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Greetings! I just woke up from a little several year nap. I'm feeling refreshed and ready to get back to it. Before I drifted off (this last time that is - I do like naps) I was stumbling around the Way with one eye on my tea cup, and one toe in the stream. I haven't gone very far (though it's been a good long time) - which really is fine, because I've got nowhere to go. A little taijiquan here, a little qigong there. Walking circles in the park. Lots of tea, tea, tea, drinking in that cha qi. Music. Must. Have. Music. Always. What else...Dad, husband, living in southern Maine, spilling PHP to pay the rent, spreading the word of Kenneth Rexroth and Louise Michel, and wishing I listened to my Mom and stuck with those piano lessons. Looking forward to reading a whole mess of the posts, learning what folks here have to offer, pouring you some tea, and continuing my practice / crawling, before getting sleepy and climbing into bed for another nap.

Hi Everyone I have found you all via Reddit. I have many interests ranging from energy systems of the human body, meditation, primordial principles and concepts. In my own learning and research, I keep coming across related subjects you would find on this forum. Hence, I have joined and look forward to discourse with you all. I hope this message finds you well and happy Stef

Greetings everyone. My name is Squeak and I practice Wu style taichi chuan and Gao Bagua Zhang. Always interested in learning.

Hi there, I live in Devon, UK - a very special part of the world IMO, very green and vibrant. I've been practicing energy arts and Taoist meditation as taught by BK Frantzis for a long time (20+ years), and I'm recently moving away from that and exploring different avenues of spiritual growth including Zen and Mindfulness training. I'm actually going through a bit of a wrench around changing teacher and have written a post I'd like to share here and maybe get some feedback. Looking forward to connecting with a few of you. Robin.

Alright where to begin... Ah, right, hello. My name is Mikias, pronounced Mik-ee-us . I'm 24 years old and currently living in Ethiopia but grew up in Canada and I'd like to tell you my daoist story. Here we go. I was going through some big life changes this last year and decided to get healthy. After quitting smoking, excessive drinking and drugs, I realized that I was still tired, unmotivated and unhappy. The only thing left was porn, and like many men who grew up in the age of high speed internet, I was a serious porn addict. So I did some reading and stumbled on Mantak Chia's books the Multi-O Man and Taoist Secrets. It made perfect sense to me, so I quit porn and started practicing solo-cultivation. More than any other change in my life, this was the most effective. The energy boost, the improved mood and general happiness was amazing. I was more social, extremely energetic and killing the gym. And after about the 10th day I would enter this euphoric state, where I was bursting with energy and always smiling. But, I got caught up in the multiple orgasm aspect of it cultivating for longer and longer periods until I go over the edge. I haven't been able to get past 14 days of cultivation without ejaculating. The temptation get's too strong, and alas, I'm too weak. The one bonus is that my PC muscle is tanky af from all my practice lol. And I've only been cultivating for a few months so maybe 14 days isn't a bad achievement. Anyway, now I want to take it more seriously. I'm hoping to go longer than 30 days, so I need to study and get more motivation to resist the temptation. I'm hoping this forum will have the information and insights to help me go past my current limit. I'm excited to join this forum and see what everyone else is working towards. - Mikias

Hi, for starters I'd like to say that I like that you have this rule that everyone has to introduce himself, makes the forum more "credible". I live in Chisinau, Moldova right now, I was quite interested in eastern religions and their way of thinking, and did some meditation when I was in school, but had to quit that when I started studying at the university, and I also kind of felt disappointed that meditation is only inside your head or something like self induction / self hypnosis. Things got a new twist when I stumbled upon a video with John Chang (I'm sure people know about him), the only thing I could find on the internet related to him is the link below. http://spiritualteachers.proboards.com/thread/1320 I have some question related to this topic, but I'd like to check out the existing discussions first, and then ask only if I won't be able to find what I'm looking for. thanks for building the site & community I wish you all a nice day

Hello, I practice and teach I Liq Chuan in the Phoenix area. I enjoy hearing of peoples experience with the way and look forward to exploring this forum.

hello spiritual friends i have some expecience in internal arts, this include qigong and being alone there was a moment that the puzzle fell into place so now i'll look for what interests me for starters, , i would like to explore standing mediation spontaneous qigong i'm 71 years old , poorly retired (otherwise i would not be a bum) i was born in france and i'm living in a tiny village in the center of brasil, my english is barely enough to undedrstand an d eventually comment the topics in discussion, anyway will learn a little more english thank you tamba

Hello! I'm AE, a new member here. A bit about me: I'm a Daoist and a practitioner of qigong, tai chi, and martial arts. For fun, I write, read comics, and play board games.

Hi everyone! My name is Sifu Amin Jani and I am new to this site! Looks awesome and I hope to learn and share tons of information with everybody! I have been studying martial arts for over 25 years. I mostly practice kung fu qi gong and tai chi. I teach classes at the local health club, and I run a website too! This page looks fun! Have a great day! Sifu Amin Jani

hello , i am here to learn.

Namaste, As is I believe tradition here to be such, I should like to introduce my self to you; my name is Iain, I live in France, my spiritual background is of satya sanAtana dharma and of shavism. Why am I posting here? Well I have wanted to respond to a thread in which an excerpt from swami Lakshman Jū's seacret supreim is quoted: http://thetaobums.com/topic/36257-kashmir-shaivism-the-nine-types-of-grace-of-siva/ Alas, the thread appears to be locked but new my profile created; I thought I best come over here and say hello. Hello, pleased to meet you. Perhaps this is a sign that I would do well to investigate the perspective that is "Tao". Pointers most welcome. Kind regards, iain

Hi there, I hope we are mostly here for the same reasons. I found news about nei kung. I am a seeker, and I do meditation since I was in my early teens. I just don't tolerate hoaxs and fluff stuff. I am an online marketer, so I know about the lies and hype. My intentions are pure, and I always asked myself why people are so dumb and willing to remain dumb. Knoledge ought to be practical, otherwise that is called faith. That is not knowledge, it is just thinking. True knowledge has an origin, an end, and a meaning for that end. Many of the buddhist sutras amused me, as I am a rational person. I was glad to see on text that what I merely reached by thoughts and thinking was thought before me. That calmed me, but growing up I have quickly discovered the hatred and evil emotions people bear to the seekers, without a proper justification what-so-ever. I still do not condone that. Anyone that crossed my way knows that. If you want to be ignorant, that is fine by me, but you should ever even think about posing yourself between knowledge and seekers. That I cannot tolerate. I'd like to find out the most interesting practical knowledge on this forum, so I'll be lurking for the most. I dont think many will read this, so If you do, have a great day ()/

hello everyone, i am new member here, 35 years old. do some practise myself. would like to know more about your practise.

Hi. I've come to TaoBums because there seems to be a wealth of either knowledge or knowledgeable people to absorb here, along with a little bit of a support group when I am knee/neck deep in potentially murky esoteric waters. I hope that is cool with all of you. So if anyone reads this, hit me up!! I really wanna have a good conversation and bone pick with someone preferably more experienced in semen retention than me. I've been on and off practicing for about 2 years now. Sometimes I feel like I have skipped too far ahead WITHOUT the guidance of a teacher. Quite often I feel "thats cool, as of yet I don't need a teacher." Sometimes it can be hard to follow your intuition without any doubts, and so I'm throwing out all possible lassos to see if anything will catch. All I have so far is people less experienced than me asking for my opinions on stuff!!!!! Which I'm happy to give lol but realistically I want some guidance myself. Not sure my opinions are really the best thing for someone to be listening to!! So I think right now, if anyone has an answer, my questions would be: Is it ok if after sustained periods of retention + circulation I can get quite violent nose bleeds? Any techniques for releasing a bit of prostate pressure/fluid that should inevitably build up? What to do when you just feel like watching some porn/seeing some titties? Go with the flow or exercise some discipline.. Is there ever a time when you are 'ready' for such practices? Also, do the processes involved in Chia's various Enlightenments of Kan & Li help in almost releasing/calming and refining the energy? Is there any chance I could learn this by myself from books?? Thank you so much in advance. J

Hello I am reading the thetaobums forum for 1.5-2 years now so i decided to register at last I find it a invaluable because you can get answers that you cant get from books or other people aroud you... I practice Spring Forest Qigong. But i read all kinds of sources. I think Chunyi Lin, Bruce Frantzis, Jerry Alan Johnson, Michael Lomax, Mantak Chia are very good teachers and i learn valuable information from every one of them. Thanks moderators for this forum PS: First i registered than i got deleted after 1 month and my guess is that because i didnt post any topic So here is my introduction

I'm just checking this out I practice qigong and internal alchemy, study iching and the Tao I love internal arts my name Hayy ahhhhhhh is from my practice.... guess what is activated by these 2 seed syllables I am fem from North TX area Hi Y'all

Hi. I don't really know what all I'm supposed to say here, but I'll try not to bore anyone. I just stumbled across this forum today after doing a Google search for Andrew Nugent-Head, who I Googled because I had just watched a couple of lectures he did on the Tao Te Ching. This seems like an interesting place full of interesting people, so I thought I'd register and join in. I read the Tao Te Ching for the first time four years ago, and it made no sense to me. I thought it was meaningless babbling with a few wise proverbs thrown in. About four years ago, I reread it and could hardly believe it was the same text. It absolutely blew my mind. Since then, I've been reading different translations, read a bit of Chuang Tzu, etc., but really never had any idea if there was anything I could do about this new (to me) thing that I had discovered. More recently, I came across a bit of discussion on "inner cultivation," and the idea of kind of scraping away the things that keep a person out of harmony with the Tao, and I'm interested in learning more about that. Which is another reason I joined here, since there seem to be people here who actually know Chinese, which means I can get advice from people who aren't just reading Western writers' interpretations of things. Anyway, I hope I haven't been too boring, or accidentally said something foolish or offensive to anyone. Have a wonderful day!

Hello, Greetings to all. I would like to introduce myself to the community. I look forward to reading the posts on this website website and participating in discussions. Best Wishes, 8

Hello, this is aquaria saying "hi". Glad to have found the forum.

I'm 25, with a daughter and wonderful husband. I'm the only "Taoist" I know. I might not be the best at following the Tao ( I only today found out we have gods!) But I do my best, and know that's all I can do. I live in the mid west and would love to know more about the way and people who might be like me. I get very lonely sometimes. I try to live as an un carved block and passively while respecting and honoring the cycles of nature both in the world around me and my self...So uhmmm Hello!

I am new here and just wanted to say Hi! I have been a student of Chinese martial arts for a while. Last August was my 40th year anniversary. It goes by fast. I am glad such a resource as this exists.

Hey . I practice Baguazhang (very new, just a couple years in). Well I'm off to go wander around in circles...

Hello, I've been TaoBums browser for the last several years and I greatly appreciate the information found and presented on this site. So thank you! I've joined for a few specific reasons. As it turns out, there are way more frauds out there than fish in the sea. It's plain ridiculous. So, my first reason is to expose a particular school of "chi energy". I gave them a go for nearly a year and a half. I got brave and started testing the instructors with legitimate "tests" at the times of our phone calls. Truly, I was in utter shock at their blatant willingness to pretend they could feel what I was doing or how I was feeling. I would like to publish the report of my experience. I'm fairly angry, out a few thousand because of them, and I feel it is my duty to expose my experience to the public. Now, it has come to my attention that some forum members here have been touting this school. I've read their posts and all I see is cognitive bias. I'm a fairly honest young man, and I have nothing to gain by slinging any mud. However, I do have justice to deliver in the case of frauds. Finding legitimate teachers is hard enough. In fact, damn near impossible for most people. The fact that these charlatans have become comfortable with either duping themselves and believing nonsense, or outright duping others with absolutely zero care for the fact that they're ripping people off is enough for me to find the itch to publish my experience for the true seeker. And, the second reason I've joined is simply because I have had far too long a time where I simply was a receiver of this information on this website.I feel I've learned enough to where I could contribute some. Not a lot - I'm no master in any way of any thing - but I have learned some interesting stuff in my day,and I look forward to repaying the community for all the information I've accumulated throughout the years. Thanks Everybody!!! --AussieFrog

Hello! So I'm new to this website but not exactly new to some of the things that are discussed here. I've practiced Qigong meditation and also Vipassana. I enjoy knowing how my mind works and am naturally interested in pyschology and NLP I've read lots of books and I like Krishnamurti, Eckhart Tolle and Lestor Levenson. I have learnt a lot from them but this knowledge is intellectual. I am beginning to realise that no matter how many books I read it's not going to help unless I practice what I read. As a result I am reading less and experimenting more. My current meditation practice is free flowing and is not based on any one technique. It is just an acceptance of what is...at least that's the idea! Normal Guy