Sahaj Nath

i know! AMAZING, right?

i've looked at one of the text books, but i don't own any of them. i know people who trained with him, and i know a lot about him, but i don't really feel qualified to answer this in any depth. but, IMO: his text on medical qigong are perhaps the most thorough anywhere. however, if i wanted to study informally, i wouldn't go that route. i would study and memorize both ken cohen's Essential Qigong Training Course (universal/conventional knowledge and practice), and Chunyi Lin's Spring Forest Qigong levels 1 & 2 (some fresh ideas that challenge some of the conventional stream of qigong). i don't think wading through Jerry's texts are going to get you very far very fast. i don't even think that he would recommend it. your best bet for the most solid and accessible material on medical qigong is suzanne friedman. she was his student years ago, and now she has her own program that she teaches. she'd be my go-to person if i were doing the informal thing. her materials are easier and cheaper to acquire. i'm sure you can get some of her stuff on amazon. no, i haven't. but i may buy it tonight!

there's no special infusion in his music, other than being able to get a feel for his personal flavor. actually, i think i may like the two music tracks on your CD better than the music tracks on the 6-CD set. but whatevs. just put on some energetic music that you can move to. that's all. the only magic to it is YOU. btw, you've been making me think that maybe i should give a workshop another go. i could actually enjoy myself this time around. make personal amends with the crew. appreciate just having a good time with some good people. i could leave my biting criticisms at home.

whatup, Laoshr! i'll check out your book and i may ask you some questions. i'd like to know about your experience as a healer. any inspiring stories that you care to share.

i figured someone was gonna ask this. it's interesting how it worked out. SO... yoda loaned me the free CD that came with the book, and that actually doesn't have any of his crazy talk on it. i bought the 6-Disc set seperately. BUT, i bought it from a private seller on AMAZON who forgot to include disc #2, so to make up for it she's sending me another complete set! how cool is that?! so yeah, i should have the complete set ready for loan by monday or tuesday. indeed!

i'll try. his style is that of a creative, spoken word storyteller. drums and instruments in the background. each disk has him talking and playing for 30 minutes or more, and the last track on each disc is just shaking music without any words. two of those 'music only' tracks are 15 minutes each. the other four of them are 30 minutes each. as for how i feel from the dancing... i already said it, but i'll say it again. oh GLORY! it feels better than a high. it's a joy that sticks. i'm letting go on a level much deeper than my movement. i've done shaking practice before, but never for this long and never with this sense of total freedom. i was always kind of controlled. never fully let go. never allowed myself to vocalize freeform nonsense. it's a whole different ball game!

in addition to the words of master yoda, both his performance and his words are a critique of our flawed cultural framework. it was a critique of my heavy-handed intellectualism (which i can't deny after my initial rejection of his style). it's a challenge to our identity and our assumptions, and i think shaking that stuff up is every bit as important as the practice. he doesn't isolate the practice as just some thing you do from time to time. he challenges that very notion, in fact. i knew about shaking long ago, but it's not the practice of shaking that made this so brilliant and important to me; it's his call to a radical freedom. it shook me out of my own box. he's not presenting himself as a master or anything. just a free spirit who understands what the free spirit can do! in THAT sense, he too, like max, is a system buster. and what he's saying is that this freedom, this wild, primal ecstatic expression, this shaking & quaking, & moving, & yelling... THIS is the root!

what is expected is that the listeners allow themselves to be inspired, and to free themselves from their self-imposed constraints. so yeah, just start moving. and if it feels awkward, whatevs. just keep moving. laugh at yourself for feeling ridiculous. be silly with it. allow yourself to discover freedom and comfort in the letting go. it doesn't matter if you're moving or if "it" is moving you, especially in the beginning. what matters is making that raw place of freedom your friend, and maybe even your home. give yourself permission to have fun. allow yourself to express joy, pain, rage, lust, WHATEVER, all at once if it arises that way. but let go of any assumed structure of how it 'should' be. i TOTALLY get the kunlun thing! oh GLORY!

it was not my intention to offend you. i think what i shared is worth considering. it's the way i understand relationship to life force. it's also not a secret around here that i'm a teacher; i just thought it was a good and real example of distance and barriers being an illusion. that is what i stated, after all. i'll just leave your threads alone from now on. my bad. take care.

your question assumes the possibility of objective observance, which IMO isn't possible. why is this not a question that you can explore for yourself, for your own growth? the fact that you choose to practice under 'powerful' trees makes the question seem kind of silly. listen to yourself. know thyself. how do you feel when you're in an office building? how is that different from when you're in the park? your question just really strikes me as cumbersome. i'd like to answer it, but i don't think i can, because the presence of qi is so subjective. qi doesn't just come from the outside world, so the observer's development and sensitivity HAS to be part of the equation. i can feel the presence of a student of mine who lives 2,000 miles away just by my intention. the distance and barriers are illusions. AND YET, they are illusions with consequences, and something as small and thin as a sheet of paper can obscure the energetic connection for some people. so maybe there IS NO satisfactory answer to your question. i could spout some bullshit about how living things emanate life force and therefore dense concentrations of organic life will yield 'A' while insulation in a tube under salt water will yield 'B', but it would be bullshit. the observer HAS to count in the equation, because you too emanate life force, and you respond differently to different environments than i do. the answer is for YOU to discover.

i don't remember if it's binural beat technology or not. it's been a long time since i read up on it. you're right about the cost. it can cost anywhere from $150 to $200 per program. to be fair, though, the entire program should take you at least 6 years to get through, so it's not like you're paying it all at once. i've yet to see a system more sophisticated or more proven. i don't have much money, but if i were gonna invest in brainwave technology for my spiritual practice, i would stick with holosync. this isn't an area in which i'd be looking around for a bargain. holosync works. straight up. i don't know. they may have some discs that do the gamma thing, but it's not a part of the core program. check out the site. it may be a little daunting reading through everything, but i'm sure it'll clarify it all better than i can. i read it all before i purchased it. i was satisfied that i should at least give it a real shot. i already had a free copy of it, but i wasn't confident that the integrity of the file had been maintained because the technology is so sensitive. this isn't something you can put on your ipod without destroying the carrier frequencies. so i bit the bullet and bought it new. i don't regret it.

Patrick Brown, dude, what is it with you? what do you think your explicit photos are accomplishing? not everyone who who is on TTB is an adult, and even if they were, I, at least, wouldn't appreciate it. given the places you've been spiritually, sometimes you sort of prove my point as the perfect example of what can happen if the ego isn't strong, disciplined and healthy!

not one wave per disc, if that's what you're asking. (it's hard to tell what you're implying.) each phase of the program takes you from beta to theta/delta (no gamma). it's the intensity that changes, so it is recommended that you spend about 6 months in each phase to avoid negative side effects (overloading the nervous system).

my understanding of enlightenment is different. kundalini has more to do with evolution than it does enlightenment. IMO. realization of ever-present is not an experience. ALL experiences are finite. ever-present is ever-present. but whatevs. this texture of the discussion is useless. words are necessarily dual, and as such, they fail. besides, my highest viewpoint is still only from halfway up the mountain. take care.

as always, for you, anything. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St55DQ6BaaQ&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6"></param><param'>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St55DQ6BaaQ&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St55DQ6BaaQ&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> lots of tension exercises. lots of tolerance building sustaining blows. the shaolin performers are the most popular demonstrators of hard qigong. iron shirt training. that kind of thing.

holosync is really expensive, but i think it's the best out there. i got the prologue last year, and i may continue with it if my peeps decide they want to pay for it. a good adjunct, but not a substitute for straight-up meditation. i guess this counts as a gadget of sorts. it's good stuff. be warned though. especially considering your current energetic state. it could do a number on your nervous system.

so much for the "humble college student" thing, eh?

the enlightened state isn't very difficult to realize if you have the most simple of understandings. the hard thing is getting it to stick. the bodhi mind is fully present right now, for everyone, in every moment. the existence of the ego mind doesn't change that. the more we exotify and distance ourselves from that which is already ever-present, the further off the mark we are in our path work. IMO. did you read chrism's article? he was making the point that "ego death" is a metaphor that got misinterpreted. i was making the same point. it's not the death of the ego structure, but rather the surrender of the egoic *identity* that yields realization.

you may as well be asking, "what is qigong, and what does it do?" http://www.innerpromise.net/qigong.html as for martial arts, faster healing/recovery time, and greater sensitivity to intent and subtle movement. the cool martial benefits are largely in the domain of hard qigong, and i don't practice that stuff.

yeah, didn't it, though? i guess it happens. whatevs. nice! reading him makes it seem so obvious to me that this whole "death of the ego" idea was really a guy thing. "As far as existing without an ego, yes, 'coma' patients do it quite well."

college students just might be the most wasteful spenders on the planet. if you're old enough and smart enough to be in college, surely you figure out how to acquire 20 bucks. and if it takes a month, then it takes a month. without patience you won't gain much from the practice anyway. just chill. hopefully no one gave in to this plea.

i think you're right, but i don't think anyone who practices really cares. there hasn't been a consistent story of the origin of max's study of what he calls kunlun. and the fact that jenny lamb teaches wild goose doesn't substantiate max's claims about his time spent in those mountains studying in kunlun pai. the storyline discrepancies have been the reason for my inability to fully embrace the practice. i found it all deceitful. HOWEVER, i'm learning to get over myself and appreciate max for who he is and what he offers. when i went to the first San Francisco/Mill Valley seminar, i felt totally cheated. i trashed the whole thing, including his transmission. but now i honestly believe that the reason i wasn't impressed with his transmission was because i had already received it before i ever attended the seminar. i connected to his transmission just by focusing on his picture with an open heart, and it immediately revealed itself in my seated meditation as i began to move spontaneously. this occurred about 2 weeks before i attended the seminar, but i was so unsure about whether that was even possible that i dismissed it. now i seem to be able to tap into the transmission of many teachers just by tuning into them, and two nights ago i was looking at pillars of bliss and it happened again, without any intention on my part to receive it. i'm about as critical as they come, but there is definitely something going on with max. i'm grateful to have met him, and it seems that i get stronger the more i open myself to embracing him. i don't think i'll ever like the packaging, which includes the dubious, unverifiable history, but no one seems to care about that, and i'm starting to not care that much myself. he could very well have just been a white kid who grew up in a trailor park and discovered that he had a knack for this stuff. actually, that would impress me more. i think i fall into that category myself (except for the whole white thing). but as my pathwork has gotten deeper over these past months, i'm starting to understand the nature of the coyote on a deeper level. i think some of the story can be totally fabricated, and he can STILL be every bit as advanced people believe he is. so in a nutshell, yes, i think the 'Official Story' (if there is one) is thus far unsubstantiated, but i no longer think it matters as i once did. i don't refer to the practice as kunlun any longer, and that makes it easier for me to embrace it without it conflicting with my rational mind. but regardless, i give thanks to max and to chris. i'm learning to let go of what really doesn't matter, and in the process i'm getting out of my own way. i'm growing. maybe this isn't exactly a compliment, but it's something. i was wrong to dismiss max in the beginning as a complete fraud. i know that much.