doc benway

I also don't practice the micro orbit while standing. When I stand, I generally sink qi to dan tian and simply stay present and aware within the body allowing the thoughts to pass without attaching to them. There are neigong exercises that combine a variety of intent exercises with standing but in the beginning I think it's best to stand and develop a connection with the body in the various postures.

This is a wonderful discussion. I'll throw out a few points I've picked up from a variety of sources that have resonated with me. Love is not an emotion. Emotions are states that flow in and out of us that teach us, heal us, and guide us. They vary from minute to minute or day to day. So anger is extremely valuable - it's what gets us to speak up for ourselves or others, to want to right wrongs and so forth. Fear keeps us out of the dark alley or has us prepare for the needle stick and so forth. All the emotions are there for good reason and are natural and necessary. We don't always handle them skillfully or naturally and so alot of emotional pathology is out there. What many of us confuse with love are emotions of lust, attraction, attachment to a relationship and so forth. If you can strip away all of the attachments, the thoughts, the distractions in our lives, and connect with that which you truly are, which is what we all are, the wholeness is restored and that is love. It's always there as the ground substance but is usually obscured.

Here is a quote from the explanation associated with that video: "Steve the BaGua hit man lost his first Lei Tai match, but he did well for someone who only been training in BaGuazhang for a few months to enter a full-contact Lei Tai Match. " I give the guy credit for fighting full contact after a few months of training. I have seen skillful people with 20 years of traditional martial arts training resort to a slugfest in a full contact fight. It's a rare practitioner that makes a full contact fight look like quality martial technique. In addition, anyone who fights competitively knows that the rules dictates the techniques. You win on the Lei Tai by doing what works on the Lei Tai. You win in the octagon by doing what works there. I agree that this fellow isn't showing a lot of skill yet but at least he's out there living it. PS I don't think I would call this Lei Tai - in my book it ain't Lei Tai if it ain't a few feet in the air. It makes a huge difference to be thinking about falling or getting thrown off the platform.

I don't know if this will be helpful but here are some thoughts based on my own work. What is it that causes me to feel good or bad in a relationship or situation? Generally it's attachment. I experience emotions related to things and relationships, sometimes positive and sometimes negative - that's all normal. It's only when I identify with or attach to those emotions or to an anticipated outcome or expectation that I suffer. When attachment occurs there is conflict because we either move to avoid or supress or we desire more. Simply being with the experience fully, without acting out of conditioning and without comparing or judging (others or ourselves), but simply accepting and opening to it usually leads to dissolution, whether the stimulus is positive or negative. The next piece is the action you decide to take. Rather than let the action be dictated by the emotion, it's interesting to see if the two can be separated. So I feel something from the relationship, and regardless what that feels like, I get to choose how I'm going to respond. And the best response is the one that is most consistent with my core values, which is something that is worth getting in touch with. If I'm reacting out of conditioning, I will remain in conflict, unless it coincidentally is consistent with my values. So it could be possible to remain in a relationship, experience those negative emotions associated with it without becoming attached to the emotions, and act in a manner that is determined by your values, not your conditioning. Then you are invincible. No matter what the other person does, it is your choice to act in any fashion imaginable. No matter what emotional content the relationship has, it has no control over you. We're under the illusion that other people "make us" angry or sad or happy or whatever. It's not true - it is entirely up to us, if we so choose. We have the opportunity to determine not only our response, but how we feel about it. It's only when we're asleep and reacting out of conditioning and attachment rather that acting out of awareness, that we are slaves to relationships, addicitons, and so forth. It's not easy to live in awareness like that but it is possible. The old traps are always there to step into - it's much easier to be a robot than to stay awake all the time. It's what I've been working on for 2 years now. It's changed my life. I wouldln't presume to give you advice or recommend any specific action but I do think the whole idea of relationship is fascinating and worth a lot of attention. Good luck cat

Do you know anything about his upcoming tour?

He is an excellent martial artist. You can see how he brings his Ba Gua sensibility into his Tai Ji form. I hope his travels bring him close to me so I could attend a seminar. Hopefully he will come to Black Taoist's school in NY. I rarely go to seminars (I barely have enough time to train what my own teacher gives me) but I'd very much like to meet Master Xu.

I haven't read it. Certainly there is a ritualistic component of Daoism that involves prayers and offerings to a multitude of gods. The concept of gods in Daoism is a bit different than the Western concept of God, however.

The beauty of compassion is it's independence of reward. This is the essence of the boy's act. And yet the story tells us that his act is rewarded with long life. I can't help but appreciate the irony.

That was a nice read and great photos. I used to hike and backpack a lot and climb a little when i was a lot younger. I'd have to train a bit before trying to tackle something like that. It's been mostly Taiji and meditation for the past several years.

I also have a scientific background (chemistry, medicine). One of the greatest things I recall was first reading Bell's inequality in a Scientific American issue in the 70's. More recently, string theory (although I'll admit i have to read pop versions like Brian Greene - I don't have the math background to really read string stuff). I do think there are marvelous discoveries that allow science to continually refine an approximation of reality but the image is NEVER the thing. The word, thought, and concept apple have no taste. The word knife cannot cut. The word God is not God, it's just a visual and auditory representation of a set of conditioned responses that allows us to think we know God (or apple or knife). If I know what a knife is, I can choose not to stick it in my eye but I can never cut anything with the word. Similarly, scientific representations of reality remain representations. The image is never reality. It may accurately represent reality to a certain degree but it is never the truth. Special and general relativity had people feeling the same way as did quantum theory in the early days. Even if string theory (or M theory or some other variant) results in a fully unified theory, it's still our finite capacity for thought representing reality in the form of an approximation. All science is based on thought. Thoughts represent knowledge - memory of experience, comparing of experiences, and the projection of past experience into the future. Thoughts are basically our internal experience of time. There is past (memory), future (projection of memory), and present - awareness. The big question, it seems to me, is - what is it that is independent of time, that is, eternal? The ever present NOW moment, not the moment an instant ago that is already memory. The moment NOW that is awareness, consciousness if you will (but by consciousness I don't mean the content of consciousness, I mean the experience of the present instant). Now is reality. Our thoughts always pull us away form that. There is something in the quality of experience, awareness, and being that transcends thought and time and therefore is outside the realm of science, IMO. I don't think I explain myself very well but I find it hard to put this in words. You can tell me why red is red and what makes it red but I will never understand red until I see it for myself. A blind person will never understand red. You can explain an orgasm to someone - every physiological and anatomical subtlety. You can write volumes about it and fill a library but unless you have one, you'll never have any idea of what the reality is. A moment of being has still never been captured in an equation. We may be able to discuss an approximate representation or image of reality but not it's essence. Daoism and Buddhism is based on experience, not image. When I first started to study Daoist meditation I asked my teacher what translation of the Dao De Jing I should read. He told me to read nothing, just to sit. An hour of Jing Zuo is worth a lifetime of reading in terms of understanding reality. Just my limited view.

I don't think this is a bad thing. If "I" understand, "I" am simply reinforcing the illusion of "I", am "I" not? Maybe the issue is the "starting over"... ? The search implies one who is searching.

Fantastic! I will visit there someday.

Gorgeous photo!!! Thanks for that. Where is that exactly?

Once the 'self' is removed, who is it that is left to understand Truth? For understanding to occur, there must be one who understands. Is understanding the objective? I think we must be very careful with words.

I would not support a ban. There are others who have used the forum for similar purposes who remain welcome. The ignore feature is a beautiful thing...

Ditto! Very nice - and the pocket version is great to carry anywhere. Thanks!

Thank you Todd - extremely well put. That really helps me.

Here's an interesting treatise I came across posted on another forum. Lot's of Qigong and medical practices, some martial stuff. Well worth some time to investigate. Enjoy! http://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/kfu/index.htm

Your perspective helps me a lot in this stanza Mat. _/\_ I do believe that a consistent truth underlies all of the various perspective.

25. It. comes into being equipped with a form, and as long as it retains a form it endures. Having a form, it feeds and grows big. But if you investigate it this evil spirit, which has no form of its own, relinquishes its grip on form and takes to flight. I'll take a stab at this but I feel like my understanding of this stanza is very superficial. I interpret the first sentence as describing not only human life but all physical and material incarnations of "that" or maybe in this forum it would appropriate to label it "Dao." When the truth or essence of consciousness is sought, it is very ellusive. I'm in mind of the search for the "I" that Ramana was so fond of. But when we search, we can never find it. Perhaps because it is seraching for itself, like looking for your glasses because you forgot that you are wearing them. The frustration we feel from the endless search could be the reason to use the adjective "evil". Like I said, I'm not all that confident my explanation is terribly insightful here.

Shooting from the hip often misses the target and results in unwanted casualties. Hitting the target consistently requires skill and mindfulness, both qualities I find worthy of cultivating in my daily life. It is up to each of us to make that choice. My experience has been that most people have a finite capacity for forgiveness Warm regards,

Happy Birthday Ian! I hope you had a lovely day.

In a word, no. There are many threats to my life. What is security, after all? Is it anything more than an abstraction?

For those interested in the banking cabal, www.zeitgeistmovie.com is pretty cool - the last third is about financial conspiracy.