Sahaj Nath

not me, unfortunately. August/September, perhaps, but not July. given the air fare prices, i may have to ride my bike to florida. it's not that far from california, right? hopefully i'll attend one of the formal workshops so i can meet some other bums. but with or without a workshop, i plan to meet and hang out with santiago for a couple of days.

i'd say try not to get caught up in classifying the experience. neither hold on to it. it was just a moment in time. many more await.

i think that this is STILL the common definition. the pejorative cast on the label is a result of what has resulted from this well-intentioned idea. the meaning breaks down at the "best of your ability, with a close eye..." phrases. there is no standard, no bright line to separate rigorous study from ego indulgence and fabrication. that nice sentiment led to the majority of new age traditions being born of innocent lack of knowledge, coupled with not-so-innocent self-interest and laziness. its pejorative cast is justified, IMO. a new word with a better and more developed definition is now needed. a lot of traditions are not as destroyed and lost as we once thought they were. to break with much of the dogmatism and short-sightedness of the past can be a good thing. but HOW that's done makes a world of difference.

Obi-Wan has taught you well. in my healing work i have many times come upon the limitations of direct fa gong manipulation of qi in the body. some illnesses just can't be touched unless there is a psychological breakthrough. it took me quite some time to realize the truth of your comment.

your written description of the movements is different from what you perform in the video. AH! got it! so you were matching up the postures with the destruction cycle rather than the creation cycle, and you gave the wrong attributes to all except the first one in the written description. the video seem right though. the creation cycle starting with wood. hmm. why does it start with wood, i wonder. the five element systems with which i'm most familiar start with either metal or water, unless there's a specific imbalance you're trying to correct.

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well, this certainly makes me happy, Lin Sifu.

Amen. i for one am glad you posted this. i think it's more substantive and genuine than probably 90% of the posts on this forum. everyone's in a different place. i think maybe it's as simple as that for me. "superman qigong" can do more to throw your emotions out of balance than most other things, IMO. some folks flat-out lose their minds. so to me, those who practice heavily and only exhibit the standard, garden variety ego flaws, those are the lucky ones. for me, i know undoubtedly that my ego's not going anywhere any time soon. i don't even want it too. i don't want to be without ego, but i have worked hard over the years to cultivate a decent ego that knows its place and serves its purpose. and given the type of individual i used to be a decade and a half ago, i'd say i'm doing pretty okay. part of what i think you're getting at is spiritual materialism. i think that's what turns so many people off of the "latest system" craze that seems to grip this forum from time to time. petty consumerism, masquerading as authentic spirituality. and that's more the fault of the seeker than it is the presenter. when i had my crazy kundalini episode 11 years ago, i was doing exactly that. i actually drew a sigil above the head of the teacher in an attempt to siphon off more than what he was offering with his transmission. and i guess i was successful as i lay in agony for the next week, wishing i could undo what i had done to myself. but there are scores of masters in the world with ridiculous personality quirks. conventional righteousness is not a necessary prerequisite for development. many a fucked up guru have proven that. i remember Ken Wilber giving praise to Genpo Roshi "not only as an enlightened human being, and a deeply, deeply, DECENT human being, which incidentally much harder than being enlightened...." that stuck with me. because it's so true. we all fall short of highest decency. i fall short every day. or maybe i don't, since i'm not actually striving for that. perhaps what's most important in this matter is self-honesty. about one's true motives. about one's true agenda. about ones' true character. for all the idolization some of my students are inclined to heap upon me, i go out of my way to show them my ass. i want them to see my flaws. and i want them to see me coming. otherwise, it imprisons me as much as it hinders them. so there are a ton things that get on my damn nerves about some of the crap that so many folks seem fixated on around here, but it's the willful self-deception that irks me the most. it stings a little to call it like i see it, because i know it takes one to know one. i'm not as clean as i wish i were, but i'm getting there. the good, the bad, the ugly. so long as its true. but whatevs.

hmm. is that a dare, or a double-dare?

steam, fun videos, but not one of them portrayed a real fight. i didn't see one real strike. not one real kick. no knees. no elbows. and no distance between the opponents. their limbs are touching throughout the matches. that's not real combat, in my opinion. a ton of videos, but no one fight scenario.

damn, taomeow! scadder21, it's a different kind of relating to knowledge, in my experience. i've received many a transmission. what i found was that, such as in the case with breathing, if i surrendered to the presence that was manifesting within me as a result of the transmission, then right breathing would arise without my intellect acting as an intermediary. most people i think experience this on a really small level, like when you're around someone who makes you feel tense or someone who sets you at ease. that could be considered a type of transmission. a master's transmission is just a tad more skillful.

i totally agree. many have going through the process of full kundalini awakening is the primary reason why monks and nuns from all traditions have benefited from hermitages and monasteries. even christian contemplative traditions undergo the same awakening by another name. and Adam, i'm still uncomfortable with "awakening the chi" being associated with kundalini. but you seem to understand the difference, so maybe it's just the word choice that doesn't agree with me. but the introduction you posted seems to promise experience of chi flow and not much more. so if you can post anything in the program that goes decidedly deeper than chi flow, that might help. of course, i could always just download it myself... yeah. nevermind.

there's a world of difference between awakening ones awareness to chi and awakening the big K. a WORLD of difference. in yoga they don't mistake sensations of prana for kundalini awakening. i stimulate chi awareness in my students and clients almost every day. but it's not shaktipat.

LOL! yup. and look at how he responds to getting hit. touching his face over and over again to see if he's bleeding. he's obviously not a fighter. i was JUST talking about this in another thread. guy probably hasn't done any real fighting in decades, if ever. masters with glass jaws. in a real fight raw conditioning trumps all of that masterful skill he might have had. it all went out the window with one hit. he looked like an old man getting mugged or something.

i was gonna make this a new thread. i'm glad you did before me. i remember when i was a young teen and (embarrassingly) a fan Van Dame's movie Bloodsport. that was the first time i'd ever seen muay thai. well, it was sort of muay thai. his movie Kickboxer, which was exclusively about muay thai (and just as bad as Bloodsport) came later. but by comparison to the martial arts practices i was into, it looked exotic and exciting. so i immediately ordered the first book i could find on it in the back of one of my kung fu magazines (no internet back then). i remember reading that in 1974 five shaolin masters went to bangkok to fight in the rings. they demonstrated their power by shattering big rocks with their iron palm and all that. yet every one of them got knocked out in the first round. the same thing happened in subsequent years as well. i was totally disappointed. but that was when i began to understand bruce lee's attitude of eclecticism & concision. i know shaolin isn't tai chi chuan and isn't even taoist. but i think the dogmatism and the removal from actual combat are the flaws in both cases.

i totally agree. WYG, i remembered from our PM's many months ago that you were an instructor, which is why a number of your posts and questions kind of threw me. your clarification totally makes sense. i guess that should have been obvious to me, huh? maybe the most effective APPROACH to meditation would have elicited deeper responses than the most effective form. it's a little more open.

hilarious! but to be fair, i'm on the opposite extreme. i've never met a skilled tai chi chuan practitioner who could actually fight, and i've fought my fair share of them back before MMA was in existence. i know there are a number of people on this board who believe it to be an affective martial art, but i'm not one of them. for one, i think there's too much dogma in tai chi chuan for a real fight. plus, they spend too much time playing their form and not enough time actually fighting. if it's a fight, you're gonna get hit. that's kind of the point. if you're not used to getting hit, your skills are gonna drain right out of you along with your courage. i'm curious what you all think about that. those of you who believe tai chi chuan to be a true martial art. but about the video, i think what sifu rudy does (the black taoist) is far more practical than this guy. i would never co-sign a video like this by saying it rocks unless i'd actually been in a confrontation where it helped me.

i used to hang out on the wahnam boards a year or so ago. the disciples where always very adamant about how qigong can never be learned from a video or book, and that stance training was too dangerous to try to learn without a real live teacher. they said that if ever they would do a video it would only be for students who had already trained in-person and received direct transmission from sifu wong. i thought their position on the matter was ridiculous. apparently some ideas on the matter have changed if they're putting videos publicly on youtube. good for them.

indeed. when folks ask me what i think is the best qigong set, i always tell them "the one that you will practice every day." i think the same holds true for the most effective meditation.

the gopi krishna claim wasn't his. it was mine. and i wasn't altogether sure if i'd remembered it correctly, as it's been nearly 10 years since i read the book (remember i softened the statement with "if i recall"). if you say he was just "cross-legged," then fine. this back-and-forth took on a life of its own, and i'm really not interested in being part of the discussion. you didn't respond to my questions or to what i was trying to convey to you. as far as i'm concerned, you're a jerk. i don't really want to dialog with you. if you're the example of an awakened being, i'm quite content never practicing full-lotus.

he doesn't practice and isn't familiar with what max is teaching right now. but here's what he had to say about it: http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?showto...;hl=vajrasattva somehow two threads with the exact same title got posted and they have different discussions on them. go figure.

? how do i answer that? i think i'm just using a basic dictionary definition of the term. like a collection of practices & principles that form a routine approach to achieving... whatever your objective is. or maybe i don't understand what you're asking?

IMO, every real system supports those ends. people waste so much precious time trying to find the "right practice" that they forget the practice is just a vehicle. even a shitty vehicle can get you to the river. on most days. what's more important is the quality you bring to your practice. spiritual materialism will thwart your aspirations, no matter how wonderful the system you're practicing. and sincerity, commitment, and the simple act of listening to yourself can bring you to realization, no matter how faulty the system. i like SFQ for some things and not for others. i would recommend it to anyone who's looking for a regular practice. i think chunyi lin is genuine and sincere, and the fact that he continues to offer his system at a community college when he could be charging exorbitant prices (now that he's so well known) says a lot about the quality of person he is. it's incredibly simple and comprehensive at the same time. a great foundation for anyone getting started.

LOL! it was a term SFJane came up with in this thread. it just means a regular practice that builds qi in the body. so qigong and yoga can be seen as ways of doing qi push-ups. your body's qi capacity will increase, and the cleansing effect on the organs, blood, and nervous system will refine the energy so that it's more healing.