This may be a shorter, one off post than some of the others. . .

Taoists (as well as people from many and most other practices) generally consider the human body to be a micro-cosm of the universe.  A universe within a universe. 

You may have heard an expression like “As above, so below” but haven’t given it much thought.

Take a minute to cue up your minds eye and visualize the rotation or orbit of the plantes in our solar system around our sun.  Now think of the orbits of protons and electrons around a neutron.  As above, so below.

What I am about to suggest to you requires more of a leap of capacity than faith, but it’s a leap that most normal people aren’t ready to make.

let’s start out with a simple illustration:

12345

What’s so special about this number?  Nothing, really.

But we’ll use it as an example. 

So we could read this as 1-2-3-4-5 or we can read it as twelve thousand, three hundred and forty five.

In this example, 1 is part of twelve thousand three hundred and forty five.  2 is part of it also.  So is 3 and 4 and 5.

However, the opposite is not true.  Twelve thousand, three hundred and forty five is not part of 1.  or 2.  or 3. 

Are you with me?

So . . . Quarks, Neutrinos, Protons, Neutrons, electrons, molecules, planets and galaxies are all part of our universe.  That’s not to say that our universe is part of any of those particular items, though, right?

Smaller systems are incorporated and are a part of larger systems that are similarly structured and follow similar laws

A man or a woman is part of a society.  A society is part of a species.  Etc.

So lets assume that the traditional Taoist view of the human body is correct, and that it is in fact, a micro-cosmic model of the universe.

Albert Einstein said that the most important decision you  make in life is whether or not you believe that the universe is a “friendly” place.

Of course, it’s friendly and unfriendly, just like the rest of nature.

But it leads to an interesting question . . .

“Are YOU a friendly universe?”

Again, if we assume that the historical Taoist cosmology is basically correct and that you are indeed a microcosm of the universe, than it makes sense that YOUR universe is teeming with life - or at least has life or capacity for life in much the same way as the larger system that you yourself inhabit.

Do you shake your head in agreement with Al Gore documentaries and chain smoke cigarettes while watching?

Do you purposely go out and through violence, over exertion, or whatever - destroy large amounts of your body or tissue before it’s natural time to die off and be replaced?

Do you live a life of physical, emotional, and psychological excess, or do you try to achieve a more homeo-static grounding?

This is a wake up call to people who know better but aren’t doing better

Preserve your body to follow its natural course.  Control your emotions to avoid the pollution of harsh neuro-chemicals into unknown worlds.  Take it easy, and when you “do unto others” remember that others might not just be the ones you see at your own level.  You are part of something bigger than yourself, and ultimately a bigger context for things that are smaller than yourself. 

Hey gang,

I’ve been watching some interesting things unfold over the last few months.  The last year or so, actually and I want to take some time to talk about it for a while.

I’ve been really, really reluctant to talk about this for a while even though it’s something that I think needs a frank and open discussion - but to be totally honest, I’ve been  waiting for someone else to do it.

That’s not happening, so I guess I’m going to do it here and now.

First - let me give you a bit of additional background on me - within the context of martial arts, Taoism, and then finally within the context of that dirty word - “Marketing”.

People who are familiar with me know I like to break everything down into the simplest and most easily digestible memes possible.  I could sit here with my laptop at the secret headquarters in South East Asia and write a bunch of flower prose like a duchess with an opium pipe - or I can just give you the straight dope.

1.  I’ve been doing, and have been involved in Martial Arts since I was a kid

2.  I’ve been involved in some esoteric and high level qigong practices for years

3.  I am a clinical epileptic

4.  I have kleinfelders syndrome

5.  I have a background in online marketing, psychology, NLP, classical salesmanship, blah blah and have been exposed to and know some of the biggest players in this field

So I want to talk about each of these in a bit of detail. . .

My background in martial arts begins, like most people my age at the YMCA when I was a kid.  I also grew up in a “charasmatic” christian church.  Speaking in tongues.  The laying on of hands to cure illness, people being “slain” in the spirit, and everything that goes along with that.

One of my earliest “spiritual” memories was of my Sunday school class being more or less forced to go up on stage at church when a travelling evangelist was there.  Doing the whole “thing” that those guys do.

I watched as each of my Sunday school classmates were slain “in the spirit”, got the shakes and the heebie jeebies, and fell out backwards into the arms of the elders and deacons and then after a few moments of psycho-spiritual ctrl-alt-del came back up again, feeling better than ever.

When Brother Vodoo got to me, he encountered a horse of a different color, though. . .

One thing I always try to do is keep it real and give credit where credit is due and my man had some mojo.  I had already experienced some serious psycho-physical dissonance from my first epileptic seizures which had taken me out of body, and was . . . Let’s just say sensitive.

The thing about homeys mojo was that it was dark.  I inherently reacted to it, inherently understood that it was not benevolent energy, and resisted as much as a kid could in that situation - refusing to surrender and go down.

That’s all not to say that I had any psychological resistance to what he was doing on my own, because I was born into this kind of environment, and believed in it - and had experienced some pretty significant things of a “spiritual” nature on my own.

Just that I knew the difference between Charles Manson and Timothy Leary sitting in adjacent cells in San Quentin - both sitting in the full lotus positioin, meditating (and that actually did happen, as a historical footnote).

So rather than speak at such length about each of the other points, let me just mention that I have had a wide range of non-physical experiences, and by virtue of physiology (not to say that is the causal agent, because it’s not) have a naturally more balanced masculine/feminine side than most people. 

And you know the old saying - you can’t hustle a hustler?  I’ve spent most of my life on the streets.  I was a runaway at 14 years old or so (a fugitive in fact, after being one of the first juveniles in the USA charged with computer crime), and I never turned back.

It doesn’t take a lot of investigating (you can pick up the movie “invisible revolution” - or just ask around with people who were involved in radical/left wing politics who are my age) to figure out that I was probably one of the best and most feared streetfighters in the 90’s, either.

Without getting off an a tangent ninja aside, I realized at one point that I had gone off the deep end, and that my compassion had been manipulated and used to push me to begin enlightening along an evil path, and a materialist path.  So I got onto a plane with no return ticket and less than $50 to my name and went to India for a few years, then Thailand, then South Korea, then China, stubbornly resisting what I knew I really ought to be doing - for a long time.

I’ve also been around some of the most brilliant and cut throat marketers in the world, and have a pretty good sense of the power of suggestion, the manipulation of peoples jungle instincts, NLP, etc.

Still with me?

I’m getting to the point here, in a round about way

So that’s just a bit of contextual reference for what I’m about to say - which isn’t going to make me alot of friends. . .

It’s going to piss certain people off, and it’s going to create a bit of trouble for me personally, but nothing that I can’t clear up   . . .

It’s also something that although I don’t want to be the person saying it - I’m not afraid to say. 

The reason I’m not worried is because while there are people with legitimate power and empowerment who could literally crush me with a thought at this point - Those people are righteous individuals and are hip to the game (more so than me) enough to realize that their levels (read: levels, not states) share a direct correlation with their benevolence, their uprightness, their non-attachment, etc.

Also - I hope you understand that I don’t have material motives for saying what I’m about to say.  I’m not selling anything.  I’m not positioning myself as anything other than that “Indiana redneck with bad tattoos”,

Vampires can’t come into your house unless you invite them in first

Everybody knows that, right?

So let’s cut to the chase.

There are a couple of dangerous trends in the West that are being marketed as “Taoist” cultivation practices.

I’m thinking of one specifically, but there are a couple that are active to a lesser degree.

To get to the heart of the matter, we need to ask a couple of basic questions:

1.   What is the process and desired outcome of Taoist practice and cultivation at “high levels”?

The short answer is immortality and enlightenment. 

To become a “true” person. 

To transcend that true personhood, and return to the Tao.

2.  How is material being presented as “high level” Taoist cultivation being presented or -marketed- to  you?  What are the images or pictures that it conjures in your mind and your subconscious?

Are they things like:

·                     Physical power and domination of others?

·                     Sexual-energetic potency that will cause the opposite sex to orgasm with a touch or a look?

·                     Women on their knees convulsing in sexual ecstacy and bliss at the lotus feet of the “master”?

·                     Secret initiation into what others know, but you’ve hereto been kept out of?

3.  How is the language structured?

There is a place for purposeful misdirection and flipping off the light switch of cognition.  That’s the function of Zen koans.  To spin your gears out of control until the cognitive process breaks down under the duress of a feedback loop and causes that chattering “monkey mind” of yours to stop and achieve some measure of stillness or silent witnessing.

The Zen student is aware that they’re being given an unsolvable riddle to ponder though.

Examine the language structure and memes of some of the marketing material, and ESPECIALLY the behind closed doors speaking, paid seminars, etc.

Let me give you a quick example of how this is basically done covertly and with nefarious intent:

“For thousands of years, hidden deep in mountains, monasteries and the caves of secretive and reclusive Taoist masters, these sages have been producing ecstatic, bliss inducing orgasms from the very energy of the universe, leading them towards enlightenment, sexual bliss, and martial arts mastery to powerful to be shown in public - ever.

Imagine if all of that were about to change.  This sort of teaching only comes around once every 7 million years in public, and you’re right not to want to feel left behind and that’s why you must immediately register for this seminar, the chance to be in the presence of a true master, and receive guanding or a direct transmission of energy that will blah blah blah. . . . “

Anybody catch that?

It’s subtle and insidious, so you probably didn’t.

There’s lots more there than just this, but take a look at the last sentence.

“You’re right to not want to feel left behind . . . “  Is this a spatial-directional value or a subjective emotional value?  Your gears start to spin like rain man in a Zendo. . . .  You’re cognitive abilities lock up, your logic faculties freeze, and then - *BAM* you’re hit with the command suggestion.

It can be done alot easier than this, and produce much, much, much stronger effects - but there’s no point in me giving an example to the next would be recipient of the secret of secrets, is there?

Why do you cultivate? 

This is the critical question you have to ask yourself. 

If your motives are of a base nature - you want power and domination over others, you’re titillated by mounds of writhing orgasmic bodies at your feet, et al - I would suggest that like a bad case of the Syphillis - you might get more than you bargained for.

I can tell you honestly, from my own subjective experience that there are people with some special abilities.  Some of them good, and some of them who . . . have other motives.

You have to be careful about who you attach yourself to, and who (and what) you let get attached to you.

I hope that enough and enough of the right people will be able to read between the lines and give some serious thought about this, without me having to say alot of fantastic sounding things in a public space. 

So that’s it…

I just put up 3 hours of new video and audio about Zhuang Zi (Chuang Tzu) in the private members area.

I recommend that you check out the video first, and then take some time to listen to the audio . . .

Lao Tzu’s classic text, the Tao Te Ching is now up in the free members area.

This recording weighs in at 54 minutes and 47 seconds.

I wanted to get this thing recorded before we went any further with the Tao Te Ching video study group, in case there were some people caught in “analysis paralysis” or who don’t like to read much.

This is what I want you to do.  Just take action.  Download the free Tao Te Ching Audio book ( go sign up for free HERE if you haven’t yet to get it) .

Once you’ve got it, I want you to load it up in your mp3 player.  Do this before you do ANYTHING ELSE.  Stop whatever else you’re doing and then just do it.

Next, I want you to take the VERY NEXT available opportunity to listen to it.  If that means listening while you’re on your lunch break, or driving in your car, or instead of watching that stupid T.V. that’s trying to brainwash you - JUST TAKE ACTION NOW.

Now - I want you to make a committment to yourself.  The Tao Te Ching is one of the greatest texts of wisdom and living that has ever been written.  Maybe you don’t have time to read.  Maybe you’re not a reader.  Cool.  I’ve recorded it for you.

I want you to listen to this recording one time every day for the next 7 days.  Will you do it?  While you’re walking, before you go to sleep - whenever . . . Just tell me whether or not you will commit to listen to Tao Te Ching for a week with me?

What I want to do is meaure the results.  I want to know if it has any affect on you, and your life.  Not my voice, but Lao Tzu’s words and wisdom.

So, if you aren’t a member already, go to http://www.wudangquan.com and sign up for free, then download the mp3.  Then put it on your computer or mp3 player.

Now, what I want you to do is leave me a comment RIGHT NOW stating exactly *when* you will listen to the recording for the first time, and if you can commit to listening to Tao Te Ching once a day for the next 7 days.

Leave that comment below.

I recorded six new audio book tracks for myself to listen to while I excercise or walk, or ride the bus or whatevever so I thought you might like to check them out to.

Here is a list of the tracks included:

• Chi Wen Dong - The Red Streaked Cave
• The Pivot Of Jade
• The Hsin Yin Ching - Imprint Of The Heart
• Ching Jing Jing - Purity And Rest
• Tai Hsi Ching - Respiration Of The Embryo
• Universal Understanding<

The tracks are kind of rough, as they’re just for personal
use, and I stumbled more than a few times, but you can download and
listen to them HERE.

I’m going to add the following videos tomorrow:

Wudang/Taoist Diet and nutrition

BenchMark Video (aka the watch how fat, out of shape and sloppy I am video!)

After that I’m going to focus on the Zhang San Feng video, and continuing with the Tao Te Ching video study group vids.

That’s it.

Take care everybody.

Went ahead and added the Wudang Forums . . .

Again, none of this takes the place of the actual membership site - it’s just there to supplement it.

If you want to see the real content you have to register on the front page at wudangquan.com . . .

I went ahead and added a video site for non members.

You can find it here:  Wudang Videos

This is not the members content - It’s just some other stuff from youtube, etc.

If you want the WudangQuan.Com Membership content, you have to sign up.

Here’s a quick video from youtube where I talk about the free (physical products) that I’m going to give away for our members in the next week or so, and how you can claim them:

I sent an email with a link to the “Backdoor” registration for Wudangquan to some people who had pre-registered last night.

The real registration is now open on the main page at http://www.wudangquan.com . . .

If you pre-registered, you should have gotten the message.

Anyway, you’ll need to go ahead and register there to get access to the members area.

I’ll be uploading some videos and stuff to the members area later tonight.