rookie

I wish you kunlun guys could see how you come across with all your defensiveness. Being defensive is a sign of your internal doubts. If you have the pearl of great price, the juice, the real deal, etc, and you know it, why would you bother to get upset, get into petty arguments, and do everything you can to protect the outer image of your teacher and practice? If you've got it, you've got it. It doesn't matter what other people think. You will attract others that resonate with you. If you or your practice/teacher/system is attracting a lot of negativity, then you should all look into that.

I am wondering how close Jenny Lambs teaching is to this. I have heard that she doesn't travel with an "entourage", so would expect the presentation to be a bit different.

everyone has riuals examine your own life honestly and you should find many do you judge yoursefl as harshly?

Here is a question, pretty simple but..... Do you think that the telling of the rituals is to help you feel comfortable and maybe know what is going on if you go to the temple? It seems to be a gracious gesture to me.

What is required to organize it?

The pr release says she is a lineage holder, but no mention of this guy. I have heard of the daoist tai chi society. Do you have a link to the video? I think it helps to know the facts about people who are offering a new teaching.

Hello, I am also a beginner, but from this simple starting place I think there is direct application as long as you don't get too tangled up in any one "school", "lineage" or particular set of beliefs within daoism, of which there are many. There is also a high probability that you will run into what I would call "superstition" or others may call "magic" within certain daoist's beliefs. An example is an actual, chineese born daoist lineage holder that I took a class from a while back said that another teacher from the same lineage had died of cancer and that it was caused by a "hex" or "voodo". Those are the exact words spoken in such a matter of fact way that there was no confusion about this person believing it was true. That kind of thing can interfere with other religions. But if you keep to some simple principles, which is really closer to truth than a lot of complicated beliefs, in my opinion, then they are compatible with most everything. So, from a beginner, here are some simple principles. Let go of desires. More specifically attachment to things, achievements, how people see you, stuff like that. Let your mind wind down. Cultivate a quiet, still mind. The desires mentioned will conflict with this. Practice meditation of some form. Practice some form of body-mind cultivation, i.e., qigong, taiji, yoga, whatever you are drawn to. This helps cultivate quiet by giving you something to do and can just be really good for you. Practice virtue. This means kindness, compassion, generosity. One way I have seen it stated is "Help all sentient beings". There you have a tough program to follow, but still simple and compatible with most religions I would expect. This is really hard to do though. I find myself continuously searching for more answers, teachers, techniques.... Then I snap out of it and remember the basics again Hope that helps.

http://www.karmecholing.org/registration.p...program-details Probably few of us haven't seen the name from the translations she does. Other than that ?????

I see the pendulum swinging back to the left after a long and ultimately painful swing to the right. Before that, it was eight years to the left. I don't see any real change just another reaction. It will swing back to the right. I don't expect much from politicians. They say what ever will get them elected.

I would contrast lust, based in the mind, and bodily feelings. One is perfectly natural and the other is the problem you want to overcome.

I just came back from my brother's funeral services. This experience brings these questions right to the front. In my physical/energy practice I am building a container for spiritual awakening, for wholeness, for healing, for realizing the one. The extra energy, stillness, flexibility and strength are all side benefits. So I am not after special powers. I didn't have this stated goal when I began. I was just drawn to it, my practice being qigong, taiji, and providing an enviornment for the unfolding of conciousness. I am not necessarily thinking extremely clearly right now, but I wanted to share with this group my feelings right now about how precious life is. Even though I don't have the answers about ultimate meaning, one can easily see and sense that life here on this planet is a precious gift. The one sure thing is that if you are here, you will leave some day. We come into this world innocent and pure. We meet pain, learn to build a false self identity, and create a lot of suffering for ourselves, and others. It seems we have lost our way. Then the meaning (for myself anyway) becomes finding your way back in conciousness to the source, not that you can really be separated from it (so they say), so maybe better stated as droping the illusion or waking from the dream. Anyway, the feel of it is wholeness, becoming whole again, and healing the essential wound. I am keenly aware of this purpose right now, more than at normal times. I wanted to share this and open a discussion of how you find meaning, purpose and direction in your life and how your practice plays a role in it. Peace to all.

Here is an interesting article I came across. http://www.searchwithin.org/download/last_hour_life.pdf

Thank you. I tend to be more on the introspective side, so this suggests an actual practice that I would not have thought of, that of truly embracing the loss, fighting with it, chewing it, cursing it, and crying out loudly with grief for the loss of my brother. This may not be what you meant but it sounds like a good idea to me so I am going to try it, but up in the mountains this weekend where my outbursts will be heard by elk and cyotes, not neighbors ;>)

Thank you Pat, I also have had experiences that show me there is more to us than this bodily life. I am not fearful of my own death (not now anyway) but somewhat sad for the state of my brothers life at the end. I have been drained by the grief of the last few days, and the suffering of my other family members. Somehow it seems that resisting the reality is really draining, and that letting it go and just letting the feelings flow is healthier, and what can you do anyway? I like what you have written, that being part of the dao we are always in a state of flux. That's a good reminder. In my early adult years I struggled a lot and eventually succeded by outward measures. But I find that struggling and effort is not productive when it comes to following the dao. It is an inward letting go that is sometimes hard to do. It is interesting that when I was a young boy my father, a crusty old ex marine, would tell me that the only constant in life is change. He was right. There were times when I found this advice useful when I was in a situation I didn't like but couldn't do much about. If you just ride it for a while it will eventually change. A wise man would wait for the right time to act. Right now it seems is a time to ride with the flow.

I posted my critique of the facts of this guys course for the benefit of those on this board who will listen. If I had seen a post like the one I just posted I would not have purchased the course. So if after the warning, if you proceed it is at your own risk. Furthermore, I found no improvement in my standing during the time after I purchased the course. To think that by spending money for admission to a user group website with no real information and getting a pdf file full of fluff that your practice will improve is soft headed. Who knows of any real master who will teach his tradition for a fee on the internet without even meeting the student? This is crazy. Isn't the tradition that you have to be accepted as a student? I thought I was purchasing a course with material in the large pdf file. It was full of pictures to make it look like it contained more information than it did. I wasn't interested in on line teaching from someone I have never met, and who seems more and more superstitious the more he posts. It turned out that his "course" is just not very worthwhile. If anyone has questions about the content course go ahead and ask and I will answer with direct quotes from the course. Call it "scholarly review". This guy is after money first and formost. He is now claiming that if you do not become a happy follower of his that you do not have an open heart or mind. Sound familiar? How many true spiritual teachers are in it for the money first, then become extermely defensive when anyone disagrees with them or questions them? To become agitated so easily is not the sign of one who is close to attaining the dao. Is not maintaining a calm mind and heart just part of the basic practice? All you tao bums should be careful of this guy.

Surrender? calm down man, this is about your business pratices. I think other poepole considering purchasing your course should know about this. You are certainly entitled to basically advertise your products for sale on this site (I suppose) but you should also realize that user feedback will definitely happen. You may think of this a "free market karma". If you have happy customers word of mouth will help you, and the other way as well. And I am honest. Please do not insult me like that. I paid for your course but was not happy with it. I feel a fool for having paid $72 for your course on wuji standing and access to your teaching website. I found your website to have no real information on the practice but just another "opportunity" to purchase more courses. The title "wuji standing" is what caught my interest. I have found one of the best intorductions to standing in the book "Taijiquan; the art of nuturing, the science of power" by Yang Yang. But his instruction was brief, because the book is mostly about taiji. So I was looking for more information on the subject. I have been doing standing regularly for over a year now and I am truely interested in some new information or teaching on this subject. The value of the download course is suspect. Out of a 14 page document there is less than 4 pages of text explaining the instruction. It is all basic and easily found in other sources except for about a half page (5 or 6 sentences) that describe things like "... suggests ....send out a hidden force toward outside....." and there is no real instruction or development excercises or description or any elaboration. All you get is a suggestion to have your intention lead a hidden force. So that is basically all I found to be new material. There are two photographs of the basic standing posture and 6 pages with basically nothing but graphics or art. So it seems this document was filled up with stuff to make it look like it contains more than it does. A 4Mb pdf file that is mostly text would have many more pages of text. So this is my complaint. Very little value is offered for the payment recieved. In good faith I paid up front without seeing the content. I am unhappy with the value of the content. I asked for my money back. You refuse. You continue to try and lure others to purchase your course, get access to your website, and buy more courses. In the free market, word of mouth will spread and you will be able to fool fewer people. How about a refund? That is the honorable thing to do. In fact, doing that would put to rest any possible questions about your character or intention. It is quite simple really. Then this all would turn out quite good for you. You would demonstrate that you truely are an honorable man. That is another part of free market karma.

I would like my money back. I asked you to refund my fee within an hour of purchasing your standing meditation course. You refused. Now that you are offering the trial, I would certainly be one who would not purchase the course after seeing the content. You talk of karma. I suggest it is not good karma for you to continue to refuse my request for a refund under these circumstances.

HA HA, damn right.

I can see your point. But I suspect it is the flow of life you surrender to, not a person.

neti neti

Thank you, this is a very good post, for most members of this board are of chasing some power of skill. Very few seem to be really interested in the path of simplicity. I want to comment on this paragraph: " Daoism cultivates the Dan Tian; to attain immortality and eventually attain enlightenment. The problem is, there is less focus on virtue and moral practice in "Modern" Daoism, and more focus on spiritual abilities and longevity, which doesn't lead one to enlightenment right away../actually it slows one down. " Yes, the many are seeking despearely for the powers, getting very involved in the details of some expeience, so chasing another. The forest has been lost for the trees. I have had the priviledge to work with two Daoist teachers who were born and raised in China and were immersed in taoism from an early age. These are the only teachers of qigong, tai-chi or anything slightly taoist in nature that ever mentioned virtue. And yes, virtue was mentioned often. In one case it was as simple as using generosity to help yourself overcome attachment (greed), so that one helps balance out and eventually replace the other. Jing energy is drained by desire but cultivated by generosity. Qi energy is drained by agressin and cultivated by compassion. Shen energy is drained by thoughts and cultivated by wisdom. I don't want to get off track here, and I am not an expert of any kind. But I want to mention an example from recent posts on this board of a popular American Daoist teacher with obvious character problems but all this is excused by the fact that he has "the power". So he attracts students that are seeking some power. I think the true path is so simple that we miss it. The teachings become a distraction. Isn't it true that real daoist traditional teaching took quite a number of years to reach levels of teaching that are chased after and marketed to the masses way too fast now?

I don't know him so cannot comment based on personal experience. The descriptions in the previous posts of a man with serious self control issues is where the question comes in. If all you are after is technique, special powers or what have you, then go for it. But the character of a teacher is as important as what they know as far as I am concerned. Both are essential. I am just posing the question about how bad would it have to be before you would wake up. I don't know how bad he is, if at all.

Wild stories and not even trying to provide evidence. It is hard to stop watching though.

I just wonder how big a problem your teacher needs to have before your radar goes off and you decide to take your balance, dignity, sanity, and health with you out the door.