Ian

Erm, sorry to be an idiot, but I've never massaged pasta. Are you just wiggling or is it smoother?

I find that there is a danger in knowing that I don't know what I'm doing. It is that I accumulate so much awareness that I don't know what I'm doing..... that I start to assume that the accumulation counts for something. I can only imagine that all teachers just want to shout "Just be there already!" I also keep thinking about this thing my Sifu is quoted as saying, to the effect that it is rare and wonderful for a spiritual teacher to do more good than harm. Not hoping to supply information here, just wishing to claim kinship with the befuddled.

Start with Trunk's site: www.alchemicaltaoism.com

Welcome ! We're a mixed bunch here. Take what you can use and let the rest go by, as someone said...

Breathe soft moisture up from kidneys to heart and excess heat down from heart to kidneys. Choo up and ha down, or whatever sounds float your personal boat-system. And strongly suggest not to think in terms of strengthening. Not appropriate! When exploring heart look out for self-judgement stored at back of heart level. Easy to miss. All best wishes, I

Not sure - I remember one about the hazards of collecting praire dog semen which cracked me up big time. But I do take your point !

Nice thread altogether! And Gurdjieff always used to say that the earth was feeding the moon, as do we at death unless we evolve first...

Single most effective short term remedy I know is to completely relax the pelvic floor and let all energy just drift down the legs. Makes you part of something bigger and desire is much less urgent/important. Generally, though, I'd say it is important to see sexual desire as just another aspect of uncontrolled thought, and a separate thing from the natural magnetism of the body towards another. The latter doesn't want anything. Good luck, take it slowly....

For kidneys/water: When you feel like it: Rub your ears. Walk around on your knees. Breathe to your belly and gently inflate your lower back at the same time. Stand on bridges over streams and let the water draw eveything you don't want out of your feet. And what Stig said. And, I'm told, the ragged hole ain't really ragged, nor scary to the real you, just to the old stuff that's gotta go anyway. Spread your attention soft and wide, feel all the life in and around, don't get scrunched. Above all, don't listen to me, trust yourself !

What has helped me has been to understand very clearly exactly what the goal of a practice is and how it is supposed to get there. The simpler the better, in my view. Stage two is to be sure that that goal is what you want, which is trickier, for me. Rather depends what you think "you" is. Yoda's been saying some interesting things about intention, lately. In the short term it can be very helpful to meet a teacher and just to have a strong sense of "I want to be like him/her, so I'll do what he/she does." I think this is about the biggest problem we face, these days. If we would only do the same thing for five years the skills would be transferrable, whatever they are....

Many versions. But within HT, mainly Michael Winn or Barry Spendlove, that I know of...

I like the way the small dog gets to join in. Inclusive: I approve !

Don't know if this counts under "etc etc", but... Trees. Especially the sycamore in my mum's garden and the pine trees by the Banbury Road entrance to the University Parks. I've just found another nice little cluster of pines at the top of South Park, but they need a little warming up still. And my friend Alessia has some lovely plane trees just round the corner from her place in Wapping. Apparently plane trees are amazing for cities because they can soak up pollution and get rid of it in lumps on their bark, rather than dying from it.

If transport is your main or only obstacle, do email his admin people and I'm sure they'd be delighted to try and find you a lift with someone else who's going.

Some teachers I trust have responded well to products from these people Not too expensive...

Just to drag the thread a few steps in the general direction of its initial issue: It was initially a question about the value of circulation vs emptiness practice. And it was interesting to see how quickly that became interpreted as a question of movement vs sitting. Where in fact it seems to me much more a question about mental manipulation and trying to do things in practice. It is very possible to do movements without any intent. Or conversely, to sit very still and yet be striving very hard. I still think the foundation of all practice is to get back into your damn body, from whatever realm of imagination or intent one has spent the previous few thousand years in. But anyway. La la la.

I'm falling in love now. Finding it quite hard to eat, but that's all. It's bloody great.

Sean?

You can burn it off. It is painful, and boring, and plain annoying, and delicious in places, but not especially dangerous, the way I've been taught to do it. Do tell us about your experience. Pretty please.

Ages ago, in another life, I used to teach Healing Dao basics. If you want to go the HT route, I'd recommend inner smile, healing sounds and belly breathing to start with. Maybe a bit of dao yin. Some ordinary stretchy fitness thing, anyway. Especially healing sounds. Get clear, get empty. Do them until you've done then so much that you're amazed by how deep and profound they are and are astonished that everyone doesn't do them. Get info on the seated, lying and moving (animal) versions. Do them lots, esp before bed. Really work on making the sounds subvocal, more of an internal vibration than an external noise. Don't worry about visualising, unless you're a very visual person. Feel them. Respect the organs, assume they are very intelligent, very sensitive. Continually seek their feedback. Learn all the correspondences of the five elements. Yadda yadda yadda.... For inner smile, make it as little an intention and as much a permission as you can. Spend a minute or two just sitting and accepting everything before you even think you're beginning. Gentle, gentle.. Ocean breathing, as taught by M Winn, is nice. Standing, swaying, as if neck deep in water. Enough already. Stress into vitality is the best early Chia book, in my opinion. Best wishes, I

A lot of churches were built on spots which were already significant/holy to the local community. I visited a few in this thread, if you're interested.

I think the point made previously was that "that" is way more than one often thinks. Even if your parents did it all for dodgy reasons, as it seems to you, still, consider... all that food, all that shelter, all that concern, all that security, all that money! Imagine if you'd had to grow up homeless and forage for yourself, educate yourself. I do accept that it's tricky, to say the least, the process of establishing that you are going to be otherwise than expected. But if you can feel gratitude then it can be easier to be determined without being resentful. Easier. Not necessarily easy.

One definition I've found helpful is that ego is there to defend the body, i.e. to recognise the body as self and thus to skip aside when boulders fall. And in that function it is benign. Problems start when ego begins to recognise ideas, stories as self and to defend them instead. Which wouldn't happen if we kept our bodies clean of them. That's all.

Well I finally managed to get hold of some Shou Wu Chih in the UK and bought the entire stock. I'm going to be selling a few bottles, mainly locally, as it's not the easiest to post, being glass, but if any Brits are desperate for some, drop me a pm, and I'll find some bubble wrap & try and sort you out for not too much above cost. Happy Sunday, I