GrandmasterP
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Everything posted by GrandmasterP
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What do you think the forum can do to attract some quality teachers?
GrandmasterP replied to thelerner's topic in General Discussion
Equine necromancy....... ( flogging a dead horse?) -
Entering the Tao of Sudden Enlightenment free resource
GrandmasterP replied to GrandmasterP's topic in Daoist Discussion
You're asking me? I didn't even know it wasn't 'Tao'. Boy is my face ever red? :-) Sorry guys. Found it on MA forum and thought that it may be of interest. Mods please delete. -
Magick has nothing to do in Tao
GrandmasterP replied to The Prisoner's topic in Esoteric and Occult Discussion
Yep that JAJ stuff is magic for sure. I've only read his Medical QiGong book but if ever a guy was the real deal it's Dr J. Best ever explanation of the efficacy of mudra/ hand seals/ sigils ( call em whatever you like he says.. they work)that I ever read. Now that is magic anybody can check out by a simple experiment. Do a zazen or a cultivation without hand seal/ mudra one session. Next session do it with. Compare results. Nobody can explain that. It's 'magic' , but it works for sure. -
What do you think the forum can do to attract some quality teachers?
GrandmasterP replied to thelerner's topic in General Discussion
Yay. Diplomas are good. That way the Mods ( or someone at TTB) would only have to verify the validity of each Diploma awarding body... NARIC can do that ( for a fee) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Academic_Recognition_Information_Centre Ensure that the teacher carried indemnity insurance in case anything 'taught' via TTB was claimed to have caused them harm by someone 'learning it' via TTB. Validated each TTB teacher for child protection purposes in each state or jurisdiction the teacher lived in as well as the state or jurisdiction of the students they were teaching via TTB. Piece of cake and the lawyers would love it too. Come on Mods. You know it makes sense. :-) -
What do you think the forum can do to attract some quality teachers?
GrandmasterP replied to thelerner's topic in General Discussion
Teachers are busy people and it is nice when one pops on here share hints and tips. Teachers and/ or their students heavily promoting their product and, sometimes; being disrespectful of other teachers schools I didn't like but that seems to have disappeared nowadays, which is good. If there was a 'teachers' staff room' type of thread then someone would have to decide who was let in and permitted to 'teach' on here as a 'TTB accredited teacher' and who wasn't. Not a job that I'd relish. -
Where did the idea of cultivation originate?
GrandmasterP replied to amoyaan's topic in General Discussion
I don't know but there was a similar thread on the MA forum a couple of years ago and the one 'explanation' that stuck with me went something like this ( paraphrased)...... The guys who spread Taoism were wandering teachers . Same went for the Ch'an teachers later and the Zen chaps. These guys tended to lodge in the same places so got to meet up now and again It was hard times and dangerous to travel so when they could pick up handy self defence moves they did and so MA began to evolve. As things settled down and monasteries and temples were built then they carried on training MA to keep fit and for the times they went on pilgrimage and such. These were spiritual guys so eventually the MA cultivation gained spiritual aspects and cultivation as a form of 'moving meditation' evolved from that. Made sense to me, we'll never know for sure though. -
Do not say that I'll depart tomorrow because even today I still arrive. Look deeply: I arrive in every second to be a bud on a spring branch, to be a tiny bird, with wings still fragile, learning to sing in my new nest, to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower, to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone. I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry, in order to fear and to hope. The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death of all that are alive. I am the mayfly metamorphosing on the surface of the river, and I am the bird which, when spring comes, arrives in time to eat the mayfly. I am the frog swimming happily in the clear pond, and I am also the grass-snake who, approaching in silence, feeds itself on the frog. I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones, my legs as thin as bamboo sticks, and I am the arms merchant, selling deadly weapons to Uganda. I am the twelve-year-old girl, refugee on a small boat, who throws herself into the ocean after being raped by a sea pirate, and I am the pirate, my heart not yet capable of seeing and loving. I am a member of the politburo, with plenty of power in my hands, and I am the man who has to pay his "debt of blood" to, my people, dying slowly in a forced labor camp. My joy is like spring, so warm it makes flowers bloom in all walks of life. My pain if like a river of tears, so full it fills the four oceans. Please call me by my true names, so I can hear all my cries and laughs at once, so I can see that my joy and pain are one. Please call me by my true names, so I can wake up, and so the door of my heart can be left open, the door of compassion. ( Thich Nhat Hanh)
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Not such a gap between Xtian Orthodox praxis in some facets and some of the stuff that we cultivate. Jesus Prayer as mantra-or- nembutsu for example. Desert Fathers/ Taoist Hermits. Those guys would possibly have lots in common to talk about if ever they met up for lunch ( with an interpreter present of course). Welcome to TTB.
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All success to Professor Sheldrake. That's a lonely furrow he's ploughing trying to reconcile 'science' with the numinous by using scientific terms and concepts. If a philosophy lecturer resorted to using mechanical models as teaching resources to illustrate the various schools of philosophy then she/d be unlikely to retain many students or secure tenure. Or hold down a university teaching job. Brave chap that he is Professor Sheldrake is perhaps creating something of a rod for his own back via his didactic approach. For engaging with , in order to discuss; 'our' sort of stuff, sometimes; metaphysical texts and concepts might serve one better than would, for example; a car repair manual.
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Poll: Why do you keep visiting the Taobums website ?
GrandmasterP replied to chegg's topic in General Discussion
+ 1,000.BaguaKA's post could do to be pinned on DW and the Martial Arts Forums as well as on TTB. Hardly a week goes past without someone, generally a newbie bemoaning that they can't find anyone or anything suitable locally. That's just not the case, there are always like minded people and seldom very far away. We moved to a rural area, really rural. TaiChi in the village hall every Tuesday, Martial Arts in the Scout's Centre twice a week, huge ( NKT) centre plus spiffy cafe twenty minutes drive away. If people look there are like minded folks everywhere and most every group warmly welcomes new faces. We've never ever come across anything but totally nice and really friendly folks around 'our' sort of areas be those MA, TaiChi or the loosely 'spiritual'. -
Wild Purslane is called 'Pigweed' over here. I do know that chickens love chickweed so maybe pigs like eating Purslane.
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Magick has nothing to do in Tao
GrandmasterP replied to The Prisoner's topic in Esoteric and Occult Discussion
Here's a Buddhist tale about ritual. Not long after the Buddha reposed. There was an abbot who liked cats. Trouble was the cats liked people. So every time the monks were meditating the cats would be in there jumping about and disturbing the serenity. Eventually the abbot decreed that during meditation times the cats had to be shut in the kitchen with a big bowl of milk. That worked. After many years the abbot reposed and they were onto the nth generation of temple cats. Each abbot in turn ensured cats were always on hand and shut in the kitchen with a big bowl of milk at meditation time. The tradition survived down the centuries until, recently; academics discovered it and began writing journal articles about the ' Mystical Milk Cat Ritual'. -
Magick has nothing to do in Tao
GrandmasterP replied to The Prisoner's topic in Esoteric and Occult Discussion
Some do claim that Crowley came up with Magick to define his schtick but that word's been around for quite a while. That said printers used to be paid for each letter set so, in typeset; using magick paid more than magic. List of pre AC books using the spelling - Magick - here...... https://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=magick&tbs=,cdr:1,cd_min:Dec+23_2+1499,cd_max:Dec+31_2+1900&num=10 -
Performed Aerobic Tu Na(吐吶) for Thirty Years
GrandmasterP replied to ChiDragon's topic in Daoist Discussion
My RHR has always been low. Not from any practise, it's just always been slow since I was a kid. Had to do a 'treadmill' task at hospital for a physical a while ago and they couldn't get it up as high as they wanted. Had to plead with the techies for mercy and switch off the treadmill after a while. I was knackered! -
Magick has nothing to do in Tao
GrandmasterP replied to The Prisoner's topic in Esoteric and Occult Discussion
Depends on what we mean by magic I suppose. Magick comes with baggage anybody spelling it that way is maybe bought into one or other particular path. Magic ( non stage magic or illusion for entertainment) though maybe might describe the metaphysical. So, in a sense; cultivating might be described as magical - sometimes- when its working properly. There are those metaphysical and transcendent 'moments' sometimes ,during a good cultivation; that are pretty 'magical'. -
Teaching in silence is maybe the best kind of teaching. Not just that spiffy idea of 'transmission' in a satsang- type situation or zazen- etc context but in a mundane way too. Sometimes the less a regular actually teacher says in class, the more the student learns because s/he has to begin and study to fill in the gaps. To think for oneself rather than just soak in what teacher tells you to think. Good teachers facilitate individuals' flourishing. Less good teachers use the 'mug and jug' method , seeing themselves as the jug full of knowledge and the poor student as the empty mug to be filled up with teacher's words of wisdom. Discovery beats sermons every time.
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Cultivate. Diligently.
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For sure and good luck to any teacher who advertises online. Advertising is a fact of life. What rattled my cage a bit back in the day was product placement disguised as posting. Somebody appears on TTB claiming Teacher X is the bees knees. Then another pops up saying 'Amen to that. Teacher X is brilliant and did you know he is offering two for one on his training Merchandise right now?" And so on. By all means advertise but be honest and whack in a banner ad as your sig or even pay for an advertisement. That seems to be happening now.
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She has to be. Look at some of of her kids! ( self included!) :-)
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As someone raised Spiritualist the idea of 'immortals' makes perfect sense. Spiritualists have ' Summerland' where spirits go and can be reincarnated from ( voluntarily). However beyond and 'up' from Summerland is a 'higher realm' where those who have advanced beyond wanting to remain in Summerland go to. Those tend not to reincarnate and seldom communicate with mediums on this side of life. The spirits mediums communicate with are 'first tier' spirits in Summerland who still have loved ones on this side of life with whom they can communicate via the medium. There's Spiritualist literature attesting that higher realm spirits communicate with spirits in Summerland as those spirits in Summerland do with mediums on earth . However the higher realm guys seldom communicate directly with mediums on this side of life. It's not unheard of but very rare indeed. A medium's guide might mention higher realm spirit visits to Summerland to the medium ( second hand as it were) but that guide isn't usually a higher realms spirit.
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Many thanks for those replies.
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Don't know who Dr Phil is. Certainly can't think of any 'pop' figure that I have seen who I'd be comfortable to call 'guru'. There's plenty to choose amongst too. Sarlo's Guru Ratings here....... http://www3.telus.net/public/sarlo/Ratings.htm
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Inside my wedding ring is engraved 'far other worlds' And inside Mrs GMP's...... ' and other seas'.
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Tidal Bay 16-1 The Package 16-1 Good each way punts.
