Dainin

I am he

As you are he

As you are me

And we are all together.

Could he defeat God's Direct Contact, Supreme Master Ching Hai, in dharma combat? I wonder...

These aren't religious!

Of course you could always go sacrilegious too!

A similar story was announced recently about Brian Jones also. I think the case is being re-investigated after 40 years.

Some cat who used to be Hendrix's roadie came out recently and said that Hendrix's (now-deceased) manager admitted that he killed him.

 

For the record. There was a lengthy interview a few months ago in one of those guitar magazines.

 

Ralis, I agree with your point to a large extent, but let's not forget that many of the most "shamanistic" performers of this period (Morrison, Joplin, Hendrix, Tim Buckley, etc) died of overdoses. This would not be the case with traditional shamans (shamen?). Also, following charismatic leaders can sometimes lead down very bad paths, if they lack certain other values.

Music was an important component of the 1960s-70s societal change, but not the only one: civil rights, feminism, ecology, satellite communications, etc. all emerged around this time.

Side Note:

Drew, the guy you referred to who was supposed to have lived to 250 year old or there abouts

was Lee Ching-yuen (Li Ching Yun). One account I read said he was born in 1678 and died in 1930,

although that would be hard to prove for certain. :-)

There's more about him here:

http://plantcures.com/Lichingyun.html

Best wishes from Iskote...

Just to add a side note to your side note, Stuart Alve Olson has translated what is purported to be Li Ching Yun's writings on Eight Section Brocade: Qigong Teachings of a Taoist Immortal: The Eight Essential Exercises of Master Li Ching-yun .

He also has an Eight Brocades Workshop DVD set which sounds quite extensive and detailed. I ordered the book last week, so if I like it I'll probably get the DVD set eventually.

I remember seeing a film in anthropology class years ago that had a section on polyandry. It was about a tribe in the Himalayas, I don't think they were Tibetans necessarily. They were animal herders, and one husband would go out with the flocks, while the other stayed at home, and then they would rotate. So it wasn't like they were both there serving the wife at all times!

Ho ho ho!!!

He talks about the One-Ten meditation in one of his books and gives no instruction. If anyone knows this and would be willing to share, it would be appreciated.

You can find the instructions here:

One Through Ten Meditation

I think it is also a bonus on the DVD version of his "Chi Kung: The Healing Workout" video (I have the VHS). This is one of my favorite qigong videos, with a really good sequence of movements and good production values.

Interesting points Gold, thanks.

Your mention of the psychological aspects of this power reminds of Alejandro

Jodorowsky's movie "El Topo."

One of the master gunfighters El Topo had to face had the power of letting bullets

pass through him without causing any harm, through non-resistance. By causing

something unexpected to happen, the master's powers were disturbed and he lost.

The "anti-bullet" nei gong protection didn't work out very well in the Boxer Rebellion,

nor for those folks in the Congo. But maybe John Chang has better "special powers"!

There is an old martial arts movie called "Legendary Weapons of China" that includes

discussion of this issue.

Quite a few teachers that have been certified by their lineages as being "enlightened masters" later went on to exhibit all sorts of behaviors that would be generally considered immoral/unethical: drinking themselves to death, committing adultery with their students, lying, stealing funds, etc. I'd be interested in hearing some of your opinions on these type of questions:

Should an enlightened person automatically manifest a higher level of ethics/morality just by virtue of their enlightenment?

Is it possible that all of these masters were not really enlightened?

Could they have been enlightened once and then lost it? Does this happen? Is enlightenment as impermanent as everything else?

If a teacher acts immorally, does this negate the value of their teachings, since it didn't work for them?

Is it possible that we since we are not at their level of "enlightenment" their "crazy wisdom" cannot be understood by us, and should not be viewed as unethical?

Thank you.

In my opinion, from the very beginning all wild lions are fully liberated.

They do not need to achieve it, because their actions are pure expressions

of lion-ness.

Only those whose karma leads them to be captured by humans

and wind up in zoos, circuses or Las Vegas lose this liberation,

and enter the hell realms.

Tim Ferriss just did a nice overview of this topic on his blog earlier this week:

Lucid Dreaming: A Beginner's Guide

There is quite a bit of interesting material on his site, even if you don't care about the four hour work week angle.

Perhaps if Sri Gary Olsen and Supreme Master Ching Hai were to meet...and "co-mingle", their offspring might usher humanity into the era of ...The Messiah!

Hi Markern,

After reading your post, my feeling is that you might benefit from integrating savasana (the yogic corpse pose) into your morning practice. Do not try to control the breath in any way while doing this, just relax your body and breath and sink into the ground.

Since the beginning of the year, my usual morning practice has been 10 minutes deep breathing (the AYP Spinal Breathing Pranayama), followed by 25 minutes of zazen (counting breaths plus attention to nasal air flow), then 10 minutes of savasana. I usually do a longer session on weekends. I save the qigong, tai chi, and other more energetic stuff for a separate session at night. I haven't run into any problems with this schedule.

You are now doing energetic practices throughout the day. It might be beneficial to you to concentrate your energy work into a single daily session and allow your system time to relax and integrate this work during the rest of the day. It works for me...perhaps you'll find it helpful. Good luck!

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

Let's not forget swimming either!

There is a system call Total Immersion which focuses on swimming faster with less effort by improving form and technique for greater efficiency. It's kind of like an aquatic version of the "Chi Running" book. In fact the two authors sometimes do workshops together.

I remember watching Ian Thorpe swim in the Olympics a few years back. His form was so smooth it looked like he wasn't trying that hard, yet he was winning medals.

The page seems to refer to "Her" and "She" starting with upper case letters. If that's not an indication of Her divinity, I don't know what is!

Personally, I've always kind of liked the "Blonde Asian" look, going back to George Michael's "I Want Your Sex" video years ago!

I think I've seen the Light! Where do I sign up?

God's Direct Contact

Hallelujah!

The logic of your conclusion is unsound. You are generalizing from a small sample.

Here is another small sample, based on one yoga teacher and some of his students:

T. Krishamacharya (the teacher): deceased at age 100

His students:

B.K.S. Iyengar (age 90, still alive)

K. Pattabhi Jois (deceased at age 93)

Indra Devi (deceased at age 102)

Each of the students became teachers and developed their own distinct style of yoga,

they were not all doing the same thing. Nor was it genetics, Indra Devi was Argentinian

not Indian.

I'm sure other people could provide similar lists of very long lived IMA and qigong

masters.

In either case, the small sample can't be generalized to the general population of

practitioners of these arts. It would take a properly conducted research study with a

control group to draw any conclusion about this. A more important question in my

opinion is how is the quality of life for practitioners vs non-practitioners.

Good luck...

You might want to look into an early 1900s system called Strongfortism (after Lionel Strongfort). It combined bodyweight exercises with light weights:

Strongfortism for the Martial Artist

Strongfort's courses from the Sandow Plus website (This site has a lot of interesting old courses besides this, and another good one is the Maxalding site, which has the Maxick material).

A lot of the movements remind of things I've seen in yoga and qigong, with weights added.

Strongfort lived to be 92, for what's it worth.

Good luck to you.

A few years ago I went to qigong workshop in Miami with tai chi master Wei Lun Huang. He did a stretching segment, and he was able to do the full split with his chest on the ground. Another student in the class was able to do the same thing. I was impressed, they both had the flexibility of senior yoga teachers. During the break I asked the student if he practiced yoga, and he said no, just kung fu. So it appears that there are various methods to attain this level of flexibility.

I've read some good reviews of a book and dvd by Thomas Kurz in regard to achieving the splits. I think he uses weights in addition to stretching. There is also a booklet entitled "Becoming the Lotus" for sale on Amazon that has some routines that are supposed to lead up to full lotus. I forget the author's name...

Well, I'm not sure if either should be the starting point for a beginner to tao. Reading Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu, and learning to meditate might be better. But since you've asked, I would say both. Generally speaking, many qigong forms can be learned (not mastered) fairly quickly, and you can begin practicing and benefitting right away. Tai Chi takes much longer to learn, and a lifetime to refine...it's a long-term commitment. Many start, but do not continue for long. But it's very rewarding if you have the patience to stick with it. In my opinion, the two practices complement each other, and indeed many or all schools of tai chi include various qigong forms, both as warm ups and stand alone practices.