Help needed with Meditation

[Rainy_Day]

Hi everyone!

 

I registered here, because there seemed to be so many experienced Daoist cultivators here! I've hit a road-block with my cultivation practices, and I'm wondering if anyone here can help me.

 

To cut to the chase: I've always meditated on and off, doing a whole bunch of stuff. A while ago, I noticed that there was a lot of pressure building up in my head. It would wander all over the place, but tends to stick around my forehead and the back of my head.

 

I've tried leading it down to my yongquan and my dantian. Usually, I can feel some qi going down, and I would feel some relief after a session like this. But the qi would generally come back again soon.

 

I'm wondering if the problem is that my ren meridian is not open. Whenever I focus on my dantian, I would feel some qi flowing really slowly down my ren meridian. But it never seems enough.

 

Should I keep focusing on my dantian in an effort to lead my qi down?

 

(Btw, I've talked with a number of "qualified qigong instructors", but they all give me different answers. I'm so confused...)

 

Thank you all for reading!

[Aetherous]

Guiding energy is a function of the upper dantien. You may notice that "you" feel as if you're above the lower dantien. Instead, it can help to relocate your sense of self within the lower dantien. Imagine that your entire head has gone inside of your belly, as if you have no head on your shoulders at all. See outward from there. Listen from the belly.

 

Otherwise, just doing physical methods for a while or taking a break is a good idea.

 

I'm sure others here will have good ideas also.

Edited November 25, 2011 by Scotty

[Birch]

What answers did they give you?

 

I reckon the general consensus from all I've read, from exchanges here and a bit of personal experience is that one should keep it from accumulating in the head (although there seem to be practices "for later" that put the head back in.)

 

I personally found MCO of great help when anything was accumulating anywhere. Just spin it out. Also out the feet. As far as I can tell from folks here, accumulating it in LDT is both safe and builds it to where it can do stuff.

 

I can't do stuff and I don't accumulate.

 

Wishing you well!

[konchog uma]

the cobra pose opens the conception vessel, and the plow pose opens the governing vessel. To do cobra, lie on your stomach, putting your hands at heart level and pushing the upper half of the body up, stretching out the chest and stomach. Keep the hips on the ground, heels together, and raise the chin high to stretch also the neck and throat. Breathe in this position for a while, keeping the mind on the ren mai or the dan tian. It will help to open blockages and isolate energy tensions.

 

to do the plow, lie on your back and put your hands out 45 degrees to the side. Lift the legs over the head and touch the toes down over your head so your weight is on your shoulders and you are looking at your knees. Keep the legs straight.

 

it is good to do these exercises together, since they balance on another. Don't do the cobra without doing the plow or vice versa. It helps me to breathe with my focus on the perineum since that is the beginning and end of the du and ren mai.

 

anyway those will help you get deeper in touch with the small orbit, and daily practice alone should remove most blockages over time. I think most (at least i did) who works on opening their MCO gets pressure in their head, and its because the energy moves up the spine so much faster and easier than it moves down the front. So for a while, the head feels full, and you think "oh no!" but hopefully it will just inspire you to work hard on your conception vessel and all will be well.

[Informer]

I think that a common misconception is to try to guide "chi" to the dan tien. The chi that is guided to the dantien is like a fire, where-as you are talking about current. To find the fire you begin with metta, or find the anahata and strengthen it within by feeling love. Once you become comfortable to feel love for anything at any given moment the fire will be manifested within the manipura where it is then guided to the lower dantien or swadhisthana / sacral.

[joeblast]

Make sure that you are not tensing your air passageways. I devised asensitivityexercise: try to differentiate each place along the air passageways that you can exert influence upon the breath. The tip of your nose. The crown of the nose. The maxillary sinuses. The ethmoid sinuses. The frontal sinuses. The sphenoid sinus. The back of the throat. The larynx. The trachea. The bronchi. The lungs. Eventually, the diaphragm itself. Activate the areas sharply; from a position of action, derive inaction: completely let go of them and only facilitate breath from the diaphragm, psoas, the lower gut.

 

This is also what gets you post that hump of getting to the eventual stage of no-breath. That happens when everything has become smooth enough that the turbulence in the air passageways completely disappears.

 

You'd be surprised at how much in normal breathing we facilitate breath with the sinuses. They buffer air pressures - which is a good thing, but, when meditating they are a source of signal, so let go of them, that will help facilitate the downward flow of energy.

[NeiChuan]

Guiding energy is a function of the upper dantien. You may notice that "you" feel as if you're above the lower dantien. Instead, it can help to relocate your sense of self within the lower dantien. Imagine that your entire head has gone inside of your belly, as if you have no head on your shoulders at all. See outward from there. Listen from the belly.

 

Otherwise, just doing physical methods for a while or taking a break is a good idea.

 

I'm sure others here will have good ideas also.

 

Interesting scotty I do pretty much the same thing. Just imagine im seeing from the ldt's point.

 

Cool stuff.

[forestofsouls]

I would check for the two common problems that can lead to this:

 

1. Check your posture.

 

2. Check your concentration. Concentration practices generally lead to tension especially in the head, neck, and shoulders and this tension is often ignored. Make sure to relax and let these tensions go, especially when concentrating for a long time.

[dwai]

Hi everyone!

 

I registered here, because there seemed to be so many experienced Daoist cultivators here! I've hit a road-block with my cultivation practices, and I'm wondering if anyone here can help me.

 

To cut to the chase: I've always meditated on and off, doing a whole bunch of stuff. A while ago, I noticed that there was a lot of pressure building up in my head. It would wander all over the place, but tends to stick around my forehead and the back of my head.

 

I've tried leading it down to my yongquan and my dantian. Usually, I can feel some qi going down, and I would feel some relief after a session like this. But the qi would generally come back again soon.

 

I'm wondering if the problem is that my ren meridian is not open. Whenever I focus on my dantian, I would feel some qi flowing really slowly down my ren meridian. But it never seems enough.

 

Should I keep focusing on my dantian in an effort to lead my qi down?

 

(Btw, I've talked with a number of "qualified qigong instructors", but they all give me different answers. I'm so confused...)

 

Thank you all for reading!

 

just stand and release into the ground. Don't do anything...stand in the beginning posture (Taiji Chuan) and let the energy naturally flow into the ground through your bubbling well. Each day you will relax more and then you will be grounded.

 

This is a very good resource -- http://music.aol.com...ration/10291837 or get this book -- http://www.amazon.co...n/dp/1556434073

 

It works...you have to keep at it and stay detached from the process, let it naturally happen. The moment you try too hard, the energy will rise into your head. Instead just "let go". How exactly to do that is something that you will have to figure out (we all have our own unique way of letting go).

 

 

Also, another time I had this happen to me was when I was starting off practicing a specific type of Kriya Yoga practice. It was an intense pressure, to the extent that my vision would start blurring slightly (not really physically, but there would be distortion in the perception). Best thing to do is to ease off (especially if it's being triggered by a physical practice) and build up the practice slowly. I also realized that with time and regular practice, the pressure was reduced (or perhaps my meridians got accustomed to the increased volume and intensity of energy flow).

 

If we do it the right way and regularly, most good energy meditation techniques will ground the energy. It's best to let energy first ground and then start guiding it back upward. In fact, when the grounding is sufficient, it will naturally rise back upwards, imho.

Edited December 1, 2011 by dwai