dwai

The practitioner identifies with the modifications of the mind if he/she is not in a state of yoga. Modifications of the mnd are all objects in the consciousness, with either or both name and form

I can relate to that. I have always been detached from "emoting", having struggled with a viciously short temper at one point in my life. At one juncture, after beginning meditation ( which was triggered as a coping with the untimely death of my father) i trted eperieninf physical pain with anger, like headaches, migrines and such etc. So i had to adapt, to learn to let go...most of times. Other emotions come and go an i try to remind myslf that there is a greater purpose o life than just being controlled like a puppet by emotions. But this has side effects too...people close to meclaim tht im slow to react, uncaring, etc t tmes. Maybe they re correct, but staying relatively unaffected helps... But there are deper, darker things lurking in the subconscious tht need tending yo. Only when silence and introspection sets in do we even realize that. Two years back, i struggled with certain " demons" as my tai chi and meditation deepened. It seems i was repressing somethings consciously...so those need to be worked on. I'm still figuring stuff out...excruciatingly slowly.

In order to not accrue further karmic debt, one has to do desireless action ( or be wu wei) . The bhagavad gita refers to this as nishkAma karma. It is obvious that its not possible to have sexual contact without "desire", so then one has to see whether the coupling "just" happens or was it driven by force of will. Former would minimize the impact, latter will aximze it.

Hi, Emotional mastery to me means emotional maturity. Most of us seem to go through the motions of life without taking responsibility for our emotional realities. Emotions as you know are reflections of our need for feeling alive. They are responses and aspects of our desires, tied to our senses. So emotional maturity would mean to relize when an emtion rises what its root is and in knowing that to not attach.

Vritti - to grow or change Drastuh - to view or find Svarupa - self image or own form Vasthanam - to reside So this would translate as when put into context: When the purpose of yoga, ie cessations of the changing state of the mind is realized, the practitioner rests in his self nature or primordial form. Imho, this refers to realization of the "Self" that is obscured by the mind stream.

Dhyana comes from the root word "dhyai" or "contemplate", so Dhyana is the vehicle of contemplation, used in general sense as "meditation". In Yoga, Dhyana is one of the eight limbs and one of the four "inner" techniques (as opposed to the outer techniques namely yama, niyama, asana and pranayama)

It is also perfectly okay for one teacher to "graduate" one's student o a higher level with a diffrent teacher. Bottom line is to not get caught in new agey clap-trap and be cler about what your motivations for learning are

Dont ever hold your breath and move it. Its a recipe for disaster. If you want to practice breth retention, please find a qualified teacher of prAnayama. The breath retention prt is called kumbhaka in yoga and it must be done after certain meridians have been unblocked, usually by yogic postures. Breath retention is akin to igniting a powder charge...if you do it without proper preparatory work, the energy explosion can do very serious internal damage. One friend of mine fell very ill doing it incorrectly.

I first heard about the concept of series of differentials in video by michael philips on youtube. He said that was the key to making energy flow, epecially in conext of fa jin. I later queried my yoga teacher ho agreed wrt raising kundalini. Since i have been tying to fit in william cc chens's thrree nails principle into my taiji practice, i realized something last night, what the series of differentials meant. In three nails, as i understnd it, sinking happens into the bubbling well and rising happens with a slight pressure of the big toes. Last night, moving to left and right side in beginning stance, i realized, beginning stance is emptiness, where everything exists a potentiality. Shifin to the right, pressure with left toe (closed), left kwa open, left birds nest closed. Rght root open, right kwa closed, right birds nest open. Left side from foot up, closed open losed, right side open, losed, from one to two (sides) to three ( per side), each corresponding side with its oppoite. Separate yet one... Thoughts?

Too much of anything is bad. In moderation everything is good. So in order to do without doing, one has detach from the fruits of ones actions. Do for the sake of doing...to the best one's abilities. Indulging the senses in extreme dull the mind...at the end of the day arent all desires indulgment of the senses. So how can i enjoy without indulging? By detaching from the idea of enjoyment and enjoying. We desire because we crave sensual gratiication. Why? Because we prop up stories and legends in our minds about the fruits of these gratifications. If we drop the stories, enjoyment beomes joy, doing becomes not dong.... My 2 cents worth...

Let me try: 1-2 refers to the purpose of Yoga. Yoga is practiced to cease the modifications of the mind. As I interpret it, it's goal is to expand the gap between thoughts so that the "true self" can be experienced. Since the ultimate goal of Yoga is Samadhi, it is only befitting that the first "lesson" of the Yoga Sutras is to describe what Yoga's goal is.

Dear manitou, Arent the three treasures of a taoist chi, jing and shen? Doesnt the taoist follow the inner path of cultivating all three? Doesnt taoist meditation entail finding the dao behind all thr humdrum of the mind? One component most revered by taoists is hsin, which is the heart mind. That is also the primary means to finding love and compassion. Only difference is tat taoists are not compelled to "spread" their love the way buddhists re (aka proselytize)

How about this. In push hands, any tension in the body becomes magnified, because we approach push hands with softness. To yield until ( if you so choose) you can take your paetner's center. Taomeow is right, if you tense your muscles thinking its rooting, you have just shifted your root fom the ground to where ever you have tensed the most. The way ive been taught push hands is to try and avoid giving any reistance anywhere in my body, so my partner doesnt get anything to push against. A while back a new chap came go our class and i was doing push hands with him. He would stop moving after a point in rolling hand free style and i knew he thought he was rpoting, but it would take me only a little bit of leaning in to topple him over. And the part about disappearing, it happens wiht my teacher. We might be doing a simple single hand push and after a while i wont know where he is...because he was actally driving the energy in the opposite direction of the physical movement.

Hi suninmyeyes.... I tink you misunderstood. I was referring to vibraing at a higer freq in gneral. I also apologize for my ipad typing... I was referring to the potential pitfall of becoming a ghost...you can fly under the proverbial radarbut its got its drawbacks too...as i find out from time to time.

There re prahctical chsllenges being this way though. For eg, you might become invisible at work. Not the best thing to happen if you want to grow careerwise. Other thing is soon we tend to be alone, except for a few friends who have grown with us...perhaps fellow daoists or other meditators... In a family too this can happen because the other half might not have interest in such things and this can be a recipe for some intense drama.

Nice,..my teacher tells us to just vibrate at a higher frequency. Negative energy is low frequency. By steadfast practice and right fame of mind we start vibrating at progressively higher freqs. Not to be nitpicky etc but like poles of magnets repel and opposite poles attract.

Hi Mewtwo, The link doesn't have any commentary, it's a translation and a very poorly done one at that. I'm sorry to sound so negative, but the fact of the matter is that whoever has done the translation doesn't have a good handle on sanskrit. I'm going to take some time to go through this again in detail, but my feedback is based on his translation of the Samadhi pada (Section 1). Never mind, I just realized there are links to the videos in the table as well. I'll go through the videos later this weekend.

The importance of the marrow is as a "battery" for jing. Master waysun liao teaches condensing breathing as compressing chi into the bone marrow, which in turn willbe converted into jing. And yes, you should feel a natiral condensing happen with time...it feels like a inward pressure to me, like a bp pad feels when being inflated...but much more lighter and ubtle and non localized. Afaik, the marrow is bone marrow.

I have experienced it too...the heel breath rises from the feet like a wave....it feels like moisture slowly rising up a paper till it rises all the way up to the crown point...and nonlocalized...it is everywhere at the same time. It happens when i stand in preparation form for 15-20 mins at a stretch. Is it respiration or something else...dont know. One thing is thst this happens invountarily and everything from that point ( after it rises completely to the top) is pronounced. The opposites become evident...what george tells us about feeling the 8 directions becomes palpable. The energy can be felt riding the body from back leg through shoulders to hands to palms to finger tips while simultaneously a wave descends in the opposite diretion instantaneously.

The three nails -- http://www.williamcc....com/3nails.htm Sung Kwa -- http://www.williamccchen.com/Vastus%20Medialis.htm

THanks...the translation is a little goofy on this one (in places).

If you are in the Ft Lauderdale area, go check him out, I hear he can positively re-enforce the fact that Taiji is a "real" Martial Art and really effective.

This is just hearsay but I've heard from reliable sources how "tough guys" (often from rival martial arts schools) would challenge Master Waysun Liao of Oak Park, IL and have to be sent to the hospital in ambulances. Taiji is effective in the right hands. And as a matter of fact, Taiji has many things built into it, doesn't it? It's got take-down defenses (e.g. rooting, ability to shift weights instantaneously, emptying out different parts of one's body etc). No doubt MMA guys have a lot of training (or should at least) doing "tough" things...but MMA at the end of the day is a sport and god forbid you get surrounded by 4-5 mean dudes on the street, take-down is probably the last thing you should be doing. Also, all these submission holds etc...if you put a triangle around someone's neck and shoulders, all they have to do is lift you up and smack your head down on asphalt...we'll see how well a submission hold like that will work in reality. Now if I were to be in a fight, I'd want to do as much damage to the individual with the least amount of effort. It's funny how a few well directed strikes to the throat, eyes, plexus or groin can dissuade the best of the fighters from continuing their aggressive overtures. After a great deal of deliberation over the years, I've come to realize this. A good fighter is a good fighter only if he/she has the "killer instinct". No amount of techniques, etc will help one in a fight unless they can bring themselves to harm someone else. To have technique is one thing, but if one cannot bring his/herself to commit to those techniques or adapt the techniques as needed, it'll be very pretty to look at but completely ineffective. When I was younger, I used to learn Goju Ryu and our training used to be in an open arena with no protective gear, etc. We would spar full contact with only rules being no groin, eye and throat strikes. It was amazing to see how some of the students would have really good technique but were unable to reasonably cause much damage (even in the scope of just sparring) to their "opponent" while others would relish in causing nominal pain (with consequences from my sensei, who was a lady of 5'4" and a lawyer by profession) and there was no doubt that these guys would and could inflict a significant amount of damage if they chose to (one was a gangster and one was a bouncer). Around the same time frame, one of my friends was a 3rd Degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do and one day while sparring with him, I just closed the gap suddenly and blocked his kicking capability by entering his space. The look on his face was astonishing, in that he couldn't figure out how to do kick and since he did tae kwon do, he didn't really focus too much on hand strikes. Moral of the story is, a good fighter needs to have killer instinct and also be able to adapt and respond to situations without having to think about it. Check out these clips: http://houseoftaichi.com/martial/clip1.mov http://houseoftaichi.com/martial/clip2.mov http://houseoftaichi.com/martial/clip3.mov

Vedic literature have four general categories. The samhitas, the brahamanas, the aranyakas and the upanishads. The uanishads are called vedanta since they are the fial section of the vedas. To answer your question, if you want to read the vedanta without commentary, read the upanishads and vedanta sutras or brahma sutras. http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/bs_0/Brahma_Sutra.pdf