blue eyed snake

:D meditation made me laugh

rumi again...

yeah, i think it's not unknown to you that snakes are dangerous types they let you start all over, if you dare

please do that gives us all a fresh start!

yes, i know from my teacher that he has long days full of activity without eating very much. But it depends much on the person. Many people have advised me to fast because of longterm illness/tiredness , they say it;s detoxing. But i tend to loose weight even without fasting and i do not want to come to low. teacher always tells me to eat better. Maybe for later, at the moment i'm gaining weight so when that keeps stable i might give it a try. Good idea to make a thread for fasting

for harmony foiled does need a balancing act the juggler will come

whew ...i do not know what it means but it's eh..impressive, touches me

yep, i do recognize that. In the beginning, when I was new in the dojo... that i could be so angry at him, without there being any reason...stupid ...because he's so good, compassionate and helping me with shit nobody else ever has been able to help me with. Only now do i start to understand whats happening Looking back on that time...it was as if all my vulnerabilities, that i had kept so nicely closed of for the rest of the world...were made bare to everybody ( which was not true, but bare to him...)so maybe the anger was triggered by fear... and indeed he knows.... some time ago he was telling us many people get angry with him...and ways he deals with that.... But he can also do it on the conscious level, some time ago he did that to me ( again) only this time i saw it pretty quick...and thanked him for it and about ' clearing up' ...eh, imho teacher can clear up blockages for you, if he so chooses. But mostly he chooses not to, it's better to do that by yourself. but just being in his presence makes it easier to become more clean. but last time i was with him i could feel how he opened up two channels in my back, just like that... I then think: thank you, how much work and time did he spare me because he deemed it important that those channels now get open... ----- in general, my reaction to energetic work, as a beginner, after almost two years is one of deep gratitude

there's more to it, but the only thing i want to comment on is that what you call " issues/fears" stored in the energybody. These are not only stored in the energybody but can also be lodged in the flesh. there it produces pain/stiffness/illness , thereby keeping the ' issue' even more firmly in place. Something that tends to be forgotten.

from food to houses what I like about my southern neighbours, the belgians. In holland there are very strict regulations for building. meaning: when you want to build a shed in your garden or build a dormer-window on your topfloor you have to ask the municipality for permission...sigh...and they are pretty strict too... in Belgium they have no such nonsense and when you pass the border the style of housing is immediately very different , more loose, more individuality, nice!

I do not meditate that much lately and most of it standing up. Until now mostly with eyes closed, lately I find that my eyes sometimes just stay open. In a friendlyfeeling halfopen state. Different experience, good, but a year ago I would not have gotten out of of it what i get out of it now. Same with trance, it has helped me a lot with things/ issues, but it seems to change now. I'm happy with a teacher that gives us just simple instructions, just helping us along right where we are, without fixed ' rules'

big bowl of homemade hummus

Nice chain of thoughts following my innocent remark

well, it's your karma.... but if you ask advice here...do not follow in my tracks, i brought my body on the brink of destruction and have a hell of a time to recover.... It's not a fast track.... love Bes

I like this videao, thanks for posting! from a different perspective: some women are aware of conception taking place. They can tell you that at the moment of conception spirit is present. That means or suggests that Self is present from the first moment. When self enters the picture?...i would say after birth, but these are just my guesses. spirit ( Self) lives in a body, for a while. In that entity self arises, imho only after interaction with surrounding takes place.

Look, distant mountains, my heart is yearning for them, but time isn't ripe yet

thank you, nice analogy, just fitting for my nature loving heart

summer here seems to have stopped...it's cold and wet and rainy...brrrr I've been stoking a fire the last days, livingroom is just damp and too cold... but for me the summer solstice was never start of summer, it was part of the bigger rhythm of nature. And i felt it mostly in my vegetable plot ( which is now, sadly, history). Plants tending to shoot out in flowers if sown at the wrong time, some flowers being part of after solstice. In general a tendence in nature for the developing of fruits and seeds instead of leaves and roots. ( also a type of nasty little biting fly giving up for the year btw, and often the real start of wasps, which i'm afraid of because i get enormous painful swellings when they sting me)) For me summer starts the first day i can wear a short skirt

yep...headspace...eh, well, english is not my native language but my experience ( long ago but being dutch... ) with cannabis is one that tends to get the spirit out of the body, where imho the idea of qigong and related stuff is to settle firmly in the body. Seems not a good combination therefore. Also I remember that what seemed to be whow ideas when i thought of them being stoned, lost much of their attractiveness when coolheaded again. But you don't hear me saying you should stop, everybody does his/her own thing in her own way and her own time. But i agree with Silent Answers that it ain't easy to see where the line between occasional and too much is...You might try to stop for 4 to 6 weeks and then take a smoke again, and feel what it is doing to you, wish you an enjoyable life, Bes

yep, midwinter is a time of going inwards, of reflection/introspection. Indeed, this forum is so mondial that we have to think/ be aware of that. I cannot put it as eloquently as Daeluin, but for me it is like: spring, until summersolstice is the time of new growth, of new seeds trying to develop. After summersolstice time is there to let these seeds come to fruition. When winter comes a period of more stillness comes, especially advent is ( for me) a time of introspection, of looking at the fruit of the last year, of making these fruits really 'mine'. Then in the beginning of februar, the first new light becomes so strong that the body becomes aware of it, what will I sow this year, what will it bring me. Like awaiting time but already active. And then the new year begins with new seeds to develop. This year ...the most important thing that i've sown this spring/early summer was the intention to find new ways to deal with people, to be more open. Yesterday a very old and dear friend who i've lost completely, stood on my doorstep....she has come to live in my village and saw my last name somewhere...leave it to DAO and all will be well , wish you a good summer/ winter

You're welcome, i meet my mirrors too But stay here, both of you. Kiss mother earth, she will nourish you, when you let her. there's still much to be enjoyed on this world, and your family-members need you. I've been able to live through it and finding back reasons to stay, and you both will be able to do that too!

well, i'm very much a beginner but I do recognize something here. I never believed in subtle energy, to me it was new age nonsense... then, something happened in my life that released ( and, looking back, dissolved) eh, well, i think it's honest to say that it was the most pivotal part of suffering of my life. Very shortly afterwards, i began to feel very strong energy. That lead me to revise my former convictions and go look for a teacher. It took some years before i was ready to find him Since that time much more has happened, even though at a beginners stage, subtle energy has become a normal part of my life. Lately i found that i had the idea that, ever so slow, channels open and widen a little. But when you go to ( and through!) old pain, things can indeed pop open all at once. This has happened several times now. And it does feel as if i shift to another plane in such transitions. Not say they are like those of spotless, but the feeling is the same. Like graduating from kindergarten to primary school versus getting your doctorate levels are different, but principle is same By now i have some ideas on the relationship of eh...perceived/ relived old pain and the channels that open/ blockages that dissolve. But i do not feel comfortable to share that on a forum. It's very tentative too, more like a slowly connecting with new layers of my being. My teacher wouldn't put it the way Spotless does, but it feels to me that the underlying meaning is the same. And maybe i will once reach a point where the knowledge Spotless shares here will become useful to me. On the other hand, by now it is so clear to me that breakthroughs happen through ( the re-experiencing, its not really that, i lack the words, but it is a going through old pain) of pain/suffering that this insight could come all by itself. But for now I'm just satisfied in walking, step by step, falling back, regaining myself and walk another step. Big differences with the story of Spotless: first, I do not choose which pain will be opened, it presents itself. Something in me knows what is the best order to 'do' things. second, because I've lived for half a century gathering and building unhealthy patterns, every breakthrough is accompanied by a lot of bodily suffering, pain, swellings, itching and illnesses. (That may be something that can easily be overlooked by someone who started on their path young and with relatively low levels of pain and blockages) But the fact that going through suffering is the 'pushing/popping point' that makes me feel sameness in the experiences.

thank you for your last two posts, it sets me to thinking, to reflecting whats happening to me with your text as kind of ' new/ other' perspective.

you're beautiful mirrors for each other

whups, nostalgia thank you marblehead