Yoda

Per India, South is the best and North is the worst. Prior to learning that, I had a teacher who recommended North... so I've tried both and South has worked out the best for me. I think it's a good drill to look at all the directions one has slept in in the various phases of life and to see if there's any correlation between happiness and direction of sleep. I believe that there is. On the other hand the English writer, Dickens, thought that sleeping pointing north was the way too go...

Welcome to taobums!

Heavy metal cultivation!! I love it!! That's a very valuable Kunlun post, thanks! W- It's unlike anything I've ever been exposed to... couldn't really tell you what is going on, but it seems to me that it is both a natural function of the body, nervous system, etc as well as having a spiritual dimension too. And with practice will reconnect the physical to the spiritual dimensions. The nice thing is that even us heady taobums don't need to figure it all out before enjoying it.

Yes, he's doing very well. Max and Kan (the big Japanese guy in the photo of kunlunbliss.com) opened up his front channel during the weekend so energy can go back down and he's been getting some sleep finally!! Between that and finishing school, it sounds like he'll be able to chill.

Qlites, I agree... I look forward to charging up Mrs Yoda like that!! Your pal, Yoda

Arrggghh!! Qlites, I blew it... I forgot that you'd be there and so I didn't connect your avatar name to a face, but I think I know who you are... you and Richard got all the extra martial arts teachings. That's sort of how weekend gatherings go, though, huh? Back to the subject at hand: You didn't like the sound of the screaming Asian girls????? You need to get your head checked is all I can say!! I thought Mantra had hired them for the atmosphere. It was absolutely *amazing* to see them do Kunlun on each other. Seriously wild.

Interesting! I point my head to the south for the magnetic thing when I sleep. I was just sitting next to a guy from Indian descent and he said have your house face east and your head face south in bed is the lore in his family. My house faces west, but one out of two aint bad. I had put this into the Phoenix seminar thread, but I realized that the most searchable place for this post is the Kunlun thread itself, so here's my report again: The first insight was about Max himself. I figured that there was so much antagonism about him on the forum that there must be some sort of personality shortcoming. Maybe he was too aggressive or something. Quite the contrary... he is a mix between the bodhisattva aspect of Mr. Rogers and the crazy aspect of Willy Wonka and is very likable and easy to be around. He rephrased one thought several times which I think captures the spirit of the workshop: "I know it sucks, but you have to smile." Too funny!!!! The practice is the Taoist counterpart to that of Quakers, Shakers, old time Baptists and charismatic Christians. Watching people speak in tongues, rolling around, and so forth always brings up a mix of strong reactions from me. On the one hand, I admire their openness, ability to have a great time, and to be able to have visions. On the other hand (until I took this class) I was suspicious that the whole phenomenon looks a bit contrived. For the same reason, I think Kunlun strikes people in different ways. For instance, I brought two friends with me, Eric and Matt, to the seminar. Eric absolutely loved the practice and really took to it but Matt was suspicious about it and decided not to take the class. As for the actual practice, I was worried that I might be too inhibited to succeed in Kunlun, and there I was sitting perfectly still next to Eric who was rocking out. In the big picture, I was fine to just get the transmission and go home and fire it up at a later date like Mantra did. But happily, Mantra adjusted my posture a bit and it fired up nicely!! Yay!! Max covered 5 Element standing, Kunlun, Red Phoenix, and Gold Flower as the main practices. They were all very interesting to say the least!! A funny story about Kunlun energy was that after the workshop Matt, Cam, and I were grocery shopping for a dinner party we were going to put together for my Dad and my Stepmom. As Matt hadn't gone to the workshop, he was the sanest guy of us and he did his best to keep Cam and me to conform to social norms. But when we got to the checkout, I realized that I could save a few bucks if I had a Bashes frequent customer card. Almost before I realized what I was doing, exactly as the cashier turned her head away from me I reached over to her new card stash and grabbed one and smiled at Matt. He was pretty surprised and asked too loudly where on earth I got a card from. It took all my willpower not to burst out laughing and confess my crime! But I figured that those cards are silly anyways and couldn't have cost more than a few grapes, and we were making a large purchase so I didn't worry myself about it. That little prank felt very Kunlun to me, as the move was spontaneous. One thing I learned is that it's okay to encourage someone to read the Kunlun book but not to teach the form yourself. The reason for that is that the transmission travels differently through the two mediums and getting it directly from the book is better and safer than getting it from a student who doesn't have the complete, teacher level transmission. Question for Turbo: Unlike me, you were able to figure out and activate the Kunlun energy just by reading the book. You mentioned that by taking the class that the quality of the Kunlun energy changed. Could you say any more on that? Yoda

Rex, I don't think that the direction one faces matters per the practice, but I like E and NE. Yoda

Can I tell the story about Max's cave retreat he discussed on Friday? There was a lot of taobum discussion of that one!

So I'm very excited to finally deliver the Yoda Report!! The first insight was about Max himself. I figured that there was so much antagonism about him on the forum that there must be some sort of personality shortcoming. Maybe he was too aggressive or something. Quite the contrary... he is a mix between the bodhisattva aspect of Mr. Rogers and the crazy aspect of Willy Wonka and is very likable and easy to be around. He rephrased one thought several times which I think captures the spirit of the workshop: "I know it sucks, but you have to smile." I thought that was too funny!!!! The practice is the Taoist counterpart to that of Quakers, Shakers, old time Baptists and charismatic Christians. Watching people speak in tongues, rolling around, and so forth always brings up a mix of strong reactions from me. On the one hand, I admire their openness, ability to have a great time, and to be able to have visions. On the other hand (until I took this class) I was suspicious that the whole phenomenon looks a bit contrived. For the same reason, I think Kunlun strikes people in different ways. For instance, I brought two friends with me, Eric and Matt, to the seminar. Eric absolutely loved the practice and really took to it but Matt was suspicious about it and decided not to take the class. As for the actual practice, I was worried that I might be too inhibited to succeed in Kunlun, and there I was sitting perfectly still next to Eric who was rocking out. In the big picture, I was fine to just get the transmission and go home and fire it up at a later date like Mantra did. But happily, Mantra adjusted my posture a bit and it fired up nicely!! Yay!! Max covered 5 Element standing, Kunlun, Red Phoenix, and Gold Flower as the main practices. They were all very interesting to say the least!! A funny story about Kunlun energy was that after the workshop Matt, Cam, and I were grocery shopping for a dinner party we were going to put together for my Dad and my Stepmom. As Matt hadn't gone to the workshop, he was the sanest guy of us and he did his best to keep Cam and me to conform to social norms. But when we got to the checkout, I realized that I could save a few bucks if I had a Bashes frequent customer card. Almost before I realized what I was doing, exactly as the cashier turned her head away from me I reached over to her new card stash and grabbed one and smiled at Matt. He was pretty surprised and asked too loudly where on earth I got a card from. It took all my willpower not to burst out laughing and confess my crime! But I figured that those cards are silly anyways and couldn't have cost more than a few grapes, and we were making a large purchase so I didn't worry myself about it. That little prank felt very Kunlun to me, as the move was spontaneous. One thing I learned is that it's okay to encourage someone to read the Kunlun book but not to teach the form yourself. The reason for that is that the transmission travels differently through the two mediums and getting it directly from the book is better and safer than getting it from a student who doesn't have the complete, teacher level transmission. Fortunately, Mantra says that the new book will be out in two months that will cover FAQ, 5 Elements Standing, and Kunlun.

On a social front, I had a fantastic time and I don't think I've laughed as much in my whole life as I did this weekend. It was a great honor to see Cam, Turbo, Thelerner, Vortex, and my non-TB pals, Eric and Matt all at the same time... we had some fun adventures! Also, it was fun to see that Max got a kick out of having Taobums at his seminar and we all got to take a group photo! Aside from Michael, I seemed to prefer to use our avatar names and pretend we were all a bunch of superheroes! I'm stoked that my TB pals got along so well with Eric and Matt too. A great time was had by all!! Max even said that if we ever want to do an exclusive Taobum retreat in a natural setting, he'd be happy to do something like that. That's probably not on the agenda immediately, but I think that could be a real possibility. Matt has a bunch of acres of woods outside of Athens, GA which would be perfect for that sort of thing. Maybe I'll buy the land next door and expand the empire some day!! I know Michael has said he'd be interested in that sort of thing and Sean and Leslie are in driving distance... Just wanted to put that thought out there!

So I'm pretty stoked about PHOENIX!!!! I'm leaving first thing manana and will hang out with the family until the program starts. I can't seem to find my Yoda shirt... but oh well. I've grown a goatee, so I don't look like my avatar at all any more. Hope to see y'all there!

Welcome to taobums!

Welcome to taobums!

Taobums is a bottomless pit of questions but I can't help it: I wonder where Sifu Jenny got Kunlun?

I love lizards as much as the next guy, but we're all just playing with photoshop, right?

Second that... Inquiring minds want to know!

Btw, I just got word that we can't share or subdivide our one-on-ones and that the workshop, itself, can't be audio taped to respect anything that the coparticipants might decide to share... but taping the one on one is fine.

Here's the future that has already happened. The writer has been getting emails from the future and it ain't pretty! http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do;jse...ydra?id=1799721

Every teacher that I'm aware of has serious turn offs. By the time you water yourself down to where everyone can agree on it and like it, you don't have anything worthwhile left and that's a turn off too. The nice thing about the Kunlun system is that it is like water itself and can be presented in any number of ways and you, personally, can share it in any manner you'd like. In this sense, Kunlun has a tremendous potential for popular appeal. Additionally, Max's students will outshine him and he wants that. That's a *very* unusual thing for a teacher to say and to aspire for. Usually, teachers emit a vibe that says, "Damn I'm good... I'm way brighter than you can hope to be... but you can at least enjoy a contact high from me and these practices might help you a little bit if you can deal with it, which you can't." They don't have faith that their system will work for the average person when it comes right down to it. I haven't been to a workshop yet (will in a few days) but I can tell already that I like Max's aggressive, both barrels style.

A good poem!

I do think it varies by individual. Having said that, all rats do well on intermittent fasting if they've been acclimated to it at a young age. It also seems that they will all benefit if gradually phased into it later in life, but may be hurt by it if they suddenly switch to it in middle age... more research needs to be done and rats aren't people, of course.

Mal, I've tried it and stopped a number of times for maybe a month or two at a time. There's a lot of research that intermittent fasting can lengthen longevity in rats and repair age related DNA damage in humans even in just a few weeks. It looks promising on paper. I've quit the diet in the past as I experienced no weight loss with it. Then I read fast5 and I learned that the weight loss with fast 5 is extremely slow... takes about the same amount of time as putting the weight on in the first place. Also, you have to follow the diet long enough that there is no compensatory over eating at night. So I haven't tried this diet for a long enough period to know if there's a long term weight loss component. It's not for everyone, but I'm hoping I can make it work for a more sexy me. Yoda

Non technical writeups work too!! I'll see you in Phoenix!