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It would seem our benevolent, supreme overlord, Sean, has indeed honoured this thread by pinning it.

Order in !!!

I appreciate your question Marken, and it shows that you have keen interest which is admirable. However natural spiritual cultivation is not a matter of "how much time" ... to place these sorts of artificial parameters around our practice only causes obstacles to sincere progress. The point I am trying to make is that there is a difference between the processes of "I am doing this practice" and the activity that arises through natural inspiration. There is a story about a student who asks Master, "How long before I become a master?" The Master answers, "Ten years". The student responds, "How long if I try twice as hard?" The Master answers, "Twenty years." Fusion work (I haven't trained in Master Chia's teachings) is a natural process, it should not be forced and neither should we place conceptual expectations on outcomes. We are truly 'in the zone' when our practice is the most natural thing in the world for us to be doing. Hope this helps.

Another analogy in the same vein: There are two reasons why the Hunter will starve to death ... either he loves his prey too much or he doesn't love it enough. When the Hunter loves his prey too much he will be unable to fufill the necessary killing act to sustain his own life. When the Hunter doesn't love his prey enough he may kill his prey indescriminately or without measure and deplete his source of sustainance.

Where's Mal ... I know he'll love this one

I can watch it over and over... Learn from the Cockatoo Master ! COCKADAOCH'UAN !!!

Not at all ... words are simply the outer garments of the truth that they give form to. Those with sufficient insight will see beyond the superficialness of words and be inspired by the truth that we mutually share.

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Well entrenched patterns of calamity can rarely be 'cured' overnight. Perhaps we are witnessing the natural process of the dissolution of the knots that have bound this unfortunate business into such a prolonged disharmony.

In response to Gold's questions in the ghosts thread: Excellent questions Gold ... I will preface my answer by saying that this is all on the periphery of my understanding so I apologise in advance if my response is in any way inadequate. The Lo Shu (River Book) Square 洛書 was said to have been discovered on the back of a magical river turtle by the Emperor Hsia Yu 夏禹 (c. 4000 BC). It appeared as a 3X3 gridwork of black (Yin) and white (Yang) dots: Count the dots in each section and you get: The reason it is called the Magic Square is because when you add up the numbers in each row, column and diagonal you always get 15. This basic mathematical understanding was eventually formalised into the I Ching by King Wen (1766-1121 B.C.): And of course the entire body of Taoist sciences, Feng Shui, TCM, Astrology, Military and Political Strategy, Martial Arts, Spiritual Alchemy etc., find their root here.

An excellent response Gold! In terms of the directions this is quite easy ... if you printed this graphic out: placed it on the floor with Li/Fire/9 facing the South then Chen/Wood/3 is quite conveniently in the East So yes the Lo Shu is also a geographical indicator. The Flying Stars Feng Shui system is based on the Lo Shu. And you are very right I believe in your assertion that the Lo Shu is the result of a visionary having a 'mystical' insight and articulating that into this symbolic representation. It is merely relevant to our discussions here because it is the established foundation of so much of Taoist thought and development.

Just so this process doesn't get sidetracked by trivialities the money issue is in this case 'no issue'. There are quite a few threads elsewhere concerning the debate of charging money for spiritual services. Enough for it to be said that everyone actively engaged in this arrangement were and are happy to have the dollar contributions paid and recieved.