GrandmasterP

Trees are useful. Find a leaf. Bring it indoors and really look at it. For a very long time. Job done

Marvellous stuff Shanlung, thank you. You'd fit right in amongst like minded friends at our centre. Check out the website via my profile.

Some see, hear or sense entities; some don't. No big deal either way. If they don't exist for you then they aint there. If they do, then they do. Fine old Taoist tradition is spirit communication and related services such as fortune telling. Taiwanese temples would seldom see a lick of new paint without it. They keep our centre in funds and class fees affordable. One hand washes the other.

"Undoubted Cultivation" Grandmaster John Chang is recognised as such, there is no issue here. Some of the ways in which he has been presented have given rise to heated debate. A middle path has yet to emerge. Your personal question clearly indicates your stance on lineage and it is a commendable one It is not my intention to challenge the belief system of anyone any more than one would engage in the fru fruitlesss discourse.. Your faith is an issue for yourself alone. May it confer comfort and assurance to your path and my warmest best regards to your continued cultivation..

Market Forces wll prevail whatever emerges from the current mess. Just as they always have done. Hence we are all posting via something made in China. Cos,currently that's the cheapest option ensuring greater profit. Perfectly natural way to be irrespective of wherever the profit goes to.

Reflecting on Snowmonki's excellent post this qualifier. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is exogenous and relates to an actual causal factor. Stillness Movement and lineage discourse engages via endogenous neuroses factors. The efficacy lies in the neurotic attachment which remains beyond the 'treatment'. It works if you believe it works but the original neurosis is not addressed.

Reflecting on Snowmonki's excellent post this qualifier. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is exogenous and relates to an actual causal factor. Stillness Movement and lineage discourse engages via endogenous neuroses factors. The efficacy lies in the neurotic attachment which remains beyond the 'treatment'. It works if you believe it works but the original neurosis is not addressed.

QiGong is an excellent practice recommended for PTSD sufferers. The set is irrelevant, it's the imparted sense of self-control and cultivation of regulated breathing that facilitates speedier return to equilibrium and beyond that, healing of memories. It's also very economical compared to some allopathic regimes.

Plenty to choose from in Taoism. Good Luck and Fortune Telling deities for me everytime. Eight Immortals do the trick. It's all reification, but 'coincidentaly' those guys can deliver the goods if you persevere and ask politely.

Terry Pratchett has a riff along the lines of .... Why were so many religions founded by desert dwellers? Cos if you look up at the night sky from a desert you'll maybe want to imagine something personally comforting between you and the vast sublime indifference you are looking at.

Absolutely. The very idea of any competitiveness or superiority between the two disciplines is risible yet for some whatever they do must be 'better' than another's chosen method. A stance that speaks volumes about those adopting it and nothing at all of value on that they purpourt to citique.

We taught a course in a community centre where Tai Chi players also gathered. Our session poster appeared on the centre noticeboard beneath the Tai Chi teacher's class notice. Someone without our knowledge or approval wrote the following on the Ti Chi poster.... Tai Chi makes you wee. QiGong makes you strong. It was a poor show and our class was 'told off'. Ultimately,whichever cultivation works for an individual is the right one for them.

I know nothing. :-)

Knowledge-intellect is just information kept or shared. Knowing-intuition , on the other hand.......

Our cousins the Pure Land Buddhists would probably agree that a cultivation that reifies a deity-like concept is a far simpler path to walk than one which does not. Whilst they know that Amithaba Buddha is not actually a God, to most intents and purposes cultivating via Nembutsu has parallels to the Xtian rosary-repetition ritual. Horses for courses. Whatever gets you there is what works for you. Many paths, one mountain.

All those are good so you are right. Archer Draws Bow, in the context of discussion of linear time is a cultivation of wider implication. As are the other seven, but time was the question. We teach 'release' arrow. And much else beside in relation to the final part of those movements that flow next into Search Horizon and Clouds. There is much about time in that section of the set. None of which communicates effectively via internet or any written medium so I shall bow respectfully to you and leave it there, at this point in time.

There is a pathway between Grandmaster John Chang's undoubted cultivation and the agenda of the 'documentary' makers responsible for the YouTube clips.

Of course. You are right. Consider 'Time's Arrow'. In 8 strands of Silk Brocade.. Archer Draws Bow. Yet neither needs nor uses either bow, nor arrow.

Just the punchline......... 'Astounded,the disciple turned to his master and said,"But how can they both be right,surely one must be wrong if the other was right!" The master smiled and replied... "But of course,you are right"

Slippery concept is 'truth'. That said, every post on here is right. All opinions being equaly valid and each experience unique.

With deepest sympathy on your father leaving his body A. Seeker.

Does emptiness realize Buddhists monks?

............................................................ Do you get word on how Dommie is faring these days Shanlung? He certainly did love that beach !

............................................. Yep, could have been a real pussy bit of a downer exchanging Greek sunshine for our less than balmy English weather.