senseless virtue

Where did you get this stuff? It sounds like skillful hyperbole, although it's not entirely wrong. Your last sentence is flawed: There in fact are valid Qigong methods (including videos) that can activate the pre-heaven Qi and thus establish the correct MCO. Fragrant Qigong is one of these. If you had argued that MCO was rare and difficult to accomplish through any given commonly available method, then I would had agreed. Yet, it's an undoubtedly classical error in some "Qigong" teachings that they would lead to accumulating so-called post-heaven Qi. This working is a bit like trying to subtly stir and force emotions to control each other, but it would only add more of unstable and emotionally volatile energy to one's body-mind. The orthodox way is to harmonize post-heaven Qi into peace (preliminary training through Neigong and ethics) and then proceed with accumulating pre-heaven Qi through tranquility (which may not be a trivial thing at all). The difficulty with the term "Qigong" is that both post-heaven Qi harmonization and pre-heaven Qi accumulation can be covered with it. These tend to be separately trained and it's often fairly simple to guess into which category a practice belongs, but there exist truly holistic and esoteric arts like Fragrant Qigong which transcend common conceptualizations and categorizations. It just works. There are more nuances to the discussion, but it's important to not be lead astray by simple catch-all labels and terms.

The same type of soap as I use: organic goat's milk soap.

Great topic, but I fear it might reinforce the stereotype that Bums lack in hygiene. In terms of cleanliness it's still worlds ahead of people who give orgasms at distance to random strangers or eat junk food. Balanced and health intestinal flora is another great and somewhat pertinent topic that should be discussed elsewhere.

The great Internet Buddhist wars? When and where did this happen? What was it about? Entirely compassionately helping others to let go of their illusions that were exchanged on message boards?

I offer a counterpoint on these two at least: Nope. Better look elsewhere.

Good news. It's a smart design choice that goes well with the overall functionality of The Dao Bums. It immediately addresses the concern that people don't always have civil discussion and debate, but resort to subversive tactics and repeat propaganda. I really hope it works for the quality, although I suspect that PPJs are anyways taking on the most active part of vaccine discussion. My own forum (Alchemical Garden) had a similar announcement or reminder that current events do not belong to the timeless discussion topics that we want and specialize in. The bar is hoisted for newcomers. Gotta post faster and harder to earn this new Bum trophy!

@Nuralshamal How you write is nebulous, and I suspect you are doing it on purpose. You also move goal posts when others bring up their concerns about what you have written. That does not make for good nor respectful discussion. Which perspective? Your own alone. You would need to add this caveat to everything you write. How you now present your observations is as if there was some universal acceptance or universal authority supporting them. It's only you, however, unless you can provide direct quotes from your teachers and classic spiritual source texts that are readily available and verifiable. I'm sure you would not have difficulty providing the latter such since you stipulate that there is proven and wide ground for your thesis. Yet you seem completely fine in offering "your own thing" and opinion as an infallibly secure foundation and selling it with the so-far unproven association to several recognized teachers, thus giving the false impression that there is any trustworthiness or reliability whatsoever in what you write. This is how you are using botched logic to make insufficient justification or conclusion on each paragraph: "Breath holding" introduced to general Qigong verbiage. Two sentences of horrible grammar and seemingly tautological statements. Attempt to carry over more Qigong verbiage credibly. Appeal to Chunyi Lin's authority through Qigong verbiage. Therefore, "breath holding" is a valid method. You claim posture and mind distributing anything—what is the basis for your claim? I think you are just making a subtle but rude joke here. Do you with absolute certainty represent Chunyi Lin's opinion here? If not, then why should anyone trust your hearsay as you admit as much with the word "believe"? What exactly does Chunyi Lin's Qigong "being gentle" has to do with your previous argument, or anything at all that you have brought up so far? Who exactly did not speak of the benefits? Let's assume your teachers have all talked about continuous breath holding like you say. Then I ask: Have all your teachers directly endorsed continuous breath holding as a fundamental part of their practice or what they teach to students? If so, then please provide direct references which everyone can examine and confirm whether it's true or not. All these misleading allusions to others' opinions are logically invalid straw man arguments. You show poor regard when others courteously brought up very specific instances why and where there was a potential misuse of terms or training conventions. You also acknowledge directly in the above quote that some have not been taught the breath holding method, yet below in the next quote... ...you insist that there is some universality to your claims. I think you are a very elaborate troll and I award you 8/10 for the effort. It was pretty well done and I am sure that a few users have sincerely given you the benefit of doubt. Would you like to share what motivated you to join The Dao Bums and engage in trolling?

It's ridiculous pricing. The promises of "semen retention and transforming semen" and "how to look after your penis and testicles during prolonged semen retention and celibacy" are common misused tropes to lure the unwary.

Image removed for being redundant to the discussion.

Rest easy: The Dao Bums is not a correctional facility, and I'm not here to correct anyone.

Are you completely sure? As you wish.

This, like many other things you write, feels like it's out of touch and unrepresentative of its proper context. Outside of Yantra Yoga and Tummo practices, breath retention isn't common at all in Tibetan Buddhism. Then you have omitted mentioning integral parts of these sadhanas such as muscle locks that seal the energy in certain ways and activate particular pathways. There's no way this could be comfortably compared to simple breath retention: If it were so, then free divers (and other such athletes) would be among the most accomplished yogis in the world, which is untrue.

You can look it up and search O@D or "orgasm at distance" on this forum, but it may lead to bewilderment and more perplexing questions than real answers. Some stones are better left unturned. Take care.

Yes, it's karma. The non-dual view is true, but not really instructive from the mundane perspective.

I don't agree with this. The oracle divulges in depth information when it's karmicly optimal, but receiving such knowledge may be limited because of the divination format and one's inability to ask good questions.

How long have you trained Spring Forest Qigong? Have you experienced any side effects that manifest around McDonald's restaurants? Common ones include giving spontaneous and unsolicited 3rd eye transmissions to complete strangers.

Why do people pay courtesan prices with supposedly genuine spiritual teachers? All the really accomplished and dedicated teachers I've met and heard about disregard money as fairly unimportant, hence there is no relationship based on money which really would cheapen the nature of the spiritual practice even.

These are not the signs of a credible teaching system. Feelings are not any certain indicative of internal progress. Often these imply an unbalanced state of mind that stirs excess energetic activity. Your writing could pass for a very energetic sales pitch. Do you receive any referral reward for bringing in new students?

This would be an excellent separate topic even! The classical Mahayana Buddhist view implicitly posits that the condition of people and societies changes with time, so therefore the enlightened masters and aspiring Bodhisattvas reveal new practices to fit the contemporary needs. It's been remarked in some sources that during the more innocent times in the past people had much purer bodies and less emotional issues to begin with. This is one explanation why we don't have direct Jhanna cultivation these days and why even the stereotypically meditative Buddhist traditions (Theravada vipassana styles and Ch'an Buddhism) cultivate liberating insight as their means of attaining good Qi and stable mind foundation first before attempting to realize any type of Dhyana realms.

To retain, or not to retain, that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles, And by opposing end them: to die, to sleep; No more; and by a sleep, to say we end The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks That Flesh is heir to? 'Tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep, To sleep, perchance to Dream; aye, there's the rub, For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause. There's the respect That makes Calamity of so long life: For who would bear the Whips and Scorns of time, The Oppressor's wrong, the proud man's Contumely, The pangs of dispised Love, the Law’s delay, The insolence of Office, and the spurns That patient merit of th'unworthy takes, When he himself might his Quietus make With a bare Bodkin? Who would Fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscovered country, from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have, Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, And thus the native hue of Resolution Is sicklied o'er, with the pale cast of Thought, And enterprises of great pitch and moment, With this regard their Currents turn awry, And lose the name of Action. Soft you now, The fair Ophelia? Nymph, in thy Orisons Be all my sins remember'd.

Let's keep it simple. If your pee-pee's piping is blocked, regardless of how, then the oozing male essence will remain inside and flow into the nearest available drain hole, i.e. the bladder. I don't think the testes would accept any refunds either for what they were happy to do away with.

I feel it's very unfortunate for the Western discussion culture that there are more and more instances of divisive topics on which the strongly opinionated supporters, whether pro or contra, ask for heavy-handed control or regulation of dissident speech. I really hope that everyone is having a blast in their safe spaces and walled gardens, I really do.

This thread is off to a good start. Good work everyone, I really appreciate your input! Why was I motivated to start this thread? Many years ago I was much less tolerant than I am these days, and this especially applied to some of others' opinions that I held to be stupid or ill-founded. What changed? I learned from my own mistakes that everyone is processing something and in this regard I am no different even if I happened to entertain a provably superior position. The worst would be if it lead to anger or stubborn pride. In contrast, respecting others' free will and journey to wisdom gives me an opportunity to become aware and correct my own flaws of impatience and ignorance, which I have come to see as the most healing attitude in most situations. It increases good faith and gives real safe space to others to realize there is no personal gain to win through verbal exchanges. These days I think that it's not any particular opinion that matters as much as having good and polite questions to ask and real calmness to support if it leads to dialogue. Then we can actually discuss and learn instead of bickering or arguing. Let's put the previous observation in another way: Even if I managed to convince some people to change their opinion on a topic, this isn't by itself wisdom giving or encouraging them to act better in all circumstances. I would call it good discussion and excellent resolution if I can demonstrate and subtly impart the skills to keeping clarity and compassion which people may apply everywhere. Whether we parted ways with conflicting opinions is of no consequence here; what matters is that there was learning and growth as human beings.

Sorry ralis, but I was hoping that this thread would be a meta discussion without going into any particular topic detail like this. Covid19 is already featured in many topics around TDB and I don't see why this should be another platform for it.