peter falk

oy yeah, this is good stuff! almost as good as downin some cold ones till late at night and talkin shit. maybe redkoogas got something. you know, after years and yaers of practice, we can develop the POE, use it daily and benefit from it, and teach it to others. unfortunately others cant use it (to maximum benefit) because they havent goten the foundation. they havent freed their intent to create the reality they want, etc. however, i do think i am on to soemthing with the core channel. i may have to come back here in a month and eat crow, but i'm gonna play with this for a while and see what comes. fill the core chanel and it will all overflow into the otehrs. teach only core channel to students and let them feel spontaneouly this overflow. hmmmmm.... oh well, we'll see what happens.

if i may, i'd like to offer some feedback here, and even if i mayn't there's no one oto stop me. looks like this post is generating a lot of interest. but what i see in the discussion so far is not really a POE. what i see is a mention of good basic health practices or a combination of practices. one thing einstein esteemed was simplicity. a POE must be simple and therefore "one" if possible. notice hopw phyusicists seek mathematical simplicity and a single grand unified theory, a single equatin that expalins everything. let's focus on simplicity and finding that one practice. it will be truly challenging. it will also be a good test of our own depth of knowledge and practice because usually the better you understand sometjhing the easier it is to simplify it. we may end up being wrong in the end, but having dealt with the challenge with all our might, there will undoubtedly be some growth.

aw, shit, this is going to be challenging. i ws just thinking of this very thing this morning when i was doing my practice working the core channel. doing the sun and moon thing in the left and right sides and then the rising and falling hun and po in opposition thing and expanding the core space getting lost in it, and i thought; this is it. all you need is the core channel. work the hell out of the core channel. its the copulation space for heaven and earth, fire and water, metal and wood, the cultivation space for yuan qi. it kind of expanded and subsumed all the other channels. can it be that a practice regimen of developing the core channel and the cultivated energy be "it?"

hope the old lady takes real good care o ya.......

Had a tremendous experience Saturday morning while in the woods at Mt. Bijia Park near our school here in China. A few days before I had discovered this power spot for birds. It's along a foot trail up the mountain where a few diferent habitats merge. The travels and habits of a number of different species converge here and I decided to check out in more thoroughly Saturday morning. Its a kind of ley line intersection for birds. One reason I returned to this spot was that I thought I glimpsed an orange-bellied sunbird there the previous week. It is one of the most colorful local birds and a real gem of the forest. Spotting and communing with these things really takes you into a deeper relationship with "place." I think birds connect our inner qi with the outer qi. Somehow they link our micrcosm with the macrocosm. Their songs, when listened to receptively, help reshape our jing and align it with the external jing, or essence of the place. this is why bird language and concentric rings were so important to the native amercans, and other primitive cultures around the world. it is how we communicate with nature, just as alchemical cultivation enables us to communicate with nature. Doing qigong and its associated practices develop a language and mechaism for uniting with the universe and understanding its language. birds do the same. But you must be in a deeper state than ordinary in order to fully appreciate and understndd it--inner quiet, a silent monkey mind. Thus the time we spend practicing qigong and the time we spend quietly in nature, we learn to communicate with the macrocosm. So I was just off this trail trying to spot some birds I heard moving in the brush. So far in this one little area i'd seen laughingthrushes, coucals, thrushes, possibly a sunbird, bulbuls, and magpies. The whole thing started with the bulbuls. These birds represent transition or transformation. their song invites you to change, to adpat to new suroundings, to seek further within and without yourself, a shift. I think specifically it was the red-whiskered bulbul that invited me in. This has been going on for over week now as I get to know them. Saturday morning, I was sitting quietly and still off the trail when i heard the single loud note of the red-billed blue magpie strike like lightening in the forest and a flash of opening up hit me and there wash a rattling call to awareness. I sat with this for a while and watched the magpies. I moved again to the trail because I heard a lot of activity over there. I stood still for a while letting the birds relax into my presence as I relaxed into theirs. As I stood peering into the brush searching for a thrush I heard, WHAM! A loud, taunting song erupted from behind me. It was deep and resonant, eerie in its voice, even terifying. I dont scare easily in the woods and have even slept in the open around bears and mountain lions, but this song shook me to my core. At first I thought someone was trying top[lay a joke on me and looked for the trickster to appear. Woop woop woop! Woop woop woop woop! Woop woop woop! It was single note that harmonized with everything and created the sort of earth shattereing and recreative force of the choral movement from Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Yet it exceeded that in simplicity by degrees beyond imagination. Thus the reality of it ws that much more astonishing. Then it stopped. I scanned the forest edges for possible candidates but saw nothing. A little while later it started up again, this time in front of me futher up the slope. And the answer came from behind. What magic creature makes this noise? I had to find out. I moved into the forest slowly, stopped, and listened again. It was in the same place. I moved a little more and stopped again. Still in the same place. I repeated this and kept hearing the song in the same place. Yet I was not in a postion to look for the singer yet. I moved further and stopped again. This time the songster had moved on. still within range, but i'd exceeded his safe-distance. I took a seat and kept still, listening. He and his friend across the way were talking to each other, or to me. Or perhpas both. I waited and waited and waited. They never came closer. I could hear the morning exercisers on the trail, some shouting and singing. See, there's these hollerers here. Whenever they hike in the mountains they stop every few minutes and let out a good holler. I don't know where the custom comes from, but it's here. And it's damn annoying. In the disatnce there is actually a romantic quality to it, as in the old sense of the word, not the candle light dinner sense of the word. But as they get closer and you hear how loud it really is, it loses all appeal and you realize there'sa giant ego pounding the trail completely unaware of its envirnment just waiting for the next moment to announce its presence to everyone within earshot wheter they care or not. I tried to move in on the bird again because the hollerers were coming my way. I just couldn't get close enough. I'm sure the bird read my anxiety and kept its distance. Had I been able to relax more deeply and penetrate the inner silence further, it would've waited for me, because that's what birds do. I realized, this bird, with its terrifyingly taunting woop woop woop had an important message for me. He was inviting me into the unknown. That is exactly it. He was inviting, and at the same time, daring me, to enter the unknown. that was the job of this bird. And anyone who went slowly enough and listened enough, would get it. But what was this unknown he was inviting me to? Was it the wuji? Was it something with my relationship? Was it a lifestyle change? What was it? The irony of this line of questioning didn't hit me at the time, but it's obvious now. The unkown is the unkonwn, and it will remain unkown until you get there. You can see where it is and walk towards it, but you dont know what it is till you get there. I was hoping the bird had a more precise answer for me, but he just kept taunting me from the bushes. At last the hollereres were right upon me, yelling whatever it is they yell, and the birds fell silent. Perhpas these hollerers were trying to scare off the unkown. Perhaps they were afraid of the unkown and their shouting was some way of concealing their consuming fear of what lay ahead. Perhaps they just wished to be left alone by whatever mysteries were out there. I came home still shaken by the experience and wondering where I would enter the unkown and how. Which direction would I take or would I be shown? That bird call had something to do with the infinite wonder of the core space. The infinite power and mystery that is there may or may not have anything to do with qigong, but just is. And its waiting to be discovered. Over the last couple of days, I realize that the whole alchemical process is a journey into the unkown. It's about transformation. Sure you "know" the formulas or "know" the practices. But you don't know what changes they'll bring in you. You don't know how they're going to reshape your jing, qi, or shen. You don't know where you're going to end up or even where your next step will land. And unless you let go of the "known," you will never find the unknown. It's hidden in the forest. And thus is the biggest obstacle to the path.

who needs crack with a diet like that?

i eat frosted flakes, pop tarts, donuts, chocolate cake, chocolate chip cookies, popcorn, pound cake, apple pie, cherry pie, pancakes, waffles, pasta, and doritos. i don't feel guilty about it. oh, and oreos too. oreos, mmmmmmmm.

you'l recall then that one of the first exercises, perhaps the first ex. in K1 is to draw a robin and then compare it with the field guide. what would a person in china draw? a bulbulb? which one? a magpie robin? a black collared starling? so you see what i mean. and having chosen a bird ad drawn it, how would the people back at WAS evaluate the work? is the drawing ok? did i choose an appropriate bird for th eexercise? and so on and so forth. one thing is certain, that by doing a sit spot everyday or getting out in nature on a regular basis doing wide angle vision and fox walk, or whatever, does attune you to the local external qi in the environment. but there is a shortcoming to kamana--while putting you intune with the natural world, it never translates any of this to the urban environment. i have yet to see a program from tracker school or WAS that focuses on urban settings in the same way. now kevin reeve, former director of the tracker school, has started a new school called on point tactical and does address this in a couple of classes. you can see his website for further info: www.onpointtactical.com.

re: vitamin supps: many of the available supps don't break down in your stomach fast enough to actually deliver the vitamins therein. re: ginseng: i just finished a book on ginseng recently. i dont have it in front of me now so i can't remnember author and title, but i bought it at the tai sophia institute which is a chinese medicine school in maryland. lots of diffrent kinds of ginseng, not all of which are actually ginseng but from entirely diffrent plant families. red and white ginseng, also know as korean and chinese ginseng respectively, should be avoided by people under 40 according to the book and popular chinese knowledge. american and siberian ginsengs can be taken by the under-40 crowd undre sertain circumstances. usually only used for several weeks at a time. these four ginsengs are tho only "true" ginsengs, in other words from that family of plants. do your research carefully on this and /or consult your chinese medical practioner or other natural health professional. the siberian ginseng has been pretty well studied in russia.

if you live in the tao, you don't need a martial art

i am familiar with jon young and WAS. i've listened to all his bird language tapes. unfortunately, kamana wouldnt do much for me here. certainly the principles would be of tremendous benefit, but the program is heavily dependant in north american field guides and his instructors dont know anything about chinese wildlife. i'd end up schooling them. there is also a severe lack of field guides available for china. i spent six weeks scouring bookstores in the US and could only get a very excellent bird book and a few bird books that are ok. there are some field guides here, but they're all in chinese. today i had this red-billed blue magpie in my sights. it was so silent. it was eerie and mysterious the way it moved. i relaxed into alpha, slipped into wide angle vision, and dropped the nocs, and just watched it for a while. a pair fo them. this is what the magpie had to teach: the birds you dont hear are more significant than the ones you do. there was a corollary to this that emerged in my psyche--in silence there is magnificence. or was it, magnificence is found in silence. something like that. i think its going to be a while before i get all levels of this teaching. and it was the perfect bird to give it. here's something else straight out of jon's book: there are birds here that correpsond to tbirds in N.A. the magpie robin looks, sounds, and acts like a mocking bird. the great tit looks, sounds and acts like a chickadee. the bird language and concentric rings translate very nicely.

yoda, this could ahve something to do with the same influence of music. birdsong or music, what's the difference? i plan on spending more time withthe birds this week. i think they have a lot to teach me about this. as it unfolds i'll continue to post more. i know that the northern cardinal has had a tremendous influence on my psyche. it's song is one fo the earliest memories i have. others include blue jay, titmouse, mocking bird, crow, and mourning dove. others too, but those stand out to me right now. the result is that the songs zap me back into that sp[ecial place of innocence, wonder and mystery.

i used to "camp" alot too. havent used a tent in years. either a tarp in case of rain, or i'd make a debris hut or hogan. lived in a hogan for over a year with a friend of mine in a bed of beech leaves. best damn sleep i ever had was in that bed. god it was perfect! as for bugs, eat lots of plaintain and drink pennyroyal tea. takes about 2-3 weeks to become effective. supplementing diet with wild onions and garlic is good too. fuck DEET. it causes cancer.

well i typed a few msgs but no one ever answred. i noticed lezlie and sean's names were blue but mione was red. what's taht mean? they were in a private chat having chat sex?

it just logged me out cuz i opened another window. said i logged in on another machine. couldnt see any of the chat anyway.

i wont make it at 5 a.m. my time. i'll drop in another night. thanks for posting the schedule.

we defintiely need that shout feature or a pop up of some kind for the chat room. michael and i missed each other twicet today.

Tenguzake, you might wanna talk to malcolm about daoist alchemy. he did something with chia's stuff. we discussed it briefly at one of the classes. jsut tell him you heard thru the grapevine.....

i'm not familiar with ken cohen's book so i couldnt say. daoism evolved from shamanism so there are a lot of prallels. the elements they work with are different, but they are really just symbols for the energy force. in the fusion mandala, the daoists have four elements situated around the outside with with the earth in the center. these four elements deal with the four directions and the 5th direction the center. the indians also use this mandala. the colors also show parellels. the bagua too. ultimately there are 8 directions: the major directions are N, S, E, and W. the minor directions are NE, SE, SW, and NE. all are common to both ways. now supposedly, many of the indians migrated here from asia, so in the remote past, both people (chinese and amer. indians) evolved their cultures from some common or very similar related culture. the Hopis have teachings very similar to tibet with chakras and everything in the same locations. different terminologies, very similar models. the long form meditation i think deals with collective qi and shen. one thing you have to bear in mind with tom brown's stuf is that what he teaches you at the basic levels in his philosophy classes he discards or abandons in higher levels. in his healing class he gets into what sounds a lot like daoist alchemy. i picked up on it, and so did a few other people at the class. but most didnt. i'm not sure tom understood it fully either. perhaps it's one of grandfathers coyote teachings he hasn't grasped yet. i dont know. one thing that grandfather stresseed in his teachings was grounding, rooting with the earth. and being an earth based spirituality, it is very similar in this way to daoism. but tom seems to have a mostly external approach--through tracking, awareness, and most of his philosophy stuff that stresses healing and moving objects and so forth, he's working externally to take you on the journey. it's mostly up to the students to discover the internal for themselves. not dissing him. his shit works and anits powerful, just a different approach. now we're speaking in the generalist of terms here. there are (were) over 500 different nations in north america 500 years ago all with unique traditions. we're looking at broad commonalities, especially as they've filtered and evolved into modern practices.

it's late now. i'll start a new thread on this tomorrow. or write an article relating native american philosphy to daoism, or some shit like that.

i'm in china and my schedule changes werekly but i'll start paying more attention to live chat

sorry, missed ya.

when i was in beijing in 2002, i learned sounds completely different from michael's. i stuck with michael's cuz i knew it already and already developed the relationship using his sounds. so maybe what matters is that you do it, develop the relaionship with the shen and the sounds are less important than the relationship itself. the movements were different too. seemed to work for that guy.

now see, we could use plato to chime in here. he knows something about these gold products. i hope he's still around. you can get lots of info at the ASC alchemy sight, but their main concern is with monatomic gold.

i'm with bobd