Birch

Yeah, I dunno. It's still not working for me on mine. Maybe a plugin is a wantin ;-)

Both.

I tried to go but the Mac wouldn't download the java whatsit.

And part of it is somewhere on this forum;-) I do remember reading it. Mucho gusto!

Thanks Susan! Tao got it:-)

"Efforts are being made to discredit both a method of meditation and an organisation teaching it." That may or may not be the case here. My question would be 'if so, why?'. I mean really why? it's not like there's only one way of meditating or one organization that teaches X numbers of versions of meditation. I reckon you weren't around on this forum for the 'Kunlun debates' but I'd look that one up:-) Seth Ananda also posted something I found interesting (or at least got my ears perked up:-)) when he mentioned that there were specific things he would not teach to certain people because they were risky, requiring super-close supervision (please correct me if I'm wrong Seth). And I found myself admiring him for understanding enough about his craft not to do it under certain circumstances. Of course my curiosity got tweaked at the same time and I found myself wanting to try whatever he was withholding from general circulation but then I remembered the kundalini and reasoned that I had a relatively 'lucky' time of it so why go looking for more trouble;-) My point is that if the practices on AYP are innocuous enough then there ought not to be any reason to get all 'proprietary' about them. Last time I checked, meditation was about freeing consciousness.

I sometimes wonder about stuff like the above. If meditation allows you to uncondition while realizing the steps that led to your conditioning, why would anyone in their right mind want to operate such conditioning on others? I realise I'm begging the question a little. That no-one in their right mind would want to do it to anyone else.

Seems in my absence that your critique and questioning of AYP has opened the floor for another thread arguing about teachers and technique. Pretty regular TTB's stuff I'm not sure what to say about the admonishment you received as cited above. Personally that just turns me off. It does seem strange that the AYP forum would have a space for criticism of other techniques and not the one being taught. I've been reading that 'Inner Bliss' book Cow Tao mentioned and I came across this passage about teachers being open to other techniques and not just insisting on their own (the author didn't seem very appreciative of what he referred to as 'egoistic' teachers. I found myself thinking of you T_I

In which case can I suggest you get the best quality/price combo you can get. For many entry-level jobs a community-college degree is good 'bang for your buck' and the colleges are often better at networking with prospective local employers than universities. Check out the "Personal MBA" book and website for business-related stuff. Knowing some code is a good idea if you're going to hire coders but getting a certificate in it to be a coder is something I'd throw back for debate. For health/caring professions, I reckon you've got some great advice. I think getting yourself into the economy without a hefty student loan is a good idea. Some professions demand a uni degree but I wonder how much of that is 'we had to pay out for it and so do you'? ---opinion alert---

It's a bit like Apech said for me, I wouldn't want to go anywhere near a matriarchy and especially not one borne of the ills of 'patriarchial' civilization. I have the impression we've already had glimpses of what that does. The other image that comes to mind is that if you want a situation to remain the same but effect the illusion of change, just switch the extremes over at the edges, dominant becomes dominated (or red/blue) and vice versa, the thing still spins in the same way for those that want/need it spinning that way. I tend towards a preference for equality of genders and balance in energies. I suppose one could argue that the way itself includes the processes necessary to reach the point we've reached and of itself contains the solutions. But then I wonder about how that works in relative terms and how it got so screwed up to begin with. I can't bring myself to believe that as humans we have collectively brought these things upon ourselves.

i haven't dreamt of a chocolate goddess. At least not so far and in that I am behind. In what ever terms one cares to mention. I enjoyed your post Ulises. Although these days I often get antsy when someone somewhere comes up with the perfect opposite to all I've considered unjust for so long.

If you're going to pick a delusion, which would you prefer, the sickly one or the somewhat puffed-up healthy-happy one? Jeez, even if all are delusion. No merit either way. Unless...?

Nebulous, sounds about right. Specious, will need to look that up but it didn't sound complementary (or complimentary even). It's nice to think other people are making an effort to follow my thinking 'for a while'. I feel a bit special now (adds sparkly pony but in horse stance to be, er, hardcore Taoist) Edit: So 'specious' defines as 'plausible but wrong'. Lots of things are like that. In what ways are/were my postings about qi-gong wrong? I don't mind if I am wrong about it BTW. Thx!

T_I my remark about sour grapes and wrong practice was supposed to be helpful - as in when considering your approach towards criticism of AYP be aware that it could be (mis?)construed as sour grapes or wrong practice. I'll respond in more detail later.

If you're intrigued, have a look:-) It is different, which is why I suggested it in this thread:-)

I wouldn't assume the Taoist way to be either positive or negative. But you know what you're doing, right? My personal experience so far has been that contrived responses to situations are just that. Contrived. I reckon people can smell that stuff a mile off:-)

Counterpoint. No diagnosis. Get her to check out the 'Sexual Teachings of the White Tigress', not because of practices to adopt but about a perspective. Different.

I reckon one or both of couple of folks on here have it but the only reason I reckon that is because I had a felt sensation of what I'd call 'blue electric chi' during a group meditation at which the teachers are known/reputed to 'transmit' during them. So really what I'm saying is not as clear cut as saying such and such 'has electric chi'. Not very clear, sorry (aside from the queasier question of where the locus of the experience arises, originates and all that crap).

Versatile does not IMO = 'Taoist'.

Er, so how during qi-gong practice do I 'get' underandings of 'ancient' theories that when I look up later correspond - or as near as dammit? (the last part is just an expression to say pretty near enough to be the same thing). So perhaps the 'scientific' qi-gong theory does indeed line-up with what's going on but have you considered that it might only be partially descriptive of what's going on (because the physical domain knowledge and language hasn't caught up with everything that is going on quite yet) or that it might be slightly skewed to one aspect of the full phenomenon (here it would be physical) and so leaving other stuff out? I also wouldn't equate 'ancient' with surpassed in any way. The above is not intended to dismiss attempts at correlating qi-gong effects and practices with current scientiic knowledge BTW. And so perhaps also could be attempted, not dismissing 'ancient' effects and practices because they don't fit the current scientific model yet.

Most excellent. I caught myself telling the radio newscaster to f-off aloud this morning for exactly the reasons addressed in the above vid and the thread below.

"Shakti is a little bit like Chuck Norris..." Hehehehe. That's funny, but a I reckon a good analogy:-) Not sure if it's your doing Susan, but the golden lights are back since I've been reading your latest posts on TTB's;-) Also reminded me of Doc Morris, who's version of Secret Smile I listened to this morning as an alarm (not that it's alarming or anything:-))

Not to be, er, contrary (but of course that's what I'm about to do) do you reckon it's "better" to be a happy cancer patient or a sad one? Either way you're a cancer patient. I wonder if you mean 'happy cancer patient' equates to 'cancer patient resigned to their obvious demise'? I read it that way but I reckon that's maybe not quite what was meant. Aren't we all sort of resigned to some kind of passing? I wonder. Aside from what a cancer patient may or may not be feeling or whether it's obvious they're done for or not or whether their happiness has an effect on their cancer (adding to the potential existing guilt that they may have brought it upon themselves which in this age of polluted lots of things is a big joke IMO). I've never tried telling anyone to be happy (or sad) despite whatever is happening in their lives. Does it work for them?

Damn you Chi-Dragon. I'm foiled again!

If you know one, you are one. maybe.