thaddeus

Thanks for posting this. I didn't think to look on youtube! I've been buying and listening to his CDs..really awesome. What do you think of it? T

The Mantak Chia book. http://www.amazon.com/Iron-Shirt-Kung-Mant...TF8&s=books

I've been monitoring the Life Extension Org..It's true that calorie restriction prolongs life in fruit flies and stuff, with humans, it's not so clear. In fact Mr. Walford died not too recently at a normal age. Anyway, Life Extension org will probably come out first with the supplement that mimics calorie restriction..I don't think it's too far off. Right now it seems we should definitely be taking resveratol.. T

Yes..I'm going to buy his anatomy dvd soon too..but this DVD has a few hours of practice sequences..it's a two DVD set. T

So far, Yin Yoga is great stuff. I've made it through most of the theory so far. Basically, the idea is that when you relax the muscle and tendon lines, then force can go along the bone ligament line. Yin Yoga works the bone/ligament line of force. If this doesn't make sense, invest in the DVD and he'll explain it very well. Lots of lightbulbs went off for me regarding taiji training. Now the special part about yin yoga, is that to train this bone/ligament line of connections, you need to hold postures for a long time. When you do the regular flow yogas or hatha yoga with small pauses, you are training the muscle/tendon system. Which is OK, but you will never effect changes in your structure this way. This idea, although extremely obvious to me right now, was a big 'aha' moment. In all my yoga classes, I instinctively wished the instructor would slow down and let me 'work' the postures, but I thought there was something wrong with me. Yin Yoga for me feels like coming home. I won't be doing any other yoga for some time because this is what I need right now. It added a whole new dimension to my taiji training as well, putting lots of things together for me. This was very cool. My first experience with the hip sequence was finally releasing alot of stuff and alot of emotion came out. T

Count me in..this is cool..wouldn't mind selling them here too.. T

yeah, sounds kinda gross...

This guy's website is awesome! I'm going to work on being able to do this tonight! http://www.beastskills.com/Pistol.htm

Thanks for this..if anyone is watching survivor this season, there was a vietnamese guy who cured a headache of another player using this method. Also check out the tonic recipe on this site: http://www.aolisi.net/ChunJiu.htm I'm going to get it made up in chinatown.. T

what does excess acid feel like? T

One teacher I know has a good way to explain it. Picture a ball. If you push on the ball and rotate so your attached fingers go under and up..that movement is Peng (ward off)..if you go over and down, that's An (push), forward to the side is Ji (press), backwards is Lu (rollback)..so yeah, it's all over..and people express the same named movements in different ways.. T

I just got the Yin Yoga DVD in the mail..will try it tonight.. T

edited comments.. No Mas! No Mas...dude, I give up...later.. T

Actually, I thought he meant big Sean. You don't have a pic in your avatar. For the record, I don't think anyone was whining about the money. I personally dropped any rancor long ago and I believe so did most if not all of us. You seem to have missed the apologies and other very laudible ways some of us acted here in your broadsweeping swipe at us. T

Songs meaning poems. Each brocade has a few lines associated with it. In Chinese, I presume it rhymes..translated to english it's something like 'stretch arms upward to hold up the sky and stretch the triple warmer'..something like that, it will take awhile to dig up my notes, but i'm sure a google would find it. T Yep. The stretch is supposed to regulate the chi flow in the particular area of emphasis...at least that's how it was explained to me.. T Agree, I realized that on my own also..since I was told the important thing was the feeling in the appropriate area, and like the other's have pointed out, the exact form in this series of exercise is probably not relevant. Another one I remember is the looking back one is supposed to stretch the area between the shoulder blades, the poem that goes with it mentions something about relieving bad emotions..which is interesting when you consider you tend to rub someone there when you want to console them.. T

yes, thanks, i was taught that these are basically 'simple' exercises..no complicated ideas about dantians etc. But I was told the most important thing was getting the stretch in the correct locations. The songs that accompany the exercises tell you what to stretch..so for example, the first one stretches the triple warmer.. the next one stretches the lung, etc.. Thanks! T

Hi Michael, however this is precisely what the buddha did. And many great teachers did likewise. From one perspective, people who 'stay connected with people' are operating on the level of ego, maya, illusion, thought. It's all transient monkey mind lunacy, so what are they really doing? Illusions meet illusions to treat illusion creating more illusion. People arguing to be right, not wrong, strengthening their own egos. Maybe they see this is all 'not real', so why bother. I think the buddha sensed this and went ultimately to break through it all, he did later come back, fully awakened and helped awaken the wife and child he left behind earlier. What if Moses stayed under the richness of pharoh, what if jesus stayed a simple carpenter, seems like at some point we need to transcend and see things for that they really are. isms are just isms..that's why we don't need to join anything or follow creeds..that's just trading off a smaller ego for a collective ego..so we can talk about 'them' and 'us' instead of 'you' and 'me'. T

For a western explanation, the works of Carlos Castaneda (whether you choose to believe him or not) illustrate these concepts throughout. For example, one's capacity for 'dreaming' (not ordinary dreaming) is directly related to one's congenital power. There are a number of factors for this congenital power, one of which is how much passion the parents had for each other at the time of conception. There is a term called 'bored sex' to describe people who have very lower congenital power. This means the parents were just going through the motions and did not have great passion or had low energy themselves. The chinese bedroom secrets book translated by douglas wile also outlines other conditions that relate to amount of power you can get at conception. Castaneda called it 'personal power'. How much personal power you have directly contributes to how successful you can be in your cultivation or worldly pursuits. Luck, Libido, ability to concentrate are all related to this. In fact, a large part of Castaneda's training was to learn how to increase one's power..a large part of this was to stop wasting energy in thoughts and in the ego. Two basic ideas were to cultivate mindfulness (stop the world) and slay the dragon of the ego (erase personal history and self importance). This freed up energy can be used then for cultivation. It sounds like I'm a Castaneda follower, I'm not. I just read his books and recognized what is going on in there for the most part. You can do whatever you choose with this energy. Some are fortunate to learn about cultivation, some will have to wait. Some create fortunes and some squander it away in lesser pursuits. I'm not saying anything new or profound, just reporting on what I see. T

what do you mean by this?

It's possible the statement 'seek first the kingdom of [insert your favorite concept] and all else will be added unto you' was about this. T

I see what you mean. That 'squeezing' of the torso is often missed because it's subtle. It's good that he exaggerates it to show what's really going on. If he's ever around, I would take a workshop with him. Breaking up the dantian into quadrants is an interesting idea I'll play around with. Thanks! T

True, but it takes energy to activate it. Plenty of people love money but have no personal power to make it happen. That was my point. I think it's interesting to study high achievers. When you have personal power you can do anything, whether it's directed towards being a monk and renouncing or being 'lucky' or whatever. But overall, it's all transient nonsense. A dream. T Just to be clear, Li Jiong, i'm not harboring anything against you. I would enjoy continued banter and conversation--it's challenging and fun. And if you ever come to NY, I would welcome you warmly. T

I wasn't talking about you! I don't think it's funny, it's something to study. I can not say he has 'the highest energy', but he has something. Perhaps it's a low resistance to 'allowing' money. He doesn't have limiting beliefs when it comes to money. We don't know about his spirit. He may be an advanced cultivator, you may be surprised.

This is very true. Eckart Tolle explains that often people substitute the 'little me' for the 'little we'. Both are illusions. I often hear about how 'so and so' is such a nice guy, etc. It's important to realize that behind many people's 'niceness' is actually a devious form of an attempt to control. Unconscious people control and become controlled by niceness. I know very few people who are nice out of pure reasons. I don't have a hang up about paying for things. However, knowing how one can manifest everything they need, I am suspect of people who charge extremely high prices and seem to make getting money the most important issue. I've seen many high level people charge a certain price and also offer the teaching to people for whatever they can afford. Because money is not an issue for them. You can manifest everything you need easily, so why milk less conscious people for money? I think your personal wealth is a fairly accurate representation of your overall energy level. Your bank account, your libido, your chi, luck, relationships are all related and barometers of your progress in cultivation. So rather than fight or bemoan your fate, try to understand why money is not flowing into your life. We so easily pay attention to armor in our bodies and chi flow in our meridians and seem to think money and luck are not related to those same things... T