Kajenx

Actually, my impetus is that I'd like to stop thinking of what I'm doing as mental development with a path and a goal. I'm dropping the whole concept of goals and paths and development and anything to attain or master. I'm not trying to get through the forest, or even to enjoy a walk in the forest, I've just started wandering aimlessly in the forest and I kind of like it that way. To me, the path has become a steady move away from "moving forward." So, if I stop completely and go nowhere, that isn't a big deal. I'm not too worried if I don't learn anything or develop anything. This mindset is actually what has gotten me interested in qi gong. It seems like something happens to the senses and the physical feelings when I drop everything. It's all just very open and nice, and stretching, specifically, is just great. Or even just standing there, that can be very nice too. It feels like my feet are very solid on the ground and my legs are like tree trunks.

I suppose I should say my main reasons for thinking about this. I haven't done any kind of body-based meditation or energy work type thing, but I have spent a lot of time over the last two years doing meditation and working towards a "goal of enlightenment." Something that's kind of been dawning on me is that the very idea of a goal, progress, or even "insights" or epiphanies has been a major problem for me. I've been immersed in a buddist context focused on attainments, and I realized one of my core problems (pride, conceit, arrogance) has taken over practice and turned it into something to accomplish. I've seen a lot of change in myself, but it's all been very intuitive and really has nothing to do with formal attainments or anything I can put my finger on solidly. So, I'd like to let go of all this striving and move into a totally unscripted and goal-less type of practice. Make it more into an art than a science, if that makes sense - play rather than work. The other day I was just kind of stretching and moving around after reading for a while and I noticed a lot of the same feelings that show up during a good meditation were appearing. I could feel things moving around, and the various areas of pressure I was feeling just kind of relaxed and spead out into a big "body-field." I felt very solid and grounded and loose, and when I sat back down later, it was like everything had become completely relaxed. This has happend with meditation before, but it was nice that it happened when I wasn't sitting, and I would just like to experience it on a regular basis, even if it doesn't end up anywhere.

So I'm curious if anyone has tried just doing their own thing for qi gong and had good results? Is there a good reason to follow established teachings and methods, or am I getting the same thing just by winging it? EDIT: Not to be disrespectful of any formal trainings. I'm just a "wing it" knda guy, haha...

I haven't been on here for a long time, and this is the first post I get to read when I come back, haha. Good morning (well, evening now) to you. Here's hoping you get bonked again. Thanks for the read.

High on something, for sure. It's interesting, though. There's an actual, tangible object floating out there. It's like "nowness" is a thing that you can merge with. I can get little flashes of it if I look carefully, so I've been practicing holding my attention still for a little while. It becomes very easy to step into it and just stay there after that. Everything seems more real, and I'm suddenly not rushed for time.

There is something tangible about the world. It's like this perfect thing sitting right in front of me all the time that I'm missing. Just by looking at it, I go still and lose all my problems. Anyone know what I'm talking about here, or am I just high on concentration?

Hah! This thread is classic TTB. XD

Spontaneity

The rocky path sings rumbling melodies beneath the feet, and the wind whispers sweetly in the ear. The mosquitoes bite the arms with greedy abandon, and the golden sun burns with ruthless rays. Nature is not just frameable pictures, which is why I'm glad nature made me as a god among animals. Here I sit, in the air conditioned house, in the corpses of a fallen forest - in nature - aligning pixels on a screen to communicate telepathically with lightning in a bottle and vibrations through the very depths of matter. Here I sit - in nature - unnaturally. Nature kills too many bunnies. Trees are pretty, though.

Person A was the sage in your original post, so I'm going to rewrite you account a bit and insert my view of the sage. ^^ I'm not saying this is correct, just where my opinions sit at the moment. On the first point, the sage (person A) wouldn't feel any need for help. If person B does help and makes a big deal, person A has no resentment or need for validation, so they would offer encouragement and praise. If you want to see the situation like a sage, imagine for a moment that person A is a grandmother, and person B is her 6 year old granddaughter. Does that change anything? The sage is always content, and being content makes them kind. There is no need for morality or thoughts of right and wrong. When a person finds fulfillment simply in existing, kindness is automatic and easy. Every moment is its own validation. Your third point differs from my view of the sage in that the sage is not an emotional creature. That's not to say that someone in the process of becoming a sage isn't. But once they have become a sage, the situation would not cause them to judge person B by comparing person B to themself. Person A isn't just happier, they are perfectly content. Person A wouldn't have any trace of resentment.

"A life lacking in purpose" is another way of saying "a life with no desires". Purpose drives us towards greater contentment. A person who is always content has no need for purpose or desires or hobbies or even friends. A person like this happens to be the easiest person to be friends with, though, because they will never resent your presence in their life, and they won't cling if you decide to leave. They are more likely to live what people might call "a life of purpose" because there is nothing they would consider a failure. The "not making any decisions" part is what wu wei is referring to. I think the sage acts out of the intuitive curiosity that is present when something is seen as new. Everything is always seen as new, so everything is interesting. It's not interesting because of where it will lead, it's interesting because of what's hapening right now. This is my opinion, of course, but I see the mystical process as a gradual degradation of the link between the emotional center and the mental "shorhand" we've developed over time to create our judgements and opinions. When this link is gone, the mind doesn't "feel" opinions, it simply knows they exist. When opinions aren't felt, most of them are seen for what they are - useless. The sage will still run away from a rabid dog, and they'll still feed themself and maybe even have a hobby. But if their house burns down and destroys their life's work, it wouldn't affect them emotionally. To be a sage is to be content.

Does "the veil dropped" sound accurate?

Haha, am I? I was actually trying to be careful with my post.

Interesting! I didn't know Confucianism was mystical in any way. I thought it was basically a moral/ethical system. I'll have to read this. :3 EDIT: Ah, I see that you mentioned this in your first post. I'll take a look anyway, haha.

Do you have goals with your practice? If yes, what are they? If no, why are you practicing? I'm really curious after the "Mastering the Emotions" thread because I got the impression that emotions weren't all that important to a lot of you guys. I'm pretty single minded these days. I don't have much interest in truth or immortality or the various forms of magic. I'm even pretty selfish in that I don't really worry about the fate of humanity anymore. I mean, I really did think about these things quite a lot in the past, but somewhere along the way I started dropping things off. Maybe I found the answers I was looking for? Hard to say. Now I'm basically down to, "I want to be perfectly content. Always. No exceptions."