wudangquan

Hi Dao Zhen, I don't have any famous teachers. I have, what I feel are excellent teachers, though. The closest thing that I might have to someone may have heard about is the lineage from Bi Youfeng, who was a famous and internationally travelled Shuai Jiao player from the 50's-70's, and I am the sole inheritor of that in my generation (although everyone who does SJ in Yunnan basically does his stuff - I just have the right to use his name), and it's a Taoist practice from the Black Yizu around Stone Forest and is the full system, with strikes, qigong, etc.. I've also had lots of personal instruction (although not ordained, but I believe I could be if I asked) at Longquan. I will move back down south in less than a month and continue my studies at Longquan. I currently train with a priest from Wudang here in Shiyan city (the town where WudangShan is located), but I dont' train on the mountain, and he doesn't have any youtube videos because he's a normal guy and not a wushuguan teacher. The others? Hilltribe Taoists in Myanmar. Random Chinese cultivators who (I believe) are at a very high level and concerned with the issues in cultivation that I am now concerned with, etc. I mention the previous because you probably asked as a matter of course and weren't being confrontational (I hope), but the truth is I am not selling anything, not claiming to be a master, enlightened, etc. and thus have nothing to prove.

Hey hey, I need some reviewers for my new documentary/seminar. You can see the preview at http://www.taoisttraining.com . . . It's going to be free for everyone who's a registered member on the site, and I'm about 1/3 finished with it at this point. While I'm giving it away for free, I would like to get some credible reviews. It's kind of un-professional, but if people like it I might use it for something else (like what? I dunno. . . ) If you'd like to see it before anybody else - here's what I'm looking for in the review: 1. Your full name 2. Your title, if it's applicable (you own a kung fu school, wrote a book, are a secret leader of the COBRA organization, etc.) 3. A Photo 4. Your website if you want me to put it on the front of TaoistTraining.com . . . If you're up for it - Drop me an email at [email protected] and let me know. I would guess the movie is going to be done by the end of this week, and I'll have a version online for the previewers to check out (will be big). Thanks, Jonathan p.s. Will be at least an hour and a half of streaming video so you should have a good connection

I personally don't find his teachings (and I have all of the non-public lectures and publically retracted stuff as well because I know alot of practitioners) to be particularly bad. What it probably comes down to is a matter of choice, because outside of very mainstream Buddhism and Taoism, there are lots of people who require much more than LH in the area of devotional surrender. Most of those dizi have never met him personally, and won't. Donating money is not allowed, to answer the previous question. Most of the criticism that's levelled at him by mainstream people is about: 1. He said bad stuff about homosexuality. Ooooh. The homophobic boogie man. How many traditional religions say much worse than "It creates a large amount of karma"? 2. He says aliens are trying to take over human bodies. I guess it's down to whether you believe that's a possibility or not, and having not read this part in Chinese, I can't guess as to what he's talking about specificallly, so it's open to interpretation. 3. He's a racist. There are plenty of Non-Chinese Dizi in that system, and what I got from reading the material on the specific issue wasn't racist at all. 4. He allows his followers to get persecuted, tortured, and killed. This . . . Again it's down to personal things but I think to make a value judgement on this you have to understand what THEY think they are doing. They assume themselves to be high level Taos, Buddhas and Gods who have come to earth to fix up the deviant cosmos, and by ALLOWING this stuff to happen, they are letting the deviant forces create so much huge karma that they will extinguish themselves. 5. It's the only way. This is probably my single biggest sticking point. He says that we're in the "dharma ending period" and that the cultivation systems we've inherited were only a prelude to allow people of this time period to know what cultivation was about. I'm neither God, nor a Buddha, nor a Tao so I don't have a great argument for it. Just . . . Not a huge fan of single-entry theme parks. I don't think the classical label of "cult" is really applicable to them, though. I also think that the people I know who are FD dizi are some of the greatest individuals I've ever met. I kind of break things down to this: Efficient: Doing things right Effective: Doing the right things I don't know how effective they are, but they are mostly efficient and I consider them to be genuine cultivators of a much higher order than alot of others. The problem is you can't get a frameable wall mounted certificate and then charge people money to teach it. You have to do it for free. That's the only thing akin to donations. They have to use their own time, their own money to reproduce materials, etc. but they believe in, you know. Virtue and Karma as very literal substances, so are happy to do it. Anyway . . . This isn't meant as a commercial for them because I'm not one of their dizi. I just feel like I should say something sometimes when it comes up, because I know alot of them, and I know enough in China, and - They are cultivating at least more efficiently than me and 99% of others in the community. And in the final analysis, whether they are effective or not, or whether LH is a bogus master or whatever - I would trust most individual FD dizi with my life before I would trust anyone on this forum, anyone selling dvd's, or anyone publically teaching under the banner of "Taoism". I am not interested in promoting what they do, but the individuals are . . . mostly great people. Each time I run into some I always offer them any help I can because I know what they face and if they ARE being efficient and effective, it would be a great mistake not to feed them when they're hungry, let them take a shower if they're hiding on the streets, and if I have some spare money (usually I don't) I am always happy to let them use it to print some vcd's or something because at the end of the day, whether a great human is effective in cultivating or not doesn't change the fact that they are great humans.

No. Unless there's a rule that you can't promote your own stuff for sale. The person who bought the course from him should just initiate a chargeback/refund through paypal. They will almost always side with the buyer, and the seller would be well advised to issue the refund if they want to keep their account opened. I think he adds value to to the forum, if only as a constant against which people can define themselves. In a world of cock pumpers, qi machines, etc. you have to recognize that MOST of what's taught in public is low level or fake anyway. Caveat Emptor.

In fairness, the "other" Li gives all of his stuff away. I think he probably lives from the (likely massive) sales of his books, but they're available for free in word/pdf/or html on their websites, as well. I'm sure he's not hurting for money, but to be fair he doesn't charge for any information, practices, etc. Unless you count utter devotion. He's someone else I also have not met, but I've met many many of his followers and they all devote their time and energy to doing stuff free and will teach you anything they have for free. It's something that's not for me, personally for various reasons but I wouldn't think to slander it in the way that many other people do.

I'm on the DVD already. "9 days with Serpentor". In all honesty, I've never communicated with or seen any reptilian Nagas. For the people who do Taoist cultivation exclusively or deeply - Do you think these are the same as "Earthly Taos"? I've had encounters with different types of beings and different . . . Things but never anything that looked like the guy that Destro concocted from the dna of the worlds greatest tyrants . . . Do folks that deal with that sort of thing assume them to be benevolent, or malevolent? Can they cultivate beyond their current level? I always heard about something similar to this, but the idea was that they wanted to take over peoples bodies because they can't cultivate themselves and need a human body to do it.

You're preaching to the choir, dude. I fully understand why you would charge for it, even if you were already rich (and I don't know your personal situation). The "big names" of the previous generation of Western Taoists put cd's upon cd's upon dvd's of utter low level nonsense out year after year, charge people outrageous amounts for it and people continue to eat it up and pretend like it's the Tao itself they've bought into. If somebody posted the simple truths of cultivation for free in an open forum like this, 99% of people would not even give it a second thought. A sad truth, but as humans and consumers we buy things based on emotions, and then rationalize and tell ourselves logical "sounding" stories about "why" we did it post facto. I've put a good chunk of the Quanzhen stuff up for free, and people will still spend thousands of dollars for much lower vehicles of teaching, and will rationalize it with things about transmission (that of course are not subject to divergence and were never passed on to lower grade disciples who couldn't embody it in it's totality, and that never happened in multiple iterations during the course of 7-10,000 years), etc. And to be totally frank - While I don't practice it . . . The cultivation system that in my opinion is far and away closest to the truth which is taught in public is completely, 100% free but "Taoists" aren't interested - 1. Because it's free 2. Because it requires stepping out of humanness 3. Because they can't make money out of it later on down the road. So I for one don't think you're wrong to sell it, if you believe that what you've got is good. I like to give the stuff I do away, but I might not always do that, and I understand why someone who thinks they've got a good system wouldn't either. And also . . . You believing you're enlightened and all that - I probably don't need to say this, but . . . I don't think the heat from the end of the Qigong era has really died down yet, and you should think seriously about what you say to private students vs. what you say in public on the internet as long as you and they are in the PRC. GZ is a relatively progressive city but it's not so far away from Zhongnanhai that you can't have big troubles if you're making such claims and actually get a large following. I assume you know what you're doing, though and it's your business, not mine.

Stop using computers?

eh . . . It's just my own hangup. My experience in Korea and with Koreans has been typified by unpleasantness, driven by an intent to be unpleasant. China is way different. It's unpleasantness without a second thought about it. I like China a ton more than Korea though, and Chinese people always think it's odd because "South Korea is a very clean (and rich) country". About the visa with Taiwan thing - I don't and haven't lived there but my step mom is a Taiwanese national and she told me before that there are like ferry boats you can take into international waters and then come back on for a visa run. Korea is best for money, in general though. If that's your only motivation, the middle east pays a TON if you have good credentials. Like legit, professional salaries and above. If money were no bar, I would live in Osaka for sure. If it were a choice about teaching - I would do a training center (about 8k rmb or so which is really not bad) in Kunming, or try to get even further out in an area that's undeveloped but has some foreign population or tourism like Dali, Lijiang (Lijiang is awesome!) or Di Qing/Shangrila. Coincidentally, Dali also has a good Wudang priest living there who teaches at the city wall every day, and doesn't charge you a Brazillian dollars a month, and teaches GOOD stuff. There are only a couple of guys I've found around the country who are legit and teach the Wudang material, and know at least the lineage curriculum in its entirety and as a foreigner you are much better off with them than the WushuGuans around here, IMVHO. - not that the guys who teach at the open wushuguans that you can actually study at aren't good, but it's a business, there are to many ears on to many doors, etc. Here's the website of the guy in Dali: http://www.dalimartialarts.com - and it's a beautiful and traditiional city, isn't nasty, has good air, friendly folks, temperate weather, a good university, and more ganja than you can shake a flamethrower at.

Darkness within darkness.

I'm just joking with you dude. I didn't mean to seriously suggest that you wear a star trek uniform and ninja mask. And I think I figured out what I like about you . . . I wouldn't presume to tell someone on the internet if they're enlightened or have attained the tao or not or whatever. But, your persistence in stating that you have, and the fact that the more people come after you, and in situations where normal people would back peddle - You come out with "been there, done that" and manage to upstage any argument against you with even more bold claims! Your website says you graduated from a Chinese medicine college. Do you practice that for a living?

4+ hours of new material Within a few hours, or maybe by the time you read this - I will have uploaded all of the mp3's for the Book Of Balance And Harmony to http://www.taoisttraining.com . . . This work by itself represents more than 4 hours of audio. That's 4 cd's worth of material, which is being given away for free. In addition to this newest work being put up, there are several hours of video and countless more hours of audio available for free. If you would like to download the newest addition - The book of balance and harmony, simply register at http://www.TaoistTraining.com . . There's no back end flim flam to sell you anything. I promise. The reason I require registration is because having all these hours of audio and video require me to pay alot of money every month in bandwidth costs, and if people aren't serious enough to just sign up, than they probably won't ever use the material, anyway. I can afford to run the site right now, but I can't afford crazy expenses from people who are merely curious, so in order for me to keep things free and not charge, I just ask for these two simple things: Sign up, and create a profile, with a photo at least so I know who you are. Here's what's included in this new 4+ hours of audio (Mp3) files for you to download: The Book Of Balance And Harmony 1. The source message of the mystic school 2. Statements 3. Secret meanings 4. Secrets of the gold pill 5. Explanation of the three fives 6. The opening of the mysterious pass 7. The gold testing stone 8. Nine grades of practices: Sidetracks and auxiliary methods 9. Three vehicles of gradual enlightenment 10. The highest vehicle 11. Dialogues: The underlying unity of Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism 12. Questions and answers 13. Some questions on alchemy 14. Live teachings on complete reality 15. Spoken teachings 16. Discourses 17. Explanatory Talks 18. Songs 19. Poems 20. Veiled Words I highly recommend that people who are interested in Taoism listen to parts 8, 9 and 10. These are things that people may be uncomfortable with, but need to hear (and sometimes hear again and again). For those who are pursuing or are interested in other things such as Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, or Hinduism - I suggest that you check this material out as well. As those who know me have heard me say many times: "Everything which rises must converge", and at the higher levels of practice the similarities between these different traditions are stronger than their distinctions. The next big project I'm going to start working on is a purely video series on "Understanding Symbolic Language". This is going to be off the hook, and unlike anything that anyone has ever presented in such a multi-media environment and on such a wide scale before. I'll probably start that in the next few days. It'll be free too. My goal is to create material that is practical which you can use for your own development, and to never charge anyone a single penny. Of course, that doesn't mean that it's free. I'm simply not charging for it. There is an issue of loss and gain involved. If you feel like you have gained value from my work, please make a corresponding donation to help me cover my costs. If you don't like it, think it's pure crap, doesn't add any value to your life or your practice - then just delete it and I'll not ask you for any money. After I create the Understanding Symbolic Language videos, I'm going to move on to the REALLY big project. You've probably heard some murmurs about it from people I've shown bits and pieces, but to say that it's unique and that nobody else is selling anything like it - much less giving it away for free . . . Would be a major understatement. Again, just go to http://www.taoisttraining.com and register, throw up a photo or two on your profile, and start downloading the new audio material. I recommend you right click on the links, and then click save as and number them accordingly so they play in the right order in your computer or MP3 player. I just named them easy things for me to remember, but you should really listen to them in the correct order. If you have any questions or problems you can send me a private message here and I'll do my best to help you and and make sure that everything is accessible to you. Take care, Jonathan http://www.taoisttraining.com P.S. If you read this sooner rather than later, my internet connection here in China is somewhat slow. If the files are not available for download, wait about an hour and they should all be there.

Right. Don't even sweat the visa stuff. Even if you have to break a contract, don't worry about it. They'll tell you all this crazy stuff like you won't ever be allowed into China again, etc. Just remember that laws aren't laws like you're used to. They're guidelines that are open for interpretation by the lowest level bureaucrats. If you find a school you like, and that treats you well they can make anything they want happen in your favor, basically. Especially the private colleges and government universities. Also as far as the current visa stuff goes - I believe it's relaxed now after the olympics. I went out at the end of the school in the summer and ended up in Bangkok for almost 3 months because I couldn't get back in, and didn't want to teach again for another year or two so it was very difficult to get the business visa. Forced me to blow almost 4k of my pitiful life's savings, too when everything was said and done. Create a new mantra. Mine is "what else could it mean?" . . . Trying to apply this in every single moment of my life has saved me from jail and deportation in countless places. haha As far as yoga - there are places. I knew a yoga studio in Kunming when I lived there, and generally I think especially in mid to larger cities there will be a market for it. Especially amongst expats who want to stay healthy but find the chinese stuff inaccessible because of language barriers, et al. Personally - If I had something I wanted to teach publically and was confident of my ability to teach and retain students . . . Japan wins, hands down. Probably a city like Osaka. Clean, everybody on bicycles instead of cars, great public transportation, good food, and I am about as sure as I could be that there's a much bigger market for Yoga there than in China or . . . The other part of China. If I weren't interested in some specifically Chinese things I would love to live in Osaka or some place like that and I go for a breather whenever I can afford it. Oh - and just out of curiosity . . . How many teachers in Asia do we have here? Assuming people get time off, we probably all get time off at about the same points in the year. Could be cool to pool resources and host a good teacher sometimes.

Everything in this suburb of reality is subject to creation-stasis-degeneration. The current human society isn't any different and is not above being subject to natural laws. Whether it's sooner or later is kind of irrelevant. I always feel like I am sticking up for li Jiong even though I don't know anything about him . . . haha Maybe he reminds me of someone, or maybe I like the fact that he is not love-bombing people. Li Jiong I suggest you put on a star trek uniform and ninja mask, call your self pang qing wa dao shi, put some videos on youtube of yourself using the mojo to give women NCO's and people will be beating down your door to give you their money. They always prefer form over substance. That's what they really want. Sexual power, temporal power, reputation, and star trek uniforms. Star Trek suit, Ninja Mask, not having to let go of humanness, Li Jiong. . . Think about it. Your audience demands it.

The primary qualifications for getting a teaching job in China are: 1. Being white (because only white people are Americans. There are no Chinese Americans, African Americans, etc.) 2. Having a pulse Both qualifications are only the "ideal" situation, and the schools will work around them, accordingly. Teaching at private institutes usually pays more money, but they are more demanding, more sneaky and diabolical (and when you say more sneaky in China - it carries some weight!), and will expect you to do the whitey the clown thing to a much greater extent. I would reccommend working at a college. It's easy to get those jobs, and they're available everywhere you would want to live. Check out anesl.com for some good opportunities, and as head hunters go - they're not the worst. Payment for college teaching in most provinces not on the east coast is usually about 4k rmb a month. Payment at most training centers is between 4k-8k, easily. With the colleges you get at least a month of consecutive vacation at least twice a year which is very nice. At the training centers you don't, and work nights and weekends to facillitate your students schedules. Colleges generally have much better guanxi with the PSB and can make things happen much easier. Don't worry so much about your contract, because it's like a polite joke, at best. You'll sign 3 of them. A contract in Chinese, a contract in English, and the official contract used with the government for the purposes of tax evasion. I've worked in China, South Korea, Thailand (and not teaching) in India for the past 10 years. If you have specific questions about this there's a good chance I've run into it before. China is a cool place. It's very cowboy still, and - I said something about this to Cameron the other day I think. . . Chinese people generally are exceptionally friendly and giving if they know you. If you're a stranger on the street they are rude and selfish in ways that will shock you. Just learn to let go. Of everything. . . . The thing is that Chinese people aren't intentionally trying to treat you badly and if you get to know them, even in a very informal way they are very very nice. South Koreans on the other had are a different matter, and I refuse to even buy products like Samsung or LG that are branded out of that country. It's not bad, I think. Just be aware that the business culture is WAY different than in the West. Keep in mind that Mao Zedong, even now was still "70%" right in stealing everybody's land, killing them, having their sons beaten and re-educated until the renounced their families, etc. and understand that you will never win in any, any, any kind of disagreement with Chinese people in China, short of brute force. Forget about your ideas of personal intergrity, learn to smile, say "maybe" and "I'll try" when you really mean "no", completely let go of your attachment to your personal space, etc. and you'll be fine. Understand that more so than at home, people won't listen and will hear only what they want to hear - even if they completely understand the words you're saying. Like: "Allowing these children to refer to me in the first person as "laowai" rather than Teacher, Mr., Bill, Bob, Joe, or Lao Shi is completely disrespectful" "Oh, you mean that you would like more chalk in the classroom?" haha Everything will be pretty cool for 6 months. After 6 years you understand the difference between the adventurist expat and the permanent expat, and that cross-cultural understanding and tolerance is basically a one way street of complicity to nonsense on your part. That all being said - I plan to be here indefinitely and don't want to leave.

My faves are probably: Ennio Morriccone Kitaro Vangelis

Haha it's not bad. It's not even divergent from what most people talk about. Maybe it's a matter of "style" or something, though. The skills that get you out of Egypt are not the skills that lead you to the promised land, and all that. I'm going to work on the next thing for an hour a day, and that's it. I feel like the internet is taking over my life, so I have to cut out most of it. It's like I tell myself "You're not watching tv, and you're doing stuff related to your cultivation (ceaseless talk without much point)" so somehow spending my time doing this is better than that. But it isn't. 6 hours a week should be enough to get plenty done, though. j

Hi Scotty, I left you a comment on there and added you to my friends list. Thanks for checking it out. I'm not worried about the material being free, really. As I have said it is something I'm doing for myself, anyway - and at some point I'll use the gravity as leverage to gain access to some teachers I want to learn from, or at least check out what they're doing. That's why I don't want to sell stuff. The thing that I'm worried about is like crazy personal attacks and stuff like that. The things I have been taught, and the things that I believe - it's not Tao of Poo material, and I'm probably opening myself up for alot of criticism. But I'm up for it. As long as it takes the form of civilized rebuttal, and people are willing to actually explain - at length and in audio, video or good quality articles why they disagree with me or don't agree with some of the things that I believe. I'm not going to skirt serious issues, though and I don't have any financial interests in this, so I don't need to carrot stick people for long amounts of time, and will just say what I want to say and leave it at that. As a caveat and cya move for myself - I think I have had better teaching than most people, and I think that I understand the direct route more clearly than at least some people, but in no way do I want to present myself as enlightened, or anything like that. Neither am I at all qualified to be anyones "master" or some such nonsense. I'm just a guy with a video camera, a microphone, laptop and no job in China.

Yeah, I'm sorry Darin - I can't figure out what the problem might be . . . If you want to pm me a username, I'll set up the account for you and you can change the password later. Or I can give you the direct download links for the files (on an individual basis because I want to know who's downloading, generally). Or someone can seed a torrent with all of the files if they want to. I'm going to work on the movie for the next week or two, so probably won't put up a ton of new material, but there's already alot there. J

No need to thank me, and I'm not particularly kind. I have to study this stuff anyway, or I feel like I should, and so it's just as easy for me to get a microphone out and record it while I'm doing it. The material can also be used for me. That's really all it is, is a way for me to constantly be assimilating to the Tao. Reading, practicing, listening (to my recordings of the classics), etc. The goal for me is like . . . Absolute submersion for a while longer. Maybe a year or two more. I had a practice years ago that I progressed in very quickly, and made very rapid advancements, but I left it behind and stopped doing it for some reasons. One thing that I'm sure of, and one thing I see self styles taoists do alot (including myself) is trying to make the Tao conform to their sentimentality and attachments, rather than them (and me) conforming to the Tao, and it doesn't work like that. So this is just a way for me to help myself, and since I am going to do it already, it's no problem for me to make it available as long as I can afford to. That being said - it's very easy these days to crank out some high quality video and audio, not to mention text. If other people want to do stuff like this - please contact me. I have voluminous amounts of material which can be turned into audio or video if you want to help me do it. It's about 5pm now and I have to go out to meditate for a few hours so I don't want to think about this much more now other than to say that when i come back this evening, I'll try to address any issues with logging in. Also I want to be clear that I am trying to complement this site, and any other taoist sites, not compete with them, and this is not a business venture for me and I'm happy to lose money as I can on it. Please send me a private message here with your email address and the username you used to sign up if you're having any troubles. For Darin - not sure about the issue but will try to address iit somehow when I get back in tonight. Best, Jonathan

Hi Darin, That's wierd. I just tried it now in Firefox and IE, and it worked with no problem . . Are there any unusual issues, like a wierd browser (I don't have google chrome or any others installed to test) that might be the reason? If anybody else has the problem, let me know. There have been about 50 sign ups today, so it seems like it's working, generally. Anyway the direct link is http://taoisttraining.com/taoism/Create-an-account.html Sorry that you had some difficulty. If it's something on my end I will try my best to figure it out and get it fixed. If for some reason it just doesn't work out for you to register, drop me a pm here and I will add all of the mp3's to a zip file and put it somewhere that you can download it if you like (hope you have a fast connection - it's like 220 megs). Jonathan Also I don't have a fast enough connection to do this really, but if someone is sitting on a super fast connection, and wants to zip up like 15 hours of audio files, and put it out on the torrent networks for people to download, I am ok with that also. Mainly I just want the stuff accessible to people who want it and people like me who probably have crazy adhd or something and won't sit through reading lots of stuff.

I wouldn't say that it's exclusively Buddhist, as they basically just come at the same problem from different angles, but that's just me. And I guess I should have been more clear about what I was saying. Sure, Lao Zi or this or that patriarch of this or that lineage can do certain things, and they have the discernment to do it. An immortal might give energy to Lao Zi during his cultivation because they recognize him, or recognize his potential or something. Something offering cultivation energy to Joe six-pack who wants to fly through the bamboo forest and hit hot Fetian with the Taoist dope dick probably is doing so for a different reason. And really this is kind of difficult to have a conversation about, because we're not using a common set of meanings for the words we're typing, but I'm not talking about Qi. If people want to pull in Qi from the earth, trees, fog gobbling, or what have you - I don't think it's a big deal. The thing that concerns me is the idea that someones going to offer you the energy that only comes through cultivation, or which brings about levels that you haven't cultivated to. Opening up states for people to experience - If I were able I probably wouldn't do it. Giving or receiving energy that brings you to a level that you don't have the attainment status for? Mmmmm . . Anyway like I said I think the problem is that we're not all using the same language, or meanings for our words. I believe a person can transfer Qi to you, sure. I believe in the cases of exceptionally rare people with rare qualities, that they might get energy which boosts their level from higher level beings for various reasons. But to stick with a word that I can understand clearly - I don't believe Taoism has guanding. Best regards, Jonathan

You should tell them WHY a demon would offer them energy. Or what happens to them if they accept it from an animal or something other than a real Tao. No gains without corresponding loss. A chance to be human is an enviable blessing. The ignorant state of being human is pitiable and sad.

Wow . . . Season 4 of Galactica was craaaazy! And the finale? Some straight up Charlton Heston "You did it!" action! It's an indication of my attachments and my human sentimentality, but I get crazy over some interesting TV because I haven't watched tv for about 10 years. Anything I could watch over here would be like . . . The English language channel cctv9 - aka the "Everything's OK" channel, or goofy variety shows with Chinese people singing in high school prom outfits, or the every popular - "Bow legged evil Japanese commander gets outsmarted by the brave Chinese peasant" bs. It's like Hogan's hero's, except nobody realizes it's supposed to be ridiculous. C'mon. They beat you when you had them out numbered 1,000,000,000,000,000 to 1!!! Next big project? Lost season 5 in about 10 months, hopefully. Can't wait to find out where they moved that island and what those characters were carved down there in that wheel room, etc.! Totally awesome stuff! Anyway . . . I don't want to argue about stuff about Taoist guanding or transmission with anyone. I feel like I've said everything I should say, and have tried to be not so discreet within the realm of civillized discussion and the rules that we mutually accept as users of this forum about what I think is really going on in alot of these cases. Now I'll shut up about it and let people walk their own paths.

If you could go to study anywhere, and study any (existing) major that you wanted without any troubles, what would you do? I took the entrance exam for the Therevada Buddhist Missionary University in Yangon Myanmar when I lived in Korea and got accepted but never went. There's also a Buddhist college in Hat Yai, south Thailand that seemed pretty good. These days I feel like I would like to do academic research on entheogens, study chinese medicine, check out a few of the martial arts degree programs, etc. If there were no bar, what would you study and where would you study at? Strictly for personal fulfillment - not for finding a job or whatever.