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Sri Matre Namaha and Namo Amitabha Buddhaya, Hello everyone, Just passing through. I was informed of a few deaths and saw that I was mentioned a number of times since my departure for a couple years. I was reminded of my mortality many times in my pilgrimage the last year, and immediately after while repairing relationships since then after some shifts. Here I am sharing a few insights I wanted to share that re-contextualizes past conflicts here and has vastly improved my life. 1. I was diagnosed last year shortly after turning 41 that I have Autism and ADHD--otherwise known as AuDHD. This means I am tone deaf and sound a lot angrier or more argumentative than I need to be without realizing how it would be perceived by others. My info dumping is a feature of neurodivergence, and this can be seen as being disingenuous by others, even if I and many people like me believe that clarity will help free people from wrongful assumptions and mischaracterizing my intentions. My hyperreactivity also comes from rejection sensitivity dysphoria, or RSD, a feature of ADHD. Many times I would perceive some remarks from people as a personal attack and overreact. It is better to assume good intentions and take the loss before getting into an argument since nobody wins. 2. Cultivation absolutely affects my condition for better or for worse. The right cultivation with qi, diet, and spiritual balance (separate from energy work) can moderate the physiological and neurological differences in my body. The wrong cultivation can make them worse, especially when bringing excess energy to my head. It is not my business if people want to do practices that can harm them, as they are not my students and I am not an expert, I am just a specialist at best. I don't get paid to argue and I don't teach for free. 3. Anyone and everyone can eventually be better when we yield that responsibility back to them and God/Dao/the Universe I lost many friends, including TDB member Nature Beeing or Beeing Nature, also known as Natursein on YouTube, who passed several months ago of Liver Cirrhosis around April or May as his partner informed me via WhatsApp. Some of those relationships were healed just before these people died, and some never got that resolution. As I can't wait for others to come around, it is on me to work on myself and be better instead of waiting for them to come around as a prerequisite to improving myself or reconciling. 4. Neurodivergence does make me more sensitive to energy and spirits Before my diagnosis, I noticed things in nature that I didn’t realize others couldn’t perceive. After my diagnosis, my therapist told me it’s common for us to see things and because I see better when relaxed and peaceful while when stressed I don’t perceive anything easily, I realized neurodivergence is a unique operating system, As such, I read oracles better, can notice energy quickly, and as there are several levels of third eye opening, I can sense the other side a bit better, but still need more refinement since it could be a lot more given the new responsibilities given to me by new teachers whom I have met. Anyway, that's all I wanted to say. I will stay around for a week or so to answer any questions if people had any related to my practices or me. Otherwise, you can visit my new site at innerexpeditions.squarespace.com. Thank you everyone. Sri Matre Namaha and Namo Amitabha Buddhaya.

Saw this, and it felt a bit like gatekeeping. It's the most powerful form of qigong out there, and is not locked behind an academy paywall and a guru-like teacher. I switched now to just standing and nothing else on energetics. 40mins in ball holding pose, as recommended in Marc Cohen's book Inside Zhan Zhuang. My body becomes more supple, looser as the time progresses, not harder or stiffer. An important part of that is body scanning and allowing knots of tension to release. There are experiences when tension and hardness suddenly dissolve, after which the body feels light and soft. I would advise trying it for yourself. If you feel stiffer and more stuck, as Damo intimates, then switch to wuji or moving forms. But don't take his word as gospel, without trying for yourself.

Edit: just for clarification, this is an extract from Inside Zhan Zhuang by Mark Cohen. Apologies to the author, but he's probably able to better express the point than me. On a personal level, I'm also opposed to black and white, absolutist positions on this subject. Maybe zhan zhuang is inappropriate for some beginners, and less so for others. Maybe wuji is better for some beginners, maybe less so for others. The importance is listening to your own body and responding appropriately. And always exercise critical thinking when it comes to Internet authorities.

Thank you all for your kind words and thoughts. I feel your love and support and value your friendship.

This question is quite unanswerable. Whether 2 systems are compatible can only be answered by the teachers of the 2 systems. But seldom does a teacher happen to know another system in depth. In the old days when the very original system has been taught, undiluted and unadulterated for centuries. Then another teacher may have sufficient knowledge on that system. But these days many system are recent inventions, or significantly altered, then outsiders would have no idea on what is going on.

Thread locked. I'm sorry but we no longer allow political subjects to be discussed here.

Interesting conversation (I'm sure we've all discussed this many times on this board). FWIW, we should never do just standing. Standing should be complemented by moving. So in the context of Taijiquan, if we stand (beginners should not stand for more than 5-10 minutes and slowly build up standing time) - it builds power, we should also practice a moving form to circulate the power. If people only stand, they can end up damaging their kidneys or other health problems. Another thing about standing, imho, is that the mental state is very important - one must be "sung" in the mind as well as the body.

As far as I understand, to get into Master Wang's retreat now, the process is as follows: You need to attend one of the basic seminars with one of his students, Nathan is one of them, and learn the basic skills there, mastering sitting for three hours. After that, they'll tell you where Master Wang's next retreat is. Master Wang no longer holds retreats for beginners, so there's no real public information. You need to keep in touch with someone who knows Master Wang personally, and then you can find out the next date. And most likely, there won't be any more public beginner retreats. Another option is to go to Dalian, where Master Wang lives, stay there for a while, and then you can attend a retreat; he regularly holds retreats there for advanced students.

I am still here arguing with some old timers. Arguing with the same old things. I hope I'll never win. If I do, then, there is nothing to do here anymore.

'' ... So then the wife said ; 'What are you going to do today ?' I said ; 'Nothing.' She said ; ' You did that yesterday .' I said ; ' I ain't finished yet .' ''

A Bastet case, I have become reading sonnets, having fun The port is good, so they declare in Portugal, some cat is there who sweeps a tail across the rug and makes a toy of some poor bug photo Jon Bodsworth

Cool cats rarely follow rules, or get good grades in public schools. They cultivate an air of mystery, not for them the one two three. So Apech´s drinking wine in Portugal, and not concerned with us at all. Let alone the great cat Bastet, who surely deserves her own sonnet. meow

He's done a lot of Egyptian study yet never talks of Bastet, buddy. What kind of cool white cat is that?

Not my brother, a friend. And in reality he´s a sweet guy and I don´t wish him any harm. Just someone who got caught up, as so many of us do, in a particular mind loop. For brother Apech He´s a cool white cat, who knows where it´s at. He´s done lots of Egyptian study, I´m lucky he´s my buddy.

Your experience does not contradict my statement. The thing is, there's no such generic thing as "scientists." I also have a master's (so what) and am a descendant of four generations of Ph.D.s, two of which achieved truly great things in (of all things) agricultural sciences whose positive impact lasts till today. (No, not pesticides or genetic modifications, nothing of the sort. Real agricultural science as it used to exist before all that jazz.) You may want to re-read what I wrote with this idea in mind: "scientists" and "science" is a profoundly ephemeral concept. Smoke and mirrors that may hide anyone and anything. That's the generic everyday use (or rather glaringly wrongful misuse) of the term "science," which (as @zerostao pointed out in the statement I was expounding on) is absolutely equal to a belief system. We are trained to believe statements we are told originate from "Science." "Trust the Science" absolutely equals "In God We Trust" -- it's a statement of belief plus a commandment. Real science has nothing to do with statements of belief and commandments. And real scientists... the system is set up to produce very few of those -- and disown, discredit, persecute them if they fail to toe the indoctrinators' line. But enough tangent.

Even if an ant eats a bald eagle, it will never achieve the greatness of a street pigeon

It doesn't matter if someone believes or not; if there is functionality. No autopsy will find a mco in a cadaver. The cadaver is dead and no longer an active energy vessel. There are results from running mco. That, idk how many practitioners over the years, spanning generations, generally agree upon. Mco is not a physical structure it is a dynamic energy pathway. Once again, the "scientific" view is exposed by its limitations by disregarding the subjective and only relying on the objective. Edit/ I said it before and it remains true that science itself, is a belief systen

I don’t really have a belief in qi. I do have a daily physical interaction with it like I have an interaction with my coffee table in my living room. To say I have a belief in qi would be like saying I have a belief in my coffee table. Its physical existence is self evident through my direct experience making whether I have a belief in it irrelevant. .The difference is I work on my connection with qi whereas I take my coffee table for granted and don’t give it much attention. . Because I work on that experience with qi the experience deepens and changes. I don’t have much expectation for specific outcomes but I am pleasantly surprised when i see changes or the experience deepens. Regardless I find it a pleasant challenge to work with. I am told it can take you quite far in connecting with spirit or the divine or whatever you want to call it. Rather than believing in this I think it is healthier to just keep going and to continue to observe what arises and be grateful for the experience.

Substance literally means what stands under ... so for instance the substance of a table might be wood. So the wood is more 'basic' or underlying in the sense that if there were no wood there would be no table (provided it is a wooden one). In the case of internal alchemy the substance(s) are what lies behind appearance. The deeper you go the more 'real' you get ... in the sense of being without dependence on anything beneath. I think the question 'is the MCO real' is the wrong one. It would be better to ask 'does it work?' or 'what does it do?' or perhaps 'how do you make it work' but this question gives rise to the general question 'can you make it work or does it just happen'. Most if not all energy exercises/techniques or practices simply replicate intentionally things that happen naturally. So a certain breathing practice if done with conscious will simply replicates something that would arise naturally if the circumstances arise. For instance vase breathing, abdominal breathing, embryonic breathing and so on are all like this (in my experience). I would put the MCO in the same category. The danger in practicing without first achieving deep meditational states is that you replace the genuine cycling of energy with an imagined substitute which does not and cannot hit the spot so to speak. But equally you have to gain some familiarity with the subtle body and its workings in order to progress and so as you absorb intellectually the principles of the working of the subtle body this in itself stimulates it into action.

Once again, a big thanks to all of you. Met him today, and I do suspect that the well wishes of the wizard bums made a difference in him, truly.

When I first got into running, I read a great book called Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. One assertion the book made is that we are hairless due to natural selection. Our lack of hair and ability to sweat gives us a distinct advantage in hunting over hairy, four legged animals that are much faster. They can run faster but can only lower their temperature through panting so they are forced to periodically stop and rest or they overheat. Humans, on the other hand, can lower temperature through sweating so it is possible for us to keep running for hours, even days, without stopping. As long as we can keep the faster animal in our sight, we will eventually catch them. McDougall postulates this is one reason we have come to dominate other species. The book goes into some interesting territory, including the Raramuri people of Mexico who are amazing runners. One just won an ultra-marathon, in fact, running in traditional sandals and a long skirt with no formal training. Before running the ultra, she walked 14 hours just to get there. https://www.onlygoodnewsdaily.com/post/indigenous-runner-wins-canyon-ultramarathon

Hi everyone! Been practicing Qi Gong on and off for a little over 5 years but first came across it more than 13 years ago via books - very excited to learn from this forum and connect with like-minded individuals

Looks delicious. I´m of the opinion that anything topped with broiled cheese is delicious -- but that´s not an unpopular opinion.

If you had half a brain you could make cauliflower cheese:

Maybe the beauty of having all these "brains" is that we can change what we think without staying strictly in our head. There´s a gut-brain axis? Good! Let me change my thoughts by eating differently. Movement works too as well as various cultivation practices. Getting the right kind of sunshine can have a profound effect on the kind of thoughts associated with a bad mood. It´s often easier to change thoughts indirectly -- by working with the systems that effect the various brains -- than trying to strongarm thoughts on a cognitive level.

Thank you Steve, and condolences for your recent loss as well. Thank you for your vote of confidence. As I am a professional and have changed a bit the last couple years, I would rather not get into offering my opinion on forums as much as possible unless asked because it has led to too many arguments, misunderstandings, and if not my own prior volatility, other people reading it as hostility despite my intentions to be restrained due to my tone being too robotic or my attempts at sarcasm seeming rude. People who do want my opinion can ask me or just go to my page linked above. Such is a reminder that we are not unnoticed especially in our absence! Hello, old friend! I sent an email to you earlier this year and am glad I got to hear from you during this brief visit. Glad your health is better too.

Thank you all very much, my father has been very ill and passed early this morning. I value all of your good wishes and friendship.

Science is fascinating, so I can´t fault those who make it´s study their life´s work, though there are certainly ethical landmines to be navigated -- and some navigate them with more humility and grace than others. But I like to think there´s a special place in some unfathomable lower realm for those who know nothing of science themselves but proudly declare "I believe in science" in an attempt to coerce relatives and friends to make a given behavioral choice. Not that I´m bitter or anything.

Likewise, I hold respect for you. And find value in your post If my posture, breathing, circulation, immune system, nervous system, and calmness, have benefitted from hallucinations, that is still winning.

Latest interview by Rudi:

she said female cats are normally closer to Tao than often warring tom cats.

@steve My condolences to you and your family. Sending you love and best wishes.

Sorry for your loss, steve, stay strong at this difficult time. Best wishes to you and your family.

Sorry for your loss Steve. Hope that over time you find healing. I lost my brother earlier this year and have been learning much about grief. Best wishes and good healing to you.

It comes from wuji (tao-in-stillness) transforming into taiji (tao-in-motion) also going by Xiantian and Houtian. Yang floats upward, yin sinks downward. That's the beginning of heaven and earth. "In the heaven images arise, on earth they take shape," as the Ta Chuan explains it. (Unlike in all hierarchical systems, it's not "heaven first, earth later," it's a mutually dependent and simultaneous process.) And then every step of the way the pattern gets refined/complicated -- up to 64 steps times five times eight and their ten thousand combinations... and that's the outer border of a meaningful pattern. Beyond it lies Hundun, where there's no pattern. Chaos. Plenty of information, no meaning.

Oh deary dear. Was it Richard Feynman who said if you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don’t understand quantum mechanics. What chance does a shiatsu person stand and why would they think they are incorporating it into their practice.

Stock market contrarians will tell you that by the time ordinary people on the street are saying to invest in X, it´s time to get out. Opinions are like that too: if everybody believes it, it´s probably no longer true.

The quote from Mathew is about when you can not fight back with anything but your ability to stay centered and say ' Is that all you got ? No matter what you do , my spirit still stands strong' . * The quote from Luke is about when you can fight back and cause change . Life is varied .... and sometimes we need to 'adapt our philosophy' according to circumstances . * Husayn Ali was banished and imprisoned for his beliefs . But he took the ' Matthew approach and that caused people to become curious, admire and eventually follow him . So the authorities would send him somewhere else ; the same would happen there . Even in jails , they would have to move him as the guards started to be effected by him . Eventually he became the leader and founder / prophet of a new world religion .... the Bahai's . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baháʼu'lláh# Previous to this their forerunners , the Babi's took the 'Luke approach ' ... they were crushed by the Muslim forces . .

We still are tribal, animalistic to a degree, maybe in a 100,000 years it will be ironed out, who knows? We can work on ourselves and stop contributing to violence and teach the new generation better ways but yes, we still live in a violent world.

Anemoia. From The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, by John Koenig, comes a word the language badly needed but never had until 2021. It's the feeling of nostalgia for a time you've never known. A wistful longing for an idealized past that exists only in imagination or secondhand accounts. When I first came to the US, to New York specifically, it was a different city from what it is today, and far as I'm concerned, a better one. But back then my older female co-workers, native New Yorkers, would often tell me about New York they used to know in their childhood and youth, and it was nothing like the city I was witnessing... it sounded like a dream, an urban fairy land. On more than one occasion they actually shed a tear telling me about that lost city. And they gave me anemoia. That's just one example. I'm massively afflicted by that feeling for many purposes. Some of it overlaps with nostalgia for the worlds (sic) I knew in this life, some must be genetic memory, and some -- possibly -- memories of past lives. I wonder how widespread this anemoia thing is.

I mean individually. What was the spark that started your journey

A very dear friend of mine suffered bad sexual abuse as a young girl . Her and her step-sister (in a similar situation from the same man) did a runner from their small rural and a bit isolated community - a few farms together in a small inland valley . Eventually they took off ..... 'went bush ' . Now they were free but in fear of being 'hunted' and bought home or being turned in to the authorities and now, two young teens alone in the bush ... they still did not feel safe . One day two women riders found their vacant camp . By looking at the camp, they knew something was up ; whosoever camp it was , it looked like they knew somewhat what they were doing, but some indications made them curious and worried . So they went looking for them . And they tracked and found them . My friend said, if they had not realized they were women, they would have taken off . They sat and chatted with the two older women , who seemed amazingly understanding and sympathetic when they heard their story . '' You need to come with us , we have a safe place , you will fit right in ..'' So they did , and that is how that (now a ) woman came to live for a while , and have times of refuge, at 'Women's Land ' . She picked up some skills there too , as women do everything there , and teach others . - Women's Land is a near myth around here , it has been going for a long time . Its a closed rural community out in the 'semi-wilderness'. One can imagine from the title .... no men allowed . It was started for women ( and perhaps by women ) that had a similar experience to those girls . That woman, who was that little girl was my GF for a time and when I found out what area she spent her young days in I asked her ; ''Hey ! Have you ever heard of Women's Land ? is it a real place ? '' '' Women's Land ! .... Heard of it ? .... I used to live there ! and run away to there all the time ! '' ( Thats how I heard this story ) . - I guess I found my 'special place ' as well

Haven't been around for awhile. I thought this might be worth a look. The author hadn't been explored the last time I was here.

While there are many different approaches to learning the lessons of static stance work, in my work with a number of different systems there seemed to be a basic, simpler stance taught as a platform with modifications built on that - as many as 20 or 30 or more. This often included different leg stances as well. I think one can go quite far in cultivation just with the simple, basic “platform” stance. In my previous comment becoming more adept at having one’s mind absorbed inside applying song and ting, opening yong quan, learning how to respond to physical and mental discomfort and both connecting with and directing the upward rising expanding energy to open the body and build energy can all be cultivated in the basic simple”wuji” stance. In the systems I am familiar with, Additions/modifications are made to the basic platform stance for specific cultivation reasons which will vary based on the art you study and how your teacher was taught. The way I learned Zhang Zhuang was as a specific application working on a specific quality after a good deal of time in basic stance and movement practices. For me the prep work enabled me to connect with the lesson. Others might emphasize ZZ more and earlier in their study for reasons relative to their art and their teacher’s experience/preference. dwai makes an important point about over reliance on static postures and the need to balance them with movement to avoid stagnation and associated health consequences. Easy to get carried away with what you like to do, whatever it is. Trying to physically impose your will on your body practicing something or at a level you are not ready for also could also lead to this and some other nasty problems as well. My yoga teacher always counseled against imposition in practice as it carried a price, sometimes a lot higher than you bargained for. There is another saying from yoga about energy work that I think is applicable here - When taming wild animals it’s usually a good idea to take your time. On balancing static practices with movement, I would emphasize that this movement include movement of the physical body with just Yi and qi (not only external physically based movements). This is important for both cultivation and health reasons.

Still enjoying these meditations after 16 years of practice 😊

This is how a beginner does. There is no such thing as not for beginners. Otherwise, where would a beginner start to do something.

No, you may mean something else, but what I said refers to the level of skill, the development and refinement of qi with all its taiji-specific derivatives including fajin -- and its availability on a whole new level to those who had developed and refined it. Short jin refers to its concentration into ever-smaller units (in actual distance of application, among other things, but not only) of ever-greater power. Basically you generate it at what looks like a simple touch, not a punch, not a kick, not a push... just touch. You need to place yourself on the receiving end of short jin in order to get an idea of what it's about. A high level teaching master can show you... once. Once is enough, and you won't ask for more, I guarantee it. But you will understand what you're working toward. (And there's no other way. )

oldie but a goodie.

Vajrayana is highly influenced not only by Shaivic tantra in Northern India but also the Greek and Zoroastrian practices of modern Afghanistan/Pakistan/Tajikistan. Lama Glenn Mullin has stated that the Nyingma school was brought in from primarily Persian texts that were translated into Tibetan. Bonpo's later iteration seems to have come from Tajikistan nearby. We also see proto-Vajrayana preserved in the Shingon school of Japanese Buddhism. Manichaeism seems to have been an influence as well with many calling Mani the Buddha of Light.