thelerner

You're in top form Proc. Why do I get the feeling Brian would be your total superior in Pakua?? Love. He loves it and has made it his own. He can 'think' in it. Its not a mysterious eastern mistress to him. Its a buddy. Michael

Inner space abides When the thousand becomes one and peace reigns supreme

Eh, so what..Same stuff I see on the UFC-only they're fatter and furrier Michael

I don't like cluttering up the main discussion site w/ a long term subject only some people are interested in. If we don't want to bother SeanO, a person serious about the book club can create a Mr.Bookclub login, and set up a personal discussion called Bookclub. Then they could set up subdiscussions- General Info. and rules, March Book Taoist Yoga, April Book 'How to Get Along'.. Why don't we declare Taoist Yoga our first book. Thoughts.. Michael

Not a bad idea. Shall we go for it. Taoist Yoga; Alchemy and Immortality? It works for me. Whats the best source for buying copies? I don't know if any particular rules are needed other then normal politeness and criticisms be constructive. I might have a copy somewhere, or it might be another book tittled Taoist Yoga. Michael

Buddy, look at Hagar's avatar. The birds, the flowers..is that the kind of viking who would hurt someone? No. I was in Ki-Aikido for many years. I had trouble w/ the concept of ki. Its not neccessarily helpful, but the more you live out the metaphor the more real it becomes. We'd have a ki class each week. And believing or pretending to believe the metaphor made actions and balance much more powerful. I don't think we'll ever have a ki-omatic machine, but the concepts of ki or Chi are beneficial to performance. Michael

One of his quotes that I found most thought provoking was: 'HOW IS YUR PRACTICE GONNA HELP YUH WHEN YUR DEAD?!' I found a lot of depth to that. Most philosophies have dogma about death, taoism has some practices for experiencing it. Using dream work to enter lucidity and investigate other realities. At first I found RJ to be a wonderful purveyor of crazy wisdom. Then the good crazy started turning darker. Paranoia, anger, bitterness, nastiness. Its a constant reminder to me that if you're doing energy work you'd better go out of your way to remain positive and centered. Negativity becomes a demon that must be fed. It gives you heat and direction, but it shreds your soul. Michael

If the universe gives you lemons.. find another universe Michael

The last place I look was like the first place I looked I seek no more, ahhh

Ditto on separating out most of the kunlun stuff into a separate forum. Short term I'd love to see someone like Mantra start a Personal Page here and have it separated into Practice, problems, history and whatever. What we may consider trolls are the price of a larger group. I could take the sniping comments better if there was some positivity added, instead of what comes off as egoic masturbation. Michael

I was told Silent Grounds in Canada was close to a Taoist monastery. These days its only functioning part time though. Look it up, SILENTGROUNDS.COM I think, it should be in the Link section here too. Michael

We are good. The depth of knowledge and understanding on this site can be awesome. Fantastic insights in the last couple posts, I hope a couple of them stick with me. If so I'll be a wiser man. Michael

Here are a couple links; www.religiousworlds.com/taoism/ttc-list.html http://www.wayist.org/ttc%20compared/indexchp.htm http://www.edepot.com/taotext.html Can't find it now, but there was another site that had many translations and allowed you to set up and compare 2 or 3 line by line. Michael

Bows to Taomeow. quietly moves away M.

'100 Years' by Five for Fighting It goes over the years of a mans life. Lots of potent imagery. My favorite line is 'There's never a wish, better then this' Michael

I heard you didn't need to discuss the Tao in Alaska. All you had to do was point Michael

Little1 I agree with you - alchemical path is long arduous and best done under the direction of true teacher who's been there. Working too fast and too long w/ bio energies can fry you, a little or a lot. If you're not particularly energy sensitive and dabbling I don't think you're in any huge danger. Course you're not going to gain anything remarkable either. Still, the unremarkable can be worthwhile. I don't 'get' energy from the sun. But I do feel its reflection, a singing within my heart, when I look at it. Same w/ large bodies of water and my kidneys. I don't know how real or useful it is, but its a gift from the small amounts of practice I've done over the years. A resonating, and thats what I wanted, not another cosmic fetus to feed. I was writing to see if I could get the thread back on track, translating Taoist Yoga. An intellectual exercise to bat around possible translations, see if they resonate with anyone. Not to create a program, or improve on it (as if that were possible) but to check our (admittedly low) understanding of an alchemical texts. Its what we do every night, sling the hash, see where it falls. Michael

Cause we haven't investigated it and know nothing about the man. Thus we can't honestly say. Personally, I'm also sceptical about healing from a distance. But it does appear in many different practices, usually on the fringe. It wouldn't be my first or second choice, but if a friend or two I trusted had good results that seemed non psychosomatic, I might gamble $99. Ofcourse, what isn't psychosomatic? A good placebo is better then bad medicine. Michael

"Stand in dragon stance, while focusing on the moon, and sun, and merge the dragon and the tiger in the lower cauldron and then plunge that into the original cavity of the spirit, convert lead into mercury, and nourish the sacred fetus. " You can argue its watered down or just plain wrong-but this is the kind of area the Healing Tao works with, Winn & Chia territory. 'Stand' 'dragon stance'? I wonder if they mean that literally and if there's synchronicity with our long Mabu thread? A standing kanli practice? Sun is usually the heart.? Moon the belly.? Merge them(?) or the elemental organ gods that are represented by the dragon and the tiger into the lower cauldron (very kanli ish). Why this thing practically writes itself Input from HT people or older traditions would help. Michael I only got up to Fusion II in the HT system. I have Minke's Fusion I & II CD's that have you spinning paqua's and combining organ gods. I've also worked with the Chi Nei Tsangs kanli guided meditation that builds up heat in the heart, icy cold water in dantien, then shifts them so fire is at the bottom and it melts and steams the water. I've tried to take a more experiential path to alchemical taoism, albeit a slackards one.

Looks like he found out the secret. There's only one of us, writing as all 600 members Michael Or is that the REAL SECRET of existence !!!!!

Welcome aboard Michael

Going somewhere? M.

Maybe I'll go to Burning Man this year. Read nice things about it in the book Pronoia. Might be a great change of pace, a chance to get away from the tic toc for a few days. Tickets go on sale Jan 16th. Any here been to one? Thoughts? Michael

It isn't real camping unless you suffer I've been on the Burning Man mail list for a while. The link Wayfarer posted is definitive. It would be so fantastic to get there. Michael