semen retention and testickle massage

Another thing you might try, is to try taking the sexual
energy directly from your sexual center to your dantian.
If it feels too hot or intense, you can cool it off by
mixing with earth qi drawn in from your feet or earth
connection. If your dantian fills up, or fills up
too quickly, try taking the sexual energy directly
to your heart through your core channel. Feeding your
heart with sexual energy gives a different feeling than
feeding your brain through the big draw. You can also
do a mini-orbit, then cycling any extra qi back down from
the heart down to the dantien via the front water channel.
This method creates a more warm emotional feeling than the
more primal method of taking it through the fire channel
up the back and toward the brain. For people that tend
to be too mental, this can actually be a better method
in a lot of cases. Something for you to play with
anyway . . . S

Hi SD,

I’m going to give you some lessons, because
I think they would be very good for you.
They are not necessarily the most “fun”, but
through continued practice, they create great
changes. I’ll give them after the following
response:

>>>I’m still quite unaware of earth energy.
>>>But I still use it in my sexual kung fu
>>>to mix the yang with yin sometime. It works
>>>and do good even though I’m not aware of it.
>>>I have much easier to feel the energy from heaven realy.

This is not surprising. You are an academic, so you have
a lot of thought and energy up in your head. This makes
it easier to connect with the above, rather than the below.
However, in some ways, the earth connection is more important.
The earth connection is the connection to the physical realm
and to living life here. Earth qi is the qi that heals the
physical body, and also flows in more easily when you sleep.
It’s what recharges you from fatigue. Thus, in your case,
I’d really focus on trying to connect to the earth and
developing a relationship with earth qi. It will help you
with fatigue, with your health issues, help you feel more
stable and calm. Since you are a student, you have a
natural tendency for energy to rise upward toward your head,
so it’s even more important to counterbalance it with getting
grounded and connecting with the earth.

Some methods:

1. It’s difficult to “pull” earth qi up from below, because by
“pulling” you create a counterforce of resistance. The
best way to get earth qi to flow in is to do the opposite.
You do this by sending your consciousness deep into the earth.
When you do so, earth qi flows up into you in response. It’s
best to do this while standing up and having a good connection
to the ground with your feet. This is why Iron Shirt 1 postures
are so important (especially for you), because they help
root you to the ground and help you to develop a better sense
of your connection to the ground. Get into an Iron Shirt
posture and put your consciousness into your feet. Notice
the sensation your feet make with the ground. Explore what
it feels like to have your feet on the ground and explore
your relationship with it. Then also, send your consciousness
deep into the ground down into the core of the earth. Return
your consciousness back to your feet, and then again back down
to the core of the earth again. Repeat.

2. In everyday life, as you walk around, try to notice
what it feels like for your feet to touch the ground,
and feel the earth under you. Take a walk everyday for
exercise, but when you do so, do so mindfully–paying
attention to how your feet feel as they walk against the
ground. In this way, just simple walking can be an
excellent earth qi pump, and can make you feel better.

3. Stand straight up, and put both of your arms straight in
front of you at 90 degree angles. This is like an Iron
Shirt posture and is one of the so-called I-Chuan postures.
Imagine qi flowing into your finger tips, through the bones
to your chest, then down your body, down your legs (through
the bones), down into the earth, deep down. Then “breathe”
in from the earth, into the bones of your feet, up your
legs (through the bones), into the chest, and back out the
arm bones and finger tips. Have your arms straight out,
maybe pointing at a tree. Repeat. Just like the Iron Shirt
postures, your arms will tire after just a few minutes, so
it takes practice to develop time. If your arms get tired,
drop them for a short while, and then raise them again.
Through practice, as you get more earth qi flow, you can
manage to keep your arms up longer, as your arms become
more supported by qi and less by muscles/tendons.

4. There’s a movement qigong form called Deep Earth
Pulsing that is great for developing earth qi flow from
below, but it’s too difficult to describe in text. Michael
teaches it in his course work. It’s on the audio CDs of
QF3. There’s a variant of it for sexual energy use on
the Sexual Vitality DVD.

5. If you like sexual energy practices, you can incorporate
earth qi work into that also. Masturbate standing up with
a good foot connection to the ground. As you masturbate,
breathe in from the earth, up your legs and into your
sexual center. Use this to cool off your sexual energy
like a fan, as you keep the qi moving beyond your sexual
center and into your dantian. If you start to get too
aroused, back off on the masturbating for a little bit
until you cool a little, before restarting. Then after
your dantian fills up, take the excess to your heart
via the core channel. Best way to understand this is
to just take the quickest route to your heart that is
not really on the front of your body or up the spine on
the back.

“””””””””””””You can also
do a mini-orbit, then cycling any extra qi back down from
the heart down to the dantien via the front water channel.
This method creates a more warm emotional feeling than the
more primal method of taking it through the fire channel
up the back and toward the brain. For people that tend
to be too mental, this can actually be a better method
in a lot of cases. Something for you to play with
anyway . . . S”””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””

>>>Not realy follow; what do you mean by the mini-orbit?

The circular loop you create by going up the core from
the dantian to the heart, then from the heart out the front
to the water channel, and back down to the dantian.

Regardless of whether you want to play with the sexual
exercise I mentioned about in #5 above, you should still
seriously explore the other exercises for connecting to
earth qi. I think these exercises would be very good
for you, not only for your health issues but also because
of all the mental head-directed consciousness from studies.
I could go on, but I think I’ve given you a lot to chew
on and play with for a good long while.

Best,
Steven

Steven,

This may be a hold over from one of our previous conversations. I am very wary of trying semen retension. I use sexual energy practices in my work, but I am also very aware that prostate cancer results (at least physically) from heavy metals gathering in the prostate, this is part of why doctors say that regular ejaculation is very important for prostate health. It has also been shown that no matter where you go in the world the air has trace amounts of heavy metals. Even air tested high up in the Himalayan mountains show these trace metals. In the past it is probably safe to say that these trace amounts were not found so readily since part of one of the downsides to industial society is the overworking of metals and the pollution they cause. This being said the ancients that developed semen retension skills didn’t have to worry about heavy metals building in the prostate. These metals are stored and are shown to cause prostate cancer (or are at least linked to the physical cause). So is there a way to ensure that the heavy metals gathering in the prostate are being released with out the benefit of regular ejaculation? This has been a concern of mine for some time. The reason I know about the heavy metal thing is, again, from my fathers health. When he was diagnosed with aspestosis from working in steel mills the doctors immediately wanted to check his prostate for cancer. Though he had no cancer they did say it was quite enlarged and now he has to go back and get it checked every so often. So my concern is that if semen retention in the industrialized world is a safe practice or not. Of course you know my stance on external pathogenic factors and their role in cancer. In light of our resent discussion I am curious what your view is on the safe practice of semen retention, and are there precautions being taken to ensure that heavy metals are not building in the prostate due to the lack of ejaculations during semen retension practices?

Again I am curious what your view is on this. I figure this has probably been discussed before and I am interested in what others think about this concept. I look forward to your response. Until then,

Peace & Tao
Shenchi

Steven,
Thank you man, that really helps to clear things up. I really like your idea of pulling the jing from the semen before ejaculation.I think that makes the most sense to me. Funny thing is I already take supplements that have those things you suggested for getting rid of heavy metals. When I was a child my baby teeth came in and went bad and I needed to get capped teeth. My parents chose silver so I had silver caps on my teeth for many years. You can imagine what school was like. I had worried about whether having metal in my mouth for so long, beyond other environmental factors, might eventually catch up to me. I think that from an energetic standpoint it might of been just what I needed as the teeth are associated with the kidneys and if one was weak the other might suffer, and since metal feeds water the metal in my mouth might of strengthened my kidneys a bit.

Anyway Steven thanks again. You have a great way of explaining things very clearly. I imagine it’s that scientific mathmatical mind.

Thanx,
Peace & Tao
Shenchi

If there is no physical movement of the fluid,
it just remains in the prostate.

If there IS physical movement of the fluid,
it enters the urethra, and then has two options–
out the penis (ejaculation) or backward into the
bladder (retrograde ejaculation) . . . where it is
urinated out later.

Thus if it doesn’t stay in the prostate, it’s
going to be leaving your body soon.

S