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In the interest of rolling out the banner image as expeditiously as possible, the poll is now closed. Horse number Two pulled ahead and is the winner. Thanks to every one who suggested possible images and gave their opinion along the way. Forward!

Thank you Mark, that was finely written and informative! "The fundamental point sits zazen, and what is that other than this consciousness, right here?" Can seem like light years away but is always right under our noses, so to speak...

Two because of the red colour. 2026 Year of the Red Horse, which is the official name used in Feng Shui.

Really appreciate the advice you’ve given. It looks like I need to do some serious reframing in how I approach things with some professional support. I’m a bit embarrassed that it took me so long to realize all of this, but I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to work through it and can begin practicing qigong in a healthier way.

The Year of the Fire Horse is already upon us but I wanted to run one final poll between two horses to see which the membership prefers. The top horse was suggested by @Taomeow- If you´d like to vote, please choose ONE or TWO. Thanks! ONE TWO

We had to work with the banner image a little because it wasn´t the right size at first. Ended up using a version of the horse with a little brighter colors but the same idea. Hope you like it!

@liminal_luke please don’t change anything to the horse, pretty please; it’s perfect as it is with it’s imperfections. It will lose it’s ‘magic’ if you touch it. [cry emoji here]

Ohhhhh ... maybe he is going to remove the 'sneakers' ?

'Soon' .. after he posted that message 2 hs ago .

Excellent work team!

Are you sure about that? I don't think that is true.

I am the apple of every eye, I am the eye in every sky, I am the cross of every t, I am the dot of every i.

Great new banner look. Well done all admods. Thank you very much.

right, don't know much about it but it looks messy in picture below. Wonder if a earth ear, nose and throat specialist could help this guy?

Thanks for the link. One meaningful article written with common sense and Taoist science.

dear @liminal_luke Two my dear brother <3

Two!

As others have said, best if you stay away from Mantak Chia. I've written a bit about sexual energy and cultivation over the years, at TTB and other places, useful thread below. With regards to porn, never struggled with that addiction, but a good place to start is basic "impulse control". Your not free if you don't have control over your impulses. Start by practicing Deep Breathing every day. Five minutes daily and gradually build your practice. This type of Tech will teach you to "Slow Down" and gain better control.

You dont want to know !

Its not that much what he talks about but how he talks about it Eg, some of the things he suggests are based on magical theory but then he changes and twists it ( thats fine too , again its the 'how' ) further eg . meet an 'entity ' , test it , see its reaction . This is often done by seeing its reaction to a sign words titles symbols magical analysis of any name it claims ... and so on . thats the 'what ' ... the how ? Take my Octopus God thread - a remarkable development that may be unique in human history ( except from one singular example - which also comes form the ancient Aboriginals here - the only occurrence we know of where a nationwide sweeping change in society for the better , comes not from disaster man made or natural , not from war or invasion or similar - but by sheer ingenuity and brilliance of vision . Lairg's response ; I was looking at a blah blah and astrally saw octopus on peoples heads . ( with no comparisons , explanations , etc ) .... a LOT of '' I can do, I did do this '' ... slipping in a touting of his abilities from single word associations .

Three

Cool ! I used to make up (on the spot) a lot of kids stories , when I had a lot to do with kids ( and during 'the age of stories , before they became 'electronic screen addicts ' ) - but I would like to put a twist on them and break the old archetype ( like a young girl finds her dreams come true ... without the prince that has to 'save her' . So I made my dragon story - a female dragon . By the way , you know how dragons are said to guard treasure ... or have treasure , did you know how they get that treasure ? Up in the tops of the craggy high mountains where they nest, they scrape out molds in the rocks with their claws . They dig out other rocks and blast them with their fiery breath to extract the precious metals and pour them, liquid, into the molds . When they dig out rocks they sometimes find gems and they cut these with their teeth by carefully biting them on different angles and polishing them on their rough skin . Then they set them in the metal shapes they have made ; rings, chalices, crowns, bangles and store them in their cave . Dont try to steal them ... she will get very very angry ! ... how a dragon takes a bath ; She splashes around a bit in the lava , being mindful to do behind her ears and neck , then while glowing hot , she plummets from the mountain top through the sky like a burning meteor into the ocean far below . There in the beach side waves she turns and rolls and the hissing water and steam thoroughly finish the job . She emerges even more shiny and burnished and bright ( and might even do a little Samba along the beach (if no one is watching ) ... just because that feels good .

First thing to say is that neidan or alchemy is not therapy. So generally before undertaking any serious work like this (or similar other systems) you first have to put your house in order. This means getting your daily life in good order and yourself in a good general state of health. While doing qi gong or similar with a healthy eating and exercise routine will be good - you can't use straong energetic techniques to sort out your habits. This is why you can't maintain a consistent routine and keep falling back. It is not good if you are making yourself tense and low energy. I would suggest that you try to regulate porn use progressively. So set yourself a target of so many days abstention ... then lengthen the time progressively until you have made it manageable. Also rather than trying just to eliminate the negative - build up positive qualities like physical health and fitness - as you feel better from this you may find that you are less inclined to use porn. Look also at your mental fitness and your relationships. See the whole thing as a project to get yourself from dependence to freedom. I think there are sites specifically about getting out from porn addiction if you google around. I'm not in your age group so I can't really suggest anything else. I'm sure you will deal with this if you set your mind to it.

Female dragon. Avalokitesvara/Guanyin has a Dragon Female Companion (and is the Great Bodhisattva of the Western Pure Land).

At times, the lines between me and the environment, the internal and the external, starts blurring for me. Sometimes it’s a wonderful, magic experience. Other times confusing. And at times the possibility of excistence being a giant echo chamber, me talking to my self, saddens me. Playing alone is no fun.

Nungali can’t reply because he is currently manifesting in my living room.

Oh come on now ! = You know full well some things flow into other things and that = dont worry be happy

No mystic is 100% limited to any one interpretation of any singular book. Mysticism encompasses religious traditions of human transformation aided by various practices [1] and religious experiences.[2][note 1][note 2] Popularly, mysticism is used synonymously with mystical experience, a neologism which refers to an ecstatic unitive experience of becoming one with God, the Absolute, or all that exists.[3][4]

I am reading this text (that I have created a thread about and will link to at the bottom) that is suprisingly relevant to this one. "And the fifth meaning of budh is to fathom. A depth is there in you, a bottomless depth, which has to be fathomed. Or, the fifth meaning can be to penetrate, to drop all that obstructs and penetrate to the very core of your being, the heart. That's why this sutra is called the Heart Sutra - Prajnaparamita Hridayam Sutra - to penetrate. People try to penetrate many things in life. Your urge, your great desire for sex is nothing but a kind of penetration. But that is a penetration into the other. The same penetration has to happen into your own being: you have to penetrate yourself. If you penetrate somebody else it can give you a momentary glimpse, but if you penetrate yourself you can attain to the universal cosmic orgasm that remains and remains and remains. A man meets an outer woman, and a woman meets an outer man: this is a very superficial meeting - yet meaningful, yet it brings moments of joy. When the inner woman meets the inner man... And you are carrying both inside you: a part of you is feminine, a part of you is masculine. Whether you are man or woman does not matter; everybody is bisexual. The fifth meaning of the root budh means penetration. When your inner man penetrates your inner woman there is a meeting; you become whole, you become one. And then all desires for the outer disappear. In that desirelessness is freedom, is nirvana." An intelligent person does not escape from any fact. If it is fear he will go into it - because the way out is through. If he feels fear and trembling arising in him, he will leave everything aside: first this fear has to be gone through. He will go into it, he will try to understand. He will not try how not to be afraid; he will not ask that question. He will simply ask one question: "What is this fear? It is there, it is part of me, it is my reality. I have to go into it, I have to understand it. If I don't understand it then a part of me will always remain unknown to me. And how am I going to know who I am if I go on avoiding parts? I will not understand fear, I will not understand death, I will not understand anger, I will not understand my hatred, I will not understand my jealousy, I will not understand this and that..." Then how are you going to know yourself? All these things are you! This is your being. You have to go into everything that is there, every nook and corner. You have to explore fear. Even if you are trembling it is nothing to be worried about: tremble, but go in. It is far better to tremble than to escape, because once you escape, that part will remain unknown to you, and you will become more and more afraid to look at it because that fear will go on accumulating. It will become bigger and bigger if you don't go into it right now, this moment. Tomorrow it will have lived twenty-four hours more. Beware! - it will have got more roots in you, it will have bigger foliage, it will become stronger; and then it will be more difficult to tackle. It is better to go right now, it is already late. And if you go into it and you see it... And seeing means without prejudice. Seeing means that you don't condemn fear as bad from the very beginning. Who knows? - it is not bad. Who knows that it is? The explorer has to remain open to all the possibilities; he cannot afford a closed mind. A closed mind and exploration don't go together. He will go into it. If it brings suffering and pain, he will suffer the pain but he will go into it. Trembling, hesitant, but he will go into it: "It is my territory, I have to know what it is. Maybe it is carrying some treasure for me? Maybe the fear is only there to protect the treasure." That's my experience, that's my understanding: if you go deep into your fear you will find love. That's why it happens that when you are in love, fear disappears. And when you are afraid you cannot be in love. What does this mean? A simple arithmetic - fear and love don't exist together. That means it must be the same energy that becomes fear; then there is nothing left to become love. It becomes love; then there is nothing left to become fear. Go into fear, Prageet, Vidya, and all others who are feeling afraid. Go into it, and you will find a great treasure. Hidden behind fear is love, and hidden behind anger is compassion, and hidden behind sex is samadhi.

But since I am qouting the bible in a thread about worry... what could possibly be more fitting than this section: Do Not Worry 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]? 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Luke 7:36-50 New Century Version A Woman Washes Jesus’ Feet 36 One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, so Jesus went into the Pharisee’s house and sat at the table. 37 A sinful woman in the town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house. So she brought an alabaster jar of perfume 38 and stood behind Jesus at his feet, crying. She began to wash his feet with her tears, and she dried them with her hair, kissing them many times and rubbing them with the perfume. 39 When the Pharisee who asked Jesus to come to his house saw this, he thought to himself, “If Jesus were a prophet, he would know that the woman touching him is a sinner!” 40 Jesus said to the Pharisee, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” Simon said, “Teacher, tell me.” 41 Jesus said, “Two people owed money to the same banker. One owed five hundred coins[a] and the other owed fifty. 42 They had no money to pay what they owed, but the banker told both of them they did not have to pay him. Which person will love the banker more?” 43 Simon, the Pharisee, answered, “I think it would be the one who owed him the most money.” Jesus said to Simon, “You are right.” 44 Then Jesus turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I came into your house, you gave me no water for my feet, but she washed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. 45 You gave me no kiss of greeting, but she has been kissing my feet since I came in. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she poured perfume on my feet. 47 I tell you that her many sins are forgiven, so she showed great love. But the person who is forgiven only a little will love only a little.” 48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 The people sitting at the table began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” 50 Jesus said to the woman, “Because you believed, you are saved from your sins. Go in peace.” Håvamål Wisdom for Wanderers and Counsel to Guests

I don't doubt what you or your mother might see at all! I have seen "angels", religious figures, hooded monks, "faeries", the brutally disfigured "dead", "shadow figures", and more in visions and waking life. I put quotes around them because the names are the nearest equivalent to how we might conceptualize how they appear to us (me), but I don't believe that they necessarily inhabit the roles we commonly attribute to them.

My mother was born with the ability to see the equivalent of a photographic image pop up randomly in her mind that contained information. After some years of dream work with me that suddenly turned into videos of information, that she could turn on, on demand. I found it to be a fascinating insight into the subtle body, she could also see inside the physical body. What she saw was remarkably similar to Indian information regarding the subtle body, as well as certain aspects of neidan, which is actually what brought me to this site, wanting to compare what she saw with what neidan stated. She herself was brought up Christian and had no idea what the things she saw meant, she simply stated what she saw. I understand that you might not believe any of this, but I was certainly convinced.

but it’s there already.

Still working through some technical difficulties but should have it in final form soon.