silent thunder

I spent some time there and had some nice conversations. Missed the hayday, but I'd like to see it maintained on the offchance it gets piping again.

During conversations about New Age, images arise of Qiu Chuji in the woods, alone; exploring, refining, learning... then sharing.

One day you will ask me which is more important? My life or yours? I will say mine and you will walk away not knowing that you are my life. ~Khalil Gibran

This is inconsequential, but it intrigues me and has for a while, so out of curiosity I'll ask. I've never logged in anonymously, yet my name is never listed as online when present. I find that odd. I thought perhaps our own names don't appear when logged on as, well, we know when we're on, but in testing it by viewing the site as a guest on my son's laptop, while logged in on my system, my name is still not among those listed as online.

Elaine Pagals: The Origins of Satan Is that the book you were mentioning in an earlier post @Nungali? She began her exploration of the concept of the origins of evil and its sources in Western literature after the death of her husband, on their honeymoon if I recall accurately... Her exploration led to that book. I happened on it in the midst of my apostacy from the lutheran fundamentalist upbringing I was raised with and vividly recall that encountering it was like opening a window to the forest in a room of fetid air. Or like Bilbo, garnering a breath of fresh air in the Mirkwood.

Take care what you allow yourself to think and ruminate on... this becomes your reality.

that got it! like scratching an itch... curiosity abated. Thanks mate!

Ah, interesting. Thanks mate. Wonder why I didn't see it listed then on my son's system while viewing as a guest. I checked my account settings to make sure i hadn't inadvertantly toggled an 'always log in anonymously' option, if there was one. There isn't.

Wonderful conversation. Thank you all involved. My approach is to use my body and positioning to work my musculature. I abstain from weight lifting, though did use it for a time in my teens and 20's. Though I do employ some external weights however, as I build scenery as my job, which is active and involves a fair amount of moving materials and large scenic elements; but when performed intelligently, is not loading the body with extremes of exertion and repetitive lifting of heavy loads. It is about position, leverage and using help when appropriate, so the body is engaged but never overloaded. My workouts when I am between projects are solely based on my own body-weight and not using external weights of any kind. Zhan Zhuang, Qi Gong, simple calisthenics (push ups, planks, etc, but mostly lots of simple stretching and breathing) and walking, walking walking. Morning and Night walking, usually in the hours before dawn and during dusk. For a couple decades my favorite workout was tree and rock climbing. It engages spherical awareness of mind and full extension of articulating motion while supporting, pulling up and lowering your own body weight, which is what your muscles were designed for and used to accomodating. This to me, combined with good martial forms, created and maintained a body whose internal joint/tendon connections were strong but also fully flexible. Iron wrapped in Silk. I am 50 now. A typical work day is 10 hours, at my pace, I keep up with the 20 somethings I'm training and rarely sweat while doing it. I've been playing Qi Gong and martial arts for 30 years, been in construction for 23 and wake each morning pain free with good mobility (can place my palms backwards on the floor between my feet without warm ups). My process is to use and work with my own body weight and positioning to develop and maintain good strength in the connections between muscle and bone, through the full range of motion. And to stretch, stretch, stretch and walk, walk, walk. Of course, this is only my take. Not selling anything, only sharing. Things that were appropriate in my 20's are not so now and vice versa. My Best to all of you on your Paths...

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about.” ― Rumi

In the pause between exhale and inhale. Abides a quiet. A silence. In the hour before Dawn, the world pauses before the inhale of the rising day. and here in this silence... i walk.

um...

20 year old Brit, Alexandra Whittingham, channeling Spanish Maestro Francisco Tárrega on the steps of a french chapel. Now this... is my kinda United Nations.

I'm reminded of a scientist... East German or Russian, post ww2, studying the possible effects of qualities of light (sun cycles) on dna, in particular that of fern seeds. He was working with cohesive light, under the hypothesis that changes in the sun's light will awaken certain genetic markers in the ancestral memory of dna. i.e when the sun cycles and the quality of its light shifts, this affects dna and active gene markers. He happened upon a particular frequency of laser/cohesive light that he shown through a fern seed prior to planting and from that seed, grew an 11 million year old ancestral version of a modern fern. Reminded me that there is such wisdom in the body. Indeed, there are more miracles in a square yard of 'simple, ordinary' earth, than in all the libraries and religious texts of the world. Who is it truly notices the mundane? Who bothers with the ordinary?

I don't. United States, Poland, Hungary, Baltic states, Ukraine, Georgia are words, ideas, not things.

I'm American, of Norwegian descent. In my experience, humans own nothing but their presence and attention. This cannot be purchased, cajoled, bought or sold, but it may be offered... shared, given. It is the only thing of real value I have ever encountered.

Wonderful progression and artful incremental shifts from simplicity to wall of sound. Puts me in mind of Spiritualized.

Welcome! Always nice to meet and connect with a fellow traveler on the Path.