Zen Pig

Looks like you got some real good advice here. All I would add is don't over think it. The very thing that wants to be mindful, that wants to change things, etc, is the very thing keeping you from seeing what is happening right now. In Zen they say to "Sit to Just Sit, without trying to do anything, or accomplish anything". This concept is so difficult because it is so simple. Our thinking mind wants to make life complicated. life is so simple, we miss most of it. good luck

a cup of tea.

Just keep meditating- (I am thinking of embroidering this on a sitting cushion for folks who over think- you will never get there with just thinking mind) LOL

I have been doing the Wim Hof method. and yes, it is close to a lot of different breathing techniques, but in my experience, being in my 60's I was able to hold my breath after a couple of weeks of daily practice for 3 min's 6 seconds, and that was with my lungs mostly empty. (that is the way he has you hold your breath, with empty lungs, not a full breath, which is serious freaky the first time you do it). I am also doing the cold water immersion, and I found it amazing the difference when one does the breathing/ meditation before getting in the cold water. (this is also common in many martial arts). It's not that the water is not cold, but it does not seem to be as unpleasant as one would think, especially if you can stay in a focused relaxed state. all kinds of very good health things going on doing the cold water bath, and the breathing. I actually researched it, and found that this guy was spot on. After getting out of the ice water, one feels like a million bucks. Hof recommends staying in the ice water for only about 2 min's. it is not about being macho, but resetting the body. I also do a 3 day water fast every other month, which also re-boots the body, and immunity system. We pay so much for pharmaceutical drugs to treat chronic conditions, when the body can heal itself for many things, and most of it is completely free. good luck on your journey.

Sorry 3bob, did not mean to upset anyone with my Irish potty mouth.

I try to not chime in with true believers. And I am really not trying to be a cunt, but talking to many of the neo-guru followers is like talking to Facebook vegans. I can tell them that I eat meat and living in the mountains we hunt to only eat like humans have done for tens of thousand of years, and we respect the animal that gives us life as one day, it will be our turn to give life to these animals. I also respect folks for there world view, and end up saying, "well, if that works for you, then great, hope you all are happy"......... but much like the neo-non-duality folks, the vegans will denounce me as "worst then Hitler", (yes that really happened), and then go on to point out how there their way is the only way to be spiritual, save the earth, and be a good evolved person..... I much rather be with folks who honestly say, "I have experienced this, but in the end, who really knows where the road will go". For me, once I start to pull my experiences into a coherent, belief system, the deep things I have seen become corrupted. Others who have not had any experience will then latch on to this new religion, and find it comfortable, and think they found, at last some real truth. walking down the unknown road without a destination is a frighting path, until you start to sing, and have fun. just my two cents from an old fart. Happy Sitting

The Demon Ghost cave relates to folks who have had some kind of "awakening" or spiritual seeing into the suchness of life, and then decides to teach, or that he/she is now enlightened or at the finial destination. So there ego, starts to kick in, thinking that they have found the truth, or the final reality, which usually, in the western world becomes a kind of nihilism, a kind of seeing that nothing is real, and the world is all illusion, or empty. While these ideas and experiences can be helpful, one must keep looking, and not let ego bubble up making us think that we really know something. So we get stuck in this cave of our own making, where nothing matters, where we stop interacting in the world, because we believe that it is all empty or illusion. We also get this big ego, thinking that we need to teach others the "truth", and then start charging money, and banging our students . I even met one so called guru who told his students that "if they had sex with him, his sperm would enlighten them" LOL, funny if not so sad. In Zen it talks about coming full circle, where "The sky is blue, and the grass is green", or back to the suchness of re-engaging in this life to the fullest.

I come from a Zen background, but from what little I know of Tibetan Buddhism, I think they call this the "demon ghost cave" . I have no doubt that you have had awaking or spiritual experiences. Nothing special. Most folks who sit and meditate for a long time, have these kinds of experiences. Then we want to tell others, or teach others, and from my experience , most folks don't give a bloody rats ass about what we think, or our experience. that to is fine. In the end, we have to come back to just "carrying water, and chopping wood" just living our lives. but if you really need to try to teach, just do it with all your intent, let it burn you out, keep doing it , and if you sucked or, succeed, just see where that is going. good luck my friend.

Good comment. from my own experience in various meditations, most of the techniques are very easily taught within a few min's, but the so-called hard part is to practice every day, for at least an hour or more, and just be sensitive enough to start feeling your body tell you how it needs to move, (at first we need to kind or intend our breathing with focus, but later the body starts to get what we want it to do, and this natural movement starts to take over, hard to explain. just have to keep doing it) as far as the question "how does chi feel", it feels like being alive, like every day life, we just become more aware of the actual movement in our bodies, and the tension we did not even know we were carrying around. But it has always been there. Kind of like breathing, we have always breathed, but once we really connect with the flow of air/life though our bodies, it becomes kind of amazing.

Everything is perfect, but there is always room for improvement....

what great synchronicity. just about 15 mins ago I was reflecting on this very topic. I have no answers of course, but for me, it seems like a find razors edge of engaging in this moment, and the idea of preparing for what will come, i.e, death of the body, immortality of spirit, etc. I see this so called physical reality as not being separate from spiritual immortality, I sometimes see this life as the Bardo of Tibetan Beliefs, or the "in-between state". After all, if one is in the bardo, they would think it was the so called real life, much like dreaming and thinking the dream was real. What I am trying to suss out in my weird way is the pathless path. I to meditate every day . And also do some simple nei gung breathing for energy I have done MA for over 40 years, including 10 years of tai chi, but my approach is one of play, and not so much trying to make something happen, or change my nature. hard to put into words. thanks for your reflections. "when skating on thin ice, you may as well dance"

I get that. I don't have a clue how I choose anything. Not trying to be glib, but It is fun to talk about. Like I said, not good, not bad, as far as I have seen to date. of course my "view" changes every day, and yet it all seems to work out, ...../ so far, but that to might change. My rhetorical question: "how would life be right now, if we could never know anything for sure"??? like I say, rhetorical question. not really meant to be answered, but no problem if anyone wants to either.

yes, very true. even the "I don't know view" is a view, which brings us back to the idea of words. fun, but not something I would hang my hat on.

My personal view, is the "I don't have a view, view"....... mind, matter, reality, illusion are only words, not good, not bad. The seeing life as it is, is beyond words, but it is still fun to fuck around with them. LOL

how odd. I just go for walks in our mountains, sit in the dirt. Play with my puppies, run like i am young. sleep when I am tired. eat when I am hungry. make love with my honey bunny when we are horny. But if I ever wrote a book about it, or did a YouTube thing, it would be about 2 seconds long . who wants to pay money for that shit? LOL

My two cents. When folks talk about "re-grounding yourself", this is just not a metaphorical term. In zen this kind of thing happens also, where one gets kind of disconnected from life. Many Zen teachers will have there students go out and work in the garden all day, touching the earth with there hands and feet, working with plants. Very simple, but it works. take a walk in the woods or mountains, walk some bare foot if you can. most things in life can be solved in a very natural way. good luck

lets put a spin on this one. If the Titanic did not sink, you and I would not be here. If Hitler did not do what he did, exactly as he did it, our families, husband"s, wife's, children would not be here. Are these causes good or bad? could the captain of the Titanic or Hitler take credit for our wonderful, loving family, who has gone on to grow and help others? From what i have seen so far, cause and effect are mostly western concepts where one separate "thing" or person, acts on another thing or person, and a result occurs that is somehow not connected with the rest of the universe. This is what is taught in first year physics as a simplified tool to help understand Newtonian mechanics. But in this universe, nothing acts as a simple cause, because every cause is also an effect, and every effect is a cause. A spider web of being, touch one strand on a spider web, and the whole web reacts, and its reaction causes other effects and on and on. Taking responsibility for me, is being honest about my intent in my actions, but in the end, I still have no idea if my actions will result in good or bad, and probably both. i think the term is "The Law of Unintended Consequences"

yes, my friend my exact experience, it comes from somewhere that is not something I can noodle out. so to speak. good comment

Have discussed this in the past, but will bring it up again, because I feel that it is important to say. My dreams are lucid, and not from anything special about me, but because of doing sitting meditation for many years. It was never my intent to have lucid dreams, but here we are, and more importantly, I believe that anyone can develop lucid dreams from a daily meditation practice. Nothing special, just don't get in a hurry. It took me at least a couple of years of daily sitting, 2 to 3 hours a day before the majority of my dreams were lucid. With that said, this has been an interesting, and constantly developing story. I never heard of Tibetan dream yoga, until I decided to investigate what the hell was going on with the dream changes. I first looked at the western wealth of lucid dreaming techniques which included things like, "reality checks" during the day, which is a process of asking yourself many times a day if you are dreaming right now, or in the "real world". With my experience in already having lucid dreams, this did not set well, as the western premise was that there was a solid "real" world, and then the "un-real" world of dreams. But if it helps folks , then more power to them. The more problematic thing I saw in the western take on lucid dreams, was the idea that a lucid dream was kind of like one of those computer games kids play, a kind of fantastic game where you could do anything you wanted. This too struck me as being focused on a self centered desire to just experience some kind of pleasure or excitement and seemed kind of on the low end of shallow. Not the say that I don't have fun walking through walls or flying in my dreams at times, but there are much more deeper things to explore, and that is where Tibetan dream yoga comes in. The Tibetans seem to have a take that is closer to my experiences. Instead of asking if "this is the real world or am I dreaming", I tend to see the so called real world as being more of a non lucid dream than the dream world. If you are dreaming and don't realize you are dreaming, then that world is as real, in that moment as this one. You get frightened, angry, happy, excited, etc, just like in this world, then you wake up and say, "this was not real, it was only a dream". In lucid dreaming, you know it is a dream, and one can use intent to see different things, talk to different life forms, lots of things, but one still feels, taste, hears, all the physical experiences are there. In fact in lucid dreams, the colors, the intensity of nature is much greater than most day to day waking world sights. Lastly, for me, this process of dreaming is evolving. I find myself more and more both in a dream, and at the same time experiencing myself laying in bed. both are occurring at the same time, and I find that going into the dream state is much faster now, and fluid. Lucid dreaming also gives me a better understanding of so called, "experiencing the moment" in my day to day life. Instead of seeing this world as solid unmovable matter, I see it as a kind of lucid dream, and If i put my intent in daily life, it does tend to unfold much the way a lucid dream would. Just scratching the edges of this deeper aspect of consciousness, have not idea where it will go, but I encourage anyone who is interested to develop a simple sitting meditation practice. Sit with no intention of getting anything out of it, but just sit to sit, just witness. Like I said, I think everyone can do this and it is well worth the time. happy sitting,

Thanks for sharing. I started to have lucid dreams by just doing a lot of sitting meditation every day. was not trying to have lucid dreams. As I have stated a few times in the past, from what I have experience, and seen in others, the simple act of sitting meditation, can help folks have spontaneous lucid dreams. My journey with Tibetan dream and sleep yoga, was discovered after starting to have lucid dreams, so have no idea if it would have helped me at first or not. I have found a couple of valuable techniques in Tibetan yoga, such as bringing consciousness to the throat chakra right before sleep, and also they have a version of what the western lucid dreamers call, W.I.L.D or waking induced lucid dreaming, where one just looks at the images in the closed eye lids, before sleep, not trying to see anything, just a kind of meditation. with all that said. one of the things I have seen in folks who want to learn how to have lucid dreams, is the very act of trying to do it. kind of like trying to not think during meditation. the very thing that is trying, is the thing that is blocking. but that is only my experience, other folks might have other experiences.

my goal is to have no goal. Haaaaa!

great comments. yes Steve. being playful having a since of humor in life seems to be almost magical. not taking life so serious, works for me. not that I don't engage in life, family, living dying, but i just don't take it so cut in stone so to speak. When I get folks who tell me that some guru or teacher either takes lucid dreaming to serious, or just not serious at all. I have to think that they have not had real dreams, and are just blowing smoke up our asses. i could be wrong, and I will own that, but for me, lucid dreams have very wise things to say at times, and sometimes it takes me years to understand what they say, so to just blow them off as nothing, is kind of a nihilistic thing. but that is what i see so far, might change, and I will still be laughing.

yes, old dog. to really get into it, to really look deeply, and keep looking is something that is both simple, but also not something we want to do today. we want others to tickle our asses with a feather, and make us feel good for a short while, but in the end, we got to drop all ideas, all beliefs, and just walk the unknown road. but what the fuck do i know?

Yes, and for what I have seen so far, Form begets the Formless. kind of what the late Shunryu Suzuki use to call, "different sides to the same coin" LOL

I hear that. I am reminded of Wabi Sabi, " the art of finding beauty in imperfection" . not a good western translation for this concept, but more of the perfection in imperfection......