NorthWide

I would have to say Ya Mu's program is very good, in fact if you were to choose only one I would recommend it above anything else.

It totally blew anything I knew out of the water.

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Just to add if you read the Randi challange you have to do whatever it is you do (specify beforehand) under the situations and conditions they present.

So you could be in a room with people yelling and screaming or the like while you are trying to concentrate.

Tricky eh?

I`m interested in what the "evil spirits" are. Do you also mean something telling by "half the time"? e.g. "half the time to imprison an evil spirit"? Sorry to go all pedant on you but I often think that a lot of what we say/write is pretty rich in meaning.

 

No worries if you don't want to elaborate.

Evil spirits are generally entities wreaking havok, in cases of oppression and posession. I try to limit myself time wise on here so I have a half hour later (its my day off).

Black energy is used in some parts of daoist energy work, but quite rarely. I dont know if I know anyone today unearthing some of these methods.

What I mean by half the time is that sometimes people may imprision good spirits in a ring. This makes it a spirit ring. (uh dont go run off and buy one online, a real master would not sell something like that).

But before you start getting after me this is just for information only. A ring like such can perform various things such as disruption of electrical devices, or even notify you if a friend or loved one is thinking about you.

Most of the practices it is used for is usually for self gratification, though some may give to charities and is used to force ones own way. Doesnt sound very Taoist does it?

I think I understand what you are getting at you are looking for proof or validation.

Personally, I used to be a computer programmer when I was younger, and sometimes nothing truely prepares you for what you experience. For me, I began to notice that my awareness of people around me began to reopen up again when I was 16, as I began to actually feel and sense peoples feelings and actions and behaviour.

It began to bother me that my actions leading up to that point had been mechanical or robot like and that it seemed like most people go about their daily business in a mechanical fashion, totally oblivious of peoples feelings around them, their actions and such...

For me my abilities opened up without energetic work, though more opened up later.

Through that initial experience I met a person who seemed skilled but he was more skilled in ego, and manipulating spirits, which is why when I sense people like that it is a source of irritation for me. He passed on a few years after we met.

Since then I tried studying from books but because of the initial training which was all selfish/gratification based it did not allow some types of spiritual development. Such as, I had difficulty "listening". I saw everything that happened to me as something that people had sent out as intention or myself sending out intention which is not true.

I learned in my travels to most of the states, Canada and Brazil that there are many different and wonderful teachers with different vibrations based upon their types of training.

Unfortunately what is lost is a lot of experience in being exposed to these different types of energies and modalities and methods if one does not willingly venture to teachers who can expose you to these many strange and wonderous things. Can one true know and understand these things without being exposed beforehand? Yes but it is a rarity. I have been around gifted people most of my life -some of them I did not know until later. Could it have been that being around them reawakened my abilities? Could be.

As for understanding these types of things from the way that I understood things before... What I did not truely see physically, as opposed to what I had later called distortions, or could actually feel physically or smell and so on I did not consider real. Since most of these types of "extreme" experiences as I am encountering on the TaoBums is not common, I would have to say that without actutally learning from a teacher that is versed in the higher energies it would be hard to say that you could develop anything even if you practiced for several hours a day. The teacher would help you distinguish a sound from a sound you hear in your head and so on, and sensation like those.

Yes there are some people who become mentally ill due to their abilities. Sometimes they just absorb sick stuck energy and dont even know it. I have seen that too.

So I am hoping this answers some of your questions as how some of the fancy abilities that people sometimes develop come about. The catch is that you usually need someone to guide you, doesnt that make proof difficult?

This somehow reminds me of the Randi contest advertised some years back. haha.

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It found its way into Taoism, yes as a lot of folk magic, shamanic practices did as well as buddhism, bon and other traditions.

I can only guess it could be more of a Wu or mongolian sorcery type practice (or inspired by). It doesnt sound like anything from buddhism or bon.

For clarification, rather than think this is evil, it is actually used to bind and permanently seal a spirit [half the time to imprison an evil spirit] (among many other things) and is where the majority of spirit rings come from. You may think this is "cool" or you can get your way in life, but without energetic understanding you may be causing yourself harm.

Remember everything has a price; you cant get your food from the store for nothing. Some prices are very high.

I would discourage use of these practices.

This post is written in a chinese way (explanation and conclusion in reverse).

It should be interesting to note that more car makers are designing more sporty diesel cars now.

It seems to me this is a step in the opposite direction.

I was doing some research on this this morning after looking at a car magazine that was covering sports car/ muscle car type vehicles with "sporty" specs.

The upside it seems is that diesel engines can be converted to burn a lpg-diesel blend to make the engines more efficient. The downside is that it increases dependancy on fossil fuels (petroleum).

What causes societies to change? The american beauty has for the most part been ignorance so to speak.

Unfortunately, out of ignorance one of our greatest sources of ignorance and possibly some of our libraries of ageless wisdom might be destroyed in the future. Humankind, dissatified with what religion has percievably caused could easily decide to abolish it for the reason of dissention and disunity resulting in a horrific mao tze tung like "cultural revolution" of horrific proportions.

One could easily point to religion as a problem, as in our age religious dogma tends to make our view of things very linear, black and white (dualism) and concieved notions that there is only one way of doing certain things when it comes to science, mathematics, art and music.

It seems that mankind needs to feel the need to "direct" things. The ant-like feelings of "thats all and good but that does not tell me what I need to do to get from point a to point b" line of thinking is completely void of the ability to be able to constantly look at waht is going on around oneself, or be aware of ones action upon all that currently exists.

When peoples are conquered the scribes and the intelligent people of the ones conquered are either reeducated or killed, which does not seem a very good end game. However seems unlikely as in recent decades it seems people have become more and more divided to subfactions and even more subfactions.

Since the problem is that the ignorance has run so deeply to the point that linear thinking, black and white (dualism) and desicions based upon preconcieved notions are so commonly used and only serve to create greater problems in the future...

However, for people to change it has to be no longer acceptable or even disasterous to hold to the current ways of doing things. This could happen through disasters be it natural, self-created or through management type strategies like ecological changes (creating an atmosphere more supportive of positive construtive ways of doing things) as well as projecting calmness deters restlessness or explosive behaviour.

Taoism tend to lend itself to acceptance of things that exist, because denying that some things exist only serve to add more stress to an organism and lends itself to a universal purpose that acceptance and letting go has a profound effect on people that is very contagious.

Purpose without attachment to an outcome is not easy to teach the masses (I mean teaching that the outcome of such behaviour can sometimes be more than an anxious attitude that an outcome might be achieved and with greater results than needing the outcome to take place) but could be done without putting oneself in harms way. It just takes some planning and work.

A good example would be people becommeing extremely sick and tired of extreme demands... caused by extreme demands. This is the result of an attempt of the current highrollers trying to maintain power and money.

Edit:

So, to more or less clarify what I am saying is that forcing an outcome, like many are currently doing, is their undoing. Even if the climate changes (a what if scenario), or the political order does become extreme it is only a matter of time before change ensues.

I have to agree with h.uriahr

Jehovah's Witnesses are kind of an off-branch of the Adventists because Russell used to go to adventist meetings circa 1850-1870s I want to say but that is off the top of my head.

I am not sure of the latin words mentioned equaling 666 might be someone adding numerology.

If it mentions heaven and hell, but not necessarily about people going to heaven (except 144,000) or about people who die going to gehenna (lake of fire) then it is the witnesses because they dont believe in an afterlife.

Most witnesses will quote Revelation 21:3-4 in reference to after Armageddon.

If they believe in an afterlife, it sounds adventist in origin.

Everything else seems to be adventist in origin. Most believe Jesus will physically return in that religion or as is my understanding. An expert on the Adventist could possibly give some more defined answers.

The tactic with it and the witnesses is to generally imply that you will die in armageddon if you dont get the right religion. Implications of teaching the distruction of the current world which is a fear tactic.

Most religions with the exception of a few use fear tactics like these.

The text Xi Sui Jing contains information regarding bathing in alternating hot and cold water to improve circulation.

Too much heat or cold can lead to hot type or cold type pathenogenic invasions, in combination with other current imbalances these can create heath problems. An example would be:

My being fatigued after working a fifteen hour shift in a warehouse (previous job) then going home and taking a cold shower as a habit. Resulting in a cold pathenogenic invasion lasting a couple of years until treatment with acupuncture and herbalism. (chronic bronchitis some years back)

I am sure anything I say about it would be imperfect; yet these things did cross my mind when I read this.

... (was going to say something but nah)

ty Scotty.

Its good to be back

I have the translation by Hua-Ching Ni.

Just thought I would share.

There seems to be a lot o similarities between both translated versions of the Hua Hu Ching

Thank you Creation, and great posts guys.

I cant wait to go back again hes a good teacher.

hi... What can I say? Im back?

I agree with goldisheavy.

Another way you could look at it also is like "chemistry". There have been women in the past i have encountered where I have picked up on that similar scent so to speak.

It could be that we also being animal in nature pick up on compatable "pheremones" from partners that we are similar to or compatable with.

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.

I just had a bizarre Idea... I think I might try your recipe and add protien powder... maybe soy and or whey...

hmmm

Very good posts everyone. Especially Vortex and Stigweard.

60

 

Governing a large country

is like frying a small fish.

You spoil it with too much poking.

 

Center your country in the Tao

and evil will have no power.

Not that it isn't there,

but you'll be able to step out of its way.

 

Give evil nothing to oppose

and it will disappear by itself.

Ive found people sometimes have a hard time understanding non-dualism.

It doesnt make it invalid, just that the world has become a strange place.

I feel I should quote the hua hu ching (highly trivial?)

Part of verse 29:

Kind prince, one who is integrally virtuous does not sit back and enjoy the loftiness of his personal spiritual achievement while the world engages in bloodshed because of the people's ignorant attachments to particular ideologies and theologies. One of integral virtue is not interested in personal exaltation. He exposes the truth and shows the way of evolution of all humanity. Any individual's spiritual achievement can never be considered great as long as the world is victimized by wars.

Kind prince, those who brandish power are like small children playing with an enormous axe; they will inevitably bring about their own destruction. Undeveloped humanity can destroy itself through its own ignorance, and this is why one of universal virtue has something of great value to say and share with people. His purpose is not to share the excellence of his mind nor to display his great compassion. It is simply the natural responsibility of one who can see to tell a blind horseman on a blind horse that he is riding tword an abyss.

I am not sure of the majority of thought here on the hua hu ching, but this came to mind.

I merely suggest that most learn facets of how to do different workings within the Tao, but do not seek complete wisdom to prevent harming themselves or others.

Strange....

Wow just got back from the June seminar in West Planes Missouri.

I was very impressed and so was my wife.

The cost of gas in an oldsmobile cutlass supreme there and back was about $190(with the tires over inflated by 5 lbs/Tuned up/ Oil Change). The hotel stays total about $334 with hotel stays along the way included. We stayed at the ridgecrest hotel in westplaines which was around $47 per night (we stayed three nights, and sometimes the rates change so check beforehand) I think with tax.

We traveled the 860 some miles from Aberdeen, South Dakota to West Plaines Missouri.

Around Sioux City Iowa we found the A/c went out but that did not stop us, we kept going.

Originally the itinernary was we were going to go through Kansas City however as the last moment my wife told me she would rather not do that. So I punched in a few other cities to go around it - Chilicothe Missouri being one of them from there we headed down 65 to springfield then to west plaines into the GPS.

For those traveling by road, I recommend buying a GPS. There are so many economically priced and decent ones now in the 120-190 dollar range. It takes the stress out of driving if you can focus on multiple things at once. If you have a hard time concentrating on your surrounding dont buy one. For me, it is much more valueable as something not to just tell you what road necessarily to turn on, but if you want to find gas stations, restaurants, shopping et cetera. This is something that comes with most of these GPS devices and helped plan periodic stops along the way reducing the hassle of where to eat, stop for gas and so on. Even more valueable in cases where we made a few wrong turns, and it recalculated a new path.

Personally most of the food we ate we bought before hand and kept in a large cooler along with lots of water. Most food we bought was not highly perishable.

It took roughly two days travel to cover the distance, being that I had to work an entire night shift before heading out in the morning on thursday. You can drive and trade off drivers but suggest you drive with someone who has done it before and be prepared to stay the night someplace if you both get too tired.

For those who are sensitive and able to recognize very high level vibrational energies, you will not be disappointed. If you have not been exposed to such strong energy very often you will have a similar experience as I did, where you will sleep very hard each night at the end of the seminar. This is because the physical body much adjust and "catch up" with the energy body.

The system was covered in entirety within the two days. I did not have certification to enable me to touch people, so I did not stay the third day however I will in the future.

The entire system was covered in the two days along with some miscellaneous chikung and gift of the tao chikung.

The system seems comprised of:

• Stillness Movement Chikung(s) [and the important closings]
  
• Gift of the Tao ChiKung
  
• Miscellaneous chikung (ill be ambiguous so you can be suprised by what you get to learn)
  
• Developing Multiple Intention
  
• Modalities that have implications in the system.
  
• Understanding the continuity and dynamics of the system
  

I took notes after the fact to congeal what I had learned during the workshop, and was very satisfied with what was taught. Some parts of the second day covered things that can stifle energy development. What was taught seemed very fluid and based upon what the group was ready for.

I could give a synopsis of everything that was covered, but somehow feel I might not be able to do it justice as I would eventually have to explain each thing. Not something I am qualified to do. However it seems much more profound than any of the other hundered books I have read on chikung.

I was able to join the group for lunch the second day which was a real treat, and enjoyed conversing with everyone.

When the time came to leave I was very sad to go, and for me I get really attached to people. I did not like saying goodbye.

That is all for now, I hope my review does the workshop justice. I and my wife thoroughly enjoyed it and talked about it on the way back and even the past few days. In fact it sounds like now my wife's mother may even go, which I am happy to hear about. We have nothing but good things to say about the workshop and without any doubt will be making more trips to west plaines or to other places the workshops will be held. Hoping each year I can learn more through these experiences as I continue practicing.

In hindsight, some of these teachings that are taught are very high level teachings. If I had not met my wife who was already intuitively accustomed to a few of these teachings, they might not have resonated with me and my mind would have been fighting some of these teachings. However now as I have experienced many of these things first hand... seems to make me more open and my understanding more profound. It seems that each step of the way I find that if you listen to the universe -it talks.

hmmm I know I was gone for a while.... thought I would give my take on it.

It seems difficult, I know that some argue that there is some mental aspect of Taoism, and yes that is very true. I think what is often not taught or not easily understood or studied is the non-mental aspect of taoism. By this I dont mean faith or the limbic system. It seems to me that the non-mental aspect of taoism is far more powerful and sublimating than the mere mental aspect.

Does Taoism in itself lend to a political agenda? Probably not anymore than people lend themselves to a particular type of work as a doctor, artist or engineer. Nature, healing and self healing as well as progressive enlightenment is something a lot of people aspire to on any political side.

I used to hold to a political agenda, however freeing oneself from strongly held-to ideas tends to free up more energy.

Could I suggest that Taoism does not lend itself to critical thinking, or an agenda? It seems to me that this is how it feels...

Well I havnt abandoned any of you. You can always get in touch by emailing me.

there is a finality to this.

Metta