Birch

I bought an interesting book on it.

I found acupuncture helped with ALL of the kundalini stuff. BUT, best to rule out actual organic issues. At one point, I had such crazy heart palpitations and irregular beats that I went to see a cardiologist. Nothing (except he tried to rip me off, but that's a different story:-)) Glad to hear you're feeling better apart from that.

Oh, I'm very deeply in the middle of this right now with a 'boundary-busting' aging mom.

Ack. I realized after I wrote it that I'd left it open. I did mean 'intentional manipulation' and not the 'comes as standard' stuff that kids are and do and say to get people to take care of them because they're, surprise, kids. No, when I said 'pile of toss' I was referring to a common idea that kids do stuff to get other people to do more than take care of them. There's apparently some kind of 'fine line' that many people feel it's appropriate to cross over into 'evil manipulative child' territory.

PM in process.

I checked Aaron, and I'm your friend on TTB's. And if you remember, I've also been 'friendly' in 'offline' and very 'practical' terms in the past. Go Check out Danah Boyd for her research on social media and there have been a few others about this 'friending' stuff that have been done. So what's up? Why the current 'experiment'? And I should also apologies to Scott in this respect, so thanks for bringing it up:-)

Thanks T_I! It's strange for me because the way ('correct view') gets presented as I understand it so far is very much a concept. A concept presented to appeal to my 'conceptual mind' -yes I agree I think a lot in those terms and when explaining, yes I do appeal to same in others as an attempt to be understood but I don't reckon I always have 'the truth' when doing so. I guess I believe that truth has itself (me included). However I don't know that :-(

Ah yes, children 'manipulate' adults... Pile of toss.

See http://www.peterferentzy.com/Excerpt--A-Peek-Inside.html "You need to hit bottom - a myth that kils" Actually DMatt, you were sounding great in that last post!

Thanks T_I! I'm going to show further ignorance:-) 'Where' does 'correct view' come from? I was thinking that if it came from 'the truth' itself, why would it require being taught? I'm finding myself aware (or at least semi-conscious!) that a persistent wordview, whether the latter is actually based in any truth whatsoever or not, can result in a conditioned worldview. So we could say, 'alright then, knowing this happens anyway, why not just hand down the most 'beneficial for all beings' worldview and tell them 'that's how things are in truth' and give them exercises, practices and 'logic' that reinforces the view in question? But if one is looking for 'truth' then this inevitably falls short.

Something exterior, obvious? Just hit me that 'yin fire' would probably be a tougher problem to detect, a slow oxydation, an overgrowth of bacteria? Anyway, not that I have the answers but I appreciate the dimensionality of yin/yang as applied to anything.

T_I, when you mention "correct" view. I can't help but wonder who has decided it's 'correct' and from what POV! Thanks for your reply!

I was thinking about this today (although I'm frequently told that 'thinking' is not something to do (to excess, and uselessly, I agree BTW, but hey.) I was thinking about the idea that one's relationship with substances, is, well, a relationship. In the meeting of enthogens and the person eating them, can it be said that whatever happens as a result is 'done' to the person by the plant (or drug)? Is it the person, themselves 'doing' whatever happens? It reminded me of where to draw lines between 'subject' and 'object'. It reminded me of some practices where taking (subjective) responsibility for ALL of one's states is prescribed (and I question the resultant 'enlightenment' of such a stance/practice). And it reminded me of my understanding of myself "inside but simultaneously looking out at a material (dead) universe" and my understanding of myself "inside and simultaneously looking out at a living universe". And it reminded me of many headlines read in the '90's "Teen dies at rave from Ecstasy". Seems nobody's taking it any more.

This thread reminded me that men can be abused by women as much as the reverse. I read something recently about people's attempts to get validation ('resolve it this time') from their abusers (or someone similar, or from a similar dynamic). I think that's not very possible (after all, the person has abused you previously, why would they suddenly have a change of heart and treat you better now?) Then there's the idea that attempting to resolve the 'issue' outside oneself is a way of avoiding looking within at one's own (now what that 'own' would be has been variously described as 'self', 'ego', 'responsibility' -all of which seem to me to carry consequences of all kinds, some positive, some negative, depending on how they are conveyed, not least of all, victim-blaming, and IMO/IME for someone already self-loathing enough to not walk immediately away from an obviously dangerous person, that's just a disaster waiting to happen. My 2cts. Walk away. Go full no contact. Take care of yourself from the inside and the outside.

http://www.amazon.com/Rude-Awakening-Perils-Pitfalls-Spiritual/dp/1846946093/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347416243&sr=1-4&keywords=rude+awakening I'm finding this interesting. Also interesting is I can pretty much find at least one reason to be miserable every single day at the moment. What the other guy said. And what this guy said. "keep going"

@Et-thoughts. Have you taken it upon yourself to teach me? I'm a bit of a DIY-er. So, er, thanks but no thanks in this particular case. No offense intended. Defense very much intended:-)

Et-thoughts, interesting post. ".. I quoted parts of what you said to highlight those particular parts... hoping that seeing the words you used would get you wondering if indeed that is what you want to cultivate... " Why?

Go to the nail-bar with it:-)

Actually, I really dislike being quoted out of context. Hate it in fact. Oh well. I've read about 'meme-theory'. There are quite a few ways of looking at it. For a while I found some 'memes' sort of parasitic and had to really sit down and think about what possible benefits anyone could get from them (otherwise, why accept carrying them in the first place?) And then I thought about the whole 'cute cat' online thing and wondered if it was related to the actual 'cute cat' parasite-harbouring animal itself. So while the actual offline 'cute cat' is a disease vector, it's also 'viral' online too. Then I thought that that was a kind of a crazy idea. And then I also thought, to what extent do I want to sustain any specific 'things' over time? Whether those things be 'social' or whatever. It's IMO an argument for not arguing against or for anything.

You've been giving some quite good advice. From past experience TTB's does often seem to come up with good advice. Not limited to the 'see a doc, take a pill' variety. Although that's been suggested to folks that have seemed really out of it in the past. The 'esoteric' stuff that it seems lots of people try to use as (one of several) solutions to their problems does have both a 'real' foundation (the messing around with Jing is an attempt to regulate hormones and neurotransmitters) and the mindfulness stuff is a way of building a safe 'buffer' between experience and self (weight-lifting for that reflective part of ourselves that allows thoughtful action rather than emotional reaction). However, if this stuff was taught in med school, it wouldn't be 'esoteric' at all and more people would be getting it right off the bat than having to flail around finding information and getting taught 'secrets' and finding out through getting it wrong, how not to hurt themselves. Stuff like that. ---opinion alert---

It's funny but why not? Dude doesn't have to pretend to be a 'serious seeker' ZOMG to merit TTB's good advice, now does he:-)?

Because (not that I'm a guy, but I've read enough TTB's to figure:-)) that the younger you are, the more difficult (and debatably the less beneficial) retention is going to be, especially if you don't have additional practices to help deal with the energy. People have really hurt themselves with it (retention).

Wait a minute, you've been doing retention with no additional 'helpful' practices? How old are you?

And you've done ALL that in 11 posts-worth? WOW. Or have you just been reading TTB's very intensely? Edit:

Ok, I'll have to sit about with this as well:-) Thanks though!