Trunk

There are good sociobiologic (Darwinian) reasons for gender behavior. The male is strong to defend life & limb, and to do a lot of physically based survival work. A man desires to inseminate as many females as possible, so his line will continue. Women will flock to a rare really exceptional provider, and he'll get it. Women, on the other hand, need someone stable and reliable to assist with all the work it takes to successfully raise a child. Its all about behavior aimed at successfully raising the next generations. And, imo, the resulting unit is not just a couple and a kid/s - but a "tribe": a significant sized group that can provide diversity of skills and some redundancy when people are injured / die. Roots of group psychology run deep. Maybe this doesn't account for all of human behavior, but probably at least into the high %90's.

retreat details: Lifegate Institute

I just added a paragraph at the end of that section: "The sacrum, spine, brain, jing, endocrine system, nerve plexuses, energetic centers - all related, and hopefully this essay provides an effective start for exploration along this key topic." Better to at least mention that this stuff all ties together (not that I know all the details of how it does, but it clearly does) to give a better idea of scope, and possible exploration. About the libido thing, you might try: - pc muscle contractions: start with just the general pc muscle. Then work at just squeezing segments of it at a time. Then work on doing a similar action with the whole "lower curve": from below the belly button, down past the urogenital diaphragm, across the pc, inside the anus (prostate), and up the sacrum through the lumbar vertebrae. - massage at least the ducts and testicles. (edit: added) - do "grease the groove" with standing ab-wheel. ie, like I can only do ~3 at a time, so I do 3 and then do 3 more 20 minutes later, a number of sets through the evening. - kettlebell swings. With the above, you should feel like a gorilla - and the chicks will notice.

Still a little time to sign up for this Feb 2-6 Sun Do retreat.

Uh, that statement implies the assumption somewhere around the area of "if its in the book its safe and tested and like they say it is". Its an untrue assumption, just thought I'd mention it. The quicker you adopt healthy suspicion in this area the better. I can't speak for them; don't know exactly what they think as to theory, only that "people get hurt". Probably something to do with lots of force, and maybe stuff going to the wrong place, maybe somethings breaking a little (like sunshine's post).

The table of contents looks promising. imo, he's talking about many of the right topics.

I got it from the web, and am using it in my site. If its copyrighted, no one has notified me nor come after about it. So, its your call.

Don't know, never use it. Dangerous, imo, and per HT instructors. hui yin, I've been going by feel (haven't looked it up in a TCM book). Under the prostate (that is, nearer the skin).

His thinking in those initial paragraphs is along the lines of Wendell Berry's writing (such as Citizenship Papers). Without the background-view, his comments don't make sense. .. worth reading.

Massaging other places that connect to the prostate. By pulsing massage of the testicles, massaging the ducts (important to include epididymis), massage of the sperm palace, and whatever way you massage the prostate (pc muscle exercise and/or other).. all those are connected by tubing and massage of all of them gets circulation between & amongst them going. Healthy. The pulsing-massage of the testicles has been, for me, really key in getting the circulation to a new level, and should probably be done last of the massages. --- added later --- Two things to add to the massage list: the gland at the tip of the penis, and the sacrum. When my sacrum activated, significant jing stagnation resolved, because the stagnation now had somewhere to go. All the major glands in the lower tan tien, the tension in the musculature all in there, and the bones (sacrum, spine) are all connected. They are all stations in a flow of blood, jing, vitality. Any massage program needs to address all of the major points in the "lower U", the curve starting from above the public bone (really just below the belly button), down through the perineum (and all parts along the way), and up the sacrum and vertebral bodies.

Seems to me that the main cause of taoist-online-discussion-addiction-syndrome is that there is so little opportunity in 'real life' to discuss taoist cultivation. And that the obvious solution is to join, or start, local practice groups. Real satisfying community. (There's gotta be a better word than 'real', cause both are real, obviously I mean 3D in-the-flesh.) fer example, A friend of mine on the west side started a meditation group in his home. He turned his living room into a sort of zendo (zabutans & cushions, nice sitting environment) and people show up for silent sitting early every morning. Same could be done at a local yoga studio. Or with zhan zhuang, inside or outside.

Cool.

I think that its a very valid, actually necesary, approach to look at the parts (like the perineum) and what it takes to activate each. ime, on these boards, no one knows what an activated, fully functioning tan tien is. The basic question comes up a few times a year "what is a tan tien", and everyone kind of goes, "duhhhhh... good question!". So, I think its perhaps a little premature to think of "moving from the tan tien". ..and that the detailed "finding & activating the parts" that might add up to a real live tan tien one day is maybe a practical approach.

Some similarities with how I've been activating it in my practice. Both working with the exhale, creates a slight internal suction that gently pulls on the point from the inside, activates it. Or could be that activating navel and spine kicked in neighboring powerful points (perineum, hui yin).

Yup! Yippeeeee! Wide like this w/white background is a relief.

Good inquiry. You'll find that, amongst Taoist schools, similar topics come up - but they are often treated in critically very different ways. Chia's presentation, imo, is rife with serious flaws. So, seeking out other Taoist sources is .. very important. Some sources are published, some teach just in person. One accomplished teacher of an internal martial art just sort of shakes his head and makes jokes when the topic of books comes up. After hanging out in his school for some little while, it was very clear that there was no way that anyone could learn that particular art through books; the corrections had to be done person-to-person, repeatedly, over a long period of time, in order to produce the correct body-changes that empowered the art. My point is, its worth while to seek out teachers who are teaching in a regular class setting. Not everyone who is extremely accomplished publishes books, or markets themselves widely. All this is not to say that there isn't some decent published material out there. Outside of Taoism, the Tibetans have some parallel studies, and the Tibetans are a very serious bunch. a couple of references: Sun Do - a Taoist lineage The Six Yogas of Naropa - a book that contains the crux of the Tibetan Tantric system imo, you'd be well served by keeping a look-out for good sources as a long term project. ... added later ... Yan Gao Fei - authentic Chen style tai chi, based out of Florida

The Exhale comes through again. (Look at the last technique.) I haven't experienced how its integrated with movement. Thanks for the tip, will experiment.

Hard Light

Pasted from #5099, I've been getting a lot out of this: Yipes. I just double-quoted myself.

Thus I have heard:

There are a number of people that I've sat with, where the room was totally suffused with light. 'Subtle' isn't quite the right word, as sometimes it was intense enough so that it was difficult to stay in the room. Certain work literally integrates a human being with Light. We've talked about it before.

All good points.

Likely. I've read BH&E, but not the others. But, basically, every other herbal book that I've seen just doesn't compare - not even close as a reference. Sometimes I've seen very good supplemental information in other books, or convenient listings (like the Outline Guid to Chinese Patent Medicines, which is an excellent guide to the bottles of herb formulas that you can buy for ~$2 in chinatown). But, as a Reference, basically there is no other reference than those book$. Then there's the worse-than-iffy presentations that diminish TCM into something everyone can understand with no considerable effort. Which tends to leave out so much detail that people are at a generally 50-50 chance (at best) of helping/hurting themselves. Luckily herbs are mostly relatively forgiving.

The references on Chinese herbs are Bensky's Materia Medica, for the single herbs, and Formulas & Strategies, for puttin' the singles together into classic formulas (& variations). These are the two that are used in English-speaking schools of TCM. They're expensive, but they are _the_ resource. And, yup, squirrel poop is in there. Breaks up blood stasis, if I recall correctly (and there's a good chance I'm not).. but its definately in there, I know that. I wouldn't worry particularly about ingesting that herb; if its in those books its been done a lot before.