Sloppy Zhang

Oh yeah, I like what you said Just for other people reading it or something, it might have caused some confusion

I don't mean literal demons. I meant to use it more as a figure of speech, more like, dealing with issues that you have, negative aspects of yourself, not an entity from without, more like a manifestation of what you hold within. Sorry if the title was misleading Thanks, I will look into those

Thanks freeform, and that was an excellent mentaphor!

Thanks Pietro

So I'm a fan of Star Wars, and recently I got the urge to watch all the movies (I-VI). Anyway, I found a lot of good, yet very simple advice. Funny coming from star wars but still thought it'd be good to point it out, in no particular order: Be mindful of your thoughts Be mindful of your feelings Be mindful of your emotions Trust your feelings Reach out with your feelings Your eyes can deceive you, so don't trust them You must unlearn all that you have learned There is no try, do or do not (don't totally agree with this, but whatever ) Size matters not A great many things depend on your point of view Do not underestimate the dark side

That right there is the attitude that a lot of people have, and unfortunately, in my humble opinion, it leads people FURTHER from happiness. Everyone wants to "do" something to fix the problem. "Oh, I'm late for work, what can I "do" to get there on time?"- run! "Oh, my girlfriend is thinking of breaking up with me, what can I "do" to keep her?"- buy her stuff! Sometimes "doing" something is the answer...... but sometimes it isn't. "I'm stressed with lots of work, what can I "do" to free up my schedule?"- nothing! If you "do" stuff you only add to your schedule! "I have a headache from all my stress, what can I "do" to make it go away?"- nothing! If you stress out about how to fix your headache, it'll only make it worse! Unfortunately it's the "not doing" that people have a hard time with. Maybe that's the secret that this verse points to? Wu wei. Stop trying to "get" this happiness. Like water, the tighter you try and grasp it, the more you lose. The less you "do", the more gets done. The less you "grab", the more you hold

Great links!

I've worked with tarot myself, and know what you mean, but I have also worked a bit with sleight of hand trickery, and I know there are plenty of ways to shuffle a deck, or make it look like you're shuffling a deck, but keep the deck in order. One thing to do is examine how you shuffle. Some people, without realizing it, do things in sets of even numbers, or sets of odd numbers. You could cut a deck, cut it again for good measure, cut it again to be safe, and cut it again just for the heck of it, and wind up having the cards be in roughly the same place (they went from top to bottom, bottom to top, top to bottom, and from bottom back to top). It's really easy to overlook stuff like this, ESPECIALLY when you are trying to pick it out of your own behavior. One suggestion is to get a deck of cards, and mark a card, maybe with some tape on the corner, maybe mark several cards. Shuffle a deck several times, paying attention to how you shuffle, cut, and how many times you do each. Then with your marked deck do the exact same shuffle, and see where the cards in the deck move. You'll notice how easy it is to shuffle "really well", but have several cards be in the same general area. That's especially true after you do tarot card readings. If you just put all the read cards on top, and shuffle in such a way that the cards stay close, you could easily do several readings for one person in a row and have nearly the exact same cards And, everything that Pietro said is good. It's really important that you keep track of every single trial, keep the method the same, be sure to only test one variable, and all the other stuff involved in the scientific method. I don't like how so many people think that science and say, spirituality, or paranormal are mutually exclusive. It's just making sure you are seeing what you think you are seeing.

How did I know it would come down to this? "I can last longer." "Well I'm bigger." "Well that's not what ur mom sed, lolz" No offense to the venerable masters that have been teaching for generations out of lineages that are very well respected.... but that sounds sooooo much like a sex cult "Hey, just step into my private quarters and let me show you the nature of reality. This will lead you to spiritual awakening. Really, just lay down right here....."

oh snap

I recommend you obtain, read, and do the practices in "Relaxing into Your Being" by B.K. Frantzis. Very good practices for beginners, gets you some background philosophy, starts on simple qigong (you can also follow it up with "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body.") According to Frantzis, doing the practices he teaches you exercises the same channels that the Microcosmic Orbit will get going, but in a.... I dunno, "easier" way? I hesitate to use words like "safer". Sometimes Frantzis' works can seem pretty biased (he REALLY wants to get people off of the "fire path"). But I like his practices, they are simple, natural, and much much closer to how I view the concepts from, say, the Tao Te Ching.

Hmm, neat article.

This. I don't really identify with anything specifically. There are parts from each I like, parts I don't like, and it's not just limited to those two. Let people say what they want.

People argue and debate everywhere you go. Ever been to a message board where everyone is on the same page with everything? There wind up being about three regular users and all the threads are three posts long because all the posts are "I agree." "ur so rite!" "omg I thought that same thing." ................. Now for me personally, I try not to care as much I wind up typing a whole lot of posts, but then scrapping the whole thing and not posting at all because, really, it sucks you in and is pointless in the long run. I go and do something else, or listen to some good music instead. Um, now I feel that I'm rambling If people want to argue, let them argue. I hope that people at least try to stick to the rule of "discuss a belief, not the person." Which sometimes can be skewed, because, as has been said, some people identify VERY strongly with a certain belief, so a comment on the belief equates to a comment on themselves from their point of view.

Don't know if this is the same thing, but I've been to a few lectures of some Tibetan Buddhists. Naturally someone brought up the subject of sex, whether abstinence is good or if you should partake, etc etc. And among many things they said was that having sex with an advanced spiritual practitioner can be good, for both parties involved, giver and receiver. This what you're talking about?

Got into a car wreck which pretty much required all the money I've earned from my part time job over this summer and most of what I earned last year to repair and...... I just let it go. I mean initially I was like, "holy crap that's a huge dent to my finances." Especially since I have to pay for college as well, what's left over from scholarships and some contributions from family. But still, it was pretty depressing, all that work for seemingly.... nothing. Then I got all "transitory nature of existence" on the situation thought about whether it's that big of a deal to get worked over, especially since I came out mostly unscathed... and..... meh, wasn't worth worrying about it.

Perspective: This reminds me of a Family Guy episode, where they show Peter and Quagmire as children. A child Lois dumps both of them. They get angry and say, "dangit, we went through all this trouble just for a chick. Well no more, from now on, let's swear off women! Yeah!" It cuts to thirty years later, they are both sitting in a huge house. Peter says, "Well Quagmire, it seems that we've made another million dollars. And all because we have sworn off women." And Quagmire goes "that's right!" Then Peter gets up and says, "I'm going to go heat up a bagel and have sex with it." So channeling your sexual energy into creative (money making) pursuits can be good, but taken to too far of an extreme can cause problems. So middle path, yadda yadda.

From what I've read on this forum from level headed people in the more bliss oriented practices *cough*kunlun*cough*, they have a good head on their shoulders about bliss and the role it takes (or doesn't take?) in cultivation. Now sure, there are going to be bliss junkies who get blissful and stop there. They may not have the "whole picture", but then again, there are people from all kinds of systems that don't have the "whole picture." Some people sit in lotus under trees in their front lawn for hours at a time, fast a lot, and deny themselves all kinds of pleasures, and they're like, "yeah, I'm so advanced!" even though they may be missing the mark..... In my mind, that's not different from the bliss junkie who's taken one aspect of the practice a bit too far But advanced students in all kinds of traditions, from my perspective, seem to know what they're doing, and can help others along the way, if you listen (or, in TTB's case, search through and read hundreds of posts over the course of several years )

That was cool Seriously, I liked that (really, I'm not trying to be sarcastic)

As someone who was raised Christian (Roman Catholic), and as someone who has lots of Christian friends (of various denominations) and as someone who has talked, debated, and argued, in real life and online, with Christians (from many denominations), let me give you this advice: Use this opportunity to practice "letting go". You can't win Whenever they pull out their quotes, smile and nod. Accept that they are on their path, they are doing what they feel they must do, and you will do what you feel you must do. First of all, different denominations of Christians will require different strategies. You can't argue with Catholics in the same way you argue with a Presbyterian, or Jehovah's witness. In fact, many denominations of Christians think other denominations are just as vulnerable to satan as a meditator or as a pagan On top of that, there's a little thing about satan that Christians are taught: he knows a lot about the Bible, and as he tempts you will try and use the Bible to support his own views (he did this with Jesus, who of course defeated satan with His own knowledge of the Bible). So what does this mean? If you are arguing with a Christian who uses passages from the Bible to support their views, and you, countering their argument, cite passages of your own, well, they will then accuse you of warping the Holy Scripture and all conversation will shut down So, no matter what you do, you cannot win. There are plenty of level headed Christians who, of course, will stop trying to convert you, and let you do your own thing and you let them do theirs. There will be others who are just judgmental and mean, but those people are found in all walks of life, just because they are Christian doesn't make them that way All in all, chances are neither side is going to make any headway in convincing anybody. So take it from me who has devoted/wasted many hours of his life: let it go

Don't take this the wrong way..... But not caring what anyone thinks of you Who cares if they think you are being a man? Who cares if they think you aren't? Act with conviction, do what you feel to be right, and have no regrets. And if anyone cares.... you're not the one losing sleep over it Just walk away into the sunset.......

I'm in college myself, and it's easy to see how it can be troubling. On the one hand, you see the "beaten path", take your classes, do some internships, get your degree, get a job. Do that job for X number of years, family and kids along the way, retire. (I think there's a thread about this and how important it is to you ) And then on the other hand there's the "step off the beaten path", do your own kinda thing, and see what happens. There's no way to really look twenty, thirty, forty years down the line with this one. Bottom line is, there are too many factors to even HAVE a bottom line. Some people get the degree, and the job, and become respectable members of a big business and wind up making tons of cash, have private planes, and retire years before their time. Then lots of other people with the same educational background and experiences who wind up grinding out the same job year after year, they work hard, but get little to no rewards, and at the end of their career they are barely hanging on. The current economy doesn't help either. Older folks are losing money they had planned to retire with, younger folks are getting passed up for jobs they would have had to turn down (too many offerings) just three or four years prior. Then with the whole "do your own thing", well, plenty of people wind up striking out on their own, but never get off the ground, wind up in low income forever. Some people, on the other hand, make it rich in their own business, have a new idea, and make more money and have more success than they'd ever have sticking to the beaten path. The problem is you'll just never know. And, of course, that's speaking from a money/financial security point of view. There are plenty of other ways of gauging a fulfilled existence, sky diving, rocky mountain climbing, etc etc..... but that requires money to begin with I'm still weighing some options myself, so I can't really help you make a decision, sorry but that's how I see it.

Well, to be honest I don't know what the mysterious pass is..... care to share?

Maybe it's like..... high school drama. Most people get out of high school, and they look back, and they just realize how trivial all the things were that they thought were just so important. But some people don't really do that.... as they get older they just keep looking for sources of more drama. Maybe ego works the same way? Some people look back on their lives and realize all the time and energy they've wasted put into things when they didn't get anything positive out of it.

The 12 year old that bends, you know, does not break For the topic, I think it's discussed a bit in the thread about Bodri and the whole "sitting" vs. "energy work" debate. They are two aspects. Obviously if you focus too exclusively on one at the expense of the other, you will miss out on something. Just like broccoli is good for you, if you exclusively eat broccoli thinking you will become the most healthy person on the planet.... a few surprises might be in store