Tokoyo Tama

I like the idea of being a wandering monk, but don't feel these two pros go very deep into what is gained. These sound like descriptions of a hermit or ascetic lifestyle as opposed to a wanderers lifestyle. One pro that is different from a hermit is that one is less inclined to form certain types of habits. The wandering, I imagine, with the various challenges, situations and encounters will require you to constantly re-evaluate ones actions. Only wanderer I know much about is Alexander David-Neel, from the book Forbidden Journey. She's a Buddhist, and not a monk per se, but she definitely encountered her challenges. Best wishes on your journey, outside and in

random point of info on spirits, I know brandy is preferred for making flower essences. As they're intended to be energetic the alcohol needs to keep it sanitary (hence spirits as opposed to lower proof) but not interfere with the transmission of the flowers 'energy'. The originator of this theory was name 'bach', for your googleing pleasure. I tend to feel somewhat nourished if I drink a dark beer such as a stout, barley wines feel similarly nourishing but somewhat easier to process. I go for beers with high alcohol content so that even a fancy beer can be cheap, and I figure it's less and better beer for my body to handle. Red wine tends to put my head in a fog somewhat (better ones less so, but still...) so I've begun to tend towards whites even though they have less antioxidants etc (just drink some juice instead! or eat a mango . the 'sacred' absinthe and mezcal are likely held sacred for their psychotropic activity as opposed to something more specifically related to their being a form of alcohol. Compare to the shamanic substance ayahuasca used in south (and central?) america. a few outliers to consider- moonshine or 140 proof+: a moonshine mixed drink v. vodka mixed drink, I'd go for the moonshine if equal alcohol content in drink mead: someone mentioned it, and the few times I've had it I've loved it! Midas touch by dogfishhead brewing co: based on the remnants of some ancient brewery, don't know how it would compare with other high quality beers as far as its effect on your energy though. also don't forget context. Red wine will not always have an identical effect on your body, for example. If you drink a glass of red wine with red meat or other carcinogenic foods (fried foods etc) then some of the harmful molecules from the meat will be counter-acted in the stomach, so your body doesn't have to process as much of the junk from the meat. This might also mean your body, as a whole, gets less of the positive effect from the wine, aka fewer antioxidants. But this is a junk excuse to drink red wine when juice, tea and other things such as rosemary and garlic will also produce similar effects without the liver load. We all know there are negative side effects to drinking and cigarettes, but often little about what these negative effects are. One of the effects I only recently heard of, and was quite taken aback by, is that they cause epigenetic mutations, or maybe disruption is a more appropriate word. This means that the functioning of your DNA and RNA is reduced, potentially leading to improperly created proteins (the things that DNA makes) amongst other things. I've probably already misconstrued info in this para, so I'll stop here, but this is what encouraged me to quit smoking and reduce drinking. I also suspect this is the effect closest related to the concept that alcohol [and cigarettes] 'creates holes and craters in the aura', as little1 said. If ppl want to hear more detailed info on this I could dig around.

I was going to mention that from a pure 'flavor' perspective steeping time can often be as short as 2-3 minutes depending on the type, but I suspect brewing it longer gets more of the good stuff out. Longer brews tend to be a bit more bitter and some of the delicacy of flavor can be lost. I find brewing about 1/4 longer than a packet says to work about right to my taste. I forget the exact significance, although I believe anti-carcinogenic (cancer preventative) is one of the benefits, but catechins are the main antioxidant in green tea. Figured that'd help in google land. If people need a little more pep than just green tea I've found adding about 1/3 gunpowder green tea (little rolled balls of green tea that have a smokey flavor) with 2/3 black tea such as assam (english breakfast blend should work fine too). This was with some nice loose leaf stuff, which I always find to be much higher quality than bags and often is better or equal value, just a bit less convenient.

why does john chang have no idea what this 'wu chi' thing is? guesses, theories etc. To me, this is possibly one of the most interesting aspects of the 'magus of java'. I'll flesh out this post later, but need to get going, and figured someone might have an answer here and now, so why wait till elsewhere later... Thanks for any thoughts, and if you don't know what I'm talking about or want more context, I'll be adding that later today.

about 8 pages into the chapter 'lessons to be learned' (p.83 in 2000 copyright paperback) John Chang has just described the first four 'levels' at which point "the two [yin/yang] sit in your dantien like this". A drawing follows of a yin-yang symbol w/o the dots. Chang is asked why no dots, and he says he doesn't know. What I referred to is the following exchange: Kosta: "They also write that a man progresses from yin and yang to t'ai chi..." Chang: "This is t'ai chi. That's correct." Kosta: "...and from there to wu-chi," I finished. Chang: "What is wu-chi?" he asked. ...[Kosta describing how surprised he is at this question] Kosta: "Er... wu-chi is like this; beyond yin and yang," I stammered, and drew on the paper: [a full circle that is empty] Chang: "I see. I have never seen anything like this," Chang later goes onto explain that he's not technically Taoist, 'simply a practitioner of neikung'. Also, in his school the practitioner stays at t'ai chi from level 4 on. He notes that other lineages may have discovered a method allowing wu-chi (citing Mao-shan Pai and Wutang-Pai), but this is merely him saying that he cannot speak for other schools on the matter, only on his Mo-Pai training. A sidenote of interest is that directly following this is when Chang tells Kosta to write a book. Not entirely sure how comfortable I feel with quoting published material at such length, so let me know if you feel it inappropriate. Were I more comfortable with my ability to summarize, I would have, but as the exact wording is potentially of great importance for the question I thought that editing and summary could be misleading. Personally I wonder if this is partially a misunderstanding. I'll say my idea in more detail after some more responses come in, but I suspect Chang might simply not know the semantics of wu-chi in spite of being familiar with the intended concept behind it.

I'm reading "Hidden Connections" right now by Fritjof Capra and this statement sounds a great deal like a theory for the 'prebiotic' evolution of life. Before life proper with cells and all that, the first big step towards life was the formation of little bubbles. Within these bubbles molecules that were rare could be accumulated, reassembled, and organized, all based on chemistry etc. This allowed larger, more complicated molecules to come into existence in large quantities, and from the large molecules life would eventually be sustained. Obviously a hugely brief summary on my part, and not an entirely accepted theory, but I find it fascinating as a model. As an aside, I've also had a great deal of insight the nature of taking in, taking on, and sharing energy (or anything really) from a cell membrane:neither open nor closed, constantly self-sustaining and invigorating the system as a whole. In short, if you're in a bubble you can create a whole bunch of whatever it is that you're creating in life (bliss, eg ) and when you get to the 'real world' or whatever new non-bubble world you encounter, you'll have a whole new set of energies to learn how to reassemble and refine into something useful and constructive. This surely will be a great challenge, and there may be a great deal more energy that you need to expel, breakdown and process, but if it is a healthy situation, with these new inputs you will learn new ways to construct _______ , even if that just means re-learning how to sustain your present balance in more trying situations. Be well

for those who couldn't see it there are two subjects featured in a preview. One is from Puerto Rico and can allow large amounts of electricity to "flow through and fire out of his body" (from outside sources), the other person a woman from Brighton can "randomly destroy electrical objects with her emotions". There's a video on youtube linked from one of the John Chang videos of a Serbian (I think) who had a similar ability to the man from Puerto Rico. The woman from Brighton certainly is not the first person to have voiced such complaints. She sounds like she's on the program because she'd like to stop blowing out her electrical devices as opposed to achieve world fame or get employment. Neither is really all that similar to John Chang, although if you take their two halves they add up to something like him. Maybe this is because of some yin/yang balance...one can withstand and conduct electricity at all times, the other can sometimes (with sufficient emotional outburst) create a situation that overloads electric devices. Thought I'd give a quick summary for those who couldn't see it, not of great interest to me, but who knows what will nourish your next insight (you do, in the future!)

The false or otherwise insufficient guru is certainly a classic occurrence. However, how often have we tried to help others and have proved to be essentially unable to? The saying 'you can bring a horse to water, but you can't make him drink' has recently come up some in this life. In your case your very will to drink (and I'm out on a huge limb, simply using this general situation as an example) may have gotten in the way of actually getting much water. I suspect everyone has been on both sides of this situation, with looking for help and looking to help. Life also has a way of giving us the lessons we don't expect. Some forms of energy work may have relatively clear benchmarks, but life lessons tend to find the askew answer to be most efficient. In more specific regards to the original post: lead by example. If you consider your path to have brought you benefit that others could also achieve, the core way to share that with the world is simply to live naturally amongst others. People respond in ways even they do not understand when they observe someone who is on a virtuous path (I do not mean to imply that a 'spiritual' path is the only virtuous one) or just existing in a harmonious place, even if just for a moment. If everyone were to allow themselves to smile in public more, imagine how the world would be When you say you wish to 'heal others' it begs the question of what are some of the most efficacious ways of healing others? Teaching them and showing them how to heal themselves is surely of some value. If someone inspires others to heal themselves, and possibly gives them a boost to get them going, it goes without saying this is a good thing. It does confuse me, however, when you speak of 'heal[ing yourself]", but being disinterested in 'enlightenment'. My conception of enlightenment, shaky though it surely is, would hold that as one approaches enlightenment, one needs less healing or one is healed (wording is questionable). I guess I imagine enlightenment as being, amongst other things an ultimate 'healing' (even if not physically speaking). Personally I am striving to make the world into a place that is better for future generations, or the children of today. Better, at least in some ways, than were I to not exist. Hopefully I am able to walk a path that allows me to let go of obstacles, and in doing so can show the future generations a model of a relatively virtuous life, inspiring some to live a 'better' life. In reality I suspect my main effect will be to slightly normalize a spiritual lifestyle and by doing so encourage or facilitate others to feel secure in their own spirituality, whatever form that may take. Hope this was helpful in some way, I get the feeling it's overly thought out common sense, but maybe it helped me a bit!

good metaphor for enlightenment right there

cat has my tongue... Hello all! Stumbled across this forum and felt it has a constructive and informed atmosphere that I could relate to. In brief I'm living in san francisco, though recently moved here from the northeast. Although the Tao Te Ching inspired me in high school, I am in short a neophyte to taoist practices. Presently reading 'healing light of the tao' by Mantak Chia, a key pillar in allowing me to be confident in the Tao as a fitting path for me. The Magus of Java is another book I have recently finished and was quite pleased to see the perspective of such a distinct and experienced practitioner, although I personally feel more drawn to heart centered or oriented practices. I hope to be connected with a teacher soon, and through a connection might be meeting a chi gong teacher who ostensibly is taking on no new students...we'll see where that goes! Essentially I'm making the transition from energy/spiritual theory to practice and consider taoist practices as an excellent foundation for moving forward on my path. Thank you for all the information I have gleaned from this sight already and for all the well intentioned work you all have put into this sight! In case you've read a post of mine, or simply want to get a more detailed perspective on where I'm coming from, I figured I'd write some backround. This also gives me an opportunity to reflect on the path I've travelled to the now, so it is probably more than most have the time or reason to read. In high school I was agnostic but was deeply moved by the Tao Te Ching (penguins classic if I recall), so although I am new to the Tao, it feels like a re-acquaintance. A few years ago I began to see some cracks in my essentially materialist world views and have tried to self administer a crash course of sorts into all things spiritual. Theory has been my standby, with some generally unstructured and ever changing practices designed more to get a feel for what fits and what doesn't for me. The plan, in retrospect, seems to be to get a theoretical foundation so as to be able to discern wheat from chaff, and to then work on processing and putting into practice the 'wheat' I have perceived. Right now the Tao is looking rather nutritive, and the time seems ripe for harvesting. I have been expecting to carry on my fathers family tradition of artist via photography, but recently have come to realize there is at least as strong a pull from my mothers side to delve into the spiritual (her path being long and varied, the last decade being shamanism focused). I hope to unite these two drives and to bring forth fruits to help nourish and balance the world we live in. Outside of Taoism, some areas in which I am moderately well informed are Buddhism, Shinto, laboratory parapsychology, Shamanism, western occultism, psychology, photography. Although I consider myself poorly informed I have an interest in Native American traditions, although the focus of my interest is the northeastern Abenaki tribe which was such an early conquest that detailed information or myth is difficult to come by. Finally, three books I highly recommend and consider representative of my interests outside of Taoism: Science and Human Transformation, by William Tiller Mysticism, by Evelyn Underhill Understanding Aboriginal Culture, by Cyril Havecker I hope you found whatever information you needed from this post, and I thank you for your patience with this meandering post. I look forward to many dynamic and fruitful exchanges on this site. Be well