ChiDragon

Yes, take more than that but not just one time or one day and please keep us dated,

Based on your new input..... You don't know what is lower dantien and you don't do deep breathing, are a good indication of lack of energy instead of energy imbalance. There is no such thing as "energy imbalance", it is either you have energy or not. It seems to you have not received the proper instruction from you teacher or you had not learned the MCO procedure correctly. Please keep in mind, all martial arts and Chi Kung practices require the leaning of breathing. All the conditions in the above is an indication due to hypoxia, lack of oxygen. Especially, when a man was doing some self-pleasure on his own will cause him all these symptoms. The reason you feel slight headache and nauseous is because you don't know how to breathe. Especially, in you present condition, you are definitely have a breathing problem which need to be corrected. You should not do deep breathing but just breath slowly deep down to a comfortable point then stop and exhale slowly again. Most people will tell you to do deep breathing but they do not tell you how to correct your breathing problem before you can do deep breathing. Only breathing oxygen into your body will help you to generate energy. You can do all kind of the Chinese methods without breathing will lead you no where. Believe me, I have when through the same thing as you are experiencing now. Tai Ji or Chi Kung is you solution. PS... "And then there's of course the insomnia, as a result of the excess energy." This is a fallacy on your part. You are really lack of energy instead of the excess energy that was causing the insomnia. Energy always do you some good not something bad.

You meditate with your heart but not your mind. Concentrate on your breathing, when you inhale that you are inhaling; when you exhale that you are exhaling and think of nothing and hear of nothing. However, you want to hear all the sounds in your environment and let them pass by you. Let the sounds be natural to you then they will become voided. Just like that how you have stated and you knew already.

What are Post-Heaven QI and Pre-Heaven Qi to you......???

How does that affecting your quality of life....??? Physically or mentally......??? It seems to me may be both. Can you give more details. You do not have to publicize if you so desire. Thanks.

That is true, but let's not ignore them totally.

In the Taoist practice, "emptiness" is to have the mind in a state of serenity, quietness, or tranquility. "Reducing" is to alleviate the unwanted desires or ill will.

I guess you are not following my different points of views. There are many meanings for the character "氣". It is not advisable just to be stagnated in half of what you had learned.

Don't worry. Only the words from the one reveals what one knows. I never just a person by one's character.

The former is always the case, not just nowadays. Nowadays, I do consider Qi is air from a linguistic point of view; and Qi is oxygen from a Qigong breathing point of view. However, as far as Qiogong goes, I consider that Qi is "breathing". For what has been said, I considered that Qigong is the ultimate method of breathing.

I would like to point out couple things. This article mistranslated the term Tuna((吐納), The way I have it is correct in post #181. Few thousand years ago, the ancient Taoists did not know any about oxygen. However, they knew something was in the air which is good for our health. Actually, the character 氣(chi) means "air"; but the later Taoists thought air was something else. They were assuming that they were breathing something else in the air which was "chi". In the article, it was mentioned as "external chi". If we give it a subtle thought, actually, it is the "oxygen" in the air. We cannot deny the fact that modern science is telling us that it was the oxygen in the air has been given us all the health benefits; rather than not some other unknown imaginary factor.

Nobody is perfect because there is something missing in the process to get there. If one doesn't look for the process, then, one is not in the pursuit of perfection.

Yes, I do breathe.........

That was perfect, you were able to make correction to be perfect. I thought there something was missing......

I think what you meant is: if one cannot do the full lotus then do the half. Let's not force oneself to do something that is going to regret.

If you ran out of resources, try this to exercise your body holistically but slowly.

1. Most perfection seems lacking, 2. Its function is endless. Even though one has reached perfection, but it seems there is still something missing because nobody is perfect. However, for being perfect, it helps to accomplish all other things.

These two lines seem paradoxical because that was writing style of Lao Tze. He never mean what he say nor say what he meant. One must understand his thoughts to interpret the TTC. Have you read Post #4 for the annotation....???

So did he..........

It sounds like you are not ready for the abdominal breathing. In Chi Kung breathing, you don't need to breathe into your perineum but into your abdomen so to speak. For a beginner, you may not be able to breathe into the abdomen or lower dantien if you have a breathing problem to begin with. What you need to do is give yourself a breathing test to see how far down can you breathe. Find out where does your breath stops to establish a baseline. What I meant is for a good start, you practice your breathing by stopping your breath at the baseline and increase the depth progressively. Why don't you try to stop your breath at the baseline each time you breathe and see if your cramp goes away. If it does, then you are on the right track. Later on, you can increase the depth slowly in your breathing until the cramp is gone.

Invisible chair.

Everything to a westerner is energy but qigong is the ultimate method of breathing to a Chinese Chi Kung master.

Tuna(吐納) is the genuine and authentic Taoist breathing method. It is the ancient ultimate method of breathing. Nowadays, it has been known as "Chi Kung". Tu(吐): Exhale Na(納): Inhale Since it is the Taoist breathing method, therefore, inhale with the abdomen fully expanded outward; and exhale with the abdomen fully indented inward. Edited to correct the character from 吶 to 納.

Half or full lotus has nothing to do with the energy flow. It is only a matter of capability of the practitioners can they do it or not.