soaring crane

lmao, too funny

huh, I could swear there were numbers like 57,575 or whatnot, before the change. I'm certain of it, really. Which doesn't mean much, I know, lol. Still, 23,000 is a big number and my guestimate of how many actively participate: somewhere between 50 and 80, and that's being generous.

I like that answer Q: What is something without a limit and is without a height, weight, width, beginning, end, or is measurable? A: Quack.

I really don't want to contradict people, and I usually just let things lie, but I'm not convinced the others are really reading your post closely. Yes, "accept" your "gift" and "learn" how to "use" the "energy" (sounds great, thumbs up, but, how? Anybody care to fill in the gaps? And what do all those words in quotation marks actually mean anyway?) No, I really think you need to take a more active role in your problem, because it is a problem, at the moment. And it's unfortunately one that can get worse with time if you don't get a grip on it. It isn't just empathy. It's something that happens to some people and it's not so easy to just turn around and say, "hey, I'm special, I feel everyone's pain, wow, cool". IF the solution turns out to be simply accepting it as something special, which could be the case if the idea had never occurred to you before, and IF it really is a relief when that happens, then that would be fantastic. The greatest. So, give it a try. But if the problem persists, then you truly have to do more than that. (I've been around the corner a couple times with this particular situation...)

lol, cute. But wouldn't Phaedrus agree? ZAMM goes beyond the Western and lands in the Asian, but isn't really aware of it in the end, I think. Regarding Shen, yeah, I know the finer definitions but the "standard" translation into German is "Geist". And Geist means Spirit, and the Spirit may well be "more like photon holographic light energy" But when practicing Qigong on a more, er, concrete level, "Body, Mind, Spirit" and that stuff, it's better, or at least more functional, to look at the "Spirit" part more as a kind of morale or "team spirit", the mood. It's the Spirit that bring the Whiskey to life. Enjoy it! This is similar to Pirsig's discussion of "Gumption", which is why I started the thread. Btw, the edition I have (25th anniversary?) has a lot of extra info including an extended Foreword and Afterward plus a collection of letters he wrote with his eventual publisher - very interesting stuff. And then the story of his son, Chris and what happened to him... sad, but he makes something positive of it which I found very heartwarming. Yeah, Nin, if you check in again, you should really read the book through.

Well, there are a lot of systems and methods that you can learn and they're all good, over time. Let's see what kind of suggestions pop up here. But, from my perspective, for the immediate, since you can't yet control the "invasions", I suggest you control your reactions to them. Do not "hate bearing other peoples crap all the time", that reaction only feeds the problem. Do you understand that reasoning? Force yourself instead to observe what happens and put a lot of effort into remaining neutral about it. Practice very diligently the art of discernment - that means identify what is coming from you and what is not. If you can meditate well with imagery, put the foreign energies in a glass bottle where you can observe them, like a biologist observing a lab specimen. Put the bottle on a shelf in a storage room, and close the door. If that's too abstract, then practice saying, "NO", and really mean it. Let the foreign emotion or pain swell up and when it's reached a peak, say, "NO", very firmly, strict, like a strict father keeping his kid in line. If you can, do this out loud, don't hold anything back, yell it out! If that's inconvenient, you can do it internally as well. And after you do that, smile, outwardly and inwardly. Smile at yourself Stopping the attachments before they happen takes a lot of practice, for someone like you. That's why I recommend, for now, controlling your reactions to the situation and refusing to suffer. The more in touch you are with your own middle, though, the better it'll all work. This isn't much different than those times when someone first takes up meditation, thinking that the "goal" is to subdue the flood of thoughts going through the head. They get annoyed with themselves when it doesn't "click" for them. But what they miss out on, often because nobody told them the "secret", is that it isn't the flood of thoughts but rather the reaction to the flood, the dam of annoyance they put up, that spoils their experience. Good Luck!

That was my impression, too. I don't remember it being any different when I joined, except there weren't as many members. I De-Interneted myself for a long time and when I came back a year and a half later, the number had jumped up to something approaching 60,000(!). I think I was like #1,173 or something. That's something I miss in the new format, btw. I liked seeing that "Member Number" under the names. It was interesting to see when relatively invisible older members would suddenly pop up on certain threads, meaning there are a lot of people watching but just not participating.

Welcome aboard Huaco What is your first language, if I can ask?

In a quantum wink The frozen cherry tree sleeps Dreams of a new Spring

We need a ROTLMFAO smiley, lol. Just as I was reading this last night, my DW decided to come glance over my shoulder at what I was doing! Serendipity pure sweet Thanks TM, I had similar conclusions but you phrased things a lot better, more concretely than I can.

Waiting to see how many pages it takes to arrive at an answer...

Well then, with all due respect, what are you bitching about? Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater and all that That's interesting. I wonder how many people were saying the same thing in China ca. 200-300 BC...

ah, ok... well, the way you phrased your post, it sounded to me like you just started a couple days ago and were getting all kinds of side-effects. So, just a misunderstanding on my part. What have you been doing for eight years, if I can ask? You might want to give more background into your practice. Warmth in the lower belly great- Warmth in the legs, maybe great, maybe not. How do you close your sessions? Important, that. Do you actively incorporate the breath into your practice? Also, the reduced need for sleep is a good sign, imo, so long as it's not accompanied by anxiety or fitfulness. Do you have a lot of energy all through the day? PS - the astral messages thing was meant jokingly. It's something that I picked up along the way but not something that I really put into practice. It's from an era when I was into aura-reading. But the point was that, "it could be virtually anything, or it could be blood pressure - go with the obvious choice first"

Hi Nebulon - based on two short posts, meaning, not much, I think you should slow down a bit. Especially with the analysis. Learn to walk first. Tiny white lights when you stand up could be astral messages that you can later capture with your third eye when it opens, and interpret in your middle dantian. Could also be low blood pressure. I'd go with the second one as a jumping off point

hey Nin, you left out a biggie: 9x9=81, 8+1=9 By my reckoning, my trigram is Kan 1 North/Water. My Day Master is actually Yang Metal but I feel closer to the Gui in my Year Stem. Actually, any chance you could give a passing analysis of this, I'd be intrigued: Stems: Ji/Earth, Geng/Metal, Xin/Metal, Gui/Water Branches: Mao/Wood, Wu/Fire You/Metal, Mao/Wood Also, I was reading the "888 -- Completion of a particular Reality lesson." as a linear end to something, to a lesson based in reality (whatever that is, lol). Syntactically it doesn't seem to be describing a "Whole", which I do understand would fit the eight to a tee.

Can anybody tell us what it isn't?

JK - Click the drop-down arrow next to your name at the top, choose "My Profile", the rest is easy It's about hash brownies

Not wanting to be pushy or anything, but, any idea when or if the old graphics will be returning? I miss that peaceful image at the top of the page

I wouldn't intuitively associate 8 with completion of anything. So now I'm curious about the background of the associations. I've always, literally always, been drawn to the number eight and especially triple eight. I look for it, but it rarely pops up anywhere. 888 is a 6 in classic numerology, but I have no connection to 6 at all. Also, a little OT, I have this thing about Thursday, can't explain it, but it's my day. Even as a kid in school, I'd get more excited about Thursday than Friday Thursday and Eight, yup, that's me.

er, Well, you should read it through someday, Ninpopo. I gets better as you go along and the final chapters are actually very poetic and dramatic. It's the Moby Dick of the 1970s. I've gone through it two and a half times and picked up on this Gumption/Enthusiasm/Shen thing this last time. It just sort of stuck out at me. If Pirsig had had more exposure to Daoist philosophy, he would have found everything he was looking for. But I guess then he wouldn't have had a book. Hey, he should have waited for Tao Of Pooh to come out first!

hey there The Tao Of Pooh really is a great book. I suggest reading it and then reading the real Winnie-The-Pooh books Btw, The Te Of Piglet turns a little too cynical, imo. Hoff spends a lot of time complaining about all the negativity he finds everywhere. Although, I haven't read it for, well, 15 years now? Maybe I'll go re-investigate it.

Hi Godd - yeah, good question. I was hoping someone here may be familiar with it, but I've never seen it brought up in discussion before. I can describe it here, but it's unlikely that you or anyone without some familiarity with the practice would be able to really integrate it into your own routine. Basically, "Xi" is the inhale and "Hu" is the exhale. You harmonize these two with your strides. An oversimplification would be a brisk walk where you simply alternate your breaths like this: Right - Xi Left - Xi Right - Hu Left - Hu In, In, Out, Out, etc... But that's just a rough sketch of the practice. In reality, there are many variations and also different walking styles, each of which has its specific arm movement. It's essentially Medical Qigong, with emphasis on the five Zang/Yin organs. The "mother" of all of them is Kidney form. In Kidney form, the breathing is actually like this: Xi, Xi, Hu, Hold Yes, you breath in twice and only exhale once. You take in more than you let out. The walk is very slow and deliberate. The first Xi in on the right heel, the second Xi happens on the right forefoot as the weight shifts forward (Yongquan is obviously important), and the Hu is on the left heel, the Hold on the left forefoot. It's that moment when you hold and touch the left Yongquan to the floor that the "magic" happens, except that for a long time when you're learning it, the only thing that happens is you blow up like a balloon, lol. The "hold" isn't just a holding of the breath, it's a conversion to Qi that you send to the kidneys at that moment. The breath is baby-soft, inaudible, flat, almost no-breathe, in the nose and out the mouth. The walking form is harmonious with the breath, with a constant soft twisting around the Kidney area. The arms hang loosely but the hands describe open horizontal figure eights, moving Qi around the Kidney level. In group practice, the person coordinating the session calls softly, "Xi, Xi, Hu, ..., Xi, Xi, Hu, ..., ". The "Xi" is actually a sound you can make on the inhale, so the instructor can practice along with the group. To go from Kidney to Heart form, you hold the tip of the middle finger, the Pericard meridian, on Laogong and on that Hold step, you consciously tighten the fist somewhat, and smile into your heart Spleen, Lung and Kidney forms are similar but different. Like I said, really not something anyone can do by reading about it. In fact, it can take a v e r y long time for it to really "click" even when you have intense instruction in the form. There are many, many variations on all of this. I know, TMI, lol, but I just felt like writing a bit about it as I consider it one of the most valuable meditation forms we have

Congrats to the Tao's Meow! prrrrrr..... Personally, I would have just turned the whole thing over to Drew, but ah well....

Great advice! Qigong walking is really a beautiful amalgam of everything that makes Qigong so great to begin with. And, yes, you can really do it very effectively without drawing a lot of attention to yourself, depending on the style. One caveat though, it's one of the things that you almost have to learn from a teacher, or at least from someone who can do it well, so that they can observe you a bit and help you out. I've met quite a few people who have tried it by watching youtube videos, or from books (or discussion forums) and it was clear that they weren't doing what they thought they were. What kind of walking do you do, God? Do you know "Xi Xi Hu" breathing patterns?

You're doing it right, imo. When you meditate, it's much more important that you feel comfortable at the moment. Maybe over time you'll get used to doing it outdoors, and with an audience. Be patient with yourself. Have you looked around for groups that you could join up with? I'm not much a group person myself (except when I'm holding classes, lol) but, if there are a few good people in the area, you could try practicing outdoors together with them - strength in numbers and all that. Maybe start a trend