silent thunder

hmm... no interest in swaying, teaching, cajoling or changing you, or you mind. though your sharing has prompted my offer of these words from my experience, heart and mind: finger points to moon finger is not moon yet finger and moon, unseparate

@Bud Jetsun Thanks for sharing as you do. Gems and pearls you offer with such boundless joy and love! Your words (and all words) though incapable of carrying the ineffible, uncarriable, yet resonate with the intention to reach out, connect and share the truth of the experiential. Truly gems! This indescribable then dances with the described through the sympathetic vibration of experiential understanding. Perhaps not today, but as with all emanations, the resonance carries on, back and forward from this now, through all and with love. To one who has not swam in the river, are there words possible to lend skin the experience of being wet? to all who demand words I would offer these: the river flows... here, now... jump in and be

The cold is comforting now where it used to be a challenge. I know my body feels cold the way it always has, but how I respond to the sensation has shifted over time. My mind responds to the sensations with a familiar sense of comfort and the vitality generated is always welcome. edit to add: I usually start warm/hot and finish cold. That makes a real difference for palatability, particularly when beginning.

And I'm over here in 'there are no accidents' land... In my take on the universe, there has never been an accident anywhere, at anytime. Only the natural results of causation within existing conditions playing out as they do, that folks didn't intend, or want... one action leads to another... causation From the inception of actions in phenomena, causation determines results, determines conditions which then shape the next causation of phenomena. Be it emotional, chemical, intellectual or otherwise... As I experience it... nothing is accidental, but rather all phenomena are the natural result of existing conditions playing out naturally. To me what most describe as accidental, are the utterly natural results of causation, that were unintended, or unwanted.

It's so beautiful. Invigorating yet grounding. Here's another one that will utterly baffle many of my American and Southern Climate friends... infants, sleeping in the cold. Scandanavia/Russia, this is common practice.

Cold exposure? Absolutely. Regularly. It's brilliant! My Norwegian ancestors experienced, understood and handed down the benefits of regular snow/ice bathing with and without sauna preamble. Introduced my son to the practice when he was the age of these hearty Russian boys n girls and he loves it... talks about it every time we are heading up to stay in the cabin in the mountains. It's a ritual for us, though I have yet to convince my gal of the beauty of it lol. But for Connor and I, snow bath first thing in the morning and again in the evening after dinner. Every shower ends full cold for a few minutes.

Daemon mate... calibrate your radar bud. Lima is a personal friend and has been for some time. I welcome his messages as one smiles when greeting cards arrive in the mail from a friend.

Master Zhou has lived in Southern California and had a clinic in Santa Monica for many years. I first met and began studying with him at a weekend retreat up in Santa Cruz, near San Francisco in 2011 around his 80th birthday. A few years ago, he founded his permanent school and clinic (complete with rooms for students to stay in, who travel to study) in El Monte which is a bit further inland from Santa Monica, but still local, only an hour from me in the South Bay. He now travels regularly between China and the US and is in no place for too long these days. His school though, is run full time by his second Master Linda Wu and another teacher whom I haven't met. Master Wu is an incredibly powerful woman and his second for 18 years or more... I have had healing from her several years ago and it was subsequently her from whom I learned the second form in the system when the practice was still located in Santa Monica. Master Wang lives in China, I do not recall which city, though he and Master Liao, (his second and translator), make several trips a year, offering retreats in various cities around the globe. When I met and studied with Master Wang, the retreat was local here, in Diamond Bar just a few towns over from El Monte and a short 45 minute drive from my home.

My first exposure to Qi Gong was training with Larry Tan in NYC who taught a blend of Jeet Kun Do as learned from Bruce first hand and Shao Lin Five Animal. I have since had the incredible good fortune to study with two lineage holders from Wu Dang. Zhou Ting Jue and Wang Li Ping. Both 18th generation in their respective traditions and both systems blend so well and support each other. I am so blessed.

This ain't your wave bra!

Six years ago to the day I was deep in the middle of the process. I felt the draw and sank into the process in late March of 2012 and by Solstice that year, after several months of sifting, yielding and allowing the concepts to permeate and emerge again on their own, I found it had settled, more or less into the version I have with me now... there is a hand written copy sitting only a few feet from me in my hotel room as I write this. I bring it with me whenever I travel as travel prompts an opening in perception... so it's with me while driving up the West Coast on a visit with an old friend for a few days. After my recent experiences in hospital and hovering near death back in January, I am anticipating some verses to resonate in new harmonies. And I find myself revisiting the verses regularly, at a sort of rhythm, not just my own, but still multiple versions. Something will occur at work, on a walk, playing with my son, or often reading things here... and a verse will spring to mind and I'll revisit it. It's a living, fluid process and so some phrases are still naturally shifting to this day... though the changes at this point are usually a word or two, sometimes a phrase will be altered to reflect my unfolding relationship with the concepts. There remain a few verses that remain, unsatisfying to my monkey mind, though at this point, I suspect, my ability with words and the nature of words themselves are taxed heavily in their ability to transmit such body wisdoms and deeply natural, living processes, into artifacts of mind. So I've relaxed into allowing them to remain unsatisfying. My relationship with it, is a flowing, living, fluid process... and distinctly yielding. It's like I am dancing with it, but I'm not leading the dance. I initiate the dance, but then yield to the process and flow with it, almost dissolve in it. The concepts and I are always co-mingling, yet my forcing mind recedes and the only approximation of effort is in cultivating inner space to allow understanding to well up naturally of its own inertia. Looking back now, the shift that occurred during that time stands out as a marker for the initiation into a deep paradigm shift and a painfully, achingly beautiful and unrelenting process of healing and awakening in my psyche, heart and body. Not to mention a relentless stripping away of previously held notions into a glorious acceptance of the ever unfolding uncertainty of living.

Here is Master Yuan playing Five Animal Qi Gong His channel is called Wudang Wushu if interested in watching more, he has posted plenty.

Nice idea! Here is a real short taste of Yuan Xiu Gang. Talk about flow and depth of stance...

Na... But Puff and I have been known to hang out...

Whoa

When I was really drawn to saturating my awareness in the DDJ and finally having a more intimate and personal relationship with it... I set about writing my own version. I figured the best way to get the concepts imbedded, was to run them through my own system, digest them so to speak, let'em set a while, then draw them back out, in my own words. I have a deep resonant love of haiku, so my version naturally bent that direction until I surrendered to it. Eventually the process gathered inertia and then shortly thereafter a first draft was complete. It took a few months, but I was between projects and could devote my entire life to it. So I set about finding as many copies of translations as I could. Then I would spend however long was needed with one verse at a time, reading, ruminating, rereading dozens of versions... sitting with it, regarding it as I'd walk around my neighborhood, running errands, making meals, playing with my son was particularly helpful... Eventually the thoughts would come back out in my own words and I'd refine them into haiku form, paring down words and using e-prime language throughout, where appropriate. I now have a direct sense of the resonance of the concepts. There have always been sections of the DDJ that were troubling and hard to relate to (the politically slanted verses in particular), but now, they resonate in my very bones when I encounter a verse again. All those days spent ruminating, allowing space for the concepts to flow in mind and experiential awareness. It was a major shifting point in my life.

the blending of heart and light... manifests peace? an allusion to buddha's 'middle path' ?

we are human beings, not human thinkings, or human doings. being. As for absolutes, there are no absolutes for me aside from one that I still can't shake after years of chipping away at it. I am aware. That seems steadfast enough to perhaps be considered one potential rule to me. To participate in any conversation of what constitutes a rule, I must first be aware.

when traveling externally, the speed of light appears to be a barrier... what about when one travels internally?

I too recommend Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's book The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep. Been referring back to it for years. It's a real gem.

I love it when that happens! Some long held assumption associated with a degree of certainty being blown apart in an instant... It's pure bliss!

I'm with liminal... folks share from their perspective. I haven't read an account in this thread declaring you wrong. It's just a conversation. Incidentally, the rule of thumb is a phrase derived from an actual human law. When it was legal to 'discipline' your wife, by beating her with a stick no bigger than the width of your thumb.

Another interesting tidbit... the speed of light is not constant. There is variance in its measurement. Though practically for use in equations and observable phenomena, this variance is miniscule and seemingly non-impacting, the implication of this often overlooked fact of observation is quite striking to me.

Anything that can affect my experience of life, consciousness or awareness, I consider a drug. I'm with you Rara. The obvious drugs, prescription meds and the myriad of self medicating street drugs are what are normally considered a drug. But to me, Food-coffee-sugar-booze, Sex, Cannabis, enthoegenic plants... all exert a drug like effect on my emotional state and consciousness and are often not considered a drug, so never enter awareness when addressing health. Yet all of those mentioned are subject to abusive overuse that is detrimental to health and vitality, or balanced use that accents and supports health and boosts vitality. At first I focused on what I put in my body to heal and find balance. Then I began to pay attention to what I was putting on my body, in toothpaste, body soaps and clothes detergents. Last few years, far more imortant to either of those for overal well being... has been what I allow myself to ruminate on and think about... what I choose to engage with in my mind on a daily basis. I am down to only three bookmarks for the internet. I have winnowed down my exposure to all forms of media to small, controlled bursts. Bums is an exception, almost all my time on the internet is spent here. Yet even here, I decide to limit what sorts of topics I will engage in, where I will spend my energy in conversation due to the effects topics and tones of conversation have on my consciousness. Think about the power some conversations here have on our being. The primal reactions to some phrases and topics when disagreement arises... or the empathy engaged when we resonate in agreement. Both of these are powerful drug like effects... often far more subtley impacting than a couple beers popped for a few hours of pleasant feelings in the abdomen and fuzziness in the mind. How many drugs in our lives have no form or physical shape and so go beneath notice, continuing to exert massive influence on us, without any awareness? Facebook likes, forum post reactions, news articles that support, or contradict our political dispositions... conversations about religious concepts or political shoulds and shouldn'ts.... drugs everywhere. Presence, awareness and beingness seem to counteract my ability to go too far with any one of them.

In money? A few thousand dollars spread out over a couple decades. In time and effort practicing? In emotional mind based stories and intellectual seeking? Thousands of hours. Cost reaches far beyond money. Money equals options to me. When I have money, because my society values it, I can exchange money (which in and of itself sustains no life, it cannot be eaten, drunk, nor used medicinally), for that which has real value to sustaining life... food, safe housing and medicine when required... But to me the real question is what has value? what is value? It is remarkably valuable to me, that I wake each day without any nagging, long term aches and pains any more, in spite of decades of rock climbing, martial arts and working in construction for film and television along with several surgeries and major injuries over that time that at one point, had me living in chronic pain for years. The value of not having had a cold or flu in almost a decade is very high. The value of no longer taking the world personally is uncountable. The emotional stability of no longer identifying with illusary senses of self whose contentment and misery were dependent upon external forces. The value of no longer having my experience of life being determined by the words and actions of others, or by the pleasantness of my direct environment is indeterminably valuable. The cost for this... I've been adding it up in my head as I've been writing this. Around $6500.00 US, spread out over 25 years. The value of this... uncountable.