silent thunder

I feel compelled to share one more thing about Earl... One day I discovered him sitting at my bar and he asked me point blank what my religion was... I replied 'none... any longer', but Druid was as close to my world view as i'd found then... he perked up, cocked his head sideways and I went back to serving customers. When I got back to him he asked me for a glass of water. That made me perk my head as Earl was known for claiming 'don't drink water, rusts yer pipes kid, that's why your shit turns brown'... lmao (god i miss that straw dog). Anyway I set the water before him and he pushed it back at me and asked... 'what is this>?' I was caught for a moment but then the Mabyn of The Mabinogion popped in mind and I got his context and replied... "that... is Life!" Few times in my life have I seen such unbridled joy so effortlessly flow from an elderly african man. He called me Drew from that point on. Thanks for probing me in this manner @Walker My heart is so wide open with radiant joy at the memory of sharing such simple wisdom with a person whom, had I not been looking, may have wandered right past and never come to know... all along he was a master in my lineage... my tribe of life that has room for all, but not always awareness. Wherever you are now Earl... your lessons stuck and your love, is still alive. thank you old friend such gifts as these... treasure in every corner of reality if only i have the eyes to see and ears to hear.

gosh, this is off topic and pithy, but I'll try to answer politely and succinctly, though your tone is ech. You make some projections in your line of questioning that do not apply to my situation, but reveal your assumptions. Everyone can point the way. Everyone has the wisdom of their path. It's me who's not always capable, or willing of hearing and resonating with the message. That is why I don't always reply to everyone on this board, even though I read almost every post in every thread. I'm semi-retired and have the time. I follow the gravity of my awareness and heart. What Master Wang shares resonates and I'm drawn inexorably to it. But you seem to infer something aside from what I experience. I have no 'large commitment' to Master Wang. Only two people, my wife and son have elicited large commitments from me. The rest are incidentals, straw dogs. I cherish them in their time for who and what they are to me, but I'm not a big 'follower' of anything but my awareness and heart. Funny that you rather dismissively mention giving large sums of money to street folks... as if this were a moronic passtime. Count me an idiot then... and I'll wear the badge of happy grinning cucumber sage as charged. I paid Earl the Pearl more in money in tuition than I did to Wang and this was back in the mid 90's on a stage actor's budget. Earl the Pearl was a man I met on the streets of Manhattan. He used to teach Ancient Greek culture, language and philosophy as a young man. As an elder, when I met him, he lived a meager life, in a very small one room apartment, he funded through 'tips'. He held down a couple corners and exchanged quick lessons on life, jokes and advice, for 'tips', not handouts. Most folks assumed he was a panhandler and treated him as such. I tend to give to those in need. My wife has chastised me on occasion, but rarely. She sees the process. Her eyes are tuned to it. It's part of me to give when I'm able. I often ask for a joke as payment, but only when it seems appropriate to ask. Anyway, back to Earl. The moment Earl registered in awareness for me, he shone like a gem and I sat listening to him for about an hour. We chatted at length about Euripides, one of the Greeks I was unfamiliar with in depth, only name. I handed him two 20's for his tip and invited him to stop by my bar on the days I had shifts to continue our discussion. Over the course of the next couple years. Earl the Pearl would come to my bar and he'd share lessons on greek philosophy, druidic lore and anything else I could muster up, in exchange for lunch and a couple drinks. I helped him out with larger donations on a couple occasions when I was able. I never probed to find out how he went from college professor to offering philosophy and jokes for tips on the streets of NYC, but his spirit shone like a beacon to me from the moment we met and his words were offered and presented in a manner that elicited much gravity from me. I offered him in return what I could authentically, lunches and some cash... and he shared with me a mountain of wisdom and experience that for me, an actor/philosopher fresh out of college used to great effect. I mentioned to my gal several times that Earl did not seem 'merely human'. I'm only putting it together now that you've mentioned it this way, but it was about this time, I first encountered and read Wang's biography. My studying with Master Wang and the tuition paid him, is the same process as was my time with Earl... a street panhandler. Isn't that something? Everyone has wisdom. Yet I don't and am not able to study with everyone. First in my limitations as a man, but also further in my limitation in that not everyone has a wisdom I'm capable of processing, or drawn to by the gravity of resonance. So this is why I study with some and not others. What does the dollar sign have to do with connection, relation and mutual benefit? I honestly bristle a bit at your tone and while I see no need to justify to you nor anyone where and why I spend my money and attention. I reply for the sake of politeness and the curiosity of others. It's as simple as this. My attention flows where there is gravity for my awareness. So... back to Weather Magick. well said mate. My lineage is my heart and my mind, such as they are... my tribe has no official boundaries, or creeds aside from a few simple ones. Kind Heart Quiet Heart Sincere Heart Be open to action or non-action as it arises from within. There are no ordinary moments. In all of history, no raindrop has ever fallen in the wrong spot. There are no accidents. It seems I am part of something much larger, while comprised of smaller things. Now... back to Weather Magick.

Yes. And I expect to attend again when the timing is beneficial and I return to active paxis. From a place of few certainties, i experience the following certainty, unmistakably. For some time, local awareness (conscious mind) is no longer able to lend gravity to the concept that anyone, or any thing (or non thing) anywhere, is ever appreciably separate from source ever. Does my considering this so, bother you? I'm not selling anything here Walker. I'm just sharing, as authentically as i am able. What possible relevance are any of my activities (meditation or otherwise) on the connectedness of others to source? It was well worth it. I unreservedly and whole heartedly recommend it! But I do not share the seeming projected notion in your question that this somehow makes me closer to source than anyone who has not chosen, or is unable to do the same. You ok mate? Your tone is pithy. Master Wang and his teachings... are part of my path. As is the ravine where my wife and I first encountered the silent thunder. As is our simple home and my toilet bowl and my stinky work boots. Source is here, now friend. Living beingness. Raw awareness unfolding in simple presence... truly... what else is there but source? No matter what mind thinks into partitions, or hands do, undo... or don't do. Source is here, now... at least that's as closely as I can put it for now in words. As always, these are not my claims of ultimate truth. These words are how I'm able to share my experiences as authentically as I'm able. for the record: I'm not selling nada mate. Just sharing.

Much Love My Friend. To you and Guru-ji.

Release into raw being. be what is, as it is... now. Acknowledgement of what is now. Acceptance of action or non action as it arises spontaneously. Release in raw being... now. as is.

It is predominantly blues and purples when the soft manifestation arises, though all colors have presented at various times. This is usually when eyes are closed, or the environment is very dark. If there is light present and eyes are open, then it's a diffuse, soft white foggy light around the peripherals. The open eyed seeing of rings and Mandalas I mentioned here are fairly recent, six or seven years I'd estimate (haven't read my journal in a while). It occured after returning to formal dedicated daily praxis under Zhou Ting-Jue. Unbidden and not connected to my teacher or any lineage, I found myself inescapably thirsting for true darkness. I went through a phase of life where light and constant vision seemed to be a pollution of sorts. Compelled by this thirst for darkness and recalling my love of being in the dark room in photography class in high school. I built myself a 'pitch black box' in which to sit in true darkness. It was sitting in this pitch black with eyes open that the rings first began to manifest. Then the mandalas a short time after. Neither manifestation appear much like the 2001 animation sequence, aside from the tunnel aspect of motion. The soft rings tend to telescope outward from the center, or microscope in from the periphery, dissolving in the center. The ring colors are diffuse, soft and clearly visible, but not vibrant. They are unintrusive to silence and emptiness and were welcome. The mandalas are vibrant, piercingly intense (though not painful), unignorable and dominate local awareness. After a time, i came to sense they were intruding on my darkness... lol. Came to resent them for intruding. There is a liquid bliss to true darkness that is indescribable. The building of and spending time in the darkness surely seems like a catalyst to them. Though their manifestation does not seem due to that particularly. They arise naturally it seems, like fog does, when conditions support it. The black box and daily praxis seems like fertile soil and seems to have been a catalyst for their more intense manifestation, while not being their source. While these visions are rather new, Third Eye visions have been clear and vivid since childhood (first recollection is age 3), as were full hypnogogic waking visions and manifestations (around age 4). Some of the waking visions and dreams were quite horrific, so I shut this down as a child. By 7 they were no longer manifesting much. When the waking visions returned unbidden in my twenties, i found i no longer aroused fear or extreme excitement in their presence, actually felt drawn to explore it with joyful neutral exuberance, and so began welcoming and cultivating the process. Was given several gift visions that utterly shifted my inner landscape and laid the foundation for the man I unfold as now. They do not look like the 2001 animation sequence. The visions I described above arise in two forms. Rings of soft, solid colors and full blown detailed mandalas. The waking visions are something else and don't seem to heed either light or darkness when they arise. They overlay reality completely of their own accord, seemingly. The rings are quite soft on awareness and not intrusive to emptiness and silence, do not usurp awareness and are usually blue or purple. They either expand from the center diffusing out to the peripheral, or dissolve inward from periphery. These were rather expected and sought in the process. The Mandalas were wholly unexpected. The intensity and clarity are unignorable, piercing vibrant light, (but no pain as is usual with eyes accustomed to the dark suddenly seeing bright light). No matter how intense the manifestation, there was never a flinching away, or any discomfort). They are not soft and there is no ignoring them or 'just going with it'. Full awareness is absorbed into their presence. They tend to manifest as slow flashes, but in crystal vibrant piercingly intense light, in full detail that linger as fluid images, (not unlike the after effects of flash bulbs but without the pain associated with bright sudden flashes, no pain, just clarity and intensity). They are myriad colors, overwhelminly detailed and vibrant... made of light. This became something of an intrusion to my darkness. Lately, all formal praxis has ceased. Only spontaneous arisings are followed when they arise and nothing is sought, manufactured or created any longer. release into raw being is the only process now... aside from what monkey mind remains. Had this arisen twenty years ago... Knowing my nature, I would have spent countless hours ruminating on, obsessing over them, seeking and creating meanings for my monkey mind regarding them. Recreating them in paintings and sketches. It would have been a time and energy sink. But now, this has no inertia or gravity. Whatever they are, byproduct of praxis, higher communication or symptom of imbalance or advancing siddhi... no idea and no real draw or repulsion. It just is. Like a twitch. My monkey mind seems to have little to nothing to do with it... so local awareness simply observes them when they arise. Not feeding, nor chasing away. To awareness now, they seem akin to muscle twitches but in inner vision. And where I'm at, no purpose for local awareness.

I get soft whites with eyes open. With eyes closed there are myriad colors. They come and go, seemingly in cycles. Bit less intense and less frequently of late. As steve said. Nothing to concern with or turn into anything to pursue or avoid. I treat them like a body sensation. Like a muscle twitch but in eyesight.

Such an awakened scientist. One of my workmates for a couple years, working in feature films was a close friend of Carl Sagan's. I endlessly prodded him and hung on his every word of the private aspects of this man who influenced my young mind so much! One of the greatest speeches about our human mypica... our obsessive leaning toward self importance of a priveleged position in the universe. Our entire biosphere... but a speck in the inky sea of lights. So vastly impacting to me, and yet, so utterly inconsequential in the grand scheme... how exquisitely lovely the paradox!

and I find your participation in this thread to be falling in just the right spot my friend. I find your interference tends toward kindness and kindness is a high art to me. I appreciate contentious conversation, it instigates depth. When done with kindness, it also instigates unity and healing.

i don't know. you don't know. nobody knows. but everybody talkin' Dub Garden - Talking

All this about who is a wrong taoist, reminds me of a moment I had at church, when I knew I was leaving, but hadn't sprung the news on mum yet and was still attending youth functions. It strikes me as insecure. I said something provocational and was verbally attacked and chastised by an elder for blaspheming. "if the being capable of creating all of reality can be offended by my spoken random thoughts and questioning... then that being is wildly insecure and i pity it." That said, I'm not one for interferring much. Neither in nature, nor in my relationships with people and animals. So I'm not real prone to even trying to influence the weather. I tend to shape my process around such forces, rather than interfere myself... who am i to know the outcome of such? But this is my way, not the way... it's not the right way, but it's the way for me right now. I don't translate Tao as The Path. It's pathing. No path exists without the path walker. They are not two things, but one unfolding process... to me. One caveat, is that when I see what I perceive to be suffering, I tend to reach out and attempt to soothe. Mostly with animals, insects and people. At times with shrubs and trees, patches of earth, even creeks and river banks. This leads to some interference, even though I cannot know the end result of my actions... I find I am compelled to them and aquiesce and do not struggle against the impulses. This is my path i make as i walk. I know I'm really assuaging my own suffering, in attempting to soothe what I perceive as theirs. Who holds the rulebook for what is a daoist? Is there any being, or non-being, anywhere in manifest or un... who is separate from dao? the center is no where and everywhere the bellows arises and falls away what harm if another is pathing in a manner you find incongruent? don't follow them. but will you be the arbiter of how they must path? do you know the ends of pathing? all roads stem from source we are none of us, ever separated from source by even a hair's width, for a millisecond... ever. truth is a mental notion of perspective. in the universe can you point to the direction that is 'up'? on our planet? in your mind? who is deciding, when you decide? so these days, i tend toward kindness when i can and silence when i can't or mildly provocational reproach when i'm frisky and flirting with certainty

which raindrop is wrong? and landed incorrectly? my answer? not one. which daoist is wrong? and who is the arbiter? to choose right? no one. no one knows the end of center's unfolding in perpetual tao.

Sweet! Been waiting for this option. Ordered my copy. Peace!

Hey Gang. A new member sent me a pm asking about trouble they are having posting/replying, even in Welcome section it seems. Been a while since I joined and i don't recall how much, or what type of restrictions exist for new members, or how they may have changed. name of the account is 'braungohed' cheers and thanks...

well said my friend!

It's been addressed already by @steve with clarity and respect. But I feel compelled to share on this (to me) very false notion of human bodies being one system. How to seperate meaningfully (not arbritrarily) the clear dividing line between my body and the environment? The avocados I just ate, are from a farm about 45 miles north of here. The bacon was from a farm about 500 miles away. The air I'm inhaling originated who knows when? Tens of thousands of years ago? Eons ago... and been in the lungs of millions of other humans, animals, insects and plants. My body is an amalgam of the ten thousand things, all recycled and recycling with no clear dividing line. Those avocados and the flesh of those pigs, is not turning me into pig and avocado. They are transitioning into human, even though if you look in my body, you will not ever find a 'human element'. My body is made of the same elemental parts as all the other aspects of reality. It is only the arrangement of those parts that we identify as human. The pattern is recognizable... as is the pattern of a whirlpool... But is a whirlpool a thing, when you consider the molecules flowing through it every second? Is it a system separate from the river? Any attempt to distinguish organism from environment is to me a practice in myopia... and utterly dependent on the level of magnification of the perceptual mind doing to perceiving. We are all of us, flowing verbs. Proven with each inhale/exhale. My one body, is a collection of 5 trillion individual life forms, each with a tribal affiliation and its own life force, process and cycle. ok rant over... phew... that came on suddenly... may just delete this soon, but as I said, compelled to get this out.

It's maddening if i tune in on a certain level to it... incessant thoughts being bandied about... even the 'well thought out' ones, become like gnats after a time. Just noisome, flotsam, stream of babbling word salad. Like if you've ever played that game of repeating a word, until it loses relevance and reveals its inherent absurdity. Many conversations become this when I try to share my more esoteric interests with folks who have no interest in it. The eyes glaze over mid sentence and I realize... 'ope... tuned out. time to move on'. My gal and I were having a conversation last night and the phrase of overdosing on other's thoughts was shared. I find lately, I have less inertia, gravity, desire and patience for thinking thoughts made of words, or any thoughts, be they mine or another's. In particular, the thoughts of others and thoughts born of my own 'storyteller' are growing wearisome, repetitive, often from their manipulative and coercive intentions and their projective, illusory nature. The power of thinking is the power of creating your experience of reality in mind. Buddha was pretty clear on this point and from the moment I heard it, it's resonated. What we think is our experience of reality in that moment... Which implies, I said to my wife last night, that 'As long as I can keep you listening to my words, I am, for those moments, in control of the experience of your mind.' Whether you agree with the thoughts i share or not, the act of your mind tuning into my thoughts and words, is paving and coloring your mind and its experience of reality. My wife and I don't talk much about the house lately. There are no words spoken just because a thought happened. We share when something arises that resonates, or when something requires communication. But all the extraneous over talking and over sharing and constant stream of consciousness babble, has come to a very natural end for us. Among those close to me, an interesting trend has developed, whereby in the middle of a sentence, in the middle of a story i'm sharing, i'll realize... 'i have no gravity for these words, or this sharing'... and I'll stop and say "na... nevermind. tired of the sound of my own voice." and I'll go silent. "hey, why'd you stop? i was listening!" I'll get asked. 'not every fart deserves a name.' is my common reply lately. Some folks sigh in relief, glad it's over, others were engaged and cutting off the stream of their mind the way I do is jarring. for me, it's a realization that the words being shared are not worthy of sharing... they are word salad... or talk noise. Even the well intentioned and highly thought out words and stories... lose their relevance and importance often before being spoken. Our mind is our experience of reality. To influence what others' minds are focused on, is a great responsibility, opportunity and endeavor... greater than i heretofor imagined until last nights' conversation, i am coming to register. This hit me like a train of realization... which explains the plethora of words I'm willing to use in direct contradiction of its premise now... These words seemed to carry significance, worthy of being shared. Every word, every action is a seed planted in the awareness of all those we affect with them. We are all of us Gardeners, wittingly or un... And I've just streamed a host of these words and thoughts into the mind of whomever reads this... for that i don't apologize, but in the interest of giving you back your mind... i'll shut up now. For it seems i've said my peace on this.

Thank you. This light experience manifested for my wife and I rather recently (within last few years). I've shared the question several times, you're the first to offer a description of it. *bow* thanks again.

Wang Li Ping gives regular in person training, if you can travel and has published several in depth books to augment in person study between retreats.

I don't have the sense that humans are running things on this planet with control and intent, any more than I have a sense that I am running this body and awareness with anything approaching control. So much is simply influenced beneath the threshold of conscious, localized awareness... so much is influenced by co-arising conditions far beyond the scope of the ken of my perceptions... in every being I meet there is trance and hypnosis, near fully automated robotic responses to stimuli born of conditioning, not often do they seem present, i am included in this, with a few brief windows of my own experience and a few not so chance encounters with some bright, rare gems in human guise, and not-human guise, along the way. But that's just me, not selling anything, nor seeking to sway... much like @Taomeow alludes to... there's a word missing... or even a phrase. Can't and am not interested in putting any effort into any manner of proof... but sharing, now that's worth some effort.

words used to provoke are like an act of violence, aggression. certainty is the framework of rigidity and easily lends to harsh, provocational words, defensiveness and lack of listening with the intent to understand, but with the intent to respond, coerce and manipulate... rigidity is the way of decay and rot. manipulation is deception coercement is aggression each word, each action is like a seed, planted in the awareness of all those we affect with them. so, in a manner of speaking, we are all of us, Gardeners whether, wittingly or un... A question that often arises these days when I'm considering sharing is... what kind of seed am i planting? does any seed even need to be planted?

The experience really rocked my buddy and I both... know nothing of russian, but it was like a thunderbolt through me, hearing that song. He took it in stride though. Though a stout pragmatist, he was unphased by the spiritual when it arose... just shrugged and accepted it. The bard tradition you describe in Russia... sounds very familiar. The Skalds of the Nordic folk were central to life and inspired deep admiration and adoration for their songs and stories. Must be a symptom of looooong winters held in tight quarters to develop a deep tradition of song and storytelling. My acting and singing days came naturally to me, unsought, it was a driving force of my life for a couple decades. So much lives in the blood. In the memory of the body. Ha!@synchronicity~!~~

My buddy remembered it. Black Tulips. wow... just crushes me, this song. Lyrics in English, for those interested.

@Taomeow about 25 years ago... I was hanging out with my Ukrainian buddy. He was playing a Russian folk song and I became overwhelmed by sadness, it was sudden, intense and brought on tears. I asked him what the song was about. This is what I recall. "It's called Black Roses. It's about the Afghanistan war and the black roses that are being brought home to be planted in their graves... the sons sent off to the war, coming home black roses." Do you know this song? Perhaps it was Black Tulips? anyway, it was a visceral and deep resonation from a language I have no local awareness of, but fully connected with, in spirit. I'd love to hear it again.

"I never take myself too seriously... cuz everybody know, fat birds don't fly." ~Fun Lovin Criminals