QiDr

Hagar, Your baby sounds very cool. My son had a very similar effect on me from the day he was born. I used to do meditations in the same room he was sleeping in and would feel his pure presence so strongly that it would force me to "come out of it" to check on him, he was always o.k. My wife and I have encouraged him to meditate and work with his Qi since he was a toddeler. He has, on many occasions, come to my wife or I when we were ill, placed his hands on us and we were no longer ill. We try not to make too much of it because we do ot want his ego awareness to taint his pure use of his Qi. Your son is special, as many children born during this time are, it is never to early to start gently grooming him.

Qi Gong is the most researched medical practice in Asia for the last forty years. Most of the research has been published in the Chinese and japanese languages. Having said that, "the Tao that can be known is not the true Tao".

If you need a teacher be prepared to travel. If you are actively seeking a teacher he/she will be the one who does not proclaim their mastery. It is a Taois statement of fact that "he who speaks the loudest knows the least".

In my youth I spent years breaking bricks, boards, concrete blocks, etc. Those who have never done it say it is a tick or physics or some such thing but the truth of the matter is, you just need to learn to think beyond the brick and touch the floor.

My sixteen year old son is going into his senior year of High School and has a similar point of view and the same questions. My sage advise to him is, even though things seem to suck in the world of secondary ed, if he loses momentum now, it may be some time before he is able to get back in the swing of academia. My suggestion is, keep doing something, a trade or technical school can be a great thing for a year or two, it can give him some skills that can help him get a little financial stability and help him decide if something more academic is what he wants. My wife and I are lifetime learners, we both continue to explore every thing from ecological studies, language to alternative medicine and philosophy. Formal and informal study for life keeps the mind clear and the heart free. Good luck with whatever decision you make.

Shou Wu is used primarily as a blood tonic, the reason it is good for hair is that blood is the source of hair. shou wu tends to be cloying and should not be used by itself in cases of spleen deficiency, most people in the US that have alopecia are spleen deficient too. Fact is, there are few Chinese herbs that are recommended to be used alone.

Tobacco was not introduced to China until the fifteen hundreds and is not listed in any of the twelve volumes of Chinese materia medica I own. I had one teacher years ago in TCM school who said that smoking could probably be usefull short term to clear damp from the lungs but, in long term use, the hot smoke would surely injure the lungs. We can extrapolate that, used internally, tobacco that has not been sugar cured is bitter and enters the heart and small intestine. It is most certainly toxic and has been used in the Americas as a purgative for tape worms so it would probably fall under the catagory of "herbs that expel parasites". Since most of the herbs in this catagory that have this action are cold, we can again presume that tobacco is bitter cold and toxic, entering the heart and large intestine.

"Liver (the storehouse of anger)" Liver stores blood and is injured by anger as well as other emotions, especially depression. "tonifying whatever organs are too weak to control Liver Fire (usually the Kidneys)." Kidneys control the heart and heart fire, liver is controlled by lung and large intestine. The function of the liver is coursing and discharging and storing blood. Liver Qi can become stagnant and eventually lead to liver fire but that does not happen quickly. " TCM is not a modality that has invented any talking therapies" Talk therapy in TCM is the inquiry stage of every treatment. The Yellow Emporer's Classic of Medicine (Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen) states in chapter 78 that on of the four lapses of a physician is "Ineptitude in the investigation and consideration of the patient's mental emotional condition"

The actual start of the lunar new year is the 18th and runs for fifteen days. The ancient rituals were about scarring away beasties with noise and the color red. The modern rituals are about making new beginings and celebrating the home and family. they mostly revolve around saimian, oranges and dumplings and eating. It is as good a start to the year as you could ask.

DanC, If you scan the box it came in and send it to me I will look at it for you. There are a LOT of formulas out there from a LOT of manufacturers, I know of at least four different "Happy Capsules" so I would have to see it.

Philosophical Taoism is indeed based in scientific inquiry, however one cannot confuse Taoist science with Cartesian science, it is not the same thing. Cartesian science is based on the concept of dissective discovery. It seeks to whittle reality down to it's core constituents and then use randomized controlled trials to determine the nature of those constiuents. The underlying premise is that the parts have greater mechanistic value than the whole. Taoism is based on the holistic nature of man and the universe. The the core conceptual reality is unnamable and unknowable, this is not mysticism (Philosophical Taoism is a form of dialectical materialism), it is simply that the whole of the universe is beyond the mind of man. The quest for knowledge is indeed thrilling but that quest, in Philosophical Taoism, is not mysticism. If one is interested in mysticism look into Religious Taoism, it's chock full of it.

I have been doing the MCO for years and in the system I practice it is fundamental. The MCO was not invented by Chia but certainly was popularized by him in the West. The practices main function is to unite the Du and Ren meridians and to increase the Ming Men fire, when the Ming Men fire travels up the Du meridian it effects the Yang meetings and creates the so called CCO. When I asked my teacher how long to practice the MCO he said, "I tell you when discontinue practice", He never did.

This looks like a reworking of Ilchi Lee's "Brain Respiration Qi Gong". This has been very big in Korea for several years and Dr. Lee has been promoting it in the West as Dahn Yoga (as well as some other names). Dr. Lee approached me when I was at PIHMA wanting to know if we could include his teaching in the curriculum. I passed on it at the time and he later went up to Sedona to open the Dahn Retreat Center. I practiced it for a while, IMO, it is microcosmic orbit and some others packaged together and presented with a West-med slant.

Turn right at the first star, then, straight on 'till morning. Peter P.

As Treena said, purging is an example of dirrigation but not the organ, we only dirrigate meridians. Coursing the Qi through the meridians using breath and mind-will to push the Qi through any blockages (usually found at acupoint sites) until you feel a smoother flow of Qi throughout the system.

What I am hearing here is that Mantak Chia has impacted a lot of people, helped them to discover Taoism, maybe helped set some ideas and practices in motion. I am hearing that some people have outgrown him as a teacher. Great! That is the best thing that can happen to a teacher, is for his students to outgrow him, that means he did his job. I am also hearing that some still feel that they can benifit from his teachings especially, if the delivery was modified somewhat. Great! This way Chia's work can still find it's way into the hands of young martial artists with a curiosity for such things. And, years later, when those martial artists have become sage taobums and are ready to move on, they can. On another note, Buddhism and Taoism are not the same thing, and many do not think they are particularly compatable.

Supplementation Qi Gongs work much the same way that Qi Gongs used for martial and spiritual achievement work. The combined forces of breath, posture and mind-will are brought to bear on particular organ systems and the metabolism (Yang and Yuan Qi), of the organs are increased. This is a good thing if the organ in question is functioning at a lower metabolic level than is optimal, but if the organ is hyperfunctional, supplementing Qi Gong will only worsen the condition. Dirrigation Qi Gongs are used on hyperfunctional organs or on channels and network vessels that are sluggish or blocked. Dirrigation Qi Gong dredges the channels and organs the way one would dredge a canal. All of the accumulated debris; old tennis shoes, shopping carts and other flotsam that find their way into canals create blockages to the flow of water in the canals, so the county goes around on a semi annual basis to dredge the canal to restore the free flow of water. This is similar what we are doing when we utilize dirrigation Qi Gong, only instead of using backhoes and tractors, we use the combined force of breath, posture and mind-will to restore free flow to our channels and health to our organs. Dirrigation Qi Gong is usually used only when the organ is hyperfunctional or the meridian system is blocked. Using dirrigation on a weak organ system or on channels that are already free flowing can cause vital bioenergy to be drained away which in turn aggravates the deficit condition or weakens the meridian network. The example of the kidney is good because it is the end of the line as far as the body's ability to nourish itself is concerned. Every other organ system needs to be fully operational and full to capacity of their respective source energy before the kidney recieves the overflow. The kidney is also the most internal organ and is most prone to stagnation and accumulation. So, for the kidneys, instead of working directly on the organ, the focus can be on the gate of life (ming men), increasing the yang qi in the gate of life warms the kidney as well as the other organs which leads them eventually to nourish the kidney. Chinese physiology is complex and you ask a good question, did this help?

My wife and I did the Five Rites for several months, I practiced them in place of my regular Qi Gong and she in place of her regular Dao Yin yoga. She went back to her regular yoga practices because she said it was more holistic and a better work out. I just didn't feel much one way or another so I went back to my regular practices too. Maybe I didn't give it long enough?

I don't want to beat the horse to death but, the point I was trying to make before is that; if one is going to use language as a vehicle, language matters. If an idea has been well thought out it should be deliverable in few, simple words (see Lao Tzu). One of my teachers said that if you could not explain what you were doing, so that a seven year old could understand it, you had no business doing it.

Thanks Taoist81! As this is the eight (and last) of the highest energy days of the year, we take today and tomorrow as special days when the Highly Evolved Spirits are more active. In our household we fast and do purification ceremonies throughout the day and try to avoid events that tax the spirit and the flesh. We especially make an effort to wish well the people who mark our life and project good energy to the new year. Health Wealth Peace and Bliss!

Thanks! The characters mean Jade Dragon Chuan Fa. This is the martial system I practice. Jade Dragon is a balanced system including internal and external exercises and forms as well as meditation practices. The symbol is my own design, it is a re-interpretation of a Han dynasty jade carving.

Welcome Monk, If you have not already read the Tao Te Ching, buy as many translations as you can find/afford and spend the next lifetime reading and meditating.. The rest will come of it's own.

Right, I forgot, if you and Yoda say it's cool, it's cool.