z00se

Yeah i used to think this too, but now i know it to be true. I think often what people don't understand is that people are ignorant to the terms and vocabulary of magic, and what people are actually referring to when they are speaking 'magic talk'. Infact what people refer to as magic is actually very real and if it was explained to everybody in terms that they understood they wouldn't deny that it existed either. The thing is we grow up watching tv and movies and think magic is a lighting bolt coming out of a magic wand but of course that ain't real. The same is true of God. People don't believe in it because they don't understand what people mean by God. It's not explained well. I went to a christian high school and i still had no idea what god meant and didn't believe. Now it's so obvious and evident that God does exist, and God always did before too, it's just i didn't know what they were referring to as god. Again, it's nothing like in the movies or stories

Ah just by myself, when i was sick i went out in the bush in a tent for 10 days 3 times. Haven't been for years though, i have a family now and don't really get chance. I think it's more important to practice in normal life though, when i come back i go back to my old habits. Certainly helped though, each time i progressed in my healing 6-8 months in only 10 days. Should catch up one day if you're up for it. I can mission it up to melbourne on the train.

It can quieten the mind, but so can lowering energy levels. Infact when you do anything different from the way you normally do it, your mind quietens. I'm not sure it is the raising of energy or frequency that is necessary to quieten the mind, it's just a that you are entering the unknown, but there are many ways to do that. Seth, i have found the same thing working with earth energy, it doesn't mean it's safe. Infact it's got more substance to it and can push and stretch areas and make them hurt! However heavenly chi burns and dries my body out. To me grounding is sending the energy to the ground and out of the body (regardless of what type it is), being one with the earth energy (linked up so to say so it flows either way freely), or being grounded within my body, having an awareness and feeling throughout my whole body. After going on retreats my legs feel like they are one with me again like when i was a 5yo sitting cross legged having story time at school. Often other times they feel like distant objects to support me when i want them. Daeluin, I have heard many times that places become sacred and the energy is strong there, like in temples, waterfalls, and other places where people pray/meditate. This would resonate with what you have said. I can't say i have really noticed it personally though. Although, doing iron shirt, if i move my feet half way through it's like a new channel into the earth needs to be made for the energy to flow through. The new place doesn't conduct as well as the old place, until a minute or so passes.

Wow this topic is very interesting and cool! Gives me a different perspective on my TCM findings. Any tips on getting rid of deamons that have been very powerful life long friends? Maybe starve them then feed them? If your not feeding your deamons you have huge energy. Then how do you share this with others without using your deamons? If you want to help others, your deamons can help you? Just good wishes and powerful force fields to protect your energy hoard surely not what its all about

I think scope is unlimited to your imagination. What you can actually do, well.... What can a placebo do? Heal lots of diseases, but can't make you cash. If ya want cash you have to take it off those who have lots. I'm sure if somebody puts piles of effort and time into something they can do it using magic, but it hardly ends up being worth the effort just to be a show-off. I would think that it's only if you have a real hate for somebody that you would want to curse them with a lot of effort. Magic is more of a form of entertainment... it becomes entertaining the way in which you do a task. In most circumstances it would be much quicker and easier to just do it without magic. Eg. In healing tao iron shirt I book they have a testimonial of somebody who cured a large stomach ulcer (plus bad back) with 3 months of HT. Drinking cabbage juice daily can cure an ulcer in 7 days according to clinical testing. Perhaps magic is good when you don't have the answer. Maybe I am just being cynical?

Do you mean K - kundalini or K-ketamine?

Sure you could go along with it, but it seems there is something you don't like about it, so why try to like something you don't like. You wouldn't have taken the time to post if you didn't care about this. This seems something you DO care about. So you could probably go along with it and drift deeper so that then you don't care about it and continue on until you have lost everything. Sure it is spiritual but you have eternity to be spiritual, you only have this body and THIS part of life for 90 odd years if your lucky. -- Grab it by the balls, squeeze hard and live it every moment how you would want to. Make your mark on this earth. I used to be the opposite to you, i took a more high energy approach to my practice where i had unlimited energy, couldn't sleep (well not sleep like i used to, body slept but i was always aware) and i didn't like it either. I cared about whatever i put my mind to and had energy to do anything, but i couldn't just turn off, even though i was more rested in peace than i ever was before, there was something i still sorely missed. I could do while not doing, but sometimes i just wanted to be. It's not i didn't like it, even though i had it all, still something was lacking. Seems to me you are be'ing but want to be doing too. Once i relaxed into the moment all the problems faded and then there was no sense of anything lacking. But life twists and turns things don't stay the same. Anyhow, I think you need some ompf, it's like you are a spinning top balanced perfectly in the centre that is slowly spinning (or perhaps it is the things that are spinning around you) where i was a spinning top spinning fast so that i sat perfectly balanced. Now i find it's that time when the spinning top starts to slow down and gets a wobble that is the best. You get to lean out in all directions which gives balance still but gives life too. Anyway what i think you need is energy and drive. This is incoming energy more than outgoing energy. Qigong and especially MCO is good (not macrocosmic, keep the energy inside your torso and head, instead of your arms & legs), or even just trying to bring energy into your dantien. It's basic and simple and will give you energy, and give energy to your emotions and give you drive. Don't 'let go', all the time, thats what makes you not care. Find something you care about, bring in some energy from qigong and put your awareness on what you want to do. If you don't know qigong and can't muster the desire to learn, do mantak chia's iron shirt III (you will easily be balanced enough to do it). Massage your balls / ducts and pull the energy inwards and upwards towards your head. Hanging weights from your balls / penis will boost your oompf, it strengthens your balls, the glands that produce testostarone. It makes me want to have lots of sex and steamroller the guys in the way of my goals. You need a little bit of this. Just remember to massage after or you can get blood clots. You can read the book on the net, but just massage alone without weights will start to help. Do it daily and don't ejaculate and in a few days you will see your energy, power and ambition growing. You can do it with any other suggestions people make. This will certainly see results very quickly. You don't need to lose the good aspects of what you have cultivated, you just need energy to do the things you what while keeping the old.

Many difference answers fancy and what not. One easy solution... Clench your feet like a fist as hard as you can trying to bring your toes to your heel and hold it. It's strengthening up the muscle. Do 10 - 20 reps twice every day. Hold it in tight, strain those muscles. Build up to more, it's like any exercise, the more you do the more it will increase. Stretch it too. Do while sitting at a desk at work, while watching tv at night, while typing on taobums, anywhere, just do it. 2-3 weeks, and they'll be done like a doggys dinner.

One who can change or control their wife in this way, is truely a real sage

hah yes, i think if you practice standing pole 8 hrs a day for a year, and i practice bjj 8 hrs a day for a year, then we battle, i think i feel safe that i will win. Especially since your muscles would have half wasted away from inactivity If you can apply yourself to something physical, martial arts are particularly good, then your self cultivation, what you consider 'serious' will come on it's own accord. I know it is debatable, but in my experience you need to apply yourself in the physical to something you really fancy doing to reach the highest levels of spiritual. That is why the shoulin monks began kung fu, they found it benefitial in their spiritual pursuits. Even if it was just to protect themselves so that the monastery couldn't be attacked so that they could keep meditating, but i'm sure they also found some direct benefits too. You can spend time on just meditating, some times on the physical, and the real meat of it should be keeping your attention on yourself during something physical that you are actually doing. This is the goal thats found in spiritual balance after all. ... And totally transcending normal reality... well that is just a recipe for disaster. Balance lasts, revolving balance is the result of proper cultivation. Any attempt to try to totally transcend normal reality will see you rebound and find yourself in over your head in reality, the reality that you have a body and you need to desprately fight to keep it alive after prolonged neglect. If there is one thing i hope you would know is that this is not a short term path. It can be in the beginning but once you get past the beginner stage it becomes a part of you, you are always walking the path, you can avoid, but you can't escape the truth once you have seen it. And most likely that is what you wish too, and so therefore build cultivation into your every day activities. Cultivation and life are not seperate, life is the strongest all emcompassing cultivation. Sitting on your bean bag in a state of meditative bliss can't last long if the big bad wolf is outside trying to blow your house down. You need bliss to be outside too, balance in your life so that at every turn it pervades you. Prune the weeds so the flowers can shine.

Whoops sorry i meant Stimpy's post not Ions, i got confused myself hehe

I don't think it's complicated at all, i think it is saying it very clearly and leads to easier understanding of what you're trying to say. Thats how i'd explain it too.

I think this is important but.... Another important point is making use of what you have. You can learn lots from any path, especially at the beginning, and although people often say this path and that path are not compatible, they all end up merging at one point or other so therefore they are all compatible just in varying amounts. For example, when i was living in China i had an awesome tai chi teacher who taught me amazing stuff and showed me things i didn't believe was possible. When i came back to Australia i thought, right - thats it i wanna learn more tai chi, so went to a few schools but to be honest, all the teachers sucked and i felt my technique was better than theirs, they didn't have that tai chi aspect, they were just doing the moves. So then i started to do aikido, and learnt alot but from a different angle. It wasn't as martial (or budu) as i would have liked, so i changed to karate, then to another karate with a circular aspect to it. Infact it's the most effective for fighting i have found yet, and i can still use the tai chi principles within it. In my current karate i become desensitized to getting punched or flinching when a punch comes towards my head as well as good timing and distance judgement, in the 1st karate my technique and balance was polished, after my aikido training i see how sloppy the staff attacks are in karate, and i see how my solid frame was a limit to my achievements could ever have been in tai chi. I still love tai chi but unless i go back to china (which i don't want to do) i'm sore out of luck, so i just take the best on offer locally. So just using martial arts as an example you can see how doing different things can lead to an even better result. The most important thing is going for a quality teacher in every case, and each time i chose a school i went to several first. And i would say moderation in everything, including reading. Reading has sent me backwards many a time over. Just try different things, nothing is wrong unless it feels wrong. Read yes, but try more. Not just for 10 minutes but for 15-20 mins 1-2 times a day for a week bare minimum before you pass any judgement. You really need 3-4 weeks daily practice before you can make any semi-informed judgment. I think this is the deep instead of wide as gold is heavy says. Once you find one you like, sink your teeth into it and stop searching around until you own it.

I don't have to have logowear but i find the decent sports brands are some of the only things that are decent quality. I can buy proper branded stuff that lasts me 3-4 years. We have so much cheapo chinese crap in Australia now it might cost $10 and be cheap to buy but it's not cheap when i need to keep buying batteries for my machine to get the balls off of my tracky pants after every wash haha yes. I remember someone telling me someone in their family was a pharma drug addict, she never smiled and was always miserable. At xmas everyone in the extended family was having a great time all together, then she came in saying she didn't know why everyone was so happy, there was nothing to get excited about blah blah, and just killed the mood in an instant. Little different from your situation but yeah i think in a group setting, even if u can keep the excitement within yourself it is lost in the group and the moment is gone. Yeah at my work there are people if ya ask them how they are they say 'no point complaining, nobody listens', but they say it with a bit of a grin or a chuckle as if they are trying to be funny. It's not really funny but at least u know they're not really that type of miserable person that just sucks the life force out of you. Some ppl just turn everything into a downer, they like feeling like that. Sometimes when i'm in a crappy mood the last thing i want to hear is everybody around me laughing and being joyous... i am pissed off leave me alone in my misery, then it wears off and i can join the party

I don't think u need to bring them out of their negativity, or even accept it, you can ignore it too, let it bypass you. You don't have to face these things straight on, thats hard work, ignore, circle around, distance yourself from them. Yeah i like this too. Any 'better' it may get from cultivation isn't going to last forever, you'll still have to face it again at your current or worse state again later in your life so best finding ways to triumph regardless of how good (or bad) it is now, or was, or will be.

I think this is the same with anything. When you start everything is new, but later on you have to sift through so much dirt for a single diamond

I think it's mainly just entertaining. I have certainly learnt things earlier on but most of what i learnt i knew already, it was just by typing it out i figured out my own answer, often before even pressing the post button. Some people have had very interesting points of view that kinda opened me up to different things. Been some good links to look at too. I remember i went to a group thing once (there were quiet a few ppl, about 40 or so) and the main leader was only semi switched on. He was on a path but just a follower, and the master wasn't there. I feel any leader of this type of thing should be have awakened themselves. There were several such schools all run by the same master and where the master never really attended and they just watched him on a video tape. Lots of people do argue. More time practice would be much better but not entertaining, but it would bring the group together more. Often i find alot of the ppl that attend to these groups feel they are a bit strange. They feel they are so intune with everything and easily lead like sheep and just agree with the leader without question. They're not grounded or have any light of their own. The most spiritually awake people i know don't practice meditation at all they just ARE awake, they don't realise it though, probably because they don't know what it's like to be spiritually asleep! I do have a plan to do energy experiments with precise scientific testings of different types of variables and to collaborate with others in each specific experiment to find if people experience the energy in the same way. This would be useful, perhaps? No idea, but science makes findings then builds on those findings to make use out of them.

Oh yes, and 'ling' means zero, if it is the right ling i'm thinking of. So zero chi? spiritual chi has no push but goes through lead, that is my experience with it!

Just from personal experience within my body lab.... Yin energy is more physical, more pushing power, slower and cooler and denser (just like the normal yin discription) Yang energy is faster moving, penetrates easily yet doesn't push the physical as easily. Super yang pushes nothing and permates everything. I had lots of experience with this inside my own body. You can mix and match to reach various consistancies of energy. I don't think there is only refinement from yin to yang, there could equally be refinement from yang to yin (as is more what i practice). Yang can change to yin and vise versa, it is all one. Plus yang and yin are relative just like more so of less so, but in either direction. But certainly they can be identified individually if we try. I think the energies within our own bodies are refined, Trying to take identical energies from outside.... they just don't seem as smooth and as nice as the energies already internal. That is the refinement i believe, refining outer energies to use within. EG. Moon moves the ocean and changes the tides (pushing power). Sun doesn't but heats things and provides energy. Energy in a different form. Both of these are semi yin and semi yang however. The stars are more yang, but you can't 'feel' the heat like you can from the sun, it is more yang and less substatial. The earth you can feel much more solidly than the moon's pull, therefore it is more yin and more substatial. People have their bodies and electrical signals through the nerves, we are yang within yin, but also yang outside (aura) and yin inside (bone). The yin / yang factor of qi as discussed is important but only part of it, the location of the qi, and what the qi is doing, and how it is changing is also all important, all these things are changing factors and are equally strong yet different ways. qi, spiritual energy, spiritual direction, steller energy, electricity, physical vibrations like renaissance and sound, chemical energy, and kinetic energy (+ more i'm sure). Where is the line between qi and energy, i don't know. It is all qi but we don't all think of it as such. Each has a different or higher or lower frequency. Low frequency has a more direct ability to do work. High frequency or yang energy has the ability to change the work required so that no work needs to be done. All up we need both

I just had an AhHa moment looking a scripture type thing for fun. Everything is in a cycle stuff is born and gets to it's peak and withers again. This is one way life and death can be overcome, there is no beginning and no end of processes in our life, everything is middle, everything is just one long process of varying depth but similar intensity. Does anybody really believe somebody could live forever?

I read the other day on wikipedia about the curse the American Indians put on US presidents and how they died when getting elected every 20 years or so. How full on was that! Thats if wikipedia tells me correctly!

I have a very simple way of telling the difference. Believing is something i work out through rational thought, sometimes it has not physical basis Knowing is when i see something happen with my own senses, like you say without any prejudices. Knowing is often only temporary though, as in i only know this is true in this moment, it can always be different in another instance. Knowing right now though, it is wonderful insight. The best instances of knowing, i find, is when i thought or believed something, and i get shown something different. Not necessarily by a person but through my own experience. So for me the main difference is being shown something contrary to my own belief. This has the power to alter my belief, not always permanently, but certainly in the known instance. Jesus / God / Christians etc, i used to think it was all a load of rubbish, now i think it is good (although it can be used for bad). I read today about an aikido expert taught in some of the founding dojos who created his own aikido foundation, now backed by those very founding dojos in Japan. He had a law degree and said it was similar for him making the rules for the foundation that many dojos in america now were a part of. They had rules (obviously some that were not liked by all). He said breaking the rules, like breaking the law, didn't mean you were a bad person, it just meant that your interpretation of the rules was incorrect. He went on to explain it was like driving on the right side of the road in US and the left side in England, you just had to follow the rules there. This explaination seemed like a way of abusing his power and making it so ppl who broke the rules weren't being victimized but should change their behaviour to follow the rules. Rules should always be just, but it reminded me about movies i've seen where whites in power in early US translated the bible in a way that made it so blacks conformed to the way they wanted them to. Faith is very powerful can be very good. It can also be abused though. Faith is a very real, valid and strong path similar to the taoists one in my opinion. However misguided faith is wrong and evil. Good Faith is a fasttrack way to being one with the tao without having to learn the ins and outs. After all you need to forget the ins and outs eventually to be at one with the tao.

Yep, it would be freakin hard doing it by yourself. You would have to have an oportunity to see lots of sick ppl over a period of years. When i was learning i felt 80-100 pulses a day and it helped to get a bit of a bearing of what things feel like, and getting certain things pointed out to me. You can learn to feel the excesses and deficiencys which is the main thing that i feel now anyhow, the most reliable and simplistic view of it. I can feel if something is really very wrong with an organ like cancer or they are not far off dying, but lots of the smaller diseases i can't really distinguish very well. My teaching doctor was amazing in the things he could feel - see a thread i made his amazing diagnosises here http://thetaobums.com/topic/13560-amazing-diagnosis-of-tcm-doctor/ He reckons he could have taught me if i stayed an extra 6-8 months. I would have had to spend more time in china with my teaching doctor but my wife got her visa and i just couldn't stand the place any longer! Australia ROX!

TCM power through knowledge qigong power through qi enlightenment power through grace all help each other

I just checked the current one here and seems pretty good. Of course different people work better on different foods and it is very simplistic view but still a good solid basic view. http://www.nutritionaustralia.org/national/resource/healthy-living-pyramid They have the best scientists working this stuff out. In my experience all the government run companies produce the most reliable and highest quality goods and services over privately run companies. They're not trying to MAKE money, their primary concern is for the people. Everything is not done to a budget, it's done to work. They are often not very efficient, i guess that is their weakness that it costs the tax payer alot but it's worth it. They don't choose the cheapest tenderer, they find the best person for the job. Of course they do make mistakes every now and then but this generally holds true. The citizens jump from diet to diet according to what's in the limelight in the media. Just think, how many times have you changed your diet and thought you were making better choices in your life? This food pyramid looks pretty much exactly the same as the one i learnt in school 20 years ago, maybe it just says a little less dairy. A slight change compaired to the different diets i assume most people on here have tried in their lifetime. People would be better off not jumping here there and everywhere and just following the advice of the government in the long run. But how else do you learn i guess, need to experience it all yourself so you can realize for yourself. Australian government is pretty good, i feel they do what is in our best interests, especially with the information they provide to it's citizens. They want us to be healthy strong and productive. They can change the food industry and have done alot in recent years with education in schools, tv, providing free cooking classes, places where you can grow your own food for free. It's more expensive in doctors bills (we have national health) for us to be unhealthy, they want us to be healthy and working and not sucking up funds from the national health system. I can't speak for America, i've never been, but i sure would love to see Niagra falls.