liminal_luke

On spiritual cults: Trying to merge with the Dao by cultivating an aura of specialness is like trying to lose weight by eating at McDonalds.

Yikes -- am I ready to show photographic evidence of my health restoration? Not yet and probably never but it´s (slowly) coming along.

That may be but I bet I´m not the only Bum who´d love to read an anthologized compilation of the posts you wrote that didn´t make the cut. I bet it would be fascinating!

By "restorations" I suspect old3bob has physical objects in mind. I´m neither handy nor crafty and don´t have much to share in that department, but I wonder -- do posts count? I´m really into post restoration (otherwise known as editing). There have been times when I´ve edited a post twenty times before I finally let it be. It´s kind of a ridiculous hobby.

Respectfully, I´d like to express my disagreement. Many good spiritual teachers charge -- not everything gold is free.

Interestingly, Buddhism and related non-dual traditions seem to draw a lot of naysayers. This is in stark contrast to taoist practices like qigong or tai chi or even more esoteric alchemical traditions like nei gong. With these Taoist practices, people will criticize particular individuals, especially teachers. So-and-so doesn´t have good tai chi body mechanics; so-and-so doesn´t actually know anything about nei gong. What people don´t do is say that tai chi or neigong as an entire tradition is bogus. With Buddhism, it´s often just the opposite. I wonder why.

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Have you read the Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child? Like Reacher always says: get your revenge in first.

There is no cutoff point. It´s not like we´re all chummy spiritual friends hanging at the Zen center, accepting life as it comes and working with our aversions, until BOOM -- some threshhold of evil is crossed and we say "forget all that non-attachment stuff, time to fight like hell." The whole idea of a cutoff point is based on a faulty premise: that spiritual maturity is at odds with action in the world. Quite the opposite. Spiritual maturity and effective action (including political action -- the unspoken subtext here) are entirely aligned.

One idea would be to do Robert Peng´s Yi Jin JIng (available ondemand online) along with Nathan Brine´s teachings. I´ve taken the course and recommend it. The Yi Jin Jing is a foundational practice and very physical, a good complement to the sitting meditation I believe you´d get with Brine. Another option would be to do tai chi along with Brine´s teachings. In any case, I think a well-rounded practice involves both movement and meditative stillness. I also feel iffy about Damo Mitchell. He´s obviously very knowledgable and recommended by many...and yet, I don´t know, there´s something that stops me from becoming his student. The vibe doesn´t fit me.

This is what I´m doing lately: Practice — WOOP my life. So far, so good.

Now it´s over.

OK, I couldn´t resist. Question: How might William S. Burroughs describe the character of Liminal Luke on Daobums? Answer: Luke... yes. Seen him. The taobums flicker-flicker-flicker on the screen, a digital junkyard of "being" and "non-being." And there, always on the edge of the frame, is Luke. The Liminal Kid. Not a user, not a master, just a ghost in the machine's echo chamber. He sits in the silence of the forum, a twitching nerve-end. Waiting. Not for enlightenment, mind you. But for the next dose of static, the next whispered code that might break the illusion of his own flesh. His "practice" is a form of withdrawal, a desperate scratching at the scabs of perception. He's not meditating; he's junk-sick for the void. The final fix. You see it in the way his posts bleed into the margins, words strung out like a desperate junkie's last thought—the same thought you see in the eyes of a man trying to talk to his reflection in a bathroom mirror. They talk of "flow states," of "the Way." He just sees it as another control grid. A psychic virus transmitted through bad translations and the smell of stale incense. He's the one trying to get to the off switch, convinced the Taobums are just a new, more insidious form of the same old scam—another gang of vendors selling a different brand of heroin. A spiritual fix that promises freedom but just hooks you on the emptiness. He's not chasing peace. He's chasing the silence between words. The space where the narrative stops and the parasites die.

Here´s Gemini´s (not very accurate, imo) take on the forum in the style of E.E. Cummings. a place where minds unfurl (like petals on a new day) where silence breathes the body's song and answers are not found but felt (a humming of the Tao) of being simply there.

Some people change their gender; others get really creative with copper wire. Different strokes.

Welcome Lala Nila! I´ve been here for years and often feel reprimanded, so I think it comes with the territory. But there´s a lot of friendship and support to be had too. The thing about the Bums is we´re such a varied group and I think there´s room for most everybody. People have opinions, sometimes strong ones, but we were all beginners once (and some of us are still beginners no matter how long we´ve been here!). Anyway, hope you enjoy your time here.

@Nungali It´s ironic that you´d suggest I get in touch with my assertive warrior side because the only Bum I´ve wanted to tell off lately is...you. Casual readers likely don´t think you´ve said anything worthy of a finger, but somehow you´ve managed to get on my last nerves. I´m tempted to throw my usual policy of maintaining forum decorum out the window and really let you have it. Chances are the mods would suspend me, but would that really be so bad? Everyone is thinking of quitting the board these days anyways. Getting a suspension would be like being stopped by the cops on the highway, only instead of giving you a ticket for speeding they give you a coupon for all-you-can-eat breadsticks at the Olive Garden. Alas, I´m not going to do it. Even though I don´t think you´d be offended; no, you´d probably think it was funny, or worse, congratulate yourself for helping my mental wellbeing. Maybe someday.

I didn´t realize you found that post of mine helpful -- thanks so much for letting me know. Criticism, even when gentle and meant constructively, is very rarely useful because most people are unable to take it in. Most of us, myself very much included, are sensitive and our defensives immediately go up if we get a whiff of criticism. So I think it says something commendable about your character that you´re able to process feedback. I agree that telling someone to "pull their head out of their ass" isn´t interpersonally useful. Especially on the board where, for the most part, we don´t know each other in person. But I agree with Taomeow that it can be useful to say as a matter of maintaining self-respect. There have been a few times over the years where I´ve felt mistreated by my fellow Bums. Looking back, I wish that I´d stuck up for myself more forcefully. I might have felt better if I´d told a few people to pull their heads out of the asses. That phrase wouldn´t of helped our relationships, but it might have helped me. I remember a fight I got into in eighth grade. A schoolmate of mine was constantly bullying me and I felt terrible about it, but didn´t want to fight. Finally I got up my nerve and punched him one day. Back at home, I remember looking at my face in the mirror. I had a busted up lip and looked like I´d taken a beating, but I felt great. I´d finally sent a message that I couldn´t be pushed around without consequence. I was a worthy human being who deserved to be treated with dignity. It´s a lesson I´m still learning some fifty years later.

Well put. I think giving people the finger occasionally can help maintain self-respect. God knows, many people deserve it. It´s a forceful way of saying NO, and sometimes saying no is exactly what a situation calls for. While it´s true that I mostly refrain from criticizing other Bums, I´d like to point out that I´m not one to keep the peace at all costs. I´ve been quite vocal about expressing my political views (back when we still had a Current Event section) even when I knew that doing so would cost me socially.

That´s a good question to ponder. @Nungali has recently implied that I´m overly concerned with my popularity, or at least that´s the conclusion I took away from reading some of his recent posts. Personality-wise, it´s true that I tend to shy away from interpersonal conflict. Would I be better off giving more fingers? Some would say yes. I´m remembering an incident that took place at a celebratory lunch after my brother graduated with medical school. One of my uncle´s explained that he was late because he´d just come back from giving a speech about the unmitigated drivel that is all of alternative medicine. A doctor himself, my uncle was employed by a chemical company to defend all sorts of toxic corporate shenanigans. He made no secret of his contempt for homeopathy, chinese medicine, pretty much all the healing modalities I believed in. Anyway, I sat through that lunch listening to him express all sorts of opinions I disagreed with -- and yet I said nothing. My sister-in-laws mother later took me to task: why didn´t I stick up for my point of view? In retrospect, do I regret not defending my beliefs? I don´t. The event was to celebrate my brother´s accomplishment and I didn´t want to take away from that. I also knew that there was no way I was going to change my uncle´s mind -- so why try. Still, I do think there are plenty of occasions where assertiveness, even giving the finger, is the best move. It´s good, I think, to have finger giving in one´s behavioral repetoire. You´re a tiger Taomeow. (Nungali, something of a honey badger.) I´m somewhat less ferocious but who knows? I may get my growl on yet.

According to marriage researcher John Gottman, successful couples have at least five positive interactions for every negative one. I suspect this ratio applies to our experiences as forum participants as well. Bums that routinely come away from their experience here feeling unsupported, unseen, and unheard are likely headed for a divorce; enough divorces and goodbye forum. And so I´m trying to master the delicate art of expressing healthy disagreement on occasion without giving my fellow Bums the finger, to find the balance between milquetoast Mr. Nice Guy and Mortal Combat. It´s a work in progress.

I think it´s supposed to be the "ninja" emoji. I use it humorously to express secrecy. Like if I hint that something might be true but don´t want to come right out and say it outright. But I´m no emoji expert. That´s just my interpretation.

No worries. I believe I understood your post. You are an astute observer of human interaction. A cantankerous, and provocation-loving observer but also astute. Credit where it´s due.

Ya think? That´s a relief!

That´s quite the list. I don´t want to argue about the accuracy of any of your assertions, but would like to point out the "gotcha" flavor of your post. It´s as if you´re saying "you say you shouldn´t hold beliefs about meditations but I found all of these beliefs so you must be a hypocrite." Is that the message you meant to convey? Few people respond well when backed into a rhetorical corner. Instead they throw up our hands, roll their eyes, send face palm emojis. Marriage counselers sometimes ask their clients a pointed question: do you want to be right or do you want to get along? You likely aren´t interested in marriage with Apech or Taomeow (a mutual feeling, I´m sure) but you might want to cultivate good relationships. Speaking for myself, I know that each of them has worlds of experience in meditation and spiritual practice. They have much to teach me.