Hi

[oatisnottao]

Hi,

Oat is not Tao here. 

I am interested mainly in the practices of m. chia and michal winn. researching winn currently fundamentals 1 & 2. I know about these for 9 years and now I got time to get deeper and practice inner smile, healing sounds, microcosmic orbit, basic sexual cultivation. 

read, read, read, listen to audio, videos on youtube - which I watched most from Michael Winn. 

I am trying to get an understanding of the hierarchy of the teachings. 

I am quite open to taoism in general. I am interested in China, but prefer free countries which we got less and less of. 

I also really like nature and was trying to find Way, Meaning and other things in other teachings, some considered controversial by some and possibly independent by other. I too did thought they are independent but rather people used my as source of money without really providing anything. 

 

I also did have a strong interest in Carl Jung before all this. 

 

I am about to become Master in Software Engineering next year (just need to finish my thesis and state exam) 

I have 6y+ exp in cybersecurity - offensive field. 

 

I am high in openess, which explains why I did go through so many things from which I named just a small fraction. 

I am strong believer in values and methods of science but I also consider chi, jing - these two things from chinese medicine/taoism as real due to having the ability to feel it - altough I am still not sure about various details. 

 

[Cobie]

On 27/06/2024 at 12:03 AM, oatisnottao said:

… people used my as source of money without really providing anything. …

Sorry to hear that. It might help others to post more info about that. Welcome to the forum. 
 

 

[oatisnottao]

On 4. 7. 2024 at 9:09 AM, Cobie said:

Sorry to hear that. It might help others to post more info about that. Welcome to the forum. 
 

 

Many thanks for the welcome. I was doing method individual constelattions, related to bert helinger family constellations but also inspired by Arnold Mindell work. Thats what costed me too much money and did not really help, it led me astray. 

 

Had to really work brutaly hard to bring my life back for seven years and I am doing much better now, gained more wisdom but was ultimately moving backwards and losing progress back in the time. 

 

I had known about tao back then (since 2014 or 2015), but started to practice daily just last three months. 

 

 

[Cobie]

33 minutes ago, oatisnottao said:

… I am doing much better now … 

That’s great. Enjoy the forum. 
 

 

[Gerard]

Hello,

 

Put it this way, the spiritual field is littered with charlatans in various forms.

 

Finding a good, honest and experienced REAL LIFE teacher (not Internet-based one), should be your biggest concern.

 

Good luck in your path

Edited August 22 by Gerard

[oatisnottao]

On 22. 8. 2024 at 8:49 AM, Gerard said:

Hello,

 

Put it this way, the spiritual field is littered with charlatans in various forms.

 

Finding a good, honest and experienced REAL LIFE teacher (not Internet-based one), should be your biggest concern.

 

Good luck in your path

Yes, I already met some charlatans and they were in person, the manipulations in person or in group can go so much deeper than any damage from book (If you are careful books proven to be thousand time safer. So give one ton of salt (in a cum grano salis inspiration from latin) to your idea that this is how it works. I am strongly analytical mind and I pretty much never get things wrong from books. I analyze in on so many levels possible. I already searched from multiple sources about the critique of M. Chia and I know have a lot of valuable knowledge where to steer clear from original book scripture and do things differently and which things to do more of to be safe. Also I am searching for relevant teachers as well. I take to heart the teacher rule while being in total understanding it can destroy everything in your life including yourself. 

But I am interested to meet M. Winn next year or 2026 latest. It just costs a lot of money to organize it and needs a lot of other resources to take place. Ich bin kein Amerikaner und Ich bin auch nicht deutscher. 

 

 

Do you have some tips for good teachers? Sorry for strong critique of the teacher rule, I just have a strong experience against it as It can absolutely eat you alive. 

 

I am looking forward to find more of your ideas. I see you are a long time lurker and also a big writer

 

Edited Wednesday at 11:12 PM by oatisnottao

[Gerard]

I always try to help people on this forum based on my own personal experience. I'll never seek anything that benefits me financially nor feed the ego since I've already gone past it as a result of dedicated practice. 

 

It's just difficult to find a good teacher. Basically take this as written law.

 

However, it gets easier when you seek teachers in the two following areas:

 

1. Nejia arts (Chinese Internal Martial Arts). Ba Gua, Tai Chi and Xingyi Chuan. Tai Chi isn't very good at clearing deep blockages located in the internal organs. For that Ba Gua Zhang is extremely proficient at that due to the energetic and holistic nature of the art.

 

Where they are at:

 

https://rumsoakedfist.org/viewforum.php?f=4&sid=a7ca61cfe56848d1a7e100f34bd0edb2

 

 

http://www.internalintent.com/

 

 

2. Buddhist retreats in the Theravada Tradition. Highly structured, very well organised and very SERIOUS about their teaching methods. But it is a very slow system that requires a constant supervision due to the pitfalls you'll encounter in the path. Please refer to this mapping methodology:

***A word of caution***

 

Note to the reader: Some meditation teachers feel that the following information should not be made available to the general public. That isn't because these teachings are for members of a select group, must be specially transmitted, or are in any sense esoteric; but because, due to the tricky nature of the mind, learning about these insights before acquiring personal meditation experience might cause you to anticipate results, thereby slowing your progress. That's why Mahási Sayádaw wrote, "It is not good for a pupil who meditates under the guidance of a teacher to get acquainted with these stages before meditation begins."

 

https://www.vipassanadhura.com/sixteen.html#toc

 

I wasn't taught any of these stages (let alone talking to other meditators while on retreat and discuss any spiritual experiences) since I was a complete beginner when I attended my first Vipassana retreat in 2008 (Northern Thai tradition, Chiang Mai, Thailand). I was clueless back then how long this path really is. It's just MIND BLOWING!!

 

The Mind itself, what it does, how it operates, the role of the EGO which will be your biggest adversary initially and then the clinging nature of the mind, the pitfalls one will encounter along the path require extraordinary work and effort. Not for the weak and the complacent, that's for sure.

 

Locations:

 

https://www.dhamma.org/en-US/locations/directory

 

https://retreat-infos.de/Download/RFAE2010.pdf

 

 

Hope this all makes sense to you.

 

 

Edited Thursday at 04:45 AM by Gerard

[-ꦥꦏ꧀ ꦱꦠꦿꦶꦪꦺꦴ-]

7 hours ago, oatisnottao said:

the manipulations in person or in group can go so much deeper than any damage from book (If you are careful books proven to be thousand time safer.

What if the information in the book is incorrect and harmful?

[ChiDragon]

56 minutes ago, -ꦥꦏ꧀ ꦱꦠꦿꦶꦪꦺꦴ- said:

What if the information in the book is incorrect and harmful?

The reader should take the consequences and make the final judgment. Then, one should continue going to seek whatever is correct or right.

[-ꦥꦏ꧀ ꦱꦠꦿꦶꦪꦺꦴ-]

2 hours ago, ChiDragon said:

The reader should take the consequences and make the final judgment. Then, one should continue going to seek whatever is correct or right.

Unfortunately even if the information is correct and the practices are legitimate, you can still do harm to yourself if you do them before your body is ready, or overdo them.