Sloppy Zhang

I've been trying to stay out of the whole Mak Tin Si affair in general, so I can't be certain but... hasn't a letter like this been done before? Hasn't Mak Tin Si been called out several different times now, on threads just like this? ("Mak if you're a real taoist you'll answer X,Y, and Z questions") So, if those threads have been done to a satisfying conclusion, shouldn't that say something? If they HAVEN'T been done to a satisfying conclusion... then shouldn't that ALSO say something? Okay, I'm leaving now...

B.K. Frantzis at the end of his book "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body" says: "Unless you have learned to regulate the internal flow of your qi during sexual intercourse and control your ejaculations, it is best to avoid practicing qigong two to three hours before and after intercourse. this avoids unbalance the regulated flow of qi gained through qigong practice and prevents excessive energy loss." Just throwing that out there.

Wow... that post threw me for a loop.... especially that NPR experiment... Intense.

Wan takes a long time to get through his videos, so he has a lot of long videos that he could have done in a minute and a half Also, a lot of stuff he shares as "secrets" can be found in a lot of common books. The rest is just generic experiences that a lot of people have but he classifies as something else. In short, his target audience with a lot of his meditation videos are 14 year old kids who watch naruto But he does get a lot of stuff out to people. Like I said, a lot of the stuff can be found if you search the internet and read books, but if you don't do either of those things, he's a good resource. But it takes him a LONG time to release stuff (not to mention get through one complete thought in under 5 mins), and he adds stuff, then takes vids down after a day or two, says he's going to do something, gets to it six months later, takes it down, and if you ask any questions you get a generic response that goes along the lines of "figure it out yourself." So whether he has any real achievement or is just acting the part.... eh, decide yourself

Happy Birthday Sean!

Hey everyone, tonight I had the privilege of attending a discussion with Bardor Tulku Rinpoche (a quick bio here for those who don't know). The main focus of his speech was meditation in family life, but he then opened it up to a question/answer session. The discussion went all over the place, very interesting but also very entertaining, and he touched on a topic that comes up a lot here. And that is, you know, spiritual paths, teachers, what paths you should be doing, yadda yadda yadda. He likened meditation/spiritual cultivation to medicine. People who undertake those paths are like sick people who are taking medicine. If you start taking medicine, and you feel better, you are going to keep taking it. If someone comes up to you and says, "don't take that medicine, take this one instead." you're not going to listen to them because what you are doing works for you. Teachers/gurus are like doctors, they help prescribe what you need. But not all doctors are equal, and some are just not up to the job at all. These can hurt you. You can identify a good teacher by meeting as many as you can and learning from them to see what works for you. A genuine teacher is going to be wise, compassionate, kind, and selfless. A fake won't possess those things. But again, in the end the person is just going to have to experiment and try it out. If they find medicine that works, they should keep using it. And as a final note, he brought up the Bodhisattva vow, and how it is actually AGAINST the Bodhisattva vow to go up to someone and say, "don't practice that path, practice this path instead." (or to tell them to stop taking the path they're on period) Because, as long as the person is getting good medicine and are getting better, why would you try and take that away from them? If they seek something else, that's one thing, if they are getting hurt, helping them is another thing. But you don't go around telling people, "you should stop doing what you're doing!" if they like what they are doing. Not to say that we've all taken (or should have taken, or should take in the future) the Bodhisattva vow, but I think it would be good if we all tried to do what we could. I guess it's pretty obvious the kinds of conversations I'm referencing here seems like a lot has quieted down in the past day or two, I don't want to stir the pot again but I figured I should post it while I have it in my head.

Oh, sorry for the confusion, I didn't mean like "enforce" as in, "you can't join the forums" I mean "enforce" as in, "you didn't explain why so we as a forum will disregard your posts and shun you from society!!!!!!!!"

So wait, what's YOUR preference? And why??? It'd be nice if people explained why, just to get some context. Maybe it would encourage someone else to do some more research into some other topic to understand that person's point of view a little bit better. But it's not like it should be enforced, people can type what they want.... or, for that matter, what they don't want.

Yay!

I don't know about the scientific and religious politics that may go on behind the scenes.... But in general terms, the more and more science and physics develops, the closer it gets to proving things that people have believed were true anyway for thousands of years..... So...... yeah.

Thanks for sharing the vids!

*Sloppy Zhang arrives yet again to a thread about a topic that he has no idea what's going on, hears an apology for a transgression that he didn't even know happened, and in fact has to work hard to find (not to mention read a lot to find out the back story). He appreciates the spirit of their actions, and commends them for it, but nevertheless asks himself why everyone feels the need to make a separate apology thread when they could have just apologized in the thread that it happened..... He then thinks, they don't have to delete their angry or frustrated posts, because what they said needed to be said to arrive where they are now.... but to create a whole new thread.......... so much confusion..... And finally, figuring that it is none of his business, he leaves without saying a word....*

The way I found the taobums forum in the first place was through web searches. Almost every time I google searched some meditation technique or a teacher, there was a thread about it in this forum that was one of the top links. Regardless of whether the post was good or bad, it definitely added a lot of perspective to everything I wanted to know. There's so much more to any system, be it martial arts or meditation, than what you see on their main website. It's great to get personalized accounts of stuff, and this is one of the best communities, I think, with a wide variety of people who have actually experienced a variety of systems PERSONALLY. I don't know about other people, but I do a lot of research into a lot of background topics before I jump right into anything, and there's always some nice info on the taobums So, yeah, the taobums comes up quite frequently on search engines, I've even seen some of my own posts turn up when I search stuff but I think that's a good thing.

I don't really ignore posts. Even on other forums and stuff, where I run across more people that I disagree with or just plain don't like, I typically don't ignore their posts. I try to read every post, unless it irrelevant to my area of interest or irrelevant to the conversation at hand (unless it interests me or the off topic information is good, then I'll read it). I also tend to ignore posts that are part of some ongoing argument between two people. But I don't use the ignore function or anything like that. As far as the impact upon spiritual and intellectual growth when using the ignore function.... dunno, up to the person, I guess.

I think cigarettes are generally cheaper and easier to obtain than heroin and crack. With the harder illegal drugs you only have a small handful of sellers who usually charge exorbitant prices. Poor people can sometimes scrounge up enough money to buy a pack of cigarettes, maybe even find someone willing to give them one, at the expense of maybe not paying a bill or two that month. A more expensive drug addiction runs people out of house and home and usually does lead to selling their bodies. So, yeah.

I don't really look through my old posts... I procrastinate far too much already by reading threads and making new posts, I don't need to go back and re-read the ones that have already taken up my time. Besides, I trust that my brilliance and genius shines through everything I do at any point in life

Yeah, I don't think it's advisable to do this kind of stuff, especially on your own (even with a teacher, many teachers still suggest you don't do it). Even in systems where you are taught these techniques, it's built upon years of foundational exercises, as in, making sure you are clear of blockages, making sure you can detect a blockage when it starts, making sure you can get rid of that blockage, making sure you can keep your energy balanced, can circulate energy, all that stuff. Like... years of practice. So unless you have years of practice, or are just a natural genius... I suggest you don't. Pain is typically a pretty good sign to stop whatever it is you are doing. If you try to "push through" the pain, you are facing a lifetime of serious repercussions. I suggest you release whatever you have stored up in there... and just do plain old abstinence of jacking off. Much safer, much cleaner, less painful. There's actually a good website on this stuff, can't find the link, if someone else can help, it pops up whenever this topic comes up, I'm pretty sure it's Trunk's website.

This life, I've thought the same things Here are the answers I've come to for your questions: Maybe. Then again, maybe not. Maybe, then again, maybe not. The fact of the matter is, I really couldn't live in just the "day to day pleasures" that everyone else I see seems to live (I'm in college right now, so I see people enjoying the moment to moment thing quite often). I've tried the moment to moment thing, tried to just "forget everything" and just throw myself whole heartedly into just living and just accepting things as they appeared at face value. It didn't really work. It seemed to simple, I see people living along without a care in the world. Sure they worry about an an annoying test, where the beer will come from in the next party, and who they're going to have sex with this weekend.... but that's not me. So, I do what I do because that's who I am. Or maybe I do what I do because there's nothing else I can do. But whatever the reason, in the end, I still do what I do.

There are times when a conversation gets so long and drawn out and complicated that people who are not involved will just gloss over all of the posts anyway because all the posts are long and are talking about something way off topic that they have no idea what's going on. When that happens, chances are most people don't even notice except for the parties involved.... So for one of the people to go and make a whole other thread about something that happened that most people probably don't even know about will only draw MORE attention to the issue and make it worse for everyone....... Which of course leaves people like me coming into a thread thinking about, you know, how to thank a friend, is it appropriate to buy a gift, should you pay money to your MA teacher or meditation guru, all kinds of things... only to realize it's this whole complicated issue that I tried to stay out of in the first place because it was too complicated and personal in the thread it originated in...... yeah.

Um.... isn't spreading videos like this only going to propagate anti-Muslim feelings, which will only lead to radical ANTI-Islam people, possibly to the point where even moderate Muslims get thrown in with all the other radical Muslims and it just becomes one big cycle of hate and stuff? ANYONE radical has the potential to be dangerous... radical fundamentalist Christians, radical political groups.... anyone. Why target Islam, especially given what most people, quite ignorant people, feel about the issue?

Yeah I thought he looked kind of sketchy so I closed the vid pretty fast

First time seeing that vid too, interesting. I guess they turned on a light right as he started doing the first thing.... 'cause the room got really bright as soon as got into it, and I was like, "HOLY CRAP! wait.... was that just someone turning on the light?" but otherwise fairly interesting. I think what he was talking about at 00:24 was this is what you get by mixing *something* (probably Kunlun? Sound was low on that one) and Maoshan. That's just what I heard though.

I haven't had any experience with the Bujinkan, I've seen some stuff, but I'm not one to make comparisons, so I'll just say what I know about Hayes' stuff. I think I should say the only experience with To Shin Do I've had has been with DVD's. However, I've experienced dozens of martial arts, with dozens of teachers, in various schools throughout my life. Some of them taught good techniques, but had really sketchy vibes (as in, they liked to hurt people for fun), others just didn't know what they were doing. Hayes seemed like a guy who knew what he was doing and didn't enjoy hurting people for fun, so a double plus! The other thing that he stressed with To Shin Do is it's not about forms or techniques, but about "answers to questions." What are you most likely to encounter in a real situation? Someone grabs you. What do you do? What if he does this? What if he's bigger? What if you are against a wall and can't do this? He shows a technique, but then immediately after follows up with "let's look at what else might happen...." I've found a lot of teachers I've had would show a technique, and then a student would say, "what about this...?" I found with Hayes that the answers to those questions came naturally, and realistically. As for traditional stuff, he does teach that at higher levels, the forms, katas, weapons, stuff like that. But for the people just getting the started, the first major emphasis is: what are you going to REALLY see? And what can you realistically do without having to dump 10 years into body conditioning to be able to do a specific technique? Again, I'm not trying to make comparisons, just describing it how it is. And you're right about it being fluid and natural, a lot of it is about natural body movement that everyone can do naturally already as soon as they walk in the door (or watch the DVD as it were ) I should also say that I've had no problems learning from the DVD. Anyone with enough martial arts experience to know how to move their body, look at their alignment, make changes, observe a technique, then recreate it, know distancing/timing with an opponent, can learn this stuff, even better if you have a training buddy that can do that stuff too.

Thank you very much for that description! Don't practice Kunlun with Max or anyone, as I've said before, every once in a while my interest gets peaked, but I'm holding off on it till I get through some other stuff and figure things out. That being said, I still like to get as much info on something before I get too invested in it (money's tight at the moment for me, so that goes double as well), so thanks for clearing that stuff up