Sahaj Nath

oh, and just for a little more clarification: in talking about qi versus magnetism, saying that magnetism is more connected to divine will is kind of non-responsive to me. that doesn't make it non-qi. all of my experiences with spirits as well as divine pan-consciousness (the only words i can think of to describe it) has been when immersed in the YIN field. so why would a taoist adept make a distinction by saying this indescribably magnetic presence isn't qi? electricity isn't the only expression of qi, and no taoist has would claim that. but he does. i wasn't looking to level a challenge at him. i genuinely wanted to know what this completely new level of magnetic presence was. mantra, your response was better than his was. i did get it. but that answer didn't make it non-yin. dubious distinctions like that are gonna be questioned by a lot of people as your workshops gain momentum.

okay, i just woke up. i'm probably not going to respond to everything that's been said in one shot, so i'll just respond to what's striking me at this time. first, i want to apologize. there IS a sort of aggressive negativity in my criticism. if i had waited a day to respond i'm sure i wouldn't have come across that way. i meant to be every bit as critical as i was, but i honestly didn't mean to be so disrespectful about it. so on that point, cam, mantra, dakini, i think you're right. mantra, i think it's fairly obvious from how i presented it that i actually *recorded the lecture.* you can question my egotism and all of that, but you can't really challenge the accuracy of what said. what i said is true. you know it's true. you recorded the lecture yourself. you had to have gone back and watched it by now. i don't have any plans of making the recording public. that's not what i recorded it. i recorded it simply because i didn't want to lose or forget even one insight that he was going to share. so even though you and i are not exactly friends at this point, as a show of good faith i won't share the recording with anyone unless you say it's alright to do so. the little talk i had with you and max after the lecture was NOT recorded, however, so i can't prove that you're not being straight about that part. but i stand by what i said took place. i only wish i hadn't taken the cheap shot with the "taoist master my ass" comment. but really, that's how i felt. i felt duped. not at the time, but upon reflection. at the time i really was in "feeling" mode and willingly gave myself to the whole thing as much as i could. most of my criticism didn't start bubbling up until i was driving home. and moreso as i listened in the car to what i had recorded. you are thoroughly invested in this venture, mantra. you are the one who is making the movie. you are the one who wrote the book. i can neither expect nor trust that you will come clean about everything. and i know how my PM sounded to you. but i stand by it. you're welcome to make it public if you think it proves your point. i only sent it privately cause you were responding to so much criticism at the time (and gracefully, for which i commended you in person) that i didn't want to add another layer for others to see. BUT, it was you who said in another thread that max will look into your energy in a private session and be able to tell you your lineage. i wasn't looking for my greatness to be recognized, man. i was just looking for the truth of that claim. and i said in my PM to you that i wasn't really even interested in the kunlun workshop, but i WAS interested in meeting with him privately. i wanted his counsel. i wanted his wisdom. i wanted to have the guidance of a true master, which you claimed him to be. it's not accurate to say that i got NO response from the kunlun practice. i'll have to explain that one when i'm feeling a little more up to it. i never said that the practice was bogus. in fact, i said it was effective. but moreso than anything else out there? no. it's not. you don't know enough about my journey, but now i feel like telling more of my stuff is just going to come across like more egotism. what i CAN say is that it's hard to qualify a practice as 'the best there is' when at the same time 'it's not for everybody.' on the reptilian races thing: as i said, i am crazy enough to buy into it. (again, you don't know where i've been.) it was how he presented it that destroyed all credibility of what he was saying. nourishing food being served in a garbage can isn't very appealing, even when you're hungry. by not presenting the information in a credible manner, he presented himself like a thousand other new-age quacks out there. perhaps if i were lost in bliss at the time, i wouldn't have been so critical about it. but i can't help but feel like maybe that's partly how the bliss practice was being used: to make people more impressionable. maybe that begs the question: what would have been credible? hmm... more depth, i think. he simply named over a half-dozen orders and clans and tribes that agree with this, but he said nothing about the relationships, the significance, the history, or anything else. he just said that when your wisdom eye starts openning, you'll start to see this stuff. there's this part in the brain that's reptilian. there are other races in the galaxy. there are snake and dragon clans... blah, blah, blah. he said nothing of substance. nothing. he could have broken down how the snake clan(s) was derived from or connected to these races. he could broken down some of the masonic symbolism and how it shed light on this stuff (my grandfather was a master mason), he could have done a lot more than just spit it out with no warrants or analysis. i'm open-minded. more than you seem to believe. but there's a difference between open-mindedness and gullibility. i wasn't there to get blissed out. i was there to seek the guidance of a true master. someone who could look right into me and know where i've been, and know what i need to reach the highest levels. someone who could share wisdom or tools to help me with some of the issues that arise with my patients. someone who could make me a better servant to others. i didn't find that. i wasn't going to ask for a refund, but i appreciate that you're willing to give it to me. i will do my best to not be so attacking in the way i communicate in the rest of this. it doesn't serve anyone.

i'm sorry to disappoint you. and if i were you, i'd feel the same way. it wasn't my intention for it to go down that way. i did smile in your face. and i meant it. and i really did stay open to see it through. and i wanted to believe. i really did. i personally think that you could have led a better seminar than max did. your clarity and straightforwardness was something i really wanted to get from him. but i didn't. i smiled. i was open. i was respectful. and i suspended as much disbelief as much as i could for as long as i could. i can make no apology for that. you're welcome to say i'm ego-tripping. all i can really say is "no, i'm not." i was sorely disappointed. his lack of knowledge wasn't my fault. is fraudulent claims weren't my fault. his lack of coherence wasn't my fault. his haphazard organization wasn't my fault. and those guys i was "mumbling to" about parlor tricks? those were the same guys i encouraged to stick around for the weekend and give it a shot. they were ready to walk after the free lecture. maybe you think it would have been better if they weren't there. i don't know. but i meant well. and that's all i can do. i'm not a novice. i'm not going to pretend to be for the sake of modesty. but i willingly admit that i'm not very far in my journey. i don't think that's unreasonable. i really need to get to bed. you misjudge what i experienced and where i have been. perhaps i'll get into this with you tomorrow.

i absolutely agree with you, cam. but if you noticed, i haven't really taken issue with the effectiveness of his transmission, other than to say it wasn't all that for me. my issue is primarily with his claim to mastery and his irresponsible teaching approach. i often have to tell people that i'm not a master because they experience something so powerful and they make the mistake of believing that i directed the whole of it. i dissuade them of that notion, whereas max seems to capitalize on it.

i learned shamanic tiger from the dvd. i memorized in about an hour and a half, and could perform it with accuracy before the day was over. what took time was listening to my body and learning what the moves were doing to me so i could teach it from experience rather than someone's authorization. i wrote to master wu about the form, and that wasn't very pleasing. there's a move called "double dragon plays with the pearl" where he performs it in one direction during the complete demo, and in the opposite direction in the instructional part. he never acknowledges this anywhere in the video or the book. so i asked him to explain it, and she just wrote back and said "it can be done either way." that's all he said. so i wrote him again, saying that i understood that, but what attracted me to his form was his vast knowledge and understanding of the nuanced significance of the motions. i told him the differences i noticed in the energy flow with each directions, and i asked directly if the change-up was intentional. i said it was okay if it wasn't; i get that these things happen. but if it WAS intentional, i'd like to know the theoretical underpinnings or significance in changing direction from his more masterful perspective. and believe it or not, i wasn't condescending about it. "the significance is the changeability of the dragon." again, that's all he said. there was another inconsistency in another movement, but after that exchange i just left it alone. i really tried not to pose my question in a challenging manner. i genuinely wanted to know more and maybe even build a dialog with him. whatevs. i still love the form. wuji hundun is what gary garripoli teaches (very badly) in his book. (i actually love his book, but the instructional part sucks) i learned it in-person when i was in kauai a few years back. again, i memorized it in about an hour and a half. then i sat on it for a year or so without practicing because i was lazy and felt like i "got it." now it teaches me. he actually has a video out that teaches it, but i would recommend really watching how master duan does it (they show a few bits of duan's approach on the documentary, which comes with the video) because then you can get a sense of the free form nature of it. i got to learn it in person, but it wouldn't have made a difference. seriously. i have the foundational basics. i can take something from an amateur on a bad video and run with it. it doesn't take a master to teach qigong forms, just like it doesn't take an olympic gold medalist to teach a P.E class. the basics take time. a teacher helps with that. transmission takes a master. claim to a lineage takes a master. but none of that is necessary for authentic cultivation. i'll do a separate post about the wuji hundun system. probably tomorrow. maybe in the articles section. **EDIT** i just realized that i wrote "transmission takes a master." that's not true, as i'm not a master. but full transmission of a particular lineage should take a master. some say it makes one a master. but i disagree. just wanted to clarify.

yes, he did. and no, i wasn't impressed. i hope everyone reads this. actually, this was the nature of the challenge that was made to him on friday night. the man asked if he would demonstrate on someone other than his students. he offered himself, but would have been satisfied with anyone who didn't know max beforehand. at first max said that if he did that, it would cause internal bleeding because the body of an uninitiated person can't handle the magnitude of energy. they guy basically called bullshit and said that he flat-out didn't buy it, said that the movie trailer was deliberately misleading, openly challenged him, and said that he would accept the consequence of internal bleeding if it were real. then max's story changed a little bit. then, it was "you have to meet us half-way" for ethical reasons, "i'm not a martial artist." --wait a minute! i thought he could teach a ton of different martial systems? "it doesn't work if someone's swinging at you." he said that in the "old days" it worked because people's meridians were more open. THEN he said: "it works with kunlun people. but it may not work with other people. most of the time it doesn't." that's a direct quote. then he listed a number of other masters who also had this ability, but, like him, it only works on their students. "it's a new video, and we still have to work a lot of bugs out of it, but it's not meant to be misleading. our art is real. for enlightenment, it is." --hmm... but not for the empty force, apparently. i still went through the workshop in good faith and with an open mind after this. again, i could accept that he was lacking in knowledge and was compensating with sensationalism, so long as he could produce real ability in the area that *I* cared about! i could scrap all the rest of it. but there was nothing there. nothing substantial. i have patients and students who go into involuntary movements and spasms when i run my energy; i know that it happens for real. i have a student that i've taken to deep blissful states through meditation and a patient that has decided to sponsor my work because of the blissful and "out-of-body" states that she experiences when i work on her without touch. but i'm no master. mastery is in the details. in the subtleties. i don't have that. but neither does max. he uses jargon that makes it sound as if he's in complete control, but it's not there. and he unknowingly confessed all of that on friday as well as saturday. i remained forgiving and open until sunday morning. i stayed for maybe half an hour during the stance practice which he led so badly and haphazardly that i wanted to step in and lead the class. it's okay to make up what you're gonna say as you go along (though it sucks when you're bad at it); it's NOT okay to make up the concepts as you go along!

oh yeah, though i wish the last chapter never happened, my standard textbook for all my students is The Healing Promise of Qi by Roger Jahnke. i reviewed it on amazon. you'll recognize my name. and Todd, i would have enjoyed a conversation with you. perhaps another time. on saturday i even had 'Hundun' written under my first name on the name tag, just so other tao bums would know who i am. if you ever want to chat, send me a message. i'll even call you or give you my number if you like. i try to be very approachable.

hmm... i've pretty much put it all out there in various threads, but i can try to give a sort of cliff's notes version. my aim is the practice of life: for every breath to be an act of cultivation. i do have practices that i enjoy and i experiment all the time with different movements and postures, but i don't really believe any of them are very necessary. i like the way garripoli put it when he said qigong becomes a lexicon, a common language by which we communicate a universal truth. i like forms for their beauty more than anything else. most of the complete sets i know do a good job of opening up the meridians and gently loosening up the body. a few of my favorites: 1.)wuji hundun. i think this is one of the most important foundational sets because a.) it opens the entire body, and b.) the freeform sensibility that's encouraged. only the first and last of the 18 movements are pretty static; the rest is supposed to be mixed up and played with a little differently each time. it encourages individual innovation and letting go of attachment to forms and systems. it thoroughly embraces the chaos in nature and subtly develops comfort with and acceptance of the unknown and the spontaneous. unconditional acceptance can be cultivated through this approach. but it's the philosophy of it, moreso than the movements themselves, that first hooked me. 2.) wei tou qigong. not an easy system to find here in the states. not that easy to find in china, either. this is an entire system with 5 different sets (similar in design to 5-animal frolics, but VERY DIFFERENT MOVEMENTS). it's medical, martial, and spiritual, all in one. very good system for a disciplined, routine practice. 3.) shamanic tiger qigong. just beautiful! and powerful! very energizing in the fingertips. this form led to me employing the tiger palm in my healing work. 4.) wudan long men (dragon gate) qigong & nei gong. repetitive, so i tend to mix it up with wuji hundun for a more enjoyable practice. 5.)mt. emei shaking practice. lots of this. and tree stance. and cloud hands. these are probably my top 5. i know dozens, and i teach most of them. i'm not authorized by anyone to teach, and i don't pretend to be. it's simply not necessary. i can pass a very effective transmission of energy to facilitate rapid development and healing. my transmission is stronger and more effective than a number of so-called masters out there, and this frustrates me because i don't think i'm all that far along in my development. i'm really big on building a strong foundation with lots of stance, posture, and breath training. i'm also really big on keeping the tongue up! (something i think might have made a big difference in harmonizing the opening that cameron experienced.) i study and play with tons of forms, but just so i can expand my movement vocabulary and eventually integrate what i learn into spontaneous practice. for me, that's the highest level of physical practice. plus it's fun to be able to learn from your own natural flow. i first connected with yin qi in a conscious way when i was probably 9 years old. i didn't have a name for it or a way to intellectually relate to it, but it ignited my spiritual longing to a magnitude that couldn't just brush aside. at the age of 12 started spending many nights outside in fields and wooded areas (one of the few ways that i was fortunate to have a mother that was a shitty parent). i didn't consciously recognize yang qi until a decade later, and that experience was equally organic. no teacher. no system. but i still didn't have a framework through which to understand or cultivate. my first real teacher came a little more than 10 years ago, when i was about 20. he was a ninjitsu instructor and a reiki master. his control of the subtle nuances of the energy was very impressive. he had raw, natural talent, and every other reiki master i've met has been somewhat of a joke in comparison. but he didn't have the knowledge and was very unbalance. he was a power monger who manipulated and slept with his female students. i played his game and kissed his ass until i received everything he had to offer. he was the first validation that i ever got that what i was connecting with was real. so i ran with it until he couldn't teach me anything else and i left. very new-agey; even his ninjistu students, though they respected his skill, would laugh about how 'out there' and ridiculous he was. the nordic shaman-ninja-prince. lol! he wasn't a very talented healer, but his internal power was undeniable. while i was "training" (i don't know that i would call it that) with him i met a qigong master who had no respect for reiki. this guy passed me a transmission that rendered me bed-ridden for nearly a week. it even temporarily shut down some of my opening that i had attained, like being able to send a stream of energy directly from my 3rd eye. it wasn't until much later that i discovered that it was a (partial) kundalini awakening and the physical and energetic adjustments went on in my body for the next two years. it would take too long to explain all of this, so i'm just gonna move on. many other stories. brief time periods with masters of varying degrees of skill. other transmissions from other teachers, but after that transmission from the first qigong master i met, i didn't really need a physical teacher after that. i just needed technique and intuitive development in my practice. i may post a few more articles about my approach. but the bottom line is it's very effective. people come to me and stick around because the results are real and because i don't make myself out to be more than what i am. i've done lots of book work. read hundreds. i'm naturally gifted with the abstract and theoretical. i was naturally connected to the energy as a child before i knew what it was. i continue to study and seek more and more ways to improve my healing abilities (which sometimes gets in the way of my personal development). i've been effective at treating everything from depression to brain tumors. i'm even experimenting with a dog for the first time that has a heart tumor, and the results have been impressive. the owner of the dog subsequently became a patient AND a student. i don't do flyers and i don't have a training center (though that will change in the next year). i work out of my home, i get students and patients by word of mouth, and i don't have any other job. i provide genuine service and authentic training, stripped of as much unnecessary filler as possible, and it subsidizes my spiritual life practice as i personally seek the highest levels.

too early to say. the 'raising the heels' thing is a good technique, so i will be experimenting with it for the next few months using different postures.

yes. he touches hands. i wasn't aware of there being a taboo about touching hands.

fair enough. i can respect that. and thanks.

okay, i may as well get this over with... i'm not writing this to make friends, so you're welcome to take issue with this if you like. 1.) he's NOT a lama 2.) he's NOT a taoist master 3.) he's not really a master at all! 4.) if he IS a master of something (anything), then i can only conclude that i surpassed the level of master a long time ago, and i really need to raise my prices! i was actually shocked at how rank and superficial his knowledge base was. he will attract a number of new age people, as he IS one. HUGE leaps to our ancestries being from other planets and shit. reptilian races and shit. and, to be honest, i'm just crazy enough to go there if you can lay an effective groundwork. he offered none. only that we were a tight-knit group now that the "undesirables" had been weeded out the night before (someone leveled a challenge at him, and he blew much of his own credibility trying to respond/back-peddle), so he can now clue us in to his "crazy wisdom." yeah, he really went there. the short video clip on the front page of his website is about the extent of his depth. for me to break down everything that was wrong with him and the seminar would take me hours, and i'm just not that committed. so i'm going to jump around a little bit: he prefaces almost every questionable or unsupported statement with "my teachers taught me..." "my teachers said..." "my teachers would do..." and on and on and on. he leaned WAY too heavily on these inaccessible teachers for credibility. and keep in mind, he's all about following the teacher within. lots of talk of clans and battles that seemed to go nowhere. other than maybe to entice you with being linked to this magnificent "lineage" so that his stories can now become your stories. ridiculous contradictions, so many that i can't remember most of them. but it's okay. they're intentional. he's the coyote. the trickster. you can eat whatever you want because energy is energy and the differences are illusion and kunlun activates the alchemical process so that he can even drink mercury without being affected. BUT, if you do kunlun you should probably eat meat on a regular basis because it will help to ground you. i asked him at the free lecture if he could explain to me the distinction between magnetism and qi, as i had learned that the magnetism aspect is more yin and the electrical aspect is more yang. these are his exact words: "well, in mao shan we're taught that when the yin and yang- electrical in the body- we call it... say you look at yoga. you have the sun & moon channels- what happens is, you have the yin & yang, you're breathing in and out. when those collapse from practicing, the outer breath disappears, the inner breath becomes apparent. the sushumna, the central channel becomes activated. in mao shan they say "the secret of the golden flower." and to practice, what you do is like this (makes a hand mudra). and the mao shan daoists they'll have a certain sound and visualization for each one. and they hold this posture- this is the first thing that they do. when you practice the secret of the golden flower this is what the mao shan [daoists] are practicing. now, with this type of practice you might save 3-5 years if you did just the mao shan..." this was his response to my question. WORD FOR WORD. he said more, but it didn't get any better, and i don't feel like transcribing the rest of it. i hope you get the idea. after the lecture i introduced myself the chris (mantra) and told him that i wasn't sure my question was answered. he at least gave me a coherent response, but he didn't really know, so, of course, he asked his teacher to explain it. and again, max is all over the place EXCEPT where my question is leading. so chris sort of cut him off (respectfully) and reiterated what the question was. he didn't really have an answer. what it came down to was what he said above: that he sees the electrical energy as qi and the magnetic energy as... well... something else. yeah. taoist master my ass. are the techniques effective? yes. they can be. but moreso than any other system? no. and cameron (though i'm sure he might be pissed at me for making this post) was correct about max's approach to teaching the red phoenix being irresponsible. it's a down-right dangerous practice unless you're NOT developed enough to really move the energy. and even then, it's a dubious practice. so what happened with cameron? well, here's my opinion: cameron was torn between which master he was going to see prior to attending the LA workshop. my guess is that had cameron saw the other guy and had the other guy given a direct transmission, cam probably would have experienced the same (or at least a very similar) awakening. cameron wasn't very far from opening those floodgates on his own. and i got the impression that max had never dealt with anyone who had openned up so radically before. i can't help but feel like maybe chris "created" max. chris definitely the intelligent, man behind the scene (or behind the curtain) guy. ALSO: max claims that his "wisdom eye" is so developed that he's unable to drive because he sees too much. yet he was completely unaware of the energy i was flowing. a couple of people at the seminar and, later, one of his own assistants commented on it and wondered about my level. yet in our private session everything he shared with me was as if i were a novice. his transmission was hardly noticeable, though it doesn't take much to awake a soul that's ripe. he certainly knows a few tricks, but in my opinion he's no master. they're running a business. a workshop business. and the quality and organization could use some serious work. i have a LOT MORE to say, but i'm kinda tired of writing right now. i welcome questions. and just for the record: i'm not trying to just tear this guy down. i payed $450 for the workshop and the private session. even after the horrible screw-ups in the free lecture on friday, i chose and even encouraged others who were put off to give it a shot anyway. it's just money. and maybe he doesn't have the knowledge, but if he has the abilities, it doesn't matter much. i'm glad i went. i honestly don't care about the money that much. he has great charisma. unfortunately there's not much behind it. the reason the movie trailer emphasizes all the wrong things is because there isn't much of real substance to lean on. my students are more skilled than his, and i'm not even close to being a master of anything. oh, and he's not enlightened. not even close. he's like an eclectic peyote tripper from the seventies, one of those self-proclaimed gurus who damaged a lot of people with their methods. sure, you might experience something, but NONE of if proves any of the stuff that comes out o his mouth. 1 hour = 100 years? are you stoned? anyway, that's my honest opinion.

your perspective is a reasonable one. western medicine IS effective with a number of illnesses and diseases, but not even close to being able to say "most things." but then, a large part of it may depend on your definition of "effective." lin gave a really good analogy with headaches as an example. the headache (ie, illness) remains, but if you take this drug you won't have to feel it. this attitude of "kill the effect; ignore the cause" is a recipe for chronic illness of pandemic proportions. the way it's typically broken down is that western medicine is excellent for the treatment of acute illness, whereas eastern medicine excels in the realm of chronic illnesses. if you have a hernia, a broken leg, or a ruptured spleen, stay with the west. but if you have hypertension, tumors, or cancer, go with the east. so they have their domains in which they tend to be most effective, and of course there's lots of overlap. BUT... when pharmaceutical lobbyists have the power to sway policy decisions (and they do. and they have.), you end up with a medical paradigm that promotes disease maintenance over actual cures. "because the money's not in the cure; the money's in the medicine. in the comeback. that's how a drug dealer makes his money: on the comeback." --chris rock never thought i'd quote him, but he made a good point. "kill the disease" typically means "poison the body," so our "cures," in effect, are actually creating diseases. but the goal is for THOSE diseases, the ones created by the so-called cure, to be manageable. TCM will take a more holistic approach. rather than merely repairing or patching up what's broken, part of the goal is to understand how it got broken in the first place. not only that, but TCM acknowledges that the body, when properly supported, can create it's own miracle cures, whereas western medicine tends to hurt the body while trying to k or numb it. western vs. eastern = "attack the disease" vs. "enhance the righteous"

well, i agree. proceedures and pills that keep us producing dead capital out of labor within well-defined boxes, designed to look like freedom.

--then do some real research and then get back to me. ms. magazine didn't corner the market of sexual assault stats. i've done the research. i've been out of the academic loop for a few years now, but i used to teach policy analysis and research methods, not to mention social theory, which included feminism (and not just the anglo variety). if you really want to throw down on this, we should probably start a separate thread, or take this off the board completely. here's what i can state without digging into my research files: the vast majority of my friends are women. of them, i know maybe 2 who have NOT experienced some form of sexual assault. (btw: the stats i'm referencing weren't rape stats; they were sexual assault stats. kinda hard to do credible research if you're conflating terms.) the fact that a woman might be dating someone who once assaulted her occurs for a number of reasons. you're jumping to unsupported conclusions from that data, which is what the author is hoping for. that's the very definition of bogus research. same goes for the "were not aware they had been raped" statement. many girls still feel like if they were too afraid or too drunk or for whatever reason failed to vocalize a "no," then it doesn't count as rape. THIS is one of the many reasons why the work of feminism is so important. i'm just gonna leave at that for the time being. if you want to go there, we can go there. we can dialog or we can debate.

i'll be there. but you probably already knew that.

maybe it's just me, but this post aggravated me a bit. i spent the better part of last night a student of mine (a white guy) crying and confused about what to do for his girlfriend (an asian girl) who a few nights ago shared that she had been molested by her father years ago and her mother didn't believe her. i'm sure you didn't mean to come across the way that this post hits me (and i'm not really sure why a post like this is even here), but you really have no idea what any woman you meet has been through. "oppressed" and "discriminated against" aren't words that do a very good job of shedding light on the fact that 1 in 3 women on college campuses have been sexually assaulted at some point in their lifetime. and that's just women who come forward and say something. it's very possible that over half the female population has been assaulted but us men who have the privilege of just not getting what the problem is. how convenient, given that WE seem to be the problem. feminism didn't create the problems; it created empowerment to combat the problems. i don't even want to follow the link. i'm sure you didn't mean to be offensive with your post, but this offends me.

keep in mind: you're responding to someone who DID leave home to live in a cave for a while! you're sort of preaching to the choir. i understand (better than most) that no matter where i go, there will be my mind to deal with. but truth be told, i'm not advanced enough to cultivate at the highest levels while remaining in the world. i don't have a teacher.

you're definitely gonna have to explain your perspective. there was a time when i would agonize over this issue, but not any longer. i'm open to reconsider, as always, but i'll need you to break down your perspective. the way i see it, only someone who's never done authentic healing work could reach such a conclusion. it seems a short-sighted and materialistic assumption. i mean, enlightenment is itself an achievement of healing- the highest form of healing, i would say. it's not just the body that's affected; it's the entire being. people who come to me for physical ailments receive mental & emotional breakthroughs as well, and many have wholly transcendental experiences that forever change the way they view the world and their place in it. it's not like using some form of spiritual 'white-out' to erase past choices and transgressions. besides, to take such a perspective is to assume that the energy worker is the healer when, in fact, it's the patient who is the healer. the energy worker is merely the catalyst for the patient's own subtle inclinations. and oftentimes the results are something that neither person expects. your thoughts?

i think you make some great points here, witch. although i partially disagree about it being a mistake to live in a cave; back in 2004 i did exactly that for 4 1/2 months. obviously i came back, but i'm fairly certain that i will do it again at some point, and likely for a longer period of time. but i think you're probably talking about abandoning the world forever being a bad idea, in which case i agree with you (obviously. i came back.). "with grounding comes balance and with suffering comes depth, the capacity to take more in." i like how you put this. there's a lot of legitimacy to this. daily menial labor is something i'm only now learning to embrace. i may write more in this later.

diverting from the original cue.... wow. that's it. i've been saying that line for years, but you just made the truth of "living" it click for me in a new way. thank you, my lucid one. oh, and to clarify. drown = die bad poetry. that's all. and [people] think these are metaphors. i speak what i see. all words and worlds are metaphors of me. --saul williams

damn, rain. i think i just fell in love.

once upon a time, i was a friend of the Ordo Templi Orientis. for me to answer would be kind of like cheating. but i do wonder what others think.

this isn't exactly discussing the topic, but i went to jeannie's website, and i think i love her. usually i would come across a site like that and i would dismiss the owner as some new-age airy-fairy type, but i really like what i feel from her. just wanted to share. to answer your question about what to do when off the hook for everything: learn, explore, discover, create, enjoy, and most of all, love. to me, these are what it means to live.