dwai

When there is an overwhelming need to be correct, there is an insecurity of being not correct. Most of us have to go through that gate and then we grow up

I'd venture to add that not just qigong, but any meditation techniques where the mind and body are harmonized and focused will aid in raising the IQ level. But furthermore, it will also raise the empathic aspects (not cold intelligence, but loving-kindness as well). I personally have experienced this. Back in 2002 when the economy was bad, I lost my job for a while, and so instead of stressing out, I took the time to focus on meditation, yoga, pranayama and taijiquan practice. I practiced and meditated 6-8 hrs a day, for several months. During this time, I not only was able to study and grasp technology subjects at a much faster pace than I could before, but also retained the knowledge far more efficiently. Furthermore, when I took an IQ test, I scored 150 (which is pretty good by my standards). I know that things that I was unable to see, in terms of pattern recognition, pattern matching etc prior to this period of time, became 'easy-peasey' for me. To do control study, I made a few other close ones (all super smart, and even those I'd consider smarter than me) take the test and they scored a good 20 points lower than me.

Thanks for the wonderful review Steve! I much appreciate your support and encouragement, as well as the feedback you provided via email (which I've taken to heart now).

For me this is the list for meaningful practice — good practice partners (at least one) a schedule that allows time for regular practice a good teacher (and system) a good practice space A drive for regular practice Precisely in that order of importance. If you have that, your skill and cultivation will grow. As it grows, a deepening stillness will ensue and permeate your life. The mind will gain clarity and tranquility.

pew pew pew!! I think we sometimes forget that this forum is there for exchange of ideas and churning that helps us better understand/realize concepts. All part of the game imho. S/he can -- but would they want to? Also even if they do so, it won't be with a snap of a finger. We've all seen spiritual leaders gaining huge followings and their missions acquire lot of wealth. It usually takes the course of time... An enlightened being has risen about the pettiness of the limited self-identification(s). So s/he will not "WANT" something like a million dollars. Typically they are quite happy in whatever condition the circumstances have resulted in. A ruler will be happy to remain a ruler -- will be a great ruler in fact, because s/he will have true compassion for everyone. But s/he will not meddle with the karma of others unless there's a compelling reason to do so. THIS! Yes again - I emphatically agree with you.

I'm writing, figuring out how to be an author in today's world -- boy its complicated - Writing, Marketing, trying to build a 'platform'....ranging from the very inspired to the very mercantile. Also lots of taijiquan, lots of workout (been working out steadily since past 5 months).

Have you correlated this with the time of the year? Or even time of the day? According to Traditional Indian medicine, spring time is causes aggravation of the water element, thereby resulting in lot of symptoms you mentioned. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.yogajournal.com/.amp/teach/secret-best-summer-yet-burn-excess-kapha-now

🙏🏾 I’m glad you enjoyed the book. Please do leave a review on Amazon and goodreads.com to help the book climb up on Amazon’s algorithm if it’s not too much trouble

Is Heartbreak the mighty light being "Daemon"? Sounds luminously similar

Friends, I released my short stories collection today and it’s available for free here. I hope you read and enjoy Get it for free here — https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-night-i-died-and-other-short-stories/id1502573601 Or for 0.99$ here — https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085TFL5PR/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_5-OAEb8WQ23Z8 PS: Don’t forget to leave a review

Meditation is silence. If there isn’t, then it is not meditation

Beautiful! For me the recognition was slightly different. The Self which I was looking for, for years had never not been my Self. That which I called “self” was never ever more than Stories made up of memories and projections. I laughed for a long time, sitting in my basement. The idiot that my “self” was, kept seeking here and there, while the true gem was sitting right there, as my very heart, my very being! 😃 The Self has no “selfhood”, it is simply being. Does not exist, is the existence itself. I’d not seen this gem of a post earlier — over the years there have been similar ‘experiences’ (if they can be called that). Walking, suddenly everything is “me” — the road is me, the trees are me, houses are me, the cars whizzing by are me, the dog barking is me, and so on. But this “me” is not the body-mind alone. It’s hard to articulate. 🙏🏾🙇🏻🤗

Not sure about in Chinese or Japanese, but in India we address the Divine Mother as “Ma” or “Devi”. Or by her name as a mantra or chant — “Durgaye Namah” or “Kalikaye Namah” or “Jai Ma Tara” and so on. But in my experience, also as Steve pointed out — We don’t need spoken language to interact with deities — they operate at the causal layer or higher, so there simply thought-intentions are sufficient. If you want to bow and venerate to her, simply the intention is sufficient.

Friends, Here's an interview about my book and my writer's journey

Maybe it is enough to let people understand the unknowable in their own way. I’ve always leaned towards the commonality between traditions rather than the differences (which I feel are at a more superficial level). At the core of our experiences is awareness. When investigated, it is not possible to find any identifiable traits that could make uniquely awareness yours or mine. So whatever allows us to know and to experience is not different across the various levels of sentience that appear in the universe. At the level of phenomena, we find that all phenomena depend on this awareness — hence they are empty of self nature or independent existence. The body and mind too are phenomena, known in the light of awareness. And awareness itself does not have any unique characteristics that makes it identifiable in space or time. Rather, space and time seem to arise in this awareness. So we could say awareness too is empty of “thingness” — though all things appear and disappear in it alone. Is this God? Is this Dao? Is this Emptiness? All of the above imho.

PM me. I have a friend who is in the UK and a very high level guy

The intent needs to be like a bowstring and the qi like an arrow. You load the arrow (qi) into your bow (body), pull the string (intent) back and release it in the direction you want it to go. This is my experience/opinion, so please have grains of salt handy -- But I would have to disagree to the position that imagination doesn't have a role to play. When someone starts off down the path of qigong etc, they have no way to conceptualize what they're going to practice. In such a case, it does become a case of "waving one's hands" (like the OP suggested) -- so the student has to use imagination. For example, when we generate a taiji ball (or qi ball), we have to imagine we have it between our palms initially. With practice one day the ball becomes tangible and real -- when you press into it, it presses back. When you try to pull it apart, it resists (like a magnet). It is not a physiological thing at all. In fact, if we didn't do the "imagining" part, the physical strength won't release easily (no song). No song, no ting, no peng. The kind of person I see having most issues with this is the extremely cerebral/skeptical kind. Also another kind who struggles are those who are very stubborn. Also another interesting thing I notice is that some kinds of "visualization" won't work unless we have energetic/conscious access to it. For example, I used to tell my student, when doing some standing postures, to expand the energy ball to fill half the room in front of him and push against it, and let his mind fill the space that was "not ball". For the longest time, he was unable to do this -- would say, he has difficulty visualizing this. When he developed further as a practitioner, he was able to do it. But the key is to keep working at it. We keep working on it despite the murkiness of the "visualization", and one day there is a quantum jump and everything becomes crystal clear. and ability manifests.

What the verses are pointing to Very nice. Thanks for sharing

Not the verses themselves but the remembrance every morning before dawn breaks. Entering into stillness, and silence after the Om. The effect is a deep stillness continuing through my experiences through out the day even when the mind seems to go through extreme perturbations from time to time.

I wish we had an emoticon for "wow" or "mind blown" You my friend are very fortunate to live in such a beautiful and powerful place!

😍 thank you my dear friend for sharing such a wonderful and inspirational account. 🙏🏾 Swami Vivekananda used to say (Paraphrasing), “the one who hides in the forest and mountains in solitude, has missed the way. The one who immerses himself in samsara and its pains and pleasures too has missed the way. A true Jñāni is one who continues on in the thick of it in samsara, fully having realized his immortal nature and helps all he can with selfless service.”

How do we define "happiness"? Chuang Tzu is reputed to have said "Happiness is the cessation of seeking ( happiness)". Really I think happiness an intrinsic aspect of our True Nature. Is it a state of constant joy (like laughing, smiling and dancing around all the time)? I think it is more a state of fulfillment. Whatever comes, cannot add to the sense of fulfillment. Nothing taken away can reduce that sense of fulfillment. Nothing is needed. Nothing is missed.

My wife and I used to have this conversation. She would go like this, "How can you love everyone equally? Would you love the neighbor's kid the same way you love our kid?" The problem is in the way we normally perceive love. Some people abhor the idea of "love" being a fruit of spiritual practices. So I wrote a little article on it on what the status of love is in various traditions, and why it is not really an emotion at all, but is rather an aspect of pure being. I think I disagree with what you wrote in terms of "letting go of the love for your child". There is no letting go of love, but rather an expansion of love to encompass everyone. Sure, if the "individual" is playing the role of a householder, they will do right by their family. So I'd word it as, "One loves everyone as they love their own kid". But I agree with you in the spirit of what you wrote...unaffected by the changes in the world, some sages continue to play their role in samsara, but become beacons of light in their own communities and their light and clarity spread by osmosis. Some other sages disappear into solitude, while others take up the role of the Bodhisatva and spread their light to as many as they can. Consider someone like Lahiri Mahashaya of the Kriya Yoga lineage ( @Pilgrim can share some of his thoughts on this too) -- who went back to his life of a householder -- living as a fully enlightened sage in his own home. While someone else can be like Nisargadatta Maharaj -- who was a fully enlightened sage, and he lived in the most humble conditions, running his little street corner store selling beedis and other useless/mundane things ( @neti neti can share some thoughts on this if he feels like it). And his little flat in Mumbai would be filled with seekers from all over the world, morning through night every day -- and he would sit and talk. Or it could be like the countless nameless sages who live in the holy mountains of the world, in little caves in complete anonymity. Or it could be like Swami Vivekananda or Yogananda who spread their light to foreign shores out of compassion and love. There is a term called "Stone Buddha" -- there is a risk of becoming like that. I know a few practitioners who have become like this -- cold, insensitive. My Master says that usually happens to those who seek only power. They can and do get powerful, but don't grow spiritually.

That is beautiful. Strangely enough, my life has sort of gone down a similar path. And it can certainly be challenging to do something that everyone around you thinks is contrary to good sense. At one point in time, I would cast the I-ching and follow the course of action in life based on that. The I-ching can be very profound in its guidance, albeit hard to understand Over time, I noticed that stuff happened, whether I wanted them to or not. And they seemed to lead me down the path of a deeper spirituality (than before they happened). But I find that it does help to follow a set of teachings that have refined and evolved over millennia (as in the case of the wisdom traditions of the East). Based on my experience, there needs to be an intellectual reconciliation of the "lived Truth" with a framework that makes the "lived truth" functional in the world. I'm just thinking out loud now...feel free to chime in (anyone) if this resonates. There are a few people i personally know, who embody the "lived Truth" very powerfully. But at a certain (worldly) level, they "struggle" with the tempests of the worldly life, unable to reconcile the truth they experience and live with their environment. Being householders, they are unable to walk away from the "humdrum" and retire into solitude. One person I know didn't even know what happened to him, but he was in a state of "lived Truth" for many years before I met him. When we started talking with each other, little by little, he would describe something and I'd go "Oh...that's the technical term for what you're describing...and it is in context of nonduality/spirituality/whathaveyou" or I'd be talking about a subject and he'll describe that to a tee, without the technical terms or even understanding the concept behind it. Such people can struggle with a part of themselves that needs to stay "operational" in the transactional world. This lack of conceptual/intellectual reconciliation creates a rift in the "embodiment", as the directly experienced "truth" fails to impact up their transactional reality.

Unaffected is a better word. And because the sense of Self has expanded to include the whole world, a different kind of love and compassion exudes from such a person. Then the person is able to help uplift those in need, and be of service to others without any sense or expectation of getting anything in return. So some will re-enter the world with pure love and spirit of service. Of course, some simply spend out their remaining physical lifespan as hermits. Nothing wrong with that either. No you haven't. But that 'care more', imho is out of the expansion of one's sense of Being from beyond the body-mind-personality to the entire universe. But some might simply choose to disappear. Unaffected, but never indifference, imho.