silent thunder

Couple of pics of one of my Yeh Ming Zhu stones... these stones are incredibly potent!

Nope. None of the substances I've cultivated with have ever been used in the context of a Kundalini Awakening. However, many of the realizations that opened my awareness as Vajra came when working with entheogens and the spirits of our plant medicine brothers and sisters and are among the most potent, healing and blessed of my time in this manifestation... they are still resonating with deep gratitude in the present. edit: spelling

psilocybin and cannabis and tea have been instrumental in my healing process not the same for everyone, but must share my counter experience to the usual cultural taboo

Logged on to the Facebook thing... one of the first meme's I encountered was this one... (hums Police tune... synchronicity) “We are all visitors to this time and place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love and then we return home.” ~ Australian Aboriginal Proverb

Do not try to become anything. Do not make yourself into anything. Do not be a meditator. Do not become enlightened. When you sit, let it be. When you walk, let it be. Grasp at nothing. Resist nothing. ~ Ajahn Chah ~

bored, cynical retiree, seeks to unburden hurting heart near end of days... a tragic unfolding, unbearable to witness most of the time. healing, when offered and encountered is rebutted with self same borderline abusive judgement that first caused symptoms decades ago...

I'd put my money on the Yorke Peninsula reference being even older. Nice article... thanks for sharing.

As I have experienced it, Chakras are vortexes of energetic shift and they have pathways front and back. I'd say you experienced a potent conscious experience of the an opening up of your system.

sit under a waterfall for an hour every day for ten years...

Much Love Mate. That makes my heart smile.

I think that statement is an allusion to the concept of morphic fields and shared/stored energy of a species. I've not looked into it, but the name associated would be Susan Harper I believe.

Stretching goes so much deeper than the mere soft tissues. Hence my love affair with the far infrared sauna and deep, soft, breath based stretching all through the day, in every movement. "here we are watching what happens when the spine returns to it's fluid origins... we have to remember that bone is connective tissue and that it is filled with fluid." vibrancy and potency of fluid dynamics in bone bone began in the oceans bone health is maintained through flexibility and dexterity

ok there we go... phew... thought we'd lost you for a second there.

while I like your answer... I think it would be more in line with your usual posting if you worded it thus: to produce happiness

Something else I want to share related to joint stretching and therapy... about three years ago, I had a family member come to stay with us. They were being treated for leukemia at the time and they brought along a Far Infrared Portable Sauna + Negative Ion Generator , it was part of their personal treatment system and urged me to jump in and try it out. I had never seen one and assumed at first it was little more than clever idea, a one person space heater sauna in a reflective chamber but soon realized it is much more and so effective. I used it and was blown away by the effect on my joints and the kua. Particularly useful before Qi Gong. By my third use, I had made my purchase and my unit arrived shortly before they departed. I have used it regularly since, daily in the cold months and more sparingly in the Summer. But the effect of the far infrared on the deep joint tissue and the kua completely amazed me. It's like bathing your body in warm light from the inside out. There are three ceramic panels, two on the sides and one along the back that emit the far infrared that penetrate deeply into the soft tissue and generate negative ions. There is, as I originally suspected, a small space heater which works on a series of presets of desired heat level to get a good sweat on, but is operated independently of the ceramic panels. Using it prior to and after Qi Gong is amazingly effective. The unit I purchased was $280 on sale and worth every penny. I've been using it for three years and highly recommend them.

Wow... again! Such resonance! This thread has been such a potent source of unifying resonance in my awareness. Thank you to all who contribute and sustain!

How 'timely' Just the other day, I heard Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson talk on the radio about his very real intentions to potentially add his name to the 2020 prezz roster... From Tooth Fairy to Supreme Commander in Chief!

I don't think there can ever be one answer that is 'the truth'. My answer is 'my truth', or 'a truth' and my discovery of it it is vajra in my life. A flash of insight as potent and vibrant as a lightning bolt revealing a truth that is as hard as diamond. Unshakable and unbreakable. Peace. edit to add: and it's definitely not about only focusing on the positive, or the happy. It's about radically accepting where and what I and others are... radical release, openness. In this release there is, for me, fostered an atmosphere where connections and authentic intimacy happen naturally, effortlessly and these connections in turn, foster their own inertia. I still have dropped into some very dark holes, but I now am surrounded by connection, not intellectual, superficial ideas, but raw, potent and relentless reminders of the power and joy of my life in this place and this has acted like a counter-gravitational pull that draws me back into the expansion of life and further connection, so the bouts of darkness do not last long at all. Both cycles can be self feeding.

Well for me, the reason I have not suicided long ago, is due to connections. For me, long ago, I realized that of all the philosophy I have studied and the many arduous and painstaking reflections of philosophical concepts all boiled down to one basic philosophical question that is real... all the others to me are frosting and word salad. Should I suicide or not? Why foster this manifestation? It was a marvel to me when I heard Alan Watts agreeing with me, from a few decades earlier and how I wish I had come across him a few decades earlier... but then, perhaps the words would have bounced off and not taken root. anywho... The point of my existence is connection. Where I have made authentic, meaningful connections in life, my life has blossomed and I have thrived... My sense of self extends far beyond my mind and my body and my joy and love of life increase exponentially within the framework of the web of authentic connections. Where I have withdrawn, isolated and rejected, I have experienced the shriveling and rigidity of the way of death... and nearly checked out completely. Don't jump to the assumption here that I find anything wrong at all, in any way, with suicide. I don't. Body death is absolutely nothing to fear in my experience. While it is the natural function of the bellows of life to expand and contract. I find that our modern Western cultures heavily promote, isolationist protectionism, which is at the root of the thalmus and heart disease epidemics so often experienced. When harmed, it is natural to withdraw and heal in the cocoon of isolation, but when one fails, or is coerced to refuse to open back up and expand into the web again, then the shift from healing to dis-ease is initiated and once begun, the inertia can dominate one's mind for decades. I watched this process in my Mother. It ate her mind completely until all that was left was a body, with no connection to anyone save my sister and even this, was met with mistrust and almost constant fear. Open up. Release. Let go and simply be. When I am open and abiding in authentic presence, there is a natural magnetic pull to animals and people particularly, but even more subtly, to the essence of places and things. This pull operates much like falling in love, it is an atmosphere of acceptance that puts folks at ease and when they are comfortable, they open up... when we open up, we connect. Intimacy.... non sexual intimacy is at the core of it to me. Where I have opened up and allowed intimacy, I have fostered meaningful, deep connection and these moments are the ones that stick out in memory and are one of the sources of healing when life is hardest. We don't remember days, we remember moments. We remember moments of deep authentic presence and connection. The purpose of my life is to foster in my presence the abiding support for these connections, be it in a momentary conversation in an elevator with someone whose name I will never know, in my long term relationships with people and animals and with the vibrant living environment of the co-creational conditions of the planet my body and mind call home. Open up. Let go. Fuck fear. edit to add: the most valuable thing I can ever offer another, is my complete presence and full attention. My son taught me this. So grateful for that connection.

Stretching is of paramount importance in my life, but not the militarized, hard style kung fu/sports type stretching that is often supported in the 'no pain, no gain' school of thought. I'm of the very gentle, breath based release of tension over time, throughout the day in all activities. I practice around a dozen 'formal' poses of breath stretching before and after every qi gong form and every sitting to aid in the opening of meridians and flow. I don't stretch before or after walking meditation. But I stretch as a rule all through the day, whenever the thought occurs to me. I have also built into my repetitive work movement habits, extensions of my normal motions along with conscious breath use, to release tension in the process of the day's regular activities. This was first to help get me back to work after serious trauma resulted in my loss of the ability to walk for 2 years. Now, as I'm fully healed, it is my best form of preventative practice. I'm near 50 now and when I work, it is usually very physical in the construction of large scale scenic elements and props for film and tv. We are constantly shifting large and cumbersome objects when our bodies are cold throughout the days and our days are minimum of 10 hours long so, cold lifting and fatigue are two of the main reasons I see my brothers and sisters go down on the job. At my age I can now sit in half lotus for as many hours as my mind will tolerate it. Of late, working more and more with my lower body, which has always been stiffer for me, I can now sit in full lotus on some days, but not all. When I can't do it comfortably, I never, never push it. Pushing is punishing, is harming, in my experience... but that's just me.

The main action of my practice of late, is letting go. Of all of it. Drop it. It is mind stuff and not worth it. Let it go and just be. Let it go and be present. Unfiltered and unapologetic. Natural. All the rest, always seems to be an additional, unnecessary layer, based in and sponsored by perception based mind stuff that gets in the way of presence and being and 'real'. I can't say I've lost my desires... but I have lost my desire to punish people when I've been wronged.

To me, it is that when you are tied to being right, your experience of life is dominated by outcome and you will not experience free... When you hold a position, defend it and seek victory in social contracts, you will always be the slave of the outcome and thus, not free.

It seems much more probable that we thrived close to water and struggled far from it, since water is life.

it's all so relative.