In Chiang Mai with Mark Rasmus

[Peacedog]

Hi all,

I am back in Chiang Mai, Thailand for the first time in almost ten years. I'll be spending the next month attending Mark Rasmus' month long course. At the end I will provide a write up for the board.

If anyone is there, let me know and we can sink a few.

No, I am not going katoey hunting with anyone. In case anyone asks...

Cheers,

Peacedog

[Simon]

I just got back from there! Have fun you will have a great time.

[Michael]

What's a katoey and why are they hunted?

[Peacedog]

Michael,

Seeing as how this is a somewhat family friendly website, I would suggest google searching the terms "katoey and Thailand."

That said Thailand is known for certain things and this happens to be one of them.

Cheers,

Tom

[Michael]

Haha, just wanted to see how'd you answer, although I don't know what it is and don't really want to know.

Hope you have a great time.

[neijia_boxer]

Be careful Michael, i couldnt joke on the katoeys.... some of those labyboys can really FIGHT

[Michael]

Thanks, Matt. I'll definitely keep that in mind, but I don't think it will be a problem. Not sure that I'd ever travel to a place with so many Buddhists unless I had a platoon of "well-armed soldiers" with me and I don't think that's gonna happen any time soon.

[Peacedog]

Well, I've been here about three weeks and learned a ton. Mark's explanation and method for fah jing skills is the clearest I've ever seen and quite effective.

He has cleaned up a lot of my technique in record time. Great stuff. His method is taught as a ting jin/listening skill and can be applied to any martial art, although his background is in wing chun and tai chi. He is a skilled fighter as well and can improve anyone's skills.

Additionally, his presentation of Buddhist meditation is first rate. A great guy and well worth checking out.

You can find a brief presentation of his stuff at markrasmus.com

[Peacedog]

Tom,

Very much so.

The Taoist water tradition disolving method and the highly related Buddhist release thechniques allow the further refining of some of the edges from more direct methods such as running the orbits and breath retention. The Sedona Method is a very closely related system and is available here: sedonamethod.com

Additionally, he coaches the martial work from the standpoint of the 4 elements in the Franz Bardon tradition. Interestingly, there is a direct carry over to the conventional dan tien based work most of us are familiar with in the IMAs.

Frankly his ability to explain material I had been given by other teachers over the years, but couldn't quite figure out, is going to give me alot to refine over the next year or so.

Plus the fah jing work is just plain fun. A new comer to this work is training with the group here in Chiang Mai right now and Mark was able to teach him how to issue power in a little less than a week of 3 hour long morning sessions. No bad for a guy with no background in this stuiff.

In short, really good stuff.

[Michael]

Sounds very cool, Peacedog, thanks for sharing.

Any obvious crossover to the Hermetic traditions? Reason I ask is I did buy that book you liked, Circles of Power, but haven't read it yet. Sort of warming up to the author with his book on monsters.

Sorry if this is threadjack, please divert me since you were just mentioning Taoism and Buddhism. Cheers.

[Peacedog]

Yes, quite a bit of carry over. Mark Rasmus' training is heavily grounded in the Hermetic practice of Franz Bardon, which at this point is essentially the other remaining school of Western yogic practice.

The main difference is that is Circles of Power from John Michael Greer is considered a ritual system while the Franz Bardon's system is more of the vajrayana school of Western yogic practice.

Both work heavily with the elements (fire, air, water and earth) as well as ether/Akasha. Franz Bardon's system is much more chi gung like in practice. You conduct an active visualization with an appropriate sound, color and sensation. Very similiar to mahayana and vajrayana practice in my experience.

In the system from John Michael Greer you have a much more shamanic type of practice where you are are calling upon a mantra, with a color and symbolic point of of focus.The only caveat I can give with Greer's system is that the energies employed get their flavor from the late Renaissance period, or a little earlier, and this can make some of the imagery interpretation a little confusing for a more modern mind. Greer's companion work Path's of Wisdom can flesh this out quite a bit and is more the theory and meditative side of his work.

Both work quite well. In practice, Greer's work is easier to use initially without an instructor. Bardon's work can also be done without a teacher, but you will need a pretty solid background in chi gung to work out some of the finer details.

If you ever decide to work with Bardon's work, hit me up and I can walk you through the finer points. All of it is easy to explain via Skype or the like, just a little obtuse if done soley from the book.

The main thing to keep in mind is that Greer's system was designed for solo practice, while Bardon's books are a reconstruction from notes left to his students and complied by his secretary. For those who do not know, Bardon died in a Czech communist prison camp in 1958 and so his books were never fully constructed by him.

What Mark has done is construct the more physical elements into a teaching system that includes body training and some martial elements (i.e. fah jing) along with the items from the original Bardon system. Bardon's system specializes in identifying and mastering various energies directly. As such his methods, with work, can be extrapolated to a variety of other systems.

Most Bardon practitioners are German speakers and come out of central Europe. Mark Rasmus is the only native English speaker I know who has developed Bardon's work to this level. I will probably look for others once I get back to the States, but from what I have gathered most of the folks in the US/Canada who do his stuff are much more academic/philosopical in nature (i.e. armchair quaterbacks).

At the end of the day you will see many similiarities between Taoism, Buddhism and Hermetic practice, particularly at a high level. From a yogic perspective all lead to a union with God/the Tao/True Mind. They are just different paths upon the way.

[Michael]

Thanks!