Birch

I just feel like drinking the dude's navel. Thanks man :-p

Nothing wrong with that IMO Alright - I'll be serious. What is wrong with any of that?

"Think of your favorite food" - I don't have one "you just love this food, it tastes sooooo good" - lots of food tastes great. Nothing wrong with food IMO - well, lots is wrong with food but I try to make sure the food I eat is ok. - Now imagine if you were tired to a chair, your mouth forced open, a funnel shoved down your throat and you were force fed this food until you were sick. Would it still be fun then? - No. Of course not. I guess I equate obsession with NOT getting whatever you want. I'll need to go away and equate all that

I don't know! What really happened for you? I'll let other TTB's assess the kensho-ness of your experience, but I'm assuming from what you say that you had something close to it. Except weirdly, Zen doesn't seem to deal very well with nuances when it comes to this stuff. I suppose there is a clue there. Where are the Zen TTBers? I reckon that in traditional "kensho" you'd yourself ALSO drop off from the experience. So there wouldn't actually be a "you" to experience anything at all. How that would become clear, well, I don't know because it hasn't happened to me yet. The "technicalities" of experience (sic) are best left to more experienced than I. I have had the sense of myself as a person "dropping out" (don't worry/unfortunately it comes back ) and I have relatively low brain chatter. I still hold myself in specific conditioned ways so it's not yet all that...

It's pretty cool as an exercise. And very important in solidifying one's sense of "this is me" - aside from the other mirrors (i.e. other people and life in general) Do you remember seeing your reflection for the very first time? I don't, but I do remember playing with mirrors to show myself other "dimensions" - at the time I was just a kid, pointing the mirror at the ceiling and seeing it as the floor of another room beside the one I was in. Then walking around/acting in the reflected world. I recall finding it really easy to be in both "worlds". My parents told me to stop it because I kept tripping over the ceiling beams I think. Or they just thought it was weird. Either or. There can also be issues with mirrors. For example, a contemporary issue is that young women will look in a mirror and see a "fat chick" looking back at her. And so she will be unhappy. But only if she had looked in other mirrors first (such as fashion mags).

I can get that obsessions distract. But why specifically wish to be "free" from that one in particular? I can think of a few reasons and so far IMO (and small experience) NONE of those reasons eem to be very beneficial to the practitioner. Although they might very well be to other people. Gah. Just go away and be sexy with it.

I think it also depends so much on who is on the end of the penis. And I am not referring to the woman/partner.

I was just reading a special issue of "Scientific American". It's called "The End" (I should go put a song about that on my thread) Aside from the issue of that title being a possible oxymoron (just wait, for the science wars are about to begin - if they are not already in full swing...) Anyhoo. What one of the articles was describing was the shift from "reproductive" longevity to "body-maintenance" longevity. A sort of a lightbulb turned on in my head and I made the comparison between "reproductive" sexual acts and all the rest. It came (no pun intended) to me that male ejaculation would conform to a "reproductive" sexual act, whereas "body-maintenance" or "longevity" sexual acts would shun the "reproductive" act (i.e. "male ejaculation")in favour of longevity. I'm not very sure how female sexual acts fit into this schema. As far as I know so far the only "reproductive" act a woman can effect is ovulation. I read (c.f. Immortal Sisters) that advanced Taoist practices for women involve stopping menstruation. Do such techniques also imply cessation of ovulation? It would seem that they might.

Oh neat! Looks to me like he's doing some kind of inner smile in full-lotus

I reckon "evil" requires some knowledge of what one proposes to do. There is IMO and small experience some intentionality inherent in really evil actions. I'm not sure that "good" is an actual phenomena. IMO it comes to life and enters consciousness in the presence of evil. Otherwise it has no name and just occurs "naturally". I always find it interesting how people seem to define the "negative" in light of the "positive" when the reverse is at least often as much also the case. I guess we'd rather not look at the fact that so much good has been born of evil. That would be admitting that evil exists and then what happens? Ah, the good returns As long as we refuse to admit to evility (this may not be a word) then "good" won't get a lookin. IMO and 2 cts.

I went to the tea store today and had tea with the owner before buying some green tea. Things he told me that I recall: - with all tea; make sure pot and cups are warm before brewing tea. To do this, pour hot water into pot and cups. Then get rid of the water. - Do not use boiling water - it burns the leaves and as a result makes tea taste bitter. WAIT a few minutes. Then add the water to the tea. - no need to wait a long time to brew many teas, some can be done as fast as a couple of minutes (like white tea). More brewing-time is harmful to the leaves and unpleasant/unhealthy for the tea-drinker - tea-making-drinking takes time. I only had 15 minutes to spend with my new tea-friend and it felt very rushed both sides. We drank tea and talked about tea, business and travelling. It was very pleasant. There was something in the process and the person that made it that way.

"So yeah, if any gods, deities, immortals, buddhas, saints, etc are willing to pay me a visit, you know where I am so please come show me something, in the physical realm though please (no dream visits)." Alright! Where do you live?

Hum, I wonder why sometimes I get concerned about the rise and fall of energy too. It could really be anything IMO and aside from seeking cosmic explanations (which seem very valid, as much as some other explanations ) , why not just do whatever it asks of you? If it doesn't seem "natural" or even just evidently consequential then I would ask myself more questions. Are you at/close to a "season-change" where you live? Are you stressing yourself out? When that stuff starts up, shit happens IME. It would be cool to establish a "causal" chain of daylight/temperature/activity effects on a person but I'm almost certain you know exactly why you're feeling that way. Of course it may not be possible right away to do whatever you need to resolve it in the long term, so pick a short-term resolve and do that? Things that make me lethargic: not doing what I want - for long periods of time. That's pretty much it.

"Yes, they are fused." -How do you know? Did you get X-rays? "I'm not going through reincarnation or rebirth." - Depends on what you are referring to. I think you "personally" will probably not. Unless you want to. And I ask to the wider TTB's "Who would want to?" "After this, I'm gone." - I think you're possibly right. I can't say "probably" because I don't know. "For right now, I'm not willing to invest in any "virtues"," - Good call. Besides, that stuff is only intended to make YOU feel better. Given our guilt-laden culture(s) I wouldn't be surprised if that approach didn't "yin it's yang" and mess people up in the process. Of course, if you're willing to go through the mess then that could work, but because it's messy, and we're in a messy place, well, I dunno. I'd go for "whatever works". "I'm going straight into pragmatic methods." - I think those are the best

Cool thread! Meditations where you visualize something in particular are very interesting IMO because who would've thought that you could have come up with that stuff by yourself?? Because left to your own devices, what happens? So suddenly you're thinking/feeling/seeing "something else". Doesn't it make you realize,...something? The "just letting go" meditations are IMO different because the difficulty IMO becomes your navigation and allowing of your experience. As the body relaxes, mind drops, images/feelings come by - do I shy away from them? Why? I sometimes think they meet in the middle.

Thanks Pero. I guess then I haven't understood anything.

"Stream entry" is from what I've understood, just the knowing of where you are in the stream of things and stuff and words and whatever that goes through you. I quite like being a first class a44hole. Better than a 2nd class a44hole. Don't let the hydras get you down BTW Lino, there was a thread about lower chakra issues and if you have spine problems that can really mess you up on many levels. You could go see a chiropractor or do exercises to loosen up. Are your bones really fused at the bottom? It does seem that some kids are born with extended coccyx and they tend to get operated.

He said "possibility" not anything else. Didn't I already know it?? Didn't you? Would his story have been more believable if he had said "probablity"? Yep, figure the plants know much more than I'll ever know. TaoMeow, did you have a similar experience? I know I'll find your story here if I search. Still, does Alex Grey's account have "matching" with yours? I guess I found it kind of -- bland. Or take Narby's, his was for a book,did that make it part of it?

Seriously? Ok, now I KNOW some of you guys figure shopping is the answer to everything. Besides, how do you know where or how I live? And why would either of those things have "merit"??

Heh Feel welcome to add Bluegrass, Banjo and Blue Velvet to my music thread.

I don't see the "poor philosopher" role that much in my mundane life. In fact most of the really mundane stuff is IMO philosophy-filled - just ethically empty. FWIW, and from my small experience, Drew is correct. The extent of it is horrific. The question remains however WTF do I do?? Adopting a "middle of the road" "ornery" identity is just another way out IMO. You get to avoid being the "real harmful" person as well as getting to be a "victim" under the hoof of the harmful person. Oh, yeah, watch for the tendency in such folks to criticize the "haves" and "have nots" pretty equally (neither of them "deserve it" and both for eerily similar "reasons" i.e. "they don't work" or not "hard enough". We know that "hard work" doesn't have as much to do with you are in the system as other stuff, hence it's "bait n switchTM" value for all. So, I gotta ask, WTF is everyone getting out of this setup? And that is why I go to work in mundane life, just to understand. The "big" challenge for me becomes "how do I maintain integrity" and I really have no idea at this point.

Huh ? Sounds kind of like "too good to be true". I've seen movies about such places, there's always something going on under the neat exterior Thank you Mr Cow for the story. Is everyone around him bearing his practice very well? Did he ask anyone whether they wanted to have the roles he left them when he decided to retreat? Was everyone expecting it because it's what you do after fulfilling the "obligations"? Apologies for so many dumb questions.

Wait for the part in "meditation" where you realize you're not in fact a wuss. I don't read many consistent male meditators on here that seem wussy, in fact, from the small part of what I "know" about meditation, well, let's say that "wussness" is not going to be a term you'll be using on yourself for much longer