Sloppy Zhang

I guess there's two ways to escape the rat race- stop using money, or make money that doesn't involve you running through a rat maze every day!

I also support the "is it what you make it" position. Also gotta be a great way to people watch.

A lot of managers around my company like this book: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_to_Great Specifically something to consider is the "Hedgehog Concept", which is a combination of three things: 1. What is your passion? This will keep you going and you'll work longer and harder than anyone else. 2. What could you be the best at? The quality of material you produce is going to be better than anyone else's. 3. How are you going to monetize it? Pretty straight forward- what is going to drive revenue? I see a lot of programs out there about starting your own business, working from home, working from anywhere in the world, working a 5 hour work week, gaining passive income, etc etc etc. But if you can read between the lines of all of the hype, it basically comes down to the above concepts. What can you produce that no one else can? What will you be so passionate about producing that you will do it day in, day out, nights and weekends? What is going to be so unique, so helpful, so entertaining, so WHATEVER, that people will give you their credit card for?

That's a stretch! I think you should examine your subconscious thoughts and see why they are projecting that onto a random assortment of words.

Interestingly enough, many STRAIGHT men can't handle being around women! At least, women they are sexually attracted to... For the straight guys, in my experience, it's usually because they don't know how to act around women that they like. They wind up getting friend zoned, or they wind up trying to make a move, not knowing how, get shot down. The whole experience is rathing embarassing and not enjoyable, so then they swing the other way, say that women are shallow and stupid and they don't need them. I think it's much more healthy to learn what women are looking for and the types of things they respond best to. The video that vortex posted is a good start.

For me, personally, I was raised by a very strong mother. I had very different ideas about women when I grew up and matured as an adolescent and then as an adult. And a very troubling thing that happened to me was that the world I actually observed was not the world I was told I should be observing. For all my patience, respect, and maturity, I was not being treated by women in the way I wanted to be treated, felt I should be treated (watch out! entitlement) and the way that I was told I could be expected to be treated (by my mother and other mature women in community, family, friends, teachers, etc). Even in my professional life, I interact with older women who say "you're a very nice, respectable, funny young man. I bet you're popular with the ladies." HAH. Yeah right. The world I observed was that the women were swooning over the "misogynist" guys. Cocky, disrespectful, ignorant, oblivious to their needs, etc. Even girls who "liked me" would still swoon over other guys. At some point I said "fuck that" and decided to treat the world as it is. And the fact of the matter is that, while there ARE many mature, intelligent, nice, thoughtful, respectful people out there, there are many MORE people who are products of whatever societal forces are out there (misogyny et al) and will throw it back to you. Is it misogynistic to want to have sex with a beautiful woman? Guess what, she's going to throw misogyny right back in my face by dating the asshole guy. So what am I going to do? Be the asshole guy. You can be angry and bitter about it (many are and I was for a long time, and still kind of am) or you can treat it as fact (as I'm coming around to) And sure, you can choose to "rise above it all" because "two wrongs don't make a right." But you know, that left me a virgin long past due. So I went out and played the game, and got laid. And I became a lot happier. I mean, a LOT happier. I'm still unhappy with a lot of things. But at least I'm unhappy with pussy

Get B.K. Frantzis' "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body," read it, and do the practices.

That's some real shit right there. I was scared at one point.... But maybe because he's black

It's funny, a few days ago I overheard one of the top sales people in my company (a woman) complain about her boyfriend. He's a well educated, well off guy in a professional career, and she said that she just... gets her way all the time. She asks for something and he gets it. She asks him to help out around the house and he just does. It's kind of funny, but I (and many others) have noted that when you give women what they say they want (a nice guy who listens and helps out), they don't want it anymore, and then they hold it against you for giving it to them. I think the trick is just stand your ground. Own it. Let the harpies harp. Sean Connery had it right. "You said it's okay to hit women!" "Yeah." Don't backpedal. Usual caveats and things apply. Not all guys are nice, not all gals are mean. Et cetera.

Masturbate.

If you don't mind my asking, what job do you have/what field are you in? I don't know about you clowns, but I love my corporate job Air conditioning, snacks, I make good money for doing something relatively easy. I can use that money to go out, hang out with friends, go to movies, pay my bills, buy drinks, buy food or buy ingredients to make food, support my hobbies, by books for recreation, buy video games, etc, and still have money saved up. Is it my ideal job? No. Is it my true passion? No. Does it pay the bills, hell yes. Would I like to get into something else? Yes, I just don't know what So OP, what do you do?

Yeah, I'm pretty introverted myself. It's awkward if I'm introduced to a crowd of people I don't know. It's not that I have nothing to say, but I don't know how people will react. So I kind of sit back and gauge the group, get to know how everyone is like. What's funny is that in a group of people I already know, everyone thinks I'm an extrovert it's just that I've gauged the group and can say shit accordingly. I also care little for public opinion so I'm not afraid to do silly stuff. Which is kind of funny because people who know me just see a quiet guy not saying anything one moment, then a dude doing something wild and crazy the next, and then they think I'm REALLY insane. Sigh.

Are you saying the recent flood of spam was a false flag operation created by the mods so we would run to them in our sudden fear and support them rather than criticizing them for how they run the forum before overthrowing them??? I knew it.

I think love, or in the case of an enemy, at least compassion, maybe even forgiveness (let's say you have to start somewhere)... Comes from understanding. Unfortunately, there is no shortcut to this process. You have to live your life, be in situations, learn as a person. Then you need to be able to correctly discern when someone you meet/know is in a position that you understand. Since you understand that person, their situation, why they are doing what they are doing, you can have compassion in your heart for them, maybe even unconditional love and/or forgiveness. I personally think that's where the Budhha's compassion comes from, if it is true that part of his Buddhahood involved him living thousands and thousands of lives. That means he has been in every situation, on the giving and receiving end of actions, he knows what it is like, and so can understand all of the factors that drive people to act the way they do. And since he knows all of this, he has compassion for all. If Jesus/God is truly omniscient, then that allows for God's/Christ's forgiveness too. If you lean in those directions. In any case, I don't think there is any shortcut, or any meditation you can do on it. Well, you can meditate on the situation, and you can meditate in general to develop the correct thought and being able to discern situations clearly. But I think part of it is observing and being in situations as well. And that requires, well, life.

If you watch the video closely, she fails to project her hands forward. This caused the energy to be contained inside, and not be projected to defend her from the assailant. Done properly, this technique can be highly effective, allowing you to defend yourself from opponents twice, or even three times your size. If you have poor technique, you will wind up defeating yourself. Better to learn Wing Chun or something.

Mufasa.

Tywin Lannister.

One simple thing Bruce Frantzis brings up in his books/DVDs/seminars is making sure the occiput stays open. This is the place where the base of the skull meets the top of the neck. In most people this is clamped down pretty hard, especially when you consider how many people hunch forward (like while sitting at a computer desk). Even when reclining, many people have this area pretty tense/clamped down. Same with when they "sit straight" when they "meditate"! So people might hear the suggestion to "press the head upwards" or even to "tuck the chin" (just a little bit, maybe closer to "round the chin/front of the throat"). Maybe even tilt the head forward a little bit. Whatever advice you hear, one effect is to open the occiput. This lets fluids and energy circulate safely out of the head. Keep an eye on this throughout the day, and see if that helps. Another big source of pressure in the head is the "eyes". Try to relax the eyes throughout the day (or if possible, the energy gate behind the eyes). Since we live in such a visual dominated society, all those images can really build up some tension and pressure. So release that. Bruce talks about these places in his book "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body" (which in case you haven't noticed, I recommend in about 87% of cases) Another source of tension (and that may or may not result in head pressure) is the jaw. You can relax/dissolve the jaw (dissolving taught in Energy Gates book) and that may help as well.

I would also differentiate between muscle building and chi building exercises. Bruce Frantzis writes a lot that tension actually blocks chi flow, and in some cases feeling of tensed strength is actually "false strength," rather than true chi based power.

Dissolving techniques loosen energy and let it fall naturally down. The Three Swings help loosen the body, as well as energize and balance the three dantiens. Also, they're fun to do

I'll have to go back and look at the books Tsunami, as I don't recall off the top of my head line by line. My understanding is this: Outer dissolving only works pretty only on the physical/chi body (I also got the impression that to some extent it will help on the emotional body, but I could be mistaken) if you want to go beyond, you will have to use inner dissolving (emotional, mental, on up... or down or both yet neither ) That said inner dissolving can also be used on physical/chi bodies. And then you can get fancy and do them both at the same time. I think Bruce put a lot of information in those books, but he left it deceptively simple. He mentioned at one point in the books that progression in the Water path is a "spiral," where you cover the same ground, but you do it at a deeper level. A beginner and advanced student and a master will all do the same techniques, but at different levels of refinement. When you say something like "where should I go after I mastered the techniques in the book," what do you define as mastery? In Opening the Energy Gates of the Body, he says that a master can open and close the energy gates of the body like you open and close your eye, and can even feel and open/close the energy gates of other people (a simple method of dissolving is mentioned in Vol1 and Vol2, and the Energy Gates book fills it out). Is THAT your marker for mastery? When you talk about mastering stuff in the books, are you able to get into the mindstream (discussed at the end of Vol1) before doing sitting/standing/moving/lying down/interacting dissolving pracices (and by dissolving I mean doing inner/outer dissolving of first, say, 6 energy bodies)? I don't even have a conceptual understanding of what the mindstream is, and I read Relaxing Into Your Being for the first time years ago So yeah, I think if you mastered, and I mean FULLY mastered what's in those books, as he presented them, yeah, you'll be pretty far ahead of most everybody else period. On top of that, the breathing exercise he gives energizes the lower dantien as well as the belt meridian, which naturally will energize the vertical channels, including the MCO, but also NOT LIMITED to the MCO, so it's great for energizing and balance as well.

I don't normally call out threads for thread drift. It's the internet and it happens and some of the best information comes out when a thread has "derailed." But really guys, are we trying to help the OP, or compare inner door ? sheesh. To the OP: Get "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body" by Bruce Kumar Frantzis and practice the dissolving techniques and the three swings. Also don't be afraid of working out or doing some other physical exercises (push ups, sit ups, squats, running, etc) This will work to ground you as well as get you nice and tired so you can sleep well at night I find it odd that you were recommended a concentration exercise to cure your issue when concentration exercises exacerbate your reported issue. And I also don't think relaxation exercises raise energy. I think instead they make you more aware of energy that is already raised. You can distract yourself with another practice (like the MCO) but that won't in the long run because you aren't actually doing anything with the energy. You're just relegating your awareness of it to the background. Any practice that teaches you to dissolve/release DOWNWARD is going to help. This includes stuff like walking/running around barefoot in the grass, working out, having sex/masturbating (!!! controversial, I know!!!) and yes, traditional qigong, Tai Chi, Bagua, that will get you OUT of your head, INTO your body, and getting your body to DO SOMETHING with the energy you have awakened. Still your mind, relax into emptiness, and let the energy settle on its own.

My point is that if the same people go through the same school/program but are getting different results, then the deciding factor isn't the school. Everyone is taught the same critical thinking program, but not all students produced are thinking critically? Maybe the program isn't what decides. Not everyone in the same physics class becomes a physicist? Maybe it's not the class. Some high school/college dropouts are as/more successful than grads? Deciding factor must not be the school. I agree the college experience was great. Just not for education. Pussy and weed? Hell yeah. The "real world" sucks. No tight young women ages 18-22 in such abundance anywhere except for college.

Good repost protector. There's a lot of different camps even in feminism. Some radical feminist camps believe that men can't actually be feminists, because they (we, I'm a guy ) are all beneficiaries of patriarchal privilege, so we can't fundamentally understand the struggles and experiences of the underclass. So we should get the fuck out of the way and let the feminists tell us what the patriarchy is and how it really affects people. Because we don't see it. I don't think there's one overarching force, no overarching system that brings or denies privilege. It's a situational, context type of thing. Someone with privilege in one context might not have it in another, and might have it in another. It's why I got disenchanted with feminism after a while (I was raised by a pretty feminist mother) and why I never got behind the men's rights groups. I agree with most of those groups on a lot of points, and (funnily enough) is also disagree with those groups on a lot of points. So hey.