tumoessence

Isn't the perineuam part of the dan tien? In a sense?

I have taken three levels of courses with this organization and they have really great things. The awareness course is key. It is that which allows the astral projection to have lasting effect since it ensures that you are able to maintain the witness awareness while projected. I observed that for those whose took the AP course even after the awaresnes course, not many people where maintaining clarity in the astral. I think it takes years of practice to do this. The third course is on alchemy whick is a yoga take on it. There is a sexual component using a soh hahm mantra for the rising and falling of energy. I think it is a great practice and is also necessary for maintaing awareness in the astral. My point is, why not take Bardon's free astral travel course, well, the cost of his IIH book, and get indepth training in awareness, ie empty state, as well as conscious use of the senses. and inner knowing of what is real in the astral. His book addresses the issue of inner elemental equilibrium which gnostic web does not, and makes sure that you know all of your inner "projections" before you project. Going straight for projection as a practice places us into a space where it is hard to tell whether what we see is projected personal psyche or is truly world psyche. It also prepares us to handle the elemental powers in the macrocosm first so that we can take care of any imbalance immediatley while projected. IMO Gnostic web wants members. Not a bad thing. but................

Thaddeus He said he trained with him before Casteneda started this whole tensegrity stuff but I didn't question him too much on it. He said that he Carlos didn't really have to much to offer and that Donner was surpassing Casteneda in ability. For me after reading the Sorcerer's Apprentice by Amy Wallace I was glad I never met Casteneda so I wasn't interested in questioning Oleg further. But it seems there are people in inbi world that have a tap into the toltec tradition and offer retreats.

From talking with Oleg I would say he wouldn't classify Carlos as one of the worls's best masters. I can see what you mean about the red flags thrugh such a statement, but from my personal experience of him as a teacher I know that I would like to learn a lot more from him.

Sunshine, I have just come back from the Alchemy of Tui Shou workshop with Oleg Tcherne the founder of INBI world. Here is a great possibility to study Taoist Alchemy from a source other than derived than from Chia. Oleg's is based on very fine tuned precise physical alignments in the body and the ability to concentrate are the foundation for alchemical practice. We are trying to get the books and dvds from INBI more easily availble here. Once they are more widely distributed we will organize a camp here where we can get a very firm foundation for alchemical teaching. We will organize a five to seven day camp in the mountains somewhere where we can get hhopefully fifty people to attend. Therre are some camps in south america and europe already organized for this year. If you have the opportunity to travel in the next year you can see for yourselves a real human in his teaching. Oleg is very refreshing in his appproach and brings real depth of experience. On the other had, some of his Olegs mentors were buddies you might say, with One Cloud and Oleg had mentioned that Chias higher formulas are authentic, but that Chia is not a high level practioner. When I studied with Chia in the early eighties he pretty much admitted that, saying that he hadn't got to the higher formulas in his own practice, and that he was sharing them in the only way he could. He said this during a teacher training session at his house in Huntington Beach. I think Chia is very authentic in the basic practice though which helps us to develop a firm foudation also for the formulas he shared and develop them in ourselves. Olegs practice is not visualization based and I am not knocking visualization practice, but as I said based in subtle alignments in the body and precise physical movement with breath and focus. Check out inbiworld.com

Niemad and Sean, If you do a tai chi form and haven't already learned in the the other direction then I suggest that too. Many tai chi people only practice on one side.

Jeremiah, I was mostly attracted by a complete teaching on push hands practice, which is hard to come by. They offer it as an alchemical practice, jing to chi, to shen to emptiness transformations. Since only one book in the series is out it is hard to say how it will be practiced at the advanced levels. The first book deals with concentration and qi gong exercises using push hand patterns done solo. Then there ar exercises with a heavy ball and with a long staff to develop short and long force which is already intensifying and expressing jin, internal power. The book and dvd are really practice oriented and the first book already goes pretty deep and in detail. I am sure this will continue in the coming offerings. There is also a dvd on self massage which like tai chi chuan is lead from the movement of the dan tien. It works on opening the major vessels of the body or in this case major points. Both the book and the dvds are very well produced, and are great for self teaching. If I could manage it I would be off to South America for the daoist camp. Sorry it took me so long to reply to your request.

Kohsuan, I have two of his videos if you would like them you can have them. Email me and I 'll send them to you.

Has any body had experience with Chia's Tao Yin exercises? They look really effective in getting to the core of the body and wonder how they compare to combat conditioning or Sonnon's work?

Hagar. Thanks for your input. I found it really interesting, and thought it might help me with my old joints after twenty six years in construction and still counting. I had never heard that discription of yoga, but it makes a lot of sense. I llike the idea of psoas work as well that Trunk had mentioned. Karin Sorvik has a dvd of Tao Yin as well. I think I'll check that one out since Chia's is not available.

Cameron, I think your thesis that "practices" have the aim of producing altered states, states of mind etc. may be limited or that they are some form of seeking. I do practices because I enjoy doing them. Whatever comes up in the meantime is an added bonus. In the sense that anything can be done to achieve a state of mind we could put in there watching movies, sports or any kind of hobby. Or maybe workaholism, something I definitely don't suffer from, or sex for that matter. It all comes down to whether we can do what we are doing and be in that moment completely. If you're doing a practice for an experience that is not happening in that session, whats the use. And if you don't like it for its own sake, why do it?

I have the book and dvd from this group and they are incredible. Oleg Tcherne the author of the book is very knowledgable and I get a clear sense that there is not a lot of ego in his presentation. Also they are not stingy with the information. They have quite a few books planned and more dvds. Sexual practice, ba gua, and more push hand video in the series started with the present one. The problem is in how to get them here when you order them. We are looking at us distribution but now you have to have them sent from St Petersberg. And its ground post two months at least unless you can spring 50.00 for the fed ex. The dvds are in PAL format and you need an all format player to look at their stuff but well worth it since you can buy one for $25.00 Both the book and the dvds are produced in high quality both artistically and technically. I will see if I can get permission from them to post a clip of an opening the vessels of the feet chi kung video that I have, as well as something from the book. There has not been a lot of expressed interest in this workshop and since we have to plan this pretty far in advance we may have to cancel for now. We may try to plan something far in advance in the form of a camp in the moutains that might be a week long. We shall see.

I knew him through meeting him in the early eighties while studying with Chia. I knew he was into magic since we discussed Bardons work then. He talked about Crowley, and boasted that through a ritual he had done he had brought about the end of the Vietnam War. It one thing to be into evocation for your own development but it seems that using it to alter the outer world or trying to ultimately leads to weird tweeks in the fabric of self and perception.

Daniel, I don't hink he was the first to teach tai chi here. A master Choy was in SF in 1939. I think that recently he became a Falung Gong practioner. He's quoted on their websites.

Mathew, It used to be that Glenn Morris taught at the KSN events with Susan Carlson. Do you know what happened if there was a split or just minor differences in teaching sstles? Do you have experience with Morris's Meditation Mastery series?

For all parents to be When my son was two or so we were outside and it was getting dark and he asked me to keep the sun from going down so that we could play longer. My heart seemed to stop and I realized how kids initially regard us, and the responsibiliy I have in the the behavior and environment I create through my behavior and actions primarily. I am his teacher whether I like it or not. He is going to value at least in the early ages, what I value. TV is definitely out. Trunk you're right on.

I have three kids, two step kids and one my own which I had when I was forty three. We are a no tv family they do have movie times opn the weekends, and consequently are very active in reading stories playing games networking for play dates going into nature. My son and I who is now seven do push hands together. He likes to wrestle and all things with martial arts. He does aikido along with his sister who is ten. The other sister is 14 and is preoccupied with everything that age brings. when he was a baby I would walk around with him in my arms if he was crying and I would do an improvised form of waking qi gong and create a large space around my heart area including him in it with my devoted feeling for him alive in this space. We have always been a pair, and I notice as he gets older that he really already has a natural quiet center in him that he can go to. He can spend hours looking at books or national geographics. It is definitely a challenging path, but few things have left me with such deep change in who I am and inspire me to transorm myself.

Simon, The translation of that book may never be perfect but that may be a good thing. It keeps us flexible in our thinking. Please check out Rawn's website at a bardoncompanion.com. Williams site is very inspiring and practical in many ways. Rawn gives a slightly different view for the beginnner. Check out the archives to bardonpraxis there as well as Rawn's commentary on IIH. Its all good there. It will help set your reading and thinking free in regard to the translation especially commentary on step one and two in the above pages. It really is a letting go with clear and focussed attention. I was given a great image for concentration exercises once by Friedemann Scwarzkopf (who?) Like driving in the rain and there are specks on the windshiel you don't concentrate on getting rid of the specks, you focus instead beyond them to the task, so rather than trying to get rid of thoughts I just look beyond the windshield where they appear to the task of the concentration. I am inspired in aquiring the skills of IIH for working with the elements, condensing and volatizing, to help in alchemy practice among many other things.

I think it is interesting that quite a few Dzogchen masters and other lamas are also shamans. Tenzin Wangyal rinpoche comes to mind first. So the space element is practiced and fully realized but the other elements are worked on as well. Tenzin Wangyals approach to Zhine in Tibetan Yogas of Sleep and Dream is very much like Bardons first step mental exercises. What I meant by a Dzogchen view in regard to Bardon is in the approach to the exericies where there is more of a letting go of thought trains rather than forceful control. Also that true magical or yogic power is manifested from the akasha not by the ego, and that power is a skilful means whether in serving others or in a way of a pointing intruction. One Bardon adept has said to me that just because we develop powers in this path doest mean we have to "use" them. The steps bring about a transformation in the practitioner in his world view and his relation to the greater world, and prepare us for the next step until we reach out goal or realize it.

Morning routine get to the bathroom before teen girl tai chi on the right side tai chi on the left side( mirror side) Tai chi sabre Pore breathing meditation standing chi kung Wake up younger kids Massage wife's back transfer chi(her practice) eat breakfast consciusly while strongly urging kids to get dressed drive teen to school (equinimity practice) procrastinate drinking coffee at local cafe recover from morning routine (just kidding) Go to work(more equinimity practice)

One way to see wood and metal is air in warm moist mode and in cold dry mode. One is ascending and expanding, the other contracting and falling. Spring and fall. I think magic and working with beings is suffering through the pursuit of power and control rather than letting be and respect for all beings for what they are. Bardon's way lacks ritual escecially in the beginning so that we can rely on our growing ablities, rather than on a connection to a being even if unseen, that is connected to a ritual. I think Bardon's way is a yoga path but the difference maybe is in how "maya" is evaluated. Is it an illusion or a play. Is there value in the play? Is there beauty there? This way takes us through an appreciation of the inner of the outer so that we can become creative, and doesn't speed us to the Absolute as the only valid point of view. Yet the vast emptiness is practiced throughout from the first step to the last. See end of second step. the pusrsuit of power starts as a habit in the first exercises of Initiation when we try to 'control" the mind rather than let it be and run out of steam to where is can be seen through. Those exercises can be done with a Dzogchen view on the nature of thought and effort. The vacancy of mind naturally develos through letting go. After all the western alchemist folowed the goddess Natura. See www.abardoncompanion.com as well.

Lozen, I studied some chi kung with Bill Mistele in the Tucson Blvd park at speedway. He taught Lily Siu's chi kung forms there for free. Then I learned tai chi from Michael Philips in the same park. A group of us brought Chia there a few times in the early eighties. We used to get lots of serious thunderstorms there all july and august. It was the high point of summer. The poplulation would drop incredibly in the summer as the snow birds left town. I guess there is no difference in that regard now. Bill

Lozen, How is the weather there this summer? Are you getting summer rains? I had a theory that all the new asphalt and concrete was creating a lot of convection air flow above the city which kept the summer rains out in the Rincons and east. I lived in Tucson for seventeen years , and decided to get out of there ten years ago. Too many days over 100 degrees. It made me crazy, after all I did outdoor construction there. But I did start learning Tai chi chuan and qi gong there. Bill

Ron, Which resources do you recomend for the learning of dream yoga or is it more a matter of intent? Bill

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