Taoist practices for women

[Birch]

I found this.

My link

[Mal]

Nice find K, can't recall seeing this book before.

 

Thanks for sharing

[Birch]

Me neither!

It's got some pretty interesting stuff in it too:-)

[deci belle]

Oh boy!!❤❤❤

[Aetherous]

This looks awesome. Almost wish I were a woman.

[Birch]

Hehehehe:-)

 

Check out what it says about head practices! Now it kind of makes sense why people were saying "don't do it!"

[suninmyeyes]

Fantastic.

Wish I wasnt going out tonite so I can have a good look at it.

[konchog uma]

I found this.

My link

 

"thank you thank you thank you!!!" -my girlfriend

[Aetherous]

The Tao Yin section looked pretty sweet to me, just glancing at it. I also liked the stories.

[deci belle]

As of page 19, the introduction is uncannily similar to Thomas Cleary's forward in his "Immortal Sisters", North Atlantic Books 1989. So either this is kind a dubious beginning (at least in terms of the introduction)— either that or the authors of this and "Immortal Sisters" translated the same accounts in the same order …hmmmm. No, really— this could be a translation of a traditional hagiography, is what I mean. I'll keep reading…❤

 

On page 31, the basic fundamental is stated, but consistently the author has been harping on male this and that— this should be dropped. What is being touted as "feminine principle" is simply none other than what is to be delved into regardless of sexuality. I'm sure it is going to get better, but I am finding this a bit tedious— and sexist, really. No female has ever experienced the tao (and neither has a male).

 

By page 36, it has gotten convoluted and utterly psychologically oriented and predisposed to "problems of practice" based on sexism. So far, this is disappointing. Dang!

 

It's not about being a sex, ladies!!! An encouraging nugget found in Cleary's volume, is the observation that it is even easier for females to enter the tao in that they traditionally have less invested in the world of male dominated structures and so are less influenced by those attitudes deemed detrimental to taoist inner cultivation and realization (regardless of sexual identities).

 

Page 39… "Here we have to take into account the distinctive consciousness of today's women, which hosts the expectation for results, development and fulfillment and is much larger than their actual efforts to achieve these results."

 

That's distinctive of today's women? What is so distinctive about that? Today's women aren't modern! It's just the way it is now. and page 40: "It is natural for women to desire fulfillment." Not men? Come on!

 

By page 66, it is getting better (taoist yoga for women), but the female authors seem to know what is best for male alchemists as well. It's getting better due to the specific content being revealed, but the sexist distinctions won't go away… it really is a detriment to the flow(?) of this yogic manual.

 

(ed note: just adding more comments)

Edited November 30, 2011 by deci belle

[Birch]

So what you're reading in it Db is sexism? I wasn't reading it that way at all. I was looking more at the orbits etc. I'd also seen the vertical/horizontal issues discussed elsewhere.

You know, it really is quite disappointing to read practice book after book that talks about your member's reaction to practice or some other male physiological thing that you're not experiencing and have to weed through everything. I suppose the upside is you work it out as you go along a bit more. Or rather, the practice itself does it. I was happy because my head orbits had started up spontaneously but when I enquired here I got a resounding warning against it from people I consider experienced practitioners so I heeded the advice.

 

Anyway, neat to get feedback from experienced people:-)

[Taomeow]

My Mac won't open the link.

[deci belle]

Oh~ no worries on the actual practices, k! that's the good part, for sure …just seems so angled towards, uh, we're soooo different!! …let me get out my best surfer-girl "woaow"!!

 

It's my Saturn/Sagittarius conjunction (3rd house of communication) that just wants to get to the bare bones NOW!! haha!!❤ Also, I've been reading and critiquing these books for forty years, dear …just smile.❤

 

I was hoping there was a little bit more information on breathing in the tao-yin section, as that is one of my weak points (I feel).

 

I'll have to admit that a very interesting and reasonable justification for sexual alchemy is introduced on page 186~ heehee!

 

Now on page 203, the word consciousness is actually focused on …and the introduction of the use of masks and mime!! (In order to relax the face). I believe this is a very important point. I realized this on my own many years ago and began to mindfully note when my brow was artificially arched. There is a tendency for the face to be tense and the eyes especially. There are a number of places in the alchemic texts which state "the mechanism is in the eyes". They really must be relaxed in order to release naturally occurring pulsed flows of …whatever it is. The eyes seem to carry out a function similar to what is happening when we pour out of a 1 or 2 liter bottle with a small opening, in that air (bubble) enters the bottle (when it is inverted) in order to allow a certain amount of liquid out. The eyes kind of feel that kind of …exchange… but the eyes must be totally relaxed to experience the operation of the "mechanism".

 

Mmmmm… part four, Magical Taoism!! Haha!! page 229 starts a section of "magical hairdoos"!!❤

 

So, ok~ I was a bit harsh, but then I am being harsh on purpose …and objectively so. This is a highly derivative and tepid volume, but it definitely has its place in one's lexicon …if only to recognize the sources when one stumbles upon them. It is a light overview, to be sure, but many exercises can be practiced easily without harming oneself while one becomes familiar with the nature of the forces inherent in oneself and one's surroundings.

 

One may even somehow come across a real practitioner/teacher in the process!!

 

I give it two deci-yays, and I doo appreciate the opportunity to have read this, k!!❤❤

 

(ed note: just adding stuff as i read the book)

Edited November 30, 2011 by deci belle

[deci belle]

[JustARandomPanda]

-K- You rock!

 

Thank you for the link! How the heck did you find it anyway? Just curious.

[Birch]

-K- You rock!

 

Thank you for the link! How the heck did you find it anyway? Just curious.

 

Pleasure's mine :-)

 

Googled 'Taoist female practices' and took a stab at this one.

[Birch]

My Mac won't open the link.

Try copying this directly into your browser http://www.scribd.com/mobile/documents/26226835/download?secret_password=2bbtf3ty1f8xm2v6xdxe

 

 

It's a pdf file, but you should have an option in Safari (if that's what you've got) to open it in a browser window...Let me know!

[Aetherous]

Finding similar info in Nourishing the Essence of Life by Eva Wong.

 

"...In contrast, the female practitioner must cultivate blood and strengthen her generative energy by focusing on the heart. To cultivate the primordial spirit, she must replenish the blood energy lost during her menstrual period by extinguishing the fire of desire. In females, blood is strong and vapor is weak; therefore, the female practitioner must refine the blood and use it to strengthen the vapor. Once the blood is strong, less energy will be lost during the menstrual period. With time, blood energy will strengthen the vapor, and vapor can be gathered in the breast and channeled to the kidneys, where it will rise to the Mudball cavity in the head."

 

-Translators Introduction p.22-23

 

What I take from this is that it's basically always a kan and li process, regardless of gender, just some different things are happening 'under the hood'.

[suninmyeyes]

sorry triple post ,I am going mad this morning

Edited December 1, 2011 by suninmyeyes

[suninmyeyes]

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Edited December 1, 2011 by suninmyeyes

[suninmyeyes]

I find this interesting to read through and am happy to read about female practises .Thanks K for sharing.

Thanks for your comments Deci I enjoyed reading those too.

Personally I didnt find it sexist , just written from female energy point of view . However little bit boring in parts in a way of concerning with what I see as the unecesarry details and maybe a little stagnant (didnt read whole book yet though, just bits).

Maybe I even misunderstand some parts as I am not so familiar with concepts.

 

Anyone feels to comment on what is written below (page 41).

Whats with third kind of energy a 'inorganic energy'? I know hardly anything about Taoist alchemy and wonder if this is a commonly accepted fact?

 

'Besides Yin energy, which women need to strengthen and

regulate before developing and cultivating Yang energy, there is a

third type of energy, which cannot be ignored.

In accepting conditions defined by men, women have come to

a situation where their functions are disturbed from birth, thus neither

being able to realise Yin, nor use Yang energies. As a result they lose

twice as much energy during their lifetime as men do. It is difficult to

define it externally: for example, it is believed that women live longer

then men and yet they are able to expend more energy. According to

alchemical laws and knowledge, it is considered a corruption of the

transformational practice if women’s energy-consuming organs are

focused on their survival. This existence forces them to use more

effort than men in order to absorb energy from the surrounding

world. The quality of this degradation, together with the loss of access

to primary sources of knowledge, changed female energy so much

that they began giving birth to descendants with altered energy. The

energy of these children is neither yang nor yin, but is a third kind,

which we will refer to as inorganic.'

Edited December 1, 2011 by suninmyeyes

[Birch]

My unscholarly take on this one is that the organs "geared towards renewal - i.e. offspring" are now geared to survival of self or reproduction of self which doesn't happen "naturally" unless something influences the process, i.e. must be an artificial/coerced process (see also reproduction of society and my post on degradation of thoughtforms in the vedanta subforum.)

 

Check out the notion of "selfish meme" and the Sophia myths of the Gnostics. I don't know if my tying them together is legit, but that's what I understand the references to be about.

[starhawk]

Hi K,

 

I recently read a passage from the bible which seems to identify when a woman's flow was miraculously stopped, like the methods and processes seem to indicate in your link.... might be something to it Lk 8:43-44