Pranaman

I tried to learn bagau from video once.... It didn't take long for me to give up. Now i'm learning taiji, hsing-i, and just recently bagua from a good teacher, so the best advice I can give is to find a teacher.

Thank you. internal/external non-duality seems similar to, but probably different than, what I was trying to describe. Consciously, you become your environment. This is not only going beyond YOUR physical but being aware of the physical world even more. Scotty, Power Of Now is a good pointer. At times, my ego is strong so I can easily forget, but I always find myself back home.

I've read a lot about spiritual traditions, ranging from interpretations of Lao Tzu to theosophist literature, that say that the body is a limitation, and therefore cultivating spiritually and psychically is the way to go.... I'm a newbie internal martial artist, but I have a very good teacher who truly understands what "internal" actually means. I also live and train a la The Power Of Now by Eckhart Tolle. These are all very body oriented paths. If you are fully present, sensing all sights, sounds, feelings, and your "self".... then through the body, thoughtless and mindful, have you not gone beyond the physical? What do you believe?

These are my suggestions to prepare yourself for Taoist arts without having a teacher to guide you. 1. Get exercise. This is just plain old healthy, which is a goal for taoist practice. Get every which kind of exercise.... aerobic, anaerobic, static, dynamic.... Push yourself regularly. The discipline and pain tolerance will help when your future teacher asks you to do zhan zhuang for 20 minutes or meditate for an hour. Set a goal and intend on reaching it, say... 100 pushups, 50 pullups, 200 sit-ups. Sweat a lot and make sure your work makes you breath hard for more oxygen. The energetic benefits of exercise are to be experienced. Confidence gained will benefit you in all areas of life. Also, raising your heart beat for 20mins improves your BDNF which supports living brain cells and is highly active in promoting new neuro-connections. Exercise + meditation + intention = fast growth. 2. Listen to Eckhart Tolle, or Adyashanti, or someone else who guides people to the present moment, so you can be "in the experience, not above the experience". A very natural and universal part of being a Yogi or one with the Tao. Does anyone else have any suggestions for teacherless seekers of the truth?

We are possessed by energies of the past. These energies are personified through us. So on that level, anybody with an ego is possessed. I think it's also very likely that we have possessing entities within us, but I will not place faith and I will just simply do my practice.

Zen works good, helps you to just be with the emotion. Doing this, and not feeding it with thought... will eventually come to the emotion's death. The key is to not to rely on a practice . Everyday requires you to just feel the emotion, pay attention to your body and your environment simultaneously. Zen helps with this, and gives you good practice.

and this is why I have learned to accept popular culture. As many negative effects it creates, it also has potential to help a lot of people.....

Yeah, I guess the forms that I'm learning are of Chen Taiji and Hsing-I. Forms don't really matter though, what is important to me right now is that I'm learning to use my body most efficiently. My ability to focus my intention is also proving to be applicable outside of the martial art. I'm cultivating these things, and mastering them is endless. Most of this is coming out of the principles of Yichuan, but go beyond the label, "Yichuan".

sung gunn is like, working without creating tension. Not mindless relaxation, but real, truly solid muscular work.... without creating tension. It's relaxation and firmness together. This requires attention, and this is what I personally want in my standing practice. This principle helps me judge my posture. This is a good article on different aspects of standing, and addresses different ways of learning it, as well as sung gunn and movement in stillness.

Basically tuck your tailbone forward as much as you can without creating tension. The first thing I was taught was... Stand tall, knees less bent(straighter) then when you stand, and feel a string connected to the top of your head that is connected to the ceiling. Then try to sit down, but the string won't let you, it pulls your spine, elongates and straightens it, and your tailbone tucks (because you are trying to sit down) all while your weight is trying to go downwards.... this is a good position for standing (learned this for wuji, embrace the ball, and the other hand positions....) If this is unclear I might be able to look at it from another angle.... PS. are you reading ZZ and the Search Of Wu?

my teacher found a different study that also shows an effect on dopamine from acupuncture. I understand still not believing in acupuncture... but as far as research goes apparently China is where you'll find it. My heart just tells me to explore it more, but discard what I find useless for me. So far so good, TCM has helped me with no side-effects. My mind and attention is improving drastically, and I didn't have to take amphetamine for 8 years. Learning to focus my mind has proven to be useful.

Acupuncture research: Acupuncture Research on Dopamine Pathway

about conviction..... My old spiritual teacher told me once that changing beliefs is like putting a pig on a stick and calling it something else.... Her point was that enlightenment is beyond conviction and any form of belief because if you believe in something, you are still only seeing your belief... not- what is.

I don't know if you misread what I wrote or not, but "all of the time" was used in the connotative and common American's use of the term. and yes, both sides have success stories. But my thing is, why do there have to be sides? Why can't doctors say,"hey, there isn't much research on Oxygen3 treatment, but it's shown to help people you should check it out and see if it's for you." There is no risk in doing so, and either being simply ill-informed, or withholding information from people who are about to die is not my idea of a genuinely good, down to earth, and thorough medical institution. From what I can see, a good example of a thorough institution is Oasis, they do integrated (alternative/conventional) therapy: Oasis stats vs. Convential (via NCI) I believe that 11:33 is right. Tokoyo Tama, I believe the scientific method is used to verify a hypothesis. Which is probably why it is as slow as you say. By these terms in it's very nature it is not designed to help us move forward but designed to document what is tried and may be true. To use your example, it's a f#cking joke that we had to call in scientists to document that female ejaculation is true, when it has been tried so many times before.