ljazztrumpet

Let's Get Lost - Chet Baker Documentary

Afro Blue

Unless you are one of the few people who have an unusually good upbringing, it seems that it takes quite a bit of practice to accumulate internal wealth. Intellectually, I would say I didn't go anywhere since what I am, is all that is. But, experientially, with my logical mind, which likes linear constructs and thinks it's a separate self/soul, I would say my soul keeps reincarnating onto the earth plane to learn to love more and more..why it's happening this way, and why we have to go through suffering over so many lifetimes to learn to love/live in the heart..that I don't know. Most recently, I've realized surrendering to the 'I don't know' is a very positive step for me.. That my logical mind will never figure things like this out. I also work with John Sherman's teaching at justonelook.org which talks about losing all fear of life.

Didn't he do The Tonight Show once? Hiyo! Socrates said something to the effect of that the only thing he knows is that he doesn't know anything. How disappointing! I thought, at this point, I would know a lot. But, seriously, folks. Isn't it all about surrender? The not knowing? To be poetic, perhaps it means we are 'living in the heart' rather than the head. So I've learned to be comfortable with the 'I don't know'.

Yeah the GJ alone never worked well for me. I was told by a loved one in a mystical experience that the GJ is good - but it has to be from the heart, not just the mind thinking what you're grateful for. She said in every second the heart can find something to be truly grateful for. Just put your hand over it and 'tune in to it'.

I think it takes practice to cultivate this type of mindset. Maybe we are lucky enough to encounter people who live this way. Or maybe it's just extreme suffering that leads us to this type of realization. What's funny is I just read this and I guy came up to me in my car (I'm down in wall st, nyc waiting for my gig to start) just released from prison and needed me to share some $ with him. And it was just spontaneous for me to give something - I mean literally right after I read what you wrote he knocked on my window! :-)

OMG..You get the Humility Trophy Wu!

That's jazz Trumpet to you Mister! (Or you can just use ljazz..or JT;-) Hey, let's have a humility contest! No Marbler, you are much more balanced than I am! How dare you insinuate that your balance is less than mine!

Silent Thunder, that is a really beautiful and deep way to put it. I'm going to be sending what you wrote to a few friends. I wasn't even thinking of gratitude as a tool to dissolve the idea that we think we are separate from each other. But I definitely believe that it does take actual practices to have experiential awareness of this - not just reading intellectual ideas about it, going to satsangs, etc.. Now I am even more excited about this practice!:-) I think if one focuses on cultivating the qualities of love, gratitude, compassion, humility, kindness, benevolence, etc.. Then all those 'advaitic awakening concepts' that are discussed will eventually just automatically become our experience. Thanks again! :-)

Haha..I can dig it Marbleman;-) I am very into spiritual teachings and healing myself..but I also can be quite the skeptic when it comes to all this stuff.. I need a lot of proof..I need to see practical, tangible 'real world' results in my own life..

Charlie Parker

Hey rene, thanks. The fact that you are at a place in life where you seem to have such a gratitude for life is inspiring to me. I've always felt that living in a way that one loves and appreciates life is a very good way to live and brings many practical benefits. It's one of the main things I'm working on cultivating. All the very best, Lex

Marbley-top - I'm pretty new here and I don't want to yet post anything that will make me sound too 'kooky'. At least until I have more practical evidence to the benefits of embracing 'far-out kookiness' (not to be confused with cookieness..cookie monster..oh, wait, that's for the 'simplicity thread'). But I will say this: I feel that Life has forced me into this position of learning to give thanks in more and more situations and feeling states. Of course it created, and still creates sometimes, inner conflicts within me as well..but, what it comes down to, is that I do feel better emotionally more of the time from doing this. So, aside from other things I believe I will gain in my life from doing this practice, just the feeling better emotionally more of the time is a good motivator for me. As time goes on, my intention is that I will post any further positive results from this practice I gain on this thread.

I'm A Fool To Want You

Oh come on..no one? FOILED AGAIN!!

Curses!

Blim Blam the Korblox

Rick and Morty kill The Simpsons. Gabba blaagh blaagh?

Pangu Shengong! Wonderful - it's all about developing kindness/benevolence/love.. I think love is the most powerful healing force. Living from the heart... I've been doing a couple of distance healing sessions with this lady: http://www.pangu.org/testimonials/practicing/my-healing-journey-susan-winters/ I contacted her after reading her testimonial because she was one of the few people who I felt understood about the power of love like I do (and she understands about it quite a bit more than I do I now realize). That's why she was able to heal so quickly using Pangu as a vehicle. I learned Pangu last year from a friend..I've been practicing it daily for about 21/2 months now. If you can't find a Pangu teacher in your area, the correspondence courses are very good. To expound a little more on what nyerstudent was saying: With the moving form you get a booklet and about a 2 hour DVD of one of Master Ou's recent live workshops where he teachings the moving form, the moving form is the first, foundational form of Pangu (and most people receive physical healing just from practicing this form). You can then go on to learn the non-moving form (after a month), the healing skill (a really wonderful and simple way to send out healing energy), and the advanced/condensed form (I haven't taken this last one yet). * - the non-moving form is very similar to the moving form except you just do it with your eyes and breath. Nice to use when your falling asleep actually. Also, check the Pangu.org site to see if Master Ou may be coming to your area.. He travels all over the country giving workshops in Pangu. Most people consider Pangu to be the simplest and one of the most powerful forms of qigong. I believe this is because this qigong is all about developing kindness, compassion, benevolence, love, service, humility, ..You know..all the good stuff that the few truly powerful spiritual healers in human history have talked about as being key elements to healing and a happy life. Best wishes that you find something that really resonates with you and helps you Papillon.

Yes, excellent ideas here roger, imo. I have to say it makes me feel good to be in a more loving state. It is more enjoyable. There are a lot of connotations to the word 'happiness'. What about not suffering no matter what happens? Is that happiness? Maybe not, maybe it's just 'peace'.. Things may happen to cause of physical pain or emotional grief, but there is no extra mental suffering attached to it. It's my current opinion that cultivating the quality of love could help us reach this type of state. Doesn't all suffering come out of fear? And love, being the opposite of fear, would cancel it out - of course there are different degrees of this. But it seems to me that 'the great goal of my life' would be to cultivate the quality of love to the maximum, because of the myriad of benefits for myself and others - and reaching certain 'truths'/wisdoms experientially, rather than trying to figure them out intellectually - not that the intellectual questioning and seeking doesn't have value too.

Will - First let me say I usually am happy when I listen to jazz..but that may have to do with my profession (see my username) Over 10 years ago I read a book called 'Love Can Open Prison Doors' by Starr Daily (and, then, his longer version, 'Release'). It convinced me of something I always thought since a little child. That love was the most powerful force on earth and that it can bring happiness as well as physical and emotional healing to people. I'm referring to the type of agape love associated with people like Confucius, Jesus/Bruno Groening, and those few others we associate with 'spiritual and/or life mastery'. The problem was, I could never maintain this level of love. Something would happen in my life that would cause me suffering and I would forget to do this 'love practice'. Now I was doing this practice in the first place to bring me happiness - because it made me feel much better than I normally did when I was able to do it. I couldn't understand, and still can't to a large extent, why it can be so difficult to maintain this powerful love consciousness to a very high degree. For whatever reason, I have attracted people with some amazing mystical gifts throughout my life. This is how I got to interact with Bruno Groening. I definitely got the sense he was the same as me..he was just another guy (I mean not on the earth plane..but, still, he was just like me) but the gap between the wisdom he embodied and the wisdom I embodied, or lack thereof, was quite enormous. It wasn't that I was jealous/envious exactly, it's just that I really wanted to know (and still do) how to 'get there'. Several months ago, I came across a teaching by a John Sherman (justonelook.org) who has an exercise called 'Self-Directed Attention'. Although I've studied many different forms of meditation over the years, there was nothing that caused me to strengthen my attention nearly as much as John's exercise. Now, I am finally getting much better at focusing my attention on sending love out/around in more and more situations. I remember reading one of Starr Daily's later books and he was recounting a story about a guy who came to him asking for his help. He was physically sick and emotionally quite unhappy. Starr told him to force himself to love everyone he came into contact with over the next several weeks. According to Starr, the guy came back to him a couple of months later and was physically healed and a happy man. I can tell you that the difference between the way I feel when I am able to 'send the love out/around' and when I'm not, as far as the way I emotionally feel, couldn't really be more different. My current theory is that I think by cultivating a universal love for everyone it breaks down the idea that what we are, are only these separate bodies most of us take ourselves to be. But, really, the reason I do this whole love thing right now is because it makes me feel much happier.

Hope this goes thru - am on my BlackBerry. What do you define as an 'apocalypse' type of test?

What is the apocalypse anyway? Does it mean the whole world and life will be destroyed? A smart friend of mine speculated that the whole thing would just 'start up again' somewhere else anyway.. So there's no escaping what we've set out to learn..at least that's her take.. I hope it's not true..at least at this point in my development! I just don't want to suffer..at least give me a vacation!

Yes, some of it is going 'over my head' but thank you anyway! I still want to know more about the Tao/Dao.. Especially the true Tao that cannot be named..can someone explain that to me

Well, I'll still will have the desire to do that which I'm passionate about - just for the joy of it, without any fear motivating it as well, which, I would think, would make my doings much more effective, powerful, and efficient