Trunk

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Everything posted by Trunk

  1. Ian

    Nice to have you around.
  2. COOL! Good notes. Two points.. Well, first off - all well said, a good read.Ok, two points: 1. If someone actually needs healing, if they're not 'basically healthy', then they shouldn't be practicing retention. Likely that retention would make their situation worse. People do come into this system of knowledge who actually need substantial physical or emotional healing. Who have serious health issues and so on. Retention is likely to really jam up their system and exacerbate troubles. There's too much emphasis on retention in the HT system, imo, and there's not enough clear discernment about how it can cause trouble and it when it shouldn't be used. 2. The word 'love' is so romantic and hits squarely in the middle of emotion and desire as a selling point. While healthy, satisfying relationship is part of it, the deeper principle of transcending desire is crucial. Without that, people are being sent down a very entangling path. Without that, its lost the principle of Tao (which is non-dual), and that's real trouble. That's why Buddhism has been a hot topic in discussion lately, to clarify some of these deeper principles (that are central to Taoism as well, but perhaps more accessible through Buddhist readings). I hadn't thought of the martial connotation, but now that you mention it I see it and agree that its unfortunate. For me the term didn't have much connotation at all (only that it was jing practice, or jing art, or jing cultivation) and so was free of pre-conceptions and has broad open application. From healing, to playing music, lifestyle's effect, to relationship, to meditative states. It widened the scope beyond retention. Seems to me that you have a very healthy view of the practices, and can see the very healthy elements in the HT system... which, I agree, are there and can be seen if one has the balance & perspective to see them. And perhaps your healthy view shields you from some of the mis-use that some people bungle with when working the HT system. But, imo, the emphasis in the HT system too easily lends itself to obsessive focus on retention at inappropriate stages, and to missing some of the deeper principles that are protective. Good conversation. Trunk
  3. women's intuition

    Generalities are useful, and accurate, when taken as generalities. That is, they're general trends and accurate only with the caveates that come with a general trend. As contrasted with talking about a specific instance, which gets.. well, specific. Its like, I can say, "plants are green" and I'd clearly be accurate as a generality. But if I look at any specific plant, there's a variety of colors, and its specific to each species and more specifically to each plant itself. Hopefully if I said, "plants are green" we wouldn't have to get into a big arguement that plants have lots of different colors and each one varies. Rather silly. Its implied. There are generalities, which are broad-trend sweeps. And there are individual specifics. They're both accurate in their own right, and with their own limitations of view. Let's not get our undies all in a bunch over it. Gender issues might be a bit more loaded for this crowd than plants, but you oughta see the Sierra Club discussion site!!! love, Trunk
  4. women's intuition

    Where's the love, people? If everyone could cut eachother a bit more slack, it'd go a lot better. You're all intelligent and making good points, and a variety of pts of view makes a better discussion,.. some interpersonal friction seems to be complicating and tangling things. Maybe I'm stating the obvious. If all of you could just take a deep breath, go "ommmmmm", and chill in a little bit of universal , and let conversation play out in a more spacious way - that might help a lot. My 2 cents.
  5. women's intuition

    I feel the same way. The community has needed more women, really glad to have you here. Your timing is good. More toward healthy balance.
  6. women's intuition

    Quite obviously, it seems to me, could be talking about the bedroom arts. The attitude that's coming forth is really (can't find the right adjective),.. well, I appreciate it. There has to be some basic, deep, acknowledgement respect honor basic to healthy gender relations that the above quote surely is expressing. (I hesitate to bring this back to a martial metaphor, because the statement diffuses the "battle of the sexes" so well, but..)This seems very much like internal martial arts' push-hands. There's always a deep consciousness of one's own center and root, and an unwillingness to stray from that, that allows you to give what you can (actually more effectively than if you try to over-extend) and yet be respectful and aware of your own limits. And, actually, push-hands works most effectively if there is no 'battle', only attention to such conscious integration. That is, if you abandon your own root, there is more effort and you have less to give to your partner. But, if you are unshakably centered in your own root and at the same time are sensitive to your partner, then there is really very little effort and, ironically, you give a lot more. btw, welcome to the board. Trunk
  7. women's intuition

    "Men are analytical." (I just had to say that.)
  8. Sean appreciation thread

    Agreed. Very homey, homey.
  9. Exploring the Exhale

    (This is becoming like a "sacrum blog".) Definately I can relate. I find that sexual impulses, memories, from the past are peeling away. Like, someone I haven't thought about for 25 years has come up in my sexual memory. ??? And I feel some tenderness in my low back. And, since you mentioned it, there has been some rather intense pain (emotional and energetic) over the last few days or so. And at the same time I definately feel that the energy is configuring, flowing, "correctly" and is stabalizing. Purification process.
  10. Exploring the Exhale

    When I first tried the exhale-flex-sacrum technique, I got it pulsing readily enough, but also found that I had some weakness and stagnant qi. Grief, anger. But I could also feel that it made a real connection from front (genitals) to back (sacrum). I eased off, didn't push it, but worked with whatever ltt breathing seemed to feel ok, when it felt ok. The result is that I'm feeling the front & back integrally connected, with not much practice, and the little orbit occuring with a much deeper level of tissue than I've ever felt. My sexual vitality is more stable, and the process~configuration just "feels right". And some weak and emotional parts are still processing. Thanks for dialoguing on this. Really interesting to hear how this progresses with others. Always nice to know whether "its just me", or if a pattern is common. --- later --- I find that the sacrum is a 'distribution point' that allows some other ltt areas that are stuck to flow and resolve. The grief and anger that I feel resolving in my ltt are not particularly around the sacrum, but are pockets of presure here & there. Activating (pulsing) the sacrum is allowing me to feel and resolve these old back-waters. Also, I find that the jing is not going just up my spine from the sacrum: My legs are being supplied with more power.
  11. Exploring the Exhale

    Here's the graphic of male & female anatomy.
  12. Exploring the Exhale

    Hey, I'm just barely figuring out my own sexual alchemy! , so the very little that I figure about women's is just that: very little. Agreed. And, btw, for me - this recent awakening of the sacrum (tailbone) has made a big difference. This is one of those turning-point break-throughs for me. Things are going right with very little effort. I don't know if women really have an easier time of it. Seems to me that men have some easier access of some of the circuitry re: the head, but have a really tough time connecting essence to that in an smooth integral stable way. For women, the essence thing isn't so much of a problem, but they get hung up in their emotional nature, perhaps not as easier access to the still place that men naturally have. Of course, I'm speaking in generalities, and individuals (of both genders) vary. And, I'm clearly in rough territory fathoming female alchemy. Maybe Lozen, TwoTrees, Lezlie, would contribute their insights?? Trunk
  13. Exploring the Exhale

    Did you guys see the "men, women" linked graphic in the essay? I think that one of the reasons that women stabalize their generative energy easier is that ovaries are closer to the spine (sacrum) than testicles are. And their kan & li (jing to heart) is naturally supported cause o' breasts.
  14. Pilates

    I'm mostly interested in the core work. (And there's a difference between core and ab work, ime.) Though some of all the rest is cool, too. I think that the pilates system development was significantly influenced by Joseph Pilates' clientele. First he used it to heal himself, then worked in infirmaries, then it caught on really big with the dance community. (See history of pilates.) So, with some of the leg-work, you can see how its geared towards dancers. But the core work is, imo, is really the key of pilates. It'd be cool to see a Taoist version of pilates develop.
  15. Lozen

    That's a keeper.
  16. The Plato Rosinke appreciation thread

    Video #1 on Plato's page has been fixed.
  17. I am Cameron and I am a Taoaholic..

    I think that you could make a poster out of that one.
  18. On line teachings

    Alchemical Taoism.com
  19. Hello

    Wow. Nice that you got an early start. I was atheist until my 2nd year in college, then had an experience and started looking. I see my friends with kids who are in jr high & high school and think, "wow, if they could just learn a simple kan & li, some sort of tan tien practice to help resolve pubescent anxiety, and a little rooting - early, as they're going through puberty", it'd pay off so huge. Of course I don't talk to any of my "civilian" friends about my website, etc. Too weird. Good thing there's yoga studios all over, at least. Gives people an in-road.
  20. Its from bungling my own path, getting ow-ies, and compelled to sort it out. Initially buying the narrow "retention & mo" package for way way too long. When, actually, the path is much much broader than that, and the actual demands of my own situation were/are much more complex, much broader. I got a taste of a high clear place, of "advanced jing gong", and so focused on that rather narrowly, hard core, for a long time. Without even knowing the mechanics of advanced jing gong ! (nearly totally misguided), plus having very substantial aspects of psyche, physiology that would've been more appropriately viewed as simple "healthy jing gong" and some very serious "healing jing gong" (my health issues have been formidable). And various aspects of myself, my practice, quite often might be categorized as being in all three of those areas quite frequently. For instance, I need to be attentive to a stubborn channel blockage ("healing") of mine, need some time simply to be with others as a regular human and be nourished and participate in basic fun male~female interaction ("healthy") and cultivate higher states, integrate that as normal reality ("advanced"). And my body emphasizes those various aspects naturally at different times. Learning to groove well with my own cycle of changes, my own varied make-up. I've been serious about this stuff, and got more fixated than I should've - but, on the other hand, there were principles that I just had to clarify. The "R&D" work on this road has been personally expensive. And not just for me. Back somewhere prior to 2000 (98?) when we were just starting out on the HT board - looking back it was so pitiful and ridiculous how little we knew, how naive we were. Plato really was very progressive and prompted a number of very important avante-gard break throughs. Now there is this broader base of knowledge that the community knows in general (and, yes, a lot of it is preserved on my site - a group effort). When that recent thread, "loosing jing", recently started, I thought "oh, no, here's another lemming who read a HT book or three". Just sort of tragic cannon fodder, like most of the droves that read those books. But then a number of people piped up with broad-minded, well informed, experienced communique. Its like "wow, that guy is really getting some good help, early, - he doesn't have to go down that narrow ill-informed road". Its really genuinely difficult to sort it out on one's own. The cyber-community is really baring fruit. Our niche of culture is generating a wisdom-base. Its really really gratifying to see. This was the purpose of my website, to assist along those lines. As I started realizing how much critical information we were missing, and I knew what I'd gone through by mis-practicing.. partly as a sort of revenge, I wanted others to have the information, in a really clearly spoken way, that I'd missed for the first 15+ years of practice. Wow, did I really just type all that? I'm ranted out. cheers everybody, cheers.
  21. Loosing Jing

    That's very advanced, "advanced jing gong". And can be very progressive, if you're at that level of cultivation.If you don't have it all worked out right, long term retention causes trouble - jams up the works, at various levels. That's a more regular level. imo, someone should become very familiar with simple "healthy jing gong", promoting harmony and basic health, before they try retention. Make all of your tissues supple & free from obstruction, learn to blend and harmonize your energies, learn to stabalize into your centers. That should keep you busy for a few decades.
  22. Help with my daily practices

    The main effect of the 6HS's are to allow the organs to blow off extra heat and stress by vibrating (sound) & breathing. So, if you tend towards some stress and heat then dropping the sounds is a problem. But if you're chilled anyway, no problem. Or, you can add them occasionally as you feel is appropriate. I'd say, do any practice routine you want, just conclude it in the still center.