thelerner

The Dao Bums+
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About thelerner

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    Been here long enough to know better

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  1. Dao Bums (here i am)

    This is probably a naive question. Do people end up eating the fruit and food they put out on a shrine?
  2. a blast from the past.
  3. Voidisyinyang

    Letting go of past history, it's pretty brave to put up videos showing and sharing yourself doing your daily routine.
  4. Elaborating the golden pill, my progress and doubts

    If you wanna start now, let me suggest a 3rd choice- http://thesecretofthegoldenflower.com/ I like it. Note that my browser Chrome called it an unsecured site. Not sure what that means but I've been there several times.
  5. Spotting a fake master

    Problem I see is when a society over popularized this, it can lead to calling anyone different, that you don't like, has mental problems a witch, warlock, possessed.. as they could when bad luck, sickness and disease appear. Not saying it's not true but used without wisdom, knowledge and compassion it can lead to pretty dark things. How should we feel about psychics who's main gig is pointing out astral beings feeding on their new clients and the money charged to remove them?
  6. Elaborating the golden pill, my progress and doubts

    Never understood the prevalence of mystical pictures with fractal imagery and figures full of eyes til I tried psilocybin mushrooms.
  7. Spotting a fake master

    All depends on how high a bar you set for masterhood and enlightenment. If one has spent decades dedicated to their practice, living the path, are sincere, knowledgeable but have no siddhis or powers. Are they false? To me, no. I set a low bar for enlightenment. It can be psychological state where a person moves smoothly through the world without much ego. And/or a physical state where a person has achieved an inner orbit of esoteric energy that brings greater vitality and insight. Yet no outer powers. Others want demonstrations of powers and siddhis to prove masterhood. By those standards Mastership is quite rare and maybe laden with fraud.
  8. Pangu Advanced Form

    When doing a lineage art, you follow the rules. Might be a teacher sick, busy or some other mundane reason, which could change. I've enjoyed the regular version of Pangu for its simplicity and feeling. Vortexes here, vortexes there, vortexes everywhere. I learned it from Michael Winn of Healing Tao before I knew anything about its history, thus not considered 100% accurate by the founder's lineage. Never knew there was an advanced version of it.
  9. Voidisyinyang

    g_)*d(&*^! double post, yet perfect example.
  10. Voidisyinyang

    I'm willing to give it away for free. Just have to remember where I left It.
  11. Spotting a fake master

    Who indeed. Carlos Castaneda. <so famous, the spell checker corrected me, then corrected me again on the word spell checker> I read him when I was younger. Enjoyed his spiritual/adventure writings, great author for opening up the mind to the esoteric. Certainly nowhere near as bad as Osho but kinda belongs, imo, in a similar category.
  12. Spotting a fake master

    Today in a library's book store. They were selling for a buck, Osho's book of Zen. Looked inside, pop culture view but not bad. Fake and fallen.. these guys self destruct and hopefully don't take too many followers with them. that said.. due to some combo of psychology, conmanship and good writing they can produce some imo good insights**. Some baby but the bath waters poisonous. **Obviously controversial but I put CC into this category.
  13. Voidisyinyang

    He was way out there. Interesting, strange, sincere, passionate, eccentric, obsessive, some practices had questionable morals (looking at you O's at a distance)..
  14. Most accurate Golden Flower translation?

    As a dabbler over the years, here's what I've gotten out of it. One it's fascinating to read. It's combination of poetry, philosophy, practice and history (ie quotes) a great read. An underappreciated classic, bonus its also short. Also old, mysterious. Comparing and contrasting the different versions is like a treasure hunt. A damnable one since at times they can be pretty different. As a modern guy I look more for practices than philosophy. Even there, different translators seem to describe it differently, yet I see pieces of it in different energy arts. Anyhow, what I've gotten out of it is to practice (at times) with open eyes. Nothing radical there, half eye is common in Zen, and a few other traditions. But GF puts more explanation and emphasis on it. In that I see some parallels to Dzoghen. There's a gentle breath oriented circulation going on. I'm sure I've bastardized it but a gentle awareness- breathing in- head, heart, belly (comfortable hold), breath out- to heart, back to head. Feels good to me. Keeps my breath slow. Not really visualizing rather shifting my awareness of sensation. Has it done anything great for me? Don't know, maybe I'd be even worse without it. For me, it's a pleasant way to sit and drop my mind.
  15. Most accurate Golden Flower translation?

    TT, aren't you arguing the book is useless for most people. It's pretty common in older traditions to have oral instructions that aren't written down. Doesn't make the books useless rather it insures people practice with lineage or high quality instructors to weed out undesirables. People with proper mindset can still 'get' the system but it makes it harder. As far as I know the GF hasn't been widespread with lineage schools. Which is too bad. It's language is flowery but its practice isn't that complicated. Seems like many Chinese meditation traditions use pieces of it. Too bad there's not a formal school that puts it front and center(as far as I know). If there was I bet it'd be more practiced and evolve into an easier tool.