silent thunder

This thought settled with me as well. It seems to me that the students are the living force of a lineage. While the founder/teacher draws the students through tales and observations... the lineage only comes about when the students assimilate what is taught and the longevity, vitality is then exemplified in the enduring fruits of the teachers who are born out of the system taught by the founder. The health and vitality of a tree is known in its fruit.

The health of a tree is shown by the state of its fruit.

I recall a time when searching Tao Bums on a search engine would bring up this site and a video made by sir pudgy taoist upset guy, where he was flashing his gun and talking about how Tao Bums was a 'fake taoist site'.

hmm, your comment made me wonder if The Procession Of The Equinnoxes is really just the Earth hitting its 'speed wobble'.

which way? the wei wu wei

One of my all time favorites! Do you even know what it is you want most in life... If you were to find out and be given, what you really want most in life... could you live with it? The film is amazing! The book A Roadside Picnic is also thunder without clouds to me.

Aye... medicinal, not dietary. and the realization, no matter how it is induced... is always now.

Any longer, for me, anything which affects consciousness, I consider to be medicinal, not dietary. Useful for certain responses, for shifting conditions and resonances... yet they no longer abide as they once did. From chemical/pharmaceutical agents, to entheogenic psycho-active plant and synthetic substances, to foods and beloved hobbies, to meditation. Unavoidably... gratefully and painfully, old patterns of thinking that brought comfort; whole paradigms of mental structure in viewing and relating to the universe, myself and the world "i" am part of, are realized to be little more than resonant mental matrixes not dissimilar to pills taken repeatedly for years to help create and sustain a desired condition of perception. Nothing aside from awareness and breath are dietary any longer. Only these remain. The rest just breathes in and out of awareness.

Brushy One String....

I don't normally comment on things of this nature, but for Jeff I will make an exception. My experience getting to meet Jeff and having family work with him for a time gave me an inside look at the man and his process and what I found, caused me to turn and leave and never look back. I wish him no ill, but want him no where near what I hold dear.

nudge me when the EQ collectively begins to catch up to IQ...

The good life is here, now. Right now. Never anywhen else really. So much Love!

i am aware

Yesterday at work a painter expressing gratitude for a kindness offered, gave me this gift. A pocket printing of: Hsin-Hsin Ming: Seng Ts'an Words without words, ringing. One moment is ten thousand years. Seng sits with me at my table, smiling over coffee. Deep abiding love and gratitude to all. Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! *deep bow of respect*

When in my exhaustion, I released... everything when inertia could no longer be maintained by force of seeking when all desire vanished in utter collapse clarity and awareness remained. In this emptiness... reality shone. One Truth... ringing. Undistinguished, gossamer, beyond coneptual mind, containing all and utterly empty, shining with the reality of One. When I released all notions, even 'I'. realization and liberation rang and awareness revealed what was always abiding under all the seeking and clinging... simultaneously, the clouds of hallucination and mind stuff evaporated like mist in the clear light. In total release... finally then realizing what was true all along, yet hidden by seeking and defining of this and that here and there, self and other. One Truth. Unity. All in All. Empty. Spacious. Abiding. One. When I released every notion, awareness remains.

spiral dancing

don't wake the bugs... don't wake the bugs... don't wake.

I used to climb the cliffs of the St Croix river, where it divides the imaginary states of Minnesota and Wisconsin, so I could turn around and leap/crash into the rushing current. This was repeated until I was throroughly exhausted and glowing with joy. sigh... such treasure!

Hey Bud! I will say there is awareness... that much seems certain to me. The rest... all of it, seems to be little more than flavors of perception, shades of colored interaction/judgement, variations of frequency of awareness. While sexual energy seems to flow through my awareness physically, mentally... I do not consider that the basis of awareness... only a frequency of my experience of it. Quantum physics tells me I, and all other perceived things are not made of anything solid. Taoism also speaks very similarly from centuries in the past and my experience resonates with this. I am told I am human, yet no where I look, do I find a human element... there are many frequencies of elements, none of which are human. The same is true of plants, animals, insects. What is an egg and a sperm? Patterns of energy made of what I am told are elements, which at their most basic level are also not solid, or static, but are varying frequencies of vibration. At this point I don't know exactly what you, I, or anything are made of... only that I am aware. When I am not having sex I am aware. When I am having sex I am aware. I don't obsess about sex, or not having sex. I allow myself to respond to the conditions of life as is most natural for me in a given moment. I am highly sexual at times and other times, sometimes for weeks on end, I do not think about sex, pursue it, nor respond to it when my wife approaches me. This is utterly natural for both of us, not sought out. My sexuality is a simple expression that occurs naturally when it does, and doesn't occur, equally naturally when it doesn't. Sex, food, drugs, hobbies, friendships, romance, toys... none of these define my awareness, nor who and what I am... they are occurences that flow through my awareness. Like birds and clouds in the sky. They leave no trace when they have passed. When I resist, I suffer. When I project and desire greatly, sometimes I have great pleasure and other times, intense pain. When I release and radically accept and allow myself to respond naturally to life... I flow in effortlessness, even in the midst of great challenge. I don't see myself as a bucket that is either full or empty of qi that must be protected at all. Life is a flowing verb of awareness... not a static, solid thing. It seems that within my awareness I am more akin to a series of tubes... that can open wide, or constrict. When I am low in energy, these tubes are constricted and tight. To open them, I allow myself to act naturally. When I constrict, it seems to occur when I am taking the universe personally. When I consider that I am potentially losing something by not experiencing what I want, or when I am feeling like I have achieved something great because conditions of life happened to coincide with what my temporary mind fantasy/desires may have been. When I am seeking, pursuing, forcing, stressing, regretting... when I take the universe personally, when I am pushing... then suddenly it is easy to become fatigued, to get down. The channels constrict and the flow is reduced. When I acknowledge all that is occuring as natural and allow my actions, or non actions to also flow naturally, there is no protection needed or possible... For it is not possible to sully the sky. Spit into the sky, throw dirt into the sky and it is not marred. Release is I guess then, to me, the ultimate protection. Much respect mate! Great questions as always. Cr8 10

I came on that quote in a daoist text, but would not be surprised to find it mirrored in other paradigms. It sure seems the closer one abides to source awareness, the more universal the experiences and insights tend to become.

this subject is paramount for me lately and my sense of walking the path is reflected in this old taoist quote which as the years pass, becomes more saturated in my beingness and less understood in my mind. 'the Sage is in the world, but not of it.' While I am in the world and part of it intrinsically... (connected, present, engaged), I am not of it. (my internal process is not governed, determined, or controlled by it.)

I use xylitol mouthwash nightly after brushing (no rinsing after) and also have used coconut oil in the manner described by SEH2 to good effect for sensitive teeth. ph balance in the saliva seems a contributing factor in tooth decay and remineralization.

In general, when building something, I build from the bottom up as it seems more stable. Take pyramids for example, it's rather a tough nut to start with the capstone.

pure, complete exhaustion from incessant seeking was my release in line with my experience with the freedom, liberation and release of exhaustion I now translate wuwei not as 'non doing' but 'non forcing'. as dew condenses and evaporates... without effort, everything in nature is accomplished.