thaddeus

Yoga Journal rocks..

I get the energetic part. I just seriously question people who go learn a series of movements and then are suddenly 'experts' at it. If it were that easy we would all be doing it right now. Get up in the morning, wave your arms around, and have enlightenment and perfect health. Thelerner, can you describe one of the energetics that winn provides in his taichi? I'm very interested to hear that. I've been studying this stuff for alot of years, searching for the 'holy grail'. I haven't paid any attention to winn for two reasons..1. it's largely Chia stuff and 2. nobody reputable has ever endorsed what he's doing. So short of buying a video tape or dvd..can someone tell me something tangible..thanks T

He seems to be selling this enlightenment form that is better than all the others. Does anybody actually believe there is something to a form..something you go to china, learn a form from some mysterious person, then come back, make a video of it and sell it. It's as simple as remembering a sequence of movements and that's it??? T

I missed your intro, but what's your experience with internal martial arts? I wanted to dig up some clips for you to see what you think..gotta run for now.. T

What's the main idea of it?

Out of curiosity...what is it that you saw that made you want to move like him..?? T

Hi Cloud, sometimes what appears pre-emptive is really not. For example someone with an intention to punch me gets hit first. To an observer, I was pre-emptive, when in fact I was responding to subtle queues of the attack.. T

This is a deep study. In taichi, many people misunderstand yielding. It's not withdrawing, you never withdraw from a force. You meet and blend with a force. You have to know the force before you can redirect it. Withdrawing is a defect in your skills. Taichi or good aikido is the best way to work with and understand forces and the abstract/spiritual implications. In taichi, your opponent's force is what does him in. But in order to do that you need to accept the force, you need to listen to it. So it's not about being a wuss or non action or some of the other pacificistic ideas bandied about when discussing taichi. It takes courage to meet and accept an aggressive force, it takes warriorship to return to balance (wuji). This is a state of presence..of being. It's not about attacking in mindless reflex state.. T

The threads on the powers recently had me taking a harder look at Patanjali's yoga sutras. Interestingly enough, all that stuff is laid out in there..specifically how to achieve it. The scary thing is that it is completely logical..anyone have thoughts on it and want to discuss? T

Not to stir up a can of worms.. but isn't that not for profit stuff a little suspect? Who wouldn't want to setup a company and not pay taxes...

well, you don't need to go the whole month..i would do a week or 10 days.. T

The eckart tolle stuff i'm listening to has an interesting perspective on the idea of being 'reborn'. If you look at present moment awareness..then getting 'lost' in thought..that is being 'reborn into thought'...the buddhists want to stop the cycle of rebirth..so it's not necessarily a physical birth that you want to end the cycle of..it's the stopping of the mental rebirths..anyway, it was a cool concept.. T

I read somewhere Korea...that alot of the taoist and internal people fled there..and it seems there are a lot of interesting practices coming out of there..I bet Vietnam has alot of stuff we don't know about as well. T

I do want to read that. I'm finding all kinds of restrictions and holding or armoring in my torso. But, plato, it seems they can be released through observation and awareness. The thing with the chair you mentioned sounds pretty aggressive. Have you tried tennis balls, etc for that outside in approach? This is another aspect i'm interested in because I find that body work seems to be temporary in effectiveness, despite what rolfers, for example, say. T

Sunshine, you should read the chapter that talks about these powers. Some interesting tidbits..it's seems to be about developing one pointed concentration. And then using this one pointed concentration to get the powers..for example, to know a man's thoughts, you direct your one pointed concentration to his heart. To know everything about your body (which is probably interesting to you since you're in med school) conentrate on the navel center..also some stuff about how if you stop 'stealing' you will have more than you ever need. and that adherents on the path become extremely sexually attractive. The Taimni commentary mentions some of the temptations..such as meeting 'spirit guides' and the 'immortals'..they are adherents who gave in to the temptations..I can't really do it justice here, but lots of cool information. But the statements are very terse and need study. That's why the commentaries are necessary, but could be misleading based on who is doing it of course. On asana practice he says "asana should be steady and comfortable" --well, you can write a book on how to do that..so most of the text is like that. It was meant to be a guide and the aphorisms were memorized instead of written down. Om is the sound of God.. T

Sean, with all due respect, this vendetta you have against Healing Tao and Michael Winn is getting old. T

buddhism vs. yoga..not sure how to compare these two, the yoga sutras devote maybe two or three lines to asana practice. Most of it seems to be related to not being identified with the thoughts, and awareness of the true self and defining terms. I think this is the same as the buddhist goal. I can't imagine the buddha saying that was lacking, they seem to say the same thing. I could be wrong but I think the buddha was referring to the extreme practices in that day such as self mutilation that didn't lead one to break through the illusions. Ultimately any practice can be considered something as a hindrance if it causes one to continue to identify with thoughts. We should check whether or not siddhartha was aware of patanjali or if it came after him. T

I have always felt his stuff was a bunch of gibberish and pseudo science..i think his website is purposefully hard to follow because ultimately there's nothing there but an ingenious way to sell supplements that probably don't work. WITH THAT SAID..there's a few people on here who take him seriously and that's the only reason why I don't completely trash it. But I'm curious to see what responses you get. Yeah, I said it.

you just did! welcome..

not that..not that...

I have IK Taimni's version: http://www.amazon.com/Science-Yoga-Yoga-Su...TF8&s=books Bottom line, based on these sutras, is that the abilities bandied about in the other threads are not high achievements. Which is interesting..cause ultimately we need to come to the realization that this is all made up stuff. Because this is all made up stuff, we can do all those cool things with a focused concentration, but the ultimate is too see through this. What made me uncomfortable with the other threads, that I couldn't articulate, is to focus on that stuff as a sign of the 'real goods' is a huge misdirection. If you have a light to share, share it, you don't need to run to seclusion and have secret teachings. There are no secrets in the yoga sutras, it's there for the brave to do. Another thing I got from the sutras is you can do all this 'stuff' to work on seeing through the illusions or you can put your mind steadfastly on god. It just seems like an honest, no nonsense path. Anyway..interested to hear what anyone thinks on this.. T

Really? that must be old or it's under the table stuff..it's definately not legal here.. I'll have to check that out.. T

i can't get raw milk in ny btw, an indian friend of mine said that in India the milk is really buffalo milk..cow milk is considered too fatty..

I may check this out..

Probably the same reason we do corpse pose at the end of every yoga practice...