Making Love With The Earth

[RyanO]

Since semen retention is such a hot topic ‘round here, I thought I’d share some thoughts on the subject as well as a practice that has helped me. There seem to be a lot of dissenting viewpoints on retention. The causes for this dissention range from lack of communication, to different individual circumstances, and for the simple reason that people have different beliefs.

 

One reason I think men have encountered issues with retention, besides faulty practice, is misguided and unclear motivations. If a man practices retention in order to gain more power, for instance, the build-up of yang energy can create a harmful imbalance.

 

Trunk explains this nicely here:

 

http://www.precisiondocs.com/~altaoism/HLHealthySine.htm

 

So yin energy is necessary to balance the yang energy built up from retention. The question becomes how to accomplish this. One answer is dual cultivation with a woman. Another is periodic ejaculation from sex or masturbation. Others are grounding exercises like standing meditation, lifting weights, squats, etc.

 

A crucial piece to successful retention, in my view, is integration of heart energy. Not in a mechanical sense, but real feeling, gritty, embracing heart energy. The Inner Smile is a great way to do this. Many men in relationships get this from women.

 

For single men, the issue is a little more difficult. There can be an existential anxiety associated with singlehood. This anxiety emerges from a sense of a lack of completion or wholeness. This is nothing to be ashamed of and is a natural result polarizing sexual energy.

 

Other than sex, common ways for single men to satiate this anxiety include booze and masturbation. I think most on this board would agree that these are not satisfactory solutions. A problem with masturbation is that the self needs an ‘other’ in order to have a fully sexual experience. A practice I call Making Love With The Earth fills the void of this other and provides a certain type of sexual fulfillment without the energy loss of ejaculation.

 

The movement is basically something I learned from Michael Winn called Deep Earth Pulsing. He taught it at both his Primordial Qigong and Fundamentals workshops. The movement is also on his Sexual Vitality DVD and can be seen starting at around 1:50 in this video preview:

 

 

I won’t get into the details of the movement here but will if you ask. When doing it, you send energy into the Earth. To get really deep into the practice, it helps to believe in a personal Goddess or at least have a personal relationship with the Earth. The movement becomes a form of energetic intercourse, ‘ejaculating’ love deep inside the womb of the Earth and massaging Her with your feet.

 

A key part of this practice is to not demand anything in return, and do it simply because of your love. Give and allow.

 

That said, there are benefits to this practice with regard to retention. It energetically grounds and cools excess yang energy, and provides the psychological feeling of wholeness. It allows for integration of profound yin Earth energy.

 

There are some interesting alchemical occurrences with the practice. One can either do a fire or water technique to blend the heart and kidney energies before hand, or simply use heart energy. The oft-neglected front channel may also be included. However, I am still a beginner with alchemy and don’t know details of the energetics.

 

For me, it is less of an energetic practice and more of a devotional one, and I think this is where it is most profound. This is also why I make the differentiation between the Deep Earth Pulsing movement and what I have called Making Love With The Earth.

 

If you got this far, I appreciate you taking the time to read this long post. I’d be interested it anyone has any thoughts about anything I’ve said.

 

Thanks to Michael Winn, Trunk for his awesome site, and to you the reader.

 

Smiles to you all

Edited March 8, 2010 by RyanO

[trailmaker]

[RyanO]

Neat post - Ever gone for a walkabout with a divining rod or switch? Makes for a fun hike,

sensing Earth's pulse. Holy Smokes some call it voodoo...

 

Haha nope never have, sounds fun!

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

Mr Ryan O, on behalf of the underground miners of the BHP Mining Consortium, I must hereby request that you withdraw the above instructions, as the boys down under have begun complaining of getting warm, wet "pulsations" from the earth above. Please sir, have some consideration!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RyanO]

Mr Ryan O, on behalf of the underground miners of the BHP Mining Consortium, I must hereby request that you withdraw the above instructions, as the boys down under have begun complaining of getting warm, wet "pulsations" from the earth above. Please sir, have some consideration!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[三江源]

RyanO

 

What a fantastic post, what an elegant and fruitful solution to the issues that are all over this board from so many of the males here.

 

Perfect.

 

Thankou for giving it out.

[minkus]

For me, it is less of an energetic practice and more of a devotional one, and I think this is where it is most profound.

 

Very nice post, thank you

[Pietro]

[buscon]

[Trunk]

All really well said.

 

It energetically grounds and cools excess yang energy, and provides the psychological feeling of wholeness. It allows for integration of profound yin Earth energy.

[RyanO]

Thank you all for your responses. I’m glad you liked the post.

 

I thought about this more today, and would like to bring up a few extra points.

 

First, the movement of course does not require the intention of sexual communion. Those who are sexually attracted to men, for instance, might enjoy seeing the practice as a way to connect with the Mother aspect of the Earth. I think the form supports this well, since the gentle swaying back and forth is reminiscent of cradle rocking.

 

This brings up my other point, which is the importance of surrender. IME, this aspect is both extremely important for qigong and not talked about enough. There is a temptation with qigong to want to scoop up and hoard energy, as if we were some separate power station. We are more like a conduit which energy passes through. Releasing and letting go of energy is just as important if not more so than gathering it.

 

Fear is a cause of a lot of the anxiety of letting go. Fear of weakness , death, and destruction. I think this is a deep-seated reason why some men fear women. IME, this form allows one to connect with the feminine principle, sexually or otherwise.

 

I think our body is just as holy as our spirit. Many religions take issue with embodiment, often extremely so. This practice kind of reverses that approach.

 

Take gravity for instance. I used to feel that gravity was a limitation. I’ve wanted very badly, and still do in many ways, to be able to fly. I love flying in my dreams. But I’ve come to see gravity differently in my practice. For me, gravity is an embodiment of the metaphysical principle of love. They are forces that connect, unify, and embrace. So I no longer feel ‘stuck’ on the Earth, but grateful that She loves me so much as to constantly pull me towards Her. Before doing this practice, I wasn’t aware of the force and importance of gravity. But it’s what makes our bones strong and bodies vital.

 

In my practice, I don’t force energy down to the Earth, I simply allow it to happen. Gravity does all the hard work Rather, I focus on love and gratitude. I trust the Earth. I sink into Her. I allow Her access to the totality of my life force, my whole being. In surrendering myself in this manner, I conquer fear. I become like a tree swaying in the wind, deeply rooted and free of concern. Time slows down. An Inner Smile blossoms spontaneously like leaves on a tree.

 

Of course, I honor balance in all things, and recognize the importance of masculine or heavenly yang energies. I honor my masculinity and manhood. Yang practices and communion with heavenly energies are just as important, but this is another topic altogether.

 

I prefer to talk about the yin side of things since that is what I see as most neglected and necessary. It is also what makes Taoism so special.

Edited March 8, 2010 by RyanO

[RyanO]

Great stuff RyanO, you really hit the point about balancing yin and yang in the sexual sphere

If you wanna talks about Michael Winn's movements, I'd really appreciate it.

 

Be well

 

Hi buscon, glad too!

 

For one thing, my previous post may clarify some things.

 

As I said, the movement Winn teaches is called Deep Earth Pulsing. It is on his Sexual Vitality DVD, which I don't have, and he teaches it at his workshops, which is where I learned it. You can see a part of it from the link I gave.

 

What I do is slightly different than the way he teaches it. I don't focus on anything too complex energetically, and my movements are slower and smaller than on the video.

 

As far as the movement itself, it is deceptively simple but a little hard to describe in detail. I recommend at least getting the DVD. Basically, assume a standard wuji standing posture. Have your palms face the Earth. Begin to slowly shift your weight from the right to left and repeat. As you shift onto your right foot, you push down with your right palm and breathe down into the Earth. Your other heel can come up slightly, and its corresponding hand will be coming up but not past heart level. Your arms will be moving in a circular fashion with the top coming towards you. Down/out, up/in. Your ankle, knee, and hip joints of your weighted foot will bend. This pumping action of the joints serves like a kind of oil drill than pumps energy from the Earth.

 

But as I said from my previous post, I wouldn't focus on 'getting' Earth energy, nor on if I was doing the movement correctly. When I get really deep into it, my mind becomes clear and time slows down. My movements become very subtle and slow. I actually feel like a tree swaying in the wind. It is very therapeutic, especially for someone like me who tends to be very cerebral.

 

Like most qigong, it is best to do this outside in nature, but not necessary. I like to do it barefoot. But watch out for anthills!

 

Hope this helps

[EagleShen]

Thanks RyanO,

Couldn't agree more, you need to 'do something' with the energy, i've always found i need to do a lot more physical practice during periods of retention, otherwise it all gets a bit loopy.

I think i'll give Earth Love practice a go, sounds great. We are earth and heaven making love, perfect vehicles for the cosmic alchemy.

Re your second post, we are here, that is as it is, we resist being here, that is as it is, there is nothing which is not Tao, even determined resistance to Tao is the Tao.

[markern]

THanks RyanO! This practice is working wonders for me it seems.

[RyanO]

THanks RyanO! This practice is working wonders for me it seems.

 

You're welcome! It's a great practice.

 

I just listened to Winn's latest Healing Love two day audio course (Dec 2009) and as expected he spends a lot of time on Deep Earth Pulsing.

 

He modified it a little to work more with sexual energy. He practiced testicle breathing first to get unaroused sexual chi moving. Then he taught his wudang pearl method coloring the pearl pink which he said was the color of sexuality (white male sperm plus red female blood).

 

When teaching Deep Earth Pulsing, he put heavy emphasis on movement of the hip joint, which is the biggest joint in the body. The fluid in the joint creates a kind of compression that helps pump earth chi.

 

Rather than totally releasing into the Earth, he emphasized pumping the Earth's sexual energy into the body, visualized as pink. Earth chi is satiating and cools sexual chi, and allows it to integrate more easily.

 

Obviously there is a lot more he talked about and to do the practice you'd have to listen to the course, which I recommend. It was interesting to hear his modification compared to my evolution of the form. The emphasis on receiving Earth chi seems like a nice balance for my practice.

 

Happy Spring

[markern]

You're welcome! It's a great practice.

 

I just listened to Winn's latest Healing Love two day audio course (Dec 2009) and as expected he spends a lot of time on Deep Earth Pulsing.

 

He modified it a little to work more with sexual energy. He practiced testicle breathing first to get unaroused sexual chi moving. Then he taught his wudang pearl method coloring the pearl pink which he said was the color of sexuality (white male sperm plus red female blood).

 

When teaching Deep Earth Pulsing, he put heavy emphasis on movement of the hip joint, which is the biggest joint in the body. The fluid in the joint creates a kind of compression that helps pump earth chi.

 

Rather than totally releasing into the Earth, he emphasized pumping the Earth's sexual energy into the body, visualized as pink. Earth chi is satiating and cools sexual chi, and allows it to integrate more easily.

 

Obviously there is a lot more he talked about and to do the practice you'd have to listen to the course, which I recommend. It was interesting to hear his modification compared to my evolution of the form. The emphasis on receiving Earth chi seems like a nice balance for my practice.

 

Happy Spring

 

THanks I wil buy that as this has quickly become an important practice for me:) I think I have to build my earth chakra from scratch more or less as there realy ain`t much there. THe earth pulsing and embracing the tree and one of chias tai chi short forms and some spleen work are my tools for doing this at present. I am also interested in hearing what Winn has to say about healing love in general as I think he usualy makes a lot of sense.

 

I actually learnt the pulsing from my teacher last year but forgot about it. I mentioned your modifications and that is more or less how he does it himself. He said one of his strongest spiritual experiences was once when he got totaly "absorbed" into he earths energy and felt how absolutely unconditional its receptiveness, and in a sense love, was. An experience of the ultimate yin sort of. Not sure if this happened during pusling though.

 

During the pulsing I noticed a sort of comfort in just standing and being and being suported by the earth. A form of trust and soft confidence. As this grew I started to notice a lot of anxiety that seemed to generate a lot from my root chakra upwards into the whole body and also a lot in the tighs. As continued I tried to softly let this go and build more trust and feeling of suport from the earth which worked. THe anxiety was much more existential than the kidney anxiety I have sometimes felt which feels more conected to relationships to people and figh or flight. The experience made me realize that although I am not bothered by anxiety in daily life there is a subtle underlying anxiety that I normaly dont notice which is related to being disconected from the earth. With an earth chakra the size of a pea that is not suprizing I guess. I think as I keep doing this practice I will build a lot of comfort, ease and confidence at a very fundalmental level. I love it.

 

Andy Fretwell who is a healing Tao instructor taught a workshop at a mindfulness school and spent an entire weekend just doing the inner smile and deep earth pulsing with the students there to get them into their bodies. Thought I`d mention it as the pulsing and inner smile seem to be amongst your favourite practices. If you are interested in doing Fusion I think learning it from Andy Fretwell could be very good. My teacher says that Andy teaches it in very simple ways (in addition to comlex versions?) and teaches it in a way that incorporates a lot of psychology and is very mindfull and conected to daily life. He also teaches worksops on male sexuality together with my teacher and they get awesome feedback

[RyanO]

[RyanO]

Check out this link. Dirty Sexecology: 25 To Make Love To The Earth (Warning, contains nudity)

 

http://loveartlab.org/slideshow.php?year_id=4&cat_id=98

 

It's a rather...avant-garde play production created by Annie Sprinkle, a former porn star turned sacred sex educator. Anyways as you can see there is a list of 25 ways to make love to the earth. This is very relevant (obviously) to this thread so I thought I'd bring it up. Notice how many of the ways are either directly related or can be incorporated with Deep Earth Pulsing. Cool stuff.

[RyanO]

[RyanO]

Good reminder of the 25 tips. Thanks. Glad to hear you love wind. Could be that it is not in my constitution?

 

Well maybe, but that's nothing to be sad about. It just means you have strengths elsewhere

 

The goal would be to harmonize your elemental makeup. Michael Winn has an meditation on inner psychic weather in Fusion 1 that seeks to do this.

 

However, this is based on the Chinese Wuxing which doesn't have wind or air as one of its elements. I've always been a little confused about where wind/air fits into this system. Some say they're different: wind is wood and air is metal. So I usually just incorporate air when I'm focusing on metal, and then the dynamic wind aspects when I'm concentrating on wood.

[Aetherous]

12. Talk dirty to her plants.

 

I'm going to start doing this! :lol:

 

18. Bury parts of your body deep inside her soil.

 

This is always really nice.

[buddhasbellybuttonfluff]

I just wanted to voice my gratitude for this magnificient thread. Thank you RyanO!

 

25 Ways to Make Love to the Earth.

FLOWER POWER

 

Blessings

[Marblehead]

I just wanted to say that I am reading this thread but to this point I have had nothing to say. I am enjoying the posts.

 

Peace & Love!

[sabretooth]

[Marblehead]

Please let us know if you incorporate any of these loving techniques when you are gardening.

 

Yes, I do. Many of them. Yes, I talk with my plants and flowers. (Sometimes they respond, sometimes not.)

 

But no, I don't kiss the dirt. I put fish poop in it, remember?

 

Peace & Love!