Search the Community

Dear Dao Bums, Here is my experience with Tummo with Tulku Lobsang. I'll share in 2 parts: 1) Background & 2) The Course Itself 1) Background Since I was a child my father told me stories of naked monks in the snow of Himalaya staying warm through yogic siddhi power. How teenage tibetan monks had "exam" at school to see how many wet sheets they could dry with their body heat from sunrise to sunset using tummo. I learned from Tulku Lobsang that the accepted amount for a "good grade" is 21 sheets. In my late twenties I saw Tulku Lobsang on the show "Story of God With Morgan Freeman" where he meditates in a t-shirt in -5 degrees celsius seemingly unbothered by the cold temperature. Morgan Freeman wears cap, gloves and a big jacket. This reminded me of my desire to try out Tummo for myself. 2) Tummo Weekend Course The course was just 2 days. There was a lot of people, maybe 100 or so. I was there with one of my friends, who's also into meditation, energy work, out of body travel etc. The practical part of Tummo consists of physical exercises, breathing exercises and meditation exercises. The meditation method used is visualisation as well as focused awareness in your body. We meditated all together maybe 7 times at the course, and 5 or 6 of the 7 times both me and my friend felt very warm. We felt heat in our bodies due to the transmission from Tulku Lobsang. For me there was only 1 time I didn't feel much, and for my friend it was also only 1 time or so. So overall, we very both very happy with the course. However, I spoke to several other participants at the course. One was a girl sitting next to me, the other was a random woman I spoke with in a break. Neither of them really felt anything during the course. So my conclusion is that: 1) Tulku Lobsang is legit and does transmission for sure, 2) Whether you pick up that transmission is then apparently dependent on several factors. What these factors are, I of course can't say for sure. Both me and my friend have meditated with many masters for many years of our life, and have been exposed to spirituality since childhood. So it makes sense that in accord with previous karma (thought, words and deeds) you have built up a "vessel" in your soul to receive the transmission. The bigger your vessel to receive is, the more of the transmission you receive. I for example felt my friend received it much more than me. Interestingly enough, he's been mainly involved with Buddhist practices in his spiritual life, whereas I've been mainly involved with Hindu practices. Of course they're both branches on the same Dharmic tree, but maybe that's why he picked up more. He already is connected to the Buddhist stream to a much larger degree. The girl and the woman then maybe did receive something, however, their vessel to receive was smaller, hence what of the transmission they could pick up was proportionately smaller. So if you wish to try Tummo out, build your vessel to receive as big as possible through: 1) daily spiritual practice without fail (discipline - you reap what you sow, if you work more, you will in the end receive more), 2) have a big desire for the practice, the bigger the fire of your desire, the bigger your vessel to receive will grow, 3) be on the same "wave-length" as Buddhism, read about it, study, meet & connect with Buddhist people, watch interviews etc 4) when you finally learn Tummo, dedicate X amount of time to it daily for a specified period of time. The transmission is simply the seed, you need to water that seed daily for it to over time grow into a plant, then a bush, then a tree, and finally a mighty tree reaching far into the sky. Depending on your karma, it can take a couple of weeks, a couple of months, a couple of years, or a couple of decades to nurture that seed of Tummo into a mighty tree, allowing you to stay warm naked in the snow. I can say for myself, I think I will need at least 6 months to a couple of years of daily practice to be able to do that. I feel the heat, but there's still long to go to grow it so powerful. I wish you all the best with your practice!

Four or five years ago I started noticing a pulse in my lower dan tien, I'd been practicing some reverse breathing after years and years of practice. Could be that reverse breathing activates the lower dan tien? In yoga the bandhas are meant to unlock the granthi (dan tien)

I experimented with meditation three years ago and it ungrounded my energy. It seems as though my hara line is weak, and it has a weak connection between my soul star and earth chakras. Last night I meditated on my hara line between my soul star and earth chakras, and I felt my energy healing in tact for the first time in three years! However, energy leaks from my lower Dan tien if I do the microcosmic orbit to ground my energy. It seems as though mirror gazing puts the energy right back, though. What advice would you have for me to permanently heal my energy system so I can feel normal again?

These days I’m reading Born A Healer by Chunyin Lin and I’m feeling more attracted to his teachings so I’ve tried and old video of his SFQ level 1 that I had and I like it a lot, I find it very similar to Robert Peng’s teachings. I would like to give it a try to the 100 days of qigong challenge that he promotes on his website. The thing is that there are 2 points in his teachings that I can’t quite catch yet: 1) The location of the lower dan tien. Any of the SFQ practitioners here on this forum could explain why Marter Lin locates it below the navel? 2) I find it difficult to understand the mechanics of his qigong breathing (some call it here reverse breathing). Master Chunyin Lin explains: “As you breathe in, draw the lower part of your stomach in a little. As you breathe out let your stomach out” Whenever I try it I tend to expand my upper chest when inhaling, when I think it’s the abdomen which has to get expanded … ? In few breathes I end up breathless so, obviously, as I said, I don’t get it Is there any good soul here willing to help me understand these points?

Hi all, I am new to this forum, but very intrigued. I did my first post and shared a little about myself, however, I am honestly just here asking for help. I have a few books on Taoism (Tao Te Ching, Awaken Healing Light of the Tao by Chia, The Tao of Inner Peace), but I am very new on my path. I spent a few years smoking a lot of Cannabis recently before I got started on my new path with meditations and Taoism and I feel as if the energy was mostly in my head. I was living in a state of needing to always be high. I am worried a may have gotten some blockages or stuck energy because when I do deep abdominal (lower dan tien) breathing there is a bit of tightness when I fully inhale that is sort of painful. Also there is tightness in my lower back a little. What is the best system to start trying to fix this? I do deep belly breathing, but should I be doing it all day every day? Or just once a day? I am a cery dedicated person I just need to be pointed in the right direction. I am awaiting "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body" that I ordered on Amazon. Any book or lifestyle suggestions would greatly help me. Also, when I do some deep breathing I can crack my upper spine by pulling my shoulders back. Im assuming this means stuck energy being dislodged? I am I lifegaurd at a pool for the summer and have a lot of free time during the day. Any advice guys? Thank you in advance for anyone sharing knowledge

Greetings. I need help. I am not very sure what to start and what to quit doing, but I've got to change something in my life. It's been about 6 months since I stopped trying hard, and tried to go back to basics. A short background: I've got very ill at the age of 19, after just about 2 months of living by myself in a new city. I hated the university, ate terribly, slept for 4-5 hours and practiced guitar for 10-12. Pretty soon I got stressed and depressed. Next I got carpal tunnel syndrome, inflammation of wrists and all the joints and muscles/tendons in my hands. Got more depressed. Few months later I ended up in hospital, because of severe stiffness of lower middle and upper back. Not able to sleep, not able to focus, had blurry vision, and was just awfully miserable. Shallow breath. Barely functioning. Oh I forgot. I had acute hyperacusis and tinnitus even prior to that. Nothing helped much, time healed some of the issues, to a certain degree. OK so 2 years later I did a 14 day water fast, followed by a 30 day water fast. Cured the inflammation, ears and back problems and CTS to about 70%. I'm finally able to use computer keyboard and even play guitar a little, which is nice. Cool but now I have some digestive issues(very fragile stomach) and have some trouble gaining weight( I'm 5'9'' and 118lbs). During the fast I felt a lot of tension around and below my navel. My stomach now is very sensitive and when I'm frightened or even surprised it hurts as if electrically shocked(previously I felt neck tension and head pain when under stress). I'm glad I'm so much more emotionally and mentally stable and don't have panic attacks and paranoia tendencies as I used to. I'm not depressed anymore. The downside is I'm still regaining strength 3 months after the fast and it's kinda slow. Still have a shallow breath and get exhausted pretty easily. I Think I need some sort of plan guys! If anybody could take time to address any of the following points, I would be most grateful. I feel somewhat stuck. No.1 Diet, sleep and basic activities. I've been following raw vegan fruit based diet since the fast and it was great for a number of reasons, but recently I started to see some limitations. Main problem is I guess lack of enough ripe fruit available here in Europe. So I started introducing cooked millet, potatoes, lentils and diary. Diary is fine, but over all I just feel week, lazy and lethargic. I tend to overeat on these things, since non of them is as satisfying as ripe fruit. It's really a pita. Will this last until I regain all my weight? I used to weigh about 75kg. I use cronometer.com and try to get about 3500-4000 calories daily now. I started following ayurveda for my dosha(vata) and it's amazing! Different foods like peppers, mushrooms eggplants, beans and other things always gave me problems, and now as I follow the guidelines I don't have to fear the food I'm eating lol. I try to get a litre of water before each meal, I can then eat normal sized portions. I try to sleep... as much as possible lol. In a few days I'm coming back to work. Walking around a warehouse picking up items for shipping( luckily not very strenuous). Anything to change here? Is the Chinese method of eating worth exploring?(Don't know anything about it, heard it's kinda complicated). Would it be a good idea to go to a Tibetan Medicine centre? I'm open. No.2 Meditation, Martial Arts and Qigong. I'll give you my goals: -fix my body posture( I have very weak back, slouch, my shoulders are tight and high. Shoulder blades stick out like crazy and it's hard to relax sitting or standing. -improve circulation(it used to be terrible before the fast, but still could be better), -spontaneity(you know in life, in guitar improvisation, even in conversation I feel the lack of flow) -Calm the fucking Dan Tien(lower, and perhaps middle I'm not sure my whole stomach is a mess recently) I'm trying Zhan Zhuang. Have the book The Way of Energy and watched the YT channel. I find it exhausting, even ust the1st position. I tried it a dozen of times over past few months and couldn't hold it for more than 3 minutes. It's appealing, I see the potential and acknowledge it is a foundation, but it's harder than this Anyway, the second I heard about Baguazhang, I didn't want to look back anymore. At anything, even Taiji. I'm sold for life. I don't know why, I'm totally mesmerised. Something about the spinning circle flowing motion... and I see myself as somebody who's trapped in cycles anyway so why not lol? Do you think it could be appropriate for someone like me? Right now? How can I find a teacher? Do you know anybody who does it in the Netherlands/Germany/Sweden? OR should I already start learning Chinese ? I understand it's even less popular then real Taiji. Is it really so rare? And before I find a teacher, would it be ok to learn from books/dvds or I'd be better off joining Taiji classes? One Taiji instructor I met even suggested I should go back to Karate and do that for some time, before I get into the internal styles and qigong... I'm confused. As for meditation, I always did like a simple body scan relaxation, or progressive muscle relaxation, and rarely got satisfying results. Only recently I had some success with BK Frantzis Taoist Meditation CD's. I'm sort of used now to breathing from the belly and the back and focusing on the Lower Dan Tien is kinda effective. I feel it. Still it's hard for me to stick to the practice. If I do it one day properly for few minutes, the next day don't even feel the interest and get bored easily if I try. It's like it stirs my body energy, and then I lose the drive to repeat the exercise. Same with Qigong massage I tried few days ago. I yawned like crazy, and didn't feel too good afterwords... I know I have a tendency to overdo everything, but for Dao's sake- is there anything I can practice for more than a minute and not feel totally exhausted??? I would really love to get into all the energy meditations, organ massages, moving and manipulating chi inside the body... you know, the fun stuff. How can I get there? What should I read? Most Importantly: what I SHOULDN'T be doing? What could hurt me? And again, how can I look for a teacher of meditation and qigong? I also occasionally do Trauma Releasing Exercises, which are awesome: Has anybody heard of this? And I'm also interested in the Alexander Technique... No.3 Would something like Initiation Into Hermetics by Francis Bardon or other such curriculum contribute in any way to my vitality? I'm still kind of clueless about all the occult stuff. Would appreciate some feedback on that as well. I'm interested in inducing trance on the fly. Why? I'm not sure. But you've got to be able to in order to play like Jimi Hendrix, am I wrong? I would also appreciate any magick and spiritual inspired fiction and "fiction" books. Novels perhaps. I really dug Carlos Castaneda a while ago. Finally, and this is minute but can you share with me what type of shoes and clothing do you use for walking, and practicing martial arts? I recently realized it also matters. What type of materials? I'd like to get some loose(traditional/modern Chinese perhaps) clothes that would be socially acceptable lol. Any good sites? Kinda love shopping To end this huge lament of a noob I'll just throw some titles on you and if you want share your thoughts on them( just your general opinion): Book of Five rings - Musashi Baguazhang - Hidden Knowledge in the Taoist Internal Martial Art Ywing-Ming-Yang-PHDThe-Root-of-Chinese-Chi-Kung The Complete System of Self-Healing by Dr. Stephen T. Chang Way of the inner smile by Michael Winn Daoist Body Cultivation by Livia Kohn Taoist Meditation by Thomas Cleary Becoming Te Iceman. Any recommendations? Peace. PS. Please excuse my English, I know it got a little rusty recently.

I would like my mental and intellectual energy to be drawn from LDT, otherwise I'm 'top-heavy' and get dizzy when I think too much, like my head energy gets drained too quickly. I've experienced this very often and get drained so fast that I have to sit down and then I'm unable to function normally again. I've read Mantak Chia's Universal Healing Tao instruction yesterday, where I saw this concept of doing all your brainwork from the LDT essentially. Almost like you are dropping your brain into the LDT, and use the LDT as the center of your awareness the whole time, which can then provide thinking processes the energy from the LDT so you don't get drained by focusing on the upper Dan Tien which doesn't store energy so well. The idea I've received from the instruction is to spin the UDT, MDT and LDT and sort of feel the awareness centered in the head moving down into the LDT. So most of the awareness should be felt in the LDT, with partial attention being paid to the spinning of the UDT and MDT now and then or simultaneously. Could you please give me more direct useful instruction on fully achieving the centering of thinking and intellectual activity in the LDT, like what a strong process I should follow to reliably achieve this?