Mal

Sweet. Actually all religion is pretty much BS IMHO So I think you will have a great time here at the 'bums.

Tired? Stressed?! You'll feel better on Swisse Sorry thats an advertising jingle for a vitamin company here in Aus. Have fun here at the 'Bums Edit: I see you are in my vitamin thread and you actually are from the Swisse company. Haha that is so cool

Li Jiong How much practice time do you need for this method? I'm interested in everything, but I don't feel a strong "calling" towards this method. Personally connecting to the "Xuanji Matrix" puts me off a bit. Since I would not be able to give more than 30 min an evening to this practice I'm thinking it's probably not for me. But good to hear reports of success.

There is a tiny thread in the book club if anyone is interested in discussing this book. I do not have it yet as I can only source it from Amazon and as pointed out the deluxe study edition isn't cheap but I was thinking about getting it eventually. Particularly for the oral teachings part. So is there a better way to get this written oral version You say this book is a waste of money or was that just about the deluxe vs the normal edition?

24. This inert body does not say 'I'. Reality-Consciousness does not emerge. Between the two, and limited to the measure of the body, something emerges as 'I'. It is this that is known as Chit-jada-granthi (the knot between the Conscious and the inert), and also as bondage, soul, subtle-body, ego, samsara, mind, and so forth.

BTT Thanks for the link, lots of usefully stuff there. Could be a good site for our "links" section ???

Yes cool links. I couldn't resist the Bamboo Forest Yixing Clay Mug with Infuser from http://www.enjoyingtea.com then I had to get some tea too Dragon Well Green Tea, Pingshui Gunpowder Green Tea Anxi Benshan Wulong So $100aus later and I'm still sipping my teabag tea from my styrofoam cup A teleport would really revolutionise online shopping

Sounds like me after Tai Chi My Sifu uses this analogy which I will try to remember correctly because he feel that eastern exercise and western exercise are very different. If we want to look after our health we may decide to go for a run. You push your body to the extreme and it struggles to keep up. Your heart starts beating faster, your breathing quickens. Once you get home and stop running your body is still trying to recover, still breathing hard and your heart is still beating rapidly and you feel exhausted, worn out. As well as feeling stiff and sore the next day. With Chi Gungs Sifu said you activate ("exercise") your heart and breathing first, your body movements follow your breath. The feeling should be very different from going for a run, you should feel energized and refreshed during and after your Chi Gungs (not exhausted) But if you touch your chest you will feel that your heart IS beating strongly, just like when you go running but the method you use to make this happen is very different. I should also point out that my Sifu obviously doesn't like running and this analogy makes sense for a couch potato who has never done any exercise. Eg. A seasoned Jogger is exercising in an "eastern" way IMHO They are not gasping for breath but breathing naturally, enjoying that nice runners high while exercising and feeling refreshed rather than exhausted when they finish jogging. Great point (which I missed originally) We think of that "sculpted athlete" as "healthy" because they win their gold medal. But we don't see them 20 years later, when they suffer with aches and pains, struggling to move.

Good to see people using microwaves so I'll share this. I've never been a hot drink person, I don't even really like soup or really hot food I'll have an espresso if I really need the caffeine hit but that's about it. But I've been playing with the warrior diet which recommends tea. So I have some green tea teabags and 2 styrofoam cups. The tea bag goes in one cup, 1/2 fill with hot water and empty (I don't like the first infusion taste like grass (lawn, not the good one)) 1/2 fill again, take out the teabag squeeze it over the sink and put it in the 2nd cup The second cup then goes on the bottom or the first cup, to keep the teabag for the next round of tea. Fill the cup with tea up with water (because it takes 30 min for a styrofoam cup full of boiling water to get to a temperature cool enough for me to actually drink it.) So that the tea is at a nice tasty temperature. So that's my Tea ceremony I like http://www.enjoyingtea.com/taophfite.html but errr how do they work? Drink the tea and it keeps the leaves in the bottom of the cup? Doesn't it get stronger as the water sits in the cup or can you just fill it up with hot water again... err like drinking out of the teapot........... I had some green tea that comes in those "pearls" (the little balls that unroll into leaves) but I never knew how to brew it properly without a kettle so perhaps a cup like this would be good........... this tea stuff confuses me funny enough I've found it hard to search for too p.s. The tea cup I actually want for work http://www.cafepress.com/norml.144884130

I say "you are in the lobby not the lounge"

Welcome thunder mind, We are all friends here, usually Have fun at the 'bums.

Sheep beyond counting. Yet count them I must to sleep. Bah, you jump I sleep

Well done. If I could do 10 min I would be extremely pleased I'm using a lazy version of WKK's method of "add an extra breath every 3 days", I do an extra breath every week so I'm only at 14 breaths. Even taking one day a week off (I don't usually practice horse stance Thursday because I go to class) really sets you back, takes a few days before it becomes easy and relaxed again. My knees stopped hurting once Sifu corrected my stance (Teacher are so cool) but he still thinks I am pretty weird wanting to do this. He also said I have to be VERY CAREFUL. Because of my weight holding a static posture for too long can be damaging to my knees and joints so I need to take it slowly. Question. Is the effect of Zhang Zhuang training = Horse stance training or totally different ? I would like to do an hour of Zhang Zhuang, but do not have the time. But I can do Tai Chi form, Horse stance, Tai Chi form (the second time through the form feels really nice) Takes ~45 min and I "could" eventually aim for 20 min in the horse stance making the whole thing take an hour. i.e. I want to squash the effects of and hour of ZZ into 20 min of horse. His response was "Erle is an opportunist" the only derogatory thing I have ever heard him say about anyone, ever. And I had to press to get that! Thanks for the suggestion.

My Sihing runs a Tai Chi class and teaches the Shibashi exercises. As a funny story he use to turn up late to his teachers class so he didn't have to do the Shibashi as a warm up, now he teaches them Everyone in class finds them enjoyable, I particularly like Painting the Rainbow and Bouncing a Ball but I don't practice them myself. Prefer to do the Tai Chi form. hehehe I think that is the point. I doubt a moving exercise like Shibashi is going to give you what Zhang Zhuang will.

as for real food, raspberries are delicious.

I occasionally use the lo-fi view. But my prejudices seem to be attached to the avatars more so than the screen names. So I can't "identify" with the posts as much in the low fi view

Well as soon as you say empty force we all have our own pre conceived idea of what "we think" it is. Eg for me I want a Darth Vader style throat grab Now in the Darth Vader style throat grab style Paul Dong's book Empty Force which describes 3 types of empty force training, interestingly named A B and C. The methods require at least 3 hours a day of training that must be done everyday for at least 3 years. "after mastering this practice, about 6 out of every 10 people (those who are sensitive to Chi) will be affected by your empty force. Of these, about half will be knocked down (ie 3 out of 10) Those who are not knocked down will suffer a greater misfortune, because they will be injured more seriously than those sensitive to chi." So we have a method that will knock down 3 out of 10 people and should work at best 60% of the time. Personally I think that time would be better spent on other abilities eg. put 3 years a day into any martial art and I would expect you to be knocking down 9 out of 10 people. But if anyone has 3 years and wants to find out if this is real......please let me know But what I now think of as empty force is a way of describing a social psychology phenomena. eg we have all walked into a room where people were arguing and "felt" that icky I don't want to be here feeling. That sort of empty force is talked about in Karate Do My Way of Life in the story about Matsumura and the engraver. When the engraver tried to fight "Matsumura opened his eyes wide and looked deep into the eyes of his opponent. Although Matsumura had not moved a muscle the engraver fell back, repelled by a force that felt like a bolt of lightning" Again sounds a bit mystical but I have actually used such a technique in a fight (although not on purpose) I'm not special and anyone can do it. I had already taken the guy down with a restraint. I let him go and he had recovered and was still trying to attack us. I had run out of space and time and though. "I've had enough of this. As soon as you come in range I am attacking you" (he had already hit my dad in the head with a metal pole, lucky my dad is tough) and I just looked into his eyes, didn't think at all................ and he didn't attack. I lost concentration, started thinking and became scared. He responded to this and started closing the gap and preparing to attack. I stopped thinking, just waiting for my chance to kill him (and I really do mean kill him, it had come to that ) He stopped again, opened the gap, started dialogue and backed off. Did I use "some weird hippy mystical force" ? Or did my attacker just pick up on body language signals that told him "last time this guy took me down, trying not to hurt me." "Now he WANTS to HURT me REALLY BAD" better go pick on someone else. (Turns out he had stabbed someone that morning and it took 2 lots of capsicum spray for the police to get him down later that night. He went to jail and my Dad was fine)

That's the feeling I always love, looking up through the branches at the sky and just feeling so very small. I have 2 trees that I focus on when I practice kung fu. A gum tree on a nearby hill that stands out and is proud and strong. And 180 deg from that one is a huge mango tree in the neighbors yard. I stare at that when I'm catching my breath Cool stories everyone great thread.

Well I should relate my staff story. I usually get stuff sent to me from Queensland Martial Arts Supplies, been shopping there for a long time (since last millennium haha). But I was in Bris a few years back, in the shop, checking out the weapons (after I had already spent most of my money on books and just killing time) At the front of the store there is a big pile of those waving cats, pretty cool, and when I first walked in I thought "Those look easy to break" (ignored feeling #1) So I was checking out staffs etc because I wanted to get something around 4' and the lady looking after the shop was serving the other customer and he was taking a while. I was just going to walk away (ignored feeling #2) but I waited. I wasn't going to touch the weapons (there is a sign) so I just hung around. Eventually she said that she would be with me soon so I asked if it would be o.k. to try out a few staffs while I was waiting. She said "Yes you are fine we know you." I was going to move downstairs to get further away from previously mentioned ceramic waving cats but didn't (ignored feeling #3) So I tried a few different weapons and got to the staffs and found one I really liked but it was wrapped in plastic which I though "could be a bit slippery" (ignored feeling #4) Anyhow the size and weight were what I wanted and after playing a bit I was just giving it one last spin, not concentrating anymore. I though "yes this will do" Just as I wacked myself in the shin, the staff slipped from my hand and you guessed it, bounced on the floor and jumped right into the middle of the waving cats ......... So a few broken cats and one very embarrassed Mal The worst part was, looking back, it's just SO obvious it was going to happen. Luckily the dead cats were cheap ones that she had multiple copies of, some of them are very old and rare.............. and I'm still not convinced that she wasn't just being nice and telling me they were cheap. So if you don't want to look like an idiot, like me, make sure you say away from ANYTHING remotely breakable. That about the worst staff story I have, the others are just the usual hitting myself in the head stuff. Usually with my 3 section which I stupidly though I would be able to learn to use even though they are renowned for being quite difficult. I ended up getting a padded one to go with my padded nunchakus. There is nothing more fun than pulling out a concealed nunchaku and hitting your friends in the head (Kato style ) They just have enough time to panic because its going to hurt and it's fun watching their eyes as they try to work out why it didn't

I think that would be very cool. How do we annoy Sean? I was also wondering if his family knew that people were still thinking about him. I guess thats the point of memorials. I remember him and to me he was just some cool guy that wrote really great posts. Cheers that was pretty much what I was thinking about WRT Father Paul.

Here here. Thanks for posting was actually thinking about him last week....... at the time I was thinking about ghosts etc and was wondering if us remembering him actually keeps some of his "essence" "alive" in this realm. Are there Taoist practices for remembering the dead?