dwai

I won't comment on this any further. imho, most people need to work on ming before xing. Yes that's what I too say. What is the point? What (primarily) the Buddhists call "no self" is what I call the Self. Why? That's a long story...but in the Hindu nondualist traditions, Self is not what people ordinarily think they are (mind-body-personality). So in this discussion, I've been assiduously avoiding using either the terms "Self" or "no Self", but rather sticking to "True Nature". Read this to find out what I mean -- https://www.medhajournal.com/most-people-misunderstand-what-atman-means/

Good point. I thought it is understood that everything we share here is subjective, and based on our own experiences. I (usually) don't like to quote from scriptures and texts, and rarely like to read if others do it-- primarily because if someone has walked the walk, they can express their journey and what they saw, what they think etc in their own words. Except when we can find someone who expresses a shared path much better (then we can share videos, quotes, etc).

And I like you too. Please don't for once think that it is personal for me my friend There is no objective truth when it comes to this topic. It is our predilection for 'objectivity' that makes us think that there might be. Here's a beautiful book I'm re-reading...might be fun to read for others too. I don't mean it that way. I'm not here to convert anyone to any particular conceptual framework. I thought you guys wanted to discuss

The challenge is with getting caught up in the mechanism instead of the objective. Let go of this obsession with post-heaven this and pre-heaven that. They are simply means to an end. What does post-heaven imply? Name, form and function. What does pre-heaven imply? Prior to name, form and function. What was prior to name, form and function? We need to go back to that...the source from whence names, forms and functions arise. Do a little investigation -- Name, form and functions arise with the mind. With the mind also arise changes -- energy. So long as we're working with the thinking mind, we are working in post-heaven stuff. When we use the thinking mind (10,000 things) to trace back to it's source, we find an emptiness which is full of potentiality (One). That which knows that emptiness is our True Nature (Dao). When we rest as that which knows, nothing else needs to be done. Then whatever action arises, is wu wei. P.S. I'm sure this will be greeted by some with howls of derision and/or indignation.

Let me know what you find out you can summit a mountain peak using different routes (usually). Differences are in the means, not the end. Different means exist for people with different qualities, different karmic fruits. See, you get it! Different means for different people based on their (individual) story templates

Thanks for the support and feedback friends

Simply be. It’s harder than it seems but is easier done than thought about

these are not ‘philosophical concepts’ though they might seem like that to some. Everything is conceptual until one experiences it directly. Then the Concept becomes reality. And by saying that, I’m not trying to exalt myself in anyway. The whole purpose of sharing this is for those who are on the threshold of walking through this gate — don’t be deterred by naysayers and those that claim that “it is not possible if x, y or z” — that is bogus. Anyone can do it — it is not something you procure from outside — it is your Real nature, meaning it has always been yours, only you were looking here and there. Actually I rejected what you wrote because my example is meant to serve a purpose which was done I don’t see the point of extending it anymore I do in flogging a dead horse. There is intellectual knowing and there is direct experience. Surely you didn’t think I meant intellectual knowing? I’ll let the treeness go. Restore dao-ness! Now that is something amazing to consider. What is “dao-ness”? Can you describe it? which is actually wonderful. That doesn’t mean much in terms of enlightenment. maybe you misunderstand what “reversal” means. I too say there must be a reversal. The mind must turn back to find its own source (reversal). When it does, nothing more is needed. What begins must end. Even if you manage to extend it for a long time. Only way out of this cycle is to realize your True Nature. Not disappear into a cloud of smoke like puff the magic dragon. Who acts then? If one is at a point where action happens on its own, then they are no longer “reversing” anything? They’re just going along, aren’t they? I don’t have any problems with that, fwiw. I too say the same thing. Only I don’t say one needs to retain the individual personality to do so. All it needs is to realize what we truly are. after 13 years of teachings by my teacher using that book as the primary template, I’ve read it plenty. Question is, have you? Why do you presume to tell me what I have or haven’t done? nowhere have i said that anyone is wrong. Errors are in the minds of the students mainly. The teachings lead to the same source. I think I already answered that. I’ve got into trouble many times in the past with this. Neither is ‘wrong’. Okay Thanks but I’m not alone. You are all already there, only need to reverse your gaze.

We’re talking through out both the videos about what we were working on. When we say “ball” we mean “generating an energetic ball” (call it taiji ball). Yin and yang happens when we split the ball or compress (press). When the ball is substantial the mind is unsubstantial. when we say “field” we mean the energetic field of the person. when we say “surface” we mean the energy pervading through space all around us. indirect power works via the energy “outside the body” inducing physical movement rather than from within (like Qi ‘hydraulics’). lmk if that helped

We were neither pulling hard or pushing hard. It was mostly energetic. The physical strength of the recipient was being returned back using energetics.

Ok 👌🏾

The energy can be used in healing and also in transforming the quality of our mind -- to be able to use the energy in this way requires a clarity and purification of the mind. Development of the heart-mind and the intent. I've written about this many times before -- it is required for real spiritual work. Without clarity of the mind and opening of the spiritual heart, real spiritual work cannot happen. That is a good preliminary practice -- in our system we'll call it the basic/foundational practice. Yeah it is very good. We don't do silk reeling, but silk 'pulling'. Similar concept but different at the same time. Actually being heavy is not a good thing at all. The rule of 4 oz moves 1000 lbs is very much a requisite condition of taijiquan. The only way to do it correctly is using energetic way. Forms are great -- LDT is great, but are a preliminary gate to enter. Taijiquan process goes this way (how I've been taught) -- We go from no form (novice) to form (intermediate) to no form (mastery). In the first case, the novice knows nothing and has 'no form'. S/he learns the forms and practices, works on training the LDT, becomes sensitive to qi/jin etc (form). After the forms have been internalized and the energies therein assimilated, no form is required anymore. Wardoff is not a form but an expression of energy. Similarly rollback, press, split etc etc. One should be able to roll back with a thumb, wardoff with a single finger, etc etc. Ah I see... Push hands is a great tool to develop taijiquan skills. Without push hands, you can't develop any serious skill. If you can't do it with another person on the other side, you've only deluded yourself into thinking your energy-mind is developed (imho). Many people think they've attained "mastery" in their forms -- forms look amazing...beautiful, powerful. Then put another person on the other side of those very forms, and out of the window it all goes. Body becomes tense, adrenaline rushes into the blood stream and all grace, all beauty vanishes into thin air.

Yes we have. It works. Maybe next time my friends and I get together, I’ll post a video on this. I find it a bit harder to do, in that it usually leaves me with a bit of a headache. My master says it’s because we’re using our own jin for it instead of using the energy that pervades everything. Yes on shapes but really it is not about ‘fighting’, more about exploration of energetics for us. WRT tranmission - yes. I would call it jin transmission — in the sense, send a feeling/information to the ‘other’ person. That is how jin is made to be “heavy/light/float/sink/spiral/cutting“ etc. It literally is making an intention, such as, “I’m going to make my opponent float”, evoke the feeling of floating in your heart and sending it to the other person. It sounds sequential but is instantaneous — Intend-Evoke-Send.

Some of it. Mainly we’re practicing drills of using a Qi ball or the Qi field (or two - one yin and one yang). The other person just happens to be attached, and so moves. It is could be called ‘using indirect power’.

My first mantra initiation happened when I had my Upanayanam (thread ceremony which seems the individual twice-born(Dvija) - first in human form and then in knowledge). Fast forward a few years, and while going through a really rough patch for several months in a row, in desperation I prayed, “Lord, if you are real...if there is a power out there who can help me, please help me find a way to overcome these challenges that life is throwing at me nonstop!”. A yogi visited me in my dream and initiated me to a powerful and yet very common Hindu mantra. Told me how to chant it. I started chanting it, and it became such an integral part of my practice that I would often find myself chanting in dreams, in my sleep etc. During that period the personality was being tormented in the waking realm due to lack of employment. Within two weeks of starting my practice I got a job I didn’t t even apply for. A good one. But something that had been eluding me for 8-9 months. Around the same time I was getting dream ‘visitations’ by a being(s) who would come to me in the form of close family members and torment me. I somehow knew how to vanquish/banish these demons using the sword finger and the mantra. I’ve used this mantra many times over the years to protect myself and my family and friends. So yes, mantras are real. Deities are real and powerful. And if we empty our cups, they can help us and guide us.

Not too much, not too little. Everything must be in moderation. Also diet should be defined by our constituent energetic makeup. Balance is the key.

Thanks my friend! I actually have started on the audiobook. Decided to do it myself. I'll send you a sample when I got it up to some decent quality. Already did the raw cut of first 5 chapters

I wasn't much of a morning person but I seem to wake up by 3:30 AM quite frequently And you too my friend

There is something to be said about ritualistic cleansing etc. Many orthodox Hindus don’t eat outside their homes — only eat home cooked meals and so on. There are reasons for that — mainly around picking up karmic baggage from those that serve them/cook the food etc. Most people don’t have the ability to look into the causal plane — so rules get formulated that ‘no one should break this rule, for fear of “spiritual contamination”’. Rituals usually get solidified like that. On a lighter note — Someone shared a story with me recently. At a border town in India, there was a military ritual of two guards standing watch near a bench in a specific area. No one seemed to know what the purpose was. One day someone decided to figure out when this ‘ritual’ started. It seems it did in 1971, when the then CO of the base established the rule. That CO then went on the become a brigadier general in the army and finally retire. So at the ripe age of 90, when approached by the army officer asking specifically about that ritual, he scratched his head and after thinking it over for a while, he exclaimed, “What! The paint on that bench has still not dried!?!” 😂

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Just in mood to entertain my friends here at TDB

There’s nothing hypothetical about it. Good taiji and qigong people don’t breath as much. Nor do they need to. Good yogis too are like that. when I was doing a specific type of yoga practice, the pranayama was like this — inhale for 45 seconds, hold for 90 seconds and exhale for 180 seconds. Some would do it faster — inhale for 30, hold sixty and exhale 120. More beginners would inhale 15, hold 30, exhale 60. When we do set of 9 cycles of ZZ, we breath in and out 3-4 times (even 1-2 times) in a minute - in this case equal length. This needs to happen without straining. Most can’t do it because of the tension they hold in their body. There you go. Does that mean more/faster breathing or slower and more relaxed breathing?

Hi CD, I find that normal people breath a lot more than good taiji or qigong people. Have you heard of the term “turtle breathing”? There is direct correlation with frequency of the breath and both longevity as well as the state of mind (which ends up being a feedback loop into the system). A seasoned practitioner will only breath 5-6 breaths in a minute. Some go even lower. If you are standing in ZZ and hyperventilating, you are going to increase your BP, raise your Qi to your chest and head and essentially sooner or later blow a fuse (go nuts or have other psycho-physiological problems). Maybe you’re not being able to get your thoughts across properly.

In Advaita Vedanta study, there are three steps. They are somewhat sequential but also overlap after the initial introductory period. They are - shravanam - listening to the teaching mananam - contemplation on the teaching nidhidhyasana - meditation, but really constantly working on separating the real (true nature) from unreal (apparent reality), until one is stable in their recognition of their Self as the nondual awareness initially after we learn the teachings and begin to understand it, we have the urge to constantly remember who we truly are (I know I’ve referred to this as “constant remembrance”)... But therein lies a mistake that ( in retrospect) can be avoided. Just like we don’t need to keep telling ourselves we have eyes, in that the fact is self evident with the act of seeing; similarly we don’t have to keep telling our selves that we ARE awareness, as the act of being/knowing itself makes that a self-evident fact. This is a subtle realization that happens once we realize that we are neither the body, nor the mind, and that the circumstances of our lives do not affect our inherent ground nature. The ups and downs of life can affect the mind, the body and even the circumstances in which the mind and body exists. However, that which knows the changing states of the mind, body and circumstances is totally unaffected by those changes. It is then that the need for constant remembrance can be dropped - which is in essence a subtle clinging to the idea of Being The Self (or Self realization). Swami Sarvapriyananda puts it beautifully here —