Cameron

Awesome analogy.. In addition, the best Yang tonics I have taken are Dragon Jing and Gecko Rockclimber from Dragonherbs. The Biotest formulas with Tribulus and Eurycoma(Long Jack) are very powerful but I found too Yang to be taken long term. The Dragonherbs formulas(especially Dragon Jing) are quite Yang but still feel balanced. And just like Kieth says Teeguarden says to take yin tonics like He Shou Wu to supplement yin. I usually have a couple bottles of Dragonherbs Super Shou Wu in my kitchen for whenever I feel the need for more Yin.

I took a few of the products from Biotest that include the herbs you mention. Definetly felt alot of energy but I don't think it is suitable or helpful for cultivation long term. If your using them for workouts or sex maybe but make sure to be careful. I had problems with excess Yang energy and becoming overly agressive. If I made my living as a proffesional athlete or porn star I could see how it would be very helpful I probably did very little zazen/meditation while on those products also. actually, John Daido Loori once said something funny that high testosterone levels are part of the problem here on Earth. Of course, we Taoists can make use of just about anything and it's more about balance rather than something being "good" or 'bad". So I think it is really an individual situations. Perhaps soemone with very low testosterone levels would find tribulus or Long Jack helpful. T-nation has tons of articles on this I would go there for info(though they are probably atleast somewhat bias towards those products being very good) I'll stick with theanine and green tea .I need to mellow out more not go to war;)

While we are on this topic what do people consider to be the great philisophcal works? Obviously we all know Tao Te Ching but there are so many enlightened books to read. I am just becoming interested in this as a practice or source of wisdom. For Yoga, I here Patanjali(sp?) was an enlightened Master and one of the original Yogi's. His stuff sounds cool. Ken Cohen mentioned that he had an experience and then read about it in Patanjali's writings. My guess is most of the high level stuff, whether Patanjali for Yoga or Dogen for Zen or Lao Tzu or Jesus or Mohammad or Buddha, change and evolve as your consciousness raises. Maybe we should start a book club for spiritual books? Everyone pick there favorite book or something they have been meaning to check out(of a philisophical or spiritual nature) and we can read them over the course of the year and have philisophical dialogue/dharma combat type situations arise.

I bet you would not say that to Zeus face!

When I was hanging out with Lozen at the Ken Cohen workshop there were bunch of acupunture/chinese medicine students around but Lozen was too embarassed to tell them about this place. LOL!

Lozens recent post, my conversation with Yoda today, the post I just read on mma.tv, seems to be a theme this month So, you all have friends and family have died? Obviously, yes. I remember reading a story about the Buddha being asked by a mother who's son had died or something why this had happened. Buddha instructed her to go talk to everyone in the town who had not had a loved one die. Of course everyone had a story of a loved one that died(very loose and probably poor translation of the story here are on my part). A guy I work with who's family I hung out with on New Year's Eve family member died a couple weeks ago. I was joking around with him after taking a few tequila shots and rubbing his belly and bowing down to him because he was so fat and was like this fat, smiling Buddha. Of course it was funny at the time but not so funny now that he has died. He was only like 50, maybe even younger. I guess this just falls under the learning to allow everything to be as it is post I just made. Death being just another aspect of life that is. Of course, a serious Buddhist or Taoist might say on a deeepr level, what fundamentally was born and what has died? I think that is also an interesting question to ask.

Oh sure next your going to be saying that Elephant Diety isn't real either? May Thundergod Zeus protect you from Hades lord of the underworld.

*WTF*

http://www.the-rocketman.com/celeb/KY%20JODI%20MARTIANS.jpg Do you see!?

I think this is pretty old but still a pretty amazing story. http://www.energyarts.com/hires/library/me...idekfjan98.html

post deleted Ummm..follow your way..

I basically agree. Adyashanti puts less emphasis on the teacher student realationship and even says it's not absolutely necissary for enlightenment. However, IMO, these realationships-atleast on some level- are necissary to initate, balance and stabilize the process over the long hall. I also thing there is something to the mind to mind transmission your talking about. Also, teachers act as guides, inspiration and just in general a nice feedback to your own level or process of awakening.

Adyashanti is a "meditation" teacher and Liu taught Bruce an entire system of Taoist meditation. Did I miss something Trunk? Edit- Trunk, ok I see you may be talking about martial artists. Almost all the internal martial artists blend there systems with some form of meditation. O'sensei studied Shinto heavily and did a system of chanting and meditation. Obviously, Liu did Taoist Water Method that Bruce teaches along with the Baghuazhang.

Also, this web site apparently sells doors for dragon's so they must know where dragon's live. I would get intouch and see if you can get one of these dragon's to give you an interview. Though Lozen has more experience with this and would probably do a more thorough job asking the dragon people about there past and any connection to the reptillian agenda(proof of this clearly exists I have put up a picture of two of these creatures mating on the off topic board). http://dragondoor.com/

Here is Adyashanti's view on this from the book "The Awakening West" that Sean sent me as a gift. JLW: What is the role of the teacher? ADYASHANTI: The role of the teacher is to simply be him or her self. That's really ultimately the role of the teacher. The role of the teacher is to respond to the question of the student in such a way that the question is used to point back to the student's true nature, which is exactly the same as the teacher's true nature. So, ultimately the true desire of all authentic teachers is to put themselves out of business as quickly as possible. This means to have the student rise to the same level of consciousness that they are so that they are no longer needed. As long as a true teacher understands that, then their motivation will be very pure.

Bruce made it sound like Ueshiba level is no big deal in China though he did imply Liu was the top dog. Also that Liu had put together more of a complete system. As Bruce says, Aikido is great but very little real energy work. My last aikido teacher was one of the top in the country and I basically told him about qigong since there wasn't much of any taught in aiki even though they constantly talk about energy. In BJJ there is no energy work but they don't ever talk about it. Aikido is like a fragmented system which is why you have all these teachers like Koichi Tohei who split off to explore on there own. It sounds like Liu had it all for Bruce and there was no longer any doubt. I guess if I ever became someones 'disciple' it would have to feel like that. All doubt about the system and the person erased. You feel like you basically found what you were looking for whether it was spiritual, health, martial etc etc.

Discovery channel is awesome.

OMG everything Max said is true

Have you not been paying attention to anything Smile/Max/2012 lighthealer says? The so called Dinosaurs are probably the "pets' of the ancient race that most likely controls Earth to this day! They played around with there Tyranassourus Rex's and Terradactills much the same way you or I would play with a dog or cat! Wake up! Here is a picture I found on the internet. This picture was taken right in NY and clearly shows reptillians still walk(or in this case fly) on the Earth.

Let's see Scott Sonnon do this! http://www.flurl.com/featured/90_Years_Old...nger_44587.html This guy is 90!!

Yes, but regular practice with whom? O'sensei!! Thelearner_pw3d_ *kidding and basically agree with you*

*allowing everything to be as it is*

I think Jesus says to love your enemies or something. Maybe Sean can google it for me?

Ok, let's here it. What are everyones theories about the origins of the human race. So far I have heard evolution(We are evolved monkies), Creationism(The MAN in the sky waved his hands and we were created) and the Alien theories(We were created to be a slave race for another type of human/other, we are from another planet ourselves and "moved here" hundreds of thousands or millions of years ago. Let the origins of human thread proceed openly .Where do you feel our origins lie intuitively? Is it different than your intellectual undrestanding? Do you think humans are alone in the universe? are we cut off from the rest of our "family" in the stars? Any experiences with "other world" beings or do we create these stories to not feel alone in the universe?

It's an interesting debate. Since you mentioned Ueshiba, I was fortunate enough to learn from some of his direct disciples on and off for several years(I no longer practice Aikido and switched to BJJ). From my experience, his direct disciples had a quality and presence/energy etc that was totally unique. They sometimes would tell stories about daily life with the master that went beyond what a 'normal' student that only goes a couple classes a week or whatever would do. For example, I remember Chiba Shihan once gave an interview where he talked about how one of his best teachings with O'sensei was when he would carry his luggage around Tokyo. He said O'sensei had this abilty wherever he walked, even on a busy crowded Tokyo street, the crowds would magically open up before him. It was this quality of presence that just seemed to make others either get out of his way or adjust themselves. This extra exposure is probably one of the benifits of studying with a great master. I don't know if it is so much getting the 'secret teaching' as much as just being around the guy more, seeing how he interacts in everyday life etc. Probably those other 'special' teachings just come about naturally from having a direct, personal realationship with another human being(in this case a spiritual or martial arts master etc). Actually, Pietro's teacher Bruce has just about the most amazing story of anyone you can read about it in his books how he was a strong 'external' karate champion then came into contact with O'sensei in Japan and was like " Fuck! What is that!" Then(from what he says) studied with O'sensei a couple years. When O'sensei died Bruce says none of his students had his level of chi or whatever(having studed with several of them I would say they had poweful qi but I never met O'sensei who was probably on another level) So Bruce went to China for like 10 years or something and trained with alot of top internal fighters until the amazing story of meeting Liu who only taught him because he had a dream! in any case, whether this is 100% true or not Bruce certainly was deticated and basically committed his life to finding a true master, which it sounds like he did. Maybe becoming a 'disciple' or whatever invovles having this deep desire to learn more. Or maybe it is completely unneccisary but just a fun/interesting personal karma conenctions.