thelerner

I'm mostly agnostic to the magic paradigm. More open minded since I've been hanging out on the bums and reading some of the works of Rawn Clark and other Hermetics. If its real, its a difficult skill needing much discipline and talent. Still there are internal magics, within the body, dream work etc. that can be obtained through steady work. They may open the door to other things. My thinking about spirits run along the same line, most being various internal voices..but somethings that bump in the night, really are bumping. The world may be stranger then what we know, yet real life is chop wood, carry water. Michael

It occurs to me that ultimately the true MMA champions are going to incorporate IMA deeply into there styles. When I see the very highest level, people like 'The Spider' Silva, they seem to be in another time zone then there opponents. When I look at Chuck Liddell's physique there is a deceptive softness to it that is common in high level IMA. There are a number of champions who look clumsy but have deceptive power that puts opponents away. It may well be that the very best use IMA techniques now as there secret weapons. Michael

I accept. My IMA is astral projection. The time is NOW! Hah, I see you, you're on the crapper grabbing for the toilet paper. I scream my intent and you ignore me; to your own peril. HiYahhh. Its horrible, I can't describe the scene, another win, I follow the silver cord back to the computer. Michael I'm spending way to much time with my Writers Group.

bump. Very impressive, beautiful cinematography. Note at first it wouldn't show on my mac using Firefox until I hit {clearstream} and got to a different link site.

In the case of the 'cheerleader' I'd say it was premature ejecting, which is always unsatisfying to both parties, still I don't think the moderators are heavy handed. They rarely use there awesome powers and its a pretty thankless job. I'm glad its divided and I think they'll discuss bigger issues. Ultimately getting a time out is not so bad.. If you take it too hard its probably a sign you're spending too much time here and need to get out more. Michael

Weird, you don't hate..you just spread it? You engage in Racism 101, taking quotes out of context. Clipping and pasting parts where people say things like "Whoever gave the Egyptians (in Genesis) horses, they should be killed" or "The Romans have burned my village and killed my family, they should all die horribly". Statements like these in the 9 to 12 volumes that make up the Talmud give you your quotes, but its a game rascists have always played. You're smart enough to be angry when people do it to you ala http://en.wikipedia..../Satanic_Verses http://www.muslimhop...sInTheQuran.htm but you lack the moral fiber to look into the truth before you sling out quotes like "Moslems are told to murder, lie, rape, and be pedophiliacs". Whoops did it again, I meant you wrote Jews.. I get you mixed up with GoldisHeavy sometimes. Frankly, the bible many of the stories in the bible are damn hard to justify, particularly the actions of G-d. Thats why the Talmud is so important. (The blood baths in the Quran and just after it are no walk in the park either though.) You link Samson as the first suicide terrorist (you are soo clever). If you took a course in the Talmud you'd learn how to analyze, also about what sages thought about Samson- Mostly he was a case of more brawn then brains. The moral they give in general is 'Don't be like Samson', more specifically 'Don't let your dick lead you around'. Lots of good wisdom there. Also don't take things so literally, no one has a score keeper behind them in the bible, 3000 killed just means great warrior. Samson as a suicide bomber?? Blinded, harassed and chained to pillars that may not be securely mortared. I think anybody would pull and hope for the best. Its a far cry from strapping on explosives and walking into a restaurant, bus, or crowded market area. Suicide bombers aren't a real high modern moral point for Moslems, enough said. Anyway, as a Jew I've found reading stories in the Quran related to the old testament very enlightening. When I wrote the Quran thought the world was flat, shaolin wrote no they didn't so I did research on it. Its enjoyable to learn and research, I reported back that the evidence pro and counter is murky. Most of the quotes to prove it were taken out of context (big surprise)! shaolin, you'll never take a class or read the whole Talmud, but before you sling accusations of murder rape etc. read the section in it on morals. Just spend a half hour or so reading Perkei Avot, Ethics of Our Fathers. Hopefully it will kill a part of you that should be dead. I believe it was Mark Twain who said "Learning and travel are deadly to prejudices." Spend some time reading GoldisHeavy's posts too; maybe you can learn Hillel's(famous Talmudist) Rule "What is hateful to you, don't do onto others." Its ironic that internet has been such a boon to rascists of all stripes. You can always find a demented group willing to say, "We're right, they're hateful, we're special." The truth is we can be special without wallowing or in your case shaolin spreading hate. Michael

Nature saying yes.

Trick question- All of them. Seriously, I admire Buddhism because as I understand it, its godless. There's no need to guess at what a supreme being wants, instead there's clear writings about the human condition and a clear method for living well. Ofcourse it couldn't overcome man's desire to religionate (another word I'm patenting) and make things more complicated. Michael

shaolin, I hold you in a much lesser degree then Marblehead. Misc. but witty insults that have been taken down due to poor taste. I'll just PM them. Michael

Hi shaolin, Actually I looked into the Quran world is flat thing. There are some sites that have some solid information. If you disregard the hatemongers (like shaolin**more on this later) and look to intelligent thoughtful people you find most of the relevant quotes are poetic and subject isn't cosmology. You can't really figure out what early moslems thought about the shape of the world from it. More telling is that later Islamic astronomers and mathematicians built on Greek and Roman learning to not only model the earth but to get the diameter much closer then the Greeks previously had. The western world owes the East greatly because it kept classical learning alive during the Western dark ages. I calll shaolin a hatemonger because he said Moslems are taught in there holy books to murder others, to rape, lie, steal and have sex with 3 year olds. In many ways he was echoing GoldisHeavy's early post on Dirty Islam. I just thought it was wrong. Oops, my bad, shaolin is MOSLEM hatemonger. He was just using the same form as GoldIsHeavy though I think Gold's post had Moslems having sex w/ 6 year olds and shaolin placed Jews having sex with 3 year olds. He's so competitive. Dollar to donuts he's never seen much less read the Talmud. I assume he's taken the KuKluxKlan (or equivalent) course in it, but thats not saying much. Some of his quotes are outright lies others are taken out of context. (like 2 scholars in 30 A.D. damning whoever gave the Egyptians horses during Genesis ..boom you have a quote). Its the dictionary is a book full of dirty words fallacy. Its the exact same as the Dirty Islam post. Hate warms some people. Its kinda like there true religion and its sad. As if generating hate give them power. Shaolin wrote his Jews are taught evil in a post that had nothing to do with religion, but some people are so full of hate that they can't keep it in. The shame is shaolin never had the opportunity to take a real course in the Talmud, if he did he'd be a better man. Its not the information in the books (9 to 12depending), but the method of learning. The Talmud has long sections of arguments about ..everything, legal, moral, religious. Its studied in 2's, each student is expected to learn both sides as well as the history and context of each dilemma. You may not agree with a side, but you have to understand it. No cut & paste allowed. shaolin is able to grasp that Islam is nuanced and has context, but his prejudice keeps him from understanding that other things do too. Learning has to go beyond convenient catch phrases that warm our dark side. Michael

I'd add I don't think you're (shaolin) an honest person to talk to about it either. You seem more then willing to lie or slander when it suits your prejudices. For example in another post you said the Talmud states- Jesus should be boiled in excrement. Only problem is, it doesn't. You were taught a lie and because it suits your prejudice you repeat it. You are on equal moral footing with the person who copied and pasted posts on why Islam is a dirty vicious religion. Like you, he had many cut & pastes, but thankfully people here pointed out grabbing quotes out of context is wrong. Its good to discuss things with open minded people, but zealots are a bore. Michael

Here's 2 sites. Articles from Mantak Chia's site. www.universal-tao.com/article Master Chen has some very nice writings. wudangtao.org/wudangblog/

A world without Hate..what would it look like? I'm thinking we'd either be ruled by damn dirty apes or there'd only be 1 or 2 people alive..3 tops. but seriously, there is an undertone of evil to wanting a world without hate!? I don't want my kids to fight, nobody does. No matter how lovey dovey I am they will find a reason to fight. I could be so threatening and lay down punishments so severe that I could possibly get a permanent peace. Authoritative governments have tried this approach, the 'if we imprison the wrong thinkers' when the dust clears we'll all get along fine. Its not worth it. Hate isn't the enemy.. Its acting on hate. There's no magic wand to change human nature, but live and let live is possible. We shouldn't be so concerned with what others think, as long as they don't hurt others. Frankly, I don't want a world where everyone is always kind and gentle and yin. IMO that would be horrible, where people are only half alive. Michael P.S. my kids are good 70& of the time, great 20% and absolute stinkers 10%. Know what, we have the most fun when they're stinkers.

I think it doesn't matter what we think. Only your answer a real one felt with conviction matters. Michael P.S. IMO (which doesn't matter) it doesn't need to be grandiose. The best things in life are free and simple. Illegal fattening and inconvenient stuff can also be quite good.

Here's what I do. If I hear any 'poor me' style thoughts running through my head, I repeat them consciously in a squeaky cartoon voice. Sounds crazy, but it works for me. Taking a News fast helps clear the noggin too. We get this synthesis of worst news going on in the world. The pain and drama numbs us or builds emotional calluses and psychic ulcers.

It takes a special temperament to live the ascetic life of a hermit. I don't think most people could handle it long term with its hunger, cold and loneliness. Other people cause our problems, but without them we're at a loss. Thankfully you don't have to go full tilt. There are vispasanna programs that run a week, month or year. There are monasteries of different sorts, long term camping. Once my kids are older I'd like to spend some time alone in the wilderness, start at a 10 days and work up. Course thats what Burning Man is for, except for the alone part. Michael

Too easy; a man needs his gadgets.

Takes out Ipod Touch. There's an app for that . I use an app call Breathing from Evil Clays Studio. Its nice because you can set the breathing time up in all 4 dimensions. In/ InHold/ Out/ EmptinessHold. It adjusts by the half second. A nice feature is that you can play any of your music and/or playlists and it will speak inhale, hold, exhale, hold, on top of the music. You can also set the session length. I've been playing with it, lately using a 28 second breath pattern 11 in, 11 out w/ a few seconds of mostly Inhold. Its a pattern that feel comfortable, I'd like to start stretching it out, then start working w/ some 7-7-7 patterns and up for Tummo exercises. I'll also use a Silent Ground Yogic Breathing album that has rising and lowering tones for setting it up in repeat mode. The rising and lowering sounds are more relaxing then a voice. The CD has even 'even' breaths from 8-8 going up past 44-44 in 2 second increments. It also has In Hold Out patterns like 8-10-10, 8-12-12, up to 14(in)-56(hold!)-28(out)! Breathing that deep you are practically hibernating.

I've found this to be true. I couldn't connect with yogic chants, but the sounds and meaning of some kabalistic chants work for me. Beyond words is the understanding of sacred sounds.. where sounds echo internally or seem to have locations in the body. Like AAAahhhh, is pretty universally found to be in the heart chakra area, OOOhh and Uuu are in the lower.. belly chakra etc. I like the book/cd Ecstatic Kabalah because it has chants but also gives a system for sacred sounds that I've found echoed in Shinto Kotodama and sources of Egyptian practices. Of course in this case you'd be getting stuff from a Jewish tradition, which may or may not connect. Luckily every tradition has there noise Michael

I'd have to say we drifted into fairy land all the time, and its a pleasant place. Developing Mind Body coordination was top on the list and self defense secondary. That being said you weren't expected to be a push over or to compete in the MMA. Its good to cross train w/ other dojos and have other martial artists visitors. I'm lucky my instructor was good friends with an amateur boxer so we'd work more on jabs and the like then some others. The important thing is know when you're in fairyland, and all martial arts traipse into that territory. From linear old style karate to take it to the ground, others opponents be damned BJJ. What you see in demos is usually the silly stuff. Take board breaking, it impresses the crowd but has little combat value. The way a person sits and how they focus there attention, that impresses me. Real life isn't the movies. Someone here had a clip of Penn and Tellers show B.S. on martial arts and much of its mocking rang true, whether its traditional or kill'em all 'realistic'. Still there is much gain out in most martial arts. My friends in 'harder' martial arts like kick boxing and amateur boxing got the crap beaten out them in class all the time. But we all got into better shape and honed skills and general awareness. Aikido had and has very important lessons for me and was just what I needed at that point in my life. The amazing Ki-ai master may well lead a really good spiritual life and probably should be happy with that and not take into the ring Michael

Everyone has methods, but the secret ingredient is probably long consistent practice. Quote In August 1995, I learned directly from Master Wang in Shanghai the whole process of opening up the Channel SHO. This gave me a much clearer picture of the process. Roughly speaking there are 4 ingredients: (1) An intensive 15 days of continuous training to ensure the students can steadily increases their energy level. (2) Intensive five element practice to "dissolve" the internal organs. This is the core of increasing the energy level. (3) Daoyin must be focused, flexible and strategic so that when the opportunity was seized when it arised. (4) The student must be able to sit for two hours continuously, at least in half lotus, at minimum. Quote Years ago I wrote that I'd meditate 45 minutes a night, someone, I believe TaoMeow commented, 'Thats not meditation, that relaxation..in a trance mode. That stung, but you know, she's right. She went on to say meditation is 2 hours concentrated sitting (or did she write 4, it was a long time ago). I highly respect Michael Winn; he teaches a very wide variety of techniques, but he credits his first big evolutionary push from being forced to wait at an airport for a few days and doing a single unnamed breathing exercise. I assume the actual breath mode is secondary to the amount of time and mindfulness he spent at it (the years of work he'd done earlier helped). Maybe this stuff isn't that different from mastering a musical instrument, but we don't spend enough time practicing with passion. Michael

4-32 oz mountain dews, whoah thats a lot. If you took someone who never drank soda and had them drink that much, I think it would put them in the hospital. Its good you realize you have to change. IMHO the best tool for change is pen and paper. Write down what you want, why you want it, have a one week course of action. Sign the paper that you'll keep to it for one week. Read it morning and night. Follow through and at the end of week congratulate yourself and create a new sheet with hopefully the same plan or a better one from what you've learned about yourself. Maybe the plan is to go cold turkey, maybe its to have 3 cans a day, but make a short term plan and keep to it, or at least learn from it and make a better plan. Don't stop until you have found and committed to a way that will get you off. That much Dew is dangerous. You're not Doing the Dew, its doing you; up until diabetes and adrenal failure set in. If you go cold turkey you will likely have physical symptoms, namely headaches. Sugar is a treacherous bitch too (but I love her). Good luck. My wife has recently switched from 20 oz of coffee a day to green tea in the morning. She's sleeping much better (particularly from a washroom visit viewpoint). I've been working on not having a nightcap and having lime seltzer instead. Once you get past the addiction you'll be healthier, wealthier and regain some personal power. Good luck, make your plan and don't dew it. Michael