Aetherous

It sounds like they were stoned, to be honest.

Carson, Breathing actually doesn't have a direct impact on the brain's sense of oxygen content in the blood. Researching the basics of respiration is pretty interesting... ... Regarding the comment about energetically pissing in front of a master by yawning...if they're a real master they will respect your need to energetically piss. That's what the path is all about...getting rid of the old! Why hold it in? That's ridiculous, in my opinion. I don't hold my pee in for someone I respect...I go to the bathroom. Of course, not in front of them... So I guess the moral of the story is cover your mouth when you yawn?

What I find most interesting about lightning is that most people can actually survive being struck!

Hardyg, YES!

Yeah, concepts...

Gold, When people talk about energy practices, they're not talking about physics or different laws of energy. They're mostly talking about the electromagnetic and expanding awareness sensation that comes with the integration of consciousness and the physical body. You are right that people should listen to their bodies instead of blindly following orders when things seem to be going bad. That can really cause damage. However...stop thinking you know it all, man! It makes for really boring reading.

Great question, actually. Yawning can happen a lot more with increased energy flowing through the body. I don't really know the exact mechanism...but it should be pretty simple if you just research the body's signal to inhale. It seems to be a compensation for decreased oxygen levels in the blood...or something along those lines.

If you do a search on this forum, you'll come up with TONS of info. Just go to the search box near the top of the page, and type in "kunlun", and press the "go" button...tons of stuff should come up. I suggest you first spend your time reading ALL of it...then you'll pretty much know the ins and outs. All of your questions will be answered...even ones you haven't asked yet!

Please do a search.

I voted all three times for Taoist Discussion. Sorry if that breaks the rules. I like the free-for-all aspect of it as well. ...just thought of something. I also like to do searches here, because there's a ton of good old stuff.

...For when the spiritual light is too bright.

The way I view it, we are entertained by and addicted to negative feelings. They make up who we think we are, so it feels normal to have them around. A person can actually feel empty when they stop feeling sad. They will assume (on a subconscious level) that there's a hole where the sadness was, so they need to fill it back up again. Or they'll feel like they are free falling, and so they desperately try to grab onto the branch of despair in order to gain some stability again. It's almost as if feeling normal emotionally is like traveling in a foreign land, and feeling anxious/depressed/pissed off is like the comfort of home. Some people are really hooked on their pointless feelings. Kinda weird. No one can let go of any emotion. It's almost more accurate to say the emotions let go of us, in time. Or even more accurately: that it's impossible to stop feeling the way you do...so just accept it! But it can be beneficial to make a very clear declaration to change your life, and work hard at it. Qigong can also help neutralize the emotions. All we have to do is keep living life, and eventually things balance out. Edit: ...or they don't.

No, but I would.

Awesome. This is something which I think very few people know about, regarding enlightenment. What a tricky topic. Personally, I need a lot more time in meditation. This topic has given me a ton to consider. Thank you very much for engaging in the conversation, Xabir!

Well I very very very highly disagree.

I guess I don't understand exactly what "wisdom eye" means here. The way I'm interpreting it, is that the wisdom eye opening is the natural perception of centerlessness. If that's the case, then in my opinion the only person who should be considered an Arhat is someone with a permanently opened wisdom eye. It's strange to think that someone who isn't currently perceiving reality in the way it really is, could be considered enlightened. And I guess I really don't comprehend the need for the 3 other "paths" of stream entry, etc. If it's not a natural perception of centerlessness, then how can it be called enlightenment at all? I will reread Ingram's book tonight, focusing on the differences between the different paths and try to comprehend why things are set up the way they are.

You can definitely train yourself to stay very awake and aware while being totally exhausted (done it), but the repercussions of that are not good (constant sympathetic arousal, amongst other things). It's good to sleep when tired. It's good to not get into the habit of staying up when the day ends.

I know this was supposed to be funny, but I hope no one actually believes a good doctor (or any intelligent person) would say these sorts of things.

It's nearly impossible to diagnose what's going on from someone's description over the internet. You need to go see someone in your area.

I couldn't vote for what I thought. Recently I have been feeling about 75% good. Mostly due to lingering negative effects from various spiritual practices (kundalini yoga, kunlun, spontaneous qigong...all not good to me). I think physical exercise like jogging, stretching, and lifting weights is best for physical health. Even walking is great, if you can't or don't want to jog. Qigong or taiji are not ideal for health (yes, I said it!), but they can have some nice effects...just incomplete. What has helped me most mentally is going through a bunch of crap, and learning from my experiences. For instance, seeing the human side of a guru type figure. Or finding out that the claims of a practice weren't up to par and actually may have been lies, through my own personal experience. Or being neglected or mistreated by a friend (or even just a stranger), and knowing that it sucks, so that I don't do it to others. The only thing written in books that has been useful is, "treat others like you'd want them to treat you". And also, "This too shall pass". Everything else is a waste of time.

Are you sure that's what you want? The body self-regulates the internal energies, so that you can feel good and normal. The more you mess with it, the worse off you get.

Sorry everyone who has been waiting for this topic to continue...I've been very busy, but this next week I will have more time to talk about this. Ya Mu, I still think we're talking about different types of enlightenment. I like your stages that you laid out, but to me that's a different topic or a different kind of enlightenment. I know it sucks that the definition I like is static, but that's just the way it is. Kate, Wisdom. _/\_