liminal_luke

It doesn´t matter I suppose -- and I´m being a little nitpicky here -- but when it comes to my own assessment of myself I like to be exact. I raised the question of whether or not I was a "moral scold"; I did not make an out-and-out attribution. Here´s the exact quote I believe you are referring to... Have I become that most annoying of characters -- the moral scold?

Some further thoughts on that hawk that ilumairen and/or Pilgrim may or may not want to shoot. Let´s suppose we decide it´s virtuous not to interfere with nature. According to this worldview, a hawk gets to be hawkish. Living creatures often appear violent but all beings are entitled to act in accordance with their nature. OK, fine. Now here´s the question: are human beings not also part of the natural world? If a Bum sees a hawk about to eat a smaller bird and wants to protect the smaller bird, well, I figure that protective impulse is also a natural one. Can we take this attitude of non-interference and apply it to our own behavior? To the behavior of other human beings? Should we?

Interesting! I´ve been reading lately about the benefits of "inclined bed therapy" and thinking of giving it a try. Any tips? https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2018/02/15/inclined-bed-therapy.aspx

Thanks for sharing some about your personal experience, Rene. Many prefer to remain more hidden, but I always appreciate it when Bums share stories from their lives; it´s nice to get to know people. Your story reminds me of a Zapchen coach I used to work with. She told me of a past relationship that she had with another woman, and I always assumed she was a lesbian but later found out that wasn´t the case. It was just that she had a strong energetic connection with another person who was physically female and just decided to go with it -- in spite of the fact that she was generally attracted to men. Personally, it´s hard for me to imagine doing something analogous though I admire her flexibility and openness to life. Stosh is correct that I´ve long "played for the other team." I awakened to my gayness around the age of twelve and have more or less stayed the course (although there was one interesting occasion when a female massage client of mine suggested we trade erotic bodywork). While perhaps not the most masculine guy in the world, I´ve always felt like a man. I don´t relate to the desire some gay men have to paint their nails and wear big wigs. I wish my apartment was tastefully decorated and that I had better taste in clothes. Alas, that´s not the case. I´m a gay man trapped, stylistically speaking, in a heterosexual man´s body. What amazes me is how different people are from each other. There are so many different ways to relate to our sexual selves, to relate to our maleness and/or femaleness. Everybody has their own story.

Reading Stosh, it´s easy for me to imagine him as a hungry hawk in a past life. Perhaps he met up with a previous incarnation of ilumairen sitting on her medieval front porch, and she shooed him away in a (misguided?) attempt to protect some daintier creature. Centuries later, the conflict continues in a radically different guise.

As a resident gay dude, I should probably hold off writing that technical manual I´ve been mulling over on heterosexual sex positions. I am, however, a human being and don´t live on an all-male clothes-optional tropical island. I was raised by a mother and women continue to play key roles in my life, so I´m not entirely ignorant of male-female dynamics. Anyway, I´ll continue to share my perspective from time to time, wise or foolish though it may be. My words are like the rain: you generally can´t stop a downpour but with a little planning you can avoid getting drenched. May I suggest a sturdy black umbrella made by one of my favorite US companies, Ignore Inc..

What is a teacher? Someone who can assess a student´s spiritual progress and make specific recommendations tailored to their particular level? Someone with a wide knowledge base about qi gong and spirituality in general? Someone self-realized (awakened) to the point where their very presence radiates spiritual energy that ready students can pick up? or just.... Someone whose learned something valuable and is willing to share with others? Several here have mentioned honesty. Honesty is the best insurance against fraud. Nothing wrong with teaching something without being a Daoist Wizard as long as you don´t mislead people about your own abilities and knowledge. I started to learn piano from my elementary school teacher when I was in third grade. She was great. She knew the basics and was happy to pass them on for a fair price. When it was clear that I was serious and had absorbed what she had to give she sent me to another teacher. That´s the way it should be.

Announcing the First Annual Trump Talk South-of-the-Border Cookout. I can´t wait to try Ralis´s enchiladas with authentic New Mexican Hatch chiles and Thelerner´s enchiladas with mole. Kar3n, can you bring one of your summer salads?

Wheels within a wheel I am so over James Bond It`s a good song though.

This is a great antidote to a certain kind of spiritual greed I`ve sometimes noticed in myself -- my feeling like I had to learn some certain practice. There`s a saying that I`ve heard from Zapchen teachers that I like...everything is possible, nothing is necessary.

I am still hungry though the cheeseburger is gone. Where are you my love?

Tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip. Winston Churchill

Valentine`s Day sucks but I`m glad you`re here.

As rants go, this one is spot-on. Being right is to spirituality as Snickers is to food. I too hope for the deeper nourishment of genuine camaraderie and mutual support. The posts I find most beneficial are the personal stories (KumbaMela) and shared resources (DeMillo). Thanks to all who have generously shared from the heart. My life is richer for your sharing.

OK, so technically this is fire over water and not the other way around but still...can you feel the alchemy? To me the image evokes a certain sweetness.

Hi Freeform, I wasn`t going to reply to your post because I didn`t know if I could explain myself in an intelligible way, but I`ll give it a whirl. I like a lot of what you say. Totally agree about the necessity of engaging with life and not being a proverbial "bump on a log" who doesn`t strive for anything in life because he`s happy doing nothing. And I certainly don`t mean to suggest that I want to turn into a psychopath, quite the contrary. Since you do counseling, perhaps you`ve heard of dialectical behavior therapy? It`s a current interest of mine. The dialectical part of the name comes from the concept of synthesizing opposites, kind of like in Daoist alchemy. Wisdom, so they say, is often the product of combining two seemingly irreconcilable perspectives. One of the main "dialectics" in DBT is between the necessity of asking a client to change problematic behavior and acceptance of reality as it is. The theory goes that BOTH these stances are valuable in life: trying to change circumstances (both external and internal) and accepting them as they are. I bring this up because I believe our two perspectives represent two poles of a slightly different dialectic and they might be wisely integrated. There`s great value in striving for personally held goals. In fact, I`m not sure it`s possible to be happy without such motivated activity. (It wouldn`t work for me anyway.) And at the same time, I stand by my idea of decoupling my sense of personal worth from the achievement of such goals. It might seem like such a decoupling would be demotivating (why strive to do better if my personal worth is not on the line?) but in reality I don`t think it works that way. I think that having a strong foundation in positive regard that isn`t dependent on goal achievement makes accomplishing things in life all the easier. When we do accomplish things, I think it`s A-OK to feel proud. This might seem like a contradiction to my earlier statements but such is the paradoxical nature of life.

I agree with those who say there`s not much use in talking about fire, water, steam, etc outside of a practice context. Perhaps the most accessible way to get the training required to feel these things in your body is at a Lesser Kan and LI retreat with Michael Winn. There are preparatory levels to be practiced before one gets to this stage, but I don`t think a person has to practice for ten years first. I took this training with Michael Winn years ago and heartily recommend it.

What he said.

I suspect a great deal of the spiritual argument stuff is about wanting others to see us in a positive light. It`s a tendency I recognize first and foremost in myself. I`m not expert enough in any spiritual tradition to debate the fine points of doctrine or philosophy, but I still hope that people see me as wise. Intertwined with this egoistic motivation is a genuine desire to be helpful to others. So it`s both: I want my ego to be stroked and I want to be kind. Perhaps most of our motivations are like this, impure, neither all good nor all bad. One of my psycho-spiritual goals is to decouple my sense of worth as a person from my outward accomplishments. At the very least, I`d like to decouple my sense of worth from other people`s perception of my outward accomplishments. My partner is an artist and he struggles with this same issue. I tell him all the time: your value as a person is not tied to your ability to paint. You could stop painting tomorrow, stop painting altogether, and you`d still be the same beautiful person you are today. It`s more challenging to see that the same message applies to me. My worthiness as a person has nothing to do with what other people think of my posts on Daobums. I don`t go up in value if I say wise things or down in value if I say stupid ones.

I have to admit that I was a bit annoyed when I first saw this thread. What`s the point of casting aspersions on other people practices? Little did I know that it would provoke so many great posts about awareness during sleep and from such an amazing cast of Bums old and new. I feel newly inspired.

There are so many motivations for gift giving. One possibility is to give in order to compensate for some perceived unworthiness in ourselves. A person might not believe they are worthy just on their own of someone`s attention and try to make up for the lack with a gift.

Steve, Interesting. At a Yi Gong retreat I attended some years ago, teacher Jenny Lamb asked us to try to be aware of whether we fell asleep on an in breath or an out breath. She didn`t explain why we might want to know, though I suspected at the time that the question might be aimed at helping us maintain continuity of awareness between waking and sleeping consciousness. Perhaps it`s not so different from sleep yoga, though the teachings you describe sound much more fleshed out and we receied only the barest hint. .............................................................................................................................................. On a more general note, I find it useful to stay open to possibilities. People report all sorts of experiences here that are beyond my own and how could I possibly know that they haven`t had the experiences they say they`ve had? My not having experienced something is no proof that somebody else hasn`t.

I`ve been in semi-retirement lately but feel inspired to emerge briefly to offer an idea for a future Taco Tuesday -- picadillo. 4 tablespoons olive oil 2 pounds chopped lean beef (hamburger, in my experience) 2 onions, finely chopped 1 clove garlic, chopped 2 apples, peeled, cored, and chopped 1 pound tomatoes, peeled seeded, and chopped 3 canned jalepeño chiles, seeded and chopped 1/2 cup raisins 1/4 cup pimiento stuffed olives 1/3 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon cloves salt freshly ground pepper 1/4 cup slivered almonds Heat the oil in a large, heavy skillet, and brown the meat; then add the onions and garlic. When brown, add all the other ingredients except the almonds, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Simmer gently, uncovered, until cooked, or about 20 minutes. Fry the almonds until golden in a little olive oil and sprinkle over the top. from The Complete Book of Mexican Cooking by Elizabeth Lambert Ortiz This recipe is neither nut-free nor really a taco, but it is keto-friendly (I think) and delicious (I know). Picadillo is one of those Mexican foods that I didn`t know about until I actually came to Mexico. My Mexican partner loves picadillo and often has it stuffed into burritos and, in Zacatecas, as a filling for gorditas.