Kali Yuga

I am not even sure if this is related to my practice but I have certain spots on my legs right now, where they throb continuously. The first is smack dab at the middle of my left leg to the left side of the bone. the second is on my right leg also on the same spot. what is up with these? is this normal. these spots has been vibrating and throbbing for half an hour now, it is a bit strange to me. anyone in TCM know what this means? I am practicing reverse breathing focusing on lower dantien. on the ground in full lotus. let me know.

What exactly are you supposed to be able to demonstrate using the Bardon method? What abilities are you supposed to have? I would like to know.. I have somewhat an aversion to Kaballah though.. I like things simple and straight to the point.

LOL @ trolls. .... if you guys are tired of vajra and ralis trashing your topics, I have a few tips.. don't mention buddhism. in fact, don't talk about anything. and finally, don't become a member of taobums.

wow Verdesi has a new pony to ride huh? after JC, Wang Liping, now this guy. Of course, himself being a "master" having achieved fusion of yin and yang fusion, verdesi should be doing this himself. It should be him doing this in the video! Lets not all forget that is he also also a doctor. Oh wait, or is he? don't worry, by now, we all know that we can trust verdesi.

the dude is a sham.

God I love you Vajra. All your arguments fantasize everything Tibetan and vajrayana to the point where it is the answer to EVERYTHING. . and belittling everything western as well, flawed. you're throwing out the baby with the bathwater. and i would bet my bottom dollar you have a posting addiction as well, because you break up what could easily be a single post into five or six.. I've never seen anyone multipost that much anywhere in times so short as yours. which would be a good indicator of a fragile ego, and a self identification with the words you say - the need to be right and lack of strength to be wrong. That is the lacking of the very first realization on the spiritual path - that you are not the mind. There is nothing to prove. I don't post that much but I've read a lot of your posts. The normal conversation goes on until someone disagrees with you, and what do you do afterwards? you claim it is only because "they have not investigated the nature of their mind, their faulty" worldview. you are intellectually belittling people all the time, and put anything tibetan on a pedestal. I'm even surprised people tolerate it. Honestly, we do appreciate your knowledge on tibetan and buddhist philosophy. you would be the guy I would ask if I wanted to learn anything about that. However, i am quite sure you have a deep clinging issue.. which is why you feel the need to so vehemently defend what isn't being the issue at hand, and have to make sure that everybody knows that we all are deluded - and that only your version of what buddhism is is the real stuff. in short you are a buddhist nerd without the emotional maturity that it takes to be a real buddhist. you remind me of drewhempel. But oh wait! What is that you say vaj? I'm wrong? and why? because its my worldview! its my mind! i can't escape! only by doing what you do can we be free! yadda yadda etc. we've all heard it before. If you were a true teacher you would level with other people in order to guide their experience; work with their heart. but all you seem to do is rant. you can't expect people to take you seriously if all you do is dance around their arguments and tell them that they're wrong because their heads aren't working properly. You said you became humble but that doesn't demonstrate proper humility. compassion, interpersonal understanding, and loving kindness are the things you have to work on if you want to practice what you preach. The buddha surely had an awesome consciousness, but remember that his forte was his love, his understanding of the human heart, and his inclination to help others. Don't accuse me of not being those things either because I make no claims here. I'm not one who's claiming to have experienced major buddha insights here. I'll leave you to get back to doing what you do best. have fun.

Like I said before. most of this talk is in fact just mental masturbation. you are not a beautiful snowflake.

This is where the structure of language in itself defeats that which is real understanding. In reality there is never really any true subject, nor is there ever any predicate. It is just a permanent being. Forgive me if this is very very abstract but there is no way to convey it, because to convey it is like asking "what is the sound of one hand clapping"? This in fact is the total purpose of zen training; to undo that which was never in fact there. This universe of eggs and soup and milk and cars and people, was never there. Why? Because in fact you are that universe of eggs and milk and soup and cars ad infinitum. The whole purpose of zen is to achieve enlightenment, by making blatant that which is fundamentally lacking in language itself. Words are fatally flawed. Until you can let go of words, you will never understand it. Language is extremely awkward tool; and this is the challenge of the "guru"; to break you down, and either refrain from speaking; and make you find it on your own, or, frame his words in such a way which might help you understand. You do not need any form of training to become "enlightened". For some people it takes a very long time of trying to reach something so profoundly simple. For some people they understand very quickly in the blink of an eye; the flapping of a butterfly's wings. Because of the consciousness inherent with language, people will almost always hear but not listen; have eyes but not see. This is why the highest spiritual truths, like I have said time and time again, can never be communicated, only pointed at. They are never shared, yet are self evident. Jesus used parables about the Kingdom of God; Buddha had his own experiential methodology. Taoism talks about the Tao -"the Tao which can be spoken of is not the true Tao". Which is perfectly correct. Do you see now what I am talking about here? The point in of itself is that no amount of reading or no amount of talking can give you the revelation. Because when you do you also break down the structure of your thoughts which are limited to subject-predicate relationship. The purpose of language in itself is to limit something, as to exclude other things from being meant. It is a tool of duality. But do not mistake the tool for the operator! So when I say I, what it really means is that that which I do not consider myself, is not included. Which in truth is a falsity, because there is never any thing that is separate from any other thing; because of this conception we lose the very lofty truths. We sacrifice that which is always present, and that which is always connected to everything else because it IS everything else, in all languages, for the sake of utility, because if you want an egg-roll you can't ask for the whole universe. When you say something is something, then you're losing that part of it which isn't. Language is a tool of demarcation, and thus duality; division. Division has it uses, but until you can also walk the path of union also you will never understand. There is a suffering there inherent in duality. In union there is peace. Proper meditation is getting a tiny glimpse of what it all is. but if you aren't looking properly then you won't see. True mysticism is always union of polarities and merging of opposites. The taiji yin-yang. The darkness merges with the light. That above is also that which is below. The female is united with the male. All is one. so let me put it simply. what is the purpose of life? the purpose of life IS. let me repeat. It IS. do you understand?

There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down. Let me put it this way; love that which you can, while you can, as much as you can. But if you cling to that which has been taken away from you, you feel pain. Thus, do not cling. Great truths more often than not, are also great paradoxes. My pleasure. Mixing things up is good sometimes; sometimes a good whack opens ones eyes. A good teacher will always give you a good whack when you need it and when you least expect it. Well, its either that or watching sesame street.

Personally I'm at the point where most dicussion on this forum is meaningless; most of it is just blah blah blah except for a few things every now and then. The buddha equals trash to me. I take a crap on all the religous icons and figures of the world whether it be jesus, buddha, gandhi etc. It does not MATTER what Buddha said or what they did. Almost all argument here on this forum is irrelevant. It is masturbation. I respect jesus, buddha etc only as so much as launching points for a way to true self discovery. After that they really are like my urinal, my toilet. Couldn't care less. Why would I care what the Buddha said? Why would I care what anyone said? When you are a true bird when you are kicked out of your nest you will certainly fly. A true bird does not need flight school. When we make somtething sacred; we cling to it. We create our own pain and suffering. Most of us are not strong enough to be true eagles. We refuse to burn our own bridges. we refuse to burn our books. we refuse and cling to that which we think is true. we're so afraid of discovering more, we cling to that which we really shouldn't. YOU ARE NOT A SPECIAL SNOWFLAKE! YOU ARE NOT your "lineage"! YOU ARE NOT the words you speak! A beginner or a person who has not explored the depthness and intricacies of the mystical path will always adhere to a certain dogma and argue for one thing over the other incessantly. Vajrayana, no! Taoist! no! Jesus! Any true master will at some point upheave and turn and walk his own path and disgrace and forsake everything up to that point. Beginners are stuck on dogma and what is and what isn't. You have to take a look at the people whose paths you are following. Christianity. Jesus would piss on everything and get crucified all over again if he only saw what we did with his supposed "teachings". He was against all the stuff we continue. It is so ironic that we are following those who were the rebels; but we ourselves are not strong enough to do what they did. ALL true masters were nonconformists. They all broke all the rules and they didn't give a damn. The Buddha mastered several different traditions and felt in his gut it all wasn't enough. You see, to him it wasn't about what one master said over another. It was that which was within himself which told him that there was something more. Did he listen to his previous paths, masters and lineages babble on about what they thought? No. He cut ties and did his own thing. I have to laugh at people who espouse certain teaching over other teachings; they miss the point entirely. All true masters make their own paths; and those who are not strong or resilient enough, end up repeating everything that they say like sheep. Its funny when you see this from a certain perspective, because mostly everyone starts to look like little children arguing about whose toy is better. A true master will throw out the book and just wing it upon reaching a certain point. Hell, the buddha did it, why don't you? I have to laugh at people saying it's this or it's that. It's only the noobs that are the bookies; the beginners are the ones who are always stuck on that which can be summed up in words. You have your cultists, your priests, anyone who labels himself anything, or attaches himself to a dogma or creed. Only sheep follow masters. To be a true surfer of the realms of the formless, YOU HAVE TO LET GO OF WORDS. You burn your books and burn and piss on every single thing you know. You have to let it all slide away. You naturally stop caring who is right; you stop arguing one point over another. You simply don't care anymore. Your truth becomes that which is unspoken, because to the one who truly sees, that which is spoken is worthless compared to that which is not.

Transmission is masturbation. Having a special "lineage" is masturbation. Get it directly from the source. Cut out the middleman; the priest, the so called "master" the "community" etc. Ooooh look at us we're special because we have this and others don't. They won't be saved or be enlightened or just aren't as good as us because they don't have the special dogma we do.. lets all go to la la land

There really is no point of being proud of how long you can sit in full lotus or not. You are not a special snowflake. You do not get a cookie for enduring pain. The ultimate standard on spiritual practice is that you can not share it with other people; you can only point to it. Furthermore if it can be communicated, it is a bastardized, dirtied reflection of the original. This is repeated forever in any spiritual text "The Tao that can be spoken of is not the true Tao" ... "you have eyes but you do not see, ears but you do not hear?" In many ways Jesus's parables are the exact same situation as talking about the Tao, people can listen to these things day after day after day but will never understand because they choose to be brainwashed by dogma. Destroy your attachment by cultivating dispassion towards the fruit of your practice. Only then shall the fruit bloom free on the tree.

I am definitely getting something from looking at the pictures of your room mel. There is something strange there. You probably do have visitors there from time to time.

Retention of semen is not really needed unless you are pursuing a very particular path. People put waaay too much meaning into this whole retention thing, but the bottom point is to put down that book and listen to your body. Notice how your body is feeling when you ejaculate a certain number of times within a given time period. Use THAT as you own guideline because no one can give better advice than your own body. There are certain practices within certain lineages that use the power within the seed for certain things - but for most people, you don't need it nor will you particularly enjoy it. Listen to your body - put down the book. 2 cents.

I remember starting or commenting on a thread about something... and I forgot who it was be he mentioned something along the lines of that there are "practices or paths which are not meant for the majority of people". That there are certain practices that only hermits could fully indulge in. I don't mean exactly run of the mill cultivation meant for everyone but those paths that remain only for the few. I want to see how incredibly deep the rabbit hole goes. What are the truy hard core, hermit practices where to do them you more or less have to be secluded in solitude, away from humanity? What would be considered "hermit systems" of cultivation? I am curious because in order to get to a truly high level one has to cut ties and devote oneself completely to a path. Like the yogins of yore.. who knows anything?

The argument that TaoMeow is trying to make is that these companies, the Big Pharma, have invested unbelievable amounts of money into the medical community, especially highly regarded individuals in certain communities. Why? Vested interest. So when studies are published, they come out to favor, or disfavor, certain things. Most people think that "scientific studies" are hard, concrete, truth. Sometimes, yes, but with things especially where commercial consumption is concerned, it could be further from the truth. You can find one example in the public fluoridated water that many countries now possess today. Wherever you will go, the scientific community all bleats the same thing; that fluoride strengthens tooth enamel. However, there are some of those in that community who are crying foul play because their own independently made studies find no conclusive evidence that fluoride actually plays any part in improving dental health. They are not heard however, because there are too many people profiting it. They can't fight the industry leaders who are also conveniently on pay roll. There was one dentist who did a study on that -I do not remember his name. His study found that examining the difference between patient data in fluoridated states versus nonfluoridated states show no evidence that fluoride plays any role whatsoever. Look up fluoride -its an ingredient in rat poison. Look on the the warning on the back of toothpaste tubes -the one about calling the poison control center if small children swallow it. But wait, its not in toxic dosage now is it? Fluoride is a poison no matter how you put it. Fluoride is linked to mental retardation, birth defects and brittle bones! But whose idea was is to put fluoride in our public water any way? Who were the crazy scientists who would propagate such an outright lie and push this propaganda? What industry profits from having its fluoride waste conveniently being purchased by the government to dump in our water supply? You can find that out for yourselves. The rabbit hole may be deeper than we think. Most certain of all is one thing; that people will not question many of these things because it is based on "scientific evidence". Studies are skewed in ways; and the scientists are forced to. Why? Because almost no one will fund research for free; it all comes with money. Some scientists actually want to do real research to benefit the scientific community, but *dun-dun-dun-dun* they have no money. Which is where Big Brother Pharma comes in and gives them the choice of swallowing the bitter pill. Science is not just pure science; it is also politics and money. There is the same thing going on for marijuana and why there are very few government fueled studies on examining its benefits towards medical patients or even its benefits to a populace. It is simply impossible to get funding for it. Why? Because the big companies whose dirty money runs all through the government simply can not make money off of it. How are they going to patent, and limit competition in production when you can grow this medicine in your back yard? They profit from it being illegal. Big Pharma is an evil fucker -they are even marketing pills for diseases that they made up, supported a-ok by the "scientific community"! Like "social anxiety disorder"! Is that actually a disorder or something that we all go through? Isn't it natural for everybody to be anxious around other people? If you don't feel that some time in your life then there must be something wrong with you, because we all are wired to feel this way sometimes. But only Big Pharma will call something normal a disease, and market a magic pill to cure what was normal.

Well, if your practice is truly a balanced one, then at some point you will lose this problem. My former school - Kalimasada, has this same problem happen to people sometimes. When you are building up rough energy, it tends to give one problems unless it is balanced with soft energy, which is better for healing. As we advance up in the levels we change forms and practices to make the shift from hard to softer energy. Lots of hard energy makes for a hot head, and you can sometimes have these strange, nasty sensations as you move around people and places. If you have a lot of that hard energy the best thing is to find a way to release it. An experiment for you to try- try pushing your energy into a tomato and see how long it takes to rot. Or take an empty glass bottle, fill it with water and inch or two to the brim, close the cap, and see if you can use intention and energy to make the bottom of the glass bottle pop out with a hard slap to the top with the bottom of your palm. This would always make me feel better after feeling crazy from all the energy. If your practice doesn't change with forms and you still get those feelings, may I suggest that maybe that there may be other practices that would be better suited to you. I know how you feel because this is something I used to go through a lot. If your practice however, takes a long time to shift to different forms you will have to bear this. Don't worry you lose this as you go up.

A year of practicing qigong 1-2 hours a day will truly make you realize truly how nasty much the food you love, tastes. There are very few long time cultivators who are junk food addicts. The perception that you have to be of a certain weight strikes a chord. I have my own form of slightly "taoist" radical philosophy.. and many parts of it in fact come off from the 1999 Brad Pit/Edward Norton movie Fight Club. There are many, many striking points within that movie that can get you thinking. it is one of those films where you watch it again and watch it again and get something new everytime. to examine the way how the way we all are unconsciously programmed to think. and to destroy it, to tear it and all the falsity down. To put things in a nutshell, because i can talk and talk about Fight Club for hours on end, is that because we don't have strong internal self and choose our own values every second of every minute, we don't have a clear view of life. or the things in it. We don't know what we want. And because we don't know what we want, we become seduced by popular opinion, advertising, external validation. Because we don't know how we truly feel about particular things, we accept all the crap values that Guess, Gucci, toothpaste and shampoo commericials give us. This consumerist, shallow pointless, race where you always lose. Through this we become zombies. Slaves. The walking dead. Our lives become empty, and we chase after things that bring hollow emptiness, working jobs we hate, living in self loathing, never being truly alive, not truly dead. The rat race is the following -that I need to be skinny, or muscular or this or that . That what other people think matters. That to be happy I need this or that et cetera. A new car. New clothes. A hot girlfriend. A penthouse loft. A hot body. The questions we all have to ask ourselves are the following- how much do people's opinion matter to you over your own? do I have the courage to hit rock bottom? do i really need all this stuff that I have; the lifestyle that i live? can I give it all up? can I stop trying to control everything and just let the chips fall as they may? In many ways, Tyler Durden was my own form of Jesus.

Is there any way to put a "like" option into this post?

That is great man! When you progress emotionally and grow out from a place like that the joy of life improves dramaitcally. Once I solved my neediness for example, i found out that I no longer liked to hang around my needy friends. You learn to let go and just let things flow without purpose, distinction, or reason. You stop trying to make things better or change things, you find a fullness within yourself that is independent of cause of purpose. And somehow when you fill a hole within yourself and become whole again, everything around you just seems to get better and improve. You find that you never needed to change anything; that all you needed was right here inside from the very start. Only distinction are those who are stuck in the same low level vibration who notice that you are changing.. Eckhart Tolle refers to this thing within that kind of people as the "pain-body". People will need to drain your energy and bring you down in order to feel good about themselves and feed that pain body. People are naturally jealous when you don't suffer, because of your enlightened choice to not suffer, is not within their capacity to make.

My weekdays are occupied really but my weekends are always like this: upon waking up in the morning=1 hour of full lotus then I eat breakfast, play pc games or do planning for about 2 hours then another hour then I'll wander around our farm, or watch self-improvement videos etc for god knows how long another hour then I'll eat dinner, play computer then another hour before I go to bed. meditation is an acquired taste but once you're hooked, you will be. for life. one thing i just HAVE to mention -once you reach a certain state of consciousness, all experiences from nature get multiplied. watching the sun rise from twilight to dawn, you feel an incredible oneness with nature. you feel the leaves and grass wake up both outside and inside of you, the chickens moving around but at the same time dance inside, a complete stopping of thought, and the bliss of oneness with the earth. sometimes I feel we are the most blessed among all people to have these experiences.

How would that be so? What do you practice exactly? Some practices tend to isolate people very much from others; which is not so good in my opinion. It seems that your practice and thought stream made you more distant emotionally, correct? In my own experience I've been there, then switched to another practice. The new practice distanced me from another people in a way I never knew was possible - I was feeling energy all around me from everyone, and had to stay away from certain places because it became too much to handle! overload in sensory input. Haha once again i quote myself that culitvation is sometimes a double-edged sword.

Alfred E - wow that practice kicks ass. You could base a whole path of being from that. Very deep. I appreciate it. It makes you wonder; what if instead of adopting Savasana as a practice lying down, you live it every single moment of your life? Sloppy Zhang - yeah I definitely know what you mean! I am at the point where 4 or more hours of training is not a drag but something cherished and welcomed. But all of this comes down to the point of what your lifestyle is, because a job isn't conducive if you want to spend the whole day in practice. My mid term goal is to develop a method of generating income that isn't so time intensive (meaning i don't want a 9 to 5), so I can devote half or more of a whole day in practice. You get to a point where you want more but a normal life restricts one from having it. If I get tired of that and want even more... who knows. Vajrahridaya - that sounds awesome man. I am not too familiar though with Buddhist practices. I started out with Vipassana then over time I drifted into Taoist alchemical practices and such. If those are the hard core cave dwelling yogis then it sounds appealing to me. What are those practices for exactly? Please use more layman talk because Buddhist tantra etc are things I do not know much of. Non- I'd like to hear more of that practice. Do you have something I could read or look upon? What practices are similar to yours? Wayki- you have a book? Tell me more about it. However in the past I have distanced myself from Hermetic practices atc because there waaay too much cultic obscure non understandable new agish material floating around in that direction.. Actually a hermetic path is how I started out but grew tired of the structures around who were teaching it, then i got into Vipassana training, and then went more down a Taoist alchemy route.

Bottom line to all of this is pretty simple. If Jim achieves the fusion of yin and yang = continuing lineage of westerners who are masters of neigong, at least to the point of fusion. If he doesn't then 20 years of searching, dedicated training, continual frustration and dedication, not to mention the same time and dedication to those that seek him out = all for nothing. Question is for those who would learn this - would you risk a lifetime of training not knowing if you could ever have it come to fruition? Learning from a lineage by a master who would disown you? Hard medicine to swallow indeed. If you listened carefully to the interview. You would understand that Jim thinks that John's spirit is a "demon" for the reason by definition, a demon is supposed to limit the light that comes into the world, and is motivated by selfish reasons. In the 2nd part I believe, he mentions that John said that when a person dies he spends at least 10 or so years in limbo on earth for every human life that person has taken. John's bodiless master disappeared a decade ago, and only the older ancestor spirit emerged. So taking that into consideration if John's words are concrete, means that the older master spirit could also have been potentially a rather murderous individual during his life, or like John's master, would have disappeared into the ether.

I believe that this categorization is too old and archaic, in short unrefined, just to limit siddhis to just 9. I know that the source is a very old yogic source but let me put it this way - why limit them to just nine? what about "siddhis" or abilities that are achieved not within the context of indian yoga? how about "siddhis" achieved through strict Taoist practice for example? There are many, many abilities out there that are just as good as those nine. I think its time to write a new book. I don't mean to be anarchistic or irreverent but look upon the matter this way: if it has been four thousand years since someone wrote groundbreaking, definition making material to any sort of study, it indicates a stagnation in the body of knowledge being studied. lets say for example if this happened to biology. we would all be screwed if the "main source" we had to the matter was a text written 500 years ago. why should yogic theory be any different? We need to update . That is how it works; credit the old masters who paved the way, but never, never refer to any source as the end-all defintion. Always evolving, always changing and becoming something more than what it was in the past.. that's how we got all the technology and wonders we have today on our world.