liminal_luke

I like what Spotless says, if I understand correctly, about virtue being more of a frequency than a behavioral prescription. When I´m in a period of more intense practice, I notice how everything about me changes -- particularly how I am with other people. It´s just something that happens as a result of my practice. The practice comes first, and then I start acting differently, seemingly automatically. I don´t think it would work the other way around. There´s no way I could force myself to behave the way I do after practice without having done the work first.

Joeblast, Any chance you´d be open to reviving your PPD? I don´t know if it´s permanently deleted or just temporarily taken down, but I went hunting for it the other day and saw that it was gone. I´m interested in reviewing your practice of using trigrams with the microcosmic orbit. Thanks, Liminal

Thanks for this. You´ve helped me see hanging out in bars in a new light. Guess I´d swallowed the conventional view that hanging out in bars is a shallow thing to do, and you´ve helped me realize that sometimes it´s just the opposite. Cool.

Nobody has ever accused me of paying too much attention to fashion, but I admire people who care about how they look and try to look their best. It´s more than just vanity and sex appeal. It´s a mode of self-expression and creativity. Making the effort to look nice is a way of saying that you care about other people, and want to make them comfortable. It´s about respect. For many people, making the world a more beautiful place start with deciding what to wear in the morning.

Hi Madness23, I know it´s easier said then done, but I´d suggest self-forgiveness, self-acceptance, just letting yourself off the hook. Your sexual and other practices might have had a little (or maybe a lot,who knows?) with your present difficulties, but I´ll bet there are lots of other factors involved. Genetics, for one. And all sorts of other environmental influences, some of which were outside your control. All of us have bodies that are susceptible to various health problems. Some people have a tendency towards heart problems, some towards diabetes, etc. Looks like whatever consitutional weakness your body had put you at risk of bipolar. It sucks, but that´s the human condition. That said, it´s far from hopeless. As Aetherous said, it need not be permanent. I like this quote from Rebbe Nachman of Breslove: If you believe that you can damage, believe that you can fix.

Don´t be so sure. You´d be surprised at the creatures some people are attracted to. I used to wonder what my boyfriend saw in me looks-wise until I asked him to point out other guys he found attractive. Lo and behold they all looked like me.

Yes. I think this is just a natural human ability, and one of the first abilities that start to perk up with many kinds of spiritual practice. During times when I´ve been working hard spiritually, I definitely notice an increased perceptiveness as to what is going for other people. I´m not claiming that I´m ready to be put in a sound proof booth and start guessing what number the guy on the other side of the wall is thinking -- nothing like that, though I don´t doubt that´s possible as well. But what we call telepathy falls along a continuum. At the lower end of the spectrum it´s just cultivating especially sharp interpersonal empathy.

I don´t have personal experiences of bigu to relate, but once attended a lecture by an Indian guy who goes by HRM, and has gone long periods without food. His big thing is sun gazing, and it´s this practice he credits with his ability to go without eating. More info here: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/01/08/feasting-on-sunshine.aspx

The Life Chaging Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, by Marie Kondo https://www.amazon.com/Life-Changing-Magic-Tidying-Decluttering-Organizing-ebook/dp/B00KK0PICK?ie=UTF8&btkr=1&redirect=true&ref_=dp-kindle-redirect

Along these lines, I´m a fan of Jin Shin Do.

You mean digging up heads of Daoist masters and working magic to get them to teach you ancient wisdom from behind the grave? Or perhaps you mean the Kunlun practice itself along with the various other techniques taught in Max´s system? Exhuming bodies may be just another day in the graveyard to you, but to many of us it´s a tad odd.

I like the book Taomeow recommended awhile back about throwing out everything that doesn´t "spark joy." A great way to raise your vibration, imo.

Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover....um, scratch that....Parents

Hi Cheya, Thanks for the foundation training information. I want to try to do that one-founder-a-day 30 day challenge and see if it makes a difference. Watched the video and it wasn´t clear to me: when you bring your hands up a little more are you holding your breath or breathing regularly? Thanks, Liminal

Feeling chi is very cool, but hardly the be-all-end-all of practice. If you´re enjoying what you´re doing and getting benefit then I wouldn´t get hung up on whether or not you feel chi or not. Maybe someday you will. Maybe not. I´m reminded of a story Sifu Jenny Lamb told of a student who didn´t experience any movement with the Yi Gong practice for months, when most students begin to move right away. The student merely held the basic posture and patiently waited. After some months of this, the movement did happen and turns out the student was actually much more advanced than the students who had been moving from day one. Here´s my point. You might think that you´re "behind" other students who feel chi easily and have healthy backs. And you might be wrong.

There´s some irony for ya. Nobody listens to you when you´re alive, and as soon as you´re dead they dig up your grave and try to get you talking. Well I say it´s too damn late.

We don´t need a conspiracy to shut down America, we need a conspiracy to keep it going.

There are different systems that do different things, some of which might be better suited to a particular practitioner. But more powerful we don´t need. Lots of folks had trouble with Kunlun/Yi Gung, and it wasn´t because it wasn´t powerful enough.

I don´t question the great spiritual good that might accure should I follow the advice of Spotless about exiting mind-loops and being aware of the frequencies I surround myself with. But the first benefit is a more prosiac one: I´d spend a lot less time reading the "Trangender Problem" thread and fretting about the opinions expressed therein.

I really want to riff on this hilarious comment but I´m speechless.

While there´s an urgent need to work for economic justice on many different levels, government regulations will never entirely succeed at smoothing over the inherent unfairness of life. There are several people on this board, for instance, who are much smarter than me -- and they did nothing to deserve it! It was just their genetics or maybe what their mom ate while pregnant or something. And that intelligence allows them to understand things and do things I can´t. (Not that I think I´m stupid -- it´s all relative.) On the other hand, I grew up in the United States to middle-class parents. As a kid I took piano lessons. My mom had the free.time, energy and goodwill to drive me to diving team practice every weekday during the summer. That´s not fair either. Where I live now in Mexico very few kids are so privileged. Part of coming to terms with life is accepting this kind of inherent unfairness, while working to expand everybodies opportunities as best we can.

To my ear "bum" also suggests a certain informality. Bums aren´t rushing off to work in three-piece suits; they are more like hanging out. It´s a bit like "hobo," a sense of being open to what the day will bring. The closest Tarot equivilent is probaby "The Fool."

For many people of all ages, being childish comes quite naturally, but it takes a lot of self-discipline to be child-like.

I don´t have any statistics handy, but I´ll bet a disproportionate proportion of prisoners have been raped and molested before they ever get to prison. Being sexually abused makes it more likely that a person will become a criminal; being imprisoned for criminal acts makes it more likely that a person will be sexually abused.

Thanks Veezel, that narrows it down a lot. Unforunately, it´s not really my area but I might be able to point you in some directions. Taomeow is quite an expert in this area, and recently posted a list of recommended books as an introduction to Taoism. Unforunately, I can´t find that post right now. But she has a thread in her Personal Practice Forum called "1-800-Dail-a-Meow" where she invites bums to ask her questions. You might ask her and she if she has any suggestions. Highly recommended. There´s also a thread you can search in the courtyard called "Plx recommend books on the introduction to Daoism" that has reading recommendations from knowledgable folks. Another thread you might want to search for is called "can you please tell me the names of daoist scriptures and their authors." Hope this gives you a start.