Earl Grey

The Dao Bums
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content count

    5,622

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    87

Everything posted by Earl Grey

  1. are there evil cookies?

    Earl Grey replied to old3bob's topic in General Discussion

  2. Eternal Champion series of Michael Moorcock and especially Behold the Man, Breakfast in the Ruins, Elric, Corum, Jerry Cornelius...
  3. Now if anyone enjoyed the Gormenghast series by Mervyn Peake...
  4. For an Asian biopunk book, Paolo Bacigalupi and his first novel, The Windup Girl, is fantastic.
  5. The Earthsea series is a childrenā€™s series and fantastic, as is the InterWorld series, Thief of Always, Coraline, and a lot of childrenā€™s books exposed me to cultures and ideas I loved from China to Native Americans to Russian and Jewish folktales... Herschel and the Hanukkah Goblins comes to mind.
  6. I got a lot of Strugatsky books too. Iā€™ll check which one, but it sounds like one of the movie adaptations too.

  7. Covid Idiots

    Earl Grey replied to moment's topic in The Rabbit Hole

    There are plenty of idiot youth on Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok doing this toilet licking challenge and I had posted it earlier from NYMag months ago. I think this pandemic is the global IQ test that was sorely needed.

  8. simplify

    Earl Grey replied to zerostao's topic in Daoist Discussion

    Sex and candy
  9. Nothing stopping you from practicing his systems. The opinion I have--which happens to come from people who trained under him or fought him, and have also technical expertise to see what's wrong in his martial and healing systems as well--just happens to make me disinclined to recommend him, though there are people here who enjoy him, and nothing is stopping them from doing it even if there are better practices and teachers out there.
  10. Yes. And he is also an unpleasant human being, which makes his teachings harder to justify following.
  11. No, that's not true--I totally agree with you too! So us two!
  12. Hereā€™s my experience: even within qigong systems alone, you canā€™t say itā€™s all water. For example, fragrant qigong canā€™t be practiced with any system that involves abstract breathing or meditation and visualization. Or, a form leading to spontaneous movement like spontaneous five animals canā€™t be practiced with a form for stillness like relaxation or sleeping qigong. I practice several systems but had to get clearance from my teachers to make sure they were compatible, and I still didnā€™t add systems until I had developed a lot of depth within a system first before adding. Specifically I do the systems of Terry Dunn, who himself mixes systems from his teachers who knew each other personally, and the systems of John Dolic who gave guidelines about which of his can mix and which canā€™t. My martial systems all can mix comfortably though.

  13. Flying Phoenix Chi Kung

    Earl Grey replied to Fu_dog's topic in General Discussion

    I have just come back from Sifu Terry's Wednesday night stream sessions and wanted to share that in combination with reading his weekly newsletters, I highly encourage people to join either the Sunday beginner sessions or Wednesday intermediate ones. Besides getting to know your fellow practitioners and learning more advanced meditations, you get more depth and nuance into the system and little tidbits that allow you to grok your cultivation much more. I would also recommend subscribing to and reading the newsletter before and after a class because in this turbulent era and zeitgeist, our attention is tuned to not just the news, but a media focused on several American issues that are only the tip of the iceberg for the many global issues in China, Southeast Asia, Russia, and South America that are being drowned out by the American issues. As a result of this and the global stress from the pandemic, our attention is diverted away not just from those other non-American issues, but the most important thing: looking within. The wonderful thing about reading Sifu Terry's weekly newsletter is not just a summary of what's going on in the workshops, but insights into the spiritual wisdom from his scholarly background, ranging from the I-ching by Wilhelm/Baynes and the Tao Te Ching, to other sources such as from Sir Edwin Arnlod's The Light of Asia: The above quote is one of Sifu Terry's favorite passages from the highly recommended work by Arnold, which can also be read for free from Project Gutenberg here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/8920/8920-h/8920-h.htm In summary, the above passage means that all our karma is our own to work on, and looking within is crucial to work this out. With the right practice of Flying Phoenix and Tao Tan Pai, we can find ourselves with a more developed inner eye to see within and burn the karmic burdens away. If you are interested in more, do sign up for the newsletter and register for the workshops at least once: https://terencedunn.substack.com/
  14. I had that same "DON'T BOTHER ME, IMBECILE" attitude when idiots in my school used to put their hands in my book when I was reading or grab it or slap the book out of my hand. My reaction time wasn't always fast enough, but it was enough to show people not to disturb me, a bookwyrm rather than a bookworm.
  15. I'm being facetious because a lot of it is too good!
  16. Strictly speaking, the "fire and water" paths are modern inventions and not in traditional practice. However, given the eclectic nature of what is available in the west, the simplest wisdom is to find a teacher you like and stick with them and their system, because even traditional practice happened in a dedicated manner rather than mixing and matching. You could not sleep in several beds at once in five different temples, in a manner of speaking.
  17. INCOMING TRANSMISSION ... ...... QUERY: ORGANIZATION OF PPJ IN SUBFORUMS ... .... USER "Earl Grey" REQUESTS ASSISTANCE .... ....... MODELING PPJ IN THE SAME MANNER AS PPJ FOR USER "ilumairen" ... SEE: EXAMPLES OF "Dao Town" AND "Library" SUBFORUMS IN PPJ OF USER "ilumairen" USER REQUIRES HELP ORGANIZING PPJ FOR PERSONAL PROJECT WITH MULTIPLE THREADS AND FOCUS IN EACH SECTION... END TRANSMISSION

  18. Personal Practice Discussion Thread Request

    Earl Grey replied to Henchman21's topic in Forum and Tech Support

    A thousand blessings and thanks upon you, your family, and loved ones (especially your dogs) for your expeditious efforts!

  19. Personal Practice Discussion Thread Request

    Earl Grey replied to Henchman21's topic in Forum and Tech Support

    Here are the titles for each sub-forum: "Outer Haven", "Neo-Tokyo", "Sparta", "Walden", ā€œPhobosā€, "Neverwhere", "Xanadu" AND "Visitor Center and Visa Applications"

  20. Personal Practice Discussion Thread Request

    Earl Grey replied to Henchman21's topic in Forum and Tech Support

    I made the request here on 28th of June to have no action still aside from being told that no existing mods have the ability or skills to do so: What I want are those specific sections created in my PPJ and to move each of those threads in the PPJ to designated sections which I will spell out when someone is ready and able to fulfill my request.
  21. I also love PKD!
  22. Also I omitted Robert Anton Wilson in my list above because heā€™s not fiction. šŸ˜
  23. Agree with O&C assessment there. Saw constant gardener type activity in some NGOs sadly when in Tanzania and Cambodia...
  24. I read Handmaid's Tale in high school and it was a little too similar to reality at the time because this was before 9/11. Hated Oryx and Crake though because I had a similar relationship where I was the "snowman" in the friendship with my own Crake and have a hard time bringing myself to finish the Mad Adam trilogy. Don't know why you hate Dune, but to each their own. Haven't read much of Martin beyond Fevre Dream actually.
  25. Rachel Pollack - Unquenchable Fire Ursula K. Le Guin - The Left Hand of Darkness Haruki Murakami - Kafka on the Shore Neil Gaiman - Everything (comics, screenplays, and novels) Alan Moore - Everything (same) Grant Morrison - Everything (ditto) Clive Barker - Imajica, Weaveworld, The Art Trilogy Gene Wolfe - The Book of the New Sun, The Book of the Long Sun, The Book of the Short Sun, Peace, Latro in the Mist, Soldier of Sidion China Mieville - Perdido Street Station, The Scar, Iron Council, The City and the City Richard Matheson - What Dreams May Come Orson Scott Card - Ender series, especially Ender's Game and the Shadow series, Speaker for the Dead Frank Herbert - Dune series (what else?) but IGNORE ANYTHING MADE BY HIS SON!!!!! Terry Pratchett - Discworld series Piers Anthony - Incarnations of Immortality and Xanth series Jonathan Carroll - The Answered Prayers Sextet and The Crane's View trilogy, The Land of Laughs, Voices of Our Shadow and pretty much everything else