Thunder_Gooch

I haven't seen any other systems validated. Perhaps as time goes on, technology expands, and humans grow more interconnected and more ancient knowledge is made available other systems will be validated. At the moment I'm fine where I am. Thanks.

Even though India doesn't really have any advanced masters in the area's I am specifically looking for, you guys may be right about the culture.

Gold, I guess being myself means focusing on achieving liberation above all else, its like a battlefield and my objective is to win at all costs. It seems to be pretty true to my character to pretend to be something I am not, if I thought being honest would jeopardize my chance of success. To be honest with you man I fail to see your point at all. Be yourself even if it means your own death, basically that's what I am taking away from your posts. Well lets assume being myself meant not being able to keep a job, home or out of a mental institution. My priority is liberation, and losing my home, my car, my job, and being locked away and drugged and having my brain fried with electricity doesn't really seem like a viable method for doing so. I've got a little challenge for you, go up to a jerk ass cop that harasses the shit out of people and speak your mind. Tell him he is a fascist nazi pig, and deserves to have the shit beat out of him. See how far being openly yourself gets you. I don't think you could believe your way out of that one. I am sorry man I honestly don't get your point. How is burning my bridges that lead to my goal, going to get me closer to my goal? Does Not Compute Will Robinson. I view the brain and the mind relationship like a candle and a flame. To be honest I do not know if damage sustained by the physical body also effects the spirit after death. From what I have experienced its my conjecture the spirit is itself still a biological entity. If a caterpillar is seriously damaged before it pupates, I would assume that at least some of that damage would be reflected in its adult butterfly stage. I am not a biologist so if I am wrong don't hold that against me. In either case I don't want to risk it. If being myself means permanent incarceration in a mental institution and having my brain fried out via electroshock, I'll pass on being myself. I know its an illusion, but I'd rather not put myself through such hell if I could help it. On my conflicting ideas about reality. I'll say this the map is not the territory, our brains are map making machines, we each make a map of reality based on our limited experience, but again that map isn't the territory. You see right now I am in my character. I honestly don't know how to interact with others and not be in character. I don't even know where to begin to do that. It's kind of like wanting to talk to people on the internet but not having a keyboard, mouse, microphone, or any other form of input device. If I want to communicate with you I need to have a character to do the communicating. I guess I am just frustrated. My ideal lifestyle is doing as I please with no commitments to employers, or society. That would not be possible without winning some huge lottery or finding someone else to both support me completely and leave me alone. All of which are highly unlikely. My next ideal lifestyle would involve finding somewhere I could live alone, and afford working 2 days each week or less. What I have right now involves working mon-friday spending most of my pay on stupid expenses beyond my control, and saving the rest in hopes maybe one day many many years from now I can afford to buy land, build a home, and become mostly self sufficient, at which point I will have about 1/3 of my life left (maybe if I am lucky) to pursue my real priorities. This may be my only realistic option, but God Dammit Man! I don't want to be and old man by the time I really have the means to get serious about my practice. On the neikung front, I've only seen a few schools validated, and I already am training in them. I don't have the desire to travel to try to personally validate and study other schools and masters. I've got all I need for the time being, and I'm not interested on further discussion on this topic. When I am more advanced that will become a consideration.

sorry the picture of the rainbow fruitbat with a staff immediately sent shivers down my spine.

To everyone with actual advice, Thank You. To everyone with criticism for my views on humanity, your thoughts have been noted. To goldisheavy, I don't think brutal honestly would seriously allow me to accomplish my goals and only stand hinder them. Losing a job isn't going to help matters. I need a place to shower and wash my cloths and cook my food, in order to maintain a job. Also being brutally honest about my world and religious views e.g. the world we live in is an illusion, or the idea of self is an illusion all identities and therefor people are illusory etc would most likely wind me up in a mental institution for some sort of dissociative disorder even those are valid Buddhist concepts. Even though institutionalization might have some perks, having my neurons fried out with neurotoxic chemicals and violent electroshock therapy would most likely end any chances of liberation this life-cycle. This whole existence is a giant game, those that don't play by the rules set forth by this society are violently punished, and swept under the rug to keep them out of the site of other people. People caught in this illusion have a vested interest in maintaining it. So I have a role to play here if I want to maintain some degree of freedom. I have to pretend to be a normal person, I have to look and act respectable to maintain employment, I have to chum it up with my roomates and help them with their daily drama. I don't really see an alternative, unless I were to inherit some large sum of money or win the lottery. Sure being myself, and being honest might feel good and be liberating in a psychological sense, it would (or so I believe) have the opposite effect in a spiritual and real world sense. wudang, Maybe you could watch the original planet of the apes and that movie idiocracy each about ten times, then go to sleep. Maybe you would dream a dream of being trapped in a society of ignorant shit flinging apes, and being dependent upon their society for survival. Every day pretending to be one of them, but in your heart knowing your not. I don't really know if china could offer me anything I don't already have. There society seems worse in terms of personal freedom than ours. I am sure they might have some great masters there, but I have no idea how to find and test them, if I did find one I deemed advanced enough, he would have no obligation to teach me. My biggest complaint about car living, was when I experienced a breakdown for more than a day I was homeless. The cost of car repair and maintenance, and rental fees still is very expensive. Also having to keep a gym membership to shower, and eating mostly canned foods, run ins with police asking why I am parked in some rural isolated dirt road, police harassment in general, all take their toll on a person. I decided in the end it was less of a hassle to live with other people and have a place to shower, wash clothes, refrigerate and cook food, than it was to live in my car.

Hello Everyone. Not sure what to put here. I want to dedicate my life to achieving liberation. Not to keen on these newagey whack job types I see everywhere now-a-days. I am interested in systems and teachers that get real world results. I am not interested in anything else.

I want to live a minimalist existence. I don't like people and socializing. I do not think a 40 hour work week is conducive to my spiritual goals, so I am seeking to change my environment. I am willing to work a few days a week, and I don't want to be a parasite on anyone. I fail to see how this is running away from anything. Meditation is the only time I feel truly at ease. I don't like most people, but then again people who seek liberation aren't most people.

goldisheavy, Have you become really comfortable with your own mortality? Have you looked your own death in the eye and honestly asked where your priorities lie? What is it you wish to accomplish with your time here before your inevitable death? memento mori! I have and I realize I don't really give a shit about anything in this world. It is an illusion, and death is inevitable. The only thing that matters is liberation, and helping others do the same. I don't care if sally joe got pregnant by bobby lu. I don't care about this weeks American idol. I don't care about anything in this world. It's all one giant neon distraction, keeping us from doing the only meaningful thing we can do. Life is all fun and games, till you realize it really is an illusion. I am assuming you actually enjoy living, in which case good for you. If and when you realize what a colossal bunch of bullshit everyone and everything in this society are, you'll get burned out too. Being myself doesn't really work out so well here in the "real" world. If I want to hold down a job and have a place being friendly and amiable is a requirement. I just hate being a lie. Pissing away your life for peanuts is bad enough, pretended you like it and the fucking retards you work with is torture. It's even worse to know your time is running out, and another round of this bullshit awaits you if you don't make it out this time.

Thanks that might work, however they mention something about not training in other systems which invariably I would be. Do you think that would be cause for expulsion. I don't mind working on weekends, to pay some sort of rent. However I want to be able to meditate for 16 hours or more each day for at least 4 days out of the week. Right now sometimes I manage up to 4 if I sacrifice sleep to do it, but I don't feel I am making adequate progress.

I'm just tired of living a lie. Tired of pretending to be someone I am not, just to keep a job, just to have a place to live. I am tired of pissing away my youth. Nothing in this life matters except liberation. Yet, ironically that is the hardest goal to work towards in this society. Everyone has to stay busy, has to stay entertained, has to work, has to do chores, has to do this, that, it never ends. By the time you've paid your time taxes to society and entropy, very little precious time is left for actual meditation. This world feels more like a Nazi concentration camp, every day. I have to force myself into a false mindset to interact with other people. Work 8 hours most days, drive home, clean up after other people, wash my cloths, cleanup, cook dinner, and by that time I am exhausted and ready to go to sleep. I wake up at dawn and mediate for a few hours and its off to work again, to repeat another cycle. Two years have passed me by and it seems only like a few months, and its ever accelerating. I seriously wonder if I will be able to achieve liberation in this lifetime meditating only a few hours a day. I guess I am just frustrated and disgusted, there seems no way out of this vicious cycle, and no way to pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

None of those options seems viable for me. I did extensive searches on the IC site, all the communities seem like they require at least a $200 a month or thereabouts monthly contribution, as well as 10-20 hours a week worth of chores. I don't believe that would be an improvement over my current situation. Not to mention having to be cordial around all hippie Jesus freaks. Joining a monastery has crossed my mind, but then you have to buy into whatever ideology their selling. I am interested in philosophical taoism, but Mak Tin Si has really turned me off to religious taoism. I am not interested in dogma, superstition and ritual. My current plan is to work until I can afford land, and then build solar powered home off grid. Work part time to pay taxes and feed and cloth myself. However this may take 20 years of full time work and saving to accomplish. In the mean time I am working away my youth, more like pissing it away. Saving for a future that isn't guaranteed. All this work just to own some property that I will be forced to leave behind upon my death. Seems rather futile to own anything in this world. There just don't seem to be any good options. It seems the only thing you cannot do in this life is stop, everything is go go go!

what method are you using?