Mantak Chia

this has some decent material, but theres a lotta diff things that r just a little off or wrong. the bioessentialism, binarism, and cishetnormativity is obvi all bad, but its not too hard to get past.

my biggest issue is chia's use of the ancient taoist theory of edging, according to which every instance of ejaculation is a semi-permanent loss. this is challenged ofc by contemporary understandings of the anatomical process of ejaculation, but also by the folk-knowledge collected by networks show more of kink-communities across the world, and their experiments w edging. it strikes me as a somewhat shame-oriented aversion to promiscuity and fulfilment, filtered thru the taoist framing of medical improvement, and within the framework of lyotards libidinal economy it seems likely to function as a repressive disciplinary technique to restrain the libidinal energy of taoist adherents so as to better mold their manifest ideology

and then theres the issue of drafting, publication, and style. at this point in chia's career one can see his plans unfolding for an unnecessary number of separate books, overlapping significantly in content and filled w fluff to make them each feel worth the separate purpose; chia's commodification of the subject cheapens and strains the integrity of the presentation, as though edging the reader on hints of important relevant information that is abruptly and disappointingly withheld show less

contains a lotta great info on the esoteric anatomy of erogenous zones and the manipulation of sexual arousal thru meditation, but this point in mantak chia's career shows his increasing lack of systematic analysis; the guides for practice r needlessly verbose and overly long, and could b dramatically simplified by more systematic reference to other aspects of his practice system. but still, there is a trove of useful info to b found here

im a little irritated that there r two "extra" chapters appended by the end, neither written by mantak chia. one is completly unrelated to iron shirt technique, and merely gives a structural-integration style account of a postural exercise program that does not improve or add to the rest of the book in any way. the other chapter actually has some wonderful info--a guide to the fascial regions of the torso and tendon-meridians of the body--but its at points a garbled and barely decipherable show more mess of writing.

aside from those irritating growths at the end of the book, this work is a marvel of integrated exercise and breathing techniques! truly astounding and unique work that pulls together and synthesizes effective techniques from all the forgotten and unwritten corners of chinese martial arts history show less

this is a wonderful summary set of massage exercises cribbed from many different traditional sources, and i would guess a few original additions. its simple and sparse.

2 cons:

1) this is one of the few times ive seen chia incorporate contemporary western quackery into his work; usually when he bring together multiple traditions, chia tries to syncretically connect them and demonstrate their interconnections. when discussing e.g. iridology, he does not. a bit disappointing

2) while i admire show more chia's goal of making his introductory material as approachable as possible, i think it would actually b easier to build a personal routine if the book was more systematic in its explanation of the reasons for and connections bw the diff massage practices. this would help w both practical structuring, internalization, and deeper understanding. he usually does this elsewhere, so i was disappointed to see it lacking here show less