thelerner

Is this the Warrior and Master story you mean? A samurai finds a Zen master sitting and staring at a pond and asks him "What is hell and am I heading there?" The master looks up and says "How can an unkept ignorant man like yourself even be considered a samura?" The soldier angrily draws his sword. "That is hell" the master says. The samurai lowers the sword and bows deeply.

He hasn't posted here in a while, but our once resident taoist Celestial Master Mak Ti Sin, was a great believer in hell. In his practice he knew it was real and felt fully developing the yin eye allowed a person to see hell and there ancestors suffering in it. His sect offered techniques to sooth their fate. Here's one quote from a conversation I had with him: QUOTE(Mak_Tin_Si @ Mar 9 2009, 09:39 PM) Lets say you are now open to a chance to learn this "Yin-Eye" in Taoism, which will open up your 3rd eye with the Yin-path, you can only see yin stuff, so you can see ghosts, and your ancestors suffer in hell and also see things happening in hell, will you take the chance to open it? (it's free and it's like you can click a button and get it online, easy easy) I assume the belief is wide spread among religious taoist and relief from hell is major source for donations. Michael

Good question. How do you know if you're happy or just repressing . Asking 'Am I happy?' won't solve the matter, quite the opposite. I suggest-Writing. Write out 2 pages a day, write quickly- let the writing flow without thoughts or preconception, without judging or reading. Its hard, but once you get the hang of it, you'll be seeing your subconscious at work. Try it for two weeks, I think you'll get your answer. Michael

Lets remember the second half of the equation is nutrient dense food. I'd wager that's a 'real' whole food diet, not processed or powdered mixed glop w/ a handfuls of vitamins. Michael

Hello, it occurs to me that you're a hard man to insult, sort of like Odyseus's Noman. Glad to have you onboard. You ask good questions. Michael

This relates to YouStinks 'show me the money' post. I've never met Rawn Clark. I know him only through his web site, Abardoncompanion.com. He is a high level practitioner of Hermetic Magic ala the Bardon system. He mostly closed down the site, but when it was open he was very generous with his time and knowledge. He still has outlines of Bardons system as well as free MP3's on esoteric magical practices, some of which go pretty deep. He had a discussion area on his site for a while and the inevitable question came up. 'Show me some magic,just a little bit, to inspire me'. In various articles and essays he talks about performing higher magics, communicating with elementals, astral travel etc. There's an amazing article on a astral group he set up, where a group of higher level (meaning long term serious practitioners) would meet up astrally at a particular place and time. Later they would have a phone conversation to share notes about the acurracy of the meet up. I'm getting off track. On the show me the magic question he stone walled. You have to do the work yourself, you can only prove it to yourself. That is a very unsatisfactory kind of answer to many. The Bardon system stresses self control and self knowledge over high magics and has many warnings about self gain from magic (Franz Bardon died in prison). What do I think? That Rawn is honest and not self delusional. Without proof I think he could perform higher magics. I suspect we live in 'thick' dimensional setting. There are magics of the mind that are attainable (astral travel, telepathy, persuasions). Exotic magics manipulating the heavy elements of matter around us, not so much. The really important work tends to be in the wisdom compassion and peace areas anyway. Michael

The Truth, you can't handle the truth!! (sorry, someone had to say it) The best of us here seem to have enlarged wisdom, compassion and a quiet mind. Seriously. No super powers. Michael

Stillness is the mother of movement. Many great martial artists said the to there great ability (&speed) was training in stillness or near stillness. I see emptiness as the mother technique, yet it is secondary to appreciating Everything. Visualizing isn't the goal, its the training wheels to see/know what is happening behind the curtain. Canvas and painting..which is more important? Michael

Coincidentally he's giving the book away free. (all 705 pages) I just downloaded it off his site. QUOTE(erdweir @ Jun 15 2009, 02:19 PM) * William Bodri at meditationexpert.com has posted s free ebook link on his blog. it is for the title How to Measure and Deepen Your Spiritual Realization ("Measuring Meditation"). it's normally 97$ but he says that someone put up the money to give away 100 copies free. I just downloaded it. You just have to give them your email address and first name. that's all. enjoy link: http://www.meditationexpert.com/blog/ As of 6/30 it's still available. I find Bodri can be a little 'stiff' in his views (ie his way =only way) and he can be a little commercial in some recommendations. Still he is master and scholar and very generous to give out such volumous books (705 pages!) Michael

Counting breaths. A good variation is counting 1 to 10, 1 for in breath, 2 out breath repeat to 10 then start over. Start off doing it 5 minutes and gradually increase time. This is simple, but not easy. You will find it an excellent way to quiet the mind. Once the mind is deeply quiet you can let the exercise go and remain in emptiness. Variation 1> From Glenn Morris. He called this Dr. Deaths brain scrubber(something like that) same exercise, but if a thought intrudes you go back to #1. Very difficult, don't think of purple elephants when you do it. Variation 2>Count your breaths outside of meditation during every day life. As you walk, talk & drive. Very hard to keep such mindfulness going, but very rewarding. Michael Again, Simple to do Hard to do well.

As of 6/30 it's still available. I find Bodri can be a little 'stiff' in his views (ie his way =only way) and he can be a little commercial in some recommendations. Still he is master and scholar and very generous to give out such volumous books (705 pages!) Michael

Most of all you want your kids to be happy and well adjusted; few paths follow a straight line. Still with 3 kids I'd like to see some grand kids. Partly cultural conditioning, but there's also a taoish notion that this is the way of nature, generation spawns generations. A unique ball of karma started in prehistory rolling on.. Plus grand kids are fun. Michael

Vispassana type meditations which train you to watch the mind and track thoughts dispassionately is an excellent way to control emotions. It allows you see the anger forming and track down its roots without becoming so lost in it, that instead of being you, you are angry. Michael

I don't think I'm going out on a ledge here by assuming the group is against pedophile. There may also be feelings against putting up pictures of other people kids without permission under creepy subjects. One mans opinion.

This is good, adding funny sounds and facial expressions to it makes it even better . Michael

You may be a little Screwy, but you're right. I've been listening to the Michael's old songs and they do bring waves of nostalgia. Real art moves you and Jackson was a consummate artist. Michael

Classes to the right, classes to the left, none in the middle. If you are ever in the Midwest (I'm Chicago, IL) I will leap at the chance to study with you live. Michael

Sorry, but mostly shrugs. I don't understand the 'cult' of celebrity (& athlete) worship. The outpouring of emotion for someone you didn't know and who would undoubtedly have there body guard push you away if you got within 20 feet of them. I can't help but think- if he could do it all again, he'd refuse to sing & dance for his dominating father, the Jackson 5 would be the Jackson 4, and he'd go on to lead a good long life, leaving us to fixate on someone else. RIP Michael

Vortex has a good point. If you assume the DDJ as one of the canons of Taoism then it seems to follow a very libertarian view point; less government, fewer laws. Michael

I think it always happens. Predictably- like clockwork, always has always will. Same old, same old. In time of war and fear-shit happens, civil rights contract, the zealous go overboard. In my opinion from a historical basis it was relatively light this time. Things are already rolling back. I'm not saying I like it or that its right, but its not 'oh my god' we're heading for dictatorship. Too often people see a bad event and conclude it will worsen and draw a straight line to hell. To me history cycles, relatively predictably. Michael

I've found secret to funky green veggie shakes is adding avocado (which work real well in 'normal' shakes too) and frozen bananas. They both add creamyness and some sweetness. Michael It took 20 minutes, but I searched spinach shake <nothing> then spinach and was able to dig up a very old post I had about perfecting the spinach shake; here it is: Working on perfecting the spinach milk shake. Why you ask? Fame!! Fortune!! Good health!!! Yesterday the results were less then perfect, an icy thick green mess. I used frozen organic spinach (Trader Joes), ice, 2% milk, plain kefir yogurt, 1/2 banana and a touch of vanilla. It wouldn't mix, I had to keep jamming it down. I got an uneven green blob, that tasted like frozen gelatinous spinach. Today more banana, no ice, more milk, less spinach. Pretty good. Very healthy too. Could use a bit more blending to smooth it out. Its very milk shaky. The spinach works fine. Strangely it tastes sweet, though the only sweetener is the banana. I'll bet half an avocado would turn it from good to great. Would make it even healthier too. Perhaps the weak spot is the 2% milk. It does add to the creaminess of the recipie. I could use less with the avocado, maybe add in a bit of water so it will spin. The milk does add protein.

Yup, I hear there going after diary's. Later pens and even paper. Then the slippery slope to taking away the wheel.

I know that its big, esoteric and that there are many versions and pieces of it. There are two pieces I like. One comes from Rabbi David Cooper, mainly from his book Ecstatic Kabalah based on Abulafiah's work. He outlines a practice of sacred sounds, where they tune into the body, and uses it with common Jewish prayers as mantras. An old system with very little to do with main stream kabalah philosophy and history. The other piece I like comes via Rawn Clark who comes from the Bardon Hermetics school. On his site (abardoncompanion.com) he has a series of MP3's where he outlines a short chant. I find them uniquely powerful. It goes from simple-chanting with heart and soul to increasingly complex uses. The chant is hebrew and has its roots in Jewish mysticism, but Rawn's uses it in a unique way. Again its far astray from most Kaballic study. Maybe they're both footnotes in the Kabalic encyclopedia, but for me they form an audio chi gung, combining sound, intent, the sacred, and the body. Michael

There's a nice conversation going on in Live Chat now. I'm a new Firefox user. I had to go to Preferences <under FIREFOX> then to Options, then turn to JAVA and turn it on. In my case it wasn't turned on automatically. Michael

I think at the bottom of the various pages, where it says who is active in the section, it says who is in Live Chat. Usually its pretty lonely in there. To better the odds its good to announce you're heading there as a new post, ie 'Heading for Live Chat 6:00 Join Me ? ' or announce a time 'Heading to Live Chat Tonight 10:00 CST..' You can get into some great exchanges with practitioners around the globe. We really should use it more. Michael