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… Paying a modest amount like for a HT book is win win. Costs pittence and you get alot out of them. I have the whole set of the older books. Also my Tai chi teacher trained me for free for the first 3 months and after not missing a class he agreed to let me pay for instruction.
I think the main thing to check is if the person is teaching for money or because they love it.
I agree that in spiritual teachings, it should be made clear to any students what is going to be taught for the money paid, just like a person should know what they are paying for at a restaurant when you order food. If the person (you are getting teachings from) can not answer in a straightforward way what it is you will receive, then you probably shouldn’t get lessons from that teacher.
HOWEVER: Who cares if a person is teaching for money? You say that as if it is a bad thing. Do you complain about waitresses because they are only serving you because they are trying to earn a living? It doesn’t diminish the value of their service, nor does it change your ethical responsibility to pay them for the work they have done for you.
In my mind, this problem that folks have is endemic to our culture. This idea that we should try to extract things from others for free, and then whine about it if the other people set up appropriate boundaries and don’t allow this to happen. In my opinion, it’s core underlying inner nature is selfishness.
FOR ME: If I get instruction, I am happy to pay for the person’s time and commitment. My personal level of satisfaction is irrelevant to whether or not the other person’s deserves payment. Level of satisfaction only dictates whether I return as a repeat customer, but not as to whether the original payment was well-earned. The original payment was always well-earned, whether I liked the instruction or not.
I agree on every point.
I know the effort required and time spent to teach people. I know the time it takes to write a book.
Thats why even though there are lots of HT books on the internet i bought them all because they are well worth their price.
I think the reason some people don’t want to pay for something is because they read something once that said highly evolved spiritual people have no desires for money or material things and give everything away. Why do they need money? 😛
Mind you there are always people that want stuff for free and would rather feel guilt and hide when they’re asked to pay instead of just paying what they owe. I run into these people every day when i drive the bus. It’s a gravy train.
I’m willing to donate money to you to buy yourself a nice lunch if you ever want to explain your HT meditation into TCM Theory ideas 😉 You’ve answered plenty of questions for me over time.
>>>I think the reason some people don’t want to
>>>pay for something is because they read something
>>>once that said highly evolved spiritual people
>>>have no desires for money or material things
>>>and give everything away. Why do they need money? 😛Yes, there is an idea that somehow “highly-evolved spiritual people” should be so helpful to others that they don’t actually spend any time taking care of themselves. As if they themselves are not actually part of the world that they are supposedly helping. They somehow miss that bit. But if people get on an ego trip, and start thinking they are better than the rest of society, then this apparent lack of self-concern is just another form of narcissism. It feeds their mental projection that they are somehow better than the rest, and unfortunately their followers constantly reaffirm this for them.
However, there is also an “idea” in a lot of “advanced” spiritual thinking that a person should become so helpless that you become like a baby. This is built into Christianity (for example) with the idea that you should be “born again” . . . the idea that you should become like a baby.
In my opinion: if there is a God, or higher consciousness, or what-have-you, I don’t think it wants you to be so helpless that it has to look after you all the time. That you can basically do nothing for yourself. I don’t think it wants you to be a baby. Instead, I think it wants you to have a mature adult perspective with true wisdom, while maintaining the flexibility, openness, and joyful curiosity that children have.
Another funny idea that people have about being “spiritual”, is that supposedly this life (that was given as a gift to you) should not be enjoyed and that you should renounce its joys. Because that’s what you are supposed to do with gifts: reject them. [sarcasm]
In any case, I digress.
>>>Mind you there are always people that want
>>>stuff for free and would rather feel guilt
>>>and hide when they’re asked to pay instead
>>>of just paying what they owe. I run into
>>>these people every day when i drive the bus.
>>>It’s a gravy train.You drive a bus?
My sympathies.
Bus drivers take a lot of crap from a lot of people.
I take my hat off to you . . .S
While it is true in my long history on the forum that at certain times I have cut off dialog on certain topics because I felt like the discussion was turning into “a free HT course”, that wasn’t the case with your original post about your TCM questions. So let me alleviate you of that concern. My reluctance in answering was more about the fact that you had raised a lot of issues and questions in your post, and I felt that not only would it easily take many pages of discussion to address them all, but more importantly that most of my response would be my personal subjective opinion (so maybe ultimately not too valuable anyway).
In particular, I don’t think that there is any real “authority” on such material. For folks that dabble in both worlds, each person can come to their own personal opinions of various things . . . either by their background, or by their own personal experience. In my case, I’ve formed various opinions based primarily on personal experience over a number of years. In other words, other people may disagree entirely with my perspective. Then who is to say, “who is right, and who is wrong”? If what you say has been your experience, then there is not much “to correct you on”. Because who am I? And who is anyone else? If it feels right to you, then for you it is right.
At the same time, I will say that based on my experience I have some differences of opinion. Let me just give you one example, and you can consider it a tidbit to chew on:
From your other post, you said:
>>>Using the inner smile you can also smooth
>>>and change the quality of the energy.
>>>But it adds energy, not discharges it.Just these two sentences alone, I could expound upon with strong differing opinions.
In particular, with the Inner Smile, while you do “bring in” smiling energy into the Third Eye to do the practice, I don’t believe that this is indeed “adding energy”. The reason is that the whole purpose of the practice is to cultivate a feeling of unconditional self-acceptance. It is ultimately this lack of self-acceptance, which is ultimately a resistance to “what is”, and therefore a resistance to life itself that is being addressed in the meditation. The function of the smiling energy is to on a micro-level counter-act this resistance, i.e. the holding. The resistance is a form of inner psychic tension of energy that is stuck and tight–***”frozen” in a given area–that represents the holding onto of a certain pattern . . . one that is acting in resistance to the natural flow and change of the lifeforce. In my experience, when this smiling energy comes in and contacts all of these areas of non-self-acceptance, it breaks these blockages. By breaking these blockages, the energy that has been held stuck, then breaks free and mobilizes. This energy that has been freed is now flowing in a useful way, and so it feels like you have received energy.
However, the energy was there all along, it was just frozen and held in a sort-of tight uncomfortable contraction. The smiling energy that you have brought in from the third eye is not really absorbed into the body, but is rather expended when it “does its job” of breaking the blockage. In other words, in my experience, the net sum of energy is still zero sum. It’s just that you are now noticing more free-flowing energy vis-a-vis the energy that has been recently released from its “spiritual muscle cramp”. The smiling energy that does not act in this manner (to reorganize the blocked energy into a healthier pattern)–in my experience–just passes through the body like neutrinos pass through solid matter, because the pattern that you are bringing in is already present in that area (there is nothing to augment or modify). So none of the smiling energy gets “stored” so to speak. It’s not really a charging type of meditation, not in the sense of “adding energy” anyway. Again, you might feel like you *have* more energy, but this is just due to the fact that more energy is now mobile and flowing, as opposed to being stuck and frozen.
To sum up, I wouldn’t say that the Inner Smile “adds energy”.
It hasn’t really been my experience, nor do I think that it is what the Inner Smile is designed to do. I feel it to have more of a purpose of bringing your inner matrix more into alignment with the surrounding lifeforce and its unconditional acceptance of you, without really adding or subtracting anything.I don’t think I would say it “smoothes the energy” either. That’s not quite right in my view (although I would probably argue less on that bit) . . . however, I would definitely strongly disagree on the part about “adding energy”.
In any case, I think you can see what I mean by your few paragraphs turning into a 20-page reply post, lol. I expounded for several long paragraphs based on two sentences, ha ha. Moreover, I don’t know that this is entirely valuable as it is ultimately just my opinion based on my own personal experience. Others may have a different view of the topics you raised, and if they are happy with that view, then I am happy. It’s just that my experience and understanding is somewhat different.
Qi,
Steven***By “frozen”, I mean locked in a motionless state, I don’t mean frozen in a “cold temperature sense”.
…you can not completely separate yourself from the collective…
This is meant to be any kind of joke, but it’s still a question.
So UT/HT don’t have really techniques how those who hate and despise their eternal self to terminate that connection?
HOWDY
Ps. Sorry for my broken English.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G67JedIrPio (carlosbandidosbourbon)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21Bpj5X0CXY (henry&ottis)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rkx3GlROWY (jesusmarychainrollercoaster)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3BooGaGyAY (SYLBdisco)
I quit the PhD program in Math, stopping at ABD PhD.
Long sordid tale, but the important part is that I realized that I don’t want to spend the rest of my life publishing papers in mathematics so advanced that only .00000001% of the world’s population can understand them. If you are a research mathematician, you basically need to make it your life . . . no room for outside interests, e.g. Healing Tao, other hobbies. That might work for some folks, but not for me.
S
>>>So UT/HT don’t have really techniques
>>>how those who hate and despise their
>>>eternal self to terminate that connection?Even in the Judeo-based religions that believe in hell, there still isn’t ever total separation. In that model–hell or whatever–it exists only at the whim of God. It’s not out of his mind or separate; it’s just totally irrelevant to him. He could do away with it at any time if he actually cared to do so. It’s more of a . . . ok, you are a whiny troublemaker; so I’ll just stick you here with the other whiny troublemakers. Basically what you have in those belief systems is that for those that go to hell . . . they are ignored, yes. But they are not separated. The separation that they think they experience is an illusion that is maintained at God’s whim.
But let’s get to the Healing Tao:
For one, separation is not the purpose of the Healing Tao.
Those that are interested in trying to do such things would be better suited to be Satanists, as indicated in prior long discussions. Either vis-a-vis rituals or certain Satanic-style alchemy paths, e.g. Mo Pai and others.While such paths do lead to more and more separation, with the recipient focused on selfish, power-hungry goals . . . Separation in totality is not something that is realizable. This is a pure fantasy. It’s just one of many reasons why they are misguided . . .
S
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