Cameron

Just saw that Mantak Chia is doing a workshop in Atlanta on May 3rd and 4th. I don't practice the Healing Tao system and will be in NJ doing the Max Kunlun workshop already that weekend but thought to let anyone in the south know who was interested. To be honest, just about every authentic Taoist teacher or qigong teacher I have spoken to outside the HT school has been critical of Master Chia for one reason or another. However, even still I would jump at the chance to meet the man and judge for myself if I was in town as I have never met him. The name of the workshop is interesting, Awakening and Increasing your Mind Power and Manifestation Power. http://www.universal-tao.com/retreat/maste....php#northsouth Also, just to let anyone know who didn't read an earlier post, Wudang Taoist Master Tseng will be in Atlanta for 1 week in June. From what I have been told, Atlanta and Washington DC are the only places Master Tseng(Chen) is visiting to teach now that he is in retreat for awhile on Wudang Mountain(I think he has moved there for atleast 2 years). I met a student of Master Chen's in Atlanta who is moving full time to train on Wudang Mt and study with Master Chen. His 3 day course "The Master Within" is supposed to be very good and an introduction to his Alchemy retreats. They are expensive but from what I understand he teaches authentic alchemy training from Longmen Pai. http://www.wudangtao.com/ And of course, everyone already knows about Kunlun and Max

Does your warranty cover damage from Kunlun magnetic vibes?

From my limited experience with merkaba, it seems like an attempt to jump over jing and qi straight into shen, or some aspect of it(The spirit vehicle?) I spoke to a lineage Taoist about this yesterday and how authentic Taoism stresses the importance of the body and foundation before just attempting to jump into Tao or Spirit. She said it's the fullness of jing that leads to qi. Fullness of qi that leads to shen. Fullness of shen leads to Tao(the goal). What I see with Merkaba and new agey paths is this idea that you can just shoot into light or shen or Tao without alot of foundation work needed to transmform jing into qi first. Maybe an apsect of your consciousness is elevated through merkaba but it just seems the overall path is unbalaced to me. Fire, trying to move too quickly into a higher state. I suppose you could say similar things about the Red Phoenix practice. It goes straigh to higher states of awareness and openings and then if you haven't really laid the foundation(like probably 90% of people haven't) you have to sort of backtrack and work with the body backwards. Though Max does teach body methods(standing meditation) now to help. I guess I am just not a huge fan of trying to make huge jumps before your system and consciousness is really ready. What this Taoist was saying about fullness of jing leads to fullness of qi leads to fullness of shen leads to Tao(naturally)just made sense to me. And those practices are mostly based in stillnness, along with gentle practices like Tai Chi and Qigong to lay a strong foundation. And for men the whole celibacy thing. And let's face it many men practitioners aren't even ready for celibacy or retention. So you have one aspect of consciousness trying to turn itself into light(or whatever) and one aspect of consciounses that wants to get laid. From that perspective, the Taoist shen theory that Michael Winn emphasizes does make alot of sense because if you haven't integrated your different apsects(earth and heaven souls) internally any method will still feel incomplete. Ahhhh..simplicity is buried in there somewhere

Yes, but his first workshop on the east coast. Also, he is taking a break after going to Europe so is nice to review stuff. Also, I heard a rumor he will be hitting Oz later in the year.

relaxing more

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I remember exactly when this site was created I was walking around the campus of Arizona State University when the Healing Tao board crashed and I thought how much it would suck if the community that had been created there no longer had there little spot in cyber space to chat. Then like the next day or something, maybe a few days later I saw the link on the new HT board to TB's. It took a few months for different elements involved in the boards creation to come to some sort of peace or resolution, but it was ultimatly resolved in a good way. I would say I have personally benifited alot from this site and I know others have as well. There are quite a bunch of characters here. Definetly some of the most interesting people I have met in my life are posters here. I am sure in another 3 or 4 years from now the site will have developed in all sorts of amazing ways as the online Taoist community develops and people start to make real connections with authentic teachers and practices. Cam

I have no idea if RP 2 and 3 are necissary to achieve Gold Dragon Body. I don't have a clue what is or isn't required. From what I understand K2 and K3 aren't required but that's just based on a short conversation we had with Max. Either Chris or Max himself would need to answer those type of questions. I will ask Max about RP2 if we have time in NJ since he already mentioned to me that he would teach it to me. But it depends on the workshop. If there are alot of people I probably won't bother him about it. I mostly just do standing meditation and kunlun anyway and rarely practice RP. Though K1 seems to spontaneously open up the niwan/energy in the head on it's own. Cam

I just moved back and been mostly doing Kunlun. If I can would like to check out Master Chen's student soon. She is in Decatur. They do Taoist meditation,qigong and tai chi. http://www.decaturhealingarts.com/ I also found this teacher, he graduated from Master CC Chen School in NYC http://roswellbudokan.com/Tai_Chi.html

Yoda has committed to do the driving for the NJ workshop otherwise I would probably accidently drive out to Six Flags in NJ or something and ride roller coasters and eat cotton candy. Kunlun coaster?

I will most likely be at a couple of Atlanta workshops as I am just down the street from them and was interested in seeing Master Chen. Actually, was going to see about dropping in on Master Chen's student's class this week if possible. The Master Within workshop sounds interesting but $800 for 3 days is a little steep for me right now, plus I am already practicing another system(Kunlun). Cam

Your better off not driving after a Kunlun workshop, I drove around aimlessly for a few hours after my first one and I think even Yoda was starting to get lost driving and forgot what city and country he was in for a minute there after he got the Max transmission. So walking would be good in this case.

cool

I did a morning class with Fong Ha in Bay Area when Taobums webmaster Sean was still living up there. We did standing practice but there wasn't any instruction, just silent practice in a park. I also did a workshop with Ken Cohen where he taught standing. Here is some footage on Youtube of a recent Ken Cohen workshop. ax7wUOe-sUg

I played around with it a few times. Had some interesting energetic experiences. Smile had told me about it years ago when he was really into it. I asked Michael Winn his opinion about this practice afterwards and he said it was a fire method and too out of body for his taste. And that Taoist practices are better because they cultivated spirit and body together(fire and water) and more balanced. Also, in case you read the books, the history he gives is somewhat interesting but waaaaaaay out there. So, if your drawn to it great. But I haven't gone deeply into the work to recommend or not recommend it. Cam

Chris(Mantra68) would be the person to ask about that.

The person who pm'd me has already responded in this thread and sounds like has benefitted. Also, Max does teach standing at the Kunlun workshop so people doing Kunlun that want instuructions in standing could do the workshop. I agree the level of teaching from any book is limited and if you want to really learn any practice better to seek out a teacher who is authentic and take some classes. Cam

I decided I will definetly be going back to either Aikido or BJJ in November. What are peoples feeling about which one is better long term? I have this weird feeling of deja vu like we already talked about this before..wierd..

nice song

I just started watching the new Battlestar Galactica really good if your into Sci Fi. I'll probably Netflix the first 3 seasons.

Yoda what does he mean by he doesn't drive? Like he is an evironmentalist and doesn't drive SUV's or he carpools?!

I might try to make this so I can see Max and crew. Now that I am back on the east coast I won't be as close to LA and Arizona workshops so NJ would be good. Also sounds like alot of TB's are going to this one. Is Smile planning on attending? Can I crash at your place if your going? Do Sean and Leslie want to do a workshop before they leave the country? Cam

The good thing about travelling with Yoda is I don't need to worry about being the social butterfly of the group

Wudang Taoist Master Yun Xiang Tseng will be teaching in Atlanta June 13-20. I was checking out to see who was in town since I moved back here and saw a student of Master Chen's teaches here. I plan on dropping in to her meditation class next week. The first few days classes are close to where I live so will make an effort to check them out. The three day workshop "The Master Within" sounds very good but it is expensive. But if you have extra time and money and wanted to check out an authentic Taoist initiate sounds cool. Here is the info, http://www.decaturhealingarts.com/taoist_practice.htm

Yoda partying with his buds. 736NKsK86Uk