liminal_luke

WISE. LIke you, I´m going to go with wise on this one and think the balance of opinion will be with us. Of course whether it is actually wise or foolish for your particular case depends on a whole lot of things you haven´t told us. I think coffee, in particular, is one of those substances that´s good for some and bad for others depending on personal biochemistry, health history, etc. It´s worth experimenting with including it and excluding it to see if there´s a difference. OK, my question. Sharing personal information about my emotional ups and downs with strangers on the internet -- wise or foolish? I tend to share what´s going for me inside more freely than most, or at least that´s my impression. For the most part I´m comfortable doing so but might occasionally skirt the edge of "too much information" territory.

I haven´t used minimal footwear for running, or even much hilly-ground hiking, but my Vibram Fivefingers made a splash amongst the non-Tarahumara espresso drinkers at the Starbucks in downtown Zacatecas.

As a fifty-something owner of multiple teddybears, I couldn´t agree more.

Moderation, alas, is often a matter of distinguishing between shades of gray rather than an easy black-or-white sorting process, so I´m not sure there´s a one-size-fits-all answer to your question. What I can say is that few of us truly welcome negative apprisals of our character. Many people imagine that they´re "helping" a fellow spiritual traveler by pointing out things that are wrong with them but this rarely works. This is very different from arguing, even quite passionately, about an issue. Saying "I disagree with you and here´s why..." is never a moderatable offense. Saying "you´re stupid/ a poor reader / entrenched in a set of contradictory beliefs and holding on to them for dear life as a sort of security blanket" is, in my opinion, a moderatable offense. Even if true, it´s not likely to be useful. Why go there?

That´s exactly the punctuation mark I had in mind, Manitou. As a guy with limited knowledge of such things, I thought it prudent before spelling it out to come to a full stop.

What´s helpful? Oftentimes people who intend to be helpful aren´t. For instance, I occasionally see people on the board trying to be "helpful" to other Bums by detailing personality deficits. This is rarely helpful. In general, I think your Sifu´s guideline is a good one but I wouldn´t take it as an absolute rule. Occasionally people are unable to ask for help but can nevertheless benefit. My sense is that true helpfulness emerges from emptiness. That´s not a word I use very often because I´m not very versed in the philosophical traditions where it appears, but I´ll try to explain what I mean. If I "want" to be helpful my actions usually won´t be, at least not in the purest sense. The very act of wanting is an impediment to helpfulness, a contaminant that distorts. Truly helpful action emerges spontaneously out of selflessness. It´s natural and unadorned and no brownie points are sought or given. When I am fully myself, in the wisest sense of the phrase, I´m available to be of help. I´m no Sifu but if I had to make a guideline about helping I´d say don´t help when you´re emotionally entangled. (Though that might be setting the bar impossibly high.)

What´s the favorite punctuation mark of medical patients who´ve had part of their intestines removed? the semicolon What´s the favorite punctuation mark of affluent suburban adolescents? braces What´s the favorite punctuation mark of morally compromised foodies? the dash What´s the favorite punctuation mark of urban gangsters? bullet point What´s the favorite punctuation mark of mysoginistic comedians? (stopping while I´m ahead)

I want to be someone who helps other people when I can. Is it possible that in relieving suffering I´ve interfered with someone´s karma? I guess. But I don´t think it´s my karma to understand karma and I don´t try. Helping people in a simple way feels good enough to me.

Michael Winn´s website is healingtaousa.com. There you can find contact information, including a telephone number, for the healingtao office manager -- not a direct line to Michael Winn but a place to start. Michael might well have some good suggestions for dealing with the energy in your head (if that´s why you want to contact him), but there are also knowledgable people right here who might be more accessible. I suggest contacting @freeform.

As you note, biochemical individuality is often overlooked by those searching for the "perfect diet." I´m not sure there is a perfect diet for all humanity. There are only diets more or less suited for particular people.

I´m guessing that there is a range of experiences that could fall into a general category: experiences of inner boundlessness. I´ve had inklings along these lines and am also sure that the experience can become much more profound than I´ve discovered thus far. One thing´s for sure though -- there´s nothing a bit foolish or nonsensical about your perceptions, Knowthing. I think it´s great that you asked your question because it lets others who have had similar experiences know they are not alone. My feeling is that we´re sometimes at our most vulnerable, our most open, when we´re having what we might call "spiritual experiences." And because we´re vulnerable, it makes sense to protect ourselves. Unfortunately, not everyone we meet online is a friend. It´s rational and self-caring to be a bit discriminate about sharing our deepest and most tender spiritual moments. LIke with anything, people differ. Some can reveal a lot without negative consequences and may even benefit from doing so, while others are better off keeping their own counsel.

I´ve taken his Yi Jin Jing course online and recommend it. There´s a thread on it if you search. He´s starting another cycle of this teaching later this month and hosting a webinar on it tomorrow which you can sign up for. Check out his webpage for details if you´re interested.

I think what you describe is exactly how things are. Infinite space inside, infinite space outside.

some of my partner´s abstract work

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Don´t laugh but I do take fortune cookies seriously. My method is to ask the cookie a question before breaking it open and consider how the message inside might be an answer. I´m probably "cold reading" myself but I´ve found some of these fortunes illuminating.

I´ll offer a video I´m watching. Here psychotherapist Esther Perel is talking about how to recover that feeling of aliveness so many of us are missing lately through fantasy and imagination. She calls it "eroticism" but she´s not really talking about sex, or at least not only about sex. More like vitality, spontaneity, a delight in the unexpected. My favorite quote from the video: In an effort to flatten the curve, we have flattened ourselves.

No problem, Apech. I actually really like the spiritual mother direction your comment took us in.

The "mom" thing struck me as a little off at first -- guess it touched some residual wanna-be-macho sensitivities -- but I´m warming up to the idea of motherhood now. (Becoming a mother is perhaps the original Daoist alchemical system. It can lead to enlightenment, though not immortality. Some of are drawn to the path, not unlike the many innocents drawn to Mo Pai, but I suggest starting with something less challenging like Spring Forest.)

I agree. Practicing a spiritual system is more like having a baby than going to the grocery store. With the supermarket you can make a list of things you want and then just go and get them. Spiritual practice, in my experience, isn´t like that. There is no guide that can tell you in advance: healing siddhis on aisle three. Instead it is more like a baby; what you get is almost always different than what you planned.

In a workshop I attended years ago, teacher Juan Li once said that time didn´t just march forever forward as is commonly believed. It could, for instance, go backwards too. So fascinating! Most people think you can´t change the past but perhaps you can. Maybe the bumber sticker is right: it´s never too late to have a happy childhood. Perhaps it´s also possible to change negative circumstances in the lives of our ancestors? The only thing I know for sure about time is that there´s more to it than I can glean from looking at a number on my cellphone. .................................................................................................................................................. @manitou You mentioned that you "barely made it through high school." Having gone through a bit more formal education, I gave that passage you quoted from Tarthang Tulku a whirl, naively thinking that the years I spent in academia might have given me greater powers of reading comprehension. They didn´t.

I learned the concept of "informal practice" from online workshops with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. He tends to combine longer periods doing whatever we´re learning (formal practice) with many short practice periods (informal practice) throughout the day. My informal practice was sometimes super short, like 30 seconds, and yet I found this frequent periodic repetition very valuable. Sometimes I set an alarm on my watch and practiced a minute or so every hour. This isn´t to say that longer practices are unimportant -- those were encouraged too. Just that there´s something potent about doing lots of super short practices wherever you are throughout the day.

At the risk of beating a stolid horse, I´ll add that giving people information about themselves is always tricky. It´s tricky even when people ask for the information and even trickier when they don´t. Not everybody is prepared or ready to make good use of information about the inner workings of their psyches or energy bodies -- especially if this information is accurate. With perceptiveness comes responsibility: we have a responsibility not to hurt people with what we know. It´s one thing to understand someone´s flaws -- a relatively easy feat -- another thing to communicate one´s understanding in a way that leads another to healing and growth. Often the insights that prove most beneficial are the ones clients reach on their own. RiverSnake -- I´ll bet you could read a few of my posts and tell me quite a bit about myself, likely some things I´m not aware of. You´re musings might well be dead right. But please don´t. I take your abilities seriously. Your ability to access priviledged information does, in my opinion, obligate you to use what you know wisely. Healing others is a sacred trust.

Hi @MysticNinjaSage, Like you, I´m not sure what´s possible in the realms of energy healing, reading, etc. I tend to think that most everything we can imagine is possible, and, at the same time, many of the people who claim to do XYZ really can´t. Ilumairen mentioned that we´re "sovereign beings." I think this is a super important concept. To me, it means that everyone of us has certain rights that can not, or should not anyway, be trampled on by others. One of these rights, to my way of thinking, is the right to seek or refuse help. Nobody should be coming to you and telling you your energy is "stolid" unless you ask for an opinion. I mean really, who do they think they are? If there´s a problem, you are the one who will identify that something needs addressing (or not) and you are the one who will seek help (or not). One of my wellness goals is to feel more confident, self-assurred and strong. I want to feel in charge of myself, secure in the knowledge that I´m OK (neither wonderful nor terrible but definitely alright) and capable of making my way in the world. So I judge potential healings and therapy through this lens. If a potential healer leads me to feel powerful and more "sovereign," to claim my boundaries and my space, I´m interested. If someone starts out by telling me that there´s something wrong with me, I run the other way.