wudangquan

No ideas on names yet, but def. not wudang. haha

Thanks . . . As I mentioned before, my own dad was seriously religous. . . Worried about "the end times" and the anti-christ and all that. I once asked him if he had to choose between me and Jesus what he would do, and he told me. I'm pretty dedicated to my own cultivation, so I hope I can find the right balance between the duty I have and the duty I'm about to get . . .

Mass murder of cultivators since 99? Imposed deformation of the Dharma for 50 years? I have said before that I am not FG, but I will say in public that the leadership and all complicit parties and those who aren't on the side of truth on this issue have an unbearable load of karmic retribution coming for what they have done to those great people. I don't wish for it, though. I live here and don't want trouble as well, but . . . When it rains it's going to pour. Hopefully it will bring about some improvements in the long run, though . . .

Hey Lin, Got the email on this a few days ago but hadn't had a chance to reply and congratulate you and wish you great success. Take care, Jonathan

Or someone else I know predicted that they will become a "100 year old child"!

This thing which Mak is talking about is called a Gumen Thong, and they are very real. During the years I lived in Thailand my girlfriend had one. They feed them fanta or shasta or nasty sugary cola's, give them a lot of sweets, and so on. The problem comes because the baby spirit believes that the owner is it's mother (or father maybe), and does some things to protect them. However, the baby spirit becomes insanely jealous of anyone else that it's mother "loves" or is around frequently and causes as many problems for those people as possible.\ This is one particular issue of Mak's which I would generally co-sign or validate to be true. In my case I used "one righteous mind subdues a thousand evils" and not FU, but you need to do something to clear these kinds of messes up for sure. I forgot to add that there was (is) a very famous baby griller in Thailand named NanAe who is a defrocked monk. I can't find any links to him, but I know there were some news stories at one point on him, as he claimed to have grilled maybe 10,000 babies or so. He would get arrested, and then get out quickly because so many of his clients are Thai Hi-So or Thai government people!

Old folks have naturally worn away most of their attachments, as well . . . I think it's much easier for them to progress much more quickly. The problem is - time. Quanzhen "scriptures" tell us that as long as a person has even a fraction of a percent of their original nature left, it's not POSSIBLE for them to die. So for old folks, the issue is like burning a candle at both ends. Actually that's not a good metaphor but I can't think of one now . . . They naturally give up and wear away their attachments with old age, but they also have already lost or lost access too most of their own primordial nature. The ideal thing (IMHO) is to get rid of conditioned attachments when you're as young as possible.

Best wishes for more success in your cultivation this year, Tao Bums!

Or the Chinese, before they started making Western toilets! Do you think there's a direct correlation between the use of toilets and China's economic development? Just kidding of course, and no racism or disrespect intended. Out of curiosity, if the goal is to be Zhen Ren, then . . . Toilets are a product of modern materialist society and conditioning, or no . . . ? (actually this is a silly thing to talk about, but some un-cultivated part of me is curious where you will go with this! hehe)

I'm not sure this is correct . . . or I should say I'm not sure this is a correct understanding. I think it may just be that a young man has relatively more jing which can be transformed. However, I'm personally of the opinion that jing =/= semen, as it's commonly understood. I think it's more of a potential energy that generally gets channeled into sexual desire (and if you think about the obsessive amounts of time and energy that are put into that particular one, it's not insubstantial). Taoism, generally seems to focus on transformation, and it could be that the opportunity for transforming the jing into qi into shen is just greater in youth. It seems like a pity to me to waste that chance on masturbation and meaningless sex. Anyway I'm not saying it's definitely this way, it's just what I, personally believe on the issue. Back to the original question: I just try to see things in terms of loss and gain. Every time that I must be tested, every time that I face suffering, etc. I remind myself of why I'm cultivating, for whom I'm cultivating, think about what responsibility I have and to whom, and then ye old jacky rag or random women I am not in love with are less appealling. For me it's been a gradual process, and it does get easier but you just have to prioritize and view things from a broader perspective of loss and gain. .02 (all "in my opinion", "I feel", etc. caveats apply)

Well, those weren't Jay Chow lyrics . . . Happy new years tao bums. j

Hey everybody, I have a bunch of audio/video/etc. that I want to start making available to people, but I don't really have a way to pay for much more bandwidth (transferring money from China to my bank account in america is not worth the expense so I'm always a few days from having my sites shut down . . .) Go over and join the group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=46650725740 I've put up a special download link in there to a TON of Taoist audio (Quanzhen texts) that I've put up for you to download. Also, go ahead and add me as a friend on there if you like. I'm going to start using facebook much more than myspace because it's easier to wade through fewer fake profiles, porn profiles, etc. that I don't want to deal with, and I want a nice place where I can put up the stuff that I make to give away without having to pay for it. Best Regards, Jonathan

I think that the best way to describe it is that you're cultivating slightly different things, to become somewhat different things . . . A Tao just does different things than a Buddha. Just a different function, or role I guess.

I'll break my food addiction (over eating and mis-eating I mean). I'll diligently try to overcome lust. I'll try to take some private teaching classes so that I'm not always out of money. I'll do my best to go back to America for the first time in almost 10 years and see my family, especially my sisters children and try to be a positive influence on all of them, and learn as many valuable things from them as possible. I'll do better about getting angry with Chinese people here in China.

Mr. Mak, Respectfully I would ask you to think about a simple question: "What else could it mean?" It may be that some people here have some issue with you and in fact, do want to censor your speech, or that they may have their own agendas, and so on. It could also be that there is a difference between controlling someones speech, and asking a person who is shouting in your ear for a hundred hours to excercise a bit of restraint, and to please quiet down a bit. I'm not saying that the situation is this or that, but only suggesting that it might be something else besides what it initially seems to be and there may be other reasons involved. Neither am I telling you what you should or shouldn't do regarding how, what or how frequently you post here, becuase it's not my business. I just want to say that I like to read your stuff, and many other people have said they do as well, but also many people have said that the frequency is a burden for them, and that you could satisfy those people who are genuinely interested and satisfy those who feel burdened by the amount of information at the same time, rather than falling into a linear "this and that" trap. This is that and that is this if you let it be. Your friend, Jonathan

Hi everyone, I just want to ask a simple question. Whose judgement here on TTB do you more or less trust? I know it's a wierd question. I'm making the neigong program available, because I think it will benefit people, and I want to do something for the teacher. I'm personally not making any money off of it. As I mentioned I'm giving a 50% commission for referrals because I'm interested in getting the right people to learn it, and the remaining % of anything is not for me (I work and have a job just like most people here), and I'm just spending a little bit of my own money to put it out for people, and I've spent hundreds of hours (no joke) translating material. I think - that by the standards of most of the stuff that's available today, that what we're going to present something very unique and special, and it's comprehensive in a way that almost nothing I've seen in public is. That said - I am not someone who is interested in creating hype or playing wierd marketing games with people. I won't ever say it's the best, or better than this or that - I'll just say that it's legit and it's the real deal and leave it at that. What I would like is to let maybe 5 people from ttb review it for free. Here's what those people need to give me to get the free review copy: 1. A FAST internet connection. This will be gobs of multi-media, including high definition video. Hours worth. 2. A willingness to really go through the material. The book alone is going to be a couple hundred pages and you really need to read it all. 3. Provide a photo 4. Provide a link to your website (if you have one) 5. Provide your real name or title So that's it. What I would like to do is get something like suggestions or nominations, but I don't think it's polite to do it in public. So if you're reading this and there's someone who you trust to make an impartial judgement on these types of matters, please send me a private message letting me know so I can ask them about it. Thanks J P.S. Of course I'm going to ask Sean, and I'd give it to him for free anyhow for hosting the place where I spend the greatest amount of my unproductive time in life . . .

The more you charge for something the higher the perceived value is. The inverse is also true, unfortunately. Most people probably do need good instruction to succeed in Taoist cultivation, but you can get to pretty high levels with what's freely available, or available for almost no money. I would even say that if you're diligent and really doing the right things - Some masters will find YOU. . . The problem is - if you tell people the clear truth and give it to them for free - Most of them won't really believe you, and the truth is exactly the opposite of what most people "interested" in Taoism want to hear. What people want to do is use "empty force" on people, and have sex with a brazillion women, and satisfy their own conditioned nature. What they need to do if they want to succeed is step out of humanness. It's like something I mentioned off hand about full lotus sitting. People struggle with it and struggle with it, and then one day you do it and you realize you could have done it all along, and that it was only your human notions which prevented you in the first place. It requires complete committment to the things that normal people don't care about, and complete not caring about the things that normal people are committed to. Most people don't want to hear that though. It's a little bit discouraging, because I would like to share some of the things I have learned or been taught, but I know that unless I hype it up to a ridiculous extreme, prey upon peoples human weaknesses and desire for temporal power, create false scarcity and charge a ridiculous amount - nobody will care much. It's to bad.

I did some studying at Confucian temples in Korea, and basically agree. I'm not sure of the history involved, or whether they actually derived from the same practices in the human world, but . . . Ultimately I think that Confucianism is definitely a part of Taoism, and . . . Taoism seeks to return to truth, while buddhism seeks to destroy illusion. It's just like two sides of the same coin, I think.

My favorite phrase . . . "What else could it mean?" . . . This kind of reminds me of the thing with Lijiong a few months ago . . . Probably it's a good opportunity to improve your own xinxing. I always find that when I have the same or similar problems that come up again and again - it's because I didn't learn my lesson well the first time, and so have to be tested again until I get it right. The big waves wash away the sand. What remains in the end is pure gold. If you have to be annoyed, it's better to be annoyed at the sand than at the waves.

Funny you should post that . . . Last night I was lying down and thinking about 1mp or 1ma and have also been thinking about this analogy with the voice and the echo recently, too . . . And then I caught it with the human mind . . . . Mysterious pass is the space between the voice and the echo. Between the part that's already cultivated over to the other side and the part that hasn't. Like software. Or middleware. ............................................................... I think that the physiological aspects of eating or not eating meat are not so important, but the fundamental issue is the attachment to meat. Attachments create resistance and resistance lowers the flow of energy. It's just that, generally the attachment to meat is quite strong with most people. Not as strong as lust, but not so easy to eliminate, either. I believe if you stop eating meat all together, but still crave it - that also won't do. ................................................................ For the discussion between Man Tak Si and Vajrasattva (sp?) - It's not my business so I don't want to get involved. However I have been curious about something for a while and wanted to (respectfully, not confrontationally) ask Vajra about it . . . Regarding training in so many systems - what do you feel is the benefit of that? I believe that each system of cultivation has it's own mechanisms, and to go "swapping parts" from this or that system only leads to the ultimate failure of the machine. Hope you understand - I'm asking you to clarify why you believe this is not so - for my own understanding not to say that you are doing the wrong things. Regards, J

Dz (I should probably take this to PM but it's ok to talk openly I think), Actually, since I know of you, but don't know you yet I asked the question to kind of diplomatically gauge your take on those things. - And we're both on the same page as far as the particular issue goes, I think. I'm actually not in Shiyan at the moment - I came back down to Kunming for a bit because my main teacher is at Longquan so I need to see him, and my SJ teacher is here as well (and happens to be my gf's father, so seeing her is a motivation as well!). I know that we talked a few times by email a year or two ago . . . I'm personally not really interested in Martial arts, much . . . I do SJ because it's fun, but . . . There's nobody for me to fight except myself. Triumph of the voice over the echo and all that. . . I should be back up there after the new year, and definitely want to look you up because it seems like we are interested in similar things. As for Bi - I think he's a great guy, and the project is basically benefitting his wife, so he can do some other things with his remaining time, and so I wanted to manage it to establish or strengthen a karmic relationship with him in the future. If you get down south in the next few weeks or so drop me a line and I will take you around Longquan and introduce you to my main teacher and show you around Yunnan and some good caves and hot springs I know (and marijuana mountain!). J

Hi DZ, Don't all of the 15G San Feng Pai guys eat meat? or most of them?

I can show you a video I took at Longquan Temple in Kunming of a stone monument of where Zhang San Feng killed and stewed a dog for the monks at that temple to eat. Agree with above about the quanzhen, though . . .

To merge the flesh with the light. To go down in pursuit of the falling part of the cosmos. And return to Chaos.