GrandmasterP

http://www.taoists.co.uk/main_files/events.htm Shi Jing is the only English heritage and English born Taoist priest working in England AFAIK. An old boy with a fascinating story to tell. http://www.taoists.co.uk/main_files/events.htm

Amen to that. :-)

Are you offering shaves and haircuts too now then buddy?

Bags I Q1 though. " Why the hat?"

Maybe better coming from someone 'official' at TTB plus he may take offence at my comments on here re his choice in hats. Priests can cut up a bit sniffy over fashion. :-)

Dancing girls I heard. His rich dad bought the lad his own personal pole dancing troupe for his birthday. Guatama had asked his dad for a "a swimmin' pool" but his Dad heard it as ' a wimmin pool". In disgust the lad up sticks and left home. The rest, as they say; is 'history'. ;-)

I am ( semi selectively) completely bald so I always wear a flat cap outdoors or my head turns bright red and could fall off. Indoors I sport a natty Edwardian style - blue silk with Elephants frieze - smoking cap that Mrs GMP ran up for a Xmas prezzie a few years ago. I have quite a selection of those now but this blue elephant job is my favourite. Do wear teacher jim jams for QiGong demos but for regular teaching just a polo shirt and chinos to save having to change at venues. Religious type robes, all of them; to me are just so much 'dressing up box' nonsense. Fair enough if those are the regular everyday wear of folks where one was born and brought up then by all means wear them but Brit born and bred twonks wearing off the ( bare) shoulder saffron frocks designed for the tropics and wearing said frocks here in a Blighty winter, IMO those guys are kidding nobody but themselves.

Not at all and profound apologies if I conveyed that impression. I don't know you or your circumstances. That post of mine is a précis of Session 1 intro so often repeated that I have it 'off by heart'. Main thing for anybody cultivating anything is to keep looking until you find something that suits you with a teacher you feel comfortable to learn with and from. After a certain point none of this stuff 'works' without a teacher. Teachers aren't magicians* either, they simply get to know you, how you best learn and at what speed and they are there with you in the same room so can help you move any barriers as and where those arise 'for you'. Because every student is different, no book or DVD can do that as well as a real teacher can. * OK maybe some teachers 'are' magicians of a sort but that stuff comes in much later in the course, if at all. :-)

Body. We live in. Mind. Instinctive largely inherited or inculcated reactions north of our neck. Spirit. What we are and where intuition operates. We are immortal beings temporarily inhabiting the body we're in right now. Cultivation allows those three facets of 'us' to work together rather than against each other. It's all about balance. Driving for example is a great opportunity to do driving meditation, or we can just drive. Zazen's really antisocial and it's far more polite to mindfully 'be there' for someone else if they want to talk to us. For example a manager at work. You come across the odd person in life who might be said to be " So spiritually minded that they are no earthly use at all." By and large those are odd people with issues who are using 'spirituality' as an escape mechanism from the world. If spirituality and intuition cause us to be separate from loved ones and necessary everyday activities then those are a problem and no 'solution' at all. There's a time and a place for everything and if people set aside a disciplined time each and every day for cultivation and/ or meditation then all else falls into place. Disciplined, regular (sometimes grinding) cultivation, day in - day out every day of every month of every year is what does the trick. Monkey/ Butterfly minded folks who flit from one thing to another whilst settling upon none are those most likely to mistake their flitting and passing whims or fancies as 'intuition'. Those aren't intuition at all they are manifestations of the mind When it is 'intuition' ,that's where spirit speaks to our spirit and we are able to listen and hear. Accept no imitations. :-)

Gotta have a hat. I lurve those western guys in slopey Taoist hats. So much the better if said hat has a corporate 'dojo logo' on it. GMP's dojo law = The more elaborate the robes teacher wears to class the faster the dojo churns students. If ya gotta dress up like Fu Manchu to get the message across, then it aint worth gettin' across. :-)

+1 The Greek economy thrived on tourism but since the Euro price rises they've had no real control. I'm no economist but an Athenian family we know all earned their money over the summer season on Samos and took it easy back home through winter. Now they are all out of work and struggling to get by as tourism has crashed.

Dunno about Spain but if Greece sacked the Euro and went back onto their own Drachma then they'd be fighting off the tourists once again. Time was Greek holidays were a total bargain but since the Euro came in it's become no different to anywhere else. Where we used to go on Samos most of the Greek young folk came from the mainland and made their money in summer working the tourist trade then took winters off.

Said this before on here. Was at a British Taoist Association gig one time and quite frankly it was a bit like being in a production of The Mikado where only one cast member had a costume. Maybe that kit looks OK on a Chinese person but on an English guy..... Nah.

I've never had a 'proper' job. Always worked for the government in one way or another since leaving school. Well when I say 'work' ........ :-)

I wish! Still working full time. For sure the alarm clock and watch will be retired when I retire.

The Dude and The Zen Master.... http://sweepingzen.com/book-review-the-dude-and-the-zen-master/ "Reading their frictionless exchanges is like watching someone blow kisses at himself in the mirror." ( Unsympathetic reviewer). :-)

It's what the hole in the hat is for. Makes it easier to tinfoil up the topknot without recourse to hat removal. Apropos hats. Is it just me or aren't Taoist priest hats just about the silliest looking ecclesiastical headgear this side of those massive curved Tibetan jobs?

Salt's your best bet for clearing spaces. Table salt will do it. Just cover a little saucer with salt and have that somewhere in the room. In our path the old folks used to use half a cut onion in a saucer if anyone they didn't like was visiting. Once the person went the onion was thrown on the fire. ( We all had coal fires back in the day). One time my gran showed me a cut onion that was going onto the fire after a neighbour lady had been around pouring out her tales of woe to my gran who was the village medium and unpaid 'listening lady'. That onion, which was cut fresh, was as black and rotten as if it had been out for a month

What are we like? Coming on here philosophising about Taoism! :-) Kinda agree that cultivation's more to do with 'doing' than 'talking about'. Thing is though it's nice to discuss mutual interests 'between' cultivation sessions.

Interview with Mr and Mrs Olds here plus some of their art... http://www.acircleisdrawn.org/index.php/heart-essence/ I could live with some of those pictures for sure.. It's nice work.

Where else would you be Cap? :-)

Nah... Bagua and QiGong for sure. :-)

Samadhi is not the ending point of our practice, but is more like a light that is turned on and illuminates our lives in new ways. Things no longer appear the same as before when viewed from a state of Samadhi, and so we can see all that our lives contain quite differently from this alternate perspective. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.

Can't say I've noticed cultivating QiGong making anyone less or more attractive to the opposite sex. You do get to meet a nice class of people at QiGong classes though and at ours women outnumber men by about five to one. Anybody cultivating with intention for upping their chances for lurve is maybe not bringing the right mindset to whatever form they are cultivating.

Yep I am a Grandmaster sho nuff. Got the Diploma and everything. That Dip plus a pound coin will buy you a cuppa tea in the Refectory at work. Masters teach. Grandmasters teach teachers. Sightly worrying sometimes. No wonder the world's in the state it is. Bumbling along with good intentions is about the best any of us can do sometimes. :-)