thaddeus
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Everything posted by thaddeus
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Hilarious!! I'm still practicing it, I'll be ready to report results in a week or so. But I found that maca powder (sans frog) plus fish oil, really enhances the meditation, so I added that part. T
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Are there any good resources on how to
thaddeus replied to innerspace_cadet's topic in General Discussion
Interesting..sounds very similar to the ten commandments. would be very interesting to see a literal translation of this excerpt. T -
Who's married here and how has your practice effected it?
thaddeus replied to thelerner's topic in General Discussion
imho, a person needs to be really careful with this line of thought. It's a little seed that perhaps you are or are not aware of that will grow into real resentment. I was just reading in a book a story about a guy that went to his rabbi (it was a book about kabbalah) and he said something like 'the problem is i wanted a ferrari but I ended up marrying a ford'..and the guy replied, 'the problem is you wanted a car'. There's no magic girl out there that is going to be your training partner, lover, friend, housemate, spouse, parent, faithful alibi, (fill in the blank), etc. etc. so again, imho, don't look for it. fwiw, T -
Can you please post that link? I tried google but I think your spelling might be off. FWIW, the bit that was posted was similar to an exercise Shou Wu Liang has on his website to recover spent Jing. I'll post that link when I have a free moment. T
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This is getting weird.
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I'm adding my best wolf howl to this one!
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Are there any good resources on how to
thaddeus replied to innerspace_cadet's topic in General Discussion
Hey, thanks for reminding me about this guy, I tried to buy his stuff a while ago but couldn't..just ordered a couple through amazon.. T -
This is all theoretical, but what i'm saying is if you use the old candle metaphor, the jing is the wax, the chi is the flame (or wick, can't remember exactly) and the light is your spirit or shen. The wax is genetic/inherited/predetermined. This idea is in alot of cultures, btw, not just chinese daoism. I think a qigong expert can do alot with what they have, augmented by diet/herbs/exercise and intent. But basically, you get what you get and some people naturally have more 'personal power' ,if you will, than others. But I still think that we use so little of our potential that even someone with very little power can do great things, even greater than someone born with alot of it. Some cultures believe the circumstances you are conceived in have something to do with it, for example how much love/passion the parents had or if you were conceived during a thunderstorm or some other adverse condition, etc. T
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I think this kind of jing is not augmentable by exercises or diet. It's sort of like that adage that we only use 10% of our brain capacity. Qigong masters, imo, just know how to use what they've got. This jing is impossible to really describe, but we know it when we see it. T
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Are there any good resources on how to
thaddeus replied to innerspace_cadet's topic in General Discussion
A person can't 'apply' taoism. It has no use. You sound like you're escaping alot, even ending up in a job as a librarian. If you care for some advice, just get out into the world and start getting involved. I would look up volunteer websites and spend time helping people. I think for now if you focus on helping other people, you might start to find some of the other pieces coming together. fwiw, T -
Will the real Dantien please stand up...
thaddeus replied to Uncle Fester's topic in General Discussion
Another thought on this topic, with regards to taiji training, i found if I focus my mind on the lower dantian, which in many systems is the prostate area, I have much better body mechanics. Feeling movement and flow in that area, to me, is key for proper body movement. T -
Does particle physics have any explanations of chi? The problem with the word 'chi' is that it's a catch all term that means just about anything. In ancient times, if someone didn't understand how something worked, they said chi. For example, a person who could lift 200 pounds had a lot of chi, now we know differently. So if you're specific about what you're asking about, i'm sure there's a scientific explanation for it. Talking chi, imho, is just cloudy thinking. T
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Will the real Dantien please stand up...
thaddeus replied to Uncle Fester's topic in General Discussion
This is an interesting idea that appeals to me.. hmmm T -
Dan, which form are you taking? I'm aware of three, the straight powder, the gelatanized powder (which has the starch and other inert components removed), and a patented extract called MacaPure. MacaPure has real scientific studies in Pubmed that back up it's effect on the reproductive system. The reason why it works it's largely unknown, there is no effect on hormones. But given to rats, they copulate more frequently and the testes grow, if I recall correctly. I took macapure for a few days and noticed a strong increase in well being and libido, but never again after that, so it's on the back shelf. I did think it would be cool to add those 'potatoes' to my diet if we good get the real thing, but apparantly Peru has a lockdown on the stuff. T
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This is quite unfortunate. If anything, this probably shows we can not heal others. Obviously someone close to him would have healed him. We can only allow ourselves to heal. Perhaps we can trick someone into healing themselves with outside means, but the belief and the permission comes within. T
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Right on.. I can't remember where this story is from but the basic idea is that someone was being shown heaven and hell. In Hell, there was a long table with exquisite foods but everyone seated at the table had really long fingers and couldn't bring the food to their mouths, so they were sitting there pretty unhappy and starving. Heaven was the same exact table, same exact food, but the people at the table were feeding the one across from them and vice versa. I have been reading a bit on the berg's version of kabbalah and Cam, I think you would be really interested in it. It's basically all about reducing the ego. When you're ego based, you want to receive for yourself. When you can transcend the ego, then you want to receive in order to share. It's the sharing that brings us to god and to our true nature. The techniques in the secret, the way it's presented, enforce the ego. Gimme gimme gimme, me me me. But I see it's the only way to wake up. By realizing that our experience is caused by us is the only way to have a heaven on earth. As long as we think life is random and meaningless, then the ego will always want its share. We will always have conflict and war. When we realize differently, when we learn that everything that happens to us is our own fault, not our neighbors, when we finally wake up to this is our dream, then we can start to really experience the divine. T
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Hagar gave you some nice answers. I think the basic idea is taoists do not 'believe' anything. If there is something to 'believe', then it's not taoist philosophy. btw, it's alot easier to say what it's not than what it is. T
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resource request for North NJ - Bergen county, and NY (Manhattan)
thaddeus replied to VCraigP's topic in General Discussion
I didn't think about cupping...I just hurt my sacrum really badly and am getting some physical therapy for it..would cupping help? are you selling your dit da jow? In the past, acupuncture didn't help me at all for these types of sports injuries. T -
resource request for North NJ - Bergen county, and NY (Manhattan)
thaddeus replied to VCraigP's topic in General Discussion
what kind of injury? I personally have had no success or heard of anyone having success with sprains, pulls, etc. using acupuncture. If it is helpful, it's certainly not cost effective. I've had success using portable TENS machines you can buy in chinatown for soft tissue stuff. And then there are some good herbals for pain relief and to speed up healing. T -
I think it's called fantasizing about someone else.
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Can anyone recommend good Tai Chi DVDs?
thaddeus replied to innerspace_cadet's topic in General Discussion
There are none. There are dvds of great masters performing taichi but there are no good instructionals. You need the feedback from an instructor to correct your movement. Just start somewhere with an instructor. Right now you're not in a position to say there are no good instructors in colorado springs. There may be no world class instructors, but certainly there are people who can teach you basic choreography. My bias is towards the Chen Style, but 'your mileage may vary'. T -
That's exactly what's wrong with these guys. On the other stuff, there are lot of crazy people out there, whether the training practices, which you have to admit are largely innocuous mental visualizations, made them nuts is very debatable. I'm inclined to think the woman in your story was already unbalanced. Visualizing crucibles in your torso and concentrating on points on the orbit aren't going to give you health issues. Packing wrong? possible strokes, broken blood vessels, high blood pressure, but again, you have to be going completely hard core and completely unaware of what's going on in your body. Retention..maybe endocrine irregularities, prostrate problems/inflammation from the million dollar point nonsense. Chi weightlifing..obvious things can go wrong. But I think these are problems in all systems without adequate supervision. Even with great teachers things go wrong with students. Funny, Dahn Yoga is a big cult probably worse than Chia, I wonder if they have the same issues. T
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How dangerous is this stuff really. First of all, most people don't practice enough to actually get hurt. I can see the dangers of breathing/packing wrong, but you would have to do alot and you would be getting some serious headaches and such before anything really bad happened. Next, if you were the serious type to really practice this stuff I would think you would be clued in enough to see the Winn stuff for what it is. The only harm is you spent a little bit of money (he's not outrageously expensive) and you have nothing to show for it. IMO, it's not that much different with the *real deal* teachers anyway wherever they are. T
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Ok, i'll get through the book first. He's in NJ in may. T
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very cool..can you tell us anymore? Just got the book and i'm going through the intro stuff right now.