blue eyed snake

yes, seems to me you've some trouble with the concept of boundaries yes, that is what i meant, and it's not LOL

you're probably right there, but my heart ordered my fingers to type that message, i suppose it senses danger for (one of) these guys

well, this is an open forum, I see a member giving some advice. You can take it or not. No need to get emotional about it. I'll give some advice too, some of you guys are already having trouble with the energy coursing through the body, going to the head and unable to ground yourselves. That's the advice that has been given before, by several members and I'll repeat it here. First learn ways to ground yourselves and stay grounded. don't play games with lady kundalini, she'll fry you. It's dangerous. just saying

Yes, what cheya said, that was my association too. when ' something' speaks through you

I think Miroku's reply is very much to the point, when you lose a loved one due to self-immolation, your only solace maybe the idea that your sister/brother/father/mother/friend/loved one died in an honorable way ( as Apeiron and Peiron pointed out, a worthwhile read that was, thanks A and P . I thought there was something like that. http://tibet.net/2013/06/is-self-immolation-anti-buddhism/ if the Dalai Lama, being the highest source of wisdom and authority for them, would speak out against it. They would not have that solace anymore, an honorable deed would thereby change to a horrible misdeed. Thereby making the suffering for those people unbearable. I've always understood these deaths as how they are explained in the link given. As honorable ( but very sad) Just as the fireman, dying while saving other people, the parents, dying to save their kids. We would nott call that suicide, because it isn't. It's give once life because one feels that there is a higher cause that is worthy of it. and as a last thought, In general decisions are made in a balance. There are things that influence one to say yes, and other things that influence one to say no. Whether that is about easy things as what to eat for dinner or complicated things like this. I suppose the Dalai lama has found a balance in between a whole hoard of influences.

seems you misunderstood me I said, among other things <<<Why the Dalai Lama does not speak out against it I have no idea, I mean, i can think of several. But that is his responsibility, he must act according to what he is and he seems to have chosen not to speak out against it. Seems to me we can only respect that.>>> which is contrary of what you make of it, so please read my post again and try to find out why you did read what I did not write, think about that. Besides, even though I sometimes try to change peoples mind ( in general a hopeless quest) I would not presume to think that I'm worthy to think that my reasoning could be " better" then that of the Dalai Lama. Everybody carries his/her own responsibility for her/his actions and I trust the Dalai Lama in his choice, there could be many reasons for his not speaking up about it. All valid. further, it seems that Miroku has heard an interview where the Dalai Lama gives a reason for his silence on the topic of self-immolation.

maybe we are here to learn ' how to live best'

ah...so that's what they're doing. indeed, a lot of encouraging going on honk honk honk

Hi Manitou, long time no see, good to read you again had to look up which bird you mean, but indeedie, they are such beauties. except for there tendencie to eat goldfish ( i've got a small pond) I like them they like the wetness... down here the amount of storks seems to be growing every year, they're back in the meadow and yesterday there were flying about 30 of them, high above my house. I got a little high looking at them.

a very sensitive topic indeed. I shudder to think about it. but I wonder whether the term suicide applies here. Suicide in general is committed by people with long-term deep depression. Those who do not know how that feels should not judge them. And those that do know how it feels, they tend not to judge. Furthermore when people do commit suicide they choose the most painless and fast method available to them. Because they cannot endure the suffering anymore. They will not knowingly and willingly add more suffering to their burden. These selfburnings do seem to be something different, dying by being burned is universally the most feared way of dying. Even though I do not know nearly enough about to speak out of it. I gather it is a sort of self-sacrifice, meant as protest against the circumstances that Tibet is in. I'm not a buddhist, but suicide is thought bad of in most cultures. But I have no idea what is thought of killing ones-self as sacrifice in Buddhism. Why the Dalai Lama does not speak out against it I have no idea, I mean, i can think of several. But that is his responsibility, he must act according to what he is and he seems to have chosen not to speak out against it. Seems to me we can only respect that. But still, it makes me shudder to think of it BES

grin, this would be my picture

natural

thank you Steve, I do not have such beautiful words, but it's what I feel too

rock

err...I've been using weed and it's derivatives for about twenty years, in copious amounts ( and that in itself is more then that time ago) When used regularly it is a way to disassociate yourself from feelings that you do not want to feel/ that you do not feel able to feel. Those are mostly subconscious processes. Further more it gets your balance of neurotransmitters ( further) out of whack. In these two aspects it is just like alcohol. Cultivation should lead one through their old emotions and attachments so to become free of them. ( among other things) I can imagine that using weed once in a while can have a different effect. But people who tend to disassociate from their feelings also tend to get hooked on the stuff. Life feels unhappy to them and they're after nice experiences to blunt the pain. I'm not trying to be harsh here, just recounting my own life-experiences. I've no moral ideas about it either way.

amber waves of grain, mother earth is feeding us let's say thanks for that

Be rid of fear. Be a slave to no desire. Live your life a free man. Kostas

Since a few weeks I've two magpies in my backyard. They are funny birds, they come over as very self aware, cocky. Hopping around, looking for tasty spiders and such. I sit looking at them, but it feels they are looking at me too. What a strange animal I am. They come real close. And they're not black and white at all, their wings have a beautiful bluish sheen, and the tail is greenish

many people are ill, so you could say that it is 'normal' I am ill, and without treating it I will not get my health beack, but I won't treat it with modern medicine. when nonillness is treated with modern medicine, that's bad, will unbalance you also, when you think you're ill while you're not ill, thats probably gonna make you ill. we all die at the end of our livespan, whether ill or not. But it's much nicer to have a body functioning as it should/ is meant to be

Thank you Yueya, I so like to read these kinds of concepts in easy to understand words, I shy away from the kind of texts that ask of me to learn a whole new language so to say. about process and thus change Sifu once said: " do not try to become like me, try to become like yourself" yes, and therefore sifu wants to be student with the students, ( even though in al our eyes he is master indeed) but to his eyes, he is not ' master, master...that is his teacher But he only came to be what he is now by continually doing this dynamic/that process, is still doing that. Until some years ago, i did not get that, in fact, I only get it because i see Sifu, who is, if anything, more human then any human I've ever met. I always understood those words as " not having a identity, to sort of disassociate from that feeling of ' self' But it is not that, maybe the identity is still there, but it's importance has lessened greatly because the fear for the transforming world around, the fear for what other people think of our identity has dissolved to an ever growing amount. The re-activeness to other people and new circumstances is lessening. yeah...but maybe not manifests as...but something like a process, when the self-importance diminishes the fear of loss does to. But it is also the other way round. When we do not fear, then the self-importance tends to diminish ( maybe?) I see it more as a circling process. But indeed, what we can observe in people who have traveled this road further, is that they do not trouble themselves wit what may or may not come. and, seems to me that humiity, is something that is ' attained' along the way, not a goal at all. Just growing with the lessening of the egodriven behaviour. As a balance, one becomes larger, the other diminishes. yes, I'm a mess, but to be able to say and really mean that, is already a step on the way to being " self-authentic" or so it seems to me. I could not have said that some years ago, but now i find i can say it, mean it, and not feel troubled by it.

err, back when I was a mom even in the basement there were some rules. And banning when you did not conform to them.

what a nice thread! thanks Apech. I'll try to add some two-cent pieces, just about how it feels for me. I read here talk of two things, the ' healing' thingy and the fajin. When one is doing healing on another person one can become aware of energy/chi flowing. Long have I thought that indeed that was what happens, energy going from A to B. But now I think, what you feel is not chi, it's just what the body experiences. It's useful too, those feelings, makes it ' graspable ' for the mind, makes intent easier maybe. To me the idea that healing is ' giving' the right information rings true. And that the more developed someone is, that the clearer the message comes through ( not muddled with your own shit) sounds true too. On the other hand, I think that it's not persons who can heal, but that healing persons are channels for that flow of information. Thus meaning that the stronger the healing potential of a healer, simple means the cleaner the channels and thus the emptier the mind. I've experienced it as ' energy' descending through the crown and going out through my hands. But nowadays i think that to stay healthy the flow of chi rising from the earth through your body must be just as large as what descends through the crown. That's, energetically seen, the reason that i have chronic fatigue syndrome, disbalance between heaven and earth. I've always been a healer on a totally subconscious level so to say. I was aware of what happened, but because my mind could not grasp it / even denied the possibility, as soon as it had happened i pushed the experience somewhere in the subconscious.. so, it seems that healing processes can occur without any training, without having build up err...personal energy, without ' filling up' the lower dantien. I think for fajin one needs to have personal energy/ awake lower dantien or some such. and on the one workshop about it I attended it felt very different to me then my experiences with healing. healing to me was err...being aware of someone suffering and feeling the need to assist ( feels like opening the heart) then the light entered my crown and flowed out of my hands. A modtly vertical process so to say But this one little try on fajin err.... i felt 'something' in me going backward the harder I pushed ( forward). Can't tell it plainer. Very different feeling. But even though rootedness obviously plays a big part in it, it felt more like a horizontal process... a well, just me rambling

this is real interesting, sets me to think. hollowness, being unfulfilled, those are the terms that seem to cover the feeling best. But there may be several sorts of loneliness. I think it was TM who said " if the mother is nurtured/loved/carried by the tribe the child will not be lonely. I agree with that. It's a feeling that starts young and when you have that feeling you think it is the default state, which of course it isn't. And being hollow yourself, when it's your turn to become a mum, you will give it to the next generation. This has a strong relation with the attachment-theory ( from psychology, one of the theories that has been standing for more then 50 years now. I feel it's valid) That is sort of the first layer, the way the unborn and baby-toddler-preschooler is welcomed in his family, the way she is cared for. If things go awry there, the feeling of loneliness will take root. I've memories of being very lonely in the crib. That loneliness has abated around 8 years ago, but I know it can rear it's head again when circumstance become worse. I probably will stay to be vulnerable for that particular emotion. So for me the first layer where loneliness has it's roots is the small family, in the sense of the primary caregivers of a child. The second layer would be the tribe, or the little wider surroundings of the child. For example the school, the neighbourkids and grownups, grandparents etc etc. A healthy child could endure much aversion before feeling lonely would set in. But the child that is already ( prone to) being lonely will experience a repeat of the already known pattern. Then the process starts to go in repeatmode. Because, when you're used to a situation of being rejected, you will exude that frequency and it will repeat itself in an endless loop. I know that, it has happened to me. i call it mirror-processes. the third layer is the rootedness to the place where we are born/ where we live. When you are unrooted to the earth I think that gives a loneliness. I would not emigrate far away, I need my being rooted to this particular spot on earht, it's my safety against falling in the lonelytrap again. and another layer may be time/circumstances. Elderly people sometimes bury themselves in the the things of the time of their youth. That may also be a safety-net against feeling (too) lonely. and what Earl wrote, I've a stepsister who emigrated to my country, back when i was still a teenager. She tells me she is home nowhere. Her former country including the mores of how to live with each other has changed so much that she does not feel "home" anymore. And this country still is a little ' not-home' for her. Maybe that' s like what you said? And that is a combination of time and place and the way people behave changing. But, just as pain, loneliness is an unwanted thingy, so there are several ways to deal with it. varying from filling your life with digressions to take care that you're firmly rooted to the place where you live. But in the end I suspect they are all stopgaps. Something within needs to change. Me thinks lonely people have...err call it unhealthy ego. Before you can learn to take your own ego in perspective, it has to be healthy. Maybe some people go the ' spiritual road' ( gosh, how I hate that way of saying it) because they want to get rid of the terrible loneliness they feel. attracted by words as ' eternal bliss' , peace and contentment, ' all is one' ( now that's an attraction for one who is lonely), ' having no ego ( sigh) another mighty attraction when your ego is riding you with loneliness, anxiety and feelings of being unworthy and unloved. When they would really tread it, they may find more rejection on that path until they turn around into themselves and care for themselves, being father/mother/tribe to themselves.

7 pages ago... i did not read those 7 pages filled up with circles