Spectrum

tkd=tai kwon do. Korean Martial art resembling Karate w/ more kicks.

Sounds like a replacement for the sweet fragrance of the golden flower. It's inside you. Not saying don't try it, just to learn from and let go as a way. Spectrum

Clarification please?

The problem I see with mixing external arts with internal arts for instance standing w/ tkd is tkd was not "designed" to circulate the chi that you will accumulate through standing practice. In this regard it would be "wiser" to follow the cultural paths of movement available. For instance chi gung being tempered w/ tai chi, bagua, xing yi, yi quan, etc etc. Not saying you can't burn off extra energy w/ tkd, just that is exactly what it would seem like to me, burning it off, instead of circulating it. I used to do the same thing, for a long time i only did standing meditation and wei dan chi gung. I would burn off the extra energy w/ push hands, sparring/grappling or cross training. As I've grown older I learned the Yang 108 and am sorry i didn't learn it earlier, because it seems so obvious what all the tai chi styles are, yes, self defense, but more importantly for me, the circulation of energy, which is a much BIGGER yes then simply self defense, which is nice, although competitive mindset which you must defeat first to pass further.

Man Eric. You are SO on the path. Keep going man. You have the perfect profession for you! Check your PM. I mean your making mandalas at work AND when you practice!

Interesting thread on sound. In our chi gung we use sound at the end. It always feels SOOO good. The associated sounds and shapes that resonate within the cavities are so nice to feel, particularlly how they transmit the sound around inside. Ie the chest transmits sound different then the lower dan tien which is different then the throat, etc. Obvously here we get into "organs" etc, but I just wanted to comment about the resonation of cavities in the body. Also my teacher uses sound to clear the meridians after treating whatever pattern is present. Pretty much after the pattern is cleared using chi gung / tui na the whole person is really receptive. When you use sound it's like circulating water through a newly flushed irrigation system. You can't argue with a field going at 720mph. Music is such a blessing. Truly a bridge to the unseen, and in my practice has always produced experiential results. Spectrum

No I haven't. Refs? Checking Amazon promptly. Beautiful. Scary. Comparing Looney Tunes to Power Rangers and beyond. Intriguing thread. Spectrum

It's a commendable routine. A mix of internal / external. Personally I would practice the tkd S L O W M O T I O N at home, then see how it effects my performance in class. <shrug> just thoughts. Nice mix.

Cyber dialog is not a replacement for real people, I've found a lot of threads of truth through literature as well, some starting w/ online references, others ending in art books. Dialog is important to "get stuff out" there as well. Trunk, I didn't put the two together that you webmastered the essay page. <smack self on forehead> That's quite a work Now! Spectrum

ok...i got it i got it... so in every city we go to for TaoBums Documentary we have to have a small feature of a TaoBum having a SpiritualOrgasm.... I think Gary Clyman in Chicago pretty much comes up number one for me because of his Orbit, everyone else can fall in line after Gary, but lets film em for the sake of art. Number two has to do his writhing on the floor uncontrollably in every direction thing, then we'll cut to some homies break dancing as a way to find their flow, then back to john chang tripping people out setting toilet paper rolls on fire, then back to Grand Trinity using NLP to program his classmates in psychology class, then cut to The SatvaSantuary where homies talking about 30 foot golden light beings walking around his house and showing us videos of huge jellyfish looking ships flying around Mt. Adams! Dude this could get huge. We need to get Gary on the phone or on here. Doesn' t he have a webpage? Why arn't we all hooking up to gung out at some place like that guys ranch to see what in the hell is going on :?

Did you see where she says early morning TaoBums reading aids daily mindfulness but evening BumRants fuels insomnia? Someone needs to cross post. ;o)

I think those rips in space time are still ahh...around here somewhere... what's up with that as above so below? As below so above now? Weird.

Would you say that there are common themes in your artistic pursuits in which could possibly be navigated to greated depths in a sustainable altered state of consciousness? Or is it just a bunch of squiggly lines breathing? Being an artist there is such a thing as "art madness". We all get it. If your an artist and you don't do art, your not an artist, your just crazy.

If something is benificial it will have an associated practice that manifests results. Either what you practice works or it doesn't. A couple times around the block you start to get the general points of what energy we're dealing with (jing) and what (chi) should remotely feel like when it comes to the surface, etc. The main points of exploration has always been the breathing exercises and the physiological process that accompany them. For me this proved there was something to be said about simply reasoning with the medium we're suspended in. Chi Gung works because the body is intelligent, not because any teacher discovered a system. Just my disclaimer. It works when we "let go" of our conscious dialog and simply BE in our bodies. In any class i lead I never have to coach this in athletes, only people who arn't in their body, people who "live in their heads". That could be me anyways so i just coach and move and breath I don't stop to look at all their perceived problems, a lot of them go away after we breath and move together for an hour. Its just that way. We can deprogram ourselves so easily, people do it everyday, but with no method so they get a little weird. Music, Sex, Food, All meditations and wonderfully designed messages of the timeless divine drama, don't be fooled, their not ours to own, just Tend to. Cultivate. Me too. To much as stake and no time to waste when it comes to tending the ember of life. Dude. Honestly. You will get further giving yourself an hour a day to experiment and some honest inquiry based dialog with other practitioners, here or there, it doesn't matter that much. Taoist meditation particularlly starts with emptiness. What's that you say? Nothing at all. Just being yourself as you are, mind you, without thought, just you, not who you think you are, but as you are. No need for hypnotherapy, TaiChi works really great as a way to open your peripheral awareness to the natural geometry prevalent in nature. Meditation is within reach within the arts. You could say that within Tai Chi the wise old chinese masters hid a cultured trance, but then again if it just works for me, it doesn't matter. All the practices work mind you, regardlness of "visualization", work to alter the mind, dialate awareness if you will, when you change your breath you change your mind. I would only ask about a teacher, do you like the qualities of your teacher, because you will become like them, even if it's a plant... which might be a good teacher for some people if the given the proper circumstances. But even in tai chi, if you find a teacher who moves in a way you wish to mimic, that you enjoy whether it be strong and firm and earthy or as light as a feather not there yet able to be where you need to be, then learn to mimic, be the white crane, visualize what you percieve as natural, how does a snake move, what sensations does that bring? "Visualization" of chi, it's just another dialog, chi has a feeling first, visualizations might occur, or might not, ot doesn't matter really, you can't force anything, even visually. Starting w/ Emptiness, letting everything go at first is the best place to start. The exercise after this was to one by one observe every sound in a darkened room, then percieve the sound of every object in a darkened room. Then every night for 3 months we did push hands blindfolded. Hey he was my girlfriends father so I did what he said, his "mind expansion" programmed seemed to be working.... but anyways other acts of Simply Doing when your jamming to music, surfing, hanggliding, shamanically flying through a wudang taiji form, jamming on Taobums, whatever, make a little music. Breathing with anything might produce sensations that you want to be a part of, visualization or spontaneous events that are occuring as a genuine conscious experience. Visualizations may occur spontaneously, but whatever happens happens, you always will have the beggining you can go back to. Hum with it. Start over if you need to. This is key, good foundations, anchoring, breath and intention are one. Breathing is the beggining of everything. Evening and morning is a good time to let everything go and melt into the wake/sleep state. I wouldn't try his (Chias) bone breathing until you get into the groove of a regular muscle and tendon changing routine to speak chia-nese. I jest. If you consider what meth does to peoples bone marrow it's not hard to see how improving the harmonics in our bodies by jumping through a few perspective hoops improves the qualitative aspects. If you've been :looking: that means you have reason to. The types of experiences you have to convince you to seek speaks of where to look; fancing meeting you here on TaoBums. It's good to read a lot of information, take it in, soak in it. Always "try" things subtly. Focus on percieving what happens without any action on your part, OBSERVE the natural flow and order of the landscapes that your position offers you in reality. How many different ways does the sun and moon pass around the earth, look the qualititive patterns around you in which you wish to mimic. When you feel like you've learned something, go eat some magic mushrooms on full moon atop a powerspot on Sedona and report back here to let us know if you see anything that resembles a different dimension. Everyday life is profound. When you breath through your skin. Just try it barely and see if it does anything. When is the last time all the pores opened? Don't ever force anything. We don't force ourselves to eat food we don't like. Then again, don't combine arts. Stay true to the cultural artifacts that we're studying, and if you're lucky and in the right place at the right time you run accross people who you can practice face to face with and get a feel for what is going on. My long time tai chi friend just told me the other day to remember, chi gung is like eating, and tai chi (or any gung fu) is like digesting) The main points in the Chinese practices are the condition of the organs and meridians and the path towards circulating the orbit, which can mean something like one days energy in an hour, or an hours energy in a minute, or a years energy in a day. The orbit is profound there is no doubt about that as a concensses, that and stillness probably being the two most talked about states of realization and reflection on... nothing really. Thats the best part. I crossed paths with him in 1995. Just talked to him on the phone. A few times. I wasn't willing to pay $600 for his Chi Gung kit, but he taught Tai Chi and so I kinda kept a dialog w/ him for a couple weeks, I was 19 and extremely motivated to route the fire through the right channels. He sent me a few video and audio tapes I might actually still have if I look around. On Chi Gung and Tai Chi Chuan (Temple Style I think?) I was so motivated to do that orbit that I even went to a Buddhist Monk in the area who was a 25 yr acupuncturist to ask him to give me a treatment to do that. I didn't know how fortunate I was that I went to him because he was kinda on to what I was trying to do. He recommended Zen Sitting, less I go insane as he so politely put it. So I was looking everywhere. (accept where I should have been at the exercises that my mentor was guiding me with) Anyhow at the same time I was picking Gary Clymans brain, and the thing about this guy is... he REALLY has a lot of energy. It just comes off him. He's not joking, his chi gung works for him, I've seen some videos of his tai chi when he was young and skinny and it doesn't look bad. It looks like Yang. He has a good foundation in his wuji and stances. He knows enough to cough on some muggers. The emotional liposuction honestly sounds about like what a good chi gung healer does to a person, sets them up to have a fresh wind of chi blow through their system, and have the bad stuff sucked out at the same time. I mean that's ground zero for everyone, where you end up when you hit wuji after a breakthrough or after a deep tissue release or after sex (for a shorter period of time) essential Gary is teaching people how to hit that flow state themselves, everyday, repeatably. He seems convinced, and I can see why not because of him, but because of what Chi Gung has done to MY life. He seems like someone who looked into the art and found something. I have seen videos of him "orbiting" and he kinda pulses around and says its uncontrollable, which i personally question. I've experienced different, (not saying I havn't felt uncontrollable undulations, just not while orbiting) I seem to remember he's doing sacral pump contractions with his breathing and then doing tai chi simultaneously and this is his chi gung. Pretty circular methodlogy, sounds about right. But alas to far away.... and he wanted $600 i remember. At least that's what it seemed like. Fair enough. Pump pump pump and keep pumping your whole life. Yeah I probably looked at 15 different peoples systems all kinda saying similar things, had to find people local who I jived practicing with to really start making a difference. I was lucky in that my first teacher didn't know the "whole" system, but enough to convince me a tubby 45 yr old could be 'faster' by 'being slower', "by arriving second being first" and so on.... and enough to get me to start experimenting w/ standing meditation w/ conscious breathing, and single point meditations using a barbell weight. Solid physical foundation w/ the goal being psychological breakthrough. The idea being that idea is no different then physical being, that our mind body duality is an illusion and that in natural moments of human potential being unleased the mind and body works together in perfect harmony. Martial art circles are useful, especially for spotting harmony if your looking for it. you can learn how to defend yourself, I have spent a while in a few circles as I learned from my first teacher in this taoist tradition, as i've grown older I had the opportunity to train w/ Sei Gung my grandfather or teachers teacher in the Chinese Arts and learned about slowing down the mind in Chi Gung and breathing deeper into the physical practices of opening and elongating the body, and closing and contracting the body. Emptiness is the place to start and exists as the center of the wheel of all our attributes we experience as a physical mandala of consciousness. We start with nothing when we are brought into the world, nothing but who we are. At the beggining of practice it's always best to start with an empty cup. Practice fills your cup with something. Perhaps we can all share a cup of tea someday. Spectrum

Video is really changing the dialog available on forums. This is great. Sadly I hold my place in line till I reach a highspeed connection.

The Arts are Valuable. Mind your Coins. Shared Experience in Trance is Invaluable to Coining Terms. Spectrum

Traditions, Arts and People. Mostly Artists and Seekers the same as many on this board. http://www.mudo.no/ without seeing something resembling the swirling magesty that must have touched your senses I can only say yes. I will watch him on my next trip to a city. The mountains call. Arnt' we all? Tinkering with little more then sticks and rocks for 6000 years you'd think we could remember how this puzzle fit together. Goto my album here titled: Geometry http://www.sacredcircuits.net/gallery/main.php I have used mandalas as single point meditations in which I would swear the same effects that optical illusions use to overlay your eyes can be used to superimpose geometric "ideas" onto your consciousness, and not just in concept, but in both visual and kinesthetic modes of awareness. So simple. Endless variations. Once the window is opened and you get a breath of fresh air, the Taoist tradition says play with it and you'll be tickled. Ride it when you need to, yet it is hard to grasp, like a Tiger or Snake, but the underlying geometry most certainly falls into the realm of sacred art / geometry via it's associated energy pathways, residule cinibar fields, frequency awareness changes, and everything that in any saturday morning cartoon. It's all actually pretty comic book like. I mean imagine if we saw everything frequency pattern that was humming about us in the middleo f a city. YOU'D BE BLIND! I digress. Quiet River Runs. Still Mountain. Is. Spectrum

Oh this is good. Saving my place in line here. Hair Raising. When it doubt Gung it Up.

Wow! Good recovery to you. i like my qigong and will do it before bedtime. It's the best! I found the best spaces between mental and physical before bed and upon waking. Da Liu in his book Meditation and Tai Chi Chuan did a form of gazing before bedtime mixed with fire breathing. Best taichi "flow" practices seems to happen 30 min after waking. No mental attachments of "the day" to cling to. Just free empty space. At night working w/ the chi and circulating seem of the best order, but everyone has to find their chi cycle and go with their training schedule. Same w/ chi gung. Even when sick... a short burst of chi gung breathing, or standing practice, or even sitting practice (align all 33 vertibra), or laying down!!!... will bring you into tune or assist a natural process towards that chi flow state of being. It's important to FEEL when you are on your up swing to practice a little and when your body is saying rest... rest ... let go... fall backwards... sleep. We live between so many states we're the singular lense and balance is in flux at times. why do you ask? Because once you learn a true classical style like tai chi, all the elements of the language are there for you to work with. The peices of the puzzle i guess you could say. Our job is to put the peices of our puzzle together. Whoever we are. Looking at how they go together is one way. In any situation in which problem solving becomes essential for survival success as a pattern is easiest to see and demonstrate in the physical world. Wuji Yin Yang TaiJi Bagua. The pieces. The Perfect Move: 1. Get out of the Way 2. Redirect 3. Technique 4. Setup for the next Perfect Move Tai Chi as a classical art encapsulates a group of physical ideas, ideas that are not expressed in words. Moving ideas that demonstrate methodically through both the flow of practice and the reflections of analysis, the intelligence inherhent inside and out of the form. Every move being different but the same as the next. One long move. One long Perfect move. A signpost on the Way to the next perfect move. Am i right in assuming wuji is an integral part of all your form training? Simple is good. Lazy can mean easy if you do it less more often. Set small goals. Essentials set the tone for the cander of the practice. Keep it simple. Adjust gait while you walk. You might find yourself looking for a strip of grass close by to drop into a subtle wuji and word on figure 8'ing from leg to leg to feel what's going on. You might just drop everything for a few moments, you never know. Making the practicve physical w/ postural adjustments that accompany your breath awareness is primary. Fixing your gaze is primary. Wuji was shown to me w/ half closed eyes w/ peripheral awareness. Like all the edges of the bubble. Fixing your gaze is a way to quiet thoughts because it is physical as much as mental. If your a kinesthetic person this is the window to let go of your ego. For the selfish it becomes another technique and will only work a couple times then on to the next thing. most important thing in your practice is to keep letting go of what you feel you have learned. There is no physical world that exists but as an extention of the swimming pool of chi that it exists as a harmonic of. How we move through this starts as a vibrating string of a meridian, a fillament humming inside this fleshy bag of water and crystal bone. Blow on the ember. Protect life. Guard what is Sacred. There are those who would use "technique" for their own vices. It's important to leave your ego at the door. You nailed it right here. Boy look at that Dipper. Your heart is in it. I enjoy the authentic dialog. You are looking for the next level. It shows. Reeling Silk.

I have not read this entire thread so my response is limited to what i've picked up in the last page. Here are my thoughts on the idea of jing/chi/shen relationship to sex and some questions I asked my teacher in the past. My teacher put it so simply for which I am grateful. I remeber these keys: "Practice everyday, when sick, breath. Practice every=no sick" "Sex is a gift. Plug in to the universe. Forget about yourself. Love." "Just don't cum everytime". 3 days is normal for equilibrium if you feel "dreained" by ANYTHING. Eat some bad food and see how long it takes. There are times that this won't happen and you will feel abundant, like when you eat GOOD food. 3 days is a good marker for many transformational states of being... So basically i'm saying that whatever "transformational" cycle you are experiencing as a result of changing your actions in life, there are times in which you must accept that to hang on to old patterns will yeild nothing "new". Newness, freshness, rebirth, usually only follows death through, and the ego detachment process that accompanies letting go of old patterns is sometimes unpleasent, for which internal martial art training helps lubricate the entry process. Sooner or later with all practitioners they do not "lose" their gung effects this way. (sex) Because of the refinement of Shen. This is why you train consistantly w/ your cycles is important. High points will eventually turn into low points, as the moon keeps spinning round the earth round the sun. Anyways, biggest noticable effects outside of "diminished awareness" is a kind of "loss of pressure in the hose" if you're treating people or doing more external work. Especially w/ external work I notice that everything feels better if I slow down, focus on alignment and breath and do not overextend during periods of feeling 'diminished'. That's all for now, Spectrum

Shifu (Miss) Lily Siou Ph.D. teaches chi gung in Hawaii. She in an inheritor of the Dragon Tiger Mt. lineage. She teaches women to slow down and stop their cycles to improve their health and for spiritual cultivation. No matter who you are when you feel pent up you need release valves. Relax, have fun, don't take enlightenment seriously, it's a joke. Spectrum

Was looking at tuition costs at Wudang to train w/ Master Yuan Xiu Gang. At current exchange rates 3 months at the cheapest room and board is a little over 600$US/month. http://www.wudanggongfu.com/kungfu/school.htm I'm wondering if theres anyone over there in the Hebei province that happens to have any inside info on the school there. Spectrum

Saw them yesterday for the first time at good resolution. Saw the first video of "Dragons of Wudang" as well. Was inspired to post some video of a Shaolin monk on my home site. There is a video of him paying respects to a tablet of Bhodidharma and then free forming a little and you can see him ... shrinking ... his form down in this tight hallway... The internet is providing some windows in which we must truely discern and follow through, because the arts are at a time in which the technological growth accross the landscape can be ergonomically tempered w/ individuals who understand the art. I digress. Protect Mother Earth. Just being around people EVERYday that are moving in similar ways is a powerful experience. Not to mention being around people on a parrallel spiritual path. If you have a practice you do everyday you can really get in your body more then someone who doesnt and learn things faster through mimicry. At my first opportunity training w/ Sei Gung in 2000 we learned a wei dan chi gung 'form', perhaps 'guide' is a better term. But I think because I traveled to learn it, I learned it fast and was motivated to practice it for benifits. A year later i went back and we started learning the classic 108. I practiced the 1st section for a year before I learned the rest. Everytime I've traveled to learn it really turns out well, never fails to take me out of my element to 'let go' of un-needed patterns and look at myself and the universe w/ a different perspective, oh yeah... and learn more FASTER. This type of learning isn't just about memorization, it's about optimal health & movement. Currently researching it. China is a big country. I am attracted to the movements of wudang because of the spirals I see coming off of them. But there are more masters around there than Shifu Yuan, 72 peaks? A Ley Hunters Dream.

Watched the first part yesterday. Which part is the cemetary trip on?

It happens naturally when you find true love. Sacrifice Yeilds. Love Heals.