kyoji

Sound quality is great, and so is the sentiment shared.. I think anyone who doesn't share this opinion of nei kung either doesn't know what they are talking about, or they're trying to sell me the 11 minute enlightenment 4 disc box set for 3 installments of 29.99..... Cheers!

Autumn air, a big ol' spliff, enjoying all of the colours.. What a lovely sunday afternoon. Hope you're all enjoying yourselves today

Thank you for the insights. It was just what I needed, exactly when I needed it. Reflecting on this reply before bed tonight. The last paragraph really struck a chord with me, as I know that I will never understand what I seek intellectually, but sometimes "I" forget and end up back here looking for intellectual ammunition, and entertainment. It was a divinely timed reminder. I have accessed some very bizarre and powerful states of consciousness through various means, but because I do not follow a proper method or have a teacher, I have always let my mind runaway amuck shortly after the experiences. I'd attempt to intellectualize and verbalize something so extraordinary that trying to speak about it is really not possible, which is why IMO some of the classics seem so fucking confusing ! It is confusing as all hell. Even the most bardic of masters, as eloquent as they may have been could not do proper justice to any of it, although the pointers are helpful... Every passing day, it sinks in a little more that finding a proper teacher and following a proper method is the most important thing you can do in this work.. Talking about it, thinking about it, debating about it, it seems pointless. And my interest in it all is waning. So much of the time there is really nothing to say, yet we do anyways.. to sound interesting.. to be agreeable.. to posture.. to distract ourselves.. Stirring up red dust and getting it in our mouths. Anyways, ramble over. Thanks again, I truly do appreciate the thoughtfelt response. I should hurry up and sit now Your brother in Dao, Kyoji

This one particular subject has been stumping me lately, and I wanted to throw this out there in hopes that some of the more advanced wayfarers that frequent here can shed some light on the subject, and maybe clear up some confusion for myself and others who are curious about this... Anyways... here goes nothing! How do we reconcile these ideas of already being complete and having nothing to do v.s. following a path and deciding to work willfully towards some kind of personal/spiritual development... and before I get the tongue in cheek Who is asking? all is one typical new age sounding answer, can we please engage in a bit more of a thoughtful conversation on the matter? Of course all is one but my left hand isn't my right nor is my heart my head. Is there really any denying that there are layers and levels to this all and that it does take a lot of hard work and eating of the bitter to achieve spiritual progress... I'm sure there are levels in which there is nothing left to do and you just let the rest unfold. I am also fairly sure the people that are actually at this stage are few and far between. Not like the " doing the dishes is meditation enough folks" will have you believe. It seemed to me for the longest time that the idea of already being whole, was entirely a new age fallacy, until I was visiting golden elixir press and saw this quote from Liu Yiming.. “Golden Elixir is another name for one’s fundamental nature. There is no other Golden Elixir outside one's fundamental nature. All human beings have this Golden Elixir complete in themselves: it is entirely realized in everybody. It is neither more in a sage, nor less in an ordinary person. It is the seed of the Immortals and the Buddhas, the root of the worthies and the sages.” The way this contrasts with statements in other texts of man essentially being a crude animal before deciding to undergo transformations just baffles me really. If the Golden Elixir is already complete, then why are the stories of so many great masters filled with years upon years of hardship and sacrifice in order to achieve great attainments? Statements like that fail to mention that it isn`t an overnight process to lose your acquired nature in order to see / express / be what is fundamental... Sorry if this post is a little all over the place, but the contrast of opinion on this subject leaves me feeling confused really..

I also don't reckon they would agree that the sky is blue if scripture said that it was pink, doesn't make the sky less blue.

to be fair aren't most fundamentalists misrepresenting their own religions anyways?

<3

Claypool can do wrong. My biggest inspiration for ever picking up a bass.

Saw him in Vancouver around 2 years ago now... amazing show. Very fortunate to have seen such a legend at my age.

Say it louder.

That sounds amazing @Spotless ! i'm sure this goes without saying, but enjoy yourself. there will be without a doubt plenty to learn, and unlearn respectively. I wish I knew more about physics and it's overlap with various practices within daoism /other traditions, but i'd most likely end up using it as some kind of intellectual ammunition to convince people I'm not completely woowoo My spidey senses do however tingle when I read certain things about physics, even when I don't understand them intellectually.. Hard to explain. I am still fairly young and have time aplenty to learn more. There is just so much I don't know!

This is a great TED Talk ( unsurprisingly it was flagged by TED like all of the good ones ) , that is semi related to this topic but I think everybody would enjoy it regardless of it's overall relevancy. My friend shared it with me last night. Anyways, the synchronicity he mentions is rather uncanny in my opinion, and I just can't at this moment in time chalk it down to coincidence or randomness, along with some very strange ones that have surfaced in my life.

Of course there is such thing as synchronicity, however you can find things in all the wrong places if you are constantly looking for them. The truth usually lies somewhere in the middle, and IMO the most profound bouts of synchronicity for myself anyways, seemed to just fall into my day to day life without any thought. Just what I needed when I needed it. Something just instantly clicks, no intellectualizing required and no seeking required, if that makes any sense. It is always so weird when you hear about something for the first time, and then it keeps coming up that day. Like when you read something new, and then the topics come up randomly from someone you'd least expect or... I don't really believe in pure coincidence. What we call random or coincidental is generally just the word we assign to phenomena or effects that we can't find the cause for with our feeble human brains. It seems to me that everything operates according to very precise laws of nature, and follows a domino like course of cause and effect, however we do not have the operating system ( at least at this point in time ) to compute all the variables that would lead us to understand exactly why things happen the way they do. Randomness has never made sense to me, although a lot of things do seem random to me because I can't yet make sense of them. Hope this made sense

this is a beautifully shot and intimate peak into the life of real mountain hermits,that i am currently rewatching "Ten thousand things, All in this breath, Grasping hold of emptiness, There's really nothing to say..."

I came to this forum in a very similar predicament my friend. I think you've showed up to the right place to try and hash out some of the confusion you have. Our fellow bums are rather helpful and filled with insight, I have benefited immensely from joining. I came here after a very intense psychedelic experience in which I was not ready for, that you can compare with your own experience if you want to read my long winded intro post. I think a lot of people have joined this forum in very similar situations! It was really nice to engage with people who didn't think I was bonkers. I have had to learn to keep my mouth shut about these affairs with my family and friends, so it is very lovely that I get to share conversations here with people who pick up what I put down. Community is important, and as much as it pains me to admit sometimes... no man is an island Cheers to all the future discussions you're bound to take place in, and welcome home !! Your brother in Dao, Kyoji @vismundcygnus34

what was that jiddu krishnamurti said about it not being any sign of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society?

It's not that I disagree with what you have to say.. but I just feel telling people this from the get go generally doesn't help get them anywhere closer to REALizing this as much as it does help them conceptualize it... do we really need to give modern people another concept they have no experiential basis for ?

Ahaha, I could have, but I think I would be found out pretty quickly, some of my training partners are rather slick ! I'll just have to earn my stripes I guess, I reckon it is better this way And as for the picture attached, jiu jitsu rolling comes first, doobie rolling comes when I get home, after some grown ass men have been cranking my neck for a few hours !!!

that works too hehe thank you friend, enjoy your weekend.

If there is not a constant evolution , constant movement, it probably has nothing to do with daoism or following the razor edged path as far as I am concerned. The only constant is change. Better to fare the sea with skill,than wash up on an island because you never learned to swim, only to get eaten alive by savages. But whatever floats your boat This is not only relevant to me, but also of great value, thanks for sharing. I don't really have much to say, you just said it all it seems. Going to come back to this post a few more times and let it soak in. Thank you @steve Another great post all around. You outdid yourself, thank you kindly for the reply. Cleared up a few things for me

Being what I am is getting easier and easier, but finding an enlightened master is not all that easy in Southern Ontario I reckon!! Thankfully I peeled my ass off the couch years ago in search of something more, so I guess that is a good start. Thanks for the reply my friend. Thank you for your reply @ilumairen, From my personal experience, and my experiences with others, I think in most cases it is absolutely time to clean house... especially for millennials like myself. We are a dysfunctional bunch almost all the way around the board, and it takes years of work just to return to a normal baseline , before you can even start any serious work. So many of us grew up with no orientation whatsoever towards the big questions about this reality, and no framework for the mysteries of life... We grew up with TV's and Video games raising us, Nestle and Frito Lays feeding us.. A microwave quick and easy approach to just about everything in life, not a whole lot of eating the bitter. It becomes a little less polarized to a degree I suppose, but you have to become realized, right? Seems like splitting hairs for me personally, and I don't think it would change my approach to my practice all that much. Although for some it is probably a very important distinction so you aren't looking outside of yourself for what you will only find within. For me it is important to remember however, that you need to dig through your own proverbial dung heap in order to find your Self anyways, it is not enough for me to simply parrot things like I'm already perfect,when my life is in shambles and I am still neurotic.. It is a new age trap I simply won't allow myself to fall into. I'd rather shut up and do my work. Different strokes for different folks I suppose Not so very simple indeed... but more fulfilling work than any others i've undertaken. My practice mostly revolves around refining my body and clearing up physical blockages through different stretching and self massage techniques, and various martial arts. I know different schools in Daoism have differences of opinions on whether to work with the body first or the mind. Personally I think it is wisest to work with the crudest and most material aspects first and then work towards the formless. I am working slowly but surely on my sitting practice, but like most I imagine that is where I make the most excuses for myself and have not been the most consistent. I do find that great movement can certainly lead to profound stillness, so the more I move and move with quality, the easier time I have with my sitting. Especially when I am feeling loose and limber. I was a competitive athlete for years and had many of little aches and pains that naturally come with specializing in specific sports / physical practices and overdoing one particular thing.. and, As far as your last sentence goes i wholeheartedly agree. Everyones karmic load is different and unique, and although there are definitely similarities on the path for all, there will always be disparities in these karmic loads. There is also always disparity in who is doing more work, and work of a high quality, so naturally results will always vary. You only get what you're willing to give. Thanks for your thought felt reply. Better pack lightly, it's too long of a traversal to fare with baggage I just think that this emphasis on saying that "you're already complete" can hinder the progress of lazy people who would rather smoke pot all day, and live a neurotic and dysfunctional life and never do any work because they are all already perfect and shouldn't change a thing... I mean if this is your choice I can respect your right to choose even if I think the choice is downright sad, but these people will preach this your already perfect mumbo jumbo and not have a damn shred of experiential knowing. Does anybody else feel this way about such statements or is it just me? I don't think they are ultimately useful for most seekers. Also, to be clear, I am not implying in any way shape or form that you are just repeating some spiritual saying you read in a new agey book. I follow your posting often enough to know that you have most definitely have a practice and are a man of high degree. I just think some young hippies who have read an eckhart tolle book or two hear these kinds of lines (as true as they may be ) and eat it up as an excuse to stay in the rut they're in.. Thanks for your reply, my friend. I agree more so with this line of thinking, because I think it is a lot more useful to know that you've got your work cut out for you at the beginning. Of course at the end there might a great AHA moment, where you do have the experiential realization that you were always complete, but how many people who repeat these lines have actually attained anything at all? 1 in 100? 1000? 10000? It is all only potential until you find it within you. Short and sweet. I love it.

Bought myself a new kimono for BJJ I was only participating in NO-GI for a while, but want to get more classes in as I am just beginning Jiu-Jitsu, so I bought a GI so i can participate in those classes as well... I have caught a fever for which the only remedy is more rolling!

right in the feels.