Other Forums ?

[Coaster]

Are there any Forums that have members with a similar viewpoint to the membership here (i.e. pro-spirituality anti-materialism) but without the Martial Arts guys (the "I'm going to spend 20 hours a day practicing until I am the most powerful being in the Universe - and btw My Master Is The Greatest" guys)?

 

Or, if the Forum doesn't have the Taoist/Buddhist connection, is everything else going to be New-Age-I-Believe-Anything-And-Everything Forums ?

 

Thanks.

Edited February 25, 2014 by Coaster

[Nungali]

I was looking for one like that ... my interest was hermetics si I typed that in with forum ... and ended up here somehow

 

It depends on what you want ... searching for 'spiritual forums' you are bound to hit new age. There are occult forums but you might not be into that ? (And I suspect certain 'all powerfuls' may be 'hidden' within their ranks .)

 

Just a matter of coming up with your right word combination .... you could try

 

www.taobudhistvedantawithnowankers.com/forums

[GreytoWhite]

Dharma Overground has a good bunch of people but it's slow.

[adept]

Are there any Forums that have members with a similar viewpoint to the membership here (i.e. pro-spirituality anti-materialism) but without the Martial Arts guys (the "I'm going to spend 20 hours a day practicing until I am the most powerful being in the Universe - and btw My Master Is The Greatest" guys)?

 

Or, if the Forum doesn't have the Taoist/Buddhist connection, is everything else going to be New-Age-I-Believe-Anything-And-Everything Forums ?

 

Thanks.

 

I think you'll find a lot of folks here are very materialistic. You don't have to be anti-materialistic to be spiritual.

[Aeran]

There's veritas, which is mostly dead now days, but for a while it was a pretty decent place, and they still have an awesome article section covering a wide range of topics (yoga, qi gong, hermetics, parapsychology, philosophy, etc).

 

Other than that, my experience is no, at least not public ones. The problem with forums for discussing spirituality is that they fill up with people who like discussing spirituality, not practicing it

[soaring crane]

TTB has sort of weathered the storms and come ashore while all the other larger forums have sunk down to the murky depths of history.

 

YMAA (Yang Jwing Ming's publishing house) had pretty discussion forums a while back, but I don't think they're very active anymore, either.

 

There may be some yahoo groups that meet your desires. Go there and try a few different search terms.

 

But, in a nutshell, TTB is your best bet today.

[SonOfTheGods]

Years ago, AYP was pretty good. But over the years- it changed.

 

Seems there has been an outbreak of KUNDALINI!

 

Yeah, everyone has Kundalini awakenings these days.

 

If your ass itches- ITS KUNDALINI AWAKENING IN YOUR TAILBONE!

 

/sarcasm

Edited February 28, 2014 by SonOfTheGods

[Green Tiger]

If anyone is looking for the opposite (a forum with more martial arts guys and fewer people who want to talk about their kundalini awakening) The Rum Soaked Fist is a great one.

 

Their emphasis is on internal martial arts, but most of the people there approach it from a pretty materialistic, Newtonian-physics oriented viewpoint. I don't always agree with their perspective, but I think it is a nice change of pace from this forum.

 

They aren't nearly as interested in immortality, semen retention, enlightenment, and all that jazz. Mostly they talk about how to train to use the body efficiently in a martial arts context. There are some good discussions about standing meditation and other cultivation methods, but anyone who starts talking about 'empty force' usually gets smacked down pretty quickly.

 

They have one section of the forum where only people with 500+ posted are allowed to post. Really weeds out the riff-raff.

[BaguaKicksAss]

If anyone is looking for the opposite (a forum with more martial arts guys and fewer people who want to talk about their kundalini awakening) The Rum Soaked Fist is a great one.

 

Their emphasis is on internal martial arts, but most of the people there approach it from a pretty materialistic, Newtonian-physics oriented viewpoint. I don't always agree with their perspective, but I think it is a nice change of pace from this forum.

 

They aren't nearly as interested in immortality, semen retention, enlightenment, and all that jazz. Mostly they talk about how to train to use the body efficiently in a martial arts context. There are some good discussions about standing meditation and other cultivation methods, but anyone who starts talking about 'empty force' usually gets smacked down pretty quickly.

 

They have one section of the forum where only people with 500+ posted are allowed to post. Really weeds out the riff-raff.

 

What? They let *me* into that 500 post section!

 

I prefer these forums over RSF, much less like a guy's lockerroom .

[Coaster]

Years ago, AYP was pretty good. But over the years- it changed.

 

Seems there has been an outbreak of KUNDALINI!

 

Yeah, everyone has Kundalini awakenings these days.

 

If your ass itches- ITS KUNDALINI AWAKENING IN YOUR TAILBONE!

 

/sarcasm

 

Thanks for the reference, strangely enough that site started around the time I stopped looking for sites on that topic.

 

By the way, the AYP site owner has a reply to the same objections you mention, which can be read at:

 

http://www3.telus.net/public/sarlo/Yyogani.htm

 

(And, it seems fairly obvious that when there is a physically perceived phenomenon, that is contrary to mainstream culture's conventional wisdom, it is going to get the lion share of attention from newbies. It takes some contemplation to realize that such things are still just a means, not an end.)

Edited February 28, 2014 by Coaster

[Green Tiger]

What? They let *me* into that 500 post section!

 

I prefer these forums over RSF, much less like a guy's lockerroom .

 

Do you post there?

 

I occasionally prefer the locker room to this place, which reminds me more of a high school cafeteria sometimes.

[BaguaKicksAss]

Do you post there?

 

I occasionally prefer the locker room to this place, which reminds me more of a high school cafeteria sometimes.

 

I used to; I don't any longer.

 

Each and every forum has its trolls and negative aspects I would say.

 

Though there is one Daoist forum which seems to be awesome and not have any of those problems... can't remember the name of it!!!!

[Coaster]

Now that I read some of the articles ("lessons") at AYP, it seems oddly materialist and mechanical.

 

There is almost no emphasis on metaphysics or philosophy (although it might be present somewhere on the site, it is not in any of the language of the lessons), and so there is still the mainstream culture idea of "I am going to get something by doing this".

 

Whereas in more sophisticated yoga, one of the main lessons is that there is nothing to attain...

[deci belle]

There's one called International Zen Forum (maybe?) that I feel is very good.

 

The people were cool, I thought. But I didn't hang out very long. I don't do discussion so much, as you all know.

 

Very heavily oriented towards a strict observation of who is a real teacher or not, on the level of some sort of official criteria of Zen-dom …you know, like Zen-teaching ministries. Not a bunch of no-account bums like we are.

 

I might have seen chris d there, maybe he can say more about that forum.

[Coaster]

Okay, I've read more of the AYP lessons... a lot of the explanations - and even some of the practices - are just made up. It does fit the concept of "one guy does a mish-mash of practices and then acts like his arbitrary choices are a system".

 

You can tell a child that his presents come from Santa Claus and this his siblings were brought by the Stork, and those falsehoods will not prevent him from having presents or siblings.

 

Similarly, you can spent a month eating random foods from the supermarket, and you will survive to the end of the month, the same as if you had meals prepared by a chef.

 

So, the lessons have tons of New Age gibberish that is only vaguely related to the Patanjali Yoga that is theoretically the basis for AYP. But the practices, despite their vague and meaningless explanations, are just close enough to actual yoga practices to have positive effect if you do them as prescribed. This can make it seem like the explanations must be true, because the practices do something (a false correlation).

 

The whole thing is needlessly complex and lengthy, and in fact there is a Q and A on that subject, and the answer is just more meaningless abstractions. Whereas, Ramana Maharshi describes the meaning of life, the universe and everything in 21 short pages, and you could get most of it from the first 8 or 10 pages, so it can really be short and simple.

 

The anonymity and "not a Guru" claim shows that just the sensation of being "followed" is enough for many people who come up with their own system. The " I'm only doing it to benefit others " is a rationalization, because humans do actions directly from instinct. The satisfaction of being followed can be easily rationalized as actually being the satisfaction of helping others.

Edited March 1, 2014 by Coaster

[gatito]

Okay, I've read more of the AYP lessons... a lot of the explanations - and even some of the practices - are just made up. It does fit the concept of "one guy does a mish-mash of practices and then acts like his arbitrary choices are a system".

 

You can tell a child that his presents come from Santa Claus and this his siblings were brought by the Stork, and those falsehoods will not prevent him from having presents or siblings.

 

Similarly, you can spent a month eating random foods from the supermarket, and you will survive to the end of the month, the same as if you had meals prepared by a chef.

 

So, the lessons have tons of New Age gibberish that is only vaguely related to the Patanjali Yoga that is theoretically the basis for AYP. But the practices, despite their vague and meaningless explanations, are just close enough to actual yoga practices to have positive effect if you do them as prescribed. This can make it seem like the explanations must be true, because the practices do something (a false correlation).

 

The whole thing is needlessly complex and lengthy, and in fact there is a Q and A on that subject, and the answer is just more meaningless abstractions. Whereas, Ramana Maharshi describes the meaning of life, the universe and everything in 21 short pages, and you could get most of it from the first 8 or 10 pages, so it can really be short and simple.

 

The anonymity and "not a Guru" claim shows that just the sensation of being "followed" is enough for many people who come up with their own system. The " I'm only doing it to benefit others " is a rationalization, because humans do actions directly from instinct. The satisfaction of being followed can be easily rationalized as actually being the satisfaction of helping others.

Best summary of AYP that I've seen to date.

 

The other thing that I'd add is that whatever yogani has cooked up at Advanced Yoga Practices isn't safe and he's certainly boiling frogs there (wtf is "overload"? - probably serious damage from what I've seen).

 

Furthermore, as soon as you question the safety aspects, or begin to correct the self-inquiry/enlightenment nonsense that he's concocted, you'll get an instant ban.

Edited March 1, 2014 by gatito