In Those Rustling, Demonic Trees

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The results have been good, and the impact on the whole society has been pretty good, too. A few years back there were a lot of masters of the qigong arts spreading their qigong practices, but the things they taught were all just at the level of healing and fitness. Of course, I’m not saying that other people’s practices aren’t good. I’m just saying they haven’t passed on any higher things. I know the state of qigong all across the country, and I can say that right now, whether we’re talking about inside China or abroad, I’m the only one who’s really transmitting a practice that takes you to higher levels. And why isn’t anybody else doing that? The reason is, huge issues are involved, the historical origins of it go deep, it involves a wide range of things, and the questions it brings up are penetrating. This isn’t something just anybody can teach, since it involves touching a lot of practices’ things. And this is especially so when we have a lot of practitioners who learn one practice today, then go and learn some other one tomorrow, and they turn their own bodies into a big mess, which makes success just impossible. Others take the main road and cultivate upwards, while they take all kinds of side roads. When they cultivate in one practice, the other ones interfere, and when they cultivate in the other ones, the first one interferes—they’re being interfered with all over the place, and they can’t cultivate anymore.

We need to straighten all this out for you. We’ll keep what’s good, get rid of what’s bad, and make sure you can cultivate from this point on. But you really have to be here to learn the Great Law. If you bring all kinds of attachments with you, or if you’ve come here wanting to get abilities, to get healed, to just hear some ideas, or maybe for some other bad reason, then it’s not going to work. And this is important, now, because like I’ve said, I’m the only person doing this, and there aren’t a lot of opportunities like this. I won’t keep on spreading it this way forever. I think that whoever gets to hear me transmit the exercises and teachings in person, I’d say he’s really… later on you’ll know, and you’ll feel really glad about this period of time. Of course, we believe in karmic relationship, and everybody sits here because of their karmic relationships.

Transmitting a practice that takes you to high levels—now think about it, what’s that mean? Isn’t it about saving people? It’s saving people—you are truly cultivating yourself, and not just getting healthy or fit. It’s true cultivation, so the demands on the student’s character are higher. Now us folks sitting here, we’ve come here to learn the Great Law, so you need to have the mindset of a true practitioner while you sit here, and you need to let go of your attachments. If you’re coming here to learn the exercises, or the Great Law, with the goal of getting all kinds of things, then you won’t learn anything. I’ll tell you a truth: the whole process of cultivation is a process of constantly getting rid of human attachments. Out in the ordinary world, people fight each other, they deceive each other, and they harm other people just to benefit themselves a little. The thoughts behind that all have to go. And this is especially true for us folks learning the practice today—you have all the more reason to get rid of those thoughts....

Among all the theories in the world, it is the
most intricate and extraordinary science.

In order to explore this domain, humankind must fundamentally change its conventional thinking. Otherwise, the truth of the universe will forever remain a mystery to humankind, and everyday people will forever crawl within the boundary delimited by their own ignorance."

Master Li Hongzhi, from the introduction to Zhuan Falun



In those rustling, demonic trees, in a time when we seriously thought the world was about to end. The fabric of things was tearing itself apart, decaying, the deep psychosis that had sickened his soul was entwined between the atoms, lurking, evil, sick, despairing. These things, this certainty that the layers of colour in which they lived was only the surface of things, ran deep. High up in the frantic shadows of the trees he could hear solutions to his own suffering, the word of the Biblical God, the voices of its messengers, caught here in the frantic whipping of the Australian bush, the salty wind from the beach, the thrashing of the trees.

This was the heart of the fear that stalked him all of his life, the evil that lay in the fabric of things, the coming end, the cruelty of a God who watched indifferent as suffering, frail man queued to be judged, there on someone else's plain, by someone else's standards. Found wanting, you are cast out. Was there any face to this faceless terror? Would his guardian angel protect him from this greater power. And this God was meant to be all kind, all knowing, all compassionate? As he gazed out across the queues, judging, damming, discarding the masses by their hundreds.

Their little lives, their little scenes, their lack of belief, any of it was enough to sentence them to eternal damnation. He couldn't understand. He didn't know why this supposedly all powerful God took such apparent pleasure in sentencing people, to judging them. What were their sins? Envy, jealousy, greed? Not putting the garbage out on Thursday nights. Coveting the neighbour's wife. Disobeying your abusive parents.

They were clear about one thing. The voices would not bring redemption. His tiny sins, the unspoken weakness of the flesh, the random and forbidden kindnesses he showed to total strangers, all of this was enough to get him burnt at the stake, or more precisely, sentenced to eternal suffering, diverted into the wrong queue, that long line of suffering souls, from the hopeful to the damned. Why would God care what he did? Why would God care about these forbidden flashes of the flesh? Why would God care about the old queen - he was all of 26 - who picked him up after school?

Money always changed hands, that's the first thing he learnt. The flesh was available only for a price. He wasn't going to risk eternal damnation without at least some pocket money to show for his gracious passivity. You may do to me whatever you wish. You may take what you want, your frantic breathing, as long as I am duly compensated. These thoughts, as he stared at the heads of total strangers, riddled through his head, an old soul in a young body, connected, strangely, to the rivers of men and the rivers of time, spots in history, specks in a clairvoyant sea.

Sometimes the beatings would subside, sometimes for weeks on end. His father would be away for work, or his parents had become gloomy and self-recriminating, turning in on each other, as if they had grown bored of inflicting pain, of bashing someone who was still alive the next day, who appeared to have no guilt, who said nothing, his strangely large, reproachful eyes, watching them always, burning in their guilt. Then he would be beaten for refusing to speak, and the cycle of pain would start up once again. He didn't want to say anything, nothing at all. And his parents would grow more frantic as the days passed and he remained silent: not a good morning, not a good night, no answer to how was your day at school, no apology, nothing. They had beaten him into silence, and now they didn't know what to do; as they beat him again, demanding that he speak. He didn't speak, he swallowed the tears and retreated still further into a cathedral of his own making, full of echoes and shadows and unsuspected doings; but at least a place that was safe, a place they couldn't get to, despite all their battering.




THE BIGGER STORY:

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gWsaVCqsFSw4fq1xrCvIRcAHWLVA

BEIJING — China's male gymnasts have something in common with Michael Phelps: they're as dominant in their sport as the American is in the pool.

While Phelps won his third gold medal Tuesday in the 200-metre freestyle, putting him nearly halfway to his quest of eight to break Mark Spitz's record from 1972, the Chinese gymnasts finished off what they started in qualifying Saturday.

They easily won the gold medal in the finals of the team event, more than seven points ahead of 2004 champion Japan. The United States took the bronze.

Phelps has nine Olympic golds, tying him with four others for the most in Olympic history. The Chinese gymnastics team is equally impressive internationally: winning three straight world titles and seven of the last eight, 10 individual world titles and now, after a collapse at Athens, a second Olympic team gold.

"We had been through a lot over the last eight years," team member Li Ziaopeng said. "We put so much effort into this competition."

Chinese divers look set to match their gymnastic compatriots' exploits, winning their third gold in three events and with a sweep of all eight looking possible. Wang Xin and Chen Ruolin scored 363.54 points to finish nearly 30 points ahead of the competition in the women's synchro 10-meter platform.

Racing out of lane six at the Water Cube, Phelps surged to the lead and led by a full body length halfway through the second of four laps and was ahead of the world record pace for nearly the whole race. He was nearly two seconds ahead of second-place Park Tae-hwan when he touched in 1 minute, 42.96 seconds, breaking the mark of 1:43.86 he set at last year's world championships.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26155988/

Without entering a competition, Debbie Phelps has become one of the stars of the Beijing Olympic Games: Her animated cheering for her son Michael as he chases Olympic history has made her a favorite among TV viewers. But Debbie says she is far from a stage mom — she maintains a hands-off policy as her swimming son seeks to become the first athlete to ever claim eight medals at an individual Olympics.

“This is his office; that’s how I look at Michael’s pool,” Debbie told co-host Matt Lauer during an exclusive appearance on TODAY. “He’s going to work, and his work is performing at his highest level.”

While Michael’s contact with his parents and his big sisters Hilary and Whitney is limited to phone calls and text messages during the Olympics, watching 19-year-old Michael tear through the competition in Beijing is a combination of ecstasy and racked nerves for his cheering family. Phelps, who just missed tying Mark Spitz’s record seven gold medals when he claimed six golds at the 2004 Games in Athens, is on mark to walk away from Beijing as the most decorated Olympian ever.

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_2374268,00.html

Los Angeles - Ingrained liberal bias, evidence of the end of an era for traditional media, or just a plain and simple case of dogged reporting resulting in a spectacular scoop?

The sex scandal surrounding former presidential hopeful John Edwards has triggered an intense debate in the United States over why it took so long for the story to be reported by mainstream media.

Revelations about Edwards's extra-marital affair had been reported by the National Enquirer and blogs for months before finally, after repeated denials, Edwards admitted last week that he had cheated on his cancer-stricken wife.

Several commentators have portrayed the story as a striking example of the staid and cautious journalistic establishment being dealt a bloody nose by aggressive alternative and new media upstarts.

Los Angeles Times columnist Tim Rutten said confirmation of Edwards's affair, which dominated news bulletins after it broke, signalled the "end of an era in which traditional media set the agenda for national political journalism".

"From the start, the Edwards scandal has belonged entirely to the alternative and new media," Rutten wrote, adding that the Enquirer's reporting had been bolstered by "bloggers and online commentators who refused to let the story sputter into oblivion".

End of an era or not, the failure of major newspapers to give coverage to the story until after Edwards's confirmation has been pored over on opinion and media pages.

Far too squeamish

The New York Times's ombudsman bemoaned the fact that prior to Edwards confession, the newspaper had "never made a serious effort to investigate the story, even as 'The Enquirer' wrote one sensational report after another".

"I think The Times - like The Washington Post, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, major networks and wire services - was far too squeamish about tackling the story," The Times' public editor Clark Hoyt wrote.

"The Times did not want to regurgitate the Enquirer's reporting without verifying it, which is responsible. But The Times did not try to verify it, beyond a few perfunctory efforts, which I think was wrong."

The Times executive editor Bill Keller, meanwhile, was quoted by the paper as saying that there had been a reluctance to recycle the Enquirer's story without independent verification.



A local painting in the Gunnedah Art gallery, NSW, Australia.