Cameron

It seems to be a really individual thing. Some guys who are really Yang and smoke weed daily and it seems to help them. Now, it would probably be better if they learned to balance themselves out using qigong but they don't have an interest in that. Psychadelics are super tricky .You can either have the most amazing experience or something that will basically fuck with your perception like what you had.

this is why I don't ever reccomend pscychadelics. even though I had SOME cool experience with them I probably had an equal amount of downright scary shit. I mean like really losing touch with the border of reality and something that resembles a greater reality but is not really inhabitable on a daily existence level.

Actually, it probably is something close to the daily awareness of the enlightened, minus the hallucinations and out of body feeling.

I had what I would call a semi enlightenment experience with Zen and the first thing I recongnized was how it was like the pscychadelic experience without all the negative crap that goes along with it. Just the open feeling of oneness and almost childish giddiness at my self in relation to the universe and other beings. A feeling of profound love and appreciation.

But that told me this is something you can get to naturally and without drugs..howerver drugs do seem to open those higher centers, deeper understanding, whatever you want to call it..but they can be dangerous.

If we are going to use the fire and water language .Pscychadelics are like an extreme fire method that almost instantly brings you to a state of higher consciosness, but at the same time burns up lots of jing. I had to spend years of qigong and chinese herbs to get back the jing I burned up with drugs.

but I will probably smoke some good weed at some point in the future..just to have fun...

I guess I was just wondering if anyone had some really positve experience with weed...looks like no

LSD is like mushrooms x10. I think the US government considers selling or even possessing it to be a serious crime.

I once had a cop come in to a guys house when we were all tripping on LSD and had an oz of ganja sitting on the table when I was like 17. I was freaking out flushing the LSD down the tiolet and the cop found the weed and then gave it back to us. Man, I was a lucky little bastard(I am a rabbit though)

As for the PC. Yeah, I here you. I mean I guess I could be 100% honest and say how LSD opened up barriers in my self that I didn't realize evene xisted .How I realizes how fake I was and how fake my firends were and how illusory it all was. It was like damn I am so full of crap..I need to improve myself..

Now..how do I improve myself?

And that did lead to a kind of frantic search for people that were real and authentic. That sort of lived in this reality that had been opened up to me. A universe that wasn't so defined and heavy..

I think what it really was is we were so immature and dumb and young and clueless. Like most people who do LSD or shrooms in College or whatever and just arent really ready for that. I mean..after I tripped I would be walking around for days just questioning everything..

I know Native Amercian Indians sometimes use Peyote(mescaline) as part of thier rituals and practice..

I guess I don't regret doing it..I just feel uncomfortable being at all pro LSD/Shrooms because I knew kids who had really bad experiences with them and even died. It's sort of hard to feel good about that.

It really comes down to the individual and the enviormnment..and obviously that whole being illegal thing...

Weed..I mean EVERYONE has smoked weed..

Ok, excluding RJ..the self proclaimed mastah of Taoist bonk toking and big draws...how many of the TB's smoke weed?

I started smoking week as a troubled teeneager..I think I was like 13,14 the first time. It was an amazing and frightning experience. I felt that I was awake in a dream but that life itself was the dream. I kept saying over and over "It's all a dream...it's all a dream."

So it was kind of tough to go back to whatever I thought was cool in middle school or high school after that.

I would say I basically wasted my high school years on weed and playing video games. I sort of got my act together but then became a near daily pot smoker when I started college.

the funny thing I got into meditation, qigong etc. along the way but I still had these weed smoking friends who came around.

The last time I smoked was a little over 2 years ago. It was some really good shit. I went outside and looked up at the stars and they were all flying around. In Az you go out and night and you can just see everything.

I remember looking at the sky thinking how all the stars are no longer statinary..they can now fly..and maybe the earth is going tos tart flying around to another part of the universe all of a sudden..gravity is no more!

So that was it..I know prefer to deal in reality.

But maybe some of you have a different opnion of the stuff? I have written posts on the HT board over the years about my experiences wth different drugs. I would say mushrooms(Pscylocibin) would be the one I would deem most spiritual. It was really out of body for me.

but I wouldn't ever recommend weed/shrooms to anyone for any genuine spiritual insight. It's insanely fun/dangerous entertainment at best.

So what's the general opnion..more or less a waste of time? Fun on occasion..

I am not talking about health here. Health wise it's all crap .I mean in terms of life in general..your outlook and shit..

You are the star of this one dude, you really let loose!

Not sure but I saw the trailer for Lion the With and the Wardrobe last night before Star Wars. I read the book when I was in 4th grade and I got chills..

Sat on line and waited for 2 hours to see you battle the Dark Lord of the Sith last night at midnight.

The part where Yoda just knocks out the two red guards using the force before fighting Lord Siddius was hilarious.

My little green friend

Kenneth S Cohen has just released a 100 days qigong training course called The Essential Qigong Training Course . It is 5 CD's, 3 DVD's and 59 page workbook.

It is from Sounds True but I think it's actually less expensive if you buy it from Amazon.com

I met Ken last year and his training definetly shows in him. He has a very clear, balanced presence and does a really funny impersonation of Carl Jung.

Durian are great. I like them alot. Darn thorny shell though!

I bought a bottle of Tahitian Noni after reading Kieth's(Trunks) dazzling review of the product. There are probably only a couple of people who's opinion and statement about something would cause me to just go get the product without thinking too much. Kieth and his impeccable character and amazing contribution to these boards over the years is definetly among them.

I'll give it a couple weeks before giving my opinion. Hopefully it lives up to the Best Supplement Ever Title..I think it just might.

Cam

But, I wouldn't claim to be particular to any tradition though, even Tao, because that is only a method and a context

That has got to be some of the coolest shit I have heard all week

Some people in Sedona say Buddha was originally Lemurian. And his teachings reflect the more ancient teachings of this mythological Pacific culture Lemuria. They also say Sedona was an underwater Lemurian city.

Don't know what that has to do with the proce of tea in China but just something I picked up over the weekend...

Speak for yourself! i am going to be back rockin' and rollin' BJJ this week. Althout on some sunconscious level it's probably still just something to make me look more powerful and cool to chicks.

Or in case I ever meet RJ in person I can choke him out

Buddha Palm! hehe

Cam

Just saw this ovie and it was a riot. Some of the coolest, off the wall fighting scenes ever . Really, really cool special effects that blew me away .Also, the story line is really fun. Must see in theatre movie.

That program is run by Jerry allan Johnson, a pretty well known teacher. I remember reading an article in Qi magazine years ago where there was some debate over whether there should be liscenced qigong doctors in this country or not .If I remember correctly Ken Cohen was debating Johnson saying qigong therapy is not something you should liscence because it's not like becoming a doctor and anyone should be able to practice it..or something. Michael Winn had something to say about it also but can't remember.

But his program looks pretty comprehensive at least on paper. I was thinking of doing Cohen's 3 year qigong program which is like a ditsance learning course. but it is more for personal development than learning to become a healer per se.

Studying to become a healer is a little tricky for me, I thought about becoming a doctor of TCM years ago but got such a negative feedback from people around me I dumped the idea.

These days moy long term goal is to get an MBA but may look into those kind of things for personal growth and to help others when I have time.

Cam

Man, this is addictive..

My understanding of the Tao is shallow

Like a piece of fruit that has not yet ripened

True understanding is clear and removes all doubt

False understanding is superficial and reduntant

Water flows, fire burns

do what your doing while you are doing it

Trust the Tao and trust youself

A wise man trusts deeply and is trusted deeply

A disliked man mistrusts everything

When you see with one eye

The false and true are distinguished

Speaking of this

I have no understanding

Like a child talking about the world of men

Like an old man speaking of his youth

Only direct understanding has value

words and concepts are another realm

One more proclamation of ignorance..

Is Samsara Nirvana?

Or is Nirvana Samsara?

I keep fogetting...

It is ungraspable and unattainable

Yet we try to grasp and attain it

It is the unborn and undying

Yet we give birth to it and kill it

It flies in the ocean

and it it swims in the air

We say one but is it really two?

When birds fly their consciousness is free

When humans strive their consciousness is caged

How can you possibly speak a word of truth

in this boundless ocean of light rays?

look me up if ya find yourself in this part of the world.  i gots a couch you could sleep on.  and the beer is cheap.

3331[/snapback]

Thanks! Are you in Hong Kong?

Exactly. Where I am at with stuff is trying to go beyond the intellect or see through the intellect as mostly an unreliable filter of things that are basically beyond the intellect. I am all for intelelctualizing things to a point and sharing experiences other wise I wouldn't bother posting here but I agree with the Zen/Tao path as an experience involving deeper parts of the mind/body than the thinking or rationalizing self.

Another way of putting it is if someone where to ask me what spirituality/Tao what have you is all about I would probably point to my heart rather than try to break it down intelelctually. As you said it can become a trap.

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Michael isn't really a fan of systematizing or organizing practice schedules too much . I remember kind of rigidly asking him how long should you do certain practices and what time of day is best and so forth and he kind of gave me a blank stare. The whole idea with his approach is to get into a realationship with the 5 shen and open up the communication. I think all of the stuff he teaches basically has this goal. Right from the qigong fundamentals class he is talking about the 5 animal movements and inner smile being a way to open up communication with the shen. Then his fusion and Kan and Li are just more involved methods of accomplishing this.

In other words..from my understanding..every single thing Winn teaches now has as it's goal to get into communication with the shen in some form or another..just from different angles.

My guess is if you really get the system down and internalize everything then all of it becomes second nature and from his theory your shen more or less take over the practice for you. You sort of elarn to trust them and they have the information(7 formulas) to balance you out.

I have has positive experiences with this and may cycle back to it but I am going with zazen type stuff for awhile. Though I find the shen often do the practices without my conscious intent.

Or you could say just knowing the HT practices gives the shen the information they need to organize things without you having to sit down and really do too much. I am still exploring these things myself but that's my present take on it.

Beautiful Jessica..I dig it.

Sort of in line with my present focus. The way Bodri explains it when you empty out you tap into Indras Net and this sort of infenent intelligence. I'll keep track of my experiences with this aspect in my culitivation journal.

Cameron

I am going to start up a practice journal and see how that goes. I have been doing quite a few different qigong forms and some HT meditations but want to experiment and just do Cessation Contemplation for 3 months. Instead of endlessly theorizing whether Bodri or Winn is correct . Bodri has said when you do Cessation Contemplation or what Taoists call Sitting and Forgetting whatever is supposed to happen happens. Hope it is some benefit and feel free to comment.

Cameron

[in Falun Gong alcohol is disadvised as little energy beings are meant to be born with practice that are driven away by the smell of alcohol.

In other traditions it is just said that it interferes with ones energy.

What do you think?

I like beer. Alot of my friends drink hard stuff and mized drinks but I prefer a pint of Guiness over Vodka any day.

I'll have a few beers at a bar or get a 6 pack like once a week though..it's not a daily indulgence.