Steven

The subtle irony in your travels, is that I believe
you are right in Chris’s neck-of-the-woods.
S

Excellent post, Chris.
Probably one of the best you’ve given so far,
and I resonate strongly with it as well.

What you are ultimately talking about is
having the xin evolve to its highest
achievable level given what is possible
with the highest pure virtue qualities of
the shen and their idealized integration as
cohesive…[Read more]

To be honest, I’d probably say that only 5% of the temple
population is Korean. The temple priest and senior
seminary students are all *not* of Korean descent, although
the temple is a branch temple of five that was started by
a Korean Zen master and who trained the temple priest.

If you felt reading such an interchange of posts
was a waste of time, I’m happy to restrict them
to private email to relevant parties.

I only post publicly because I assume others
may find the discussion interesting.

If I’m in error, I’m happy to discontinue with
no hard feelings.

S

>>>There are some lesbian people at my workplace
>>>that are regularly judgmental of others and
>>>foster gripe sessions at the expense of others.
>>>This probably has to do more with human pack
>>>mentality and people that don’t fit into the norm.
>>>I don’t think spirituality or sexual orientation has
>>> anything to do with it, but I…[Read more]

Hello Dog:

>>>I was hoping you guys where going to come up
>>>with a story you guys could agree on.

Sorry to have let you down 😉

I’m not *really* interested in convincing anyone;
just give another option to consider/digest
in each person’s search for the truth.
The truth will come of its own accord.

The discussion/debate for me…[Read more]

HELLO bagua 🙂

>>>We are not finished quite yet.

LOL, OK 🙂 🙂
You’ve got me grinning ear to ear right now. Good job. 🙂

>>>But assuming you live from this free and joyful space,
>>>why not do other things that may cause more aspects
>>>connected with you to continue along with you after physical death.…[Read more]

>>>My view was we realize we are not a thought,
>>>we are not a memory, we are not only our emotions,
>>>they are and will always be part of our life, but
>>>they are not the most important aspect of us, there
>>>is another aspect that many of us do not have a good
>>>relationship with, not allowing it to be our natural
>>>expression…[Read more]

>>>I am very well my friend, a heat wave
>>>out here in the west, amazing, in the 80’s.

80s huh? You may be in for a rare “treat” come July/August!
(heavy sarcasm intended)

It’s in the lower 60’s here and sunny. Quite nice.
But considering I’m in MI, that puts it at “quite warm”
for this time of year as well. This is more like the…[Read more]

>>>A common trap is we seek out practices
>>>to reinforce our negative patterns not to change them.

That might be somewhat true, but if the practices themselves are
good ones, then what invariably happens is that eventually–like a
twig under pressure that snaps–you are forced to change. Core
patterns come out whether you like it or…[Read more]

>>>Very nice explanation, very logical, very consistent.

Thank you. Knowing how much of an adept you are, I take
that as a high compliment. 🙂

>>>There appears to be certain judgments about life before
>>>and after human form, do they alter or influence our current life?

My opinion here is that, that is probably very likely.

As an…[Read more]

>>>Can you share your source for the meaning of Ling?
>>>Another one is almost the opposite, Shen is our
>>>essential nature/yuan shen, Ling is a more dense
>>>energy formation in our current form to hold the shen,
>>>the vessel to allow the Shen to stay here, the two are
>>>inseparable in human form. It is the yin/yang aspect of…[Read more]

I find it to be mostly about the practices, and not so
much about the people involved or the “dharma” of tradition.

I remember hearing about how Eric Yudelove–one of M. Chia’s
senior students–ended up doing some pretty crazy things also,
and yet that shouldn’t be proof that the Alchemical Daoism
of One Cloud is faulty. It’s just…[Read more]

Never heard of him before now,
but if you like martial arts, check out this video:

YOU are the pearl. It’s just your consciousness crystallized
so that it’s easier to identify and work with, as opposed to working
on it in the abstract. You can’t “not” hang on to it. It’s
YOU after all. The two are inseparable. Cultivating the
pearl is cultivating YOU. The point of strengthening, cultivating,
and refining the…[Read more]

I quite enjoyed that video also.
I can tell Almine has a heightened awareness of the truth.

Her stages she speaks of sound very similar to the progression
through the Healing Tao immortality formulas. I was pleasantly
surprised to hear her talk about alchemy . . . and amused
to hear her alchemy/Michael comment. I wonder if Michael…[Read more]

>>>”I am in no way interested in immortality,
>>>but only in the taste of tea.”
>>>…the 400 year-old Lu T’ung, (b. 755 A.D.)

Amusing 🙂

>>>Aline says it is all about learning to enjoy her self.

Pema Chodron (American Tibetan Buddhist Nun) likes to say
you can help accomplish this by trying to notice the
“subtle sweetnesses” in…[Read more]

@singing ocean:

>>>Damn, that sounds AWFUL.

Exactly. *I* could practice medicine (with ZERO training/skills)
and better serve a patient than 1/2 of the worthless medical staff.
I could tell other stories from relatives and friends of their
experiences also, but I think I’ll leave it be for now. I think
my story alone paints a fairly…[Read more]

>>>Okay, bad mental images from that last post that I need to erase.
>>>Bad
>>>Bad.

LOL. Sorry 🙂 I made my point though, right? 😉

>>>As a canadian, I think that semi-socialized health care
>>>seems to actually work pretty well despite all the
>>>drug dealers masquerading as doctors.

The thing I worry about is that if health…[Read more]