Birch

Cool, when do we get to the tri-brain theory (head, heart, gut)?

Oh shit. now I have no one left who will tell me about TCM food and practices and all kinds of 5E practical stuff. i will miss you DK. please let me know that you will still take PM from TTB. If not, I get it and wish you all the best anyway/how/where :wub:

Ralis dear, don't be putting out in full of everyone yah, I know, it's Summer (Spring, Fall, Winter, Anytime)

I don't know where/if "heaven" is, but lots of people and things keep promising it to me. Sometimes I get shown it (heheheh, troll laughter) but to know heaven , I suggest, is simply to depart from "oneself" cryptics aside, why not dig around the "microcosm/macrocosm/universe bedang (last word that came to mind was "bedang" sorry I couldn't find something better.

"Food that looks so good in a restaurant may not sit so well in your stomach. This is a clear sign of a discrepancy between appearance and reality." Which IMO is really where Taoism starts getting useful. It provides a lens through which causes and conditions may be understood allowing for better navigation. I think that's why I prefer it. Of course I'm not faithful to any -ism and will heartily try whatever works, even Buddhist mind control techniques and emptiness and all that. All good. OT a lot of restaurant food isn't actually prepared onsite, but cooked from frozen there...

Aw crap, it's just so tempting to write something trollish. But I won't. I will resist it through the strength of my character and virtue and I will not add any smileys or anything else that could be interpreted as a non-vituous remark....nnnngnggng. It's really hard to avoid...

None of the following is rational but I'll throw it out there anyway. "Unsustainable oil-based culture runs its course," - but until it does then it will be "pumped" for all it's worth (no pun intended) "the human herd is culled by 90%" - I suggest this one will happen faster due to the acceleration of the religious wars we're about to hit. The Earth its/herself is driving it - the oil came from the lives of organisms (some of whom I speculate used to be "us") who may very well have more fight left in them than we think. They "ask" for a (relatively) short-term sacrifice from the sea they came from to help the planet get rid of the offending people - "do this to the Earth? Here is what the Earth will drive you to do to yourselves." "and an era of tribal confederacies reign" - and why not? If it works better for everything? I think the short-term gains to be made by some throughout the process are recognized as such and found to be acceptable, otherwise we'd see more desire and real attempts to halt it.

----cheering section in---- Neat posts all. How unfortunate we have to resort to words to evaluate/create "systems" -----cheering section out-----

Thanks Vaj for the detailled post. Sounds like qi-gong/neidan to me ;-) Just another map. I agree with the other posters that refer to the mindfulness spillover into mundane life as being a valuable goal. There's also nothing wrong IMO with taking a "void vacation" - to relax that deeply is good for me. When I drop the "meaning" off everything I do, then things start to get interesting.

I guess if you're really concerned then you could perhaps look at tactics that some folks on TTB's have used in the past when it comes to that stuff. But really, aren't the people on there able to make their own decisions? What I like about TTB's is the variety of opinions and outside links (show other opinions and sources of information). I think that really helps. Still, if the forum is run by the person you are concerned about then I'm not really sure what you could do. Apart from raising dissent. Plus, as had been said, if the guy is basically ok and his system is basically ok then it's hardly your opinion that will change anything. I think a good thing to do with cults is avoid them.

Hello MewTwo, Still in Asia? What do you need help with?

Makes perfect sense to me...

Hehehe - if a "self" is what I think it is then "self hypnosis" is just a reworking of it. So why not? I think that self-hypnosis leverages the ego-structure to effect (which one hopes is desirable). Where meditation is concerned, I guess it depends on what kind you're referring to. There are a bunch, but just from trying a bunch there seem to be a few "families" of them: - where you just sit and watch the mind/body - where you exclude thoughts - where you just stop thoughts - where you bring in specific thoughts - where you put awareness on specific euh aspects of consciousness (which I get confused with the first one BTW).

Heh, is "white" even a colour? Are we in for a "5 colours blind the eyes session";-)? Red for sure is fire. Pink in Asia = porn but here in NA = closer to "cutesy" and "lurve". Where's the disconnect/connect? There's a neat colour wheel out the on the interwebs showing cultural significance of colours which could very well be a 5E insight into what each one is presently preoccupied with or in the process of changing.

"The MCO is fine to practice if you know what you're doing." - My most recent experience with MCO is that doing it over the top of an existing spinal injury is not good OR it could be argued that is IS good because it put me more "on" to the issue so I can resolve it. Anyway ;-) IME the point at which I start to "get" what I'm doing and understand the mechanics comes in a timely fashion AND I kind of wish I'd worked it out before. But I learn as I go I guess. I reckon because so many teachers themselves disagree on what is the "best" in general when IMO they in theory should (and likely this is the case with a one-on-one teacher)be able to determine what is "best" for a particular person at a particular moment in time. If you're a personal trainer, you don't start your clients out on the hardest crunches, right? "It's totally fine to skip over closed areas of the body. It's a mistake to think you should open them immediately." - well, it would be interesting to me to explain why this would be a "mistake" - I tend to agree but I'd like your take "Done correctly, you're not forcing your energy (or especially your heat!) around. You're using the awareness to clear the 2 channels." - yes, this is as far as I can tell the "correct" approach but there will always be people who want to feel like more is going on (and why not faster ) and so giving them a couple of sensations to help them keep "the faith" might sometimes be in order. Hopefully after they've burnt something they will slow down, but in some folks (like the gym bunny) burning might be seen to be a "good" thing (and indeed I am/have been guilty of it myself...)

"More than this, Kate... much much more. Its not so much about swimming against or with the current.. its about finally being OK with oneself when one realizes sinking has become inevitable..." - Thanks Mr Cow. I'm starting to figure, however, that the quality of this "me" stuff isn't really "mine" to begin with...As such, no, I'm NOT ok with "myself" - so have to start over and do one that I do actually feel ok with. So we re-condition. All that many mind control techniques will do is show you where the stuff is. So yes, you can see it lit up like a christmas tree, then what? Lots of options available, not all of them effective. I've heard some aspects of "spirituality" especially in Eastern tradition calling for the removal of the offending article (i.e. the ego) and I've also read that doing so is the equivalent of a "spiritual bypass". "...so even if the hot loneliness is there, and for 1.6 seconds we are able to sit with that restlessness, when yesterday we could not even sit for one, that's the journey of the warrior." - It could also be called foolish. Unless one is going to find a way through, why submit "oneself" to any more? "I used to have a sign pinned up on the wall that read: 'Only to the extent we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible be found in us." - Right, I've found it. As you might know, one of my practices is something I call "dropping the ego off itself" Fine. Next. "A further sign of health is that we do not become undone by fear and trembling, but take it as a message that its time to stop struggling and look directly at what is threatening us." - Right, i've looked. I know what it is. Next? (Quotes from Pema Chodron) - She's one of the authors I find the most irritating. Reckon the nun in me is reacting ;-)?

"Concerning doing the MCO, it shouldn't be done EVER." - Could you please say why? - Also more information on "damage"? Thank you!

Thanks Mark! I was talking about horses this morning with PW. How coincidental that you post this ! (well of course it's not really but never mind ) My take on "right view" is that it's just another training vehicle - to get one to go another way from which one habitually goes (if you swim with the current all the time you can't feel it and if you swim against the current all the time then you feel it too much.) But if you stop swimming, then what happens?

"Philosophical Taoism would be right for, say Kate. (I had to select someone here who is not arguementive. Hehehe.)" Thanks Mr Marblehead! A reason not to argue is that by doing so you immediately allow the opposing opinion to take form and potentially gather force. It doesn't mean I don't have an opinion, just that arguing about it prevents me from learning anything worth finding out. I was interested in "local singularity" - it does kind of screw up things a bit.

Great! Thank you!

"it sounds good in theory." A LOT could be said to sound good in theory. Don't forget about practice I was working towards shoulder stands last time I was working. Ouch.

Very cool. Thanks! I ended up on that Kybalion (sp?) website thanks to this thread (and Cat, I think) and I read it and found it all very cool. I mean sheesh, I'm getting to know a whole lot, but I seriously suck at trying to explain any of it.

Are these the same handsigns as illustrated in the sometimes advertised big pink book (the ad above - sometimes...)? Alright. Anyone learn? when they were a kid the following hand sign: - here's the church - and here's the steeple - open inside - and see all the people ? I'd love a 5E translation of this as I figure that's probably what this stuff is about. Essentially when you make a sign, what are you doing? Attributing (or simply understanding - in my case AT LAST) elements and knowledge within your very fingers (or body) - wow.

Thanks for this. i will read it. Thank you!

Damn, Hundun, you're cool! - BTW if anyone comes across these people in meatspace I am pretty much willing to suggest that it will be pleasant for all. Shit when's the last time I could count sharp on so many continents? All of which is very reassuring. My heart can beat some more.