Prince...

Um... qigong is not a fighting art, you can't learn how to fight unless you fight, and taijiquan (not qigong) teaches you how to fight (if your teacher isn't engaged in BS of course) even if you can't do ten push-ups or pack a punch. I can't do ten push-ups I don't think (never tried, what the heck for -- to damage the range of motion in my shoulders, elbows and wrists by stiffening up the muscles I might want to use to twist out of a lock or coil away from a punch?.. Thanks but no thanks. And for strong bones, which is what I want much more than stiff muscles, there's far, far better routines... qigong, e.g.. ) However, I can send a punching opponent twice my size and ten times my strength flying (no kidding, been there done that -- in a learning situation, not in a RL fight, but I don't expect to engage in many RL fights anytime soon, do you?.. and if, against expectations, I do, I'll use what I've learned in the learning situation in taiji). Even if he or she can do a hundred push-ups, or a thousand, but hasn't learned a soft MA, I still reasonably expect to do some damage using the force of his or her own punch which taiji has been teaching me to redirect. Have you tried real-life fighting with a high level taiji master? (NB -- I'm not one, I just know some.) You should, could be very illuminating.

Wow, that's really impressive. I hope to be able to demonstrate that type of ability in the future.

As for chi-- I definitely sense things... I won't say I can sense chi. I get warm, tingly sensations. Sometimes I get bliss feelings. I shake, rattle, and roll during ZZ practice. One of my friends that got my started with IMA and Qigong told me that all that stuff is good--it means I'm working out the kinks. So when I start wanting to think I'm all of a sudden a Taiji badass with my 2 years experience still struggling to learn a new long form, I recall what my buddy said--all this is good, it just means you're working out the kinks.

I think the thread has been derailed, but I wanted to set something straight...

I am a Christian.

I am in Seminary working on becoming a minister (not a priest! I'm not Catholic!!) [i've been asked this a few times]

I don't believe in Hell as in a place of eternal hellfire and damnation the way most Christians talk about it.

I am not aware of the ancient Israelite religious practices/scriptures saying anything about Hell. I may see a Rabbi concerning the existence of Hell in the Hebrew Bible, but to my knowledge, as of now, it only mentions Sheol, a place where the dead reside. To me, with limited understanding of energy, this is like a place with no Yang energy present.

If you share this with a Christian and you say,"this guy I know of that is becoming a minister says there is no hell," and they say "Jesus talks about Hell and the fire!" Jesus talks about Gehenna. This is where the Christian idea of Hell comes form. Gehenna is real. It was a big furnace where people would go to sacrifice their children to God.

Why did people do this? Hell if I know...there are a lot of fucked up things that people will do believing they are pleasing God. It doesn't mean it was good and later the act was called an abomination before God so that the practice might stop.

Unfortunately child sacrifice seems to run rampant throughout the Bible.

I just finished like 3 minutes ago...stood in Wuji (knuckle dragging posture) for almost 30 minutes. My timer was set for 25 minutes, but I was playing Yo-Yo Ma and I really liked the song that started when my timer went off. Feeling pretty good...did not get as warm as the other day, but I did a lot of shaking down in my hips... gonna ask Tao about that in my KAP review later today...

So 40 minutes seems to be the magic number? I'm not gonna say I do Yiquan exclusively, but I learned the Zhan Zhuang from Yiquan...I was taught 5 minutes/ posture= 40 minutes is better than hours of practicing my Tai Chi form...for the Qigong aspects of practicing the form. I like practicing my form because it looks cool, but in the future I hope to do it in a way that looks more like a martial art.

I have the color kunlun book. I will probably pick it up the next time I drop by my Grandma's house to pick up my winter stuff. I never did the practice, I just wanted to read the book. At that time sitting for an hour was out of the question...after KAP sitting for an hour is just a matter of if I want to wake up early or not take a nap after class before I start studying.

I'm glad the Kunlun crowd is happy with their practice. I did not try Kunlun because I was really into something else and realized I had no clue how to do their practices without a guide. I'm pretty pleased to learn that KAP1 has most of the advanced practices from that other system that I probably would've had to fly around the world to learn from personal teacher after a few years of practicing the basic meditation.

My acupuncturist had a reiki attunement and got sick immediately after it. She said she had headaches, body pains, and nausea for about 2 weeks. She asked to be un-attuned and everything went away. She said she's never had an interest in reiki after that...hahaha...but she hands out business cards for a massage therapist who also does reiki. I said I hope that's not the same person that worked on you!

Good job, Mal!

I did 20 minutes in my walk-in closet while listening to the Fearless soundtrack...been a year since I've really done any standing...did not take long for me to start shaking at all. I was feeling like a cold was coming on before I started...feel good now. Felt like I'd been in the weight room for some odd reason when I finished. I want to have another go before I do a sitting exercise and call it a night.

If it makes a difference, I also did some stuff from KAP while standing. I'm gonna try my best to do at least 2 sessions of 20 minutes a day and increase the time as the shaking drops off.

Hi Max,

you know I am against those hard practices that break the 70% rule.

You might reach that objective, but at what cost on your nervous system?

But I like the idea of building up the practice in separate moments during the day.

I might incorporate that.

Yeah...don't want to mess up your nervous system. My friend does Yiquan as a part of his Tai Chi and since he was teaching me Tai Chi before I moved-- I was doing Yiquan as part of my practice. Somebody here on TTB challenged me to do 40 minutes when I had worked my way up to 15 minutes from 8 (1 min/posture) last summer. I felt great after the first 2 days, but I started feeling weird in a way that I can't describe. I had some powerful sitting meditation sessions for a few days during that time.

Hahaha...I stopped doing Yiquan after that. I'm trying to make myself resume it as I've realized my current Tai Chi school is not teaching any type of ZZ. I had a guy drill me a few weeks ago on correcting my form where I was always taught that you learn to make corrections by doing ZZ. I just smiled and nodded. We were told to stand for at least 30 minutes before we practice the form--but nobody went into detail about what they meant by "standing."

I don't want to make it sound like the Yang Family does not teach ZZ, but I'm starting to wonder if it's one of those things they expect you to figure out on your own.

Anyway, interesting thread this has turned into! I'm gonna push myself to start back doing ZZ and combine it with my KAP practice! 5 hours though? I can find 5 hours of my day to do ZZ, but not a 5 hour block of time... too much studying to do during the week!

I thought VJ gave a great answer to the question. I don't read many of his posts, but the ones I do read seem sincere.

I mean he could be a complete dick and offend all the Buddhists and all of the Christians on the board by saying offensive things about their teachers, but he didn't.

Completely off topic, but I know I'm not the only person that thinks SereneBlue is a hotty.

Santi, I'm confused about the PSD class. The site describes it as a KAP2 supplemental but the requirement is only that you've completed KAP1? Is this a typo? Also it's sweet that you guys are doing Saturday classes. I really want to do KAP2 and can only do it on a Saturday. Tao is doing KAP2 on Saturdays, but I dunno... I'm having difficulties with stuff from KAP1 still... and then at the same time, I can feel a lot of juice running in places that I couldn't feel at all last year... after my last acupuncture appointment yesterday I've been feeling a lot in my feet. Pachelbel's Cannon in D really gets things stirring in my feet. I'm having trouble getting it to go up my legs, though and I don't feel anything in my spine...chakras are hard...oh hell...this should be going in my journal and not on TB!

Oh Santi...one day we're gonna have to take a trip into the Vatican's library...I hope there are no clairvoyant people on watch!

I thought the last Prophet Muhammad of Islam died naturally telling everyone that he is leaving the earth plane and delivering his last lecture at the age of 63 If i am not wrong.

 

I have never heard the poison issue

I don't know who the last Prophet Muhammad is. If you mean the last, as in the last of the prophets, well then that Muhammad (pbuh) [even though I am not a Muslim, I still show respect] was poisoned by a Jewish woman, I believe. She poisoned his meal.

Between the rumors that Ishmael molested Isaac and a Jewish woman killing the Prophet,there are quite a few reasons why I believe there will never be large scale peace between Ishmael and Isaac's children. But that's another topic for another forum...

Prophet Muhammad of Islam(Peace and Blessings Of Allah be upon him) died in his late fifties or early sixties, I am not sure exatly but that is also not a very long life.

Well, you know...you don't tend to live long when people poison you at any age.

The scary part is that I actually understood almost all of that.

 

Here's a toy that I like: If you don't have one - copies for class?

Power Wheel

The parent URL explains it: http://www.tpub.com/neets/book1/chapter3/1-43.htm

AHHH! Get it AWAY!!

I was a nuke electrician in the Navy and we had to memorize that blasted wheel in A-School...I can't get my Chief out of my head saying,"Power is easy as PIE!" or my Electronic's Fundamentals teacher saying "Power is easy as PIV, know what I'm sayin'"

Anyway, the sub EM's would get bored and discharged capacitors on themselves and then hold a fluorescent light bulb to their foreheads and see how long it would stay lit. I've never seen it done myself, but it always made me wonder about the possibilities of being able to store a charge and then discharge it later.

I ended up getting sick and de-nuked. They sentenced me to the Battery & Lighting shop on my carrier. We never got bored enough to try that trick despite having the entire supply of fluorescent light bulbs in our storage space-- it was even my job to order them. We were at the back of the hangar bay in a high traffic area--whenever we got bored we just opened the door and looked at all the hot girls in the crew.

I am just happy Shakti gave me the opportunity to meet, train and become one of his "Boys".

 

Well, I'm just happy I met you and Tao. I remember when I took up meditation in the Navy. I couldn't sit more than 5 minutes on the ship without getting distracted or just flat out falling asleep. I remember when 20 minutes in the barracks was an acomplishment. After taking KAP I actually have no idea how long I can sit...an hour has felt like nothing and even though my physical body was saying "we're gonna be late for class!" I still felt like I could sit longer... I never thought I'd reach the point where I could enjoy meditation...on top of all that, I can do review sessions with Tao and Santi and even though they have had a lot of students, they always know exactly who I am (and not cause I'm the one telling fart jokes) but yeah...KAP SUCKS!

This question is bothering me for a long time but i did not want to offend Santiago or hurt his business.

 

I was reading one of the earlier taobum posts written at the time of Dr. Morris passing.

 

It mentined that Dr.Morris died a HEART BROKEN man. How come someone as high as him be heart broken.

 

I can do six healing sounds and be fine or be in the NOW and be fine.

 

Dr.Morris visualized himself in the Damo's cave with practically no possesions. So how come loosing his DOJO be hurting or loosing anything.

A master is someone who the sky will fall on him and not be reffulled.

 

I think things are still shrouded in mystery about his death.

 

I also believe death is a good thing not a bad thing for any soul.

Dr. Morris was living in Louisiana and passed sometime after Hurricane Katrina. To my knowledge, Hurricane Katrina was one of the worst natural disasters to ever hit the United States. 4 years later some of the neighborhoods in the 9th ward still have not been rebuilt. Santi mentions somewhere that Doc was doing a lot of work for displaced people around that time.

I think you should take a look at a documentary "When the Levees Broke" to get a better understanding of the type of suffering Doc saw before he passed. It has been 4 years and we still have dislocated refugees in other states with no family and no place to go. Trust me, after you see the film, you won't need to have gone through a K-Awakening or become an enlightened being to know that the government's response was really fucked up and a lot of innocent people died because the Bush Administration preferred to drops bombs over Baghdad than help poor people.

Didn't the pharoahs also have a serpent projecting from their headdress near the third eye?

11 "Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

taken from The New Oxford Annotated Bible, NRSV with the Apocrypha, John 3:11-14

21 When the Canaanite, king of Arad, who dwelt in the Negeb, learned that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, he engaged Israel in battle and took some of them captive. 2 Then Israel made a vow to the LORD and said,"If You deliver this people into our hand, we will prescribe their towns." 3 The LORD heeded Israel's plea and delivered up the Canaanites; and they and their cities were proscribed. So that place was named Hormah.

 

4 They set out from Mount Hor by way of the Sea of Reeds to skirt the land of Edom. But the people grew restive on the journey, 5 and the people spoke against God and against Moses,"Why did you make us leave Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread and no water, and we have come to loathe this miserable food." 6 The LORD sent seraph serpents against the people. They bit the people and many of the Israelites died. 7 The people came to Moses and said,"We sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you. Intercede with the LORD to take away the serpents from us!" And Moses interceded for the people. 8 Then the LORD said to Moses,"Make a seraph figure and mount it on a standard. And if anyone is bitten looks at it, he shall recover." 9 Moses made a copper serpent and mounted it on a standard; and when anyone was bitten by a serpent, he would look at the copper serpent and recover.

taken from The Jewish Study Bible, Tanakh Translation, Numbers 21:1-9

verse 6. Seraph serpents, based on the verb means "burning serpents" because of their poisonous bite.

verse 9. A copper serpent more likely refers to one made of bronze, a copper-tin alloy. Heb "nehoshet" (copper) resembles the word for snake,"nahash." Rabbinic interpreters were disturbed by the nature of this cure, and suggested that it was the glance of the afflicted to their father in heaven, rather than the snake which effected the cure (b. Rosh Hash. 29a, cited in Rashi).

18 In the third year of King Hoshea son of Elah of Israel, Hezekiah son of King Ahaz of Judah became king. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years; his mother's name was Abi daughter of Zechariah. 3 He did what was pleasing to the LORD, just as his father David had done. 4 He abolished the shrines and smashed the pillars and cut down the sacred post. He also broke into pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until that time the Israelites had been offering sacrifices to it; it was called Nehushtan.

taken from The Jewish Study Bible, Tanakh Translation, 2 Kings 18:1-4

verse 4. Elimination of the open shrines concentrated worship in Jerusalem. The author describes Nehushtan, a form of the word for serpent, as an ancient relic associated with the miraculous healings in the wilderness (Num. 21: 8-9) held sacred by Israelites. Noting that the Heb actually says "he called it" (and not it was called), Rashi suggests that Hezekiah, the active subject of the sentence, labeled it "bronze serpent thing," "nehushtan" in Hebrew, as a pejorative.

No offense, but if it's not a preacher's "job" to prove Jesus's existence to "non-believers," then whose job is it?

There are different kinds of theologies and theological approaches. I don't play the "my faith is better than yours" game. I'm more concerned with "do you have spiritual life?" "is it working for you?" "is it making you a better person?"

As to whose job it is? Well, it really should not be the preachers or any preacher for that matter. You want to know how the clergy can best prove anything? Take care of the widow and the orphan, stand up for the people that don't have a voice--you know the things that Jesus (and the Hebrew Bible) says to do.

 

The fear relationship is clearly not one that the Sufis would support. Nor would the mystics of any other religion support that kind of relationship. Additionally, the fear relationship is completely inconsistent with a pantheistic god. When everything is divine, there is no fear of god. When self and god are one, there is no fear of god. Do you ever hear Buddha or Lao Tse say that god must be feared.

I can't speak for the Quran because it's been awhile since I've read one and have no knowledge of arabic, but I can say that in the Hebrew Bible when it says to fear God-- the hebrew word used can also mean respect. Instead of the beginning of wisdom starting with fearing God::The respect for God is the start of all wisdom.

If we are all created in God's image or if God has endowed us with the breath of life from God then why should we fear what is a part of us? We should respect the God aspect in us by knowing who we are as a small part of the Whole.

I wonder if Muslims, Christians, and Jews can agree on that single point? And if not...how about Esoteric Christians, Sufis, and Cabbalists?

I think I'll stop now...I'm starting to sound like I've been reading the Gospel of Thomas too much!

Same here. Ticked all the boxes. Any Yichuan instructions online at all anyone?

My last Taiji teacher taught me the postures. My new teacher says we should stand for 30 minutes before practice, but does not say much other than "stand." I am new to the class and he's not sure how much "knowledge" I have about Tai Chi since I'm still a beginner. I knew up to the middle of section 3 in Yang Family 108, but now I am part of the official Yang Family school and everything is different from what I learned.

I'm not sure what that had to do with anything...hahaha...anyway, I know the Yiquan postures. I will see if I can find them...I used to have a cheat sheet online but my PC crashed last summer and I lost it.

If I can't find and link it, maybe I will just take pictures of myself holding them (I would prefer not to do that because they may not be completely correct)