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I suggest to take a break from sexual practice until pain subsides. It could be an effect of qi-channels opening in the scrotum? What is the external conditions of your balls? Strange colors? how is the skin? Do you experience wet dream? Do you check your urine to ensure there's no retrograde ejaculation during the night?

I want to join a daoist monastic community to find an answer. But I think it is quite difficult to join a chinese monastery... It's a shame that our society doesn't offer a "way" for those who want to cultivate a desireless life. To survive in society you must have strong desires and expectetions, you must work hard ...even if you are interested in mere subsistence.

Wow! I want to try that extreme ZZ position! During ZZ I experience pain in the arms which I think are affected by some sort of circulation problem. ZZ could fix it for sure, but it is painful.. a lot painful.

Hi I want to start training in tai chi and I'm an absolute beginner. I've heard of that style called "Old Yang" introduced by E. Montaigue and I wanted to ask here what do you (martial artists and student of taiji) think about it. It is a good system? It is the definitive boxing for real? Thank you

The only thing that I consider quite strange is that Earle died relatively eager (62 y) while t'ai chi should promote health and long life

thank you I found a master who teach this "old yang style" and I will see if I can do something in the right way I'm too dumb to learn from DVDs, but I cannot say if this system is effective because I'm an absolute beginner.

For a reset, you need a backup. Do you have any?

Practical taoism by Thomas Cleary The secret of the golden flower (Cleary translation) A good medicine book, natural remedies ... hint?

What about buddhist dharmakaya? Is this an alchemical body?

I'm just a little guy who likes to sit quietly sometimes. Maybe I haven't all your experience in the field of cultivation, but I hope, in my limited understanding, to be useful for someone. I talked about the basic principles of no-leakage, based on the essays of taoist masters of the past. This is supposed to be the "basis" for cultivating Yang-Qi. I don't claim to have the right view. Maybe I'm wrong.

This is the right place to share this practice Thank you in advance.

The Dan Tien formula is ok for certain guys, but not for everyone. It's common to have a few "collateral effects" while working single-minded on the dan tien spot. If my memory is not cheating, there's a book out there that talks about this topic. I think that the basic healty method to accumulate energy for meditation is "celibacy" + "watching the thoughts" rather than cultivate dantien from the beginning...

I will say nothing more because I'm not a bookseller or promoter of any sort. Just give my positive feedback on the materials with the limits of my understanding. Master Nan is a Zen Buddhist and when he talks about buddhism, his insights are profound and his explanation very useful for everyone. When he talks about taoism, his explanation are also of the highest accuracy. He wrote a book on the history of taoism which clarified to me a lot of things about the matter. Bodri creates links between various traditions in a brilliant way. He gives a lot of examples and he never pose any dogmatic judgment. I think that his books are very useful because I read them. If you think that they are not, there's no problems or things to fix. Just different views.

I consider their work as a great contribute to the field of meditation today. Master Nan is known as an enlightened master of Zen, Vajrayana buddhism and taoism... he is not the average guy who say "my practice is the best, you practice is the worst", but his view makes a lot of sense. He speak as a practitioner and as a master, not as an external observant who judges without knowing what he is talking about. Of course, certain claims appear quite exaggerate but I've found a profound insight into the matter and a lot of explanations. I completely agree. Thanks for sharing

The "hsi" state of embryonic breathing is a complete cessation and it is reached by letting go the breath. Although, it is useful -for a measured time- to control the breath consciously in the beginning of the meditation sit. It happens naturally without efforts. I reach a state in which breath is very very subtle and actually stop for short period... than it's easy to get worry about it and it starts again I think this could be the state in which vajrayana practitioners generate the illusory body. They focus on deities if my memory is not cheating me and their yin body is the body of a Yidam. In buddhism, it is the breaking of sensation skandha. This accomplishment is not common, but the result of a highly focused practice. Usually, this can be done only after a long purification process with the yang Qi that I was talking about. Thanks for sharing

This is a drowsy state of consciousness that could also be used to induce astral projection, but it isn't what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the state in which yang qi arises. This state can lead to embryonic breathing. Usually, you will feel a lot of heat because of the yang qi moving in the qi mai. I understand what you are talking about. I consider emptiness to be a state of single-though and that though is emptiness. You consider emptiness to be a state of low-consciousness in which thoughts come and go, but based on what you say, I think that you hold on physical sensations to reach that stage and feel the ying body... so there's a clinging to something. The emptiness that I'm talking about requires a complete let go of sensations and do not lead to a new identification with a subtle body. It is a mean to purify the body and consequently the mind. As your body purifies himself, your mind become clearer and a no-though state is easier to achieve. I think that qigong is a device to purify the body in a faster way, but you see that it is effective when you start to experience a single-minded concentration and the yang qi. I apologize for the bad quality of my written english (Is that supposed to be english? )

Well... awareness is always present, it is the basic reality. Even while you are asleep, your awareness is still there. Pristine awareness is the Tao. Consciousness is the normal "I" of the waking state... or even the fictitious "I" of dreaming. There are different state of consciousness used in shamanic works. There's a state of consciousness associated with Lucid Dream and so on. The sequence to follow for getting the Tao is very simple. First you cultivate emptiness: you achieve a state of consciousness without thoughts. Second, you abandon this emptiness realizing that it is in the realm of thoughts: emptiness is a subtle thought. What's left? Pristine awareness. When we say "Aware the palm of your hand", we mean "Focus your consciousness on a single thought which is the sensation of your hand" That's Qigong. When we bring our consciousness into emptiness, we forget our body. All the tensions fade and it starts to heal itself without efforts. This happens because when you are in emptiness, your consciousness is not bothering your body with his continuous "I am this". Try to believe

I think that in this quotation (originally posted by More pie guys) we can find all the key elements for a succesfull practice. Apparently, point 1 and point 3 are contraddictory! In fact, they are. In emptiness, you forget your body, while in qigong exercise you must listen to bodily sensations. They represent the two main road of cultivation: you can just practice emptiness and forget the body and have all the benefits of complete qigong set. Or you can practice half and a half. Using clinging to sensation up to a certain level and then cultivate emptiness. The master key is emptiness. Without emptiness, no high results can be achieved. You will also notice that the cultivation of emptiness will greatly improves the quality of your daily qigong exercise.

Hi Theories about yang qi, wind qi and this sort of things are common in taoist literature and teachings. I think that Healing Tao is much more qigong-like than taoist alchemy-style and my ideas are quite unpopular because of the famous formulas. For example, Chia never talk about this kundalini-like "yang qi" while he probabily experienced it. He want to be as more accessible as possibile and a qigong-like approach is good for this purpose. But Taoism is much more. The qi process in ironshirt is how I interpret certain phenomena. For more information about taoist school and accurate information about Qi, I strongly suggest to look at the works of Master Nan Huai-Chin and William Bodri. Highly recommended meditation expert

Thanks snowmonki What I consider to be the most relevant thing when talking about ZZ, is the tremendous help that it gives in arising the Yang Qi. This Qi is not the "wind Qi" targeted in usual qigong exercise, but it is a form of energy that becomes hot because it cleans the obstructions in the Qi channels making you healtier. It causes a sort of friction with the impurities of ying qi in the body. This yang Qi arises from stillness of the mind in sitting meditation also, but ZZ makes it stronger even if the mind is not completely empty (for example if one concentrates on relaxing, etc...). Iron shirt is a mean to combine the effects of yang Qi (which cleans the channels and create free flow of internal qi) and the "wind qi" that is stored in the fascia exclusively for martial purpose. There is not a definite line that say standing-> yang qi and breathing->wind qi because while holding the breath (similar to the state of hsi embrionyc breathing), yang qi start to rise for example. In my opinion, the "packing" is a sort of compression: wind qi stored in the fascie opened by yang qi. But I'm not a Qigong master: this is a student's opinion.

It contains exactly what you are looking for .. and it is a perspective of a skilled practitioner that talk about physical transformation occuring when the qi mai are open and so on. The autor is Nan Huai-Chin, a renowed enlightened Master. A treasure, not a common book on taoist alchemy.

Please check this amazing book before attempting MCO Tao and longevity

Iron shirt was supposed to be the "advanced aspect" of basic zhang zhuan. If you keep the standing position in emptiness for long enough, you will have all the benefits in terms of chi channels purification and healing that the most advanced meditation can provide. In facts, people who engage zhang zhuan end in loving it a lot! When you acquire a certain proficency in basic standing, you will go trough process of chi mai purification such as trembling, hot sensations, bad smell and so on. If you want to speed this process, you can add breathing tecnhiques, but if you cannot hold the position for long time, this will not work correctly because you need a little degree of preliminary purification. Originally Chia teaches very carefully the standing postures stressing the need to master the position for long time, but for marketing routines he had to teach basic and advanced in a single seminar. People usually prefers being involved in advanced practices and miss the basis,then get problems and write articles online about how dangerous a practice can be. Even teachers who don't get physichal problems tend to miss the necessary emphasys on the foundation. You will have tremendous benefits in mastering the basic standing for long time and the breathing exercise will just add value to an extremely effective technique.

Hi Seadog, the two practices described are very powerfull and have a great healing effect. Your ideas are good in y opinion. What people usually ignores is that a student is supposed to master the iron shirt standing position in complete relaxation for at least one hour, before attempting the forced breathing. At that point, you are able to release all possible tension that the forced breathing may cause to you and avoid all possible ills effects. A good choice would be to start to visualize your skeleton in iron shirt posture. This will help greatly the process of relaxation and make the exercises for bone marrow much more effective.

According to Ouspensky, it is a fact that a series of secret teachings can lead people to the higher degree of spiritual practice. The common reader assumes that extremely misterious things are passed down trough millenia by esoteric schools. That's not completely true because the only true teaching that can lead you to complete enlightment is extremely simple and his method is the method of no-method of Zen. All the other stuff like chakras works, chi mai cultivation and so forth are means to reach a minor stage of the path in very short time, but this does not mean that it's impossible to make progress without thoose things. According to vajrayana practitioners who play hard with chi mai, chakras, etc..., dzogchen is a higher eaching which encompass the chi mai cultivation. Just look at the italian saint Padre Pio. He achieved incredible results without knowing secrets method of cultivation. He had only christian means and he applied that in the proper way with high intensity. He had no esoteric super-master like Gurdjieff. A lot of school make all sorts of claims today, but most of them are just rituaistic voidness. I suggest to look before anchorites and hermits of our time to learn practices that works for sure... and than work hard toward enlightment