Trunk

My understanding is that especial warnings come with mixing any forced or controlled exercise that forces up-up-up. There are breathing, muscular, etc., that are in some kundalini systems where they do that. Kunlun works when you can relax, let things flow down, and also let things flow where-ever they might go from there. Mixing that with exercises that control-force up would be ... silly, and probably not pretty. As far as already having kundalini already actually present in your system, seems to me that you just need to watch for speed (which you are already probably good at by now). Slow down, back off, when you need to. Probably employ shorter practice sessions than most. That's my 2 cents, not that I'm certified in any way.

Wow. So much to like about your story. Welcome.

Welcome! Nice rain.

I think we should throw shoes on the white house lawn, us US citizens. As a movement. For those that can't get there in person, we should be able to mail in a pair.

How do you come up with this stuff??? Maybe your Yodisattva vow should have something to do with "making all beings laugh".

Good shot!

From what I've heard, some people spend some years green-intentional-community hopping. Sounds like a ton o' fun to me... exploring organic farming communities, hanging out for a month or a season or a year, and travel to several different ones like that... 'd learn a lot, about life-style, about what works / doesn't in a community, "gotta get back to the land and set my soullllll free" There are also some good books and dvd's documenting ic's.

Welcome.

Tons of info about this sort of thing at the Intentional Communities Website (ic.org).

I searched and found Sifu Gary Stier who posts as Doc Stier in ShenMenTao.com's forum. Fer instance, this well written post. Props. Welcome.

Yup, agreed. Though seeing an acupuncturist all the time is inconvenient and pricey. Self-acupressure (no needles) is a good solution. If you have some acute trouble that requires an acupuncturist, during the visit ask him/her for acupoints that you can massage yourself at home between treatments. Otherwise, gradually learning acupressure on your own is time well spent, imo. Huge missing piece of the puzzle, imo. Helps smooth integration of all sorts of stuff. I've been writing about that lately in the massage section of my site, and in about the last 2 dozen posts of my blog.

www.hardlight.org

Couple of really simple things to facilitate that: 1. Twiddle at ming men (hands in whatever comfortable position to twiddle on back) 2. Tap Du-14 You betchya! Thanks for the dialogue. I'm happily curious to hear how your tui na explorations go, either in thread or pm. Trunk

The "heavenly lineage" of an embodied teacher is a big deal. Gives the teacher enormous resivoirs of purity, depth, and stability as back-up and context. I think that a lot of the purpose of having a teacher in-the-flesh is to introduce you to your own relationship with that teacher's heavenly lineage. Once you get transmission from the teacher, you've been introduced to the lineage as well (whether you knew it or not). My impression is that this kind of knowledge is just basic for some other cultures.

There is a teaching ~ learning style where the teacher sits in front of the room and meditates, and the students meditate. There is a sort of osmosis, a natural body~to~body learning and - if the teacher is sufficiently advanced - the transformation of the students' bodies occurs quickly. It is both a matter of available pure energy (grace) and high level organization of form (being). So, in that style of teaching ~ learning, the communication isn't conceptual - but is one of silent presence for the purpose of transformation. "Answering questions" is not what it's primarily about. This happens in most religions, imo, and ime the "communication" is as described above, not a "Q&A session". Christians experience this with Jesus, Hindus with various deities, etc. There are heavens and there are beings and humans have traditionally "blended their mind-streams" with these beneficial influences. Not saying that Q&A never happens w/ people, but that it's more problematic and - imo - less to the point. T

Interesting read http://www.boingboing.net/2008/11/25/why-d...ailure-ins.html based on the book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

Is that "tuina" as in Chinese massage? I've heard it mentioned but don't know hardly anything about it. Are you enjoying it, finding it helpful? Glad you like the exhale explorations. LTT breathing pumps energy through the tissues and channels and most people are going to bump into blocks some place or another. Stretching, self-acupressure, occasional neck rotations ... all helpful.

"Was there ever a love that wasn't at first sight?" - best as I remember from I don't know which play

You're gonna fit in. Welcome! Trunk

Yes and no, in a bunch o' ways. Yup, there are a bunch of acupts in the belly region, and it's a potent area. But CNT is also about gradually working through the tissues and deeper stuff there, which is good and loaded with good possibilities, but... In acupressure you're really going after the channels (CNT not so much), and it's done in a balanced way (CNT not so much). Ideally, you choose acupoints in a balanced fashion: front and back of the body, upper and lower body, on the torso and on the limbs. CNT doesn't have that built into it. The distal acupressure essay talks about those ideas some. CNT and acupressure are complementary. They could go together and help eachother. Yes. Both from a couple of different practitioners, and self work. Though not as much as some others here. The book "Unwinding the Belly" seems to get good reviews. Trunk

Open the channels of the body. Not just the microcosmic orbit (du & ren), all of them. Activating acupoints is a classic way to do this. Self-acupressure is accessible and relatively safe. imo, it's a huge piece of the puzzle that is mostly over-looked in non-asian culture.

Welcome!

I think the main thing is to be in enough comfort so that you enjoy practicing.