Ian

Funnily enough, Sifu Yap is now encouraging most of his students to do their meditation standing. This is relatively recent, as of about February. I can't speak on behalf of the Canadian instructor, nor on behalf of Sifu, but I would imagine that the point of what you've been told is not so much that you "can't" do standing (i.e. it is forbidden) but that it would be pointless to do cfq if you're simultaneously doing something else that works in an opposite direction. My experience of CFQ continues to be extremely positive to the point that I have no other practice now. It has the most down-to earth, functional and least cult-like atmosphere I have encountered. The theory behind the practices is such that it is incompatible with many other practices. I'm not going to try and convince anyone that it is right or better. If you meet Sifu Yap you'll either be convinced or you won't. There is a cfq forum on the cfqmalaysia site where you can ask questions if you want to. I personally find it the forum structure mildly confusing and not entirely user-friendly, but it can be done!

Thanks for the warning. I've moved on from Oxy-Powder, myself. And yes, I do try not to ingest toxins, but haven't worked out the interactive personal air bubble yet. Plus there's about ten years worth of enthusiastically ingested toxins still lurking within somewhere....

And just one more thing before I promise to shut up about Oxygen. I was quoting from the book mentioned above about how maybe there used to be a lot more oxygen in the air than there is now, like maybe 30% instead of 21. I was expecting the usual ridicule/scepticism I get in the office when I promulgate any kind of weirdness, but this time my boss said "Yes, that's why there used to be dragonflies a foot long." So perhaps a lot of ancient weirdness - biblical ages, Sampson's strength type things, giant animals etc etc could have been down to superabundant oxygen in the past. Just a thought.

I find it quite interesting to observe my reactions. Because when Jasmuheen comes up, I think "nutter". Yet I was quite happy to accept that article "Healing Dao goes Breatharian" on Michael Winn's site, and when Ron Diana told a class about a friend of his who'd gone bigu for a while I had no problem with that either. I think it's just that Jasmuheen has no sense of, well, rigour. No real practice to offer, no atmosphere of achievements achieved over time. Which is not to say that wonderful things can't happen spontaneously, but .... And Mantak Chia turning the dark room retreat over to her is about the last nail in the coffin of my respect for him. I was very edgy about her being there as a guest, but as the star? The program notes seem quite revealing to me. There was something about (roughly) "going with whatever is brought up by the collective divinity". As far as I'm concerned that's English for "Make it up as you go along!" Whatever happened to daoist alchemy?

A very interesting read is "Flood your body with Oxygen" by Ed McCabe. I don't by any means guarantee its complete accuracy, but it does cover a lot of how and why Oxygen/Ozone therapy gets discredited, plus relentless anecdotal evidence about Ozone sorting out everything from HIV to cancer. The only evidence I have personally is that, as I mentioned before, one teacher I trust entirely uses Ozone therapy in his detox clinic and swears by it.

No reading suggestions, but agreement. I have been taught, and sort of accept, that the most compassionate thing you can do for someone is simply to perceive them exactly as they are. Which requires detachment. (Which is inclusive) I think the main problem with this subject is that we can't have any idea what genuine detachment is until we've practiced it a lot. We (I) tend to think of it as similar to the sort of indifference, or coldness, shutoff if you like, we experience when people just don't care in an ordinary way. I suspect that genuine detachment, like so many good things, can't be conceptualised, but has to be experienced, and then described in metaphors.

As I'm being taught it, detachment is all-inclusive. To really detach from something you just allow it to be part of the bigger picture. Not in any sense reject or ignore it, as that's a subtle connection. I think human selfish love is a very useful gateway to something more universal, and should not be seen as the enemy. Enjoy it, express it, observe it. Otherwise you get all wrinkly. Welcome, anyway.

There's a really nice book by Ram Dass and someone else, called "how can I help?".

Dunno that one, but if yr interested in parables, Daskalos wrote a book on them. Don't think it's generally available: I got it direct from Cyprus via the website.

This made me grin: www.theblackribbon.org Wishing everyone a splendid weekend. I

This is great. Thank you.

Dude, I know Liu Ming! Little guy, ever so slightly camp, really, really well informed and scholarly. Yes? Comes over once a year to do a weekend with th British Taoist Association. I went about three years ago. Drove back round the M25 totally relaxed, hands at the bottom of the steering wheel. He's really cool. Several killer articles by him in "The Dragon's Mouth", journal of the BTA. See www.taoists.co.uk Some back issues still available. And, yes, the book's good too!

Fill me in, chaps. What, in summary, was so horrid about Osho? I've no direct experience of him or his, but some of his writing seems pretty lucid and compelling. I've been really enjoying "from medication to meditation". Are you scorning the man, rather than his teaching? Or both? Or what?

I've been starting to think that one main reason for chi cultivation is that it's the easiest way to experience yourself as something with wider boundaries than your skin-bag. Clear your channels enough and you start to connect with stuff outside, in a manner kind of tangible and not too nebulous. Body is too lumpy and spirit often too hard to train for this sort of connecting outwards. Chi kinda works.

I did the week, did maybe one alternate day, then had about 4 days off, then started again with a full week, which has just ended. Physically good, emotionally vulnerable, as per detox.

I met a couple a month or so back who were training with a Chi kung master from Malaysia. They training was organised in such a way that any practice they might do would be done for a minimum of 100 consecutive days. This period was called a "gong". (or something like that - they didn't write it down for me!) The idea being that you couldn't really evaluate a practice over any lesser period because it wouldn't have a chance to properly manifest its effects. But over 100 days, when a lot of your cells have been replaced and so on, then it might start to really permeate you. I did a thing called Eagle's Claw for a hundred days in 2004, which seemed quite powerful, and I've recently passed 100 days of standing meditation (just half an hour). Hard to really tell you how it's been without having kept a diary, but I do find great value in having something which I'm going to do whether I feel like it or not. So, people, what have you ever done for 100 days in a row? What would you like to do for 100 days, starting now, and tell us about it? Do you think 100 days is long enough? What, generally, do you think? Yours mellowed by lunch, Ian

Beetroot, apple, pear and nutmeg. Plus a bit of apple juice to get it moving. Not my idea: I was surprised by how nice it was. Also: have found that both beetroot leaves and asparagus stalks blend into a fruit mix without adding too much "green" flavour.

I'd like to hear about that, if you do. Have you been trying to do the whole 18 or so movements? I struggle with the 6 basics.

Just to chime in on this: I This is third-hand, and I haven't read the research, but... One of my teachers is really into all this, and checks people's blood with a darkfield microscope and does ozone therapy and so on. He seems to be of the opinion that oxygen will be a free radical (i.e. harmful) according to its delivery (i.e. not necessarily) and that some of the science on this has been misleading. When he has people out in Bali being detoxed from the ground up I know that he checks their bolood daily, because there is some condition where blood cells get so healthy they can burst (!!) But I think that's something else.

I did this and felt quite good. Then I stopped doing the maintenance dose for a bit (places to go, people to be..) so I started all over again, paying more attention to eating slightly better as well. The second time is much better. Greatly increased sense of purring energy in both limbs and abdomen. I recommend it.

Yes! Thank you. I'm been toying with this thought for years now. It's a dilemma. A lot of teachers say not to increase energy until your garbage is gone. But then it's hard to know where the garbage is that's stopping you getting rid of the garbage!! I've never heard it put as honestly as you have here. Energy addition to highlight the issues. So long as the revealed issues don't get confused with the desired results.....

Brief respite from ranting at everyone... As those of us on Michael Winn's mailing list will know, tomorrow is Summer Solstice, and the yuan chi flows thickest in the middle of the day. But how noon is noon? In the UK, at least, we have this thing called British Summer Time, which means that the clocks go forward one hour in spring and back in autumn. I've never fully understood why - they say it's for the farmers, go figure. But anyway it kinda means that "planetary" noon will happen at 1pm. I've asked several teachers about this issue in the past, in relation to the timing of various practices. The only one to give a vaguely satisfactory answer was Dirk, when I asked him in respect to doing his Meridian chi kung in time with the "chi clock." He said that the mental body quickly adjusts when the clocks are changed in such an arbitray way, but the physical body is much less inclined to. So maybe we should celebrate solstice at 1pm? Anyone else have any input?

I know it's easy, and that all you have to do is drop the hard bit. Stop struggling. And my own practice is becoming more effortless all the time, (especially just now with an awesome solstice vibe going on ) But.... it's harder to drop the hard bit than all you bliss-munchers think. I'm not after cruxifiction. But look: You start a practice. It works great in the areas where you have not much resistance. And you tend to avoid those areas where you do have much resistance. And your resistance will make up very very plausible reasons why you shouldn't even go there. Which is why much spiritual practice runs straight into a brick wall. All I'm saying is that we have to go through the extremely painful process of giving up the bits we want to keep. It needn't cause us even a tiny bit of suffering, but it will be painful. "Enjoy the pain!" my sifu says, with a big grin. I'm not addicted to suffering, I'm generally a lazy, happy bugger. I'm just trying to provide another side to the coin. I read a lot of posts on here which make me think that folks are practice-surfing, picking and choosing those approaches which appeal to the part of them that has to go. How's that for irony? All I'm trying to say, really, is that if you keep playing, having fun, exploring the possibilities, manifesting bliss etc etc etc, it is indulgence of the small self and that self will run you in circles. So much of what people say in response to this sort of argument is perfectly right and plausible IF AND ONLY IF you are already empty and unattached and big mind is leading your spontaneous expression. THEN you can groove with creation. But we all have a huge amount of house-clearing to do before we get to that stage and I sincerely believe that anyone who thinks otherwise is kidding themselves. It doesn't have to be tough, it just has to be done.

Only for you. What really stops us from experiencing ourselves as part of the big picture, aligned with big mind, a cell in the body of life? The belief that stuff we think is experienced within our skin bag is different, separate or more important than stuff outside it. The idea that there's a boundary there. Even in my very limited experience detachment requires an open, expansive, presence which takes in more, not less of what is actually happening, just doesn't call it me. So to be truly detached from something you gotta be right up in its face. But not savouring your passion, emotion, reactions, and thinking OOH, it's so real it must be valid. That's just an excuse for not even bothering to try and do the job. That's the tricky mind saying it's ok, you don't even need to start, the premise is invalid. Spiritual practice is DIFFICULT. You have to die to yourself. Lots of other things get lumped in and filed under general weirdness, and people assume they are a kind of spiritual practice. But they ain't. Spiritual practice is a form of suicide. You get it all back, if you succeed, but by then you don't care. But you gotta gotta gotta be prepared to give it all up. Cloud - will you give up the joy of argument? Sean - will you give up the joy or research and analysis? Ian - will you give up trying to be right? Will you give up being yourself? Will you go right out on a limb and have no idea what to do next because you don't know who you are? Will you endure that uncertainty for decades if necessary, years of apparent pointlessness, because you love God/tao/love, whatever you call it, so much? Maybe neimad will. How's that, Cat? Can I go now?