freeform

My HRV is perfect when I'm mildly hung over I remember Ian saying he finds it easier to meditate the morning after a drink too...

Hagar's 2 kroner that he offered you will make you a spiritual millionaire.

Happy Birthday Santi!

.

My oh my. You feel different and unacceptable, unlovable, un-understandable. But at the same time this feeling of being separate, different is what sets you apart - it's a part of your identity, it's what makes you unique. I've found that I do this thing of temporarily 'becoming the other person' - so I can feel/sense/think from their point of view - I really need a name for this lol When I try you on it's as if there's a tangled net of inter-related problems that can't be let go of because the problems carry so many benefits for you. You don't see the benefits of the problems, because you're focused on the negative. There's also something you do with emotions that's not fully familiar to me. You're very in touch with them, but you're thrown about by them. my awareness goes back and forth between the bit above the heart and the brain - lever below. There's no 'base' or foundation. Very ungrounded. My suggestion is get back into your body. Not just doing exercise, but moving your awareness out of your mind and emotions and into your body. Constantly. I mean like 300 times per day, every day. A mind being thrown about by emotion without support from the body makes life difficult. Stop thinking - you're not going to think your way out of this. There's no 'solution'. Just stop every minute and spend a second noticing how your body feels. Very simple. literally - pressure, temperature, texture, position. Where it is in relation to the ground and the sky. Stop reading self help books. Stop reading this post Stop reading and watching TV altogether. Concentrate on manual, physical things. And whilst doing them, notice when your awareness leaves your body and starts concentrating on thoughts, and just gently guide it back to your body. Especially if the thoughts seem important. Smell things. Taste things. Wake up early. Go outside. Get near trees and grass and nature, smell the air. feel the breeze on your skin. Watch the quality of light. Another thing that comes across is that you need beauty in your life. Now I'm not exactly sure what that entails, but maybe art, maybe music, maybe dance - something that engages a huge aesthetic part of you that you seem blind to. Everything else will fall into place when you stop trying to 'solve' everything.

Most people eat with their minds. Judging the quality and quantity by sight and reasoning. Most of us were taught to finish what's on our plate as children. Most of us have all of our attention on something other than the food when eating. it's possible to re-educate ourselves with some initial effort. Smell the food! and pay attention to the smell and your body reaction to it. There's a good reason that your nose is right above your mouth. When eating, take small mouthfuls, place the cutlery back down and chew - about 2 to 3 times longer than you're used to doing. Taste the food whilst you chew. Pay attention to the texture. Pay attention to how your body reacts. Most importantly keep evaluating how satisfied you are. When you're 70 - 80% full, stop eating. No matter how good it looks, how little or how much you've eaten, how polite or impolite it would seem. It's also important to never feel like you're starving. eat when you feel like eating - not when mealtime dictates. And that's it! Eat whatever your body craves (however healthy/unhealthy your mind considers it). It will take anything from a couple of weeks to a couple of months of doing this with strict precision to re-educate yourself and then it will become automatic and effortless. Eating like this for a while will bring you to your personal, ideal weight - whatever that may be. Don't measure yourself against others - we all have different constitutions - as long as you're letting your body lead and don't go to extremes, you'll be happy and healthy and your body will reflect that in whatever way is right for you.

yup sounds like a hernia, get checked out by a doc.

Do we ever have a choice? please answer using only punctuation.

Nice bit of logic there. Notice what's going on in that statement? What's missing? It sums up nicely the pitfalls of logic. What's left out is YOU. We're all pretending that this statement stands out, timeless, author-less, objective in every way. It's the ultimate truth. You're selling us short gh - you're giving us words but not yourself. You're selling yourself short too. You're speaking at us in absolutes and missing out on developing an intimacy with us. That's what logic tends to do when it's disconnected from intuition. Anti-relationship. Anti-intimacy. Gregory Bateson is worth looking into for what logic could be.

you've got some good replies. you can also try this. Instead of focusing your awareness in one spot, open your awareness up to include everything - diffuse awareness. The difference is like the difference between looking intently at a spot on a wall, and relaxing and looking at nothing particular, using your peripheral vision. Practice your peripheral vision and use that when you meditate, even with your eyes closed.

It's a masculine endeavour to create timelessness - something that endures. It's a feminine endeavour to flow - something that changes constantly. The Yang within yin is that the flow is a constant - it never stops flowing and changing. The Yin within yang is that the enduring is constantly re-born out of nothing. Abstract I know. The woman looks to yang (for completion) and the man looks to yin (for completion). So woman looks for spirit, man looks for body. Your spirit completes her. Her body completes you. (using your terminology here). Now what confuses me is the possession thing. That and wanting. I tend to think in terms of 'inspiration' - my spirit inspires her... it gives her a spark. Her heart (prefer that to body) inspires me - it gives me the fuel. This is a relationship creating a whole. But as a whole person - the spark and the fuel are all inside of you. So the female reflects to you your inner female and the I, the male reflect to her her inner male. I wrote all that. But I'm considering deleting it... it just seems.... too... 'absolute'. It's the male in me creating a structure that endures change Feels devoid of my inner female - which works on a personal level - not a theoretical one. If you would like to, engage us on a more personal level, and then maybe my response will come from a deeper place... I dunno

How to fall in love. The clue is there already! ....falling in love.... when you fall physically, you have no control... falling in love is losing control... contriving a 'falling in love' situation... well I'm sure you get the irony. Your attempt to control the responses to this thread mirrors directly your attempt to control falling in love. Falling in love is much much simpler than what you're doing - because it's less about doing and more about letting go. There is an adolescent kind of love that is actually very very easy create. It just requires a small spark of emotion, that's not allowed to 'ground' and is cycled on and on through your system, through your thoughts and behaviour. Teenage girls fall in love easily. They see some pop star on tv, daydream about them, write their name in fun colours, think about them, cover their walls with their photos, read about them on twitter, discuss them with their friends, listen to their songs, read their interviews etc. Is that what you want? Then do it. If you like someone, hold that feeling in, don't let it go, then surround your inner and outer life with their 'image' (thoughts about them) - then cycle that feeling, saturating all your thoughts and sensations with that feeling. Then faint with over-excitement The only thing that can destroy that kind of obsessive love is reality... because you're in love with a thought, an image - not with the actual person. If you want a more mature kind of romantic love, then listen to that clue - fall. Become vulnerable. Open up. Let go.

So has anyone encountered the 5 animal method of opening (or preparing to open) the orbit? There is a Master Alex Wong who teaches spontaneous 5 animal movements. Here is the website. He explains that initially the animals will start up spontaneously in whatever order the body requires... eventaully as the organs are healed the animals occur in order - flowing from one to the other in the creative cycle - this is when the orbit begins to flow, and suplementary practices are added to increase the flow and open it up into the macrocosmic orbit. Has anyone else come accross this way of opening the orbit?

regarding shoes - check out Viov Barefoot - shoes with a very thin, flexible sole. regarding breathing - practice your deep breathing in clean areas and trust your lungs to breathe as they need to in polluted areas.

Agreed - it's connecting and communicating with the chi field at a different level than most qi gong forms do. Sit still afterwards and you'll feel the effects. Subtle and very deep.

Cool! I remember playing with one of these machines... But I didn't have enough time to really test out my body's response to it. I noticed that standing and making small internal movements could kind of 'direct' the vibration. I wonder if that has anything to do with the fascia network. I can imagine doing standing on it over time would increase internal subtle awareness... Thanks Joe.

Interesting. Can you tell us a little more about this?

Hi Ryan, I like the form - I learnt it from Winn's DVD. Use the search function - there is another thread talking about this form it's worth checking out. Yes it's somewhat similar to the LBRP (or the GreaterBRP rather)... but it goes further... In western spiritual systems it's important to have static, separate individual parts, in taoist spirituality it's important to cycles and flows... This form combines the two neatly. Some things I've been considering and would appreciate other's insights on - Time - seems to have a lot to do with time and cycles. Inside/outside - are we absorbing macrocosm into microcosm with this form?

-O- I know this is a caricature created for the sake of demonstrating your point of view. But let's be honest here - you're painting these caricatures with broad strokes of your brush, and you're certainly just as guilty of filling in the cracks to suit your purpose. I for one don't see unbalanced negativity in your posts - all your negativity is balanced up with the loving and positive intent of truly attempting to help and be of service. I understand very clearly what you mean about creating an idealised notion of a teacher... it's nothing new - we did it with parents and teachers, and we do it with others who touch our hearts deeply... We do it with practices even - I've seen people so fixated on opening their microcosmic orbit that over months they create a perfect functioning orbit in their imagination. We've seen couples excusing the others faults, even violence for the sake of peace... We've seen people ruled by anger and rage, but develop an incredible avoidance system that allows them to never, ever notice anger inside... What I'm trying to say is that first and foremost we are people... not 'kunlun practitioners'. And as people we have our own strengths and weaknesses. I for one have a distaste for 'no negativity' type thinking, a distaste for supernatural explanations taken out of context, a distaste for idealising someone to the point of losing touch with what's really there. I think it's naive of you to think that we all follow the caricature you have in mind for us 'kunlun practitioners'. As 'humans first' we take from Max and the teachings what we take from anything in life. Where a lot of individuals seem to go for the 'no negativity' angle, I took from Max a non-duality angle - where negativity and positivity give life to a greater whole... Where some take 'supernatural celestial beings helping me evolve' seriously I heard the light hearted laugh that came from Max at the mention of such things... 'Smile and have a child-like attitude' was very loud and clear for me. Your posts say a lot about you, -O- I feel the the 'idealist' in you clearly. And also the 'what's wrong in this situation' flavour to your awareness. And of course the seriousness! And the 'global' nature of your thoughts. I would not expect your reply to me or anyone else to address us on a personal level, but always on a collective level... I'm sure you make a great leader... You need an apology to be able to truly forgive. This is to show that how you process the teacher and the teaching is different to others... and others process differently to you... I have a very under-developed 'what's wrong in this situation' filter - so I trust you with that, but please trust me with what my strength is, and please trust others with what their strengths are... This is what's right with this situation.

I've been told that the heart (middle DT) is the 'base' of the crystal palace. Feel/sense physically and you engage the heart.

Notice if what you do or say is arguing for self importance. Do you feel 'special' because you know this stuff? Do you feel special, but try to play it down to seem humble? Or do you try to learn more than you teach? Notice more than show?

yeah I found that between 4:4 and 7:7 is best for me... in fact after a while you can make it longer or shorter and still produce the deep relaxation effect. It's also interesting to notice how if your attention wanders, it's quickly reflected in the graph. the portability and simplicity of the machine is great. the Wild Divine device measures both Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and Skin Conductance Level (SCL) and quite accurately. The data gathered can then be displayed in a variety of ways (including the games).

I've got one. It's a very well made, cool looking little machine and works pretty well too. Sometimes it behaves erratically and doesn't read correctly... if you use it to actually time your breaths, note that there is a small delay as it reacts to you. And only other downside is that you have to hold it up. I'm also looking at checking out the biofeedback device from these guys.

I really enjoy my wuji standing. I generally do about 30 minutes at the moment. I find that once a level of diffuse awareness is settled into, it becomes easy to stand... Until of course I start clearing and then it becomes rather difficult - the diaphragm flutters, muscles and tendons begin to tighten and relax, or shake... lots and lots of heat and sweating - sometimes the sensory discomfort makes you want to stop - it just becomes too intense, I find that backing off during the intense moments is counter-productive. Equally, when I begin contracting and resisting, unable to open and let go, then it's counter-productive to force myself to carry on. What do you guys say about standing wuji on strong magnets (a la Peter Ragnar) - is this just a gimmick or is there something to it?