wandelaar

I will try to find out that the signing out depends on.

Would you? Now how about opening a topic where you try to follow through on your own advise and let us know what you find. That would be much more interesting than this endless grumpy old men stuff....

No - not on phone. And it doesn't always happen because just now I stayed signed in while I went from "Activity" to "Forums". Don't remember seeing an error code either.

It would reflect badly on the schools themselves when its top students would lack common decency. So it's understandable that the schools place great importance on refining your manifest self. Just as it is in one's interest to care for one's bodily health it's also in one's interest to live in peace with the society one lives in. And as regards the latter cultivating and practising common decency is the easiest way to do so.

Thank you - but what sorts of dangerous things could happen when done prematurely?

Some time ago there was a discussion on a Dutch science forum about this. So I know from experience how hopeless it is to discuss with conspiracy thinkers. That's why I will not waste my time participating in this topic. The arguments for doubting that the U.S. really got to the moon are solidly debunked in this book: https://www.amazon.com/Moon-Hoax-Debunked-Paolo-Attivissimo/dp/1291591575 Or read it for free: http://www.moonhoaxdebunked.com/ Not that it will make any difference....

@ freeform In the Qigong interpretation of the Tao Te Ching by Yang, Jwing-Ming he often refers to opening the Third Eye as an advanced (and important) technique. What are the dangers?

For a free pdf see here: https://archive.org/details/2014203_20140623_0945/page/n23

Depends on what websites you read. I have just read this one: https://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/electro.html But that's just "insensitive dogmatic western science", so never mind...

What kind of an experiment do you have in mind? From what I have read about internal alchemy it looks like the experiential effects could be the results of (self)suggestion. Is the experiment such that (self)suggestion can be ruled out as a possible explanation?

What is the relation between Tao and the Laws of Nature? 1) Does Tao simply consists of the Laws of Nature? 2) But if so - than Tao isn't beyond description... 3) So maybe Tao lies deeper and forms the foundation of the Laws of Nature? 4) Does Tao determine the outcome of quantum mechanical chance events? 5) Or is a fundamental indeterminacy (or if you want: creativity) an essential part of Tao?

But that's not what I do when I meditate. I observe the thoughts and feelings, but I don't feed them. Or rather - that is what I try to do, and that's difficult enough because it is all too easy to follow along with one's thoughts and feelings and then one starts daydreaming. So I have to restart with just observing my thought and feelings each time that I notice that I have started daydreaming again. And that is what I do. I learned of this practice from my study of Zen.

One has to open to the possibility of other possible sources of perception and one has to be open to the possibility of errors in those other sources of perception. And only critical investigation can decide what is the case.

@ Wu Ming Jen I am not interested in the second and third type of meditation and I don't even believe in the possibility of gaining powers or eternal living.

Emotions largely depend on the (maybe unconscious) cognitive evaluations of stimuli. This is the basis of cognitive therapy. Stimuli that are evaluated as neutral don't result in emotions.

The problem is that there are way too many different forms of practice to try out everything. But what I sometimes do is to deliberately remove my attention from my head to my belly when I have been too busy thinking. That often helps. I may devote a few minutes daily to experimentation along those lines.

@ rideforever As I have no reason to think that the mind is somehow independent of the brain (or more properly from the body as a whole), I call the mind the total of psychological processes that go on in a human being. So this is where our presuppositions come into play, and why similar experiences are differently named and interpreted.

Then what do you mean by "beyond mind"?

Thinking doesn't necessary need words, one can also think in images or even in sounds, etc. I personally like playing around with mathematics, and word-less images play a big role in how I understand mathematical concepts. I didn't need any esoteric practices for that.

@ Rara Thank you. Attention is not thinking, although it can easily develop into thinking. But in attention meditation one tries to keep as close to pure observation as possible (although absolutely objective observation is impossible). Sometimes Bums appear to think that I am just a thinking head with an attached body to carry it around. But that isn't so, I appreciate attention, feeling, observation, acting, sleeping, etc. The crucial role I give to thinking is as a critical faculty. Life is full of experiences and impressions, and to organise those experiences and impressions into some kind of world view one needs (critical) thinking. As a conscious human being one simply cannot go beyond thinking. Those who claim to do so only hide or most often just refuse to recognize the perspectives from which they actually interpret their experiences and impressions. By analysing the way in which they present their case one can make their implicit presuppositions explicit. And that then proves that they didn't actually go beyond thinking. I rather just bring the role of (critical) thinking into the open.

Thank you - your description is crystal clear. I could do that. But I can't do both, because that would take me too much time. So doing meditation on my belly will mean less attention meditation on my thoughts and feelings. That's the problem: I am happy with my current form of meditation, so why change to other forms of meditation that would mean less practice of my current meditation? One can't try everything anyhow because that would mean never settling for serious practice of one or a few preferred forms of meditation.

Thanks - perhaps my relatively simple goals don't need the esoteric paths that others follow and propose.

As a form of meditation directed to peace of mind, objective observation, and training of one's ability to stay focused on a task even when it isn't captivating.