doc benway

And his Johnson's bigger too!

I must respectfully disagree - direct experience can never be captured or meaningfully displayed in words. Only images are displayed in words and images are poor approximations of experience at best. You can't drink the word water - you will choke on the paper long before you quench your thirst.

Beautiful quotation... thanks for that There is NO path to the truth. Buddha's story was that he had to step off of all known paths and find his own way. Now millions try to follow HIS way and lament how difficult it is. All of the volumes of scripture are literally attempts to capture 'nothing' in words... Ironic, isn't it?

If you ultimately have no choice but to have your knee replaced, it should not prevent you from practicing Zhan Zhuang. A successful knee replacement should dramatically reduce or eliminate pain and correct deformity leaving you more able to stand comfortably for a longer period of time. Not all surgery is equally successful, however, so you really should consider knee replacement as a last resort, IMO. Good luck! PS The results are much better if you have a good nutritional status and keep your weight down

No - too long for my limited attention span, and Yes, I see what I want to see and sometimes, unfortunately, I see what I don't want to see, and sometimes I see what I neither want nor don't want to see...

I agree with that completely... What is the point of the arguments? Human nature. From a historical perspective, Buddhism is essentially Hinduism stripped of most of it's cultural window dressing for the purposes of exportation. The core elements of Buddhism are basically the same as the core elemets of Advaita Vedanta. The only difference is the window dressing and the words...

I'm partial to French and Spanish wines and Belgian beers and ales. Lately I've been experimenting a bit with Italian wines - not bad - especially wines from the Piemonte! +1 on St. Emillion but don't write off Pomerols either! I used to drink quite a bit more but after starting to practice Dao meditation, I found that I no longer found much pleasure in the feeling of alcohol intoxication. Nowadays, I drink more for flavor and less for the buzz...

Good points from multiple sources here. I also think that humility can be born of compassion and civility. GIH - be careful of projecting your personal lessons onto everyone around you. When you realize things, try to recognize that you are recognizing traits within yourself or traits that you project through the image you've created for others. You often have some very good ideas to share but there is something to be said for civility and seeing yourself in the mirror around you that is relationship. You must first have a true relationship with another (that is, a relationship absent of images) before you can really know their motivation and intent. That is a rare thing to occur between two people. First we must drop all images and that takes enormous work and discipline. It's easy to think we know others' intent, sometimes we guess right, sometimes wrong. It's extremely difficult to even know our own intent at a deep and meaningful level.

Send Sean a PM if you don't hear anything from him soon...

Based on everything I've read, there is no conclusive evidence that the Laozi we always refer to as the author of Dao De Jing ever existed as a historical individual. Most literary scholars lean toward the Dao De Jing as being a compilation of traditional wisdom, multiple authors, and a variety of sources compiled over an extended period of time based on themes, styles of writing, usage of characters and so forth. Same goes for Zhuangzi (and the Torah and the New Testament for that matter). I don't think there's any reason why this would lessen the significance of the writings but if Daoism is about anything it's about clarity and the absence of delusion.

I agree with 11:33, I feel like we are living in a hybrid system that has adopted the most effective elements of both Huxley and Orwell's predictions but don't forget Burgess! There's a helluva a lot of good ole classical conditioning at work too, droogs!

I've seen quite a bit more variability among jian forms in the various schools than in empty hand forms. Names of postures are also somewhat variable in jian forms, particularly from school to school. That said, I saw what looks like Xiao Kui Xing (Little Dipper or Little God of Literature - depending on your preferred translation of the characters 小 魁 星 ), Zuo You Lian Jie (Left and Right Intercept), Zuo You Che Lun (Left and Right Cartwheels), She Yan Shi (Shooting Wild Geese Form), and Xian Tong Chui Xiao (Immortal Child Plays the Flute). Some of the postures are similar to one of the jian forms I've learned but I don't have any characters for that particular form.

There have been a grand total of 5 votes for the next book and there is a tie. I thought we would do a run-off poll for the tied books. I'm surprised at how little interest there seems to be in the book club. Hopefully, things will pick up a bit. I'll let this run-off poll run until Thursday.

Please take a look at this thread I've just pinned it for future reference. Best regards

Great tidbit, sirius! I love Fripp's work and it's cool to know this about him. Another very spiritual guitarist is John McLaughlin - his website has some interesting info about him. I managed to contact him a short while ago and he currently studies Ch'an poetry. But I digress... My sister-n-law recently gave me Eating the I but I haven't yet read it. Anyone familiar with this book?

Waysun Liao does a nice job describing how to go about beginning to feel and work with Qi in his book The Essence of T'ai Chi. He has another book called Chi: How to Fell Your Life's Energy. I haven't read this one but if it's anything like "Essence", I imagine it could help you. Another thing that I realized was that focusing on the physical sensations experienced during sexual arousal and orgasm is a useful way of beginning to understand the awareness of Qi. Try to localize the sensations in different parts of the body while they are being experienced. Later, after the sexual arousal is gone, try to again become aware of a similar sensation in different areas of the body while not aroused. In the begin you need to have a very open mind about this and, if necessary, don't hesitate to use a little visualization or imagination. That is, visualize a feeling of warmth or tingling, coolness or an itch, anything that you find pleasant and can focus your attention on. Associate this with a particular part of the anatomy. One of the easiest places to feel this is in the region of the prostate gland for men, I can't comment personally on women but I've been told it can be very intense between the breasts.

I love Chinese and Japanese calligraphy. I played around with it a bit and concluded that I'd need some expert guidance to make meaningful progress but never pursued it. At a martial arts tournament a few years ago I commissioned two pieces from master Jiang Jianye of video tape fame. He did one for me of the characters Ce Bei meaning compassion with a quotation under it from the Dalai Lama referring to the fact that the world has plenty of religion but not enough compassion; and another of Jin Qi Shen. Good luck and I'm looking forward to seeing some of your work in a few months!

My master recommends a sword made of steel without excessive flexibility in the blade. The Wu Shu type blades are to be avoided - too flexible and light. Damascus, san mai, or mono-steel (stainless or carbon) are equally good for practice. The historically accurate blades tend to weigh between 0.5 and 1.2 kilos and balance somewhere around 10-15 cm from the guard. Huanuo makes a very sturdy, attractive, sharp, and relatively historically accurate jian with prices ranging from $500 - $1500 US. Their US distributor is Scott Rodell at Seven Star Trading in Virginia - http://www.sevenstarstrading.com/html/ I own one of the Huanuo Royal Peony jian that he sells and I'm very happy with it. Another good source for quality practice swords is John Lee - http://www.itg8.com/ He has carbon steel swords starting at ~ $80 and up to very high quality pieces over $1000. If you buy from him make sure you are very specific about where you want the sword to balance, some of his can be balanced too far forward. One final note, if you're just starting to work on the sword, you may want to use a wooden or light-weight metal sword in the beginning until you've learned the postures and then make the transition to a heavier weapon. Using a heavier sword in the beginning can cause a lot of muscle tension in the shoulder and arm and develop some bad habits if you're not careful. Once you start using a heavier sword, spend a lot of time doing basic drills like spiraling drills, wrist drills, and so on (with both hands!) to build strength and confience in the grip and wrist control. Good luck!

38. As long as a man is the doer, he also reaps the fruit of his deeds, but, as soon as he realizes the Self through enquiry as to who is the doer his sense of being the doer falls away and the triple karma2 is ended. This is the state of eternal Liberation. I absolutely love this verse. It reinforces the nature of Liberation as a matter of perspective. That doesn't mean that it is easily achievable but rather it says to me that it's a matter of recogntion followed by conviction. Liberation is simply the state of being the Self rather than the self. Once experienced, it's then simply a matter of dwelling there - this can achieved through mindfulness. Karma is linked to the self and doesn't exist in Reality following Liberation. Recognize that you are the Self and not the self and stay there. It takes a great deal of energy and conviction but is not beyond our grasp.

I read the book several years ago. It's not very fresh in my mind. I recall it being a bit slow for my taste but I agree that I felt it afforded an interesting glimpse into China and the temples he visited.

Enlightenment, whatever it is, must be beyond the severe limitation of human thought and ideas which is composed of language and images and known experience. The enormous variety of energetic practices and meditation have a common thread of focusing attention on the physical organism and universe using senses and awareness other than thought. IMO, this is a valuable experience in that it allows us to step out of our life of thinking for a bit and to experience our selves and the world directly, rather than through the superficial images created by thought. We may think we understand enlightenment through traditions and buzz words and thought but this is like trying to drink the word water. Thought will never take us where we want to go because it is always limited to the known. The unknown must be experienced and approached in a different manner. This is why I don't think it matters what particular style or flavor of practice you adhere to, any of them will give an experience of the world and self in a new way and none will ever take you to the truth. That's something only you can find if you have the energy and commitment to really look.

Agreed Darin. Sword forms raise the bar a bit - - more challenging stances and postures - managing the weight of the sword (using a real sword is very valuable) without compromising basic principles - understanding the martial aspects of the movements and sword handling - bringing the awareness of the limbs and torso to the management of an inanimate object - and so on.... I'm no expert on history but there does seem to be an important place for the jian in the development of Tai Ji Quan, particular among the Daoists.

I think this is worthy of repeating. "It means knowing your own mind as it really is." Unfortunately, many of us mistake an image or belief of the mind for the mind itself. We think we know ourselves but are simply deluded. Understanding the mind through the use of intellect is like trying to swim in the word water. It takes serious commitment and an enormous amount of energy to know the mind but what is there better to do? Well said Kate. But only when one is aware...

That seems to make sense, Michael - Wu Wei - go with rather than against. This perspective may help with Jen_A_Kins' struggle as well. Another, more concrete, example of seeing without seeing is the quality of awareness/intention we bring to Daoist meditation practice. There is a quality of seeing but it is not vision...

UG makes no effort to teach but rather attempts to describe his experience and his level of function following a psychological/emotional/physical event he describes as his calamity. Like Jiddu Krishnamurti, he talks about the fact that no one and no method can ever lead to enlightenment. That misnomer, in his opinion, is something that may or may not occur spontaneously and has nothing to do with spirituality as we generally think about it. He is very humanistic. His description of life after the calamity has clear elements of a non-dual sensibility but is firmly rooted in simple physical existence with no meaningful spiritual level of existence. I find his relationship with JK ironic - he spent a substantial amount of time following and studying JK's teachings then claimed to have disregarded them completely and criticized JK firmly. Nevertheless, his writings and talks are very firmly rooted in JK's ideas. In fact, to me he sounds like a nihilistic J Krishnamurti. It seems to me that he may even have suffered from depression.