Gerard

Why the rush? A password manager will log you nearly instantly as it will fill in the user and password automatically. 

Yes, The Pit. Got the name wrong. 
 

Thanks Apech. Something new I learnt about this forum.

Btw, The Curb was removed, wasn't it?

Sorry,  but what is the Steward's Lounge?

Is this a "hidden from view" subforum which requires a specific grant access?

Too much Qi lingering in the head
Too much thinking 

Liver Yang rising

Heat

Dampness/imbalance

If you have (like most people do) any of the above or all of them (very common) anything you mentioned is going to cause you what is called kundalini syndrome, seeing ghosts, communicating with spirits and bizarre stuff which fall under the umbrella of the "ungrounded syndrome."

To prevent that, do the following:

1. Leg work.
 

Foundation exercises like low basin walking, kung fu leg conditioning work (five stances), Asian squat, closed legs squat.

2. Walking meditation with bare feet for many hours a day when seated meditation practice is heavily emphasised.

3. Hiking for many hours in the natural environment.

If the practitioner suffers from being very ungrounded stop any seated meditation and work heavily on the above until the problem is corrected. This could mean months or even years depending on the length of the ungrounded state; eg. University student, academic, white-collar professional, etc. People born in Fire years or under a Fire sign like the Horse are particularly most at risk. 

3 hours ago, Turnip said:

Why are the Chinese Internal Martial Arts preferred? As opposed to say, Internal Alchemy, Spiritual Qi Gong, etc

Because those practices are UNGROUNDED and you already live in a very ungrounded world unless you work as a shepherd in Afghanistan. 

Awful time of the year for southerners, winter, when nothing moves. Can't wait for it to the over, tbh. And certainly not a potent time to Fire people.

Happy SS to you

16 hours ago, Electric Sekhmet said:

Sorry for this weird rambling, the important question is: where should I start in the many schools and offshots of taoism if I want to learn more about "magical" practices

The voodoo. Unnecessary and distracting.

Requirements:

1. Find a legit teacher with years of experience. Chinese Internal Martial Arts are preferred: Ba Gua, Xingyi & Tai Chi

2. Apply yourself and do not deviate from what you are learning as mixing practices is also distracting and unnecessary. 

3. Learn seated meditation technique preferably from the Buddhist line; eg. Vipassana. 

Back to normal here. 
 

Let's hope the owner has finally fixed this server issue.

Painfully slow this morning. Definitively it's an ongoing problem.

Just the latest update:

It is working perfectly fine right now.

7:40pm AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time).

It's an on and off thing on my end.

Thanks guys for trying to fix this glitch again but what I don't understand is why is it happening again after being fix "for good" roughly two months ago. 

Bulls in Altamira cave, Spain. Amongst the very first by the first Homo Sapiens:

This morning about sunrise, the Snake lurking below the clouds (wind movement). It is a windy clear day today which I love the most. 

icon instagram html

And the other day this cute "red bellied black snake" which was observing me while I was watching her too. Stuck out his tongue a few times and then suddenly, zoom! It took off as fast as lightning.

Yes that's Qi, the underlying web that keeps everything interconnected, and up and running. 

Good stuff.

So, no practice in Chicago's snowfields?

No. A wolf will always remain a wolf. 

For instance, in Buddhism:

Then the Venerable Mahamoggallana thought: "Concerning which person has the Lord said, 'The gathering is not pure, Ananda'?" And the Venerable Mahamoggallana, comprehending the minds of the whole Order of bhikkhus with his own mind, saw that person sitting in the midst of the Order of bhikkhus — immoral, wicked, of impure and suspect behavior, secretive in his acts, no recluse though pretending to be one, not practicing the holy life though pretending to do so, rotten within, lustful and corrupt. On seeing him he arose from his seat, approached that person, and said: "Get up, friend. You are seen by the Lord. You cannot live in communion with the bhikkhus." But that person remained silent.

Source:

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/ud/ud.5.05.irel.html

I can provide the answer to your problem straight away:

Never learn internal practices from a book/DVD/video/online chat/etc. unless you are an advanced practitioner and keen to learn sometime new to add some variety to the existing solid foundation built upon many years of disciplined and daily practice. 
 

You'll likely cause yourself harm if you don't otherwise. 

I like this guy a lot. He knows what he's doing (Yang TJQ):

In Chen things operate in a different level since it is very martial-based, well TJQ was designed as a fighting art from the get go.

But you are more focused on the internal aspect of the art, go Yang.

Sorry but I don't have a clue about Wu, so can't comment on this major TJQ style. 

On 13/5/2025 at 4:12 PM, markern said:

I will also be learning Yang style in a weekly in person class and expect that to help. lot. 

Either Yang or Chen but not both. They are vastly different even if they fall under the flag of TJQ.

For example:

And that's fast. More conservative Yang lineages move half that speed which is unconceivable in Chen. 

Any style is good, the principle is what matters the most and for this all styles share a common ground.

The grounding/foundation videos that HJH runs in his YT channel are very good and highly recommended for anything really not just Ba Gua.

It's going to be difficult to impossible to learn an IMA online. There are way too many subtleties to the art that are easily missed. You won't go deep enough, I'm afraid.

But by having said that, you can get by and get benefits by starting a beginner's form. 
 

Zhu Tiancai, one of the four tigers of Chen TJQ, *New Frame 13 is a good start. YT and DVD:

English subs and fully explained set.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/396206069330
 

Hope this helps.
 

*Form breakdown:

https://chen-taiji.com/13-postures/

Well that's Chen as opposed to the more internally focused and slow paced Yang TJQ.

Chen Xiaowang also created the 16 form for busy people or beginners to get their feet wet before embarking on longer and more demanding forms:

7 hours ago, Taomeow said:

A look-alike grows in a nearby park here in CA, but I'm afraid to give them a try because I can't be 100% sure

In case of doubt disregard. Rule number one when mushroom foraging. One needs to be 100% sure. But you know this already anyway.
 

Some like the "fool's wecap" are so naughty that the active toxin  have an insidiously long latency period and may take 2 days to 3 weeks to cause symptoms. You initially think: it's all good, it was a nice meal and further down the track boom! It hits you like Thor's hammer: total kidney failure depending on the quantity eaten plus serious liver damage. Still it means death if not treated medically. 
 

Nungali, those mushrooms look very cool, I wonder if ingesting them will turn your skin into one of those Avatar movie creatures. 
 

Very cool story the one about the poisoned man and the cat with rights. It was a fun read.

Mushrooms are indeed a natural wonder as this nature photographer narrates in the following vid:

Stephen Axford: How fungi changed my view of the world

Very lucky indeed how that guy survived the destroying angel and def. meditation practice had a lot to do with it. 

 Oyster mushroom

Harmless, tasty. Yang (obvious pleasure).

Destroying angel

Soul shattering, very nasty, pretty to look at tough. Yin (hidden danger).

Interesting how two species of the same genus can be so vastly different.