liminal_luke

BKA, You and Taomeow, among others, have ingeniously hitched your Taobums habit to actual practice so that both activities rise in tandem. That's kind of unusual. Mostly we're Taobums: eclectic, experimental, and terminally searching. The pick-one-thing-and-practice-for-a-decade crowd generally shops elsewhere.

Michael Winn's Tai-Chi for Enlightenment aka Primordial Chi-gong DVD. A short (fifteen or so minutes) form similar in some ways to Tai Chi but meant for spiritual cultivation rather than anything martial. Liminal

We've got a humbling experiences thread. I thought we needed a complementary one for exploring those experiences that taught us that we are so much more than we had previously imagined. Here's my start. I never thought I could modify my diet and get off prescription medications but I did. Liminal

Let the rain heal you. Just don't say goodbye; Danger Slippery when wet.

In every case there's the practice and there's the understanding that grows out of the practice. The order matters. Trying to get the understanding first, getting lost in the philosophical dazzle--a person can spend a lifetime like that and get much of nowhere. It's a real Taobumer.

"No doctor, massage therapist or physical therapist can release your back muscles for you; you must do it for yourself." Martha Peterson In my opinion, the above statement is true but misleading. Massage therapists don't release back muscles or anything else; they facilitate awareness. At least the good ones do. Once the client has more consciousness of the area in question they can go ahead and let go of their own tension easily. (I think the same thing, incidentlly, about psychotherapists. They don't release emotional pain, you have to do that yourself. What they do is facilitate awareness-- which is no small potatoes. A person can probably release trauma, physical or psychological, without going to any kind of therapy whatsoever. Why try though? It's so so helpful to have the support of an outside person gently pressing on the numbed out place, saying "hey look, isn't this interesting--do you feel this?")

I live in Zacatecas, Mexico. We've got the best gorditas and not much else. Fortunately, I find that a good gordita is all a person really needs. Liminal

Wow taomeow. If I wanted to be really healthy (the jury is still out), I'd print this post out and read it once a day until I really got it down to my bones. Thanks.

I think giving books and not paying attention to the potential partner probably work equally well in terms of getting a relationship. The difference is the kind of relationship you get. Start out by feigning disinterest and you end up with a relationship, perhaps long lasting, where you don't pay attention to each other. Start out by giving books and you end up with a relationship where both people are looking for creative ways to make each other happy.

BaguaKicksAss, Not sure if I believe this or not, but it surely can't hurt. Gonna kick up my practice for New Years Day, see what happens. Thanks! Liminal

One. But the lightbulb has to be sitting on the bare earth.

I find that people, even some very great teachers, are mostly a mixed bag. You have to sift through the dross to find nuggets worth keeping. I like to think that my posts make a contribution to Taobums. That said, nobody should make a project of believing my every word, or worse, emulating my character. And I imagine the same could be said for Dear Drew. You'll do much better following your own path. Liminal

Nothing wrong with being a teenager. Or seeking advice or attention for that matter. 4bsolute, I think you're really onto something there. Can't say for sure what it is, or will be, for you. Anyway, there's no substitute for personal experience. Why not concentrate your mind into your dan tien regularly as a practice, and report back what happens? Liminal

Hi Taomeow, Perhaps I'm misinterpreting only knowing you as I do from your online presence, but let me say this: whoever is writing your posts has an awful lot of Zing! I'm not sure we could handle the unbridled dream alter-ego self. Not that you should let that stop you. Hmmm....on second thought, why not? Bring it on. Liminal

Songstan, You were sorely missed. Liminal

Joeblast-- Interesting about your back. Do you know the story of Kan, Max's number one kunlun student? I'm drawing from memory here, but my recollection is that he was nearly paralyzed after an accident, and that his cultivation journey began during his recovery. Liminal

First off, I really admire your generous spirit. I'm sure you help a lot. Consider though that there's another way to think about the whole "asking first" thing. It's not just hand-wringing sidesitters who are too hung up to get in there and do the work. Asking first does something extremely important and, um, helpful: It shows Respect. Asking first says that we are equally capable and entitled to make decisions in our own life. Asking first shows humility, and honors the other person. Having our right to make our own path in life affirmed, being respected, honored, and treated with humility--so many times these things are all the help we really need. Asking is not some silly preamble to the real work. Asking with an open heart establishes the conditions of safety and peace without which nothing else can happen. Asking opens the door.

Here's an idea. Instead of shooting for self-less action what about trying to put as much self as we can into our every activity? Self-full action, if you will. By this I definately don't mean acting as if other people aren't there and don't matter. Narcissists, sociopaths and so forth are no more in touch with themselves than they are with others; their lives aren't self-full in the least. How to act self-fully? First figure out, as deeply as you can, who you are. Integrate all the conflicted subpersonalities. Plumb the subconscious, touch the superconscious. Be yourself. Once you're you, go ahead and do stuff. Let the distinction between what you do for others and what you do for yourself fall away.

People are anxious around me. I don't cultivate that much really, so that can't be it. Must be all the time I spend lurking around on Taobums. Liminal

I can't really say for sure, but here's what comes to me. Some souls among us have chosen to take the intensive course. Perhaps they've already completed all the beginning level material. Or they just really enjoy the challenge of going through the spiritual curriculum at breakneck speed. In any case, all the advanced stuff is necessarily difficult. It's just like anything else. I can comfortably add two plus two without breaking a sweat. If I'm going to learn to solve differential equations it's gonna require a little more mental struggle. Then again, someone who has facility with differential equations is going to be able to understand--and thus manipulate--the mathematical world in a way those who are doing arithmetic don't. As all lovers of horse stance know, you don't get very far insisting on constant comfort. Liminal

Back when I was in Israel doing the Jewish thing, I occasionally walked into the ultra-orthodox Mea Shearim neighborhood for morning prayers with the Breslover Hasidim. They always timed the most important part of the service, the amidah, to correspond with the exact moment of sunrise. We finished the Shema, and everyone stood around a moment for two in concentrated silence. Someone with a watch waited for the exact moment of Sunrise and then, bam, we began. Anyway, I think there's something to this sunrise business.

I recently taught my partner Kunlun, the spontaneous movement practice. He lived most of his early life in pretty extreme poverty, living for years in a makeshift house with a dirt floor and walls of lashed together cardboard here in Mexico. He's never had any previous exposure to taoist practice or chi gung. Well...instead of the usual flailing about that characterizes beginning practice--that indeed characterizes my practice-- he rose from his seat and started making very intentional and precise looking mudras, moving in beautiful spiral patterns as if possessed by the spirit of a Chinese tai chi master. When I asked him afterward how he did it, he said you just have to unify your head with your heart. Needless to say, I was floored. I'm not sure kunlun qualifies as magic, but I can't help thinking the phenomenon you've noticed in your magic students applies here. Whatever it was that has led him to such hardship in his life, is also bringing him some pretty amazing spiritual potential. Or at least it seems to me.

Perhaps brokenness is largely a function of point of view. From the point of view of a very constricted self, brokenness abounds. See life through a wider-angle lens and problems disappear. The facts themselves don't change; our assessment of them changes. Seen from a lofty enough transpersonal perch, even death is not problematic. Or so they say. From where I sit now I'm strongly averse to death, whether it be my own or any of the people I love-- so I don't much take such philosophical babbling to heart. Liminal

This sounds right, and I think it might be. But boy is it to pull off. Not easy to adopt a "no force" position towards someone whose mentally ill for instance. Actually I do believe that the kind of peace, and non-judgemental acceptance implied by "leaving them alone" can disentangle depression, suicidality. It's not so simple as just holding your tongue though. This kind of leading by example requires masterful aikido-esque nimbleness of spirit, a kind of do-nothing-and-yet-everything-is-done quality that, while it may not be as flashy as levitation or walking through walls, definately qualifies as a siddhi. Changing ourselves is hard enough. Changing another person, especially a family member, is a whole nother level of difficulty. Liminal

Taomeow, Very interesting take. I'm very interested in your view on this this. (Though perhaps I should make it a new thread as it doesn't really fit the topic?) Do you consider Buddhist Metta practice--repeating over and over again phrases like "may you be happy"--external photoshopping? What about Mantak Chia's healing sounds? If I do the heart sound "Ha" and let go of impatience and hatred in my heart and begin to feel love....is that different? Loving feelings generated from a practice like Metta, are different from loving feelings that arise from detoxing the internal organs?