Earl Grey

I'm going to rest in a moment but will be replying evenings my time for whatever warrants my response on this thread, which would be mornings for most of you.

On the Spotless affair, I am grateful that you have some insight to see what is inherently unfair in that and how it still has tendrils in the way I have been treated since my initial and secondary suspension. My criticism of your dichotomy is that it is done in two extremes, one that fosters extreme passive-aggression, and one that polices all potential for possible passive-aggression, whether intended and present or not. Let me address this next post from Luke before returning to it as it will tie together much better. Believe it or not, I am the opposite of thick skin. Thick skin to me is a blanket statement used by individuals like joeblast and the Alt-Right members during the Trump discussions and climate change denial conversations to justify harassment and abuse, and general asshole-ish behavior. While he may argue and quoted once from Buddha his own assessment of my character for my malice towards him as a response to his abusive interactions and inability to see why someone would be hostile towards him, the difference is, he was not doing it in the spirit of love and fraternity, but as a means of a backhanded insult to condescendingly belittle that unsophisticated minds will have difficulty reading. It is equivalent to someone saying, "You don't know this basic spiritual principle? No wonder you're so messed up!" as opposed to a more "Son, I think this would be helpful if you learn this principle if you haven't heard of it before. Talk to me about it later when you're ready." My sweeping generalization can both refer to specific individuals or characteristics that any individual can take in my post, but by and large, it is the behavior that imparts the message that one should not emulate such attitudes or behavior of what I refer to, not ad hominem. So, my answer, ilumairen, is that discernment if something is done in the spirit of goodwill or passive-aggression should be discerned more than writing in a law, because a law can be abused, but a virtue principle can be assessed through wisdom and direct engagement. As for Luke and the rigid entry requirements, I think now is the time to spell out what wasn't obvious: it was complete hyberbole to begin with. It was open in the beginning, even when people like gatito and ChiDragon came to antagonize me or others posting there, and believe it or not, it managed to give GSMaster something he liked and focused on since it was relevant. After my recent suspension for a week and again, nobody asked me privately or publicly what I meant or even gave me a chance to rectify myself instead of what I got, which was an instant suspension. So can you blame me for developing extreme hostility towards you lot? Let's step back further to what inspired this: Spotless called me and my friends (and people I don't even have any relationship with) a "Frat Club of the Childish Lower Sewer Mind" when he drew a line in the sand in his original on the "Setting Up Shop at The Dao Bums" thread and in the moderation thread where I called him out for his passive-aggression. When no significant action was taken and people sided with him, especially silent thunder, I resigned myself to making a joke thread about it for my own amusement, and then it solidified into the anarchic rogue's prank that it is. Now Steve seems to think it is an elitist club and my chess club analogy used earlier means I don't care much about it. But the tone, if you haven't picked up, is closer to the antics of Eric Cartman and Al Bundy. Allow me to show you some video examples to illustrate this: This is how I view the cultivation club because of the ostracism: an in-joke by a group of kooks. Let's face it: cultivation is something you have to be crazy to do and will make you crazy eventually, like the NO MA'AM group that we knew was funny back in 1987, yet today, the fact people actually believe things worse than them on reddit is frightening. Unlike the Donald Trump-like wall mentality, my wall is meant to highlight the pettiness of exclusion--because I am excluded via ostracism from the main threads, since apparently, pointing out that proper practice involves several technical steps is bad, and pointing out that practice is potentially dangerous is bad. This is because it is not something people want to hear. So I retreat into my mountain stronghold awaiting good pilgrims to come or be invited. That pettiness about what is acceptable or not in the main thread is now a parody-like mirror in my PPJ not unlike this episode of Married with Children: It has also funny enough led to the Cartmanland effect: How strange I am not wanted on the main board because of my desire to help, and yet people can't leave me alone when I mind my own business. I am called a" troll" by people, including those who have sent me doxxing threats (and to this day, no action has been taken even when reported), but let's be real: I'm more of an ogre, or an oni, which means like Shrek, I prefer to do my own thing and help out my neighbors if someone asks for help, but by and large, because I've already been made to be a troll, the doors have been closed, and yet as soon as those doors were closed, people come to bang on them loudly. And if I come out to meet my adversaries, something akin to this happens: As I said, Luke: the doors were once open and can easily open again. But because I have been labeled abusive and a bully, what is the point of me even being here? I already have lessened my interaction on this forum, which used to be many posts across many topics daily, to now occasionally popping in and getting bored with the sterilization of all discussions here. What more do you want? For me to get a new suspension or ban or to just pack my bags and request you delete my entire PPJ and the posts within if so? I am at a point that I see very little exciting me here and I am only here to respond to PMs or when someone says publicly or privately, "I joined so I could talk to Earl Grey" and I've had a few people tell me that. For all my detractors, I still have silent supporters, and that is all that keeps me here. Otherwise, I can return to my current way of coping with the pandemic and training 5-6 hours a day at a minimum, occasionally checking in or not bothering at all, given the current climate. I will answer any follow-ups if any in the next 24 hours as I am limiting my time here now to checking it and reading during the day from time to time and posting only in the evening if absolutely necessary like now. The neutering of my presence is best seen here:

I made no such request--you initiated it yourself as a reaction to my distrust for you. Excellent, glad to know. You didn't need to be a mod to speak up for someone who was being attacked, which you had done before when you saw me as attacking people, which I did at the time, whether it was gendao or Everything (the former of whom I resolved my conflict with voluntarily and free of others, and still to this day miss his presence because I had seen him grow significantly from the lessons of our conflict). As for keeping your head down, I believe the following maxim is appropriate: "Evil succeeds only when good men stand by and do nothing." The web cache as of today no longer can be found, but it certainly exists in the archives you moderators can see after it was hidden by Spotless himself after he "felt attacked", which is baffling given that he initiated the passive-aggressive behavior and somehow didn't expect someone to pick up the gauntlet. What you consider "attacks" to me are speaking in general terms of someone who has no understanding of tradition and groups it all as New Age--something that under the Karen and dawei group would not have garnered a response since it could be anyone. The difference between that and Spotless is that it could be nobody else but me, and what I said is something that criticized what any unschooled individuals can say, which is sadly not uncommon on this forum too. Unless it's written in the forum rules specifically, I see it as no problem, and until it is amended, I see what I have done as no problem, but if it does become a problem, then I will adjust as per the rules. Until then, this is creating impromptu responses to something with no precedent, and to me carries significant bias given your explanation again in my prior suspension that it was based off of prior history of me "bullying and abusing" then saying to me "being polite" and then refusing my explanation as being bullshit. Your actions show me less of the kind of Buddhism you describe as your own lineage and sound more like solipsism. It is the fire escape of accountability, wherein you say that all problems are from the mind and don't exist, as though it were me who has the problem and you who do not and have not committed any error and can broach the dangerous territory of insufferable nature. Interestingly, I am not the only one who has read your interactions with me in that suspension thread and here who has drawn similar conclusions, but I am simply the most vocal about it because I have to advocate for myself. I never asked for immunity. What I instead bring that all up for is because you focus purely on that instead of the whole picture, lacking the wisdom of Solomon in making such judgment. Let's see: laughing at the comment ilumairen asked about silent thunder responding to my thread and making the comment about mastercard about the visa system indicates you are having fun. The question I pose is if you think this is helpful at all or what you think you are communicating to me and to others. As for demonizing, as much as I think the name "Stevil" is hilarious, you have yet to earn my scorn. I might swear at you from behind the computer screen and to my friends in our chat group, but otherwise, you'll need to do a lot more for me to earn real scorn. What earns my scorn are predators, perverts, and scammers. You, Steve, are following your current programming--something that you may not see has been hacked. How easy it is for the one who caused the grief to let it go and be unable to see that the one who was wronged struggles to let it go so easily, much like Charles Bronson remains in prison in the UK and treated worse than serial killers and rapists. I mention him of course because like me, he has an extreme personality and aversion to excruciating circumstances--which don't help his case due to the prison system. Fantastic. I may be the most vocal, but I'm not the only one who sees the mammalian politics at play here. I hope this ends our discussion because I've made my points and you've stuck to your stance, but for the purpose of the rest of the board and mod team, at least this penultimate post before I respond to liminal luke and ilumairen will give more context and complexities as opposed to mere caricature.

Will respond later when I've rested tonight and finished training tomorrow. Will respond fully to this comment tomorrow night (my tomorrow) as well as mentioned above to ilumairen, but will say in short that it was predominantly reactionary because of the recent suspension that was unfair to me. I actually don't mind opening it up--I am just fed up with the muzzle placed on me and the newspaper being used to slap me and expecting me to still roll over and look cute after the abuse.

I've no problem with the idea of Cheers, but Ted Danson still had the worst taste and luck with women and Norm still needs to cut back on his alcohol intake. In all seriousness though, if you want something like Cheers here, then it has to be both ways--I've already been maligned (quite unfairly), and so far, there is more passive-aggression and double-standards relating to that than anything else now. Because you all value social harmony, I concluded that it's best to (mostly) remain in my PPJ and talk amongst my friends. We stay on topic and we have informed opinions--this is not something I find in the current zeitgeist not just because of mostly neophytes and self-initiates, but because there is a push to allow known scammers and dangerous practices proliferate in the name of civil conversation and egalitarianism. What I have done in the past that has labeled me a "bully" and "abusive" has been the equivalent of telling someone not to drink and drive or text and drive. When you lose someone (and I have lost many people to various things in life related to inaction, within and outside cultivation), you will be more adamant about helping others. I lost someone dear to me because he was so adamant he was fine until I had to rush to the hospital to see he had become a vegetable, and in two months saw him die an undignified death. I knew he was getting into trouble. We all did. But he was so adamant that he was fine and we should mind our own business that we just let him be. And then we lost him. Instead, you see this as a violation of people's personal practice. So I throw my hands up and say fine, everyone else, do whatever the hell you want, and I will stick to my group, which I refer to as the chess club at our booth in the back. But if someone wants to join the chess club, applications are open, just don't come in here expecting to play tic tac toe or spend time texting on your phone and taking pictures saying you are a part of the club without actually ever playing the rest of us in a match or even knowing the rules of chess. Guilty as charged--I have nothing nice to say about the current moderation team and how things have been handled thus far--can you blame me? But with you, you've been the nicest, I will give you that. I suppose we will have to take what we can get. Very well then. On to answering your questions. Now, let's go by looking at libelous slander. No one has been named, and the description could be anyone. I am thinking of at least several individuals, but the point I make is the behavior. Ever have a boss walk in on one of your water cooler talks and ask, "Who is this person you're talking about?" and everyone quickly says, "Nobody in particular!" to the point the boss grumbles because she can't frisk anyone since no names were named? Same principle here. Might not be hard to identify, but it's a talking point worth going over. Again, however, I bring up double standards here: if it is insulting that I call someone an idiot but don't name them, then why was there the old Spotless thread (that has since been hidden), where you, Steve, silent thunder, and others ganged up on me for being a "sheriff"? You weren't attacking me, but you were certainly downplaying both his original post and my rightful irritation at it. How about all the passive-aggressive sniping here then that goes unmoderated? I don't report it because I can't be bothered to deal with the shit that is said up to now by members here for my behavior from many months ago, and it makes me wonder if what I consider to be overdue parking tickets is more akin to being a registered sex offender--the stigma will never go away, even if those allegations are false. So if my calling people without naming them idiots requires more effort for anyone to prove who it is, it's still the risk of a bad judgment for a bad assumption, or insincerity. But I guarantee you this: insincerity is something I am fucking incapable of being. If my temper earlier this year wasn't an indication, it's that insincerity, especially from false friends, pisses me off more than someone being a genuine asshole. If by your criteria this is unacceptable, I again must resign myself to accepting that this is the current legal definition and use that instead of the more common approach I meant that was still enough room for plausible deniability and lack of evidence for slandering anyone specifically in that sweeping statement about an idiot. That statement of course speaks more about the behavior that I outlined to serious cultivators as dangerous, which for those who don't know who that individual is or those individuals are (and most won't if they aren't familiar with nearly year-old discussions), what will stay is the idea of what's wrong, not an imaginary person. And in following your criteria moving forward, then I will have to use milk and honey instead or ask for the only item available, a Shirley Temple, while wondering why the hell I'm expecting to get Yamazaki 25 whiskey because the bartenders here don't want to serve alcohol even if the sign says it's a bar called "Cheers". Still, I already don't trust the existing definitions in the bylaws here since they are not only applied with a lot of overreach, but other friends I have don't see them being used so much as abused and more personal bias towards people like me.

Yes, Steve, contempt--you may say it's not contempt (and you didn't actually say it wasn't either), just as your attitude towards me in the last moderation thread indicated through your actions and comments made it unambiguous. I have no problem being characterized as elitist, because my definition of elitist is informed opinions rather than conjecture and false egalitarianism from self-initiates and Sensitive New Age Guys and Gals (SNAGGs). The main forum has already been proven to be a place that has all sorts of characters, so fine, let them do what they want and leave me to my corner with the few friends whom I have and trust posting there. You don't want me in the main forum, and I don't have any inclination to step out of my PPJ except occasionally because my participation is already marked with a scarlet letter. Your explanation before was that I was "bullshitting" and made no attempt--none of you--to ask me privately or publicly what I meant and justified it by saying that I have a history of "bullying and abuse" here for my last suspension. What I have for an "elitist and restricted sub-forum" is a chess club in our own corner booth at this point, and everyone else can play jenga in the main bar counter that I don't mind joining in occasionally. What I don't want is people coming to our booth and playing tic-tac-toe or taking selfies of themselves sitting at our booth and claiming that they are part of the chess club when they've not only never played chess against us, but don't even know the rules of chess. I do not care if that's elitist with that kind of analogy. But I'm not stopping them from doing their own thing in the main forum or their own PPJ. However, in my PPJ, we're on topic and we are there to discuss seriously to complement each other's practice and understanding. We do not have the time to waste trying to correct know nothing know-it-alls, which is why I prefer my PPJ over the main board these days. So where were you then, Steve, when all this began months ago when Spotless began his post attacking me and a few of my friends (as well as people who weren't my friends), where you, silent thunder, and to an extent, liminal luke, attacked me, which he made no attempt to hide when confronted about it in the moderation thread for a whole mess of bans? Let's not forget that he posted that thread three times here in two sections, and then reposted it as well on dwai's new forum, daosnet. My PPJ is not meant to talk trash about people, it is to stay on topic and discuss cultivation without wasting time with scammers or self-initiates who think they can hack cultivation better than old traditions. It is also to avoid people trying to be profound by throwing in platitudes that have nothing to do with a topic, which is becoming a common irritating occurrence here. Remember when Walker tried to talk about Mr. Rogers last year and that ended up becoming a thread about conspiracy theories and politics of the American government and CIA? That is a problem with the general forum here, and while you try to moderate things before they get out of hand, there is unfortunately overkill that eliminates any growth in the conversation, as though you were weeding before the seeds have even had a chance to sprout. Now when you talk about karma, Steve, let's consider this: you seem to talk about cause and effect rather than any laws of karma or the fours kinds (because yes, there are several types of karma in the Vedic tradition). What you are doing here is you are furthering the karmic wheel of conflict in this crusade of yours against me by justifying my past behavior for your current vitriol against me. And what selective memory you have: people I have had conflict with I have openly made amends with and openly apologized to both publicly and privately, whether Starjumper in my initial months as a new member in 2015 to gendao this year to even Josh when I found out he wasn't a troll account. Let's also recall my town hall meeting thread where I tried to find out ways for the community to get along and grow together. I suppose that all this means nothing to you because you only see the crimes and refuse to see the growth trajectory from that. Too late, Steve. Your actions here and in the last moderation thread mocking me and the situation don't convey any remorse or willingness to go beyond your caricature-like portrait of me. But if you are willing to drop the crap and actually show it in your actions, then I can take your words seriously, because right now, your recent actions have been communicating something else entirely. I will give you the benefit of a doubt this once though. I've already resigned myself to my corner for the most part. I am not unwilling to work with the current zeitgeist and politics of the team, but immediate banishment and focus on select history that is much older than recent behavior is a serious problem. Acknowledging is one thing, addressing it is another. I doubt that will have any effect given that the well has been poisoned.

I will answer more fully later today, because I would rather get my training done for the day before wasting more time with people who have already indicated (especially Steve) complete contempt for me as seen in the last moderation thread about me. But I need you to explain towards what end will this dialogue will lead? I already have no faith in ANY of you and no attempt at working with us seems to be present, so as Steve has said that it’s “karma” in justification for his vote of suspending me before, I repeat this and say that I am cynical and reserved about speaking unless there is a guarantee that 1) my opinions will be considered seriously, 2) you will NOT mock it while displaying said double standards, 3) that it is an act of good faith instead of a Witch Hunt and Spanish Inquisition.

Before I answer you, is this an actual attempt at dialogue or bait to self-incriminate myself? What good will my answer do for me, someone who was ALREADY suspended for an accusation when nobody asked me what I meant and ASSUMED?

For the purpose of the thread, which I did not start, yes. But in general? Nope. This visa system is in place because it is a means of mirroring EXACTLY what you are all doing: shutting down communication you don’t like from people you don’t want to hear from. I’m not surprised this wasn’t picked up on, and the responses from Steve here remind me of my own thoughts that there are double-standards to what you hold against me but apparently not against your own behavior, which is unsurprising as well when people acquire power. I also wonder if all of you and your heavy-handed approach that just shuts down threads and suspends or bans immediately would allow Sean the owner to remain long here based on his own way of expressing himself like what he said to Limahong in your PPJ during the Marblehead remembrance party or his insistence on shouting at fascists. To the credit of the extremely flawed moderation team under dawei and Karen, at least they issued warnings giving people a chance to rectify themselves instead of instant suspension. And at least a PM discussing the behavior helped explain it instead of public rebuke and instant suspension, which at this point reminds me of the very martial law I live in with this country, because surprise, surprise: not everyone here is an American or living in the Happy Hour dystopia. I suppose this comment will be mocked by Steve or one of you all in another show of double standards, and immediate suspension because feedback is considered insulting, but I suppose I show my age as a Gen-Xer who had to learn to deal with feedback both from and to management and to employees when a manager too, because that feedback helped improve both management and its constituents. In the case of this team, it seems more like moderators can’t be questioned since questioning appears to be demeaning to them.

Steve, where is the PERSONAL insult? Seriously? THIS is not in my mind an offense to ANYONE because it’s a general gripe by the water cooler and an opinion. If someone identifies themselves as behind this, where is the evidence? Seriously, this is over reach and sounds like a recent comic I’ve come across called “Happy Hour”, which is about a dystopian America where it’s illegal to not smile or have a positive attitude. https://screenrant.com/ahoy-comic-happy-hour-preview/

I made no insults myself and saw no insults from the others, unless an invite by virtue in the vinegar thread for silent thunder to discuss a serious issue is now considered a criteria for insults, which makes me wonder how other comments that called ME out in a passive-aggressive manner or directly naming me somehow got no attention. But, c’est la vie: this is EXACTLY why I’ve no desire to do anything but remain in my own corner in the PPJ section and occasionally chime in until someone looks like they are going to misconstrue anything I’ve said or accuse me of eventually saying.

Doesn’t actually work like that with regards to cultivation, but okay. 🙄

Welcome to the thread. Enjoy your FP practice, but be careful of mixing systems due to potential for qi deviation and inevitable need to prioritize the practices that resonate with you. Flying Phoenix is a complete system itself, so if you stick with it, you'll get quite a lot further. Enjoy reading through our over ten-year thread!

The incels also have a subsect called “no fap”. 😆

The problem with the hypothesis like that makes me immediately wonder why incels don't have good prana.

I also try to forward relevant questions from the thread that I believe Sifu Terry would have a lot of wisdom to contribute for us all, but usually it's simple things I try to answer based on what he's already said many times on this thread that are repeated. He is on his way here as part of a recent discussion--but he also is busy teaching multiple classes weekly online, one of which I participate in and highly recommend, and you can find out more in his weekly newsletter: https://terencedunn.substack.com/

You don't need to look far to see this besides mining the archives here, reddit, and YouTube comments...

True story: students in China have sought out my teachers to come back and train them. One even had the offer to be flown there weekly since there was no Xin Yi (not Xingyi) in China at the level he has and teaches.

Like I said above: this can be subjective. A person who was obsessed with positive thinking and the Law of Attraction ended up having several entities, which were seen by people of different lineages and systems. Entities are not a product of the mind, thought patterns are probably closer to what you're describing, and these can be implanted by others, even if you've never interacted with them directly or personally, which I have seen in magical attacks before. I wouldn't know if the OP has any entity, because by the metric I use, if his palm lines align normally, I wouldn't think too much about it myself based on the Akashic framework.

This can be itself a trap at times because some people practice two systems knowing that they are incompatible--such as Flying Phoenix and Fragrant--and insist that they are fine even if Fragrant specifically forbids any abstract breathing, which is what the breath control sequence in Flying Phoenix essentially is. A lot of self-diagnoses may "feel" fine, but the thing with working with very strong systems like these is that you won't know what you don't know and it's close to eating poisoned honey. Eric isn't wrong--he just needs more direction for what to look for when reading you. Remember he looks at health primarily, he doesn't have vision of the martial and astral levels for some forms that I know for their shen, magical, and dimensional uses. What appeared to have no health benefits in something of mine he scanned is something that isn't for health--it's for dimensional shifting. While a lot of people who talk about entities and curses often end up creating more anguish mentally, the absence of the thing itself does not invalidate the possibility of it existing. Some people say it's all mind and these things don't exist, and then all of a sudden, there is an entity that they do not acknowledge. I dealt with one last year, and I was of the firm belief that I was fine until I realized that this is how many of them work: they let you think things are perfectly normal and it's just you. It's not--it is worse than the ego-fear complex that makes you think it's just you. The cult of positive thinking isn't called a cult for no reason. Remember the cult and member who must not be named was prominent here for a while that led to a lot of anguish once the victims started speaking out. Positive thinking is one form that a lot of astral parasites use to prey on people by getting them to deny the positive aspects of fear, which is survival, and see fear as purely an "evil" thing or anger as a violent thing when there are positive aspects of anger before expressing itself, which is protecting the self from what is inherently unfair or unjust--think of a parent who is angry at a child for attempting to do the cinnamon challenge on YouTube because they are afraid of the potential harm that the unknowing toddler could be doing to himself. There is nothing wrong inherently with positive thinking--it's the kind of positive thinking that denies the natural emotions of the mind and body to protect and express ourselves that is dangerous, and all modern associations of fear, anger, anxiety, and sadness refuse to see how they help us out, which is even acknowledged in the Pixar film Inside Out. As an example, mono no aware may seem like something depressing to the Japanese, but it is also a kind of way to create the necessary aesthetics to create the appreciation of this ephemeral existence. In other words: anger is not inherently bad, but how it is expressed can be violent or righteous and just. Positivity by the same token does not necessarily help--it can be a form of denial and repression that leads to a greater volcanic fallout.

Terry Dunn may refer you to someone, David W I believe. Send a message to him (username zen-bear) and he can put you in touch. I know some people in the Akashic community too, but it all depends on your comfort with them. Their contact info is below this page link: https://www.lilyandbeyond.com/free-yourself

Palm test here to check for entities and thought forms: Eric Isen as well to scan for parasites. As far as removing them--it depends on the nature of the parasite or entity.

The short version is it is a high yogic practice and I too am guilty as charged with anger and irritation. Being a high yogic practice, it goes deep into your trauma and unearths it in a cathartic manner. So you get to work with whatever is there and use FP as an ally as Castaneda would say when addressing it as opposed to burying it.

Musical interlude: I'm whatever you say I am!

It might help to read the whole thread first starting with the first few pages to see what this is about, as titles can be deceiving.