Michael Sternbach

Perhaps "returning" to the "same" place on a higher winding of an endless spiral. Otherwise what has been gained? We could have stayed there in the first place (fun pun ).

Hi Limey, That sounds like an excellent description of TDB!

Well, you know, the Dao that could be defined isn't the real Dao, so I guess you are on the right track. Welcome to TDB!

Why a 2000 year difference?! The frame story in Critias tells about a visit of the Athenian lawmaker Solon (c. 638 BC – 558 BC) to Egypt, where he was told the Atlantis story occurred 9000 years before his time. According to this, the difference would be about 1000 years. However, personally, I always gave more credibility to Cayce's dating, supported by the evidence gathered by Bauval et al. - which, as I found out just now, agrees rather well with the time when this cataclysmic impact event happened. However, this comet impact did have far reaching consequences - affecting, besides the American continent, especially the Atlantic ocean. A good match for the proposed scenario.

My Kenpo teacher was working as a bodyguard in his younger years and got involved in many fights, including situations with multiple attackers. He took them out quickly by strikes to vital targets. He told me he never had to neutralize more than two of the attackers, because after that, the others would stay away from him. Nobody wanted to be next in line...

Edgar Cayce said in a trance session that Atlantis was covered by the sea around 10.700 BC. Research by Bauval, Hancock, and West lends support to this hypothesis. Now a cataclysmic event at that date agrees rather well with the excellent evidence for the impact of a >4-km-wide comet on the North American continent around 12.900 (±100) years ago, presented in 2007 by a team of geologists. According to that article, it caused a continent-wide environmental collapse, including the extinction of at least 35 mammal genera, such as mammoths, mastodons, ground sloths, horses, and camels, along with birds and smaller mammals, as well as a decline of human population. This is a link to the original paper "Evidence for an extraterrestrial impact 12,900 years ago that contributed to the megafaunal extinctions and the Younger Dryas cooling", published by the The National Academy of Sciences of the USA: http://m.pnas.org/content/104/41/16016.full Amongst the various climatic effects the impact had, the following may be directly pertinent to the flooding of Atlantis:

Hi Amy, Nice that the Dao deposited you here at last! Cheers, Michael

I agree with you that external arts are not necessarily a completely different animal from internal arts. And actually, an advanced practitioner of the latter doesn't need to first relax and gather energy either. This is a way of practising, but eventually it will be possible to deliver a relaxed and properly energized strike instantaneously.

Well, I don't approve of any practices that require you to consider well endowed women a pain in the ass, and to pinch your tail. And tensing up is a sure way to stall spiritual progress in my book. If you feel you need protection energy wise, I suggest you visualize a semi-permeable sphere around you that only allows beneficial energies to pass. Simple and effective. This thread started with some interesting topics, but if it now turns into a pro/con Drew thing, I bow out of it.

Why not just let it flow?

I am not sure what your problem with "well endowed" females is and why you would have to clench your butt seeing them, but talking about the Moon... She receives energy and information when she meets her Lord, the Sun. As she moves away from him during the waxing phase, she sends out what she has gathered. After Full Moon, she becomes receptive again during the waning phase, until she reunites with her eternal lover, and gets "impregnated" again. This also applies to a solar eclipse, the latter just steps things up a notch or two.

An interesting example of Chuang Tzu directly elaborating on the DDJ.

I stated it as a logical fact, but since you asked, I did check it out. It felt like an accumulation of heat inside your head. This has to do with suppressed thoughts/impulses. The Bach Flower remedy Cherry Plum could help you relax and allow the free flow of energy in your head chakras. It would best be used together with other Bach Flower remedies to address your psychological and energetic condition holistically. Based on what I know about you overall, I would highly recommend trying this particular method.

Hi Edward, What may be stuck in a channel is your own energy.

In the Silva method of visualization that I have been trained in, being able to "go to level" and visualize with open eyes is actually considered a more advanced approach. Few adults can stay in an alpha state (i.e., lowered brain wave frequency) with their eyes open without special training. However, based on your description, I think you may be doing just that, and I don't see why this should be a problem (no pun intended...). While having this skill is highly advantageous under certain circumstances, I still find I can go to deeper levels with my eyes closed, so I generally prefer doing that when I have the option, but your mileage may vary.

Higher entities seem to be extremely individualistic. So I believe there is indeed some kind of paradoxical dynamic at work which leads you as much beyond yourself into a more universal reality as it actualizes the innermost core of your unique individuality.

Well, there is no resonance without any energy transmission. What resonance does do is that it gets you better result with less effort. Talking about "fajin pushing", timing seems crucial, so you may be dealing with a resonance phenomenon there too.

Some more Montaigue stuff. I find their explanations of fajin to be the most practically useful ones that are publicly accessible.

Yang style Taiji instructor Eli Montaigue explaining fajin (using basically the same technique Starjumper demonstrated above):

I don't think I have had the pleasure of meeting that particular Immortal so far, but I will keep my eyes and ears open whenever I happen to be in a bar in North China. BTW...

The 81 tetragrams are the core of the Tai hsuan ching - a remarkable book, of which there is an English translation by Derek Walters. The number 81 has some significance in various metaphysical systems, especially Chinese ones. Just consider that the Dao de ching has 81 chapters. I wasn't aware of the Kabbalistic permutations though - thanks for that. Any idea why Kaplan acknowledges only 54 of the 81 possible permutations?

It may be virtuous for lions to kill and eat both zebras and humans. It isn't virtuous for them to kill other lions though. It isn't virtuous for humans to kill other humans. However, it is virtuous for humans not to be killed by lions. Not least, it is virtuous for humans to avoid zebra thinking.

I am trying to meditate 24 hours a day.

Well, better than prostate issues.

Does it put you in a state of prostration? Was it worth it though? Did it make you a better cat? I am afraid I don't...