Birch

I dunno about this one. Does sound something like a state I went through for a week or so but thankfully I came back. Which I think, is the point. You come back from all of that in order to be able to do something with it. Otherwise? Pointless IME/IMO. Now this is not to disparage and I hope that you have courage that integration into life is possible. But it does seem like you could benefit from taking a more active role in your experiences. of course if you don't want to, you're entirely free to do so. That's the point.

Wow, that was an impressive video. Tao's free stuff on Umaa Tantra is very good IMO.

I liked that. I haven't met my soul very often but she does seem to let me know when I ought to be doing something else. Or getting out of Idaho. She's currently allowing me some R&R.

Yes, this one I 'got' on the second watch. Why? I was looking at the stopped traffic and the people crossing calmly in front. The cleanly flowing through - traffic. Nothing in there showed any signs of alarm. All was as it should be...until I watched it a second time. Wow.

Thanks Phore. 'This ultimately results in a series of existential cisis.' Yeah, I'd noticed

Hi Craig! Yep and yep and yep and yep. Thanks. I guess I answered some of the question in my response to Phore. Definitely a case to be made for forms vs 'formless' - by which I do mean 'unorthodox'. Seems like orthodoxy isn't my strong suit.

I have to confess to not knowing my channels No idea where the 'shiatsu' channels are. I do 'know' that I'm current running two mirror paths that can take any number of routes. They include limbs, upper body and both sides of the brain. I know people said not to 'do' it but I both am and I'm not 'doing' it. In other words when I put my attention on where the orbits 'might' be at any given moment then that's where I find them, then I can sort of catch them and run with them for a while. But the rest of the time in meditation, I leave pretty much alone and just do emptiness meditation, mindfulness the rest of the time. But the latter doesn't involve orbits. It's getting pretty rare that I do stuff 'intentionally' - unless I'm looking to use a specific mindset/approach to thinking. I went into the idea of 'non-conventional' ways of thinking in another thread.

IME the secret smile was like bait for the nasties. Used it to bring them out of the depths to experience and rid myself of. It also made me realise just how unhappy I'd been for a long time. Oh I was diligent and concentrated and got stuff done and was of great service to others but no joy in any of it. No fun. Facing into pain and going though it seems like the right path for me. And there are still others. Thankfully many of the harsher storms have passed for the moment Oh, and I also got rid of a few exacerbating 'conditions'

Fun for who? So why do so many people seem to be getting taught the turbo-charged stuff if it's not useful at their age? Is this a symptom of our own "sexed-up" culture (which I happen to find repressive for some reason but I digress), something else?

Thanks for that Mr GIH. I dunno, but it looks like there's something going on with the definition of jing.

Yes, I agree! I don't want to get enlightened. I just want to enjoy things

I'm studying ganying in a haphazard way (seems to be my way :-)) Anyway, I'd akin my current understanding of it more to 'triangulation' so perhaps I'm barking up the wrong tree. The way I tell it to myself (so far) is that if 'something' is the case (never forgetting the other aspects of it - which are dynamic and networked, as usual :-)) then signs of it will be all over the place, and not necessarily in places that one might have thought to look at off the top of it. It's a more complicated model of causality, I figure :-) And following on from my other rambling post about yin/yang and red. It occurred to me that the problem is not so often what we think, but how we think. And that 'non-conventional' ways of thinking are ways of understanding things you can't understand any other way (if you've been properly 'educated' that is ) I'm not suggesting any way of thinking is more 'real' than another (well, actually, I am ) Rather that certain types of thinking have better relationships with reality than others. What's a "better" relationship with reality? One that does not destroy you or it in the process

The horses are yin/yang. Well, I see them that way anyway :-) I love horses and fear them as well. I changed my name because I changed a lot of things. My name previous name did start with a K but I thought I'd overposted about K-stuff under it so I figured I'd just drop it down to one letter.I was thinking of changing it again but then I figured that people probably had an idea of me already and would just keep using the old ones whenever I do change it. I guess this is a reflection of 'real life' too. People get stuck on things. Calling myself by different names doesn't seem to change anything but names I call things sort of do. The 'saying' under the av is a sort of a giving up. It's pretty much the only thing I CAN do.

Hahaha, that was a fun one :-) Thank you! What I ran into with it was an immediate tendency to want to stick yin/yang over the top of some other explanations of how 'red' might appear. That's a problem with theories IMO/IME because it's hard to keep them 'pure' unless one is very disciplined, which I'm not, but anyway :-) As I attempted to go ahead and apply yin/yang anyway. It all started spinning. This reminds me that yin/yang is dynamic and moving, not a 'thing'. And as it moved - it grew as big as to encompass all systems everywhere and then shrank again as the system I was considering became bounded. (Now I realise this is probably not satisfactory to you, but I was doing my best :-)) So the short answer is 'red' is the potential across the entire system and all parts of the system include the 'parts' that allow 'red' to appear. So no, it's not just 'in your mind' or in your own visual perception, it's also elsewhere. I'd could give example of where else but I'd run into the same problem and then you'd accuse me of cherrypicking. So that's as far as I got. However, what was really interesting IMO/IME with this is how the application of one theory (which is purported as universal) brings up theories I didn't even know I knew. That was strange. And the spinning thing too :-)

What do you mean "where"?

Hi Aaron, Sorry to hear you're having a rough ride. I don't know if it helps but I also went through some financial woes a while back. The anxiety was such that I thought it would never end. But it does. And you can help it along by not feeding into that dark stuff. Not only is it painful, but totally impractical if you want to be getting stuff done. I don't know why, over and above what happens, we sometimes insist on dwelling on it. I still do stuff like that and I can't figure out why I'd want to. So I'm learning to cut it off when I notice it. The metaphysical BS might just help you rationalize enough to move on - unless you get bogged into ideas of deserving and karma. I figure you can look back at those ideas once you've dealt with the issues at hand. Sure there's probably stuff that could be done differently, but until it happens, well, you just don't know (this is IME) otherwise you wouldn't be where you're at. No fault for learning. And I know it's spiritually 'incorrect' but you're not alone in such times. So I guess there's stock to be taken in just how much is down to you and what is down to other things. Some folks might say to take 100% responsability, but I think that often gets confused with 'blame'. The 'response' is the only thing you take for yourself. And I agree, a TTB's vacation when life calls is a good idea Good luck and force to you

"OK, so if the gray color is not a mix of yin and yang, then would you say the theory of yin and yang cannot explain the appearance of a gray color? If it can, then how does the theory of yin and yang explain something like color gray?" Depends where you apply the theory:-) If you apply it to your visual perception that's one way, if you apply it to your own confusion of how grey could possibly be 'a colour' when it's 'obviously' a mix of black and white (is it?) that's another one. I'm sure there are lots of other applications. Which is why I dig yin/yang :-) And wuxing (sp?) and ganying and all that stuff.

Oh no. That's not at all what I meant. Besides, I don't see how becoming un-dependent on anyone else implies you don't care for them. I suggest the opposite. I don't think that caring for oneself implies you don't care for anyone else. I happen to be very interested in this one I don't think I was implying 'using' people either. If you don't depend on them for your needs then you won't 'use' them IME. As to their needs, well, are you suggesting that the only way those could get met is through dependence on 'you'? Wow, that's some impressive self-image Unless you're talking actual dependence, like with children or something? I guess if someone came along and said, 'ack, I have this food dependence, I'm fat but I don't want to stop eating bad food' then no-one would have a problem with the suggestion to stop, or eat healthier. But because it's 'love' we can't say stuff like that? I say it's not 'love' that we're talking about in Non's case (in a round-about way it is, but I digress :-))

Thanks Creation! Mark's stuff is really interesting :-)

Alright. It's about time for another "what is 'shaktipat'?' thread I still don't know what it is. I had some ideas a while back but they've sort of disappeared. Anyway. back to Dmatt. And on topic Yeah, sounds like there's some stray unexamined ideas about 'pals' running. There's also a lot of ambient BS about that stuff too:-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKP8nset6oA&feature=related

Hey Mr GIH " I don't think he needs to come to where I live to sign books. Folks are pretty un-religious where I'm at. So it wouldn't be a huge deal. Of course they have other mindsets but I doubt that Sam Harris' books are that obviously transcendent. Not having read any :-) of course

What's so bad about it? I was pondering this stuff of Non's (yes I spent some time on a walk to the store and I thought about it...) and I figured how exhausting it must be for him. A real energy drain. Plus all that time he has to spend digging up evidence to show everyone. So yes, I figured that Non might be overly dependent on all this stuff to the point of detriment. So my suggestion to him was to just give up his dependency. I don't think it's more nor less than what we were discussing in the thread about acknowledgement or approval (I think the word was). I don't believe that someone who resolves these issues will be anything other than kind to anyone. To the contrary

"the thing has no inherent is-ness, it just just that which is defined by a boundary. Same for the self." I agree with you Steve and I reckon that nevertheless, such boundaries are important. Why they're important? Well, without them, you'd become all that is. Or at the very least, not yourself:-) But I'm not sure whether you'd be conscious of it - if you were all that is. So to be conscious, don't you need something else, or some things else? And if you have them, why attempt to stop having them? Ok, off on a ramble with this one...whoops.

What ?

I figure they're needed to introduce a strain on the system. Without which you won't notice whatever you're holding. You just continue to hold. I guess it's the opposite of a relaxation "effort"?