Michael Sternbach

GreytoWhite,

Your video is showing once again that Taiji and White Crane have a number of principles in common.

I am still interested to find out more about White Crane's Fa-jin methods.

Okinawan karate was heavily influenced by the Liu family's Feeding Crane style.

As you certainly know, there are several Fujian White Crane styles. Why do you think that Liu family's Feeding Crane in particular was a major influence?

I think the people in charge were trying to tone things down so aikido would be allowed by their military victors ?

I rather think that Aikido was too esoteric or "soft" for them. The same reason why they actually even turned down Goju-ryu, Wado-ryu and Shito-ryu Karate. JKA Shotokan with its straightforward "kill or get killed" approach came in handy.

Well , all kata moves should have more than 1 application I reckon . Where you referring to the opening ( 3rd move, I think) Niharchin Nidan ? - The simultaneous block reversed fist strike ? I dont understand how the bukai applied properly directs the kick into the target .... especially considering tai sebaki ?

Obviously some misunderstanding here... you mean this sequence?

Yes, this makes sense - capture that arm, then reversed fist strike or vertical back knuckle to the head.

You can also throw a kick in as shown just before 2:30.

But I'm not sure how you would catch kick with any of these moves?

Btw, when I wrote that kicks to the bladder work well, what I meant was simply a short forward thrust kick off the front leg. Hurts like a bitch. If nothing else, it drives the adversary backwards (well, mostly his lower section) - making him stretch out his neck. A chop to the carotid sinus, delivered with the front hand, will then almost certainly result in a knock-out.

Groin kicks for self-defence are overrated, imo ("just kick 'em all in the nuts and get out of there"). They're unreliable - some guys can take quite a hard hit there in the heat of a fight as David above reports, too. Plus, men are reflexively very protective of their groin.

Except that is the Fuse and Kuda descent from Hohan Soken, its not Seito ... that could only be passed on (as the head) to a family member. Mr. Nishihiri didnt have a martial heir... so Seito Matsamura Shorin Ryu ended with him.

Okay. My primary source on Matsumura Shorin-ryu is George W. Alexander who studied from Kuda and also did a lot of original research on the Okinawan White Crane variation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2BimSrNmhc

Talking about the Aikido links: A lot to read - very interesting material. Much appreciated.

Thx Michael , in order to get a better understanding of this , please demonstrate your point with context that we can relate to in very day life .

Okay.

Autumn is Yin relative to summer, but Yang relative to winter.

Judo is Yin relative to Karate, but Yang relative to Aikido.

Toto is Yin relative to Saxon, but Yang relative to Celine Dion.

Angelina Jolie is Yang relative to Audrey Hepburn but Yin relative to Sylvester Stallone.

The book I recommend contains (besides the classical methods) a special qigong form for diabetes patients that takes about 45 minutes to perform and which unites a number of proven traditional techniques.

This is of course not meant to belittle other methods.

Thanks for the feedback. Glad to be of assistance, especially regarding alternative medical treatments, including more serious health problems. There is such a lack of knowledge regarding this generally, albeit the situation has improved over the last decades. So much good can be done in this area.

The full article is here:

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-29255792

 

His frankness seems to have been widely welcomed - clearly people seem to like it that he is not putting himself on a pedestal of certainty.

 

But I can't help thinking that this man is the head of the Anglican church - the spiritual leader of an estimated 86 million souls worldwide!

 

How can it be that he has not gained a bit more spiritual confidence?

 

How can it be that the modern Christian leaders are still trapped in the sterile intellectual dichotomy of existence versus non-existence of God?

I'd say, it's illustrating that any dualistic concept of God or spirituality leaves one in doubt, eventually.

Then we gain a glimpse of the Archbishop's methods of prayer...

 

So it seems that interspersed between the pounding of his feet and his heart, and his heavy breathing and the dodging of pedestrians, the snatches of mental monologue he hears in his head is his idea of prayer?

 

Can anything more vulgar be imagined?

I beg to differ. You could actually say that a spontaneous and natural approach is expressing true belief. (See this as linked to my first paragraph.)

Anyone who has made even a semi-serious attempt at prayer/meditation soon understands that it requires the very highest levels of concentration. Silence and solitude are incredibly useful aids to this. But the Archbishop thinks it can be something to be squeezed in to his daily jog!

If one's meditation/prayer would be limited to this, it may seem to be lacking in the long run (no pun intended). Especially if you are an Archbishop.

However, there is nothing wrong with doing these things informally per se. Especially on the more advanced levels, you can do them at a moment's notice. Surely, Jesus would be a good example for this?

And at the same time he all but confesses that his God is some kind of helperouter, someone to call up whilst out jogging for a bit of advice!

 

Only the spiritually immature would call upon God in this way.

See my last paragraph.

To understand God is to to understand that there is a part of us that is perfect and whole and loved regardless of our daily problems. It is by focussing on our spiritual selfhood that our daily problems attain manageable proportions.

 

But the spiritually immature are still very much wrapped up in all the hubbub of the world. Quite frankly, they want real world solutions to the problems without for a moment imagining that the problem is themselves and their overestimation of the inessential.

Some truth in this.

He admits that all this 'is not probably what the Archbishop of Canterbury should say.' No doubt he means that it is politically reckless to admit doubt.

 

But he should be able to say what he wants, and it is surely better that he admit his immaturity rather than attempt the appearance of holiness.

I strongly agree with you here.

But there is one brutal truth that remains. A good deal of his ´deacons, priests, chaplains, lay readers, alter-servers and everyday church-goers will instantly recognise in this speech the tell-tale signs of spiritual immaturity. They will doubtless have passed through, and resolved, perhaps long ago, the same kind of crisis.

 

How on earth does he maintain his spiritual authority. His words are nothing other than the admission that the skills that brought him to the head of the Anglican Church were merely administrative.

Well, this is often the case, and not limited to Christian institutions. Didn't you know?

Yes, the Archbishop's attitude is not very assertive for faith in the classic style. But in the new paradigm, knowledge and personal experience are substituted for pure belief. Christian organizations which don't take into account people's increasing spirituality will lose all their significance over time, imo... as their unprecedented loss of followers in modern times demonstrates!

Mike,

Your honesty is to be complimented. Your statements make it obvious: Somebody who is so fixated on the Yang aspects of life so much will sooner or later have to deal with the Yin side.

That's not me who is telling you this; it's right what your penis is telling you.

Dan,

For use of qigong in diabetes treatment, also see

Tianju Liu: Chinese Medical Qigong Therapy

which has a chapter on diabetes followed by one on obesity.

Highly recommended reading.

Hi DreamBliss,

The whole book is about Seth's "magical approach." It could even be said that all of his books are. It's not something that could be comprehensively summoned in a short text. As little as the Daoist view could be (actually, the two share much in common.)

So I can't offer you such a summary. Same for Seth's "frameworks." But if you are interested in talking about these topics with an old friend of the Seth books, let me hear from you.

Wow, I think I would just concentrate on learning the terms that I hear and come across on astrology forums. I googled "2 and a half signs" and I found nothing related. What do you exactly call those divisions?

You should have googled for two and a half degrees of a sign (that's what the elevated little circle is meant to convey). They're called dwadasamas.

See

http://www.internationalastrologers.com/dwadasama.htm

These are the degrees that I'm talking about: http://horoscopespot.net/category/signs/pisces/days-pisces/

 

Just find your zodiac sign in there. I'm a Pisces Sun with 29.07 degrees and what it says is quite accurate. Just google "anaretic degrees" for more info regarding the karmic degrees.

I do know the basic idea. I just don't like calling these degrees "karmic."

The 'New Age' in hippy culture started within the time of the Hippy movement, it was a new age to come, soon became a 'dawning' and then somehow here and now. Dates may vary (as astrology has no real way of defining the position of the E.P. ) but are they so varied as to coincide with 1904 ???

Easily. See my next paragraph.

If we are 'in' the new age and that is the age of Aquarius then, as an astrologer, can you tell me when the equinoctial point will be 'in ' Aquarius ?

Nope. Quoting from Wikipedia's article "Age of Aquarius":

According to different astrologers' calculations, approximated dates for entering the Age of Aquarius range from 1447 AD (Terry MacKinnell) to 3597 (John Addey). Astrologers do not agree on when the Aquarian age will start or even if it has already started. Nicholas Campion in The Book of World Horoscopes lists various references from mainly astrological sources for the start of the Age of Aquarius. Based on the research by Nicholas Campion, most published material on the subject state that the Age of Aquarius arrived in the 20th century (29 claims), with the 24th century in second place with twelve claimants.

So Crowley's dating for the beginning of the new Age fits in well with a number of others.

Unless you can show some link between Crowley's own idea about the 3 'aeons' and the GD ceremony of rotating officers at the equinox, and the Theosophically Vedic idea about the cycles of time and how that passed into new age culture. Different traditions have all had 'cycles of times' theories but I doubt Crowley's ideas developed into the new Age ones about Age of Aquarius.

Surely theosophic authors like Alice A. Bailey and Dane Rudhyar played an important role for the 60s New Age concept in its more sophisticated version. But probably, Crowley did have a significant influence, too. His thelemic philosophy seems quite in accordance with many of the tenets belonging that cultural movement.

Talking about why the RWS tarot deck is often said to be comparatively easier to read, yes, you have answered that question yourself. The cartoon-like imagery serves as a reminder/inspiration of the meaning, especially for the beginner. In another way, the Thoth suit cards are quite suggestive, too. Whereas older decks like Marseille or Wirth provide mere "patterns" whose meaning must mostly be simply memorized, at least in the initial stages.

I haven't been following this thread recently. But on seeing it again, what popped into my mind is that Yin and Yang are relative terms. An analogy from science: An element's electrochemical potential can be negative in relation to another's but positive in relation to a third one.

Its as 'true' as the world it functions in.

 

Its 'truth' however needs 'modification' from aspects beyond the ego.

 

Whether the 'true self' is centered in ego or concepts 'beyond' ego, is a big philosophical debate. I suppose first, we would have to work out what 'true self' actually means. And why the concept of 'true self' should automatically be centred outside of the ego (the central outward functioning part of the psyche); one could even claim the true self lies within the Id but is modified from without (by a feedback loop from others and society) ; the Super-ego , then forming the false social self or 'personna' of the ego.

 

Is 'true-self' centred in concepts of socio-cultural relationships ( laws, rules, paradigms, mores and taboos) : individuality going through the process of individuation / initiation or is true self centred in Super-ego that is actually formed via feedback from others?

In astrology, sometimes the Moon is seen as representing the ego, reflecting the light of the Sun or the Self/Soul. At other times, the Sun is the conscious personality, whereas the Moon stands for the subconscious. I have heard an alchemist say that the ego and the solar self are actually one and the same - if only the former would realize it and allow itself to be illuminated. Interestingly, Zen says basically this very thing.

Yet a transformational process is essential. Saturn stakes out the boundaries of the ego or conscious personality. He is represented alchemically by the lead which needs to be transmuted into gold.

Yes, we need some more precise definitions and concepts.

Mike,

Here's a therapeutic advice: If you don't get an erection in a situation where you would normally have expected one, then it's important to find out what your body/mind is trying to tell you. Try to understand the message and act on it, rather than looking for a "switch" for getting an immediate hard-on.

It is very remarkable that the inventor of the binary numeral system our computers are using, the German mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, had a keen interest in the I Ching.

And except that it is a totally different concept ,

Not necessarily; for one thing, it's also an epoch lasting 2000 years like an astrological age. It started in 1904, according to A.C. For the Aquarius age, starting dates vary widely from one author to another, so no real contradiction here either. That's what I mean by 'New Age', primarily. (Even though there are actually a number of things converging in or near our time, astrologically.)

I'm not talking about the commercial hype version (but yes - IT'S HAPPENING!!! )

And watch What the Bleep Do We Know?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioONhpIJ-NY

A very beautiful movie which has many great scientists speaking in favour of a spiritual world view.

How about watching it together with your friend, Dustybeijing?

I once heard an interview with a reverend who is also a physicist. Asked how he reconciles the two different ways to look at the world, he answered that when he enters the church, he leaves his scientific knowledge like a piece of baggage at the door. Well, to each his own...

Personally, I find it important to bridge over the two (representing the two cerebral hemispheres, also), at least in principle. Daoism, Hermeticism and other metaphysical teachings provide ways to do this.

 

Thats a complex rave ... I sent you a long PM about it .... too long for here ... it references Waites Books , Book T , etc .

Thanks. Expect my reply by PM.

Rectified from what ? A 'corrected' Book T ?

"Rectified" from the older versions (Marseille etc.). For example, by switching Trumps VIII and XI.

 

... Crowley knew about the 'New Age' ? *

Yes, except that he called it the 'New Aeon.' This concept probably helped inspire the New Age movement and is actually pretty whacky in its own right. "Love is the law..." - I actually quite like this one!

I would have thought he would be spinning in his grave as the 'new Age' unfurls ...

If he had one! But despite all the "space cadets" out there, the New Age movement had, and continues to have, its positive effects. There was a thread started somewhere on these forums not long ago...

So some say However I only apply that thinking to decks that I think have a reasonable association. I do not consider pretty pony tarot or hello kitty tarot (who, apparently is NOT a cat, according to her creator ).

Cats in tarot?! Who has ever heard of something like this before...

Some just seem a fashion statement with no comprehension of the depth involved.

Agreed.

 

besides .... Waite just ... 'urks me'

 

here is an interesting view on him and the probable sources of his tarot ideas outside of GD (from a Masonic perspective)

 

http://www.mastermason.com/luxocculta/waite.htm

AQC Vol. 99. 1986 - [ ex Ars Quatuor Coronatorum ]

 

Yea, as far as I know Hawking only had that one big public change of mind...

But how many times does someone have the integrity to change their mind on that scale, about something they've published in a widely popular book and decades of interview responses?

 

As for Spirit not being part of the picture... I can't agree with that one...

I can't find a single thing, conceivable or not, that isn't spiritual, or rather, doesn't have a spiritual aspect.

But that's just my experience.

Yes, it certainly took courage and scientific integrity for Hawking to confess that he thinks he was wrong about black holes. Penrose would have preferred that he didn't because he needs Hawking's original theory for supporting CCC, so he doesn't agree with his change of mind.

As to everything belonging to Spirit, I agree with you. That's why I see my scientific interests as interwoven with my spiritual quest. But many a modern physicist doesn't make this connection.

Is that the Big Crunch theory? Actually, I prefer that over the Cold Death that many speak of. To not have a cold death we are going to have to slow down the expansion of the universe until we have reached a point of reversion. Tough job.

Conformal Cyclic Cosmology (CCC) is not the same as either of the two theories you mention. Penrose argues that after about 10¹⁰⁰ years, all the matter in the expanding universe will have turned into light. In such a universe, space and time become meaningless, i.e. they cease to exist or become infinite. This state is at once the foundation for another Big Bang - henceforth the game starts all over. Did you get it?

While this leaves me with open questions regarding the role of Spirit and the higher-dimensional universes that I believe ours is embedded in, I do find certain aspects of this theory very thought-provoking. As I mentioned on that congress, this concept brings to mind Hinduistic cosmology according to which, after an unspeakable number of years, the universe regresses into a state of primeval chaos (pralaya) whereupon it is born anew. Another parallel can be seen in the Hebrew Kabbalah, where that state beyond existence is called en soph aur (infinite light). In Daoist terms, you could identify the state of zero-time and zero-space with the Wu chi.

he's also changed his mind... sure mark of intelligence and wisdom to be able to change your thinking about something in the face of new information or new understanding...

As far as I know he only changed his mind regarding the question whether black holes evaporate one day or not. Talking about BHs, there is the theory that the whole universe is one and that everything that ever happens in it is recorded in its two-dimensional surface. Hello akasha chronicle? This is an example how scientific thinking is approaching mystical thinking. But they are not very aware of it, generally speaking.

Two years ago, I attended a congress on which Roger Penrose presented his CCC theory according to which the universe all turns into light after an incredible number of years and is then reborn. I went to the audience's microphone and said that I see an analogy to Hinduism and to the Kabbalah. A colleague of Roger's replied that they wouldn't mind my drawing parallels to "religion" but that such considerations were outside their scope. Later, another attendant came to me who was there hoping for a scientific answer regarding a spiritual experience he had once made. I told him: "Spirit is not part of this picture." (And directed him to an alternative physicist.)

Isn't astrology so complex? Aside from decans that are also responsible for the varied traits of people under the same zodiac sign, there are also the degrees that is responsible for your fate.

There are actually more divisions. In classical astrology, you have the steps (half-signs), the (seemingly) irregular terms, and the twelve subdivisions of a sign measuring 2½° each. Vedic astrology has even more such subdivisions.

I read that 0 and 29 degrees of any sign are karmic.

The whole chart is "karmic" insofar it reflects your past incarnations (positive and negative aspects thereof).

Especially the 29th degree. It makes the native prone to misfortune. I can attest to that.

I don't really agree that any placements are unfortunate per se. For example, Einstein and Tesla both had their Mercury in conjunction with Saturn, and in a cosmic state that would make you assume that they were imbeciles rather than two of the greatest scientific minds in history. But yes, astrology is complex, and so many factors enter the picture.

I would say that some placements are more challenging than others. But it's most important to understand that what you make out of your chart is up to you. And sometimes, the greater the challenge, the more formidable the potential reward.

Tell them that every world view so far had to be revised one day. So is it scientific to think that we are close to the ultimate answers? If they think so nevertheless, remind them that science can't tell what roughly 90% of the matter in the Universe consists of.

You may be interested in these two books:

http://www.amazon.com/Treatment-Diabetes-Mellitus-Chinese-Medicine/dp/1891845535/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1410396919&sr=8-2&keywords=diabetes+chinese+medicine

http://www.amazon.com/Diabetes-Obesity-Clinical-Practice-Medicine/dp/7117106697/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1410396919&sr=8-3&keywords=diabetes+chinese+medicine

Also, Jerry Alan Johnson may have some interesting suggestions in line with the topic.