silent thunder

For me it's mostly fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds now. My body no longer responds well to most grains, any dairy, or processed foods... sugar is still desired, but continues to fade. This has developed naturally over a period of recent years... along with the body regularly giving strong impulses that it would prefer to stay empty and I am enjoying regular 2-4 day fasts.

those rooted nomads are pesky never nomading anywhere...

it seems emptiness is the natural state yet only experienced when I stop seeking, cultivating and incessantly doing stuff emptiness is revealed by non action... abiding all along in resting clarity covered over by the noise and action of seeking and doing

I had a friend who lived on a house boat for a couple years in Minnesota. After the first year's freeze in, he realized his mistake in not inviting friends over to sleep on the opposite side of the vessel... he lived all that long winter at a slight tilt. The next year, we all took turns sleeping over on his boat during the week of the freeze, so he could live on a more even keel.

I used to go camping 'by myself' to be 'alone'... one time, about four days into my alone experience, I realized I was absolutely saturated in company. ants, birds, shrubs, grass, stones, trees, mountain lions I started laughing so hard, I could hardly catch breath... tears of joyful laughter saturating my face... I would have looked like a dirty insane man had there been any humans nearby... what I was really seeking was a bit of quiet from the noises of man and the presence of human energy fields I was never alone, even when I felt isolated. potent realization that...

well said. I find any notion of independence absurd in the extreme. resoundingly and completely absurd... independence is to me, a concept of illusion created from the very fabric of the delusion of separation a concept that is as unreal as it is inhibiting...

I've sat in a room with his holiness... abiding, saturating clarity, peace and love was my experience. there was cultivation of seeds seeds of healing, acceptance, awareness, loving kindness.

submerssion in cold, flowing mountain run off water cleanses the spirit, not just the body when we retire and leave the big city I will settle near a mountain river

I used to obsess over all the things I should be doing to improve the world and others... sometimes I still do. I'm still trying to heal and let go of the man in NYC who was choked to death for selling cigarettes on the street. and there have been over 50+ more pointless murders since then... the cascade of external sources for joy and despair are endless focusing here in life, drove me to suicidal impotence and despair on more than one occasion... thankfully this despair caused a shut down and an internal exhaustion which triggered an instinctual shift that resulted in me to looking within for the cause of such suffering when I turned within, when I was so thoroughly exhausted and no longer seeking anything anywhere something happened clarity, emptiness, light... there was a light abiding inside... underneath all the noise of seeking and judging I cultivated this light and now I realize that the real work, the only work for me, is to stop obsessing on and seeking what is wrong with everyone else and work on healing my self. If someone, or something else can be the cause of my suffering or joy, of my lack of contentment and cultivation... then I am truly a slave.

While I don't think it is a prerequisite to suffer to create great art... there does seem to be a commonality among the exquisite artists... those that seem to rise above and resonate with a broad spectrum of people... their work transcending cultural boundaries and times. These artists are not afraid to share their pain and their shortcomings. They don't hide their suffering and they don't pretend to have all their shit together, nor to disguise their frailties. this quality in an artist is very endearing... I think because it reminds us of one of the great truths in life grief decreases when we share it and love increases.

release is the very pivot of my process release all of it, everything that which does not fall away that which cannot fall away that which remains, endures is unbreakable, spotless and untaintable that which abides, is our essential nature

A fool despises the one who corrects him, but a Sage is grateful. timing... my son just repeated this saying to me right before I read your post.

small boys walking past a calm puddle and smash it with the foot see how powerful! to cause such ripples in the calm what strength it seems na? like pulling an oakling bud from the ground with naught but bare hands such power as this... I settled in and was hanging out in the presence of a grove of trees that were breathing in our atmosphere, long before the oldest tomes of man were yet to be written and it occured to me... what greater show of strength, power and endurance is there, than to simply outlast all that which comes and goes around you? All of them carried the charred remnant marks of the ligthning strikes, born of the regular passing of the Thunderheads across the range upon which they stood sentinel... breathing, swaying, undulating... days, moons, centuries... swaying, breathing. Simply abiding. Presence. Balance, sway, breath... cleansing, always cleansing. Just a year or two ago, I was working with one of my usual partner trees in the park. The energy exchange with the tree was such that the considerable wind blowing my shirt around, could not touch my open palms. All that could be felt in the palms was the magnetic resonance and the vibratory response with the tree and I realized... It sure seems like trees are perpetually playing Qi Gong, with each subtle sway in the wind. and there was this puddle as I was walking home... how I stomped on it and showed my power!

Some decades ago, I realized that for me 'the fall of man story' in the bible seems a metaphor for the descent of awareness into the very slow resonant vibratory state of physical form which is brought on by duality consciousness.

Morning Alethia... I won't say whether or not your closing will work, it may and it may not. I just worry a bit as if it doesn't work, it may leave you with excess energy in places that can be very problematic down the line... I'm not qualified to dispense anything on that... my advice would be to keep the practices simple for now and put the intention out there that you want to meet a teacher who can help you lay a really good foundation and then be open for when that inevitably manifests. One of the main purposes of the self massage/closing are to help avoid energy being stuck and building up after practice. I can definitely recommend a couple pieces of music that I find potent and beneficial. Wonderland: Gaia Dreaming by Jami Deva is like swimming in liquid light... it's music tuned to the Solfeggio Harmonics and is a $10 online download... almost exactly an hour long, I've used it for years and I play it daily. http://devaproject.com/release/ All of Deva's music is Solfeggio tuned. With my sensitivities to sound these days, this stuff is borderline orgasmic. and Nada Himalaya by the German band Deuter is another that I use regularly. Tibetan Singing Bowls with instrumental background, again about an hour uninterrupted. A really broad spectrum of vibration and resonance activator that I deeply appreciate. Transcendent. Good journeys mate!

and again, the fluidity, groundedness and flow... just blissful to watch.

The fluidity and depth of stances, specifically in the 4-5 minute range... blissful stuff.

Righteous Anger is an instinctual reaction to horrifying atrocity to me and can be an unstoppable force, yet I find in my own life it is a very rare occurance, or requirement... very rare. Gratefully so, as I don't live in war zones, or deal with hostile predators often. Far more common is the mere personal discomfort anger and self inflated suffering flare ups that occur when I start taking the world personally and when I act on anger in the moment, it is almost unilaterally unhelpful and makes matters more complicated. Where Righteous anger is a deep, instinctive reaction to encountering acts of horrifying wrongness. Anger to me, is most often a surface, petty personally projected self inflated flare up and is often not helpful to anyone, least of all me. Given this distinction. I can't and haven't even tried to inhibit or stop myself from actions involving Righteous Anger. This is unprompted action that is required by my very essence, there is not thought involved until after the events settle. But every day anger? pfft, useless for action. For petty squabbling over words, phrases, political stances and people's opinions, or getting cut off in traffic or any of the daily inconsequential occurings, anger as a response is one I cultivate silence with. Silence of physical and vocal expression. This type of anger I have steadily acknowledged but not fed in my life. Now when I flare up, I cultivate silence physically and vocally before I allow myself to interact about it... Inevitably I cool off somewhat and am grateful that I waited to approach an issue due to the reduced intensity allowing a more productive communication in dealing with the actual issue as opposed to just feeding the monster in the moment. Gurdjief claims his grandfather called him to his side, shortly before his death and said to him. "When you are angry, wait one full day before you express it. But when you are love, never hesitate for a moment. Show it."

Of all the by products of taoist cultivation... immortality has no draw for me. I have never had the innate sense that death is to be avoided or is anything other than natural. It is not frightening in the least, though the method of its passing may well be unpleasant. I just really can't resonate with the idea of this body, or its inherent perspectives, lasting indefinitely... sounds more like a curse to me.

My Qi Gong teacher heavily and very particularly emphasizes the importance of opening exercises prior to playing with Qi Gong forms and the closing self massage/stretching routine that is done afterward. The opening is a short, loose movement and stretching routine, quite short, works from the head down to the feet. While the closing/grounding is a highly detailed and comprehensive self massage from top to bottom. With a very particular order and manner of massaging each area of the face, head and body. It involves tapping, slapping, poking, sliding, rubbing, thumping, circular massaging and digging the thumbs into very specific locations around the entire body and in a very particular order. He continually emphasizes these are of paramount importance and to never skip them.

I hear you. And more often I am encountering, or noticing this same dogmatic and almost absent minded/foundational acceptance of certain information as absolute truth, in our scientific and scholastic institutions as well, not just in religious thinking. In the end, all of these institutions and their fruit and products are sourced in human perception and so carry the innate qualities and fallacies, projections reflected in them. All too often the most current understandings of science are presented, touted and accepted as 'the absolute, fully known and permanent truth'... only to find out in a dozen years, or a hundred down the line, that while it was the best understanding we had at the time, it is far from permanent, absolute truth. Reflects to me the value of living in questions and allowing answers to be fluid and unforced.

The latest responses keep reminding me of the old saying. "the Sage is in the world, but not of it." It's why I love spotless' name on the forum here.... it is a reminder that no matter what occurs, we are untouchable, untaintable, spotless while there may be discomfort, unpleasantness, or even pain... that does not imply or require that one must also be suffering. edit: spelling... always with the spelling.

It's good to hear others talking about researching and educating before using entheogens or lab created chems... I never took anything (willingly), without vetting it first and researching it first, but I'm an anal bastard and too paranoid to just jump in the river without checking for rocks and current. Then with anything new... I started with a taste... 1/4 of a regular dose to see how it reacted with my system before embarking on a full journey. And again, I'm stressing, the prep you take for the hours and the day before your journeys... mindfulness of your emotional and spiritual state prior to ingesting. Set the space, set your intention. Then open yourself to it and connect.

Welcome mate! I sure hope you stir GrandmasterP from his slumber... I love that guy! Either way, this place is brilliant...