Chi Kung and Physical Contact

[Kajukenbopr]

Before anyone freaks out, it is a real question I have.

I have recently read from certain sources that Chi Kung training, any kind of exercise for the development of Chi, must not be practiced along with sexual intercourse of any kind because it depletes your accumulated Jing(essence?).

In a webpage I read someone post that sexual intercourse can set your training back 100 days.

There are others that insist that even physical contact can deplete your Chi or focus it in the areas where you have been touched.

Can anybody clarify this? The books I have nor the dvds I have used to practice mention any of this.

[ps1]

Wow!! We have a Chi Kung program where I work. I'll look into it for you. But it hardly sounds worth doing if it's true:)

[Kajukenbopr]

The thing is, I have been doing Chi Kung for the past 2 years,though not as religiously as i should, it would be frustrating to learn that I have been undermining my work.

[Taylor]

The East has its own strange religiosity as well as the West. We are "sinners" for sex, they teach that it sets your practice back "100 Days" and such stuff each time you have sex. My wife is Chinese and there are spiritual programs in China that propose an equasion for how much meditation you have to do to compensate for sexual activity.

That said, the 'energy' that manifests as "Chi" can manifest in various ways. Carl Jung called the manifestation of phenomena in the psyche from the unconscious, "psychic energy", which became misunderstood as something esoteric, rather than a practical and directly relevant reflection of the energy of our thoughts/emotions and dynamic display of our own minds. Essentially the same view is held with Chi.

We just tend to learn to cope with this flow of energy from the unconscious, by "blowing off steam" in drinking, sex, television, eating, fighting with our spouse, and so on. All of these habits are a 'depletion' of our Chi if the increase of Chi energy is habitually channeled into these behaviors. Increasing the flow of Chi can cause an increase in these habitual releases of energy, so the increase of the flow of Chi can start to manifest in various "blow outs" in our lives, more fights if we tend to "blow off steam" by getting into fights, increase in drinking if we tend to drink to "blow off steam" or an increase in sexual activity if we tend to use sex to "blow off steam". The point is to learn to relax so we can contain more of the Chi, rather than "blow it off". This is why often when people train seriously in Chi Gung, they train in self-awareness and mastering the emotions.

So the idea in increasing a flow of usable Chi is about using practices and meditations to increase the flow of Chi, as well as curtail some of these habitual behaviors. Then we might see an increase of our awareness of Chi as well as an increase of ability to direct and use this increased flow of Chi.

By the way, thoughts and emotions ARE a sutble level of 'Chi'. Consider how a thought becomes an emotion, which becomes an activity. If you remove the package of thought and emotion from that experience, the flow into activity can be much more direct, and experienced much more directly. Anger, for instance, is an interesting experience when we remove the idea of who we are angry at, what we are angry at, and unpack all of those thoughts and images from that raw force in consciousness. It is no longer "anger" but raw force, unconditioned, which can be much more easily directed into concentration, focus and profound physical endurance.

[Kajukenbopr]

The East has its own strange religiosity as well as the West. We are "sinners" for sex, they teach that it sets your practice back "100 Days" and such stuff each time you have sex. My wife is Chinese and there are spiritual programs in China that propose an equasion for how much meditation you have to do to compensate for sexual activity.

That said, the 'energy' that manifests as "Chi" can manifest in various ways. Carl Jung called the manifestation of phenomena in the psyche from the unconscious, "psychic energy", which became misunderstood as something esoteric, rather than a practical and directly relevant reflection of the energy of our thoughts/emotions and dynamic display of our own minds. Essentially the same view is held with Chi.

We just tend to learn to cope with this flow of energy from the unconscious, by "blowing off steam" in drinking, sex, television, eating, fighting with our spouse, and so on. All of these habits are a 'depletion' of our Chi if the increase of Chi energy is habitually channeled into these behaviors. Increasing the flow of Chi can cause an increase in these habitual releases of energy, so the increase of the flow of Chi can start to manifest in various "blow outs" in our lives, more fights if we tend to "blow off steam" by getting into fights, increase in drinking if we tend to drink to "blow off steam" or an increase in sexual activity if we tend to use sex to "blow off steam". The point is to learn to relax so we can contain more of the Chi, rather than "blow it off". This is why often when people train seriously in Chi Gung, they train in self-awareness and mastering the emotions.

So the idea in increasing a flow of usable Chi is about using practices and meditations to increase the flow of Chi, as well as curtail some of these habitual behaviors. Then we might see an increase of our awareness of Chi as well as an increase of ability to direct and use this increased flow of Chi.

By the way, thoughts and emotions ARE a sutble level of 'Chi'. Consider how a thought becomes an emotion, which becomes an activity. If you remove the package of thought and emotion from that experience, the flow into activity can be much more direct, and experienced much more directly. Anger, for instance, is an interesting experience when we remove the idea of who we are angry at, what we are angry at, and unpack all of those thoughts and images from that raw force in consciousness. It is no longer "anger" but raw force, unconditioned, which can be much more easily directed into concentration, focus and profound physical endurance.

Very interesting...

you even threw some psychology into it

[Taylor]

Well, all of these systems exist to explain what is happening in our experience, in consicousness... so, I haven't been taught to see these systems as religious systems that are separate from one another but as tools to describe what is happening in consciousness in different ways. Some systems seem to get at the point better than others. Also, we tend to over-mystify 'Chi'. Not that it can't get mystical, but it needs to start in a practical, tangible ground, otherwise, how do we connect to it and begin to work with it?

[NightOwl]

Not worth it. I would put this along with those groups that advocate cold showers outdoors in the morning for good health.

[Kajukenbopr]

i think its just a way to keep the monks serious about celibacy