Trunk

@alchemystical I saw your post some while back and it’s been knockin’round my head since and I’m here to make the voices stop!!! I guess what resonates with me is that - especially now - human beings are a mess (really from any angle, from where ever you’re standing), and surprisingly so. I’ve been kicking around the internal arts scene for some decades and you’d think I’d understand people enough so I wouldn’t be surprised over and over and over. And I’ve a few friends (from various orientations of serious internal looking) who are older than me and better students that I am, and *they*’re surprised. And I guess my question is, “why are we so surprised, over n’ over?”. What false presumptions about the human condition do we hold, that get knocked over time and time again by actual events? What understandings are we lacking? One presumption I’ve found in my own psychology that, “generally, people are good”. Whether true or not (and certainly it is flawed, naive and true), it doesn’t prompt much ongoing discernment as “functionality”. And god knows we’re all flawed and improving at our core levels in the areas we’re not-so-good-at: veeeerrry long term slow work. A friend of mine had a hard knocks interpretation of Buddha’s first noble truth, “life is suffering”, saying that there’s not a solution to it, that’s the fact of it, and to just be able to get through it. Books come to mind: P.D.Ouspensky’s “The Fourth Way” Any of the non-fiction books of essays by Wendell Berry. Someone here on the board, a long time back, mentioned that when they were in college deciding on a major and considering psychology vs sociology and checked out all the professors from each discipline and found that the sociologists were all depressed. Anyway, those are some rambling thoughts, relevance questionable. cheers, Trunk

3bob was suspended in mid-June, about 3 weeks ago, pending review. A rather long time. And no mention in moderation log, only this thread here (+ his three threads in Hun Dun shut down, of course). What’s up?

I guess I like learning from articulate, intelligent, experienced, well informed people in their area of expertise. If you like following those who specialize in 3 word slogans that a crowd can chant to stir their base emotions, that's up to you.

This is an interview from a week ago with Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell's former chief of staff.

a little clip

Climate change...

@Hattaway this might be relevant https://johndaoproductions.wordpress.com/2017/08/11/qi-sphere-beginning/ welcome! 😎 🙏

Yes. The process of painting the unseen-yet-partially-felt interior clarifies, excavates, expands what I already partially felt. And gives an external reference that is helpful in the moment and also for later reference, and for noticing changes, stages of progression, that one goes through with a practice. Like, for the same practice, different paintings of a. here's what I felt in early January b. here's several weeks later c. here's several months later I look back in the sketchbook and see, quickly easily vividly, what the practice is doing in my body, how the progression is working. Often surprisingly so. Where as, without doing that, it's all invisible and mostly lost to the cognitive process. I've found it very helpful. Helps me integrate. I didn't know. Nice to meet you. I've read some of Jung's works ("Memories, Dreams & Reflections") and some related works ... but I still can't say that I clearly understand what Jung's model of the unconscious is. So, I'd have to say, "I don't know".

Art. Occasionally, after practice, when you feel inspired... Paint what you *feel* in your body. You'll find that the process of painting helps you clarify, uncover, excavate, what you feel. Meaning, you probably won't have an entire idea of what you are going to paint... The process of painting, itself, reveals the picture. You'll be surprised at what comes out. It provides an external feedback, you can look at it. Then do it again weeks or months later: you will see changes in the painting that very often correspond to the progression of the practice you are doing. Materials? I suggest: 1. A brush pen. You can get one for less than $10. 2. If you're into color, a Crayola Watercolor set, again, < $10. 3. A journal that has watercolor-quality pages, so that you can use it as both a written journal and a sketch~paint journal. 4. The Sumi-E Book teaches brush technique, and the brush (with just a little training) can allow a poor untalented schmuck of a not-at-all-an-artist to make rather beautiful strokes. Some of my own personal art is at https://invisiblewell.wordpress.com/ . I do publish some (free) essays re: the internal arts at https://johndaoproductions.wordpress.com/ . I have an upcoming essay entitled (something like) "Art Therapy for Mystics". If you want to be notified when it gets posted either follow my wordpress site or follow my JDP thread here on TDBs. I was decades into my practices before I discovered how utilitarian painting could be. It is something that would have been useful from the very beginning. - Trunk

I'm starting to use PVC pipe for my weapons training (sword, light stick, heavy long staff). Less than $10 for a 10 foot length & end caps = short staff + sword. Easy to leave around the yard. Really enjoying it. A friend turned me onto these "dong stick" (light stick) exercises, but I'm also exploring sword (Dragon Gate Sanctuary) and staff (messin' around).

To me they seem flexible, and your question made me re-examine that. Two things I found: 1. There is some actual flexibility in the PVC, varying with width n’ length. 2. The other part that makes is seem (feel) more flexible in my practice is keeping the integration of my fascia structure~movement in my body and extended to include the ‘weapon’. Meaning, that kind of rubbery feeling when my body is warmed up and moving in the more whole-body qigongy way. And no joint is cranked much further than any other joint. That long whole-body rubbery thing. (Maybe some of you other guys know the correct words for this. I don’t.). The ‘sword’ is included in that... so its’ movements kinda feel rubbery circular and angles about the same as my own joints~limbs. So it feels flexible. ... or maybe *I* do, and the way I am including the ‘sword’ is part of & contributing to that feeling in me. And that’s where it all gets so endlessly interesting and fun.

p.s. These videos seem relevant. (The sword stuff I've already got covered from Sifu Matsuo's Dragon Gate Sanctuary.)

Oh, hey. Thanks for the replies. I must've had my 'follow' settings wrong, didn't see notifications and thought nuthin' happening here. I like the idea of weapons for the internal work. Basically, before weapons, the arms are used to leverage into the torso and visa-versa: the torso internal powers come out through the arms. Adding a weapon (sword, staff) extends that with a little weight (and it doesn't take much) so that whole new levels of leveraging into the torso interior occurs. That's my interest. Personally, I'm not into weapons training with intent to combat. Just not my thing. And I really don't want weapons around my house or yard because some guest is gonna see it and say, "sword!" and grab it and start swinging around. And I can't leave a sword out in the yard, and for *sure* can't take it to the park. PVC solves all of this for me. I was playing with the heavier staff (1&1/4" PVC) the other day. Good for two-handed twisting and/or circling. It has a little flex in it and so VIBRATES back into the body. It felt *really* good. 　 Anyway, I'm having fun exploring and when I get more sorted out I'll probably be back to blab 'bout it some more.

Just my two cents: I'd vote for locking the thread as well. Just be f###ing done with it: the board 'd be cleaner without it, for years to come.

Agreed. It’s bad for the board community. It’s arguably unrelated to the purpose of the board. it takes up STAFF ENERGY. I can’t think of a reason why not.

The very unusual situation that we are in is that 3bobs criticisms of djt's character and actions are actually accurate observations, not blind hatred. And djt's character, propensity to lie non-stop, coarseness, social manipulativeness, bullying, etc etc, actually has an impact & influence on policy, on domestic & foreign relations with various political leaders, with modeling behavior from a leader that has influence on the behavior of those led, on financial markets ... on all of the things that POTUS influences and/or directs. Line up djt's actions next to any list of virtues from any 'good book' and, objectively, he is the vile antithesis of a virtuous human being. We are in the situation where simply positing a description of the POTUS's action, just as-he-is, seems incredibly offensive. That's because he just *is*. That's what he actually *does*. Even if you disagree with the assessment, it's a LEGITIMATELY COHERENT description of djt's actions as a human and as POTUS. Tens of thousands of mental health professionals have taken the extraordinary step of speaking up to this territory. It's a legit issue. So, while 3bob's comments might seem offensive to some... to me, for instance, they just read as an unvarnished objective listing of what's happening. In any case, all of this could be solved by the simple mention of, "the ignore feature exists, use it if you like". Especially in "Off Grid", geez. And, it's pretty clear that staff that post in "Talk Trump" are dedicatedly pro-Trump. (Or at least carefully thoughtful and unbiased but somehow 99.999% of the time come to pro-Trump conclusions on both policy issues and all else.) In the current context, all factors taken into account, the current action ... doesn't smell right. Comes across as Orwellian. I don't buy it.

This whole thing doesn't smell right. Heavy handed, Orwellian. Seems like the "ignore" feature is an easy built-in remedy. (emphasis mine) That's simply not true. Flatly not true. If you look at the original post of "Talk Trump", there is no such posted intent of "policy only". Go back and read the original posts. "Policy only" is what you've said your interest is Dawei. It's not built into the thread by original intent. And the thread is named "Talk Trump", fer gosh sake, and it's in "Off Grid", lol. - Trunk

Agreed. A doctor of Chinese medicine acupuncturist might be of some assistance also

Thank you for posting. Mark Griffin 28 August 1954 - 24 October 2018 (burial was 10/29) https://www.hardlight.org/

Dragon Gate Sanctuary http://alchemicaltaoism.com/DGSReviews.htm https://johndaoproductions.wordpress.com/

Curious I was just journaling about something similar, maybe this is the territory that you’re referring to? I’m looking at it in terms of the “forward” path (manifesting: expressing yourself in life, being active, expression of will in the world) and the “reverse” path (unmanifesting: merging into the One medicine, emptiness, surrendering the self to the Self). Once you start merging into emptiness (at least on an occasional basis) and the little self goes *poof!*, what do you do? ... since there is no “you”? I don’t know that I have the answers to all of that, but here are some thoughts... 1. “Knowing the white, keep the black”, Taoist saying (from one of Cleary’s books, I forget which). 2. Just going back to basic humanity, basic tasks, survival, art. 3. Be of service. Be useful. As this gets worse you need something to anchor you into the world and being of use, being of service, is a classic way to keep yourself engaged while cultivating selflessness. 4. Anchor the emptiness states into the deep-centers of the chakras. Often aspirants access emptiness without anchoring it into their esoteric physiology and so there’s this disconnect. Pearl meditations, bindu meditations are relevant. 5. Respect your humanness. There are some things that are just built in. We tend to idealize the emptiness states as the permanent solution and the roadside is littered with tons of students (and teachers) who could access mystical states but neglected / ignored / dismissed their aspects of humanness. 6. “Build a life that works for you”. This was a repeated line from Mark Griffin (a meditation teacher). If you build an exterior life that suits your talents, etc, and engages you appropriately in life ... the whole esoteric process will go easier for you, less wear n’ tear, smoother. Any of that in the right territory? Hope this helps. Thanks for posting, interesting topic. - Keith JohnDaoProductions.wordpress.com

Wow, what a delightful thread. Breath of fresh air. I’ve read only a few scattered posts, so pardon me if I repeat ground-already-covered. In one of Cleary’s Taoist translations, there is reference to the “human mind” and the “mind of Dao”. Seems to be (maybe?) in the ballpark, here. My interpretation is “human mind” = basically, thinking, cogitating and all the complexities and waves (feelings, psychology, all that sh##) that get caught up in that. Where as “mind of Dao” would be something like “wu qi” (in Daoism) or “luminous emptiness” (in Buddhism), “sky of mind”. Somewhere in that territory. Seems to me that “the quickest way” question has a couple of dubious premises: 1. That a certain path (method/s, school, tradition) is the quickest. There’s 10,000 paths, and much value in many of them - and often different paths are appropriate for different people. It seems to me that good orientation to *whatever* path REALLY helps a LOT. Often makes the difference of really making the most of a path vs getting really f###ed up by that same path. Here’s my attempt at a brief simplified generic overview. There’s nothing new in it, probably nothing you don’t already know, and *certainly* not of the detailed depth you’d find in any well developed authentic path. ... but I think it offers some utilitarian overview. https://johndaoproductions.wordpress.com/2018/05/04/three-generic-fundamentals/ 2. Second dubious premise: That you *want* the quickest path, lol. Yeah, there are times when you wanna hit the gas, and have a lightning bolt teacher who propels you ... but there are also times when you want to slow down, or prepare the ground, etc, not just speed. A friend of mine used the phrase the “school of harmony” and it denotes, *whatever* path you’re on, to value harmony as a sign of deep and skillful integration, and that produces a foundation for growth. Contrast that to finding the fastest car, then driving it as fast as you can as long as you can until the engine catches on fire, melts down, and you have to spend the next few decades in repair.

“ discernment “ is a good word to throw into the mix . also “ working theory based on experience so far “, like science always leaves room for uncertainty and evolving understanding not fixed beliefs. do the practice get the results , much like push-ups ... belief is secondary if not irrelevant . stilling the mind is much more fundamental, than what to think . my two cents

Please take us back! We are *soooo* sorry! You were right: we weren't ready! ... we'll pay for the tea!