Old Man Contradiction

Becoming enlightened is a little harder than just meditating. It's still simple though, and not that I speak from experience. Enlightenment can also happen to people who don't meditate too. The mind cannot reach it's fullest potential if it's body does not move. I believe in meditation, but I don't necessarily believe in separating meditation, qigong, and the martial arts. From what I've gathered, and this is subject to change, I think that high level internal martial arts should basically be samyama as according to the sutras of patanjali. Not only that, but also asana and pranayama. This is a recent theory, but I've seen many exact descriptions of yichuan practice that are synonymous with descriptions of samyama.

Maybe you have problems reading or are blind in some way? I never called this out, but you were definitely talking out of your ass when you said this. Meditation is relaxing. So in comparison to a stressful hard day at work, yeah, you "generate" qi. But how do you go further than that? Meditate more? Good luck with that.

^ Now I want to see Pocahontas too. Avatar was a great movie, if Pocahontas comes even close to how good Avatar is I definitely want to see it. I've heard the saying that there is no originality left in the world, but that doesn't change the fact that Avatar was awesome. Also, I heard someone say that Avatar is subliminally about what we did to the Indians and also that it's about what we are doing to the middle east, so using the Pocahontas story in this new context would be brilliant.

It depends on the reasons. An animal might want more qi in order to resist disease. Although I don't believe there are too many animals that have semi-abstract desires. Why do we feel we need to work so hard? Rehabilitation is hard work. But also, being an extraordinary martial artist, is hard work. Wu Wei is not some people's ultimate goal and in some systems it is a by-product.

Based on recent changes in my training, I believe that standing, test of power, and health dance are very effective means of achieving - possibly not more qi, but different energy. After training in the morning I have energy all day, after training at night I have too much energy to sleep. Maybe no more than before, but definitely different in quality.

The main cause of most blockages is diet. Eating a truly healthy diet will be the biggest contributor to opening a body up. It's a mistake to separate meditation, qigong, martial arts for health, and martial arts for combat. These are supposed to be simultaneous. A good teacher and a good TCM doctor will fix a body up well.

I am unaware of Damao's tendon changing classic. "Tendon changing" is a term I've heard used to describe the practice of exercising the tendons with the 6 directions in I-Chuan. This is done standing, walking, health dance, and in application. My interpretation of my experience so far is that we are strengthening the tendons that connect up the entire body. Strong healthy tendons enables true whole body force and explosive power. This also means a healthy mobile body into old age. PS. This is different than using the whole body to create force. Using "the whole body" is more a matter of the muscle in the four limbs, torso/core, and coordination. All of which are very important too.

I think that the simple practice of just standing relaxed is good. It teaches you the relationship of you, your body, and gravity. It can show you your tense and weak spots. But after this point, advancing your standing training is important. After you learn to relax you should start learning to exercise your tendons in the 6 directions, your intention, and your sound. Then you learn to continue that into moving, and then into attacking... then standing is a true jewel IMO. It requires a good teacher to learn tendon changing in zhan zhuang, and I don't know if it is taught in other styles besides I-Chuan.

Rosetta Stone requires a computer.

I could see that being true. My question for you is this: What experience do people misinterpret as somebody having a lot of qi? For example, someone many times my lifetime older than me told me that you get packed full of qi to the point that people can sense it and don't want to mess with you. He talked about his own experience of people saying that he disrupted a room of people just by being there and of seeing that teacher has a lot of qi. Now, to my mind, that sounds more like yi. The intensity that can come at you through Sifu Fong's eyes is discomforting and would be scary in a fight. This comes from his yi. I want to meet other teachers, but definitely hope to meet other teachers with that intensity.

Michel Thomas' program. I'm doing the chinese program, it's an 8 hour foundation program which at the end of I'll be able to have conversation in mandarin. It's incredibly quick, and is so natural I don't even try to remember it, yet I do. In one week I should be able to say I can speak mandarin.

If it costs the teacher money to teach, it should cost the student money to learn. My teacher's monthly fee goes to paying for the studio we use, also the profit goes to sending him back and forth to and from China. This is a worthy investment because it enables him to not only teach full-time, but also to reach higher levels himself which improves the teaching that I receive.

Is Jungian psychology accepted as fact in American academia and/or American culture?

I'll check that out after I read Jung's work. That way I go into the whole thing with background knowledge. To tell you the truth I am hoping I find truth in Jung's work. It will make for good conversation when it comes to 2012, astrology, and other metaphysical wonders.

I want to find a way to thoroughly exercise these areas of my life. My gongfu training has gone beyond my expectations and opened me up to something new and exciting. I am exercising almost every part of my mind and body with great efficiency. But my internal experience is still limited and I feel that my training and life would both be enhanced if I intelligently focused on my weaker points: Active intelligence, creativity, and charisma. My best idea for exercising my social mind is to start talking to strangers. Also, trying to exercise the Charisma Arts and Juggler philosophy when talking to others. For problem solving, I can only think of puzzles. Start solving puzzles. Do puzzles actually spike your intelligence? For creativity, true authentic creativity, I do not know. Maybe this will be integral to my growing social experience. Do you have any suggestions or comments?

passive intelligence is not required of you in the moment. A passively intelligent person can sit at home and comprehend quantum physics but will have a fumbling mind when asked to describe it. Of course, passive is not really the word I'd use. an answer true

LSD isn't an isolate, it's derived and synthesized. But that's not really our issue here. I don't really know about internal alchemy. But I know for sure that it doesn't, for example, take serotonin and strip it of half it's structure and add other molecules to in order to create a new chemical. I thought internal alchemy balances your internal levels. This is true. My understanding based on my experience with LSD and mushrooms is that LSD is more prone to harm, at least to me, than mushrooms because it is devoid earth's energy (could be true, could not be true, just how I've come to think of why LSD after a while harmed me and mushrooms didn't). That is not say it's useless though.

Acid being a derivative from the LSA containing morning glory seed renders it unnatural. You also over simplified the LSD synthesis from the ergot source. They call it semi-synthetic because parts of the original compound remain intact, but other parts are from synthetic additions. Once the original structure of the organic but poisonous ergotamine is destroyed in order to make the alterations that end up as LSD, it is no longer organic/natural and is therefore, to my mind, not part of mother earth. Psilocybin however is edible without tampering. I think overcomplicating the experience is a big problem with the way it's used. Too many theories of it's play on reality and internal structure. I believe the real meat and bones of it is that it makes any experience compelling. Your focus can be zoomed in on the present moment like a microscope. Just got to make sure them thoughts don't distract.

You are talking to someone who experienced LSD induced long term psychotic paranoia. I lived my everyday live within the paradigm that I was always being watched and my environment manipulated by an elite underground group of awakened people. They could read my thoughts and everything, and my entire city was designed around my awakening process. I was fucking crazy. Anyway, I think the original poster has a mind of his own and doesn't need any more comments on the matter.

It would take an uninformed mind to think taking someone who was having a bad trip to the hospital was a good idea. ODing on hallucinogens is really hard to do, sometimes impossible, and a first timer usually doesn't have the money or desire to buy that much.

Not after training... after standing. During standing my intention is there (off and on, I need to work on this among a myriad of other things) it heightens then and after standing during Shi Li and any of the forms. Consciously of course, it doesn't happen on it's own.

I have heard before on this forum that one of the ways internal martial arts changes you is because you are learning very universal principles in the form of your body. Such as learning to adapt and overcome physical forces, also teaching you to adapt and overcome life situations or social experiences. Or the observed flow and dynamic between soft and hard teaching you to accept your own weak and strong points. Another example would be that accepting the pain of horse stance is also teaching to accept other forms of pain, such as emotional pain. Do you believe that this is true? Do you have any comments?

I have to disagree about horse stance. For me, it is painful and I don't even stand mindlessly. I too don't think it's quite like the way I posted. I just wanted to hear what you all had to say. I think the real meat and bones of transformation when it comes down to the gritty hard work of the internal martial arts is finding out what you are made of. If your training isn't hard work it's probably not going to get you to the level you want it to. If your intention is only to "grin and bear it" then you aren't really doing zhan zhuang in horse stance anyway. If your intention is focused in, and your intensity has risen, then it becomes a different matter. You are right about imperfect teachers but it sounds like I am seeing that from a different angle.

In my opinion Food Inc was perfect. It was well produced, consistently interesting and dynamic, and very informative. It is what every average American needs to see, IMO. Why do you say cowardly?

To my mind, lose the acid. I think the best hallucinogen is psilocybin mushrooms. It doesn't have to processed, cooked, or smoked, it's just straight from mother earth. I wouldn't worry about it, also the last bit of acid WILL NOT necessarily be all paranoia, that is obviously only Ninpo's experience and I wouldn't pay much attention to that considering you are an individual. I say experiment if to get it out of your system, but if you really want to grow travel and find a guide or take the experiences hand-in-hand with some form of mindfulness discipline.