Cultivating the Tao in China

[Cameron]

Hi Bums!

 

So I have been in Beijing for 3 weeks. I really like it! I taught in Korea for 2 1/2 years but am really fond of my Chinese students. It's so interesting living here there is this amazing fusion of the old and the new. And China is clearly trying to find it's identity and role for the next generation.

 

I am pretty excited to study Wushu. I'll drop in on my first class tomorrow. Tai Chi, Xing Yi and Baugua all taught by high level teachers in a Chinese courtyard! I also love to hike and scaled the Great Wall last weekend.

 

Anyway, just wanted to pop in and connect with the Bums. Is anyone else living in China btw?

 

Cam

 

ps. Has anyone heard from or know how Yoda is doing? I really miss that guy!

[Taiji Bum]

Its great to hear from you and especially from China! Sounds like your drinking straight from the well! Good luck and keep us up to date on your adventures!

[Taomeow]

Hey Cam,

 

good to see you! I'm sure you and China will enjoy each other's company!

 

I was in China last summer, but spent 6 weeks of my stay in Xi'an and only a few days in Beijing. Xi'an is a provincial city of 7 million and I learned its ways only to find that in Beijing much of what I'd learned does not apply, it's so different. Beijing reminded me of Moscow -- hectic, busy, flashy, polluted as hell, modern to the max on the outside, but inside -- ???... Well, looks like you'll have a good chance to find out what it's really like. Do keep us posted if the spirit so moves you.

 

As for Yoda, the last thing I heard about him was that he became an apprentice of Mak Tin Si after the latter helped him dispel some negative energies which Yoda attributed to kunlun. (How's your kunlun, by the way, still going or in cold storage?) Mak Tin Si has a site, you may try tracing Yoda's current whereabouts if you visit, but I don't have a bookmark for that, google it up.

[joeblast]

Caaaam! Send us pics from Huashan!

[irkk]

Welcome back. Good luck with your training!

[steve]

Hi Cam,

Nice of you to give us an update.

Good luck in your studies.

 

 

Best

[Friend]

Edited November 16, 2011 by Friend

[Cameron]

Taomeow!

 

I am visiting my friend in Xi'an next month

 

Is there anything there in particular you would reccommend checking out? After that I think I am going to Luoyang(sp?)

 

Beijing, Xi'an, Luoyang and Nanjing are the 4 ancient capitals I think.

 

Anyway, I hope Yoda is doing well.

 

I still do Kunlun, powerful as it ever was!

[VCraigP]

Taomeow!

 

I am visiting my friend in Xi'an next month

 

Is there anything there in particular you would reccommend checking out? After that I think I am going to Luoyang(sp?)

 

Beijing, Xi'an, Luoyang and Nanjing are the 4 ancient capitals I think.

 

Anyway, I hope Yoda is doing well.

 

I still do Kunlun, powerful as it ever was!

 

 

Xi'an is nice. Check out the Moslem market. Huge open air market for all types of trinkets, curios, clothes, etc, etc. If you make it ti Xian you should find some way to get the Huashan. Highly reccomend it. skip the Terra Cotta warriors.

 

Craig

[Cameron]

Nice, I'll try to visit Huashan. Not sure if I can resist skipping the Terra Cotta warriors though.

 

Also, I heard that the Shaolin Temple is close to Luoyang? Wild I thought I was just visiting my friend and am finding out these areas are serious cultivation Meccas.

 

I dropped into IMA class. Was pretty cool. Really nice teachers. But I think I will stick with hiking Chinese mountains for now.

 

Ni Hao!

[Todd]

Taomeow!

 

I am visiting my friend in Xi'an next month

 

Is there anything there in particular you would reccommend checking out? After that I think I am going to Luoyang(sp?)

 

Beijing, Xi'an, Luoyang and Nanjing are the 4 ancient capitals I think.

 

Anyway, I hope Yoda is doing well.

 

I still do Kunlun, powerful as it ever was!

 

 

Hangzhou was a capital too. Beautiful city.

 

 

[Andrei]

Little1 is in China now (I don't know which city) but he said he cannot access Taobums and facebook from there. Do you know any way how to access the banned sites? I talked with him through yahoo messenger

 

news about Yoda (I was wondering too what happened to him):

http://makchingyuen.wordpress.com/2011/01/14/tin-yat-students-altar-kyle/

 

http://makchingyuen.wordpress.com/2011/07/27/tin-yang-kyle-tin-yat-lineage-taoist-faat-si-video-of-doing-scripture/

Edited September 16, 2011 by steam

[exorcist_1699]

Little1 is in China now (I don't know which city) but he said he cannot access Taobums and facebook from there. Do you know any way how to access the banned sites? I talked with him through yahoo messenger

 

 

I accessed "Taobums" many times from China, it was okay ( 2-3 months ago);

 

Regarding Facebook, of course, you always can't .

Edited September 16, 2011 by exorcist_1699

[Taomeow]

Little1 is in China now (I don't know which city) but he said he cannot access Taobums and facebook from there. Do you know any way how to access the banned sites? I talked with him through yahoo messenger

 

news about Yoda (I was wondering too what happened to him):

http://makchingyuen....nts-altar-kyle/

 

http://makchingyuen....oing-scripture/

 

Thank you for the links, that was fun!

[gendao]

I accessed "Taobums" many times from China, it was okay ( 2-3 months ago);

 

Regarding Facebook, of course, you always can't .

Actually, you can access FB with a VPN in China.

 

And there might still be some old pics on here somewhere for an actual comparison, but it does look like his skin has become noticeably smoother, clearer and more youthful from what I recall? I mean, I'm guessing he's somewhere in his 40s now?

Anyhow, I would definitely check out the Longmen Grottoes & Shaolin Temple if in that area. You can even hike up to Bodhidharma's Cave where he faced the wall for 9 years there (I think it may be about a 3-hour hike from the main temple, though)!

Edited September 16, 2011 by vortex

[Cameron]

Good to see he is doing well and connected to a lineage he likes.

 

Probably not going to the Shaolin Temple on this trip. But I am visiting Hua Shan next week

 

Does anyone who has visited Hua Shan have any tips? I am going for a weekend.

[suninmyeyes]

 

Interesting...Yoda's altar(?), with a rifle. And the stuffed animal's got a gun too.

 

Intersting indeed 'cough, cough'.. Guns everywhere.

[Cameron]

Ahhh he has a good heart. I am sure he means no harm by having guns.

 

I bought my ticket for Xian. I can't wait to see Hua Shan. I'll take some pictures!

 

I spoke with Max today and he suggested I check out Maoshan in Kwangshi province. So that's also on my list!

 

ps. I won't post very often but if any Bums visit China shoot me a message!

[ChiDragon]

I went to HuaShan once before. The mountain is a formation of white rocks.

[宁]

It's early morning in Kaifeng, i can see some guys outside the building i live in, they're doing some sort of taiji routine.. The internet connection is very slow, i can access foreign websites only at improbable hours.

Yes, Luoyang and the shaolin guys are on my list, as it is Xi'an, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Zhengzhou, Shanghai. Kaifeng is a 'little' town, only 4 mil people haha. The advantage is that you don't bump into non-chinese every day, and you get your chance to practice the language - which is why i am here for. The cities on the coast are more clean and modern, however, and should be a little less cultural shock to go to a big city firstly, and then travel around. I managed to upload some pics on FB, some of you are already friends there, you could check them out.

It's too early to say if going to China it's best, if you want to study daoism.. I like the chinese medicine books though, i think their content is much richer than what i've seen in the west so far.

[Cameron]

Nice. My first month in Beijing I have liked it alot! The air is smoggy as hell no doubt. But I have met some really cool people. I actually prefer that there is the foriegnor element along with Chinese that speak English. Don't think it is going to be an overnight thing or even something I could do in a year to learn Chinese. It will be a process.

 

I also like that it's close to the Great Wall and will probably hike that alot. Going to check out the Brazillian Ji Jitsu School here in Beijing tonight

[Owledge]

news about Yoda (I was wondering too what happened to him):

http://makchingyuen.wordpress.com/2011/01/14/tin-yat-students-altar-kyle/

 

http://makchingyuen.wordpress.com/2011/07/27/tin-yang-kyle-tin-yat-lineage-taoist-faat-si-video-of-doing-scripture/

I browsed their website a bit. The only word I can come up with that somewhat describes it nicely ... WACKY!

 

http://www.chiinnature.com/tao_gunning.html

http://www.chiinnature.com/badpaths.html

 

I'm not saying their stuff doesn't work, but apparently they have some serious potential for causing more harm than healing. And their utter lack of even the tiniest bit of shame for total marketing exploitation is not my personal taste. Sure, everybody has to make a living, but I'm just saying that I had to laugh in astonishment regarding their ... severe opportunism.

 

On a more serious note, I think emphasizing all the gun and protection stuff on an altar might fortify the perception of a threat. You try to keep demons at bay, and at the same time the real battlefield - within - is dominated by them because your focus is on the outside.

 

In some of their slander texts, you can even see the psychological roots for this whole approach.

And they themselves are so much as they perceive others that it's a big joke.

 

I haven't read everything there, but did anybody check their lineage/background?

Addendum: OK, found this thread:

http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?/topic/10095-questionable-mak-tin-si-sect/

Edited September 27, 2011 by Hardyg

[thelerner]

I browsed their website a bit. The only word I can come up with that somewhat describes it nicely ... WACKY!

 

http://www.chiinnature.com/tao_gunning.html

http://www.chiinnature.com/badpaths.html

 

I'm not saying their stuff doesn't work, but apparently they have some serious potential for causing more harm than healing. And their utter lack of even the tiniest bit of shame for total marketing exploitation is not my personal taste. Sure, everybody has to make a living, but I'm just saying that I had to laugh in astonishment regarding their ... severe opportunism. in-si-sect/

On the site there was a pop up for a free service to see if I needed an exorcism. What the chances I would need one I'd hit the button? 100% I'd expect.

[Cameron]

That's not a big deal really. If he is getting results from that system that's the important thing.

 

So I checked out both the local BJJ place and the internal MA place. BJJ looks fun but I think I will go with the internal(Bagua, Tai Chi and Xingyi).

 

It will be interesting to see how the systems and qigong I learn here mix with Max's Kunlun stuff. Max suggested to me that I would get the most out of Bagua but will go with the flow and see what my Chinese teacher suggests.

 

Though he did immedietly give me a book on Bagua free of charge upon first meeting(which I subsequently lost somewhere). Will be embarassing asking for another copy!

 

Xian and Hua Shan next week!!

[Owledge]

That's not a big deal really. If he is getting results from that system that's the important thing.

Hm... results ... results can be anything. Then there are aims. When you achieve your aims, you are happy. And then there is healing. That might make you unhappy once in a while.

 

Do you think Kunlun Nei Gung made Kyle invite harmful entities into his house? I don't. I think it did what it usually does: dig up your inner demons so that you can deal with them. Kyle should have known that, but still he freaked out over alleged evil otherdimensional repitilians haunting his house and family. And if someone freaks out that way, I think it's very likely that if even his daughter is eventually haunted by them in her sleep, what actually happened is that she got nightmares because Kyle put so much belief into it and kept talking about it.

 

It is one thing to be aware of your issues and decide to defer dealing with them until you feel ready, but another to confuse inner and outer world and strengthening your fears. You might say he's happy now. I say he's more afraid now. Keeping firearms on your altar kinda is a dead giveaway.

Let's hope he doesn't actually intent to ever use the gun for 'shooting evil entities'. Then again... if he doesn't, where's the intention-power for making the guns useful on a protective altar?

 

I just remembered this very spot-on and poetic fictional text - from World of Warcraft actually - like a handbook for minions of the undead Scourge, where it said that the Scourge loves holy men (like crusaders), because they are afraid and thus easy targets for the Scourge's corruption and helping the advancement of their aims.

 

Kyle should try to figure out where those fears are coming from. The whole reptilian stuff might just be a fictional vehicle for the message, but it could also indicate a fear of people who are different in some kind, or maybe as trivial as a childhood trauma where parents were telling him to eat up or he'll be eaten by reptiles or some other crap that parents sometimes do without realizing what they're doing. ... Or it could even have been Max talking about reptilians, I don't know.

 

And regarding Chi In Nature... I'm actually not sure whether their story of having been betrayed/scammed by religious people actually happened and messed them up, or whether even that is just an act. Their website is situated in the grey area between obvious scam and elaborate hoax, where people might actually mean what they say. (Then again ... even those know that they are lying to themselves, but they have buried that knowledge deep in their psyche.)

For reference, this here is an elaborate hoax:

http://www.realultimatepower.net

 

Right now Kyle's financial support for Chi In Nature is strenghthening their fears and his own by creating attachment. Kyle spends big money on it, so it has to be valid, and the Chi In Nature guys make a living off of it, so there's no incentive for change.

(By the way, back then when I checked out their business model, I learned that payment for their services can go into the four digits.)

Edited September 29, 2011 by Hardyg