Oolong Rabbit

It's the same book we been talking about for ages. That version is just credited to Charles Luk's pseudonym which I understand was how it was originally published. Brgds!

Thanks for the kind words WhiteTiger. I am struggling with my own attachment to Taobums. There is so much information and so many great teachers here. It's like a feast for the soul. At some point though, you have to stop looking at the beautiful dishes and just dig in. Good luck in your practice, and don't be a stranger.

Dust in the wind...

Hi Pietro, I guess it maybe depends on what you define as "Taoism". The shamanistic religions certainly seemed much closer to the Tao than modern society even though the term taoism may not not have been formally used, and some of the concepts may have been crude. I think that's where Eva is getting her date from and she says as much in the book. Brgds!

Are we looking at 2009? I was thinking it might be cool to chip in and rent a cabin or something. Get away from the craziness of the city.

Hmm, but can you do it indefinitely?

Hopefully next time you can share the 42 Hands and Eyes Lin. Did you pick that avatar "randomly" Jen?

Hi Veecee, That is THE original Oolong rabbit. I accidentally googled my own handle (if you believe in accidents) and discovered that there is a famous rabbit in Japan that used to balance stuff on his head :-). His name was Oolong. Weird eh? I must have channelled him.

Welcome aboard . Just a few helpful tips: 1. Don't talk about Empty Force to Buddy 2. Don't talk about Kunlun to Starjumper. 3. Don't talk about... well don't talk about anything to Procurator. Glad to have you join us!

The moon just turned to blood. Quick, grab yer ammo. The apocalypse is here. The next sign will be Buddy declaring his belief in empty force.

Well, I chewed through the first 200 pages while I was stuck for 8 hrs at LaGuardia (my flight got bumped twice ) coming back from Lin's meet. A lot of interesting details about the various sects, although it gets pretty confusing when you not only have sect X, but you then have Northern and Southern offshoots of sect X that differ greatly. I found the sections on ceremonial and divinational taoism slightly boring, but the sections on magical and alchemical taoism were terrific. It might have just been my state of mind at the time, or perhaps I just have more affinities with these paths. She sure demystifies some of the alchemical processes, and even takes a swipe at Charles Luk haha.... I am really looking forward to reading the next section on Meditation and discussing it with you all.

I can't go into too much detail now, but how many chances in life do you get to meet a truly remarkable being? I am not trying to 'blow smoke' here , but Lin is one of these rare beings. He doesn't like people putting him on a pedestal like this, and he doesn't flaunt his cultivation because he is also one of the most humble people you will ever meet. I had my reservations about the mantra cultivation like some of you probably did, but it was mostly born of my own ignorance. If you let yourself get hung up on this, you did yourself a great diservice. Stop looking so hard and you might just find what you are looking for. Brds and Namo Amitabha! I think I can see the red phoenix shooting out of your head Now pass me a bagel! P.S. Open invitation for you and Jen to come to Canada and I will teach you proper pronunciation.

Okay that pic is so aweful dude. I look like a cross between the Happy Buddha on crack and Mr. Potato Head.... You will pay for that one brother haha!

There's really something to this stuff. I watched a clip of a guy breaking down what Derren Brown did to get this man on the streets to hand over his wallet etc. How he used a bottle of water to break his current thought process and then used it as an anchor. Interesting, but maybe the guy was just a schill and the whole thing was staged. Well, yesterday I had to discipline my 5 year old son and took away his video game for the rest of the day. A 45 minute temper tantrum ensued and he was relentless. I remembered the NLP explanation of what Deren Brown had done, and tried the same techniques. He was crying and screaming, so I handed him a little picture. I said "Here take this". He sort of snapped out of it, look puzzled and said why. About 15 seconds later, he started up again and set the picture down. I talked in a normal voice. Picked up the picture, handed it back to him and said "Take this and calm down". It was literally like flicking a switch. He instantly stopped crying and screaming. A calmness came over him and he kind of sat there staring at the picture almost as if entranced. That was the end of the tantrum and I had my sweet little buddy back. This was so effective that it actually bothered greatly. It bothered me that these techniques could be used to manipulate unwittingly. It made me wonder if the same techniques could be used on myself. Normally I consider my self to be a pretty strong willed person, but is a strong will a defense against people fucking with your mind using NLP. Anyhow, I am curious if some you guys could help me understand these techniques, and what we can do to defend against them. Surely the advertising industry and government are using these against us on a daily basis. Can anyone offer some book suggestions that would help me with this? FYI the clip is here:

Dao Zhen, Don't let a few rotten apples push you away. Most of us appreciate your pressence and contributions immensely. This board needs more contributors like you.

This is very gracious of you Dao Zhen. I would like to nominate Matt Wight to be the taobum sponsor. I don't know him personally, but based on what he has written, he seems like a very sincere seeker. He apparently has no ties, and seems very dedicated to practice. Second and third nominations would be for MatthewQi and Darin Hamel. These guys are a little older, but a perhaps little wiser. I would hold whatever they said in high esteem. I based Matt as my first choice also partially on financial need as well. For the board of three I would opt for Lin Aiwei, thelearner (Michael), and Adam West There are others, but these are the first people that came to mind. I also think we taobums could maybe chip in a bit to sponsor the candidate as well. Brgds! Mantis, You were up there on my list as well (for reasons similar to Matt's), but I felt you were still a bit on the young side.

How do you know it's a guy? I took the sig at the bottom "Stefan Strecker" to be the web designer.

Isn't David's most advanced student from Denmark? Is it her website? The video is probably a copy of the DVD Cristy Elmendorp of Rare Journeys made. I think David wouldn't allow her to release it publicly. Still ya gotta love the sales pitch: "For the first time the doors open! How long they remain opened however, is uncertain. It seems that these remain accessible only a few years!" It sounds like something right out of an informercial. Act now....don't delay....Limited time only.

For the internal alchemy master: Could you elaborate on the nature of the dantien? It is a term used frequently in the west, but opinions differ. Are we born with our dantien, or must we "create" it? Does meditation fill or create the dantien? How do w know when the dantien is full or created? I will have to think more about the question for the white cloud master. Thank you so much for opening this up to us Dao Zhen!

I just discovered that my handle is also a famous internet phenomena in Japan. Hahah I had no idea. Coincidence.... or something more? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oolong_(rabbit) http://www.gookalian.com/oolong/gallery/albums.php

It's called rabbit head balancing gong. I will give you a demo this weekend. P.S. This definitely calls for updated avatar to honor the original oolong rabbit.

This is a great post and there's a lot wisdom in it. I would say most of the time for me it's the ego/mind trying to sabotage me. I keep catching that little voice in my head saying "okay you've done enough" or "30 minutes will be fine" etc... I never give in to these thoughts, and often I use them to motivate me to keep going. I have begun doing half lotus. At first the pain was excrutiating. I have just forced my self to sit through the pain and it gets a little easier every time. The problem with taking a break is that 1-2 days quickly turns into a week, and a week quickly turns into a month. The next thing you know, you have lost most of what you worked so hard for.

There was some discussion about this a few weeks back: http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?showto...amp;#entry48069 http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?showto...amp;#entry48072

Pietro, You're not ugly brother. I just wish I could say the same about your website. Pietro's got some serious inner game. Ya just gotta shave the damn fro compadre. That look went out with Different Strokes: Whatchyou talkin' bout Willis?

Thanks for shedding some light on this Dao Zhen. The pictures you uploaded were also terrific. It's great to have someone who is connected with the traditional Chinese daoist community on the forum. For what it's worth, I read somewhere that the author of Opening the Dragon Gate was one of Liping's students and embellished it quite a bit. BTW Were you the caucasian guy in one of the photos ?