doc benway

It was very nice to have had an opportunity to know you and interact with you, albeit much too briefly. Best wishes to you. _/\_

Me 2

Theoretical physics and the associated mathematics.

Well said... it depends on what quality of tea you're looking to drink. The best wulong is very difficult to produce, hence the very high prices...

Very nice post Joe. I read through it substituting "I" and "my" for "you"... At the same time, I wonder why we believe that all this illusion is NOT the natural way of things, the human condition. If not, why is it there and where does it come from?

Watermelon, cherries, peaches, brussel sprouts; hand made pasta with garlic, olive oil, pine nuts, and asparagus; dark chocolate.... today

Thanks for the reply Mouse. I think they're false because I've seen the same thing performed by any number of "masters" of this or that (including Max Christensen, George Dillman, and the oft-ridiculed Japanese Kiai master from youtube, to name a few) and it's a parlor trick. I have sent a (much too long-winded) PM to clarify my thoughts on this. Wishing you well. Steve

Thanks for the reply Mouse. Adam clearly has considerable Tai Ji skill. It's unfortunate that he chooses to undermine his credibility by adding false demonstrations of fa shen. It does not help his reputation or that of our beloved art in any way to do this. I offer this as a constructive criticism in the spirit of friendship and won't sully your threads with my comments on this any further. Best wishes,

Whatever it is that we feel in the body is a representation of our thoughts, our conditioning, our training, our culture... Stillness encompasses all of that and more - stillness is closer to the underlying condition than all of our paradigms. Anyway, that's how I think about things. I practice stillness but I also practice Daoist methods which are nicely incorporated into my taiji training.

Since Chan is Chinese and Zen is Japanese, I'd say Chan is "closer"... Beyond this, I think that Chan and Zen are two slightly different cultural expressions of the same underlying doctrine.

The trick is to do the no touch stuff on someone who is blindfolded and without making any sound.

All very good posts - this is one of my favorite subjects! Tai Ji Quan means Tai Ji boxing. Look at what Tai Ji means. It does NOT mean soft or empty. It means balanced. It means mutual arising and complementary forces, yin balanced with yang. When my opponent attacks with force, I yield. When he yields, I destroy him. 4 ounces deflects a thousand pounds does not mean that all taiji fighting is done by using 4 ounces of force. It simply means that with proper technique, you do not need to clash force against force. I believe that this one brief excerpt from the classics is over emphasized. As was mentioned already, fajin is simply a short, explosive force. It's widely used in Wing Chun, Xing Yi, Yi Quan, Ba Gua, and so forth. Another excerpt from the classics that is an equally important concept is Zhan, Nian, Lian, Sui, Bu Diu, Bu Ding - touch, stick, connect, follow, don't disconnect, don't clash. Then there are skills of neutralization. All of these qualities are a part of applying Tai Ji to combat and I would say that these latter qualities are more unique to Tai Ji than is fajin. There is nothing wrong with practicing the form for it's own benefits. It's a marvelous Qi Gong. If you want to figure out how to make it work as a martial art, however, you must practice form, partner drills, sensitivity training, strength training, flexibility training, meditation, and free fighting. All of the "styles" have the potential to develop into useful martial skill but it is critical to have a good teacher who knows the martial training curriculum (which is much more than form and push hands) and it also requires a good student. I'm looking forward to see the other threads that we are promised will spin off of this one!

Beautiful!

I would ask your friend to look at the situation from a perspective of compassion- Strong emotional content, belligerence, hostility, intolerance - all generally are an indication of suffering. Fear, desire, lack of confidence, and so forth. I would try and feel sympathy for someone such as this doctor who is so locked up in his suffering that he is unable to share in a pleasant moment or two with a stranger on an airplane. I don't think anything can be done on the spot to change the situation other than to use Taiji - yield and neutralize. Accept his strong feelings, let them go past and fade. Then come to a different area of discussion or simply read a book and disengage entirely. He is in a place that he will have to work his way out of. With more time there could possibly be an opportunity to help him grow, to let go of some of the hostility. The best way to deal with this in the short term, IMO, is to receive the hostility and return compassion.

Overall, I think we really have one large political party in terms of the country being run for the benefit of corporate and elite interests. The major difference between parties, in my view, is the choice of Supreme Court appointments. Ironically, the party that represents Christian America is, by far, the less tolerant, less charitable (I mean real charity, not giving to your church), and less compassionate. My efforts at cultivating compassion have me squarely in favor of Obama. Also, I hope that his candidacy and election could help heal the continued racial divide in our country which continues to be a source of shame and misfortune. When Michelle Obama made her statement about feeling truly proud of her country for the first time, I know exactly what she meant and I'm proud that she had the courage to say it (and, no, I'm not African American).

Nice post Daoseeker. Concise yet comprehensive. My shi-ye is a practicing Daoist. When I first started practicing cultivation under his guidance, I asked him to recommend a translation of Dao De Jing for me to study. He said he couldn't recommend one and that he'd never read it, and that I didn't need to read, just practice... After a few years of practice, he's changed his tune a bit and admits that there is value to reading and studying Dao De Jing and other resources (which he has) but the practice is much more important in his opinion, particularly in the beginning.

I had a similar experience. One of the things I let go of and have never gotten back to enjoying much is alcohol. The more the mind clears, the more sensitive it is to intoxicants. The more clearly you see, the less enjoyable it is to muddy that with drugs. What I found was a long and intense period of seriousness with the search. Eventually, however, the search is seen for what it is and drops away and a renewed love for and zest for life and all it has to offer will replace it. The difference is that the new perspective will show you much deeper cause for love and celebration of what is available here in this life. Anyway - it could happen that way or it could turn out totally different. I'd suggest that you let it run its course. There's plenty of time for movies, socializing, and masturbation, .... and cultivation for that matter. Do what feels right.

Daoism here in the West is quite a bit different than Daoism in the East. Here we are primarily focused on philosophical aspects of Daoism as seen through the eyes of Western translations of Daoist texts (really only 3 texts for the most part, Laozi, Zhuanzi, and Liezi). More and more there are people practicing Daoist cultivation methods but the majority of these are also modified through Western teachers' eyes. Daoism as a religious practice does not translate well to the Western sensibilities so it is pretty much non-existent outside of China (or the Chinese home and place of business in the West). Way too many gods and goddesses and fortune telling, and all kinds of stuff that is very alien to the sensibilities of those raised in the Abrahamic cultures. Buddhism, on the other hand, travels much better. In fact, many well-informed scholars consider Buddhism to be more or less Hinduism stripped down to the bare essentials and packaged for exportation. So the whole package of the Buddhist religious traditions are easily portable and relatively easily accepted by the West (much more so than religious Daoism at least). If you saw some of the traditional Daoist ceremonies and practices carried out by those who truly practice the religion, it would seem even more foreign, uncomfortable, and "religious" to you than Buddhism, I suspect. The personal cultivation and bare-bones philosophical and metaphysical aspects of any religion can be isolated from the rituals and will appear less "religious". In fact, if you boil down any of the religions to the core spiritual essence and personal admonitions, they are nearly identical. That, at least, is my experience.

He was one of Chen Pan Ling's teachers. Master Chen was very famous in Taiwan after the war up until his death and wrote a few books. There may be resources from his style and school, which remains popular in Taiwan, that feature Wu Jian Quan.

The human brain is expert at taking in data, making comparisons, and picking out similarities and relationships. What is a coincidence really? Is it a human conclusion that thoughts and observations are related? Does that say anything about the outside world or does it say more about the human mind? Is there an outside world? Maybe coincidences are further evidence that existence is mind. It certainly is fascinating and intriguing when it happens.

I am an unabashed tree hugger. I recently spent a few days in Olympia, Washington and was immersed in an ocean of big, beautiful firs peppered with Japanese maple. Walking among the closely clustered trunks of these big old firs was amazing.

Beautiful Metzu! _/\_ One of my favorite quotes that points to this conclusion is "The truth is a pathless land" - J Krishnamurti (I recognize the irony of posting a quotation to support your claim... ) I agree with you that no one can ever show you or teach you the truth, they can point you in a direction which may (or may not) result in you blundering into it. In the end, the closest you will ever come to communion with the universe is within yourself for you are that. Buddha found the light and was not a Buddhist. Jesus found the light and was not a Christian. Laozi and Zhuangzi were probably not practicing Daoists. Mohammed was not a Muslim. That's assuming of course they were actually historical figures. Here is something I ponder sometimes. Think about whether you would have been likely to reach this truth without treading the path you have. The irony is, there does appear to be a relationship between spending time on this spiritual path and coming to that realization. Reading the works, doing the meditation, chatting in chat rooms, following the gurus, whatever. At some point, the light bulb goes on, your perspective shifts ever so slightly, and there it is... Then you realize you never needed the gurus or the path or any of that but how do we know if we would have gotten to that point without them? It's a beautiful irony. Even though there is no need for you to do so, I hope you will continue to post on this forum. I think you have a lot to offer.

Yes - I think the paradigms are different, the concepts are different, and the words are different. The underlying reality that each are trying to describe is the same, however. I do not believe that there are two independent or exclusive or even overlapping energy systems, one of which has been described by the Indians, the other by the Chinese, there is only one. The two systems try to explain the same reality from different cultural perspectives and the fact that they are different highlights their weaknesses. On the other hand, the similarities show their strengths. The word does not make the thing, it just tries to represent it. The apple and orange relate to the systems of labeling, not reality. Sorry if it was a misleading analogy.

The dan tian system and chakra system are constructs of human thought which developed in different paradigms that had some degree of intermingling over the millenia. They are not what they describe. They are simply ideas, concepts, and words that your mind uses to try and catalogue experience. The underlying reality is the same. The systems of describing that reality are a reflection of the culture in which they developed. Trying to "understand" them and how they compare to one another may be an interesting exercise and pleasant distration but will provide little value. Not only is it like comparing apples and oranges but is more like comparing a drawing of an apple to a drawing of an orange and expect to reach a conclusion about how each tastes. I think it would be much more beneficial to spend the time meditating on either one...

Beautiful, thank you for quoting that. I loved The Prophet, is that where this comes from?