konchog uma

just wanted to say thanks mjjbecker, and of course, thanks kostas

awesome... it is a little personal to submit one's score . I haven't taken the purity test in 20 years, when i used to run a BBS and we all found it for the first time. :D

Yes definitely. I have been meditating on the advice of ZZ's Confucius for the past few, since its been posted. Its a part of the book i've never really worked with before, and it's really helping me "lay off" in social and interpersonal situations where i might have used more energy than was necessary. Also following along with the flow that the people who i'm dealing with set up, and not being overly lovey, or intimate as ZZ put it, with loved ones. Really been just what i needed to hear lately My social interactions have been a lot smoother and more energy-efficient since i started focusing on those lessons

next we can all take the purity test! http://www.puritytest.org/

from Tai Chi Classics by Waysun Liao p13 As soon as the Ch'ing empire builders) heard about the sophisticated art of Tai Chi, they drafted the most famous master of the times, Yang Lu-chang, founder of the Yang style or Yang family system, into royal service. Unwilling to teadch the Manchus, Master Yang deliberately modified the tai chi meditation forms, converting them into a kind of slow moving outer exercise and completely ignoring the inner philosophy and mental discipline which is the key to tai chi. Master Yang knew that if the royal family learned of his unwillingness to teach them, and of his modifications, the emperor would take retribution for this offense and appease his anger b murdering not only him, but his entire family. Since Master Yang felt he could trust no one except his own sons, it was to them and to no one else that he taught the genuine art of tai chi. In this way he avoided implicating anyone else in his personal decision to deceive the royalty. ... While the family style of tai chi decreased, the exercise style was encouraged and practiced by members of the Imperial family. It soon became the fad of the leisure class throughout China, and it remained so until the end of the Ch'ing dynasty. ... In this way, the modified form of tai chi became today's tai chi chuan, or the so-called "tai chi exercise". This is the tai chi practiced publicly in China today; it is the tai chi dance, also called the Chinese Ballet by some westerners. In these modern times a person may receive instruction in and practice the art of tai chi for years, and, regardless of which sytle is being taught, still standa a very good chance of learning only "public tai chi". In other words, most of the tai chi practiced today is not the original tai chi, and is devoid of meaning. in some of what i didn't type, Liao says that the other families followed suit after Yang chose to hide his true forms. Also that "temple tai chi" is the real tai chi as opposed to "public tai chi".

awesome advice on how to deal with people in general, not just the obtuse and cruel

oh nice thanks i've been keeping it pretty new school lately, good to hear some of that

I think that the difference in translations of the very last line is weird. "be ready to lay down your life" "fulfil your destiny" chinese to english translation is kind of weird in general it seems. I am not a big big fan of chapter 4 and all this political obligations talk, although i respect the value of it. It just doesn't speak to me, and i can see why Confucius is put in as the master instead of Chuang. I think it is subtly funny that he is giving daoist advice in these stories, but i am not sure it was meant that way, or if that is just my understanding of the attitudes of those times. I think again that its a lot of verbage to say what can be said in the last line without any preamble, "Just ride along with things as you let your mind wander. Entrust yourself to inevitability and thereby nourish what is central. That's the ultimate course. What have you to do with the response of Ch'i? Nothing is better than to fulfill your destiny, but that's the hardest of all".

When Sir High, Duke of She, was about to depart on a mission to Ch'i, he inquired of Confucius, saying, "The mission en- trusted to me by the king is a very weighty one, but I expect that as ambassador the treatment given to me by Ch'i, though quite respectful, will not be attentive. One cannot push even a com- mon man, how much less a head of state! This makes me very anxious. You have often told me, `Only through the Way can one reach a happy conclusion in any affair, whether large or small. If one does not succeed in an affair, then there will surely be trouble from the way men react. If one does succeed, there will surely be trouble due to a dislocation of yin and yang. Only a person of integrity can escape trouble whether he succeeds or not: I stick to plain fare and eschew fine cuisine, so that my kitchen boys never feel as though they have to cool themselves off. Yet, this morning I received my commission and in the evening I'm drinking ice water. I feel like I'm burning up inside! I haven't even been exposed to the actual circumstances of the affair and already I'm suffering from a dislocation of yin and yang. And if I do not succeed in this affair, there will surely be trouble from the way men will react. Faced with both of these troubles, it is more than I as minister can bear. Tell me, sir, what I should do. " "For all under heaven;" said Confucius, "there are two great precepts : one is destiny and the other is duty. A child's love of her parents is destiny and is inseparable from her heart. A subject's service to his lord is duty. No matter where one goes, there is always a lord from whom one cannot escape in heaven or on earth. This is what I mean by "great precepts": Accordingly, one who serves one's parents and makes them secure regardless of the situation has attained the ultimate in filialness. One who serves one's lord and makes him secure regardless of the conditions has achieved the fullness of loyalty. One who attends to one's own mind and who is not easily diverted by sorrow and joy, realizing their inevitability and accepting them as if they were destiny, has attained the ultimate of integrity. One who is a subject or a son indeed sometimes has no alternatives. Then he must carry out his affairs according to circumstances and forget about his own person . What leisure has he for loving life and despising death? Thus, sir, you may proceed on your mission. "Allow me to report what I have heard : in diplomacy, states that are near must rely on trust to maintain their ties, while those that are distant must resort to words to show their sincerity and words must be conveyed by someone. Now, one of the most difficult things in the world is to convey the pleasure or displea- sure of two parties to each other . If both parties are pleased, their words will surely be full of exaggerated promise. If both parties are displeased, their words will surely be full of exaggerated insult. Any sort of exaggeration is false . Where there is falseness, trust is missing . And when trust is missing, the one who conveys the message is in danger. Therefore, in the Legal Counsels it is said, `Transmit the gist of their sentiments, not their exaggerated words, and you may perhaps preserve yourself whole.' "Moreover, those who contest for supremacy with cleverness begin openly but invariably end up in deception . In their ex- cesses, they are full of chicanery. Those who drink according to etiquette begin politely but invariably end up disorderly. In their excesses, they are full of debauchery. It's the same with all affairs. They may begin with consideration, but invariably end up i n prevarication. Their inception may be simple, but as they ap- proach their conclusion they become enormously complex. "Words are like the wind and the waves, deeds verify or invalidate them. Wind and waves are easily stirred up, verifica- tion and invalidation easily end perilously. Therefore, rage often results from no other reason than clever words and intemperate phrases. When an animal is threatened with death, it cries out involuntarily. Gasping wildly for breath, it gives vent to all the viciousness it can muster. When people are pressed too far, they will inevitably respond with evil intentions, not even knowing why they do so. If even they themselves do not know why they do so, who knows how it will all end? Therefore, in the Legal Counsels it is said, Do not deviate from your orders . Do not force a settlement. Immoderation is provocative overstatement: To devi- ate from one's orders or to force a settlement endangers one's undertaking. An excellent settlement takes time ; an unsatisfac- tory settlement, once made, is irrevocable. One cannot be too careful! "Just ride along with things as you let your mind wander. Entrust yourself to inevitability and thereby nourish what is central. That's the ultimate course. What have you to do with the response of Ch'i? Nothing is better than to fulfill your destiny, but that's the hardest of all".

Maybe the similarities between KYMQ and kunlun are due to their both having a history from Maoshan ??? Sorry for stating immature opinions, I really didn't consider all the similarities, like mudras and all the others lucky7strikes listed. Having thought about it, even though they feel totally different, I can see a lot of relationships if i look for them. So maybe someone knows for sure but it isn't me

those are good points, maybe they are more related than i had considered. the heels and knees up are the body mudra that he was talking about.

hahaha wingnut is as wingnut does i missed the golden third eye thread tho so i can't really offer an opinion

thanks! I really appreciate your perspective cause you've spent more time with it than me. I have been looking at it as sort of a brain based practice, from seeing the two spheres (in the mystery palms) as right and left hemisphere related, which then become one. Trunk, do you work with the chakras when you do this? You could do 7 rounds, one for each chakra. Or are you just focused on different centers when you rotate the spine? Can you clarify what you meant by developing the other centers?

why doesn't I4L just start a personal practice subforum and post his pickup artist stuff there? or any of this wingnut stuff (eg: atlanteans under shasta) for that matter? the molemen made me say wingnut

Yeah, Mair puts that all in one chapter, which is in the 4,A thread.

oh yeah, he says it, i just missed it. ("very briefly" was my take on it too..) But i didn't really get it until i sent him an email asking about head energy, and how to keep energy from accumulating, and he said that the body mudra was really important and that keeping the feet on their balls and the knees up grounded and activated the psychic channels of the crown and third eye. I also asked him about which direction to rotate and he didn't say that one mattered more than the other, he said clockwise grounds, nourishes, and strengthens - while counterclockwise evolves, transforms, breaks the energetic shell of the body by counter rotation. Those were the only things i asked him about, so it wasn't a long email. I sent him another asking him about the correlation between the "heaven eye" at the middle of the hairline and the "wisdom eye" or "dharma eye" in buddhism. I don't really expect an answer tho since he's not a buddhist... he's probably thinking "wtf im a daoist?!" I just had to ask tho. I don't really look at KYMQ like its part of the kunlun family. The breathing is different than red phoenix, and since youre the second person to ask me today about the similarities between KYMQ and red phoenix, i have to say they are nothing alike. I don't think LaoXie learned this qigong from Max, but I am not sure, he doesn't say. And its not really like yigong either, because while the movement is supposed to be gentle and fluid and effortless, its certainly not spontaneous, there is a form, so this is not a formless form. Yigong is a formless form. So to me, this is its own practice with different methods and different goals than kunlun practices or yigong. The purpose of red phoenix is to generate a cool downward flow of energy like water, and the purpose of KYMQ is to synchronize the hemispheres of the brain in order to fuse them into a "whole brain" (my choice of words not LaoXie's) by increasing activity across the corpus callosum and, what i experience as phaselocking the wavelengths of the hemispheres into one wavelength of brain activity. It also aims to awaken the "one sense" (LaoXie's choice of words) as opposed to the five (or six) senses that we commonly think of. Red phoenix doesn't do any of that, so just because they are brow and crown practices doesn't make them related, even distantly. I don't see them that way at all. If i get an answer about the heaven eye, i'll let you bums know.. anyone have a good link as to what areas of the brain do exactly what? I'd like to look that up.

those guys are amazing

whether bodri was right on all those counts doesnt really matter to me. Except that i think one can refine shen to emptiness without realizing those buddhist concepts. Or maybe he's right.. like i said "im not sure" thats the key phrase. i do white skeleton meditation every day at the end of my bone breathing. But i've never been good with all those concepts and models. diffrent strokes for diffrent folks best to you in your studies and practice

Left at the doorstep. I know how babies are made. Stork and a basket!

+1 Aaron for the Bradbury recommendation its a message forum, of course some people aren't going to like some of the stuff that some people post. Hell, I don't like some of the stuff I4L posts and i tell him so! But i don't think moving his posts is really a solution to this um non-problem. What the hell happened to the right to express ones opinions and interests? I mean i disagree with I4L, on some level, on just about every issue he brings to the table, but i think he has a right to say it. If people think he is posting incendiary things just to not listen to their opinions but up his own, don't read his posts. I'm that way with tulku. For some reason he bothers me. I only read his posts if i know i'm ready to be bothered. But i believe everyone has a right to use message forums to the same capacity, that is, freely as long as they follow the rules. No disrespect but if i was a mod and someone said to me "I4L posts some stupid shit and im sick of reading it" i would say "then put him on ignore". I wouldn't pander to people's sensitivities cause that just leads to trying to please everyone, which we all know doesn't work. wow i didn't know i cared that much, i was just gonna +1 Aaron hahahaha

Hi witch, I never knew what to make of Calleman's end date. He's done some really brilliant work in deciphering the Mayan calendar, and is respected by the Mayan elders and tribal councils, but I didn't put a lot of stock in his Oct 28, 2011 date. That being said, I don't put a lot of stock in the Dec 21, 2012 date. I just don't feel like things are going to open up in a day. I think the classic Maya put so much emphasis on that day because it was symbolic, but they knew it had a huge cusp at the same time. I feel as though my perception of time is speeding up, i will say that . Things just seem to be changing so fast that two weeks ago does seem like such a long time.. and just a couple thousand years ago, for example, two whole generations of life would be most similar to each other. now it seems like there is a lot of change, both in my personal world (like yours, except i lost my job, giving me more time to practice for now) and in the world at large. And the generation gaps just get bigger and bigger. Well i think there is a lot of truth to the idea that the rate of change will increase exponentially until it reaches some kind of critical mass. Terence McKenna did some cool research on time using the I Ching sequence (king Wen i believe) and arrived at that conclusion (that rate of change is increasing)... he saw his exponential chart going vertical in november 2012, but then someone told him about the mayan end date and he changed his calculations to match. I guess he was ahead of the wave, inasmuch as any book with 12.21.12 plastered all over it is bound to sell more copies than one without. I think he was close enough but who cares now... the point is, there is more than just your personal perceptions to indicate that something big is moving under the surface, getting ready to show its massive head (and scare the shit out of all of us ). That was all in a book called Invisible Landscapes, and if you're really vibing off Calleman, check out The Mayan Calendar, really awesome book. Of course, don't forget Don Alejandro Perez AKA Wandering Wolf, who is the grand Mayan elder and calendar-keeper right now. He has some awesome videos on youtube, and is probably the highest authority on the Mayan understanding of the shift we're going through. Hahaha he also has the wisdom to say he's not sure what's going to happen so don't expect any cut and dry answers, just awesome guidance. peace

you might like Food of the Gods by Terrence McKenna if you haven't read it already!

awesome!