oak

I don't think therefore I am...

This works particularly well with me in what concerns fear. When I decide to just feel the damn thing what follows usually is some sort of muscular release accompanied by a chill and the sensation that "something" (not a simple energy release) is leaving my body. Rumi – Guest House This being human is a guest house Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they are a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond. ~Rumi

Hi loveherbs, I would like to underline everything Michael said and suggest that since you are in a daoist forum you shou.ld try reading the tao te ching. It was the thing that worked for me when I was where you are, and believe me I was there. There will always be an unreacheable guru in India or China that knows all and the more you place your salvation far from you the more it will stay far from you. Peace Oak

How many taichi masters does it take to screw in a light bulb? 9. One to screw it in and 8 to make corrections to the form.

Welcome!

It's a great introduction... and I have a serious difficulty in commenting most of this book as it is one of the most clear and simple books that I've found. However I'll be attentive in case some meaningful comment pops in my head.

Hi steve! Would be very interested in participating in this thread, so thank you for trying to revive it. I think that Swami Rama is without any doubt someone who can be called an authorithy in the matter ( not that I always agree with him ) What do you think?

Great idea you just had Apech 1) I did read all of them. 2) Very. 3) They're great interviews but we should always aim for better. 4) My suggestion would be Kevin Wallbridge. Thanks Apech

I guess I'll never win a popularity prize with my opinion about the study of alchemy but here goes anyway: alchemy is secret knowledge protected by outside forces or entities. Being so, if any student thinks that he or she doesn't have to go through trials and tribulations to prove his merit before accessing vital information, if so, he or she don't have any idea with what they're getting envolved with. The masters aren't just a few dollars away and most importantly no one is alone while reading the classics.

The Earth and Myranus, can't be responsible for the whole universe!

Did he ?

The Tai Chi Classics teach that if you allow your energy to sink it will then rise naturally. There's a connection between the lower dantian and the "third eye". This however needs to be practiced and felt.

IMO the main obstacle for lao-tzu is desire, so if you don't develop that capability of enjoying things to the fullest you will always be caught up in insatisfaction. So, for me what you did was the correct thing, you fasted in order to revive your senses, not your sensual desires.

Many times I ask myself if I could have any sanity in the crazy world we live in without practices. I'm pretty sure that I would fall into total dispair and self destruction and maybe that is the rule for many of us. So,practices may not be the ultimate answer but they sure save lives.

Very much in tune with what you wrote here Lex. My experience tells me that the more I cultivate/train the senses, the more silence I experience (in a non forceful way) in my mind. All the time spent imagining sounds,shapes, colours, physical sensations etc results afterwards in a spontaneous openness and a childlike very vivid awareness of a new world. In that sense always though artists had an advantage over non artists.

Tadashi Kanzawa ? They'll say they gave some benzos to the animals half an hour before the shooting... Some will give someone the benefit of the doubt and won't pronouce themselves impetuously... That tells me a lot.

This can be a useful an interesting thread if interesting information is shared. It's hard for me to think as a daoist in the winter as the usual advice I get is "reduce all activities as much as possible like nature"! Well, in the winter I need to exercise harder or I'll get depressed and to relax "harder" too as my body gets stiff as a board as it gets colder so,..

Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove. O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wand'ring bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me prov'd, I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

One thing for sure: it gets you out of your head and into your body. Just that is a great gift.