wudangquan

Patrick,

 

The first part with the PIN number is just eye tracking.

 

A good NLP practitioner, or even alot of people who haven't been trained, guys who do other stuff, like HUNA, etc. - they all know how to pick up on this pretty easily.

 

You have a casual conversation (maybe off camera) to pick up on someones physical responses with controlled lines of questioning, and then you've got their "tells".

 

Works in poker, too.

 

The second part was that her subconscious (and probably the other peoples too) just picked up on what he clearly wrote on the paper.

 

If you watch the video again, even with the back of the notepad facing you, you can clearly see that he's writing "black".

 

 

Although I have to admit that my first thought was that he was making a hand gesture of a cocks whatchamacallit on the top of it's head with his hand, and talking about "plucking" something right out of thin air, so I thought it was going to be a suggestion related to chicken or birds.

 

I had to watch that part twice to see what he was doing, because it was just so simple. I (and they) were expecting something much more interesting, but it's actually very mundane, so your main consciousness doesn't catch it, but your sub does. Misdirection.

 

 

Here's another fun one:

 

"You're right not to want to feel left behind, so just go ahead and give Jonathans down home country goodness Qigong a try for yourself".

 

Brain can't determine whether left/right is a spatial value (left direction, right direction) or a value judgement (correct, within your rights, etc.) and the cognitive process spins out of control like working on a Zen koan and then you hit them with the command.

 

And then there's my favorite - Pressure stacking. haha

Hi Chris,

 

Since you are the person here who is dealing with the majority of this stuff, I wanted to say to you personally that I don't have a problem with you as a person and would probably like you if we met.

 

I'm also not trying to change anybody's mind about your stuff or tell anyone not to do it. What they do is their business.

 

I also know that I can't really change anyone's mind. People make decisions based on emotion, and then rationalize as to why.

 

Like a 50 year old guy buys a fancy dancy set of golf clubs for himself. After the fact he tells himself this story about why he did it "Because it was a great value, it's going to improve my swing, the shaft is made of this lighter alloy which is more wind resistant, etc." but those are post facto rationalizations. The real reason he made the purchase was an emotional one. So he could ruck up on the golf course and impress his buddies, or whatever.

 

And you'll never change his mind, if he comes to an explicit conclusion on his own.

 

If you keep saying "Max has the heart of a Boddhisatva" (implicit), and people explicitly decide "Max is a Boddhisatva" - I'm not going to change their mind, and they'll defend that decision all the way until the end because it was one that they "made" themselves.

 

I just see some things. . .

 

[X] Magic bullet (quick quick)

[X] Home town boy makes good

[X] Loss and redemption

[X] The mysterious stranger

[X] Scarcity

[X] Social Proof

[X] Reciprocity play (Free videos, techniques which probably will work and if they dont' it's because you were'nt strong/pure/faithful/whatever enough)

etc.

 

I could blast a receptive person with enough energy to make their nervous system shut down and go unconcious (they used to do this at my pentecostal church as a kid!), and then afterwards they would be ready to go to war with anyone who even questioned it.

 

There's no point in trying to change the converted.

 

I just think that . . . There is real stuff out there, and when the mess that is being made becomes obvious, people are going to be closed off to even the notion of any more Taoist cultivation.

 

The thing is, I personally believe what you guys are doing is dangerous, and I believe that there is a lot of clear and obvious carrot sticking and downright untruth being done.

 

But, I don't dislike you or hate you as a person or something, and I'm not even sure that you're in on the work (but it is a work).

 

I thought about doing the flim flam before myself - a fact which I'm not proud of. It was a long time ago, but I had pretty serious intentions about it.

 

And then I found myself in a vacuum, and a box with something very nasty flew up to my chest and I got bitten.

 

I was in there in that state for a VERY long time, and almost died from the venom. I was dying, for sure. And then I enlightened to the fact that the intention was the venom, or that there was at least a direct correlation.

 

But it wasn't enough to change my mind or "decide" not to do it. I had to completely push the thought out of every dimension of my being. At every level I cleared it out, there was a corresponding improvement in my condition, until finally I was ok again.

 

. . .

 

The reason I am telling you that is just so that maybe you can understand me in some way.

 

If I'm completely wrong, I ask your forgiveness, and hopefully I'll realize it.

 

If I'm not wrong, I ask you to consider the consequences for your self in what you're doing.

 

But either way, I don't want a fight.

 

Take care, man . . .

Patrick,

 

Part of what he is doing is the language . . .

"Bear in mind"

"nominate"

 

etc.

 

The other half of this is just the placement of the people and a figure/ground trick I think.

 

The language stuff is pretty easy to pick up on . . . Like very conversational salesmen who would say something like "by now you're probably wondering how much this thing is going to cost you, right?"

 

So since you're shopping and thinking of purchasing something, the brain is confused on a subconcious level about whether he's saying by now (at this point) or buy now (purchase immediately), but your main consciousness assumes it's the first one, and then he asks for agreement, so subconciously you've already agreed to "buy now".

 

It's more complicated than that, and it takes lots of additional reinforcement, but it's pretty easy to do.

 

The figure ground stuff is interesting . . .

 

Paul Scheele (http://www.learningstrategies.com), the hypnotist that Chunyi Lin (Spring Forest Qigong) is connected with does some interesting stuff around this.

 

I watched him make a crowded auditorium of peoples body parts grow bigger or smaller in real time once.

 

It is all down to Gestalt and basic figure ground perception, but it's really cool and I used to do that on my university students all the time.

1.

 

I'm still waiting on an invitation from Max or Max's dude to verify Master Wu Xiao Deng as having Wudang lineage.

 

There are still plenty of people alive who would have been his contemporaries, and I can check with them.

 

Also, I can ask to check records about it.

 

The only thing that would be helpful (although not necessary) is to know which sect he was from, and any distinction between his Chinese given name and any post initiate Taoist given names.

 

I will ask the people. I will ask to see the records. I will video it and put it on youtube and you can embed it on your own site if you like.

 

I think it would be a wonderful testimonial and go a long way towards making the "heads" feel more comfortable, or at least getting them to quiet down.

 

I think verifying that as a fact would be a very good addition to this thread.

 

I also really haven't checked into this yet, so I don't know what the answer is.

 

It's probably polite to caveat though, to say that my personal opinion is that something even worse than fraud is going on (because if it were vacuum cleaners, I wouldn't really care).

 

With that being said, I am willing to admit my own mistakes and short sightedness, and while I don't believe almost anything that's provided as his back story, I will emphatically endorse his Wudang training if it's verifiable.

 

 

-----------------------------------------

 

2.

 

I didn't want to try the red sun practice on myself, but without saying outlandish and irresponsible things in a public forum, I have some way that I sometimes test these kinds of things when I'm interested.

 

I did several thousand times.

 

Here's what I would say (just my opinion based on experience) about what is happening in this practice:

 

1. Your using a lot of intention, with the dissolving of the body.

2. You're cutting off your oxygen.

3. You're open to a mystical or transcendent experience.

 

What I would say is going on is that if you can actually do this practice successfully, (which I don't think alot of people can), is that:

 

1. You are lowering your levels of oxygenated blood

2. You are restricting the flow of oxygen to your brain

3. You are are probably putting a great deal of stress on the pineal gland (if you can actually get very far with this, but again I think it's very difficult for normal people) and the brain in general through oxygen deprivation.

4. The oxygen deprived brain is going into shock or a mini shock and causing seratonins and trypto's to decompose

5. The decomposed trypto and seratonins are breaking down into some kind of post cursor (sorry I don't kow the proper medical word), similar to DMT.

6. The release of the decomposed chemicals along with a certain high amount of intent is causing a specific experience

 

Having said all of that, I think that it's perfectly valid.

 

Putting heavy shock, strain, or protracted stress on the pineal is something that happens in alot of Taoist traditions, like cave meditation, the story about Wang Liping being buried, etc.

 

So I have to say that my personal opinion is that this technique works, and is congruent with other practices.

 

I think . . . you know - that the thing with this sort of thing is that you have to be careful about what you're after.

 

For anybody who's ever played around with this stuff and has gotten anywhere with it, you know that you can access some pretty profound things, and often times some malevolent things.

 

Most people probably don't have the will power to do it in the first place, so it doesn't really matter.

 

But . . . again (my personal feeling only) is that you have to be careful about how you approach something like this, because if your trying to get some specific thing, you might get it. The issue I guess is what you get it from.

Isn't Matt Furey the guy who taught Peter Ragnar how to sell his Magnetic Qigong stuff on the internet?

I think . . .

 

You know.

 

The big part of it is merging your primordial energy with your primordial spirit.

 

And there are probably different ways of doing that. Same strategies, but surely some different tactics.

 

And then you realize that as a physical, energetic, and spiritual being, you're responsible for billions x billions of sentient beings.

 

Bouncing someone off a wall with Qi is not that big of a deal. I can poison and destroy entire universes with a pack of marlboros. haha Or - I can try to be as homeo static at least, or radiantly healthy if possible on ALL those levels, and providing a good way, or good context for all the content.

 

For me, it's been a process of kind of like struggle with my ego and false senses, and then the work shifts to letting go. Forgetting the process.

 

That's not to say or even imply that I'm enlightened or anything. I can say clearly that I'm not even close to where I'm trying to go.

 

The naruto fireball stuff is cool and probably gets people interested in cultivating, but I also even disagree that it's even much of an indication of your attainment status.

 

For a lot of people, I think it easily even leads not to just side paths, but to crooked paths. That stuff just naturally happens to you. Or it don't for a while.

 

That being said, I think good instruction is essential, what you "feel" means very little, and agree that meditating and being a good "person" won't cut it.

 

But the phenomenon are not the goal.

Ya knoooow, people ask me questions here and I try to answer them straight up in an effort to help.

 

If TWO or THREE out of thousands choose to spin that into some big negative "marketing" campaign then that only reveals their own tweaked perspective.

 

I think my writing is pretty clear. I keep it simple and honest, but feeble attempts to pick apart what I write, discard what I said and focus on the word choice, outside of the context, is actually evil.

 

It is like Fox News in here sometimes. Psychology for simpletons.

 

Soil my words all you want. My intent to share these things is pure and that is the foundation of my resolve. If you mistake my enthusiasm for something clandestine then that is just a reflection of you.

 

If you choose to hate my for trying to share something I think is cool, then fine. It is an unfortunate affirmation of the state of mind of this reality.

 

Bummer.

 

Ad hominem.

 

Nice one!

Maybe some of Y'all are like me, and keep a little notebook or day planner with cool stuff you've read, heard, or thought of that you want to remember later.

 

I have one of those.

 

It's a little telephone and address book.

 

Page 2 and 3 are covered in all of these little types of gems I want to come back to now and then.

 

But, there's just 1 on the first page . . .

 

It says:

 

"THE MAP IS NOT THE TERRITORY"

 

Throughout history, lots of people have been cultivating, and they experience some things, phenomenologically.

 

Now and again, they wrote their experiences down.

 

(I believe) that later people at lower levels, or of lower caliber began focusing to much on the experiential data provided by people who went before them, and started thinking THAT was what it was all about.

 

Remember enter the dragon when bruce does the schtick about it being like a finger pointing to the moon? Focus on the finger and you miss all that heavenly glory. . .

 

This stuff just happens. Or it doesn't.

 

WHether it does or doesn't happen is not a realistic indication of your progress, because a person with low natural ability could reach the middle level of their cultivation and do some stuff, while a person with very high natural ability reaches the low point, but they're still not able to do the spooky ooky.

 

But regardless, the second person is still at a MUCH higher level - they're just at the lower rungs of a much bigger ladder.

 

The map is not the territory.

So as the topic suggests, this is totally pointless, other than my Chinese is not good enough to have a deep conversation about this stuff, and most of the people who can speak English pretty well just aren't interested.

 

Also - Assume even the basic idea as just a work in progress. I'm not saying that it was or is this or that way. Just . . . Today I was climbing a mountain and started thinking about this.

 

In all honesty it was because I was thinking about the thread about Kunlun bliss (which I won't reply in, because it's not really my business. Sort of like me not being Chinese or Tibetan and not getting sucked into conversations about that business).

 

Just as an outline of the tangent ninja process that brought this up, it went something like this:

 

Shaking Qigong>Shamanism>I wonder what Chinese pre-history was like?>Shamanism>The congruent nature of Shaman practices throughout the world>Ken Wilbur>Why is Andrew Cohen such a dick?>Integration>Fusion>Synthesis>Transcendence . . .

 

And then a whole bunch of other down home country goodness that I won't bore you with.

 

So here is the basic idea (which I am looking for feedback on), and then the question:

 

I'm going to talk about China, but that's just as a reference point.

 

1. During pre-agrarian, hunter/gatherer societies, you see a lot of shaman practices.

2. After Shamanism, you see energy cultivation (growing, cultivating like a farmer) in agriculture China (and also xinxing cultivation and social relationships stuff for a more centralized way of living)

3. After the culture revolution, and the industrialization of China, you see the Qigong movement.

 

Now . . . In my mind, Qigong, as it was especially in the "Boom" period, is very obviously the industrialization of Taoism and Budhhism, or just cultivation in general.

 

It's something like . . . Literally like Peter Drucker applied statistical analysis to Taoist cultivation, and then set up a highly efficient assembly line process for it.

 

So I think, first of all that . . . Alot of people talk about how Buddhism is very resilient, and adapts to it's host culture. When talking about Taoism specifically, I think that it has constantly adapted to its host epoch, or era.

 

Shamanism/Channeling animal and nature spirits

Cultivation/Farming energy

Qigong/Industrializing the previous practices

etc.

So here's the question:

 

What does, or what would Taoist practice look like in a post modern, post industrial, information age?

 

Is it time to integrate and transcend the previous 3 epochs? If so, what's it going to look like? If not, why?

 

Thanks for bearing with me for those 5 minutes of your life while my feet cooled down.

I like these . . .

 

"Chen the Blank said, "Body and mind unmoving is culling medicine". It does not refer to tiresome exercises in imagination and visualization".

 

and . . .

 

Yu Yuwu said, "When mind is steady, spirit is stable and energy is harmonious; there is natural circulation up and down through the three chambers, and the hundred channels naturally flow freely."

 

and . .

 

If you want to operate yin and yang and the five elements in your own body, do not by any means focus your effort on yin and yang and the five elements. You must concentrate on teh absolute, practicing being unborn; Then yin and yang and five elements will operatre spontaneously and naturally without you having to seek to operate them.

 

I think it's also worth checking out the "9 grades of practices" which is part of the book of balance and harmony.

 

I was really into (esoteric, not the practical beat up your wife and let the Hagwon raise your kids and then pass out drunk on the street with your buddies in matching shiny silver suits deal) Confucianism when I lived in Korea . . .

 

Within the context of Taoism, Chan/Zen/Other variants of Buddhism, Confucianism, etc. - They all use basically similar strategy, but differing tactics at the lower levels, I guess.

 

Like Buddhism wants to destroy illusion. Taoism wants to see the Truth.

 

That's the real value I think in reading some of the stuff like the Master Nan guy, and even though he's not popular on these forums, Li Hongzi, and all that.

 

Those kinds of guys might be saying A LOT of things that people disagree with, but the reason people get results from them is because they are boiling things down to the core issues of non-attachment, stillness, emptyness, etc. which are sort of the pinnacle of the pyramid of cultivation.

 

You can hump like a Hebrew slave around the base or at the corners - trying to get this or that supernatural power, or whatever or you can take the elevator.

 

But, lots of people would rather be able to do the "tricks", and will spend their time doing crazy excercises with wrong intentions, or visualizing pink hearts, yellow moons, green clovers, blue diamonds or whatever and there will always be people ready to serve that market at a price. No loss, no gain.

 

That's a valid part of the ecosystem of cultivation though, I think . . .

 

And as long as they're not getting anything really bad (and I pretty firmly believe that you can get some creepy crawlies from following the bad ju ju) - surely it's better than watching TV 4 hours a night.

Is the sleight of mouth intentional?

 

Sorry to be so rude, but I think just saying that Max is a dude who has figured some pretty cool stuff out would be alot easier for people to accept.

 

But I mean . . . Linguistically it's good kung fu.

 

Inference and implicit statements leading to explicit value judgements and all that.

 

It's none of my business, but I think you should change the marketing strategy.

 

About 2% of people who understand suggestion/nlp/classic salesmanship/whatever will see it pretty clearly.

 

Probably another 20% who are clever will have a negative "gut" reaction to it, leading to alot of the type of threads I've read here.

 

80% will buy in.

 

But you could increase your conversion rate by 20% with a couple of subtle changes.

 

Saying a rat is a mammal and a boy is a mammal doesn't make a boy a rat. Most people can't defend against simple fallacies like that because our societies don't train people to, but a lot will have varying degrees of negative reactions depending on how big or small the claims which are being made.

 

I can walk around here in China and choose 100 random people, and say:

 

A=1, and B=1, therefore A=B, right?

 

100% of them will say yes.

 

If I say a rat is a mammal and a boy is a mammal and therefore a boy is a rat, they can't tell me why it's not - but they know somethings not right and they'll never listen to anything else you say again.

 

A master of French cooking is not the same as a French master cook.

 

Training Kunlun in the mountains isn't the same as training in the Kunlun mountains.

 

Being a Master of Wudang is not the same as being a Master from or trained at Wudang.

 

I'd do more John Carlton and less Frank Kern.

 

Here's what I've got.

 

Here's what it will do for you.

 

Here's what I want you to do next.

The firing process

 

dun huang manuscripts

 

classical passage of oral knowledge

 

Yeah I didn't mean to say that wayfaring was the firing process, sorry.

 

Just that the translation to that by Cleary is probably what caused me to start thinking about things in terms of heat and pressure/alchemical transformation.

Hey Song,

 

I think you're point is a good one, and I like the Chinese medicine analogy.

 

I completely agree that you need tangible examples of what to do or how to be, and not only what not to do or be.

 

Probably the distinction between the wilderness/society is a little bit of a false on some levels, anyway and true on others.

 

From a Y/Y perspective, both are probably necessary to some degree, and neither at the exclusion of the other.

 

Regards

If you google the phrase "In the spirit of mutual understanding and cooperation" it's in almost every document the ccp has put on the web in the last 10 years.

 

Hi Chris and Ape,

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

Do you know what Wudang stuff Max learned?

 

Was his teacher trained at Wudang, or trained in Wudang techniques?

 

Would you say that he's part of that lineage?

 

I know those questions probably sound like a set up for a bashing or something, but it's not. It's just something more like bored curiosity.

 

I think . . . You know - I probably won't ever study with the guy or do his stuff, because I'm on the other side of the planet.

 

Also I'm not really interested in energetic practices, to much - or I mean - manifesting any of that kind of stuff.

 

I'm not any kind of master, but it seems pretty easy to me. All of these people spend years trying to "feel" their qi, but I'm pretty sure I could put up a youtube video, and 99% of the people who followed along could feel it within 5 minutes and would know for sure what they were feeling. Same with some other types of energy.

 

But . . . You know - I generally don't think that kind of thing is a good indication of someones level at all. Person A can be much more . . . what? Developed? Person A can be much more developed than Person B, but person B can do all of these cool things and A can't.

 

I read some of the stuff Max wrote, and it's similar to how he talks about like slow slow, quick quick, quick fast, slow fast, or something like that.

 

Person A is at a low/high level of cultivation, and person b is at a middle/middle level, so their natural abilities are open, but person A is probably more developed, in reality.

 

So I don't really focus much on the experiential stuff, but from reading other peoples accounts and diaries on here it seems very interesting!

 

Sometimes I don't know how to clearly say something like this by typing it, but probably you understand.

 

Anyway - I hope everybody who does the Kunlun stuff gets alot out of it, and respect to everyone who's cultivating. Maybe you can all be my teachers in the future.

 

Maybe if you guys get itchy feet and come over to this continent I can check it out, and certainly feed you and give you some floor space, at least! haha

Hi everybody,

 

Thanks for the replies. Kind of cool that experientially (is that another new word? I'm like the jail guy on "In living color" . . . haha), other people are on the same or at least parallel tracks.

 

I've read or looked through that Shen Ku book. I actually haven't thought about it for a long time, but now that I am, it seemed like a very cool book - and the illustrations were great!

 

Here's another thing I would like to talk about, if other people don't mind . . .

 

In China, specifically I've come across alot of Taoists. Lay Taoists, and religious ones.

 

As I mentioned I'm around Wudang now, but when I was living in Kunming I studied on a daily basis at Longquan temple, and also met alot of people who were doing their own "thing".

 

My experience has been, generally - that the people who are REALLY cultivating the Tao usually are not in temples, or publically teaching, but more often than not just work and live in tiny, cramped urban apartments and you would never know what they were doing unless you were specifically looking for certain things . . .

 

For the sake of discussion, I should probably say that when I mean really cultivating - I mean trying to return to the truth, become Zhen Ren, eliminate attachments, and so on.

 

I would categorize "taoists" into three pretty specific groups (and this is a BROAD generalization) . . .

 

The Cultivators, who live normal lives, go to work every day, maybe have families, and so on.

 

The Pro's, who make their living related to Taoism and some of it's sidepaths. This would include Martial Arts, Qigong, Feng Shui, Fortune telling - whatever.

 

And the Down Home Country Goodness Brothers Band in the temples. Most of whom seem to sell incense, do incantations, etc. but (again, very generally and certainly with real exceptions) seem to be on a VERY passive and slow path, but certainly a legitimate one.

 

. . . .

 

Let me back track a minute:

 

I have this idea.

 

The idea says that, India and China for example, have produced many high level spiritual people. The Buddha, Nanak, Da Mo, and many others, even pretty recently.

 

In alot of the translations of Taoists texts done by Thomas Cleary, he uses the term "The Firing Process" to describe something different than what I want to talk about, but reading that probably set me into this line of thought . . .

 

What's the process for making steel from iron ore?

 

Or a better example would be - How does a lump of coal become a diamond?

 

This is a kind of alchemy in itself, I guess . . .

 

Physically, what generally happens is that the lump of coal or carbon has to be exposed to an EXTREME amount of heat and/or pressure for a long period of time, right?

 

Same thing with the alchemical process from iron to steel. You have to heat it past the threshold of iron tolernace, until the impurities are burned off, and it becomes something else all together.

 

Somethign stronger. Something more adamantine, something more pure, and something more enduring. . . .

 

. . . . .

 

So back to the story.

 

Most "westerners" I think have this sort of wrong notion, about places like India or China, as being these very spiritual places.

 

In fact, they have produced some of the hghest level and most spiritually realized people in history.

 

But where I think most people misunderstand, is on this issue of the firing process.

 

Still with me?

 

I think it's not that these are particularly more spiritual places or places where the Qi floats through the bamboo forests, or the pranic energy rises from the Ganges to meet you, but . . .

 

They're probably (amongst the) most complex social environments on the planet, and in many ways the most difficult.

 

The social reality is the heat and the pressure.

 

And so . . . a person makes a decision to cultivate. To return to the truth.

 

Being steadfast in this sort of complicated and difficult environment, they're faced with more challenges, and more opportunities for rapid improvement, if they can maintain in the midst of all of that.

 

And they progress . . . Fast. The heat and pressure burn them up, alchemically changing them, and burning off untruth. (this is not accounting for any high in-born ability, destiny, etc.)

 

So that's the backstory.

 

I would like to know peoples feelings about the following 3 statements:

 

1. Your heart (and your will) are the key issues in cultivation, and not this or that specific tangent ninja practice

 

2. Retreat from human society into mountains, the wilderness, or temple life is probably good for a reboot now and then, but it removes you from the opportunity to directly face the central issues in cultivation, and make rapid improvements.

 

3. Remaining "in the world but not of the world" as Christians say - or remaining in society, but being aware of and eliminating your own attachments, being "true" in the midst of and while surrounded by untruth and the constant temptation to succumb to that, and staying "Engaged but not invested" (tm - haha) is the most direct root in cultivation.

 

I'm not saying it's this way. I'm just saying that's the way I understand things to work at this point, and want to know what you all think.

 

Regards

Hi,

 

I just wrote this really quick blog post a minute ago about . . . sort of permanent vagrancy or indigence (sp?) and was wondering if anyone else is experiencing this same sort of thing . . . Post is below.

 

-----------------

Why don't you settle down?

 

This is a question I get asked pretty frequently . . . or "Don't you miss your family?"

 

I've been bumming around this planet for a long time. I started when I was 15 or so, within the confines of the United States, since I didn't have a passport.

 

Truth be told - I was a teenage runaway.

 

I moved from coast to coast, and everwhere in between, living on the streets, and surviving by my wits, and for anyone that age who might be reading this - I'm definitely not glorifying it. Looking back, I did lots of very regrettable things, and out of my own blindness and perceived necessity at the time, did alot of things that were stupid, dangerous, and damaged my development.

 

But, on some level it was probably destiny. Or a healthy mix of destiny, stupidity and random chance that led me to the life of vagrancy.

 

And it became a habit.

 

During my "adult" life, I've spent the past 10 years in 5 different countries - The U.S., India, Thailand, South Korea, and China.

 

So, when I get asked about it, as I often do, I usually answer the easiest and quickest way I can to stop the conversation - "Because it's easier to be a foreigner in a foreign country than in the country of your birth".

 

About 25% of the people "get it", I suppose.

 

But the real reason is a bit deeper.

 

It's also not something that I ever planned, but it's more of something that I've come to realize:

 

Keeping yourself inside of human society but outside of the consensus reality speeds up your development, if you're conscious about what you're doing.

What do I mean by "consensus reality"?

 

I think the easiest term that is congruent would be "group think" or "the herd mentality" or something along those lines . . .

 

And let's be honest - there is a pretty significant difference in the way that people in different cultures perceive the reality around them. Not only cultures, but countries, locations, ethnicities, and so on.

 

It could be as obvious as the difference between egalitarian and Confucian social relationships, or as subtle as the difference between saying "it is a wave" and "It is being a wave".

 

Imagine the 19th century British foreign officer in Sub Saharan Africa. . . He walks around, interacting with "the natives", interacting with their consensus reality, and possibly even running around in a loin cloth for the better part of the day.

 

But something interesting happens right around dinner time. He cleans up, puts on his best suit or uniform, and sits down for a very formal and ritualized "British" style dinner.

 

Why? To maintain the connection to his OWN consensus reality, and not totally surrender to the group think around him. . .

 

I first started noticing this stuff during the years I was living in India.

 

For lack of a better term, I started to BECOME Indian. That's not to say that I was physically changing, but I began to start thinking in similar ways, and seeing the world with a distinctly "Indian" perspective, if there is such a thing in such a diverse country. Maybe it would be more appropriate to say I was becoming Rajasthani.

 

When I noticed it, I had a sort of violent, knee jerk reaction to it and retreated to the safety of my own conditioned paradigm. . .

 

Then, as time and other countries passed me by, I began to not only see my host country or cultures consensus reality, but began to see my own for much more of what it really "is". Not that it, or they or good or bad - but they just are what they are.

 

Wayfaring As Spiritual Excercise

 

So, now I've arrived at this point, wherein I've realized that by design or chance, I've stumbled into a very unique situation, wherein I'm not Chinese. Not Korean. Not Thai, Indian, Buddhist, Jain, Hindu, Sihk, Muslim, or whatever.

 

I'm also certain that I'm not "American" any more, either . . .

 

Most people who live for long periods outside of their own country or culture talk about "culture shock".

 

There is, however a very real situation of "Re-entry shock" as well. This occurs when you return to your own country or culture, and realize that you are so utterly and completely out of step with the consensus reality that you are effectively a foreigner in your own home.

 

Zhuang Zi talked about Wayfaring, or "Free and easy wandering" . . . Academically, most people usually understand that as wandering beyond the boundaries of conditioned thought.

 

Practically, it can be taken literally - walking around. Going on walk about.

 

I think that in my case, after the last decade abroad, and 20 years of rootlessness, that it's a bit of both;

 

To be free of conditioned thought, you have to first be able to perceive it.

 

To perceive it, you probably have to perceive it in other people first.

 

Then, you can look inward at yourself, and realize - at least on some small scale the extent to which the consensus reality has influenced your perception of "true" reality.

 

. . . And then you can really get to work . . .

I don't have any vested interest in this discussion, and while I don't and probably won't practice Kunlun bliss, I hope that the dude is for real.

 

I've been struck by tire irons, baseball bats and beer bottles, but no lightning bolts . . . So who knows.

 

One thing I could do though is to ask around here about Max's teacher who is supposed to be a Wudang master.

 

If he was an initiate or trained with anyone living or dead that could be tracked down by Taoist/Chinese name, i would be willing to spend a few hours running around to try and substantiate that for the people.

 

But it's not really my business, and I am not even going to bother out of personal curiosity unless Max or the people close to him want me to, because it's irrelevant to me in the broad sense.

 

Admittedly a part of my is curious about whether his first teacher was a Wudang master in the same sense that it's a "Kunlun" practice . . . But again, it doesn't really matter either way . . ..

Hi,

 

I've been wanting to be more active on this site, and talk to more people (learn things from some, socialize with others, and maybe brain dump and vent now and then as the spirit moves me, etc.) but for the last 6 weeks I've been doing planes trains and automobiles across South Asia, waiting to get a new Visa to get back into China.

 

Anyway, I just rucked up to the apartment in Shiyan a few hours ago.

 

Was wondering if any bums are at Wudang or in the general area?

 

I'm here for the next 2 years, at least and I'm not training at Master Yuans school, which is where I think most of the foreigners go (and it seems like a great school just not where I'm at), so I would like to get a better idea of who's out there.

 

Just interested in pinging out to anybody in the area who might read the site . . . Laowai or Chinese national.

 

Peace,

 

Jonathan

I haven't posted or checked in recently even though I planned to because my internet connection in China is a bit sketchy.

 

Anyway, I recorded the full text of Stephen Mitchels translation of the Tao Te Ching to MP3 the other night.

 

If you want to listen to it, you can download it here:

http://www.wudangquan.com/taoteching.mp3

 

I also recorded the following other stuff for people to listen to if they want:

 

Chi Wen Dong - The Red Streaked Cave

The Pivot Of Jade

The Hsin Yin Ching - Imprint Of The Heart

Ching Jing Jing - Purity And Rest

Tai Hsi Ching - Respiration Of The Embryo

Universal Understanding

 

Sometime tonight I'll probably finish recording the entire Zhuang Zi, so if anyone doesn't think my voice is to over the top ridiculous or something, and wants that let me know.

 

I'm just recording these for myself, but since they're already recorded, I figured some people might like to listen to them on their mp3 player or computer also.

 

Regards,

 

Jonathan

I am making a free Audio Book series of classic Taoist texts that I have been giving away to people.

 

Basically the idea is that I am recording these for myself, because I can listen to them when I'm stuck in a traffic jam while riding a bus here in China, or walking, or whatever.

 

I've found that they've been very helpful to me, so I decided to give the recordings to people in hopes that they can get some value as well.

 

Anyway, the texts that I have recorded already and am giving away are:

• Chi Wen Dong - The Red Streaked Cave
  
• The Pivot Of Jade
  
• The Hsin Yin Ching - Imprint Of The Heart
  
• Ching Jing Jing - Purity And Rest
  
• Tai Hsi Ching - Respiration Of The Embryo
  
• Universal Understanding
  

Tonight I'll probably do Tao Te Ching and Chuang Tzu as well and add those to the list, but haven't yet because they are alot longer.

 

Anyway, I want to help myself, and help other people and I would like your input.

 

What is your favorite classic Taoist text?

 

Thanks for your help

 

Jonathan

Hello,

 

I found this forum in the referer logs for my website, and once I took a look around I thought I would like to participate.

 

My name is Jonathan. I live in Kunming, but will be in Hubei in about a month . . .

 

Nothing to much to say - I'm just some random guy, but want to learn more about taoism and taoist cultivation and hope some of the more experienced people here can provide me with some good advice and information.

 

Thanks