...

this is cool, because I just got a few books on the I Ching from amazon. (including the notorious wilhelm translation w/ jung commentary...) I don't know what to think about the divination methods. If so many wise men, from confucius to jung, are amazed with it... Then I would probably be a fool to blow it off.

yeah, man. I once read somewhere that it was important for a man (in old china,) to develop a strong worldly foundation, and care for his parents... And after this is achieved, THEN he goes on to pursue the tao. I am a strong believer in that it is easier to 'detach' from something you have than it is to 'detach' from something you don't have.

that picture was taken shortly after basic training/medic school... Of course it is impossible to lift weights during this period-- the only back conditioning was from carrying a rucksack. Nowadays I dp pullups, lat pulls, bench rows, shrugs. I recently found this great nautilus machine that has an AWESOME 'row' machine that works the entire back, it feels. I don't think it really matters what you do, as long as you're sore afterwards.

I lift weights and do some running. I have been weight-lifting through much of my spiritual practice... and I don't notice any difference when I am working out heavy/ not working out at all with my practice... the whole 'muscles or ligaments/tendons' thing sounds pretty dualistic and unreasonable. In fact, it sounds stupid. (no offense, lozen ) Yes, when you work out, your muscles tense and bulge (which is goooood,) but it is not like that all the time... unless you are wearing tight shirts and "flex-walk" so your muscles look even bigger... which is lame and stupid... but having muscle doesn't mean you're going to be tense all the time. I think running is great. I PREFER to run on a tread-mill, ('hampster machine") because I believe that it is A) better to control your conditioning and overall/daily training program, and lets you know EXACTLY HOW you run every time... and it is easier on your joints. (which cannot be over-emphasized...) Also, I run for the sole purpose of conditioning... so how I go about doing it doesn't matter to me. If running is 'bad' for your heart meridian, it is good for your lungs, oxygen intake, circulation... over-time, it slows your regular heartbeat... There a ton of benefits to running well. Like all things, you can over do it, or do it wrong or something... But if you listen to your body, I have a hard time believing that running is a poor choice. I think your qigong teacher is full of shit, lozen =( (no offense ) *I* think that you should cultivate ALL aspects of your body.

spyrelx-- it was written in the book ;magus of java' (ring of fire dude,) that john chang can do that sort of thing. (fuck, he said he wrote how he could levitate, and stop pellet-bullets...) it is because john chang could project yin and yang energy... as opposed to how if you or I tried to project it, we would probably only be projecting yang...thus ruining our attempt ineffective. there wa sa story how guys practicing nei gung would try to knock over beer cans or something... they would project theyr yang qi or whatever... but it was only because john chang would fill the atmosphere with yin-chi or whatever that the yang projected was rendered effective enough to manifest in 'telekinesis' or whatever. I am gullible... But I don't think that kostas is a liar. I definately believe in some crazy-ass shit you can pull with the right sorts of cultivation. I believe you have the potential to shoot fireballs at people. walk through walls. be 'immortal'. Goodluck figuring out how... and then managing the discipline to achieve the art without seriously injuring yourself...

I have never met anyone capable of this sort of shit. the most is as such-- one reiki buddhist I went to for a session, (for some reason I never went back for the 2nd and 3rd,) put his hand on my forehead, and energy began to flow from my sacrum up. this is not uncommon for me in regular practice, however... and the rest of the session was a fucking bust...and I got nothing. another 'reiki' dude gave me a 2 minute reiki session. I laid down on my front, and he touched my third or fourth chakra.. and my back twitched a large a bit. nothing really special though. Otherwise, the most profound manifestations of energy, (or the consequences thereof,) come from me =( which is really crappy, lame, and pathetic. OH OH ! I was going to a tai chi teacher for a while learning his form... I was paying out of the ass for private lessons, and I swear the dude was prolonging the lessons and teaching me as little as possible as he could, so I would have to come more often. I think he is pretty low level... I would not be surprised if I topped him at times, energy-wise... but I SWEAR he pulled this trick of stopping me from thinking!!! it was like, I knew the form, was going through it, and he would fill my head with chi or something so my mind would go blank and would have to stop! (I don't know!) Maybe I am being paranoid, and I am personally surprised that he was evolved enough to pull a stunt like that... but still... =( I also have experienced 'vampires' in qigong groups.. don't know who it was but I had to stop going to one, and group, because someone was absorbing all my energy, and instead of feeling high as usual, I would feel totally drained... (bastard...) OH and I was doing qigong with this one dude... when he first met he looked at my right ear and made it ring. that was cool at the time... but I don't remember any other tricks he might have had up his sleeve... this was when I was at my strongest, and I think that my energy was much stronger than his at the time... I could see aura's a bit at the time... he had a very strong one... probably about as strong as mine... mine probably red mroe often because I was adept at tantric masturbation. oh well =( no super cool teacher dude, yet... I probably won't settle for anything less than an immortal when it comes to teachers =(

uhhhh hehehehehe

LOL!

OMG that was a really, really good joke, thadeus =p thanks, yoda =)

Ya it is my back ! =) lol it would be silly otherwise, eh? it is like, uh, the sixth or seventh chapter in the tao te ching... I forget... I am pretty sure it is seven, (isn't that terrible?) I chose that chapter because I felt it was a subtle allusion to 'emptiness'.. a la 'the secret of the golden flower'... I have a red poppy on my chest that looks like a hibiscus... suppose to symbolize tantric bliss =) (though I am not succesful at that too much anymore...)

ya, it's fucked, huh? And, you know... I got my start off of chia... but I never really got 'off' on any of his shit. especially the five element shit. I am a pretty well-balanced kind of guy, (or at least I play one on TV, if you know what I mean...) so... uh who cares.

LOL, I just realized who you remind me of in your avatar-- zoolander O_O LOL ah man, I am just kidding.

THAT WINN SHIT IS CRAZY COOL Maybe I should try to channel a taoist... wtf, right? I wonder how I would go about it...

... because I was wondering if it were possible to get my hands on it somehow... possibly over the internet, (I read that some dude was once able to acquire it through the interne...) here is a cool video... (no wonder the conservative christians are afraid of us...! we're wacko!)

hey man.. you ever get to try DMT?

thats myspace for you. what do you expect from the average myspacian? I mainly use that site to humiliate myself and insult other people. lol. 'peeple'. hehehe...

yeah, man, can you tell us a little more about the book? I am very interested... especially after my last successful purchase of 'qigong eompowerment'...

eeewwwwwwwwww that's grossss.... I think I will begin drinking my urine in the mornings, as well. if not so much for the health benefits... but because I easily look down upon it. (I am victim to the 'ew thats gross and you're a freak' conditioning... which is ignorant and shameful...) I will repent through acceptance

read the tao te ching daily, and get high off qigong/taichi whenever you can. at the very least, get high off qigong/tai chi. It's hard to feel anything unpleasant when you're feeling so good.

wow... I just blew 250 bucks on that book, and the other one amazon suggested to by with it... I am reallllllly looking forward to recieving them! thanks for the reference...

I think being 'enlightened' before being 'evolved' will only lessen your chances at becoming 'evolved'... Because you would lack the desire, the motivation, the 'discipline' (of a sort,) that is necessary for grand evolution... evolution really may not have any meaning to an enlightened dude. I usually think of 'enlightenment' and 'evolution' as being synonymous terms... but in this context you guys are using... 'enlightenment' sounds more like eternal contentment... which may require more mental determination, (if that's not a total paradox,) than 'evolution'.... you know, if I had to choose between being a powerful immortal, or being 'enlightened' (i.e. content,) I would choose immortality. plato, or aristolte, maybe it was socrates.. it was one of 'em... said something along the lines of... "It is better to be a genius discontent than a pig content." FUCK I just wrote a long ass paragraph and somehow managed to delete it. oh well, lol.

" I've been doing this for four days now and have not experienced any thing more than shortness of breath. " LOL yeah me too man! If you ever get any crazy cool sensations from breath of fire it is probably just hypoxia LOL! I never had any success with this one myself.. not to say I don't think it would probably work great-- if only because it is such a well-known, mass marketed technique =) M. Winn got his start doing breath of fire, right? It got him nowhere special though, if I remember right.

I keep seeing the title of this thread and it is driving me just nuts... so here goes... NO! JESUS WAS NOT A TAOIST! (what a relief )

Satanism 71% agnosticism 58% Islam 58% Buddhism 54% Judaism 50% atheism 50% Paganism 46% Hinduism 42% Christianity 33%

Ah jeez, man, thanks. I am sorry =( I guess a certain sensitive cord was struck, there, that was all.