Cat Pillar

Exactly what I was going to say. God is not distant, it is humanity which pretends it is distant from God.

Well, you can learn the practice from the book (I did), and you can see some benefits from it's practice...but all reports indicate that to really get the most out of it you need to attend a workshop and receive the transmission. It's like jump-starting the engine...then you just gotta keep practicing afterwards to make sure the battery doesn't go dead again. I'm going this November, really looking forward to it.

I enjoy the act of smoking. Pulling the smoke in and watching it blow out is fun. It's a form of playing, almost a game. But it makes me feel bad, so that's why I'm working on stopping.

It's an interesting concept, but I think context is extremely important. I experience sleep deprivation on a regular basis due to my work schedule, and I guarantee you I'm not reaping any spiritual benefits from it.

I use Skype without a webcam. It can be used as an instant messenger. Whether or not the webcam is necessary for a session with Max I couldn't answer, but I'd encourage you to go to www.primordialalchemist.com and contact them to find out. As long as you can see him he can probably show you, but personally I think you having a webcam would probably be better anyways because without one Max can't correct you on positioning.

11 hours! That must have been awesome! I'm still trying to figure out how I can create enough time to do 3 hours a day. I'd really like to be able to project energy so I can help my friends and family.

Aversion and desire.

I think equating learning to relax enough to get badass orgasms with some type of enlightenment is stretching things a bit too far. "Letting go" is a useful skill for almost any discipline or activity. But just because you have to "let go" to make something work doesn't mean it's some hidden back door to enlightenment. Also make sure you know what you're supposed to be "letting go" of.

I've never really experienced smoking as a meditation. Yes, it's a time to step away and gather my thoughts, but that's precisely why it's NOT meditative...for me, at least. Meditation to me has nothing to do with ruminating or pondering, and is in fact the opposite of those things. I've often said I use smoking to relax me, but I've come to realize it's a false relaxation. I think smoking could be done meditatively, but I'm not interested in trying or developing that. It's something I want to get away from, not get more involved in.

No judgment intended, simply making a terrible gaming joke. I have a habit of saying things that only I think are funny, and I tend to take many things far less seriously than others. To address the question directly - it's not important at all to judge one relative to another.

Mr. Idiot Taoist...you'd make for a terrible tank. Probably wonderful as a healer, though. Horrible gaming puns aside, how is Taoism NOT relative to bums? 10,000 things and all.

This one time I thought about changing my display name but then decided there was nothing better to change it to. There's nothing we can learn from this.

Reminds me in a weird way of a semi-lucid dream I had once. I remember going into the dream lucidly, and knowing that I was dreaming. I was so excited that I couldn't really decide what to do. One of the first things I tried though was saying "Aum" in the dream, cuz I heard that had interesting effects. It created a very strong kind of reverberation and became unpleasant very quickly. I went on to try other things but the dream ended shortly after that.

GrandmasterP, Teachers ARE really important, that I personally don't dispute at all. I think this was more about friends and companions then teachers, though. I'm going to one of Ya Mu's workshops in November to receive the lineage transmission in Stillness-Movement, and I took a workshop in Kunlun from Max.

Doesn't work for me either, but a better place to ask this would be in the "Forum and Tech Support" section. Even when chat was working before I never saw anyone in there. To my knowledge it's rarely used.

Good points.

Yeah, even room rental only, and even at 20 lbs (lol I'm too lazy to look up how to make the symbol) it's still not bad. I can see a lot of places charging a lot more than that. I think all of the prices you listed are pretty darn reasonable. Exactly what I'd expect from a non-prof.

I might be interested. How do you propose splitting it up between the buyers?

I don't really disagree with any of that - having a "real life" friend to talk to and work with is certainly ideal. But I don't think ideal equates to necessary. None of my "close" friends are into this kind of thing, so I have to go to the interwebs if I want conversation about it.

15 pounds for an hour!? That seems like a rather reasonable rate to me, especially if you're only doing weekly courses.

Yeah, I didn't get a warning today either.

Ah, I see what you mean. Yeah, all the stuff I've seen this kid do is pretty standard. Hiding food to make it look like they finished dinner so they get dessert, asking someone else for something after mommy has already said "no." Classic kid stuff.

I dunno, my friends have a toddler and I'm around her a lot. I've seen her do some pretty shady stuff...

I don't know why, but for some reason that art style made me think of VG Cats.

This has been a fun thread to read, I particularly enjoyed Snowmonki's posts. Can't wait until November! The upcoming workshop is the only thing I have to look forward to these days.