Sahaj Nath
-
Content count
1,007 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
4
Posts posted by Sahaj Nath
-
-
i enjoyed morris' book Path Notes of an American Ninja Master. it led me to take ambidexterity more seriously. and he writes in a very non-flashy, down-to-earth manner.
he died in april of '06 though. the way you wrote your inquiry it seemed as if you didn't know that.
i know a lot of the NorCal ninja folks and he was well-liked among them.
-
My teacher has created some compact forms specifically for those who are trying to practice in a living-room, office, or even cubicle. He wrote a book on the subject, and has put some demos on youtube:
hey taomeow,
i purchased your teacher's 5 animal frolics as well as his tendon transforming classic. niether dvd plays well.
does he do replacements?
-
If you have a basic understanding of the 24 it shouldn't be too difficult to rearrange a few of the moves to cover less space. It would take a little time working with the form to change direction and possibly eliminate a few moves but should be possible. I help people make up competition forms quite a bit.
this is good advice. i want to push it a bit further in this direction.
to paraphrase josh waitzkin, the weakness of any disciplined art is its dogma. play. be creative. change things up from time to time. let the movements reveal new insights to you.
keep in mind that tai chi chuan is a martial art. by definition, then, it needs to be adaptable. YOU need to be adaptable.
your limited space is a great opportunity for you to expand your understanding of your practice, i think.
-
waste of money.
there's no new foundation. no new eye-opening approach. the guy is capitalizing on the form's rarity in a market where old + obscure = best. it has a cool looking cover and a boatload of unsubstantiated claims with virtually no depth.
the author has constructed a fairy tale. given that the book came out in 2003, trust me when i say that this system would have been known by now if it brought anything new and good to the table.
or don't trust me. see for yourself.
if you're a practitioner and want to drop $13 on something that could actually expand your movement vocabulary and give you a deeper appreciation for the intersections of qigong and yoga, i say check out shiva rea's Fluid Power: Vinyasa Flow Yoga.
if you don't believe me about the seamm jasani book, then make me an offer and i'll sell you mine.
-
The history of Daoism in China is very long, and its culture has been a rich one of mutual respect. An inner elixir cultivator would respect someone who practiced magic from Maoshan, who would in turn respect a Daoist gongfu master. They practiced what they felt was effective for them, but they recognized the skill and accomplishment of those from other sects as well. They didn't argue with each other about the Dao -- they practiced it daily.
you seem to have a very romanticized view of Daoism and Chinese culture. what you describe is historically counter-factual. LOTS of dogmatism among the schools. LOTS of fighting between clans. only in recent times have the various schools and disciplines come to a place of mutual respect, and probably only because so many of them face extinction without the umbrella of mutual support.
also, i would venture to say that most of the poeple on this site are not Daoist.
we're not saints. for that matter, the saints weren't even saints! there are stories of living buddhas getting fed up and throwing rocks at their disciples just to be left alone. no living being gets to trade in all the shortcomings of their humanity in exchange for divinity.
there is beauty even in conflict. we can't chose how others act, but we can chose what meaning those actions have for us.
-
what's your experience? what skills do you already have?
i think shontonga gave some decent pointers, but your sensitivity and connection to the energy may mean the difference between a real visceral exchange and a pleasant fantasy.
there's no such thing as far away, especially when you're talking about someone who's in your heart.
there are countless techniques. you could even make up your own. that kind of stuff doesn't matter as much as some might think. don't sweat the technique. what matters most from a technical standpoint is that you mean it.
how in touch you are with the life force will determine the results.
there are exceptions, but as a rule i find that most people end up just playing in their own heads due to their lack of connection to the energy.
-
LOL, OK!!!
surely you've seen the video by now. it's been posted a number of times.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlZndMuYW04
at 5:10 it starts to get into the spirit world stuff and the keris work he does.
-
LOL!
HILARIOUS!
-
i heard max specifically say my name and tell me not to tilt my head back, which i thought was weird too (and at one point i thought it was only in my head and not out loud), so i asked chris/mantra and he said to follow what your body and instincts wanted. i was confused to say the least.
i was near the "quiet" end of the room, tho the lovely lady next to me dropped to the ground quite a few times and was laughing a lot. the only people i talked to were augustleo and his wife. like i've said, i can be reticent in new situations til i get a feel for the person/room.
--rebecca
hey rebecca,
in a sense, they were both right. if your activation was not apparent, then the instruction would be that you don't want to block the flow through the spinal channel ("jade pillow gate" at the base of the skull). once activated, however, natural movement can take over.
it's the same thing in certain meditations.
my guess is that that's what was going on with the conflicting messages.
it's been said that kunlun doesn't work with the spine/kundalini energy, but that's the only sense i can make of it.
-
Beautiful, Todd.
simply beautiful.
i can't help but wonder how could you possibly know that this dialog is exactly what i need at this current transitional period i'm in?
thank you.
i really have no words to offer at this moment, other than 'Thank You.'
Thank You.
-
How important are the Three Treasures to your daily life? What do they mean to you? How are they factored into your regular practice?
i hope at least a few of you will respond. i want to get a sense of how a broad range of cultivators (hard to get more broad than the folks represented here @ TTB) employ their knowledge of the Three Treasures.
it's a really general and open inquiry, so please feel free to go anywhere with your response.
-
I thought I noticed that you were letting ideas serve as place holders for truth.
...
Simplicity has a lot of implications.
They just can't be explored well with the mind.i am somewhat ambivalent toward your reply. or maybe i'm multivalent.
as a reminder to me, i appreciate it. it's something that has been lacking from my way of life. yesterday when i was with a student. i told him my new mantra for the time being is 'keep it simple, stupid.' so it's nice to get a reinforcement of some of the stuff i've been intuiting more deeply as of late.
reading your words woke me right back up at the moment that i read them.
surely you recognize your own contradictions in even attempting to put words to this. you didn't seem to acknowledge the necessity of contradiction when attempting to communicate to another, and hence why i said that words are cumbersome.
'
it was never my intent to transmit truth through words. words point, and vaguely so.
...We can take those experiences and create thoughts about them. Those thoughts can seem very profound and true, earth shattering even, with far reaching implications...right-on. this is where i have a tendency to get off-track. as a teacher this is a very difficult thing for me to navigate. ideas and words matter, even if they are not 'That'. i am sure to continue to stumble with this for some time to come.
...Our thoughts might seem to match those of the gurus and holy men. This can be exciting, and intoxicating. It is pretty much to be expected, too, since to be simple is the most difficult thing to do...not so much. i'm very much a scholar in my temperament, so i always expect the conveyance of my ideas to be on par (or sometimes even more clear) than "gurus and holy men," as you put it. i'm a skilled communicator. i analyze, critique, analogize, all that stuff. i've developed that capacity to a higher degree than a lot of spiritual masters, so i seldom look to there expressions as any standard because i seldom believe they express themselves very skillfully, at least for us westerners.
i find ken wilber and integral quite refreshing because of this.
if i missed your point, you're welcome to correct me.
'simplicity' is just an idea, and a highly nebulous one at that. but how do we have this discussion without the cumbersome medium of words?
-
Hello to all , has any body read the magician of java by kosta danaos or even managed to get a copy ?
You can order it off amazon but it is sold out at the moment , very popular .
SABRETOOTH.
there doesn't seem to be any reason to believe that this book is any different from Magus of Java. My guess is that there is no separate word for 'magus' in spanish, as this seems to be a spanish translation.
-
things seem to be going well for a lot of you in this practice.
after all of my criticisms in the past about presentation and claims, i'm really glad so many of you have gained a lot from Max's teachings. what's most impressive is how many of you are still with it after 6 months.
i may share a personal story at some point, but for now i just want to say that my rejection of Kunlun last year was premature, as sean deanty had suggested. sean was the reason i left for a while to work on myself. i remain grateful for his perspective.
i think i can say honestly and without needing to give any details that max's transmission was more than i had initially realized. i was torn about it in november and december, and my 'head-heavy' side, as someone at the time put it, made it impossible for me to trust any part of it due to inconsistencies and whatnot.
Max has my respect. not that he needed it. but i need to admit that i was too hard on the guy when my criticisms had a lot more to do with the packaging than the substance.
anyway, i just wanted to openly acknowledge that.
-
Hundun,
Big Trouble In Little China is one of my favorite movies. Probably because it is so cheesy.... and full of great quotes as well.
Thanks for responding to my question. I have been pondering this idea for a few years now, and I was trying to figure out how to word the question in a post that made some sort of sense. I hadn't been able to yet come up with a way, but, thanks to you, I saw the opportunity open and took it.
Do you think that what Wilber calls the Witness, The ever-present awareness, is the same realization that Taoist writings describe as "the center in the midst of conditions" or "the center of the compass" or the "valley spirit" or "the mysterious female" or what have you?
The weird thing is, it seems that for some schools, this realization of the witnessing awareness would come about as one of the fruits of meditation.
For other schools it is independent of meditation.
And then, from what I've read of the taoist literature, it seems that this realization is almost a pre-requisite, before one can work on things like immortality and such.
Chris
hmm. i really don't know a whole lot about Taoism Proper, so i can't really have much of an opinion on the matter. perhaps you could ask that question openly in a separate thread. see what kind of responses you get.
Spirit Valley, at least as it relates to the Tao Te Ching, (according t Yang, Jwing-Ming) refers to the third eye. the valley is the space behind the third eye, between the two hemispheres of the brain.
i'm not sure that it even matters whether or not they're all talking about the same thing. it certainly doesn't matter enough to ponder for years. what matters is the perspective of the lineage you've chosen as your practice.
Hey Hundun,
We are using similar concepts, and when we look for ourselves, we find the same thing, but I am not really interested in agreement. I am interested in what needs no agreement, and in which all agreement occurs (or not). I am interested in expression, and what allows expression to occur.
And I don't have any answers. And I don't want any answers.
It is fun to share though, sometimes. If you are interested I can share what drew me to respond to your post, and you can tell me that I am barking up the wrong tree, and I can see that that is true, or who knows what?
But be honest about any lack of interest, because I don't want to bark up the wrong tree.
Its good to see you around again.
Todd
c'mon! when you get all intriguing like that, OF COURE i'm interested!
so what drew you to respond.
-
A few questions:
What if the witness is an idea?
I admit that it is a very flexible idea, and it provides a pretty stable identity from which to interact with the world. But what if it is an idea?
What if there is something that is not an idea, and does not need effort to maintain? Perhaps all that is needed is a willingness to not engage in effort, and to be whatever is.
It may be true (and it certainly appears so) that effort is an aspect of what is, and that ideas will always be a part of this that is, but is that what we are? Is it necessary to identify with ideas, to try and make them better?
All sorts of neat ideas can come up. What is invested in their arising and passing?
How does it feel to be invested, and how does that investment tend to work out?
What does it feel like to step aside, and into nothing else?
hey todd!
=)
you're exactly right. of course, you probably already know that and are just being modest.
effort tends to be why people never wake up. like many a zen master have said:
"if you can simply understand that it is not 'attainable,' then you are enlightened.
the witness is just an imperfect name for that ever-present I Am-ness that has always been there. it's not an experience at all. and it takes no effort. we're all aware of it right now. it is WuJi. Supreme Emptiness.
PURE consciousness = nothingness.
however, there IS a world of phenomenon and effort and time and change. there's no sense denying that. but i think meditation is a form of communion with the timeless, effortless, and unchanging. what we experience is not the witness, but the response of our finite selves to that communion. the ego's temporary liberation from its burdens is what a lot of people mistake as as enlightenment.
words are cumbersome, but i think we agree.
-
Hi All,
I just wanted to weigh in here. I first read one of Wilber's books about 7 or 8 years ago, The Essential Ken Wilber, I believe it was. and to say the least, I was impressed. From that I've gone on to read pretty much everything of his I can get my hands on. I understand that some may have a negative view of Ken, but finding his writings was an important step in my spiritual growth.
His writings are intellectually strenuous at times, no doubt. But they can also be beautiful and inspiring. The last book I got was The Simple Feeling of Being, which is a collection of writings on various subjects. No joke, I often read passages from this book for meditation.
I find that he is able to communicate with a clarity that often lacking in spiritual writings. But thats just my opinion. To each their own.
Hundun, and other fans,
I have a question. Coming to recognize yourself as the Witness, which then dissolves into nondual awareness, do you think this is the end of meditation or the beginning?
Chris
hey chris,
i'm luvin' the jack burton quote in your signature! perhaps my favorite cheesy movie of all time!
as to your question:
i don't think the witness ever dissolves, although our realization of the witness deepens as we develop. and i don't think it's the beginning OR the end of meditation. we have vehicles that enable us to carry out our tasks, and that doesn't change until our vehicles die. until then, maintenance will continue to be a requirement.
if the vehicle is not fit to fulfill its spiritual mandate, i think we waste a golden opportunity to assist in the evolution of humanity. that maintenance includes meditation, exercise, cognition, moral fortitude, etc...
so i don't think it ends with a particular experience. but it doesn't begin there, either.
=)
BUT,
-
whoever wrote that page obviously has WAY too much of an ax to grind. does his interpretation strike you as credible?
i went directly to the original post. defending himself whilst talking shit. blowing off steam. it seems quite in line with his character, and i don't see that as a bad thing. of course, trying to examine it in a vacuum will lead to claims of all sorts of crap. but he's not a guru and never claims to be, though he IS pretty much the top dog in his field.
and the guy makes it sound as if ken lost it because of innocent peer reviews that simply (oops! i used the S-word) took a contrary view.
this is the kind of spin used to discredit politicians. no one takes a good look, and then the public sentiment gets shaped by the mere repetition of inaccurate claims.
Can Wilber do anything in meatspace besides the brainwave control - which did seem pretty impressive (although I don't really know how hard it really is?)?
Personally, I think his work is valuable - but the academic, scholarly approach has its definite limits.
I've also been listening to some WIE audios lately but frankly, find them a little too political and not enough spiritual. Most of them seem to be Jewish/Judeo-Christian intellectuals debating how to integrate (typically) Eastern spirituality into their liberal ideology (or vice-versa). Nothing wrong with that per se, but their focus just seems to be more on sociology than...enlightenment.
I mean, I'm personally not that interested in seeing the development of "feminist-American-revisionist-Judeo-Buddhism."
In fact, I think we have to be careful about mixing politics with spiritual practices in order to maintain their purity and universal humanity. I think we've seen with the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, jihads, etc what can happen when spirituality gets too politicized.there's good stuff in the magazine from time to time. it's made me rethink some assumptions. but for the most part i'm not a big fan of WIE. i don't lay that at ken's feet, though. that's andrew cohen's deal.
purity and universal humanity sounds good, but i don't think there has ever been a time in history when that has been the case. ever. maybe it's time to move in new direction. religious institutions have always been political. the distillation of spiritual practice as a means of evolving consciousness might be just what we need to create a universal humanity. spiritual eclecticism with a scholar's sensibility just might produce an internal map that is self-aware of its own dogmatic shortcomings and therefore always open to growth. a worthwhile endeavor, i think.
-
here's a reason why i love ken wilber.
for most scientists, (Karl Popper being the most famous) in order for a proposition to be scientific it has to be falsifiable, i.e., there has to be a way to test it.
"i can emit energy from my palm" is a falsifiable statement, but not a false one.
"the energy i emit comes directly from Gautama Buddha," on the other hand, can not be tested in any way.
illusionists can very likely fake every feat that a master can perform. that only shows that the master's abilities are indeed testable by all known methods of trickery.
also, given that some folks are hung up on science, there's another concept worth considering:
scientific knowledge is paradigm-dependent.
in other words, a person who has never seen, used, or even heard of a microscope, isn't qualified to have an opinion about cellular structure. in order to gain access to the necessary data, that person would need a proper medium to grant them access to that data. reason alone does not suffice.
the same is true of what can be realized through internal practice. the specific practice and duration necessary for development is the medium by which one gains access to those experiences. they can't be apprehended through mere reason. other high-level practitioners are the only ones qualified to debate the abilities, and even then it's suspect if they haven't employed the exact same methods.
and just like science, reason is also paradigm-dependent.
the only way to get to the necessary paradigm shift is to employ the technology, i.e., sit on a cushion for the next ten years and breathe in a special manner.
a quote i've used once before:
"no, i've never heard of water," said the fish. "why do you ask?"
-
I like his work. Apparently he's a total egomaniac who slays anyone who dares confront his person. I've only read "Up From Eden" which I enjoyed a great deal. I love the whole evolution of consciousness thing.
yeah, i've been on that concept for some time, and his works have really helped me to flesh it out. i don't know about the 'egomaniac' thing or what you mean by 'slay'. of all the things one might say about him, i don't it can be said that he's overly critical or harsh. he tends to be extremely empathetic. i've watched quite a few of his videos and even own a few now. he's brilliant and sometimes exhibits the kind of humor and wit you'd expect from a progressive in the ivory towers, but those types tend to be my kind of people, so his character works for me.
Hey Hundun,
Welcome back. I kinda dropped out myself. Got too annoyed by a few of the posters here.
I've never read Ken's material, but I study the work of Sri Aurobindo, the Guru's Guru, as Sai Baba put it.
The Synthesis Of Yoga (my favorite) and The Life Divine are two books that every person on a spiritual path should read/study. Check out the reviews at Amazon.
I hope your teaching and healing practice is going well.
Gordon
(Novato)
hey bindo,
things are great. thanks.
is there a connection between wilber and aurobindo? the 'synthesis' idea lends itself to integral.
Ken Wilber is very intelligent. And I mean that in the worst possible way. Har har. Remember the sage is simple. That said, I respect the man as an philosopher and academic. But these are aspects of a developed 5th and 6th chakra; enlightenment blossoms from the 7th.
Weaving evolution and spirituality into an integrated philosophy is a great idea. Evolution is a natural pattern. As above, so below. However, he, Andrew Cohen, Peter Ragnar, and that whole cadre of enlightenment entrepreneurs just... well... don't seem entirely suited to answer "What is Enlightenment?" (the name of their publication). Though they are all very clever.
'What Is Enlightenment' is Andrew Cohen's publication. they are not a collective. and, to be honest, i don't really get the relationship between those two guys. Andrew IS a bit of a jerk and not nearly as clear, genuine, or intelligent as Ken, by my estimation. however, Andrew Cohen's character flaws are quite common among high-level teachers, so i can't just assume he's not what he claims.
but i'm left wondering if you've actually looked into ken's work, as your criticism seems incredibly general and vague. he IS a bit arrogant in his confidence in his ideas, and he admits that himself. but his confidence is in the ideas, not his own greatness. what he did what study all the major traditions (as well as some obscure ones) East and West, and created a model that's inclusive of all of their truths in addition to psychology, sociology, science, politics, the whole bag. he's confident that he's done more homework than others, and i think that confidence is fairly warranted. tibetan monks spend half their day engaged in debate as a means of mental fitness. intellect isn't inherently a problem. in fact, i'd say it's far more likely for the unrefined intellect to be a problem.
Ken Wilber dosent have a brain, he prooved it himself:
His therories are genious. I use them a lot.
I got an overview of them from Joseph Dillard who has integrated them into a dreamwork method he calls Dream Yoga, also called Deep Listening or Integral Dreamwork (so its not confused with Tibetian Dream Yoga), explaining the AQAL and how it relates to dreams.
But it seems everything is supposed to be "integral" these days.
his brain wave manipulation was rather impressive. his constant delta patterns were inspiring.
we may have to chat about him some time.
=)
-
Peter Weller Across the 8th Dimension of Redundancy?
Can't seem to find the video download.
there really is no relation to any of the martial forms. there is a movement that's similar to the 'ward off' motion, minus the precision of body mechanics. but that's about it. there's nothing martial about it, so it's a totally different monster.
i didn't like it at first. was really disappointed at how simple and "un-precise" the movements were. the only reason i gave it a second glance was because there was a movement in the form that made me feel sick. i figured something was going on there that i might want to examine a little bit.
now i rather enjoy it.
=)
-
almost 6 months since i've been around here. looks as if not a whole lot has changed. many of the same questions, the same answers, and the same old challenges.
but in this time i know that *i* have certainly changed quite a bit. i've missed the community a bit, but i had some growing to do before i could return.
my apologies to those of you to whom i never responded. i hope you all will forgive me.
i was mid-conversation with Trunk when i just sort of fell off the face of the earth. in our last conversation he told me that what i was expressing was part of the non-dual school, something about which i knew nothing at the time. so i began my inquiry and wound up coming upon the Integral Spirituality of Ken Wilber.
i have to say, i'm a big fan of his now.
i just want to know what folks here think about him and about Integral Spirituality.
-
being here has been an interesting experience for me. i had never been part of an active on-line forum before.
but i think it's time for me to leave. just wanted to say goodbye.
i know that i can be very critical (i almost became a professor and a lawyer. what can i say?), but i hope that most of you are able to see that my criticism is not just mean-spiritedness, but actual questioning and evaluating.
i've enjoyed most of my encounters and engagements here, and i think i'm coming away from here with a few new and valuable insights.
i need go deeper into the abyss of myself for a while, and hanging around here has become a habitual distraction from my personal work. no one to blame but myself for that one.
i will remain in touch with Lin Sifu as he and i develop our respective centers in new york and california.
i hope i brought more insight and rigor to the discussions than i did strife.
you all take care.
even you, mantra.
to all of you authentic cultivators:
i'll see you where you dream.
-
Here is the problem, I want to be able to feel the flows of energy strongly while remaining deep in trance, ...
there's the problem, i believe.
attachment and control. oftentimes wanting something to happen can prevent its achievement. relax. stop trying to 'make' it happen. 'allow' it to happen instead.
increased heart rate sounds to me like you've gotten into the habit of forcing things. very yang-oriented. many people swear by this type of practice because the effects/experiences are more intense/sensual. but this type of approach is also why many qigong masters die young.
make your in-breath the more active and your out-breath the more passive. rather than generating the manifestation of energy flow, let it arise naturally as a result of your own overabundance. much healthier, and the energy is more powerful when not colored/distorted by your effort. wu wei.
question for Max
in General Discussion
Posted
indeed. and this is true both externally AND internally.
yes. if you aspire to high-level practice there's an advantage to developing greater connection and communication between the two hemispheres of the brain. which ever side of the brain you use the least will give you the most distress when it begins to awaken in profound ways.
the book doesn't get in-depth about it, but it seems like the most obvious thing in the world as soon as he addresses it.
you should get it. it's a book worth owning.