thelerner

Lin Aiwei is a very down to earth and experienced teacher. He has many good audio at Time Monk Radio. Here is one on the MCO - http://timemonkradio.com/threads/expedient-means.269/page-3 (in case it moves, its # EMS 2065). Seems like an intelligent balanced perspective to me.

I hope you don't over look good solid systems because they won't allow you to become breatharian and create stuff out of thin air. SFQ is a good solid system. Ya Mu, a member here teaches Stillness Movement medical gi gong, good system. Heck, I even like Max's Kunlun. The reality is none of these will get you to the Super Sayin level you request, but I think its only by dedicating yourself to the mundane work within all of them, the specific practices and the daily sitting, that you'll be ready if and when a 'celestial' master comes your way. That being said, beware the celestial master who advertises himself as such. Time, wholehearted dedication, work, more work, grace and surrender are the indispensable Way.

Winn mentions 3 to 4 hours a day. I've heard others say 7. When the chips are down, it makes sense to go deep with intense practice of healing chi gung. Makes more sense to have a daily regimen. No guarantees but it probably tilts odds in your favor.

Going for myths, miracles & powers. Not any more. Maybe its a Buddhist thing, but the longer I'm in the game, the more my goal is inner peace, some longevity, feeling oneness. For me, Taoism is about being closer to true nature; following its rules. Immortality and strangeness's like psychic powers aren't on the list, though dream work..lucidity/astral travel is.. so I guess I have a little of the bug in me after all.

You'd understand, if you watched more Fox

One kinda hopes heart and deeds over ride colors and creeds.

Random comment. I was going through Mo Pai Guy's 'uncensored' taouncut site. Mak Tin Si has smothered it. Every other post (or more) is from MTS, followed by a group of people agreeing with him. Very little discussion except for him and his followers. Seem creepy and very unbalanced to me. I'm glad you cut out the MTS rot before it had the chance to spread. Not saying its all bad. There is some valid old time Taoist religious stuff he's got a handle on, but he brings loads of dogma and paranoia with him. <according to the site he's been a member since 8/13, (only 7 days) and he's posted 202 times! That's considerably more then the founder who started it on 5/08> Michael

In America if you say you're god you're considered crazy. In India if you say it, you're congratulated on getting it. The story goes one afternoon a twenty year old 'got it'. His family and friend congratulated him on his epiphany. He stood in the middle road smiling, basking in the sun, and saw an elephant coming down the road towards him. 'I am god' he thought 'an elephant cannot hurt me'. As it came closer he stood his ground. Bam, the elephants kicks him painfully to the side and almost kills him. A friend rushes to his side. The twenty year old says to him 'What the heck, I'm god'. The friend points to the elephant and says 'Yeah, but that's a bigger god'. The rules might (maybe..maybe not) change when we're out of body/dead. But as long as we're corporeal, the big gods tend to be elephants, gravity, time, mortality, guy w/ a gun and your mother. A drop of water may be the stuff of the ocean, but its not the whole ocean, its just a drop. It can know the ocean, feel oneness with it and that is .. quite a bit.

1> To get Chat running again. 2> A clean up of Personal Discussion page. Ones that haven't been used in a year or two or three put at the bottom or in an unused section. Maybe a Top PD section for active users. It's not just that I'm lazy (I am), but more and more good discussions are taking place in the Personal Discussion area and its hard to find them. They get lost among those that haven't been used for years and those only updated once or twice a year. 3> My usual call for fewer pin ups on the General Discussion Page. See if we could distribute them elsewhere or combine them into multi level sub forums. As always suggesting takes seconds, programming takes days of work.

Rawn Clark has a series of meditations that help you develop and separate out the mental and astral body. Its the Archaeous collection found at abardoncompanion.com . I like'em and tend to listen and 'do' them standing up.

You can find businesses where the bosses and/or owners are by no means getting rich, heck most small businesses are struggling these days. It won't make a damn iota of difference to the government if you work or not. It changes nothing. The reason anyone will hire is you they make money off your labor. 'They' could be good people or bad. Most small business people are pretty good. You can find them. Though jobs are not easy to get. Imo, your attitude only hurts yourself. If you have free time, start as a volunteer at a worthy place, keep your eyes open and turn it into a job when there's an opening. Could take years and lots of unpaid, unthanked labor. but its a way.

FWIW A year or two ago I participated in a Deepak 21 day meditation. I think he does them every year. A no charge listen and meditate w/ a 10 minute message. I found it a little too beginner oriented and new age. It'd be good to expose them to quality program like SFQ. Oprah's so famous and in the web game so long she may have filters against anything thats considered spammy.

I agree there's a danger, but when I see information and the source is Alex Jones's Info Wars, I reflexively root for the other side, cause he's usually full of *&^YIU

1. Yes 2. Yes. 3. Disagree, you don't have to be rich and elite, but you do need to get a job /earn money. Its not the rich and elite that keep you 'begging for scraps', its imo the fact you won't participate in 'necessary evil' of earning a paycheck. Plus, marriage is not for everyone. There's many level of hook ups. From dating to living together. Lack will hinder you though. You'll have to be elected dictator before taxes become voluntary.

Sorta. I'll leave the 23rd for the 30 hour drive. I still have lots to do, pack, buy food, make sure my tent is useable. I hit the library for audio material. For entertainment I have Stephen King's '11/22/63' unabridged, 30 CD's = 33 hours of Time Travel terror. Anne Rice's Metaphysical thriller- 'Of Love and EviI', 5 CD's. More educationally based I have 'The Heart and the Fist- The Education of a Humanitarian, The Making of Navy Seal', 9 CD's and 'Drive- The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us'. 5 years ago I went there 'cold' and pretty unprepared but lucked out. The last few years going to regionals I've done better, giving as much as I've taken. This year my gift/art is music. I have a portable record player and lots of records. Mostly cheap .50 centers from the library and Half Price books, though I splurged for Duran Duran's RIO, $3.99 to relive my college years. I've got a portable speaker for my ipod and a playlist of funny drinking songs. Foodwise I'll hit up Trader Joe's for there precooked brown rice, curry sauces, jerky's, granola, chili beans, dried salami, cookies etc., Whiskey and Dust has a kitchen area. For voyeurs there should be some camera feeds set up on the playa, there's a radio station too. Facebook is hopping with threads from the Burning Man site plus the official website. My camp Whiskey and Dust is on facebook. I have to admit there's a little fear. Fear of driving across the country, fear of meeting new people, fear of forgetting their names, fear of missing my family, fear of harsh desert camping, fear of burn out.. But fear is a good thing. It means we're stretching, leaving our comfort zone. A good article: 'An Emotional Survival Guide to Burning Man' http://www.fest300.com/magazine/an-emotional-survival-guide-to-burning-man nice pics from last year http://stuckincustoms.smugmug.com/Burning-Man-Page Live Cam from Burning Man http://www.burningman.com/preparation/travel_info/gerlach_webcam.html

My favorite, here comes a mouthful, Taoist Sexual guided meditation is Minke de Vos's (from SilentGround.com) Sexual Energy meditation from her Tao Basics CD. Very good, circulation, packing, god/goddess sexual imagery, loong breath hold, some packing.. its the only guided meditation that can make me physically sweat. The other 3 meditations on it are also excellent.

The ultimate picture from last year: http://michaelholden.com/burning-man-2012-gigapixel-panorama Remember to enlarge the picture and take it for a spin.

I am happy you are here to answer questions. We've had a few threads on breathing. There's a wide diversity of breathing techniques in Taoism. What breathing style or exercises do new students practice and how does it evolve over the years? Thanks Michael

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Nice garden, impressive growth. I've planted marigold flowers on my borders and that seems to help against some critters. My neighbor has tied up mothballs in handkerchiefs and has them hanging along her fencing. You can smell it from 5 feet away, but she swears by it and her gardens doing fantastic. Its been a good year here in the Midwest, lots of steady rain.

A great bookis'The Boy Who captured the Wind' about a poor African kid, couldn't afford to go to school, got books from the library, made a windmill, attached a generator to it. Uneducated, but very smart, willing to experiment and Use what was at hand. Its my hope a kid like him (now adult) can take the ideas and make it practical on a 3rd world budget. I believe its possible and the best solution. Once the door is open the best solutions are bottom up local, not top down Western, though the ideas and concepts are gold no matter where they come from.

Fhew, thank goodness, nothing to worry about, its just Alex Jones weekly spew. I was almost worried there for a second. Next week: Bikini Clad lizard people corrupting our children and raiding the fed. As always, if anyone really truly believed what he said, they'd either be a constant (deeply paranoid) basket case or in a deep bomb shelter under the assumption the world had ended back in 1999. or 2001 or 2002 etc., In 1999, he did a long 'Its the end of the world' grab your guns its Armageddon' info movie, literally. And continues on the same theme year after year. Soon decade after decade. I find he tends to exaggerate.

Saving the world. Billboards that create water the desert. Here's an expensive system, but the idea is sound and I bet the costs could be greatly minimized.

If you like the site, if it amuses, enrages, enlightens or is just a place to kill time then throw it a couple of bucks every now and then if you can. It costs money to keep it online, many many hours of fixits are required at times plus there's a fair share of aggravation it causes to the mods and its owner. If the site went away, most people here would miss it. So support it, if possible. As a good karma kind of thing.

If using the chat room I don't think we'd need to get the mods involved. More like setting a time and Date in General Discussion, then having a rough count down in it. Meeting in Live Chat for group Meditation in 4 hours. Then 3 hours. Hopefully there'd be enough of a group to 'share' the count down, through 'Happening in 5 minutes' go there. But as Thetaoiseasy said, in the past its been hard getting people involved. But its a great idea. I'd love to see it get off the ground. I think the secret is keep it advertised, on top w/ a count down. Then report back on how it went.