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I understand your concern, I share it too. But I've never once found that arguing with people who have different political views than me has convinced them they are wrong. There's a thing called cognitive dissonance - people find ways to accommodate facts that sit contrary to their own views, to the point it resembles mental gymnastics. That's because there's a whole lot of ego and self validation bound up in being right, or winning an argument. Go vote or protest. Speak out and campaign for what you believe in. But - in my experience at least - it doesn't do anyone any good arguing online.

Honestly, it seems that everywhere you go, people are arguing bitterly against each other over politics. Sometimes I feel like social media algorithms have radicalised people on both ends of the political spectrum. Because social division drives 'engagement' - which is where the social media companies get revenue. Either way, it's nice to have a place where people aren't constantly kicking the shit out of each other. I was never part of current events section of the forum.

About a decade ago, I used Eric Isen to psychically 'test' the effect of various qigong forms on me over the course of a couple of years. I ended up spending several thousand dollars. I became slightly suspicious, so I asked him to test a fictitious system. To make it interesting, I made it an anagram of the words 'Eric the Liar'. He gave me a glowing recommendation for this system. I paid him, thanked him and never contacted him again.

I believe that ‘Judge not’ warns against ego-based condemnation that feeds separation and karmic entanglement. But there’s a world of difference between reactive judgment and the clear seeing that arises from compassion and alignment with truth. IMO Jesus wasn’t condemning out of wounded pride, he was cutting through hypocrisy to protect and awaken. So we might say real spiritual maturity knows when silence is love, and when fierce clarity is love. It’s not about never discerning, but about where it’s coming from within us.

To all American Bums. 🇬🇧💂💂🇬🇧

Yes, let us celebrate as only the mystery schools of Alexandria knew how. Cucumber sandwiches cut into Gnostic triangles and served on the best china. With a pot of tea shared between us. Perhaps a few biscuits or scones with cream and jam. While we speak in Pythagorean verse and draw signs in the air with our forefingers. And curse the demiurge and the fallen star of Lucifer. Then summon a sweeter muse that arrives on a gentle breeze and shakes the hibiscus bloom.

Some of you may decide otherwise, but we are in fact STILL the same people who used to have more time to chat with you before we took on this thankless and unpaid job out of love for the board and your company. We were, and are, STILL your friends.

daily crocheting clouds knit together, above dark waters, below

Easy with the half-cocked accusations @Nungali I'm not a mod, did nothing but post my reply here, and I certainly did not report any of his posts. I like old3bob, regardless of our differences, and posted what I did in support of him, and the rest of us.

For what it's worth, I feel a lot of empathy for what people are going through right now regarding current events and politics. I am feeling a lot of negative emotions on a daily basis and do my best to bring it into my spiritual practice. We are living through unprecedented times and events and I wish there was a way we could offer each other more support here. Debating current and events and politics has proven not to work out well here, but perhaps there's a way we could discuss the impact they are having on us and support each other in dealing with them as effectively as possible. To some degree, I think this thread is having somewhat of a positive effect and I appreciate everyone who added their comments and the mods keeping it open so far.

i've checked several times this morning. All of them slow in every action. Additionally got a bad gateway error at one point totally bombed. we are in conversations with the powers that be, to fix this thing again.

“In Silence, God ceases to be an object and becomes an experience.” Thomas Merton

And an extreme version:

Just as Jesus was not a Christian, the Buddha was not a Buddhist. The Buddha was one amongst countless beings that have become realized , dropped their fetters, and seen through their mistaken belief systems. Is Zen Buddhism? I'm not sure why that would matter. It IS a vehicle for realization, but it is a VERY direct one that will not suit all students. Zen DOES throw you into the "deep end", but, really, there IS no deep end. Realization is actually a very simple affair - in one moment you believe that a particular set of bodily sensations represent some kind of reality as a separate person, and then, miraculously, in the next moment you don't. In this respect Zen is far simpler than most vehicles... that simplicity isn't a bug, it is a feature. Nothing is missing in Zen (though there could be more emphasis on compassion training, IMHO), it just may not be meant for you. If one is drawn to follow a particular set of teachings they should, absolutely. Does this mean that there is something wrong with those other paths? No, not really. Having no tradition or path at all awakens "beings" all the time.

Have you read “Harry Potter and the Old3bob of Doom”?

Hi Vajra Fist, Important points of clarification: There is no inference or implication that "if the FP Qigong 'doesn't work' for someone, then that someone is 'evil'." First of all, I had never stated nor written that "Flying Phoenix Qigong doesn't work for evil people"---nor has any other instructor in Bok Fu Pai arts nor any of my in-person students. What I quoted Grandmaster Doo Wai as having said is this: "Evil people will not to practice Flying Phoenix Qigong." • And I will elaborate upon this statement to explain exactly what GM Doo Wai meant based on my being in the room with him when he said it, and based on my direct experience in teaching FP Qigong since 1992: "Evil people will not continue to practice FP Qigong once they have tried it and felt its effects--because evil people DO NOT like the way FP Qigong transforms their body-mind to pristine health." The implication is that FP Qigong works on everyone--to some varying extent. The fact is that evil and corrupted people who are intent to continue doing evil, will not practice FP Qigong because they don't want to stop their ways--i.e., they don't want their nervous system reprogrammed to not do evil. Evil people who have tried FP Qigong cannot in all honesty deny that FP Qigong has some positive effect on the body-mind. Thus they will spurn its practice. • The implication ( and yogic fact) being that FP Qigong is so steadily transformative of the body-mind to a pristine (and at times blissful) state of health (homeostasis) that any person who is so bent on doing evil (and is thus so mentally bent by evil) will not allow any thing or influence come near that might unbend him/her. • The further implication being that there is no such thing as "original sin." That's the reality that's experientially proven by Feng Do Duk's Ehrmei Mountain Flying Phoenix Qigong. That's the experience shared by GM Doo Wai when he said, "Evil people will not practice Flying Phoenix Qigong." Relatedly, the physically healing and spiritually purifying effects of FP Qigong are so extremely powerful that after years of practice, one becomes thoroughly and deeply calibrated to discern and recognize evil energy instantly (on a neurological level)--and even distinguish between different "grades" of evil. In November 2024, I wrote this substack article about sighting in a public place and almost confronting a prolific serial killer, Lonnie Franklin Jr., in L.A in August 1995. (This article was in follow-up to my Oct. 10, 2024 article about attracting and crossing paths with another serial killer 9 years earlier in 1986 [named Michael Player, aka. "The Skid Row Killer"] in the Miracle Mile district of L.A., and explaining how that earlier incident was my harshest lesson in anger management, resulting in me getting shot in the back with a .38 pistol and the shooter dying the same night.) https://open.substack.com/pub/terencedunn/p/seeing-the-grim-sleeper-in-my-very?r=5i7g9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false In this substack article, I explained how I was able to instantly recognize this person (who later turned out to be Lonnie Franklin Jr., aka the "Grim Sleeper") the instant I laid eyes on him as I was checking out of a Ralphs supermarket in LA and he was 4 check stands away to my right. When I wrote the article, I attributed my ability to instantly recognize him as a dangerous killer --AND knew that he had just killed someone--to my practice of the Tao Tan Pai Nei Kung system for 21 years up to the time of the sighting. But I am stating here and now that I believe that my "ability to instantly recognize strong evil" was also attributable--to much lesser extent--to having practiced FP Qigong for 4 years, as of August 1995. After 34 years of practicing FP Qigong, I now firmly believe that long-term practice of FP Qigong enables the practitioner to access (turn on at will) the self-healing state of allostasis (self-healing) and slip into FP Qigong's uniquely sublime higher state of consciousness that enables one to readily perceive and recognize any type of animal consciousness (mental energy. intentionality, and yes, even spiritual energy) that is opposite in nature to the Flying Phoenix healing mode to an extreme. That is, as a side effect of FP Qigong practice, one is conditioned to perceive and instantly recognize negative energy, destructive energy, destructive intent, evil karma, and ultimately "demonic energy." Remember that FP Qigong is the health cornerstone of the vast Ehrmei Mountain Bok Fu Pai ("White Tiger")Kung Fu system, an authentic Taoist monastic tradition founded by Feng Do Duk (Feng Dao Deh) in 1644 that systematically trains warrior-healer-priest-exorcists. I hope this clarifies. Sifu Terry Dunn P.S. This is the link my earlier written article in October 2024 about my encounter with "The Skid Row Killer" on October 8, 1986: https://open.substack.com/pub/terencedunn/p/sifu-terry-dunns-tai-chi-for-health-ac0?r=5i7g9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false

That's alright, just practicing cultivation of speech

America is a vast patchwork of different cultures. We´re obscenely rich and heartbreakingly poor; rural gun-toting Texans and progressive rainbow flag-waving denizens of West Hollywood; black and brown and white like hulled rice. I can´t help but think, despite all the problems and fighting, that there´s something beautiful about the messy mix of it all. Happy 4th!

/\ We have a whole series of jokes based on interpreting what one hears in a "lik lik" known language. Goes both ways, by the way -- e.g. we use "bread of sieve cable" to mean "bred sivoy kobyly" -- an idiom meaning "delirious bullshit," literally "the ravings of a grey mare." The latest example from my just-concluded trip to Greece. Me and my friends were sipping espressos in a cafe in Corfu Town, and at the next table some young Greek guys were having a very lively conversation. In the course of which one of them jumped to his feet and exclaimed, with great feeling and energy, what sounded like "Shabliaka ty moliaka!" to my ear. Now I don't know about other people's ears but to mine it was simply delightful. In Russian it could have been a yet unknown curse, but also words of endearment, or a nickname for a friend, or a dire warning -- watch out, I'm about to kick your ass! Could be anything but due to the manner of delivery I was convinced it wasn't something boring. So later I tried to pick AI's brain to decipher it. What Greek expression, in a context I described to it, could it have been, and what could it mean? After a brainstorming session we zeroed in on "Ti blaxia, ti malakia" -- which is the Greek for "what nonsense, what stupidity!" Perfect. I still haven't decided which version I like better, the real one or the misheard one, but I'm tempted to start using one of them, or maybe both.

Tomorrow, June 20th, will be the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere, and the winter solstice for our southern friends. I always think of these yearly turning points as potent times for spiritual practice and reflection. Whether you´re experiencing an apex moment of light or darkness, I hope the day brings you joy.

Awful time of the year for southerners, winter, when nothing moves. Can't wait for it to the over, tbh. And certainly not a potent time to Fire people. Happy SS to you

This forum (and others online) sometimes makes me incredibly sad. This is a forum of dedicated spiritual practitioners and yet we cannot get along or act like adults in the most simplistic sense: i.e., refrain from insults, refrain from trolling others, try not to hurt people, or follow a few simple rules. Creating a post takes time and can be edited or removed. Everything here is entirely intentional. So if this is the best we can do, well, no wonder the world is in the shape it's in.

Here, as I see it, is the trouble with political talk on the board. Most of us come to this forum wanting and expecting a friendly and supportive atmosphere. We´d like to be able to learn from others and share what we know in an environment where we feel respected and valued. Mostly, political discussion isn´t like this. Many people feel contempt for those who disagree with them politically. This can lead to name calling (officially against the rules), but even when Bums manage to avoid bumping up against forum policy there´s considerable disharmony and bad vibes. The bad vibes tend to leach into the board in general and spoil the experience for many. As a recipient and occasional purveyor (apologies!) of bad political vibes, I know of what I speak.

I also think no politics in this site is a reasonable approach. The only problem is the DDJ and Yellow Emperor teachings are directly concerning governance or politics; or using politics as metaphor.

wrists, very empty the crack between bones so dark that it always shines.

Interesting bilingual play of words for me. Lei is, incidentally, the Russian for "pour" in the imperative mood. Leika -- a watering can, and also the diminutive of Leia. Lei-ka -- same as lei but the imperative mood is expressed more informally.

Which way? Which way now? Why not traipse through the garden, so lovely this year?

All wisps waft away Like wishes waved by the wind Which way? Which way now?

The Patience of Ordinary Things by Pat Schneider It is a kind of love, is it not? How the cup holds the tea, How the chair stands sturdy and foursquare, How the floor receives the bottoms of shoes Or toes. How soles of feet know Where they're supposed to be. I've been thinking about the patience Of ordinary things, how clothes Wait respectfully in closets And soap dries quietly in the dish, And towels drink the wet From the skin of the back. And the lovely repetition of stairs. And what is more generous than a window?

I watched this documentary with interest. He describes a state of 'oneness' as enlightenment. It reminds me of a dharma talk by Guo Gu, heir of Chan master Shen Zhen. I can't find it now, but said he had a moment of acute oneness during a retreat, sparked by watching tree branch fall in the garden. When he presented his teacher with the tree branch, he was sorely rebuked. He came to realise that the state of oneness also needs to fall away for there to be true awakening. (Couldn't find the talk, included a snippet here) And the quote below from his book

Ah, and here it is — the inevitable derail into religious fluff. We were talking about a YouTube channel. A guy stopped uploading. Somehow that turned into Bible verses, Satan, and vague doomsday prophecies about “truth” and “science” — as if quoting scripture automatically elevates your opinion into objective reality. Let’s be real: conflating Jesus with “science and truth” is laughable. Science doesn’t require belief. It’s falsifiable, testable, and self-correcting. Religion is none of those things. So trying to frame it as if turning away from your particular belief system is turning away from “truth” is intellectually dishonest. This kind of post always reeks of projection. It’s never about truth. It’s about feeling superior — wrapping emotional bias in spiritual language and hoping no one calls it out. Newsflash: people can disagree with your worldview and not be “of Satan.” Not everyone who's tired of fairy tales is “running from truth.” Some of us just grew up. Let’s stay on topic. Damo didn’t get silenced. He just stopped uploading. No grand conspiracy. No cosmic battle between light and dark. Just a dude not posting videos.

Pragmatically speaking, the level of evil in the world today (and since time immemorial) is closely tied to the amount of unconscious fear and unchecked desire people are carrying. At its root, it’s fear of suffering—not death, but suffering in all its forms. The more unconsciously someone fears suffering, the more likely they are to engage in evil actions: exploitation, theft, abuse, manipulation, etc. And the flip side is also true—the more someone is consumed by desire, the more likely they are to harm others in pursuit of relief, control, or gratification. But underneath both fear and desire lies something even deeper: the illusion of separation. The belief that we are isolated, disconnected beings trying to survive alone in a hostile world. Once that illusion takes hold, self-preservation becomes the highest priority—regardless of who gets hurt. Layer on top of that a lack of self-awareness (ignorance), and you've got the perfect conditions for evil to flourish: people blindly reacting to internal chaos, with no understanding of the root causes driving them. Even in extreme cases—rape, torture, senseless violence—the perpetrator is often trying to escape some kind of internal torment. They’re not acting from pure malice but from a twisted attempt to feel power, pleasure, or release from their own existential pain. That doesn’t excuse it—but it helps explain it. As for whether evil has increased, who knows. The world population is at a record high, so the raw number of evil acts may have gone up, but proportionally, it may have actually dropped. Either way, the level of evil we experience is a direct reflection of how much fear, desire, and unconscious separation is driving human behavior. The less those forces control us, the more harmony naturally emerges.

Sorry--I thought you said, "face plant"!

Everywhere he looked, non-dual people living in a non-binary reality. Liminal Luke didn´t know whether to wave a rainbow flag or schedule an emergency appointment with his shrink; "oh to hell with it," he muttered as he sliced himself another slice of berry pie and put on The Bachelor. Ahh...now there was something he understood.

The Flash Meditations on Vol. 5 work better if one has done all the FP Standing Meds. in Volumes 1, 3, and 4 first...and has the Volume 4 Long Form memorized and feeling its fine benefits. I like to do them in the evenings very slowly--the first 4 meditations on Vol.7. Then I do one or two of seated MSW Mediations on Volume 2 or 7 before going to sleep (--except of course, you NEVER want to do the last med. on Vol.2 (90 80 50 20) at night--if you any intention to sleep!) I remember that around Year 2 of this thread, someone posted that the Volume 5 meditations were like "bon bons". They may seem like that to the uninitiated trying them for the first time without having mastered the preceding standing FP Meditations. But if one has steadily worked through Volumes 1, 3, 4 and established all of the Meditations, when you get to Volume 5 meditations, you will FEEL their effects like nuclear longevity pills (tan). GM Doo Wai taught the " Fei Feng San Gung" ("Flying Phoenix Spiritual Power/Cultivation" ) system to me and my L.A. cohort (from 1991 to 1998) in exactly the order as they are presented in the DVD series. In fact, the last meditation on Vol.5 with (80 70 50 40 30) is NOT an FP Qigong exercise--but a primer meditation for Bat Din Gum (8 Sections of Energy Combined, a legendary martial Qigong system that GM Doo Wai said repeatedly was "more rare than the Do Do Bird"), Out of respect and in reverence to his teachings, I placed that BDG meditation at the end of Vol.5 because that's when he taught it to me and to only two others in the learning circle. All that is to say that the none of the five meditations on Vol. 5 are "bon bons"! LOL. Enjoy your practice and stick with it. Sifu Terry ttps://www.taichimania.com/chikung_catalog.html terencedunn.substack.com

Speaking of medical Latin. I remember looking for a job, very many moons ago, and sending a resume to a place that was looking for someone with my background -- technical writing -- to create names for new pharma drugs. They specified that they needed "a genius." I was a bit upset that they didn't invite me for an interview. How did they know I didn't qualify?.. Well, today I finally understood. Remember Astra Zeneca, a one product wonder company? Try to go to Google Translate and translate from Latin to any language this spelling -- a stra ze neca. Genius!

My teacher used to torture me (in private lessons) by making me slow down the first main Chen form (laojia yilu) which at normal practice pace takes about 15-17 minutes to complete down to 45 minutes. Boy is it hard! Also another form of torture -- "square taiji" practice, where instead of flowing from one move into the next you have to stop and hold every single position after every single move "long enough to take a picture." Once you're frozen like that, anything you're doing wrong will become apparent and fixable. At a faster pace you might never find out, never notice, just rush through the mistake or difficulty instead of "spell-checking" and correcting. This, by the way, is the reason the second main Chen form (laojia erlu aka Paochui aka Cannon Fist), which is indeed physically impossible to slow down in many places, is strongly discouraged by real masters from learning before you have the first one down pat. Otherwise it will be a fully external athletic performance, with whatever disadvantages come with any sports territory and without the advantages of actually doing taiji.

‘heavy handed’? Really?

Some of the posts on this thread are pretty thinly veiled references. If it continues we'll be locking this thread. Deep thanks to those of you who are refraining. - Mods

Urrrgha .... Ummm , no, you misunderstood yourself . You said : " the spirit/magical realm vs. the material, " I suggest removing the vs from that ^ not this new arrangement of 'physical vs mental ' . vs means 'against, opposed to , or in contrast to '. Spirit our magic should not work or be against the material . it should not oppose it but give depth meaning and insight into the material and although it can seem in contrast to it , for many it isn't ; for example a traditional Aboriginal believe ( before invasion of the nasty people ) was 'this IS heaven ' . No separation between spiritual and material , they interweave and flow into each other .

The each human format contains perhaps a trillion intelligences that more or less cooperate to produce an entity that functions in the local cosmos. A universe contains a vastly greater number of intelligences that need to be coordinated, refined, aligned and integrated so that Logos has a coherent body that it can use in relating to other universes and their Logoi The human is a microcosm so that a coherent/enlightened human naturally propagates that coherence into the local aspects of the universe If the human is incoherent the universe will instinctively protect itself from that contagion

Mod action: thread locked as it was heading into political territory.

If I disagreed with you, would I be allowed to say so? In the US I am not permitted to loot your businesses, graffiti your garden walls or spit on your security guards, no matter how strong my feelings, but I can still say my piece. In this respect, the constitution still stands. But this post of mine, like yours before me, is current event talk, and the rules of this forum are stricter than the rules of the street. I am willing to stop. Are you?

Returning to the OP:

of course i had to google "semi-sesquicentennial definition" Semisesquicentennial can be broken down to understand its meaning: "semi" - half of + "sesqui" - in the ratio of 3:2 + "centennial" - 100 years. Broken out mathematically, 1/2 * 3/2 * 100 = 75 Hooray for Mark !

To be enjoyed, Regardless of whatever Another fabulous opportunity Here & Dao

I also feel empathy for what people are going through right now and think it would be great if we could support each other without arguing about the merits of any given view. My mom marched in a recent "No Kings" event, her first political protest in her more than eighty years. She sent me a picture of herself out in the sunshine, smiling and waving a tiny American flag. She said it felt good to be there, in the world amongst so many other people who felt as she did. I was happy for her. Although I´m wary of much that is going on in the US politically these days, my own politics has slid somewhat rightward since Covid and I wouldn´t of wanted to march in No Kings myself. But that doesn´t mean I don´t care about the thoughts and feelings of those who disagree with me. Those who disagree with me are not "idiots." In fact, many of them are smart and well-informed, kind and thoughtful -- some of the best people I know. I gather from another thread that the mods are currently debating Old3bobs status in the forum. He consistently brings up political topics, even though it´s the current policy of the board not to do so. It´s not my place to comment on his future here, but one thing´s clear: he´s a person that cares about the state of the world and he´s hurting. I think so many of us are hurting. I´m not much of a Buddhist but sometimes a Buddhist saying fits the moment. May all beings be free from suffering.

I know it's a serious matter, but I can't resist offering my favorite movie scene dedicated to anger management: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEE7xzwogMc

Leia's sweet revenge baking chocolate chip cookies and marzipan scones

I have been to his workshops before. I can verify he uses more subtle frequencies of Qi to help attendees run energy a little stronger during workshops. But it is intentionally at the more subtle levels for workshops. There are people I trust who knows him personally, and have witnessed his skills. Like emitting qi in the quality similar to electricity, like the some other masters many of you have probably seen online. I hear he has improved a lot. He does not demonstrate these things publicly for obvious reasons. And I don't believe he ever will. So one will need to seek him out personally to find out in person. The answer to questions around his skill will end up "go find out yourself". It is by design, and will not really change anytime soon. People who know first hand will not share it in great detail, or any detail at all. But there is a clear pattern I think most people are starting to realize, that not many great students actually come out of the other end of the school/ system. If they did, we would be all interacting with them, attending their workshops. But instead it all keeps pointing back to Damo, which is odd after all these years. You see this odd pattern in a few schools. Which does not make sense. Because his knowledge is authentic. His training methods I have experienced is legitimate and effective. There is a missing piece to the puzzle; but have put it aside and will let things reveal itself on its own. But for good knowledge and insights, framework of internal work, and methods of training, damo and his books are valuable and answers many questions correctly 👍. Anyone who would like to learn fundamental theory of daoist arts, I will direct them to Damo's books.