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I've been intrigued by the buddhabrot fractal for some time. It had been called buddhabrot because it shows several features of historic Gautama Buddha depictions: The tikka, a topknot, ringlet hair and a meditation pose. I've done a bit of qigong during lockdowns and have become even more intrigued by it. If you take a look at it, you will probably see why. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhabrot High-res rendering: https://erleuchtet.org/2010/07/ridiculously-large-buddhabrot.html The buddhabrot is the same as the well-known mandelbrot fractal, which sorts 2D starting coordinates c into escaping / not escaping a specific boundary on the complex plane (a 2D plane that has its own set of mathematical rules and is linked to various physical domains, e.g. quantum physics) during a long simple iteration. The classic mandelbrot only shows the points that stay inside the set. For the buddhabrot, instead of showing points that stay inside the set, we look at where all the points that escape the set into infinity fly around. Simply said, the brighter a pixel on the buddhabrot fractal is, the more escaping points flew around there on their way to infinity. What are your thoughts about it? What do you see when you look at it?

I was very grateful for this video, thanks goes to Damo Mitchell (video above). I think this would benefit a lot of people here and clear up lots of doubts and mistaken notions. I really enjoyed it, I hope you guys do too

I am currently learning Bagua from a disciple of Jiang Rong Qiao who is of the opinion that storing energy in the Mingmen is better than Dantien. He pointed to various masters of what he calls Shaolin origin who use the Dantien, and they appear overweight (the Qi expanding the gut). Then he describes his method as the Daoist method. He has his own method of qigong which I could describe as similar to a sacral pump combined with the microcosmic OR macrocosmic orbit (he has two methods). To be more precise, he defines Dantien as the general area of energy and the mingmen to be the specific storage. Shaolin schools in his opinion focus on storage from the front rather than back. For this reason, when I ask him about Zhan Zhuang practices he would say that these would cause one to develop a gut. I previously learned ZZ from my first teacher and this benefited me to sense my alignments and feel the energy in my body. However, this is not the first time I have been told that ZZ is bad. A prior master I had was of the opinion that ZZ causes too much Qi to rise to the head causing madness. I believe this man was from the dragon gate sect and he also taught strictly movement based qigong. This same master claimed to levitate tables and spoke quite negative of the Wudang tradition. I am unsure of his abilities, however, he did demonstrate a lot of knowledge. My conjecture so far is that both masters are developing Yang Qi and have not seen the need to develop subtler practices of ZZ. Meanwhile, I have been following BK Frantzis, JA Johnson, and Lam Kam Chuen all of whom promote ZZ. Anyone have any opinions/clarification of the above?

Yes, I know, stupid question, but I want to clarify some things. Normally its the lower dantien, but I stumbled upon some articles about the three treasures (jing, qi and shen). There, I read that they are stored in the lower, middle and respectively upper dantien. Can somebody explain this? (I'm pretty new to those elements som yeah...)

Hello The Dao Bums Feels like home here already. Almost like there's no use for words. I've had many great teachers, one of whom was a priest of the Quanzhen lineage. who have given me insight into the mysteries. Not the most strictly disciplined here myself, but have a lot of knowledge. Mystical experiences lead me to the Dao De Jing, and I am able to feel qi as magnetism between my palms. Went to Naropa University in boulder, co where I got a degree in Traditional Eastern Arts, Concentration Tai Chi Chuan. That is also where I met the priest. Im a quarter Chinese, my grandfather's jing. The Yellow Emperor's Y chromosome. Excited to talk and meet people here.

Hi all... I've been a lurker here for a long time now and everything you guys share has been really helpful and I really appreciate you giving your time. Tl:Dr on the bottom. My current journey started off with Vipassana meditation (did the 10 day Goenka retreat in 2010). Then onto what is now being called as neo-advaita, power of now, observing thoughts etc. I had a brief foray into Vipassana noting practice (the Dharma overground forum and Daniel Ingram's MCTB) and while reading Ingram's book, I realised what my aim was with doing spiritual practices. Right now my aim is to be at peak performance, develop intuition and joy and peace, develop creativity bubble with vitality and health. I should also clarify that I've been battling a chronic illness through all this, and was bedridden for almost the whole of 2011. Oh yeah, and I'm 29 right now. Trying different things and gradually getting better, and I started realising the limitations of working only with energy while ignoring the physical structure, the muscles, Fascia and connective tissue that form the substrate for the energy to flow. (this is only my own insight, and I may well be wrong about the whole thing). When I started working on mobility, stretching, freeing up my pelvis and hips, I found my energy levels soaring. I started to feel the energy start to flow down my legs and feet. The heaviness in my head and brain fog started to clear, and little by little, I started coming into flow. I also experienced weird psychological reactions to the stretching, for which I could find no conventional explanation except Qi releasing. Recently, I started swaying during meditation again. Some meditation teachers told me to let it happen, others told me to keep myself still. Synchronously, I found myself back on The Daobums, reading about spontaneous Qigong. So then I decided to go deeper into the swaying. Something about it felt like a deeper part inside of me calling me. And that was the best decision I've ever made. I'm able to maintain a good flow of energy inside me, with minimal energy pooling in any one place. My body has become much more supple, like a cats. My pain and stiffness is quite now, and is easily dealt with with a session of swaying. After years of tight hamstrings, I gained 2 inches of reach and can touch my knuckles to the ground. And recently, I've been having unity experiences of bliss and joy and connectedness to everything, able to feel, quite literally, the oceans of energy around me. Of course, it didn't last, but I don't mind. Last couple of things I'm struggling with, a psoas muscle that's locked tight, and really seems to be restricting the flow of energy down my legs. And when after my spontaneous Qigong practice I place my hands on my lower Dantian, after about 20-30 minutes my lower belly and psoas starts to tremble and vibrate, and I feel it releasing. And any mental work or stimulation still tires me to no end, (which is why I've never posted before), feels like the energy starts pooling above my lower abdomen and builds up, instead of flowing down the leg, and I have to let it flow all out which takes a lot of time. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks for reading (if you made it this far!). Tl:Dr - I had chronic illness and was bedridden. A long spiritual and healing journey has finally brought me to Qigong. I have experienced fixing the structural aspects of the body such as posture, muscles, Fascia and connective tissue is amazing to optimise energy flow. I started spontaneously moving during meditation, and after reading about it on The Daobums, decided to go deeper into spontaneous Qigong practice. I feel like a new man now, energy flowing better, energy levels up, muscles looser and stronger and having unity experiences occasionally. Last couple of things I'm struggling with, a psoas muscle that's locked tight, and really seems to be restricting the flow of energy down my legs. And when after my spontaneous Qigong practice I place my hands on my lower Dantian, after about 20-30 minutes my lower belly and psoas starts to tremble and vibrate, and I feel it releasing. And any mental work or stimulation still tires me to no end, (which is why I've never posted before), feels like the energy starts pooling above my lower abdomen and builds up, instead of flowing down the leg, and I have to let it flow all out which takes a lot of time. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Love, urbanyogi

Hello, (apologies if there's another thread that covers this, but I couldn't find one) I was just wondering what the basics/typical LDT cultivation consisted of? Microcosmic Orbit seems pretty universally similar: inhale up governing or conception vessels, inhale down governing or conception vessels (depending on fire or water orbit), but so far I've come across differing descriptions for LDT cultivation. If people could post what they consider to be the standard basics of LDT cultivation and/or what the following authors say about it, that would be much appreciated. I'm interested in what the following people have to say: Ken Cohen Michael Lomax Jerry Alan Johnson Michael Winn Mantak Chia Glenn Morris Chunyi Lin Bruce Kumar Frantzis Terry Dunn Yang Jwing Ming and anyone else you think is worthy mentioning. Cheers guys

Hello, let me start out with an introduction. I am new to this website and wanted to see if any would help me out with their perspectives on some questions I have about chi and qigong. I have been interested in chi for a few years and ever since I was stuck in my head trying to figure out what it really meant and the meaning behind the power of it. On my path I found myself lost trying too hard to balance myself and wanting to control every aspect of my life. My path consisted of so many ups and downs, but it was if I was going in circles; and when I realized I was going in circles I would break out into a new path, but then I started going in circles again in the new path I was going in. I couldn't distinguish between which was yin and what was yang though I read online the feelings associated with both. It seemed like I was more consumed by the mental aspect of what chi was. Mentally I felt like nothing could harm me but deep inside I still felt off balance and wondered why things in my life (mostly people) would still reject me for who I was though it was all truly in good meaning. I would sit for hours in my head thinking of so many possibilities of the world and why things are the way they are. Many "wierd" and "normal" questions and thoughts went through my head and it seemed as if I was still while the world was passing me by. " Is immortality possible? Can I have superpowers? Why do we exist? Why am I here? Is this life real or is death real? What if the people who are close to me die? I wouldn't be able to deal with that pain but thinking about it brings me pain. I wish I could just die and end this pain. I'm not meant for this world" and so on and so on. Imagine how much pain built up in me living like this for years. As of recently, all that changed. I think I finally felt CHI. I emptied myself of all these thoughts but somehow kept a little hold of them in order to process reality in my own way. I found out that by keeping myself in this box of mine, I rejected myself of my physical body. I was feeling both energies but I was consuming myself with yin I believe (I am a guy though) which kept me inside of my head. As I released this energy I felt more energy going throughout my stomach and through my body which had been there all this time, but was just stagnant because of my mindset that I didn't have to worry about my body because I thought I knew it already and me not being able to distinguish between the yin and yang energies. Now I seem like I know it. I was now able to go deeper into these areas and I found myself being able to feel and discover areas of my body I didn't really think about much such as places on ears or my toes. I started living more in the moment not because it's what I have heard so many times, but because it felt... right. I realized that my immediate desire to balance my chi took me to my lowest, but at the same time brought me to my highest, and at the same time the realization allowed see and capture what I truly wanted. As of now I see truly see my mind and body as one thing; and whenever I put my energy towards something, I also see it as one and everything else seems to fade around it.Though it may or may not seem as a powerful story; to me it is really just a release that I found the opportunity to act upon. I know that my journey will never be done and I will continue to develop through my life and hopefully if there is an afterlife, will continue then. Don't worry I'm not suicidal or anything I plan to live as long as possible and take what life gives me. Anyways sorry for the very very long introduction hah I got very into it. But now for the questions. Have any of you learned how to store chi in the dantien? If so what does it feel like to you? Also have any of you been in very deep meditation and what experience did you have in doing so? How do you know how much chi is in your dantien and when it is full? Last, how do you project chi (such as using it to send heat through your hand)?