Yoda

I know it doesn't make *any* sense. I usually try to make my ideas at least remotely possible from the perspective of a new agey scientist who's been hit on the head. Mrs Yoda is a PhD biology type scientist and obviously I don't even bother to hatch my theories to her. This "Incredible Journey" story about a boy and his sperm really struck a chord with me, though.

I am reminds me of dog food and Yahweh... I am using it inconsistently... sometimes it works sometimes not, but I am sitting now and that's a good addition to my practice life. I can't get it to be independent of my breath, it turns into a breathing exercise for me. Can you do it rhythmically yet independent of your breath? The closest I can get is to imagine myself listening to Gregorian chanting of I am.

Some sungazer gurus say not to mix the two, but Winn says that it is fine to do so and that moon gazing may be more healthy for already overyangified Americans. It was my understanding from what he said that this would be external alchemy.

Any alchemists know anything about sulfur? My yoga operation is getting off the ground and I've a ways to go before I'll win the gold medal in this event. Always looking for the secret weapon, I'm taking Glucosamine with MSM (sulfur) for tendon and joint health. I have no idea if it is working, but friends and gurus like Steve Maxwell swear by it. According to the bottle, sulfur is 'vital in the formation of collagen, connective tissue, and healthy joint cartilage.' Sulfur is a big player in alchemy, but that's all I know. -Yoda

Us taobums are certainly indebted to the first generation of HT test pilots. Trunk, Plato and Ron and many others have really advanced the discourse of the subject far better than the gurus themselves, actually. Fortunately for myself as well as most taobums, we tend not to buy into extreme views that sperm retention is mission critical to save the world or to save one's immortal soul after death. Given that, what we are playing for is pretty nerf... better quality of life in the here and now. And that is something that each of us is capable of assessing in the moment in order to direct their swimmers in the desired direction. So it's not a particularly big deal. There are plenty of excellent, vigorous, and long-lived lives out there who haven't paid much heed to sperm conservation. More power to them. For an energy practitioner, don't spooge within 3-4 hours after an energy practice and you'll make fine progress. Still... mastering retention is a ***big prize*** and a huge boon to one's practice if one can swing it happily. It's definitely in my sights and big on my to do list. If I go to my grave without mastering it, I won't loose sleep or anything. It's not worth crimping my happiness, but I certainly will do everything that I can to make it happen. I was born in 1968 and there was no information. Not only on retention, but sex in general except the feeling, in my family at least, that sexuality was problematic. Damn we've come a long ways in a few short years! My next life I'll have this shit iced by the age of 12 and later I'll be experiencing sexuality on 13 planes simultaneously and shit. But of course the first book on multiplanar sex will have its glitches and panicky moments where you wonder where your dick is .

Nice Avatar, btw. I've not had any experiences of shapes, but I love having a positive emotional response. They say that the extent to which you experience love while sungazing is the extent to which you will benefit from the practice. Sounds like that would apply to any other practice or moment of life experience for that matter.

The Japanese incense is good like sage but smells classier. Fire up the smoke, light a few candles, do some rituals and meditate. When you can meditate peacefully that means that you and your house are peaceful again. Do a lot of healing sounds and visualize negative energy leaving the house when you do a sound. Then do an inner smile practice for your house and then rest in bliss. Wing it!

WW rocks! It's a real taobums score! It is actually very similar to the mobility aspects of Chia's morning meditation routine. It opens the joints and lets the chi pour in all day long. Also, since you get more comfortable moving your body, your body in turn relaxes and you gain flexibility without even trying. Absolutely amazing. It looks boring as hell, so getting started with it is the most challenging aspect. But once you've done it for a few days you'll be hooked. Plato and Michael say that it improves one's sex life too. I consider practices like it to be very foundational to energy practices both energizing and relaxing. As Pavel says, makes you feel like a million bucks. I'm doing yoga too, but yoga seems more muscular and WW is more joint oriented they seem to have a distinct effect, but I can't quite articulate it at the moment. That's another one for Sean's future article on yoga practice. Also, I gave Freedom By Degree to Sean. It's an advanced version of WW. I'm sure he'll lend it out if anyone is interested. -Yoda

One of the most important points is not to blow your load shortly after energy practice like standing or mco. (simple sitting practice shouldn't be a problem, imo). Wait a few hours for the energy to settle down. Several teachers I've read emphasize this point and it is very true in my experience. It feels great in the moment, but it's not worth it in the long run. Back off retention if it causing any disturbances in the force. Probably the best route is to shoot once every X days and slowly, gradually increase that period until you find the optimal setting for your current situation. For me, it's an energy level vs sanity equation. I think learning retention is worth enduring some discomfort, but not to an extreme degree. I like Bodri, but I think I've found his replacement in the AYP dude. I'll review his book when I get it. He's a little more chilled out than Bodri and he's not fighting taoism the way Bodri does either. My personal practice discussion will report on my new modified recipe for long term retention. -Yoda

The plan is to very gradually introduce Pilates style exercises as my tummy can deal with it. Right now I'm doing the five tibetans plus extra situp type stuff and that's good enough for the moment. One thing I'm noticing is that after doing this stuff and then letting my pulse rate fall and doing sitting meditation with the hands in the classic, zen, cosmic mudra with the thumbs touching my ltt is breathing chi big time. Every inhalation my ltt is breathing in chi through the mudra. When I just sit without situps first, say just light yoga or nothing, I don't feel this effect. It feels very enriching. The basic situp seems to awaken the ltt and make it hungry. Cool stuff. This is the first time my ltt really feels awake and alive. I've noticed this ltt breathing before, but situps make the effect much stronger and more predictable.

Chris, Thanks! I'll play around with it. -Yoda

Chris, Did I understand that correctly... that you can do the healing sounds while doing Winn's taichi for enlightenment/primordial chikung??? I'd love to try it. If so, do you do the sound when you face the particular direction or do you do lungs when you start/end on west and you just keep the sound going while you spin around. The explanation could get complicated to unpack I suppose, but thanks for any thoughts. Sounds wild! -Yoda

What's the difference between WW and Body Flow esp in terms of energy benefits? [edit] I just realized that I own the book. I also read the reviews of it on amazon to get up to speed. Sort of skimpy on actual drills and it's sort of like yoga in motion. That's what I remember from the book. As I'm sold on WW and want to get more into yoga/pilates type stuff, and to keep whatever I do moving oriented, I'll reread the book.

his bladder comment made me order his book. Good stuff.

It's harder to get a sex practice off the ground without it. You'd have to have more discipline and a more supportive partner, but it's still doable. Michael Frost calls it the "training wheels" of sex practice. You do it for awhile, and then back off once retention becomes a habit and only used in cases of emergency. If you experience pain or discomfort, try pushing on a point further back. It shouldn't be painful or uncomfortable. Obviously, if you have any kind of potential prostate problems don't do it. I'm with Chia--there's a lot of stretchiness and if you are pushing the right point, there's no build up of pressure either--you are stopping the sperm from getting into the pump chamber to begin with. That's an important distinction too. As there still is some loss of sexual energy, it actually helps with retention overload issues. I think retention is just a tricky practice period and jing loss accidents can make the practice safer, so the three finger technique can give the whole practice more power. It's hard to say how disciplined one should be in their sex lives. The AYP guy praises the three finger technique as an intro technique too. His discussion of male sexuality is worth reading, btw. He says that the three finger practice reduces the pleasure of the orgasm so trains the practitioner to take pleasure in the process, not the destination. In any case, he says you can still make pranic progress if you blow yer load once every 1-2 weeks. So that's good. More than once a week and you aren't reaping the benefits of energy oriented practices but you are still benefitting from meditation oriented practice, just progress will go more slowly as there isn't much energy there.

what book is that in? I face east. I just experimented and that seems to be the best direction for me. I like your avatar, btw.

awesome results! Some people dig that sort of isometric training. Some people like Bruce Lee and Steve Justa claim that it does much more than make you strong, but actually energizes you and develops lots of focus. Many say that it is mysteriously powerful. I've never tried it.

The dude mentioned that sperm naturally travels into the bladder as they swim towards the brain. It's the first stop on their path. That made a lot of sense to me. When I'm in a retention phase, I often notice sperm in my urine even though there should be absolutely none present. And I wouldn't experience any loss of power. Now I'm thinking that that is just part of their normal migration pattern that they make when they face overcrowding downstairs.

Great innovation! I just invented a practice too... after the 6 healing sounds and I picture each organ with a little smiley face like in the books, then they all start to sing like the chipmunks. A good drill to do around christmas to get your viscera into the holiday spirit. Who's Avin's partner, I forget.

fully diggin this site, the dude is the new and improved Bodri. Here's a quote that sums him up: First, tantric sex is in a similar category with mulabandha/asvini and siddhasana, and success with these sexual energy-stimulating practices is dependent on continuing global purification through spinal breathing and deep meditation. You can go only so far with tantric sex without the prerequisite practices. Then progress slows down because you are using sexual energy alone for purification that requires broader and deeper measures in the nervous system. The same is true of the sitting practices that stimulate sexual/kundalini energy alone. Without spinal breathing and meditation, things will bog down. There can also be imbalances, kundalini symptoms, etc. So, sitting practices are very important, spinal breathing and meditation in particular, to complete the journey with a minimum of slowdowns and detours. Like Bodri, sitting meditation is king and should be *the* practice if you only do one thing, then comes pranayama/mco type drills, then yoga asanas in importance. If you do all three daily, then do the asanas first, then pranayama, then the sitting. Good stuff, very clean and tight. I'm not sure where things like standing or sungazing would fit in, but it's good

You probably read the passage more carefully than I did. But I think he has a point, that if a woman lives just off clitoral orgasms, that may uproot her in the long run. Who knows. I'm not convinced that a man has that much authority to speak for a woman's sexuality. I just got the book, actually. When I previewed it on amazon I got super excited about it, but the actual practice discussion while excellent, was far too short per percentage of book space.

Sure, they have different connotations with bliss being defined as internal and pleasure as external, but still... you can't have one in your life without the other. The more bliss you have, the more pleasurable is life and vice versa. When people try to separate these two and say that pleasure is bad or bliss is too difficult to attain, they can subtly start to cut themselves off from the life force. God's got a sweet tooth, baby!

I was just pondering the same passage and there may be something to it. It fits Mrs Yoda's experience. She says the clitoral orgasms she gets from oral sex sends the energy upwards and too many of them makes her ungrounded and gives her a headache. A vaginal orgasm from sex sex brings the energy down and earths it and is best to end on. Her description reminds me of taoist critiques of kundalini type yoga that points out the faults of only sending energy upwards. You can't store as much energy in the head, so it's easy to loose your charge out while experiencing overload problems like headaches.

can't have one without the other, imo.