thelerner

Here are a couple links; www.religiousworlds.com/taoism/ttc-list.html http://www.wayist.org/ttc%20compared/indexchp.htm http://www.edepot.com/taotext.html Can't find it now, but there was another site that had many translations and allowed you to set up and compare 2 or 3 line by line. Michael

Bows to Taomeow. quietly moves away M.

'100 Years' by Five for Fighting It goes over the years of a mans life. Lots of potent imagery. My favorite line is 'There's never a wish, better then this' Michael

I heard you didn't need to discuss the Tao in Alaska. All you had to do was point Michael

Little1 I agree with you - alchemical path is long arduous and best done under the direction of true teacher who's been there. Working too fast and too long w/ bio energies can fry you, a little or a lot. If you're not particularly energy sensitive and dabbling I don't think you're in any huge danger. Course you're not going to gain anything remarkable either. Still, the unremarkable can be worthwhile. I don't 'get' energy from the sun. But I do feel its reflection, a singing within my heart, when I look at it. Same w/ large bodies of water and my kidneys. I don't know how real or useful it is, but its a gift from the small amounts of practice I've done over the years. A resonating, and thats what I wanted, not another cosmic fetus to feed. I was writing to see if I could get the thread back on track, translating Taoist Yoga. An intellectual exercise to bat around possible translations, see if they resonate with anyone. Not to create a program, or improve on it (as if that were possible) but to check our (admittedly low) understanding of an alchemical texts. Its what we do every night, sling the hash, see where it falls. Michael

Cause we haven't investigated it and know nothing about the man. Thus we can't honestly say. Personally, I'm also sceptical about healing from a distance. But it does appear in many different practices, usually on the fringe. It wouldn't be my first or second choice, but if a friend or two I trusted had good results that seemed non psychosomatic, I might gamble $99. Ofcourse, what isn't psychosomatic? A good placebo is better then bad medicine. Michael

"Stand in dragon stance, while focusing on the moon, and sun, and merge the dragon and the tiger in the lower cauldron and then plunge that into the original cavity of the spirit, convert lead into mercury, and nourish the sacred fetus. " You can argue its watered down or just plain wrong-but this is the kind of area the Healing Tao works with, Winn & Chia territory. 'Stand' 'dragon stance'? I wonder if they mean that literally and if there's synchronicity with our long Mabu thread? A standing kanli practice? Sun is usually the heart.? Moon the belly.? Merge them(?) or the elemental organ gods that are represented by the dragon and the tiger into the lower cauldron (very kanli ish). Why this thing practically writes itself Input from HT people or older traditions would help. Michael I only got up to Fusion II in the HT system. I have Minke's Fusion I & II CD's that have you spinning paqua's and combining organ gods. I've also worked with the Chi Nei Tsangs kanli guided meditation that builds up heat in the heart, icy cold water in dantien, then shifts them so fire is at the bottom and it melts and steams the water. I've tried to take a more experiential path to alchemical taoism, albeit a slackards one.

Looks like he found out the secret. There's only one of us, writing as all 600 members Michael Or is that the REAL SECRET of existence !!!!!

Welcome aboard Michael

Going somewhere? M.

Maybe I'll go to Burning Man this year. Read nice things about it in the book Pronoia. Might be a great change of pace, a chance to get away from the tic toc for a few days. Tickets go on sale Jan 16th. Any here been to one? Thoughts? Michael

It isn't real camping unless you suffer I've been on the Burning Man mail list for a while. The link Wayfarer posted is definitive. It would be so fantastic to get there. Michael

Proofs in the pudding. Why don't you start out small. Post the areas that seem most mysterious. Let us chew on an issue for a few weeks. We have a couple of Chinese readers who know there way around the classics. Everyone here has some experience with philosophy, someones bound to get it right . This board is all about synthesizing an understanding of Tao from the classics and our own myriad experiences. I'll have to dig up my copy and reread it. Good stuff there as I recall. Michael

From a different point of view. Money is not an illusion. You will need some to survive, more to live comfortably. Take the time and pain to learn a trade that will allow you to earn a good living. Thats not to say you should forget your dreams. They're extremely important. Discover them. Work on them. Make them a serious hobby and see if you can make a living from them. In the meantime become an expert at something that will pay you well. You're going to be alive 80 to 100 years. You have time. Time to sort things out. Find out what is important. Appreciate life, you're going to be here awhile. Appreciate people, most of them are pretty worthwhile if you give them a chance and take the time to communicate in their lingo. Fight cynicism and prejudice, its all around, but it will limit you. I don't think we create reality. We're born into it and have the freedom to interpret and react to it. Maybe we can nudge ita little, but its a whole lot easier to change our attitudes. You can't fight it, but you can flow in the direction you want to go. Good friends will keep you sane and help you enjoy life. A good mate will give warmth and love (& drive you slightly insane, but thats what the friends are there to counter). These are important in life. To live without a source of it is stulting. The solution is finding the right combination between pragmatism (corporate shill) and idealism(starving artist). Blending the dream and lifes neccessities to find the life thats right for you. So I say move in two directions. Pick a dream, work and put legs to it. Also pick a job area that can make you money and you can give a damn about. Study hard, smart and find good mentors. Michael

Singing good. Even when its bad . You're creating inner vibrations, emotional expression and releases.. I can't think of any practice that doesn't have some level of devotional chanting. (whoops thought of 3) Michael

When it happens have your sister send me an arm or leg. I'm trying to avoid brains these days.. burp Michael

Both problems are eased by creating space in the mind. Space between stimulus and reacting. One way to get space is a vispassana (awareness) type meditation. I use this variation; I shake out my body, sit down to meditate. Say to myself "I'm not my body, I'm that which inhabits it. I'm not my thoughts, they pass through like clouds in the sky. I'm not my emotions, I acknowledge them and let them settle like waves in a pond. I'm not my past, those are old patterns and reruns. I'm not my future, thats pointless projections. I sit here and now. I seek to go home. After a few months, I shorten the speech to - Go Home I like the book 'A Gradual Awakening' by Daniel Levine. Its a nice practice. Once internalized it helps lessen the big ego. (I'm still working on that ) Gives you a chance to see whats happening before you react to it. Hopefully, we get to the point where no offense is taken, no counter attack needed. The deeper your daily calm the less react to sudden noise. Counting breaths is very useful. Not just for meditation. Throughout the day, like a mantra, counting 1 through 10, over and over. It quiets the mind. Hope that helps. Michael

Dittos on the wisdom of Karen's answer. Truthfully I'd probably do nothing. In the back of my mind I'd realize I don't know the future, I don't really know whats going to happen and I couldn't put in place conditions that would kill an innocent person on a might be. Or maybe I need better then 5 to 1 odds Michael

Face the inevitable but do not forget we write the future ourselves

Very Scatalogical

At the river the master asked four disciples what the most important virtue was. The first looked into the river and said "To flow like water" He was pushed in. The second looked into the river and said "To have a mind that reflects as the river reflects the moon" He was pushed in. The third looked into the river and said "To shine like the sun which the moon reflects and the water accepts" "Nice try" said the master and pushed the third in. The fourth said, "To swim". The master smiled and they both jumped in. No idea what the above means, kinda Buddhist though. I'd say Presence, a wordless presence thats everything is okay and going to be fine. Thats what the virtue I expect from an enlightened taoist to have.

I'd worked on the orbit via Michael Winns techniques, mostly from his form on his Fundamental video II, which has 6 movements to get 'it' going. He did say Westerners need to move to get it, just doing mental techniques wasn't as effective. I did his form regularly for a year. I never got a huge feeling, but I felt something, increasingly more as time went on. Minke DeVos had a guided meditation on the Microcosmic orbit that really increased my feeling of movement. She also has one on sexual energy that uses the orbit, its the only one thats ever induced me to physically sweat. I wouldn't say I have it open. At this point it's still like physical mantra, I feel energy circling. But..I assume when its fully open its..kundalini ish. Not full blown, but a lower cousin, maybe a safer cousin since it returns the energy down from the head. Like Mantak Chia and many alchemical taoists, Glenn Morris considered opening the orbit as fundamental to attaining higher levels. Morris seemed to considered unusual strength, stronger immune system to be by products of a full opening. Others (specially Bill Bodris camp) see it as an unneccessary detour. Thats its forcing what should come naturally or thats its dangerous. Personally I like it. When it gets warmer I'll do Winns form outside in the forest. Every now and then I'll listen to Minke's CD and see one light traveling along the meridian system, then a second chasing it, more and more til its a river of light, then sitting back in the dantien watching it flow by, my breath gently pushing and pulling it along. Michael

around in circles faster and faster until it all fades away

don't think Kunlun is bogus. I do question if its a complete system. Its so simple. it has no philosophy. Will it get you enlightened? What a loaded question. What will Get you enlightened? Depends what you mean by it,( and You and Enlightened). Even the Buddha didn't hand out guarantees or money back. Kunlun might be a powerful tool to head you in the right direction til there's no you one way or the other. I'm glad we have people here posting their experiences. If its a simple kindergarden level system I think we'll see progress stall. Im just as happy to find out the progress other people are making with there practices. One problem with Kunlun and I found this with HT as well is, we're not studying regularly under a teacher. We go to a seminar, pick up a video, but its not the same. To meet regularly, meditate in a group, be near high octane people is a kick in the spiritual pants. Michael

In Aikido we'd twist at the waist and let our swinging hands hit near the kidneys (in a 1,2..1,2 rythym). I hadn't been doing it for a while, but before bed I'd stretch forward and backward. Kan who was a top student of Lama Max's told me to do more of that twisting slap daily. A good idea. Life isn't just forward and backwards, it twists around too. Michael