doc benway

I am happy to see your apology and accept it gladly. It's good that we are passionate. It's also good when we recognize the value of civility, particularly in electronic communication where the normal social barriers are relaxed due to anonymity and physical separation. I personally never post anything emotional until I've waited a few minutes (or hours or days) and re-read my post a few times to make sure it's exactly how I want to represent myself to others. Best wishes

Qigong psychosis is a well recognised and not uncommon condition treated in the psychiatric circles. I've also heard of some pretty serious physical illness related to unsupervised Kundalini work. It does pay to take the stuff seriously.

I think Bill can be funny but tends to be a bit narrow minded and focused on his own political and personal agenda. I liked his HBO show for a while but much of it now just covers ground that's been beaten to death. That said, I will certainly check out his movie once it's on cable! In my view, all religion deserves to be scrutinized very seriously (I like that approach better than bashing). Little on earth does as much harm as religion (particularly the big boys) and yet we are very tolerant of it. This taboo nature of serious religious scrutiny leads to the next best alternative - bashing. For a less comedic treatment of the same material check out "The End of Faith" by Sam Harris.

In light of the quotations of Ramana and other comments, what about living a human life? There is a lot of discussion about abiding in the Self and what that entails and requires. Is that possible while attending one's profession and family, enjoying friends and relationships, developing physical skills and devoting oneself to hobbies and interests, and so forth? And if not, at what cost is all this? Why is it that we would need to sacrifice all of this? Will we not abide in the Self for all of eternity? In this brief human incarnation, is there a role to live the human illusion to the fullest?

Me too!!! It's not difficult to agree with your conclusion. I have a scientific/medical background so what I have struggled with has been the idea (more to the point, the reality) of separating the "I" from the brain. Very insightful and well said!! Much thanks for that. 24. This inert body does not say 'I'. Reality-Consciousness does not emerge. Between the two, and limited to the measure of the body, something emerges as 'I'. It is this that is known as Chit-jada-granthi (the knot between the Conscious and the inert), and also as bondage, soul, subtle-body, ego, samsara, mind, and so forth. I like the line "... and limited to the measure of the body." There is a brilliant book called The Body Has a Mind of It's Own which addresses the neural mapping that goes on between brain, body, and the immediate environment. I look at the "measure of the body" as being reflective of the fact that the chit-jada-granthi is the interface between our sensory apparatus and that which does not emerge. For any of you familiar with the work of UG Krishnamurti, the concept of "inert body" seems to describe the unfortunate state that he found himself in after his "calamity." Very interesting to compare the expressions of awakening among gurus. It seems to me that the state one finds oneself in after such an experience is reflective of the personality characteristics that existed before hand. Ramana, de Mello - very loving; Osho, Gurdjieff - opportunistic; J Krishnamurti - intellectual and analytical; Nisargadatta - pragmatic, no BS; UG Krishnamurti - depressive and pessimistic. But I digress...

Laughter is beautiful but there are occasional times when it can be hurtful as well. When those times occur, I try to be mindful of how others may be affected by my actions, even if I would think that I would be affected differently. After all, it's not for me to decide how another should feel in response to a given situation.

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.