Golden Sun

Nice post my friend. And your abilty to express your true feelings is improving all the time.

Plato is the shock jock of Taoist discussion boards. Once you realize this, everything he says can be laughed about and appreciated.

Of course, some people really dislike shock jocks like Howard Stern and will always see them as a turn off. I like to think people like that add a little flavor. I like putting Tobasco sauce or other stuff in my…[Read more]

“The Tao is a reality experienced beyond words and concepts.”

Ken Cohen

In the religion class I just had the teacher was a Catholic priest but left since he didn’t like the limit of free thinking and no sex law. Something interesting he said was nothing was written down about Jesus teachngs until like 150 years after his death.

If this is true I think anything written about Jesus is highly suspect as being accurate.

I joined a Dahnak school a little over a year ago since it was basically very cloe to where I lived at the time and thought it was just yoga. after the first couple classes I got a really strong cult vibe from them. They were very nice people and seemed to act caring but as soon as you go to a couple courses they start milking you for more money.…[Read more]

Jonathan,

You don’t need to shut your thoughts up or forcefully try to achieve some imagined quiet state. Theprocess of meditation is about becoming AWAKE You want to practice awareness of being awake to your thoughts and what is happening in your body and what is happening in your life.

At first you will be watching and listening to alot…[Read more]

There is definetly good news that you came to this realization at a young age. It sounds like you probably depleted your jing through excessive sex but the good news you can build it back up.

If you feel drawn to Healing Tao practices great. See what your attracted to from Winn’s products and check it out.

My main qigong teacher these days…[Read more]

Ken Cohen says sitting in a chair is better that circulation of qi and breath is freer.

Most zen teachers prefer lotus.

IMO the most important thing is what you are doing with your mind and breath not the body but you should try both and adopt whichever feels most natural to you.

” When the term emptiness is used in Taoist texts, it refers to emptiness not as a static state of nihilism, but as an active, dynamic source of creativity.

It is the emptiness of the cup that allows it to hold the liquid “.

– Kenneth Cohen

Maybe he was wishing you good luck on your path?

You can still have good wishes for others even if you disagree with them, no?

Are you talking about practices? I do qigong every day along with mediation and have done some of Michael Winns meditations.

I find them all interesting and useful but you can’t do everything so I settle on qigong.

But I think there is a very powerful teaching in letting everything AS IS rather than manipulate or attempt to get the so…[Read more]

I don’t know that I would agree with your thoughts about “emptying the mind”. I have a feeling this may be a poor translation and not really where it’s at.

Actually, Max just made a post here that really sums it up it’s about allowing everything to be AS I IS. If you have thoughts come up, it’s ok..they will pass .If you have some deep…[Read more]

Interesting. I have heard Michael Winn speak about that before I think. I also remember him saying how the heart shen connects with the solar logos(sun)in the higher kan and li formulas which sounded interesting.

I am still in exploration mode so will accept your views at face value for the moment. I think alot of the confusion is just the…[Read more]

When you ask what is self what answers can you produce? Only aggregates. You were born at a certain place and a certain time or year(all concepts) you come from a certain family from a certain country with a certain backround(concepts) they are rich, poor, middle class, ugly, beautiful, successful, popular, unpopular, fun, boring, mean, caring etc…[Read more]

Just now as I got home a little girl was playing outside and she was enthusiastically talking to her father on his porch. She was pointing up to heaven and said “Higher than the land of America and higher than God”.

I don’t think I could possibly get a better teaching to ponder.

Yes, it is such a subtle point to me it’s hard to say anything about it. I know you have a developed language that you use and that’s fine but I am not sure language itself captures what is being communicated.

But, obviously, it is useful to have language even though it’s limited.

I don’t like to define ego since that’s all just a game but…[Read more]

This is the main teaching of Adyashanti’s school or Adveta Vedanta. It’s not about manipulating or judging. You might do a practice that is so called will based or ego based but it’s no longer done from any ego.

This is a huge misunderstadning of the teaching. I think some people just can’t function without holding there life together in…[Read more]

I think you get a good impression of someone the first few minutes meeting them.

When I did a workshop with Michael Winn years ago the first 5 minutes someone picked up “Awaken Healing Light” and Michael immedietly said “I wrote that book”.

When I met Ken Cohen a couple years ago after a couple minutes I said how I liked the book he wrote…[Read more]

Michael,

Lots of interesting stuff there. I’ll check it over again when I have time. I think it’s interesting that Ken studied qigong and Taoism deeply and wrote an excellent book about it but then studied native Indian practices for decades. I asked Ken about his two major works, one on qigong the other on indigenous healing and he said he…[Read more]

Very interesting Michael I was having a conversation with Yoda on the phone the other night about it. He likes the technique but I was explaining how you say it is not a good practice on many levels and how you say to really master the testicle breathing practice(Atleast on the audio course you put out on sex like 5 years ago)and do that alot…[Read more]