Cameron

Welcome, My Mom's side of the family are all in Sydney. I probably won't be able to make it out there anytime soon but if I do it's cool to have all these taobums down under. Cameron

I heard House of Nan King has the best chinese food in SF. Lets eat there when I come out. Lezlies treat! Cam

Ok, my treat. Knee willing.

Can Lezlie and I split it?

Here is what I think about this issue...

You scored as Paganism. Your beliefs are most closely aligned with those of paganism, Wicca, or a similar earth-based religion. You may also follow a Native American religion. Paganism 79% Buddhism 58% Hinduism 58% Islam 54% Satanism 46% Christianity 46% agnosticism 38% atheism 38% Judaism 33%

An evil Yoda?! So will you beat the Emperor Palpatin this time?

pretty funny Lezzshizzle.

I'll never forget when I asked Michael Winn about Christianity and Jesus in Asheville. I was wondering if he ever ran into Christian fundamentalists or people that basically say your going to hell if you don't accept Jesus as your savior and call yourself a Christian. He said two things that impressed me. First that he thinks its really cool when Christians say Taoism and Alchemy are devil worship. And he said when Christians say that Jesus is the ultimate power he asks " What about the Sun? Do you think that the Sun is powerful?". They usually answer "Yeah, I guess the Sun is pretty powerful". Cam

Taoist Alchemy1:My shit is immortal. Taoist Alchemy2:I transformed my shit into positive energy. Taoist Alchemy3:I balanced and harmonized my shit. Zen:I am one with my shit.

Bay Area or NYC are cool places to hang. If its a one day or weekend deal Sedona, Arizona is a beautiful nature spot where we can hike, see beautiful mountains and go on off road 4x4 tours. They have these power spots called vortexes people into the energy would like. Probably not practical for everyone to meet at once though since people on here are from all over the world and have there own schedule. Might work if we plan waaaay in advance though. Like Sedona, NYC or Bay Area summer 2007 or something. My vote would be that the gathering might be also centered around a retreat. For example, in summer 2007 I am planning on doing either lesser kan and li or greater kan and li retreat with Michael Winn in the catskills. Maybe a number of us can hang in NYC a couple days then do the retreat together. Or, if enough people were into it we could do an Adyashanti satsang or weekend intensive and hang out in Bay Area(getting our own hotels obviously not all cramming into your loft). And Sedona regularly has interesting spiritual retreats I think and is just a cool, peacful place to hang. Cam

I feel the same way as Sean. Sort of reluctant to even give opinions on him and conceptualize what exactly it is he is teaching. But I think he's worth checking out. Sean and I are going to another 2 day intensive with him in November and have talked about maybe doing a retreat. I have been gravitating more towards Michael Winn Alchemy stuff and don't know how the two approaches will go together. Michael I think has been sort of critical of the Bodri/Adyashanti approach of sit and do nothing or don't maniupluate but Adya doesn't really polarize the issue the way Bodri does. I-think-what Adya is saying is when you deeply trust and allow your experience to be what it is the natural enlightened mind becomes apparent on its own. But he doesn't say you shouldnt ever do mind directed meditations just include the yin/allowing aspect. The thing is I think Winn has been saying something similar with Shen theory all along and those practices are very compelling to me but uses a different languange. When Winn says allow your shen to join or copulate in the tan tiens that is a similar mind set as Adya saying just sit and allow. But Adya doesn't study Alchemy or ateast doesn't use Taoist languange(Tan Tiens, 5 elements/shen, 3 treasures etc.) I think its an interesting journey with these different teachers and pretty much have the attitide of let me just study for 10 years before having lots of opinions about what is good, bad, right or wrong about any of them or any approaches. Basically, shut up and practice for awhile. And smile

Not offensive at all. Just doesn't mirror my own experience. Ime glad your open enough to be able to link some of the sentiments about Japanese culture and spirituality to your own life experiences and family. At the end of the day I think its human beings sharing experience or realizations with other human beings. Its interesting when someone says they come from a lineage from the The Buddha or Lao Tsu but Ime really more interested in modern insight into these timeless wisdom traditions rather than so called pure lineage or tradition. I also study Aikido and quite a few of my teachers have been into tradional japanese culture including bushido and zen practice. But I never got any kind of superiority complex to the Chinese. Obviously, with Billions of Chinese and millions of Japanese it must exist somewhere but not in my experience. My own teachers are a mixed bag of zen pracitioners, former zen practioners turned anti zen, Taoist practioners and those more into modern expressions of enlightenment like Eckart Tolle and Adyashanti. So, maybe like the ancient Chinese, I find myself not really distinguishing too much between Zen, Taoism or Buddhism and prefer to just appreciate the uniqe wisdom of each. But, like I said, if you check out the Healing Tao board you'll find plenty of arguing back and forth that Taoism and Buddhism are quite different as well as the belief that they are exactly the same just use a different language. It has been a hot debate for several years now.

Wayfarer, I can only speak of my own experience with Zen since I have no idea what really happened in China or Japan hundreds or thousands of years ago. The Zen teachers I have studied with briefly in America and come from Japanese lineages/have a Japanese Roshi/teacher were all very clear that Zen came from India/Sakyamuni Buddha through his line of successors, was brought to China from India via Bodhidharma and brought to Japan from China to Japan through different lineages and teachers. The greatest of which seems to have been recognized as Dogen and Hakuin. I never got anything but a deeply respectful tone towards all the Indian and Chinese Masters from the Japanese. In fact, I here Japanese and American Roshis refer to the Chinese patriarchs such as Hui Neng as their "Dharma Anscestors". Frome everything I studied on Zen it seems to me when Buddha taught the 4 noble truths and eightfold path and when Bodidharma presented his version of truth to the Emperor of China or when the Zen master Hakuin asked "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" they were pointing to the same essential ground of being and reality. Which I personally am not capable of saying a word about. If there is more interest in the exchange of Buddhism and Taoism over the centuries and how they differ you can find discussions going back the last couple years on the healingdao.com board. this question has occupied the central interest of that board for years now. Cameron

Awesome! Reminds me of when Adyahsanti says in worldy matters you want to get a PhD and in spirituality you want to go back to kindergarden. Or something.

I kept trying to respond to some of this but realize the silliness of my ego to have any real clue as to what the depths of Zen or Taoism are really about and how they do or don't relate to eachother. Probably Thomas Cleary has written a book about this or something.

Shinto is interesting. The founder of Aikido was Shinto. It sort of reminds me of Nativa American spirituality in that its deeply connected to the spirituality of the people who live there. The thing with Zen is there is this real universality to it. I think Zen and Mahayana Buddhism in general are very universal and were meant to be embraced by people of all countries and races. Shinto sort of reminds me of Native American Spirituality. It's cool, but really more connected to a specific group rather than the universality of Zen or Taoism. By universality I mean the wide application of teachings like Lao Tzu or The Dalai Lama or Bodhidharma. They don't get bogged down to any cultural view. Teachings like compassion, sitting and quieting your mind and letting your natural goodness flower etc, these can be applied to anything even someone from a different religion probably. But if an American guy feels called to study Shinto or Shamanism or whatever that's cool too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTjMorjwlWw&eurl=

Looks like they took it down...

And the final.... http://youtube.com/watch?v=c7T8kbamJww

Really enjoyed his show The Crocodile Hunter.

The Associated Press BRISBANE, Australia -- Steve Irwin, the hugely popular Australian television personality and conservationist known as the "Crocodile Hunter," was killed Monday by a stingray while filming off the Great Barrier Reef. He was 44. Irwin was at Batt Reef, off the remote coast of northeastern Queensland state, shooting a segment for a series called "Ocean's Deadliest" when he swam too close to one of the animals, which have a poisonous barb on their tails, his friend and colleague John Stainton said. "He came on top of the stingray and the stingray's barb went up and into his chest and put a hole into his heart," said Stainton, who was on board Irwin's boat at the time. Crew members aboard the boat, Croc One, called emergency services in the nearest city, Cairns, and administered CPR as they rushed the boat to nearby Low Isle to meet a rescue helicopter. Medical staff pronounced Irwin dead when they arrived a short time later, Stainton said. Irwin was famous for his enthusiasm for wildlife and his catchword "Crikey!" in his television program "Crocodile Hunter." First broadcast in Australia in 1992, the program was picked up by the Discovery network, catapulting Irwin to international celebrity. He rode his image into a feature film, 2002's "The Crocodile Hunters: Collision Course" and developed the wildlife park that his parents opened, Australia Zoo, into a major tourist attraction. "The world has lost a great wildlife icon, a passionate conservationist and one of the proudest dads on the planet," Stainton told reporters in Cairns. "He died doing what he loved best and left this world in a happy and peaceful state of mind. He would have said, 'Crocs Rule!'" Prime Minister John Howard, who hand-picked Irwin to attend a gala barbecue to honor President Bush when he visited in 2003, said he was "shocked and distressed at Steve Irwin's sudden, untimely and freakish death." "It's a huge loss to Australia," Howard told reporters.

Going to watch the season finale of Deadwood(best show ever) and Real Time on HBO.

Hey buddy, Durians are great. But they smell too bad for me to buy. I just eat them when I visit my Dad. He is like a surgeon when he cuts those things but it seems when you know the right place to cut it the rest is pretty easy.