Birch

"This way, of course,is much more difficult than others ,for example, asking people to pay attention to their breathing, focusing on dantian or visualizing something" But IMO (and small experience) it arises spontaneously from all of those practices, which is (one) of the points of doing them. Sometimes I think of those monks sitting for hours on end and getting cramps (or just getting bored) and inventing a new game for themselves to pass the time (qi-gong) and then finding out it "does stuff" like preventing their legs getting too sore "However, as people are approaching the higher stage of changing their qi into Shen , all those other methods unfortunately conversely become some kind of blockade , barring them from achieving such a huge, abrupt jump." Well, not necessarily. If I'm getting too much pressure/blocked energy or tense holding (or whatever you want to call it) in my head then I'd rather like a solution for diminishing it. "Every stage in our cultivation has its own specific difficulty" Oh I believe it does, "saying that just by accumulating qi and jing , then naturally we can attain Shen is somehow too optimistic..." Aren't they "transformations" more than "accumulations"?

"what if machine" is now "on". "What if" the only patterns people were able to see were the ones made by people themselves? In which case the recognition of a pattern is not as something "cosmic" inasmuch as it is the recognition of a human creation, which makes things like we are presently discussing all the more -well, I don't have a word for it.

That clown is back. In your av

Fasting. Not convinced it will help you repair structural damage, sounds counterintuitive to me. How about some decent physiotherapy (go see a sports doc)? Maybe while you're interested, you can kick off (um sorry for the bad joke) some qigong to get a feel for it? Healing oneself is a good goal. Just don't harm yourself in the process. TLC is right Welcome to TTB

Thanks TJL. "Emptiness" "Stillness" I often reach a point where no words or images arise in my mind but (and there is a but) there is a tense/warm feeling in my head, like something would have been coming forth had I not trained myself otherwise. When this happens, I "throw" the tension into MCO or I dissolve it. I sometimes wonder about whether this is a "good" idea or not or whether I've screwed up my neurals (much in the way that we discuss the perils of sexual retention).

"At a very deep level maybe you can say we all want the same thing." Good. "But if you just say "we all want the same thing" that ignores all the other levels of being where we don't." Now I'm confused. "I wouldn't say that what you're saying is categorically wrong. There is some truth to it." More confused. What categories? "But is it the complete truth?" I dunno, sometimes I think it might be. "To me, what's more important is not whether or not we want the same thing, but whether or not we can haggle in a half-civilized manner." Are we in an "ends and means" discussion? "If we can haggle, then it's OK to want different things." Haggle ? I shouldn't need to haggle if I want fresh water, health, food, shelter, y know...should I ?

"So yes it's a case of mistaken identity when we see ourselves as ego and not as perhaps as you suggest "spirit" Heh, taking on the "spiritual egotists" Paul? I agree and at some point there has to be a "self-reliable" way of experiencing the difference between yourself acting "from spirit" and yourself acting "from ego". I would suggest the latter involves accompanying subjective feelings of satisfaction or of dis-satisfaction while the former involves subjective feelings of, well, "wellbeing" I keep harping on about the being "squeezed" feeling. I guess I could call it a small "ouch" or something.

"I may be mistaken about the Earth being flat but I'm not sure if that counts as a lie as well." Oh no A "flat earther". I guess if there's a risk of being mistaken, you might wanna say "Hey, I dunno, but I reckon this world might be flat, what do you think?" And not "Hey you there, the world is flat! Don't agree? Well then I will threaten you with violence of some kind"

More weirdness. Yes I'm looking for some kind of validation/explanation. I made a call the other day on my cell. The sound felt/sounded like it was a "side step" beside me. Then there was a ? - it literally felt like a wave from the phone had hit my inner ear/brain. The sound/feeling had equalized. Almost as if the "gap" between me and the phone signal was greater that time. It hasn't happened again since. Anyone? Should I be putting EMF controllers on that cell? Do they even work?? I'd go hands free but vanity has me avoiding bluetooth.

Hey Mel, Thanks I wouldn't dare moderate here. Far too much work.

Oh. I guess my brain will resolve itself. Thanks. I will go find those EMF things. Anyone have a measurement device for this stuff (apart from oneself)? Like you can get meters for checking battery voltage. Or canaries for coalmines. What about measuring EMF output? I read about using a carbon fibre rod.

"What about electricity?" I'm only just learning about it "properly". What I mean by "properly" is when I make mistakes with it - I won't say on here what mistakes I'm making because it's very embarrassing and I don't want to be responsible for anyone putting the red line and the black line on the wrong pole NB, not practice-related! I used to think (I don't know if I was taught it or if it was just a rationalization) that "electricity" flows all the time. But now I know it doesn't. Yet it's there, always ready to flow It "flows" under very specific circumstances. I wonder if in the future those circumstances might loosen up a little I personally wouldn't use it currently (no pun intended) on myself as it's "stuck" on one very small range and I know my body is not down with that. I think there was a thread on here (can't find it) about a healer guy who was using the baseboard current. But, the story goes, he was channeling it through himself. You wouldn't just go and "plug in". I also noted contra-indications for certain practices during electrical storms. Opinions seemed to differ. Personally, I prefer the "after storm" vibe.

Am I naive in suggesting that everything wants the same thing? i guess I might be. I've met such full-on evil and awfulness in my time here (not TTB's just to be clear) so far, that I'm not sure if that's what the people are/were after. I think they were/are

I was all gonna post some stuff about "11"s in specific cultures and I prevented myself from doing so by a few sharp keystrokes (possibly a good call for various semantic reasons ) I did find this Link, random Which would be horrible if I linked it up the the other 11's, but no one would dare...

Practices are good. I think you learn them by doing them. They teach you. No requirement IMO and small experience to fold yourself into a group. I guess being thankful to those who gave you the practice is a nice (the right?) thing to do. If you can help yourself and other people, I think that is a nice (the right?) thing to do. I personally would not hang with a group as I know/fear the dark nights and other things could give people who might not otherwise legitimately get a let in, way too much sway over my own path. However, this is not IMO the same as seeking support and help when practice issues come up (and I think they almost always do, unless there's someone here who can say otherwise.) Strangely IME, when things have come up, there's always been help of some kind (and often in the form of someone).

OT-ish "OCD" - ooh, I just realised/figured is just a tighter circle than the one our own "i" (small i) has us running in. My goal of practice therefore: - widen the circle - make dips and peaks an valleys in it - empty it.

Oh THAT was good. Dem people been stealing "my" "THIS"

"Sometimes you have to hurt people with honesty simply because they have it coming anyway." Ah. Not sure I follow. Do you mean you take a nick out of someone to prevent them from getting hurt more in the future? More questions: - What if they won't listen to you because you hurt them? - How do you get to the point where you are "clear" enough to make a judgement call on someone else? - At what point do you realise that you are clear?

Where's my pony then ?

Sex is "safe"? If it is, then you're not doing it right Of course, always wear a rubber. Or if you're from ancient Egypt then an animal intestine.

"Hey there, Our brain is our best tool," -if it's working correctly to begin with I'm not trying to be offensive, just suggesting that in some circumstances, not everyone may have full access to their own "brain" resources. "but these are good to get a person started... We are all on the same path together to grow, and learn... And live, and love, and laugh, and enjoy," I would love to believe this but sadly, I do not as yet. While I favour a "positive attitude" for inner strength and health- our reality (that we have created together, if you prefer) ain't pretty. "this life we have been blessed with to the fullest of our own selfs... " To thin own self we true" Mel" We have been blessed and we too often dash that blessing to the ground as if it were nothing. Or we let others do it for us. I dunno Mel.

"if you're looking to just have some casual fun. In which case, honesty is the best policy, just be honest about what you want, any girl who wants the same will likely like it if you just outright say, rather than try to be some swave manipulator. Even if a few no's lead to 1 yes. And of course cover up, cos you never know : ) BTW discernment is still important here, you don't want to find out too late that she's actually a man or has a boyfriend or whatever." Okaay... What do you have to "cover up"? And if she says "yes" to "casual fun" but turns out to have a BF, why would that be a problem if all you both want is "casual fun"? I'm not missing this great TTB's opportunity to understand "men".

Hi Mr Farmer! How are your chickens? Ok, I will try to do a little better at my explanation. It's still a work in progress and I can't speak to the first part yet well enough so I'll tackle the second part. This part: "When discomfort (or injury) is felt, awareness withdraws from the "place" where the "origin" of the discomfort was first felt. This place of withdrawal of awareness becomes a "rock" (or a "block" like we like to say on TTB) around which our self flows. The potential for massive restriction in perception, thought and resulting behavior arrives via this process." When you (as a whole organism, not just your thoughts) get hurt (or I guess if you hurt yourself with your thoughts but I won't get into that too far), the part of you that gets hurt goes through a sequence of events that eventually allow the injured area to heal. Pain is IMO part of the sequence that maintains a focus of awareness on the part of the organism that needs "work" or that needs "detoxification". Why such a focus should be required for the sequence to work its stuff is still something I'm mulling around. However, if following injury, circumstances do not permit the full sequence to take place (for example if you hurt your leg but need to run on it to get yourself away from a continued source of injury) this focus is removed from the equation (usually temporarily) until a later (safer) date at which the focus on the original injury can resume so the healing sequence can resume and complete. However, because pain is felt as unpleasant (which it is), we wish (more often than not) to avoid it. So we basically allow ourselves the option to avoid feeling it by withdrawing our awareness from it. But the downside is that this interferes with the healing process because the focus of awareness is still not yet in the "right" place for healing to occur. So the whole organism has to adapt to this situation by protecting the part that hasn't healed yet, using "avoidance" strategies and behaviours, perceiving "similar" situations so it can avoid them etc.

I suppose this one has already been stated, but isn't "real magic" about changing oneself? Don't underestimate this change with respect to others. The weather stuff, I don't expect to be able to change, but I might get better at feeling what's on it's way. Maybe.