Earl Grey

Didn’t say you were rushing into it. Just left a quote from Bob because it’s good universal advice. A lot of Millennials and Zoomers want to be like Tim Ferriss in one way or another without realizing that his philosophy is geared towards a kind of utilitarian and libertarian view that requires subordinates to do everything he does and allow him to have his fun. There’s no depth in what Timmy does, and the rest of us are better off exploring and deciding what we want to engross ourselves in, and so my call is to have you to focus on one target and with one arrow at a time to explore first and enjoy yourself before committing to all things, even in a sequence instead of all at once.

A friend of mine who do a form of spontaneous qigong have chanted weird mantras we've never heard before in languages that aren't familiar to us, though in recent times before I stopped practice, occasionally, Om Mani Padme Hum or Om Ah Hum come out unambiguously. During those times, I'd open my eyes to see all three cats and both dogs gathered around watching me.

Walk around the Las Vegas Strip and even all the way into Henderson, Santa Monica and Venice, Siem Reap, Cambodia, the University of the Philippines area of Manila, and some parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, and I guarantee you'll find the same things you describe as in Boulder.

I was accidentally brought into it in Cambodia when my neighbor from Marseilles kept pushing it, and his friend from Normandy introduced himself to me and wanted me to be his first student. It brought in a little more income when he had me occasionally heal patients at his spa when I wasn't working in the hospital as a grants coordinator, but I didn't find it anything special. Six months later, I was invited to do level 2, and he treated it like it was some big life-changing event. Maybe it was, but in general, I rarely talked about Reiki wherever I traveled, and if I mentioned it to a couple friends, suddenly, everyone knew about it and was asking for healing. This was when I was still in my early days of qigong and Taijiquan, with a teacher whom I no longer have any desire to have anything to do with, as it was just the year before I met Dolic and Rodriguez, and a good two years before Dunn. My teacher from Normandy did tell me to be very careful of Reiki "masters" because he said nobody could initiate anyone into Reiki by distance, it's not possible according to his teacher. Then I saw people who were offering level 1 and 2 simultaneously online, as though they don't allow the energy to settle and changes to be made and observed between levels. Then I saw a woman who claimed she became a master in one month of online training. Finally, I saw people charging thousands of dollars in Las Vegas for Reiki Yoga, and in Manila, Reiki people offering workshops like Crystal Reiki, Angel Reiki, Abundance Reiki, and creating their own symbols from Wicca... There's more that I will probably not discuss here because I have become very disillusioned with what Reiki does to about 95% of its practitioners and its clients, not to mention energetic and spiritual danger that comes from joining that circle (will only discuss by PM, but don't expect a quick response). 100%. Let's hope that people can tell the difference between good herbs and the essential oil mass market scam too. One of my favorite quotes from Robert Anton Wilson's Illuminatus! trilogy: "Never whistle while pissing. Why shoot two different targets with a single arrow when you can't even hit one without total focus? A divided mind is easily conquered."

Avoid Mo Pai unless you are actually part of the lineage in Java. Do this instead:

In the west, the lineage I follow (but am not initiated into) had Sadguru Sant Keshvadas, who trained both Thomas and Margalo Ashley-Farrand. Their books and their ongoing work are wonderful boons to everyone. Satyabhama herself is very particular about pronunciation, and says saying "Om Namah Shee-vai-yuh" produces a different effect than "Om Namah Shiva'ya" for example (and believe it or not, SSK told her it's the latter) but she says regional differences in pronunciation are considered. My teachers at Dzokden tell me pronunciation isn't important because Southern and Northern Tibetans contract their words differently and so it seems like a different mantra sometimes when doing Medicine Buddha.

According to Thomas Ashley-Farrand, yes.

Not a problem. Pleasant diversion and fun reading still.

After getting sick, I have to choose how I use my time wisely...and I think I'd rather avoid getting upset.

Thanks for the advice. I usually include them in my Medicine Buddha practice with incense I've restarted recently when I rebuilt some energy, so good to see we're on the same page. Today when I walked past them though, several slammed the door shut or turned away from me, but one neighbor was very happy to see me and was jovial because he was worried about me. There are all sorts of people in the world...and covid has shown us who we are in the dark.

While there are people who already have ample skills doing this as a formality, there are still many more scammers, unfortunately. They are driven by algorithms and the need for income, so you can't rule out that they don't exist or treat them as a rare phenomenon.

Yes, Beats by Dre was a ridiculous example of ornamental branding, where he could charge a lot for an inferior product that one could get more value and use from with Monster headphones, or just by being a little clever and going to Radio Shack to put something together.

Reminds me of this with Banksy when nobody knew or believed it was really him: https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-24518315

So? It happens in Asia too, dude. People I have encountered include some who live in Korea and go to HK and come back as "masters" of an art there, or fly from Malaysia and the Philippines to do a yoga seminar in Thailand or Bali and come back as whatever great yogi master. Even within China people will rip off Chinese in other cities and provinces.

You have not been at all. Pleasant contributions.

Thankfully we can improve after self-revelation with guidance, support, and self-awareness.

I am on the upwards part of recovery now. Mind recovering better thanks to support and good practice as detailed on my thread at AG. As it’s been three weeks, today now marks the end of the first week of the recovery period and I have around five weeks to go before fully returning to my previous level of health. The neighbors are still giving me dirty looks or ignoring me. I have ups and downs and am trying to focus on moving forward because I don’t have much time to rest due to my deadline to move out before the end of the year. Wish me luck as I look for a way forward with my writing and teaching.

A mantra for reminding oneself of acting wisely and cautiously: o-wa-ta-na-sai-am Say aloud often, faster or slower as necessary.

You sound very certain of your assertions that this practice of 5-week teachers or similar are not happening regardless of the common experience some of us are very familiar with here. This is the same as someone who leaves Korea as a purple belt and lands in the United States as a fifth dan black belt in Tae Kwon Do from some legendary lineage, or karate or any martial art. So yes: it’s common, just like people learn from a DVD who suddenly start charging a lot for workshops.

100%. If I hadn't explored, I wouldn't have discovered that a couple individuals I studied with were not who they seemed to be. Had I explored more and been less "religiously devoted" then I might have been stuck under someone's thumb.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=sHBLDukVhho https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ScGIZ5npcmY

Personal note: My three teachers are the Pokémon professors (Oak, Birch, and Elm), and I'm just the trainer who has collected Pokémon, but only uses a couple of them for my regular team when battling other trainers.

Most martial teachers are nice. Usually, what I’ve seen is they send students who pretend to know nothing to another teacher, to establish if the other teacher is any good and if he is a decent human being. Afterwards, if they conclude the teacher is any good and worthwhile, the students finish their visit revealing their school and teacher and arrange a visit between the two. Then it’s usually a nice lunch and some alcohol, laughs, and some playtime between the two teachers who treat each other as the superior whom they hope to learn from, and then see if they have skills they’re hiding. If the teacher is not worth their time, then the students tell their own teacher and then everyone ignores the one they are checking out altogether. Best way to judge a teacher: their students. If the students are any good, in character or skill, you know what to potentially expect... and more.

If you watch the introduction to Pai Mei with Beatrix in Kill Bill, you can see that he's being jocular with her, but she's being extremely disrespectful by talking about how much she knows, and pisses him off even more when she tries to kill him when he's just testing her. I've been lucky in that Terry Dunn, John Dolic, and JR Rodriguez encourage me to explore or recommend me to close friends of theirs for martial skills. More push hands with different people, or the particular pedagogy of a teacher to help show how they have immense knowledge too. In general, JR tells me to stick within our framework and as long as nothing contradicts it, it is fine. I have been lucky that what I've learned from these three is very complementary. Though I'd say I've "only" learned martial training and fajin but no faqi. Looking forward to your seminar.

Yes, one of my teachers calls this "graduating a student early". Sometimes they will also tell them that they are so advanced that they can do anything on their own, but must promise to never tell anyone that they learned from that teacher, because they are "vastly superior to the teacher now".