What's up with those pictures?

[Guest winpro07]

..

Edited March 15, 2009 by winpro07

[seadog]

Uh... could be.

 

Obviously I'm delighted to finally find simplified access to self-acupressure, and I think that it's clear that "opening the channels" is a fundamental part of process - yet it's largely ignored in the east~>west spiritual movement.

 

And, yup, many practices (breathing, stretching, sitting, qi gonging) open channels to some degree. ... but that's hugely different from systematically massaging all of your channels and pts, repeatedly, over a period of time.

 

Trunk

Absolutely agree with this.By acquainting ourselves with the various meridians and the particular points along the meridians we can ascertain valuable information in regard to the state of our being.Even something as simple as massaging accupoint conception vessel 6 (sea of Qi) can make a world of difference.

[Aetherous]

My issue with studying acupoints is that we don't know which ones to use. I'm sure it's helpful to massage all of them, but knowledge of specific points or channels isn't necessary for that...it would be just as helpful to say, "massage your whole body".

 

I'm sure it can be useful to at times experiment with opening a channel by massage...but that could actually be slightly hazardous to someone who should be focusing on opening something else (they won't get good effects and will perhaps make their condition worse). Chinese medicine is about harmonizing, and experimenting can sometimes take you away from that.

 

I also tend to think that too much of anything is not good. There's a right time to massage and a wrong time, for different areas of the body. And there isn't an established method of determining when those times are, in self acupressure.

 

My personal idea is that as you move your hand on the skin, warm areas should be left alone and cool areas should be massaged and warmed up. It's worked very well for me. But who knows if it's a legit method.

 

These are just some thoughts I have on the subject. Mostly stemming from my frustration with my attempt to learn TCM from books. It's a hugely complicated method of medicine, which apparently doesn't always work. The real practice of it requires multiple methods of diagnosis, which require a lot of practice to be able to do right. For instance, I think there are 23 different types of pulse and you need to distinguish those pulses for 6 different points on the wrists to be able to do the traditional pulse diagnosis. And that's just one diagnosis, which might not match up with tongue diagnosis. Or with the person's complaints.

[Trunk]

self-acupressure, shiatsu...

It's a hugely complicated method of medicine, ...

If someone has a real illness, then the method that I linked to (link) is not appropriate: they should see a doctor.

 

The context for the self-acupressure I'm talking about is for someone who is basically healthy, and wants to gradually open all of their channels as part of cultivation. Not many books written (in English) for that context, as far as I know. "Essential Shiatsu" is the only one that I've found.

 

NOTE:

This is worth a new thread: I've started this as a new topic here.

Edited March 15, 2009 by Trunk

[三江源]

.

Edited March 11, 2015 by 三江源

[Guest winpro07]

..

Edited March 15, 2009 by winpro07

[Owledge]

[contrivedname!]

We have to exercise caution when making claims of proof of our achievement. It is so easy to fool yourself into believing you are witnessing proof because so many of us desperately WANT to believe; we overide the basic fundamentals of practical rationality in preference of our fantastical yearnings.

 

Taoism, at least to me, is a practical and pragmatic path. It is built upon 6000+ years of emperical research and observation into the essence of life. The prime difference from the study of Tao and most western science is that subjective observation is an integral part of the equation. Infinite care must be applied here because subjective perception is open to interpretation due to the conditioned filters of the mind. This is why the foundation work of Taoist cultivation is about resolving/dissolving these filters so that we are able to see things as they truly are and not how we would either like them to be or fear them to be.

 

To the point in question, modern technology has provided us some excellent tools to aid us in our research. For example, if you are able to create visible light from your hands that can be produced in a photo then theoretically this light should be able to be detected and measured by a photographic light meter. With great care you should be able to create the correct double blind protocol in order to verify this claim.

 

Then, instead of bandying around some random photos that are easily disputed and which potentially undermines your credibility as an authority in esoterica, you would have substantiated proof of the validity of your teachings. Until then such claims officially fall under the "Thats interesting" category.

 

ahh a voice of reason and it looks as tho "diamondpurity" may have taken your advice (dare i call it a teaching )