person there is just no way of assessing it further. I don't know that the sect he mentions is the Mao Shan taoist sect, but there is more than one tradition that came from Mao Shan from what I understand, and there are certainly sects that have branched off from other major sects and gone their own way. It could also be some other sect or group entirely. The person who registered the website also has a mailing address registered, if you really wanted to try to get in touch with this person. ;-) Not everything is what it seems, but sometimes it may be. It is probably good not to jump to conclusions either way with the limited info that is there is all that I was suggesting. If someone wants to lend support to nuclear disarmament this would be their own call, and as I mentioned previously, you don't need a prediction or vision to be able to realize that there is a very real danger of nuclear war in this world. There are just too many crazies and too many self-righteous and fanatical and knee jerk reaction type people out there for there not to be such a risk. Best wishes...

Hi Aaron. An age old problem. Knowing that there are certain questions that we just simply cannot reason our way to answers with any real degree of certainty. Who or what am "I" really? Is there a purpose to the universe and life and all that goes along with it? What is mind really? Etc. It then comes down to how important is it for us to try to find answers to these sorts of questions. If it is important to us, we then might start investigating possible alternative ways of exploring these questions. We then might find that respected teachers in the past and present do say that there are indeed alternative ways of seeking answers to these types of questions, such as various meditation practices and other techniques. If after all this searching and investigating we still find this whole matter important to us, we may start adopting some of these alternative approaches and practices and see where it leads us. Again, we don't really know whether these alternative approaches will really ever lead us to any ultimate understanding or true knowledge, so it then comes down to such things as having faith that it can lead somewhere, or maybe it just feels right to a person, or it may come down to at least having an open enough mind to give it a decent try and just see where it may lead. There are no guarantees, but if the questions are nagging enough then one may still be willing to put in the effort knowing that it may never bring us any closer to answers in the end. However, another reason for practicing meditation and related practices is they can also produce practical benefits for our daily life such as helpng to calm and balance us more and maybe help improve our health, and even to give us more energy and rejuvenate us. So, even if we don't ever reach our ultimate goals, at least we still can potentially derive some benefits through such practices. Best wishes...

You don't have to be a great oracle to realize that there is a very real degree of risk that there could be another major world war that could very well include nuclear weapons, and this risk has been there for quite a few years now. Blaming religions is not going to solve anything in my opinion. In my opinion most religions actually contain good guidance and a good framework at their core to help people live better lives and to get along with people. It is people (from all religions) who distort and ignore religious teachings and use these distorted interpretations for their own personal gain and to try to back up their own prejudices and hatreds. In my opinion it is clearly people in general that are to blame, not religions. Even in countries where religion was down-played and disparaged such as the former communist Russia and the current communist China (although they have softened their hard-line stance against religion in China in recent years they still keep a fairly tight control over it) all sorts of atrocities and major abuses of power and wars or threats of war were/are still occurring. Based on all this, I would actually say that it shows a quite short-sighted and narrow view to blame religions as a major cause of world problems when in reality the exact same types of behavior still occur in this world with or without religion in the picture. It is clearly just plain old 'human nature' (greed, longing for power and control, prejudice, racial hatred, fanaticism, etc.) that is the root cause of world problems. If 'flowing hands' was initiated in a Taoist temple then that would make him a Taoist of some sort (regardless of whether he prefers to refer to himself as a shaman or not). There are some 'Taoist' temples that do incorporate temporary 'spirit possession' of various forms and such things in their practices, which may well have roots in shamanism or folk religions, but I know some other Taoists frown on such practices and view them as unorthodox or 'left-hand' paths. Regarding whether one should believe 'Flowing Hands' or not, that is a person's personal choice. Has 'Flowing Hands' really said anything that has not been said many times before? Has he provided anything to make you think his view has any more of a substantial basis than any other prediction or vision, etc. that is put out there? In other words, what has Flowing Hands said or done that would lend more credence to his view than another view that is out there? If one really doesn't know much about who this person really is and one can't interact with them to try to get a better idea of what they are really about, then it is very hard to make any assessment one way or the other about anything they claim. Regarding the Dao De Jing, there are many interpretations out there and anyone here could come up with a new translation of this text by just reading various translations and then adding their own personal slant to a new translation. Not saying this is necessarily the case, but without knowing anything about the person who made the translation or being able to interact with them there is not much way to assess things. It is just another set of claims and views to add to the pile that are already out there. One really doesn't have much at all to go on to either believe or not believe, it seems to me. Best wishes...

People can get into a mental space where their personal view of things can be very limited, closed in, and distorted, and they may really lose sight of how much of this limited viewpoint is actually of their own creation. Everyone goes through ups and downs in life, and pretty well everyone runs into very tough times or difficult situations at some point or points in their life as well. Why is that some people can get through these tough situations or times OK while others just seem to think they can't get through it and they may want to just give up? It is because some people realize that attitude and viewpoint is much more under our personal control than we might think, and they take steps (whether consciously or not) to keep their attitude and viewpoint as postive and open as they can manage, as they also realize that no matter how difficult things may seem to be at any given moment that this will definitely change over time. We can get ourselves into very dark frames of mind if we let ourself and we can also just do our best to let such things go as much as we can manage and adopt a more positive frame of mind with the understanding that things will eventually get better. A person should realize that where they are or where they think they are at some point in time is only temporary and the situation will continue to change. If we do our best to keep a positive and open attitude we start opening ourself up to and becoming more aware of various ways to help change our situation that we may not have been able to see at all when we closed and limited our view, and only focused on this very closed in view that we have made for ourself. No matter how difficult or undesirable things may seem at some point in time, things will not remain stuck there unless we keep ourself so closed to all the actual possibilities and potentials that really exist for us in any given moment. There are always at least some ways to help improve our situation if we stay open to them and at least allow ourself to start considering them and exploring them to see where they might lead. If one looks at the tai chi symbol one can see that the idea being put across is that everything is in a state of constant change and cycling, and no matter how difficult a situation we may think we are in, this will change to better situations if we don't fight the natural change and keep open to all the new possibilities that go along with it. There is unlimited potential in this world and that is why it is so special. The more we explore this potential the more we see that there are so many choices for us to pursue if we are just willing to try, and willing to loosen our control and just see where things may lead... Best wishes to you... Edit: BTW infinityTruth, regarding the tai chi symbol and its meaning, since we all have the ability to choose and make decisions in this world, we have the abiltiy to make at least some choices that either bring us more towards the positive or more towards the negative in the overall scheme of things. If we stay open to and pursue those possibilities that bring us more towards a positive direction as much as we can then we tend to keep moving more towards positive things over time. If we tend to only limit ourself to a negative view of things we will be more likely to only see negative possibilities for ourself, and we may tend to keep moving more towards the negative or at to least feel stuck in the negative. So keeping our viewpoint and attitude as open and positive as we can opens us up to and allows for much more opportunity to keep moving in a positive direction through all the change and flux and cycles in life. Things may be in a constant state of flux around us but by staying open and focusing on the positive we keep moving forward in a positive direction. We are always changing too, but we do have a lot more choice and control than we may think over whether that change is positive or negative.

There are chinese herbal remedies that are supposed to help with this sort of thing, such as: "Jin Suo Gu Jing Wan" (Golden Lock Pill for Preserving Kidney Essence) Available from: http://www.cgcmall.com/products/Energexin-Extract-%28Jin-Suo-Gu-Jing-Wan%29-12-Bottles.html Really though there are many factors involved. Sexual abstinence is not for everyone. If a person is offten eyeing girls and easily sexually aroused and that sort of thihg then sexual abstinence is probably not for them. One has to really work on calming the heart and controlling their thinking and behaviour. If one can do that then it becomes less about retention and more just a natural thing. There is no repression if there is nothing to repress. Factors of calming the heart and controlling thinking and behaviour are probably much more important factors than herbs. If one is not abstinent but is practicing some sort of sexual retention practices then that is another matter and one should be aware that such practices can potentially lead to problems. I am not talking about such sexual retention practices but actual sexual abstinence here. The other important aspect to this is very regular and proper cultivation practice. I have found that a very good helpful practice for initiating the stage of 'transforming essence into qi' is regularly practicing zhan zhuang such as the wuji zhan zhuang stance (standing meditation). Practicing every night before going to bed is very good and one should work up their standing time to at least 20 minutes each session to start seeing benefits. It can take some time of regular practice before one starts seeing results so having some emissions from time to time at first does not mean that progress is not being made. It may take different amounts of time for different people to start really seeing consistent results, such as several months to even a year or longer of practicing every day. Eventually you should reach a point where you can actually feel the effect of the standing meditation practice in regards to 'transforming essence into qi' and you will have a better feel for how long you need to stand. Sometimes you will feel that you need to stand longer and other times you may feel that a shorter session is OK. Very serious practitioners may stand for several hours every day, but if you are also doing moving qigong or internal martial arts and sitting meditation you would probably divide your practice time each day amongst all of the practices. That's my take on it anyway.

From what I understand, it was believed in earlier times in China that the source or true residing place of the mind is in the heart or heart area, so the term xin (心) was used to indicate either heart or mind, just as we might sometimes use the term brain when we are referring to the mind such as in, "My brain is really foggy today", in place of, "My mind is really foggy today". I don't know that the reason for this usage of xin for mind is really any more complicated than that, but there could be more to it than that I suppose. Maybe a native Chinese speaker can help clarify further. Whether one is thinking in terms of mind or heart-mind or brain-mind, I don't know that it is any easier to really define what mind is in any of those contexts. It's still just as big of a mystery to me no matter how I think about it. Hmm ..., interesting. The mind using the functioning of the mind to try to figure out what mind is, and getting nowhere... It seems the approach may well be faulty...

Hi awake. Thanks for the clarification. I think forums like this are not always the best place to discuss deeper personal issues and such because other people only know other members from what they type in their posts, and how people actually are in real life and how they may appear in their posts can be quite different things altogether. Also, a lot of people may like to give advice but often don't take any real time to try to really understand the situation or appreciate the full significance of the situation, or they are just giving advice on things they would like to think are helpful but which may actually not be too helpful for the actual situation. I would like to say from my very limited knowledge of your situation, just based on what I understand from what you have described in some of your posts here, that your problem of being really anxious sometimes and finding it hard to make decisions about various things does not appear to be just the average sort of indecision and anxiousness that people might normally experience from time to time. As far as coherence goes, I would say you are coherent enough but maybe a little hard to follow sometimes, but it really does seem that you can over-analyze everything to the point of finding even simple interaction with others and making simple decisions very difficult sometimes. If I am not too far off the mark here then I would think that it might be a good idea for you to actually do a little background research on different types of professional therapy practitioners and approaches and then consult with one or more professional therapists, if you haven't already done so, and be open and up front with them and explain the full situation to them and how you are thinking about things, etc., and see what advice or possible avenues of therapy they might offer. There are likely some good therapy approaches out there in existence for anxiety and related type issues that can go along with it such as difficulty in making decisions or difficulty interacting with others, etc. A professional therapist could probably go over some of the options with you as well as give you their professional opinion on what they think might be helpful for your particular situation. Have you ever consulted a professional therapist of some sort regarding this, or given it any thought? Sometimes our own intuition or sorting out the various 'guidances' from others who may be presenting themselves as experts or masters and such is not really that helpful to us if we are not in a balanced place at the time to be able to give this advice a really balanced appraisal. A professional therapy approach of some sort could well help to get you into a more balanced place in this regard. However, this is also just my opinion based on what I can gather from your posts and I don't really know your exact situation. Getting a professional therapist's opinion (or even a few different opinions from different therapists) on your situation may well prove helpful for your situation however. Wish you the best with this...