dwai

Snowy mountain has been permanently banned

That’s a great point. TDB, afaik, is not a legal entity, and neither a not-for-profit, nor a for-profit organization. TDB is run by a bunch of member volunteers and paid for by an individual who does it from the goodness of their heart.

I’ve seen you use the term “profanity” multiple times in this context - I don’t think stating the obvious (public information is public) is profane in any way. To call it profane is inaccurate at best and a dishonest characterization at worst. Let me be clear - You are skating on thin ice with this line of belligerent behavior. I would strongly recommend you change your tone and consider recusing yourself from this forum if you cannot agree to the terms of membership. Let me know if you want your membership revoked and all your content deleted - we can do it quite easily.

Don’t want to speak for FoC but I’m sure he meant if people post ridiculous things on the public internet, it is there for the foreseeable eternity for the world to read. There’s no need to take it personally

On a public forum like TDB?

I’ve seen absolute random strangers discuss and even vigorously debate politics and sports in public places (like tea shops in India). You’ll be surprised how alike interactions IRL and OLL are. I’ve had debates with complete strangers on a train (36 hr train ride through India). Only thing is; mostly IRL people do it for fun, or simply to counter boredom. Some even strike up great friendships.

Very interesting. So you’re basically saying that starting with the example of a in-person interaction in a public space is different from an online interaction in a public space, and different rules/modes of behavior would apply? And that it depends on the intention behind the interactions?

What would your options be? Just curious

Can share the source of this wrt Gandhi?

How do you think it changes with people online?

But do it in a park or something like that. I have a friend who was doing his gong at a public bus-stop and got tackled to the ground by two well-intentioned ladies who thought he was having an epileptic fit or stroke

Don't worry about people - go do your thing. People might stare, they might laugh, but its okay - you just enjoy your QG or ZZ.

Not really, but it is a gateway for a certain type of cultivation.

“My heart will never rest until I reach the Yellow River”? Happy sailing, I guess?

What good is an "honest" discussion about theory without empirical evidence that it works in practice? While 'proof' can be faked, it is still better than *no proof* and *only talk* I don't see it that way - but you should feel free to discuss these things till the proverbial cows come home

The way I see it, there is a point of diminishing returns if there is no way to demonstrate what is being claimed

That's why you need sincere and honest practice partners It is at least more efficient than fajin in thin air, IMHO.

We can discuss fajin further after you demonstrate fajin with a live partner. Heavy bags are not a good way to do push-hands. They will give you dead weight—a live human being will not. I know many people who have practiced for 40-50 years but still can't do it. They can talk up a storm about it sounding like grandmasters, though. As I mentioned earlier, Fajin is just the tip of the iceberg - so many different ways jin can be expressed (floating, sinking, heavy, light, etc.). There is the ability to transform (hua) and stick (Na). The only way to know if you can do it, is by working with other live humans. A good practitioner can gauge your skill by touching your hands. Do you have peng? Are you song? Do you have ting? All these things are required before you can Fajin. PS: Fajin can be done in one of 3 ways. long power, short power or cold power. Mostly for practice and demos we use long power. Long power is a good gauge to see if the practitioner has the ability to issue Jin without risking their practice partner. I’d recommend using this for demos.

Based on the volume of information you seem to possess, I was under the impression that you teach as well. Is that not true? If not, do you have (or have you ever had) regular practice partners with whom you can explore and experiment with your art? If that is not valid either, would it be safe to say that you haven't actually applied these theories and empirically verified their efficacy with other people in at least a push-hands setting? How, then, can you be so sure about them? My teachers have always insisted that the most important thing about learning the IMA is having practice partners who can give you honest and sincere feedback (and vice versa). The forms require solo practice but are only one part of the puzzle (in a figure of speaking). An entire set of two-person practices is needed to validate and refine our skills.

Why don’t you show us by demoing fajin on a live person? 🤣

You are referring to what is called a taiji ball in the system I practice. It is very powerful and can be used for many purposes. I'm listing a few of those applications below - Develop sensitivity to Qi - as you work with expanding and contracting this ball, and maintaining mindful focus on the space between your palms, you should start to get a very strong and palpable sense of the ball therein. Play with it, expand it and notice where it ceases to feel substantial. Keep practicing and overtime the size of the ball (and how much area you can sense) will help attune your mind and your qi Compress the ball, observe what happens internally as you compress the ball (do you notice sensations within your body?) Move the ball up and down your central channel - tracing a path as you move the ball from your lower torso to above your crown. The key is to be very gentle and relaxed, not straining the mind in the process. WIth time you will start to notice a flow that follows the movement of this ball. Connect the center of this ball to the front and back channels as you move it, and you will start to apply the indirect method to circulate your MCO.

yes words can both entangle and point to the truth. There are some things one needs to recognize for proper discernment to happen - the literal meaning (vachyartha) and the implied meaning (lakshyartha). Not all words have the second (subtle) meaning, but in the spiritual realm many do. In tantra, such language is called sandhya bhasha (twilight language). Without a good teacher, or sufficient clarity of mind, such words become caricatured into ideas such as “mitochondrial density” or laughed at as being gibberish. 🤦 I like what Ramana said, “first become free, rest will happen automatically” (paraphrasing). I like where your speculations are taking us Didn’t I? 😜

Gee thanks for enlightening us 😇

All this terminology - xing, Ming and so on don’t really appear in the ML system - which rather focuses on the practical application. Idk if you went through it, but our common teacher went on to teach several seated meditations over the 13 years I studied with him. Some of these were pre-heaven and some post-heaven. Even in the standing practices some are pre-heaven and some post-heaven - but the labels were not important - the important thing was - “does it do what it is meant to?” For that, we need a teacher who has experience and can guide us through the journey. Now, as I’ve been studying with my present teacher for the past 10 years or so, he is revealing more esoteric material through direct transmission. It doesn’t matter what language is used (most of the things he gives us can’t be expressed in words anyway). When he reveals something, direct apperception occurs, and keeps unfolding for days after through practice. This is entirely in the domain of “spirit” and “awareness”. Its applications are just ways to assess if we are able to digest and assimilate the information transmitted. I asked my teacher how he learns what he does - and he says some he was taught, others — over the years revealed themselves to him. He applied/experimented until he understood them. That is the beauty of a spiritual path - not all things can be labeled and categorized, there needs to be a mystery that unfolds with practice. It is not a course one finishes and walks away - it is a lifelong companion. We need to keep polishing the mirror, and the truth will be revealed in it.