wudangquan

Just a random one off but I thought some bums might find these interesting. I recently began what is probably going to be a 7 year process of studying in Myanmar, mainly to learn Pali and Sanskrit, with an added benefit of some of what is supposed to be the best instruction available in Vipassana meditation. Because of security stuff, I can't clearly explain all details of the situation (which gets weirder by the minute) but I posted my most recent photos here: http://earthwaterfireair.com/2011/06/friday-night-photo-update/ Right now I am in the rain leeching off of some wifi from an internet cafe about 2 miles away from my dormitory, and will have to hop a 12 foot fence to get back in. Weirdest thing is that within the past 2 hours we have been hit with some kind of insect invasion of old testament proportion. They are kind of like love bugs that you see in Florida during the summmers, but much bigger and thee are so many of them - and they just came out of nowhere during the rain. I almost never have internet access so I probably won't check back in for a week or two. For anybody who might be interested in this kind of program, I'm in it for the long haul but honestly cannot recommend it. I've lived all over the world and this is the most difficult situation I've ever been in. If someone were to ask me, I'd recommend one of the English language programs in Thailand or even Hong Kong, which offers full cash scholarships to qualified students. Not that I'm complaining or anything, but - I'm only not leaving because I'm stubborn. Anyway there are some other photos from a few days earlier at the same place as well. There are some meditation centers here that are supposed to be very good, and some Sayadaws who are recognized as Arahants, but I can't really comment on that yet. Peace to the bums.

Hi, I've already published most of the translation work I've done in hard copy, and it will also be going online for free soon, but I was up last night and translated about 15 pages of jings that hadn't been translated before. If you want to download the pdf, you can grab it here: http://earthwaterfireair.com/2011/04/the-nino-brown-thanksgiving-turkey-give-away-revolutions-ii-1-free-pdf/

Hi, I got very burned out on forums and such after I moved from China back to South Korea, but I always enjoyed my time here and always thought there were some very cool people on this forum. I've been spending most of my time translating different jings that haven't been translated yet. I've done the Dragon Lotus Sutra and some others so far, which I've put up for free. Right now I'm working on a 130 page text from about 1200AD, and am about 1/5th finished with that. I'm putting all of that up for free at the first url in my sig. and hopefully will finish before I no longer have internet access. I've always been more or less drawn to translating banned/suppressed texts, so that is what I will probably focus on as a steam release for my oppositional disorder for a while. At the end of May I'm moving to Yangon, Myanmar for the next few years to train with someone there and learn Pali, and as I understand most of the city doesn't have electricity for most of the day, and I won't have any money for internet cafe's, etc. because of the US banking embargo against that country (the same status as North Korea and Iran). I wanted to wish everyone good luck with their cultivation and life, apologize before I left if I offended anyone (I wasn't really nice about one subject in particular and should have just focused on what I was doing and not what other people were doing) and welcome any bums who find themselves in South Asia to come and visit me in Yangon sometime. I'm also cleaning out all of my stuff that can't be maintained or that I don't want to maintain, and have a really nice domain at taoisttraining.com which I don't use, and would like to give to somebody who wants to document their own training or do research or whatever. You can email me at [email protected] and if anybody does the first reasonable person gets it. I also own wudangquan.com and will give that away for free to anybody who is doing something non-commercial which is related, or if it's commercial and looks like a helpful resource I'll go for that too. I also have strategicnonviolence.com and would LOVE to give that to somebody who would blog or create a good resource about that subject. Mainly just don't flip the domains, because I need the money and could do that myself. That's it. 再见, good luck and happy trails. I'm serious about anybody who ever wants to come hang out in YG, too. You don't have to worry about giving your money to the government - as long as you're mellow you can stay with me and I'll show you around to the best of my ability and show you what I'm working on. Even strangers. Just hit me up on facebook and I'll hopefully check that once a week or so.

Our guy Nick in Taipei has just released a new special report called Crossing The Rubicon that is DEFINITELY for Mind Warriors. However - it's not for the "good" people. Hippies. The Religious. Etc. It's free, no opt-in required - nothing. Check it out if you'd like: Crossing The Rubicon: TBT Level 1

Hi bums, I swore off all forums after my child died this year in an attempt to be more productive with the stuff that I really wanted to do, so I haven't kept up much . . . Anyway my birthday is Friday, and I am giving anybody that wants it 11 hours of Taoist audio/video for free. No strings attached. No backend trickery. No bs. If you want to go grab it, it's here: http://taoisttraining.com/foundation.html I've taken down everything from my blog in order to restructure it, and if you're already on my internal mailing list the notice of the free stuff should be sent out on Friday, China time. Hope you can get some benefits from it. Jonathan

Showing this one again . . . Just got back to Yunnan after a week in Hong Kong. Met some very cool people! http://www.taoisttraining.com . . . Some people found it boring. You might not. Will start posting again regularly here soon. I've been completely ignoring a lot of things after the miscarriage and trying to focus on personal cultivation, but feel inspired after coming back from Hong Kong.

Sorry I haven't been active here in a long time. Kind of miss y'all. You may have seen my blog post about why. Thanks to everybody who emailed me. Still going to take some time to recover from something so tragic. Anyway - In the spirit of living a life of tribute like I talked about on the blog, I wanted to give you guys this. http://wudangquan.com/xy2.mp4 . . . Xin Yu of sitting meditation. Uploading to server now. Should be live in 15 minutes or so. Hope you get some benefit from it Will be back posting and bothering people in a couple weeks I hope. Peace, Jonathan

I ran away from home at 15 not to come back. Got my ged some years later. Got B.S. in Psychology from a state school. Worked 1 heinous year in the county prosecutors office. Had what, clinically would probably be a psychotic breakdown. Got an an airplane to India. Been here in Asia for more or less all of my adult life. The only formal education or training I've had since was at Wat Po in Bankok for massage. Learned some martial arts, had some taoist teachers, study now in private classes with the daozhang at longquan (not leading to anything like becoming a priest - I just learn some simple things and I like to have someone to talk to ). Trying to get my Chinese better. Might take a formal class soon because I've hit a plateau at my low level. Don't know much and am not particularly good at anything . . .

They'll be making Immortal Jellyfish soup here in China soon enough . . . !

When I was in India I lived in a hotel for 3 years that a lot of Osho sanyassins stayed in, and got to know many of them pretty well. Sad to say, they were some of the most spiritually messed up people I've ever met.

Happy new years to all of the bums! Here's hoping for your great success in cultivation, being diligent in eliminating your attachments and acquiring massive amounts of De this coming year! I am going to put up a new years video, but it's night time here in China and want to wait until it's light to do it (I ramble better in the day, too!). Seriously - best wishes to each and every one of you. Jonathan

Everybody is talking about this like it's a historical footnote, and not (albeit on a lesser scale) still going on . . . Nobody who's very good is teaching in public. The stuff that anybody can get access to is a joke at best, and at worst leads you down a road that's pretty far away from the Tao (IMHO). Anybody who thinks that the stuff that's being taught commercially is taught by cultivators and not circus monkeys is seriously deluded. Real cultivators are still being tortured and killed by the truckload, but nobody cares because they aren't cultivating within a context where people can set up shop, create a downline, make money, or run sketchy mind control ops on people. The real trouble is . . . That the most developed people are still in China, but almost nobody has access to them, and the guys who go out to the west on commercial teaching are usually the lowest of the low on the dog and pony show totem pole . . . But take comfort in the fact that there are still a million people ready to give you that wall mountable certificate. Perfect for display in your home or office. Also agree and co-sign with thelerner . . . Most masters themselves have a warped or inverted view of what "mastery" is . . . The part of me that likes to get into mischief wants to poke people with sticks and see how far down the "my sifu is radder than your sifu" or "I gots the real mojo and you don't" rabbit hole the bums will go and then make a bigger point about cultivation, but . . . I already know what will happen so I won't. Anyway the good stuff is not impossible to find in China or elsewhere. You just have to look for "good" stuff and be able to differentiate between small diamonds and tons of coal. Hope I can get better at that myself.

The vast majority of people "interested" in Taoism are idiots, insane, or insane idiots . . . My god. If it weren't such bad form to post private emails . . . I'm so glad I'm not 15 years younger so I don't have to track people down and beat them on youtube . . .

edit. sorry.