Leaderboard

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 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 (i.e., he was "fresh from a kill")--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 a 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 violent 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.

I had a crazy experience yesterday. After taking Sifu Terry's Saturday class, I went to eat some lentil soup. Mid-sip, around 30min after doing the qigong, I suddenly felt a rush of energy to my head. I could see a blue aura in everything, along with a depth that is hard to put into words. It was like I could perceive a large amount of space in between things. It was especially pronounced when I looked down at my arm, and outside at the trees. Time seemed to slow down too -- it was like I could perceive the space between things, as well as the space between moments. The peak lasted around 30 min, and the afterglow lasted the rest of the day. Everything was heightened, I was happy the whole day, and music especially sounded good. Now I recall a thought I had before: "Flying Phoenix eliminates the need to do drugs". The time dilation and altered state of consciousness were similar to being high on weed, but without any detriment to my health or my intelligence (the opposite, in fact). I'd felt similar experiences last year, but I don't remember them being anywhere this strong, and it'd been a long time since I felt anything like this. I think I'd gotten used to the energy, and also stressed out from work. Either way, this was probably my most "wow" experience so far on Flying Phoenix. And a good reminder to relax and slow down sometimes (and to keep practicing).

Oh how I would of loved to have quiet intellectual conversations in kitchens while enjoying tea with homemade preserves! I was born in the wrong place and time. Instead, I´m sitting here by myself while people half a world away threaten to out me (inaccurately) as "liking Trump."

Returning to the OP:

.

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

It means that to post on the board - his posts require a mod to approve them. He should be able to get PMs though and reply as normal.

Happy solstice to all.

** Mod Note: We're not debating politics in disguise.**

I appreciate you spinning this off and also feel very grateful for Cobie's valuable insights. My approach to the Daodejing, and just about any other spiritual/philosophical scripture, is to treat them as personal instructions, maps or blueprints, to help guide and provide context for my own inner discovery. I don't get much out of considering them as explications of ontology. I think the Daodejing itself makes this very clear in the first chapter where the Dao is described as ineffable. What is the difference between the Dao and the One? In my opinion and experience, and as Cobie's translation suggests, they are one and the same, analogous to what Bön and Buddhist scripture refers to as the base of all which is not different from the nature of my own mind. While studying and practicing Daoist meditation about 20 years ago, I had a life and consciousness altering non-dual experience that heavily influenced my perspective and understanding of this. Again, this is valid for me and I'm not suggesting others need to adopt this perspective or allow it to influence your own personal investigation and conclusions. What is the One giving birth to Two? This for me is the arising of duality, subject/object and yin/yang differentiation. This is the arising of my mind as distinct from its objects, the nature of samsara in Bön and Buddhist parlance. This serves as the basis for comparison, for judgement, for awareness and interaction with each other and our environment, and thus the unlimited potential for manifestation, good and bad. Two giving birth to Three for me is a description of the inseparable nature of ying and yang, the eternal interplay of contrasting aspects of the duality of being. We can describe yin and we can describe yang, but what really counts is their interconnectedness, the ever changing dance of wholeness the two aspects describe. This is beautifully encapsulated by the taiji diagram and this serves as the basis for descriptions of all things being inherently perfect, something we've discussed quite a bit in another thread. Perfect referring to the completeness achieved by the balance of yin and yang as opposed to perfection in the sense of being exactly as I'd like things to be. Finally, this endless interplay of contrasting elements, of subject and object, yin and yang, of awareness and emptiness/openness (again making a personal connection to Bön teachings) allows for the arising of all possible experiences of life, the 10,000 things. In the Bön and Buddhist teachings the empty nature of things (wuji) is absolutely necessary to allow for the potential for anything to manifest. One caveat I'd like to share relates to the atemporal nature of this description. I don't believe there is any implication of conditional or sequential stages or phases. This description is independent of time and space. Each of these descriptions is always present, in each and every moment. We have limitations as beings in time and space in how we can conceptualize and communicate but the "process," the Way, does not. Anyhow, just some personal reflections on this wonderful chapter.

Luke is now Leia I wish that Maddie could see my transformation.

so lovely this year draped in your mother’s curtains Luke is now Leia.

In Praise of Craziness, of a Certain Kind by Mary Oliver On cold evenings my grandmother, with ownership of half her mind- the other half having flown back to Bohemia- spread newspapers over the porch floor so, she said, the garden ants could crawl beneath, as under a blanket, and keep warm, and what shall I wish for, for myself, but, being so struck by the lightning of years, to be like her with what is left, that loving.

Most of us walking the world identify our "self" as a narrow selection of all of the the perceptions and phenomena in the world. So, this itching sensation is on my "foot", when I look in the world, what I see is from MY perspective, but it can be seen, even logically, that these are arbitrary. When you drive the car, is the CAR also "I"? What about when you are in dreamless sleep... when does the sense of "I" go? When one "awakens" they realize that they have been living in a created story about the nature of the reality they live in. For the most part this doesn't change the behavior of our experience of the world, just how it is understood. If someone says, "Hi John" you smile and greet them. If someone asks which kind of ice cream you prefer, you respond. The difference is that you now realize that it isn't the imagined separate entity that responds, it is EVERYTHING... or, to look at it another way no-thing. The cause of your response is the entire perceivable fabric of reality. For it to be anything truly separate from that would be impossible. To insist that people shift into addressing you in some arcane way is disingenuous and lacks compassion. Some do it, but eventually grow out of it.

It seems to me that all substance on every plane is part of a much greater cosmic entity. If so, every body is karmic. This includes the rocks and trees and clouds I was once given a blue crystalline rock. It looked very pretty but my house spirit objected to it - because of the dark spirit flowing through it. So I was going to throw it in the creek over the back fence but the creek elemental did not want it. I walked down the road past some vacant treed lots, and none wanted it. Eventually I went some distance down stream on the creek and there was a lagoon that was indifferent so I threw the stone in, noting the place in case I had to move it again. It seems that all substance is connected to cosmic purpose

I can provide the answer to your problem straight away: Never learn internal practices from a book/DVD/video/online chat/etc. unless you are an advanced practitioner and keen to learn sometime new to add some variety to the existing solid foundation built upon many years of disciplined and daily practice. You'll likely cause yourself harm if you don't otherwise.

It is actually very simple. Karma is your story about the world, and the character that you believe you are that inhabits it. Your story is constructed out of events that have already happened and whether you decided you liked them or not. Your story can be about failure, triumph, being wronged, or being right. It is the story of your player-character in the world, and your struggle for the past or the future to be somehow different. This is obviously insanity, and a waste of time, since you cannot change the past, or ever inhabit the future in this moment. If, in this moment, you decided to STOP telling the story of "self" and other, STOP the action of struggling with things that have already happened and are impossible to change, STOP telling yourself the story of a future that you cling to, you could stop generating karma. In meditation, I don't mean a technique like watching the breath here but rather where the mind is still and silent, does not generate karma - there is no-self present in meditation to generate it.