Dainin

"Why do you see the speck in your brother's eye but fail to notice the beam in your own eye?"

 

Matthew 7:3

Who ya gonna call? Mak Tin Si!

While I like a lot of what he has to say, ultimately the government is also under the control of, and acts as a tool of, the wealthiest 1%.

I was just looking at another web site the other day that reminds me of this one a lot:

 

Tulku Lama Lobsang

 

Something about the slickness of their presentations gives me an uneasy feeling, and I

am not in the "Spiritual teachings should be given for free" camp either. I get the same

vibe from Kunlun Max and Ken Wilber as well. This isn't to say that any of their stuff is

invalid. Just a gut reaction to the way they present themselves I guess.

If you are talking about hatha yoga, I would recommend learning the Iyengar method first, as it stresses proper alignment and injury prevention. A lot of the vinyasa flow methods do not teach the details of doing the asanas, and can often lead to injuries. The Iyengar classes are held at different levels, with increasingly challenging asanas and longer holds as you move on to higher levels. Also, the classes do not follow a set sequence of asanas each time, such as in Bikram or Sivananda yoga, so personally, I find that more interesting than always knowing what to expect. The Iyengar method does not overtly stress the spiritual side very much, but I find it very good for the physical aspects. Good luck and enjoy!

Everyday Life Is the Path

 

Joshu asked Nansen: "What is the path?"

 

Nansen said: "Everyday life is the path."

 

Joshu asked: "Can it be studied?"

 

Nansen said: "If you try to study, you will be far away from it."

 

Joshu asked: "If I do not study, how can I know it is the path?"

 

Nansen said: "The path does not belong to the perception world, neither does it belong to the nonperception world. Cognition is a delusion and noncognition is senseless. If you want to reach the true path beyond doubt, place yourself in the same freedom as sky. You name it neither good nor not-good."

 

At these words Joshu was enlightened.

 

 

Mumon's comment: Nansen could melt Joshu's frozen doubts at once when Joshu asked his questions. I doubt though if Joshu reached the point that Nansen did. He needed thirty more years of study.

 

In spring, hundreds of flowers; in autumn, a harvest moon;

In summer, a refreshing breeze; in winter, snow will accompany you.

If useless things do not hang in your mind,

Any season is a good season for you.

The line of transmission started when the Shakyamuni Buddha held up a flower to his students and said nothing. The disciple Kasyapa smiled, thus becoming the first link in the chain.

Maybe if you become a celibate breatharian you can achieve such a level of purified holiness that an ascended master will bestow the teachings of The Light upon you...but don't hold your breath.

Hi Mal,

 

This is just my opinion, but I think you would get increased benefits from Surya Namaskar by doing a continuous set of them (and sweating) rather than doing smaller sets throughout the day. Maybe as a warmup prior to your tai chi and kung fu. I think a lot of the benefits of it come from the internal heat and detoxification it generates. For "mini workouts" at work, you might want to look at the 7 tiger moves (see John Peterson's book "The Miracle Seven") or the 5 Tibetan Rites.

Ma Xuzhou's qigong method is supposed to be good for the eyes:

 

Dr. Ma Xuzhou: Messenger of Brightness

 

Her father Ma Litang was also a well-known qigong master.

 

I haven't tried it myself, so I can't comment on it's effectiveness.

i think its a bit impossible to be a Muslim and a Buddhist at the same time. not that I want to get into a pissing contest between which religion is better, but the two are diametrically opposed to each other.

 

 

You might want to look into Lex Hixon and Samuel L. Lewis (aka Sufi Sam), each of them integrated both viewpoints in their lives.

... This means that there would be a centralized body of individuals devoted to making this work, who understand ALL the perceptions of people they rule.

 

The Illuminati?

A lot of extravagant health claims are made for these type of machines. Based on my family's experience, I find these claims to questionable.

 

About a year ago my stepmother Bea, who had lived with MS for many years, took a turn for the worse and was nearly completely paralyzed. My father heard the claims made for the Kangen water machines, and spent thousands of dollars on one of them, thinking that drinking this water would help her. It did not: she kept getting worse and died a few months later.

 

My dad kept on drinking the water. About 6 months before Bea died he had a full body scan that showed no problems. Now, as I detailed in the Healing Circle section of the forum, he was just diagnosed with colon, liver and lung tumors. This appears to have developed during the time he was drinking the "miracle water".

 

I'm not saying that the water caused their problems, but it certainly didn't provide any miraculous cure.

 

In my view, the water produced by juicing or blending organic produce probably provides better health benefits than the artificial processing done by these machines. Personally, I have my doubts that running tap water through a machine will make it the equivalent of water from mountain rivers in remote parts of the world. I think there is something missing, called qi.

Walden

Catch 22

On the Road

The Dharma Bums

A Journey to Ixtlan

Labyrinths

The Way of the Peaceful Warrior

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

Path Notes

 

That's more than 3, sorry!

I read a book entitled "The Original Jesus: The Buddhist Sources of Christianity" a while back, which suggested that rather than Jesus going to the east, the east came to Jesus. The authors' theory was that Theravadan Buddhist missionaries from India called the Therapeutae came to the Middle East and instructed Jesus and/or his teachers among the Essenes. They also did a lot of comparisons between Buddhist and early Christian scriptures, and there were many parallels between them. It was an interesting read.

 

On a different note, there are also a few translations of ancient Christian writings found in China along the Silk Road. They supposedly had a lot of Taoist influence. I think one of the titles was The Jesus Sutras.

I like both of Roger Jahnke's books:

 

The Healer Within: Using Traditional Chinese Techniques To Release Your Body's Own Medicine *Movement *Massage *Meditation *Breathing

 

The Healing Promise of Qi: Creating Extraordinary Wellness Through Qigong and Tai Chi

 

Bruce Frantzis' last book The CHI Revolution: Harnessing the Healing Power of Your Life Force looks like it would be a good entry level book.

 

Regarding Hugo's comments above, I don't think Dr. Yang's Root of Chinese Qigong really gives any dangerous techniques. It hardly has any techniques at all, but is an excellent book on the theories behind qigong, probably better for an intermediate student. I think Hugo is probably thinking of Qigong, The Secret of Youth: Da Mo's Muscle/Tendon Changing and Marrow/Brain Washing Classics, forms which I've heard referred to as risky if not learned from an experienced teacher.

A Country Boy can Survive (Hank Williams Jr. 1982)

 

 

The preacher man says its the end of time

and the Mississippi River she's a going dry.

The interest is up and the stock markets down

and you only get mugged if you go downtown.

I live back in the woods you see,

my woman,and the kids and the dogs and me.

I got a shotgun and a rifle and a four wheel drive

and a countryboy can survive. Country folks can survive.

 

 

I can plow a field all day long,

I can catch catfish from dusk til dawn.

Make our own whiskey and our own smoke too

aint to many things these boys can't do.

We grow good old tomatoes and homemade wine

and countryboy can survive, country folk can survive.

 

 

Because you can't stomp us out and you can't make us run,

cause we're them ole boys raised on shotguns.

We say grace and we say mam

amd if you aint into that we don't give a damn.

We came from the West Virginia coal mine's

and the Rocky Mountains and the Western skies

and we can skin a buck, we can run a trout line

and a countryboy can survive, country folks can survive.

 

 

I had a good friend in New York City

he never called me by my name just hillbilly.

My Grandpa taught me how to live off the land

and his taught him to be a business man

He used to send me pictures of the Broadway Nights

and i would send him some homemade wine

but he was killed by a man with a switchblade knife,

for forty three dollars my friend lost his life.

I'd love to spit some beechnut in that dudes eyes

and shoot him with my ole forty-five

cause a countryboy can survive, country folks can survive.

 

 

'Cause you can't stomp us out and you can't make us run,

and we're them ole boys raised on shotgun.

We say grace, we say mam,

if you aint into that we don't give a damn.

We're from North California and South Alabam'

and little towns all around this land.

We can skin a buck, and run a trout line

and a countryboy can survive,

country folks can survive,

countryboy can survive,

country folks can survive.

"Earth, water, fire, air, and space combined to make this food.

 

Numberless beings gave their lives and labor that we may eat.

 

May we be nourished so that we may nourish life."

I went to part of his 4 day seminar a few years ago, and then the whole thing about 2 months ago. The event was quite large, I think about 450 people, and made a lot of use of music and graphics projected on a screen. It was a pretty high energy presentation, and only cost $70 for the 4 days. I think they make their money back on the audivisual stuff and books, which are professional looking productions. I give him credit for introducing a lot of people to qigong.

 

In my experience the forms definitely did generate some energy, as did the "9 Breath Method" that he taught. The Level 1 and 2 forms move quite slowly compared to most of what I'm used to doing. I would guess that the level one form took about 30-40 minutes to complete, but only had about 5 movements. The most important concepts I got out of the seminar were to move a little more slowly in my own practice, and his notions about spiraling and pressing on qi were useful. The Level 3 was a kind of modified spontaneous qigong, where the movements were randomly selected from a set of about 10 different kinds of movements. I bought the DVDs, but I'm not practicing the forms. At this time I'm working on some other stuff, but I will give them a try in the future.

 

To refute a few things that are stated above: the instructor training was the same cost as the seminar: $70 (I did not take it). The "higher levels" might be more expensive, such as for putting on similar seminars. Also, the blenders were not marked up, and cost the same price as everywhere else. I got one direct from the factory a few years ago. The theory is that the 3 horsepower blender pulverizes the produce enough that the phytonutrients locked in the cellulose become absorbable, versus a juicer, where they are thrown out with the pulp. My point of view is that juicing is better for detox, blending is better for building up health. Last time, the DVD on the food healing was by Dr. Tom Wu and his wife. Now they don't appear to be on it.

 

Santiago is right that he talked about his teachers but did not mention their names, except for Wim Hof. They showed a video where a group of their instructors were being trained by Wim Hof in tummo breathing, and were then submerged in a tub of ice. That was pretty cool (or cold!). This tummo method is taught in the Level 4 class, along with nei gong and tantra, which was a separate seminar (also $70).

 

In summary, I thought his qigong forms were good, but not enough for me to give up what I'm already doing. I enjoyed the seminar, and thought it was fun and worth the money. He did not seem like an egotistical person, and always gave credit to the divine. I do agree that he should give credit to his teachers also.

The 2009 schedule for Pan Gu Shengong seminars with Master Ou, Wen Wei has been posted. He'll be coming to FL, AZ, MA, NY, Bahamas, Oregon, Indonesia, Hong Kong and China this year. These forms are very simple to learn, and really get the energy flowing, in my experience. Vincent Chu (a noted tai chi teacher from Boston) usually translates for him.

For an interesting (and humorous) look at the military's research into individuals with "special powers", you might want to check out "The Men Who Stare at Goats" by Jon Ronson.

I haven't had any personal contact with these two teachers, but their qualifications sound impressive to me:

 

 

Dr. Chang Yi Hsiang, Ph. D was the founder of a Taoism-based acupuncture school in Hawaii, which is now called World Medicine Institute. She wrote one of the earliest modern books about qigong (I think back in the 70s), under the name "Lily Sioux".

 

Dr. Effie Chow has also been teaching qigong for more than 30 years. She also puts on a number of conferences about qigong.

Bruce Frantzis learned the Dragon & Tiger qigong form from a woman:

 

From movingtiger.com:

 

"What we do know comes from Bruce Frantzis, the teacher of our Moving Tiger teachers. He learned the system in Beijing, China from 1985 to 1987. His teacher was Zhang Jai Hua, a doctor of Chinese medicine.

 

Zhang told Frantzis that she learned the exercises from her uncle, who was a monk in the Shaolin Temple in China's Henan Province. The Shaolin Temple is where the Indian monk Bodhidharma founded Chan (Zen) Buddhism and where Shaolin Kung Fu was developed. Apparently only high-ranking monks were taught the exercises; the system was not taught to lesser monks or outsiders. The monks used the system to increase their energy for use in meditation and martial arts.

 

Zhang's uncle decided to teach her only because he feared that no one in the Temple would survive the wars of the Chinese Revolution. He told her that the system had been practiced within the Temple for close to 1500 years. The Temple was founded in 496 A.D."

 

 

Also, I think Thomas Cleary translated an old book about female Taoist masters. Sorry, I can't remember the title, but perhaps someone else here might.

The Flying Mystics of Tibetan Buddhism by Glenn Mullin (who also did some books on the Six Yogas of Naropa) looks at this phenomena. I went to a lecture by the author a few years ago. He said that some people were still receiving training in this skill there, and were due to demonstrate it a few years in the future, and also that he planned to be there to witness it firsthand. I haven't kept track of what has happened regarding this since that time.

There is a full page ad in the current issue of "The Empty Vessel" by a guy doing a workshop on creating Taoist talismans. The cost of the workshop: $1000. I wonder how many attendees he will have!