On the Kunlun Bliss website, in the section about Who is Max Christensen, it says:

"Studying under Wudang Master Wu Xiao Deng of Hubei province, Max started on the path to realization in 1966 at the age of six. At this early age he began learning a wide range of lesser known esoteric and alchemical practices. These have included various forms of qi gung, or the absorption of heavenly energy into oneself, and nei gung, the power to transmit energy or qi from oneself to another."


Am I to understand that when he was 6 years old, in 1966, Mr. Christensen, a white American, was in China studying with a Wudang master? Am I reading that correctly?. Let me be quick to add, I have no ax to grind, I am simply asking as a historian working on a book about modern Daoism.

1966 was an interesting year in modern Chinese history. The Red Guards were on their violent ascendancy and from a martial arts history perspective the years 1966 to 1968 were when many skilled Republican era martial artists were killed or crippled by the Red Guards.

Take care,
Brian

I'm going to guess that they'll say that Mr. Wu somehow got out of China before then?

so you are quite clear on how the hell a 6 y. o. gwailo gets to learn from a wudang master...or what language did they use to communicate...but you nitpick about the hunweibings? Come on dude

gwailo? That's pretty damned offensive.

Brian,

Towards the end of the "Kunlun Prophet speaks" thread there's more info.

Yours,
Yoda

As Buddy pointed out, it does not say "in Hubei", it says "of Hubei"; I need to read a bit more carefully. And thanks for the lead to the other thread, I will go have a look. What I am actually trying to do is get familiar with the major Daoist teachers in North America, just to see what the state of North American "non Chinese" Daoism is. (when I say "non-Chinese Daoism" I mean teachers who are aiming at a non-Chinese audience).

In any event thanks much,
take care,
Brian

I looked around briefly and it seems the answer to the question of where did this come from is:

Max's teacher was Andrew Lum whose teacher was the grand master of Mao Shan. His name was Lum Dai Young. He was famous in Hawaii for his siddhas. He started the Gee Yung school in Hawaii.

That is interesting. Andrew Lum is a name I know as a Hawaiian taiji teacher. The guy I learned Bucksam Kong's hung gar from knew Andrew Lum back in Hawaii. Well, that makes it all less mysterious and more credible. Mr. Christensen learned from a Chinese-Hawaiian taiji teacher.

take care,
Brian

I can't remember exactly, but in the book it explains that Max's family lived on an army base in Germany(?) one of the groundskeepers or workers happened to be the wudang master in question. He took 6 year old Max on as a student.

Lum, I believe, appeared later in his life - although the book does not discuss this.

It's funny to see a certain set of Bums jump in and cling to any shimmer of negativity surrounding Max. In NLP you're known as 'polarity responders'...

Is this related to saving the Polar Bears!?

I want to save the polar bears too, not just be blissed-out and argue about being blissed out...NOr do I wish to have these negative vibes coming at me about being blissed-out

why can't we follow our paths without rancor?
wuzzittuyaz!?

Everybody loves Polar Bears, they induce bliss and a thought of Minty sweets, if you are from the UK.


It is incredible how many things are painted the same colour as polar bears.


Just because we love them so much.


aaww.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg1952...uit-legend.html

Well... if, as a polarity responder, you heard a group of people saying that polar bears are lame and boring and just an advertising gimmick created by coca-cola and they all should be used to create wonderful pimp-coats for rich rappers - then you would be highly motivated to save them.

Actually in our society polarity responders can sometimes be highly respected - they're the one that go against the flow of the crowd.

There is a story of twin brothers growing up with horrendously abusive parents - in their late teens they ran away from home and lost contact with each other - a journalist interested in the story found both of them many years later - one was an extremely successful executive and the other a homeless drug addict. In the interview they were asked what lead them to their respective positions in life - their answers were almost identical: "what other choice did I have, growing up with the parents that I had"... the successful twin was a polarity responder...

...

just to balance out the polarity: the kids with extremely rich/successful parents who tend to end up in the gutter are also polarity responders...

When I first became aware of Kunlun-here at the Taobums, I thought it was a hoax...
Then I began to hear such happy reports of success and bliss, that I began to be very suspicous -as these were the sorts of terms that the Guru Maharaji touted in his BS...


Then I had an urge to believe... as people I trust here at the Bums began to say possitive things about the practice...

I remain mostly sceptical -but also have an open mind as to its possibilities as reported...

Interested & doubtful in a nutshell...But the negativism from this thread seems out of place -unless it were from practitioners who felt betrayed and mis-lead... that I could easily accept... but from a nonparticapatory sideline it is not useful...to me-

I believe Max lived on a military base in Michigan as a child, and Master Wu Xiao Deng was working there. That's how they met.

I heard a Polar Bear almost escaped from the SF Zoo the other day. It lead me to wonder would I prefer to be attacked by a Tiger or a Polar Bear?
I chose Polar Bear, while chewing on something minty, because I figured it'd be a more fresh and cuddly death. Besides the tiger mauling thing has been done to death...oops

What do you think? Tiger or Polar Bear? Oh right the thread. ok.

Xiamen Tiger or Polar Bear?

Once I read an account of a fellow who was mauled by a lion, he described the exprience as "euphoric".
Also saw a documentry on a women who was mauled by a black bear,absolutely ruined her life on every level.
They had to sew her face back on. She couldn't chew her food properly do to muscle damage, so had to mush everything up.She couldn't walk properly.Was constantly assailed by nightmares and lived in a perpetual state of fear.
On a personel level being attacked by a crocodile sends the shivers up me.Something about those reptilian eyes and being draged into some under water cave to slowly rot.I had better stop now.

Are you kidding?!??
Definately polar bear!!! I'd go for getting some big ol' furry hugs on the way 'out'.

When it comes to being eaten alive, there are the BIG fear creators -like lions and tigers and bears, the watery ones like sharks and Crocs-but to me its the little ones, the paraniahs and army ants that I wouldn't want to get me... being nickled and dimed to death by small fry has just got to suck eggs...


Sorry to waste this fine thread about Max's early years by leading us into fear mongering with the omnivorous (us encluded!!) appitites of various critters, but hey we go where we go when we're in he flow...

I've noticed in my travels that Americans are much more fearful of bear attacks than are Canadians. I've always thought it interesting that reports and stories of animal attacks are much more frequent in America too.

As an American I don't expect to get that kind of news reporting-usually pretty local...

Also,
The Russians just have lousy news service... as do the Chinese... there are lots of Tiger attacks reported in India & when I was in Singapore - a truck driver was eaten by a Tiger just a few miles from the city...


Where humans incroache on habitate -the animals will get restive, as well as hungry.

Here incentral NJ I see eagles, falcons and other raptors quite often as well as blue herons and turkeys... they just don't have anywhere else to go...

Seadog, yes, I have also read that the moment of surrender to being the prey is Euphoric. It's an acceptance of one's part in the chain of nature, and a possible spiritual high point - apparently. This would make some sort of sense how it was that in the old times shamanic huntin and fishin involved calling the prey , and they would come.

It's incredible to think that a squirrel being shaken to death by a hunting dog could be in an ecstacy of bliss, eh?

Or even a spider being devoured by it's mate could be in euphoria.

Maybe nature isnt so cruel. Maybe it's only us that dont feel euphoria in these circumstances, because we are cut off from our place in the chain.

I dunno.

I recently told my sisiter when she asked me if I had a prefered way to be "burried"; that I would want to be eaten by my fellow creatures... I guess being eaten alive avoids the middle-man and is even more practicle...
Not my 1st thought but it makes sense now that I do think on it...

I love how this thread has changed

It would seem that we Taobums are omnivorous ... we can eat up any thread, only as a means of excreting it after going through a process of groundings and exaultations and thus we create new wonders to behold-like bees making honey dontchaknow?!


or maybe we just drift well like little boats out to sea...?

...............

When it happens have your sister send me an arm or leg. I'm trying to avoid brains these days..

burp

Michael

Did someone posted this video already?
Kaziranga National Park - Tiger Attack:

.................

I think the near death experience is always yummy... whether it's teens playing flat liner, animal attacks, or more boring routes... it's all good.

A friend of mine was attacked by a captive tiger who was supposed to have been tame. She's 99% healed fortunately and now avoids large cats. She said it wasn't euphoric, but had it gone on I would like to think that things would have started feeling better for her.

The tiger in question went into a rage for just a second and then remembered its pet status and froze and made eye contact with its master where she was told, "Bad kitty!" (in a very firm tone) and decided that it was best for everyone that she not rip my friend's arm off.

An unusual story I read from an old book I found in the Kingston, Jamaica library: some dude had made a house pet out of a full grown tiger and was very proud of his pet. According to the story, he had a cut that was healing and during his midday nap with his previously milk fed tiger started licking the wound and suddenly developed a taste for blood and started behaving in a very aggressive manner towards everyone and they had to shoot it in the end.

Don't know if it was true and it was trying to make the case that a vegetarian diet would make for a more peaceful world so it might have been 200 year old propaganda. We know now that a V diet is better for the environment and I do think it also contributes to more inner peace as a whole. I'm vegetarian by nature but Mrs Yoda who does the cooking is carnivorous, so we tend to embark on V diets for health purposes until she can't deal with it and then we take time off before I roll out the China Study by Campbell and we fire it up again.

The light is created from the pineal gland -- or through it -- as bent from formless awareness.

We don't create anything.

So Einstein's Twin Paradox states that if in an elevator dropping at the speed of light you appear to be accelerating up while in actually mass is pressing you down or time as light causes space to contract and relative to a twin not travelling at this speed time actually slows down.

This is how spacetime is bent but instead of relying on mass as a logarithmic measure you rely on time as a complimentary opposite harmonic using logical inference.

One is male but not a number (and therefore the form of the formless or "I am that I am.")

The reason one is not a number because the process is something we exist within. We LISTEN to the source of the I-thought or focus on the harmonics of our body -- both resonate energy as complimentary opposites as an eternal process mediated by female formless awareness.

As long as our mind exists then we have subconscious desires that are answered for us when we resonate with female formless awareness. The desires are stored in our bodies as intense light (charged with electrochemical energy). Meditation is just the conscious resonance of that which is stored normally subconsciously.

The end of this process is also the beginning -- female formless awareness. It can not be resolved through binary based language -- but only as what Gurdjieff calls the Law of Three: yin, yang and female formless awareness (or I (1) AM (2:3:4) that (female formles awareness) I Am).

As long as the I-thought exists then karma is created but if we continue to pursue the source of the I-thought then our mind is physically killed, behind our heart, and the mind restarts as now automatically resonating with female formless awareness with every breath. This is what Sri Ramana Maharshi achieved after 9 years of solitude -- it's called the direct path to cut the knot for eternal liberation. It's what shiva does via kali.

You've done it again Drew, another AWESOME piece.




This is touching the core.



You writings are so super charged with wise insight, humour, candour.

Truly, thanks for the opportunity to read them.

Drew, it's a real real pleasure reading what you write .... :-)

I think the release of endorphine and adrenaline just will give you that.
And there are very good evolutionary reasons for those hormones to be released, as you need to be as awake (in phisiological terms, not spiritual ones) as possible to look for possible alternative story endings.

Thanks for the kudos! haha.

Well at the beginning of mind yoga you just repeat I-I-I-I over and over -- not as a mantra -- as a logical experiment to see where the source of all your thoughts come from.

The mind on it's own is very weak. What this process does is sublimate and transduce the electrochemicals of the body. Sri Ramana Maharshi says to focus your mind on the right side of your heart -- which is the complimentary opposite of the left-brain mind yoga.

This practice is supplemented by full-lotus or the small universe, etc. but mind yoga stresses that it is both the process and the goal of meditation -- to eventually kill the mind as it resonates back to it's formless source, which creates light.

Most people practicing this do not accept that this involves the heart stopping for 10 minutes and then restarting -- but then, especially in the West, would it be even possible to go public with such a reality? The fact is that the jain saints were those who starved themselves to death, practicing this same mind yoga. They definitely may have misunderstood the practice since conscious resonance beyond the heart-mind enables restarting the body as well.

Who needs lions and bears when you can do it yourself