Sunya

Depends what kinda tea you use.. Black and pu er have more infusions than oolong.. oolong has more than green.. I usually don't use more than 2 infusions but with pu er i'll go for 3. I like mine strong though so I typically add a little bit with each infusion.

Sorry, who is 'he'? I think I missed the context of your reply. Are you asking why meditation is important?

I practice Yi Gong, which I learned from Sifu Jenny, who taught Max half of the Kunlun practice (the spontaneous half). It's my favorite thus far because it's the easiest. You sit down and let go. heh. It's also quite effective. Also, in my opinion, doing Qi Gong without mind training is like working on your car's engine without learning to drive..

You rock! thanks If the tea farmer uses water soluble pesticides then they never get into your cup (they stay on the tea leaves). As long as you don't eat the tea leaves you're fine.

What a debbie downer..

I work for an online tea company (Adagio Teas) so I drink tea everyday.. there's a considerable difference between expensive and cheap teas, but there's also overdoing it.. Btw if anyone's interested in a friendly tea community: http://www.teachat.com Not necessarily. The company I work for purchases many high quality teas from China, Japan, India, Sri Lanka etc. and most aren't organic. We get samples of organic teas and they dont taste as good. Maybe the technology isn't there yet to grow good organic tea. Anyway, high quality tea farmers use water soluble pesticides that don't actually go into your cup.

A bit sensational but the guy makes good points. I think its perhaps time to leave. What do you guys think who live in the States? Staying here till the bitter end? http://www.escapefromamerica.com/2010/06/escape-from-america-the-grim-truth/

We're talking about eliminating unnatural sugars from diet..

btw Songs if you're on antibiotics make sure you're taking probiotics! taking antibiotics will kill off the good stuff in your body and lead to bad dampness (candida). this will make it tough for your body to get nutrients from food.

Sugar is the main thing that prolongs and prevents the healing dampness (western term: candida or yeast overgrowth). If your body is damp there can be no fire. Dampness sucks. Sugar be gone!

"Book of Songs" (1000-700 B.C.): "When a son is born, Let him sleep on the bed, Clothe him with fine clothes, And give him jade to play... When a daughter is born, Let her sleep on the ground, Wrap her in common wrappings, And give broken tiles to play..." Gotta love it. China will have huge problems in the future. The ratio of boys to girls is 120 to 100. That means female babies are aborted or killed upon birth. Wonderful. In the future China will have a huge population drop, its inevitable. This also means that there will be lots of anal sex happening. Also... there will be a huge demand for prostitution. Things are not looking good :|

This has nothing to do with sperm, Drew. Ever since the 80s when China got technology which told parents the gender of their babies, females have been killed off. Same thing happened in India. That's why when I was at a hospital in India, I saw a sign that said its illegal for the doctor to tell pregnant females the gender of their baby.

I had a private meeting with Shifu Jenny today... she's a wonderful teacher. If you're thinking about going but haven't decided... Do it. My practice really took off after I did a seminar with her in Feb.

link to video doesn't work. I do remember seeing the commercial for that show and was intrigued, though I generally don't find those specials very interesting due to the prevalent materialist tendencies of modern scientists. They need more infusion of quantum physics! perhaps this show is different. Do let me know how it is and perhaps I'll check it out

Are you sure? I can't really find anything. http://www.dsm5.org/ProposedRevisions/Pages/proposedrevision.aspx?rid=149

The purpose of dreaming is a mental cleansing isn't it? So wouldn't lucid dreaming run contrary to the purpose of dreaming? Bringing the conscious mind into that field will stop the automatic process that occurs every time you go to sleep. I can see dream practice as a very advanced practice for those who don't need this mental cleansing, but for most of us I'd guess we need stuff to get worked on and released automatically every night. Turning sleep time into a fantasy desire land (which is what many lucid dreamers do) doesn't seem very positive in my eyes. I could be wrong.

I'm curious too. Please PM me if you want to keep it private. I still practice (Jenny's version not Max's) and curious to learn others experiences with it. A very mysterious practice that i'm not very sure of.

I was there for 5 months.. I meditated in my room but was just curious if I could find any meditation halls or anything. There were none in the city because China is officially atheist. That sorta bothered me. Even though I prefer to meditate alone... it just bothers me that a country is so dogmatic. Also, it bothered me when I spoke to Chinese people about Tibet. They are so brainwashed to believe that the Dalai Lama is the devil, it broke my heart. Perhaps I take these things too seriously... China was really beautiful. The language though, extremely difficult! All the characters kill me! And the cultural differences, wow. How did you manage to become fluent (I imagine you have to)? And what sort of work are you doing?

In my experience, the best results come when you relax and let the body heal itself. Just remain open, positive, and mindful of whatever occurs and let go. Blockages dissolve themselves.

I don't agree. Such an answer is in the spirit of the way Buddha himself answered such questions. There's no right way to respond to speculations that beg the question (that assume a self exists which can be immortal) Both the concepts of annihilation and immortality imply that there is an individual, a thing, which either disappears or continues infinitely. This would mean that this individual is of some substance that is immune to change, an indestructible permanent substance that is separate from everything around it. The Taoist immortals usually have a catch to their eternal status. Their 'elixir' or whatever you want to call it, like wine. If they don't drink this wine then they become weak and can die. How is that immortal then? Maybe I'm wrong about these Immortals but those are the stories I've heard. When I think of 'immortal' I think of permanent and self-sustaining, in other words - not depending on conditions. That is not possible though because everything is interdependent and impermanent. Real immortality perhaps occurs when there is a disidentification from the concept of ego/individual/body and instead there is simple embracing of what is, the flow of impermanency, the flow of life. This flow can be said to be eternal or immortal because there will always be causes and causes lead to effects.

Yea I'm 24, just got my first job. Planning on paying off all loans, saving up some $, and then thinking about where to move. I really liked Colorado but I hear its tough finding work there since everyone there is educated. Moving to Asia is another idea but where? Nepal.. Thailand.. not sure. China is out because I can't stand the fact that religion is looked down upon. I couldn't find a place to meditate when I was studying in Nanjing. Where do you live?

Zen student says, "So, master, is the soul immortal or not? Do we survive our bodily death or do we get annihilated? Do we really reincarnate? Does our soul split up into component parts which get recycled, or do we as a single unit enter the body of a biological organism? And do we retain our memories or not? Or is the doctrine of reincarnation false? Is perhaps the Christian notion of survival more correct? And if so, do we get bodily resurrected, or does our soul enter a purely Platonic spiritual realm? Zen master responds, "Your breakfast is getting cold". (*The Tao is Silent*, p194).

makyo..

Only problem is that people aren't changing here. It's just the culture. Rabid individualism and not caring about your neighbor (and still worshiping Jesus, somehow). It's extremely difficult to get an immigrant visa anywhere decent, so we're stuck. I think the only solution is to form a small community somewhere rural and stick together and become self sustaining. I dont know..

Mara is not a person.. Mara is the ego. How can the ego kill itself? It's impossible. The only way to fight Mara is to see through its illusion.