Aetherous

The thing I've found the most useful is the book linked in my signature. Although some things are hate-worthy, without a doubt, it's better to spend your time cultivating more enjoyable modes of perception. For your own benefit.

America has separation of church and state, so it isn't Christian. Other countries don't necessarily have this same type of government. So for instance, Saudi Arabia is considered to have an Islamic government.

This is a very good question. I hope knowledgable people are willing to answer. At least personally I've noticed that it's a stronger form of collection...better for getting energy out of the head and just collecting it in the belly area. It's good to follow the instructions. Max explained briefly that the reverse position is for neigong and the regular position is for qigong. I haven't personally heard other info on it from him...but he would be the one to ask! Other sources I've read or heard have said that the reverse position is for activating the blood, for drawing qi out of the dantien or drawing sick qi out of that part of the body...and that the regular position is for activating the qi, filling the dantien with qi, for sending healing energy into that part of the body, etc. What's weird is that I personally get a lot of noise in my guts from doing the reverse position. Then I have to do a lot of 'opening the wind gates' chi nei tsang on myself for a few days to quiet it down. Do you notice any differences between the two hand positions?

Wear whatever makes you feel good. Carry mace.

Assumptions.

My parents.

Shh.

Lao Tzu purportedly said, "To embrace all things means also to that one rids oneself of any concept of separation....division is contrary to the nature of the Tao." You quote this from Lao Tzu, and then you go on to do the exact opposite of what he suggests... Time to shut up and listen, Vmarco.

There's more of that bullshit.

Why does this matter to you?

Wow, nice answer...thanks!

Your ideas are blocking your happiness.

This is interesting...if the reading must be based on magnetic north rather than true north, then why are localized fluctuations in the magnetic field ignored? You'd think, since the reading and results depend on magnetism, those things would be taken into account and utilized. Why is only magnetic north considered and not the true magnetics of the place?

Eastern Internal Arts Institute's "Qigong for Self Healing" DVD.

Just to be clear, I was speaking of ancient Christianity and even ancient Judaism...not modern Christianity, which demonizes dream interpretation and divination. Lots of interesting stuff hidden in the OT...

For that subject, I have taken a lot of hints from here and there. For instance, keep a tiny notebook in your pocket and record each thing you spend, so you always know exactly how much you should have in your account. I'm finally getting smart about money this year so I'm definitely not an expert yet. Hopefully others here can recommend things. My next book purchase is probably this one on personal finance, based on the positive reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Personal-Finance-For-Dummies-ebook/dp/B002UHTTZS/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1332291745&sr=8-6 Something I think a lot of people don't bring up is that spending less requires building a lifestyle that you love, which isn't so costly. Kind of the same concept as if you quit an addiction, you need something else to fill its place. It's always possible to surround yourself with cool and high quality things that are less expensive...and if you want something expensive, if you just wait a little while, usually you end up losing the "need" for it and could care less. I think it's good that if you can't find anything decent that's cheap, you buy the one with the best quality no matter the cost. Save up so it's doable. That way you increase the sense of value of what little possessions that you have...it's not worth surrounding yourself with cheap junk. Or expensive junk.

I'm severely impressed by that clip.

"Cash rules everything around me" It really does. Try living without an income or any savings...the way things are set up is that you basically can't. You can't live. So, already we can see: it determines your very life. Air is free...you can breathe almost anywhere. Safe water isn't free. You need it within a few days or you die. Need money. Food isn't free. You need it within about a month or you die. Need money. The list could go on, but basically, you require money to survive. We don't live in the wild anymore. There are new rules. Then if you want a certain level of comfort (nothing at all wrong with that) you need to use money, either frugally/intelligently or lavishly. Don't be apologetic...the difference may be significant. If you live too frugally, you may be in a bad neighborhood, and someone will break into your house and kill you while you're on the zafu. That's unacceptable! Since you're spiritual, you should be wanting to help your fellow earthlings. That is next to impossible without money to put towards the cause. If you want to be a positive force in this world, you need money. It is more important than meditation. Some have said things akin to, "money is the root of all evil". There is only some truth to that. For instance, it's evil to be capable of spending billions of dollars and not use any of it to help better the world. But for us, poverty is evil. It breeds crime and corruption. Makes you unintelligent and ineffective. It disables you, so that you can't improve your life or the lives of those around you. If you don't have money to pay your bills, you are effectively stealing. A spiritual person should take care of their debts as fast as they can. It feels good to pay everything off and be FREE...and it's a burden to owe. Even for your own benefit of having a clear conscience, having more than enough money is good. Lets say you want to raise kids....well, do you want to raise malnourished kids? Kids who go with the wrong crowd and end up getting into a lot of trouble...who end up having a record and ruining their future? Kids who don't know how to save money, so they steal or deal drugs, and live a miserable life? Kids who don't end up going to college because you were broke and unable to help them out, so they end up working jobs that they hate and barely scraping by? By being poor, you are ruining the lives of everyone around you. Anyway: it is absolutely necessary to put forth all effort to be smart with your money. That is my opinion. It's also wise to invest...I am (still) in college and just set aside 20 bucks a week. That's like skipping 2 meals out, or not going to see a movie in the theater. It equals out to about 1000 a year. Investing that (intelligently) will make me into a millionaire after about 47.5 years at the interest rate of 10%...a little less than what the market has done over the long term. It's essential to start investing early. But I also plan on investing 10% or more of what I earn once I have a real career...so the millionaire mark will come even faster. Be smart...read books on the subjects of personal finance, frugal living, and smart investing.

I agree with feeling that it's risky to trust someone who derives their belief system from their dreams...I mean, we have our own dreams which are only relevant to us, and they may not even be immediately understandable. But something interesting is that interpreting dreams is exactly what most of the characters in the bible (new and old testament) did. Their subjective experiences, both inner and outer, formed what Christianity became.

Maybe! But I personally found relief from synchronicity craziness by taking breaks from the outer world. See that pic of the buddha statue? Looks serene in and of itself. That's a good thing to have. What will the reflection of the world be when he comes back into it? Maybe also serene. I guess my main thought is: attempting to derive meaning from insignificant or indirectly related events is one step away from mental illness. That is a very good thing to understand. ... Edit: also a helpful thing I once heard is that normally people have filters which help them naturally block out most useless information. They only pay attention to things with direct meaning, and therefore experience very few synchronicity events. For a mentally ill person (or a somewhat advanced spiritual practitioner, and maybe others) the filter isn't there...they are aware of a lot more. The difference between an effective spiritual practitioner, and a mentally ill person would be: intelligently interpreting all of the information they gather by their awareness. My opinion is that unintelligent interpretation would be thinking that synchronicities always have reliable meaning to us...maybe only half of the time they do. So that form of misinterpretation causes the spiritual practitioner to fall into mental illness, and be less effective at their spirituality.

Oh man, I had some problems with interpreting messages from synchronicities. Wound up in a lot of trouble. I say forget about synchronicities altogether...become more meditative. Going within instead of looking for 'the answer' out there. Do things you enjoy. Cultivate those things in your life consciously...for instance if you like a certain piece of art, hang it up on your wall...or whatever. Be a creator of your world instead of someone who is created upon. Make your own decisions at all times...go with what immediately works, not anything magickal. Take control of the wheel, don't let the car drive you...or any passengers! I was reading about the Art of War, and apparently it's said somewhere in there to never listen to spirits for advice. Only consider the opinions of human beings. The book linked in my signature is helpful. If the outer world is a mirror of the mind, then improving the mind will improve the outer world...perhaps that kind of work can make the synchronicities go away. If not, at least it will improve the mind's reaction to them...which can be slightly damaging.

We are over 2,000 years after the fact. Scholars attempt to build an entire puzzle with most of the pieces missing...they shouldn't be claiming that those pieces were never meant to be there! So it comes down to belief once again. Those who supposedly rely on fact alone are believing that this man never existed, since they only find stories of him. Those who aren't as supposedly educated, tend to believe that he existed. Where is the honesty in the middle of this? Honesty and scholarly integrity would say, "There aren't records of JC outside of what records we have." That is all. Also, I have a question for the scholars. Are there any reputable historical sources of the deaths of the apostles? As for those who were said to have been martyred, I can't imagine people being willing to die for what they knew was a lie...

I think this is just caused by the light and shadow play. I bet if you lowered your head a bit more, the shadow would return to normal. But if not, then mind = blown.