Yoda

cool drill, nice articulation too.

flipping around that Luk book, and siddhasana is in it too. He says to sit on a piece of wood with cotton over it so chi doesn't run out of your ass while meditating. I can grok that. He also says to use a clothespin over the nose so the chi doesn't escape out of the top hatch. Any thoughts on that one?

sounds intense! Is it enjoyable?

the heel is the traditional thing, but you can keep your feet flat on the ground if you use a sock if you are into that sort of thing. Also, you can better control the amount and contour of stimulation with a sock or a cloth or something. I've only been doing AYP for a few months, so it's new territory for me but seems promising so far. Yogani claims that the key to altruism is siddhasana/sock sitting. It makes bliss bubble up to the point that the practitioner has enough bliss and can then change perspective from needing things from the world to giving things to the world. Quite a claim! I'll cross that bridge when I get there! Apparently, it takes many months to acclimate to so that meditation isn't distracted by the power of it but is rather enhanced. I do some practice with it and some without at the moment.

I think there are so few masters b/c the various esoteric traditions have been too stingy and ignorant about effective practices. Definitely give advancedyogapractices.com a read through. His zillions of tips on spinal breathing and its relationship to sexuality, meditation, and stretching have really breathed new meaning to mco for me. Condensed into one sentence: sit on a sock to steam your sperm. A goal for 2006 is to open my orbit to the point I can consistently feel the energy travel through the entire circuit.

Has anyone made any significant progress in this area and would like to share the steps they did personally? I've made this same cattle call to the masses on this and on the HT board. Nobody except for Ron Jeremy who no longer posts here seems to have the desire/ability to do long term retention. I go nuts around day 100 and take comfort in improving my orbit in the meantime. Having said that, I think most folks here have made significant progress in some aspect of sexual practice. Any kind of consistent practice, even if it's all over the map, will pay off. I think the big thing that general chikung practice delivers is sensitivity to energy flows and levels and the ability to pull in energy more quickly and easily. Being able to handle higher levels of energy is something that also develops, but much more slowly imo.

damn, I thought you were going to post the answer. My current answer is from Winn--that once you open the orbit, retention is easy but until you do that there isn't much gained by counting the days, trying to be the hero on willpower alone. I'm making good strides on just a few minutes a few times a day with the orbit plus I'm reading Luk's Taoist Alchemy book for the first time about the orbit and it's relation to retention. Just starting the book, but it's killer. I can see why it was RJ's bible. We've all heard the basics, but it's great context and adds some nuggets here and there. The book claims to be able to not only reverse grey hair (I have a few) but actually to regrow teeth. That's something that RJ was never able to achieve through it, though. (I have a lost filling--I'll check it out) So far in the book, Luk alludes to but doesn't expand upon the importance of quiet stillness practice to compliment the orbit practice and from what I've learned from AYP, the relationship is crucial. At the moment, if I do sexually activated MCO and slurp my sperm to my brain right before going to sleep that isn't good for my dreams--they get overcharged. But I don't feel like sitting up to meditate, so I'm rubbing my tummy for a bit and practicing the healing sounds and hopefully that will take care of it.

He makes Bodri and Furey seem meek, but fun nevertheless. He's selling himself as the Chikung master for Wallstreet types, so it's not very affordable for normal incomes. I've heard from people who have bought his material that the actual practices are similar to what other halfway decent teachers offer.

Scott must be a geminii--his teachings evolve pretty fast. Seems like they are headed in a taoist direction, though. So if we just work on our Intuflowing and do our normal thing, we should stay within hailing distance at least for a few years!

I'd also mention Dr. Lin's anal breathing. You can Trunkify it if you squeeze the anus on the end of the exhale. I prefer to send the energy straight to the third eye w/o going around the top of the head. I've heard reliable sources say different things about the safety of the three finger technique. You be the judge. Advancedyogapractices.com in the tantric section has a good writeup of it. http://www.aypsite.com/T5.html

Scott's system is the most entertaining, so it's more my thing than other systems.

A friend of mine once said that therapy and self improvement is like a woman going to the gym everyday to gradually build up to lifting 50 lbs, but when her child is stuck under a car she has no trouble picking the car up. That spiritual growth is about lifting the car up, not about lifting the 50lbs. With extreme bhakti to "save all sentient beings" being the deciding factor. Obviously this story supports a very elitist perspective of spirituality like you see in Bodri and the Tibetans and so forth. I think that level of passion is a wonderful thing, but not necessary for a full spiritual life. Just living on this planet, breathing the air, reading Cosmo, etc is a very spiritual thing. Spirituality is inescapable. Spirituality and therapy are the same thing in my mind. I just personally prefer 'teachers' over gurus and therapists. Cam made a good point, that the era of gurus is over. The current wave of interest in esoteric spirituality just wants results and doesn't really have time for involved guruing.

Awesome Job!!!! Beautiful website too!!

Cool thread. I think Chia, Yudelove, and Ron Jeremy all point out that there are some imbalances in the practice. In my opinion, I believe that energy practice without the balancing of meditation practice is what leads to these imbalances. Not that the practices are flawed, just incomplete. I think Winn's teaching and his example are much more balanced, but still not emphasizing the meditation aspects enough. But enough to at least stay sane, which is refreshing. A guy like Ken Cohen does present a more balanced practice, and I think his accessible teachings and personal decency reflect that. -Yoda

My name is Yoda and I'm an addict... Seriously though, I'm fine with people getting therapy and I do think that people can be a good influence on others and that some people are very gifted at this sort of thing and it's all about being groovy and if that involves things besides sex, drugs, and rock n roll then go with it. It's good that you found somebody groovy. I think other people are helpful with reframing conceptual patterns which can be useful. I think the word meditation has it's root meaning "to heal" as well. Grooviness by ANY means necessary including paxil, killing your enemy, sleeping with your sister, etc is the way to go. I'd draw the line at Mom, but that's just me. -Yoda

I believe it's possible to regenerate teeth, but I've not heard of any stories.

A vibe from Bodri's article is that it doesn't really matter what sort of stretching... yoga, sonnon, pilates, MA, etc just do something. I'd say Sonnon's mobility stuff is definitely the funnest.

I, personally, am fairly remedial at this sort of thing so actually I haven't changed my WW workout that much since getting intuflow except that I've added the clubs. I agree that Intuflow is a superior product and presentation; and for somebody more advanced than I the difference would be pretty big.

I'm not into therapists or gurus... I've got enough shit to deal with on my own, thanks! Cam, When I'm negative I do feel "trapped" and "contracted" and when I'm feeling good I feel expansive and free. I like to think that feeling good=love=egolessness and feeling negative=ego. In that respect, kids are quite egoless even though they gun for the lolipop harder than adults do. Adults are too encased to give that lolipop a good chase. About dreams, if dreams are spiritually charged but a bit too intense and this gets established as a pattern, that could be a sign you need to back off on the high energy stuff possibly. You might using Tao in a bottle to push it a little too aggressively. I think I may be doing that right now too. -Yoda

I looked on the store shelves and sure enough, Colgate just came out with a new calcium fortified toothpaste. Keep in mind--it's all about getting enough calcium and vitamin d, not about what you brush with.

I like wide and white too. And as I'm the guy who actually lives here, that's appreciated. I wouldn't worry about narrow monitors... I doubt many people have them, and even if they do, the avatars take up a lot of space that they can just shift to the right and it'll work fine.

Belzebuub is back!! With a new age gig this time! What's his book called?

I just use sea salt. An aquired taste, but I like it. The pioneers used salt to brush their teeth back in the day too. About hair, have you tried Yudelove's hair breathing? Just breath in through any and all hairs on the body.

I heard cod liver oil helps due to the vit d.

I'm thinking of putting together something for the article section about the teachings of RJ. And I'd like to brainstorm some of his contributions to our forum. Here are some of the things he taught that come to mind: retention to intensify energy mco during/after sex practices and as a formal practice to redistribute energy. three finger technique for emergencies running and exercise for processing energy mco/Mco during exercise. importance of mco in dream practice importance of direction of gaze to influence direction of energy importance of resting after x number of thrusts, or his 10 minute max stim rule. During the rest, switch to cunnilingus and do mco. Or just chill in solo, of course. That's the list that comes to mind, any other pointers anyone can remember? -Yoda