Yin and yang, balance and cultivation

[ganjaboy]

I've done some research but I've started to understand how this energy works. It has came to me mostly thru qigong, sexual kung fu and sexual yoga practices, the latter of which I've done with my current partner.

 

I also should mention that I practice retention and cultivation and I have my own observations thru this, namely, when you don't emit semen often all of the energies seem reflected back into your body and everything gets more intense. I ejaculate once in awhile, i'm still young and my partner sometimes enjoys it, but when I'm older I plan to limit it even more; I've discussed this with her and she understands how we will ultimately move toward Karezza.

 

Basically i believe that puberty / time naturally make a male more Yang and a woman more Yin, but because balance is quintessential in all things it's important to keep in touch with the other side. For some reason when I think of yang I think "upper" and yin I think "lower." Losing jing often seems to make the body more yang, and vice versa seems to help balance and dissipate. That's another thing, yin seems to disperse and yang  to gather. Yin would be going for a walk or run, yang would be lifting weights.

 

My experience has also been that one extreme causes a tendency toward the other in myself, I seem to have an internal sense when I am out of balance for my own health which is really what this is all about.

 

Shooting in the dark a bit here, but any thoughts? Thanks

Edited April 23, 2017 by ganjaboy

[EmeraldHead]

"Basically i believe that puberty / time naturally make a male more Yang and a woman more Yin"
 

Really? What about old men?

 

I think that is wrong.

 

What is yin and yang for you? Just checking, but I hope you're not confusing yang for kinetic energy and yin for less of it.

[sillybearhappyhoneyeater]

Daoists believe that boys reach sexual and energetic maturity at sixteen years old and girls reach it around thirteen (I can't remember the exact number, but there is a very good article about it in Shui Jingzi's commentary on the clarity and quiet classic).  This puts both of them in the Qian/heaven trigram in terms of their energetic potential.   This means that boys should start self cultivation practices around sixteen years of age because their Qi is the most healthy at that time, including all twenty four pre heaven energies and forty post heaven energies making up the sixty four trigrams. 

Abstaining from ejaculation is similar to fasting, you can choose to do it if you want, but it is less important than leading a healthy life every day.

If you want to improve your yang energy, exercise more. If you want to improve your yin energy, do silent meditation more often (Not nei dan,but more like sitting and forgetting for instance).   My own teacher has started to formulate some theories about how to practice quiet sitting and martial arts in tandem so that before doing martial arts you get some benefit from quiet and then after martial arts you have a baseline to go back to in order to contain the masculine energy you have developed during practice time.

The best thing to do regardless is to focus on vitality and raising your vitality through lifestyle practices.   you can do a lot to improve your energy just by paying attention to how you live.

[ganjaboy]

"Basically i believe that puberty / time naturally make a male more Yang and a woman more Yin"

 

Really? What about old men?

 

I think that is wrong.

 

What is yin and yang for you? Just checking, but I hope you're not confusing yang for kinetic energy and yin for less of it.

 

Actually I see too much yang as being less kinetic and more static. Yin to me feels more freeing and light, yang is more solid and dense. My goal is a healthy balance of both and somehow I feel it's linked to

cultivation. I feel rather out of balance at present and am examining why. Overindulgence sexually definitely harmed me

 

Daoists believe that boys reach sexual and energetic maturity at sixteen years old and girls reach it around thirteen (I can't remember the exact number, but there is a very good article about it in Shui Jingzi's commentary on the clarity and quiet classic).  This puts both of them in the Qian/heaven trigram in terms of their energetic potential.   This means that boys should start self cultivation practices around sixteen years of age because their Qi is the most healthy at that time, including all twenty four pre heaven energies and forty post heaven energies making up the sixty four trigrams. 

Abstaining from ejaculation is similar to fasting, you can choose to do it if you want, but it is less important than leading a healthy life every day.

If you want to improve your yang energy, exercise more. If you want to improve your yin energy, do silent meditation more often (Not nei dan,but more like sitting and forgetting for instance).   My own teacher has started to formulate some theories about how to practice quiet sitting and martial arts in tandem so that before doing martial arts you get some benefit from quiet and then after martial arts you have a baseline to go back to in order to contain the masculine energy you have developed during practice time.

The best thing to do regardless is to focus on vitality and raising your vitality through lifestyle practices.   you can do a lot to improve your energy just by paying attention to how you live.

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link

 

Another yin / yang metaphor, for me at least -

 

A strong fortress is only as good as the treasures within

Edited April 25, 2017 by ganjaboy