Harmonious Emptiness

Okay, I'm no doctor, but is the retention due contraction of passages, or just no feeling or desire to go? Do you feel like you have to go but you can't, or do you just feel a bunch of stuff up there but no impulse to urinate?

Sorry to hear that, Audiohealing. Any ideas how they were injured?

Again, these are the questions pretty much every seeker has to ask at some point. I really think it depends on who you ask as to whether Enlightenment is gradual, a path and process, or sudden. Dogen, who is sort of the beginning of Japanese Zen, says that zazen meditation IS Enlightenment. The difference between between anyone who can meditate reasonably well and someone who is Awakened is that the Awakened person has had some insight that allows them to kind of say "whatever.." to anything that would keep them from their Buddha Mind which we can all realize. Most people get in a tricky situation and they say "oh damn, what am I going to do" whereas a Realized person might say "well, if I actually took all this personally I might be bothered. Fortunately I know that the 'receiver' of that circumstance is but a fabrication of mind-system, so I'll do what I can to relieve the suffering of those who haven't realized that and are now suffering the effects of the great delusion." So now, the Awakened person does not slip on their Ego, so by some standards they are Enlightened. By other standards, they might get blinded by the fog and forget this truth, so they are not in fact Awakened but on some such rung of the ladder to being Awakened since they still get confused by the fog in the mirror. So some people have less fog in the mirror than others, but they can all see their face in the mirror. I don't really care for an opinion on all of that either way. "Can it be triggered by someone how isn't Enlightened?" Yes, by one's own effort to see through the fog in the "mirror" "Do you wish to be Enlightened?" This is like a trick question, but yes "would you still post" I don't see why not. Life is life at the corner store as it is here, but the store keeper probably doesn't know what dependent origination is... "Those fences are circling you quicker than ever" Do they do mirrors?

Thanks for the answers Steve, Chi, and Anamatva. I guess it makes sense that a large part of the organ exercise in Qi Gong has to do with lifting and stretching the arms and body so Tai Chi would naturally help too. It would still be interesting to hear a myth or something about the transformation from Qi Gong to Tai Chi, but I guess it's there every time you practice it

I guess it's sort of like: Jimi Hendrix plays a beautiful guitar solo, then you say to him, "okay, so now I want you to explain to me what you meant by that." You know what I mean?

Just knocking to say I enjoyed the read!

I don't know, I've never learned Tai Chi properly, but Qi Gong, ime, involves more purification, bringing chi into the body, clearing stagnation, etc.. Tai Chi doesn't seem as focused on the healing side of it, but it seems like it came about as a longer set of movements. However, I don't think so many Tai Chi students are thinking, 'ok, draw chi into middle dan tien with this move, and remove stagnation with this move.' It seems more of just a way to sychronize mind breath and body to them, while underneath a Qi Gong practitioner can see the movement differently; yin force and yang force becomes gathering and purging respectively. At least that's what it looks like to me. My main question, is that if Qi Gong is of Taoist origin, then Tai Chi must be if Tai Chi is secretly or not so secretly a longer series of Qi Gong. I suppose some are more than others too. Does Tai Chi, at some level, say 'this moves cleanses your liver, and this move energizes your middle dan tien'?

My thanks as well. I guess Magus of Java has some philosophy to it. I got the impression it was just going to be an action adventure story about this guy doing magic tricks. Sounds like it offers more than just 'whoah!' factor.

My brother had Tao of Pooh when I was 15 or 16 and I basically took it over and read it 4 or 5 times. In University someone suggested I read Essays in Idleness by Yoshida Kenko, around the same time I chose to do an assignment on the Zen Tea Ceremony. I had always had a fascination with the 'mystic Orient' since my childhood Ninja phase too. Never had much for resources to study martial arts for very long, so the library and used book stores were like treasure hunts for me, and still are of course... At the same time, reading made me reluctant to study with a teacher. After reading ancient masters, they just didn't seem like they could offer me much better, though I'm seeing that serious teachers are accessible now, especially in Buddhism. Though, without speaking Chinese, and not being interested in super powers, I feel like personal study is still the best way to go for me right now. Kudos to those who can afford better. As George Harrison said 'It doesn't matter how well you can play if you're not Enlightened.'

Also, for those unfamiliar with it, if your buying a traditional tea set for high quality Chinese tea, I highly recommend getting one with 'smelling cups.' It's pretty amazing how floral quality tea smells with these. You'll see a demonstration of how to use them about 5:50 into this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4eDYmRSpZI&feature=related

what about the Taoist orgins of Qi Gong or the Qi Gong origins of Tai Chi? I got the impression that Tai Chi was basically an extensive set of Qi Gong movments with martial application.

Obviously, listen to those with credential and experience on this before myself, but it sounds to me like you would be best to do some qi gong which involves purging and gathering, such as Primordial Qi Gong a la Ken Cohen, so that you can replace the dark energy with pure light energy. This reminds me of people who do Ayuhuasca but first need to go through a few weeks of purging with various herbal and other preparations. There needs to be proper ceremony to purify the vessel before the pure energies will knock on your door. In fact, if you can see Ken Cohen he may be able to help with such preparation, though understand that proper ceremony and offering need to be appreciated. just thought I would put that down for consideration by yourself or the facilitators. Peace...

When I was younger I had a dream that I found this nice clearing outside of some woods and the sun was shining and I thought "hey, feels like a groovy spot to do a sun dance" so I did and then a bear came out of the woods and roared at me like "STOP THAT. GET OUT OF THERE. NOBODY SAID YOU COULD DO THAT." Then I realized I may have been getting too close to some things that I didn't understand and had no business dabbling in. I hope sharing that might possibly protect someone from making the same errors. These traditions have unimaginable power which can be very dangerous when not approached in proper manners.

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I guess (know) sensations are not the be all and end all, though they do help the intent for me as I expect chi to following them.. or so I think. I don't have a teacher so I just try to get a broad amount of perspectives and then go with the commonalities between them. I suppose I'm also listening to Aretha Franklin "ya go to do it with feeling" while staying loose, and focusing on feel more than form, like maybe moving faster at the end of a motion to maintain the focus on the energy movement. So, I could be wrong, but I think sensations are useful, though perhaps not always necessary.. just m.o.

Here is an excerpt of Buddhas prescription for mindfulness: Old Path White Clouds Remember that a larger purpose of this mindfulness is to notice the unconscious things so that we can let them go, not to just focus on them. We might walk around and feel things without realizing them which affect us and we don't know why. When we are conscious "oh, I have some arrogance about that" for example, we can let it go rather than continuing the same pattern without realizing it. It's just a matter of detached observation and not obsessive observation. It sounds like you might be straining your mind with obsessive observation. Practice this insight during meditation and then when you wash the dishes. Know that you are washing the dishes, know that you are putting soap on the sponge, know that you are relaxed or tense, that you are or are not enjoying it, but don't obsess over it, just notice it and let it go, returning to what you're doing. Paying attention to all our actions strengthens our ability for attention, which translates to deeper awareness as well, but open and relaxed is indispensable to this awareness . Also, if you want to be in the present, I find the surest way is to stop thoughts. Then there is nowhere else to be but the present moment. Again, try this during meditation first. For tension in the body, think of a musical string. If it is too tight it breaks, it has to be loose enough to resonate nicely. Obviously you don't want to be tight like a piano string, but you want to be loose enough to resonate nicely while tight enough to sit up straight. Qi Gong definitely will harmonize body mind and breath. Personally I keep my eyes closed at least 90% of the time during qi gong as I find watching my hands to distract from what's happening internally, and frankly I don't want to see weird things if they happen. I guess it's sort of like playing music too, you can feel it more when your eyes are closed. Overall, following every piece of advice does not help me tune in so I ignore most of it and keep a few common denominators in mind, like follow Tao, and internal awareness, don't mistake a glimpse for the whole enchilada.. best of luck... (edits in italics)

Then you have: yin is "weak" or yielding, yet it is the best way to defeat something of greater strength. Yin energy is also cultivated in Taoist longevity practices more so than Yang (maybe because it's more subtle and harder to obtain), "still waters run deep, "one who knows does not speak," etc... just know that neither is greater than the other. Just like our lungs must contract AND expand. Harmony, wisdom, and recognizing the bigness of smallness, the smallness of bigness. Those are some more basics, but none of it can really be absolute since you will also see that there are later the 5 elements which has futher compartmentalization with greater yin or yang and lesser yin or yang I guess what I'm also getting at is the basic Taoist (and or Buddhist for that matter) premise not to take things as written down but as they have manifested in our own realities.

you'd think such a master would be able to pour a cup of tea without it overflowing! ha ha. just kidding..

That looks like it would be good for roots that need to boil/simmer for 20 minutes. True?

Sometimes we should join in the music, sometimes we should just dance.

Alright, so teacher required. Thanks Dwai

My favourite place in Montreal is this tea restaurant where it's abuot $8 for a pot and you can choose from about 25 different kinds of high mountain green tea, really rare green teas from different mountains with various natural overtones. The server does the first pot for you that cleans the tea and warms the pots, to show you how to steep them properly since the really good stuff only steeps for a few seconds in the small pot. You get about 5 small pots for the $8 though. If anyone's coming to Montreal send me a PM and I can give you directions. They also sell expensive carvings and tea sets, beautiful place. Myself, I make a lot of herbal teas for various things like organ cleansing, immunity, and mood support. Recently I've been enjoying Sage and lemongrass a lot. Probably the only flavour that works together with sage, ime. Mostly I'll have: peppermint sage lemongrass calendula licorice root oat straw and maybe also dandelion leaves plantain echinaecia red clover and I have a bag of schizandra (5 flavour, wu wei zi) berries on my table which I usually eat at some point during the day -- the sourness really brings you into the present!

I like my futon because it keeps me from oversleeping.