lockpaw

This was over at another site. Shows that what we see, in some ways, are chosen. Its best to watch it with your wife/husband/friend at the same time. Dancing Girl

No way man! Did you not SEE that those Hale-Bopp comet cult guys couldn't, like, even TOUCH him?

Even if these masters were evolved, I'd be surprised if they were sharing what they really knew. I know from learning internal martial arts that very little is taught, even to students. There are people who study IMAs for years who, from what I've learned, are not taught how to actually use tai chi. Even if these LSD masters are able to produce miraculous results, what makes anyone think they would pass on the REAL teaching? Especially if they are prone, as denty would have us believe, to playing the trickster and passing on false knowledge. It is common knowledge that many Asian masters will not teach cultural outsiders their art. Besides Chinese tai chi masters, D.T. Suzuki is said to say that Zen cannot be understood by or truly taught to non-Japanese. Now we have these allegedly high level Chinese masters openly teaching for anyone who can pay? I doubt it very much.

If only Mike Tyson would come forward about when he punched John Chang... What I find hard to believe is how easily people swallow this stuff. Promise magical powers, charge big bucks, lots of secrets--- no red flags? As Buddy says: a fool and his money are some party.

The following is a history of your chosen mystical art/martial art/esoteric meditation technique: This art is the original teaching of the Buddha/Lao Tzu/Zhang San Feng/Moses. It is far more powerful than your usual Zen/Tai Chi/Karate/prayer which has been watered down over time. It has been passed/transmitted/handed down from master to pupil for decades/centuries/millenia. You are quite fortunate to have found this school/dojo/lineage. All other arts/sciences/techniques have stemmed form this one. Hope it satisfied!

This from the guy with 450 posts. Chris has something that is found lacking in your posts: genuine sincerity. Quite different from your often arrogant, demeaning, elitist posts. Maybe if you stopped teaching everyone all the time, you might accidentally learn something.

1. Practice of attention. 2. Practice of attention. 3. Practice of attention. 4. Practice of attention. 5. Practice of attention.

Is this an actual situation? I've never heard of some one having to register as a sex offender because they peed behind a bar. Nevertheless, if you have children, you don't take chances. You err on the side of their safety.

There's a koan for you: what's left when all is lost?

Maybe this is why its better to develop insight and wisdom rather than supernormal energy powers. Wisdom and insight, once gained, cannot be stolen or lost.

No, no, the correct version is an Indian story!

Not a fetter. One of the TEN FETTERS. Check it out: Ten Fetters Relying on rites and rituals instead of oneself. From what you Tibetans call the "Hinayana." Do they still teach Hinayana or do they jump right to Mahayana?

Science is nothing magical. Its a method that involves observation and repeated trials. You form a hypothesis, you experiment controlling as many variables as possible, you tell your friends so they can do the same thing. Shamans don't do that. Most people who believe they can manipulate the world magically in this day and age are generally people without power in the real world who want it. My boss is a mean prick? No worry, I am Melkor the 10th Level Magic User, I am really much more powerful. Just another of the 10,000 things the ego does to keep you busy and away from actually cultivating anything.

I hope you weren't going around spiritually raping those women again, Hempel. I'm going to tell the reptilians that you've been having non-consensual third eye sex!

Hey Pero, What do you make of the Buddha saying that reliance on rituals and practices is actually a fetter to enlightenment? I read all this about needing transmission, and I tend to think this is all about keeping the masters in power. Look at Trungpa's student who received the transmission and went around having unprotected sex with his students. What does lineage mean if the masters can't be trusted?

Adam, Were you following a specific tradition or technique? How long did it take you? LP

The past is real? Ha ha! Where is it? Show me the past!

Food for thought...er, I mean non-thought? I can get a glimpse of what you mean, though. You could accept science on faith, but then, you could investigate. You can study gravity just by being on the earth. You could study the phases of the moon and the tides. You could get telescopes, learn deep math, and find out all sorts of things. Some scientists, on the other hand, tell us things I find ridiculous; i.e. consciousness is a product of a materialistic brain; animals don't have emotions, etc. Forecasting the weather...Good analogy!

Ha ha Arnquist! Get used to it! I've thought about asking people, instead of where they work or whatever, what they feel the meaning of their life is. Wouldn't work, though...

Whatchyou talkin about Willis? Have you been following along with this or are you just jumping in the end? I said many of us aren't buying into Chinese astrology because we haven't seen it work. The only "belief boundary" is in buying into something you don't have any experience in. Are you just going to believe everything you hear because it has a Taoist label? I guess I'm confusing Taoism with Buddhism: i.e don't believe it just because everyone else does, or some fancy schmancy sutta says so, etc. You believe based on your personal experiences.

I forgive you. Go in peace and sin no more! I've heard many legends. I didn't say Wudang was authentic or inauthentic. I'm saying I'm having a hard time believing their story, i.e. that they are practicing the original Tai Chi passed down from ZSF as it was and has been taught on Wudang mountain in China. I'm saying anything on Wudang was purged during the cultural revolution. The word on the rumor mill is that these wudang guys were external martial artists who found a Taoist priest in China and studied with him for a few years. After that, they opened the Wudang monastary and said their Tai Chi is the authentic Tai Chi. It does make a difference. As you do one thing, you do all. If they're lying about their lineage, how can you trust them? I didn't say Tai Chi Chuan was wiped out. I said it was mostly wiped out in China. Everyone I've talked to, Chinese or no, say that the masters either 1) fled China or 2) headed for the hills. You see this time and time again with Tai Chi, other forms of kung fu, Buddhist masters, etc. These Wudang guys say they're STILL sitting on Wudang teaching the old ways while everyone else was purged.

You're decontextualizing. You're on Taobums supporting Chinese astrology. Many people have said they don't believe in astrology. You said, and I quote: In other words, Taomeow is the Taoist and everyone else is a poser if you don't believe in Chinese astrology like Taomeow.

Propoganda called American Shaolin? What are you talking about? Did you even read my post? I said American Shaolin the book, not the cheesy movie! Matthew Polly went and trained at the shaolin school in China in the 90s that produces the travelling Shaolin monks. Wushu without the buddhism means: no noble truths, no eightfold path, no meditation, no mindfulness practices, no suttas, no chanting, no nothing. Authenticity of movement? I don't know what you're talking about. We're talking history. These wudang guys say they're practicing tai chi as passed down from Zheng San Feng and practiced on Wudang Mountain. I posted that I think that's a crock. You think the Communists let Wudang go when they wiped out everything else? That's just naive. Just because there are hermits living in the mountains doesn't mean the wudang/shaolin arts are the same as they've always been.

Add to that the cultural revolution and the idea that Wudang martial arts would've survived at Wudang Mountain, one of the most famous mountains for Taoist Chinese, it sounds preposterous. I was reading this book "American Shaolin" about how the Shaolin monks were established recently. It was put together by Chinese Communists looking to draw tourism. The modern monks are all wushu and no Buddhism. I wonder if the same goes for these Wudang Taoists.

That's why they where the funny fez hats: to redistribute the gravitational rotation of sound as it touches the body--- the resultant sound wave doesn't have the mind-control effects. Ditto for the tiny cars.