thelerner

Training outside.. tests you. Its a chance to find out if your meditation depth is more then a buzzing fly or strolling ant deep. Sadly too often, mine is not.

We fear the poisonous snake and we kill the tick that bites us. Human instinct, its there to keep us alive. You can override it, but it'll take time and effort cause your not only fighting instinct but also your cultural conditioning. Thus you probably need to reach deeper then thought level, and into training like NLP (look it up) mental trigger conditioning. I'll add, our friends, who we hang out with, highly influence us. You are responsible for your actions friend or not. It might be wise not to hang out with people who you allow to drag you into unethical situations.

I'm getting this message on top Version 4.2.1 of the IPS Community Suite is now available. Should I hit yes? I'm a little gun shy about hitting yes to upgrades these days. What wonders might happen if I agree?

At home, I'm neutral, hands folded against dan tien feels right.. gathering. Meditating outside I have palms up, on knees, thumb touching first 2 fingers feels open.. soaking in the energy. At my low level mudras are Pavlovian, putting my hands a certain way brings me back to the state I practice in. At higher levels they're much more.

Not the highest rank as far as % going directly to charity, ie they do catalogs and mailings that dilute it but I like this form of charity based on 'teaching to fish' and giving pole, tackle etc., Thus I mention Heifer.org, where you give things like flock of chickens, goats, bees, rabbits, geese, oxen, cows to a needy family. I give a flock of chickens (+) monthly, and the right family hopefully gets eggs, manure, occasional meat and little chickens to live on, trade and share. Probably not perfect, but I hope over the years, the gift multiplies in value. Equal to that is having a good heart, watching for opportunities from opening a door, smiling at a stranger, sharing some chocolates, giving a few bucks to someone in need. Local volunteering. Making lunch bags for the homeless.

I'm thinking you guys know too much about spider kung fu. Sadly, now I'll have to kill you

First rule of Microsoft upgrade club, never be the first to upgrade (esp. version x.0).

I tend to agree with it, but acknowledge 'soon' may not be in the human time frame. In otherwords, generations instead of hours, months or years. I wonder how the statement works against specifics. Pollution, slavery, economic systems..? What do we consider, against the Dao? Things that stifle growth?

I feel a bit kinder and sympathetic towards people. I don't think 80% are idiots. I think most people are busy. IMO, much of the worlds problems stem from automatically considering anyone who disagrees with you is an idiot.

In many arts live-in was literal. In Aikido and many traditional martial arts, there were uchideshi, literally students who lived with the master. Long hours of training and a master servant relationship, ie the master goes to the washroom in the middle of the night, you hear his footsteps from 3 rooms away, awaken, move quickly and are at the toilet to lift his robe. Which some reported was amazing near psychic training. So live in students were carefully chosen, served impeccably and got indepth lessons. Few have the time and discipline to be such live in students. In truth most traditional masters lead quiet lives with little reward beyond there love and sacrifice for there art. Talent is an interesting aspect of training. In many ways its a joy to have a student with dedication and natural talent. There's also pit falls to it, not unusual for them to train, gain then go away before going extremely deep. Many teachers have pointed out dedication outways natural talent. The slow horse, who keeps learning, gets the training down to there bones. Not naturals but as years roll into decades they see and live the art everywhere. Becoming masters in there own right.

Starting fresh is great. We should continually do it. To me, that doesn't excuse us from our responsibility for past misdeeds. To truly close the book, we should make amends. Otherwise we're using the God Forgives Me card as a reason to screw others over and move on as it nothing happened. I don't think we learn anything if we leave messes and pain for others to clean up. We grow by doing the time due to our crime. Otherwise we're not fresh, we're the same as before, escaping from our responsibilities.

Wow? Wait a second. Are you under the opinion Thedaobums members are headed to Indonesia 'to teach' John Chang? If so, please re-read the thread. This is one new guy posting in the Welcome section. That's a little different then your generalization. It's reading with a pretty distorted filter. Re-read the thread and you'll see the majority of posts were 'Don't bother, he doesn't want to be found'. Those are edited out of your consciousness. On the third hand, I agree with the sentiment that unless 6paths is truly an old amazing master that such a quest to 'teach' JC something is shooting a little too high.

I'll take it for granted that you've stopped the meditation. For many such things are fine, but rule of thumb, when things get strange, hot, unpleasant or painful, stop, take a break or stop. As the first reply said, long walks in nature are great, bonus if you do it barefoot. I'll cautiously add, that headaches can have psychosomatic origins. Remembering past headaches or tension brings them on, and the headaches create more tension which makes it worse. Sometimes breaking the cycle can help. Figuring out the time and place of triggers and avoid them or distract yourself. Good luck, feel better.

Yes I couldn't have said it better myself. Though another person has: Tapio Raevaara Helsinki Finland (found on an old martial arts website) Happiness is a skill found within. If a person is happy or unhappy just depending on external circumstances, it's like being adrift on the sea. You say you're only able to find temporary happiness in your family, friend and work... Do you think that will change if you manage to improve the status quo? I don't think so. By definition, happiness brought by external circumstances is circumstantial - thus, temporary. You would still be a slave to the circumstances.

If so, then its the delusion of personal happiness. Not a bad one to have. If not enlightenment, then inner lightening.

Great attitude towards life, Silent Thunder. If I was in a cafe, I'd fake orgasm and say, 'I'll have what he's having'. crap I just deleted the post I was complimenting, cause I'm stupid

Good to know. Thoth you very much.

This kinda feels like the silly pissing contests you see on so many martial art sites. You're both so angry at each other that this is more about trying to get a good zinger in. Its too bad that it developed on such a good thread. How does a 'You!, No You!', impasse end? Usually one of the people stops; states there truth and walks away. Unless you think you'll come to a meeting of the minds.

Thanks, can't wait to listen to them.

Simple is good, especially if you don't have a live teacher. The first forms I learned was from Michael Winn's Fundamental II video. Simple movements that I still do today. I also like Pan Gu qi gong. Simple, but powerful.

What do you use to help with your practice? Anything unusual? For me, its the shower; in two ways. First I take cold showers aka Wim Hof. It's not just that it improves will power, wakefulness and immune system. They are also a stark reminder not to let pleasure/comfort rule me. It gives me a chance to choose how I accept cold water, how I interpret what is just a sensation then see how my interpretation (or clear mind) creates my mental, emotional and physical states. After I turn off the water I stay in the shower. By design they are unique echo chambers. Chanting I get resonance unlike anywhere else. Most cultures have kotodama- sacred sounds. I know a few practices from Shinto, yogic, kabalic, Hermetic; practicing in the shower increases there power. This deeper resonance has power even for normal songs (Opera probably quite intense). Long vowels effect the body in certain locations. I like Rawn Clarks YHVH Hermetic practice because its a chant that has imagery that gets inside the body, then circles around, then alternates inside then outside the body. And it has interesting levels. So that's my unconventional practice tool. The shower. What is yours?

While a live teacher is best, I love the dharma speeches and writings of Ajahn Brahms (one of the hippest monks around). Gentle, humorous, deep yet surprisingly powerful, in that he wants his student to 'get' the siddhis. Tons of free material online, both audio and writings. His books are worthwhile too particularly Mindfulness, Bliss and Beyond. Some of his dharma speeches- http://www.diydharma.org/search/node/ajahn brahm

Just a suggestion here, voidisyinyang- using GIANT FONT is not persuasive and throws off arguments. Perhaps underline or bold would make it seem less like shouting. Cause shouting tends to turn honest debate into angry argument. You both have good points. This is an interesting discussion. For both parties please be mindful to keep the argument civil. It started out charged due to the word Aryan, but it shouldn't stay that way. Thank you. **To a lesser degree I'd add very long multi-paragraph quotes tend to be left unread. Often a synopsis and adding the long quote in smaller font at the bottom works better.

After this comes the same writing and arguments we've seen in the previous 40 pages. It is what it is, a thread that will continual circling and going nowhere. You won't get answers beyond the previous ones. But I encourage you to start new conversations and threads asking similar questions. Maybe not through a Mo Pai lens, but it'd be great to see more threads on the nature of meditation, its techniques and depths. Conversation moving in a line, and not circling back on itself over and over.