The Presencing(sm) Process

The Art of Being Present: Saturday, August 14, Olney Yoga, Olney MD tantricqigong@aol.com

Learn to make the most of each moment in your life!

Do you admire those who say “carpe diem” and reach for all the gusto that life has to offer? Ever wonder how you could learn to extract more meaning and enjoyment from your life?

All too often, we live our lives in anticipation of the future while subconsciously repressing unpleasant aspects of our past. We shuttle back and forth between past and future, robbing ourselves of our life and re-creating old patterns of being.   As Einstein once said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result!”

Through the Presencing Process for Enlightenment & Freedom(sm) we can release patterns, which no longer serve us and create our lives with joy and fulfillment, exactly the way we wish to!

Who can benefit from this course:

– Busy professionals who find it difficult to unwind.
– Anyone who feels “stuck in a rut”.
– Meditators & Yoga practitioners who want to deepen their practice.
– Persons having anxiety, frustration, or difficulty stilling the mind in meditation.
– Psychotherapists & clients wishing an approach to mind-body-spirit holism.
– Bodyworkers & energy workers.
– Persons wishing more clarity, direction, & creativity in their personal or professional lives.

In this experiential session / workshop we will:

– Open ourselves fully to our present experience.
– Use sensation, emotion, and cognition to guide ourselves to our truth.
– Release negative emotion easily while opening to joy, serenity, and bliss.
– Use the breath to inspire creativity, vitality, and enjoyment of our lives.
– Learn how being fully present in the moment can create perfect fulfillment.
– Heal our past wounding and manifest success in all aspects of our being.
– Learn how to create ease of communication and greater connection and intimacy in our relationships.

Presencing™ is available as a private session and as a class / workshop.

Presence is the Buddha Pearl

Rev. Keith Hall has synthesized the seminal aspects of Breathwork, Bioenergetics, Neo-Reichian, Tantric, Taoist, and Buddhist practices to create the Presencing Process(sm). Presencing (sm) facilitates deep healing, joy, empowerment, and freedom from past limitations so we can manifest clearly what we desire in life. Presencingsm is a simple, yet profoundly powerful process for creating our lives the way we wish to.

What people say about Presencing™:

Thank you so much for teaching me a more effective way to meditate. God Bless you….
- JK, Carson City, Nevada

I really was able to make some progress in releasing pain.
- VF, Falls Church, VA

…much more of an experience than I anticipated.
-BC, Mt. Airy, MD

Great workshop!
- KK, Arlington, VA

The Art of Being Present

What is Presencing™

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Poems to Bring You Present

Tantric Qigong

Qigong For Drug Addiction

Let’s face it, the United States is a drug culture. 14 million Americans use substances such as marijuana, PCP, and cocaine. 104 million Americans drink alcohol, and 65.5 million use tobacco.* Almost everyone will be afforded the opportunity to use pharmaceutical drugs, many of which also have addictive or habituative characteristics.

The usual therapeutic modalities for treating addiction are the “gradual-reduction” and “symptom-specific” methodologies.** In both of these therapies, pharmaceuticals are used to treat the patient. These pharmaceutical drugs themselves have side effects, one of which can be addiction! It would appear that this pharmaceutical approach does not adequately help patients cope with the physical, mental and emotional issues of addiction.

An experimental study, published in Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, used qigong, meditation, relaxation and breathing exercises to restore balance and cleanse the body of unwanted toxins in drug addicts. The researchers concluded that qigong is an effective alternative to pharmaceuticals in supporting addicts recovering from addiction. Patients practicing qigong had statistically significant improvement as measured by withdrawal symptoms, anxiety levels, and sleep disturbances. Recovery occurred noticeably faster in the qigong group as compared to those in the control or medication groups, by a rate of 200% or more.

Anxiety, Sleep, and Qigong.
The Qigong group showed significant improvement by the fifth day of treatment, anxiety scores dropping nearly 80% to 8.2 by the tenth day, mean anxiety scores had dropped almost 98% to just 0.7. In comparison to the medication group taking “detoxification” medication (lofexidine HCl), the qigong patients had 87% fewer symptoms.

Sleep disturbances were appreciably lower in the qigong patients. Within six days, 67% of the qigong patients were sleeping normally. Only 7.6% of subjects in the control group slept normally. In other words, patients practicing Qi gong were sleeping normally at a rate almost 9 times that of the control group.

Table I: Anxiety scores by group, pre- and post-treatment.

Day in treatment……………Control group………..Medication group………..Qigong group
Day 0 (pretreatment)……………35.0……………………….33.5…………………….37.4
Day 5…………………………………..21.3……………………….13.6……………………..8.2
Day 10…………………………………..7.3…………………………5.3……………………..0.7

Withdrawal symptoms***
During the program, withdrawal symptoms decreased more quickly in the qigong group. At the end of a week, every qigong patient had ceased having withdrawal symptoms. In the control and medication groups groups, however, symptoms were still being reported after the end of the program. The researchers reported that “This study shows that qigong practice may accelerate the detoxification process, reduce withdrawal symptoms, and shorten recovery time.” The authors concluded qigong may possibly have “significance and wide application” in treating addiction.****

Recovery from addiction presents severe neurological, mental, and emotional challenges to an individual. My experience with Tantric Qigong is that it tends to have a balancing effect on both the psyche and soma. For instance, if one’s nervous system is hyperactive, Tantric qigong will have a calming effect. If one is hypoactive, even lethargic or depressed, qigong will act to enliven and rejuvenate. In the system that I teach, I have observed that both the invigorating and soothing aspects of this practice are naturally mediated by the requirements of the practitioner. That is to say, whether an individual requires the vital energy to be either stimulating or soothing, Tantric Qigong appears to be able to intervene in the manner appropriate for that individual at that time. As this balance is manifested on physical, mental and emotional levels simultaneously, it would seem that qigong is a particularly efficacious approach to the relief of somatic and psychic stresses associated with addiction recovery, and is well suited to a health care system that is itself in a state of stress. (c) 2004, Keith E. Hall. All rights reserved.

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T’ai Chi & Qigong Instruction available in the Baltimore Washington, DC area.

* 2000 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. Published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

**Devitt,,M., “Qigong for Drug Addiction.” Acupuncture Today. May, 2002, 3 (5).

*** e.g., nausea, hallucinations, etc.

**** Li M, Chen K, & Mo ZX, “Detoxification with qigong therapy for heroin addicts.” Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine. Jan./Feb. 2002; 8(1): 50-59.

Sea of Chi, Sex, and Enlightenment

There is more than one acupuncture point to which the appellation “Sea of Chi” is affixed. For instance there is “Qi Hai Shu” or “Sea-of-Qi Shu” (Urinary Bladder 24) which is located at the level of the lower border of the spinous process of the third lumbar vertebra. This point strengthens the kidneys, chi and yang, and is said to “enrich” yin. It can tonify the blood, restore collapsed yin or yang, expel kidney stones, and gathers chi for the lower Cinnabar Field. This point is sort of the “back door” to the chakras of the lower Tan Tien (Cinnabar Field) and one of its effects can be to strengthen certain types of sexual energy.

So one can see how Sea-of-Qi Shu has some importance for our vital, sexual, and generative functions. It can be seen also to have a Tantric aspect in that it unifies Yin and Yang, Essence and Spirit.

Most often, the term “Sea of Chi,” as used in acupuncture refers to Qihai, which is on the midline and below the navel. It is used to treat abdominal pain, nocturnal emission, impotence or erectile dysfunction, uterine bleeding, irregular menstruation, dysmenorreha, postpartum hemorrhage, constipation, among others. From this list, one can see how this point has a direct effect on the quality of both male and female sexual energies.

In a sense, this entire mid to lower area of the abdomen can be called a Sea of Chi, with much the same poetic accuracy that the clairvoyant yoga Masters describe this area as Manipura, or the “City of Jewels.” The entire area is a large storage battery for our light, the very essence of our life force. How we express this life force is another matter, and varies from person to person depending on their karmic patterning.

While acupuncture and moxibustion are excellent for certain conditions, particularly physical and emotional ones, certain aspects of the higher spiritual qualities are more efficiently developed with supplemental practices such as T’ai Chi, Tantric Qigong, Tumo, Conscious Breathwork, etc. Karma is somatically stored in the tissues of this and other areas of the body, and the meridians and points cannot completely release or transform this sort of energy. Apparently the karmic charge is both too dense and simultaneously widespread somatically for the meridians to be able to have a direct, significant, and consistent “karma burning” effect. If that were really possible, then all one would need for enlightenment would be to stick some needles in there. I wish it were that easy. In that case, I can think of a more than a few people who could benefit immediately and tremendously from being needled.

If one’s Intention is to create evolutionary Awakening and Spiritual Freedom, we must harness all the Will, life force, and persistence that the third chakra can produce. One way of doing this is to generate large quantities of Chi through breath exercises, and couple this life force with a process of liberating somatic holding patterns (our karmic habits and resistance to spiritual growth) through precise conscious movement. This allows life force, consciousness, and intention to be unified, and the form of our karmic baggage to be released and transmuted.

This is one of the specific and most important intentions of both our Tantric Qigong system as taught in the “10 Minutes to a Healthier You!” course, and the breath and mental / muscular control and surrender methodology of the “Relax! Journey to the Primal Sea” CD program. These techniques work not only with the meridians and superficial points but also with the deeper, more extensive internal chakras. For instance, the location of the lower Cinnabar Field is not only associated with the QiHai and Guan Yuan points, found two or three inches below the navel, but also an energetic field three to four inches inward (deeper if you are sufficiently zaftig.) Both the superficial and the deeper, more internal fields must be a least partially cleared and balanced for physical, metal, and spiritual health to be restored and Awakening to occur.

Breath Coaching can be ideal for someone who is ready to surrender his or her spiritually maladaptive patterns. During this process, the coach and trainee work with both the seat of personal power, and the seat of Spiritual Surrender i.e., the Tan Tien, Solar Plexus, and Heart Chakras. One does not lose even one quantum of personal power, but the software applications governing its use and intention may change. This transforms self centeredness, victim / victimizer consciousness, and stubborn attachments to ego patterns into an empowering surrender to the Flow of Tao. What is perceived as surrender by some is in actuality allowing yourself to be carried into the power of Universal Flow while generating empathy, gratitude, and compassion as a natural consequence. I think you can see how this would be important for both spiritual progress and healthy, dynamic interpersonal and sexual relationships.
(See, The 3rd Chakra and the Spiritual Purpose of Power, parts 1-6)

Certainly though, an acupuncture and / or moxa treatment can be calming, centering, and revitalizing and tangibly important, since a modicum of physical health and centering is a prerequisite for higher spiritual attainment. In our increasingly frenetic and dis-eased world, this should not be underestimated in its value, especially if it is as an adjunct to an efficacious spiritual and somatic practice. © 2008 Keith E. Hall. All rights reserved.

The Three Jewels of Taoism

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Presencing™: Learn to Be Present

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Building Chi, life force, and power

In breathing deeply to the Tan Tien, you are building Chi - life force and power, while also stretching the belly physically. Any third chakra issues one may have are actually stored somatically in the belly, and stretching that area kind of “stretches” your paradigm, your karmic patterns. As we stretch, so we also relax and let go. Yin within Yang, Will and Surrender. When this stretching occurs with a clear intention to let go of the past i.e., the karmic habits we have become accustomed to, then true transcendence becomes more likely. So you see, this point is critical in creating the discipline to be on a spiritual path of growth and evolution, although for the purposes on the CD, I would say don’t over-think this and get yourself stressed trying to relax! Just do the breathing nude or wearing loose clothing that doesn’t cinch your waist, let the belly relax, and enjoy!

At first, people don’t really want to stretch this point. I mean they say they do, but really, they don’t. I have had the privilege to be able to teach Taoist and Tantric arts since 1978, and have been blessed with the opportunity to offer these arts to thousands of students. But very few open themselves to actually receive it. Why? Well, it sounds really good to have freedom and more personal power, but the tricky thing is you have to give up your old ways of doing things. These old karmic patterns affect your emotions, relationships, your body, even the very way you perceive the world itself. So, one has to be willing to give up these old habits, whether they are forms of anger, underlying pain, victimhood, or whatever. They have to go to make room for the new person you want to be. To get to own a brand new Blissmobile, you have to be willing to trade in that old clunker called pain and fear.

Now all of this seems elementary in way, and it is. It is really the foundation of any sort of psychotherapy, for instance. However, simple is not necessarily easy, and the mind lies to us all the time. That is why I am a big fan of the somatic approach, because the body does not know how to lie. Even experienced meditators can have their minds play games with them. That is one reason that Zen Masters sometimes do unexpected things, to kind of snap you out of the mental-emotional rut you are in while you are pretending that your are meditating. Change that begins in the body is demonstrably true; no mind games are possible.

So, that is why I put a lot of emphasis in the CD program on the belly, breathing, and letting go. This process allows the body to build power, a reservoir of life force, while over time gently wearing away the old patterns, just like waves on the beach.

© 2008 Keith E. Hall. All right reserved.

Next: Sea of Chi, and Acupuncture - Moxibustion

Presencing™: Learn to Be Present

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Ejaculation Control: Peng Zu

Peng Zu

During the time of The Yellow Emperor, there was a remarkably young looking man named Peng Zu, who was rumored to be over a hundred years old. Some texts claim he eventually reached an age of over nine hundred years, though this is likely to be a bit of hyperbole. His specialty was the link between sex and health and certain Taoist Breathing techniques. I give a lot of credence to this linkage personally, as my T’ai Chi master, Yung-ko Chou, was seventy years old when I studied with him, but looked like he was in his forties. He had dark hair, was remarkably flexible, quick witted, and walked every where since he did not have a U.S. driver’s license!

The story of Peng Zu, his life and disciplines, was written down in a treatise called Peng Zu Ching, around 2700 B.C. Peng Zu claimed the secrets to longevity lie in sexual practices that strengthened both the Yang and Yin energies. Some of Peng Zu’s precepts I find to be somewhat manipulative, even misogynistic, however there is much truth in his more general and nonsexist health practices.

“Man cannot be without woman, and woman cannot be without man.

To be solitary and long for intercourse shortens a man’s life and allows a hundred ailments.

Ghosts and Demons will take advantage of such a man to copulate with him.

Jing lost in this way is a hundred times worse than the normal way”

–P’eng Tsu

According to Peng, there are four courses of sexual action that promote longevity in men. The two most important are:

Maximize contact.

–By this, he means regular, daily sexual activity of considerable duration.

Minimize leakage.

–Here he is speaking of ejaculation control.

Peng was also a big advocate of men having a lot of Taoist Tantric sex, and his preferred partners were mainly virgins. Though politically incorrect today, there is perhaps a grain of virginal truth here for a man who is too lazy to develop himself and master the unification of yin and yang within. However, I decline to extrapolate on the rationale and protocol for his disciplines in this particular Jade Arena. On a practical note, I do see a big problem these days with the supply side economics of Peng’s preference. I have traveled to the U.S. Virgin Islands and even there it seems there is a currently a dearth of supply.

Peng called the leakage of semen (ejaculation) an injury to vitality. He said that clear thin semen was a sign of weakness and loss of vitality that could injure the flesh. Overly strong smelling semen indicated problems with the muscles and tendons, weak ejaculation implied weakness in the bones, and erectile dysfunction showed injury to the whole body. I suspect the routine prescription of Viagra inadequately addresses these underlying conditions.

Peng felt that these conditions could arise in part from crude, rough sex that resulted in ejaculation. Predating the Four Agreements by at least 4,000 years, Peng Zu states in his handbook (Peng Zu Ching) that man is harmed by dark emotions such as anger, and excessive expectation and poor communication between Yin and Yang. Furthermore, he explains:

“Many indeed are the things that harm man, but all of them have their root in the bedchamber. How people are deluded by this! Man and woman mutually complete each other, just like Heaven and Earth gave birth to each other. Tao nourishes the vital force (chi) in order that man may not lose his harmony. Heaven and Earth have obtained the Tao of sexual intercourse, therefore they are everlasting. But man has lost the Way of sexual intercourse, therefore he has become mortal. To be able to avoid all harmful things, and to obtain the art of Yin and Yang, this is the Way of Immortality.”

–Shang-ku-san-tai, Yen Kho-Chun, ed.

The implication is that in addition to ejaculation control, self-mastery and longevity depend upon emotional transmutation, harmony, balance, and unity between Man and Woman and within oneself. The sexual ideal could partly manifest itself as slow, gentle, loving sex with careful ejaculatory management, as is ideal in Tantra and neo-tantra.  Peng advised retaining the semen with the intention that it revert upward to the “Upper Vast Stream” in the brain. This sort of generalized kundalini yoga technique results in inner tranquility, peace, longevity, and can lead to enlightenment.

Peng Zu’s Guide to Ejaculation Frequency

Age… Frequency

20… 1x every 2 days

30… 1x every 3 days

40… 1x every 10 days

50… 1x every 15 days

60… 1x every 30 days

Comparing this to Su-Nu’s guidelines, Peng’s seem considerably more strict. Though if he did live to be 900, as he is alleged to, one might grant that he may have embodied some of the benefits of that which he prescribes. © 2008 Keith E. Hall. All rights reserved.
Part 5: Ejaculation Control and the Seasons

Ejaculation Control and Mental, Spiritual, and Physical Health Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

See a woman’s question

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Ejaculation Control and Mental, Spiritual, and Physical Health

Wilma asks:
Q: During the winter season, the Taoists recommend less ejaculation for both men and women.
Why exactly do they recommend that?

A: I some times get questions from men about this issue, but rarely from women, so let me take a moment to set down some of the history and rationale about this.

There is quite a bit of controversy within Tantric and Taoist and Western medical circles about the relationship of ejaculation to physical and spiritual well being. The Tantriks seem more concerned with the effects in regard to spiritual progress, while the Taoists seem more focused on health and longevity. The Taoists in particular have codified this precisely, to an almost dogmatic level.

Both Tantriks and Taoists feel that the psychic and somatic essence of man is concentrated in the semen, thus ejaculation could lead to a decrease in mental and physical strength. Western medicine has not really looked very closely at this precept, other than in relation to prostate health. The Tantriks are highly interested in harnessing the sexual essence to activate Kundalini so it can rise to the higher spiritual centers to promote spiritual awakening and enlightenment.

According to the Taoist physician Sun Si-Miao (Sun Ssu-mo), circa A.D. 600, “A man may attain health and longevity if he practices an ejaculation frequency of twice monthly or 24 times in a year. If at the same time he pays careful attention to proper diet and exercise he will have a long and healthy life.” Thus, if a man can manage the energy of ejaculation, he would be able to enjoy sex while becoming very youthful. This may be, in part, because men’s sexual energy is linked strongly to the Kidney Essence. A woman’s energy is linked more to the blood. Therefore, an untrained man’s ejaculation decreases the vitality of the Kidney essence more strongly, though there is some loss for a woman as well. There is a school of thought that implies that since untrained men project their energy so strongly through ejaculation, there is a net benefit to his female partner if she can absorb his energy. Even a trained tantrika or Taoist can “donate” this energy to a woman if he chooses; though much is to be said for mutual cultivation and conservation.

“Do not expel your semen needlessly. Do not expel your semen forcefully, as if dashing something down from the heights. You’ll upset the five main bodily organs, injure the life-energy channels and give rise to every kind of ailment as a consequence.”
– Ishimpo

Sun Si-Miao’s Guidelines
Age… Recommendation

30… Give up masturbation and study the Tao of Yin and Yang

40… Ejaculation control becomes mandatory and should be mastered

50… 1 emission every 20 days

60… 0 emissions, but frequent intercourse.
Exceptionally hearty men may emit 1x every 30 days

70… If very healthy, once in every 100 sexual couplings.

Dr. Sun thought that for most men, celibacy and abstaining from emission of semen was just as harmful as profligate ejaculation, a philosophy now being validated by modern Western medical science. His thought was that abstention disrupts one’s harmony of essence, energy, and spirit. He also says that abstinence will lead to erotic dreams and uncontrolled, unconscious nocturnal emissions. These he declared to be a hundred times more harmful than an ejaculation during normal intercourse.

Sun Si-Miao also recommended certain Taoist breathing and massage techniques to build power and longevity. © 2008 Keith E. Hall. All rights reserved.

Ejaculation Control part 2: The Yellow Emperor

Ejaculation Control and Mental, Spiritual, and Physical Health Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

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Nudes by internationally renown photographer Petter Hegre

Tantra and Kundalini Yoga

Tantra and Kundalini Yoga are sciences which use various exercises, breath patterns, and visualizations to activate, balance, and transmute our primal energies. As the polar energies ( Shiva / Shakti, heavenly / earthly ) come into balance, Kundalini begins to flow much more powerfully. Typically visualized as a coiled serpent residing at the base of the spine, this energy begins to rise and activate each Chakra in turn. There is a tendency for this energy to be attracted to whatever needs to be healed emotionally and physically. As we heal our fear, pain, and anger, we begin to experience more abundance, pleasure, and empowerment. Our bodies become stronger, our minds live in more peace and bliss. As Tantra enrolls the enormous power of our senses and sexuality in this process, this requires some delicacy in fine tuning the practices for the individual. Too much energy too fast can emotionally and physically unbalance the practitioner. I have even seen some teachers of these arts, particularly those who adopt aggressive cathartic techniques, reinforce their Karma, damage their bodies, emotions, and relationships permanently. On the other hand, with judicious and sensitive energy management, these traditions remain among the most effective technologies for transformation that we have. ©1998 Keith E. Hall

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