silent thunder

fog

Rene, your insight resonates for me what is at the heart of the ancient saying. The Sage is in the world, but not of it. Participation in the process of duality and the play of the 10,000... is not the same as identifying with it.

tomato soup

inssaei

I'd make another donation to cover the cost.

Welcome to the bums mate!

Ok, one final bump on this one.

that which has a form will dissipate, this seems the nature of forms change is constant as described in the I Jing that which is not form, cannot dissipate thus the return from jing to qi, qi to shen, shen to nature, and nature to tao the body is a pot lower dan tien is a furnace 5 elemental qi goes in the pot yin/yang qi go in the pot yuan qi goes in the pot seal the pot lower dan tien is a furnace shen is the fire that warms the pot cook the golden pill in the pot golden fetus forms nurture the fetus birth the fetus rainbow body tao is eternal i sense that it is not the physical body which is to be preserved but the body seems an agent in the alchemical process that gives rise to what is referred to as the rainbow body/yang body/immortal kind heart, quiet heart, sincere heart... with these, every action and moment of life is practice without them all the practice of the day amounts to little more than waving ones hands in the air kind heart quiet heart sincere heart this is purely the distillation of my experiences with Zhou Ting-Jue, Wang Liping and my own ilusory self... just an opinion

stories

misery kinship addicted to the challenge who is it who wins? release sensations abide in the body now this moment is free

road trip!

This. Such a gem! This is reflected as gold truth in my experience. Thanks for sharing!

calm the mind relax the body connect to the breath release everything and just be

My experiences with intense pleasure during meditation are more distracting than pain. Deep pain is something I can tune out in many instances from familiarity with lasting states of pain. My unfamiliarity with intense, abiding states of pleasure cause this to be more distracting. But they both pass, so the point is moot in the end for me. Interestingly, both states seem to depend on the evaluation of the mind taking a position that "this is a level of sensation I deem unacceptable."

Shortly after posting the above comment, I look through the mail sitting on our table. Audubon magazine has arrived... again... odd. (We've never donated to them, nor subscribed, but I dutifully recycle them.) Here is the cover... on the heels of my prior comment it seemed worth adding. and i wonder... who sees the whole picture? who knows the solution?

nurture

Synchronicity again. Was just explaining to my son that human interference isn't always beneficial or helpful. Lately, (last few years, but particularly recently, last six months), I have been noticing situations which point out that my incessant default assumption that my human perception of, evalutation of and subsequent interference with, will be for 'the better' in the processes of nature. here's one example: Stray Momma cat has a litter of kittens and is keeping them under the foundation of a building in our neighborhood. A very loving, caring woman was constantly watching, hovering around wondering when to take them away to try and foster them out for homes... watching them throughout the day and putting food out for the Mom. Nice gal. We told her they need to be eight weeks before they can safely leave Mom. One day, the gal noticed Momma was not around and panicked thinking Mom was hit by a car, or abandoned them. So she saw that she could help the kittens and took them to the local shelter for adoption. Shelter was maxed out, but they took them and tried to find a suitable foster which didn't materialize, several kittens contracted an illness and passed quickly. The rest euthenized shortly thereafter. We have since seen Momma roaming the neighborhood. She didn't abandon her kittens, or get hit by a car. My human assumption story is that she was probably scouting for a better spot to move her litter to, that was less accessible to all the well meaning humans who kept poking their heads in to 'make sure everything was ok'. wei wu wei. The Beatles said it pretty well... 'let it be'. 'Helping' is not always helpful and the human perception of the world, is not the correct perception, nor the most valuable and beneficial. so I'm grateful for this reminder... just because I thought something and felt strongly about it, doesn't make it real, true, or even important. And doesn't mean I understand the situation fully and know the best interference to apply to bring about a better change. I need to be mindful of the stories I, as a human, tend to make in the flash of an emotional moment; based on assumption and with no real basis in anything other than projection and fear.

I'm quite familiar with his book The Root of Chinese Qi Gong, but haven't read any of his others. I appreciate his style and appreciate the manner he shares information in Root. What are you getting from your reread? Is it mostly theory or are there practical applications shared?

release

breathe

simplify

Much love roger! Would prefer it if you make this a TDG/Media fast, rather than leave outright, but I can be a selfish nugget. Either way... I sense you will Thrive Mate!

I sincerely miss Winter punching me in the face as I open my door to go outside! Going to have to travel this Winter and bring my face to that fist this year.

bump