Simple_Jack

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My link My link This looks like a really cool idea. Supposedly it's planned to be finished in 2020. It's funny I saw this, because growing up I would sometimes day dream the city of the future would look like this (except with flying cars dammit! LOL:) What do you guys think?

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Nan Huai Chins comments on the last passage: "If you cannot accomplish even one of the items mentioned in these ten questions, then you should not deceive yourself or others and think you are right. If you have any doubts at all, you must ask for instruction from enlightened teachers everywhere. You must certainly reach the realm of the Buddhas and the enlightened teachers. Only when you have accomplished all that the enlightened teachers awakened to, can you reach the level of freedom from doubt beyond study, where you no longer have to study. When you "give your wandering mind a rest," the mind of false thought totally stops. "Then you will handle yourself with concentration and contemplation in harmony and act behalf of others by teaching with skill in means." After you have attained great penetrating enlightenment , you either travel the Hinayana road, and further cultivate the four dhyanas and the eight samadhis and realize their fruit, and become fully equipped with the six spiritual powers and three Buddha-bodies and all the wondrous functions of the spiritual powers; or else you travel the Mahayana road, and sacrifice your own cultivation to help others, and appear in the worldto propagate the Dharma. "If you cannot go everywhere in the universe to study, or make a broad study of the multitude of scriptures," that is, if you think there are too many works in the Buddhist canon for you to be able to read them all, "just make a careful reading of The Source Mirror and you will naturally gain entry. This is the most important of all the teachings, the gate for moving toward the Path of enlightenment." Zen master Yen-Shou urges you to make a careful study of his The Source Mirror, because he has collected together in his book all the essential points of all the scriptures. "It is like watching the mother to know the children, like finding the root to know the branches. When you pull the cloth, all the threads from which it is woven come along too." How beautiful the language is here. This is the importance of this book as Zen master Yen-Shou explains it."

For the hell of it I'll finish the last passage: The final passage of The Source Mirror presents the following information. If you cannot really do these things, you should not assume a proud, deceptive, lying attitude, or take a self-satisfied attitude. What you must do is make a wide-ranging study of the ultimate teaching, and broaden your learning of previous people of knowledge. Penetrate to the inherent nature that is the source of the enlightened teachers and Buddha, and reach the stage of freedom from doubt that is beyond study. Only at this point can you stop your studies and give your wandering mind a rest. Then you will handle yourself with concentration and contemplation in harmony, and act on behalf of others by teaching with skill in means. If you cannot go everywhere in the universe to study, or make broad study of the multitude of scriptures, just make a careful reading of The Source Mirror, and you will naturally gain entry. This is the most important of all the teachings, the gate for moving toward the Path of enlightenment. It is like watching the mother to know the child, like finding the root to know the branches. When you pull the cloth, all the threads of the net are straight. When you pull the cloth, all the threads from which it is woven come along too.

Nan Huai Chins comment on the questions: The preceding ten questions can provide definitive criteria for deciding whether or not a person is really enlightened. The first question deals with the realm of illuminating mind and seeing true nature, being totally clear at all times in all places about all things, just as you would be when seeing the colors of a painting in broad daylight, and being in the same realm as such exemplers of wisdom as the Bodhisattva Manjushri. Can you be this way? The second question asks whether you can be in accord with the Path when you encounter poeple and situations, or when other people get in the way. The expression "encounter situations and face objects" is very broad. Can you see forms and hear sounds without your mind moving? In your daily life, even at night when you fall asleep, can you be in accord the the Path in all things? Can you do that? The third question is about the Buddhist scriptures. Can you take The Lotus Sutra and The Surangama Sutra and read them and fully understand them? Can you hear the loftiest explanations of the Dharma without becoming afraid? Can you thoroughly understand understand them, without having any doubts? Can you do that? The fourth question asks, when students bring to bear all sorts of learning to ask you questions, are you able to answer them with unobstructed eloquence? All of you can investigate the last six questions for yourselves.

Replying to suninmyeyes and 3bob here: Yes you can definitely verify if someone is enlightened. Hell, Zen master Yen-Shou (In his book The Source Mirror/ Tsung Chin Lu which hasn't been translated into English) came up with 10 questions of how to verify if someone is enlightened I'm going to take this straight out of Working Toward Enlightenment by Nan Huai Chin: "The Source Mirror tells us what enlightenment means. In the book, ten questions are raised. There are no enlightened people who have not mastered the scriptural teachings. They know all the principles of the Buddhist scriptures at one glance. For them reading the scriptures is like reading a novel: They understand everything as soon as they read it, and they do not have to study them in depth. Zen master Yen-Shou's Source Mirror says this in Volume 1: Suppose there are people who stubbornly cling to their own views, who do not believe the words of the Buddha, who create attitudes that block them, and who cut off other routes of study. For their sake I will now discuss ten questions in order to firmly establish the guiding principles. First question: When we completely see true nature as plainly as we see colors in broad daylight, are we the same as bodhisattvas like Manjushri? Second question: When we can clearly understand the source in everything, as we encounter situations and face objects, as we see form and hear sound, as we raise and lower our feet, as we open and close our eyes, are we in accord with the path? Third question: When we read through the teachings of Buddha for our era contained in the Buddhist canon, and the sayings of all the Zen masters since antiquity, and we hear their profundities without becoming afraid, do we always get accurate understanding and have no doubts? Fourth question: When people pose difficult differentiating questins to us, and press us with all sorts of probing inquiries, are we able to respond with the four forms of eloquence, and resolve all their doubts? Fifth question: Does your wisdom shine unhindered at all times in all places, with perfect penetration from moment to moment, not encountering any phenomenon that can obstruct it, and never being interrupted for even an instant? Sixth question: When all kinds of adverse and favorable and good and evil realms appear before us, are we unobstructed by them, and can we see through them all? Seventh question: In all the mental states in Treatise on the Gate for Illuminating the Hundred Phenomena, can we see for each and every one of them, their fine details, the essential nature, and their fundamental source and point of origin, and not be confused by birth and death and the sense faculties and sense organs? Eighth question: Can we discern reality in the midst of all forms of conduct and activity, whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, whether receiving instructions or responding, whether dressing or eating? Ninth question: Can we be singleminded and unmoved whether we hear there is a Buddha or we hear there is no Buddha, whether we hear ther are sentient beings or we hear there are no sentient beings, whether wea re praised or slandered or affirmed or denied? Tenth question: Can we clearly comprehend all the differentiating knowledge we hear, and comprehend both true nature and apperant form, inner truth and phenomena, without hindrance, and discern the source of all phenomena, even including the appearance of the thousand sages in the world, without any doubts?

Hey Kate, I know this isn't related to the thread, but what I'm about to type can give you one example of what VJ was saying. This is a verse from Zen master Lin-Chi: "Going along with the flow without stopping to ask how True awareness shining boundlessly, describing it to them Detached from forms, detached from names, people don't accept it After the sword of wisdom has been used, we must hurry to hone it" This is an excerpt from Working Toward Enlightenment explaining the last part of the verse: "....Zen master Lin chi is instructing us that before we have illuminated mind and seen true nature, we must reflect back and examine our selves at all times, to reverse the workings of thought and cultivate samadhi, and not let false thoughts arise. For a person who has already been enlightened, after using his meditative accomplishments, he must immediately take them back and hone them further." Hope this helps you understand better what he meant.

Ah yes, Confucianism.....there are many things from that philosophy that can help cultivators. You'll notice it (as all religions do) talks of watching/improving your behaviour. In the road of cultivation it all comes down to improving your behaviour in the world. This is related link from an interview on Nan Huai Chin: http://www.presencing.com/dol/interviews/Nan-1999.shtml It goes into a bit of Confucian philosophy and other stuff. A very good article.

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I'm done in this thread, but before I depart I want to to add one more thing. Since I'm so attached to Zen and Vaj likes Zen dialogue so much (LOLZ,) I'll post this...... From The Zen teaching of Bodhidharma: Everything that appears in the three realms comes from the mind. Hence Buddhas of the past and future teach mind to mind without bothering about definitions. But if they don't define it, what do they mean by mind? You ask. That's your mind. I answer. That's my mind. If I had no mind, how could I answer? If you had no mind how could you ask? That which asks is your mind. Through endless kalpas without beginning, whatever you do, wherever you are, that's your real mind, that's your real Buddha. This mind is the Buddha says the same thing. Beyond this mind you'll never find another Buddha. To search for enlightenment or nirvana beyond this mind is impossible. The reality of your own self-nature, the absence of cause and effect, is whats meant by mind. Your mind is nirvana. You might think you can find a Buddha or enlightenment somewhere beyond the mind, but such a place doesn't exist. Trying to find a Buddha or enlightenment is like trying to grab space. Space has a name, but no form. It's not something you can pick up or put down. And you certainly can't grab it. Beyond this mind you'll never see a Buddha. The Buddha is a product of your mind. Why look for a Buddha beyond this mind?

From The Diamond Sutra,: The Buddha said, "The living beings in the multitude of lands have many different kinds of minds which are known to the Tathagata. Why is this? That which the Tathagata calls the mind is not really the mind but is merely called the such." The Diamond Sutra: Shubuti replied " As I understand the teaching of the Buddha, there is no definitive Dharma called anuttara-samyaksambodhi, nor is there any definitive Dharma which the Tathagata can expound. Why is this? The Dharma which the Tathagata expounds is inconceivable and beyond words. It is neither Dharma nor not-Dharma. All of the saints and sages vary only in mastery of this."

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Balance, don't worry I would never get offended for something like that. In fact I've always had an interest in that type of stuff. Just his post didn't scream tiger bends, planks or other feats of body weight strength. If you haven't heard of this already check out "Building The Olympic Body" by Christopher Sommer. It deals with all types of body weight and ring training. Here's his website: http://www.gymnasticbodies.com/ Markern, I was just messing with you about the Brad Pitt Thing. Anyways you are burned out. If it gets to the point that you're having trouble just thinking and you're tired all the time you need to fix whatever is the problem. Either you're not eating enough, you need to take a week off, or you're pushing the weights too much and not backing off or properly handling the load. I would suggest taking a few days off to recover and then if you want start on those programs. The reason I chose those out of hundreds of other set ups is because they work. Period. Or you can take a cue from amped training and start periodizing your load. Strength and size gains have to do with with genetics so I can't really give you an accurate number. Although it is normal for beginners to gain say 30-40 pounds on the deadlift or 15-20 pounds on the bench in month or so. You may be able to do more I don't know (especially if you eat alot.) You can keep gaining for a long time if you properly manage the training load. Say you trained 5/3/1 for about 6 months straight. You notice the weights are starting to get too heavy for you to recover from workout to workout or you eventually stall at a certain poundage. You would then reset the poundage and then build up from there eventually beating the last poundage that you stalled at. The way these programs are built though, you can keep going for probably a year or more if you wanted. That's the good thing about being a beginner. About the clubbells and taking martial arts. Sure you'll build some muscle doing that. Especially if they do some other type of conditioning besides cardiovascular for the MA. If you're gym or if you're gonna buy them, then I'd suggest kettlebells over clubbells as their more versatile. You'll tone up with Pilates. Although if you want to look like Brad Pitt in Troy, and you're not already his size then free weights are the way to go.

I don't know if this advice will be helpful, but here I go: Your body has adapted to the dosage of herbs given to you. In my experience, (when I was taking Dr. Lin's hormonal supplements when I was regularly lifting weights) I noticed that the effects were noticeably less effective over the weeks then when I started on them. That was after taking them as prescribed day in and day out for weeks or months on end. I tried cycling the dosage or not taking anything for 2 or more weeks in between cycles. I would then notice that the effect didn't totally wear off like it did before. So my body got some off time before it got used to the dosage again. It's not unlike bodybuilders who cycle their steroids. You should really discuss this with your TCM doctor since he is the one prescribing them to you. Also i heard that too much of a good thing can either stop working (like above) or have a negative effect because your body has become too dependent on the substance. I hope someone knowledgeable can discuss this.

A Seeker, your brother is a BEAST!!! Balance not dogging you, everyone has their personal goals there's nothing wrong with that. I don't want other people reading this thinking lifting weights will make them musclebound. Gaining muscular body weight doesn't automatically mean you're muscle bound and can't run or perform in athletics. Even though my goal was to gain muscular body weight that didn't mean I became an unfunctional muscle bound kid. Lifting actually made me stronger,able to jump higher/further, and sprint faster. Admittedly I had a single minded goal of gaining weight so that I pretty much cut out any scheduled cardio (I'm also lazy.) Although I did actually gian cardiovascular endurence and sustained strength along the way. This guy said he wanted to improve his body comp, look like Brad Pitt (LOLZ) and in the process improve his functional strength. If he's wants to improve athletic ability specifically along the way then conjugate periodization (or block periodization) is the way to go(that Skinny Basterds program was originally developed for highschool athletes.) I've showed him one very effective way if all he wants is just size & strength. http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/boy_you_gotta_carry_that_weight. Here's using the strongman lifts for cardio if you you want Markern.

Guys, I've already provided 3 programs that periodize the load. The first one is called conjugate periodization (adapted from Russian weightlifters) by Westside Barbell. It's used by elite powerlifters and novices worlwide. The second is based on the first and was adapted for beginners and athletes. Both (since being conjugate periodization) allow several different types of strength to be developed in the same cycle (strength endurence/hypertrophy, limit strength, speed strength.) The third is just simple linear periodization (and a simple deload week) created by an accomplished powerlifter. The third is great for just getting big and strong without the headache from over thinking program design. Like I said he's a beginner he shouldn't be designing his own programs yet. I did that shit and it was a waste of time for me (because I just didn't know enough about my body.) He also mentioned his strength levels and those programs will get him strong (if he didn't I would've just told him to do a 3 or 4 day bodypart/push-pull split.) Blasto, you mean the powerlifts right (squat, deadlift, bench?) Because Olympic lifts are the snatch and clean & jerk (along with all the pulls derived from those lifts.) I wouldn't recommend doing that shit without a coach to teach those lifts properly (also for program design.) I tried it and yes, you should definitely get someone to show you proper technique. Also isolation exercises have their place in a routine. Lifters in strongman, powerlifting, and Olympic weightlifting all use them. I did minimalist three day a week full body programs when I first started out and I didn't get very much growth in the upper body from that (like just doing presses or just benching.) This guy wants to impress the ladies with teh gunz. He'll need curls for that. Plus if he wants he can do what I did: Use compound variations of those lifts for emphasizing specific body parts. All lifts ramped of course. If you choose 5/3/1 then you can (if you want to get a wider range of reps)undulate your auxiliary lifts(I know it's contradictory to what I said above.) So say for MP day you do 5/3/1 for the main lift then you do say 4X8 for behind the neck presses and 6X3 for weighted pullups followed by 5X5 for curls. Or the same but instead within a workout just each day (monday 5's next day 10's.) You then switch up the rep ranges for each auxiliary lift throughout the week. It can get a lil convoluted but it is heavy/medium/light within a workout or week. Or just keep it simple and either stick with one rep range for the entire cycle or you can linear periodize it (wk 1 10's, wk2 8's, etc.) Deload ALL lifts on the back off week. That means for the extra lifts either reduce the sets, reps, or poundage all by 40%-50%. Here's more tips for making this successful. For protein: generally 1 lb of protein per body weight is good for optimal muscle growth. Carbs didn't matter to me so I don't remember. You can use an online food log to figure out the calorie and mineral content of food you eat. A general rule (I got from articles)for adding calories usually is 15% to 20% added to your base caloric need (so say in order to maintain weight you need 2500 kcals; you add 15%-20% of those kcals so you can gain weight.) If that doesn't add weight then add more calories. A scale to weigh yourself daily is important so you can see if you aren't losing or gaining too much weight. Also you can eat less on deload weeks to maintain you're weight since you're not expending as much energy. By the way coconut oil is great, but it tends clump up in the blender with all the other stuff. It also isn't as cheap as other oils. Blasto, is that deer antler stuff a pro-hormone? Because if he wants to keep up the hormones (for sexy time with teh ladies) then Dr. Lin's supplements would be good also. Links: http://www.ampedtraining.com/articles/periodization-redux. This site has good info on making periodization simple. http://www.fitday.com/. I used this log to track calorie content of food I ate that didn't have nutritional labels. http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/the_carb_cycling_codex. Please, please, PLEASE DO NOT buy into the attitude that you you gain alot of muscle by staying at 4% bodyfat. You'll really fall into a narcissist attitude by thinking like that and sell you're self short. Just eat and lift heavy; dont get too scientific with that shit until you feel you need to cut. You can bulk year round if you want without becoming a fat slob, as long as you're progressively adding weight to the bar. I'm showing you that article for (there's alot of articles and threads on carb cycling) when you get to the desired weight and want to cut while maintaining the muscle you've gianed. Please no bulk 1 month then cut the other, you'll make almost no progress that way. Stay on until you get to your desired weight OR maintain weight for a bit to cut the extra chub and then continue bulking. Like before don't nit pick too much. Also since we're on a forum with people obsessed about the chi mai of the body, when your meridians open chakras/dantians develop or whatever your body will handle supplements and food differently than before. I stopped lifting for a year and just started this Monday lifting and found that the leftover supplements I had had a amplified effect or can be too much if taken in the quentities before. Watch how shit effects your body when pursuing neigong or whatever alongside lifting.

First off what are your goals? How big you want to get? Any goals for the big four (benchpress, deadlift, squat, military press?) Don't listen to girls or the media about body comp, they don't know what they want. It makes me cringe that you want to "Look like Brad Pitt in Fightclub/Troy" but I'll give you some advice: You have to bulk up/lift progressively heavier weights to build muscle (using mainly compound barbell exercises.) You can't "get ripped" if you haven't built a good amount of muscle. Also if you go this route don't worry about getting "freakishly bodybuilder big" you don't just wake up one day being big. This shit takes time & effort to get any decent gains in strength and size. By the way clubbells and kettlebells can build some muscle and strength, but you're better off sticking to barbell weights to build a base of muscle and absolute strength in a relatively short time. How do I know this? I have both clubbells and kettlebells ( while they are good for cardio and strength endurence) but, when I wanted to gain 45 pounds of muscle in about a year (going from 135 to 180 at 5'8) I used free weights focusing on compound exercises with auxiliary exercises for lats, bi's ,tri's, calfs, etc. You need a plan. So far you're gaining because you're a beginner and anything will work at this point, but It'll stop after a while if you don't know what you're doing. Since you're a beginner I wouldn't bother with designing your own program yet. I'll post some programs that worked for others and one that worked for me (and should have stuck with from the beginning. http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/weight-training-weight-lifting/westside-barbell-basic-template-469668.html You want strength and size this is a good way to go. If it's too complicated than try the other two. http://www.defrancostraining.com/articles/38-articles/60-westside-for-skinny-bastards-part1.html. A variant of the above adapted for "hardgainers" and beginners.Can be adapted for three time's a week. http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/how_to_build_pure_strength. This is by far the most simple. You cant go wrong with a program like this. Can be adapated for beginner, intermediate, or advanced. Was responsible for putting on a good amount of bulk on my body. Especially on my upper body which was lacking compared to my lower body due to full body programs I messed around with. Can be adapted to three days a week. There's a shit ton of articles and threads upon threads about all of these programs all over the internet. Don't go from one program to the next. Stick with one for a few months and change it up if you want. Although I don't advise this as I wasted months doing this. If you want to try each one stick with one of them for 4 weeks minimum and then change it up. If you switch around too early nitpicking programs here and there it'll waste time and your body won't know what to adapt to. Don't combine programs. Keep It Simple Stupid. Start light and build up the weights over the weeks. Ramp your weights starting from a light "warm-up" set in the chosen rep range until you get to the top set of say 10 (so you choose 3X10 you ramp to a top set for that day.) The 5/3/1 has a deload week built into it, but keep that term in mind in the future. Diet: Like I said above you cannot gain much muscle without eating a surplus of calories. If you want to get big and strong don't worry about a lil bit of fat accumulation. You can't expect to stay at 6% body fat and gain any significant amount of muscle that way. If you're gaining 1-3 pounds a week you're doing good. Gaining over 3 pounds a week and you're probably eating too much, but with the cardio (don't go over board if you want to gain muscle) and you're martial arts you should be fine. Carbs are your friend. Use a scale. Use this calculator to find out how much you should be eating to gain muscle (http://www.johnberardi.com/updates/july262002/na_masscalculator.htm.) But for a general rule add 300-500 (depending on activity levels) calories to your resting metabolic rate (so say its 2500 add 500 calories.) Eat every 2-4 hours in a day until the desired calories are reached. Anything goes in terms of diet. High calorie foods are good. Unless you like packing food and carrying it with you; You will most likely have to eat some fast food in order to get those calories. You're bulking so eat whole milk dairy, any kinds of meat, nuts, vegatables, eggs, fruits, pastas, whole grains, fuck eat a small child if you have to. Supplements/Shakes: Chances are you won't be able/want to eat all that food in solid form. Blenders are buddies. Shakes with milk, protein powder, weight gain powder, peanut butter, oatmeal and a few table spoons of olive oil (yes olive oil, that shit is 120 calories a table spoon) is one I would make. Although any combination shake that is 800 or more calories will work. Oils are (I think essential) to get those calories. If not olive then flax seed oil or whatever. You will be probably get diarrhea at first, but you'll get used to it in a couple days. Stick with organic whole milk or some sort of nut milk or whatever. Avoid soy milk and soy products period. as for supplements I'd go with either whey protein or egg protein. If you want, weight gain powder. Brewers yeast, fish oils, dessicated liver tablets, cod liver oil or whatever else are fine too (all good for the vitamins yo.) Worry about losing the fat, water weight or whatever you gained after you've bulked. Don't get obsessive about about fat gain, unless you;re looking at yourself and see its getting out of hand. In that case adjust shit till the problems fixed. If you're progressively adding weight to the bar you WILL gain muscle with minimal fat gain. Remember bulking doesn't mean eating to get fat, it means eating more than usual to gain muscle. Here's some other tips and links to help you out: if you add pullups and can't crank out more than 5 bodyweight reps for multiple sets look up this http://www.cbass.com/Pavel%27sLadders.htm. As I was gaining my rep max went down. I used that when going for high volume of bodyweight reps. Pullups are king for lat development, but rows are great too. I did chest supported rows off a bench with palms up and it widened my back well also. http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/10_forgotten_muscle_building_foods http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/excelling_at_the_big_lifts. For lifting technique look up articles by Dave Tate and on www.dragondoor.com or Pavel Tsatsouline. This advice will set you up however big you want to get. Although for wanting to look like Brad Pitt in Fightclub, I feel sorry for your mother (Can anyonw guess what movie I got this from?) Atleast you don't want to be LaBuff like Shia. Har har

Hello to all. Been a lurker for a while, decided to sign up to look at pics and to post noob questions. I like cheesecake and long walks on the beach.