Cameron

Cool, I have been wussing out on my cold showers lately. Need to get on that!

I consider him to definitely be a great teacher and healer.

 

I don't know him well enough to say that he's like a saint...and I probably don't have the capability to judge that in someone else.

Saint, eh, Christian terminolgy.

Max is said to be the reincarnation of a well known ancient Egyptian Master. I experienced enough with him to believe it.

Also, I don't really think of him in those terms, but Adyashanti. A modern awakened teacher. Don't beleive me? Go to one of his satsangs and see for yourself.

Hehe, yes but Max is such a cool person I don't even think of him in those terms anymore.

He's like my eccentric Bodhisattva friend

I would second Sifu Jenny, as well as Kan in Japan. Heading to Tokyo to see him next month!

I still find Winn's interpretation of HT interesting. His take on Taoism and Buddhism is also quite interesting.

His approach to sexual practices always seemed pretty laid back and balanced. If I remember correctly he teaches that it's ok to go "all the way" but do lots of testicle breathing to draw the jing out.

I think he's also not into Iron Shirt and says that it's not really a Taoist practice. Actually, this brings up something he told me years ago when I was interested in HT, that Buddhist stuff uses force/will/intention to sort of control and manipulate the body and authentic Taoist arts use the bodies natural forces to cultivate oneself. Or something like that.

A classic example of this is when one of my first Zen teachers would call the body a "shit bag". I think from Winn's perspective this idea would be like attacking your jing.

pm me

Hi sonia =)

I have my bachelors in philosophy and I am studying my second year of chinese right now at renmin university.

 

Unfortunately I am not good enough to help translate those kinds of tales! (are they probably in ancient chinese, too? They have to be translated into contemporary mandarin with notes somewhere.....)

 

I am more of a contemporary philosopher than a religious daoist... see my metaphysic here:

 

http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?/topic/23026-anybody-care-to-comment-on-my-metaphysic/page__gopid__329135&

 

but I am also still very much in love with the taoist philosophy. I am reading the dao de jing now, and practicing a sitting form of qigong.

 

If you'd like to hang out some time at wudaokou or something, if you like. Do you like to smoke hash..?

Hi Findley,

I live right by Wudaouko myself, would be nice to hang out sometime

Nice, I haven't visited there yet myself.

So far my main Tao desitination here was Hua Shan, which is amazing.

I don't consider myself a high level practitiner at all but great to connect with someone interested in studying Tao.

Let's do lunch

As usual, I log on here and get interested in taling with ya'll

It's great other Bums are studying directly with Max. I am interested in others experiences now more then my own. So if people are drawn to share any of their own experience with Kunlun great.

If not great. Actually, I think it's not a bad idea to keep your experiences to yourself. I know it's interesting having this e community of like minded people to chat with about stuff. But it can sort of pull on you. You have to find your own center and keep it.

I am going to log off atleast until after I train with Kan San. If there is something really cool to share with you guys I will. If not I won't. My life is just to busy now to keep up with this place.

Best wishes!

I hope you guys have an awesome experience!

I will train with Kan San in Tokyo next month. Really looking forward to that.

Tell Max I said Hi!

Yeah, I begin and finish with a few minutes of quiet sitting.

If you have a practice you enjoy already stick with it!

From the very beginning of my training.

It was training at weekend at Zen Mountain Monastery in upstate NY that I found out about Qigong. My first qigong teacher was Ken Cohen. He always taught that Sitting and Forgetting is the first practice.

Even in the practice I do now, if you get Sifu Jenny's DVD she begins with quiet sitting, then moves on to Yigong.

I studied with several amazing teachers that teach it in their own way. But the basic principle is the same, balance energy work stuff with sitting and doing nothing stuff

I voted no.

I suspect these many struggles and challenges exist for a reason. And if your here on Earth your here for a reason. Instead of playing with fantasies of becoming a God I think it's best to be humble for the blessings that come into your life.

That said, I love playing God of War 3 on my PS3 and wiping out the Gods of Olympus!!!

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Since we are talking Taomeow one of my Chinese hiking friends taught me a saying in Chinese after hiking the Great Wall last weekend "everything is nothing". My grasp of basic Mandarin is developing at a slugs pace so remembering all the cool stuff will take awhile.

It of course sounds very Buddhist, the first line of the Heart Sutra "Form is emptines, emptiness is form."

I suspect your understanding is different, yes?

 

I was rather blown away when a taoist TCM doctor in China looked at me for a minute and muttered "Wood with Fire" -- which I know from my astrological chart. I doublechecked -- does he mean a "diagnosis" of sorts? No, "the type," inner feng shui, inner climate. What you were born to be. That's astrology on sight. Don't tell me "anyone" who's dabbled in cultivation can do that, 'cause I know for a fact no dabbler can, and no beginner. So feng shui and astrology are a bit of a shortcut to knowledge that you would perhaps get by other means by investing much more time and effort. (The doctor used to practice MA for 8 hours daily and study and qigong and meditate and work assisting his teachers most of the rest of the time.)

 

 

Yeah interesting. Max does this. He says when I first met him I was fire. Then switched to the opposite and became water. Then when in Hawaii he said we were all air element.

Last time he said my mind was fire and body earth, lol. So in the system I practice I don't find getting attached to the elemental makeup or trying to control them that interesting. Though of course it is interesting and cool if your naturally drawn to go deeper into it.

I have no idea myself if Taoist Immortality and Buddhist Awakening are the same thing. Some other teachers that I respect say it certainly is. While others do make the distinctions.

Are their any records from ancient China of a Buddha and Immortal having a conversation? Now that would be something cool to read

More good stuff.

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTIzNTkzMjMy.html

Revisiting this I absolutely would have to put Eckhart Tolle on the list too. And I am honored that I was able to see him live a few years ago.

I especially like his teachings about the human pain body. The more I live and reflect on it the more truth I find in his teachings.