silent thunder

If you look for the 'perfect' partner, in my opinion you will search and search. We all have faults. There is a balance to be certain, not all faults will be tenable in all relationships... however. My wife and I are mirrors for each other. We reflect back to each other, what is being 'put out there' by actions/reactions/emotional states etc... In this way, we have an invaluable tool to gauge how we are behaving that might be impossible alone. In our acceptance of each others' short comings and flaws, in our commitment to love and work together, we heal the sources of the underlying causes of pain body/hurtful/unthinking actions and grow deeper in respect and love. I think the most important thing to find/look for in a partner, is a desire to care for, show love and share life... all of it.

In my experience the dan tiens work like generative fields. Similar to this picture of the magnetic field generated by the heart. As for filling it, the field can gain in density, which would equate to filling up for me, but it is in constant flux as energy flows into and out of the field according to natural function, with the forces of attention, emotion, natural 'external' conditions, affecting its density and size.

After practice today I'd say, it's not filling, so much as it's releasing through the thresh-hold/resistance factor yielded by my current level of tension vs relaxation.

Oh! Missed that point entirely In that case, what a bugger... I guess there's the route of 'grin and bear it' until the right fit comes along. Most of these situations being discussed recently in the thread are pretty situation specific and represent a small percentage of actual people and relationships in my experience. I acknowledge to have been surrounded by spiritually elevated, intelligent, aware women most of my adult life. I have hung out mainly with artists this time around. Perhaps that has something to do with it...

No should. Attraction happens very naturally. Odd concept to me.

Tim Curry rocks! Although my wife is into bald white guys.... Which just happens to be awesome in my case as I shave my head

I find they are drawn to older partners...

I find the title change very appropriate. lol BKA

I lived in a polyphasic sleep pattern back when I was attending University in my early 20's. Did it for several years, taking the summers off as I had more time and slept more 'normally'. I graduated with honors, found married and stayed with my wife and performed in dozens of professional stage productions. My wife, does not function well on less than eight hours of sleep. She's been that way the last 25 years I've known her and shared her bed. Sleep patterns are individual and sleep deprivation is one of the simplest, and most direct ways to achieve an altered state of perception, aside from breath control/sublimation/retention... Stop the fear mongering Isi, it's just consciousness...

Well stated. That's a fine explanation, unless of course someone were purposely refusing to acknowledge it... One of the easiest and lowest vibrational practices to engage in, is purposely poo-pooing things outside your frame of comfort and experience. This dampens the heart field and reduces energy flow adding to blockages, it's another form of hard-core training that leads to all manner of health challenges and social discomfort... Eventually the system will respond and force you to reevaluate methods or health and relationships will suffer. We can break the laws of man all day, as they are mere ideas. We break ourselves on the laws of energy which are foundational and not optional.

Interesting. I have no formal exposure to any systems of Magick, but have read a bit.

Yea I'd be interested in hearing more about this as well. Since my return to formal practice several years ago, I get more action and sensation in the mdt than the lower. Lower was active minimally for a few weeks, then the middle seemed to light up after my yongchuan points opened up, with magnetic resonance and very pleasant vibrations. It's been this way since... Every once in a while there will be some sensations in the ldt, but the majority of my sensations come in other areas of the body, predominately the mdt, mingmen, hands, feet, face, temples, skin surface, under the skin. Everywhere but the ldt basically In any event, I continue with Form I daily, still focused on the ldt and the mdt lights up almost immediately and will hum softly for a few minutes until it settles down. I don't chase sensations, but keep a hand written journal which is one of the best ideas my teacher gave to me, being able to go back and consult in detail things that were happening years ago is invaluable. I then move on to Form II which is MCO and energy running through various circuits. I get the sense from what I've read and from my own experience that once the ldt is expanded and flowing/rotating well, the rest of the body begins to receive the increased flow automatically, so this has led to the mdt sensations as either blockage is released, (there have been some very strong emotional releases and realizations in the area of old emotional issues that has resulted in the heart chakra opening up some of late), or the mdt is expanding and increasing its flow/rotation. Hard to say, I just know that I'm experiencing greater health and releasing old garbage, so I continue...

Some cats are just wired that way... I had a cat, whose name was Bodha and he went camping and hiking with us frequently. Sometimes on a harness but frequently just on his own, walking along with us as we'd hike. After some time, usually because the ground was messing with his feet, he'd start to bitch, so I'd put him in my hoodie. While he didn't love his harness, he understood there were some places where it was wear it or don't come along and he was ok with that and never fought it. He also loved to go up on the rooftops of the Brownstones in Brooklyn when we lived there. I'd say 'rooftop buddy!' and he'd come over and I'd set him on my shoulder as we'd climb up the fire escape. He could open doors and would turn lights on and off to suit his needs. He lived to 23, what a great friend.

Palpable power really sums up my first experience getting off the plane in NYC. It hit me like a wave and the waves just kept coming. My wife and I lived there for seven years. Had more than a few exceptional experiences there...

I experienced something while living in NYC that falls into the 'time bubble' category of strangeness. I was walking south through Manhattan one Fall afternoon, past city hall on my way to the Brooklyn Bridge. In the area in front of City Hall there is quite a bit of open space where the natural rolling hills hadn't been scraped, developed and covered with buildings, suddenly in the middle of walking and for a couple steps I was standing in pre-modern NYC and staring around me at the rolling hills covered in trees changing colors! Full hallucination, audio, olfactory, complete reality shift for about 5 breaths. No buildings, couple of walking paths, and trees in full fall colors slowly shedding leaves. I blinked and was surrounded by the 'now' again.

This rings very true in my experience. People who are really passionate about something and acquire skill in it are quite attractive. Big time.

With things of this nature, I get pretty pissy when they remain all diaphanous and abstract... I really strive for something concrete that I can use daily, moment by moment to bring it into action in the now. Here's a game I've come up with for the remain silent portion of my list. Pythagorus' quote: Remain silent or say something better than silence, rang my bell pretty hard some time back and I've spent a fair amount of time sitting with this idea over the last two years. Recently this sitting brought forth a powerful realization about the impact of thoughts on my 'identity' and more importantly on the quality of my experience of life. Sitting with this distilled into an understanding that allows me to consciously put into practice in a very simple way, something I take as the core meaning of this teaching. Words are vibration. Vibration affects all things. Choose my words with greater care. The game is simple: Don't give in to the compulsion to endlessly discuss something I judge to be wrong, bad, fucked up, stupid, insipid, pedantic, childish, lame, harsh, evil... take note of it, but don't wallow in it, don't feed it. I would rather create conscious use of my words as a form of power to affect my life directly, in the now to express joy about that which I most love, cherish, admire, wish to emulate, hope for and dream about. Here's where the game part comes in... to help me remain mindful... I've taken to wearing a string of twelve small silver tonga bells around my neck like some European work horse; their soft tone at each small movement, reminding me to stay mindful of thoughts and words... that and I freaking jingle and it's kind of awesome to have a jingling, positive vibe viking walking around the world...

I had this experience returning to formal instruction in Nei Gong and Qi Gong. Several things that were 'revealed' to me, I'd been doing instinctively for years... Intuition and being open to going with impulses. No doubt they would have tried to pump you full of something to kill the effect. Well meaning, but clueless. Stay grounded and enjoy the ride!

I've never really asked anyone on a date. For me, the two women who really ignited love in me, there was no formal dating. Met my high school sweetheart while working on a show and we just started 'hanging out', one evening hanging out turned into my first love and lasted through high school. Met my wife the same way, on stage. When we met some 25 years ago and there was no choice. No asking out, no pursuit, by either of us. The attraction was so strong and intense, it was inescapable even when I refused to act on it for months. I was not interested in relationships at all then, wanted to focus on performance and studies. Pffft, just being around her took all choice away, within 3 months of spending time talking and hanging out, I knew I could spend my life with her. Years later, I asked her what her reaction was, the first time I kissed her... (months after we started hanging out daily). 'FINALLY!' lol If the attraction is there, the books, flowers, hell even bathing become accoutrements... lol

Well if the dog was this human, I'd step back out into the rain. Pluviophile through and through, no umbrellas for me. (wanders off muttering about free life falling from heaven unregulated....)

That is just so appropriately oddly strange n funny...

Any purpose I can discern of late, is to: 1) Be 2) Love These two seem to co-arise...

Conditioning the vessel for enhanced bandwidth... Such a beautiful analogy, I love this!

or as a full gyroscope

Relaxation allows for valves to open wider and channels to expand further. I can see feeling this and defining it as 'filling up' as the reservoirs and channels expand and flow through them increases. For me, it's not being full, so much as it's releasing constricting tension and opening up.