liminal_luke

It´s been tough, this whole pandemic thing. While my life hasn´t changed much outwardly, I feel the general stress in the air, so much uncertainty about what comes next. As always, I´m trying to improve myself through diet and my various spiritual practices. Wish I was one of those people who let´s everything go and enters a state of profound grace and love but so far no. Maybe someday. I´ll share a bit of the journal entry I wrote this morning in the hopes that it strikes an amusing chord.... This journal, like so many of my journalistic efforts in the past, will document my attempt to secure health and happiness through various wellness practices, medically sound and otherwise. I´d call it Distaster Diet: Food For Apocalyptic Times but that implies an overly narrow focus on cuisine. Wellbeing is 80% kale salad, 15% pushups, 5% someone to cuddle with while binge watching Survivor. I do however stand by the assertion that cataclysmic change is afoot. Why else would I be eating broccoli? Last April, during the Spring of Naive Hope, I thought surely the pandemic would be winding down by now. Guess again. Obesity is a major risk factor for severe coronavirus complications so I´m in a race against time to slim down before getting infected. The last thing I want to do is burden my family with the cost of an oversize casket. Speaking of caskets, homosexual sex hounds have been laughing in the face of death for decades now and if you think the latest bug will deter us you need to wake up and smell the poppers.... The entry goes on from here but takes a less family friendly turn better saved for another day.

Neither do I. What struck me as funny was a picture of a cat, not environmental destruction. It´s true that I was ribbing you a bit in my post above, and perhaps I shouldn´t as I know how seriously you take this subject. While you and Taomeow may have different views on the science, I suspect you share a deep concern for the earth and it´s many inhabitants.

The world may be coming to an end due to Anthropogenic Global Warming or any number of other reasons. Not having done much undergraduate work in the biosciences, I´m poorly versed to debate this important subject. In any case, I´m fairly convinced that there´s little I can do to evert disaster so I avoid depression by focusing on life´s remaining small pleasures, pleasures such as those provided by the cat photo Taomeow posted. How accurately does the cat in question reflect Taomeow´s attitude? Very accurately, I suspect. It´s hilarious.

Does this thread qualify as a comment box?

Is the consensus here that Damo is presenting good stuff? Intrigued by his free microcosmic course, I went to his page and ended up getting sidetracked by a Yi Jin JIng video. In the video he says that the Yi JIn JIng isn´t a set of exercises but rather a set of principles. Well, OK....I think I remember @freeform stating something similar. Damo poo-poos the idea that the Yi Jin JIng could be an exercise set saying that the forms that exist do little more than stretch the tendons. At this point I felt myself getting disillusioned and discouraged: I learned Yi JIn JIng as an exercise set online with Robert Peng, and, although my experience is still quite limited, I´ve found it very valuable.

You´re never gonna get those goodie points, Cleansox, unless you learn to read carefully. The being Steve mentions is my high-achieving brother Luminal. I´m Liminal. Luminal is all smiles and sunshine whereas I´m a creature of shadow and twilight. Luminal spends his days enraptured in an annoying state of total meditative absorbtion and doesn´t have time for the forum. If you´re interested in befriending a light being -- and collecting the accompanying goodie points -- you might try ilumairen.

I´ve recently started making eggless aioli. I peel a whole bulb or so of garlic cloves and smash them up in my mortar. Add a bit of salt and a squirt of lemon. Then dribble in olive oil very very slowly while constantly whisking. The result has a diesel fuel intensity that´s not entirely pleasant. But for adding garlic flavor to dishes there´s nothing like it.

Shunryu Suzuki said it best: Each of you is perfect the way you are...and you could use a little improvement. The attitudes of self-acceptance and self-dissatisfaction need not be opposed, but can, and perhaps should, comfortably take up residence in a person right next to each other. We need both. Self-dissatisfaction without self-acceptance commonly leads to shame and depression. Self-acceptance without self-dissatisfaction leads to becoming POTUS.

Maybe assessing "how someone is doing in life" isn´t about figuring out whether or not they are facing obstacles. It´s not about checking bank balances, blood pressure, or the status of marriages. Instead, what´s really telling is how someone reacts to the challenges that inevitably come their way.

Is the central channel identified in Bon essentially the same as the central channel worked with in Taoist practice? When I was learning internal alchemy with Michael Winn (Healing Dao) it was all about developing awareness of the central channel. So I wonder...are these practices going to the same place?

@Earl Grey Just wanted to say that I´m glad we´re all having this dialogue. It seems to me like your responses are being seriously considered by the moderation team. I´m hoping that you´ll end up feeling heard and respected.

@Earl Grey Wow, there´s a lot in what you wrote to think about -- thanks. I´m a little overwhelmed to process it all at the moment. One thing that initially struck me is that you say "I am the opposite of thick skinned." This has the ring of truth to me. I think it´s possible that in some of your interactions you´ve intended friendly helpfulness and haven´t been perceived that way. For instance, if you say "Son, I think this would be helpful..." lots of people, including me, wouldn´t feel a sense of helpfulness. Addressing someone as "son" implies that you are older and in the wise dad role. It´s a stance that even teenage Bums seeking assistance might resist. The implication is that you are more knowledgable. And here´s the thing: you might well be more knowledgable but people generally want to feel like they are on an equal footing, especially in the context of a forum like this one and not a formal student-teacher relationship. I believe you are more knowledgeable about Taoist cultivation than I am but if you called me son I would bristle. It might be painful to watch Bums take up cultivation practices that you know from your experience are going to be harmful. Naturally you want to reach out and prevent terrible consequences, including perhaps hospitalizations and even death. Who can blame you? My best friend Greg is openly diabetic. He was eating a piece of cake at a party one night when a fellow party-goer, a psychologist he barely knew, approached him, noted the cake, and said "you´re hurting my heart." Rather than feeling cared about, as the psychologist party-goer likely intended, Greg felt affronted. How dare she tell him, a grown man, what to eat! My point: helping others is a dicey business. I don´t think it´s being a "sheriff" to give your opinion -- once. But people are people and many just aren´t gonna listen. I think one of the most difficult aspects of being an effective helper is coming to terms with the stubborn destructiveness of others.

I had my partner try it. The funny thing is he identified the nose of the cow and the eyes just where they were but still didn´t really see it. When I showed him he laughed and told me that he was going to say that it looked like a cow´s nose.

Seems to me there´s something of a cultural divide. Some Bums, Virtue and perhaps Earl Grey, seem to value thick skin and consider thin skin a character defect. They think that "sometimes it´s necessary to be a bit blunt." That there´s nothing wrong with being a "dick" on occasion and it´s incumbent upon the those who interact with the dick in question to buck up and not take things personally. (Feel free to correct me if I´m mischaracterizing your position.) This is not my way. I think the insult policy should be strictly enforced. Any allusions to calling another Bum an idiot, no matter how oblique, ought to result in at least a warning. I think we should step lightly when critiqueing each other and calling each other out. Actually, I´d prefer we can critiques and call outs altogether unless someone specifically asks for feedback. It´s possible that I´m at the far end of the curve in this regard. As a moderator, I´m apt to seem heavy handed to those who prefer a more rough-and-tumble forum. I make no apologies for this. I´m simply doing what I believe is best for the forum, as most any of us would. As a moderator, I´m firmly in the anti-dick camp. (Now there´s a sentence I never thought I´d write.) For those who believe that dickishness is A-OK, well, I might not be your moderator of choice.

@Earl Grey Thanks for sharing more of your point of view. I suspect my idea of the forum as the bar in Cheers does not enjoy anything like universal support. Oh well. Call me a Shirley Temple tippler if you must, but I prefer an environment where people don´t call each other idiots. I do think you´re right to point out that you didn´t identify the idiot in question by name, clearly a mitigating factor. On a personal note, I must admit that I´m a little put off by your PPJ with it´s rigid entry requirements and especially by your statement specifically prohibiting participation by moderators. Needless to say, it´s not a policy that´s likely to endear you to the mod group. It feels as if you are thumbing your nose at us. I suppose there´s nothing explicitly against the rules about nose thumbing. We moderators ought to have thick skin and be able to roll with the punches. Still, you might remember that the mod team is composed of human beings. Policies that foment divisiveness and contention lead to (duh!) divisiveness and contention.

What do I think now? That I´m not as smart as I thought I was. Thanks, Taomeow! (Just kiddin´) For the record, I still see my cat plain as day.

Thank you!

My hope is that this dialogue leads to a place where everyone feels like they are a valued part of the Bum community. I´d like for us to have a sense of working together towards the common purpose of productive -- maybe even fun -- conversation. At it´s best this place could be the forum version of the bar in Cheers, a place where "everybody knows your name." I get that you feel unfairly maligned. Me too! Some members don´t have a very favorable view of the mod team. I haven´t been especially singled out, probably because I´m less vocal than some, but I assume the general scorn includes me. As moderators I suppose we´re supposed to rise above all this, but I can tell you that it´s not the vibe I´m hoping for in my participation here. You say you want a guarantee. I can´t possibly know what you will think or feel if you go down the road of explaining yourself a litle further. Nor do I have any control over how my fellow mods might respond. What I can tell you is that I don´t wish you harm.

It´s an attempt at dialogue. (oops...I noticed I left out the word "appears"...as in "the quote above appears to be...")

Earl, The quote above appears to be about a particular person, presumably a Bum. This person is not identified and I don´t know who you mean but that doesn´t make it any less insulting. If I´m misunderstanding in some way, would you like to explain what you mean?

How about yawning? When I worked with a zapchen coach (zapchen is kind of a mashup of Tibetan Buddhism and somatic psychotherapy), I was instructed to yawn for 10 minutes at a go. Just take your time and let yourself yawn. It can have a very relaxing effect, especially on the facial muscles.

For what it´s worth... I got a consultation with Eric Isen for a health issue. He seemed knowledgable, helpful, and a nice person. But the next day I got lab results back from a regular MD that directly contradicted Eric´s assessment. Does this prove anything? Perhaps not. But it left me with the sense that Eric´s readings are far from infallible.

I hope this test doesn´t turn out to be anything like the one I took in college at the encouragement of a dorm-mate. She asked me to envision a waterfall and then describe it to her. I told her that I saw a dry bed of rock where a waterfall used to be. Then she revealed that the test was supposed to represent the respondent´s sexuality. Oops.

Considering your question, I think I may have. But I´ve never put such experiences in those terms. It sounds to me like getting so wrapped up in a visual experience that the self is momentarily forgotten. Something akin to what psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi identified as "flow." On a possibly related note, I´ve noticed that an aggressive (assertive?) aspect to the my normal mode of seeing. It´s as though my eyes actively reach out and take in visual stimuli. On a few occasions, I´ve softened my sense of self so that the worlds seem to come to me visually rather than the other way around. It´s a more relational, intimate way of seeing. Not sure if you see what I mean.

There´s so much I don´t know. Your post seems to me to allude to something that goes beyond the 5 senses altogether. Such a dimension, level of awareness...not sure what to call it...might well exist for all I know but it´s hard for me to imagine. I suppose the difficulty of imagining such a place is kind of the point.