-_sometimes

This feels like it was written for me I mean probably not but the timing of me seeing this post was exceptional I love this! If you are willing, could you give an example or expand on how insight and grace in pain might be practiced?

Daoist robbery

I don't believe we have.. I tend to lurk more than post to be fair, as I'm still quite new to this whole thing. The pleasure's all mine, you have some good posts! Throw an apple and run. Leave the mess to everyone else

What's so wrong about a drink with friends?

Afaik no, it will instead build stagnation, as you will likely be directing the mind in a contrived way. If you want to learn how to build and store qi in the lower dantian, have a look at damo mitchell's neigong course: https://damomitchell.com/nei-gong-course/

Are you okay? I don't recall your posts being like this, you don't sound alright. Kind of looks like you're using a text generator of sorts

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What are they like? How does it feel to be around them? Are they noticeably different to other people, eg would you know they express original nature if you saw them just like that, or perhaps through speaking with them? Or is it more subtle? Hope you don't mind the questions!

Have you ever met anyone like or close to this?

This is interesting. So eventually you want to move towards cultivating spirit? And by doing so you can move towards expressing original nature as opposed to your base nature. That makes sense. The difficultly perhaps is getting sidetracked once you have developed and refined the energy body into using that excess qi to fuel one's base nature. Finding a teacher who is accomplished spiritually as well as energetically then, might be a wise approach, as they can guide you in the right direction once you are accomplished enough.

This seems to be common descriptor of generating lots of qi - it acts as an amplifier of sorts for whatever your nature is. For people who don't have a wholesome outcome when there's more of 'them', what can be done? If qi does not transform, what does? Is it cultivating virtue, mental training / discipline? You've mentioned many accounts of skilled qigong practitioners who go haywire basically leaking qi through base desires. How is this sort of development prevented?

I've been suffering from increasingly dry eyes lately, which is becoming a cause of significant discomfort. Perhaps some of you familiar with TCM might be able to point me in the right direction I've always had issues with dry eyes, as diagnosed by my optician, but it's gotten a great deal worse lately. Tear drops to no avail, my eyes no longer feel lubricated when closing them for a period. I can feel the uncomfortable dryness when I meditate and even when going to sleep, which has never happened until yesterday. If I try to study for extended periods, my eyes become so dry I can't think straight and feel very tired. It is much worse in the evening. From what I've read, the TCM perspective on dry eyes is due to an imbalance of the kidneys and/or the liver. I have a very good diet, consisting of vegetables, beans, nuts, some meat and fish, dairy and fruit, which I follow with 95% diligence. Thus I don't think my diet is the issue. I sleep fairly regular hours, varying from 22:30-23:30, waking up around 7-9. It is worth noting that the symptoms have gotten increasingly worse since moving into a new apartment, where the air quality was so poor I would wake up congested, sneezing and feeling an allergen-like reaction to something. This was resolved (partially, as I've had issues with nasal congestion or constant runny nose for most of my life, which might be described as a constant underlying allergic reaction to an unidentified source) once I installed an air purifier, but these devices can apparently dry out the air, which might not be helping my situation. This could be a coincidence though, as I suffer the same level of dry eye even with the air purifier off for a few days. Thank you all!

I've displayed symptoms of allergic/intolerant response as far back as I can remember. Think constant nasal congestion, dry eyes, facial tension, mental fogginess. Blowing my nose 20 times a day is not unusual for me. I finally took an allergy test which recorded IgE reactions to 42 different food and environmental allergens. Reactions to every single item were recorded, ranging from low to high reaction. Somehow I have a severe response to meat (pork, beef, chicken and lamb), which is really odd? From the perspective of western medicine, there is no solution, aside from eliminating the food items and minimizing the impact of environmental allergens, or anti allergy medications. From my brief analysis of TCM, it seems allergies can occur because of deficient wei qi - studies have shown herbal remedies can decrease overall allergy response, as well as acupuncture potentially being an option. I'm interested to hear your perspectives on this!

I've seen countless warnings not to take herbs like that across this site, enough that I certainly don't plan to I think it might be worth trying some lifestyle changes as mentioned by @Gerard though. I don't know of any 'good' TCM practitioner, nevermind very knowledgeable herbalist. Does anyone know of any in the UK perchance?

@Gerard Yes thank you it is indeed very helpful! I will try eating warming foods for breakfast and refrain from meals after 3pm - would snacking have an impact at all, or best to refrain entirely? I've read that those with weak Earth should limit dairy, would you recommend this? With regards to asian squat, may I ask the reason why you recommend this? I can do the squat just fine with no effort, so it will be easy to implement. Would wuji as used in taiji work for 2)? The mechanics are raising the crown, releasing to stretch the yao, sinking into the feet. Lots of questions, so thanks in advance

i'll send u a dm!

You've mentioned elsewhere too the act of being kind even if you don't want to. Is there something to being kind even if you don't want to? Your emphasis is not in vain I am certain

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Falun_Gong

Greetings all! After discovering Beth Upton through @Vajra Fist recommending her some time back, I'm interested in going on one of her retreats next year. I wonder if any of you have been on her silent retreats before, and if you have anything to share regarding your experiences? The retreats last from 10 to 40 days, and take place all around the world throughout the year. Beth Upton is a former nun who studied under Pa Auk, and that's mostly what I know. The retreats are very long by usual standards, priced well and tbh I like Beth's vibe :)) I hope to go there to practice my own thing - afaik it isn't necessary to follow a specific practice, given that it's a silent retreat, but do correct me if I'm wrong.

Pa-Auk teaches based on the Theravada tradition, so meditation-oriented, and idk I feel more inclined to the neigong approach of preparing the body before moving on to meditation. It makes a lot of sense to me. The accounts of meditation experiences not necessarily persisting if the groundwork hasn't been laid, and I recently read the account of an individual who practiced Vipassana (goenka style iirc) 6 hours a day for 6 years only to realize he'd cultivated a sort of bubble about himself that hadn't actually transformed his nature, but rather just covered it with something else. Damo has mentioned that his general experience with practitioners who solely practiced meditation seemed somewhat lacking in vigor and a bit serious, as opposed to those who also included the energetic arts in their practice. Beth's energy seems positively lovely, but I'm not sure if what she teaches is for me. Frankly I was planning on just practicing anchoring the breath the entire time Although having written this, perhaps it might be worth trialing it whilst I'm there, because I'm only operating on hearsay after all. What better way to find out than to try it out right perhaps it would be worth contacting Beth beforehand and practice what she teaches leading up to the retreat.

Would you be open to sharing your view? It's always good to hear different perspectives on the matter

What do you mean by this? Isn't neigong the precursor to neidan? From my very limited understanding, neigong sets the foundation by building a neigong body that is capable of handling neidan. Neigong is involved on the jing and qi level, while neidan is on the shen/spirit level - given the oft-mentioned jing->qi->shen, you kind of need that base of jing->qi to ensure permanent transformation. How does your school approach this?

Oh and the expectation as I understood it was to have arrived at abdominal breathing before even beginning to locate the LDT. Arriving at abdominal breathing naturally, without contrivance. By passing through the quiet to cotton-soft stages.. which to me, is an incredible accomplishment by itself.

I'm not currently subscribed, but I do remember, given 52 lessons for each 'year', locating the LDT began quite early on, around lesson 12 maybe? As long as it takes Often he gives estimates for reaching some skill at a given exercise, and the times he gave were more of a range than a specific timeframe, ranging from a few days if you're lucky to months - just the preparatory wuji, stretching, meditation and daoyin (which all unlock in ~5 weeks) could take many months by his admission. Imo (for me at least) much longer, to be able to sink the qi, which you probably want prior to building the LDT.

One of the first things he teaches is certainly what I would call meditation. To sit down, meditate on the breath until the mind is somewhat calm, then to let go of choosing what to attend to and allow the awareness to rest someplace in the body, until that point sinks to the ldt area