Sahaj Nath

i'm not a taoist. and i wasn't alone in my take on your mindset. nor was my intention to disparage you. your 'Tao Te Ching' post illustrates more of the same, but i won't comment on your thread this time.

"The Kundalini magnifies you, so if you were an asshole before you awakened, then afterwards you become wide and gaping." --Glenn Morris Awakening the Kundalini or spending a decade in a cave on a mountain doesn't necessarily make one enlightened. spending *every* moment actually *in* the moment and responding to the same divine spark in others that we also have within us possibly does. -- a student of Glenn Morris kundalini is not the endgame. nausea, migraines, chronic fevers, bi-polar episodes, schizophrenic episodes, chronic pain, even cancer. i work with people who have all of these as a result of kundalini sickness. none of them are holy. some of them aren't even particularly spiritual. it's been years for me, and i still get fevers, pains, and emotional over-excitabilities every now and again. my kundalini's not fully open, but it's highly aroused, and i go through dramatic transitional periods on occasion. what's cool is that when i have a significant psychological breakthrough it tends to be followed by an energetic shift that changes my entire body, and i can feel it almost at a cellular level. i can often transmit it to my students as well. because they're entrained to my frequency they often come along for the ride just by virtue of being around me. awareness can "soar to great heights" without kundalini being awakened. i believe that most, perhaps all, states of consciousness are available to us at any time. often it's immersion in those states that triggers the awakening of kundalini rather than the other way around. as your psyche, your emotions, and your bodies cleanse, those states of awareness start to normalize into consistent traits in your waking consciousness. slow and steady wins the race. practice hatha yoga or qigong or both. work on your mental/emotional baggage. you can't heal what you don't own, and self-deception will bite you in the ass. i'm a qigong healer. much of the work i do involves decreasing and sometimes reversing the kundalini flow in the spine. more people have highly aroused kundalini than you might think. i'm not sure i even know what 'fully awakened kundalini' means.

umm, you DO realize that the person you're asking is the same person who wrote those "words from a book," right? whatevs. i just think it's a little ridiculous. no crime in my expressing that. good luck with your recycled questions.

WYG, you've been reading, questioning, and debating the topic of Kunlun almost for as long as it has been around the forum. these questions of yours have been answered 50 times over. recall that i was one of heaviest critics of Kunlun 6 months ago. but now even i'm thinking, why are you wasting so much time with questions that either a.) have been answered either directly or through a series of other explanations, or b.) don't really matter anyway? for instance, you're basically asking for a map of the system when time and again it's been said that max is a system buster and doesn't hold dogmatically to any system. you're asking about the physiological results of the practice when a.) people are regularly writing about the results they're getting and, by default, not getting, and b.) you haven't taken the time to really try it for yourself. i mean, what's the deal? i'm not trying to be an ass, although i seem to have a knack for coming across that way at times. everything you've just asked, EVERYTHING, has been answered in one form or another. and some of what you've asked is blatantly obvious, like the fact that mao shan and kunlun shan are NOT of the same school. as a teacher of the arts, YOU KNOW THAT. so... ?

a curious thread. i've always kept a messy bed, a messy house, a messy mind, and a messy life. until recently, that is. now i keep my environment neat religiously. and i do it for a very simple reason. because everything counts. i never rush. i breath slow, move gracefully, and handle everything with care as if everything were tender and in need of care. it's a good way to start the day and end the night. it's a good way to be. for years i believed domestic chores to be tedious and a waste of time. but i found that wasn't the reason i was messy- it was just the belief i constructed after the fact. slowly going about the ritual of daily chores has the ability to put you right here, right now, radically present, without some approved structure labeled "spiritual" to distract you from what's at hand. because everything is spiritual. everything counts. there is discomfort to be found when we submit ourselves to even the most basic daily tasks. it's that discomfort that most people are avoiding. for me at time it could be so overwhelming that i could hardly sit still, *unless, of course, i could convince myself i was doing something important, like meditating.* now i make very little distinction between cleaning my house and practicing my forms. i make very little distinction between my healing work and my friendships. i endeavor to bring integrity and quality to all tasks. to all relationships. and i no longer run from my own shadows as i once did. everything counts.

your space limitations are the context, and yes, that had something to do with your question. just as the media biases and political lies are a context and have something to do with your rant. maybe my words are too blunt. if so, then it doesn't matter what i say. you're not listening. you're allowing en extremely narrow context to define your reality. of course some politicians lie. but what do lying politicians have to do with the medical breakthroughs, transportation breakthroughs, scientific breakthroughs, and technological breakthroughs, and yes, even policy reforms, from which we have all benefited? for all of the lies and injustices that exist in the world, i'd rather have a toothache or an infected wound today than at any other time period in history. i like paved roads, stop lights, sewage systems and homes that don't just fall apart. we live in a pretty amazing world that's beautiful and grotesque at the same time. this has always been true. to fashion a conceptual scheme based on a handful of negatives (and it's way worse than what you've articulated, as i'm sure you know) is sadly under-informed. "you can never own anything and traveling the world is vanity." and yet you know of the Tao and Tantrism and Tai Chi because of those vain ones who came before you. the entire statement rather glib. "An insecure and shy person has room for everybody." what is it that you are assuming in this statement about all insecure and shy people? again, just like the above quote, i think this expresses the very arrogance AND pseudo understanding you're bemoaning. just in a different context than political mainstream. i've never met anyone who ever straight-out said "i don't know myself." everyone thinks they know themselves well. everyone. including me. luckily i have people around me who help keep me honest and who are forgiving of my arrogance (which i absolutely concede is a flaw in my character- especially in written form). "PoliTICians and buSINess people are bullshitters that's the truth..." is that really all they are? you know very well the world is far more nuanced than such a trite declaration can encapsulate. but the more you think in such terms, the more limited your conceptual scheme becomes, even when part of you knows better. your attitude, at least in this post, is limited, under informed, and inflexible. your attitude about tai chi in a small space was the same. dismiss if you like. i have no particular investment here.

wait a second. you're the same guy who was asking about a form suitable for small spaces, right? both that post and this post illustrate the severe limits and inflexibility in your scope of thinking. your belief structure is sadly under-informed, which is fine until it is clung to and then flung about like it's The Truth. know yourself. recognize your own limits. dare to venture outside of your box.

hey starjumper (if you're still around), you say "I have learned it." what do you mean by that exactly? i'm assuming you're just referring to the first set of 64 movements. but if you're talking about being versed in the system, i'd like to know who you studied with and how far they took you.

indeed. and this is true both externally AND internally. yes. if you aspire to high-level practice there's an advantage to developing greater connection and communication between the two hemispheres of the brain. which ever side of the brain you use the least will give you the most distress when it begins to awaken in profound ways. the book doesn't get in-depth about it, but it seems like the most obvious thing in the world as soon as he addresses it. you should get it. it's a book worth owning.

i enjoyed morris' book Path Notes of an American Ninja Master. it led me to take ambidexterity more seriously. and he writes in a very non-flashy, down-to-earth manner. he died in april of '06 though. the way you wrote your inquiry it seemed as if you didn't know that. i know a lot of the NorCal ninja folks and he was well-liked among them.

hey taomeow, i purchased your teacher's 5 animal frolics as well as his tendon transforming classic. niether dvd plays well. does he do replacements?

this is good advice. i want to push it a bit further in this direction. to paraphrase josh waitzkin, the weakness of any disciplined art is its dogma. play. be creative. change things up from time to time. let the movements reveal new insights to you. keep in mind that tai chi chuan is a martial art. by definition, then, it needs to be adaptable. YOU need to be adaptable. your limited space is a great opportunity for you to expand your understanding of your practice, i think.

waste of money. there's no new foundation. no new eye-opening approach. the guy is capitalizing on the form's rarity in a market where old + obscure = best. it has a cool looking cover and a boatload of unsubstantiated claims with virtually no depth. the author has constructed a fairy tale. given that the book came out in 2003, trust me when i say that this system would have been known by now if it brought anything new and good to the table. or don't trust me. see for yourself. if you're a practitioner and want to drop $13 on something that could actually expand your movement vocabulary and give you a deeper appreciation for the intersections of qigong and yoga, i say check out shiva rea's Fluid Power: Vinyasa Flow Yoga. if you don't believe me about the seamm jasani book, then make me an offer and i'll sell you mine.

you seem to have a very romanticized view of Daoism and Chinese culture. what you describe is historically counter-factual. LOTS of dogmatism among the schools. LOTS of fighting between clans. only in recent times have the various schools and disciplines come to a place of mutual respect, and probably only because so many of them face extinction without the umbrella of mutual support. also, i would venture to say that most of the poeple on this site are not Daoist. we're not saints. for that matter, the saints weren't even saints! there are stories of living buddhas getting fed up and throwing rocks at their disciples just to be left alone. no living being gets to trade in all the shortcomings of their humanity in exchange for divinity. there is beauty even in conflict. we can't chose how others act, but we can chose what meaning those actions have for us.

what's your experience? what skills do you already have? i think shontonga gave some decent pointers, but your sensitivity and connection to the energy may mean the difference between a real visceral exchange and a pleasant fantasy. there's no such thing as far away, especially when you're talking about someone who's in your heart. there are countless techniques. you could even make up your own. that kind of stuff doesn't matter as much as some might think. don't sweat the technique. what matters most from a technical standpoint is that you mean it. how in touch you are with the life force will determine the results. there are exceptions, but as a rule i find that most people end up just playing in their own heads due to their lack of connection to the energy.

How important are the Three Treasures to your daily life? What do they mean to you? How are they factored into your regular practice? i hope at least a few of you will respond. i want to get a sense of how a broad range of cultivators (hard to get more broad than the folks represented here @ TTB) employ their knowledge of the Three Treasures. it's a really general and open inquiry, so please feel free to go anywhere with your response.

surely you've seen the video by now. it's been posted a number of times. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlZndMuYW04 at 5:10 it starts to get into the spirit world stuff and the keris work he does.

LOL! HILARIOUS!

hey rebecca, in a sense, they were both right. if your activation was not apparent, then the instruction would be that you don't want to block the flow through the spinal channel ("jade pillow gate" at the base of the skull). once activated, however, natural movement can take over. it's the same thing in certain meditations. my guess is that that's what was going on with the conflicting messages. it's been said that kunlun doesn't work with the spine/kundalini energy, but that's the only sense i can make of it.

Beautiful, Todd. simply beautiful. i can't help but wonder how could you possibly know that this dialog is exactly what i need at this current transitional period i'm in? thank you. i really have no words to offer at this moment, other than 'Thank You.' Thank You.

i am somewhat ambivalent toward your reply. or maybe i'm multivalent. as a reminder to me, i appreciate it. it's something that has been lacking from my way of life. yesterday when i was with a student. i told him my new mantra for the time being is 'keep it simple, stupid.' so it's nice to get a reinforcement of some of the stuff i've been intuiting more deeply as of late. reading your words woke me right back up at the moment that i read them. surely you recognize your own contradictions in even attempting to put words to this. you didn't seem to acknowledge the necessity of contradiction when attempting to communicate to another, and hence why i said that words are cumbersome. ' it was never my intent to transmit truth through words. words point, and vaguely so. right-on. this is where i have a tendency to get off-track. as a teacher this is a very difficult thing for me to navigate. ideas and words matter, even if they are not 'That'. i am sure to continue to stumble with this for some time to come. not so much. i'm very much a scholar in my temperament, so i always expect the conveyance of my ideas to be on par (or sometimes even more clear) than "gurus and holy men," as you put it. i'm a skilled communicator. i analyze, critique, analogize, all that stuff. i've developed that capacity to a higher degree than a lot of spiritual masters, so i seldom look to there expressions as any standard because i seldom believe they express themselves very skillfully, at least for us westerners. i find ken wilber and integral quite refreshing because of this. if i missed your point, you're welcome to correct me. 'simplicity' is just an idea, and a highly nebulous one at that. but how do we have this discussion without the cumbersome medium of words?

there doesn't seem to be any reason to believe that this book is any different from Magus of Java. My guess is that there is no separate word for 'magus' in spanish, as this seems to be a spanish translation.

things seem to be going well for a lot of you in this practice. after all of my criticisms in the past about presentation and claims, i'm really glad so many of you have gained a lot from Max's teachings. what's most impressive is how many of you are still with it after 6 months. i may share a personal story at some point, but for now i just want to say that my rejection of Kunlun last year was premature, as sean deanty had suggested. sean was the reason i left for a while to work on myself. i remain grateful for his perspective. i think i can say honestly and without needing to give any details that max's transmission was more than i had initially realized. i was torn about it in november and december, and my 'head-heavy' side, as someone at the time put it, made it impossible for me to trust any part of it due to inconsistencies and whatnot. Max has my respect. not that he needed it. but i need to admit that i was too hard on the guy when my criticisms had a lot more to do with the packaging than the substance. anyway, i just wanted to openly acknowledge that.

hmm. i really don't know a whole lot about Taoism Proper, so i can't really have much of an opinion on the matter. perhaps you could ask that question openly in a separate thread. see what kind of responses you get. Spirit Valley, at least as it relates to the Tao Te Ching, (according t Yang, Jwing-Ming) refers to the third eye. the valley is the space behind the third eye, between the two hemispheres of the brain. i'm not sure that it even matters whether or not they're all talking about the same thing. it certainly doesn't matter enough to ponder for years. what matters is the perspective of the lineage you've chosen as your practice. c'mon! when you get all intriguing like that, OF COURE i'm interested! so what drew you to respond.