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Why would it be the highest practice? I would think that at Norbu's level, the normal daily state would be the same as dream level (or meditation).

At the highest level I've heard the real goal is deep dreamless (yet conscious) rejuvenating sleep. Yet I assume we're pretty far from highest level. Sleep work can help us, figure out inner thoughts, demons and desires. There is the goal of lucidity and beyond that astral travel and connecting to some deep forces all the way to the nature of death. Seems worthwhile to me and step number one is remembering your dream. Personally dream work tends to make my insomnia worse so usually after a few weeks I tend to give it up so I can sleep better. I've found and some research has backed me up that the last 90 minute REM cycle tends to be the most vivid. Waking up 90 or 100 minutes early, walk a bit, go to washroom, set your mind to remember your next dream and have a goal, tends to work best. For me commands and hypnotic instructions done earlier don't have nearly the same power. I also had a method I called retell to remember. Before opening my eyes instead of trying to remember the dream, I'd 'retell' it mentally to myself, as if I was telling a story to a third person. My theory being this downloads the dream from precarious short term memory into long term. Then write out the dream on a nearby pad of paper, tittle first. <edit> lots and lots of 'serial' dreams last night. Serial meaning after waking up you return to the same dream. As someone said, just talking about dreams, general awareness of them, brings them out with greater intensity.

http://thetaobums.com/topic/31630-dream/#entry476595

Its a sign of modern disconnection from ourselves, or deeper parts of ourselves at least. Anthropologists around the world have noted how vivid many tribal peoples dream lives actually are, where a big deal is made out of dreams and their messages. For most of us though dreams are 'unimportant', so we may have cycles of some dream activity followed by quiet, or seemingly none at all. Fortunately this is fairly easy to correct. Keep a dream diary, and even if you don't have one you remember, still write that down. Start conversations in the morning based on last night dreams and so on... All this tells your deeper being/unconscious that you are starting to value dreams and you will thus start to remember them more. Other alternatives would be taking dreaming herbs, or experimenting with something like ritual magick or shamanism. Its strange but interacting with 'archetypal' energies and their various symbolic depictions is extremely activating to the unconscious mind, and will start to trigger all kinds of strange night events... Seth.

Dear Ones, it happened again. I was in a very vivid dream and I wake up, I try to remember everything went blank. From one second to another. How come? I dont have Altzheimer so I demand to be able to remember them. Maybe you are also already aware of the fact that what we call our "dreams" is basicly just our bodily consciousness disconnecting from our body and being in one of our other bodies. For many this is the astral body. For few this goes even more deeper. You can put effort into consciously falling asleep. This requires you to have an insane focus and from what I have read not many people can do this. Regardless it is truely something special which I personally want to achieve in the near future. But this requires some excess amount of energy in our system. Meaning one has to have a propper lifestyle of cultivating energy and not blowing it away during the day, falling asleep totally tired and exhausted. Light food in the evening and early nights are best for doing so. Now, whenever I can I also put effort into remembering what happened during my body fell asleep. But like written in the first line this does not (yet) happen very often and I get a little frustrated. The curiosity of understanding this part of our reality is so strong that it lets me quickly get over my lack of rememberance. Shall we put effort into remembering our "dreams"? If so, why? What benefit is there? And why do we have in general such a hard time remembering what happened? Does this happen purposely or is this yet another lazy attitude what we had mastered in our childhood? Curious, let me know what I obviously dont know. All the best!

Thats the beauty of the American political system, the unpinpointableness of everything. There has been quite a bit of propoganda which builds up a national prejudiced towards muslims, and we do and have piled on against them and muslim countries. Even though most of the muslims involved in 9/11 were Saudi, we piled up crap against afghanistan and attacked unjustly, witin the same time period, while America was rallied in hatred towards muslems we attacked Iraq saying it was because Sadam had chemical weapons, we looked but never found them, invaded their country anyway but the never were used on us and stil havn't turned up. These wars have only been possable because America was rallied toward hatred for muslims and there was some blurry reasoning givven to us along with speels about the axis of evil, jihad islam and being told they attacked us. All the while we are also very PC, and like you said, the president and his office can act a certain PC way but thats just them acting. Believe it or not, the presidents act does not express the agenda of the US govt, nor is it a representation of the American peoples media fed and maintained opinion. Its a diplomatic act. We can say muslims are not all bad people, but point out that if they are devout and pious according to their doctrine they are sexist militants who have an insane maniacal ideology that does their thinking for them. Culturaly its ok to say its ok to be muslims, however the majority deal is that those muslim countries are savage barbaric lands where they have been acting the psychopath for years killing eachother; but its ok to be muslim, and it doesn't necessarily make you a bad person. Because we aren't totalitarian, and part of what keeps us calm, complacent and unrebeliouus is our belief system, that we believe in the American dream, and that we are free we dont question the core of our economy or whether we are slaves in a closed system or not, our propganda has to be more elusive then Nazi Germany's was. Our propoganda tactics are to make ourselves believe it is our opinion that we are free individuals who came up with our own free thoughts, views and opinions. We think we make our own biases while our president acts like a geeky white guy whos virtuous and diplomatic, PC and with his wings stretched out to all peoples welcomming them in to coddle them like a hen with its chicks. The danger with you tube is though, you can pick and choose which propoganda your going to subject yourself to, so you get all these manic chicken little types hopped up on opinion and paranoia or whatever, then as a result there is a wave of rationale currently sweeping the nation of not believing in anything negative said about the govt's intentions which is just the extreme of the conspiracy theorist and just as irritational in its shrugging off everything related.

Wow. Perhaps you thought my "practicing your qigong can help" statement was directed at you, personally? That wasn't my meaning. It has been my experience/observation that people generally know right from wrong and merely pretend not to when that knowledge is counter to their own self-centered interests. I didn't dream up those three simple guidelines, you know. Your taking exception to them is curious... In any case, I am reminded today of why I generally don't participate in TTB discussions anymore. I am reminded of this, actually:

Hold on, he's in the other room. 'Jesus, are you a real person?' He just said 'Yes'. I don't know if I could give any better evidence then that. Not just feelings, but my common sense rails against it. It makes my BS sense tingle like crazy. Can I prove George Washington didn't say 'Yo Boys, we gonna bust a cap on King G'. He might have, but when people claim a 200 year document has such speech in it, I don't spend much time debunking it. I don't need to, thus I haven't. To me its incredulous and stupid. I don't know if Jesus was an actual person. I'm certainly not a Christian. I do know the style of writing you present reminds me of racist forged literature that pops up every now and then. Like the Klan finding a 'We blacks have a plan to put ourselves into slavery to infiltrate the new world' or 'We Catholics have decided to create and spread Islam because it'd be fun'. Jews wouldn't get a whole lot out of benefits out of creating another religion. It'd be kind of blasphemous in a big way. Your hypothesis is they'd do it for their love of some Roman guy. It doesn't make sense from any angle I can see other then it falls into a racists wet dream. Early Christianity was no perfect boon for Romans either, note the way it was initially treated for decades. It was apocalyptic and had strong themes of peace and brotherhood, which could derail the Roman war machine. If I was Roman looking to start a new religion it wouldn't be built on the backwards minority Judaic platform, I'd build on my strength, go with Mars. Keep heaven, let Mars have a kid with an emperor's daughter and go in that direction. late night ramblings On the third hand, its an inevitable conclusion that Judaism led to Christianity. It contains the seed for longing for a messiah and over its history got more then a few. Thus far rejecting them all as not The One. Heck the old testament even names a non Jewish Persian, Cyrus as a small m, messiah. A little after Jesus's time the greatest rabbi of the period Akiba was proclaiming Juda Maccabee as the messiah(later changed his mind, cause Judas was killed by Romans and didn't bring paradise to Earth). During Jesus time, even in the old testament people seemed to John the Baptist (who ran a Jewish Mikva) was a messiah.

My point is - why do I have to suffer because people are going crazy? I don't own a car. I don't support any ideology. I don't harbour any grandeur complex. I don't dream of any peace doves triumphing in the sky after all the ivory smoke has vanquished. All I desire is to be in my ignorant little shell that I work hard for every single day. Dogs are fighting - perfectly fine with me, but why are the bastards trampling on my kitchen garden?

So scorpio is an ethnicity or a race? Do you share many psychological traits with scorpios who've grown up in the amazon basin? No, and no. Your natal chart does not define your psyche, but maybe influences your tendendencies within your ulture and its environment. A scorpio from the Amazon who has not had much contact with western society, and a scorpio from Salt Lake City could, not even be seen by the same psychologist, because psychology is based on a wester psyche. How would a childs relationship with their parent/father affect their psyche if they grew up in a matriarchal culture that placed no emphesis on the role of father, they donteven have a word for it? It is things like this that effect and influence the psyche and its form and is why western psychologist can only work on western people, they no nothing about the psyches of people in drasticly different cultures. Your personal astrological chart influences your tendencies. A male with a sun sign in cancer might be a very good father in the west. He might also be very possesive of his wife and children, and very family oriented. In a matriarchal sosciety, that same person would be a good uncle but would never develop that sense of family that we do, but might feel that way about his whole tribe. If that cancer was in the west he might be so family oriented that he became possesive of his wife, have old family values, but in a completely different non matriarchal tribal setting, he would more then likely be less possesive in a society that shared their wives with house guest. In a society where families are shaped a certain way and certain rules are in place, certain psyches will develop insecurities, become possesive and get angry when their wife "cheats" on them. They will gather up all their friends to throw rocks at her and call her a whore. Othe societies share their wives with house guests, and do not even have a word for adultry. It is these cultural ways that define our psychological make up and world view, and language. In my natal chart I have so much Pluto influence that I am basicly an honorary scorpio without any Scorpio except on the north node of the moon. The pluto being promminent gives me alot of scorpio influence in prominent places. Einstein or anyones brain is also going to influence them for sure, but it is the parameters of language/cultural definitions, cultural ideals ways and worldview along with the immediate environment which will also likely be culturaly landscaped that make up your psychological state. Genes, and zodiac influence your tendencies within the culture, but it is the way of the culture that you will absorb and its image of wholeness that will be the balance of a psyche. Ferarris and toyatas are very different, they cant switch parts and one can never be like th other. Like you said what they have in common is that they both need gas and oil to run. Sort of like the similarities between me and an animal that is not necessarily a human There is such a tiny difference that again, you are closer related to any random person on the planet then two chimpanzee brothers from the same parents are to eachother. The differnce between all humans is less then 0.1 percent. Unrelated humans are closer related then almost every complex creatures direct familys are. We can switch parts, we can share blood. Oh but we cant share just anyones blood. It has to be the right blood type so the person needs to have the same blood type of you. Oddly enough, blood type is not at all confined to various races...or maybe not so odd given that race is a concept/construct. We can share parts, ferarris and toyatas cant. Disappearing. He wasnt taken at 6 months old, he was taken at 6 years old and found while still a teenager and only remembered his family/dad from his dream and did not remember his mother or language. All forgotten in about 11 years. My point was actually that if this person was taken at infancy, hed have zero connection to his bio-parents, and he certainly would not be innoculating the Amazon people with American ideologies and psychological traits when he married and had off spring, just because of his "white mans blood".

Zhong Fu (LU-1) can be quite effective for mental and emotional disorders, as it opens a person to receive. When a person is overwhelmed with sadness this point will help them to relate to their suffering in a way which will enable them to move through it to what lies beyond. Dispersing helps a person to let go of the past and begin again. Depression, melancholy, conditions associated with a feeling of separateness, lonely; collapsed posture, imploded chest; sadness which produces a blockage in the chest. It regulates lung qi and stops cough; expands and relaxes the chest, nourishes lung yin. Treatment point for the lung. Commonly used for excess conditions such as pneumonia, whooping cough or tonsillitis, cough due to accumulation of phlegm. Full, painful chest, lungs tight; difficult respiration. Stagnation of qi, retention of phlegm; cough and asthma, chest pain, dyspnea. Shoulder and upper back pain due to stagnation of qi. Sore throat, dry cough, spasms and cough; thick mucus, nasal congestion; tonsillitis. Fever, excessive sweating, bronchitis with cough and wheezing; pneumonia; pulmonary infections, lung abscess, tuberculosis. Face swollen, skin painful, warm red cheeks; rosacea, congested capillaries. Eyes red, painful, swollen; conjunctivitis. Skin tumors. -------- Yun Men (LU-2) (See picture. 6″ lateral from the anterior midline, immediately below the concave curve at the lateral end of the clavicle, directly above LU-1.) When a person believes they can not, this point can reveal something which they might aspire to. It can be very powerful for the treatment of depression, heavy grief or when someone is closed off. A person who is living under a cloud of misery has no feeling for the field of possibilities. They do not see the value of the life they are living. This point works to dispel stagnation in the chest, helping a person to see beyond their self imposed limitations. Few people have learned how to change their negative emotions, thinking. This point helps with cough, coughing fits; asthma, thoracic fullness, shortness of breath; bronchitis; tonsillitis; feeling of oppressive fullness and agitation of the chest; pulmonary congestion; tuberculosis. Pain in the chest shoulder and arm, pain on the back and shoulders; cannot raise arms. Nervous cough. Acne. ------- Tian Fu (LU-3) (See picture. Upper Arm, 3″ below axillary fold, radial side of biceps brachii) When someone has withdrawn from life and relationships, or is unable to let go of old fears; people who are stuck in a cycle of repetitious negative feelings and dysfunctional patterns of behavior. Severe depression; blocked grief; people who feel locked up inside. Can turn a person in the direction of a path which is more meaningful, show them the life they have been missing. This point has a powerful psychological effect on all the emotional problems which can arise from lung disharmonies; depression, mental confusion and forgetfulness. Escapes by sleeping, dreaming, disassociating; loss of memory; delirious crazy talk. Facilitates self-remembering. It regulates lung function and help with Cerebral congestion, dizziness; claustrophobia, agoraphobia; vertigo. Depression and bronchitis. Asthma, cough; dyspnea with inability go catch the breath; increases oxygen to brain. Epistaxis, bleeding from nose and mouth. Poisoning by gas, carbon dioxide, etc. Problems of perception; eye problems, nearsighted, dim vision; ear problems, hard of hearing. Pain in the medial aspect of the arm; generalized swelling; tumors. Malaria. ---------- Xia Bai (LU-4) (See picture. Upper arm, 4″ below axillary fold, radial side of biceps brachii, 1″ below LU-3.) Problems of the heart organ. Cardiac pain and shortness of breath; nervous anxiety with palpitations; internal pains of the chest, pain in the medial aspect of arm, nausea; melancholia. Cough, coughing fits; thoracic fullness, dry heaves. Rheumatism of the joints. ------ Chi Ze (LU-5) (See picture. Elbow, at cubital crease radial side of biceps tendon.) When are mind and body lacks fluidity it leads to mental and emotional constipation; a build up of tension and toxins resulting in a lack of vitality, lethargy. The person feels squeezed and tense; rigidity is a key symptom, life seems to be hard, unyielding. When we are able to breathe, able to give and receive, life experience is nourishing and abundant. Life enters and energizes us with the breath. The cessation of breathing brings death. Physically we are of the earth and are supported by the earth, but the forces which animate us come from Heaven. We depend on the world we live in for material support, but it is Loving which makes life worth living. Openness is essential for receiving nourishment, and especially for spiritual nourishment. We align ourselves with the things we value, but if these things are unreal they lead us to grief. A person needing this point could have depression overlaid with fear, depression, or even madness. Someone who is bogged down; who is stuck in a sad condition; melancholia, with an edge of agitation. Much of what falls under the general label of mental illness is actually transformation which does not reach completion. Life mirrors our inner experiencing; this is what makes the evolution of consciousness possible. Many people are asleep to the message life is presenting them. Waking from the dream depends upon being upright and present within the experience, knowing ourselves as being in process, and accepting responsibility for our choices. This point Expands and relaxes the chest; clears heat; moistens dryness. Stimulates the descending of lung qi (energy). Lung heat, retention of phlegm in lungs. Bronchitis; fever, thick mucus, respiration painful; pneumonia. Asthma, chest fullness and pain; dyspnea, cough; nosebleed. Cold phlegm in the lungs, profuse sputum, shivering, sneezing. Deficient lung yin, used to cool heat, tonify yin and moisten dryness; dry cough, sore throat, tidal fever; dry mouth and tongue; tonsillitis, neck and throat pain. Pleurisy; congestive pulmonary tuberculosis; emphysema; a dry hacking cough, and rigid spine; hemoptysis; without equal for spitting of blood. Swollen abdomen; incessant vomiting and diarrhea. Heart pain, pain into the arm; hypertension. Wind diseases, especially in children; spasms or convulsions; chronic meningitis of children; erysipelas, psoriasis. Frequent need to urinate; renal pain; enuresis; weak bladder, atony of the bladder. Nervous paralysis; pervasive aches and pains; muscular spasm; rigidity of vertebral column, and neck; spasmodic pain of the elbow and arm, cold in the arm; hemiplegia; quadriplegia. -------- Kong Zui (LU-6) (See Picture. Forearm, (palmar side), 7″ above the wrist, line joining LU-9 & LU-5.) Great depletion and emptiness, extreme hollowness. When there is a sense of grief: a void that needs to be enriched and filled; emptiness beyond expression. Powerful spiritual point, good to get warmth into the meridian. Tonification will increase the power for respiration and emotional exchange. Fear, tension headaches, metal mental stress. Acute asthma; effects larynx, throat problems. 5th chakra: inability to express oneself. This point Regulates lung qi (energy); descends and disperses lung qi; clears heat; stops bleeding. Often used for acute diseases and pain. Headache, fever without sweating (disperse to induce sweating). Cough, pain in the chest; sore throat; swollen throat; tonsillitis; hoarse, persistent cough; laryngitis, loss of voice. Asthma, wheezing, chest pain; pulmonary tuberculosis; hemoptysis. Stagnations or any articular troubles of shoulders and elbows, fingers cannot clench, weak or stiff joints, arthritis of thumb and index finger. ---------- Lie Que (LU-7) (See picture. Forearm, 1.5″ above the wrist crease, on most lateral aspect of radius This point effects connections; opens the Conception Vessel, increases receptivity. Harmonizes and balances the circulation. Regulation of hormones, particularly sexual hormones. Enhances the female quality, relaxes limitations around the expression of emotion. Receiving and elimination, connects the lung and large intestine, moves qi (energy) through the body. Emotional stagnation related to the lungs and the metal element. Suppression or incomplete expression of grief, sadness, etc. for the person who suffers their pain in silence. Helps a person to let go, and go with the flow; connect heart with kidneys. Treats breathing which is restricted by emotions such as worry, fear, frustration and depression. Loss of memory, yawning; nervous tremors; emotiveness. Laughs too easily, fantastic visions, hallucinations; forgetfulness; trembling; petit mal epilepsy; migraine. Has a calming effect on the mind, releases physical tension in shoulders, relaxes the chest; oppression in the heart. Stimulates the descending and dispersing of qi; Circulates Wei qi and releases the exterior. Command point for the Conception Vessel, yin energies; accelerates circulation of yin energy; acts on the sexual problems of women and of men, regulation of sexual hormones; supplies energy to all the meridians via the triple burner. Moves qi throughout the whole body; effective for expelling exterior wind; stimulates sweating. All nature of problems in the lungs, chest and throat. Afflictions of breathing, asthma, wheezing, shortness of breath. Common cold; frontal and lateral headaches; chills, cough, headache and stiff neck; nasal obstruction; chest disorders with heavy mucus; rhinitis; asthma, hemoptysis. Problems which manifest along the route of the channel; particularly any indications that deal with the mouth and face; unilateral head or facial pain; migraine; toothache; facial tics; facial paralysis; deviation of mouth and eyes; trigeminal neuralgia; difficulty in opening and closing the mouth, eating food, speech difficulties; lockjaw, etc. Arthritis of the shoulder; pain or stiffness of the neck and nape. Skin disorders associated with wind invasion: urticaria; pain and itching on the front of the body, skin inflammation; burns from any source, chemical, fire, sunburn; sties on the eyelids. Troubled digestion (food does not descend), epigastric pain; constipation, retention of poisons and toxins; painful abdomen, serious diarrhea. Frequent and profuse urination; excessive perspiration; edema or water retention. Hormonal and sexual imbalances; limbs and bones feel icy cold, excessive shivering. Penis pain, pain during emission. Problems after delivery, lumbar pain, cold in the naval. -------- Jing Qu (LU-8) (Forearm, 1″ up from LU-9, on lateral side of the radial artery.) Meridians operate as channels for the distribution of energies to the mind and body; and gutters to clear away the sewage and toxic refuse. The pathways of energy must be clear in order for things to flow; when the flow stops poisonous energies accumulate and spread through the body. Spots, boils, colds, mucus and problems with elimination can appear as an indication that the body is struggling to rid itself of toxic ideas and experience. Cynical, skin clogged. Flushes the system so false ideals and toxic feelings can be washed away; for purging the whole system. When heat and cold are out of balance on the body surface, one part can be cold and another very hot, especially the hands palms hot/dry or wet/hot. Moxa is forbidden on this point. Regulates the lungs, expands and relaxes the chest; Courses wind, regulates temperature and sweating, fever and chills, feverish but without perspiration. Sore throat, chronic throat problems. Asthma, cough, coughing fits; dyspnea, contracted panting, back and chest tight, breathing difficult; esophageal spasm or pain, chest pain with vomiting. Sudden cardiac pain, heart pain, pericarditis; chest pain radiating to the upper back. Pain in the wrist; hot sensations on the palm; malaria. Toxic accumulations, serious rheumatism. ------------ Tai Yuan (LU-9) (Forearm, on wrist crease, on radial side of radial artery.) A profound place for finding a correspondence between Heaven and Earth, when life is going to hell and a person is falling into the abyss. Impossible Deep. For complete lack of order, mental chaos and instability, for the patient who feels their life is cracking up, they are worried, maybe even desperate. A spiritual journey to the depths of our being, connection to the Source. Instability and chaos are met with nourishment, security and Love. Nervous crisis; palpitations with irritability and agitation, crazy talk, vicious speech. Insomnia from internal agitation. Sometimes hot, sometimes cold. Malaise; feelings of insecurity, exhaustion; shivering from cold. To understand the blood (which unites Spirit with the Form), we need to understand the blood/Earth connection; the movement of Spirit within the blood. The central atom in the hemoglobin molecule is Iron. Source point, best point on the channel to tonify the lungs. Declining energy and blood. Resolves phlegm; suppresses cough; calms wheezing. Chronic cough and asthma; bronchitis, pains in the chest from breathing; cannot breathe in the cold; atonic respiration; sore throat, dryness in the throat. Lung abscess, pulmonary tuberculosis, hemoptysis; emphysema; hemorrhaging, spits blood. Asphyxia, collapse; concussion; effects of poisoning, radiation. Influential Reunion of arteries and veins; effects blood circulation, increases oxygen absorption, influences the pulse. Circulation problems, arteries, veins; poor circulation, cold hands and feet; varicose veins. Heart weakness and pain; weak pulses, acrotism; coma; cardiac pain. Eyes red, painful, congested, conjunctivitis; cataract; keratitis. Pain or lack of strength in wrist or forearm; cold hands and feet; skin very tender and painful to touch; cant hold or grasp objects, complete lack of sensation in tips of fingers; pain on the lateral side of the arms and elbows; pain on the shoulder and back. Migraine. --------- Yu Ji (LU-10) (Hand, on thenar eminence, midway along first metacarpal, palmar edge of bone.) Helps the patient to see that it is worth getting well, especially in those who might be rejecting the warmth and comfort they need. People who are rigid in outlook need warmth more than anything else. When the intellectual aspect dominates a person feels isolated; cut off from their own feelings. there must be a unity of thought with feeling. Warms the cold metallic isolated dont touch me person who is locked up inside, lacking emotional warmth and receptivity, too desperate to communicate with the Heart within. Malaise, fear, anguish; chagrin, emotional distress, melancholia; insomnia. As we breathe we participate in the reciprocity of Life, we draw qi (energy) into our body and energy into our Being. People may cling too much to the Mother (food etc.) but we need active relations with others; we need to be able to give and to receive. Regulates the lungs; dispels heat; abates fever. High fever with headache; flu without perspiration; aversion to cold, pneumonia. Throat dry and thirsty; moistens the throat, yellow coated tongue, fever, headache, vertigo; sore throat; tonsils, larynx dryness or inflammation; pain, hoarseness; loss of voice; hemoptysis; tidal fever. Perspires a lot. Cough causing pain in the chest and back, cannot breathe, shortness of breath. Chattering of teeth, from cold, nervousness, or from malaria. Harmonizes the stomach, stomach pains with anorexia, abdomen painful even without food; bleeding gums, loose teeth; infantile malnutrition syndrome. Alcoholism. Breast inflammation, abscess. Paralyzing rheumatism; deviation of the vertebral column? Rheumatic wind. This point is useful for skin disorders: if skin is cold silvery and flaky: tonify; if skin is hot ugly and red: sedate. --------- Shao Shang (LU-11) (Thumb, radial corner of nail.) Supplies enough energy to get by. Like the convenience store we go to when we run out of necessities, gives temporary support. This can useful for the patient who is in a crisis, struggling to get on while passing through a critical stage of growth. Relief from tension, worries, asthma, chest complaints, helpful with decisions and planning. Expels Wind (both exterior and interior); stimulates the dispersing and descending of energy; soothes the throat; opens the Orifices. Swelling and pain in the throat; emergency cases and fainting; restores yang. Febrile diseases, thirst; Wind cold sweating and aversion to cold; inability to perspire; pneumonia; violent perspiration; chattering of the teeth; shivering. Commonly used (with bleeding method) for heat stroke; severe throat conditions; and when wind heat is developing into Internal heat. Useful as a first aid point for sunstroke, children suffering from tonsillitis, high fever, fever convulsions (bleed) effective in adults too but reaction not so immediate. Cough and painful coughing fits; chest pain; throat pain, dryness, redness or swelling; nose obstructed or bleeding, epistaxis; tonsillitis; mumps; asthma. Wind Stroke, seizures; coma; heat stroke, delirium, disorientation; cerebral congestion (red face, suddenly falling); acute or chronic meningitis of children; spasms and frights in children; tonic or clonic convulsions. Vomiting or fullness of the epigastric region, digestive problems, gallbladder obstructed? Eczema; pain and stiffness of the fingers; numbness in the hands and arms; hot sensations on the palms; insomnia, night sweats. Some sources say that during pregnancy there is a risk that using this point may deform the child.

Q&A with Jonathan Blank co-author of Secrets of Dragon Gate - The exercises in the book have been used by Dragon Gate masters for centuries. How have they been passed down? ---------The secret teachings of Dragon Gate Taoism have been passed down through the centuries in a direct oral lineage from teacher to student. This is the traditional way that most eastern knowledge has been taught. Historically, most teachings have been considered "secret" and have only been entrusted to students after a long period during which their character and dedication has been tested. The stories popularized in many kung fu movies of a teacher who puts his student through a near torturous training regimen before opening up and teaching the "secrets" of their system is drawn from real life. Students today - especially in the west - do not have the same levels of patience. So teachers have adapted their methods to fit the times, and now it is common for students to receive teachings very quickly on subjects that previously might have required years of preliminaries. In addition, there is now so much information available in books and on the Internet that today's modern students of esoteric traditions have amazing access that students from an earlier time could only dream of. - Why havent Western readers heard more about Dragon Gate? How has it remained so mysterious?------------One of the main reasons that Dragon Gate Taoism has remained so mysterious is that is has a tradition of passing on its core secrets to only one individual - the master who inherited the lineage from his teacher. This has naturally limited access to the information. Additionally, unlike other Taoist schools, Dragon Gate never became a "religious" form of Taoism, choosing to focus instead on exercises to promote health, vitality, wealth, and higher states of consciousness. The absence of a religious organization's infrastructure has naturally limited its spread. - How did you discover the Dragon Gate School?----------I started studying Taoism from a legendary Tai Chi master named Franklin Kwong at Columbia University in New York. Since then I have sought out different teachers both here and in Asia to learn more about this fascinating philosophy and transformational mind/body system of knowledge. In the mid 1990s, I was introduced to an instructor who was teaching a style of Dragon Gate Taoism from mainland China. I learned many interesting exercises and practices, though I found that particular system to be too ascetic for my tastes. But I was clearly destined to continue on the Dragon Gate path, because shortly thereafter I met Dr. Liu who was a lineage holder in the Taiwanese branch of Dragon Gate Taoism and whose laid back approach and open-minded teachings much more closely fit with my personal preferences as well as my understanding of what Taoism is really all about. - How can these practices help readers, as you put it, create a magical Taoist reality even if you live in a bustling modern day metropolis?------------A magical reality is one that is marked by conscious creatorhood, or a strong sense that you are in some way an author of the story of your life. There are a few basic principles underlying the creation of a magical reality. These include health, awareness, breath control and the ability to enter into non-ordinary states of consciousness by focused direction. We need good health to follow a metaphysical path. Awareness is key to fostering an understanding of how we are responsible for manifesting our experience of reality. Breath control is the gateway skill to spiritual development which leads to energy development and the ability to enter into non-ordinary states of reality. And once you can do that, you can exist in a magical reality. Dragon Gate Taoism offers very simple techniques that promote all these skills and abilities so anyone can do them and experience the benefits with a minimal commitment of time and energy. What does spiritual alchemy mean? How will readers know when theyve achieved it?---------- Alchemy is the process of transmutation, or converting an energy. Typically this is used to refer to a process of changing from a less desirable to a more desirable state. This is why the metaphor of turning lead into gold is typically used. In terms of spiritual alchemy this can be thought of as turning sickness into health, poverty into wealth, anger into joy, and hate into love. Every person has to come up with their own ideas of what type of alchemy, or positive change, they want to bring into their lives and how they define success for themselves. The Taoist view is that one never completely achieves any goal, so pursuing a Taoist alchemical path is about the journey and not the destination. That's why it's important to make the journey worthwhile and, in my experience, Dragon Gate practices can really help with that. - In addition to mental wellbeing, the book focuses on physical health. Which practices have the most impact on health?--------------According to fundamental Taoist principles, deep breathing exercises and standing meditation practices have the fastest and strongest impact on overall health. Even practicing these for just a few minutes a day can be very beneficial if done regularly. Practicing for 5-15 minutes 5-7 days a week is far superior to doing 1 hour of practice once a week. - How can readers strengthen their connection to their partner with Dragon Gates sexual yoga practices?----------Taoist alchemical principles are based on the idea that the universe and people are linked that the microcosm of humankind is reflected in the macrocosm of the universe. Because of this, the concepts of yin and yang are as applicable to people as they are to the world around us. So from the Taoist perspective, sex between a man and a woman is an earthly manifestation of the universal principles of yin and yang. Sex holds a tremendous amount of power in our culture. It hooks into many important human feelings such as pleasure, power, self-worth, etc. Ideally, it can be a very deep expression of love between two people and turning this key part of life into a spiritual practice strongly enhances the connection between partners. - What are the five elements of life and how can they be applied to our lives?-----------Taoism has a number of key concepts that are used as metaphors to help in understanding the nature of reality. These include the binary yin/yang symbol, the eight trigrams of the Ba Gua and the 64 hexagrams of the Yi Jing. Another key model is the five element systemwood, fire, earth, metal, and waterwhich represents a way of describing essential patterns in every aspect of life in this time and space (in Taoism, everything is relative to the time and space in which you find yourself). According to Dragon Gate philosophy, the five elements are the creative and controlling energies of our planet. These elements are in a constant state of flux, and their interdependence and interactions explain the complex connection between humanity and the natural world. Every aspect of our bodies, our lives, and the world around us can be categorized into one of these five perpetually flowing and interacting elements. For instance, each element is associated with a specific organ within our body (liver, spleen, stomach, lungs, and heart), a direction in the world around us (east, west, north, south, and center) and a color (green, red, yellow, white, and blue). The five elements are largely defined by the relationships among the elements and the key to using them is knowing how to maintain the correct balance. So once you have a basic understanding of the different elements, you can enhance different aspects of your life by energizing a weak element or offsetting the power of a strong one.

The facts in the article, and even the speculation presented that was inspired by doesnt negate the fact that there is no such thing as race, in fact it supports it regaurdless of the fact that it uses the term, "race. If you click on the link provided in the article you provided, you'll probably wish that you'd read it earlier because it says what I've been saying , even pointing to chimps as an example. It says hat scientist no longer believe in race. If you read the first couple post I made in this thread, you will also find it ironic that I used brazil as an example (just like your article)to contrast our perception of race. Heres from your article- Now click on the link- Your comparison of automobile varieties is definitely racists. Yes all PEOPLE are different, just like some of us are more observent and mindful then others. I disagree idea that genes alter our psychological make up, probably less then our gender. They do only through ways of identification when the psyche is forming, but the psyche forms and is not a product of race, but of culture. Look at president Obama. This might piss some people off but as far as Im concerned, Obama is whiter then me, and all though I am classified as "white", because of the reality of it being that "white" is only an ethnicity and not a race, I therefore do not have to identify with that enthnicity and therefore am not white. As a follower and treader on my path of refinement, I reject the identetity of a "whiteman" and do not identify with the what I see as definining the parameteres of that ethnic group. Knowing that this is the reality, I also dont see Obama as black, he is literally whiter then me regaurdless of skin color. But here is a better example. Unlike a ferrari or a toyata, you can take a baby human, a growing and developing thing that is receptive and not an objectivly formed entity, from a suburban white family in Ohio at birth and place him in the care of a tribe in the amazon basin to be raised by an indigenous tribal group isolated from western civilization, and beaver cleaver will not be the result. That "white" baby will grow into an inegral part of that ethnic group and culture. That person will in no way shape or form identify with the American way, dream or political system. That person will identify with its culture as its race, that pone will no more identify with its biological family as its people then I identify with my neighbors pet fish as mine. That person will not carry a hint of western/american ideology, he will not tend to be judeo-christian in morality and will not even live within the same hyper-reality as anyone in the couuntry where the people he was born from reside. This is true. There is a movie you can watch that was inspired by the true story of this happening. We had to wath this movie in a cultural anthropology class I took because its a good example of how culture works in some respects. An American architect was in south America working on a major dam building operation. He took his family down to see the job site where he was working and there 6 year old son was "kidnapped" by one of the indigenous tribes. He was raised by them. He forgot how to speak english and forgot everything about his past. His dad looked for him for years and eventually found him. The boy only remembered his das image from dreams he had growing up. When he saw him he thought his name was Da'de' but did not associate with a title of fatherhood. The boy regaurded an elder of his tribe as his father and regarded himself as one of the indigenous peoples. Because the indigenous cultures do not live in our hyper reality, or our ideology or withing the kindhip ties we adhere to, they also regarded the boy as one of them and not white like the man who came looking for him. The movie is called "Emerald forest" and is the true story of the account. Its a bit cheezy and over does it with the hollywood aspects so is not a perfect representation of the phenomenon, but it happens because of the process called, enculturation.

I exist only in the sense you can experience me, I am no more real than a dream, or a character in a video game.

Hello Alexandro, There are two modes of experience being experienced by your girlfriend that you both want to be careful not to confuse or cross-up: First, you state that she has been waking up from sleep and seeing presences in your apartment and that this happens only at your apartment...and that they disappear when she becomes scared (and I assume abreacts in some way). This is evidence of a haunting by a dis-corporated entity or entities. Second, you state that she often has nightmares and that she talks in her sleep. *Does she have nightmares outside of your apartment as well?--or does she have the nightmares only at your apartment? *Most important question: Are the presences in the apartment that she sees upon waking up from sleep the same entities that she experiences in her nightmares? Getting her answer to this question will help with further advice. The characters in your girlfriend's dreams come from her own mind--unless she is under pressure/attack from dis-corporated entities that are in your apartment. But if she is being woken by entities in your apartment and sees them each time, then that's evidence that she is probably being haunted or being messed with by low-level spirit(s). In any event, to answer your question: FP Qigong practice will sensitize one to be able to recognize and perceive spiritual entities (usually after years of practice, unless one has a gift or predilection to commune with spirits), but it will not make one more vulnerable to psychic attack or haunting by unpleasant or angry ghosts. Any vulnerability to attack is there to begin with. And the ghost or ghosts are there to begin with. It's one's own karma that "draws" or rather encounters non-physical beings--not a Qigong method. (Participating in a spiritual invocation consciously or inadvertantly, of course, will open the doors to spiritual encroachment of invasion if one is not careful and properly trained to deal with spirits.) Another interesting and key question is whether you are able to see these presences when your girlfriend sees them. If you do, then that's simple confirmation. But it may be a situation where she is able to see the disturbing entity and not you. At any rate, your girlfriend's nightmares-- if they occur both at and away from your apartment--can be addressed and resolved by good counseling and hypnotherapy/dream therapy. On the other hand, her being woken up in her sleep by "presences" if they are indeed supramundane entities is a situation that calls for an exorcism or some adequate countermeasure short of an exorcism. Of course, I cannot speak to such operations in this forum or on the medium of a blogsite. But to get better understanding of psychic defenses and vulnerability, I suggest reading "Psychic Self-Defense" by Dione Fortune. Good luck. Sifu Terry www.taichimania.com/chikung_catalog.html

First step is to form your Taoist religious organization, and then file for tax exempt status. Also look into property tax exemption, which I am pretty sure is a separate consideration...so that you don't have to owe hundreds each year for your land. Or at least find land with cheap property taxes...some are less than $100 a year. Make sure the land is zoned so that you can farm and have residential buildings. Make sure you have a clean source of water, that your soil is good, etc. There is really a lot to consider if you plan for your future, and you must become proficient in working the system...or else you'll get screwed over. I would personally not worry so much about going off grid and being fully self sufficient, as I would about just living closer to nature...especially in the beginning. No one will want to join you if it's uncivilized...but "if you build it, they will come". An especially important consideration, I think, is making the buildings with good feng shui. I really like Baolin Wu's book, as well as Vastu (from India, which seems to be a much more complete system of knowledge). Consider having an income...you can have the place be an organic farm, partnered with Organic Valley for instance. This way, you're supporting positive food practices in the bigger society, as well as getting a steady income from the cooperative. Free range grass fed dairy, to the highest quality, is something many people want. Do beekeeping and sell (and eat) that. Cultivate specialty plants...for instance, Saffron is a very expensive spice. Or personally, I was thinking of having an Ashitaba farm and making the raw stalks (with the yellow sap and its healing properties) more well known in America. In addition, I would host meditation retreats there once you get the buildings set up...don't limit it to Taoism. Invited teachers of all traditions. Have the cost be reasonable compared to other retreat centers. Basically, an income makes you comfortable so you won't have to worry about basics of survival...and it also makes you capable. You will be more capable to actualize your dream of being a self sufficient community of like minded individuals, who give away their excess production.

Buddha says he had a dream about you..

As far as I can tell we agree on everything, when I say nothing exists I mean it in the sense of dreams and video game characters which are made of energy and information. It exists in the sense it can be experienced, and in no other sense. The Mahayana Buddhists compare the mind to a mirror which reflects reality, and it is the mirror we observe and believe to be reality itself. The sum of our total experience is purely energy and information inside our neural nets. There is no observer of the experience, rather the observer itself IS the experience that is occurring. A waking dream is a good analogy. The experience that is occurring is of the same nature of a painting of a pipe (not a pipe itself), a map of the territory (but not the territory itself), or a mirror reflecting something else (yet the reflection is not the thing reflected) We see only inside our own minds, not outside of them, so there really isn't much difference if any between waking life and and a dream. The void for is very interesting as modern science (Lawrence Krauss, Hawking, etc.) are finding that empty space is actually filled to the brim with electron/positron pairs fused together as a whole. Empty space is as full as anything can be. Random quantum vacuum fluctuations can break apart empty space itself (as it is a sea of electron/positron pairs) and generate both matter and antimatter in equal amounts, and over time must do so on scales great enough to generate an entire universe from the void. Hawking coined the term hawking radiation, at the edge of the event horizon of a singularity (black hole) the gravitational field is so strong that it breaks apart the electron/positron pairs of empty space, swallows the positron and in doing so negates the mass inside the black hole and converts it back to a electron/positron pair at the other side of the event horizon an electron is emitted causing the blackhole/singulairty over eons to evaporate. P.S. 3DO and neogeo those were the days

I'll have to disagree on that point. I think you made it quite clear that you were taking a nihilist point of view, eg nothing exists, period. That is a misinterpretation of the diamond sutra. I think that non-existent is the wrong word. Video game characters certainly exist. Try to take a 3DO away from a teenager in the middle of a game. Video game characters occupy our kids' thoughts more than school work, sell more high fructose corn syrup than can possibly be imagined, and influence the lives of millions of people. And what is our daily experience other than a waking dream? Your mind and it's particular set of sensory organs are what evoke your experience of reality from what would otherwise be an unrecognizable amalgam of energetic vibrations. It's not much different from dreaming. And Buddhism takes it ones step further and subjects your waking, real experience to the same scrutiny and concludes that it is an energetic happening that does not exist separate from the mind of the dreamer. That is not the same as saying that it doesn't exist. And so is your neural net and so are you. So are you absolutely sure that all of that is contained within our neural nets? It certainly seems that way but even that must be carefully scrutinized. And one can also view all of reality in exactly the same manner. Perhaps we agree on that point.

Who's pretending, it can obviously be verified as true just by thinking clearly on the subject. You are an experience, not a thing. There is no one observing the experience occur, the experience itself is what we think of as the observer. An experience has no physical tangible reality to it, you can't pour a cup of experience any more than you can pour a cup of a dream.

As before when the analogy to a video game character it has reality and existence in the sense it can be experienced, yet however exists purely as energy and information inside a computer. A dream has existence in the sense that it can be experienced, yet exists purely as energy and information inside the mind of the dreamer. Had the Buddha been born in recent history I'd venture to guess he'd make use of such an analogy to explain the reality we live in. Everything we can experience, vision, smell, taste, hearing, touch, memory, intuition, visualization, verbalization, emotion, dreams, the entire gamut and sum of our experience, is purely energy and information being exchanged in our neural nets. So what you are seeing right now as a computer monitor isn't external to your mind, but rather you are viewing your own internal mental processes and believing such to be an external reality, which is about as silly as looking at a painting of a pipe and believing it is a pipe.

A character in a video game is non-existent, yet it can be experienced even though it has no reality to it other than energy and information in a computer. That's what I am getting it. The same for a dream, it can be experienced but has no reality to it outside the confines of one's own mind.

A dream is empty but it is not non-existent. You probably had some last night and will again tonight. Dreams are excellent analogies to waking experience and are very often used as aids to understanding the Buddhist view of sunyata as they point to the role of mind in our waking experience. I think you are confusing empty with non-existent. That is a common error in the interpretation of Buddhist scripture because sunyata points to a non-conceptual state that is not directly accessible to the conceptual/rational mind. Furthermore, sunyata can be interpreted in a number of different ways depending on the context (spaciousness, openness, thusness, void, expansiveness, fullness, and so on). Some people can come to an understanding of sunyata through scripture. Most seem to have better luck through meditation. Some simply get it spontaneously. You are certainly entitled to your interpretation but it's an error to equate sunyata with non-existence and it is an error to interpret the Buddhist view as "nothing exists." That seems to be what is being challenged here.

A dream could be said to be empty and non-existent, yet obviously as it is being experienced it can not be said to have non-existence either.

I've had a lot of lucid dreams over the past couple of years...my first since I was about 14. Very long story behind all this, but anyway, the main points: I too have seen Guatama Buddha and Amitabha, but more so in meditation. I later learnt that they were pointing me in a direction, for I was seeking some answers. I also learnt not to get attached, as all these are simply learning experiences. However, one day I had a migraine and passed out on my bed just as my girlfriend went into the shower. There, my eyes were semi-open but all I saw around me was a meadow with a large tree and pink flowers. I was certainly in the lucid dream state from then as I was so familiar with the feeling from other visions I had. As I lay there in pain, the Buddha approached me and knelt down. He handed me a flower, smiling, then took off. I felt his presence right there and it was so amazing, a tear of joy came to my eye. Then I heard the shower stop running and suddenly I snapped out of it. I quickly wiped the tear from my face and then my girlfriend walks back in. What strange timing! From then on, my migraine continued to get better and by the evening, it was gone. N.B I never get migraines. I have had many other lucid dreams too. If we are sharing more, I will go on...