Trunk

It's so enjoyable to read people's intro stories. So varied, yet so much to relate to. Welcome! Yup. Defintely gets entry to the annual "Cutest Name Contest".

Oh, good! A rule that I can break! Recently I've been doing Kuan Yin devotional stuff, and find it very helpful. So, she-he would have to be #1 on the list these days. #2 would have to be Tsongkhapa, as when I've read his Lam Rim Chenmo regularly, it taps me into some colorful patterns. Blending one's mindstream with the guru, the lineage, the deities, is really a fundamental practice - hooks me up to progressions that .. unlikely I'd ever get on my own. So, on to living teachers .. who I haven't been hanging out with recently, but still. #3 H.H. Karmapa #4 Yangsi Kalu Rinpoche #5 Mark Griffin All five have Kagyu connections; it seems to be what I'm drawn to. (Though Tsongkhapa founded the Gelug lineage, he had strong Kagyu influence.)

Good idea! They're called "bao ding balls" or simply "Chinese exercise balls".

1. Wrist rotations. (Most fun, effective, when done synchronus with ankle rotations. Takes some practice.) 2. Massage between the metacarpals, searching for and massaging tender points. That is, start between the knuckles of the pinky & ring fingers, and follow the groove up the back of your hand. Similarly for each of the fingers, including thumb. Also massage between the radius and ulna, near the wrist. 3. Stretch your fingers & palm out like a rubber band, part way, then relax. Repeat. Activates the tendons.

Welcome! I've attended a couple of Master Kim's Sundo seminars in L.A., and was impressed by him and the system - though it's not for me at this time. A couple of friends are steady practioners. My impression is that if you can get a groove into that system that it produces very strong foundation. Zen would seem to complement well.

xrShK-NVMIU

Reference the current thread, Does thinking stop?

Solid.

My observation is that when we start hitting on our bigger issues, it just takes a long time, persistance, training, insight, finding effective method/s. Usually such issues are in our whole body structure, and you just have to work your way through the parts until it comes together.

I don't have a TV, so a friend and I surf youtube some evenings, very eclectic. Bumped into these two videos about faeries, nature spirits. They're not anything that I ever considered as possibly real... and (prior to the internet) there hasn't been a public forum where I'd ever heard anyone talk about them seriously. So, here are these folks, who certainly look sincere.. and brave to post their views. Youtube sure is opening up community spiritual dialogue. EclmR01xSds X3SPM0yhDv0

! What'd they look like?

Swimming; water is so cleansing, healing, soothing.

Nice addition. Suggestion: Underline "check your email and validate your email address" because "registration is a three step process" and the other two steps are underlined.

AUFrHbThnwg (the demonstration starts at about 2:40)

The first 2 min 40 sec's of the video are all Chinese calligraphy intro titles.. at 2:40 into the vid the guy shows the movement.

A test where breathing is losing, and passing out is winning! Sounds like another version of "how to count chumps". Bravery Tests and Tests of Will comprise some of the thicker chapters of that book! C2F_CIt_X5s

The depth & complexity is not addressed in any of the popular literature, as far as I can tell (and I'd bet many of TTBs would agree with me). If there is any popularly available text on the subject that is responsible, I'd like to hear it. Seems to me, also, that it'd fill volumes. Related medical text for treating severe imbalances. Movement practices, meditation practices, at the level of house-holder - and further for those in the monk and hermit stages. All with clear authentic theory & strategy. A comprehensive list of dangers and "things that can go wrong", and remedies.

Reginald Ray wrote two books: Indestructible Truth Secret of the Vajra World He's a teacher at Naropa University in Boulder and needed textbooks that included Tibetan cultural history as well as religious thought, suitable for introducing westerners taking his college level courses. There were none, so he wrote those. As far as religious view, "Indestructible.." focuses on Hinayana and Mahayana, and "Secret.." focuses on Vajrayana.

Holy scrolls!

* ouch! * My thought was that if a culture has enough wisdom flowing in it, both energetically, practical support, and just how people act - you know, broadly, like the word "culture" implies - then everybody gets more of what they need, generally. (I probably didn't need to say that, except to dispel the aesthetic sting.) I think that Wendell Berry talks, .. well, definately, his writing is just phenomenal regarding ethics and culture. He talks about religion almost not at all, but when he does - he's a Christian, but his view could easily be Buddhist or Taoist or American Indian. Mostly, it's just the ... only really cohesive world-view I've ever come across. He's a Kentucky farmer, btw, and - definately - his farming life has shaped his world-view enormously. (He was also an english professor for some years.) He lives on a family farm and, working so close to nature, he's been deeply impressed with the weave of inter-dependence of very, very practical life. He is very grounded .. and there's something about his writing, that, when I read it I find it very dense, but very clear, and I agree with (most of) it while I read it - but have the darnedest time thinking, writing, or talking about it myself. It frustrates me, but I've been so taken with the honestly and intelligence of the writing, that I keep it in my car to re-read parts of essays when I'm at a local coffee shop.

Important to create good culture, for our children and ourselves.

My 2 cents: 1) Keep the criteria for choosing people relatively broad, and then choose them out of a hat (or some other random method). And choose every frickin' one of them, write them down in order, in case #1 falls through at some point and #2-#4 already made other plans. 2) TTBs would just raise whatever amount we can; don't put a requirement that we'd have to raise the whole amount. Who ever is going would just make up the difference herself. ~~ later ~~ uh, .. btw.. if I contribute, do I get an official lineage t-shirt?

For a number of personal reasons, I take myself out of the running from the sponsored trip. However, my opinion is that David and SeanD are being honest, that the lineage is genuine, and I would chip in $ for who ever the group chooses. And I would be happy with whatever amount of return-communication respectfully balances the closed-door nature of the system, the containment of grace within the aspirant, and the interest in reporting back. Whatever that turns out to be. I think it's a real opportunity to support dharma activity. (And a fun idea. )

I've resorted to calling them "centers", and feel power, love, wisdom centers most easily (as I think most people do, though different systems have a different count of how many there are). On the physical, they correspond to the nerve plexuses and the endocrine system, and there tends to be more "feeling" out near the nerve plexuses. In mundane activity, they're a way of sensing the world and feeling mundane psychology. I think that, most of the time, people just rev them up with sensation and think that they're "working with the chakras". Even when there is some degree of subtle activation and refinement, my experience has been that most of it has been just a subtler form of individualism and psychology/s. One plays one's psychology, vis-a-vis the environment, upon the vital winds - and they're just one more way to produce sensation and (apparently) separate inside / outside. The point is how to activate the centers in a way that integrates with stillness, and the key is the still place within the deep-center of each center: it's devoid of sensation, and has a special connection to Much Deeper Stuff. If there is enough refinement, through stabalized concentration, one can connect the deep-center to the Big Light - and that throws the whole dynamic of the centers into reverse. The Big Light draws the vital winds inwards, and refines away the mundane psychology that rides upon the winds. The Big Light also suffuses the centers, lights 'em up, and also lights up the human egg. All of this is much much easier if you have someone in the room (or at least who you are able to 'connect' with) who is very accomplished at the process, "enlightened cause". Generally it takes a lot of exposure, over a long period of time, to "enlightened cause" to access this procedure within one's own system - certainly that was the case for me (even as limited as my progress has been), and classically it's generally considered impossible without lots of Help. Also, there are methods to assist with getting certain parts working. Tsongkhapa's Commentary on The Six Yogas of Naropa is what turned me onto this process, though I don't claim that my understanding corresponds to the classical understanding (of the Six Yogas system, or any authentic system). The links at my site that reflect my bumbling misguided view are the overview and the essays re: the core vessel. A quote from The Three Principle Aspects of the Path:

Go ahead, Sean, enlighten us.