Sherman Krebbs

My recommendation: Vegetarian + no sugary foods, except fruits (i.e. no candy, donuts, milkshakes etc.). You can eat as much as you want and you will lose weight (though you'll never really feel full). Plus you will feel great. Eat lots of plums/prunes and apricots, especially in the beginning, to keep your system in order.

Mine is a gopher -- I did not pick it. Happened across this quote yesterday: "Vajrayana Buddhism [...] has no future in the West because of deeply conditioned (genetic or cultural) assumptions about the nature of reality and because it entails a transmogrification of western social values and lifestyles, and an assimilation of rituals, practices and yogas too alien for anything resembling the original to eventuate." -Everything is Light (Forward), Keith Dowman I think I agree with this. Most will never be able to accept or understand it (and will probably object to the notion that it is something to be accepted and understood), and that is probably okay.

I though the Meditation Health book suggestion was good. To be clear, it was not Cleary's meditation instruction, and we dont know how many cigars he smoked per day, nor the volume of brandy he put in his morning coffee. It was just a sampling of treatises from actual doaist practitioners, with practical meditation instruction. The treatises themselves were written in modern language, which Cleary translated to plain English. It was not translation of an ancient text, so there is the benefit of not having to read between the lines and speculate as to what esoteric ancient metaphors (weird things like like the "slapping the dead goat of the king from the northern plateau") mean in modern language.

Its not necessary to prove all Buddhist wrong in order to affirm whatever it is you believe.

Are you saying that a non-dual philosophy is categorically invalid, or are you just questioning sterling's reasoning for believing/endorsing it, i.e. based on his own experience and his interaction with his meditation instructors? If the former, why and what philosophy do you believe has more merit?

it means you are one human bean. your thoughts and your body and your feelings are all part of one amazing thing--you. it means that you are supposed to keep acting like your five year old self, without worrying too much about it.

Deleting this.

mmm, look these Fava beans.... Oh jeeze mister... suppose I need to go get some coffee. Kids, quick...

You two fight like a married couple (questioning the usefulness of this back and forth for the rest of the shopping mall)

It sounds like people are mostly objecting to the somewhat nebulous term neigong, or maybe the teachers preaching it for profit, not necessarily any particular practice that might fall under that semantic umbrella. The talk about the north and south methods are interesting too. Also, I think you are right that understanding the true meaning of a text through a translation is really challenging. Its like translating Shakespeare to Chinese and expecting the latter to understand the full artistic scope of the source.

Not sure what he knows or does not (I for one am contented knowing very little), though I am interested in your perspective. What is it about the practice of neigong is so different from other practices? Sorry to be dense. My only exposure is watching a DVD from Jwing-Ming.

Thanks for the reference! I will check this out.

I've seen this type of comment a few times on this site. While the name neigong might be a marketing label, are the practices meaningless? Genuinely curious. Where should one who does not understand Chinese go to learn a more authentic practice?

And this, as opposed to a (hand over my heart) Granfalloon...

The only other book I have read of his is Slaughterhouse-Five, though I have been time travelling ever since. My tendency is to think that the latest book I have read is the best, provided that it is really good, and cat’s cradle is no exception. I could not stop laughing. Even now thinking of it, bubbles start to form in my esophagus. This poem stuck out to me. “Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly; Man got to sit and wonder 'why, why, why?' Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land; Man got to tell himself he understand.” There is definitely some profundity in his commentary. Will have to pick-up lonesome no more.