zanshin

I don't completely disagree with you and a few do live very simply, by choice, and are content. But what do you think if the people living the lifestyle above are a family with young children or if they are frail, elderly or mentally ill?. Usually the very poor do not choose this lifestyle, although it certainly can be a result of other bad choices. I have a lot of compassion for people in this situation and think it is a little dangerous to utopianize poverty and simplicity and think the poor could change their concepts and feel fine.. But why is everything in life a competition? Who is richer, more superior, more spiritual and happier? Maybe me if i could get rid of those stereotypes. At least money i can give away or spend, yet somehow i'm still stuck with stuff i can't seem to unload.

Is yang fire always destructive? Seems maybe yin fire could be useful. Fire destroys metal, but fire is also used in metal working to shape, temper and refine.

I adore heat, including running in humid 90 degree weather. I don't think it would be a good idea to push yourself to stay there a long time, stop if you feel uncomfortable, but it sounds like a pretty safe little experiment. If you want to try it then do so, maybe post and let us know how it worked out for you.

If you're very ectomorphic you may tend to have instability issues and can overextend or stress joints, you can do easy stretches just don't push a lot, vipassana flowing type yoga movement could be good for strengthening and movement thru full range of motion, but don't hold the postures for a long time. Since you're not stretching bulky muscles, watch out for high amplitude or long duration stretches for you these can stress ligaments and joint capsules. Moderate strengthening and body weight exercises are what I would mainly suggest. Good luck on the supplements, I share your problem with kind of dizzy disconnected feeling with most of them and even vitamins, make sure you take them with food at least.

"stack sitting" is not a good name. The vertebrae should not stack up perfectly one on top of the other like if you'd stack blocks. If it was you would be right. But what we are looking for is balanced alignment that preserves natural in and out curves of the back.

That is right sitting alignment, but even if best possible alignment static sitting in a chair all day is no good for anything. Can you use a physioball to sit on instead of chair? Then you can do movement and core strength at work and make it a positive. Agree with Pilates for strengthening and do low impact cardio. If you are ectomorphic probably not too much stretching or yoga, although cobra type poses to open up front line to counteract all that sitting would be good. And don't forget to breathe in and out all day long.

Surrender might be a pretty good strategy when it comes to that game. Hey, I can bring it back on topic. There's a Tibetan Buddhist/ Bon practive called Chod (sp?) where they go to graveyards and haunted places and give themselves up to evil entities, enlightenment by surrender and not fighting.

When it comes to poetry and art finding inspiration certainly can be elusive and tricksy. But isn't it weird how sometimes with even more objective things our minds know things we aren't likely to know. I have a child who can usually look at math problems and write the correct answer down, but when they make him go thru steps of The Way To Solve a Math Problem, he doesn't understand and gets frustrated.

What are you trying to win? Who's playing? What's the score? What happens if you don't want to play at all?

Maybe go to a nursing home or senior center and find someone else who may be even more lonely and give them some time to sit and tell you their stories. Just listen to someone without worrying about making friends or relationships or what's in it for you.

Is the source of the world different from the source of the universe? Taoism does teach everything came from the one, not just the world, but the universe. So our thoughts are part of the universe, so somehow they do come from this original source. The part I am not sure about is how directly. Probably a lot of filters and time warp between thoughts and the mother of the universe. Our individual reference points and experiences that shaped our thoughts came from that source too, yet we all have different thoughts.

All you movements actually are due to electricity. As you get more relaxed in general, not just in meditation, but in life as a consequence of becoming more relaxed in meditation, your reaction time and ability to anticipate or predict when you need to move will improve. It does take a little time for your nervous system to reset and mellow into this more relaxed and aware state, so in the interim you may feel a little spazzy and over and undershoot. Agree with being grounded and centered will help too.

It's pretty much same thing you do with your eyes with those magic eye 3D pictures or stereoscope pictures, so try looking at those. Depends on background and lighting too, I don't think trying to see them all the time is a good idea. But if you can see them occasionally now, you should be able to have ability to mostly see them when you want to.

Recently, my son was supposed to answer a question for health class about why you should exercise. Of course the canned response expected was fitness, strong muscles, weight control... He answered- Because it's fun. So I'll go with that for cultivation too. I think looking always for goals and acheivements can suck the enjoyment out of life. Cultivation is fun, awareness and connection to my body and environment enhances life right now, so does compassion. I would like to cultivate better tomato plants next year though, hopefully I can bring diligent attention to this goal.

It's sort of funny, you want to learn by epiphany, but asking questions using goals and techniques are tools for deduction. Shaktipat might work, but I am skeptical of at least most who peddle it. Skepticism is quite enjoyable, even blissful. Maybe you should be more skeptical, no one is blissed out always, that's silly, none of the paths will work. Just relax, don't expect so much, quit trying, accept whatever happens, be more relaxed.

Also recently bought Running With the Mind of MEditation by Sakyong Rinpoche for my fiance, waiting for him to finish it before I read it, but excerpts I read looked interesting. Born to Run is a very cool book too if you are looking to get or stay motivated.

First never use this word "jog" and "jogging"; use "run" and "running." I ran my first half marathon last year, this year probably full. Was really able to increase my mileage after transitioning to barefoot shoes, so concur with advice above. Also, with stretching calves, they will get really sore at first if you do transition to barefoot shoes. I don't know if you want to be goal oriented and do more and get faster or if you're happy with an easy 20 minute jog for health promotion? If you want training plans tips and plans, lots of info on Runner's World site and they have forums too.

Have you thought about taking up martial arts or at least some sort of self defense class? Somehow by feeling less helpless, I stopped getting mad most of the time. I don't know if I see it as needing to squash the ego. When you have inner confidence and feel blessed, outer annoyances and worrying about what people think fades back. OF course I still struggle too, compassion helps also. I work in health care so maybe easier to feel compassion for people who having obvious health issues; they can get really grumpy and downright mean. Maybe they're just plain mean or it's personal- but maybe it's their reaction to pain, scared and sick, and we usually get along okay after a few minutes if I assume the latter and hear their anger out.

Certainly not an attack, but had ducks come and quack at me and act sort of grumpy when I was done before. They were nice and peaceful while I was practicing. Have had a few of other small wild animals seen while practicing too. I got to pet a rhino once, it was really soft, more like expensive luggage than rough like you would think by looking. Leaving on vacation this week and hoping for moose and bear- sightings not attacks

Had some zucchini and yellow squash sauteed with garlic,threw in a couple cherry tomatoes, a chili pepper, green onions, basil, oregano and some parmesan cheese. Mostly from the garden and squash from a friend's garden. Pretty close to a free meal.

I don't think it was unjustified; it was a silly kid who was being a punk, but no serious harm so pretty much senselss violence at least on his part. I certainly don't think you provoked it, but wondered have you thought about how it got to this point? Did you somehow present yourself as a target for bullying or are there ways you could have used your thinking mind before it got to point of using your punching fist. You said this was building up over 3 months. Is there a reason this kid and people in general might think it is sort of little game to pick on others? Maybe should ask him, if he answers truthfully you might feel more bad about hitting him.

I think it somehow it loops differently than curves and oscillations. Time is the 4th dimension. Happiness is not always the same thing; I do know when I'm happy but not really sure what this word happiness means. Adrenaline, accomplishments and falling in love thrills of youth might seem more yang and positive. When we get older, bliss might be more a state of peace, rest and introspection, more yin but still happy. Falling in love is pretty different at 14 vs. 40, perhaps highs and lows less intense, but somehow it becomes more satisfying. Eventually too, we all experience sadness and pain and don't think we can go on, but usually we do and so we learn to remember this too shall pass. So I do agree that the sage, with wisdom, does not appear to have extreme emotions. However, wisdom comes from experience, hard to get experience in things if you avoid them. I think perhaps the way to get to a point of equaminity is not to withdraw or suppress emotion, but rather to allow yourself to be open to the whole range of experiences and all the feelings good and bad that go along with them. Maybe there is a shortcut, but what fun would that be?

For a composer, I think more yang composing and playing when involved in creative process, although sparked from your mind being receptive (yin) to find inspiration. So I don't think inherently imbalanced, but imbalance would be a musician's block vs. frantically turning out stuff that's not very good.

Science works great when it comes to classical mechanics, balls rolling up and down hills in closed systems follow the laws of physics real well and it's all nice and predictable. So much in life is chaotic, our brains, even our computers will probably never be able to do enough math to figure it out. However there are other ways of understanding how things work besides math, perhaps even application of classical mechanics in a closed system. Who would probably be better, quicker and safer at taking your antique piano upstairs: college physics students or a couple high school dropouts who have been working as piano movers for the past 5 years?