Trunk

Just to briefly butt in again... The writings of Wendell Berry would add great breadth and depth to the view of this topic. I recommend: The Unsettling of America and Citizenship Papers. His views are too complex to put in a one-liner. But, I would say that his work is the definitive clarity on post-industrial economies (not just the corporations, but also what we do). And its not just America, applies to all modern economies.

Citizenship Papers by Wendell Berry

Freelance database programmer since 95. Burnt out on it and looking fwd to cashing in L.A. chips and living somewhere rural.

The problem.. no, the absolute absurdity, was Chia. He has turned into a worse than worthless lecturer and, unfortunately, he was the main lecturer. Meandering stories and absurd techniques. The instructors were good, though. The things that they taught were well done. If Chia simply bowed out and let the instructors do the teaching, it would improve things 10,000 times.

When I was at Tao Garden (which is a trip I won't repeat, and don't recommend *memories*) there was a woman and husband who lived there (I forget their names) and the woman would "twirl babies". A woman from the local village brought her baby to this woman, and she took the baby by an arm and leg and swung and twirled the baby around in a way that I'd never seen before. It was rather startling, actually. She explained that her husband did that to their kids until they were so heavy that he couldn't any more. The kids, apparently, liked it. The more I've learned about the fascia, the joints, internal martial arts development, how emotions and power flow through the body (or don't), the more I've come to appreciate the "baby twirling". When I told the story to my martial arts instructor, he was very intent upon the story, appreciated it. I think that that practice could profoundly give a child a head-start on health on many levels. Hm, Its sort of like Circular Strength Training for little kids.

SimonV just made a thread at HTUSA that talks about that: Simon is very well studied; the comment comes from a good source. Read the whole thread, he says a number of things about G. Also, "The Fourth Way" by P.D. Ouspensky gets good reviews.

Yeah, here's another link of edited 'best of' that bit. http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2006..._colbert_3.html Huge balls. He was the keynote comedian. They had no idea who they were hiring.

Hey, dingus!, get one! The simple ones (and that's all you need) are less than $10 (mine was like, 7 or 9 bucks). Very handy for stomach stuff (last section of linked page). Yup, before I started blending my vegies. Watch out!

Also from your linked page, the quote under the pic of the onion peel, The checkout girl who made fun of my $$$ blender said that there was special stuff in the peels (she mentioned oranges, but could be lots of things), which goes along with the above. I tell ya, I really got something outta my first blend yesterday. *happy, enthused*

I definately feel this morning's blend working on some stubborn channel blockages of mine. Encouraging 'cause I've been trying to get to these for some time. Blending is really something. I don't know why, though, I wouldn't get the same effect by chewing raw food myself - maybe cause I'd never do it.

My blender did that whole list o' vegies that I posted earlier (including 1 fat mammoth carrot) to a smooth pulp. Mind you, it was not as if I did blueberries and bananas and yogurt, this pulp had substance to it - but it was smooth. No grit, nothing to chew any further.

I got a L'Equip "R.P.M. Blender" model 228. I went to Wild Oats (local SoCal organic supermarket) and asked the guy, "got any blenders?" and he said, "only these crazy ones over here" ($169) "perfect! I'm lookin' for a crazy one" - I take a look at it - "so, can this thing grind up tires so I can drink 'm like slurpies?" "not sure, but we have a %100 $ back garuntee". So I buy it and the checkout girl makes fun of me cause I'm paying a gazillion $s for a blender. This morning's try-out: beet, carrot, raw milk, honey, broccoli, spinach smooth, yummy, doin groovy things to my channels --- later edit --- I've occasionally done the raw beef, raw eggs, salmon sashimi - just from what I'm experiencing this morning, the fruits & vegies definately add another kick to it. link to blender at Amazon

No, and yes, respectively.

Just the static posture isn't what I'm after with this method; basically, the breathing is to breathe down through the front layers of your body; breath down through your abdominal muscles. .. while they're mildly muscularly engaged. The breathing isn't really any more complicated than that: consider yourself now "well informed". (Though I'll go back and edit my previous post, with a link to Lin's stuff.)

This guy is competent (understatement). --- later edit --- You might try meditating while listening to his (downloadable) audio talks. Also, won't be long and his regular classes will be pod-cast.

Nice phrase. Captures a lot of wisdom concisely.

Nice. They actually had training, skill, body development. The one guy went into such a low stance that basically his perineum and feet were flat on the ground. !!! I'd love to be that developed! .. Some day.

I was just watching the Apr 20 vlog from Rocket Boom, (interview w/ Dave Winer), and some interesting comments were made that are relevant to .. well, to us! About amateurs ability to publish on the web, what an amateur is (vs. professional), really interesting happy comments.

Give it some time. After people get used to it, it'll become natural to enter things there. Right now, you've just built it and know it and are enthused, we love the idea but its so new and scary!

I'm not clear on your contention. Are you stating that your view is that Castaneda himself was a fraud re: unusual mystical training entirely? Or that he actually did have a mystical training but skewed it for writing purposes? Or that no such mystical traditions exist in central america, or perhaps anywhere?

Here's another angle on words that seems useful to me (made it up this morning), and relevant to this thread (maybe) :

Well, two things. One, I hope to be moved out of LA by Sept (still looking as to where). Also, I'm of short stocky eastern european descent - not such a good stretcher (but I just ordered Yin Yoga from Amazon, and we'll see what happens ). But, hey, if you guys are around - and I'm still around - maybe we can meet up outside of the workshop time. Trunk

Whatever description works for you.. For me, the image relates to my body and - as such - really lies upon a horizontal plane. "Up=in" and "down=out" creates some confusion for me, as I'm relating it more to my upright body (with your image also as a prompt). Maybe I'm stuck on relating "up" to the heavenly lift and "down" the earthly gravity, but it seems more descriptive. I can see where you're addressing some different traditional approaches. Or, perhaps more accurately, phases of development. Maybe in the beginning we need to stay really still in order to sustain emptiness (as you'd put it). But at a much more advanced level we can "play in the fields" and still sustain emptiness (non-duality, as you'd put it). To me, the words are talking about the same non-thingness-Big-Spaciousness, but I get where you're coming from. yap, yap, yap. Trunk

A few scattered notes: I'd say that empty is non-dual; non-duality is the defining (non)quality of emptiness. That feel of "I'm in here, and all that is out there" - when that is gone, that's non-duality (the disolution of the subjective/objective split). And its empty, because all the energetic and mental confusion that we usually feel as that split, that we are so comfortable in feeling, is gone: empty. Mistake to identify emptiness as "up". There is up and down, I agree, but emptiness is inclusive. "God is in heaven and earth". Part of the confusion, here, is a missing piece - and some historical traditional trends. I think we agree that there is confused dualism, "apparently seperate individuality". There is also "integral manifestation", "integral individuality", and (imo) its what the Tibetans refer to as the "diamond body" and the Taoists as "immortality". A teacher that I sat with once said that there have been spiritual fashions.. That it used to be fashionable to be Totally Absorbed and phhht, you were gone. Totally sucked up into Eternity. And that, more recently, its become more fashionable to become Enlightened yet still stay manifest and integral. That further work could be done. He used the phrase once, "a bowl strong enough to hold the Tiger's Milk". The thing is, when you start being exposed to really powerful states of consciousness, there's a powerful draw, you get absorbed and disolved. There's a skill of entering into such states and becoming purified, and yet fostering coherency - not being utterly dispersed. Being able to "maintain your center". And that has a lot to do with how the center is the unification of concentration (manifestation) and openness (emptiness, non-dual). Agreed. The LTT is especially challenging; the upper centers are easier. The Taoists emphasize the LTT because it is so difficult, and imbalances can occur if the upper centers get really enlightened and the lower center hasn't yet developed any integration with .. non-duality. Yup. Agreed. And this is the topic area that we are pressed up against, as a group. And I think it'll take a considerable amount of time before we get thorough answers on it. Trunk