flyinghigh

Thank you. Do you have any more info on Xiao Yao and any reference to Chunyi Lin studying with him?

Sounds interesting. Can you share any details on his lineage?

Interesting. Thank you. I actually made the tea yesterday according to your explanation. I only had Assam at home. I normally prefer both my black tea and coffee with milk. However, this tasted also great without milk. Softer than my normal tea brews, of which I can only drink one or two cups. This one, I think I had four cups. I also had some in the late afternoon. That I could feel when I went to bed and couldn't fall asleep The problem with corn syrup apparently is, that it is mostly fructose and might lead to a fatty liver. Also for the HFCS I don't think it is produced in a traditional way.

I think, that's how it's served in most Arabic and Turkish restaurants. Do you put the tea leaves loosely into the pot or use a filter? What do you think of Assam and Darjeeling? Do you add milk or sugar at all? I try to avoid sugar as much as possible put will sometimes use jaggery or palm sugar which allegedly has a lower glycemic index.

Interesting. Can you provide a bit more details on the school of these guys?

In the Little Nine Heaven system they call it XiSuiGong. They are a Daoist school. But it seems, that in Chinese history there has always been an exchange and mixing of Buddhist and Daoist techniques. Besides the famous iron crotch swinging, they seem to have some kind of qigong warmup with these iron brushes.

Well, I never heard of it from people who went there. I just wouldn't rule it out that some drunkard might touch a woman. But it's probably not more than what one would see in discotheques/bars in other countries where people are close together and have drunk one too much.

Yes, at the Oktoberfest also grabbing of women's butts, etc. happens, but the difference is that here groups of men (eight to twenty mostly) got together and formed circles around single women, and then attacking them. I've never heard of this happen at the Oktoberfest. Also, there are hundreds of festivals, raves, concerts with thousands of guests with no sexual assaults reported. The Cologne mayor really messed up with her recommendation to keep an 'arm's length' away from people. Also the Cologne police leaders (not the individual policemen who were doing their job well) don't look good. First of all, on the New Year's day they issued the news that New Year's Eve went with no problems. Now news is coming out that policemen on the scene asked for more men to come but nothing really happened. There will probably be resignations about this. The general media doesn't look good here either. For a few days there were no articles on these incidents. Also, while it is correct, that gangs of North Africans have been active at the Cologne train station for some time, selling drugs and stealing things, there is now more information coming out that also refugees mostly from Syria were involved in these events. Now that is of course very sad as the few 'bad apples' put the majority of the refugees who are peaceful and friendly in a bad light. And interesting point to ponder here which hasn't really been discussed anywhere is the issue of alcohol. In North African countries hashish is avaiable freely. In EU countries it is for the most part still illegal. Most of the perpetrators were drunk. Alcohol is of course freely available. I'm sure, had they been smoking pot the situation would have been different. Another good reason to legalize cannabis and allow mature citizens to decide for themselves.

From the skepticblog: " Professional magicians have offered explanations of their own. They believe it’s real, and that Dajo had simply learned a mental technique for coping with the trauma. Dajo often told of having visited India and learned from fakirs, mystics who perform similar but much less dramatic feats. Generally speaking, performers who do self-mutilation are actually doing what they appear to be doing; they’re just well practiced, well disciplined, and used to it. But nobody had ever heard of a case as dramatic as Mirin Dajo. Studying from the fakirs was as plausible an explanation as anyone could come up with. And though it has the sound of a bogus cover story, it may indeed be the way he learned how to do what he did. Some fakirs would pierce their own bodies in the same way that westerners pierce their ears or other body parts. When you do this, it creates what’s called a fistula, a tunnel of scar tissue. So long as you keep the fistula open by having something inserted through it, like an earring, it won’t close up. Modern doctors and bodypiercing professionals agree that’s probably how Dajo did it. Little by little, he and his assistant would drive a sharp object a little further into a hole in his abdomen, leaving it in place, letting it heal, and then driving it in a little further. Photos of Dajo’s back show it riddle with scars and holes, which are probably failed fistulas where their efforts were blocked by bones, nerves, major organs, or something too painful to get past. Eventually Danjo had at least four fistulas that went all the way through. He probably lived with metal bars inserted through them all the time, and when it came time for a performance, these were removed. His assistant had only to carefully slide the fencing foils through the fistulas at the proper angles, as they’d practiced together many times. And thus were the doctors fooled, the magicians stumped, and the audiences thrilled. It was perhaps not the best career choice, though, as Dajo died at age 35 from an aortic rupture, resulting from swallowing a long steel needle. Guess the fakirs hadn’t clued him in on that one."

I read about this some time ago. Apparently he put these rapiers always through the same spots. Some kind of scar tissue tube had developed. So while very remarkable feats, I'm not sure that this has got anything to do with energetic or spiritual cultivation. But I might know only a part of the story.

What is the background of his system? I couldn't find any info on the site. And why do you state the cost as $4000+? This weekend seminar is $350. http://www.taichitaocenter.com/sections/seminar.php Is the advanced stuff pricier?

Very interesting. Do you know about the origin of his system? Can you tell us more about his electric qi? What did he do, when you felt it? How does he explain it? Does he teach this? Do you know about his brother's school in Taiwan?

Thanks. So, you weren't making your comment in general, but only with regard as advice to the general, possibly unconditioned public, right?

Flowing Hands, thanks for your comment. But I've heard of many martial arts masters/neigong/qigong masters that they had to practice horse stance for quite a long time, one hour up to four hours, like is written about John Chang in Kosta's first book.

Are you talking about a low mabu horse stance here or the normally more upright zhanzhuang? What do people think is the main difference between mabu and zhanzhuang?