Earthing while meditating

[LateStart]

Hello: I started learning a year ago from books etc and have practiced quite deligently some forms. I don't want to get into all that. I do have a question that I find confusing. Many have said that grounding (bare earth grounding) while meditating is a good thing to do. Otoh Kunlun practice says don't ground since leakage is not good. You guys are experienced in this, so what is your recommendation.

Example, is it bad to do standing meditation with bare feet on earth ?

thanks in advance.

Edited March 28, 2019 by LateStart
Title confusing ... grounding = earth ground

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Hi LateStart,

 

Suppose it depends on the style of meditation.  Welcome and I hope you find an answer to your question.  Enjoy the forum.

 

You are welcome to jump right in to the ongoing discussions, revive an older thread, start a new thread of your own, or start a discussion in the "Newcomer Corner" sub-forum to expand on your introduction or ask general questions to help you get started.

 

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[GreytoWhite]

How did you get introduced to Kunlun? I was taught One Breath as a grounding technique and I have a nice sticky note labeled grounding in the book. If you've only bought the book I recommend you cease all practice of Kunlun and get in-person instruction session ASAP. Damo Mitchell's Comprehensive Neigong book also recommends grounding. You can usually do this through tailbone/KD1 points or with prostrations. If you're very injured and your spontaneous movement is not grounding anything down I have grounded through my palms in the past.

[Sebastian]

It depends on the context. You see, there are many oral tips that get passed down in traditions of practice, and what you wrote may well be helpful for Kunlun.

 

However I don't really agree with the part about it being a "leakage", at least in my tradition. It is definitely not a leakage to connect to the earth. What happens is your energy flows from Dantian to the earth and then back up to the head through the spine, it is a sort of natural rebound effect. However if you keep visualizing energy exiting your soles and never replenishing it, then that might be a leakage. That is different, it's a forced imagery, not natural.

 

There are two major ways to connect to the earth, the soles of the feet during standing meditation, and the perineum when doing sitting meditation. You could view it like the earth plug in an electrical appliance. If you're going to have strong energy coursing through your body, then I'd definitely ground. Doing too much mental stuff up there is the source of many deviations. Hope this helps.

[LateStart]

Thanks for the responses. Helpful.

Just for clarification, I don't do Kunlun (have read many books including some of the Damo Mitchell books)... but I read the book by Christensen and one thing it says is to sit on an animal fur/skin. In an article on dos and don'ts it says

 

"I have been asked by people why we do Kunlun® on an animal skin or rubber mat. (The traditional method was to use deerskin or a piece of large leather, but a rubber mat will also be fine, but not as good as a natural skin.) The answer to this question is that all yogic traditions used the fur for insulation purposes. If you touch the bare ground while practicing, the qi can leak from the lower areas of the body, thereby draining the kidney qi."

 

 

[Abzu]

where is the ground?

you are always on the ground, unless you are flying.

would you ground to the plane?

you do naturally 

if you are already grounded, why ground twice?

what else is there to ground to?

 

there is grounding, in an electrical sense, and there is holding on to what you see as the ground

[Aetherous]

11 hours ago, LateStart said:

Otoh Kunlun practice says don't ground since leakage is not good.

 

I've found this to be very true during many practices; even ones which aren't Kunlun, but are from other systems (despite those systems instructing that it's good to earth during their practices...I didn't find that to be good advice at all - it counterintuitively led me to feel a lot more ungrounded). Although there are other practices that seem to depend on the earth, or on dew in the morning on grass, which sometimes are fine. Besides the loss of kidney qi, which we could think of as being like the loss of warmth from the body when in contact with the earth...sometimes if the ground we're on is cold, it can draw that coldness into the channels, and cause problems. I experienced that, by having a sharp pain in my ankle after practicing on the bare ground one night, which lasted for many years.

So, see how it makes you feel over a long time of experimenting, and you'll have learned a thing or two.

Our channels become wide open during these types of practices, so that outer things can end up getting in which we don't want, and our qi can leave more easily, making us become less embodied and depleted.

But sometimes we do want to connect with certain outer things, like having the sun touch our skin in the morning, or walking on pure morning dew on grass. Some things are good. Some practices may benefit from you touching the earth.

 

...oh also, I like to call touching the earth without a barrier "earthing", and I prefer to think of grounding as anything we do that makes us feel more normal (less "ungrounded"...less airy, dizzy, disembodied, delusional, abnormal, etc). "Earthing" doesn't necessarily "ground" us.

Edited March 27, 2019 by Aetherous

[LateStart]

Okay, I need to change the title of the topic and replace the word grounding with earthing. Can this be done? Thanks.

[LateStart]

36 minutes ago, GSmaster said:

 

You might have missed that, but there were mopai guys on forum and they were using copper wire connected to earth for this purpose.

I have a metal plate connected to a grounding rod that I use for this purpose. I either do standing meditation (bare feet) on it (drive qi down to begin with as a cleansing process .. and after that put intent to middle dantien). I now wondered if perhaps this was not a good idea, hence my question. I have also done sitting meditation on it (clothed).

[Kar3n]

20 hours ago, LateStart said:

Okay, I need to change the title of the topic and replace the word grounding with earthing. Can this be done? Thanks.

Click edit at the bottom of your first post in this topic.

 

Welcome

[RiverSnake]

Build power in the root chakra. 

[Abzu]

1 hour ago, Shadow said:

Build power in the root chakra. 

^ a lot of this. easier to clean without direct intention

 

 

Edited March 28, 2019 by Abzu

[Abzu]

34 minutes ago, GSmaster said:

I am sorry, i have just read "eating while meditating".

not the worst experience.

 

actually, can be helpful in earthing to eat and tap into things you may have forgotten about 

[voidisyinyang]

there are different levels of energy. if you are building up yin qi energy - then even sitting in full lotus you have to be careful. As the qigong master states - when the knee channels open up - then any breeze will drain energy - so this is difficult to believe unless you experience it in full lotus. YOu will want lots of blankets when the knee channels open up.

 

So the qigong master even BURIED his feet into the Earth to make sure to get the Earth's yin qi energy - but that is during horse stance which is cultivating or building up the energy (in contrast to just sitting meditation).

 

But once the Yuan Qi is activated - this has been measured as an ELF harmonic due to the Schumann standing Earth energy. So at that point - you can connect to the Earth's standing wave - despite not being on the ground. Certainly Earthing will make it easier - or even being by a big large body of water since that has lots of yin qi - to conduct charge also.

 

So for example - the horse stance with thighs parallel to the ground for 2 hours NONstop - that can only be done once the Yuan Qi is activated. So then at Shaolin they do that for 2 hours every day to then FULLY open the third eye after 3 months.

 

So you see what I am describing above? For example John Chang says to always practice with bare skin against the earth - but he lives in a very warm climate. So then someone like Wim Hof does Tibetan tummo yoga - so the Cold FORCES the heat more internally in the body to then increase adrenaline levels. So if you do the breathing exercises - you can leverage the cold to then increase the qi energy.

 

This is the same secret that Victor Schauberger figured out - it's called "Pressure plus Suction = Reduction of Resistance." So cold works like pressure to increase density.