affenbrot

how sad! I hope maybe your emphasis is about addictive participation, so you maybe will share something every now and then in a non-addictive manner? Makes me think about my own internet habits, that can enter the addiction zone often! And... you may consider that your musings on these forums is not only egomanical waste of time, but surely inspires a lot of people!! (...I guess - at least it always inspired me) all the best to you! affenbrot

In my last formular I took last spring there was dried earthworm in it that stated floating on the surface no matter how much I stirred. I think flying squirrel are much cooler animals, they are really cute! My materia medica says: Wu Ling Zhi, literal translation: Fat Of The Five Spirits, bitter, sweet, warm, Channels entered: Liver, Spleen. Disperses blood stasis, transforms stasis and stops bleeding. I wouldn't object drinking stuff like this. I think about the yogis that do wonderful alchemy with cow shit! skal! affenbrot

I think the latter applies . I feel that some people in exploring matters with their minds just sometimes step across the border of soberness and reality. Btw. wasn't Gurdjieff holding similar views about the moon ? Something about the moon being installed to controll humanity? Not sure were I heard this though... recently I wasted 40 Dollars on two book by a Neo-gnostic; some things I read about him made me interested, but now he started talking about how people live on the sun (physically) and the light we perceive is actually not light produced by the sun but radiation from the sun's many uranium mines the sun people operate and this strong radiation only transforms into light when it hits our atmosphere. On and on shit like this goes! I still ponder wether he's a trickster, doing kind of crazy wisdom teaching but he seems very serious about it!! Maybe I should cut down my time on the internet as well!!! affenbrot

I never met him and hardly practiced his techniques (see my short comment on his videos in the lending library) but how strange that I too am highly curious about him still... Rumours go he is in Istanbul sometimes, rumours are he is studying with Wang Liping now (- the latter stems from the former Taobum forum, so I think it's highly trustworthy ) What a pity his website is not maintained any more, it really had a wealth of information in it!! affenbrot

dustwalker, I wasn't really sure if you just had mixed them up or if there was a hidden connection for you, please excuse me furrowing my brow! SheepishLord has posted two links for Nan book in the links/books section, I'm sure they are worth reading. I too can recommend "Tao and Longevity" by Nan, I think the content of it is really unique and highly interesting. I also read two other books by Nan : History of chinese Zen , which I found extremley boring (but I admit I'm not too much interested in the topic anyway), and his history of Taoism, which was o.k. , a bit too scholary (not exactly the stories about daoism that rock) About Master Ni I don't know much. I own one book by Brian Walker "Hua Hu Ching -The unknown teachings of Lao Tzu" . The author states that his work is largely based upon the teachings of Master Ni. A very beautiful book! so long, affenbrot

hey dustwalker, i'm a little irritated - how come you throw those two authors into one pot??

I heard the that the organ clock the way it is presented in books is a too schematic decription of processes that flow in individual patterns in each person according to where he lives and what kind of life he is currently leading, or according to his general imbalances, his age etc. In history, often confucian scholars would pick up observations made by taoists (= good guys ) and then put them into some nice schemata that where in accordance with their numerology , geometry and way of thinking in general. Many of those scholars were not even practicing physicians, but just strived for evolving the theory behind it. The organ clock we know about today may very well be an outcome of this . I heard several times from healers that the active times of the organs can shift considerably, up to several hours, or even complete 12 hours swap. An alternative model of the organ clock I came across is that the organs' acticity is determined by the time of sunrise and sunset. In this model there are seven phases from dawn to sunset and five from sunset to dawn. So according of the seasons the organs' active time is different in every season. There is also the idea of biological midnight ( the time when the spark of new yang arises, which might be around midnight when you are in tune with the natural cycles) which might set the timing of the internal clock and the organs activity. affenbrot

I'm not into computergames at all, but recently I heard of a new release of "eyetoy kinetic" (I think it was called, didn't research yet) for playstation that interested me. You have this small camera that monitors your movements and projects your image into the computergame. Now they have several software like martial arts training where you (your projected image) have to avoid a ball of light flighing around and also hit another one simultaneously. People rewiewing it on my local radio seemed to like it a lot and it gave them a tough workout. In only wonder what happens on the long run if you do physical training while being kind of Out of body the whole time, staring into the TV...? Anybody knows this? affenbrot

Hi all, ever since I read John Lilly's "Center of the Cyclone" I have been curious about this gnostic Oscar Ichazo. Lilly describes this training with Oscar in Chile(?) he did in the seventies and the amazing effects of it. Until recently the search on the internet regarding arica let you learn about some lawsuites dealing with the ownership of the eneagram (Naranjo, Palmer have learned it from Ichazo) and a website of some highly disappointed ex-member of Arica who decribes in detail how the whole organization sadly went downhill and how the proposed system did not have the effects that was promised, or hoped for by the participants. Anyway now Arica seems to have relaunched a website. It shares a lot of information about their system. Ichazo invented (drawing from various traditions) his own unique gnostic metasystem. Amazing! very complex, I'm like "wow..." .. a lot of interesting stuff! You might be interested: ARICA I'm not considering to get involved in this, but still am very curious! Anybody has done any trainings with them, or knows anybody who done it, or some stories about it?? yours, affenbrot

reminds of this: on the last buddhist workshop I attended, the teacher was talking about basic ideas of buddhism in the tea break and said: the first thing you have to learn when you start to learn buddhist philosophy is the word BULLSHIT! That's some approach! shabd (34% ) P.S.: btw. maybe someone is interested in his website, a lot of resources, downloads, etc. The Berzin Archives

high demands. I often found people use this concept as the ultimate excuse to not practice at all!!! Like when I would tell them I am currently striving to do one hour every day, they would look at me like I was the stupid naive beginner who has not yet understood what it's all about. When I ask them how much they practice, they tell "oh, I'm practicing the whole day, everything is practice". I believe they just are lying to themselves. When they needed to do formal sitting practice for 15 minutes they could not. Don't want to impute that to you, but your comment triggered my ranting! affenbrot

there's a book with this title The Tao of Chaos I quite liked it, if you are into enneagram anyway, it might interest you. He describes how the patterns of personality form around the core of Nothing in defence of primordial chaos. (...or something like that...it is some time since I read it kind greetings affenbrot

please give us some review once you've read it! Sounds interesting.

thanks for sharing... never heard of that before! Re: Gurdjieff I don't want to buy that kind of story any more. This dervish doesn't even talk about the water method. I only can see the old power game between master and pupil: stupid seeker approaches big master, master knows everything better and warns about any other path (you are learning from books? very dangerous!) but in the same time does not teach his thing either (not yet, pupil must found to be worthy first blabla). ...but thanks for posting the link, I sure will read it :-) affnbrt

turtle breathing and static breathing - can you explain this a little more? I'm very curious! affenbrot

Check out this report about the scientist who dicovered principles of levitation while researching on insects. Grebennikov I'd love to believe it! Levitation myths are my favourite! affenbrot

how do you do it?? (now you could change your post into something really weird, and I will ask: how are you doing it?! It works! It works! Thank you Trunk!

I found something about the chinese kechari connection: Nan Huai-Chin mentions it at least two times in his book Tao & Longevity. (Beware: the quotes below are my own garbled english translation of the german translation of the american translation of the original chinese!!!) One passage reads: If the qi of the stomach ignites in the Middle Palace and rises the twelve floors of the gullet, the tongue will automatically form "Upper Bridge of Small Birds". That means it will touch the uvula and the inner openings of the nostril. The tongue will directly receive the secretion from the hypophysis (...) After some time (...) the gross breath will cease naturally (...) Anothe reads: When you reach samadhi (...) the tan tien wil start working as the lung (...) the testicles will contract and qi will flow up the Jen Mai and cause the tip of the tongue to curl towards the uvula. (...) regards, affenbrot

thanks for sharing! I emailed her about ten days ago to order a CD but haven't obtained feedback yet. Hope my request is not lost, but only delayed... Btw, your description of the MCO you gave recently inspired me to contact her. affenbrot

my own conspiracy theory regarding this topic : they forbid to practice any energy work alongside because it simply would work too powerful. Vipassana is a One-size-fits-all teaching , so it's their responsibility to make absolutely sure nobody gets hurt and burn their brains. It has to be a safe system for everybody otherwise the karmic consequences will be heavy. Vipassana by itself is already very powerful, many people would not be prepared to take any additional energy work that is supercharged by previous or parallel applied Vipassana-meditation. But some may...! Vipassana in combination with energy work is riding the bronco! It's the real deal! Check it out! Buy my newly released DVD! Only 99.50 if you buy this month! Plus free secret how to grow an extra leg! Affenbrot

This looks very interesting, can you recommend a good book about it?? The only info I had so far was exactly from that wilson book you provided the link for.... you seem maybe to have similar issues with fusion like I have! (with different outcome though maybe) well, eh, for me the fusion I am coming back to again and again. I really like the practice and had good results when doing it more intense. But in the meantime I tend to practice it more as a kind of tantric energy practice, not so much as a tool or structure to explore my emotions or "shen-issues" with. It just worked out to be this way - to concentrate energy into those fusion patterns, "manipulating them" - I like it the most and it has results... It's also - despite me knowing the shen theory and the approach as taught by Michael Winn - that this does not work for me the shen way and I don't particulary want it to work it that way also... So, but my emotions this practice besides other things was about? I agree here that just "doing" fusion only the "tantric" way probably misses the mark. But when I want to explore my emotions and feelings, I definately prefer things like simply feeling the energetic pattern it holds in my body (which might by something completely different each time) or other ways to get conscious with it (Leary??), and afterwards I just don't feel at all like "I now should really put it into my liver collection point or something" - what for!? it still looks too rigid and cooky cutting. This structure provided by fusion doesn't fit for me on this level (but on the level of qi-pushing as I said above very well!) mh... doing the fusion practice nevertheless, I sometimes experienced surfacing of strong feelings , just by "manipulating chi" and visualisation. I remember the time I learned it with Mantak Chia the effect was so strong I had to quit the seminar...! Hey, my ambivalance about practice seems to reach new heights! bye egghead affenbrot

Inspired by the discussion about kechari mudra I recapitulated some of my former Kriya Yoga practices and experiences... I must say that since I entered Qigong, the notion that the lower Dantian is the most important and foremost energy center, the point you should start with and work on, lead in my case unconsciously to a an extreme habit in such, that in the end I haven't even dared to feel or gaze into other centers or parts of the body than the dantian and other officialy allowed routes like the channels. For example one of my qigong teachers (maybe to make his point especially clear to the new age folks hanging out in his seminars) preached on the importance of the lower Dantian, it started almost to feel like a blashphemy to not gather your energy in the dantian, or to shift into bliss of the higher centers (I am also easily expressed by such talk- maybe my tendency to be the good boy and play the game as it is supposed to be) .... well now in Kriya Yoga (this for me is a loong time ago) we first learned to focus inside the head and during this time I did so extensively and must say : the effect the "qigong police" warns you about all the time (becoming ungrounded, too much energy in the head, weakness, and what else) did Not happen, on the contrary, I was feeling full of energy (also physically) , and very very happy. Now... I found two things recently. One is that the Kriya yogis have a technique of charging the navel center (nabhi kriya), that seems to work incredibly strong (from my limited experience), I am very impressed by this practice, the first time I did it (now some days ago) my navel and mingmen very pulsing and vibrating with high frequency charge; so there is some transfer so to speak of what I always thought Kriya Yoga was about (the higher centers) and daoist teachings (the importance of the belly). and second: in Lu Kuan Yu's book 'Taoist yoga' is described how in daoist inner alchemy practice you are STARTING with the focus on the original cavity of the spirit (inside the head) , and in succession let the abundance of this point flow into the lower cauldron inside the belly to then further advance in the transformatory practices. So... in short I started to focus on my center in the skull some days ago now, seeing the light and listening to the sound and feeling the pulsation and while doing this stilll feeling my awareness in the lower dantian (this has become an automatism, I cannot Not center myself around it) and eventually let this higher energy flow down in my cauldron. It has a very good effect, adds a more spiritual feeling I sometimes missed elsewise, I just love it! Let's see were it leads me... so much about what I wanted to share about my practice, comments are very welcome greetings, affenbrot

I first did practice a SRF (Yogananda) form, the only Kriya Yoga I really actually practiced over quite some time (but only still the first initiation level), I later on also did Kriya Yoga as taught by Vishnu-Devananda and still later another highly interesting tradition of Kriya Yoga taught by Marshall Govindan During practice I did experience spontaneous curling and stretching of my tongue trying to reach inside, but unfortunately my frenum is very strong and quite short, so I cannot reach far... and again despite my fascination with it I won't enter this practice right now .... (... yet) ;-) affenbrot

you are practicing Nabho Mudra. Shit, a few more days you guys are discussing it and I will be in too

Hello Billb, welcome! regarding Microcosmic Orbit: I don't know how Winn teaches it, and and I'm also not quite up to date how Chia teaches it. (does he still? I thought his beginners class is about invoking the Qi of Alpha Centaury and rapping it around your DNA or something ) What I could recommend is the book by Eric Yudelove. "100 days to better health, good sex and long life". Don't let yourself be confused by the extremly stupid booktitle, it's a handbook or tutorial about how to open your orbit in about 3 months time, taught in steps - detailed training instructions for every week. You learn a lot of other useful techniques (many out of the healing tao lore) alongside as well. A very balanced practice, you may give it a try! Jing: according to TCM-theory there is the pre-heaven essence, post-heaven essence and (relating to both) the kindney-essence. The essence stored in the kidneys in the body relates mostly to sperm, bone marrow, brain, spine marrow. (This might not be true at all, just what I think I know). Jing in spiritual practice still owns some deeper meaning i don't feel competent to explain - M. Winn would be the right adress here i guess. - Does this help a bit? kind regards, affenbrot