Search the Community

Without rodeo, are the exercises here legit? And are they safe to use as it is or should people that do certain qigong styles avoid this?

The Red Spot, its scab lending a ruby hue, blood from epochs seemingly diffused. The Lost child wonders in the dark, wonders for the lantern. Was it ever? Always? Alas Anon indicates, no point, no compass, nothing to stake. The rose enclosed, engulfing all prismatic rays. Venus awaits, does her trap lend an escape?

Hello! I have a question regarding the Dragon and the Tiger. The Azure-Wood-Dragon of the East and the White-Metal-Tiger of the West are associated with the LEFT and the RIGHT of the body, respectively. However, In the same way that Li/Fire is on the "left side" of the Preheaven Bagua and Kan/Water is on the "right", I wonder is there is intentional hermetic sealing of the information encoded in these diagrams.* *Grimoires and occult literature is notoriously loaded with purposeful misinformation. NOTE the intentional switching of the Swords and Wands elemental association of the Tarot by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in the early 20th century. This was to test initiates to see if they know the true association, rather than just taking it for granted. If you think about it - Swords would obviously correspond to Fire and Wands obviously to Air, rather than the other way around. Unfortunately, through the remainder of the 20th and into the 21st centuries we have fallen for the HOTGD's trick. It has occurred to me that the mirror is a recurrent motif in Daoist alchemy (The "Mirror for Compounding the Medicine", etc.). Could it be - as I believe - that we are not to read the Bagua as "facing" away from us, but "facing" towards us? Putting Li on our RIGHT sides and Kan on our LEFT? Yes, the Dragon constellation is in the East and the Tiger in the West. But what does this explicitly have to do with the body? The East (Dragon) is on your LEFT only if you are FACING SOUTH. If you are facing NORTH then the Dragon is on your RIGHT. The Dragon being Yang, I feel, should correspond with the RIGHT and not with the LEFT. We are used to North/South and Heaven/Earth being flipped in our alchemical cosmology... why not Left and Right? All this was spurred on by trying to find a banishing ritual that roughly matches the HOTGD's Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. In my searching I came across this: https://freakassesoterica.wordpress.com/2017/04/08/taoist-banishing-ritual/ While I found this compelling, I also can't help but think for myself. I looked in Benebell Wen's Tao of Craft for an answer and it seems to lack left/right correspondences. Looking forward to your thoughts!! (P.S. This is my first post here. Go easy on me. )

Thank you for making this opportunity available for others to share their experience in the Chinese Internal arts. My name is Eric Wilson . . . I trained and taught Chinese Kung-fu, Tai-chi, and Qigong for more than 24 years. And while I did realize a great manifestation of "internal" power, I also experienced some very strong negative effects. I am sharing my story and these experiences at the links below, and it is my prayer that these will be of help to those who also have had questions about the spiritual source of Chi and "internal" power. Thank you, Eric Wilson and family

Hello! Thanks for reading this post. I'm never sure how to introduce myself, so I'll go right into things I do and look at, and relate to. I'm a unique individual and I tend to stay positive. I struggle with anxiety, though, and still haven't found a place to call home, or spiritual home. Taoism is the closest thing I've found, and I look forward to deepening my understanding. My life doesn't align completely with my beliefs so, here I am!! Help!! Lol... I'm nice and give until I'm exhausted. I eat too much. I work out 5-6 times a week, when my bad back allows me to. I'm a workaholic and I'm not sure my boyfriend and I will last. I pride myself on strength and strive to be like water. Yielding but persistent. I like dragons, yoga, coffee and I miss having cigarettes with my coffee. I like to write too. Favorite movie, Dumb and Dumber. Favorite song, Girl from the North Country. Favorite band, Cage the Elephant. Oh and here's my face. Go Reds.

This is kind of a weird topic (i think). Recently i've been experiencing something that is quite strange/interesting. I'm sure there's some subconscious factor that's making me interpret my experiences as follows, but it is becoming persistent/consistent in experience as I continue taiji practice. initially it started with experiencing energy during formwork as a cloud of energy that expands and contracts depending on the intention and specific form. Now this has been transformed into imagery/my mind/brain interpreting the energy flow as being dragons that are moving around and coiling about as I do the forms. Also, the left side seems to be a white dragon and the right side a red dragon. They feel very palpable but not threatening in any way. Odds are that my mind is just telling a "story" based on subconscious mythological conditioning (as in dragons are part of IMA lore)...but posting this to see if there might be some other explanation for this.

Damo Mitchell has arrived on the Daoist meditation scene in the last few years and has had a bit of controversy in the past with claiming a lineage he was instructed in but not initiated. How wonderfully dull and dramatic considering the quality of what is on the discs. In the past I read his Daoist Neigong book and while it wasn't anything new to me I found his presentation of it to be easy to read and without much pretense. I have only watched the first disc's contents so far and it's a clear introduction to some good exercises. This isn't the alpha and omega of sets but a great body conditioning routine when taken in entirety. The mechanics are applicable to both energetic and martial movement. The first disc starts with Damo demonstrating all four sets of exercises and they are named Awakening Dragon, Swimming Dragon, Soaring Dragon, and Drunken Dragon respectively. Then a very cute blonde instructor goes over each set individual set. Each set is also clarified further in a respective breakdown of exercises within the sets. I have yet to watch the second and third discs but plan on it soon. I spent some of my afternoon ripping the first DVD into mp4 format to watch on my phone whilst riding public transportation this week to analyze it a little more. The movements are very reminiscent of Wudang bagua especially with the cosplay aspect of Damo's getup. So far I think the Dragon Daoyin sets would be a great base to learn before doing palm changes around a circle and for those of us with previous martial training it should be simple enough to "translate" into applications.

http://www.pakalertpress.com/2013/12/20/dragon-discovered-in-indonesia/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+pakalert+%28Pak+Alert+Press%29 Agni (Sanskrit name meaning “fire”) is the newest hatchling of a recently discovered species in Indonesia. He was given the name by members of the initial research team because of his red wing coloring. While local Zoologists (scientists who study and classify animals) are hesitant to use the name “Dragon”, there is an unmistakable resemblance between this new species and the mythical dragons of ancient lore. Barely a week old, Agni can expect to triple his current size within a month based on his current growth rate. He currently feeds mainly on insects but will soon graduate to small rodents and birds. Adult specimens have remained elusive, although clues of their existence have been spotted in the local region where Agni was found. It is believed that the adults remain in hibernation for most of the year, only emerging occasionally to hunt for food. The first question one is likely to ask is whether these creatures have the ability to “breathe” fire like the dragons in movies and fairy tales. While no concrete evidence of this is available, it is noted that the region of protected forestland where Agni resides has an unusually high number of “scorch plots” as seen below. A scorch plot is a portion of land, small or large, that has been scorched or burned. Usually they are caused by lightning, but the more frequent presence of these scorched areas in this region indicates another cause. The story of how this discovery came about starts with the disappearance of about 15 cattle from a ranch that had recently expanded its territory near a protected wildlife habitat. It was first assumed that the disappearances were due to the activity of large cats roaming out of the protected forestland to find food. But it soon became evident that this was not the case when no feline tracks could be found anywhere in the area. In fact no tracks of any kind could be found going in or out of the rancher’s territory that would explain the loss of 15 cattle. The missing cattle could not have left by land. The only explanation left was that they were taken by air. In the absence of a fleet of helicopters to cart them off, the situation seemed an unsolvable mystery until wildlife researchers in the local preserve came across a collection of cattle bones strewn across a walking path. A scientific investigation was undertaken to get to the bottom of this when the following was discovered along with several other already hatched eggs: Agni as well as several of his siblings have been found and are undergoing observation by local scientists in their natural habitat in order to gather more information about their behavior and feeding habits. The search continues for an adult specimen, although with 2 researchers assigned to this project having gone missing already, this appears to be more of a dangerous undertaking than originally anticipated. No other signs of the missing cattle have been found nor any clues to the exact whereabouts of the adult dragons, although researchers on the project appear determined to continue until the mystery is solved once and for all. Note: To prevent the unlawful hunting or poaching of these animals and for the protection of the researchers involved, names and specific locations have been omitted. Dragons. Are they real? Have the mythical creatures of children’s stories been here all along, hiding in the deep jungle under our very noses? If so, why have they only recently been discovered? Were dragons once abundant and thriving across the globe, only to be hunted into near extinction as ancient tales tell us? If so, why were they hunted? For sport? Or do these creatures represent a threat to mankind?