wudangquan

There are a bunch of them but I don't have specific experience with this so wouldn't want to suggest one. I think just stay away from the places that are run through tour groups or Buddhist "businesses" in the West which charge a bunch of money. If I were going to do it I would just ruck up in Bangkok or Chang Mai. In all of the tourist areas you can find advertisements for forest retreats that are done as mission work. If you go around the big Wats around KSR you can find the place to attend the Buddhist Sunday School that the king patronizes which are held in English. If you're just going to do it for 3 weeks - You can do that on a tourist visa. Why not just go into the forest by yourself for a bit? I think (although I don't know) that at those forest retreats all they do is have you meditate all day and feed you a bowl of noodles in the morning. Up country you can find all the peace you want. Up in Roi-et there was a very small temple with maybe 6 or 8 monks and they were always trying to crop me in. Seriously though . . . If you're going for 3 weeks, and aren't looking for specific instruction - I'de pack a bag and just get on a plane, take a bus to Inthanon national park or something and just parlay with the forest for a few weeks. Oh conversely - The temple that John Rambo was building in Rambo 3 was the one at Inthanon I believe. It's an incredible place. EDIT::::::: Search for this: เขาน้ำย้อย The romanized spelling should be something like Koa Num Yooil but I'm not to sure about that. Some photos of inthanon I lived there for years and am basically fluent so if you need any help with logistic stuff or how to say certain things you might need to say - just shoot me a pm.

I think you have to make sure you're right and the reasons you're doing what you're doing are right, and then you'll basically be ok. I am not involved with energetic healing, because . . . you know. I think there are karmic issues involved that you can't casually interupt. That being said, there are definitely people who are developed enough to do it (probably 1% of the people who are? haha) - I'm just not one of them. I like this phrase to explain it, and why a lot of the protection rituals, etc. are not really the answer: "One upright mind can put down a thousand evils" If this kind of work is coming from a position of pure benevelonce, and from someone with legitimate attainment - it's no problem I think. But how many people can say that they are doing this from a purely benevolent position? Have they really examined themselves? Are they sure it's not for fame, or reputation, or some other personal gain?

Hi everyone, As I mentioned (or maybe didn't) I'm about finished here in Wudang/Shiyan and am going to go back to Kunming in a few weeks. Before I leave I'm going to film some video on internal martial arts, Taoist cultivation, neijia/neigong/neidan, etc. Mostly it will be in the form of the priest that I know presenting the material, and maybe me translating. So here's the thing. If you could sit down and ask any question related to Taoism, IMA, Cultivation, Alchemy, Sorcery (and there is plenty here), etc. of a (non-commercial) priest who (IMO) understands things at a pretty high level, what would your questions be? It can be yes/no. It can be be "tell me how . . . " It can even be "Show me how" with physical demonstrations, etc. Please post them here. I'll choose some to use if I can.

Awesome. Will be recording video on Monday. These questions that y'all have posted though - I'll leak all of those out on my site in videos for free, plus a ton of other free stuff. In 4-6 months or so after people have had time to digest this project I am going to present some material from Lai Shengling ( http://www.geocities.com/qgmaster/ ) on medical qigong because I know a lot of people are interested in that. He is seriously the most awesome person I've ever seen as far as physically manifesting energy goes. I've not met Mr. Chang, but I would guess that Dr. Lai is up there . . . And similarly humble and has a real job instead of charging crazy amounts for healing. I also like his "message" and am fundamentally in agreement with what he says about these issues whereas I'm not with most people. For me, personally - I'm not interested in Kung Fu (although I would say I'm an ok martial artist) or healing, or any of these kinds of things. I just want to get unplugged. I am also not qualified to teach anybody anything and am just struggling with my own cultivation and towards my own attainment but if I can spend some effort to push people more towards cultivating their hearts and mind and less towards gaining temporal power (cuz that's what 90% of the public material really boils down to) hopefully I can gain some merit and maybe one of y'all is going to be the next great being that I can establish a karmic relationship with. That's the thing I was going to say about the Bodhri letter . . . I think a true cultivator understands that real teaching is more valuable than money and doesn't mind to spend it. I know I don't. But I also think a true teacher (an imho not a self reference) sees beyond temporal and temporary gains and tries to establish their own mighty virtue, as well. If you've got what you need, what more do you need? And to say that it takes a fleet of cars, or that a person who actually has the ability to succeed in cultivation can't do that while working at a normal job and paying their own bills - I think this kind of preys on Western romanticism of Taoism and Buddhism as well and is really not the case. J

Most of those concessions that were made by power to the American people were the result of a generation who had lived through the great depression . . . Returning home after years of combat experience, owning firearms and basically the wrong people to F_ with. These same fat cats were gunning down organized labor just a few years before. It had not much to do with who was in political power, but communist empires to one side, radical American labor to another, and a bunch of armed combat vets in the middle who wanted a good life for their families and who had seen enough. All that car in every drive way and a chicken in every pot leave it to beaver business was a concession by capital to protect it's neck. And they balanced the equation in the so called "third world" - our gain (I say our like I've paid them any taxes in 10 years) was the loss of many other places in the world. But somebody's got to lose and somebody's got to win, or we've all got to stay stagnant. Times are different now, though. And really - I always try to be polite and all of that, but really - This is some worldy BS. Human society is just human society. Pearls and fish eyes are mixed together. Every action has an equal or greater reaction, and the equation of good and bad, happiness and suffering, loss and gain balance themselves out naturally. Can't understand why people who say they are cultivating get consumed and caught up in this ignorance.

Does anyone else think like me - that the human misery index is basically fixed and static? Improve this and that becomes bad. Fix the air and the water goes off. Improve trade and unskilled labor gets unemployed. Give people a microwave oven and they develop some sort of post-modern angst. etc. We live in a society of humans, not gods and bad things are necessarily part of that. I don't think anybody is changing anything much, or for long.

Hi, Recently I have been seriously thinking again about going back to Myanmar for a couple of years. I was accepted by the Therevada university in Yangon, and have gone through the beurocratic stuff with their embassy while I was living in Korea and that's still an option for me and can be fed and housed while I study. The main thing I am interested in is access to a specific meditation master there - the likes of which I haven't found anywhere else. But there are a couple of other things I'm interested in too. Does anyone know, have experience with, or can anyone point me towards more resources on: Min Zin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Min_Zin or Pongyi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pongyi_thaing (I'm not interested much in Maung Gyi's stuff though) My basic orientation is to work on cultivating life and cultivating essence, so if I can be fed and eat for free and learn some things that I want to learn - I'm game to stay in Myanmar for a few years. I'm also not attached to the word Taoism, much. For me - this is the thing that matters. Cultivating life and essence. I shied away from Buddhism (although have the upmost respect for it) because I wanted a more integrated practice but the Min Zin/Pongyi stuff looks good. Getting more formal education seems good. Having access to the greatest meditation master I've ever met seems good. Would like to do some more research first, though.

Hi, I must have been incoherently babbling again . . . What I meant specically is going to work on a degree here: http://www.itbmu.org.mm/ The university is on grounds of the Tooth relic Pagoda, and i took and passed the entrance exam (anyone who read a wikipedia article would have) as well as the interview with the Consul general or ambassador or whatever for Myanmar in South Korea a couple of years ago. So that's no problem. I can attend, and live for free and be fed (not for free - I'm kind of of the opinion that you have to meditate/study/cultivate well and that only a thief would relax on pindabaht) . . . I'm just also interested in finding some sources on these other practices - Min Zin and PongYi as well. Thanks Jonathan

Thanks for those so far. Would like to get as extensive of a list as possible. I have my own ideas about what I'm going to ask specifically on camera, and how the answers might lead to tangent questions but know that I will either forget or not think of some important things so I would like to build a big list. I'll probably film movement and posture for a day (and then edit it with overlayed narration) and maybe try and capture at least several hours of questions and answers. I am not going to be recording one of the commercial wushu monks, but rather a quite older gentleman who doesn't do any public teaching, but - who I felt some resonance and congruity with and who I feel has a pretty high level of understanding and some genuine attainment. He also is quite knowledgeable about some of the old pre modern era Wudang magic, like the rain making magic, and so on. If anyone thinks of more please post them here. My Chinese is ok but not great and I may need to look up some words (especially religious/cultivation related words that may be out of general circulation) ahead of time if I don't know them.

Hi Apech, Respectfully, I couldn't disagree more. Lust is a desire for and leads to the pursuit of gross phenominalogical experience and material delusion. Lao Zi said: Free from desire, you realize the mystery. Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations. To transform the effect is not enough (I believe). You have to eliminate the causality of material delusion. He also said: Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt. Chase after money and security and your heart will never unclench. Care about people's approval and you will be their prisoner. Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity. I believe that this fill your bowl and that sharpening your knife are directly applicable to semen retention. How do you eliminate lust by encouraging lustfullness? By transforming the secondary manifestations? I believe in the end you dull your blade and loose MUCH, MUCH more Jing than you ever conserved. Similarly, I don't believe that Taoism uses mutual male/female cultivation as we are all in posession of both yin and yang elements (I bring this up because some famous teachers encourage this): Ordinary men hate solitude. But the Master makes use of it, embracing his aloneness, realizing he is one with the whole universe. I apologize if I misunderstood what you were meaning, Apech. I'm often mistaken. In general I believe that these practices initially lead to frustration, and eventually can take you no where but towards more sorrow and suffering. My belief and underestanding is that it's necessary to eliminate the root of the problem (conditioned desire and material attachments) and that dealing with the secondary or tertiary manifestations doesn't in fact deal with the core issue. This is why (as I understand it) it takes so long for people to reach enlightenment or even higher levels in their cultivation. The work and work and work for years to develop potential, but never eliminate their constraints. Then, after years and years have gone by and they find themselves old, exhausted, and time has naturallly worn away their attachments - Bam! it happens. But by addressing the funadmental causes of suffering head on and in an upright way we are able to ascend in a more direct and efficient way. For me - I have these scant few years in this life. Better to be diligent and do my best to step out of humanness than to compare myself with the achievements of others, or pruning back the branches of untruth rather than taking an axe to the roots. All that said - I am not so sucessful. I am still lost in the same untruth as everybody else but my feelings on this issue - it's something I want to share with other people since not many other people are talking this way.

I also wanted to mention my opinion on literally "Transcending" rather than managing lust or any other human attachments . . . For me, this goes back to the states vs. levels discussion. You have to be diligent about pulling yourself out of a "state" of lust whenever you feel it beginning to arise. The more you are in and the more you have access to a state (lust free"ness" or selfish free"ness") the easier it is to reach that "level", wherein it's just natural and doesn't require any work. First it's Yang then it's Yin.

This is what I don't understand about the Tao Bums and it's relation to Taoism . . . Should we or should we not transcend lust? The key issue is not whether or not lust is a natural human condition, but whether or not conditioned human existence is a natural, true or original condition. Part of the problem is that people are lazy and want to remain human. Part of the problem is that very low level people are teaching in public who haven't even attempted to address the true refinement of their own essence and life so that they don't really know what they're talking about. Neither do they have an even medium level understanding of what alchemy "is". Part of the problem is that Taoist cultivation has been "materialized" to the point where it's not even cultivation on any sort of level. . . . It's a pitiful state of affairs, I think. I should mention that I have NOT transcended lust. I have gotten to a point where I can manage it, and feel like I am able to do that very well, but have not completely assimilated that part of myself to the Tao. This is where Yin and Yang really come into play in my own cultivation. I have to be aggressive in eliminating the conditioned parts of myself, and aggressive with cultivating life, but the moments when I am "in" my true essence, it's time to be yin and preserve that. For me it's not about my jism, my saliva, or anything like that much. How could Semen help me become enlightened? It's conditioned material just like dirt. It can't. The Jing that I try to preserve is something different. How do you transcend lust? You diligently put it down. When you feel it arising, you diligently stop it. For me I use a certain mudra set and a Taoist mantra that my teacher gave me. I also try to realize that lust is a constraint on my enlightenment and development. I just try to be conscious about what it does to me. Speaking of which, I want to point to an article I wrote a while ago on something nearly similar to this subject: http://taoisttraining.com/taoism/Taoist-Te...onstraints.html IMHO, all of the qigong or this and that technique in teh world won't make much difference if you don't address your fundamental conditioned, human attachments. CAVEAT: Please understand that I am speaking only from my experience and beliefs, and about my own specific situation and not anyone elses. Maybe it benefits you greatly to sit around masturbating all day. For me, it doesn't.

There was definitely a historical Jesus. Whether the religious/spiritual stuff that's attributed to him is true or not is a matter of subjective faith. However, he definitely existed. The Roman/Jewish historian Josephus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus) who was a contemporary within 50 years documented him, and he was not Christian (at all). I'm personally not a fan of modern/post-modern Christianity (at all, and for personal more than ideological reasons) and to question his 'divinity' is reasonable, but to question his existence in uninformed.

The thing about drugs helping to develop the human mind - The first or maybe the most famous proponent of that was Terrence Mckenna, with his "stoned ape theory". . . Basically he thought that the high point of human development was during the high paleolithic when we were eating mushrooms and other entheogens, and that there's this constant desire to return to that state. MPWay- I'm not saying that DMT or other things don't provide valuable insight or awareness. They do, and I've used them for that purpose. Alot of the long term cave meditations and such trigger dmt or psuedo dmt experiences and that definitely has provided a lot of value to some peoples cultivation. Have you smoked or otherwise used dmt before? The big problem is that 10 minutes after you come down, you can't remember most of what you experienced. And you can go out of your body. And after you cross the threshold (if you've done it you know it haha) you can meet other beings, and it's not like lsd or mushrooms at all. But - I think it can only be a good gateway to real cultivation, or maybe augment cultivation very rarely. There's not a drug in the world that will allow your yang shen to permanently or consistenly leave your body. That stuff wont' raise your gong column, and it's ultimately just a state that you can experience. Although it has some benefits, for most people to be able to reach higher levels (rather than states) requires some work and serious de-conditioning. I mentioned the thing about semen retention related to entheogens that I experienced. The first time I smoked DMT I also understood the following lines at a much, much higher level (than I had before): The Tao can't be perceived. Smaller than an electron, it contains uncountable galaxies. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power. Because he has given up helping, he is people's greatest help. True words seem paradoxical. I had some conversations with Lin about something like this a week or two ago, on the issue of qigong or energetic healing. I think he and I probably differ on the issue, but I respect his beliefs and acknowledge my own lowness in understanding of . . . anything. Basically my belief is that if your body represents a universe in and of itself, and is part of a larger universe outside of itself, that effort and energy should be spent to correct, rectify, zheng or whatever the environment and the innumerable beings within, and that true compassion starts there, rather than with doing other things (although if someone has such high attainment status that they can balance these well I see no issue). So I think it has some import . . . To be honest these things have affected significant changes to my own cultivation. They have value, and can be like a map sometimes. But the map is not the territory. (as always - IMHO) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54BASgxINVg

I agree, more or less. The unfortunate part is that most people can't get over here to China, where you can learn a good deal of this stuff for free or at a pretty low cost. I haven't personally paid anyone. Not to say like "I'm so great" or something like that because I don't mean that. I've been trying to put up audio forms of as much of the QuanZhen teachings as I have time for on my site. I had hoped to do alot of free stuff here at Wudang for people in the public, but other than my own teacher nobody is interested and really - those guys are business men, mostly. I'm going back to Kunming next month. One of the people I learned some medical qigong from is this guy: http://www.geocities.com/qgmaster/ and I will host a monthly video training from him for free. I'm also going to do a project with my main teacher (priest) to do monthly video trainings, etc. We'll try to cover martial arts, meditation, qigong, ceremony and ritual, etc. I might charge a bit but it will be for building renovation and things like that, and will be well cheaper than $20 a month. I myself don't feel qualified to teach, but I know some very good teachers with very high morality who aren't as famous as others because they just do what they do. What I would like to do is expose people to some ideas of Taoism or cultivation in general which I think are much different than the commercially driven variants (and I'm a high contrarian on most of this stuff. My view of what cultivation "is" differs significantly from most of this forum I am guessing - doesn't mean I'm right, just would like to expose people to some other way of thinking). Would also like to do something to create some infrastructure for people who are working towards their own attainment, and maybe be able to bring someone down to the appalachians or something.

Yeah . . . After re-reading I want to say that I don't think hallucinogenics can take you that far. Not far at all really, and a lot of the experiences can just be reflections of your own conditioned mind, especially for people doing things recreationally or whatever. I first started experimenting with this stuff when I was about 13 or so. The only thing that it led me to is realizing that I needed to meditate, which led me to realize that if I want superhuman experience, knowledge, etc. that I need to step away from humanness. The thing about states vs. levels is a big deal, imho. That's why I don't think any chemicals will do much in the long run. That's why I don't think anyone can download their kung fu program into you like in the matrix. Enlightenment is a non-transferable currency.

Anyone else seen "The Man From Earth"? Someone who's here for the world wushu festival brought it and I borrowed it and watched it on my laptop last night. It's a pretty interesting movie (and since I never watch any they're all somewhat interesting to me haha). The plot line centers around immortality, religion, etc. It all basically takes place in one room, and is a discussion between a group of colleagues. The movies that it reminded me of were: The Highlander My dinner with Andre I don't want to do a spoiler since people may or may not have seen this, but overall I think it's a very good film, and was really worth the hour and a half that I invested in it, as far as entertainment goes.

You can go to your local flower and garden shop and buy San Pedro cactus and extract the mescaline from that. It's definitely illegal to possess or ingest the extract, but the plant is sold right in the open, and that's what most people are using it for, probably. I am pretty sure you can still legally mail order or grow Salvia in most Western countries, as well. Or you can buy a grow kit for mushrooms (the psilocybe cubensi variety, not the anamita muscara). All of that pales in comparison to dmt, though IMHO. You can extract it from many different types of plants with a pretty simple set up, although I've never tried it. There's a lab in Wuhan (6 hours by train from here) that sells the straight dmt crystals. The white ones, not the yellow ones. I don't do it often, but I've done it with 2 different priests here. This stuff can pretty easily become a crutch though, or it can become a catalyst to develop new attachments in my own experience. Like people say . . . States can be induced but levels have to be earned. Higher state access and exposure does help catalyze some things though and the longer you're in those states the easier it is to achieve them through real cultivation. It probably goes without saying that none of this stuff is for recreational/party use. I've done DMT 6 times in my life. Did an entire summer on mushrooms in Florida when I found a good cow field at around 19 years old. Dropped acid the first time in middle school after reading a bunch of books about it. My intention was to experience more open states of awareness, rather than "get f'd up" though. I sat in the public library from open til close and being surrounded by all of those books, and knowledge, and information - It was a real Charlie Gordon experience. But I'm not advocating widespread use of those things, or use often. Most people aren't ready to use them right, and very few people will probably "get" what they could from it. An example for me (Caveat: For me, not for you or for anyone else and I'm not saying it's this way for anyone but me) was eating a load of mushrooms I found in Stone Forest in Yunnan. And realizing that semen retention wasn't doing me any good. Or not much good, as I still had lust. (for me) the physical, gross, conditioined jism isn't what's turned into energy, but it's that (conditioned) attachments to lust are an inhibitor or a constraint on natural energy. Eliminating lust has been much more difficult than retaining baby batter, for me.

It's freezing here in Shiyan, and I miss India! Happy Diwali everyone!

Hi, A bunch of people have emailed me about opening forums up (they're closed to everyone but me haha) on taoisttrainng . . . The thing is - I don't want to. It seems like a headache, and something I don't want to deal with. What I would like to do is make a resource of other Taoist forums which are already active, with some info about their characteristics, general feeling, etc. Can you guys help me out with this? Obviously ttb will probably be at the top of the list, but what other forums are there? What do they "focus" on? What's the atmosphere like, etc.? Thanks

I'll probably be asking for Amazon gift cards for christmas (although stuff from amazon is unlikely to be delivered, but . . .) and this was something I was thinking about picking up after someone mentioned it a while ago. Can anyone who has it tell me if it's different from the Damo qigong? The Muscle/Tendon Marrow/Brain stuff? Thanks Jonathan

(I believe) part of the problem is that people assume that any energy is good energy, when it's not necessarily that way. I am not talking about the specific case here that we are discussing, but just a generalization. Qi is just qi. Animals, trees, monkeys and worms have it. It's everywhere. It's also conditioned energy though and it's not the same as cultivation energy which is transformed from something else and is open and unconditioned (caveat: IMHE). At the level of Qi - other things can manifest similar effects. Like if it's dense enough, very dense other types of energies can be transmitted that will have positive seeming manifestations, although they are negative types of energy. It's just that they are dense enough to have this effect. It's not many people, especially people who are beginners or who don't have much attainment who can distinguish the difference between Qi, De, Karma, Gong, and all types of other energies. Also, in my (PERSONAL) experience, true masters and those with genuinely high attainment status can correct the problems around them without using conditioned intent. It just happens. That doesn't mean that they won't - whatever . . . Blast open your tianmu or something to see this or that but in general (I believe) that the principle is that you have to cultivate the actual cultivation energy yourself. Qi is a different situation because it's just a normal thing at the human level. The thing I am curious about is why people assume that because they feel energy it's necessarily "good" energy? And I am not trying to get into any good/evil arguments here - I'm talking about the difference between whats beneficial and harmful. Eating a cucumber and licking an un-insulated power line . . .

I guess he's the one who emailed me and asked if I was a jew after I posted the new free book on my site. I asked him why, and he said he didn't want anything to do with jews, and I (had previously told him) that I'm Ukranian/German as far as I know, which he deemed 2 great aryan countries. I think it's wierd and can't really understand why someone who's interested in Taoism would be worried about something like that, but - whatever . . . The sad thing I think is that many Chinese people would probably AGREE with him. haha I don't know how many people I've met here (and ESPECIALLY in Korea) who believe that the you know who's are secretly running the world. Me? That's the human world, and I don't care about who is or isn't running it.

Can anyone help me find a cultivation related word that ends in the letters or the sound "no" ? haha Seriously.

No I don't want to disrupt an existing conversation talking about me or what I think. I respond to pms' though.