Cameron

are you talkin' to me?

are YOU talkin' to ME?

I havent gotten "measuring" but it is at the top of my list after I finish my detoxification..bro

AWESOME!!GOOD JOB!!I knew if is I stuck to reading your chaotic posts long enough it would pay off and you have connected us all to a really good resource. I hope you get alot of merit from making us all aware of Bodri and Master Nan.

Deep Bow

I have been taking Source Naturals brand. Bodri takes the Allergy research one which is just a few dollars more. I'll probably buy the Allergy Research next time to compare the two.

iherb.com and pbiv.com

I was surprised when I saw ZMM had made it into my Religion in America class at ASU. Several paragraphs devoted to the use of the internet in spreading the dharma.

Maybe in a few years students will be reading about this guy Bill Bodri from NY who is teaching that all religions are just different expressions for the same spiritual stages.

No, I won't be posting week by week to tell you all how soft my skin is becoming!(though it has become very soft)

Anyway, 1st week doing Bodri's Nattokinase, Nature's Pure body and 9 bottle wind. I have been taking Nattokinase almost a month but just started the Nature's Pure Body this week.

Really good stuff. I know I still have about 3 months to go to fully detox but I noticed some improvements right away. They also sent me a free bottle of the Liver balance and kindey formula. The liver balance plus is amazing and immedietly made me feel better. Nattokinase is already a staple and as alluded to, I have experienced improved blood flow to "certain areas".

9 bottle wind is my new favorite practice. I probably look funny doing it out in public but oh well! Now If I can just get my breath retention up to 3 minutes I'll feel I am making progress!

The abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery in upstate NY, John Daido Loori, has developed what I feel is the most complete system of Zen training in America. I don't mean to say he is the best Zen teacher or is fully enlightened or any of that. But his system covers all aspects of spiritual practice and life, no matter who your teacher is or what practice your doing.

The Eight Gates are

1. Zazen. The heart of all practice. The foundation of everything.

2. Precepts practice- study of the moral and ethical teachings.

3. Liturgy practice-Chanting, making seen the unseen.

4. Academic study-Study of Buddhist texts, sutras.

5.-Work practice-engaging in Labor that affirms life.

6.-Body practice-exploring the physical body as a vehicle for self realization.

7-Art practice-Creativity and spiritual practice together.

8.Zen study-face to face instruction from an authentic Zen teacher

Whatever you do that is spiritual is entered through one of these Eight Gates. Bascially all Taoist excercises and meditations that involve the body are body practices and no different than zazen. Martial arts are no different than zazen. In work practice, you realize the mind of zazen in the everyday.

Precepts practice is also challenging and begins with the fundamental Buddhist teaching " Affirm Life, Don't kill". Whatever you can do to help life and other people is precepts practice.

The important point for beginner's like myself is to remember it's all practice. Each of the areas of training involve mindfulness and paying attention. Inevitabely, you stray from the path. If you are following the breath in zazen and your mind wanders, you notice what has happened and then you return to the breath. If you are doing your precepts practice and you break a precept you mindfully realize what you have done and return to the precepts.

the most important practice is zazen and it is the foundation. So if you are doing something else don't even bother because your not going to enter the other gates without a strong zazen practice.

For more info read:

The Eight Gates of Zen by John Daido Loori

"I" is the problem

-some Zen guy

Thanks! look forward to enlightning conversations.

gassho

It goes back to James who is the webmaster of both dragondoor and the HT site. He sent me an email right when Pavel came out and I bought his books. I got the original Combat Conditioning book from Dragondoor after that.

Mike is a great guy and he has designed several personalized training programs for me. He does clubbells sort of as a recovery from kettlebells. I think clubbells are probably useful but dont' feel the need for them right now. Indo board looks fun also but doesnt' look like something I need to have.

Still doing Zhan Zhuang every day? I have a goal in the back of my head to be able to do that for an hour. But these days I am just trying to do things that are most helpful, since my time is limited.

I also like the idea of being able to do pistols with my 2 pood...let me so if I can do it...nope!

Maybe Furey is right when he says get to 500 straight hindu squats before doing pistols in reps..oh well!

oops

www.bodybuilding.com/fun/mahler2.htm

I did a workshop with Mike and his bodyweight strength is incredible. He used to crank out thousands of Hindu Squats and hundreds of pushups but now does kettlebells and clubells.

Anyway, here's his pistol article

bodybuilding.com/fun/mahler2.htm

How long is it taking those of you who are doing this to complete? Bodri says advanced pranayama practitioners can hold each breath 3 minutes or longer which would put 9 bottle wind around half an hour to complete. Right now, My practice time isn't even close to that.

So how long are you guys taking with this? plato..Max..are you breaking 10 minutes doing this or still at 6 minutes or so like me?

Check out

www.baus.org/baus/library/ekye1.html

gassho

So I am trying bodri's detox regimen and taking all kinds of different herbs and stuff. Now to give you a quick backround of my situation, although I spent quite alot of time in my 20's on meditation and positive things I also spent quite alot of time doing less that life enhancing things. Namely..drugs.

I also smoked about a pack of cigarettes a day for ten years. But I have quit for almost 2 years now.

The main thing that is bugging me is all the cocaine that I did from a young age. I started doing lines or as my ultra hip, sexy, but ultimatly dumb NY buddies call "skiing" . Now, I was always told that Coke leaves your system after a day but I havent done any in 2 years and am getting the feeling that some of this shit is still inside of me. Is this possible? I keep getting the taste in my mouth like it's just coming out of my system..

Anyway, I don't know that I am asking the right group..my guess is you guys were not as abusive to your body at a young age as I was..in any case...is there anything else besides herbs, clean water, colon cleanse etc. people have found to really clean up the body from all this crap?

Gassho

Listening is a good way To practice I think. That is how Kuan Yin became enlightened. Kuan Yin was originally a man but has been transformed into a woman down through the ages. I remember reading somewhere that Kuan Yins practice was "listening to the sounds of suffering in the world".

Basically, just sitting and purely listening the mind quiets down of itself. It is not casual listening but very intent listening. The Zen practice of ShikanTaza that Dogen and Bodhidharma mastered is sitting like "Your hair is on fire". That kind of sitting is so intesne some practioners say you have to take a break after 30 minutes because you will be drenched with sweat!

That is also the kind of sitting the japanese samurai did. Can you imagine being so focused in your practice as if facing a warrior who intended to cut you down? The slightest hesitation or wavering of your mind would result in death.

But most people can't walk around that intense all day!

Sitting and doing the inner smile and just breathing and feeling the enegy naturally transform is a gentler approach.

I havent gone through the whole course but it looks pretty interesting .Is Enlightenment possible without a live teacher? who knows.

WWW.Geocities.com/the_Wanderling/40test01.html

My feeling now is you can't even see the path, much less walk it, if your not involved in some form of Empty Mind cultivation.

I'll tell you my story(qiuckly). I started doing empty mind cultivation over 10 years ago. I began with traditional japanese zen and studied briefly with different schools and teachers. I think many American Zen teachers are wonderful. They are some of the best people to be around and genunaly compassionate. I stated doing aikido roughly about the same time and got interested in the whole Ki/Chi cultivation practices. I found out about Healing Tao and Michael Winn and took some classes.

Although I was spending time posting on the HT board and had taken some classes I never really got too deep into it. I basically only kept up Empty Mind meditation. Outside of the classes I took with Michael Winn I never really practiced any HT formulas. I mean, I knew the formulas and they would often go spontaneously just thinking about it, but I never sat down and practiced Fusion or Kan and Li. The only thing I ever sat down to practice is Empty Mind(sitting and forgetting).

For years I would check up on the HT board and see Plato or someone else talking about there latest Kan and Li experience and it was interesting and I pondered it but NEVER practiced any of it. I just felt that real cultivation was all about letting go and saving your sexual energy and things happen naturally if you do it right.

But I always kept my mouth shut except for an occasional post on Zen or something, I didn't want to just say " This is all bullshit" or whatever especially because it always seemed that atleast someone was getting something out of the HT formulas.

So a few months ago when P started posting all about Bodri I checked it out and was mildly interested at first. I saw the manual he was selling was 700 pages long and a download and all of that, so I just put it off for awhile. Then a month or so ago I started really going over all of his free stuff. I read alot if not most of his articles and free meditation dowloads. I bought White Fat Cow and poured over that.

Anyway, I ended up emailing Bill on an almost daily basis for like weeks, and God bless him, he answered every email. I probably should have just thanked him and sepent my own time researching on my own but kept asking him question after question. Anyway, Bill finally let me know he cant' answer my every question all day and I thanked him for his time and told him I'll read up on my own from now on

The main thing I have come to in Bodri's stuff that is not found in Japanese Zen is the importance of jing retention. Pretty much all the other teachings are the same..the importance of virture or keeping the precepts, the fundamental teaching of no-self and impermanaence. But Bill has taken all of those Zen teachings and applied them to Daoist jing/qi/shen cultivation stages. Or I should say his teacher has done it and Bill has interpreted it.

So in the end, I will continue doing the practice I have been doing for years but with a hell of alot of new insight into it.

And no more thoughts about playing to much with my qi. I never really did any of it anyway...but pondered it for many years as I did Empty Mind.

But Empty Mind and the subsequesnt transformations are nicer with an inner smile I found. But I think Bodri mentions that as well.

Deep Bow,

Gasho

About a week or so before the HT board crashed I kept getting this thought. " What if the HT people pull the plug? Then all these guys who have been chatting for better or worse might lose that. It would really be much better to create an independant site where people can talk about whatever they want."

I was also a little concerned that certain people..like Plato..who are more than a little vocal about there dissatisfaction with the Chia's system might not find it easier and better for all concerned to express himself on his own discussion rather than constantly have to dis the people who's site we are using.

Anyway, I thought about it a bunch of times right before the crash happened on there and was thinking of putting the idea forward but I was just to busy with work and school for it. So here, a few short weeks later, someone else has done exactly what I was thinking about.

Good job!

The Zen Master Hakuin traveled extensively to learn from other masters. When he was 32 years old, he returned to the Shoin-ji, the temple in his home town of Hara, in present day Shizuoka Prefecture. Here, he devoted himself to teaching a growing number of disciples. Hakuin was praised by his neighbors as a teacher living an exemplary life.

A beautiful japanese girl who's parents owned a food store lived near him. One day without warning, her parents discovered that she was pregnant.

This made her parents angry. The girl would not confess who the man was, but after much harassment, she named Hakuin as the father.

In great anger the parents went to the Zen Master and scolded him in front of all his students. All Hakuin would say was "Is that so?".

After the baby was born, it was entrusted to Hakuin's care. By this time he had lost his reputation. His disciples have left him. However Hakuin was not disturbed and enjoyed taking care of the little boy. He obtained milk and other essential the boy needed from his neighbors.

A year later, the girl-mother couldn't stand it any longer. She confessed the truth to her parents-that the real father of the boy was not Hakuin but a young man working in the local fishmarket.

The father and mother of that girl went to hakuin at once. They asked his forgiveness and apologized profusely to get the boy back.

Although Hakuin loved the child as his own, he was willing. in giving up the boy all he said was "Is that so?"

my goal is to become as great as this monk

One of the things that really struck me when I moved to Az is how young people get married out here. I have two coworkers/employees in early 20's that got married couple years ago and another guy from school who is 22 and has already got married, had a kid and got divorced.

I think I am probably going to follow the path of my uncle who just got married at 35 after spending years partying and hanging out. Of course...along with jing retention and meditation that is!

I got 3 months of nattokinase, natures pure body and pranayama and following daily zen paractice. Hopefully I can clean up all the crap from my days in Ny!

I guess I can't resist the magnetic pull of you Tao Bums. Looking forward to enlightning discussions.

Now stop using my name to market your new invention on the old board Plato!!