Rara

Practitioners of what exactly?

Well, laziness/easy ways out feel very pleasant. It takes a lot of willpower for that conscience inside you to over ride this!

I second this. Sounds to me like some anxiety buried away in the subconscious. In conjunction with seeing a doctor, meditate on breath only and eventually you will see your thoughts. If something is playing on your mind, you will either see how trivial it is, or if important, it will hint you to take action and end the problem

Thought so. I never realised she was spoken about so much in the Taoist texts...I only ever thought she was of Chinese Buddhism!

Female bodhisattva? Or am I getting muddled...

Now, I'm pretty sure I've seen an even more blunt translation. Something along the lines of - Tao that's spoken, not Tao Do you know of this...?

Thanks!

Well, I think it's most important to underatand it in context of how/when it was written as well as the phrasing! Where can I find your translation?

Wow. So I decided to stop "formally" meditating a couple of months ago and spend more time outside of work being out and about and generally doing things. This meant more time to practice my kung fu, see friends etc etc and generally, I've been feeling pretty good. I enjoy nothing more than occupying my time with useful things But I started to feel a bit mindless, stubborn and angry in the past week. Only in small bursts, but I saw the signs early. This morning, I sat down and decided to meditate for 30 minutes. Now I feel like absolute crap...the session just opened up a load of negative stuff in my mind and now I'm just totally overwhelmed by a mash of scatty thoughts. I feel exhausted and I've only been awake for 3 hours! I feel demotivated, and upset as well. The thing is, I couldn't tell you what I feel upset about...I just fancy curling up in a ball, hugging a pillow and watching a film. Anyway, gotta get to work, so no film, but I'm just wondering if anyone has any opinions on what is going on here.

Certainly makes more sense

That's ok, this is another meditation I do as well The one I desceibed is just one I've been trying out and just so happened to do yesterday. Thanks for the advice.

Sure. Just a shame that it puts me in a rotten mood when I need to get through the day. Well, I guess that will pass.

I have to say, the previous one I learned has a lot to it... Is there a place I can learn this one? Preferably guided/online...

Usually seems the case with you and the "rest" Do we have many chinese people on the forum btw? It is interesting though...I would like a more straight forward version of TTC at some point...because the western versions are very wordy. I read somewhere that the chinese one is a lot more "blunt" and to the point?

Haha, we have the same supper. Sometimes interchangeable with "lunch". Now I don't know how you managed to have "lunch" and "tea"...where I'm from, it's "lunch" and "dinner". Where I am now, it has to be, "dinner" then "tea". Damn Yorkshire.

Dude, are you saying you could eat 20 bananas in a day??

I think we just get confused because us Westeners have a completely different (more wordy) language system. I always saw chi as an umbrella term for "life force"...the wind and air being another form of this "breath"...

Nice post...could you please elaborate on you last paragraph? I didn't quite grasp...

Ah, this just made me remember, I need to watch that Wudang vid! The way I see it, visualisation and mindfulness are incorporated within Taoist meditations...

Do you mean habitually like GMP answered or are you asking why it actually happens when practice ceases? As in, why don't we just stay there? I would say because the outside world is pulling us back, as opposed to us sliding...and if we're not careful, we'll go with it.

That's actually why I spent more time with Wing Chun because that was slipping. Haha, now it's my singing. You're right, so much there on offer,so little time. Having to earn money sucks. How nice it would be to just meditate, do martial arts, see friends and play music. That's enough to fill a day. Then repeat to complete the week!

Haha, good analogy!

Mindfulness/breath and visualisation. Filling the heart and dan tien with qi...

Well, I thought chi was energy in general and ones own can be cultivated using breath and mind... I still say, surely the difference here is not overloading on refined sugar, but using cane/brown and fruits. Consuming enough that the body needs to function on whatever it is doing at the time. In response to the concentration post a few above (MooNiNite), I have to say that eating a banana or oranges will help my focus in the evening...more than say, black coffee with two sugars...

In short, yes, I've dabbled but not knowing 100% what I was doing, from books, I decided to simplify. After asking a close friend who is more expert, he just told me to relax...because despite what I had read, from what he could see, I didn't need to change too much! So keeping it simple, how clean and tidy is your place/room? That is the first point of call and ensure you have plenty of space around you. Keep curtains and doorways open when you can as well as a slightly open window to keep qi/air circulation. Also, if it is allergies (which I would suspect dust mites if there's areas that haven't been cleaned recently - behind cupboards?) then get scrubbing in those hard to reach areas! RE your Qi Gong. I don't know...perhaps. The Buddha was out in a cave for a while, I guess he didn't have good Feng Shui but managed to keep on top of things