liminal_luke

Michael Winn includes Swimming Dragon in his DVD on sexual/kidney energy.

I suspect that a sufficiently skilled person could describe the experience of a banana with either language or mathematics. Maybe not perfectly, but good enough, as they say, for government work. Liminal

I agree with this, but think it´s very advanced viewpoint. Happiness may indeed be a choice that´s always available no matter what, for most of us it´s easier to arrive at this joyful state under some conditions than others.

Been to Boise once. A little too provincial and small-town for my tastes. Used to live in Portland, OR which is more cosmopolitan but also crazy expensive now, at least compared to what it used to be. I don´t know for a fact, but I imagine it´s hard to beat Boise for outdoor adventure.

Earlier today I wrote the following... May all beings use their analytic intelligence in a balanced way, allowing room for the sometimes paradoxical and not-always-strictly-logical wisdom of the heart. I won´t erase it now but there´s something I don´t like about the post. A certain look-at-me cleverness that seems ironic and out-of-place in a thread on metta. How much better it would be to have the purity of heart exhibited by that little boy in the video CT posted. That´s what I aspire to. Much of the conversation here at Taobums boils down to intellectual argument, and certainly our local Buddhists are not immune from this tendency. Nothing wrong, I suppose, with philosophical debate and verbal sparing. It keeps the mind sharp. It´s how some people have fun. But there are limitations to this kind of mental warfare: the egoic investment in being "right," an overinvestment in the logical abilities of our intellects and an underinvestment in the feeling capacity of our hearts. When we derive our sense of self-worth from besting others in argument -- and not all intellectuals do -- well, that´s something to be aware of. At it´s best, I think the practice of metta (and the other brahma-viharas) can be a corrective to this mindset. Not everyone who practices metta will become a master of compassion, anymore than all tai chi players become masters of that art. But it´s a step in the right direction. Liminal

I agree Seeker of Wisdom, and hope that my post above doesn´t come across as snide. It´s an interesting philosophical question whether all beings really could be happy simultaneously, or even whether that would be a good thing. But this kind of thinking can get in the way of simply practicing and allowing the practice to influence us. I think the point of the phrase is what happens to us when we say it, feel it, make this generous impulse a part of our lives.

May all beings use their analytic intelligence in a balanced way, allowing room for the sometimes paradoxical and not-always-strictly-logical wisdom of the heart.

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what will we give up gracefully, defeatedly when we too grow old?

Thinking I can change someone´s mind in one of the off-topic threads on Taobums.

One more thought. There´s not really such a thing as "society," in the first place -- at least not in the sense we mean when we´re worried about it like this. Just the other day, my partner said "Everybody thinks..." I interrupted him right there and said there´s nothing that "everybody thinks." People are remarkably varied in their thinking. Don´t believe me? Just open up one of the political threads in the Off Topic section. I´m often astounded at the diversity of opinion, and how often people think differently than I do. So while it´s true that people are often judgmental, it´s not true that everybody thinks a certain way.Years ago I was chatting on a dating website and this guy asked me what kind of car I drove. Well, I didn´t own a car. And just like that he was gone. In his mind lack of car ownership = loser, or at least that was my assumption. I´m sure I could find plenty of other people with similar ideas. But does it follow that "society" thinks I´m a loser if I don´t drive? I think not. There are probably plenty of other people who would praise me for not polluting the environment, or imagine that I get more exercise walking. There´s no way that "everybody" thinks. However you are, some people will find a reason to like you and others will find a reason to dislike you.

The experience of "caring too much about what society thinks of you" is generally not so pleasant. People who care like this are usually imagining society thinking the worst. No fun. Of course, the enemy here isn´t really society. It´s us. The person with the most bothersome judgments is almost always yours truly. So, first of all, I think it´s helpful to reword the question to something like "why am I being so hard on myself right now?" Just developing an awareness of our shame and self-loathing is very helpful, very healing. Facing it straight on. Sharing our experience of these feelings with a trusted friend or counselor. Writing about these feelings. Making art that expresses these feelings. And then asking how we can approach ourselves with more compassion. How can I be a better friend to myself?

I´ve never been a huge Obama fan, but if the best his detractors can come up with is lottery numbers and anti-gay slurs I figure he must be doing alright.

breaks the winter calm the hard-won and fragile peace a fist through the wall

balanced procession not to fast and not too slow learning how to walk

DreamBliss said... "I guess care taken in the process of choosing something, harvesting it and preparing it for use is my version of a ceremony." ................................................................................. I love this statement of yours and totally agree with it.

Oh exactly. Nothing shamanic, in the proper sense, about what we did. Nor did it qualify any of us to hang a shingle and do any kind of healing work for the public. It´s easy to dismiss such gatherings as New Age, but to me it had value. If we´d started imbibing hallucinogenic plants, however, we´d probably have got in over our depth.

My friend Debbie used to host drum circles. She´d smudge us with sage and we´d make a lot of noise. Angel cards were read and heartfelt stories shared. A whole lot more fun, and way less dangerous, than being thrown off a cliff.

I think I get it. You don´t want to revere the plants because that implies a power differential, that the plants are somehow above you and deserving of worship. You will not bow down. I´m exquisitely attuned to issues around power and control myself, and loathe to put myself in a one-down position. I´ve been beaten down quite enough by people who think they are better than me, thank you very much. Perhaps you have too? So why am I OK with being reverent, even worshipful, towards a plant? Because in allowing myself to be made small, I become, paradoxically, larger than I was. Surrendering my ego, I am lifted up. Letting go of my brittle boundaries and my sometimes overly strident insistence on justice and fairness, I open to love. Bottom line: I know I´m there to learn from the plant; the plant is not there to learn from me.

What´s wrong with reverence? Reverence signals humility, a willingness to enter into a relationship with the plant spirit. With reverence you´re a shaman smoking a peace pipe and connecting through tobacco with unfathomable mystery. Without reverence you´re just another bloke taking a smoke break.

I like this. I don´t get a "leave it to the authorities" vibe. I get a "respect the power of the plant spirit" vibe, a useful attitude, I´d say, for any would-be shaman. Learning from a book might be a good first step, but if this is your path don´t stop there. Take it all the way. Devote your life to getting a first-rate education. Open yourself to finding that experienced curandera and becoming an apprentice.

It pains me to exit my intellectually fuzzy safe-space of liberal matyrdom long enough to take issue with you hard-headed engineering types, but somebodies got to stick up for gender studies. Gender studies is simply the study of men and women, how we´re different or not so different, and what various cultures make of that difference. Judging from the popularity of past gender related threads, that´s a subject that lots of folks around here -- of all different political stripes -- take an interest in.

I think I know what Walker is talking about, as far as in-person stance correction, because I´ve experienced it. I´d be standing there, thinking I was doing everything right, and my teacher would come and make some small tweak to my position, maybe just adjust an elbow slightly or change the curvature of my fingers. Anyway...he´d make some subtle change and bam, the chi would suddenly open up. Of course, later I´d try to put myself into that same position but never could get the same effect. It is indeed very subtle, perhaps not impossible to convey in writing but impossible to learn from writing. Impossible to learn from video. I´m very much a do-it-yourself kind a guy when it comes to spiritual practice, but sometimes a teacher really is invaluable.

That´s not surprising. We´re a pretty varied lot.

I suppose that´s true, although you seem to have a very different take about what "initiating force against others" means. At least different from me. After considerable conversation, I´m now convinced that I won´t be able to sway you to my point of view. That´s one thing I´ll bet we can agree on. Anyway, I´m not much for philosophical debate really, so I´m going to stop trying.