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Doing qigong lateley I have been experiencing wonderful pulsations of qi in the dantien which have been growing stronger the past couple of weeks. These sensations have bordered on orgasmic at times, particularlly from practicing the wuji form and ocean breathing. I have more energy, and feel very relaxed and balanced.
I have had painfull/aching knees for a few months now. It is due to kidney yin defeiciency.
I might be wrong, but my understanding/assumption is that qi generates heat , and too much heat can deplete the yin. Even though I am doing the heat clearing sound (6th healing sound) to clear any heat, I wonder whether I am burning the yin by gathering qi.
At the end of each qigong session I always come back to the dantien so that the qi is returned to there. However, I experience nocturnal emissions one or twice a week on average which depletes the kidney yin. The next day, my knees ache.Considering the importance of conserving the jing, could the increased qi be “exciting” the kidneys, causing the essence to leak out at night? If so, should I back off with the qigong?
Or, is the qi that is gathered during qigong nuetral and therefore of no consequence to the balance of yin/yang?
Thanks
– matIt’s difficult to say what the source of your problem is without knowing more about your history, but no matter the cause, kidney strengthening practices would do you good. Just holding the lower back with both hands, or lying on the stomach, with the back of the palms over each kidney is good for kidney deficiency. (Maybe a herbal program would do you good as well)
If the form you practice is is some way strained or agitated, then the heat you experienced could be depleting yin. But if the heat occurs as a relaxed and non-manipulative result, it is probably more a by product of yang emerging out of yin.
In some situations, the increased energy created through practice can lead to nocturnal emission if you do not do one or two of the following:
1. There is an imbalance in the overall practice regimen:
This means that amassed energy have little space to be stored in. The reason is ofen too little emphasis on circulation and opening, and too much emphasis on accumulation. This will often result in NC.2. The energy you created is either causing arousal that conditions to energy too much, or you store it in the wrong place at the conclusion of the session. If this is true, try storing the energy in the marrow of the bones instead of the lower Dan Tian. Try visualizing the energy going into the spine as light, and the rest of the bones of the body. Breathe in and the at the out breath the energy is “locked” in the bones.
PS. If NC’s are a problem, try lying on your left side when you sleep. Start by relaxing on your right, in the qigong sleeping positions, and change over on the left, focusing on the third eye.
Just to add to Hagar’s well put response.
Its particularly important to get the jing into the spine. Not just “up through the body”, but really into the dense tissues of the spine. Much of arousal is jing activity in the outer regions of the nerve plexuses. Integrating jing with the spinal column provides a counter-balance to that, that produces a more stable configuration. The “sacrum-squeeze” variation of this method might be of some help to get you started with jing-spine integration.
Mat,
It occured to me that, while Hagar’s and my previous comments give some important solutions to your situation, they by-passed some of your ?s.
m> but my understanding/assumption is that qi generates heat , and too much heat can deplete the yin. >
Well, qi can be of different qualities; some can be more soothing. But also, yes, you are correct. Plus, “empty heat” is often present with deficient yin. So you need to play a real balancing act between tonification (consolidation), circulation (which is needed in some measure in order to re-distribute and conserve), and clearing heat.
m> is the qi that is gathered during qigong nuetral and therefore of no consequence to the balance of yin/yang? >
No, your considerations are thoughtful and warranted. And the quality of qi in your body (and as a result of practice) will vary: ultimately you have develop your own feel for your own “internal weather” and fine tune accordingly. Could be that sometimes you are going too far along the expansive jing route, but that might not mean you should drop it altogether, but scale it back to the correct degree.
m> Even though I am doing the heat clearing sound (6th healing sound) to clear any heat, >
While the healing sounds help some to clear heat, ime they are insufficient.
I’ve found Yi Swallows Qi to be helpful. Also some specific stretches. And massaging some acupoints on my arms and legs (so that heat is not trapped in the lower jiao). Not that these are “the only final answers”, but that they might help some.cheers,
TrunkThanks Trunk and Hagar for your advise and the exercises, I very much appreciate it.
I am continuing to have herbs to tonify the yin and conserve the essence (I should have mentioned that) I also noticed that onions aggravate the yang too much.It seems that you are right by suggesting that there might be too much emphases on accumulation and not enough on circulation. I say this because when the qi has gathered at the end of the session, it has felt like………… “man, am I walking around with an un-exploded bomb inside me?” I am saving up for Michaels’ #2,3and4 fundamentals. So, because I am yet to open the orbit, maybe that’s why the qi seems to accumulate with out circulating.
Just this morning, I ended by focusing the qi into the bones. It felt much more balanced than previously, and didn’t leave me with that “stimulated” sensation. So thanks for the tip.If I have been “going too far along the expansive jing route”, I have not done so deliberatley as I don’t even know how. So, I’m not quite sure what you mean by “developing a feel for my own internal weather and fine tune accordingly”
But , again, thanks so much for your responses.
– mat
Mat,
I think keith and hagar have you well covered. Your intuition is correct – Qigong Fundamentals 2 could well solve your problem. The wudang method of the orbit mixes the jing and chi bettter than any other method I have found, so I think diligent practice will resolve the issue.Also, thanks keith for savintg a digital copy of my Iron Shirt packing article. I was about to scan it, lost it when the site when down a year ago. Your site is proving itself a valuable archive of well thought out approaches to cultivation. (this comment is aimed at you, not my article….:)
Michael
Trunk: Would this be a safe practice to pick up and simply try, independently? I ask because I am very much in need of heat-clearing, and this sounds intriguing. I take herbs to clear heat, but this is a slow, cumbersome process.
Thanks.
–misoMiso, cool monicker, btw. 🙂
m> Would this be a safe practice to pick up and simply try, independently? >
Yup, very much so. In general, one of the gentlest practices.
But there’s a contraindication for everything, so here it is with this one. In the beginning, it may cause un-groundedness in those that are very prone to it. For instance, if someone has a lot of panic stored in the heart center. The practice is to guide the “openness” down through the central channel, and I would say that most people will encounter some emotional clearing but that they’ll be able to move the gentle-openness at least part way down right away. Some might encounter more panic than they can handle, or unground for any other reason, and then they should do something like Kidney-1 breathing.
In fact, Yi Swallows Qi goes together with “The Three Amigos of rooting! to make The Fabulous Four. 😀
I’ve found that I often come up against some physical or emotional stress, and that this technique is effective for melting through it in satisfying chunks. I also find that it promotes a very refined (energetic) heaven~earth connection. Something about opening the really refined aspect of the lower tan tien starts an up<->down thing that is rich.
I wrote a whole thing on the benefits of the practice. I was very enthused and got really into this one for quite a while, now I’m experimenting with it again since it came up in this thread.
Trunk
Thanks. Unfortunately I am one of those people who can be VERY ungrounded, so not sure this is for me, at least not without guidance. I will read more about it.
> I am one of those people who can be VERY ungrounded, so not sure this is for me, >
Good call.
Your routine should heavily favor rooting practices.While Yi Swallows Qi helps grounding (because it’s training in sinking qi, and trains the tan tien to open & recieve and gently hold), there can be some bubbling up of unrooting emotions etc on the way. Best, for you, to have rooting practices well in place first.
Also, there are milder ways to guide attention and qi down, like the classic of following your breathe.
> If I have been “going too far along the expansive jing route”, I have not done so deliberatley as I don’t even know how. So, I’m not quite sure what you mean by “developing a feel for my own internal weather and fine tune accordingly” >
Basically I meant that, over time, you get a feel for how things are in your body and adjust your practices accordingly. For instance, if you feel too expanded, you do things to promote root and concentration. This basically just takes time to become familiar with the process within your body, and familiarity with some small variety of practices. Time, attentiveness, and experience – and you get a feel for things.
Trunk said: “Good call.
Your routine should heavily favor rooting practices.While Yi Swallows Qi helps grounding (because it’s training in sinking qi, and trains the tan tien to open & recieve and gently hold), there can be some bubbling up of unrooting emotions etc on the way. Best, for you, to have rooting practices well in place first.
Also, there are milder ways to guide attention and qi down, like the classic of following your breathe”
This is all very interesting. I take chi gong from a chi gong master but he does not give all of this information. I have some books but they don’t really seem to give it in a clear way either. What types of exercises are considered “rooting” exercises and why? How exactly does one guide attention and qi down (would, for example, a sitting meditation involving following a “sun” or warmth slowly down to the dan tien count as this?) hmm. . . I wonder if falun gong, which I recently experimented with, is a somewhat ungrounding practice (I felt like I was in the clouds somewhere, distant from everything, but very happy and energetic) and the practice I had been following a more “rooted” practice (at least in terms of its foundation exercises). Or if these questions are too long for this board, can you lead me to a book that would help?
Yes, indeed. Thanks for explaining that, Trunk.
The past couple of days have been interesting.
Yi swallows chi has been soooooooooo good. It hasn’t gone very deep yet, but that doesn’t matter, best to let it make it’s way down gently. Because it’s summer here in Auatralia, it is indeed better practiced in the morning.The first time I tried the sacrum squeeze, I couldn’t really feel the area.
But just this morning, it just seem to happen very easily, and, after the release, there was a beautiful pulsing…………..ahhhhhhThat is a great site, (alchemical taoism) thanks for the recomendation.
In regard to the endorsement of Chias’ “Tao yin”, does the book suffice for learning, or is it more benefical/easier to get the dvd?Thanks again.
Thanks also to Michael for the reassurance.
– mat
Mat,
m> Yi swallows chi .. best to let it make it’s way down gently. >
Yes. In fact the method can’t go down via tensing. The “gentle open space held by attention” is by its nature, not-tense. However, however far down you can get it to go tension-free, I encourage you to, because the lower tan tien ties it altogether (heaven~human~earth) and that is where this process is headed.
m> the sacrum squeeze, .. there was a beautiful pulsing.. >
Exactly!
m> Chias’ “Tao yin”, does the book suffice for learning, or is it more benefical/easier to get the dvd? >
Maybe its just me, but it takes me weeks to read the book, or I never really get through it .. I just have to labor to get every exercise from the book, and then I’m not entirely sure that I get the movement right. If I was getting paid for all those study hours, I could buy 50 of the videos. (Well, maybe not 50..) The video is a really good presentation, Chia’s best video imo, and its clear and easy: you can exercise the first time you watch it and be comfortable that you’re doing it right. Personally, I’d buy just the video.
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