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Greetings fellow Daoists unsure how I ended up here, but it looks interesting. Well, I can paint the bigger picture, if not the direct path. I developed an interest over the past years for Qigong, which led me to Shaolin, from where I came to Taoism and remembered a book I read once, the Tao of Pooh, which is not nearly as readable as I remember, but I remember it did a thing for me for a while a while back before it faded somewhat. After not reading that book again, I got some versions of TaoTeChing, listened a bit to Alan Wats, who brings it nicely I think, and found another book by Eva Wong, Taoism, an Essential Guide, leading me to getting too many other books, and I suppose following the subsequent rabbit hole I must have ended up here. So there, I do roughly know the path that led me here! Some interests, I am looking for more information on qi circulation methods, different methods and applications, qi gong in general, I ended up at internal alchemy, but I am still figuring that out. But if anyone has any suggestions, they would be much appreciated. Always had the idea that someday I would like to retreat to the mountain for a while to cultivate myself full time, unimpeded by life as it tends to be, but I still have not gotten to it. If anyone has knowledge or experience, please do share. I am at the time in between jobs and projects so it could be a good time to get going. I play go, if anyone is interested, please add me on ogs: https://online-go.com/player/753080/ I live in Belgium, in case anyone wants a live game! I like reading, just learning things or fiction. Although it goes from a bit compulsive to a debilitating fiction addiction and then overflows into other media, it is partly under control for now. But it leads me to the next bit. Where I try to sell you this web novel, Cultivation Chat Group (hence username), it is hilarious and amazing, and for a moment when I found the forum I thought: "Well, you did it now, rabbithauled yourself into schizophrenia." If any of you have suggestions how to jumpstart my cultivation at the rather later than ideal age of 36, be it medicinal recipes, physical or internal techniques, please advise! There you go, a short introduction. I will be going through the forum to dig for more. In the meanwhile, thanks for having me!

I just had this shower-thought! Before our birth, we do not exist. After our birth, we exist. Once we are dead, we cease to exist once more. These things are known to all of us, therefore many of us believes in reincarnation, since the next step would likely be "to exist once more". This is the circle of life and reincarnation that most follow by their own free will, but those who seek to cultivate the three treasures does not follow this circle out of their own free will. My thought is; Those who practice neigong or chigong are like Sisyphus, endlessly pushing a boulder up the hill. Not because what we do isn't real but because we are like a bucket full of holes, what we build up leaks out fast. My hypothesis is that we start with nothing, no meridians or dantians, but we (our soul/consciousness) are a seed. We must use inaction (wuwei) to grow our meridians and then later grow our dantians (similar to how potatoes grow). (We refine our meridians and dantians with Shen, Qi and Jing after storing enough of it). (Shen is spiritual force/energy, Qi is life force/longevity and Jing is vitality/youth.) (Qigong and other exercises could be used to refine the body). To use Wuwei: Get comfortable (meditate). Focus with your sense of touch/feeling (not only your mind) on the acupressure point between your eyebrows (slightly above the nasal bone a.k.a the glabella). Do not actually move (hence to inaction). Though involuntary movements are fine and sometimes putting your focus on those movements, trying to feel it again, is good. Focus on the acupressure points of your temporal bones. Go back and forth between those points. Your goal would be to feel a light buzzing of energy in those areas. Later you must try to spread this feeling down to other acupressure points which would later allow you to feel strings of energy taking the shape of meridians. To spread the energy, you must simply focus with inaction on the next acupressure points. Trust yourself and try to find the right buzzing feeling, as well as, acupressure points for you (a feeling of; that this is the right one to focus on). Good luck and happy cultivation. - Sleepy Bluejay

Apparently, nobody believes that they can live for more than 100-200 years by practicing internal alchemy. They also do not believe that they can eventually jump over a house or split a mountain in half by practicing martial arts together with internal alchemy. My questions are; why do you/they practice internal alchemy? What is your/their final purpose with doing so? - A sleepy and curious bluejay

Hey everyone, I’m looking into martial cultivation systems. If anyone has anything on some and willing to trade that would be great! Or just discussing as well I’m all for anything!

Dear Dao Bums, Where do you get your herbs in the European Union? In my country I get K'an Herbs and their other department Mycoherb from a local TCM company. Sometimes I also get already formulated herbs from Pine Mountain, Seven Forests & White Tiger from a Dutch TCM company that I know through local TCM connections. However, when I want to buy raw, single herbs, I need to get them from German or British Amazon, or sometimes I'm lucky and find them in specialised teastores or bazaar-like shops in the big cities where I live. However, lately I'm looking for american ginseng & dendrobium, and no matter where I search, I can only find them being shipped from outside of EU (e.g. USA or China). The problem with getting them from the US or China is that the delivery will be more than 1 month, and when you finally receive it, you have to pay extra tolls because it's from outside the EU. So I'm desperately searching for a place in the EU, because then delivery is usually within 7 days, and trade within EU is toll-free. Do you have any good places within the EU to get raw single herbs?

THE GIFT OF LIGHT ....................................... A daily meditation session offering free healing and energy attunement to help clear blockages, dissolve resistance and align you with the subtle vibrational energies of the higher realms. Xuan Daoji is an ordained priest, Daoshi 道仕, in the ancient tradition of the Xiao Yao School of Daoist Spiritual Cultivation. In this scheduled one hour guided meditation, you will be energetically empowered to receive a vibrational attunement in the frequency of our lineage with the purpose of guiding your consciousness into a state of calm and peace. The transmission will help to facilitate an energetic re-balancing of your physical and subtle bodies and bring you into alignment with your encoded blueprints for optimal functional health and spiritual awareness. For those practising internal alchemy and the esoteric spiritual arts; this daily transmission will assist you in cultivating your subtle energy to stimulate the delicate process of internal transformation by infusing the volume of your body with a refined Shen energy through the Shang Dan Tian. This light will step down into Qi in the Chong Dan Tian and then settle into the Xia Dan Tian to facillitate the transmutation of Jing into the frequency required to activate the Du and Ren meridians for the refinement of high vibrational energy through the Xiao Zhou Tian (Microcosmic Orbit). INSTRUCTIONS: ................................ After you join the room. Take a comfortable seated meditation position with your back naturally straight and set a gentle intention to reach out to me with your heart and mind. This will establish a consensual resonance between us and allow me to elevate your vibration, attend to any areas that are out of balance and imbue your subtle energy with transformational light. When the countdown timer hits 1:00:00. Put your hands in a prayer position against your chest for a minute, then relax and allow your body to react spontaneously to the session, permitting the energy to go where it is needed and to flow through you to release stagnation and dissolve resistance. You may experience sensations of heat, cold, tingling, shaking, vibrations, visible lights or glowing, see images, re-live old experiences from a different perspective, or experience cathartic releases of emotions. Whatever you need to heal and fortify your being; you will receive. Many blessings, Tai Shang Bao Yu. ..................................................................... TO JOIN THE MEDITATION ROOM: - Download Insight Timer: https://insig.ht/0igdjKasKEb - You can use the FREE version, no need to subscribe to plus. - Everyday from 11PM UK time. Duration: 1 hour TESTIMONIAL 1 "I strongly advise you to participate in @Xuan's daily meditation. It's a fantastic opportunity to let go of what no longer serves you and reconnect with your authentic self. I've been participating for the last three nights and am amazed at how much my days have improved. The first night, I had a powerful bodily experience in which I felt blocked energy begin to flow through my body. My body was shaking as a cold sensation flowed through it. On the second night, I was led through many former events when I felt a lot of fear and clarified why I felt that way because of the meaning that I assigned to what happened. Last night, I found the strength to forgive and let go of all the resentment I had been carrying for a long time. My everyday mindset improved significantly and I was able to go through stressful events while remaining present in my body rather than running away from what I was feeling. During these days, waves of love poured over me, and I felt at peace doing my regular tasks. I was present, which helped me to trust that I am unconditionally supported by the creation and that my life is unfolding just as it should. I used to have a lot of resistance during the day because I kept arguing that I couldn't let go of control for a long time, but since I started meditating with Xuan, I've been able to let go and appreciate every part of my days. I had the idea that everything happens at the right moment and that I will not miss anything; that I am where I am for a reason and that it is exactly where I need to be. I was also able to give and accept love, joy, and compassion, as well as detach myself from my old beliefs and trust I have exactly what I need. For a long time, I felt at my core that I was so insignificant and had so little control over what was going on in my life. With Xuan's guidance and support, I was able to connect the dots and begin relaxing by realising I had the freedom to choose what I preferred. I am a Reiki master in multiple systems and have been working with healing energy for a long time, but the Xiao Yao schools cultivation is uniquely different. Thank you, Xuan for all your hard work and for allowing us to benefit from it." TESTIMONIAL 2: " Hi Elizabeth. The energy feels really different. Reiki energy has always felt hot for me, but when Xuan connects to me, I feel a flow of strong cold energy, not heat. Another thing that is different is that Reiki energy tends to make me feel energised, it charges me, but in a general, non-specific way, if that makes sense. On the other hand when im in the meditation room with Xuan, i feel the energy is doing specific things in my body, focusing on problem areas im aware of and i can feel it clearing blockages. It's like it has intelligence or consciousness of its own. Reiki also tends to leave me a little tense afterwards, but with this I have a persistent feeling of peace and emotional stability afterwards. Also a significant sense of detachment from my emotions, almost like im watching things from a distance rather than identifying completely with them." TESTIMONIAL 3: "Quite an interesting experience. I initially started off before reading the instructions and did my usual seated stillness with hands in dyana mudra position. I found that I could breathe much slower than usual and was able to concentrate better. After around 20 minutes I had to adjust my seating position and saw the instructions to properly connect with Xuan. I put my hands in the relevant position and did the intention. Soon after that it felt like a jacuzzi in my head, an effect I sometimes experience from qigong, accompanied by images of outer space. Throughout the meditation I didn’t see much except blue, most of physical affects were being able to breathe much deeper and much slower than usual, and I felt some energy around my shoulder blades. Towards the end I had to adjust my seating position again, re did the connecting process and experienced the same effect which was quite interesting. Looking forward to join again and highly recommend everyone tries a session!" TESTIMONIAL 4: "I had an extraordinary experience yesterday when I started a group meditation session. First of all, just before starting meditation I felt a very strong energy resonance from my heart chakra, then after starting meditation I immediately entered a deep meditation state and felt the energy from the heart chakra spread to the third eye chakra and sacral chakra. This lasted for 1 hour and after finishing I felt very peaceful and felt like all the energy blockages in my body were all cleared. After meditation I feel very energized all day. On the second day today, I immediately felt peaceful when I started meditating, although the sensation was not as intense as the first day (maybe because on the first day there was clearing of energy blockages in my body) but I felt peaceful throughout the meditation. That is my testimony from following the daily meditation session for 2 days. Lu." TESTIMONIAL 5: "Hi Xuan, it's me Lu. I am grateful to you because since attending this group meditation session for almost a month I have experienced a very significant change in myself, it feels like I was reborn into a different person. I felt very calm, balanced and filled with love. My Lian Gong process also feels deeper and I feel that my Gong Li has improved a lot since attending this meditation session. I hope that more people can benefit from these group meditation sessions. Once again thank you very much Xuan 🙏" TESTIMONIAL 6 "I had a tremendous experience yesterday during your mediation session. It is very hard to put into words, but after several minutes, my hands wished to move independently and if I moved them back to the original position they would then proceed back to where they wanted to go. After rising and falling they rotated over both knees for a very long time, so much so that I began to think I would be doing it for an hour. Next my body did circular movements, in both directions, then my spine did forward and back motions. I then did a movement that made me feel the movement of my ribs and my internal organs felt massaged. Lastly my neck was stretched upwards and I felt a heavy pressure that pushed me backwards until I was leaning completely backwards. At any stage when I moved against the direction my body wanted to go, I was then again slowly led back. I stayed in the backwards position for quite some time. Despite being cognitively there I did not realise the session had finished. I was then pushed forward at a much greater speed and then felt a release. I should add that I was conscious, that my breath was much deeper and lower and felt guided throughout. I have never had an experience like it and went in not expecting it. I felt a great feeling of relaxation and peacefulness, and immediately went to sleep. This morning I feel that I have had a work out and feel stretched especially internally. My mind has clarity and peacefulness Guy"

Dear Dao Bums, I would like to ask you: 1) What has been the most physically strengthening and stretching qigong form you've experienced? 2) Which qigong forms would you recommend solely based on the physical strengthening and stretching aspect? 3) Which qigong forms would you recommend especially for physically strengthening and stretching the whole hip & groin area, as well the low back and kidneys? I look forward to hear from you guys! All the best

Are there any schools or workshops that provide in-person QiGong/Neidan training in the USA? Preferably in New York, but any state will do. A brief search just gives me online schools and QiGong massage parlors. I went to one of those massage parlors that do QiGong and it was a happy ending place, I was very disappointed.

If I meditate on the Real Lower Dan Tian during regular sitting meditation, will that build up and store Qi there? Is that an effective approach to filling the Real Lower Dan Tian?

How legit are youtube qigong videos ? how beneficial are they ? can they do harm in some way (even small one) ? are they beneficial qi wise ? energetically wise ? are they just good low intensity exercise and that is it (not "Real qigong") nothing more ? in short - how beneficial are they really ? how far can you take it with them ? Just so what im trying to understand is more clear : I am thinking this all in comparison to damo mitchell teaching for example , or stuff written in this forum ... for example on how you cant store qi in the lower dantian before you "build" it first .... yet in many of this videos they talk about drawing qi to the dantian and storing it in the dantian , which according to other teachings its usless and by that view point this youtube videos are misleading examples : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCicH-iz1oU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmmNWj9YtAw&t=24s And also wondering about known sets stuff like 8 brocades and shibashi etc (that are also on youtube) ... and how beneficial are they (cause they say the same things and claimed benifits as the videos above - stuff like storing qi in lower dantian and stuff like improve eyesight or improve liver and kidney functions etc) ?

Dear Dao Bums, In the spirit of sharing, what are your personal greatest hits? My personal top 3 is: 1) Simplified Kundalini Yoga (Vethathiri Maharishi), 2) Talisman qigong (Zhongxian Wu), 3) Sri Vidya (Amritananda / Devipuram). A little bit about each: 1) Simplified Kundalini Yoga (Vethathiri Maharishi) In this system your chakras are opened and empowered by a master one by one, allowing you to tangibly feel the pulsating vibration of energy in each chakra. It takes all the guesswork away, you don't need to rely on outer feedback anymore, you can yourself feel how strong your chakras are. Meditating on each chakra provides specific benefits. It's a complete system for increasing and transmuting sexual energy (kaya kalpa), building health through physical exercises (asanas, pranayama, massage and acupressure), building energy through meditation allowing you to achieve peace of mind and enlightenment, introspection for improving your moral character and getting rid of negative karmic imprints (vasanas/samskaras) and finally philosophical explanations for God, the universe, evolution, astrology etc. Beside the chakra meditations (7 inside the body, 2 outside, 9 in total), there are numerous other meditations which give unique benefits: Panchendriya (5 senses): this strengthens your 5 senses even until old age, and further gives your mind control of the senses. Panchabhuta Navagraha (5 elements and 9 planets): harmonize with universal forces and energies, cultivate energy, improve your destiny. Nityananda (meditating on the energy pervading all over the body): gives ecstatic pleasure and strengthens energy all over your body. Divine State Meditation: helps you to again and again understand and feel the oneness between you, the universe and all living beings. Lamp Gazing: improving eyesight, purifying and energizing your soul, mind, brain and energy, and over time can give supernatural skills. Mirror gazing: one of the most powerful meditations, increasing energy in your body manifold very quickly. Over time can also give supernatural skills. Above is a general description of the system, let me share my personal journey and breakthroughs along the way. 1st breakthrough: when I got the first initiation, I felt a little something between my eyebrows, but not very noticeable. However, when I meditated that night, my God, it was insane. The vibration was so strong and powerful, my mind became completely still, and I just sat in complete peace. 2nd breakthrough: when I got the third initation, sahasrara chakra, I was blown away. When I meditated on the vibration in the crown chakra, I felt the same orgasmic pleasure as just before ejaculating. However, instead of being in the prostate area, and ending after a few seconds, the orgasmic ecstasy just stays in your crown chakra and brain during the whole meditation. At this point... I increased my meditation time a lot 3rd breakthrough: when I got my dwadasangham chakra (12 fingers above the head) opened, after about 1-2 weeks of meditation, one day I felt it REALLY open. Immediately, I was flooded with information. Questions and doubts about life, the universe, things that had happened to me, answers just flooded my consciousness. And whenever I thought of a question, the answer immediately came. I felt at one with God. This also made me meditate much longer, because it was just so interesting. After some weeks, I had no more questions, so I just sat in complete peace and oneness. Nowadays, whenever something is going on in my life, I sit and meditate, and I will understand what's going on and why. 4th breakthrough: lamp gazing. I got SO much more energy after starting lamp gazing. It probably increased my energy levels 5 times or so. 5th breakthrough: when all chakras were opened, I realized just how weak my navel chakra had been. I got so much more energy and much better digestion when I could finally meditate on my navel chakra. 6th breakthrough: mirror gazing. This exercise is insane. My energy must have increased by 10 fold or more when I started doing it. To this day, I can't understand why it is SO powerful, but it increases my energy so much. I rarely ever fall sick, and I am always full of energy now. 7th breakthrough: becoming a master and initiating others. You simply do mirror gazing and meditation on the morning you give initiations to boost your own energy. Just before giving initiation, you say a prayer to God and Vethathiri. Every single time, energy just floods into your system, empowering either your hands or eyes, depending on which initiation you're about to give. It's truly magnificent. I can only imagine how powerful Vethathiri had been while still alive in the body, seeing that such strong energy still comes, simply because of his sankalpa to help as many as possible through SKY. 2) Talisman qigong (Zhongxian Wu) I was doing a 3 day workshop on his cosmic orbit qigong, which I really enjoyed. Due to a ticket sale, I would stay 3 more days after the workshop before flying home. Because Master Wu also stayed some days after the workshop, he decided to offer a one day workshop on "calligraphy healing qigong" for just 25 euros. I was so sceptical and there was no way I believed "painting" could be used as a way of healing. However, I was there for 3 days with nothing to day, and 25 euros was nothing, so I decided to try out the workshop. I came there just to pass time, expecting nothing. However, when we did the mantras, mudras and visualisation, I really felt energy come into my body. Then he asked us to practice healing on each other, and I just didn't believe it to be possible. To my great surprise, it worked! The lady I worked on could really feel my energy and that of the talisman inside her body. I was so surprised. I thought it was probably because I had already been meditating daily for 4 years. But there was no way that this elderly lady with no spiritual background could perform healing on me, she had no training, nor any energy to give. Even when she used the talisman to heal me, I really felt the energy from the talisman coming into my body! I was so surprised. It was not that powerful, but it still worked. I was blown away. Master Wu told us to go back home and practice daily for 49 days, then we would have access to this talisman's healing energy. We could use it on ourselves and others, or even to paint a talisman on paper to use for improving fengshui in the home. I went back home to practice, still not really believing it could be possible. I saw everything through the lens of hinduism: healing I considered a kind of siddhi, and acquiring siddhi is extremely difficult. At that point, I had done years and years of daily mala japa (chanting with prayer beads) of a mantra, completing many purascharans, and it had been quite difficult. And that was just to purify myself, come closer to God and prepare myself for higher sadhana (spiritual practice), including other sadhanas that could produce siddhis or supernatural powers. When I got back home and started practicing, I would do the talisman healing on myself, and I felt that it worked. About 10 days into my 49 day practice, my parents heard about my 49 day project. From that day, they asked me to call them every day when I was practicing, and they asked me to help heal different issues. Also as remote healing (something I didn't even believe in at the time). No matter what I did, it just worked! It worked every single time. They would call me after the healing and tell me everything they had experienced during the remote healing. About 21 days into my 49 days, random friends of my parents would call me and ask for healing. So during my 49 days, I hadn't even finished the 49 days, still the talisman energy was helping me to heal myself, siblings, parents, friends of my parents, and also a few strangers. This experience completely exploded my worldview at the time, and that's why I decided to keep training with Master Wu. I've since then learnt the talismans for all 5 elements (White Tiger, Green Dragon, Red Bird, Mystical Warrior and Mother of the Big Dipper). Mystical Warrior is northern water energy, Mother of the Big Dipper is central, earth energy. I actually spent all my money, and even lend from my grandmother, to travel and learn these talismans (at the time I was still studying, so I had low funds). I spend as little as possible on food and hotel when I was there, so I could pay everything back to her when I got back I still use it for myself, and sometimes if others ask for healings. I also use it to bless what I eat and drink sometimes. 3) Sri Vidya (Amritananda / Devipuram) This is a formerly secret system of Hindu Goddess Worship, which Amritananda has decided to share openly with the world. All Goddess worship can provide great supernatural powers, and the energies also have a great effect on our wordly life, e.g. increasing money and succes, healing etc. I never really cared for hindu ritual worship, I felt it to just be an empty show, and a way of extracting money from the poor. Priests and astrologers convincing poor people they had bad karma and needed to pay huge sums of money for them to do rituals on their behalf. However, when I saw a picture of Bala Tripura Sundari, I felt strangely attracted towards it. These weird feelings prompted me to try and do the beginners module. In the end, if it didn't work, I could just stop after the first module. I got diksha (initiation) for the mantras for the root, sexual and navel chakras. Furthermore, I learnt several rituals for each chakra: tarpana (water ritual), puja (prayer ceremony) and homa/havan (fire ritual). I did it just to try it out. First I did a 41 days tarpana for the root chakra God Ganesha/Ganapati (elephant God). I actually felt energy coming into my root chakra and circulating in the 4 nadis of the root chakra. This suprised me a lot! Further, when I was about 38 days in, I got a call from someone, offering me a side hustle to earn more money. On the 44th day (I continued the ritual a few days extra, because there were a few days my wife didn't do it with me, so for her to also reach 41 days, we extendend it 3 days), I got another call, yet again with another side hustle opportunity. I was really surprised! Firstly, I actually felt the mantra opening and circulating energy in my root chakra and nadis. Secondly, I felt the ritual actually had an effect on my worldly life! This I felt to be the magic from movies, books, series etc, where a wizard does certain rituals to change his life and acquire powers. Therefore I continued with Sri Vidya, and it just keeps giving. I have been given mantras and rituals for the root, sexual, navel, heart and 3rd eye chakra, and I am in the process of completing them all (tarpanas I have completed for all, pujas I have 2 to go, havan I am currently in the process of finishing for all). After this, I will get the final and ultimate mantra for the crown chakra, as well as the ultimate ritual performed directly on the Sri Meru / Sri Yantra / Sri Chakra. This is supposed to be the ultimate, making it possible to acquire all worldly pleasures, all spiritual powers as well as complete enlightenment. Conclusion: My personal greatest hits are: 1) Simplified Kundalini Yoga (Vethathiri Maharishi), this taught me deep meditation. 2) Talisman qigong (Zhongxian Wu), this taught me healing. 3) Sri Vidya (Amritananda / Devipuram), this taught me rituals and mantras to assist my worldly and spiritual life. Question: What are your personal greatest hits on the spiritual path? You can include a small summary of the system, as well as your personal journey and breakthroughs God bless you!

Dear Dao Bums, I would like to ask about your experiences and/or opinions on this topic: "karma visible in our energy field". Let me share some of my stories: 1) Master Zhongxian Wu A fellow student of Master Wu shared something with me: when you visualise your liver as green, that day when you see your whole liver as completely green, that organ is fully healed. As long as there are spots of other colors or dark spots, there remain some potential problem in that organ. Similarly for heart and small intestine as red, lung and large intestine as white/grey/transparent, kidney and bladder as blue/black/purple, spleen stomach and pancreas as yellow, and liver and gallbladder as green. The black spots / spots of other colors are karmas (from ancestors, from yourself or from the universe) remaining in your body, potentially causing you to fall sick later. 2) Chunyi Lin As long as there is a channel that is not open, it means there is a wrong energy blocking it. 3) Danish Mystic Martinus Martinus states that all of our karmas are visible in our energy field or aura. So someone could be walking around with a car accident in the aura, and for the psychic this would be clearly visible. 4) Damo Mitchell In one of Damo Mitchells books (I think it's his big one "a comprehensive guide to daoist neigong"), he talks about supernatural powers. One of the powers is the ability to view the whole qi field around a person. This makes the practitioner capable of predicting a person's future, as it's all visible in the different layers of the energy field. 5) Native American in Peru A coworker of mine spent 1 year in South America in Peru, trying to learn Spanish. When she was visiting a mountain deep in a jungle, as she was descending, a native american approached her. He warned her, that he could see in her aura that some bads things were just about to happen to her, and that it would be quite difficult emotionally, but that after 1 year, things would improve. When she got back to her hotel, her boyfriend called her and broke up with her. The next day she got a call that one of her parents had fallen sick, and that an animal on her childhood farm she loved had died. Everything the man told her came true in the next year, and when she pulled through, suddenly everything improved drastically. 6) My own experience After having a very mentally disturbing nadi reading last week, I went to meditate. I am initiated into Sri Vidya, and sat down to say my daily mantras for each chakra (japa). As I was going through each chakra, I saw some different dark spots and shapes inside each chakra. I intuitively understood what they meant, and understood that it was karmas from past lifetimes. They could be exhausted by experiencing them, and some of them could also be resolved through the mantras and rituals of Sri Vidya. I was happy that there was only one chakra that had a lot of bad karma stored in it, the others were much easier to deal with. However, it's going to take 1-3 years of intense rituals and mantras to clean up the worst and most intense stuff. Conclusion In the end, karma is simply energy. We have sent out energy through our thoughts, words and deeds, and this energy is bound to return to us. However, we can to a certain extent mitigate these energies, by building up opposing energies of sufficient strength. One way to do this is through qigong (posture, breathing, mantra, mudra and visualisation). Another way is through action (being good, serving others, giving to charity, forgiving, helping others etc). It's also possible through deep meditation on each chakra coupled with introspection and improvement of character (as done in SKY). Sri Vidya also gives very simple yet powerful ways of building energy through mantras, mudras and rituals. Depending on how strong your negative karma is, you need to put more energy into trying to cancelling it out. But it all comes to down being able to somehow get access to see and understand what the karmas are before they actually hit you, so you have time to build up the energy to try to neutralize them. Of course, in the end, karma is simply an educational tool of God, so another way is to simply learn our lesson then the karmas get wiped clean (according to Danish Martinus). Question What are your viewpoints, experiences or stories about the idea that karma is tangibly present and visible in our energy fields? God bless you!

Hello everyone! is there anyone here who is or has practiced with Max and can train me online? I am already a member of primordial alchemist but I would like to learn more from other students who have been studying with him. I'll pay you for your time if you'd like as well. Thank you!

Hello everybody, I'm looking for some feedback on the Six healing sounds by those who have tried it. I am someone who has tried a few different styles of qigong without getting the results that I hoped. I suspect the root cause of my health issues is chronic, persistent blockages in the Liver. Trapped energy/emotions in the liver, basically. Hence my interest in the healing sounds and their apparent ability to 'purge' stuck emotions. I did ask for feedback on the Six healing sounds in a recent thread I started about '100 days of qigong', but I thought it was better to cast a wider net here, by making it a standalone topic. I'm still a newbie here, so please forgive me if posting in wrong section, or not following correct etiquette... Thanks kindly

In qigong, connection to earth and heaven is clearly important. I believe that much initial work is setting up alignment and body conditioning so that we can experience support from the ground beneath our feet; that is my experience. I work on establishing a benevolent connection to the earth both through gardening (caring for the soil) and in qigong (where I like the subtle rising support that seems to give me access to an inner elastic quality, even in a simple arm swing). Any comments welcome! But I would also be grateful for information on how we 'experience' the energy of heaven. And is cosmic energy the same as heaven? Or does cosmic include both heaven and earth energy?

I haven't been on here for awhile, but I have had a lot of major shifts in my understanding of the internal arts I have practiced for 30 years. This is one of the southern Chinese Mao Shan lineages of Sifu Lum Tai Young. Here is a video I posted on my channel tonight. I will warn you now that it will be very different from what you probably are used to in regards to internal martial arts. But it has taken me 30 years of practice to understand things I only felt but didn't comprehend. I can say I have begun to comprehend them and this art is far more unbelievable than I ever realized. Let's hope we avoid the controversies of old Mahadeva (Michael Denney) https://youtu.be/htMRA7nljt0

Hi everyone Happy 2023 and it's nice to meet everyone. I began my gigong journey in mid 2022 through stumbling upon spring forest qigong (SFQ) on youtube. Since then I have discovered books and youtube materials by Damo Mitchell and have been practising fairly diligently (i.e. about an hour a day). My search for qigong has been driven mainly by health reasons. I have developed symptoms of yang deficiency such as cold hands and feet and tiredness last year, and I thought medical qigong might be a good place to start. Re my experience, I found the SFQ stuffs quite able to generate some noticeable effects soon after I started. specifically, I have been able to feel a lot of tingly sensation throughout my body and some relief after a short while. However it wasnt until I read Damo Mitchell's A comprehensive guide to Daoist Neigong did i realise how much fundamental practice I must go on with if I were to develop systematically. At present, I am working primarily on 'stilling and consolidating the Jing' in the Wuji posture. After about practising for 2 weeks - for about an hour a day, I started to feel my lower abdomen heating up, just as Damo described in Chapter 7 of the said book. At the beginning the heat only came on while I exhaled and was concentrated in one spot. This slowly spread through to the back and now occasionally occurred even at inhalation and would become consistent for 2-3 mins, before they disperse again. I have started to also complement this with some sitting practice (also to still the Jing and stablise the mind). I also do 10-15 mins of jing ben qigong (like the 5 elements qigong taught in SFQ when the lower ab is heating up, it brings a nice, warm sensation up and down my torso). To support the practice, I have cut out most unskillful sexual behaviours, including cutting down porn consumption to minimal /necessary level. Just wanted to ask anyone who know this here, 1) if this sounds about right? 2) Does anyone have any similar experience? 3) If so, have they experienced any health benefit? 4) How did your experience progress from here? I am 39/M based in London, UK. I dont really have many friends I can talk to about this (maybe 1), so if you are in the UK, specifically London. I am very keen to link up! Jason

I am practicing tai ji quan for 4 years, and suddenly can feel what qi is about one-year ago. The major material what I learned is in chinese until I found this forum. I am practicing qigong now, and trying to do some research about what qi is.

Hello, There are already some topics similar to this one, and I have read them, but still I felt that my questions weren't answered, so I decided to register on the forum and ask them myself. Originally I planned to send it as a DM to @steve, but I decided to post it openly, so anyone else that has experience with both systems can contribute if they wish to do so. That being said, I'd really appreciate your input @steve. I'm a Yungdrung Bon practitioner. My practice, at least when it comes to working with channels and energy, consists of tsa lung exercises from Magyud, Zhang Zhung Nyengyud trul khor and tummo from Ku Sum Rang Shar (for now the general and special preliminaries only). Recently I have begun to dabble a bit in qigong, with some local instructor and their teacher that visits us from time to time. We seem to do mostly alignment stuff for now, opening the kua, wall squats and the like, as well as some basic forms. Even at that really basic level my qigong practice really enhanced my body, my energy levels and general well-being, in a way that my Tibetan yoga practice didn't seem to address. I get many benefits from doing yoga of course, but it just has a different feel and effect upon my mind and body. I'd describe it like using different sets of muscles, metaphorically speaking. I want to continue my qigong practice, as I found it rewarding and complementary to my other endeavours, but I'm worried it can cause some problems down the line. I've read the injunctions against mixing systems from both traditions, so understandably that is concerning to me, as of course I will continue on the path of Tibetan yoga. From your point of view - practitioners that have practiced in both traditions - can they be mixed safely or not? (by mixing I don't mean doing them in one session, but for example qigong one day, yoga the other, or qigong in the evening and yoga in the morning etc.) If so - what is the qigong system that you would recommend for someone like me? I was thinking about the Zhineng Qigong (simply because of the availability of online teachings), but I read that the teacher advised against mixing it with other qigong system, not to mention other traditions. Secondly, do you think that the Tibetan approach is lacking in certain respects? I don't mean to offend anyone, or the teachings. I consider myself a dedicated practitioner, I've taken refuge vows, but I can't help but wonder that the Tibetan systems are forceful and fiery to the extreme, pure yang, while the Daoist systems seem more balanced. At least that is my limited, entry-level understanding, as I am an expert in neither. I'd appraciate any guidance I can get, and thanks for getting through this long post _/\_

Hi all, My question is, what is so different about taijiquan and qigong, such that I struggle to do even 3 minutes of Spring Forest Qigong or zhan zhuang (or even Flying Phoenix Chi Kung), but I can do 5-10min of the tai chi? Not only that, but tai chi is the only practice that has actually given me a sort of buzz. It seems to me the active opening and closing movements, along with feet movements, are helpful, but I lack knowledge of the inner workings to understand this. The form of taijiquan I'm doing is Bruce Frantzis wu style. As a follow up question, given that my body/mind seems to have an affinity for tai chi, should I focus less (if at all) on qigong and practice tai chi almost exclusively? Or does this mean I need to endure it and keep practicing qigong? My goals are health and "spiritual progress." Recently I've been struggling with health, in particular movement, and some (diagnosed) zen sickness. I can only manage one 20-30min walk per day for example. Although I'm making lots of progress, one thing that eludes me is a consistent practice right now. In that past, before my zen sickness, I was able to do anapanasati or open-awareness type meditations for an hour or two everyday, in addition to being very phyiscally active. My background is almost two decades of inconsistent (self-taught) buddhist meditation and (self-taught) hatha yoga. Thank you in advance.

Been trying to find a a qigong technique or meditation technique for boosting brain performance but cant find anything.

Hi, Since few years , I have become very petty. I am also going through a lot of stress, fear and anxiety due to family troubles. I wasn't always like this. I used to think big, about doing bigger things. Now it is like I have closed my heart. I have become petty, worrying about petty matters and stuff. Is there a qigong which instills this big heart energy in us. So we can embrace ourselves, and the challenges of this world.

Let me preface this by saying that I never felt any inclination whatsoever to be a doctor.Zero.Nada.Not even in dreams. I don't even like much to interact with people, at all. In this aspect I'm the stereotype of the introvert that prefers to be alone. And yet...yet I realized now that for a while(the last three or four years?) I've kept thinking of "the healing arts"/medicine. Once in a while I would talk(with my family) about learning more about anatomy to develop my massage skills, joke about learning acupuncture to "pin myself with the needles", try breathing techniques to lessen the pain, or as it happened today, search about therapeutic methods. I was even taking notes about thermotherapy/heat therapy just right now. Why?No idea. I know next to nothing about how the body works or how ultrasound can be used to alleviate pain or reduce swelling. I even enjoy reading the books/posts that talk about it(the art of healing or how the body heals itself, regeneration and etc.), but at the same time I feel no interest in being more proactive about it and maybe "use it to help others". ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Am I somewhat being led towards a more "medically-inclined life"(for some odd reason), or is it all just in my head and I should stop trying to seek issues where there are none?

Dear Dao Bums, I'll do this in 4 parts: Intro Practices and personal experiences Conclusion on practice Questions for you Intro Last night I finally managed 3 lucid dreams in a row!!! I am over the moon I've been wanting to lucid dream since I was a teenager. I've gone to several tibetan buddhist workshops with renowned dream yoga lamas, read more than 3 books, watched countless interviews and read countless accounts online. Furthermore, I've been practicing daoist sleeping qigong for more than 4 years (not daily, but in practice cycles). I never felt I got anything from it! It only disturbed my sleep! I had 2 lucid dreams as a teenager. I knew I was dreaming, I knew it was all a dream, yet I could neither control myself nor the dream. This was with buddhist dream yoga and "western scientific" lucid dream (setting an intention, getting up during the night to reset intention etc). In my twenties I managed 3 lucid dreams, when I started to seriously meditate and dream journal. It was simply a byproduct. Here I could not control the environment, but I knew I was dreaming, and I could control myself. For the past 2 weeks I remembered my almost life long desire to lucid dream, and decided to give it a go again Practices and personal experiences What I've been doing buddhist wise is the purification breathing before sleep, visualising a red flower in the throat chakra, chanting the syllables of each petal and also visualising them (Om Ah Nu Ta Ra). None of it gave me anything. Daoist sleeping qigong, I learnt from master Wu. There are 2 sleeping positions, flat on the back with a mudra on your navel, and on your side with one hand on the navel and the other holding a mudra on your ear. You then visualise certain things. No matter how much I tried it, it has only been about 5 or 6 times I felt better sleep from it. All the other times, it simply feels like a qigong. You can feel the qi and blood circulating in your body. There was only 2 times in a particular retreat, where he shared 2 new visualisations he never shared before, that on the first night with the first visualisation, something really happened, and the second night with the second visualisation, I got really deep and restful sleep immediately. However, after I got back home and continued the practice, it didn't have the same effect. Lastly, the past 2 weeks, I gave it a go again with tibetan buddhist practices.... And last night it paid off!! The game changer for me was a bön method from Dr Nida Chenagtsang (I got it from his book "tibetan art of dream analysis"). It's a 5 step visualisation before sleep. This was what allowed me to finally experience lucid dreaming! And it was awesome! I was aware I was dreaming, I could control myself and the environment. It was super dope Conclusion on practice I feel there are 3 things which led to me finally experience lucid dreaming: 1) pure and open channels and energy centers (after 9 years of daily meditation and 7 years of daily qigong, now adding 14 days of daily tibetan practice, finally opened my channels and centers sufficiently) 2) sufficiently strong energy (I could actually feel that in the 3rd dream, the environment was a bit less responsive to my desired changes, I think the reason is that it actually takes some energy to control the dream) 3) I finally accumulated sufficient good karma (never hurt yourself or others, physically or mentally, help alleviate the suffering of others when you can, love and forgive) The tibetan practices I did for the last 14 days were: 9 purification breaths, breath holding meditation from the first steps of karma mudra meditation (the non sexual ones) and the bön visualisation before sleeping. Questions for you Would you like to share your experiences? 1) How did you get to be able to lucid dream? 2) Which practices did you follow, and for how long? 3) What do you do, during lucid dreams? 4) What are your greatest "pro tips" for lucid dreaming? 5) Anything you would like to add on the subject of lucid dreaming? May you all be blessed!

Dear Dao Bums, Qigong and astral travel... Let me ask you some questions 1) Have you astral travelled? If yes, could you elaborate how you got to be able to do that, as well as share some experiences 2) Do you know any trustworthy stories (about friends, teachers etc) about astral travel? If so, please share 3) Do you know any qigong or meditation methods for astral travelling you could share? 4) Do you know any qigong or meditation teachers (trustworthy and authentic) who teach astral travel? Let me share some of my own answers to the above questions a) I'll start with SKY (simplified kundalini yoga). b ) After, I'll share about my sexual qigong and daoist lovemaking teacher. c) Then, I'll share from my indian-village-mountain-cave-yogi guru, who has a student who has shared stories about "sukshma sharir ki yatra" (subtle body travel or subtle body pilgrimage). d) Subsequently, I'll share the story of a white, atheist european boy, who accidentally got the power of astral travel through tibetan buddhist mandala visualisation meditation. e) finally, I'll share a short story from a qigong master from Australia SKY In SKY (Simplified Kundalini Yoga), Vethathiri Maharishi (the guru and founder) was taught astral travel by one of his own gurus. In the beginning of SKY, astral travel was taught as one of the meditations, freely available to everyone. Later, they changed it so only masters would learn it during the masters course. Latest... they completely stopped it. Therefore, alas, I have not been able to learn it yet.. However, I've heard face-to-face trustworthy accounts of high level teachers and masters in SKY, personally telling me about their experiences. The method used is meditating on the navel chakra. After that, I don't know what the next step is (yet.. I hope to learn someday, somehow). Other things they said: how they used to learn it. It would be on full moon morning. They would all have eaten a light dinner the night before, and meditated on the navel chakra before bed time. They would then meet at 4AM. They would all lie down with white sheets on top of them. Vethathiri would be seated, guiding it all. They would meditate on the navel chakra while lying down, and Vethathiri would use his yogic power to take them out of their body, one by one. Once all were out of the body, he would take them to the moon, all together. After returning to the meditation hall, he would stay there. He would then allow everyone to go and do what they want to try; e.g. visit their families, visit mountains or faraway lands, go on pilgrimages to temples etc. Lastly, he would put everyone back in their body. They could then practice this meditation on full moon mornings back home, whenever they wanted. They should just follow the same instructions; light dinner the night before with navel chakra meditation before bed etc. Sexual qigong and lovemaking teacher He told me that the end goal of all daoism and qigong is astral travel. "The One" spoken about in alchemy is actually our spiritual fetus, spiritual body, whatever you want to call it. "Return to the One", "Merge three into One", "From spirit to the One", "Merge with the Emptiness and attain the One" etc. He said the couple would do their qigong and meditation. They would then make sweet, sweet love. They would then leave their bodies. Once out of the body, they would use all the energy from the lovemaking to heal the physical bodies. They would then travel to another planet in our Galaxy, the one from where qigong originates. Here you can be taught higher teachings and achieve higher levels of mastery than using the qigong physically available on Planet Earth. Teachings which have slowly been lost over time, since given to the Planet Earth by "the Gods". Indian Village, another student of my guru He got the siddhi of sukshma sharir ki yatra through the following steps: 1) attain mantra siddhi of a kavach mantra (tantric protection mantra) 2) tratak on the sun and moon to build the energy sufficiently strong 3) meditating on the navel chakra with neck lock until prana and apana merge, after which they rush up through the sushumna, naturally break your neck lock, and go to the crown chakra 4) the prana will then pulse in your crown chakra. You meditate on this pulse of energy for 60 minutes with no other thoughts in your mind 5) then you will feel your sukshma sharir leave your physical body (don't become shocked, then you will have to restart the 60 minutes) 6) after the first succesfull leaving out the crown, you can do it very quickly (because the path has been opened) 7) then you can lie down on the back more comfortably and simply leave out the crown 8) then you will see your physical body sitting or lying there, and you will see spirits around you, trying to mess with you, trying to get you to freak out. Don't let them distract you from your goal, remember that you have put the kavach and trust in it 9) go to your destination, do what you need to do, come back (just by thinking about your body, you automatically return instantly, no matter where you are or the distance) He himself personally went to "Vaikunth", the planet or place where Lord Rama resides. He then did puja to Rama and Sita. Then he returned. After this first journey, he would venture out and journey, doing pilgrimages or simply visiting interesting places, every night during his sleeping time. White atheist boy At one point in my life, I stayed 6 months in a Hindu Ashram in Europe. The resident indian swami told me the following story about this swiss boy, who came to ask for advice. He was a white, swiss, atheist boy, who had never been interested in religion nor spirituality. In his 20s during his university education, a girlfriend of his convinced him to try to meditate, as a way to cope with stress. He agreed (I think he liked the girl ) He was taught a tibetan buddhist mandala visualisation. He would visualise the mandala in 4 steps: lower part of the mandala, middle part of the mandala, upper part of the mandala, the whole mandala together. If you lose the visualisation, you start over. He actually felt some stress relief from this method, so he continued it all throughout university, and also after starting work. After 7 years, one day while meditating, he heard a huge pop. He opened his eyes and saw the wall moving towards him. He was very surprised. As he tried to move, he noticed it was actually him, flying towards the wall. He turned around, and shockingly saw his body sitting in the chair. He was out of his body! He didn't know what to do, so he decided to go visit his dad back home in the countryside of Switzerland. He flew slowly all the way, following the roads and signs. He found his dad out in the garden, working. He tried to talk to him, but his dad didn't react. After some time, he flew all the way back, and went into his body again. He called his dad and asked "dad, did you work on the kale in the garden around 3 o'clock this afternoon?", "Why, yes son, I did". The swiss boy was shocked. The leaving of the body would then happen every single time he meditated. As an atheist, he was so confused by this experience, that he stopped his meditation, and went on google to try and find some hindu or buddhist centers in his city. He found the ashram I would later live in for 6 months, and asked the resident swami to explain what was happening to him, how it was possible, and what he should do. Qigong Master from Australia He was born into a chinese qigong family. At 4 he was forced to do long standing. As a teenager, his teacher took him astral travelling. He took him all the way down to the "realms of hell", and all the way up to the highest levels of "divine realms" they could go to. Conclusion I have heard many bogus and untrustworthy accounts of astral travel in my life. However, the ones above, I can all vouch for. They were told to me by trustworthy friends, in a natural and unforced manner. There were no reason or anything to gain for them, cooking up these stories. It was simply a natural part of the conversations I shared with them during my time with them. I consider them quite "juicy" and interesting I hope to also learn astral travel someday Now please, what do you have to say about my 4 initial questions: 1) Have you astral travelled? If yes, could you elaborate how you got to be able to do that, as well as share some experiences 2) Do you know any trustworthy stories (about friends, teachers etc) about astral travel? If so, please share 3) Do you know any qigong or meditation methods for astral travelling you could share? 4) Do you know any qigong or meditation teachers (trustworthy and authentic) who teach astral travel?