What Happened To Gerard ?

[adept]

Anyone know ?

He hasn't been around for a while and has deleted a lot of his posts.

He has an awful lot of first hand experience which he usually shares with us.

A great shame indeed if he has left.

[zerostao]

i have wondered the same thing myself. i tried bumping a couple of his threads over the past month.

[NotVoid]

...

Edited March 6, 2014 by NotVoid

[adept]

He was aiming for retreat in SE Asia, iirc. And spoke increasingly about mountains.

 

Hope he finds his peace. _/\_

 

Oh, well that would account for him not posting here, but why delete all those posts ?

Some of his wisdom and advice was great to read.

[RiverSnake]

Its a revolving door here at TTBs. Practitioners come, practitioners go.....such is the way I suppose. I enjoyed his posts while he was here and having people with his level of experience around these parts is always helpful.

 

My 2 cents, Peace

[Edward M]

http://thetaobums.com/topic/24068-serge-augiers-teaching-is-now-in-london/

 

He is lurking-- he edited his post on the 14th of this month in the thread above-- sorry Gerard !!

 

Peace

[NotVoid]

...

Edited March 6, 2014 by NotVoid

[BaguaKicksAss]

Must have sattelite uplink in the mountains :-D

[zerostao]

gerard, if you are still about and deleting or whatever. i just want to personally thank you for all that you kindly shared with me.

and bagua on brother.

[Gerard]

I decided not to post anymore and deleted old posts because direct/personal experience is invaluable. No words can replace this; reading the Pali canon thousands of times will turn you into an incredibly knowledgeable Buddhist scholar but it won't make you a saint whereas walking mindfully for a ten thousand miles chanting in your mind one single word (mindfulness, right effort & concentration) will.

 

ultimately wisdom will arise as a result of the sum of those variables.

 

I hope you understand why I deleted all those posts.

 

You'll learn more from a tree than an Internet "spiritual" forum.

 

Why do you want me to stay here? It's nothing personal, but please re-read the words highlighted in blue.

 

Best of luck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[adept]

Gerard, thank you for your frank honesty.

Perhaps you are right. We spend far too much time online, bickering, comparing, arguing, praising etc etc.

Experience, practice and more practice is where it's at.

However, it's also good to hear of others experiences and wisdom, as this can also be a catalyst for a solid practice.

There are some of us here who value your postings and your advice.

Please check in every now and again. I'd love to hear how you are and of your practice.

Best of luck.

 

[adept]

walking mindfully for a ten thousand miles chanting in your mind one single word (mindfulness, right effort & concentration) will.

 

ultimately wisdom will arise as a result of the sum of those variables.

 

Thank you for this advice !

See what I mean about your value here.

Good luck with your endeavors.

[z00se]

I get what you say notvoid but...

I recently spent some time on an island and the natives there have no religion they just make some wooden figures and believe they protect them. They send a small boat out into the ocean on every full moon to send away bad luck.

What i have found is that by living go society you can 'rise above it all' as you say, but i find life is more fun when u can lose your center and engage not just float by. To do this and stay happy you need a balanced and therefore healthy environment. The Island was that, i could go into all the details of why it was so fantastic but not now im typing on an old phone with small screen waiting at airport for the bus. The point i want to make is that not only mountains provide this happy place, there are many such places, usually away from big cities where you can attach, engage, and hold on to it all while retaining inner peace. Perhaps not 100% of the time but 90%. Here we dont need to learn, or unlearn, so that we can keep our inner peace, rather the healthy environment instills it within us. Inside out or outside in, it doesnt matter the cause for the peace, only that we feel happy. Find a happy place and do a tiny amount of cultivation, then you can hold on or attach just the right amount to what is good and it is worth while. To me i feel this is better and more practical than what novoid is saying on the long term.

[mYTHmAKER]

I decided not to post anymore and deleted old posts because direct/personal experience is invaluable. No words can replace this; reading the Pali canon thousands of times will turn you into an incredibly knowledgeable Buddhist scholar but it won't make you a saint whereas walking mindfully for a ten thousand miles chanting in your mind one single word (mindfulness, right effort & concentration) will.

 

ultimately wisdom will arise as a result of the sum of those variables.

 

I hope you understand why I deleted all those posts.

 

You'll learn more from a tree than an Internet "spiritual" forum.

 

Why do you want me to stay here? It's nothing personal, but please re-read the words highlighted in blue.

 

Best of luck.

You are right one must actually do the practices - experience them.

However, it is helpful to have information, to know what is available, possible in order to make a choice.

When one is hurting hearing about possibilities is very helpful.

[9th]

"The ways also differ from each other by their relation to the teacher or leader.

 

"On the way of the fakir a man has no teacher in the true sense of the word. The teacher in this case does not teach but simply serves as an example. The pupil's work consists in imitating the teacher.

 

"On the way of the monk a man has a teacher, and a part of his duty, a part of his work, consists in having absolute faith in the teacher, in submitting to him absolutely, in obedience. But the chief thing on the way of the monk is faith in God, in the love of God, in constant efforts to obey and serve God, although, in his understanding of the idea of God and of serving God, there may be much that is subjective and contra­dictory.

 

"On the way of the yogi a man can do nothing, and must do nothing, without a teacher. In the beginning he must imitate his teacher like the fakir and believe in him like the monk. But, afterwards, a man on the way of the yogi gradually becomes his own teacher. He learns his teacher's methods and gradually learns to apply them to himself.

 

"But all the ways, the way of the fakir as well as the way of the monk and the way of the yogi, have one thing in common. They all begin with the most difficult thing, with a complete change of life, with a renunciation of all worldly things. A man must give up his home, his family if he has one, renounce all the pleasures, attachments, and duties of life, and go out into the desert, or into a monastery or a yogi school. From the very first day, from the very first step on his way, he must die to the world; only thus can he hope to attain anything on one of these ways.

 

"The fourth way requires no retirement into the desert, does not require a man to give up and renounce everything by which he formerly lived. The fourth way begins much further on than the way of the yogi. This means that a man must be prepared for the fourth way and this preparation must be acquired in ordinary life and be a very serious one, embracing many different sides. Furthermore a man must be living in conditions favorable for work on the fourth way, or, in any case, in conditions which do not render it impossible. It must be understood that both in the inner and in the external life of a man there may be conditions which create insuperable barriers to the fourth way. Furthermore, the fourth way has no definite forms like the ways of the fakir, the monk, and the yogi. And, first of all, it has to be found. This is the first test. It is not as well known as the three traditional ways. There are many people who have never heard of the fourth way and there are others who deny its existence or possibility.

 

"At the same time the beginning of the fourth way is easier than the beginning of the ways of the fakir, the monk, and the yogi. On the fourth way it is possible to work and to follow this way while remaining in the usual conditions of life, continuing to do the usual work, preserving former relations with people, and without renouncing or giving up anything. On the contrary, the conditions of life in which a man is placed at the beginning of his work, in which, so to speak, the work finds him, are the best possible for him, at any rate at the beginning of the work. These conditions are natural for him. These conditions are the man himself, because a man's life and its conditions correspond to what he is. Any conditions different from those created by life would be artificial for a man and in such artificial conditions the work would not be able to touch every side of his being at once.

 

"Thanks to this, the fourth way affects simultaneously every side of man's being. It is work on the three rooms at once. The fakir works on the first room, the monk on the second, the yogi on the third. In reaching the fourth room the fakir, the monk, and the yogi leave behind them many things unfinished, and they cannot make use of what they have attained because they are not masters of all their functions. The fakir is master of his body but not of his emotions or his mind; the monk is master of his emotions but not of his body or his mind; the yogi is master of his mind but not of his body or his emotions.

 

"Then the fourth way differs from the other ways in that the principal demand made upon a man is the demand for understanding. A man must do nothing that he does not understand, except as an experiment under the supervision and direction of his teacher. The more a man understands what he is doing, the greater will be the results of his efforts. This is a fundamental principle of the fourth way. The results of work are in proportion to the consciousness of the work. No 'faith' is required on the fourth way; on the contrary, faith of any kind is opposed to the fourth way. On the fourth way a man must satisfy himself of the truth of what he is told. And until he is satisfied he must do nothing.

 

"The method of the fourth way consists in doing something in one room and simultaneously doing something corresponding to it in the two other rooms—that is to say, while working on the physical body to work simultaneously on the mind and the emotions; while working on the mind to work on the physical body and the emotions; while working on the emotions to work on the mind and the physical body. This can be achieved thanks to the fact that on the fourth way it is possible to make use of certain knowledge inaccessible to the ways of the fakir, the monk, and the yogi. This knowledge makes it possible to work in three directions simultaneously. A whole parallel series of physical, mental, and emotional exercises serves this purpose. In addition, on the fourth way it is possible to individualize the work of each separate person, that is to say, each person can do only what is necessary and not what is useless for him.

[NotVoid]

...

Edited March 6, 2014 by NotVoid

[Simple_Jack]

.

Edited January 26, 2014 by Simple_Jack

[Gerard]

Gerard, thank you for your frank honesty. Perhaps you are right. We spend far too much time online, bickering, comparing, arguing, praising etc etc. Experience, practice and more practice is where it's at. However, it's also good to hear of others experiences and wisdom, as this can also be a catalyst for a solid practice. There are some of us here who value your postings and your advice. Please check in every now and again. I'd love to hear how you are and of your practice. Best of luck.

 

You are totally right. Here are two books that I will always recommend to anyone walking on this path:

 

Opening the Dragon Gate (in the mountains)

Beyond the Mysterious Gate (in the 'ordinary' world)

 

Very practical.

 

It's all about practice and the more you do the more you realise how important practice and experiencing things from a personal perspective is. Also the more you advance the more you understand/clearly see teachings by those who perfected their minds completely (arahants, saints, Daoist 'immortals', etc.)

 

One thing that I have realised for the last couple of years or so, the closer you get to the final goal the more time you spend working on yourself the harder it becomes living amongst ordinary people. From this point in time the reason for a sangha becomes very clear and a necessary shelter in order to progress more, whereas others choose the path of wandering around; i.e. in the mountains Wang Liping's three teachers and many practitioners who live this way in China, they practice Kung Fu and meditation every day non-stop, live freely wearing only a pair of worn-out shoes and a robe (one of the main teachers of the author of the second book I mentioned above belonged to this particular kind) or become reclusive hermits.

[Mal]

There is a time and a place for ttb in a person's journey - but it's just another step along the way not the destination

 

[BaguaKicksAss]

TTBs isn't the destination?

 

Well crap.

 

*turns around*

[Gerard]

.

Edited March 10, 2014 by Gerard

[z00se]

How can an adept live normally in society once he opens up the entire Universe we all have within...how about enlightenment? Going back to a 9-5 job? Did the last Buddha do that?

 

You simply can't.

 

Keep practicising hard as Wang Liping did in the book...no one can take the fruits of your practice away from you: a car, a job, money and a wife come and go easily, they are all impermanent. IMO, it is better striving for higher and more noble goals.

 

A car, a job, money and a wife don't come and go easily, they can be life long if you take care for them. If you start injecting drugs or even become unintentionally poisoned via poor quality drinking water or food (for example) your perception of being high and noble will fade and you will see it is just as impermanent. 'No one can take the fruits of your practice away from you'... i know what you mean, it is so PURE, so true and real to the bone, yet i think it can be easy to lose the fruits of your practice, it is the practice that nobody can take from you. Yet deep in practice, what do you lose in the mean time? I believe there's only one way to get it all, and this has nothing to do with high or noble goals. High, or being high is just like being low or materialistic, just in reverse. The only way to get it all is through balance, and creating depth in that balance.

 

 

No idea about these wise and deep words when I first read p. 40 of that book. Today, I practice according to this principle and seek the best times and places in order to maximise results. I have seen the Bagua arrangement in spider webs, I have even seen the yin and yang and also the bagua engraved on a temple floor in one of the God realms and then approached by Ganesha and Hanuman the Monkey God who stated: so you are practicing the Dharma, very good, keep going, we are aware of the state of delusion humanity is facing currently facing. Yes these divine beings and very wise and magnificent and each of us have access to those realms as they are located in the upper chakras, once your third eye is opened and bubbling vigorously. It was one of the most fascinating visions I have experienced in meditation so far because I didn't know those realms were also in possesion of this knowledge...but as the Vedas state As above, so below, so no longer surprised.

 

Fascinating... and yet so much more will become relieved the more you look, endlessly infact. I am not to say that i know more or anything like that, it is just that if this wisdom is what you seek, then that is what you will get. You will become wiser and wiser, deep within the depths of knowledge, yet this information become inaccessable to the world, you become cold, withdrawn, just like an overly strong water element in TCM. Is it not happening already? I'm sure you would think twice before you offer somebody medical advice in the future, even though you know it to be true. It's not a matter of if it is true or not, you need to find a way to bring it from the subtle to the physical or it is useless. It's like if i go around saying there is an alien in the sky, nobody will believe me unless i actually show it to them. You need the wood to expand it as you need balance in all the other elements also.

 

 

But there is more to that and when I first experience it I thought I was going mad...seeing faces in trees, seeing various spiritual beings in broad daylight during practice, seeing the true faces (karmic evolution) of ordinary humans which is displayed on everyone's face like a map, being able to see the karma of any beings, etc. I also believe this is why some seekers can't handle living in society any longer, as the experience can be traumatic...you develop a very strong sense of compassion as a result and it can be daunting..

 

These are like taking hallucanagenic drugs. Either intoxicated or through meditation - it's interesting and exciting, but why? Because it is new. If you constantly see these things for weeks, months on end it's not fun any more, you get over it.

 

I think it's always good to spare some time for practice, but life is short and i want to live it to the fullest. To me that means variety, and not let cultivation practice get in the way of that. Bad habits like drinking alcohol can limit variety but so too can excessive cultivation practice. Nothing is good in excess.

 

There is nothing wrong with striving to achieve what you want to achieve, but be self conscious enough to realise when you have achieved something. I believe you are overstepping the mark becoming an over-achiever. What is it that you are seeking? and at what point will you have reached these 'high and noble' goals you seek? When will enough be enough or will you always be hungry for more?

 

Just my 1 cent worth

Edited January 26, 2014 by z00se

[z00se]

A car, a job, money and a wife don't come and go easily, they can be life long if you take care for them. If you start injecting drugs or even become unintentionally poisoned via poor quality drinking water or food (for example) your perception of being high and noble will fade and you will see it is just as impermanent. 'No one can take the fruits of your practice away from you'... i know what you mean, it is so PURE, so true and real to the bone, yet i think it can be easy to lose the fruits of your practice, it is the practice that nobody can take from you. Yet deep in practice, what do you lose in the mean time? I believe there's only one way to get it all, and this has nothing to do with high or noble goals. High, or being high is just like being low or materialistic, just in reverse. The only way to get it all is through balance, and creating depth in that balance.

 

 

 

Fascinating... and yet so much more will become relieved the more you look, endlessly infact. I am not to say that i know more or anything like that, it is just that if this wisdom is what you seek, then that is what you will get. You will become wiser and wiser, deep within the depths of knowledge, yet this information become inaccessable to the world, you become cold, withdrawn, just like an overly strong water element in TCM. Is it not happening already? I'm sure you would think twice before you offer somebody medical advice in the future, even though you know it to be true. It's not a matter of if it is true or not, you need to find a way to bring it from the subtle to the physical or it is useless. It's like if i go around saying there is an alien in the sky, nobody will believe me unless i actually show it to them. You need the wood to expand it as you need balance in all the other elements also.

 

 

 

These are like taking hallucanagenic drugs. Either intoxicated or through meditation - it's interesting and exciting, but why? Because it is new. If you constantly see these things for weeks, months on end it's not fun any more, you get over it.

 

I think it's always good to spare some time for practice, but life is short and i want to live it to the fullest. To me that means variety, and not let cultivation practice get in the way of that. Bad habits like drinking alcohol can limit variety but so too can excessive cultivation practice. Nothing is good in excess.

 

There is nothing wrong with striving to achieve what you want to achieve, but be self conscious enough to realise when you have achieved something. I believe you are overstepping the mark becoming an over-achiever. What is it that you are seeking? and at what point will you have reached these 'high and noble' goals you seek? When will enough be enough or will you always be hungry for more?

 

Just my 1 cent worth

 

... One more thing, from TCM perpective anyway... you deleting your posts, withdrawing seems to show that you are trying to go deeper showing an overly strong water element. People are calling out to you, they want your knowledge, you even have your own thread 'What happened to Gerard?' It would seem to me the enviroment is trying to tell you something, though whether i am right or wrong, only you can know.

[Gerard]

Here's a good lecture from someone who actually practices and understands the nature of the mind:

 

 

Listen carefully what he says...I hope you can experience this one day, for yourself. You will have reached a very serious level of attainment; it's not the end of the journey though, but it is a good indication that the road to the end of the journey is on sight.

Edited March 10, 2014 by Gerard

[z00se]

Hahah do some more good deeds and chat with us, i'm finding this interesting....

 

The monk sounds true... However...

 

A person who always does good deeds finds it difficult to do bad deeds, it's against their habit and so hard for them. A person who does bad deeds often finds it hard to do good deeds, because it is also against their habit. It's the same.

 

Is a human life more desireable than an animals life? Is a celestial being's life more desireable than a human's life? You want to do good simply because of a desire to raise higher, or 'get out of jail' to use the monk's speak?

 

Infact i often think that a wild animal's life (if not put in a cage) would be better than life in a society, which is like a cage you put yourself in. Native or tribal humans are like animals in this sense whom i believe have a wonderful life, although i can't know for sure because i have never fully experienced it.

 

And what is good or bad? Does he mean natural, instinctive or behaviour based on intuition is good and that premeditated and thought out behaviour is bad? Does he mean kind things are good? But then that goes on culture and intention. Is intention more important or is deed more important? If you mean to save one person but 10 die as a result, is that good, or if you let the 1 die and 10 live is that good? Morals are subjective.

 

It is not easy for the mind to always be pure, it relies heavily, equally, on the physical and that needs to be tended to also. Trying to constantly rise above without tending to your body is hard work, tao is meant to be easy.

 

I believe tao should be the goal, not heaven. I think it is often a thing on this forum where people feel they are in hell and the grass looks greener on the other side. To me being in heaven, even on earth, is a waste of life. But of course there are those that feel travelling deeper into the heavens is as great as i feel about travelling around the globe into different countries and cultures. I seek more and can exhaust myself, a monk can seek more and cause himself illness from lack of movement or vigor, searching for deeper truths in stillness. That is why we have TCM, so we can harmonize and prevent outselves from overextending in any direction for the sake of our health.

 

I will stop posting again, Internet can be fun but also very ego-driven, which is a hindrance rather than real help.

 

haha a hindrance to what? That which you desire? I thought there should be no desires?

 

End the search, be what you are right now and relish in it. Why do you want to try to reach a level that you don't even know what it feels like to be there? Not saying you shouldn't try something new, but to devote all your resources to it? You feel you are on a path, and the further you walk along the path the better you feel, yet you keep on walking, craving more. There is no end, you will go on many lives (if thats even possible) constantly searching for something higher but there is no limit. Do you ever get the sensation that 'oohh yeah this is it' yet a few days later you feel 'hmm no, there is more than this, there is still further to go' ?

 

Tell me if you think i am talking rubbish or if there is a slight truth to what i say. Of course we all have our own path but in my opinion no path is more 'noble' than any other path, they are all equally noble in their own right.