Birch

Thanks 3Bob and starjumper. Yeah, it really was terrible for a long time! And it's so widespread too. I have heard stories about mothers that would make anyone weep. Anyway, what's good IMO is that practices do work, but not IMO because they "magically" make any of what occurred disappear or allow numb detachment, but rather because they help you get a foundation from where you can finally look at this stuff for what it is without getting overwhelmed.

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Great post. And I especially liked this part. "Of course there's this new age idea that it's all our own doing, that we "choose" our parents, "choose" our circumstances in advance, and are born into this or that set-up as an act of free will. Doesn't account for 9 out of 10 spontaneous abortions of course, but new age paradigms are seldom bothered by facts."

What's "a moment"? I thought that a "second" was the "time" it takes for some radioactive or other product to degrade by some measure or other. And don't get me started on centimetres or any other abstract "standard" measurement, those things can kill Weren't the yugas measured in breaths?

I dunno. I know how mine sees me. Something she didn't really want but figured she had to do to keep up with the Joneses. Something that ultimately made her fat, took up far too much time and attention. Didn't turn out like she wanted, didn't go to the "right" schools, didn't do things like "everyone else's daughter" and really hasn't been of any particular use so far, nor will it be in her old age? Thanks to practice, I don't care anymore, but boy, did I care for a long time So, no, no using the "great mother" archetypes on me

Thanks for the nice compliments The last part, well, I wasn't so taken. I'll bet you were trying to show me out to be hopelessly naive with my last statement. I think I should clarify. What I mean is that it's pointless IMO to offer up new theories unless they lead to something worthwhile. As in, perhaps, healthier people, less social inequality, you know, that kind of naive BS

Happened to me too, on a dancefloor with neat "strobing" effects where everything slowed way down so I could almost see things unfolding "frame by frame" but then I mentally remarked "wow cool" and it all sped back up again instantly. No drugs involved. But that time and some others did play with my sense of what time is.

It's a great topic! And it reminds me of "genetics" and the various theories around that. How not all environments will lead to the expression of a given "gene." There's a idea such that whatever the stars' configuration, it reflects a set of circumstances on Earth and in a person as the latter is dependent on the Earth's environment and whatever influences that's under. So it's about things being "simultaneous." The prediction comes because we can predict the stars' positions and so read the "simultaneity" ahead. Why this would have more influence at birth (I wonder why the entire conception to birth period isn't mentioned, or maybe it is in some applications but they don't explain it?) would seem to me to be because it's during that time that your environment actually shapes your nervous system and physical body more than any other time in your life. So if you are born in a dark winter, you'll have a different amount of daylight to nourish you, you may be wrapped up tightly so you can't move and your mother may have been eating different foods (perhaps richer, more sugary) than someone born midsummer so what you eat will be different too. Of course, with artificial lighting and heating and air con, canned baby milk and food and all that stuff, I wonder...

"1) Kate seemed to have a problem with my humans as cancer statement." Yes I did! I don't know how the earth sees humans, and whether s/he sees them all quite the same at that I hope not, just for my own benefit. I went to see the website and it was really well written but I couldn't find any of the theory's tools or methods so I could try it out for myself so I could come to my own conclusions. But, apparently, everything I do (including typing this reply, better make it quick to avoid overtaxing those powerstations, hurting the air with the resulting wi-fi signal, and wasting the people's eyeballs and their posture from overeating yesterday's pizza) feeds into this theory. So I don't have to "do" anything to prove it to myself. More importantly, can anything be done to reverse this process? So is it (another) one of those "better party before it all ends" proposals? Seems like the "End of days" with a new dress on.

Agreements require good faith on all parties, otherwise they're worth nothing. Especially when it comes to philosophy

"why engage in any argument with the Buddhists or the Taliban or the Tennessee Snake Handling Christian fundamentalists for that matter? It is just all the same absolutist pie in the sky snake oil bait for weak egos to control." Well, because I think it's important to go through one's own process with things. Try and fail. When it comes to buddhism, it failed for me in many respects (as a cosmology), but not in others (some practices). So what about wholly accepting a "scientific" explanation (especially one that treats humans like "cancer" )? Well until I've done the same with it (try and fail) it would be just as stupid on my part to accept a "scientific" fundamentalism as a "religious" fundamentalism. Ironically, at one point in "history" in many world cultures, both of the latter were confounded? Today? I'm not sure. What I am more and more sure of is that this incessant arguing about both our origins and our futures is doing more harm than good in the present to more people than necessary. There is indeed a "war in heaven." Now if it stayed there, that would be fine with me, but it doesn't. It has tangible effects on our earth and the people who live there. And that pisses me off.

Hey qi-gong experts :-) I've been fiddling (as usual) with qi-gong and started to wonder if it would be a "good" - as in "healthy" thing to do if I continued doing the following: - "pulsing the middle of my brain" - which is exactly what it sounds like - running "qi" up and down the middle of my spinal column - which is also exactly what it sounds like I found MCO had very definite effects on lower body "strength" and awareness for me but I find I'm kind of "wimpy" above the solar plexus. I also "should" be working on my legs but for some reason it's a horrible crawly sensation I end up with, so I've been waffling around with other bits. What do you reckon?

Good question! Did you try it and have adverse effects?

"in some situations it is ok to express anger/assertiveness (like when someone is trying to take advantage of you)." Bingo!

I was still mulling over my aversion to buddhism. Didn't help that VJ started in with this "you" stuff again. Well, I think I've found something that helps me understand why I don't like it. I think it's just because you can't argue with a buddhist or with buddhism because it will use your argument for your own aversion as proof of its own logic. Which is IMO, really sneaky.

There's nothing wrong with anger when properly directed at legitimate, um, "levels" of expression in legitimate situations. However, if the douches are provoking you in a way that is incommensurate with what you're feeling, OR if it would be smarter to keep a lid on it (say, to keep your job until you want to throw it in), yup I'd point to the childhood thing too. Funny (not) how that shit keeps coming up, but anyway...So maybe, just maybe this is a thankful opportunity to rid yourself of the excess. Or as another poster suggested, let it pump you up. I liked that one. I don't agree that getting a gong for your table is a good idea. Although "territory" should IMO be marked in some way. Maybe TaoMeow has some less obvious Feng Shui things. As could learning to throw the boys some steak from time to time. A witticism can be mightier than the sword (I say) but you obviously can't do that until you get your "level" down to where it's bearable for you (and not "over the top" from their POV) I thought you might like this http://www.thedoucheguide.com/ Who said meditation was for wusses?

More and more interesting replies. Thank you! I can figure why a "progression" might be suggested. Although that notion itself seems IMO a bit "off" - given the nature of what one is working with. Kind of what Little1 1 was referring to and it also reminded me of TaoMeow's post about dancing. When it runs by itself I don't bother with symmetry (unless the physical/emotional/symbolic part is the symmetrical counterpoint...just thinking aloud). However, when you mull it over, you might also consider that wherever your energy happens to be focused on in the body, probably also has its correlates all over the brain and nervous-system. So "technically" wouldn't one be "inside" the brain as much as anywhere else? Maybe not, I guess that's the point I'm not particularly interested in the freaky-sounding side effects. I know it sounds alarmist, but I doubt that Ya Mu would suggest to back off unless he'd had experience with it. Which I'm almost sure he has. However, I'd like some other experts to chime in. I know there's a bunch on this board. Just to provoke somewhat, but hopefully in a way that everyone benefits from, instead of saying "get a teacher" for queries it would be refreshing (for me at least) to read some "I don't know"s if that's the truth. Or maybe, "I tried it and was fine but my student did it and here's why it messed him/her up and didn't for me". I know some people on this board get paid as teachers but I don't think it would be detrimental to their business if they answered a technical question. Maybe to the contrary, it might show off a level of mastery that would bring in some students.

Wait a minute (slaps forehead) VJ is his own dependently orginating zebedee! No offense VJ. I loved "Magic Roundabout" Joking aside. I want to ask a "technical" question or 2 about DO. Is it a "this then this then this" kind of thing? Or all all the "things" just dependent upon one "other" thing to arise? And if so, what is this "thing" that the other things depend on? How does this shore up (or not) with the 10,000 "things".

Thanks for the replies folks. RV, I've been finding that I don't actually need therapythanks to practice. I guess it's become its own "therapy" I think I just need to dig in for myself and find out which parts of my beliefs and behviours are insane (i.e. "misaligned" with reality or desire - whatever that happens to be at the moment it "happens") and which parts of them are sane (i.e. "aligned" with reality" or desire that very same moment). Now I understand that this personal perspective is only ever going to be that (which is why it's worth sharing stuff on TTB's for example, so I can get to see the other sides ) but frankly, how much does that really matter? I guess it matters a lot! Think of where it leads you when you are in conversation with other people or even other countries about this "what's going on" stuff. Think of the harm that can be caused with this "what's going on" stuff. No matter "we" (or rather, those who came before) have set it up to "go on" that way in the first place. Pity the poor children who "arrive" and get told "what's going on" before they can even keep their eyes open for more than 10 minutes. (Can you imagine getting off a plane in a foreign country with massive jetlag, your eyes barely open and having yourself physically taken over but very big "foreigners" who have decided that you are "theirs" for as long as it takes you to escape ) And the people keep getting told "what's going on" over and over again for years until they get to a point where it makes absolutely no sense at all. This is IMO the "waking up" point. OR they can't bear that it makes no sense so they will dumb themselves down to that fact by any means possible - including "spiritual" seeking and practice. Thankfully (for who?) there's enough content in most traditions to keep people busy for many years... I guess the "upside" of having this "what's going on" defined for us is that it makes talking about the "what's going on" stuff a relatively easy process because inside it, consciousness is "cultivated" into a particular system of understanding. I guess the "downside" is that people forget all the time that it's just for convenience of communication. (The other question might be "whose convenience"?) Plus they get annoyed when someone comes along and wants to commnicate something different from what they're used to. Especially if that involves the "is" word or causality. Sigh. I "get" the dude Vortex posted about saying "nothing is being done" and I'd even sometimes go as far as saying "nothing is happening" either, but it still is and I take a delight in much of it. But still, there's a bunch of terrible stuff going on as well. Insane stuff. Can one deny that? I'd consider myself half-awake on occasion. It would seem becoming "awake" never "solved" any of it on a global scale, so why bother? Vortex's dude seems to have decided "not to bother" either.

Thanks Craig! It originates from just "letting it happen" meditation (I don't know what the technique is called) - associated with belly breathing. When it happens, then I wonder about intentionally "doing" it. As if there might be a benefit of some kind. Like MCO has tangible physical benefits. Like "dissolving" has tangible emotional/mental benefits. That kind of thing. It happens quite a lot and what I do as a result is very variable. I guess it sort of depends on what it seems to be. In some cases I'll "move" from just letting whatever it is come up to active dissolving or simply "going there" with my awareness - if the feeling is that I feel like "backing off" I may actively "go there" and invite it to play itself out. The "goal" is really to release all of the "stuck" stuff. I don't know the name for that either. "Mental hygiene"?

Synchronicity hits again ;-) I watched that Eygptian series on Google yesterday and there was a nice part about exactly this. Now, whether the person speaking a word is aware of its meaning or not is another question I ponder. Do the words hold intention in and of themselves? I think they might, although I've also experienced the contrary where a "negatively-intentioned" message has been transmitted through perfectly "ok-looking" words. But at that point, I need to also wonder if it's not just me who is reacting badly to the words (and/or the person who spoke them). Whereas a "vibe is a vibe" and you can't mistake a "good one" for a "bad one" (or a "pointy one" for that matter, but I digress...)

Thanks for all the replies. If I said that it's because that's where "it wants" to go, would I sound like a nutcase? Oh wait, I already do, most of the time It's all sort of a spontaneous thing, but given that jumping off the top of a large building could also be deemed "a spontaneous thing" I wanted to get some feedback on potential risks from people who have experience doing "controlled jumps". This also begs an interesting (to me at least) question of why "it" would want to go somewhere potentially hazardous...

Awesome

Meh, I'm still not "into" the buddhist explanations for some reason. I like my senses I meditate and practice and like I said in the other post, there's something not quite right (to me) about Buddhism (although as I have said before, I've enjoyed some of the practices that come from there as an adjunct to others, but my practice is ultimately its own thing. Which I personally believe to be the point of doing it (or "it doing you" as is sometimes suggested). I think there's a lot of stuff "out there" that purports to be "what the Buddha said" or worse "what he would have said" or worse, interpretations of "what he might have said, maybe, had I had it my way" I wonder why Buddha suffered in the fist place? We don't seem to get to hear about that part.