Paradoxal

On 6/6/2024 at 6:50 AM, NaturaNaturans said:

has become radically more self focused in the past few decades/centuries. Maybe in the west especially

Within the last two thousand years, the West has repeatedly proven itself to be 'self-focused,' so I would argue that this is nothing new. However, what is new is the visibility and influence of the self-centered western European culture on the rest of the world. While colonialism and empire have been a thing for many centuries, even in the East, with the shortening of distances via improved technology (20 hour flight across the world now, which would have been a month-long journey even a century ago) and the development of communications technology, that self-centeredness is now on full display. 

 

There is also a trend of nations following American example recently, as can be seen by the spread of fashion and politics, to name only two examples. This is certainly not benign, as American 'ideals' are selfish to the extreme; the very nature of pushing individual 'freedom' to its limits is the destruction of the group. I would argue that when it comes to capitalism, it doesn't have to be self-centered, but American capitalism is; thus, because of America's current influence on world trends, capitalism becomes self-centered in its implementation. 

 

Of course, there are other factors at play here too (as Globalization is a huge field of study for a reason!), but if you examine the recent trends, I would say that a lot of it is American export. 

I am a relatively young man, as I've not yet hit thirty, so I tend to think about what I may have to do in the future and prepare for it. I don't want to ever have to go to war, to kill other humans, but when I look at the current trend, I realize I may be dragged into it no matter what I do. Thus, I prepare, in the hopes that it may save my life and the lives of those around me. 

 

This preparation comes in the form of extremely serious martial arts practice, personal study of modern medical knowledge, and most importantly, general self-betterment; it's incredible how helpful knowing how to keep calm and talk through a situation can be, but so many people ignore cultivating this. In my (subjective) view, my martial practice has saved my life from a particularly bad car crash, which I managed to walk away from with only serious spinal injuries. My medical studies, while I am not a doctor, have saved my life recently when I managed to cut an artery in a kitchen accident; because I had practiced wrapping bandages and had them on hand, I managed to stall the bleeding to get to an ER (though, I still lost about half a liter of blood in less than a minute).

 

Most importantly, the social skills I've cultivated (and still work on every day) have allowed me to get jobs, have enabled relationships that let me live my life and help me help others. While this may not sound like much, to me, these simple social skills are what needs to be cultivated to avert conflict. 

4 hours ago, NaturaNaturans said:

As far as I am concerned, the only requirement to being a Christian is attempting to follow his example.

As a non-Christian, I would love to agree with this requirement; if even *half* of proclaimed Christians attempted to follow his example, our world would be a wonderful place! Unfortunately, at least within the American versions of Christianity, I see many people systematically following the exact inverse of everything Jesus stood for. 

 

I'd really like to hear other opinions on why it has developed this way over history; why do you think this has happened?  

12 minutes ago, Nungali said:

 

Your article is in Japanese .   I didnt realise that .

Ahaha yeah... I wrote it as part of a class on academic Japanese writing, but since the library there just had so many really cool books on karate and the local martial arts/history, I couldn't help including it as a topic. Google translate is apparently decently accurate for the meanings, though I won't give it 100%.

 

21 minutes ago, Nungali said:

Quote

On that note I should move toward starting that thread on  .....  ' Karate History "    .... I suppose     although that title sounds a little boring        (  I am waiting for a rainy day  as I dont like working outside in rain ... for now its sunny and there is a lot to do out there . )  - however if you want to start it - go for it.

 

Could just be "Martial Arts History" instead to be inclusive?

 

On the rainy day, I totally get that; I'm so active right now because I managed to sever the nerve for my right thumb and can't really practice or write anything substantial, so this is a fun way to pass the time while I wait for the cast to come off.

 

24 minutes ago, Nungali said:

I explained I have a habit of doing that , been doing it for years    ie, backfisting things as i walk along , walls , telegraph poles etc  .    I even cracked a brick in he wall around my stove with big toe kicks  ... but that took about 3 years of casual kicking it 

I too, have this habit; it caused my professors no end of chagrin, as the noise was apparently very distracting and I often did it unconsciously. 

 

25 minutes ago, Nungali said:

Thats valid when there is a possibility of continuance ... but if there is none ? A decision needs to be made

100% agreed; that's why I threw everything I could into learning it while I was there. Wing Chun and Goju Ryu won't be forgotten at this point, but Motobu Udundi might. In my eyes, it's a massive cultural treasure trove that people just seem to have forgotten about!

 

27 minutes ago, Nungali said:

I agree  .   here is another (of the many ) red flags from 'instructor' .... its his story about how good at fighting they where ; Its about how him and 2 other guys from the club (when younger ) went to a tournament  and beat everyone in it . 'We just punched them in the head , they didnt know what to do about it .'    I had a hunch so I asked ; " Was it a full contact tournament ?  "  - no, "Where head punches allowed ?"  No , they got disqualified each time one of them did it

My Sifu has a similar story, except it's from when he got disqualified from a 'full contact' tournament for going full contact after confirming with the organizers that they wanted to see people knocked out. He knocked out the 'top ranked' person in their local ranking system (who was basically seeded to win) in one clean punch to the chest and got D/Q'd for it. I actually got to confirm the story a few years back when we ran into the organizer from the tournament after the annual hall of fame banquet and, in the organizer's words, "We thought we were ready and knew full contact, but we didn't. We shouldn't have DQ'd you." He remembered it over 20 years after it happened. 

 

31 minutes ago, Nungali said:

And THAT is very important . IMO a lot of the 'secret teaching' is just this . They present it to you in a part or masked form or even a hint to 'see if you can get it '   ; 'Is this guy smart enough to put two and two together ?"  

Some is, some isn't. I've had some stuff explained to me behind closed doors, which I would classify as 'secret teachings,' but usually it's stuff that's included in the curriculum; you just don't end up seeing its value until it's pointed out. 

18 minutes ago, Nungali said:

One company I worked for (film production) handed out warm woolies to keep, rain wear , and the nurse came around every morning with vit C , B and an herbal  pills  (all free )  'How come " I asked . Answer ; 'healthy happy workers are good workers '   Thats an intelligent approach .   friends son did the same , known him since he was a baby , now he has his own kids and a very successful plumbing business , at an early stage he confided in me ; If you work hard and honest and are truthful and nice to people , you get more work and they pay you better .'  ... smart kid !

If my own business ever gets off the ground, this is how I want to run it too! Such an inspiration in these dreary times, in my eyes. 

 

19 minutes ago, Nungali said:

Yep, thats why I find Zoroastrianism different . Part of their philosophy seems to have been an experiment in not only allowing diversity but encouraging it ;   well, yes, we have taken over your country , but we can help you rebuild your temples and re install your Gods there .

 

I don't know enough to comment on Zoroastrianism specifically, but this does sound a lot nicer than other systems out there; they still take over places though, which rubs me a bit wrong. I suppose just like the victims, war and conquest never grow old...

16 minutes ago, Nungali said:

I posted a vid somewhere here on this ; the idea was 'kobudo'  was the 'art form' ... the 'do'   (after 'restoration' and disbanding of feudal / Samurai system  ) and 'Budo' was the form before , realting to actual battle and life and death duelling / attacks , defense  - which would be your 'old kobudo ' .

There's a lot in modern Japanese where the 'do' and 'jutsu' implies completely different things. When describing what I practiced, I always used 'bujutsu' rather than 'budo' because I feel that you only get shallow spiritual accomplishments if you only shallowly study the martial, which I find arts that use 'do' tend to fall into; they become sport rather than life or death, which is good in some ways but loses a lot of meaning elsewhere. 

 

20 minutes ago, Nungali said:

There, a lot of what I had picked up showed its practicality . Especially the 'stepping' techniques   when on rough and uneven ground .  ( One  example of why I left my 'instructor' ; during a sword duel ,  I would maneuver him around so sun would be in his eyes , he would stop me and say 'Let's move over into the shade , the sun is in my eyes ."  I would say , " No. " .   He would walk away  ( without ending or 'bowing out' ! )  , so I would slash him down his back  (softly, of course ) .

I find that sort of thing within a fighting arts instructor to be a huge red flag. My Sifu incentivizes us to land attacks on him or dodge his attacks (we can get out of conditioning if any one of us manages to block a punch), which both serves to keep him sharp and motivate us; I've only ever seen one student block a punch (and only that once) during these, though. He always tells us that to teach, you need to be far better at what you're teaching than your students. We can always seem to mop other schools up whenever we compete, but even 3v1 I've never seen Sifu take a loss. To me, that's what a martial arts instructor needs to be like (in addition to the spiritual wisdom, of course).

 

24 minutes ago, Nungali said:

Good .... my hands look like they never done , even work .  Its all about knowing what to hit, when to hit it, how to hit it and the appropriate thing to hit it with .

 

I admit that I practice iron palm, fist, shin, and shirt, so I do place a fair amount of importance on conditioning, just because it lets me have the option to end things faster. That said, the bruises and swelling that you see on some people are the result of mistakes in conditioning rather than proper conditioning according to what I've been taught. The idea is to slowly condition yourself upwards so you don't end up causing permanent damage. Nonetheless, even without much conditioning, I'd agree that if ya know where to hit, the body's a fatal targetboard. 

 

 

27 minutes ago, Nungali said:

My position is ; there is no shame in defeat in training , if you learn from it .  We examine what works and what is impractical

This is the essence of martial practice in my opinion as well!

 

28 minutes ago, Nungali said:

Same here ; a lot does come from Chinese arts  , as you may know 'Chinese Hand' as it was called .  My style came out of a form of white crane  , also the main form 'Kusanku' and 'Chinto' both supposedly came from Chinese 'envoy' and 'pirate' .  The last form taught is 'Hakatsuru'  - Okinawan Crane .

 

Regarding the dance ;  I do a little demo of  2 or 3 sections of traditional Okinawan dance and show how it is the basis of some basic techniques ; one sequence of dance moves can be applied against a bo staff  when attacked with a  45 degree swing , the attacker ends up with one end of the bo shoved up into the groin and the other used as an arm lock pressing on the radial  nerve   and bent over with the head lowered for a  big toe flick kick ..... you see the sweet looking old ladies doing this dance in line     

 

You got to train naginata !   Lucky you !  I do  bo, jo, bokan, sai, karma, ecu ,  a bit of surujin , tanto, double machete, I always wanted to try Tenbe and Rochin but never got the chance . 

Chinese hand, Tou di, or 唐手 as it's spelled in Japanese, was indeed the name of karate before it was introduced to Japan. They switched to the character for "empty," which coincidentally could have the same sound as 唐 in Japanese (kara), as a way to distance the art from China when trying to sell it to the Japanese mainaldn. I wrote an essay in Japanese on that transition while studying abroad, though I can't comment on how good my Japanese actually is in it (https://themartialdao.com/?p=97). 

 

As for the dance, my sensei was kind enough to bring me to a traditional dance performance and tested to see if I could find the martial influences; indeed, all of the traditional dances made use of martial arts footwork and hand movements so as to obscure their true meaning from the public eye. Some of the more flashy stuff that folks do now such as Eisa actually takes entire chunks of karate katas and inserts em into the dances, which is a bit of a departure from how they were initially done but still very cool.

 

The naginata form I was taught also functioned as a bo, jo, sai, tenbe, katana, dao, and nunchaku form with slight alterations from what I was told, but I was only directly shown the naginata, bo, and katana variants. Really efficient system from what I saw.

 

As for the public info and the art dying out... I think that there might be some internal debate as to how public the art should be. My sensei refused to be filmed doing the kata for memory's sake and while he didn't outright ban me from showing others, he *did* discourage it (which I took to be a ban). As it was initially an art only for the royalty and was privately passed down as late as World War II, there's probably some reservations about showing it to the world; thus, they severely limit what's shown in the demos and online. I was never told this mind you, just my own speculation based on what I saw while there... 

16 minutes ago, Nungali said:

if you are interested , we can talk more in another thread .

 

Definitely let's! I'm very interested in hearing more! 

 

37 minutes ago, Nungali said:

 

Here is a dynamic hidden within your point 1 .

 

In  other cultures that admit  henotheism  ( unlike Judaism which struggled with it .... that is , the evidence is within the scripture but they dont like to admit it )  it would be 'Our God is more powerful and we will defeat you and your God .'  And then they loose .... <shrug> I guess your God was more powerful after all .

 

But if you are pushing only YOUR God as the supreme powerful all or only ruler , and you go into battle under his banner and protection ..... and you loose  ?

 

God must be punishing us for doing something wrong .  Its a set up for a big guilt trip .  Eventually people began to believe they where born into the world, already with this 'I done something wrong - guilt  trip  ' .   - not healthy .

Exactly! Thank you for unpacking that haha! 

 

Part of the issue in the modern (popular) versions of these religions is also the demonization of other divinities, which causes undue social friction. They acknowledge other gods as mere 'demons,' which is a huge insult to anyone who worships those gods. Basically makes it impossible to retain cordial relations between cultures of different faiths.  

8 hours ago, Elysium said:

Oh man, to train in Motobu family's style is a raging boner for most Karateka. How was it like, if I may ask?

As soon as I learned what I was being shown, I thought the same thing; unfortunately, I seemed to be the only one at the local karate club to think so. Everyone else (mostly late teens to early 20s) wanted to focus on purely sports karate and saw no use for what they called "old kobudo" (very rough translation here). 

That said, I felt everything I was shown was very practical for use in live battlefield combat (of an era before ours, anyway); it included work in combat while running, switching between various weapons, throwing weapons, and half-swording: stuff I rarely see in traditional martial arts. Much of the barehanded techniques that were focused on were designed to be used without having to condition the hands/feet and could be transitioned directly into weapons techniques; the barehanded blocks were explained in terms of sword strikes, for instance. There was also a lot of training for appearance, to make one look "royal," which included work on posture, walking/running methods, etc. 

In terms of the energetics, the forms I was taught felt more like kung fu than karate and had a qigong aspect to them. They were long and fancy compared to what I'm used to, including spinning moves, but seemed to be stylized like a dance. I was told that there were over 30 forms included in the style, but I only learned 3 (4 if we break the weapons form I learned down into a naginata form and a katana form). 

 

Also, to preempt, I've seen some demonstrations of the style on YouTube that look very little like what I learned; I don't know enough to comment on them, but I haven't seen any videos online that look anything like what I was taught, despite searching intensely.  

1 minute ago, Salvijus said:

Many people have that impression probably. But there are groups of people who practice that religion in its authentic form aswell. And go really really deep. They are not as mainstream unfortunately. So I understand why you would have that impression that you currently have. 

Even the idea that zen's goal is to "smother the passions" is mistaken; this is known as "dead tree zen" and is a mistake in practice, rather than a goal. Likewise, equating "Christ" to something a person can have a "level" of ignores the very definition of Christ. I mean no offense to you by this, but I would highly recommend at least reading the source material before presenting a logical argument on it; otherwise, it brings into question everything you say. I will not argue this further with someone who has not even read the book that he or she claims to have "deep understanding" of.

 

I will, however, agree with you that there do indeed exist sects within each religion that have valuable esoteric practices in place and that people do benefit from these practices.

6 minutes ago, Salvijus said:

@Paradoxal

 

There's no religion or spiritual tradition that hasn't been distorted and made use by ego for it's selfish purposes. 

 

In no way should that be a marker for the original value that is inside those teachings imo. 

I am not claiming that's a marker for the original value, rather, to me it appears the entire religion is structured around control rather than spirituality. Just as a good lie always contains a little truth, so too does a good scam.   

 

 

I would argue (and anger a lot of people in doing so) that Christianity, and extending to all Abrahamic religion, is "weird" because it was not designed in its surviving form to be a belief system nor to be a spiritual path, though it does retain some use as both of those. Rather, these religions were tailor-made for taking over and destroying existing culture.

I argue this on three main points:

1. Monotheism itself is war-like in nature, because it inherently rejects all "outside" belief systems as they are not the "one true god." This means that for any monotheistic religion to work, it needs to subjugate and reject all competition, rather than coexist.
2. Abrahamic religions take stories and parables out of context and attempt to claim them as their own, and continue to do so even as new belief systems pop up. For some examples of this, the story of the Tower of Babel and the great flood were both historically sourced from polytheistic Mesopotamian belief systems, while more recently, you get people trying to claim that the Abrahamic god is the universe (or the astral) itself to appeal to the new age crowd and bring them into the fold. 
3. Historic evidence further proves the above two points, as the primary way Abrahamic religion has spread is through empire and war. Most recently, of course, there's ISIS and the middle east spreading Islam through force, but even the heavy South Korean Christian denominations were created after the US destroyed their local culture while "freeing" them from communism; we, the Americans, swooped in after destroying them to offer a "savior" in Christianity. Historically, this seems to have been the favored method of spreading Abrahamic religion (though, Judaism has not done this much in recent years due to Christian suppression, we can see it happening actively in Israel right now which weakens the argument that they are somehow different).

 

Now, this is not to say that there is not value in Abrahamic religion, as I personally know many people whose lives it has enriched. It certainly contains grains of spiritual truth, and many of the parables have profound lessons that still hold up today.

 

Crucially, however, empire and colonization also held benefits for some people; this did not make those systems a net gain for the world either. If Abrahamic religion were willing to acknowledge that there were other gods and belief systems out there that could stand on equal ground with it, it would be perfectly fine; again, however, it seems tailor-made to *not* do that, so I don't expect it to happen. 

 

 

Images from the Japanese Navy HQ:

(Below is a room where a Japanese soldier committed suicide by grenade near the end of the war)

 

 

In contrast, the below images were taken from the site where the majority of the Tokashiki Islanders were forced into suicide:

 

 

Unlike the HQ, there's a shrine dedicated to placating the spirits of the dead nearby in a secluded and restricted area:

 

 

 

As for graves, I have pictures of two that I can share, both within Urasoe Gusuku.

 

The first site, I unfortunately do not know whose tomb it is and cannot read the kanji well enough to identify, so apologies; if anyone can, I'd love to have a name.

 

 

The second site is the hallowed tomb of King Sho Nei, often cited as the "tragic king" of the Ryukyus due to the Satsuma treatment of him during their takeover. People still come and pray for him in front of his tomb, over four hundred years after his death. 

 

 

6 hours ago, Nungali said:

Love to see them .  I thought there was a connection  with them to sea turtles  ?

 

Unfortunately, I don't know of a connection, but I don't claim to know everything either, soo.... I do know that Okinawans, moreso than Japanese, worship nature itself which may play a part?

 

6 hours ago, Nungali said:

Yes, his fishing spot was near a base , sadly the other side of the island supposedly had cleaner water . I  read once that Okinawa has the most military base acreage  per  overall acre of anywhere   ?  

 

Yeah, it does. According to The Auto Ethnographer, "The island is 0.6% of the Japanese land mass, and home to 75% of U.S. military facilities in Japan" (https://theautoethnographer.com/life-in-okinawa-under-the-american-military/), which lines up very well with what I was taught while I was there. The bases choke the infrastructure of the island and make transport/industry difficult, if not impossible in many areas, in addition to heavily polluting the island and destroying natural wonders.

 

6 hours ago, Nungali said:

( Can you read that ^  ?  ) 

 

I can't read the whole sign due to a combination of my own lack of kanji and the pixelization of the image, but I can make out "Shorin Ryu" at the top. I'm familiar with the name Nishihira, as I've actually done quite a bit of research into the origins of Karate while I was over there! If I'm understanding correctly, you're the student of his student, thus in his lineage, basically? Very impressive. 

 

1 hour ago, Nungali said:

 

Oooo !   I have an interest in old Okinawan  graves / shrines .

 

What where you studying in Okinawa ? 

 

Before the  mess made of the place , its position offered a very good lifestyle  and created a healthy old generation ; good  local produce , atmosphere, energy and exposed to healthy   and clean ocean currents , good fish .  That all changed after US occupation .

 

My teacher used to fish on what people said was 'the bad side ' .... bad water currents and pollution .  He used to eat the fish , unfortunately he died of brain cancer .

It was undergrad level stuff; Japanese language/culture and Okinawan culture and history.

 

I got to visit a good number of gusuku (old Ryukyu kingdom-era castles), as well as a few historically significant sites, including the Japanese navy command bunker/tunnels and the site of the first massacre of the Battle of Okinawa on Tokashiki Island, where the Japanese military rounded up all the island's civilians and forced them to commit suicide with grenades before the US troops arrived; I understand the bodies were left to rot for the rest of the war. If ya wanna talk "feel" of a place, both locations were still very definitely haunted when I visited. Interestingly, though, the spot on Tokashiki felt much more at peace than the places in the bunker, perhaps because it was on a mountaintop, or perhaps due to the shrines erected after the war for the victims.

 

As for graves and shrines... the shrines, known as Utaki locally, are a fairly distinct tradition as compared to what I've seen and read of in that area of the world. From what I was taught, the structure of an Utaki focuses on a sacred tree, which is then surrounded by some sort of wall to seclude it; this is seen as the "home" of the local deity, much like Shinto shrines, and only the priestess-like figures called Yuta (also really interesting imo, but focusing on land here, so...) are allowed in or out of one. I didn't study the tombs too much comparatively, but I recall that they were shaped like wombs to evoke the image of returning to the womb upon death. I've got a ton of pictures relating to all this, but need to sort through em to find the right ones to post. 

 

Afaik, the 'bad side' is around the US military base, as they have a habit of dumping carcinogens into the water supply (they had another big spill right as I arrived, for example). What was your teacher a teacher of, if I may ask? 

On 5/7/2024 at 3:47 PM, silent thunder said:

The Shao Lin 5 Animal (with Wing Chun)side was the foundation.

Training has been Paramount to my quality of life now.  Particularly in the rehab from several years of being semi crippled/walking with a cane.

Peace friend.

I got my start in martial arts when I was 20 with WC and the animals as well! I'm still working on it (8 years later), but due to life circumstances, it seems I'll have to find a new art pretty soon; I'm moving away next month and won't be near my Sifu anymore. 

 

While I was in Okinawa, I was blessed enough to learn some Motobu Udundi and some Goju ryu as well, which I might pursue again soon, but I think WC and the animals will always be my core.

 

One interesting tidbit I found is that the Sil Lim Tao form seems to include all the hand motions of every system I've seen so far, which never ceases to amaze me!

 

I grew up around Baltimore MD and never noticed the malice that hangs in the air here until I spent some time abroad.

 

I recall getting hit with what felt like a wave of bloodlust as the plane flew towards the airport back in 2019, which made me start thinking seriously about moving away.

 

After spending a year studying abroad in Okinawa, I found almost an exact opposite vibe there, like it was happy and welcoming despite the terrible history (though, admittedly, certain places still had the pain and bloodlust from WW2 hanging around).

 

I feel like the open air shrines common in Japan and Okinawa have a massively purifying effect on lingering energy that I haven't seen in the states yet. Might be very beneficial to invest in something similar over here, though I don't know how to convince folks not to ruin em for fun lol

On 5/9/2021 at 2:30 PM, Kongming said:

Hey guys, anyone know of the traditional interpretation as to who or what power is behind the oracle? Was it ever seen as heaven (tian), the gods (shen), immortals (xian), or some other related entity? In sum, who or what gives the answers?

 

I ask because I've received answers and had other experiences which convince me that the Yijing is most certainly "real" as it were so of course I am curious as to the power or entity, if any, behind it. I know some may respond with a more psychological interpretation as though ones own intuition reveals the answers and this may be partly true, but nonetheless remain interested in learning about any older conceptions regarding any identity to the oracle.

What I am mostly familiar with is not the Yijing, but other forms of divination, most of which are western in origin. Therefore, I cannot answer specifically on the Yijing, but I can give an answer that seems to have covered most divination that I have been exposed to. I am aware this is the Yijing section of the forum, so please forgive me for answering on such a nonspecific basis!

 

With that preface, from what I can tell, the information given comes not from an entity of sorts, nor from a split of the self such as intuition, but from a sector of the astral where all information, past and present, is kept. I believe that some people call this point the akashic records, but I don't know how accurate that name is. I feel it might be worth looking into this concept if you are looking for the source of the answers you get.

On 1/21/2021 at 4:26 AM, freeform said:

The practice had opened me up to such an extent that I felt like a magnet for everyone’s emotions. I was still working in a big office at the time - I’d meet someone’s eyes and feel this huge wave of sadness go through me... Another person would walk past and I’d feel the hangover they must be suffering with.

 

It was a pretty difficult time. Especially living in a city. I felt constantly assaulted with people’s ‘broadcasts’. I’d tear up reading the news. I’d get anxiety in the office because I couldn’t see a single piece of nature anywhere - no plants, no wood or stone - everything artificial - especially the people.

 

I remember feeling that I must leave society and be far away from people, news, politics and so on.

I was like this from birth! Generally speaking, I've always been able to feel that sort of thing in about a mile radius around me. It was definitely comparable to hell, and I would often feel the problems worse than the people suffering them themselves did! When I finally learned some sensitivity to energy, I figured out where my mood instability was coming from; it was from all the input from outside! I learned how to shield, and ended up being able to be more social than before, but still needed to shield whenever I talked to anyone or was around someone. Thankfully, in the more recent times, my cultivation practice has made it so that I no longer feel it as badly as before (though, I can still feel most intentions quite distinctly! Malicious postings are no fun to look at, for sure!), and I no longer am emotionally effected by these things. I feel it, go "oh, that poor person must be quite angry.", and move on.

 

Thinking about it now, it was both a blessing and a curse. I've definitely prevented at least five suicides thanks to this ability, as the more emotionally screwed people gravitated to me, but it also made my formative years a living hell. I think the net positives outweigh the suffering I went through because of it, but I also recognize that I walked a very thin line between sanity and insanity for the first twenty years of life! 

Have you tried sugar-free gummy bears? 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Sugar-Free-Gummy-Bears-5LBS/product-reviews/B00CMS97YS

 

 

2 minutes ago, freeform said:

I don't know them all. There are many for each part of each stage...

 

Each of the De (the virtues) for instance have a corresponding physiological sign - but there are also qualities that are attained bit by bit as you move towards transforming your De...

 

This information is generally reserved for teachers only.

Understood, thank you for sharing even a little!

1 minute ago, freeform said:

Full omniscience is one.

Would you be willing to go into signs for all three that you mentioned? I find the direct signs to be quite a nice change when compared to other things I've studied.

13 minutes ago, freeform said:

I'm not that clear on Buddhist terminology - (so this might be wrong) - but you could say that a Shengren is a stream enterer... a Zhenren is a deity or a buddha (though a deity that must return to physicality within 30 thousand years or something)... a Xian (or immortal) would never need to return.

What signs would there be of someone who is a Zhenren? 

1 hour ago, freeform said:

Each stage of inner transformation always has specific signs that are quite plain and obvious... As a minor example - once one of the 8 extraordinary channels are fully opened, the practitioner is no longer affected by ambient temperature - meaning their body is comfortable at all times - and it completely stops responding by shivering, or sweating or standing one's hair on end.

Does the lack of sweat also happen when doing severe exercise, or is it simply an immunity to external factors? 

42 minutes ago, Wilhelm said:

This seems reasonable to me.  Was it your experience that these gut feelings always came through clearly?  If so, then I think you had a 'clearer' gut than me!  Many times I thought I was going with my 'gut', but it was just my brain tricking me into believing it again!  After lots of work, I might be able to partially rely on this method 

 

I had trouble trusting in my gut initially as well. Before getting into constant samadhi, it can be quite challenging to fully "get" what your gut howls about. One way that I used to train it was something I found in a book called "DIY Magic". It's a small trick, and it goes as follows: 

Carry a coin at all times in your pocket. Whenever you have a decision to make, take the coin out of your pocket and flip the coin. Decide what decisions go with heads and tails. Catch the coin, and avoid looking at where it landed. Put it back into your pocket, and divine which side it landed on. Follow through with whichever side it landed on in your divination (guess or visualization works best). 

 

This method takes the need to think out of the equation, which gets you better at understanding *how* a gut feeling feels. Eventually, you won't need a physical coin for the same results, and can visualize flipping a coin to get your answer. Afterwards, the answer will come naturally without flipping a coin.

 

The other methods I can recommend are to simply practice making decisions with your gut (without thinking about them) to eventually learn to trust your gut, or learn to enter samadhi (though, this is quite a tall order!). When your mind is silent, your gut shines through quite nicely.

 

The thing that eventually convinced me to stop making decisions with my mind was when my gut screamed at me for over a week to take an extended break off work. I was tempted to not come in, or just quit my job entirely due to this feeling. Eventually, I made a decision mentally and asked the boss for a week off. He granted me it off, but still had me work a week ahead of time. On my last day in that last week, not even an hour into the job, I was hit by a speeding driver. Insurance refused to cover and it turned into a huge deal. If I had listened to my gut, I wouldn't have even been there to be hit by said driver!

50 minutes ago, Shanmugam said:

Unfortunately, there is no test to determine if someone is enlightened. I just want to introduce my Youtube channel to folks who want to use whatever help they can get from my own experiences.

Your aura is indeed rather pure, but it is not at the buddha level. It is good to teach what you can to others, but do not mistake a change in attitude for enlightenment. Such a change is the natural result of channels clearing, but it is definitely not the end goal of "enlightenment". Be cautious of the ego, as even when it has receded, it can still cause problems until it is fully gone.