liminal_luke

I love the idea of interplay between the different levels of reality. To me, it´s reminiscent of the Kabbalistic idea of "running and returning," that there´s a necessary back-and-forth between God and the world, or, to put it another way, absolute and relative levels of existence. This idea of a return ticket -- fluidly traveling between realms -- strikes me as emblematic of Taoism and kinda special. So many spiritual paths fixate on a one-way journey to nondualism. Much better, I think, to bring a little bit of heaven back to earth.

You might check out Five Elements, Six Conditions by Gilles Marin.

Just made something new -- avocado butter. It couldn´t be simpler. Just take softened room temperature butter and mash it up with avocado. Add salt and a squeeze of lemon or lime juice. Maybe some cumin or cayenne, something to add a bit of zing. Really good. Next on the dairy adventure docket: sardine butter.

Hi spanda, It´s not a qigong system but you might check out the dynamic neural retraining system (dnrs). https://retrainingthebrain.com/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-covid-long-hauler-brain-fog-connected/ I ordered the online program recently and am finding it pretty fascinating. There are testimonials from people with both chronic fatigue and long-haul Co-vid. Good luck!

Some years back I was wandering around a sketchy neighborhood in Guadalajara trying to find the address of a friend who had graciously invited me to dinner. After much searching I finally called my friend. He said I was in a dangerous area and told me to stand on the corner; he´d come by and pick me up. So I stood. In a few minutes a car pulled up slowly, stopped, beckoned me in. Assuming it was my friend I looked in the window. Nope, nobody I knew. Turns out the area was known for street walking prostitutes and the guy in the car likely wanted to pick me up. Is it wrong that I look back on this story with pride? Once upon a time someone wanted me badly enough to pay, a circumstance I attribute to stellar karma in a previous life.

I hate it when there´s conflict, especially between wonderful people who don´t mean to hurt each other´s feelings. Sometimes sex discussions suck.

Sex has a sticky quality. It´s this stickiness that makes it so helpful for cementing (consumating) relationships; people who have sex with each other tend to stick together -- energetically, karmically, emotionally. If you want to entwine your life with someone elses, sex is often the best tool for the job. But what if we don´t want to entwine with another person? Often there´s an impulse to connect physically while at the same time holding back psychologically or spiritually. It´s a little bit like pressing on a cars gas pedal and brakes at the same time: not good for the engine. My personal experience is that sex is best when the different dimensions of my being -- physical, psychological, spiritual -- are all aligned and pointed in the same direction. If part of me is going one way and another part somewhere else, sex is likely to be bad, sometimes very bad. Disjointed sexual experiences fragment the spirit. I believe it´s hard to have sex for money that feels like soulful communion. (But more power to ya if you can manage it!) So it seems to me that most prostitution is harmful for both buyer and seller. Still, I try to hold this belief lightly. I try to remember the many instances where I´ve been wrong in life. To remember that it´s unwise to extrapolate from my own limited experience to all of humanity. Your milage may indeed vary.

Student loans.

I intuitively sense the rightness of this position. It does us little good to judge sex workers or their clients. In fact, I´m open to the possibility that for some sex work is a freely chosen and rewarding job. Likewise, some people may benefit from employing a sex worker. (I´m thinking of a severely disabled person who employs a knowledgable sex surrogate to facilitate an erotic experience that otherwise wouldn´t be possible.) If only I hadn´t watched that Netflix documentary about pimps in LA last night! The show painted a grim picture of brutalized women. So I´m left with a question: is it possible to maintain a what-is-is attitude while still working to put pimps behind bars? Can I make firm ethical decisions about my own behavior while maintaining a "what is is" attitude? How do we balance equanimity and righteous outrage?

Are you a prostitute or considering prostitution as a career path? Are you a current or prospective john? If so, the questions you pose are indeed worthy of careful consideration. If this is the case, I applaud your conscientiousness. Still, this inquiry pricks my shame radar. Discussions of karma can be a way of shaming people and I´d like to avoid that. Nobody appointed me the karma police, so who am I to judge? In general, I agree with @silent thunder who recommends leaving "consenting adults to their own process." That said, I think there´s more to the ethics of sex than mere consent. When considering my own behavior, it´s important to me not to be sexual in a way that hurts other people. People often censent to self-injurious actions. I have, for instance, willingly consumed Coca-Cola on numerous occasions Sometimes people consent to sexual activity that is similarly self-injurious, and this is where I think an a little extra diligence goes a long way.

He likely couldn´t of afforded her. Spiritual life coaches in Berkeley, California are notoriously spendy. I´m grateful I got to have a few sessions.

One day my Zapchen coach, Laura Lund, asked me a provocative question: where in my body did I think "I" was? Like most western people (all people?), I tend to think of myself as headquartered in my head. My intestines, liver, toes and forearms all serve useful purposes but the part of me that is most me is my brain, where the thinking happens. Laura taught me that we can come to feel our being spread out throughout the body rather than sequestered in the brain. Which brings me to a question inspired by Bindi: where does awakening happen? I don´t know honestly but my preference would be for an awakening that doesn´t exclude the lower dantian. An awakened mind seems like a relatively paltry accomplishment.

I often compare my felt sense of myself to other people´s social media selfie presentation of themselves, not a good idea as I often end up feeling lesser than. But perhaps this is comparing apples to oranges.

Ya gotta love the diversity of the forum. To you, dwai, a big focus on the physical is suspect. I´m just the opposite: I start to raise my eyebrows when people don´t focus on the physical. Maybe different people have different needs, possibly depending where a person is along the spiritual journey. Also, different cultures are differently focused -- a good thing imo. I tend to think of the physical as a crystalization of the ethereal and believe it´s useful to work all up and down the spectrum. Ultimately, perhaps there´s a discontinuity between subtle ethereal energetics and what you refer to as "absorbtion" but that´s a leap I´ve yet to take.

Yes, for sure. I agree with all of that. It´s incredibly difficult to talk about things like "wanting" in spiritual practice without falling into an impossible verbal pit. The method is to cultivate an attitude of equanimity, to get to that choiceless place where grasping doesn´t happen. From this perspective there are no good or bad meditations. If we´re chasing after experiences -- even "good" ones -- we´re not meditating. And yet...and yet...there is a reason some people meditate rather than sit around drinking coffee. Formal meditation practice accomplishes something that coffee klatches do not, at least for beginners. If there´s a point to meditation, there is also a wanting behind it. The statement "there´s such a thing as a good meditation" is both true and untrue. For beginners, the truth or untruth of this statement is a large unwieldy thing. For more seasoned practitioners, this truth or untruth becomes progressively more subtle and refined. Eventually the polarity may appear to disappear altogether. At that point there is no is no more wanting (that´s what we want).

Touche! I suspect that suffering in general, and in particular ill health, motivates many to pursue (wrong word!) spiritual practice. When it´s impossible to achieve something, transcend the need.

This business of "meditation experiences" in Buddhism is confusing. Yes, we´re encouraged to let go of, rather than grasp, experiences. At the same time, is it really true that it doesn´t matter what is experienced when we sit? I´d say no -- it does matter. If one experience is really as good as another than why sit at all? There is *something* that Buddhist meditators are trying to prolong and stabilize even if the method is, paradoxically, not to try too hard. In fact, I´d say the point of letting go of experience is to stabilize experience. Sadly for me, chasing after experiences is the best way to gaurantee they won´t be returning. So, to me, there´s no conflict between Damo Mitchell´s wanting to sustain experiences and Buddhism. I´d say he brings up a great question: does sustained awakening require energetic support? I wonder, for instance, whether good health and vitality supports awakening or if it´s just as easy to become awakened in a weakened, sick state? While it´s likely possible to point to plenty of unhealthy awakened people, in history and the present day, my intuition tells me that good health probably helps.

he asked, looking for all the world like a little white cat. (Not that I´m one to talk.)

Attractive in a might-actually-be-an-alien kinda way.

I knew I shouldn´t of posted my picture on that dating site. Now it´s all over the internet!

I´m not sure it´s possible to give any definitive answer to questions that start "what would a Taoist do if....?" because Taoists are a diverse lot and, to my knowledge, there´s not a set code of conduct to cover all these kinds of situations. Personally, I wouldn´t worry too much about calming down an upset stranger. Their emotions are none of my business. If they attacked me, I would defend myself. If they destroyed property, I would call the police. If they were merely upset, I´d probably offer a quick apology for the confusion and then go eat a hotdog.

I thought I did give a direct answer. In my opinion, a Taoist wouldn´t get overly concerned with the gender identity of other people. Unless the person in question is a partner or family member, there´s really nothing to "handle." I´m happy to call acquintances by whatever pronoun they prefer. When I use public bathrooms, I don´t much concern myself with the anatomy of peeing neighbors. It´s a policy that has worked well for me.

The people I know who take spirituality seriously tend to think that life is precious and value spiritual cultivation above all else. They have little time to worry about who uses what bathroom.

One way to make reading a more embodied activity is to read aloud. Bonus points if you take turns reading aloud with another person and discuss.

The yoga that can be studied in most western yoga studios is not the eternal yoga. Not even close. But if the benefits pale in comparison with the real thing so does the required commitment, and I think lots of folks benefit. Yoga class is the only place where many of us are asked to be aware of our body and breath. While physical asana classes may not get people into the inner sanctum of the temple, for some they open a door.