Lozen

Actually they took him off of his vegan diet and are giving him meat and hoping the protein will help his brain heal faster... But the healer I am bringing is really really good. She told me not to bring him chocolate. I am baking cornbread.... I'm gonna see how she does and how he's doing I guess....

Okay, I'm having trouble researching how to disperse excess earth... Other than cayenne pepper, anybody know any good foods? Or techniques? I know you are supposed to tonify wood to control earth, but I forget what that means... I am hitting a blank for some reason, with all my tons of books and carefully copied notes...

Interesting. Ken Cohen says that menstruation is natural and healthy, that cutting the red dragon doesnt' allow blood to descend and that unless women are capable of alchemically transforming blood into spirit, blood stasis develops, and this depletes the body of blood and nourishment and can lead to anemia and accelerated aging. Dr. Flaws said not to do this unless you are under supervision of a qualified master who can help if something goes wrong. Cohen says that stopping menstruation is yu wei not wu wei, that it is interfereing with nature, that menstruation is a natural process of yin and yang changing into one another (yin increasing 'til ovulation, yang increasing until the period) and wonders if it is safe to interfere with the cycle. The old static blood needs to be expelled so the new can be created... Cohen asks what effect would stopping and reinstating the period have on the health of children conceived, and he also wonders to what extent the variation on the Female Deer excercise was created by "a patriarchy that didn't want to be 'inconvenienced' by the woman's period or who believed in the superiority of teir own (relative lack) of biological cycles." (His words, not mine.) I tend to agree but I do really like the idea of both a woman's hut and avoiding intercourse during menstruation...as well as avoiding putting pressure on the dantien and caring for liver. I have been wondering what the female equivalent of saving kidney jing is, I know that women DEPLETE kidney jing (according to some) by having too many kids too soon. HMMM!

Have to respectfully disagree with you Michael... The goal I see it as trying not to be as far out of balance or stopping the pendulum from swinging quite so far. Leads to better health and as TCM folks know, health and emotional well-being are intricately bound together... "don't worry" isn't something someone with Earth issues can do without acupuncture, food changes, environmental changes, healing sounds, or qi gong. Sometimes all of those.

Heh heh, I keep telling you about my sharp knives, but ya just don't LISTEN!

TCM acupuncturist. Maybe what I have is what you said though, I have similar symptoms to her, minus the white tongue. Also it's been damper than usual here (weather wise)

Acupuncturist told her earth excess. Pulse, tongue diagnosis matches.

White coated tongue, heavy/sluggish, lots of damp in all forms including congestion and mucus, digestive problems, obsessive worrying, etc. etc. I finally dug up stuff on this but it's at home and I ain't so I'll post it later.

I thought it was a really good example of what happens when you get taken to the ground. Most karate schools will say "don't get on the ground." Not a very strategic defense. On the other hand, you want to factor if you are dealing with multiple people or armed before going on the ground... J ust read on another forum a story about an MMA guy who was sparring a guy who does I believe arnis. MMA guy took the arnis guy to the ground, mounted him and attempted a submission hold. The arnis guy took his training blade and stabbed him repeatedly...

LOL! It is not about the rice. Just old childhood trauma, or something.

Actually I changed my mind. This sounds cheesy but I just can't call the rice bad. I am a wimp and it makes me too sad.

I'll do it.

It is interesting to notice how much more crime there is in Tucson every summer. I think this is directly traceable to the weather patterns. For example, we had one of the hottest weekends ever, and there were four homicides (unrelated) in a three-day period. So then the police deployed about forty more officers, who recovered SEVEN handguns and made more than a dozen arrests over one weekend. Anybody noticed anything like this? My friend's wife is a psychiatrist and says people are much more manic in the summer, and just in Tucson in general. She had a practice in Washington state and people were more depressed over there. Interesting huh? So next time someone holds a gun to my head, I'll say, "No no no, really what you need is a piece of fruit!"

The weather is insane, I think we had like 37 days of straight 100 degree temperatures. The rains FINALLY came, eventually... Some guy explained it to me, that the Bermuda high has been weaker than normal, hence all of the rain and weird weather in FL, the hurricanes, etc. Then the high pressure moved towards the middle, hence Emily. He said we needed tropical storm Eugene to move up to CA or something, haven't been keeping track though. Where did you do qi gong?

I am replying to myself, ha ha. More on this: I wonder how the anxiety and restlessness affects the heart and pericardium/heart protector/heart governor meridians... Like if the heart protector is supposed to govern who gets to see the heart, and the heart protector gives out, who knows what will get in.... I just did all this research on this for a friend now you get to read the fruits of my labor... I j ust think it's fascinating both how the heart meridian goes to the eyes and houses the Shen spirit so you can tell the state of someone's spirit by looking at their eyes, and also how people that have heart attacks will describe their pain as tracing the meridian... Also because of the broken heart study published in the New England Journal of Medicine about this "broken heart" condition people can get due to major, sudden emotional stress... Well, I could go on and on about this... I wrote out a list of dietary suggestions for this paranoid schizo tracker guy I was trying to help once and it was mostly like, no spicy food, lots of bitter food, green tea, anything red (watermelon, tomatoes, red aduki beans, hawthorne berries) and moistening food. Wheat, eggs, milk, pears, cucumbers, eggplant, bitter melon, etc. Here are the links! http://home.xtra.co.nz/hosts/Wingmakers/he...lear%5B1%5D.gif http://home.xtra.co.nz/hosts/Wingmakers/pe...lear%5B1%5D.gif

Did you get any more info? I heard vague rumors about someone who did reiki self-treatment in the Vipassana hall and like, lost it, her spirit burst, she was shaking and convulsing in a corner for a while. So that's when Vipassana decided energy work was evil. I'm really curious to hear more. I know people that practice both Vipassana and reiki--not at the same time of course... As far as practicing yoga for health... I don't know, a long time ago I went to a yoga class, got in some pose, closed my eyes and had visions of goddesses in a temple in ancient India. I was an avid atheist at the time, and was like, "Holy SHIT, I did not ask for THIS! I just wanted to stretch!!" There is a power and a history behind these movements that we can stir awake or tap into, voluntarily or not. What rubbed me the wrong way was that it seemed the Vipassana teachers/students thought *their* path was the deepest/best/most useful, etc. And also that they were very critical of people doing energy work as trying to change reality instead of accepting it. I do a bit of energy work when I'm instructed/called to, and I don't see it as trying to change/defy reality, I see it as a PART of reality... people go to the doc when they are sick too, instead of "accepting" it... This can get really deep so I will stop now...except to say that I know many Buddhist reiki practitioners who also do qi gong and they are well along the path...

Just come to Tucson and check out Seven Cups. It is THE BOMB. http://www.sevencups.com/tucson-tea-house.php

Are there any excercises to counter the effects of sleep deprivation? I mean, knowing that getting sleep is the ideal... but what would you use if you couldn't get any sleep? I am experimenting with warrior tea and with peppermint essential oil.

I dunno... I think coffee depletes kidney jing just like other stimulants... but I'm not sure kidney massage does. Hmmm...

From the Vipassana Old Student Guide: One Path Only "Do not mix this technique with others. If you have been practicing something else, you may attend two or three Vipassana courses to help you decide which technique you prefer. Then choose the one you find most suitable and beneficial, and devote yourself to it." Also: There are a number of special courses for old students in this tradition of Vipassana meditation practice. These courses have certain requirements which an old student must meet in order to qualify for admission. The basic qualification requirements are as follows: 1 Day or 3 Day Old Student Course for Vipassana: *Completion of at least one 10 day course with Goenkaji or one of his assistant teachers. *Those practicing energetic healing on others should not attend. *Should be keeping all precepts to the best of one's ability.

I really like this style I am training in, and it's not worth it for me to drive two hours each way unless I stay for both classes, which is 7:30-9 and 9-10:30. Luckily, I've been getting to bed on Saturdays and getting 8 hours before harvesting on Sunday. We have to get up early to beat the sun.

I'm with you, grrrl.

It's not that I *can't* sleep, it's that I make these ridiculous choices like getting up at 4 and 5 AM to drive to Phoenix to train, and then getting up at 4 or 5 AM again the next day to harvest plants before it's too hot out. I also work late hours so am used to going to bed at 2 AM. Hence my dilemma.

Tell me more about DMSO. I was considering putting it in a formula I have because I hear it is so transdermal. What is it, exactly?

John and Caitlin Matthews work The Western Way (I have read a translation) seems to cover your interest best. 5504[/snapback] Can you tell me more about the Matthews' book? I studied with them for a short time. Got some of the Celtic shamanism books here somehwere...