Miffymog

Quick note - I'd recommend Bruce Frantzis book on Taoist Sexual Meditation, I much prefer its approach than Mantak Chia. When I first read his work, I did have to get used to his writing style. But now I am, I really see him as having a vast amount of knowledge.

I've had practices that result in me having more extreme emotional reactions to other people too. They will smooth out as you work through your emotions and you'll get more centred in time. A warning though, given that you've had this feeling of isolation for some time, it will take a quite bit of time for you to become yourself. Keep at it, and it will help, but you've most likely got a lot of slightly miss-aligned attitudes to both your self and others (which actually are the same thing). A slight increase in confidence will high light one of these, you'll then be able to change/improve it, and then move on to the next. The journey can be long, but it sounds like you doing ok.

It sounds like it could be a hernia - this is something a normal Dr can help sort out. Although if it was a hernia, then there would probably be some other accompanying pain, so may be not...

Simple, after 3/4 of the time stop then. Maintaining your motivation is more important than the duration. If it's going well, you can always stand for longer in a few months time, there is no rush to increase the length of the stand.

I can see where you're coming from as when I started the MCO, the awarenss/chi naturally went around the functional and governor channels. As suggested I did end with the spiralling and, like you, it did not feel as natural as the MCO, which almost does itself. But now, with development over time, this spiralling is quite natural for me. I can quite happily sit and watch tv or sit at a computer doing this spiralling with little or no effort. It's actually quite pleasant and centring. Depending on the time of the day, seems to effect which way is more natural. So, I think, in time, you might find the same, that it is a natural and normal thing.

Yes, release the tongue to do the healing sounds. While performing the healing sound, your're not carrying out MCO, so you're ok there.

Just to add (given the stage I am at in my current practice), I completely agree with the above post.

Hi Tao Bum's, About 15 years ago I brought 'The Way of Energy' and diligently practised ZZ for around a year. At some point, and I can't remember why, I gave up, it was possibly down to a particularly bad hang over and a lack of discipline for my age (22 at the time). I then dabbled with various spiritual practices and eventually settled on the sitting practice of 'Silent Illumination' for a few years and even went on a retreat where I made good progress. At some point I ended up giving that up too, but it was very useful while I did it. I've now found I've returned to ZZ and am getting a great deal from it, both in terms of the meditative aspect and the physical too. And here is my question. While I was practising 'Silent Illumination' I could easily find the motivation to sit every day with out fail. ZZ for me, however, requires a bit more will power and I am very concious of pushing myself too much and then giving up at some point in the future. Therefore, I've been going very gently, never putting myself through too much pain and so always kind of looking forward to it each day. I'm now at the point, 4 months in, where, after warming up my knees, hips and shoulders, as per 'The Way of Energy', I stand for 15 min twice a day and all is going well. I know this because just in the last week, when the timer goes off, I'm quite happy to stand a little bit longer. But - I'm not sure what is the best way to continue my practice with out using up too much will power, and therefore motivation. I can tell that around the 15 min mark, many new energies are now moving round my body and my legs are almost standing without effort. My thoughts are, should I start increasing the duration of my morning stand, pushing myself more, maybe much more, and then start doing the Ba Duan Jin in the evening. The idea here is that if I'm only standing once a day, I will have will power to push my self more. - Or - just slowly increase the duration of both stands, say by one minute a week. This is because I actually like an evening stand where I can let go of the stresses of the day and I can lose myself / clear my mind better standing then I can by doing the Ba Duan Jin. i.e. Is it better to stand twice a day, or, stand once a day in the morning and do the Ba Duan Jin in the evening? Thanks for any advice you can give. MiffyMog.

Interesting story as I've had a similar experience. I'd been practising ZZ for about 6 months, taking the duration up to between 15 to 20 minuets. I was then knocked off my bike and my wrist bone was so severely dislocated, it broke open the skin of my arm and was exposed. Looking at the X-ray immediately after the accident (which the driver was really apologetic about, which I appreciated) my hand started over an inch from where my arm bones ended. So, immediately afterwards, my body was completely exhausted from all the healing it was having to do. It had a massive impact on the length I could stand. Initially, it dropped down to little over a minute. I then built it up to 5 minutes, and after 2 months, could just about do 10. Just shortly after the accident, although I could only stand for a minute or two, I could do this 3 to 5 times a day, which I did. A month later, when the consultant saw me, he was amazed by how well it had healed. So, don't push yourself. Don't worry if your duration is severely reduced. It really does help however little you can do. Wishing you well

I've spent a bit of time meditating both with the eyes shut, while following the breath, and with the eyes open when practising 'Silent Illumination'. For me, I have definitely preferred eyes open. The reason is because I feel I've have been in a 'good' state (whatever that might be) if I can get up from the meditation and continue my day as if I've not even been meditating, ie, I Iike it if I can take the open aware state I've been in during meditation straight in to my everyday life. If my eyes have been closed, then this is not so easy as I need to 'awaken' my self a bit. Bit its all down to experimentation and personal preference.

Understood - I've been there myself not so long a go. If you're ok with people on a one-to-one basis you're in a place where you can start to build confidence a bit more easily. If not, then there is a little bit more confidence and self-esteem you'll need to build first. A spiritual practice is one part of this. By putting time and effort in, but not too much, you'll start to gain results. This will increase you your self belief, it will also give you more energy levels to do more. Time, effort, and the very fact that you want to improve your-self (the very reason you wrote this post in the first place) will help you make progress. Good luck – I'm wishing you well

Good stuff - if you've got a practice you like, in many ways, the 'spiritual practice' side of your life is now sorted. You keep doing it and, in time, it will silently benefit you. As your for your anxiety around people, I can sympathise with this. One thing, are you comfortable talking to someone on a one-to-one situation? I am not great in a group but I'm quite happy talking to someone in an almost private situation. If this is so, you're doing ok. As for general confidence, this is harder to sort out. Basically, it can often come down to feeling confident with who you are, what you've achieved and what you're doing in life. Over simplistic answer - put effort in to something. Achieve something. Feel better about yourself. This, though, is not always that easy.

OK. Your issues seem to have been around for some time, your mention of doing ZZ for a month is probably one of things that's brought you to this website. There are two things here, how to generally reduce your anxiety, and what possitve effects ZZ might have. As this is a Doaist website, I'll address the positive effects of ZZ. Other, more general methods for reducing anxiety, I'll leave to others. Meditation effects can most definately be positive. However, they take time, and you have to choose the right one for you. There is also the danger of over expectancy. If you over burden any meditative techinque with solving all your problems, it will fail. The progress is slow and, sometimes, not always noticable to start with. If you are finding some enjoyment with ZZ, then keep up with it and it will surely help you with many things. However, you are really having to force it, you may not keep with it, and then it wont help so much.

thelerner - I like your ideas about using audio tapes and different positions to help pass the time. I was reading some of Eric Yudelove's work from a while back and he was relating different arm positions with different elements and even healing sounds. These positions were, essentially, the same as the five positions Lam Kam Chuen presents in his book, just without the elemental aspect. Lam Kam Chuen was suggesting adding these to the practice after about 6 months, and it was something I was considering adding in a couple of months time. There were a couple of other things he suggested too. One of them was somehow twisting the tendons of the legs around the knee in order to take some of the weight, this is definitely something I'm not going to do. However, before the stand, he suggested planting the different parts of the foot. ie the heal, then side of the foot, then the soul, and finally all the toes. I quite like doing this as I don't wear any shoes or socks when I stand. Sometimes I get over enthusiastic and almost pull the skin a bit tight across my foot when I do this, which is quickly remedied by just lifting my foot briefly off the ground and putting it down again. Soaring Crane - I'm glad you've mentioned LKC's warm down procedure. At the end, I've always found bringing my feet together as a quite an important/good way of signifying the end of the stand and starting to return to normal life, I'll try out your other suggestion soon too.

It's been nice getting other peoples opinions in regards to ZZ. There's no one else I know who does it and other practitioners live a bit of distance from me. I'm quite used to teaching myself stuff and doing my own thing so this does not bother me too much, but it is nice to have others here sharing their own experiences too - it definitely encourages me, which is good. Bubbles made a really good point about 'committing myself to ZZ'. This has really helped as one of the things I find myself doing during ZZ is cultivating a good attitude towards the practice, which then improves it. It's bizarre when a change in my mental attitude can result in an immediate change/improvement in my physical experience of the stand and this feed back is very useful. When I started to bring in the attitude of 'committing myself to it', I immediately found myself becoming more relaxed. I then realised that some of my own anxiety towards it, made me a little bit more tense, and I've now learnt how to let go a little bit more. Cosmic Ex Pat, I know what you mean about a closing practice ritual. In 'The Way of Energy' Master Lam only briefly mentions slowly returning back to the working world by slowly walking around. In his book 'Way of Power', he mentions the importance of focusing on your Tan Dien for a few minutes after a stand. I now do this and also then pat my whole body and face down afterwards, to 'seal in' the energy, and this seems like a nice way to end it. I like what you say about finishing when you feel you could still stand for a lot longer. I've recently been reading some of Bruce Frantz books and I really hold his 70% rule close to my heart, I feel this is extra important when you're teaching yourself. My greatest anxiety towards this practice is reaching a time when I give it up, as I've done this before in the past. It was something Bubbles picked up on and then suggested committing to the practice, which was helpful. Another approach is where you finish when you feel you could still stand more. I like this a lot as it will keep up my motivation levels, also, it's refreshing taking a different attitude to it where you are always trying to push yourself. Thanks to both of you!

Thank you Bubbles, you have helped me a great deal in deciding what to do. By writing down my first email, I had almost answered my own question myself and I'm quite pleased my answer was similar to what you suggest.<br /><br />After have carried out a sitting practice in the past for a period of time, I have some sense of what an established practice is and it is something that I know I don't quite yet have with my ZZ.<br /><br />As for my sitting practice, I played about with various durations at different times of the day and I found, without doubt, the best was simply have a good sit in the morning and then forget about it for the rest of the day. If I wanted to sit again in the evening, I would often spend some of the day planning other commitments around it and this almost added tension to the whole thing. However, if I got up in the morning and had a good sit, I could then completely forget about it for the rest of the day and just let whatever benefits it gave do their work.<br /><br />After reading what you've said, I think this is the direction I will now take with ZZ. I have a busy life with various commitments so just having a good session of Ba Duan Jin and then ZZ in the morning and then not worrying about it later on is probably the best way to go.<br /><br />Many thanks...

Hi there, This is just my introduction post, so I'm just giving a quick intro. Spent the last 15 years investigating various forms of spirituality but have settled on the meditation practice of Silent Illumination after going on a Chan retreat. Also use standing meditation which I use as a calming down step before sitting meditation. Spent the last 6 months trying out various solo sexual cultivation practices and this is why I'm here. I've got some questions about it and I reckon this is a good place to find some answers. I've read quite a lot of the posts here, especially on semen retention, but not found exactly the answers I'm looking for. Hopefully some one can give me some advice. I enjoy reading stuff from this site so I'd just like to say hi to everyone. Cheers, Miffymog

Hi guys, Just read through the terms and rules and it all makes sense to me so I may as well get straight to why I'm here. I've been practising relaxing my pc muscle during solo cultivation for the past 6 months now and all seems to be going well. Just recently, though, I've been trying to increase how much I'm relaxed in my lower region and I feel as though I'm now not only able to relax the pc muscle, but the muscles of the seminal ducts themselves .... I think. I've been looking at medical web sites and they do seem to suggest that the way the sperm is transported from the testicles is by virtue of muscles in the seminal ducts tensioning, which makes sense. But, I've been looking for this 'relaxation of the seminal ducts' on various sexual practice websites and I cant find it mentioned any where. So, the question is, I am just imagining this or not? Any advice would be gratefully received. Cheers, Miffmog (sorry about the user name, made it up on the spot).