spyrelx

Hey all, This probably comes under the heading of "computer illiteracy". When I try to run the software on my windows machine at work I get this message: "The system can not open the device or file specified" Any ideas? Also, I have a Mac at home. Does this software work with a Mac? Thanks.

I agree. It's kind of a zen thing. If you're going to eat, eat. If you're going to shit, shit. If you're going to talk about immortals, talk about them. If you're going to advertise David's class, then advertise it.

They're both hallucinogens. Most people will tell you mushrooms are better because they're more "natural" (LSD being a chemical invention) but personally, I've always liked acid better. Better visuals, more powerful, cleaner (i.e., less stomach upset, etc.). For most of the people on this board though, you will probably want to take this stuff as part of a traditional shamanistic ceremony and that would involve a plant hallucinogen (rather than say acid or ecstacy). I recently tried San Pedro cactus in a ceremony down in Latin America. I hear San Pedro rituals are growing amongst new agers in the US. The other one is ayahuasca, a vine from the amazon that, I'm told, is a pretty rough and fickle hallucinogen, but also highly prized by south american shamans. Mushroom ceremonies are, I think, mostly indiginous to Mexico and environs, but I'm not sure about that. Yoda, my guess is San Pedro in your area. Check out Erowid.com for more info. Have fun.

Good post Sean, thanks. I'm probably going to take a class with Sifu Wong in NY this coming weekend. I'll give y'all a report. Yoda, psychedelics are astounding, and worth checking out, but it's unclear to me how much damage they do (I'm talking energetic/psyhic -- "I saw the face of God, which burned out my eyes, so now I'll never see him again", that sort of thing). One of my favorite tripping stories is from Breaking Open the Head (a great read). Daniel Pinchbeck relates a story of a friend of his that took a particular type of mushroom with red and white spots. These mushrooms are used in shamanistic practices because, aparently, everyone who takes these gets a visit from beings who look like, well, like big walking mushrooms with red and white spots. The mushroom beings are generally viewed as benevolent guides, teaching the shaman plant knowledge and other spiritual things. Anyway, the guy takes two shrooms and is tripping his face off in the kitchen, just kind of giggling and watching the walls melt. And all of a sudden, two mushroom beings appear. The conversation goes like this: "Why have you summoned us?" "Uh, dude, I just wanted to get high." [long dreadful silence] "If you ever call us again we'll kill you." As you can imagine, a bit of a buzz kill. I have no idea if it's true, but I love it. Oh, for the record, I've never seen any beings whilst tripping, and I've snarfed my fair share of fungus, but then again I've never had ones with red and white spots . . . If you do decide to eat some psychedelics, remember that old stoner bit of advice "you can always do more, you can never do less". Drive safely. spyrelx

Don't know anything about the chi kung, but there's two supplements out there -- glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate -- which are supposed to help. They are completely safe and natural, and are involved in cartilage and tendon creation. I'd suggest that any therapy/chi kung that you do for this should also include use of these supplements. Good luck.

Lozen, Aluminum does react badly with acidic foods, but that doesn't mean there's anything toxic about it. It's like saying don't whip cream in a copper bowl (or DO whip it in a copper bowl, I always forget the reccomendation) -- it's about the way the food reacts to the metal. As I said, I've read a lot of the stuff about aluminum and it's all pretty sketchy theory based on very little evidence. I don't know much about enamel except it's usually pretty heavy and expensive. One issue might be how good the enamel is, i.e., if it's coated or can somehow flake off, you want to know what it is that you're injesting. Personally, I'd do stainless steel for most pots and calphalon high-end non-stick for my frying pan. The calphalon says it's non-stick polymers are "fused" with the steel so they can never come off, but I think that's probably bullshit. In the end of the day though, I really like omlettes and other food that requires (with my level of skill) a good non-stick surface, so I'm willing to live with the health risk. By the way, if I was buying a new frying pan, I'd try cast iron. They are cheap and, once seasoned, work well. And as I said before people swear by them -- and I've yet to hear anyone make a health argument against them.

Excellent book. It's not a practice manual. And the ancient texts are both dry and obscure (kind of like reading through Numbers or Dueteronomy). But the introduction (which I think is 60 pages or so) is worth the price of admission. Worth it's weight in gold actually. Wyle provides a great overview of daoist philosophy in general and sexual practices in particular (original ancient origins as well as evelotuion of theory). And also a quick review of some of the sex stuff that has been promulgated to the west in recent years (Chia gets a pretty favorable mention if I remember correctly). I reccomend it for anyone's library. I'm curious if anyone know anything about Wyle personally. I heard someone say once that he and his wife were both practictioners but I really don't know much about him.

Lozen, I have not seen one legitimate study on cookware that has indicated that stainless steel cookware has the potential to cause any harm. If the cooking surface is stainless steel and the base is aluminum, or copper or any other metal, you're still cooking on stainless steel, nothing else. About Aluminum. I have not seen one legitimate study on cookware that has indicated that aluminum cookware has the potential to cause any harm. I think there was an early study of Alzheimer's patients that indicated they had more aluminum in their brains than healthy people -- so someone opined that maybe that was from aluminum based anti-perperants, soda cans, aluminum cookware, etc. That opinion in and of itself was a bit of a leap -- I mean it could be that alzheimer's causes the brain tissue to store aluminum or a host of other possible explanations. There was NO EVIDENCE that these people had somehow absorbed more alumninum through use of these items. BUT IN ANY EVENT, NO SUBSEQUENT STUDY OF ALZHEIMER'S PATIENTS HAS FOUND ANY GREATER LEVELS OF ALUMINUM IN THEIR BRAINS THAN NORMAL HEALTHY PEOPLE. In other words, the first study was just plain wrong. Aluminum is linked to alzheimers is a flat out myth. Teflon is not good, stay away. Any non stick surface is going to come off which means you are eating it. Maybe it's inert and passes through you, maybe it doesn't. Cast Iron has been used for centuries and hasn't hurt anyone. Something weirds me out about the idea that it's "seasoned" - basically meaning that it's always got some old grease fused into it. But it seems to create no health risks whatsoever and people who use it swear by it.

Thanks for the insight. I'm interested in exploring David's stuff. (I've written sean letting him know that, so maybe something will come of it.) In any event, as I said it's good to have you contributing here. Please feel free to keep doing so. spyrelx

Thanks Yoda, nice to be back. I know about the guy, he's on my list . . . . forestoffools, you'd think a place like NYC, with an extensive chinese community, daoist community, martial arts community and new age community -- all with constant visiting "masters" -- would be able to produce SOMEONE like this. I also throw this challenge here, since everyone here is hooked in to these various communities and persumably knows SOMEONE who has these powers. A challenge like this tends to clarify things pretty quickly. I'm not a rich man and have no desire to part with the dough. But I don't expect to either. Personally, I don't think there's a person on the planet who could do it. Which to me means when a martial arts master throws me across the room with seemingly barely the flick of a pinky he's using body mechanics rather than chi. (I mean, if he was using chi he could push the chair across the room, couldn't he?). It's an interesting conundrum for those of us on this path. If you believe in chi (and I do) then there's a bit of a problem. -We feel it in our body, so it exists there. -We believe a healer has the ability to transmit it to others, or a master that touches your third eye can send electric shocks into you -- so it can be "projected" those ways. -If you believe in the immortal fetus or astral projection, then you're basically saying that energy can be projected quite far outside the body. And yet no one can manage to move a chair across a room (on wheels no less!). Interesting.

Probably a good time to renew the chi challenge I made a few years ago on the HT board: I'll pay $500 to anyone who can produce someone that can move my body with chi. Here's the conditions: --This must be in NYC or environs. --I'll be sitting on an office chair with rollers on a smooth (no carpet) floor -- i.e., I would roll if pushed. --the person is not allowed to touch me. --I'd want to put something on his hands like flour or powder so if he did touch me quickly the residue would be on my clothing. Perhaps some other check can be devised. --He's got to roll me at least 8 feet across the floor. --I'm going to videotape the encounter (though will not sell the tape or otherwise derive profit from the event). No one ever answered the challenge on the HT board. Perhaps we'll have better luck here.

All very good points, and worth remembering, not only about David, but the general sentiment should probably also be applied to Chia, Winn and, for that matter, each of us. Portcraig, thanks for the input. I'm wondering if you can tell us how you felt about the foundation practices themselves rather than the people you encountered? Did you learn practices that were and continue to be beneficial to you. Do you see them as part of a more complete and attainable system? Etc. In any event, thanks for your input (and thanks to seandenty and the rest of you).

On the tao usa forum Winn recently called the assemblage point "Castenada's most useful concept" -- and I would tend to agree. Castenada's position though was that we spend a tremendous amount of time and effort learning to place our assemblage point in one position. This, I think, is mistaken. If the assemblage point exists, I think it sits pretty much the same place for all of us because it's NATURAL for it to be there. I.e., this is where it sits for human beings. Shifting it around is basically messing with nature. That doesn't mean it's not funky, cool, interesting, educational and (perhaps, though I doubt it) life prolonging to do it. It just means that making shifts like that is completely outside of what we were designed to do. Also, I believe for Castenada the assemblage point was somewhere around the scapula on the left side, which seems a bit off from where you are placing yours. I don't know what this means, but I thought I'd mention it. From my own personal history, I don't really have any connection to Castenada's assemblage point. If I have one I would place it square in the head. This seem to be where all sensory perceptions enter, all thoughts reside and from where all commands emanate. Just a few thoughts

Castaneda was the first truly esoteric stuff I read, and I've read all but the last of his books. Ultimately I came to believe (on my own, w/o reading any of the critiques of his work) that he had ripped off other spiritual practices (including Daoism) and made up most if not all of it. Regardless of what anyone thinks of the above statement, I think this much is clear -- he did not chronicle any sort of system that could be followed. All the books and programs over the last few years that use references to him, the Yaquis, etc. are just basically using his name and a few catchphrases to sell some sort of (other, wholly made up) system that doesn't really track his books. So, I think delving into his stuff is ultimately not a very efficient use of time if you're trying to get somewhere spiritually. Better to find a system that actually IS a system, where there's a verifiable history of people who've gone through it and come out the other side with some actual benefits. Nothing related to Castaneda fits that description.

In an aquarium for 7 days and 7 nights, being fed with a tube. Wonder how he's going to handle the excrement thing. Perhaps we'll be treated to aquatic magician poo on national TV.

Yoda, who is that guy? Also, how are you doing on Nato? I've taken a series of Nato on two different occasions (3 or 4 pills a day till the bottle ran out) and twards the end of both times I got sick. Not sure if this is related to the Nato or not -- also not sure if it's a good or a bad sign that I got sick on it.

I don't see how the inflation of the ball would effect at all the compression on your scrotum/perineum. Unless you get it rock hard, you are going to always push it to a level where it's compressing pretty much the same area. Also the negatives about bycicle seats aren't that they press your sit bones -- it's that they compress your area between your sit bones -- i.e., your perineum and scrotum. That is exactly my problem with the ball chair. Maybe a foam chair does compress as well. I'm used to sitting on chairs that, while padded, still place most of your weight on your bones -- which means that the bulk of your weight is not on your perineum. I found that the ball chair did just the opposite. Bottom line though is you should test it out for yourself. If these merchants are giving you a 30 day money back guaranty, and you're really interested, get one and try it out. Would love to hear some more real life impartial experiences on the thing from some tao bums.

I've got back issues and am always looking for a solution. I sat on one of these a few times and didn't like it. I felt the chair put a lot of pressure on the perenium and even front of the testicles, and that this WASN'T good for energy flow. Also, if bycycle seats aren't good for men, I can't believe these are any better (since the put much of the same pressure in much of the same area). If you're interested in the chair you might want to try sitting on a yoga ball first. There's two women in my office who sit on a yoga ball and seem to like it. Finally, you might also want to look into that sort of zazen chair they sell. It keeps you the height of a regular chair but you're kneeling on it, and it has no back. You can find them on the internet for around $100. Just my two cents.

He may have been the buddah. The world was a sweeter place with him on it. So long Don, happy trails.

Does anyone know anything about this? http://www.hungfutpai.com/ I've got an opportunity to study it (in NY with these people) and was just wondering if anyone had any thoughts. Thanks.

Thanks much.

Thanks old timer but it didn't really help that much. I know NOTHING about kung fu. Have you heard about this particular form? If so, can you describe it in any way (i.e., the sort of fighting style, hard, soft, more about kicking, punching, wrestling, etc.)? What about it's relation to internal arts? Thanks.

Don't know what's on the download but the memorial was wonderful. It was a very warm, good, sad, funny, happy evening. And I was amazed at how many different types of people Ron touched.

Posted this on TAOUSA but thought I'd post here as well This Exhibit is in NY right now but is probably going to tour the country. It's called "Bodies" and they've taken a bunch of human bodies, and parts of bodies, and treated them with a polymer so that they can just stand there like rubber dolls. Then they've removed certain layers, so for instance, you'll see a body without any skin, or without skin and muscles but with all the organs, or just showing the gastrointestinal system, or just the muscles and tendons, etc. It's a facinating exhibit and, oddly, not grotesque or stomach churning at all. I found it particularly interesting because of my interest in all the daoist stuff ("so that's where the kidney's are, and that's what the diaphram looks like"). Yeah, I knew where all this stuff was and what it looked like from books, but it's nothing compared to actually seeing it hanging in a real body. Two caveats, This is an exhibit from China. There's been some accusations that some of these bodies may in fact be from prisoners, though the sponsors claim it's not the case. A google search will give you articles on the claims and counter claims. It's an expensive ticket. About $25 in NY, which pissed me off when I went in but which I thought was worth it when I came out. Here's a link to the NYC Exhibit (scroll down the page once you get there): http://www.southstreetseaport.com/EventsEn...nment/EventCal/