Yoda

Just a reminder...spring equinox tomorrow (20th)--might be a cool day to do nature practices, soak up the sun, etc. -Yoda

the sungazing world recommends bare feet, and Hira Ratan Manek recommends bare feet on sand or bare earth but not on grass as there's too much energy that will flow out of the suncharged body. Sand probably doesn't conduct electricity very well--much like shoes in my opinion. HRM says that the feet can pick up mineral nutrition from the ground. Right now, I'm doing whatever with shoes or without shoes but staying off the grass when sungazing. I doubt it matters much, but it's good to be aware of as a potential variable. -Yoda

Fellow Taobums, Before sungazing, I kept my jing for one to three weeks at a stretch and that was pretty good by my standards. My primary practice was the key sound technique at multiples.com. If I did this technique for 20 minutes, 3-4x a week it helped circulate the energy and kept things balanced and had a very groovy effect on dual cultivation as well. After sungazing, jing retention became more difficult and I pretty much slacked off any discipline and now I'm ready to get back into it. Here's what I'm wondering... as nice as the key sound is, it's a solo, aroused practice. Due to my own propensities and the fact that there are kids thrashing about the entire house most of the time, I'd rather ditch any aroused, solo type practices if possible. I'm exercising and doing zen type sitting meditations to tame the sungazing energy and they are good, but haven't significantly helped out in the retention dept. So I'm looking for an unaroused practice that I can do in 15 minutes or less per day to facilitate retention. I've never messed with microcosmic sitting so I'll start experimenting with that sort of thing. Any general suggestions on microcosmic meditation, perineum squeezing breathing, testical breathing, visualizations, yoga postures, etc? I'm optimistic that I can find an unaroused practice that'll do the job, but I can always bring back a late night key sound practice if need be. Your pal, Yoda

dual (or trio or quatro cultivation...for any of you lucky taobums) is sex with a partner. Aroused is being "in the mood"... you know the drill! You can also circulate sexual energy in its cool state without being turned on, like many versions of microcosmic orbit or testical breathing where the energy circulates through the sexual center but you aren't feeling desirous, etc. -Yoda

Peter, Your mentioning the "birds and the bees" was intriguing. Please say more. I've heard it said that music can setup neural patterns in the brain. For instance that listening to Beethovin's late string quartets just once establishes neural patterns for processing emotional energy, etc. Is that what you meant by listening to birdsong as formative for jing structuring? -Yoda PS I did listen to the late string quartets just once, but didn't notice anything transformative.

Rex and Sunshine-- Thanks for your thoughts. My two year old tries to catch the stream as I urinate--so things are pretty invasive around here! Interesting that both ideas are parallel to key sound training in ways I hadn't considered before. As I said, I love that practice so I'll check out these modifications. They might be too subtle for me, but they sound very promising. Rex-- the heart sound is "ahhh" yes? Is it out loud or silent? Lower gates locked? Meaning perineum tightened? Spinning is clockwise? Sunshine--aroused meaning that there's a sexual feeling present. I'd prefer a "cool" practice, circulating sexual energy in its unaroused state. So you can just do the keysound just by itself for 10-15 minutes with no sexual stimulation or feelings? I know Mr Johnson claims that the sound itself has a powerful sexual, erotic, transmutative power used back in the Atlantis days as the way the enlightened souls made love... To me, it's as erotic as a fog horn, but I have felt its magical power during aroused practice, so I do have respect for it. For those reading, the keysound is basically UUUhhh-aaaaah that starts as low as comfortable and scoops/swoops up to a natural, blissful aaahhh sound. It's basically an application of the healing sounds in a sexual context parallel to Rex's practice. Normally done with modest solo/dual stimulation, but I'll check out the nada stimulation too. -Yoda

Here's a John DuCane thought on healing others. It made me think that one of my first exposures to chikung type practices was a healing one where the "healer" puts one hand on another's jade pillow and the other hand on their sacrum and simply allow energy to flow. I'm surprised how few times I've done this drill in my life given the fact that it's always very easy, fun, and powerful. I'm surprised that we don't read many posts along these lines either. Perhaps it's an intimacy thing. Don't know. http://www.dragondoor.com/qigong/news/ -Yoda

So the LA boxers are dominating in The Contender... do you spar with any of these guys? Your pal, Yoda

I guess they did seem a bit light on their toes, come to think of it. Thanks, Yoda http://www.ongbakmovie.com/ Muaytaiguy.

Michael, thanks for mentioning that-- the technique that I've used in the past follows the zen model of practice--no intention of healing, enlightening, or anything... just set up the circuit and the two energy bodies will begin to communicate and balance each other automatically.

Contender Gymnasium in Hollywood, CA--a big looking gym w/ columns in the front. Then again, it might just be a studio set(??) Let me know if you've seen it. LA won again last night. It's a good show--mostly just atmospheric build up for the fight at the end of the show. But you get to see a lot of the boxing culture. -Yoda

I don't know, but I'll keep my eyes open for the gym name. One challenge, they all had to race to the Hollywood sign carrying logs--so they are in your neighborhood. I've not seen it yet, but it's on tonight so I'll check it out. -Yoda

Great practice!! That's definitely the way to live! I assume you use repellent for the mosquitos? -Yoda

very cool--thanks for sharing! I'm getting the sense that there are lots of rituals from different cultures along these lines--and I like several of the details of this one especially the mono-no-aware (beauty in the cherry blossom like transitory quality of life) of the sunset. And the midnight ritual hadn't occured to me before. -Yoda

John DuCane has just started up a qigong blog! http://www.dragondoor.com/qigong/news/ His first exercise is to spontaneously and freely shake yourself for 5-20 minutes!! -Yoda

so what's up with the aliens? Your pal, Yoda

One of the best practices is any form of gazing-- sunset/sunrise/moon/stars/sky/clouds/horizon/earth/trees etc. The reason it's the best is b/c it's seriously easy to just look at something and pick up on its vibe. It also puts me in touch with nature and there seems to be a natural philosophy feeling to the practice as well. It's very meditative and you aren't forcing chi to flow or anything, and it's done in a natural wuji stance so there's a natural standing practice component there too. To turn up the juice, just watch the sunrise, sunset or the moon to get more of a charge. Sungazing/moongazing seems to be the starting point for a lot of other practices (inner smile, micro, etc) so it's a great intro or jumping off point. I haven't been doing these practices for very long, so I can't claim more than that, but it deserves to be in the running. -Yoda

I fell asleep early--didn't make it! We'll get it figured out!

Interesting! If you've studied both traditions, do you have any book recommendations that bridge the two? Is Ken Cohen's native american practice book any good? I've been thinking of picking up a copy. -Yoda

I have all three and I'd say Lam's book is the best if you are into yiquan. Qigong Empowerment is very dense with stuff. I didn't spend much time with it, but I can see how many would enjoy it. There's a sungazing/moongazing practice in it. The Root... his books tend to overlap a lot--just flip through his books in the bookstore or library and you should get a good idea of it. Winn's book recommendations caught my eye on the HT forum recently. Look interesting. It is never ending reading!

Dang Bitches! If many are unhappy here you should set up your own site. There were too many intentions on the old HT forum to fit in one place, so Sean took the bull by the horns and made it happen and both forums have come into their own. It's extremely cool that Winn is posting on the other site and I've gotten some great stuff from it, and that wasn't possible until we left. The same thing will happen if another split takes place. Then I'd have three really cool forums to follow! -Yodsters

Lezlie, I just read your coffee quandrary and I'm in the same basic situation--I love/need caffeine but it makes me tense when I'm getting off it (on and off during the day). Stargazing and moongazing have reduced my cravings a fair amount which has enabled me to experiment with the "little house on the prarie" coffee program. I've read a fair amount about the American pioneers and one thing I've noticed is that they sure loved their coffee! They could be on the brink of starvation, but they'd still run to the store and buy coffee on credit. The way they drink coffee interests me: they don't touch the stuff until night when all the work is done and they use it to socially animate themselves, sing, play with the kids, etc. I'm just starting this program and it took about a week for the caffeine w/drawl headaches to clear up that got me in the afternoons. And I'm doing maybe 200 mg every night. So far so good. Also, at night I just seem to get tired rather than tense when it's getting out of my system. A new project, just fyi. -Yoda

While much of the debate was above me, I think you've done a good job crystalizing the essence of the disagreement. I think it is easy to find evidence to support either argument in this world, so the debate boils down to what's going on in the non-physical, post-death arena. Unfortunately, that's a tough call and well beyond most anyone's direct experience. So we are compelled to take somebody's word for it. To make it even harder, there's a lot of isms applying for that job! I've been a Buddhist in the past and got seriously depressed by the samsara, and its taken me years to climb out of that hole, and I still have further to go. While I'm on the life-is-good side of the equation, it has been excellent to have some Bodri educated thinkers around--they definitely have some awesome insights. Peace dudes! -Yoda PS, where did Ron's "Matt Furey and friends/poolside" photo go? I think that really got to the essence of it, that we can still be pals even if our balls are too big.

great thread! I'll try that salt thing and see how it works. So far, I tried it once this morning and it does seem to have a whitening effect. -Yoda

Not an expert here, but the hatha yoga vaccuum breathing does come to mind. That might could suck the hernia back inside. -Yoda