balance.

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Everything posted by balance.

  1. KUNLUN NEIGUNG METHOD

    Have you stayed with that KYMQ, Trunk? I recall stumbling upon some of you're earlier posts when you yourself had just found the practice and I'm curious if you've kept it real? balance.
  2. So much for virtue and compassion.
  3. Pain in the lower back

    Yup, totally agree. And the point about posture is massive.
  4. Pain in the lower back

    My own sense is that imagining blockages at this point and that point can do little else but create a blockage at this point or that point.. .. and I believe in personal maintenance. Daily yoga and selective stretching of known areas of consistent malfunction is necessary for me to maintain suppleness and ease in movement. My sense is that these externalized practices go a long way towards bolstering and strengthening my internal practices. Cutting to the chase, if you don't already, I suggest an informed, personalized body-love routine to help you keep it real. I've heard said that meditation is all you need, but I believe in a balanced approach to health and cultivation in which exercise/stretching is just as important as internal work. In this vain, I'll say that lower back pain is often connected to tightness/tension in the hips. From a yoga stand point, utilizing pigeon pose and plow pose can loosen muscles in the hip and lower back. There are other poses, but these two came must readily to mind as they are my go-to practices for lower back pain. And pigeon pose will very quickly show just how tight your hips are... very valuable. Also, are you at all familiar with trigger point therapy/deep-tissue massage? You may be try probing some of these areas (carefully) , with either your fingers or some sort of manipulator (massage tool / ball) and find where you may be locked up. Muscles that feel like rocks are under extreme duress (same goes for muscles/areas that feel like they're covered in pebbles/grains of rice) and should be lightly massaged until they begin to release (pretty phenomenal sensationally when you do release these muscles that have been locked up for months/years). Less pressure is often better than more pressure and there's no reason to press to the point of extreme pain (except to satisfy masochistic tendencies). Use analogues from internal work and smile and expand into these areas while you're manipulating manually. Pressed points that refer pain elsewhere are trigger points and essentially areas of congested/gathered tension and its important that these be released too. Use gentle massage and consistent pressure. I press until the pain decreases suddenly, press a bit harder (to penetrate the muscle better as it relaxes), and then slowly reduce pressure once the muscle relaxes a second time (I think of it as silking out). Depending on how intrenched the tension is in the muscles I'll come back later that session/day/week to work it out. Don't be surprised if you experience emotional release at some of these deeper muscles. Do revel in the sensation of reintegrating flow back into your movements. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscles_of_the_hip I'd set aside an hour and carefully scan all these areas (manually/internally-- the double punch approach is tough to beat). You often wont feel something on the first pass, the areas need to be loved a little before you can start digging in (especially in the hips IMO)... solid release of tension in these areas will *dramatically* improve the way in which you're able to move. godspeed, homie. balance.
  5. KUNLUN NEIGUNG METHOD

    The new kunlun book (by way of www.theprimordialalchemist.com) is supposed to drop any day now.... If you're curious, just email Diana through the above site and she'll be able to fill you in. Yes, the basic kunlun 1 pose can indeed be learned through Jenny Lamb (as Max initially learned it from her) ... but its worth learning it through Max (if you're interested in pursuing Kunlun as a system), as he presents the practice in such a way that it marries beautifully with the other core kunlun practice, red phoenix... And the other two poses that you mentioned were indeed once part of the system Max was utilizing, but he has since moved away from them... Now kunlun, at its most basic, revolves around the kunlun 1 pose and Red Phoenix (which must be learned through Max or the facilitators listed on the primordial alchemist website..) The most casual of searches on kunlun and max through the taobums archives will quickly reveal how polarized public opinion is on max/kunlun..... sidestepping all of that drama, I can say that I've been practicing sincerely for two years, have met Max once (and will see him again on halloween ) , and have nothing but the highest respect for him and kunlun... I had previously devoted a considerable amount of time to both zazen and then Spring Forest Qiqong but it's kunlun that continues to resonate so properly/perfectly/beautifully.. which is not to say that it will for you.. but give it a go, and give it time. balance.
  6. Kunlun Book

    Spoke with Diana a few days ago about an unrelated topic and the new book came up.. ... She says that it's going through final copyright now and they're crossing their fingers that they'll be able to release it at the end of the month...... with all of the delays, it's nice to hear that it might finally see public light. ... and if the "science" section up on primordial alchemist is any indication of what can be expected from this new text, it oughta be pretty interesting. just sayin. balance.
  7. what is "red Phoenix"

    You've been talking unfounded jive about Max since 2008........ has your own practice really done so little to you in the interim that this line of thought still seems reasonable?
  8. Man, what a bummer of a place this sounds like, Tulku... But I imagine the whole affair would be pretty short lived given the total lack of human interest in the perpetuation of their species with sex having become such a pleasure-less and disagreeable chore...
  9. Golden Dragon Body

    I appreciate the love, lovely. Nothing that I've experienced, although you've been grinding with the kunlun for far longer than I have. Interesting to continually see reverse breathing connected to a spontaneous event as opposed to something intentional... It seems to me that its almost always best to allow these things emerge in our practice naturally instead of forcing them into being. On a side note, I've enjoyed encountering some of your KL posts from years back in some of the more epic/infamous old-school kunlun posts here. you goof. While I myself am aware of two different rp 1/2 permutations (although I'm sure Max has many more tailored for different groups/people) , they are still both obviously red phoenix.. Meaning that although they utilize slightly different intent/color/shape/emphasis and such, the same movements are still being utilized in both practices... That said, even though the differences between these two are minor, they change the energetic qualities of the practice significantly... ... So I suppose I'm curious if this version of RP 1 Max taught your group in Hawaii was so different as to depart from the "established" RP 1 path through the head or is just different shapes/colors/intents? And I'm not asking for specific details about the practice that might discourage you from sharing. Last October, Max said he wasn't giving any more transmissions. Said it was important for students to earn "some of these things" themselves. And while it is a little disappointing not to receive something like that when you're expecting to, it's also massively important to remember/consider that the practices that Max gave us are designed to empower each of us fully... they are meant to make us self-sufficient so that we needn't look to anyone but ourselves for progress. Max has said before that its important for us to look at ourselves as an Indiana Jones of the internal... Be fearless, adventurous and playful (sincere!) in the pursuit of your practices. And I'd be wary about lusting after "experience outside of the mundane" ... If only because it's unfair to these practices to always be expecting something spectacular-- it's enough to know that they will change you through sincere practice.... .... it also seems better to open up gently/slowly so that you have an easier time integrating these changes into your life... violent/aggressive openings are so cliche. best. balance. balance.
  10. Golden Dragon Body

    duplicate.
  11. Golden Dragon Body

    I treat Red Phoenix as a suite, as thats the way Max communicated the practice to our group last October... Max said that doing 1+2+3 at either 12/24/36 repetitions (while maintaining the same rep number for each movement.. so if you do 12 reps at RP 1, do 12 reps for rp 2 and 3...) allowed for more emphasis at either ldt/mdt/udt.... It should come as no surprise that Max recommends the middle path. And adding to what Lucky mentioned about heart/mind during RP.. Max suggested that 2/3 of our awareness be kept in our hearts during these movements.. I think this is also why one breath becomes so important, as one breath is really the unifying practice in kunlun... We warm up with one breath by sinking into our hearts.. practice with one breath.. close down with one breath. The importance of moving from the heart in and out of practice can't be emphasized enough. At the very least, it seems that 1 and 2 ought to be done together... but with Max having called RP 3 "gentle self-obliteration" .... It seems almost tragic to leave that one out of the queue. I think my experiences with RP mirror some of the other posters here with that suite deepening much quicker than KL 1.. but RP just seems pretty heavy duty at times.. Both in terms of the in-practice sensations and the sense of post practice growth in the brain.. I feel this one working long after I've finished a session.. ...RP is also the first practice I've done that's been totally self-limiting.. In that I always know when I'm pushing towards over-stimulation... but after giving it a few days off I always feel good to go again.. Build, ground, circulate. I too notice diminished mental chatter during RP, but I generally chalk that up to the fact that RP requires some internal guiding and that focus takes steam away from idle chatter. As for Kl 1, I'm approaching 2 years of use and the sensations have always been minimal (and still no bliss experience, for whatever that's worth). I started off with some movement in my legs... then all movement stopped for quite some time, and just recently, my body has been doing something like the wave starting from my waist and moving up through my spine.. very gentle... Even w/o the aggressive sensation and externalized movement that seems so typical of the practice, I find KL 1 to be massively clarifying after 60 minutes.... So it seems mighty foolish to me to judge the efficacy of a practice based solely on the phenomena it calls up... My heart tells me its the right practice for me to do, so I trust in that feeling.. and as indicated by my bodies recent insistence on this subtle body wave, the practice is always changing whether we notice it or not. Seems to me I also heard via Jenny Lamb that Max and Kan are the only two people she's met that are beyond kunlun 1.... And I think with the Kunlun in particular, it's interesting to see just how markedly different the experiences are from one practitioner to the next... the kunlun sure is a helluva lot of fun. balance.
  12. Red Phoenix

    And to build upon this... when last I saw Max in October, he was no longer giving transmissions. He said that they weren't necessary, and that it was important for students to earn some of these things themselves.. Which makes sense especially with Max actively breaking away from the more dogmatic approaches of other schools and encouraging students to take responsibility for themselves and learn to look within instead of without for guidance. balance.
  13. I haven't been active here for quite sometime, but I'm noticing a consistent "woe is me" bent to your posts.... What gives, homie? Since when is misery and negativity a more effective salve than love? How would yet more pain and anguish be efficacious in dealing with the fallout from this catastrophe you foresee? Or do you expect to be cast off into oblivion with the other fornicators?
  14. But these be mine favorite parts! ..... And what's wrong with procreation? Truly. Don't we need babies? Shouldn't souls have an opportunity to liberate themselves?
  15. Me has difficulty understanding the potential reasoning behind such a statement... Would you care to elaborate some for me, homie?
  16. Lucid Dreaming anyone?

    I've been working towards it for sometime... spurned on by the wise words of Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche who said (paraphrasing) "If you can't become aware during sleep, how can you possibly hope to become aware while awake.." .. I found the comparison of the dream that most of us live and never wake from to being asleep and not realizing that we were dreaming to be pretty compelling.... but alas, I continue to simply enjoy the unusual beauty of my dreams instead of waking to the revelation that I am dreaming ... All in good time.... This is Wangyals book ( http://www.amazon.com/Tibetan-Yogas-Dream-Sleep/dp/1559391014/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320204414&sr=8-1)... I found it to be tremendously informative... But the only success I really gained from the practices within the book was to have dreams that reflected the areas in which my mind was placed before drifting off (you rotate your intent throughout the night by waking periodically to reset).... These days I use the kunlun dreaming practices, but my experiences have been similar. The quality of the dreams change, but I still find myself unable to bring awareness into the dreaming.
  17. Mt. Shasta

    You're no fun, Ralis.... where be that heart o' yours?
  18. Yigong by Sifu Jenny Lamb

    I met Max this weekend. Without a doubt one of the nicest and most genuine humans I've met. Always joking and laughing (and what a laugh!) around... He cultivates an incredibly lighthearted and bubbly atmosphere during the classes... Very relaxed.. Very approachable (but what eyes! Galaxies!)... Makes no secret of his trickster nature. Makes no secret that he holds things back and gives students only what they need at the time. Drops hints. Half-truths. Things that get you thinking and allow you to break through yourself ("you've gotta earn it!"). Kan's challenge came up innocently and without guile at one point in the course of regular conversation. Same story. He calls Jenny his "sis" , and is also open about the fact that KL 1-3 are from her, but now with his new system (book enroute) he is careful to note that the end product of it is different from Lamb's system, and from the systems of his other teachers. Says that his teachers are behind him. Says that he has teachers that no one believes him about but that he's "tired of trying to convince people" of their existence. Showed us pictures upon pictures on his harddrives of kan and his GDB etc. No. He did not show us the GDB in person, but seeing/feeling what he is capable of during the kunlun games (energy games with eachother and nature) , really rams home some of his pretty outrageous power (and our own innate ability... he says we'll exceed his current level in our lifetimes if we keep practicing). At some point I think it's important to consider that if such an overt demonstration of attainment is necessary to convince a student of a practices worth than the student is probably not worthy of the practice and the teachers time. Feeling seems more than a little important here. Felt/intuitive truth. Self-efficacy in practice etc. Mentioned "boring" siddhis like levitation. Says he's tired of taking challenges. Say's he's tired of teaching but that he's waiting for something specific to happen so that he can pass the school over to Kan. Say's he suspects he'll pick up Alpaca farming (truly) once this has happened. Max is a story teller. He inundated us with stories throughout the weekend. Some ring immediately true. Some I question. I think about his forwardness with the trickster/coyote stuff. I'm not at all perturbed by this perceived inconsistency in the truth. All of it gets me breaking out of my own conceptual frameworks of what is and what is not possible. Questioning keeps you limber. Blind acceptances seems like it encourages stagnation. Max encourages you to explore it all, and so gives you that varied terrain. People like to nitpick (the taobums more than others). I suppose that's only natural. But when it comes down to it, nearly everyone who has complained about Max here has either never met him, or has conceded that regardless of how they feel about the him, he has helped them none the less. I learned a *huge* amount this weekend. Perhaps most importantly that advanced practitioners are still human. In fact, that's all these various schools of practice are achieving--- they bring us to our full human potential... And Max is indeed very human. Say's even he can't be positive 100% of the time (Talks about daoist tourettes ) .... There is much more that I could say about how tremendously beautiful I found him and Diana (who is no energetic slouch herself) and the entire weekend I spent with them in Mt. Shasta, but I don't think it's all that necessary to convince those dissatisfied with Max of his simple, bubbly, down to earth awesomeness. He is the man. Meet him. He is a human with human flaws. He is also the product of a lifetime spent living his art, and so shines forward as an unassuming but brilliant example for us energetic whelps. I will be seeing him again. balance.
  19. Kunlun:4 Years later

    I'll be seeing Max in ten(!) days.... Tremendously excited. * Oh, and any bums going to be in attendance? 22-23 in California?
  20. OK Seriously Where To Get KUNLUN BOOK?

    In a brief exchange of messages I had with Diana some weeks back, she indicated that a new book was going through final proofs and that it was their intention to have the book released by the new year.... So, still some months off, but it seems that there is most definitely something in the pipeline. balance.
  21. How do you heal a broken spirit?

    Mm.. yes.... those blues... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD4fKKhYS1g