rideforever

What was the original practice that led to the kundalini awakening and spine ache ?

Good enough !

Which one?

You .... dance the Paso Doble ? Show, show ... Show us this Paso Doble ... ( Hari Om Tat Sat )

Everyone has to choose their way. Another piece of wisdom that settled inside me is ... that if you are clever enough to pick holes in things, you should be clever enough to reconstruct any truth that lies within.

Wandelaar is coming .... run ... oh ... shhh .... too late !!!. Well my good friend ... what to say. The world is floating and ever changing like you say. But it is possible to "awaken". Do you believe that ? Or perhaps you don't believe it ? When I was younger I walked into a magazine shop one day in Bayswater, West London. I had just come out of work, exhausted and strolled in. There was song on the radio in that shop, the lyrics were something like : "it's later than you think it is". And it hit me, that most people die thinking they still have 20 years left. So with this awakening business, I figured, you know what maybe I should just try. Why not to try ? Have I got something to lose ? People talk a lot but how can you know ? And, another thing. I have seen people try, but not try. They half try, their hearts not really in it. Half trying is not really worth much. The only thing that changes you is if you fully know, and to fully know you have to fully try. And it's better to fully try, I figured, to give it everything ... then at least at the end you know for sure one way or the other. And you can move on with your life.

No soup for you !!!!

Chen, Living Taijiquan by Jan Silberstorff Highly recommended

A student simply needs to be a student. If you do that you will stick out in a large crowd carrying expensive "gifts".

The greatest obstacle is a lack of students.

The OP seems to suffer from over-control and lack of sensitivity, the approach is forced and without feeling. Normally this just makes things worse, pain plus force equals more pain. For leg issues I can recommend this sequence of ZZ postures : Wuji Wuji left weighted, then right (LKC's Way of Energy) Holding the ball at the side left, then right (LKC's Way of Energy) Santi left, then right (Mark Cohen's book) Wuji 8 postures, 3 minutes each as you like The asymmetric postures increase in difficulty. Holding the ball at the side and Santi introduce a twist in the rear leg that is very good to free up the tissues. Santi is very stable feet flat. Holding the ball at the side is less stable, toes only on front foot. LKCs book also has toe heel postures. Other thing is, as you stand it is good to imagine you are in a warm salt water spa, with the water lapping your body, so that you loosen up more and more and more. Tight ass people who "want to go lower", will increase their suffering. Other good ones are on youtube Pelvic Release Bioenergetics by Devaraj, and T.R.E, both of which favour the lower legs. Also doing a proper shaking horse for 5 solid minutes before starting, really shaking yourself to bits, is very good.

That, is all that I had ever hoped for.

There is much talk about balancing one pole with its opposite. Male / Female, Inner / Outer, Water / Fire. But perhaps this is only a beginning, it's a way to gain orientation and explore where you are at. Balancing one side with the other does not actually lead to ascension on its own. If you wish to ascend that you require insight, technique, tuition, revelation.

This is very important. Human beings have voices inside their head, the understanding of what this means is not well understood and in general either being lost in the voices or killing the voices is what is understood. But I think we must vastly improve this situation. Fakeness When we say "oh that's the ego", it blames it on someone else. But what if ego is just ... when we are being fake. Perhaps we have been taught to think and feel in a fake way, perhaps we don't even remember who we are. Well calling it fakeness indicates to us that we need to change and become Real, rather than blaming it on something called "ego". Conscious Subconscious Bridge Part of the cause of the voices in the head is that it is a conversation between the animal self (ancient, sound and subconscious) and the new mind (recent, unstable, semi-conscious). You have an animal-mind and a conscious-mind that are speaking together. One way to see this is if you have some old moans in your head, you can "stand inside your mind" and say ... "look, it's not like that at all" ... i.e. you can speak to yourself using reason. This is the conscious mind speaking to the subconscious animal. This bridge needs to be vastly improved, details of which I don't have right now. Fragmented Self We are all traumatised upon entry into this world and the mind shatters into many voices in the head. It's not just one voice, or one inner critic, it is many voices. You can work with them to understand them and heal them, they have reasons for existing and they can be healed directly and spoken to. Internal Family Systems is an absolutely excellent way to understand it, here is a video. The originator is Richard Schwartz (has youtube series) and there is a great book by Bonnie Weiss (Self-Therapy). Once you see the explanations it might clear up what is occurring in the head.

What I meant there is that I have personal reasons for doing ZZ (trauma) and want to separate them. ------------------------------------- Regarding : why do I practice ? I read today the statement that Wisdom and Practice are one. So, no body, no mind, no thought, no action ... just One. Just One pole. One fire, no residue. ------------------------------------- Existence will actually teach directly, and it's a good thing to taste early on. It speaks to us, it guides us, now and now and now. It is good no longer to use the props circulated in the human world. To allow existence to initiate oneself. To be permanently in initiation.

ZZ ? In general the most important things are surrender, energetic sensitivity, merging of conscious and subconscious, dissolution of the "body", entry into the unknown. I also dissolve trauma.

I was assuming you knew why you were practicing.

Yes ... like what ? What does Song and Ting get you ? Why are you practicing ?

Shorter checklist only 2 items on it. And what will they get you, Song and Ting ? Power and control of your opponent ? People speak of Zhan Zhuang, but in fact they have quite different goals and intentions for the practice. It is the same in many discussions, people are actually doing very practices and for different reasons.

Yes Freeform .... with regards your endless lists of technical points .... perhaps you have the idea that first you will go through your technical checklist and then after your mind will be quiet, then you will go to the mountain. I suggest that it is your checklist that ... is ... your mind. Checklists are fine for 5 minutes, after that do be silent, and feel the intention of the thing. And the quietness grows until it swallows you up.

It's amazing how much doing people can invent. That voice just never ends. That voice is happy only when it has introduced enough of its own ideas to completely prevent the original purpose of the practice.

Recently, watching senior teachers in various traditions, I have noticed that they from time to time let slip that their ego is still talking in their heads. So, that's not so good. Sure they have done something inside and it feels good, but a major problem, perhaps the major problem is still there. As for Fire & Water ... what is the intention behind the practice, anyone even know ??? What is the mechanism of action ? What is the theory of operation ? So you reverse direction .... why ? And what happens then ? You want to crawl back into mother ? And why not just say let's go back down. Why all this fire and water business ? In India they go up the chakras .... no fire & water involved. Then there is the "steaming" effect of fire & water, easily demonstrated with 5 minutes of qigong .... but whether it's a good way to clear blockages is another question, but at least we can understand what it does, and do it. Something else is the pre-post-natal business. It dawned on me a while back that when a teacher says to you this is a pre-natal form this is post-natal .... they probably just mean, this is a beginners form, this is advanced. They have absolutely no idea of the natal-ness of anything. In fact many qigong teachers are extremely proud of the fact you don't have to know any theory or even feel anything inside, just do the movements. Which just shows the level of intelligence or interest of these people. Is it really possible to end up as a sage taking such an approach ? That book WujiQigong and the Secret of Sexiness, it actually does do what I would have hoped everyone could do, but can't. It is short. It goes from I Ching theory, to a theory of how to revert the IChing, then maps it to the body, and then creates a practice. So, when you practice you know exactly what you are doing, where and why, how it is supposed to work, and how it all relates to the IChing. And it's fairly simple really. I am not even saying the book is correct, just that I would have hoped everyone would do that, but they don't. Of course other teachers .... say come back in 10 years you are too stupid, and when they write books they tend to be really really really long and at the end you don't know anything. Oh yes something else !!! Chuang Tzu it seems to me had cultivated Energy Sensitivity, not Energy. Hence his incredible view of life, he says he feels trouble coming from a distance and by the time it arrives he is perfectly ready.. And thats one reason I am not so keen on the steaming process of Kan & Li because it creates disturbing and boisterous energy, like a nightclub ... and is not a great environment for cultivating sensitivity. ZZ by contract is. IMO those that do Kan & Li and other disturbing practices have disturbed minds and are the time who want a lightning bolt Kundalini energy awakening which is a sort of mindless awakening for people who cannot understand things - well good luck to them. And so we could divide practices into those that facilitate Sensitivty, and those that are designed for people who just want to beef up.

I have noticed that many senior alchemy teachers talk about "awareness" being the goal. Well, there are many easier simpler and more efficient ways to get to "awareness". What good is a mess as a path that you wish to follow. Just listen to Mudfoot's smorgasbord of "ideas". How useful is this going to be for you ? It could be this, or that person says that, or the black turtle breathes green fire into the yellow pearl that rotates in the 7 gates - what hope do you actually have to make something of these instructions !!! Or the others who say that you are too stupid, come back after 10 years .... they tell you that you are too stupid, because that's what they think of themselves, and that's what their teachers think of themselves, the lineage of "too stupid come back in 10 years". Surely it is better to have a simple clear (even if unexotic) way out that works. Such simple wisdom seems lost on those looking for "more".

0. In the name of the Lord of Initiation, Amen. 1. I fly and I alight as an hawk: of mother-of-emerald are my mighty-sweeping wings. 2. I swoop down upon the black earth; and it gladdens into green at my coming. 3. Children of Earth! rejoice! rejoice exceedingly; for your salvation is at hand. 4. The end of sorrow is come; I will ravish you away into mine unutterable joy. 5. I will kiss you, and bring you to the bridal: I will spread a feast before you in the house of happiness. 6. I am not come to rebuke you, or to enslave you. 7. I bid you not turn from your voluptuous ways, from your idleness, from your follies. 8. But I bring you joy to your pleasure, peace to your languor, wisdom to your folly. 9. All that ye do is right, if so be that ye enjoy it. 10. I am come against sorrow, against weariness, against them that seek to enslave you. 11. I pour you lustral wine, that giveth you delight both at the sunset and the dawn. 12. Come with me, and I will give you all that is desirable upon the earth. 13. Because I give you that of which Earth and its joys are but as shadows. 14. They flee away, but my joy abideth even unto the end. 15. I have hidden myself beneath a mask: I am a black and terrible God. 16. With courage conquering fear shall ye approach me: ye shall lay down your heads upon mine altar, expecting the sweep of the sword. 17. But the first kiss of love shall be radiant on your lips; and all my darkness and terror shall turn to light and joy. 18. Only those who fear shall fail. Those who have bent their backs to the yoke of slavery until they can no longer stand upright; them will I despise. 19. But you who have defied the law; you who have conquered by subtlety or force; you will I take unto me, even I will take you unto me. 20. I ask you to sacrifice nothing at mine altar; I am the God who giveth all. 21. Light, Life, Love; Force, Fantasy, Fire; these do I bring you: mine hands are full of these. 22. There is joy in the setting-out; there is joy in the journey; there is joy in the goal. 23. Only if ye are sorrowful, or weary, or angry, or discomforted; then ye may know that ye have lost the golden thread, the thread wherewith I guide you to the heart of the groves of Eleusis. 24. My disciples are proud and beautiful; they are strong and swift; they rule their way like mighty conquerors. 25. The weak, the timid, the imperfect, the cowardly, the poor, the tearful --- these are mine enemies, and I am come to destroy them. 26. This also is compassion: an end to the sickness of earth. A rooting-out of the weeds: a watering of the flowers. 27. O my children, ye are more beautiful than the flowers: ye must not fade in your season. 28. I love you; I would sprinkle you with the divine dew of immortality. 29. This immortality is no vain hope beyond the grave: I offer you the certain consciousness of bliss. 30. I offer it at once, on earth; before an hour hath struck upon the bell, ye shall be with Me in the Abodes that are beyond Decay. 31. Also I give you power earthly and joy earthly; wealth, and health, and length of days. Adoration and love shall cling to your feet, and twine around your heart. 32. Only your mouths shall drink of a delicious wine --- the wine of Iacchus; they shall reach ever to the heavenly kiss of the Beautiful God. 33. I reveal unto you a great mystery. Ye stand between the abyss of height and the abyss of depth. 34. In either awaits you a Companion; and that Companion is Yourself. 35. Ye can have no other Companion. 36. Many have arisen, being wise. They have said "Seek out the glittering Image in the place ever golden, and unite yourselves with It." 37. Many have arisen, being foolish. They have said, "Stoop down unto the darkly splendid world, and be wedded to that Blind Creature of the Slime." 38. I who am beyond Wisdom and Folly, arise and say unto you: achieve both weddings! Unite yourselves with both! 39. Beware, beware, I say, lest ye seek after the one and lose the other! 40. My adepts stand upright; their head above the heavens, their feet below the hells. 41. But since one is naturally attracted to the Angel, another to the Demon, let the first strengthen the lower link, the last attach more firmly to the higher. 42. Thus shall equilibrium become perfect. I will aid my disciples; as fast as they acquire this balanced power and joy so faster will I push them. 43. They shall in their turn speak from this Invisible Throne; their words shall illumine the worlds. 44. They shall be masters of majesty and might; they shall be beautiful and joyous; they shall be clothed with victory and splendour; they shall stand upon the firm foundation; the kingdom shall be theirs; yea, the kingdom shall be theirs. In the name of the Lord of Initiation. Amen. Always with Crowley I would give great pause and warning. And a second warning of danger as many foul things occurred around him.