silent thunder

so... yea, it's like this tonight...

I miss it so much, I'm considering taking a trip to experience it again. Longest/worst drought in CA history... I'd give a week's pay to have one long ass thunderstorm roll through.

The style I play with is from Wu Dang and I would estimate 70% of the forms use RAB, the rest is standard and they alternate. When engaging in RAB, I sense a noticeable increase in flow of Qi to the extremities, which absorbs during the relaxation phases.

Just saw Jade Warrior and it was awesome! It's available from netflix on dvd by mail.

Kind Heart Quiet Heart Sincere Heart These three are the foundation of the Wu Dang form I practice/play. These are the foundation for everything else that comes from the play. Health, clarity, compassion, joy, contentment... all stems from these.

Echoing This!

I feel Lao would resist the title of anarchist while quietly embodying its core principles. Perhaps through necessity, a bit like living in the closet in a homo-phobic culture. Self preservation.

I flew up to Oregon for the first time recently to help a friend move to LA. The moment I got off the plane and drew a breath, my entire being lit up! I haven't tasted air like that except up in Canada and nothing so near a city albeit a small one. The forests up there are special.

I had a similar experience in my teens while living in a christian paradigm. The intensity of my desire to heal a friend in prayer, brought on a state where mind shut down and all that was, was the focus of the prayer. After some time, my mind returned and I remember being startled to hear the following words flowing from my own mouth, my eyes still closed and me still rocking back and forth gently. Mahlum Kahshem, mahlum kahshem, mahlum kashem leh hayem elli mahktoo billibous... In the paradigm I was raised with it was known as speaking in tongues. In my experience it was a very comfortable, natural response to the intensity of the vibrations occupied by my intentional mind and body. I didn't get any sense of being used as a receiver to transmit anything, or that anything was being communicated through me from another source, it was just the natural expression of what was happening in my being.

Well said.

So this came across my path and I immediately thought of my favorite digital anarchist Marblehead... digital in that's the only way I've experienced him at any rate... I've never heard that quote before and it hit me pretty squarely in that anarchy is perhaps the most honest expression of taoist political potential. Life naturally flows and settles into balance without direction or interference. Anarchy as wu wei.

Thanks for the update on Penaten contents... somethings have been around so long, I just forget to think of content. It was like that with my toothpaste and body soaps. After getting serious about healthy living and eating well, it months before I thought to look into better options for my teeth and skin/hair. So thanks again, going to take a look at the cupboard with new eyes.

Geometry is where it's at for me... when I think in terms of source energy, which is as close as I can come to saying God, I see stuff like this... I see images along this theme oscillating and spiraling inward and outward whenever I close my eyes for any extended period of time...

Penaten cream is amazing for any topical skin issues as well. It's a german product though, not sure of its availability where you are...

I think one of the main reasons for the crazy over the top responses in general is lack of a real teacher or a guided direction to their practice. With a closed system and no access to a live teacher, it's like a rudderless ship. You might have amazing instincts and go far, but how many Bruce Lees do we see in a generation and then that's a bad example as Bruce had amazing teachers guiding him. Books will generate something, but a little knowledge can be a very dangerous thing. When lack of understanding pervades a practice, imbalance, jealousy, supposition, assumption, it's all just around the corner, because there is no where to turn to have real questions answered. The consistent over the top confidence that theirs is the only real practice in my opinion stems from a lack of confidence in ever being able to get to the more refined teachings as these are not transmitted via a pdf or book. Fortunately, even here there is at least one exception among those who follow this system, so in the end, it's just another path, albeit an extremely challenging one due to the lack of support from the lineage.

Find a good TCM doctor, then find a good teacher and pursue your practice under their guidance.

This is seriously awesome stuff. I found the article he mentions, reading it now... Thanks for posting.

This is a follow up to the previous question: How do you reconcile the challenging feelings generated when dealing with the harsher elements of human nature and life's ailments? Another way to put it is what do you do to recharge the heart when it has been challenged?

No matter the road, they all lead to source.

pic removed to make room to post more...

Very nice. Welcome! Lurk for sure, but I hope you share as well, eloquent indeed.

Good to see ya.

Just remembered a freaky odd find... while sitting on a beach covered in rounded stones in Palos Verdes California, I looked down to my right and found what appeared to be, a half dozen human vertebrae and some finger bones settled in among the stones in the low tide line. They'd been stripped clean of all flesh and were bleached white. I sat there for a while wondering if I should alert authorities to possibly ID an old drowning or boating victim. However, I found enough finger bones that I realized it would have to be two people's remains and that seemed unlikely, since it was just a few vertebrae and finger bones, nothing else. Then I remembered that sea lions have basically the same size and shaped fingers in their flippers that we have in our hands and the reality settled in that I had the remains of a sea lion. So I took them home and boiled them soundly for an hour or so. My wife walked in the door and said.... "Are you making me Seafood? Something smells great!" I planned to carve a set of runes out of them, but never found a consistent way to do it, so eventually returned them to the ocean.

I like this method... using the inertia of the tension to expand the release cycle.

Ya, my find was in 1979 or so, in suburban Minnesota, that might have been the entire winter stash for some dude... suffice to say, if my college self had found it, the calls made would have been to some friends...