dogson

Now this shit is getting real. Yes, life and death. Very well said. Genetically, different men have different amounts of jing - the guys who can afford to blow it out every day usually end up being rock stars, and then die young. But for a cultivator of any stripe, I truly believe that if a man doesn't at least attempt a 30 day period of abstinence, why even bother cultivating chi at all? So much of the self-help industry and the health industry feels broken due to missing this. Imagine a mechanic who tells you to keep trying different things, replacing parts - meanwhile, you're driving the car with no fuel and no oil. That's the problem in 99% of the cases in this world, and every "hater" is basically just starving from energy suicide, which is also emotional suicide. as per the Demonic side, Leonard Orr writes about this in his books on physical immortality - he calls it the unconscious death urge. Most of western society doesn't believe in god, or any kind of divine force. Straight up, it's just all inert dead matter, so it follows that those people, too, would strive to become dead matter. It's a function of the materialist worldview. The good news is, people are very impressionable, especially at the psychic level. I've posted at length here about Ho'oponopono, forgiveness, as well as just aggressively clearing the energy with raw intent. It's not for the faint of heart. I just feel energy so intensely that I have to do it, much as you have to flush the toilet if it's full of sewage. i used to post my testosterone stack jutsu - various herbs and supplements combined with sunbathing etc - but I think the mentality of being celibate is more powerful, because you begin feeling blessed all the time. Which is better than feeling like an aggressive, sex-starved alpha male, for sure. I'm in Bali right now, and they make offerings at least 3 times a day to the various spiritual forces, and every single day is a holiday of one kind or another. It's so beautiful. I've seen people get into traffic collisions here and both people are just smiling through it. That's the consciousness we're going for. Within that consciousness, everything else is just details. Much love sir. Thanks for your input.

Yeah man, I regularly drop into /r/nofap and I love seeing the similarities between people undertaking it in that community and this one. I mention this to both groups but very few people are interested. It's frustrating that by and large, people are really unwilling to explore outside of their chosen mileu. It's so amazing to be hanging out on reddit, taobums, chilling with yoga people, DJs, producers, finance people, chefs, and to enjoy the creativity and the benefits of all these different people. I think that's real taoism. Look at the world you live in and look at who you are and just explore and develop. Constantly. Look at what habits are sapping the most energy and just evade them, do something else, drink coffee and go to an art gallery. Commit to doing something wildly different instead of getting on the internet when you come home at night.

Cool. That's awesome about the retaining by the way, I go through cycles where it stops being an issue. Further to the point, if you have a specific amount of days in mind (as I do - 100) STAY STRONG if your urges reappear, there's nothing worse than beating yourself up for a slip when you could have that psychological strength. I think at a certain point you do, truly, become "Full" and you can handle a release, but the benefit of psychologically knowing you're at day 65, or day 80 - the benefit of that is huge. So if you have already decided on an amount of time just crush it, if your body actually needs the release that's why nocturnal emissions exists, the will power aspect of knowing you got the victory is important. Creating cycles of confidence and victories, from small ones to huge ones, is the real game of life no matter what you want to accomplish...

I was going to ask about this - I've been concerned about biking and the intense pressure on the perenium/prostate/balls blocking qi flow. Have you noticed this at all? Regarding my lack of involvement with TTB lately, GZA got me thinking about how little discussion of actual practice takes place here, and I realized my time is better served reading books than forum-rolling. My job producing music is spent behind a screen already, so I've been limiting my time on the internet with apps like SelfControl, AntiSocial and Freedom. I'm headed to Taiwan soon for a xing yi immersion. I can literally feel the cell phone side of my head twitching whenever I touch my iPhone 6 (and I don't even put it to my head for phone calls!), which is a pretty strong reason to start shunning electronics for a season. I'm going to award the prize to the1gza, as almost no one else participated in this challenge, and I want to own up to my promise before I leave the country. If I find a good master I may stay indefinitely. GZA, PM me your details and I'll FedEX you a prize. Let me know if you want the xing yi course, the tai chi mastery course, or both. I trust you'll only take what you're committed to using; your discipline in this challenge is truly inspiring and you definitely deserve this material man. Thanks for being an accountability buddy too, and for introducing me to The Book of Internal Exercises.

Self-expression is a human need very often overlooked when taking a completely practical viewpoint. The ones who don't have that need, or who have transcended it, those are the hermits practicing deep in the mountains, the ones I'm going to china to find this summer. I do appreciate your focusing on practice though, that's something I wish TTB focused on more. But forums in general serve as meeting places to share any kind of thoughts or experience. That's the upside and downside of the internet... you can just write whatever nonsense without much fear of what people think. 1 hour xing yi 1 hour meditation

Trained xing yi about an hour today, doubling up on yoga and xingyi class this coming week. Super psyched. April feels good.

Trained 2 hours xing yi today, and about 15 minutes of the ZMQ37 form. Also been studying Bruce Frantzis "tai chi fighting applications" videos which are quite good.

Yep, I reset today too actually. Don't beat yourself up about it too much, it happens. I've never had it happen in my sleep, only once in my life when I was 13. I will say that young coconut meat is said to replenish in one day what normally takes 35 days to totally come back. Other foods that nourish jing/semen: pine nuts (really a seed), pine pollen, pumpkin seeds (one of the best sources of zinc), sunflower seeds, brazil nuts, walnuts, goji berries, schizandra berries, maca, chaga (rich in zinc); oysters; saturated fats of all kinds are good for building hormones. Cholesterol gets a bad rap but you actually need cholesterol to build hormones. Eggs, red meat (especially lamb) are great for building jing for this reason. On the herbal side: ho shu wu, schizandra, deer antler, ant (rich in zinc), eucommia, ashwagandha, astragalus, nettle root And let's not forget Sunlight, especially in the lower quadrants, very important and useful, at least 20 minutes direct exposure.

I'm pretty disappointed in the turnout for this challenge, too. But it does help to remind me that the internet can't take the place of anything - maybe, in the best case, TTB people recognize that and just practice, and probably people think it's redundant to post here as well as in their personal practice threads. Still, I think having discourse about actual practice and experience across time is the best way we can all grow, so thanks for contributing here I will PM you and see what's up.

Interesting, definitely interested in hearing more about this. When did this contact originate? What form does it take? I got the Stephen Chang book today, it's excellent. I'm going to start in on them tomorrow in addition to my xing yi and tai chi practice. And still trampolining. It really helps in the mornings especially.

Your consistency is awesome dude. I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of Stephen Chang's book, I really want to see what these exercises are all about. Also, welcome to a new reality... at least for me, when I get up around 14-15 days of retaining, energy starts to majorly click on in a cool way. How's your need for sleep, food etc been? I find that these things decrease dramatically after a couple weeks of retianing, especially in conjunction with herbs like ho shu wu, shilajit, shizandra etc.

I'm really willing to learn any internal art, xingyi feels most practical for me right now but I just really want to be around a realized person. Part of it is a deep desire to learn these arts to preserve them - I have a lot of time to go deep and learn the whole system, Bali, China, wherever...

Hey all, has anyone traveled to Taiwan and trained with anyone there? I'm finally escaping los angeles and, after a yoga intensive in Bali, I plan to travel around Asia looking for a great teacher. I'm familiar with all the racism, language barriers, cultural barriers, preponderance to secrecy and hording of true teachings even with long-term students, so please spare me all of this. I feel like it's my karma to go do this so I'm doing it. What I'd love to hear about is practical information about HK, Taiwan, or India. Where to go as a starting point, and where to avoid. Any information would be greatly appreciated!

Your consistency is beast. I actually ordered the Stephen Chang book out of curiosity about your training. Any general thoughts/commentary on how consistent training is effecting your day to day stuff overall? A lot of what I'm doing with my music project is thinking about how to convey how reality is totally different when you start doing some kind of energy work consistently. Like that stuff about interacting with big cities like LA.

1 hour of yoga and some sunset tai chi