Cameron Posted December 7, 2007 I am sticking to my 100 days attempt despite Brother Chris's Advice. Â Cam Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
joeblast Posted January 7, 2008 Ultimately awakening becomes as simple as a single thought. That is why some seem to attain it in an instant. A very good point in Working Towards Enlightenment (Nan Huai-Chin) regarding awakening was the attention drawn to all of the prepatory work done before it becomes as easy as turning one's hands over. Whe one is ready, it is that easy! (I know I sure aint! that is an excellent book, btw...thanks to Drew for the suggestion!) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fiveelementtao Posted December 10, 2008 Obviously there are many paths that lead to the top. Max seems entirely different than the other Master, i.e. John Chang, Robert Peng, etc. Why is there such a huge difference if all the practices lead to the same top..or do they? Â No they don't. John Chang is a "bottom up" energy system. Max's is a "top down" energy system. there are other differences, but that is the main general difference. Â I agree that they ultimately achieve the same general objective, but it is a different method... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Taomeow Posted December 10, 2008 No they don't. John Chang is a "bottom up" energy system. Max's is a "top down" energy system. there are other differences, but that is the main general difference. Â I agree that they ultimately achieve the same general objective, but it is a different method... Â I've been avoiding all "bottom up," upward-flow methods long before kunlun, and I will continue to avoid them. The reason has to do with timing, with the nature of our time. Â It is an upward-mobile, hierarchical, pyramid-scheme kind of time. The mass at the bottom supporting the rulers at the top. The way to get anywhere is to "ascend," climb the corporate ladder or the spiritual one, in the general direction of some Father in Heaven or other. This is the time that has made Earth a servant to a "higher" master. The time when the body is imprisoned with the excuse that the spirit roams free. (Duh. Disembodied spirits roaming free have long been known as gui, hungry ghosts.) The time we talk to each other in a disembodied internet fashion exchanging things of the head, mind, spirit, higher cortical activity -- instead of shoulder to shoulder, face to face, whole earthly being to whole living, breathing presence. The time when as above so below means glorify everything above and marginalize everything below. Â The time when upward-flow cultivation practices add to the overall imbalance, on the personal level and the universal level alike, by imitating the very upward drift that has already gone too far and has been going too far for too long and is not slowing down or stopping as we speak. The time of kali yuga, blowing things up from under everybody's collective feet, sending them flying upward... dispersing, demolishing, upward-driving the foundation of life. Â The downward flow practices are the natural antidote. Which is one reason I've taken to kunlun like fish to water. It is in harmony with the needs of our time. There's many practices that are "whatever" that don't phase in the nature of the time they're being practiced in. But taoism is nothing if not a study of the nature of time. The color, flavor, shape, meaning, intent of the season... Overlook it and you will never choose a practice wisely... They're good practices all right, many of them, and great practices some of them, but their time may have passed or may not have come, however you look at it, which means they are lousy practices if practiced right now, during a wrong cosmic season, even though they may have been great two thousand years ago and will be great again two thousand years from now. Â Not so with kunlun. This one is time-sensitive... and the imperative of the time is... invert that damn pyramid... and crush that obnoxious usurper at the top with all the weight of its downward, magnetic, magnificent flow. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Taomeow Posted December 11, 2008 By the way, if anyone who tried to contact me at kunlun forum was left hanging, that's because I've no access to that forum currently -- different state, different computer, forgot my password, waiting for it to get reset, blah blah. So -- if I'm failing to respond to someone or something there, sorry. Pending. Â Downward mobility of social values/energies/moods/lifestyles is a planned assault, not a cultivation phenomenon. Big difference between dropping your qi to the lower dantien and dropping a hammer on your toe. Both are downward mobile, but we're not talking crude energies, we are talking subtle ones. And subtle ones are set up to take people out of their bodies into their heads, nevermind things they then proceed to do in/with their heads are mostly idiotic, they are still coming in via the upper-visual-auditory interface with the world more than any other route. Watching TV is an upward-flow activity, ditto computer work, ditto video games, ditto alcohol -- a yang tonic, a yin suppressor -- Â using anything that burns petroleum is an upward-flow activity, your use energy that goes up in smoke and heat and toxic shit -- so driving a car is another one of those -- Â taking a shower is an upward-flow deal, believe it or not, because chlorine in that steam goes up, not down -- Â our civilization is yang/upward skewed every step of the way I tell ya, don't use "down" metaphorically and you will notice, use it literally. "Down" is a direction. "Education going down" is a metaphor, whose directional affiliation is quite arbitrary. "Going down" doesn't mean "becoming less" in the context I'm using it in. It means an actual vector of motion of energies, energies of the world both subtle and not so subtle. Primarily qi... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
