Sahaj Nath

seldom has truer words been written on this forum, my friend. to this i would add one final missing element: Trust. http://www.innerpromise.net/breathe.html

relax. some people study for 50 years and never get it. for others, it just clicks. just as an example, look at this kid. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value=" name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> some can spend decades, and they will never flow like water. they'll spend a lifetime seeking it, and never relax into their being enough for them to really get it. this kid probably couldn't even tell you what he 'gets' about the form, but it's there. by the time he's your age, he could potentially lose some of that natural flow. he could potentially lose himself in dogma. try as we might to make perfect sense of it all, it's really not a linear thing. our paths will unfold as they do, and we will be as we are.

guess i'm not free of attachments. i watched that video for 3 minutes. now i want those 3 minutes back.

WTF? what's with the 'Mal#2' if you're the same Mal? EDIT: just went to the lobby. got it.

is it possible to heal without surgery? yes. is it likely? probably not. and if she's not motivated and consistent, it's not even possible, IMO. breaks, sprains, tears, and that sort of thing, tend to be far more responsive to western treatment. chronic conditions, viruses, tumors, that sor of thing, to respond best to eastern methods. that has been my experience and the advice of my teachers in the past. this isn't a hard and fast rule, but it's generally true. i don't really get why this issue is a scary one. there are worse things in life than ankle surgery. one of my guys tore something in his ankle about 7 months ago. it always feels better after i work on it, but he's never been consistent with giving it its due attention. it's kind of a mind set issue, where you want out of the discomfort so you can go back to ignoring your body again. as soon as he was out of any discomfort he decided that it was healed enough, so he proceeded screw it up more. and this is a guy who would train in qigong and healing techniques with me on a regular basis. my recommendation to him now is to get the surgery. it is what it is, you know? at the same time, i have another student, a very gifted female, who broke her arm and healed it in a little over a week. the doctor couldn't find a trace on the x-ray. for her she was just enjoying the energetic exploration of her body, and she was really in tune. i would really get over what almost sounds like a phobia and come to terms with the fact that surgeries a real possibility, and that it's okay. i'm a healer by trade, but sometimes i have to send people away and tell them to see a doctor before they return. sometimes i tell them to get the surgery, and i assist them greatly in the rehab process. only on occasion do miracles happen, and i think those instances have more to do with them than it does with me. clinging to fear can ensure that a miracle doesn't happen. so either way, i say it's important to let go of fear, and know that what will be, will be.

damn. ninjas with guns. that's not very fair.

his teaching style is idiotic. it attracts novices who still think that real masters should look and act like the characters in 36 Chambers of Shaolin, or the TV show Kung Fu. here's what the community generally thinks of the guy. be your own judge. first read this one: http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?showto...1&hl=mewtwo then read this one: http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?showtopic=6050&hl= in my most humble of opinions, he's an ass-clown. he's capitalizing on the Dragonball-Z crowd who don't want to grow up. and he's cashing in on it, too. but it's up to to you what you choose to believe.

i certainly don't have any of their old ads, but you may find one archived online somewhere. i'm not the diligent practitioner that i once was, but i still teach it because i think students new to the expression of energy in their bodies get a lot of benefit out of it. when coupled with a good qigong routine, the practice really helps to generate a forcefield around the body, one that sensitive people can feel when they get close to you. one that you can hone into an attracting or repelling force. with a regular mediation practice you should be able to sense the presence of all objects that come into contact with this field. that's the superficial stuff, anyway. internally, it dramatically increases your capacity for gathering and circulating qi in the body. really helps clear out the meridians. i don't know of a practice that does it faster. it doesn't take hours of daily practice, either. these days i prefer to do it slowly and do it standing, in sync with the breath. i don't do it in the circular direction, either. i just don't care about it's benefits the way that i did years ago, so i don't really consider it a part of my essential practice any longer, even though i continue to teach it. the problem with your friend might lie in what he's attracted to. this 'inner circle' program is so obviously bad that it doesn't warrant debunking. but it's designed to attract people who want power, who want magic, and who believe they'll be special or better than others if they 'get this thing.' self-honesty goes a long way. true, i don't know your friend, but i still think it's fair to raise the question, "what are you really looking for, and why?" if there's purity in his motives, there's shouldn't be any offense to the question.

i have the same book. it's the only one i own. i also own his Integral Life Practice kit. a worthwhile purchase, i think. i don't follow it per se, but in actuality i kind of do naturally. the lectures are great. Genpo Roshi's Big Mind process is really cool, and i go through it with some of my students periodically. those are easy days, when i can just make tea and pop in a video. the shadow work is maybe the most significant, not because it's the most profound or powerful module, but because it tends to be the most neglected area of spiritual practitioners. highly realized people can have these ridiculous, out-of-character personality quirks or egoic hang-ups, and it's because meditation and deep spiritual study doesn't get at that stuff. it's like $125 on amazon, which is less than what i paid for it, but i'm glad i bought it. it really lines up with so much of what i've had to come to on my own. and he took it all to another level. yeah, Ken's Brain is priceless! EDIT: we talked about this a little bit on the phone: if you've chosen a tradition, it's important to trust it. that fundamental trust is a necessary shift inside of you that needs to happen. it's not about them, but about you. so i would say don't waste your energy creating greater conflict in yourself by getting into Ken Wilber or anyone else. stay the course. keep to your chosen foundation. it will serve you FAR MORE than any dabbling. i'm a wanderer by nature, but even i need that fundamental trust in my path. i absolutely trust that it is my destiny to awaken permanently in this lifetime. i've believed that since before i had a vocabulary to put words to it. but if that wasn't an intrinsic part of me, i would be in a Buddhist monastery right now. trust your tradition. not because it's perfect, but because you NEED to trust it. Hey Seth! i do hope folks get around to responding to your post. i may get into it tomorrow, but i REALLY gotta get to bed. so we shall see what tomorrow brings. part of me thinks that you're just being modest in this post for the sake of discussion. i think maybe you've been more places than this post suggests.

Thank you, Cam! i kinda had a crush on Diane Hamilton for a time. had to do some shadow work on that and grow up a bit. Genpo's a beautiful man, and people seriously underestimate the value of his Big Mind process. it's so simple, yet so important.

yeah, he rocks. Ken Wilber would have saved me a LOT of trouble a decade ago. i only recently discovered him, thanks to Trunk and Saul Williams.

wow, I'm so glad i recycled this thread! great responses, everyone. many beautiful responses, too! it warms my heart to read the experiences and perspectives of so many others. if i were a follower of your chosen tradition, i might agree. however, i am not, and i don't. let's just deal with the first statement for a moment: this may be true of all of whom we 'identify' as sages and gurus (and even THAT'S not completely true), but that's NOT the case for everyone who has been blown into complete and utter realization. a lot of those people are locked up, and/or drugged up. a lot of those people found themselves incapable of functioning within the limits of our sociocultural framework. it's just that people don't write books about THOSE folks. but aside from that, dealing with the meta-argument at play in the (dare i say, ego-inflated) response... this implied notion that intellect is the enemy misses the mark. scholars DO achieve realization. contemplatives DO achieve realization. it may be incompatible with the tradition, YOU'VE chosen, but it's certainly not universal. what of Tibetan monks who spend a couple of hours every day engaged in debate? are we to believe that NONE of them are or ever will be realized? every tradition has it's dogma, and i don't fault your teachers for keeping to the proven path that has worked for them. that's what the traditions are for. but with all due respect, they are not infallible. they don't speak for me OR my chosen path- the path of a wanderer. i've been beyond the bliss and the generalized sense of well-being and unity. i've been to that place where my body didn't seem to exist, and the ideas that it ever did exist seemed absurd. and i discovered that my body wasn't trained well enough to function on auto-pilot. and i discovered this in a canyon, miles away from any other human being. there are levels of awakening that are truly DEVASTATING. the LUCKY ones are the ones who received titles like sage or guru. so i find this topic to be quite relevant and worthwhile. the last response you posted from your teachers is very true. the body IS still in the state of duality. but what it doesn't express is the training/discipline/healthy ego structure that may be necessary for that body to function effectively when the world AS WE PRESENTLY KNOW IT ceases to be. that's all i'm sayin'.

thought this might be a good thread to recycle since the topic of "egolessness" came up. plus, there are lots of new folks on the forum who may have some fresh insights to contribute.

hell yeah!

it's a spontaneous nei gung practice. level 1 is seated. go to their website @ kunlunbliss.com. as far as the nuts and bolts of the practice, i don't think it would be ethical to give that out. if you were looking for the specifics of the technique, you won't find that in a single post, but if you want to do the work, you could piece it together from many posts. if you're patient enough, that is. it's actually very simple.

it's been answered 10,000 times already! if you're not getting a response it may be because folks are tired of repeating themselves. search the term. look at some of the earliest threads. look at some of the workshop threads. it's all here. just look for it.

thought i should probably be more clear: the "inner circle" chi people have been marketing the same stuff for the better part of 10 years, perhaps longer. they combine conspiracy theory, new age quackery, and a couple of real qigong techniques which they perform poorly. listen to the voice of the man in the youtube clip. he's like the main instructor. his energy is nervous and scattered. weak kidneys and congested liver. and that's just from reading his voice. i'll bet he suffers from recurring pain in his lower back. the blood washing/meridian cleansing technique is what i chose instead of the practicing yi jin ching. it's faster, easier, more direct, and after 100 days of uninterrupted practice, you can perform it quite effectively in your mind without the need for physical movement. what they've done with a lot of their "techniques" is just externalize practices that are more internal. like the microcosmic orbit, for instance. they use the hands to guide the energy and rely far more on the motion than on mental direction. they also have a "bone marrow energy packing" technique that's kind of silly if you know about breathing from various parts of your body. but just keep this in mind: their stuff has been around for at least a decade. if it were as amazing as they make it out to be, half the people in this forum would have heard of it long ago and would have incorporated it into their practice. the guys promoting it would be very wealthy, and their presentation wouldn't be so low-budget. they're using silly marketing tactics that most teenagers should be able to see through. like the limited number of people who can become a part of their inner circle (even though they've been pedaling this stuff for years). "remote viewing" techniques- STRAIGHT FROM THE MILITARY! move objects with your mind! command animals! (and that's not to say that none of this stuff is possible. just that they are not true adepts in ANY of these things!) yet for all of the promise of magic and mystery, they don't even have a clue about basic meditation, and an extremely limited understanding of breathing. there are too many good teachings out there for someone to fall for this stuff.

LOL! you're not skeptical enough, my friend! blood washing/meridian cleansing is something i both practice and teach. learned it many years ago from a teacher of mine. it's a very good practice, and i always kind of wondered why it never became popular. but give me a break with these guys! ages ago they used to run adds for this stuff in the Inside Kung Fu Magazine for like 3 years straight. some people bought into their system. NOT ONE OF THEM can shoot fire balls out of their ass. these guys are idiots. seriously. they got a hold of a few good exercises and repackaged it as "the holy grail that others have killed for." their knowledge base SUCKS. i've seen their system. pretty sure i still have a copy of their DVD somewhere. but i didn't and wouldn't pay for it. if you want to be a healer, practice a real art. if you're too power-hungry, then go for it. enjoy your negative side-effects and lack of any clear guidance. it's your call, but i say these guys are a joke.

one thing i DO know is that "Boddhidarma" is just a title, like "Light of the Path" or "Bringer of the light" or that sort of thing. there were many Boddhidarmas. DaMo is the most famous of them.

the exercises are simple. the expensive books are unnecessary unless you're interested in becoming a certified medical qigong therapist. his books set the standard in many of the hospitals in Beijing that incorporate TCM. he's about as good as it gets. but it's all highly academic, and what you're looking for wouldn't be best served by purchasing those books. once upon a time (1993) he had a VHS entitled Chi Kung: The Healing Workout. it would probably be cheaper to find a copy of the VHS and then get a used VHS player to watch it. sounds silly, but true. his movements in the video are the most precise and exquisite that i've ever seen from ANYONE on video. even before i knew anything about him, i knew he was a master. if you don't care about that kind of percision, there's a sort of crappy dvd on amazon that has the exercises. it's cheap & very easy to learn from, but it's NOTHING compared to johnson's perfect movements. but whatevs. like i said in the review of the video, sometimes you gotta work with what's available. http://www.amazon.com/Reduce-Stress-Improv...=cm_cr-mr-title my review is the 3rd one down. you'll see my name. the guy went through johnson's certification program, but he obviously didn't graduate at the top of his class. that's all i'm sayin'.

for those interested, Sifu Jesse Tsao offers a form of it on DVD: http://www.taichihealthways.com/tai-chi-dvd.htm it's toward the bottom of the page. the video might be a waste of time for beginners, but experienced cultivators can certainly appreciate it. also, Sifu Yang, Jwing-Ming's book: http://www.amazon.com/Qigong-Secret-Youth-...9205&sr=1-3 anyways, i have nothing to contribute as to whether it's buddhist or taoist, and i don't even see the relevence of the label. but i guess it could be a fun topic.

yeah, Santi's pretty okay.

then follow him and have all of your greatest ego-fantasies come true. spend the money. devote yourself. commit to it. but whatever you do, MAKE YOUR OWN DECISION!