Trunk

Cheers, Sean!

h, Congrat's! t

I would suspect that his work overlaps the "sinew channels" considerably.

Wow. All three look interesting. Agreed that some small set of books like this is "must reading". Please let us know how you find the book/s.

Rightee-o! You remembered it better, and it does fit nicely in a year. And 3 months is enough time to soak in a practice, and probably about the time I'd get bored and want something different. I bet that you could match them up with the seasons. Here's my guess: winter - jnana spring - karma summer - bhakti fall - raja Those seasons probably don't match with those practices exactly, and I don't think that they were really meant to (or.., maybe.., they were...). Which brings up an interesting segue subject of aligning practices with the seasons. Giggity-giggity! Kick-ass.

Back in the 80's I heard of a spiritual group, that went through phases of spiritual practice on a 'semester' basis. For a few months they'd emphasize mysticism (power), another: bhakti (devotion), another: jhana (knowledge). Or something similar to that. There are the different yogas: karma, jhana (not sure if I'm spelling that right), bhakti, dhyana (meditation). The devotional part of it really moves things along. Devotional chanting, yearning for God. Basically anything that is part of, an expression of, the yearning. (ex, Could be washing the dishes. Not kidding.)

Beeayoutiful~!

Welcome aboard!

Michael's online article on Sexual Alchemy and the Neutral Space I'm only part way through this, and have to post the link here already. You guys gotta read this. Sean, especially, I know you're going to find this very interesting.

Glad you brought this up, , its one of my pet-peeves that this topic is under-appreciated. I've studied with several.. advanced meditators, in a western context. And I've done reading from various traditions. As far as mystical progression, the Guru-disciple relationship (or whatever you want to call it) is invaluable. The energy and states-of-mind transference that you get from sitting regularly with a genuinely advanced meditator saves you lifetimes of effort. And, imo, this is rather an understatement than an overstatement. That said, the modern western teachers that I've studied with encouraged (both by general tone and explicitly) that you're your own person, and they expected us to act as independent adults (make our own choices, etc.) in our own lives - as well as act as a adult with our own root in relation to the teacher. It is within the inner relationship with the Guru that 99.99% of the teachings occur: during meditation. During that time the teacher can expose you to states of mind, and make corrections & upgrades in your energetic configuration that save you immeasurable time and effort. The classic position on this is the real serious progress just does not happen without this sort of assistance, and - personally - I agree. There is skill that gets developed in receiving these sorts of transmissions, and it doesn't happen without blending your mind-stream with that of the teacher-Guru (during the interval of meditation), following his/her lead inwardly, and submitting to their corrections to your structure (again, during meditations, - which can, at times, be physically and energetically painful during the correction), while - at the same time - maintaining your own focus and integrity of being. All this happens silently, in meditation. All your warnings of, .. basically giving up your own root, are true: you shouldn't. And some teachers, and a lot of students, fall into that trap. Its counter-productive. But the inner dynamics of working with a genuinely advanced teacher .. don't throw the baby out with the bath-water on this one. Trunk

I'm starting to read more about acupoints, in the hope of developing a functional little understanding that I can apply to self-acupressure. There are 360 or so acupoints, which is overwhelming to me - but, there are Twelve Heavenly Star Points, which are considered to be the 12 most important points. That's an accessible number for me to start studying. While reading about St-36, "Zusanli", I read: (The page on Lung-7 has the location of Lung-9.)

Nope. Put plenty into it for now: I'm in rest-from-writing-and-take-care-of-other-things mode. However, if you have editorial comments about the essay/s, state your case and it could help when I'm ready to take another swing at them. The set of essays has a ways to go yet.

I've been working on my distal acupressure massage essay a fair part of today. There's still significant verifications / possible corrections / additions I need to do, but the research has been pretty exciting. I've sort of been doing it bass-ackwards, in that I've been working the points for some weeks (a month +?) based on recommendations (some recent, some over the years), and have been amazed-happy with the results. Now that I've been doing the research for the essay, I'm getting an extra thrill - cause some of it is so cool. 1. The basic intro 2. The "Four Gates" (LI-4 and Liv-3 on both hands, feet). See info and links near bottom of essay. Anyway, like I said, there's still significant work (maybe corrections) to do - but the work today has been fascinating. And in practice has paid off hugely for me.

Dunno. I've eaten plenty of both raw, cooked, and in extract form. (Not that that means anything.)

I've cooked with all those herbs before, and like them. The rehmannia & codonopsis I cut into small pieces with cooking scissors. The astragalus I tie into some cheese-cloth (i think that's the name of that cloth), so that I can easily fish them out after cooking; astragalus is so woody, you don't want to eat it. The rest are good to eat.

I know zip about homeopathy, but I have used other supplements for detoxing very stubborn gunk (in my case, from a past illness). So far, two most effective have been cod liver oil and noni juice. Not sure if they'd address drug residues, but worth a mention. (Karen might know.) --- later edit --- After reading some of Lozen's log, I started taking nutritional yeast. Really increases circulation, which (I wonder) could be beneficial for detox - though I know little about it, except that its loaded with B vitamins. Interested in any comments.

Check out this article and video.

He da man! Much love to Don to light and delight his way! Don, you listening?, the whole world sends you love!

So, which guru/s have you studied with?

It looks like they're not shipping due to "manufacturing difficulties". I'll leave the page with no specific reference to product-source; let people find it where ever. I got mine at the local bodywork shop. I put an acknowledgement to you on the page; thanks for turning us on to this back roller thing. Really great tool.

Started bare-bones web pages on massage, here. Almost nothing written, but many of the pictures are self-explanatory. I've been getting a ton out of the "distal massage" work (see the page), if anyone wants to try & see/feedback how it feels, have-at-it. --- later edit --- Added some external article links about the acupoints that I graphic'd on the Distal Acupressure page. Whew!, I knew it was way beyond me to describe that stuff. Thanks to the web.

Bingo! Did you buy the CD and get the lyrics there? (I had only rented the DVD.. I noticed that there's a CD, also.)Thanks for posting that lyric quote. Right now I'm just going for the undertones. My understanding is that the overtones resonate certain places in the brain .. to get both the low lows and the glands in the brain at once, wow! that would be something. One step at a time: first the undertone. For me, if I have attention in my throat, it doesn't work. Like "trying to get my throat to make low tones" isn't even close. What works is to really rest my attention in the lowest parts of my torso, and move the attention slowly - in tempo with the breath - from one place to another and back, and let that place make the sound. My throat vibrates incidentally, and - yeah - one might say that my throat is making the sound, but for me, on the inside my awareness and the source of sound is way down in my lower tan tien. And I don't "intend" the sound to be a low note, whatever comes out is what comes out; I'm just allowing those lower spaces to make sound - whatever that is. When I'm relaxed, and can successfully rest my awareness that low (and not "try" in my throat), then the sound is similar to the undertone. But I can't always get there, and it doesn't last for very long, and there are also various stress-sounds that come out from low. Which is all fine and part of the process. My point is: if you are trying to do this in your throat, you're in the wrong place. Me, too. I'm curious what tones a woman would get. ---- later edit ----- The process of getting to the places where the possibility of the undertones is, that process reminds me of Yi Swallows Qi because both of them, at their best, go to the depths of the torso without stress. In fact neither allows full success if there is stress, and yet both of the allow - as part of their process - a release of stress while going toward the full depth. Both are very meditative practices towards resting awareness low.

I rented that a year or so ago and loved it. Now that I'm actually trying the practice - and viewing it as a method for male healing & cultivation, I recall that Paul got into this after his wife died. It doesn't mention it in the film, but I bet the low-down rumbling was therapeutic. Cyber-sangha strikes again! I might check out one or more of those discs you linked to. Gotta see how it goes with my stuff when I get it.. but I'd like to do at least one simple traditional deity chant, and that one has the Avelokiteshvara chant on it.

Interesting. I'm printing the article and reading it while I'm getting breakfast ready. I was moved to browse through John's stuff. Check out his Qi Gong Re-Charge. Scroll down to the bottom where he lists the 'Methods'. He goes through all the major joints (reminds me of Sonnon), squats, several methods that address the Core, and a set of "Recharge" exercises that I have no idea what they are - except that one of them is for the spine. Really, really interesting list. Mentions like everything we've been really excited about over the last 2 years or so, really concisely. *thinking of ordering it*... I tried his several (not all) of his animal-based videos some years ago. Honestly, the only exercise I connected with was the Bear (in the Power video). Liked it enough that I re-bought it on DVD. And look at all those people that wrote reviews of the book by Master Zhongxian Wu!! (Reads like an ad, I know. ... Not paid for by the Commission to re-elect John DuCane.)