Birch

Agreed that gradual is a good call:-) I like orbits because they keep it together:-) Does it help if I suggest that emptiness is really quite peaceful and you don't have to stay there all the time? I think one panicks because the idea of absence of constant thinking has some kind of meaning attached. It doesn't mean anything. Not sure if that is helpful. I hope so:-)

Ah well, no point in discussing it at all then:-) It's a pointless exercise Dwai. Ok, I shouldn't say that. Given I did. Why I did it is another question. Guess I'm just curious. Bob, my choice relative to the study and killing of sharks of all stripes is certainly relative but it seems I'm interested in it, so I guess I'll be interested in it for a while:-) I've never been very wise.

Don't worry about them. No lock down. Breathe and let pass. Yeah, I know, sounds simple. Sometimes I just forget all this meditation malarkey.

Or online, period:-) Anyway, the "felt-sense" read I get on this one is not pleasant (sorry crumpled-paper-toad dude! No offense meant, it's just how you read to me online, totally subjective, I know!)

Oh, it's just beer brewed in small amounts. Also means they can do seasonal ingredients and trials on fun stuff. In theory, less additives etc. But I'd check. Lots of towns have it. In fact setting up brew pubs with local micro-brew is an idea:-). The equipment must be pretty expensive though!

Herb?

It depends. I've noticed it's a hit on energy levels for mental work but good for physical work. I've developed a heightened sensitivity so can actually feel my liver working on it. It doesn't like it much (nor lots of sugar). If I drink "too much" and go to sleep i can pretty consistently expect raging muscle releases. That by itself is kind of unpleasant. I like wine (good stuff, not too much antifreeze in it) and I've gotten interested in micro-brewed beer.

My unscholarly take on this one is that the organs "geared towards renewal - i.e. offspring" are now geared to survival of self or reproduction of self which doesn't happen "naturally" unless something influences the process, i.e. must be an artificial/coerced process (see also reproduction of society and my post on degradation of thoughtforms in the vedanta subforum.) Check out the notion of "selfish meme" and the Sophia myths of the Gnostics. I don't know if my tying them together is legit, but that's what I understand the references to be about.

What happened to the 'on a need to know basis'? Meh, the video was nice but I'm not signing up. Used to be lists took some effort getting on (and off):-)

I haven't had that intense or prolonged but it's happened. I don't know enough about neurology (or what practices you're doing) to say more. But I'd do a check in with a teacher if I had one. I suppose if it's uncontrollable there's a preference for making it controllable. The dream yoga people ought to be able to give more precise information, it's their field. Edit: Look also at hypnogogic state research and sleep research. Sleep paralysis and neural proximity (what causes synesthesia apparently but who knows?) I'd also cut back on practice for a while, but that's just me.

Good idea (deleting the link) it's sort of both dangerous and can be unpleasant. I'm not actually sure that people really think that things are not relative and spinning with change. Do they? It's possible their relationship to it ain't clear but IME practice hasn't made it any clearer for me either. (I've changed perspective. Some things have gotten ridiculous.) Still, I often mistake the question for the answer (and vice versa). And on top of all that, there's the question of scheming evil ba4tards to deal with. Of course, they're 'relatively real' in this dimension but they need their butts kicked out of it IMO.

Getting rid of persistent evangelizing posters :-)

Try copying this directly into your browser http://www.scribd.com/mobile/documents/26226835/download?secret_password=2bbtf3ty1f8xm2v6xdxe It's a pdf file, but you should have an option in Safari (if that's what you've got) to open it in a browser window...Let me know!

Pleasure's mine :-) Googled 'Taoist female practices' and took a stab at this one.

Well Scott y'see that's because we're all taught things backwards in backwards land:-) Then while unlearning the backwards we mistake forwards for the right way, before realising it was backwards anyway but that it can't be taught. Y'know TTC "when Tao is lost people have to be taught manners" or something.

I'm stuck with something around this topic. I'm pondering how scarcity can be mediated by an (almost) infinitely abundant symbol. Wouldn't the symbol also have to be (relatively) scarce itself in order to act as a marker of exchange of scarce goods? Help me out econ bums!

So what you're reading in it Db is sexism? I wasn't reading it that way at all. I was looking more at the orbits etc. I'd also seen the vertical/horizontal issues discussed elsewhere. You know, it really is quite disappointing to read practice book after book that talks about your member's reaction to practice or some other male physiological thing that you're not experiencing and have to weed through everything. I suppose the upside is you work it out as you go along a bit more. Or rather, the practice itself does it. I was happy because my head orbits had started up spontaneously but when I enquired here I got a resounding warning against it from people I consider experienced practitioners so I heeded the advice. Anyway, neat to get feedback from experienced people:-)

No. Have you? I forgot that I should always be very very exact on this forum:-) My intended point, to argue that teachers should be paid to the extent that they can't pay for everything they need to live in kind (such as housing for a start) was not making a case for extravagant lifestyles nor taking advantage of less fortunate students. Note this may not always have been the case. Check out some bagua stories of village masters (objective was a bit different though, martial.) *Sigh* Farming is a job. Not suggesting teachers shouldn't have jobs either. In fact, I'd prefer they have an independant source of income for the reasons suggested by DB above. Initial suggestion was that it depends on what is being taught (i.e if "just" breathing techniques, visualisations and physical exercise) then that's probably IMO a case for paying students. For those students that can't pay, IMO if the teacher wants an "in-kind" arrangement (see RV's idea above) that's up to them and the student. If we're talking "lineage transmission" well, whole other ball game IMO:-)

Ah the literal :-) Alright. So in addition to teaching the teacher should also broker the in-kind goods that he or she can neither eat nor use nor exchange? Sounds great.

(It was impossible to tell whether the Machine is alive or mechanical, technology or biology -- it was sort of both and neither... ---- Pretty much what that Taoist Yoga for women points at too. Interesting. Edit: As does the Sophia myth.

Depends what and why the teacher is teaching. How about a sliding scale and 'in-kind' exchanges like gardening etc for willing folks that want but can't... Can't pay bills with cabbages.

Hmm, no :-)

if you just believe the statistics without going through the door of the numbers to wherever it really leads.) That was the point I was trying to point at :-)

Hey! A free lunch!

"Thinking too much" isn't IMO a problem. It's the type of thinking (too much of one type) and not enough of other types that's the problem:-$