Wyrdone

To the original poster: Jou Tsung Hwa's books "Dao of meditation" and "Dao of Taijiquan" covers some use of the reverse breathing method. They are a little difficult to understand without a teacher. Also thanks to Taomeow your comments have clarified some of the confusion I had while doing some reading. I am male but did practice with a few female players/practitioners.

Very true, some of the same type of experiences happen in deep meditation as I have heard of happening using mushrooms or ayahuasca. Not as the goal of a meditation but it happens because you are ready it. As far as “Most powerful” I will have to side with Earl Grey on this one. It depends on the person. I really like daoist qigong and nei gong they work well for me both physically and spiritually. Most importantly find a teacher that suits you or more appropriately find a teacher you can be a great student of.

I am not much of an expert but, by my understanding of diet practices relating to the dao can be summed up in two words, it depends. Seasons, your body, how much sleep you have had, stress, etc all play a role in what is right for you. P.S. I am reiterating other suggestions for the jiaogulan tea. I miss it when I travel for work because I have not found a bagged version that I like and I carry around too much stuff to tote around a tea kit I will eventually lose.

Zero Inf, Chi / qi is not objectively measurable and therefore complete b.s. (I am ignoring corollaries for now) Chi / qi is also the best description of a very real experience and is amazing and useful. Since you asked about reverse breathing. For the first few months just do regular abdominal breathing. Once you find yourself breathing abdominally without thinking then you have developed the body awareness for reverse breathing. Start with 9 breaths in a row everyday for the first week, focus on making the contraction deep and smooth, this is just to adjust to a new muscle pattern, and would be additional to whatever practice you decide to persue. From there advice really varies and I have muddied the waters enough. P.s. To leave you with some recommendations to look into: Kenneth Cohen - Way of Qigong Terrence Dunn - his videos are really good. Yang jwing-ming - root of chinese qigong (excellent book to describe the basic terms) I also would reccomend looking up Ba dua jin on YouTube. The moves change up a bit based on style/lineage but is a good start as many of the moves are in various styles at least as warmup moves. I will also second the zhan zhuang recommendations. If you can do that for an hour you are ready for some serious training.

I had an angel(best description) speak to me while I was practicing taoist meditation. It seemed happy enough with it. Frankly, I think most who label themselves Christian have no clue about the depths it is capable of. It , like many things, becomes diluted for easy consumption by the masses. Verse 38 A man of virtue who is not aware of his virtue is truly a man of virtue A foolish man who tries to be of virtue is not a man of virtue A man who is truly wise and of virtue seems to do nothing but leaves nothing undone The foolish man who is always trying to do, leaves much undone The man of virtue acts without regard to himself or with condition The highest form of kindness is that which is given without regard to himself or without condition The highest form of morality is that which has no judgment or motive When the Tao is lost then there is virtue When Virtue is lost then there is morality When Morality is lost then there is ritual Ritual is only an empty shell of humanity like a flower and not the fruit; this is the beginning of the downfall of man The great Sage follows his own nature and not that of society, following the fruit not the flower, he stays with the truth while rejecting the false. (Note: this verse was taken from the Dennis Waller translation of Tao te ching)

In what context? I am not a BaGua practitioner, but there are several meanings, hopefully someone more knowledgeable can expand, clarify and point out any mistakes. The solid lines are "yang" the dashed lines are "yin". Heaven and earth are top and bottom respectively.

So in this case the "resistance"/internal is impeding "current"/chi flow and the olfactory nerve stimulation is providing a "gate" signal to lower total resistance? (Rt=r1r2/[r1+r2]) I know, I know, electrical metaphors only go so far, and bioelectic circuits are only correlated to chi. The dao that can be spoken...

Thank you all for the responses, very helpful and I learned a new term, anapanasati. I don't usually buy booze when traveling for work. I will definitely try the rainbow fruit meditation and consider timing and affects of practice. It is not typically an issue but it crops up often enough. Thanks again.

So before I begin , did run a few searches, I know it has been at least mentioned in passing: Sometimes evening practice of taiji or basic meditation can leave me feeling very good and calm but hinders going to sleep early. If I can wake up without setting an alarm it leads to a refreshing nights rest. Also can lead to some insights as it seems to be due to to a strong awareness of the body. But, having to wake up at 4am to be at whatever site I am working at this week before the hotel offers breakfast, it is not exactly an optimal situation. Any advice?(besides quit) I have tried doing "rag-doll", and progressive relaxation. Sometimes it just keeps me up longer. Is there any qigong to do right before bed?

Hello dao bums, I have been lurking a bit, mostly because I find a relevant post after digging a few pages through search engine results and I am tired of linking through a few posts and finding a have to be a member to see it. I also have wanted to ask questions a few times. I practiced a few years at qigong, taiji, and my teacher sneakily taught me to meditate disguising them as breathing exercises. Then I joined the navy, that was a mixed bag, I learned the skills to work in a good profession but my practice dropped to practically nothing, very sporadic. I got out and after a year or so of limited physical activity and a cessation of practice I was a very sad panda indeed. When thinking about my mental state, my body just not feeling right, and a few other things, I realized I needed to pick up meditation again,so I did, committing to just 8 breaths every day, It usually ended going longer but 8 breaths does not make a difference when your late to a meeting, so I stuck to that commitment. I tried to jump into being physically active again only to find out I had lost the mobility to do burpees, deep squatting and the like, so I figured just brocades, maybe even as little as one round of "taiji qigong", which were taught as warming up exercises for taiji class. After a while I was picking up my old reference material, picking up new ones here and there. Then the books I had just were not enough, I needed clarifications. Sometimes reading through multiple books would reveal an answer but could also point out just how muddy the waters are. My old teacher, who is no longer corporeal , was a student of Jou, Tsung Hwa. I hope I can find a few of his fellow students. I am currently taking online classes from one of them ,but some times a video lesson lacks...something. I also travel quite frequently for work, mostly in the western side of the USA. How do people feel about one or two time drop-ins? Especially one looking for just a little feedback, but open to new paths? P.s. Wyrd can be be pronounced weird or wired, I can be either or both, I also work on low voltage electrical distribution equipment so I can make things wired as well.