silent thunder

Ah ok. It was hard to pull much theory from the film as they didn't go into depth. Perhaps you may have some experience with a light experience that manifested with my wife and I some years ago. A manifestation of white light that engulfed my wife, myself and our entire home for an extended time. Whiting out all sight, sound and sensations in pure white light, before dissolving as softly and naturally as it came on, while we were standing in the kitchen one afternoon... leaving us humbled in its wake. It spawned a period of massive shift, deep and painful insight resulting in healing and expansion of sense of self. Haven't run across any who've experienced it directly, but have only recently shared it and reached out to find if others have similar experiences and what circumstances they were in at the time, what the outcomes for them were. It has been paradigm shifting for both of us. Blessings! edit to add: here is a better description lol...

That's the first book in the His Dark Materials Trilogy no? Supposed to be exceptional series, but have yet to jump in. I have it here in one of my 'to read' bookcases here somewhere. Wish I'd given the movie a miss until I'd read the book, it was... unfortunate. The people in that world all had animal familiars they referred to as Daemons. Were there also allusions to a Path of Light?

not awake yet but there's a little window with a lovely view

what's that saying...? "I'd never be a member of any group who'd have me as a member." yup, that's it. then again, there's only one group and it's made of light no membership or application required or possible

seems peace is crafted a living fluid process among all involved

growth feeds on decay dying nourishes growing cyclical balance

You Sir... win the internet today in my humble opinion! LMAO!

Yes Peace Daemon. peace and an attempt to lighten the mood...

U mad bro?

Life feeds on life. Through the process of decay in the gut, decay nourishes life. We are all food for something. Those at the bottom are consumed and used by the prime predators, when the primes fall to age or sickness, they nourish the smallest and least in the chain through decay and the components of their bodies return to the soil to nourish again. Right and wrong are simply mind stories based on what our family and culture instruct us is normal from birth to about the age of seven. The Dao treats all as straw dogs. I grew up hunting birds every weekend in the Fall, to fill our freezers for Winter. Being sensitive, it was always a dichotomy for me. Simultaneously experiencing elation at a successful hunt, while having strong compassion for the unwilling sacrifice demanded of the prey. My compassion drove me to perfect my skills, to make a clean, headshot kill to alleviate suffering. For myself, where there is malice, or joy in the infliction of pain in the process of bringing death, this is abhorrent to me. But I have long since lost my guilt for consuming life, or ending lives to protect my own or others. None of us are outside the cycle. We will be consumed soon. In every moment of what we call life many cells in our body are decaying as other grow. We ourselves are a microcosm of decay feeding growth within the Tribes of the organs of our bodies, just as plays out in the nature around us, to which we are intrinsically connected. On Monday, I was stabbed five times in my abdomen by a surgeon, who through those incisions, removed several portions of my large intestine that were corrupted. His assault brings me new health, vitality and longevity... along with a healthy dose of discomfort. In the end, intent is key for me. We have every right to slay and be slain. It's nature.

I find simple presence and awareness very effective. Acknowledge, accept and with simple, non judgemental awareness, sit with them and allow them space. And Release. Breathe through it. Just like clouds they then soon dissolve naturally, without forcing, and then only awareness remains. Like an empty sky.

Water flows downhill without effort. It pulverizes stone into sand, without strain, generating immense power, able to wash away entire cities without skills or intent. Winds, without trying, generate enough force to level forests. What is the relationship between power and effort? What is the source of power? Listen to me, writing about power like it's a thing. Anyway, this is on my mind rather obsessively since Friday night and I figure some of you possess some insightful responses.

There was a fun version of The Tempest filmed not too many years ago, with Helen Mirren as Prospero... well worth a look. I'll never forget catching it on Broadway while living in NY... Patrick Stewart as the great sorcerer and their image of Ariel... My god! At one point, she came out of a volcanic pyre, and her wings unfolded across the 40 foot expanse of the stage, with veins of glowing fire. Incredible story... Love it!

Ripening... that's a great point. Time and space to allow things to settle into their arising forms and maturity. All things cycle and flow. Tend and prepare soil before planting. After planting, cultivation of the seed and weeding out the unbeneficial... eventually though, what remains is simply to allow space and time to ripen without meddling, seeking or action. In this way I've noticed my old daily practices have transitioned into medicinal functions, rather than dietary in my life. What used to be breakfast, lunch and dinner, recently manifest in small doses from time to time, as the impulses ripen naturally...

the radiant warmth of light the fertile potential of water bring about flow within each other in this flow, mingling... and in this mingling, the cascade of forms we call life manifest, decay and remanifest always in flowing motion at times discernible patterns seem like separate things yet soon, reveal to a brief whisp of wind always moving from warm to hot to cold and cold to warm... always flowing toward balance but never quite in balance... that would be static and unmoving, unchanging life is flow, oscillation, but never of opposites always along the spectrum of the one unity, in various expressions always flowing toward balance never quite balanced... but always balancing. As one wave appears distinct in the ocean, yet is never separate. We may perceive patterns in nature as distinct, our own bodies for example, yet they are never separate from the unified whole of the manifest... nor the unmanifest. Flow. Motion. Awareness. Life.

Good for you mate! How empowering to begin to really engage with what you eat and how it affects you. Six years ago, I had a heart issue and the doctors wanted me to go on a series of pharmaceuticals for the rest of my life. Instead, I studied food healing techniques and employed them with determination. In 90 days, I completely reworked my blood chemistry using only foods found at a local farmer's market and was able to avoid any pharmaceuticals. It's remarkable how quickly my body, and anyone's for that matter, can respond to a change in food. It's also remarkable to me, that what can make one person flourish, can make me quite feeble... or what worked for me in my twenties, is untenable now. We are rather complex. I explained the importance of good quality food to my son, when he was very young and it worked very well for him. I used legos as an analogy. I made a man out of legos and handed it to him. Ok bud, so here is your body. It's made of lots of small parts that work together. Life is always decaying and growing... always. It never stops. No breaks. So, every day, parts of my body decay and break down. (i removed a few pieces) but then i eat some food and that food goes in my body and it grows whole again... What happens if I stop eating? (pulled a few more pieces out of the lego man) eventually... kaput... no good right? so I have to eat to keep growing, to stay healthy and strong. (replaced the missing legos with some of a different color and size) but what happens if I stop eating good strong quality food? Since the only things my body can use to replace what has decayed, is what I choose to replace it with when I eat. If I don't eat good quality food and only eat junky, fluffy and bad quality food... my body will not be like it was... it will be weak and sickly. (I took several parts of the lego man away and instead of giving him lego parts to replace them... I gave him a piece of tape and some chewing gum with cat hair in it and told him to remake the lego man like it was... he stared at me with appropriate confusion) "That's not possible dad." "exactly" I said. It's just like that simple with our bodies. Our bodies are made up of trillions of individual cells. Each day some die off and need to be replaced. If we give our bodies strong food, good pieces to work with... it will refashion and maintain itself and you'll be strong and healthy. If you give it chewing gum and tape... the outcome is not so good. My body will only be as strong as the quality of the food I give it to work with... I didn't get into the quality of breath at that time. Though I have come to understand, that through my breath, it is possible to transmute even substandard foods to positive results, but that is a lesson for later Thanks for sharing your findings mate. You reminded me of a powerful lesson.

When my awareness was the size of a ping pong ball and I read a book, or saw a movie, or studied a martial skill application. I had a ping pong ball sized understanding of and relationship to that book, movie, or martial application. When my awareness expanded to a basketball and I went back and reread that book, or revisited that martial application... my understanding and experience expanded and the experience was... completely different. New dimensions, previously unconsidered were not potent realities. Was there a secret? absolutely.. was it purposeful? Not necessarily. Of course, some teachings will not be offered to all students. But Rocky put it well I thought. Not all students have the awareness for all that is involved in a teaching. Is this anyone's fault? Is it a conspiracy? Not necessarily. Teachings are like seeds strewn about the forest and students are like soil. Not all seeds fall on soil capable of manifesting the entire plant and its fruit. There is nothing wrong in this... but perhaps this is why when a teacher encounters a student who is truly fertile soil for the seeds being sewn, there is such radiant joy. And why, when a student finds the teacher who offers what they truly resonate with, they radiantly open up and the teachings flow, truths are shared and secrets almost non-existent.

I love finally being able to accept when I don't know shit... it's very freeing.

In general, energy flows up my Du channel and down the Ren. Up the back, down the front, starting and ending in the lower dan tien. In some forms, I will engage my energy and reverse the flow, moving up the Ren and down Du. This can be likened to a hand, moving against the flow of water in a creek. The hand does not change the flow of the creek, but the hand may clear out some leaves and blockages by moving counter to the flow..

*deep bow* Thanks Marblehead, I knew you were on to something potent here. That is a well worded sharing of some keen insights about rather difficult realizations. Those insights are certainly not easy ones to hold in mind and not reject outright due to subjectivity and personal feelings. It took many years for me... decades even, to be able to ingest and process some aspects of the DDJ. This being one of the most sticky/potent sections. I happen to share your views on this to the letter it would seem. Some time ago it settled in me, that there are no 'supernatural', or 'unnatural' occurences and that nothing that occurs in the manifest is out of accord with dao. Those things I used to consider out of accord with dao, or unnatural, are things that occur that do not match my own personal understanding of life and don't match my own personal sense of right and wrong. Supernatural is no longer a functional concept to me either... as anything that manifests and occurs in nature, by definition, is natural, not above it, or beyond it. We may refer to things as supernatural because we don't understand them, but this is a personal distinction, not a universal truth. Cities and plastic in particular, used to seem unnatural to me. No longer. Cities are what human beings do naturally. If there had only been one city in the history of the planet, perhaps it would seem like an anomoly to me, but it is evident to me now, that cities, plastic and all other human pursuits, are utterly natural to the process of humans... now that has no bearing on whether I find them personally acceptable, or tolerable at all. In the personal feeling department, I accept that I would fight against Hitler and any like him, every time I encountered them, because it seems unnatural to me, abhorrent. Yet both types of humans manifest from dao in nature and thus are both natural. A deeper understanding of this settled on me one day, walking in the rain. Something that had eluded me for decades with the teachings of Dao. Rain falls on the healer and the murderer, without distinction... it takes no sides. Yet in the deserts rain grows thorns and in the garden... vegetables and flowers. Sun shines on all equally. The Dao takes no sides. All are treated like straw dogs. Straw Dogs are venerated and carried around with honor in their time of the festival (they are fashioned and carried around, venerated through the day and worshipped, played with and held up with joy), then at the end of the festival, they were dropped unceremoniously to the ground and went back to being just the straw that was strewn daily to help keep the mud at bay. My own body is like this... fashioned and venerated by those who care for and love me, personally, but at the end of my festival, my body will without delay, begin to break down again and release back into its basic parts... without distinction or the least worry by natural process. There is nothing personal but what we make it. Some time after really getting the neutrality of the manifestation and breaking down of forms in nature, this next thought pile drove through my old paradigm and blessedly and painfully reworked my sense of right and wrong. Everything I Love... and everything i despise... manifest from one source. So the difference between the two, must lie in me. Murderers act naturally. To me, their actions are utterly abhorrent and I will use every breath and ounce of my skill to fight against them, yet in my center, I know, murderers are as Natural as a flood, or a forest fire... or a family of lions tearing out the belly of a mother and calf Wildebeast. I accept they are natural, and I also accept that it is my nature, to resist that which is abhorrent to my own sense of acceptable. Not an easy place to occupy mentally. Not often I can sit with these concepts long enough to put words to them this way. Again, thank you Marble... I consider you a good friend and you have broadened my understanding many times here with your perspective and sharing. You give much of yourself here and it is deeply appreciated.

Nice! About to have some down time... I'll check it out.

Dream work is foundational in my process. To my entire life, really... I have lived my entire life, with the unshakable sense... that one moment I will awaken withing 'real life'... in the same way, I become lucid in my dreams every night...

I don't think it's serious at all. That however has no impact on how sincere it may be... which I suspect... it well may be quite sincere.

I would deeply appreciate you sharing any more details about this further, or pointing to where you've already discussed it, if so...