Trunk

It doesn't quite add up that it's "dreaming" or "a manifestation of your own mind": This is something that has migrated to bother others in the same household (children and adults) who had not taken a seminar. (Background reading here.) Makes more sense that it is an actual invasion. .. or if it's a product of your own mind then that is some kind of powerful f***ed up dreaming. ... that a bunch of students from the same school just happen to be having similarly.

HNY. w3l1rQwZxE0

.. my 2 cents ... 1. I've been in a number of lineages where people have lots of mystical experience as a norm. I have never seen another school where so many people report "trouble with rascalious reptiles". 2. It's a truism that when you receive initiation from a Teacher backed by a Spiritual Lineage that you are introduced to the psychic space of that Lineage. Seems to me that Naga Loka has some rough neighborhoods. I think that it's a good method and a risky lineage. Some people get through it fine, but enough have trouble that it's a noticable %. Some predictable unfortunate results when presenting it to the untrained masses. The prospect of this initiation to a parent with children, infants, or a pregnancy in their home (given that we've seen that others in household also sometimes have trouble), for me I have to get out the thesaurus to start looking for some pretty extreme words. I mean, if you're a solitary spiritual adventurer and you know what you're getting into, that's another thing. Of course, this has all been talked about before.

No, I'm out in the woods somewhere exploring.This thread is my first exposure to the existence of Flying Phoenix.

I'm sorry to say this, and I'm the first guy to want all the good stuff out in text and vid, I would be very surprised if... I don't think it .. XingYiQuan can't be taught but by in-person, regularly, over a long period of time - by a teacher who is good at proposing the right corrections for a student based on the idiosynchratic difficulties in their own shape and how it is relating to their current stage of learning an exercise. XingYi is not obvious to the beginner's body. Anyway, that's one point of view.

Skill! ... and not just with the main method, able to make astute corrections. _/\_

Ha!Another thing right under our noses that we wouldn't have guessed! If Taoism is a crossword puzzle, we're slow to work out the connecting words. Very much! Thank you for your kind help.

Wow. That was done with Juice. Thank you for sharing in the Light.

It wasn't directed specifically towards you, nor to any one person in particular. I give myself leeway to be an a** for one post per year ... I'm probably already over my limit for '09. Please don't let it ruin our repoire, potential or otherwise.

bullshit, naivete, mis-direction * ad nauseum *

I bumped into this clip that I always find inspiring. Thought I'd start a thread for such. fS0QYq26V2g

Correct. Just because a person merges with deeper layers of reality (and there are lots of layers) doesn't mean that they are currently seeing/operating on the layer that solves the particular situation in front of them. I know of an Enlightened Teacher, extremely advanced and amazing to meditate with, but who has trouble relating to students at the step that they are at. You ask a question about step 5 and get an answer about step 500,000. It's a problem in that school (and they're working to get better at it). But his ability to integrate with Light?: ah-MAZ-ing. Just because a Teacher can integrate with Light does not mean that s/he is a good speller, nor necesarily says the optimal answer to any particular question, nor knows what your difficulty/problem is without you saying it, nor does it mean that s/he has a slim toned figure. There's a lot of mythology about what an enlightened teacher is...

You've already mentioned a couple of good ideas... The related things I know of are: Green Gulch Farm - Zen center with an April -> October farm apprenticeship program. I'd bet there are other similar programs if you look around green magazines, websites, or the Intentional Communities website. Variety of communities all over the world at the IC community directory.

I've seen a number of commentators on the left critique Obama. Rachel Maddow, Dennis Kucinich, various posts at major left wing news sites.

I'd agree that that's often a dynamic in cults, but it's not how I've defined them. Certainly a group often becomes an "admiration society" towards the leader such that people neglect their own root. I was talking to a friend about cults a while back and he identified the dynamic that often there's some genuinely good stuff in a group (whether it's the teacher, view, method, lineage...) and usually there's some disfunctional stuff too. It's when people are so enamoured of the good stuff that the disfunctional stuff never gets acknowledged nor addressed, but rather ignored and made sort of unconscious on a group level. And sometimes the disfunctional stuff has room to grow way out of size as a result.

Zhoupeng, Welcome! Trunk

Thx.

You ran a Kundalini discussion site... Was it your observation that it was common for those w/ awakened K to feel their sexuality more continuously? Females and males?

Just to kick it up a notch... If you really really think that a spiritual teacher shouldn't charge anyone, then I suggest that you "make it so" in a real, adult, responsible fashion: Become a benefactor. Find a spiritual teacher that you admire and offer to cover all of his/her expen$es plus some reasonable living expenses (unless the teacher has that covered through a regular job). In exchange the teacher would agree to offer services to others for free. That would be a practical way of implementing your ideal.

While I know that this topic comes up from time to time, it still surprises me. It seems to me the most ungrounded and unreasonable, ignoring just simple basic facts of getting along in the world which everyone must face. Consider even the most basic expenses for a meditation seminar, or on-going meditation class: - advertise - rent the hall Where do you thing the $ comes from to put on such things? Do you think an enlightened teacher just materializes cash to pay for all of his or her expenses?

I think that - in a way - that you are one of the very few basically sensible people here on this board. ... almost a lone voice of basic sensible earthiness. And, you're appreciated.

Luke, Welcome! Trunk

~~~ TheTaoBums Moderation Team ~~~ This thread has been moved from the "Book Club" to the general "Taoist Discussion" forum. The Book Club section is for long term community co-study of a particular book. This thread seem more of a general topic - and you're likely to get more dialog for that in the Taoist Discussion section. (Please correct me if I have misunderstood your intent.) Trunk ~~~ Mod Squad out ~~~

* a moment of appreciation for our little cyber-community * OuHxaWE__0A

"Buddhist ecology" is hip in the U.S. Buddhist scene. Common enough that at least I've seen & heard the phrase used. Another writer who'd dig what you're saying is Wendell Berry. He's a Christian farmer, but his philosophy has more recognizable commonality with that of Native American Indians and with Taoism. Deep, deep thinker, writer re: modern culture, agriculture, economy, character, ecology, community - and the basic fact that they're all interwoven. His various books of essays rock, but I don't connect with his (fiction) novels. ... haven't seen the movie. What's Kunlun?