Taiji Bum

Everything I know about Buddhism I learned in the past few days reading the William Bodri book MEASURING MEDITATION. I'd like to know the orthodox view on a few things. I am not looking for a deep discussion. I just want to know if these things are common knowledge for the average Buddhist?

1- Are the 5 Skandhas taught?

2- Is Prajna Wisdom taught?

3- Is the dharmakaya, sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya taught?

Thanks,

Darin

Measuring Meditation is a big book. I have 500 pages printed and 205 to go! Thats a lot of $ink$!!!!

I used calibre to convert that ebook to another format, I never got a warning it was secured.

 

Maybe you can try that program?

Thanks! Calibre works better than I even thought possible!!!

Right now I am printing out Bodri's Measuring Meditation to hand bind the thing. I have a larger printer that can go as large as 13x19 paper and I was thinking of making a leather bound edition of all the Taoist Bodri material in one large tome.

My problem is that his PDF's are secured. How can I hack out a copy in WORD so I can edit out the fancy colors and stuff?

I think you can be normal and get the tao, i.e. anyone can "do it"

 

But those that have the Tao IME are kinda out there compared to what the "normal" people do and what the normal people talk about.

 

e.g. it's normal to go outside and have a smoke during work. Go outside for the same amount of time and do standing post

So true, Mal. I've had jobs where I would go outside on my breaks to practice taijiquan or stand post and crazy rumors were spread. The hospital that I work at now has a special place for meditation so doing taiji or post standing there is "normal" but when I worked at factories I was a freak of nature! I was eventually confronted by an angry mob (literally about 10 people) at one factory asking if I hated them for some reason or if I was too good to share a breakroom with them. Of course I invited them all to do taijiquan with me but I had no takers. Hahaha....

EDIT: And dont get me started about my family and why I am still single! Well mom... you see... I need to conserve Jing.....

Its great to have a yoga teacher here! Welcome to the Tao Bums!

Welcome to the Taobums, Mike!

I'm getting ready for a massive detox myself and then a diet makeover. I'll probably start with a long water fast which I have done many times before so I know how to go into and out of them. I am training for a half marathon right now set for Oct 16th. After that I will pick up my inner Taoist practices. Taomeows old posts are a great resource. I'm glad your still around!

Are there Taoist dating sites?

EDIT: I'm on e-Harmony and I avoid the women who put Jesus into every place they can. No Taoist there.

Welcome to The Tao Bums GoldenFlower! Thats one of my favorite books! How long and what have you practiced?

I think David DeAngelo has evolved over time and now his works are more balanced. His new "Become Mr Right" program is more about becoming a better man to attract a better class of woman.

He talks about Tao by name in a bunch of episodes. In my opinion it is very, very Taoist... or perhaps I am just such a huge fan that my personal view of Taoism is biased from the show.

EDIT: Spelling

I am a total believer in both spiritual and physical immortality.

There is Bill Bodhri's stuff that is in need of large amounts of editing and is very commercial but is pretty advanced.

http://www.meditationexpert.com/products.html

EDIT: Grammar

Who was the translator? I personally love the Isherwood translation.

S'up? Welcome to da bums.

@TricksterCrow- Taoist alchemy is inherently made for the beginner but if you want a starter practice begin with emptiness meditation. Its hard to go wrong with that. Dont worry about jacking my threads either. I get too many PM's.

How many Taiji instructers are there here? Stig and I? Anybody seen a good video of Taiji used in an actual fight or competitively where its recognizable as taiji?

Now that we got all that out of the way - I have one request:

 

All I am asking for is an IMA guy who is willing to kick my ass using his internal skill (I am not stupid to ask that from an external martial artist). And I promise to you that I will never hate you and your karma will be clean as a whistle.

This is a very simple deal: You or your teacher kicks my ass using his IMA skill and I will praise him forever.

 

Is this too much to ask for? Somebody out there please feel sorry for me. Show some compassion.

Please, please, please!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As an IMA teacher I hate seeing this. I have seen this challange so many time on so many different martial arts forums that it means to me that IMA has lost all credibilty as a fighting art. Is anyone up to this challange? Orb, can you travel since you made the challenge?

Why dont IMA'ers step up? Didn't Yang Chen Fu travel around challenging people to fight? He didn't seem too concerned about karma and he founded an entire family style of Taijiquan, right?

The purpose of life is to live. It is to grow, increase, flourish, die and then be reborn. (I hope that didnt come off as too cliche.)

41 but I think my profile states that.

This is a really old thread. I am 44 now.

Edit: I first got online in 1991 and I think it was DARPA-net back then and I was in the army during the first gulf war.

Yes in fact they do. As we can see with Mr Vaj. Perhaps someone did drop a -1 on a bunch of his posts. But now I notice that another someone has run around and dropped +1 on a whole bunch

 

I will investigate if we can monitor such activity

Well, can you see how we voted? My only concern for this system is if I hit a negative sign on some moderators favorite qigong system advocate, will they gang up on me.

When I first joined Tao Bums there was absolutely no moderation at all. It was a free for all. Now it seems to have cycled to the exact opposite. I guess thats Tao, huh?

My anti-drug message.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDbapAig9gw

Thanks guys (aka: Shameless Bump) The shirt is one I got for a powerlifting group I am in. They also have ones that say, "Shut The F... Up And Train".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1ylMsDBpVU

I was sent this email so I made a video answer:

Thank you for posting your experiences on-line. Surely you have great fortune and merit to have encountered and experienced these things. I have a question regarding the 100 days, if you would be so kind to answer. You talked of "firing" the qi to transform it into shen... Is this firing the same thing as the Kan and Li talked about in Mantak Chia's system (I don't follow his teachings or exercises, but do use them as a sort of reference for research)? Does it happen in the central channel (thrusting channel in the Chinese system, I believe), or does the qi move up the spine? The Tibetan Buddhist and Taoist inner alchemy seem very similar, but I'm just getting to the point now where I feel ready to fire and transform the energy. Thank you for your time and inspiration.

Also, when you talk about the 100 days, you said you moved the qi up the spine to the forehead and stopped there without bringing the energy back down to the tan tien. Is that right? Did the energy pool in the 3rd eye area?

Any instructions or insights you could share will be greatly appreciated.

While I personally agree with the whole "same goal, different paths" thing, I've never had a Christian tell me they think the goal is the same. From the Christian point of view, if your goal aint God, Jesus, or something like that, your goal aint the true goal, and you're opening yourself up to sin and damnation. Even if you're a great guy and doing it the right way and have compassion and things like that.....

 

Maybe I'm just talking to the wrong people. As regrettable as I find it, I don't even really discuss meditation with Christians anymore. It's not because arguments start, it's because the conversation can barely get off the ground. There's just nothing to compare.

We have the same goal and I am a Christian. It doesnt matter if I want to abide in God and a Zen dude wants non-abiding. The same methods produce the same results and the ultimate reality is the same for everyone. One problem is that most Christians have never heard of contemplative prayer and when they do it takes a hour to explain that your not opening your mind to satan. Seriousy, I just had that exact conversation with my gf last night since she is a singing in the choir Baptist girl.