vonkrankenhaus

Re: ----- "you would learn authentic yoga from an authentic guru.." ----- Where would this "guru" have learned "authentic yoga" if Krishnamacharya could not find any in India by the turn of the last century? What would be an example of "authentic yoga" to you? -VonKrankenhaus

Re: ----- "There is no actual dualistic opposite to that which is concrete" ----- That which is not concrete. The opposite of all manifestation is the unmanifest. But our Dualistic Monism sees the unity in that, the process of it, and not so much the distinct "thingness" of pure Dualism. -VonKrankenhaus

Re: ----- "You should have asked him what he meant, since seeing things as paired opposites really isnt any different from dualistic monism" ----- No - that is just plain "dualism". Dualistic Monism sees Unity in all of these "opposites". We use "dualistic monism" as a modern way of referring to YinYang thinking of Taoism. Lists of "paired opposites" is a western concept that we call "dualistic". -VonKrankenhaus

Re: ----- "Maybe learning some yoga is better than nothing at all for some. But learning authentic yoga is definitely better than learning commercial gym yoga for others... Maybe better labeling can help the consumer make more informed choices and help preserve the unadulterated authentic traditions for posterity?" ----- Where would you learn "authentic yoga" today? Krishnamacharya could not find it in India around the turn of the last century. -VonKrankenhaus

It is true of modern yoga that it is not really older than the 1930s. Krishnamacharya created a synthesis of yoga postures from theosophical society publications combined with british and indian military calisthenics. He had returned from tibet in search of "real yoga", probably encountering some tummo practitioners there. He taught Pattabhi Jois, Iyengar, etc. So this "Indian Yoga" "tradition" is a kind of appropriation, as most modern yoga today has come from this. That is what these people have found out who are protesting this cultural appropriation. It is NOT an issue of modern canadians not liking "indian culture". It is an issue wherein people now realize they are learning "fake" yoga that isn't really from any ancient tradition. -VonKrankenhaus

Re: ----- "Earth's climate and geology change over time. Earth's Nature does not." ----- Would the Earth's "Nature" mean what the Earth actually is? It appears that every manifested ("existing") thing does change. I think that the solar system is a spiral system. Such that the planets actually move, over billions of years, in towards the Sun. And as they move, they change shape and size. Jupiter and Saturn are huge gas giants with many moons. Saturn will move through the asteroid belt, be pummeled, and become Mars. Mars will lose one moon and expand due to increasing solar radiation closer to the Sun. Its water will expand from the heating and melt over the surface. "Plate techtonics" will begin. If we took a model of Earth and crushed it until the continents meet, it will be the same size as Mars is now. Because the Earth used to be Mars. And so on. The rates of expansion/contraction may be linked to the rotation orbit of the solar system around the center of this galaxy, producing alternating expansion and contraction of the solar system. -VonKrankenhaus

I am convinced now after doing a bit word research. Even "spiritus" comes from "spira". Spirit is also spiraling out, as physical is spiraling in. Just like breathing. It's the "spira" bit that is common to all of these. The spiral. That is the base concept, extended to explain these things - breath, spirit, etc. -VonKrankenhaus

And that is what it is like when one is raised in modern era Western thinking. -VonKrankenhaus

Re: ----- "A while ago I met somebody who told me that connecting opposites is somehow important. He did not explain in detail . As it was a basic knowledge in East." ----- In western culture people see opposites, like good and bad. Wherein good must defeat bad. Like heads and tails - important thing is to choose one or the other. We can call this "dualism". Eastern, and generally ancient, way is seeing unity in these "opposites". We can call this "dualistic monism". Seeing how Good is changing to Bad and Bad changing to Good. Seeing that One coin has both head and tail. So west is seeing separation, categories, opposites. East is seeing unification as differentiation and differentiation as unity. West is seeing different "things". East is seeing process and change. This is YinYang thinking. Most people have seen Taiji symbol, which is constructed from this understanding. There is much more to this, but this is introducing just basic idea of "unifying opposites". -VonKrankenhaus

Re: ----- "To clarify... by immortality i meant the Nei Dan practice of growing a spiritual embryo that matures into a golden energy body...spiritual immortals." ----- "Spiritual embryo" means the embryonic form of a spiritual body or existence. This is what is growing right now in all living beings. All living beings, having a beginning of their existence, also have an end of their existence. Their material existence. We are moving between realms. Just as we did in the process of our physical conception. What realm did we come from to be physically concieved on Earth? What realm did anything come from that we see around us physically? From the realms that are producing physicality on Earth - pre-atomic, energetic, plasma, particles, elements, compounds, microbes, plants, animals, human being. After conception, we find ourselves in the all dark water realm of the womb in 2 parts. One part (placenta) "dies" and the body is born - also having 2 parts. We are then on Earth, the half-light/half-dark air realm, with body and head. Body is sensing, reacting, moving, existing on Earth. Bodily experiences and responses are processed by the head, which is resulting in developing "consciousness". Consciousness is refining, maturing. During this life it is embryonic. At end of this life it is ready to be born as an infant in another realm. Body is getting old and dying. They will separate upon physical death. Body will become like the placenta from our gestation did at our birth. Consciousness will become like our body at our birth. We are then born into the all-light spiritual realms. We can chart further development from there, but this is just about "reincarnation" and "immortality" as seen from this realm on Earth. Modern way of living deforms this process and creates both physical and spiritual prisoners and invalids. Taoist cultivation understands this process. Modern commercial taoist cultivation misunderstands and misrepresents this process in a variety of ways. -VonKrankenhaus

Perhaps the modern use of "spira" for breathing is due to this: In-spira-tion Ex-spira-tion With "spira" still meaning coil or spiral. Breath spirals in, breath spirals out. Seem obvious to me that in this way ancient people saw "breathing". So as time went to modern era, people make assumptions, and "spiral" part gets assumed to mean just "breath" Perhaps. -VonKrankenhaus

Or this: "spire 1. The totality of whorls of a spinal shell. 2. The area farthest from the aperture and nearest the apex on a coiled gastropod shell. 3. A winding line like the threads of a screw 4. Any thing wreathed or contorted; a curl; a twist; a wreath." Spire, spira - spira-cy. -VonKrankenhaus

Well, if we do that, there won't be any of us left. Which would make all of our traditions impossible, not to mention our lifetimes. Is that what you're interested in? -VonKrankenhaus

Yet "spira" also means "coil" or "spiral". People might take "con-spiracy" to mean "breathe together" - but imagine a spiral with many "con" ("with") "spira" ("coil") along a spiral path all leading to a single point - a common task or goal - "the point" - so, "coming to the point". This is why I see "con-spiracy" to mean "with the spiral" and "spira" meaning coil. Is there a common sense of "con-spiracy" meaning "with breath"? -VonKrankenhaus

I am certainly not language expert, and not old latin language man, but I wonder: "con-spiratio" - doesn't that mean "with spiral", or "with the point"? Would "con-spiritus" be "with spirit"? And "con-spiracy" - isn't this also "with the spiral" in the sense of many points coming together? -VonKrankenhaus

How did you happen to become interested in these things? -VonKrankenhaus

My physique never changed in the past 40 years as I "disappeared" calisthenics into daily life. So - same amount of action is there. Same amount of "training" must be happening. But transcended the concept - and all work fell away, while nothing was gone. "Ordinary life" is very powerful. -VonKrankenhaus

Qigong as a whole - all various qigong concepts, basics, methods, techniques. We can add many things to this too - tao yin, neigong - all "related". Taoist studies, religious Taoism, YinYang, 5 phases, lo shou, Iching, fengshui, etc, etc. Guy in Bali shaking and giving his transmissions is sitting inside of this larger picture. One sesame seed on a huge bun. -VonKrankenhaus

No, I mean content -within- qigong studies. Meaning - there is more to qigong than this. So in building strong foundation in qigong, more content must be accessed beyond this aspect they are doing. -VonKrankenhaus

I used to do many many many "calisthenics". And many many specific qigong trainings. But I noticed years ago that as I was living my life that I was reducing or "disappearing" these practices into all of my ordinary activities. Sitting down and getting up. Opening door. Cut radish. Etc. All became qigong. So now I am doing by comparison NO "calisthenics" and "trainings" yet also doing ONLY calisthenics and trainings. In this way I am spending now just about 100% of time cultivating qigong/neigong. Because they "disappeared". -VonKrankenhaus

It is like first day of a children's daycare program of qigong. Which can be exactly a good thing for many people today - so I am only observing and not criticising. If people's ideas are expanded because this is showing them issues they never thought existed, then this is part of someone's growth. But serious people will eventually look for more content and find not just a mountain, but a vast field of galaxies existing. -VonKrankenhaus

Physicalization is contraction. Spiritualization is expansion. At the extremes each changing into the opposite. The densest minerals (furthest contraction) are so dense they begin emitting radiation (expansion). At the point of nothing (furthest expansion) some "thing" arises (contraction). Imagine a mirror between these, "contraction" and "expansion" and there is a symmetry. This "contraction" and "expansion" have no substance as "things" whatsoever. Yet all things and all not things moving this way. Tao. -VonKrankenhaus

There is what we call physical "light" that is a wave and part of the electromagnetic spectrum. It has polarity within itself as a wave. At the upper end of our experience with it, ultraviolet, it vibrates so fast that it becomes indiscernable to our eyes. At the lower end of that spectrum, infra-red, it vibrates so slow that it becomes "invisible" and we tend to percieve it as heat. That is "light". We can be in a room that is "full of light" and not see any of it. The "Light" of the Bible is "Vibration" - the entire spectrum of Polarity. This includes radiation, x-rays, light, sound - everything that is past One, that can vibrate, where there is movement and change. There is "Illumination", which people take to mean the adding of light to "darkness". Originally, this means the appearance of Polarity from One - the appearance of the Manifested Universe. There is "Illumination", as a philosophical concept, which is something that in Western thought can mean even suddenly understanding something, or the discovery of some important fact, or a "moment of truth". Like "revealing". "Darkness" is full of "light" as vibration we do not see. Such as all forms of electromagnetic radiation, ionizing radiation, microwaves, radio, x-rays, and so on.. Originally "darkness" is meaning devoid of vibration, One. Void. "Let there be light" meant let there be polarity, vibration, the physical - the creation of the manifested physical universe. From the unpolarized Void. -VonKrankenhaus

Re: ----- "I know what you mean. But your outlook is quite on the material side too - literally." ----- I see "physical" and "spiritual" as "two" "aspects" of same thing, complimentary. Spirit is becoming physical and physical is becoming spirit. So if we are discussing "spiritual" then "physical" immediately is there. And if we are looking at "physical", we are actually looking at "spiritual". "You" are an expression of "environment". Environment condensing, then expanding. Contraction and expansion. To understand, we must comprehend Will. -VonKrankenhaus

I would classify this as very basic parts of qigong being expressed in a way palatable to westerner consumers and modern people. This sort of thing going on all over now it seems. Modern living is producing desire for these experiences and ideas. -VonKrankenhaus