Trunk

"Bouncing the Front-line" (that's a good name for it) definately has brought stress to the fore, for me. Stuck places that've held emotional bruises, sexual tension, and illness divots. Old deep relationship grief. All good signs. After bouncing the front, a few things have helped me process: - Dont' sit around after. Move, stretch, breathe, run, whatever - just don't do this technique and then be immediately sedentary. Have the bouncing near the beginning of your practice session, not right at the end. - Back-roller. - Remember to breathe during the following hours, day. The payoff: Everything is getting much easier. I was giggleing all while doing errands today.

You and I were referring to very different methods. For the "bouncing along the front line" method, soft is important to avoid injury, imo.

*runs to my yoga ball to try that*Wow! That's fun! Really good for the spine, all angles. Interesting post, Spectrum - seems there's lots of possibilities. I've found, with the bouncy balls, that doing the push-up bounces stuff on them is not something I want to do every day. Too intense. A couple of days back I did sternum, solar plexus, and low ab .. definately didn't want to repeat yesterday, probably won't today. Still feeling the effects. Doing various other stuff. Got out my back roller. Really complements the front bouncy-ball massage work. -- later edit -- In response to an offline question, and to clarify: the air-filled balls for the bouncy front massage must be soft and resilient. (Otherwise, you'd hurt yourself when you bounce. For instance, a basketball would be way way too hard.)

Just caught up here. Rockin' thread.

I like them both. They're only $3.95 each, and ... I know it's too early to tell, and I'm in 'the thrall of my latest practice', like some happy qi gong puppy ... but I'd say these playground balls are worth their weight in gold. These things are superior for circulating blood throughout the torso. Since the "sternum bounce", I've been using it more on the abdomen, from the solar plexus to just above the pubic bone. In some variant of push-up postion, I'll put the ball between me and the floor, and I'll bounce on it - at whatever pace and pressure seems moderate yet progressive. And I'll breathe into the section of the torso that the ball is at: smooth inhale at a count of 5, smooth exhale at a count of 5. All the time I'm bouncing on the rubber playground ball, so it's adding a rhythm of cushy-pumping of pressure to the whole torso region in which I'm breathing. This ball stuff, from top of the sternum to the top of the pubic bone, it's like the micrcocosmic orbit, marrow-washing, iron shirt, and turbo-charge of LTT breathing - all rolled up into one. Only danger I've noticed so far: easily mistaken for a rubber-ball fetish in action. What I'm finding is that it's wonderful for blood circulation, and is thorough (for the region of the torso at which you're breathin' & bouncin'). For me, sexual energy easily sticks places, causes stagnation, and so I've been using whatever techniques to loosen up this spot or that spot. Massaging, 50 kinds of breathing, sticking stuff up my ass, squating, etc. (go reference the 10,000 pages of my website). There always seems to be some place I am not getting, because jing can stick anywhere and everywhere, and nothing ever seemed to get all of it - on a really physical layer - for me. Breathing while bouncing, on these f'ing little $4 balls, seems to circulate blood better, and more thoroughly for that region of the torso, than anything I've tried up to this point. If I were much more enthused about this method, it would be a rubber-ball fetish. (It's still early in this exploration; I'll keep you posted. ) Trunk -- later edit -- Another benefit. When you're doing it just above the pubic bone, it's rhythmically stretching~relaxing the low abdominal connective tissue. All the stomach muscles and stuff, that become more dense and connective-tissuey as they gather to connect to the pubic bone.

I've taken up the mani mantra (Kuan Yin's mantra) and I find that the syllables activate the centers in a very pure way (refines and subdues mundane energies). I wanted more focus with the practice, so I took up learning to write the syllables of the mantra, and visualizing them in the corresponding centers. .. At least, as I felt them, because I've not seen a classical reference to the way that I'm using the mani mantra. Usually I've seen the mantra horizontally, and I manipulated a pic to horizontal (see below). The Tibetans visualize "seed syllables" of the centers as a method for stabalizing attention, for concentration (they visualize them small, and clearly), and for the relationship of the the syllables to the "root" sound of the centers, and also to invoke the relationship to the deity whose sacred sound configuration is that mantra. I find that the four "words" of the mantra activate and blend the centers sequentially, from top to bottom. The shapes, ime, are evocative of the energy dynamics that occur.

One of the things I got a better look at with that recent "brain visual chi meditation", is that there was the assemblage of fixed identity within the brain, and that it blocked flow. When I got some of the good circulation going, I had to relax my hold of identity there, in order to let the flow through.

Yay!, a sexy party! *continues penis training*

This site gets more fabulous every day.

Congrat's Hagar.

My observation is that, scientifically validated or personally experienced, proof of spirituality has a lot less impact on people's view than one would hope. Kirlian photography is a good example. It's been around since the 1940's, and clearly shows "chi", auras, etc. You'd think that everyone would just go, "ok, chi exists". Nope. It's relegated to an oddity along with "all that psychic faire stuff" and that's that. It's similar with advanced teachers, they really get very little attention. Mark, for instance. He's powerful enough that everyone feels something profoundly when sitting with him, and he's got a good resume (teachers he's studied with, lineage). Totally open door, very advanced, cheap. In L.A. (population 13 million). How many people sit with him on a regular basis? 30-50. There should be well over 10x that at every sit. I've seen the same thing with teachers who perform miracles (as well as do transmission) on a regular basis. Around 30 students. It's the public. They'll show up in droves, once a year, for a very few "headliner" teachers. Other than that, ... *crickets*

Yoda's recent blog post (which I snipped with his permission) got me thinking that it's a good time to check in on this topic: I wonder how everyone is on the mco (microcosmic orbit)... We've mostly all 've been exposed to it long long ago, and have time to explore totally other systems, practices, approaches, views, for quite a while. (Plus we've mostly cleaned ourselves of naive party-line thinking, and have come more to simple honesty, however that is.) Interesting to re-look at the orbit now. Do you still practice the mco? Has it held up as a standard and effective practice for you?, Have you found it counter-productive? - in what way/s? Do you feel fluent with it?, partly ok?, all messed up? Which of the things that it's advertised to do does it do for you?, which not? Have you tweeked it in order for it to go well?, or moved on to something similar or related?, dumped it altogether? .. or any mco observations, thoughts, you've got. I raise these questions in the spirit of "all honest answers are good answers", everyone is in a different place in their practice, where ever it goes it's all good, not bashin', just talkin'. Trunk

So, I'm having comedy fun with my new ipod. Awake last night in the wee hours, and so loaded it up with - laughing quietly in the middle of the night. Thought I might buy some cd's & load 'em up also. Fun to play in the car, along with fav music.. Who are your favorite comedians?

No, I'm groovin' on my practice in a different way.I've gone to a couple of the workshops with Master Kim, and - imo - he has an authentic orientation. Also, I have had some little exposure to the beginning practice of Sun Do, and respect it (see the "links" section at my site for a couple of paragraphs on it). My stagnation issues were too intense when I explored Sun Do; couldn't do the lower tan tien breathing for that duration (about an hour) regularly. Plus, I feel that I needed balanced practice lower~middle~upper, and Sun Do emphasizes a really focused lower breathing practice. Classic Taoist approach that one might think of.

Refreshing this thread, as the retreat is next weekend.

ime, the goal of "top college" that you can reach is not helpful, for a lot of reasons. (I've been out of school for a couple of decades, btw.) Misc. thoughts: 1. You should not go to a school that is so difficult for you that it amounts to 4 yrs of brutality. It's counter productive to whatever you want to do after college. 2. Much of what gets people by is finding your own talents, your niche of what works for you, work-wise. My brother dropped out of city college, but he has this knack for big equipment, and building things. He's done well. 3. Most employers don't care what you majored in college; they only care that you graduated. (Excluding, of course, careers that really are education-dependent.) Probably a jillion other hints that people here could think of.

I find that most meditations can be incorporated into standing (with beneficial results), even if the meditation/s are from another tradition. Just my experience.

I don't know if they're comparable. With stretching, your body is engaged in doing the work. That's a huge kinesthetic that changes a lot. With massage, you're laying there receiving. And the results are so, so different. How can I compare stretching my hamstring with someone walking on my back???

Just for those of you who are new to TTBs, you might do a search on posts by SeanDenty to catch up on the conversation. He has substantial back-ground in the HT, and is now connected with some other - very interesting (to understate) - teachers. However, it's a closed-door system, so there are limits to what he can say - out of respect for the teachings and for his lineage.

btw, every woman should know about xiao yao wan. It's maybe the most common herbal patent medicine that sells in Chinatowns for about $2. When I was assisting at a Chinese herb store every woman who came in said it was so helpful for smoothing things out. Also, its' a very safe formula; it's a very middle-of-the-road formula that supplements and circulates blood, and aids digestion.

My 9th level paladin is insulted! Prepare yourself, man! I wonder if, at some point, Wang Liping might travel and give short public teachings. Perhaps more like lectures, as I know that his teachings are closed-door. Though I don't feel in a place right now to approach a closed-door relationship, I'd happily pay substantial money to sit and listen to him for a several hour lecture (and perhaps sit ).

Short answer here.

Seems to me that some anger is natural and healthy. Something bad is going on that impinges upon me in some way, and that's irritating, makes me angry. So, take some constructive action and make the situation better - or, if it's a genuine attack, fight it off. just thought I'd offer some practical non-meditative

uhhhh... Online spiritual discussion sites?

Maybe I'm just basically untrusting but, given your pattern of comments in this thread, I doubt that you've given a balanced legal arguement. (Granted it's an intense topic that people are likely to take strong sides on.) And I'm not inclined to sift through military law to see how this all works. (Where's Noam Chomsky when you need him?) I still have the same assessment as when the thread started: He'll probably have a tough time legally and I stand by him on principle.