thelerner

Let's see how the greatest minds on the Dao Bums do with this one. How do you gain enlightenment? in 10 sentences or less. I'll start. 2 good books, one desert island, 5 years. Boom baby, that was one sentence, beat that.

Yeah, Lam Kam Chuen's is the modern classic on zhan Zhuang. Its a practice that gets pretty diverse; some people 'just stand' others do the formal routine outlined in Lam Kam Chuen's book. Some just practice 'hug the tree' others get martial and do long periods of horse stance. No matter what you do its good to have someone with experience check your posture(s). Undoubtedly there are youtubes with pictures and pointers. As I recall in the book Warriors of Stillness the author relates how sad he was when his Tai Chi teacher found Zhan Zhang and started cutting down time moving for standing practice. Ultimately he found there was amazing power, mental and physical to the practice. My practice is to 'just stand' ie naturally, hands down, listening to Rawn Clark's Archaeous series. They're about 15 minutes and are a hermetic system for how the elements relate to the body. Addon> I notice Miffymog above, has a thread on zhan zhang in his PPD. Undoubtedly pointers and wisdom to be found there- http://www.thedaobums.com/topic/40428-miffymogs-zhan-zhuang-practice/?p=732032

I try to get rid of them (ie kill them off) before they get to plague like problems. Truly the best way is to seal up the house, not leave out food scraps. In the garden don't plant too closely, use complimentary plants that do double duty, raise the garden bed so water flows away without stagnation. With experience and skillful means we can take action before things get out of control. It is possible for the wise to live in this world doing very little harm, because they do so much preparation in advance. They love there garden and know its cycles and processes thus anticipating and countering problems before they begin or seeing such problems early, can take gentler measures to correct them.

I know he already answered but I'm going to jot down these 12 thought provoking sentences from another thread anyway. Those words may not contain the total answer, but I can't help but think that get one on the proper path.

For those picky linguists, a change in verbage How do you achieve enlightenment..?

elegant and to the point.

As a schemer who bats 50/50 here is what I might do. In a conversation tell him you have a problem with.. your own hygiene, bad breath, smelly pits or something and that this Spring you're going to do something about it because its hurting your life. (*note it might help to be more disheveled during this talk) People are staying away from you, giving you funny looks because of it. Plus its just not healthy for your body or mind. You're going to start working on it soon. Out of curiosity, would he like in, you've just bought a boatload of cheap soap and deodorant and you're more then willing to share. This is the- 'It's not you, it's Me', method of easing into difficult land mine conversations. If it doesn't work, in the future you can keep saying what you're doing and tout the benefits. Maybe get some insights into why he's reluctant. Try every few months or so, then give up. His life.

I've heard it was good. Killing germs, hurting virus's. Years ago there was a major MMA tournament, the belt defender was sick but said he was ready because he'd been chewing garlic all day. And he ended up winning. Score one for garlic. I think the big worry is stomach upset. If yours can handle it, then very healthy. Though anything can be overdone.

Neti pots make my mucus run clear a few minutes after I use them. They take some practice but they're cheap, probably a good thing to try. At bedtime, lying on the right side, clears the left (top) nostril and vice versa. Long slow breathing/meditating clears my nostrils. Michael Winn has a chi gung form (Fundamentals 2 I think). One part is a simple sun/moon form. You feel energy going up your right leg, up your right side meridian to just above the shoulder, look there. It goes down the right side, beneath your legs, then up the left foot, left meridian, to just above the shoulder, look there, repeating like the letter U. I find as the energy moves up the left side the left nostril opens and I breath from it. Same with the right. It feels like yogic alternate nostril breathing but more dynamic.

In a similar vein, as I recall Michael Winn, a Healing Tao usa teacher won't wear watches. I believe he said the quartz vibration of modern watches interfered w/ his chi.

Wanted to know if people were interested in trying a group project? As aspect of dream work, notably meeting each other in dreams. Throughout the centuries this has been done purposely and/or accidentally. It has a long history in shamanic and religious lore. Rawn Clark a hermetic teacher talked about having a group that would meet in the astral plane on certain nights, later calling each other to confirm details on what they saw/remembered. Some early websites specifically dealt with such astral meetups, with mixed results. I have little skill in dreamwork, but others here do. I suggest we use a tool, Lilian Eden's guided meditation called Meet Me in The Dream; Lucid Exploration with Friend. It an explanation and hypnotic script, though an hour in length the audio instructions are quite short. It's mostly biaural relaxing sounds with no 'wake up'. Its on youtube and I'll try to include download of it here albeit in a low bit rate. You can grab it on higher bit rate off youtube. Let me know what you think. I suggest people listen to it, then we experiment. Having some nights where we start it together. Perhaps hooking up on Live Chat with a ready set go. Giving it a few tries. I've found early morning to be the best time to practice. Waking up at 4 or 5 am, focusing on intent, then listening and allowing it to send me back to sleep. Whatever protocol, afterwards people record there dreams as well as talking about there general experience. See if we have any 'hits', clear of fuzzy meet ups. I note that some dream groups pick a location. Such as the Pyramids, Stonehenge, Field of Dreams baseball, in a field looking up at the full moon (during full moon, Jan 12th the Wolf moon). If people are interested and or have suggestions we can start next in January. **note I shrank it to 16kps but it was still 7.5 MB. Below is the youtube. There are browser addons that allow making it an mp3 or aac or you can just listen to it on the computer. **keeping this in General area for now. Might move it later to Esoteric or somewhere else later, where it won't be moving up and down so much.

That reminds me of a book I read over 25 years ago in college on psychic research. A psych professor was studying hypnosis and had grad students as faithful guinea pigs, picking those who had a talent to fall easily into deep hypnosis. He taught them to hypnotize not only each other, but set it up so they after going into hypnosis the hypnotized would hypnotize the first person; then lead them on a hypnotic trip. At one point the two student performed this infront of an audience. One hypnotized the other, who then hypnotized them back and began a story about walking through a cave. The professor noticed a one of the people in the audience had there eyes closed and seemed to have been gotten 'caught' in the induction. Keeping the first two under hypnosis the professor asked them questions. Both talked about walking through the cave and both claimed they were being followed but couldn't see who it was. Intriguing because with eyes closed they couldn't have known a person in the audience had fallen into hypnosis. The professor then went to that student, told him to stay in a peaceful state and answer some questions. The third student talked about being in a cave, seeing things the first two had described but being unable to catch up to the group in front. Interesting stuff, the section ended by saying that ultimately the practice freaked out the students and they stopped doing performing it. Most of the rest of the book was on the fuzziness of psychic research at the time. Titillating possibilities but few were reproducible. When I research astral projection years ago, I could never get a simple clear answer to, if you put shuffle a card deck and put a random card face up on a desk, don't look at it, can you see it in the astral and correctly write it down when you awaken. I never got a clear answer, mostly evasion and that things were shifty in the astral. And maybe they are. There are many stories about students meeting up with meditation teachers and gurus in their dreams. Sometimes with shared knowledge other times seemingly only one realizes it, as if the senior's spirit teaches unconsciously. Last tidbit, I was reminded in Awaken's PPD that in taoist tradition the best sleep is deep and dreamless. Still, this is worth while enough skill to try a few nights of the week. And perhaps others trying to reach that deep recharging sleep.

You have a point. I remembering reading how some newly appointed Zen patriarchs had to be temporarily hidden inorder to keep them from being removed or assassinated by fellow monks. Vendettas between various schools that seemingly preach harmony, happened back then, as well as right now. I still cling to the hope that with age, comes maturity. That we remain human, running hot, cold, outraged and loving; and that the best of us gain more perspective and balance as they get on in years. In the OP video one of the monks seems to be raising a whip in threat. He doesn't hit though and the others don't back off. In Judaism Yeshiva's (formal religious schools) have sections taught through argument. Older students are divided into twos, who then debate the texts loudly and vigorously, like lawyers arguing a contentious case.

Great subject. I look forward to reading peoples discussion. I hope people will keep positive and not criticize other systems. We have a bunch of old threads that have gone down in flames due to 'My system is best, yours is deluded' styles of posts. As an experiment in TDB internet communication, I hope this thread stays lively, positive and members don't take this worthy thread in that direction. In other words be respectful and understand other arts have different interpretations. Please tell us what your arts philosophy is, without cutting down anothers. If that isn't possible, then avoid this thread. Threads in the Daoist section should not be ending in silly vendetta like circular pettiness. We're here to learn and discuss.

In my opinion he shouldn't have gotten the Nobel prize, he hadn't done anything to deserve it. The reason he did wasn't for being black, that's ridiculous; if you think that look at the rules, history and make up of the Nobel Foundation. Also, thinking he's Muslim shows a willful bias that probably can't be reasoned with. Though I suppose such people will be shocked when he keeps going to Churches not a Mosques for the rest of his life. Actually they won't be, such 'theorists' will swiftly move on to the next paranoia. back on topic- Rather I believe he got the Nobel Prize for not being Bush. That was the main reason. Bush was seen as triggering a catastrophe in the Middle East and the prize was meant as a not so subtle push for Obama to do and be, the opposite of Bush. If you look at its history, the peace prize is often given in hopes of being a 'carrot' then as a reward for work done. Lastly, as this thread devolves into a platform for old conspiracy theories, the more likely it is to wind up in the pit.

Update: We have 3 people participating and its going well. One early interesting hit of mutual coldness and on Wednesday people feeling they are in the same prescribed room. Nothing too incredible or fully lucid, but, it is just the beginning. And ofcourse it happened to other guys, because I have little talent for this. We're working twice a week, meeting up on live chat at a prescribe time, getting a theme and location then listening to the hypnotic audio mentioned above. The work is tricky, dreams are slippery and fade fast. Its only in the last 15 years the science has accepted that lucid dreaming is possible. Thanks in large part to Stephen LaBerge who set up one of the earliest science based dream labs in Stanford and got graduates students as test oneirauts. Yet indigenous cultures from Tibet to South America have millennia of experience in dream work. Every culture has stories. If their experiences are reproducible then perhaps what is considered legendary or 'fuzzy' psychic skills; connecting in dreams, is possible, and for some, with practice, luck, and grace a learnable skill. One that once accepted, can become wide spread, our generation's 4 minute mile. Rawn Clark, a hermetic teacher mentioned in his blog (no longer up) that he met up with other hermetic 'magicians' in the astral and would talk on the phone afterwards to compare notes. With the internet, there are groups doing this. We have our trio. I'd suggest other people interested do something similar, also in a small group. Plan a brief meetings 2 or 3 times a week to discuss theme and location (real or archetypal) and confer on the results later. Keep it short and simple; be patient, experiment, improve dream recall, and see what happens.

from above- ".. flight AY666 from Finnair took off from Copenhagen today and landed in Helsinki, or as it would appear in its abbreviated form on an airline ticket HEL. And yeah, you better believe flight 666 to HEL was non-stop.." I'm not superstitious enough to make that stop me from getting on the plane, but I'd want a discount. and maybe a few bucks in flight life insurance, just to give me something to chuckle about on the way down.

Teenagers!! ever thus, everywhere.

While an apartment might be cheaper per month, with a house or condo you're slowly buying it. With every payment you gain equity and ultimately ownership in it, whereas 10, 20, 30 years later all you have with a apartment is receipts. That being said, if you're staying short term (<5 or 6 years), or housing prices and mortgage payments are very high, then apartment living might make more sense. Speaking of mortgage payments they still provide a nice deduction on federal taxes. On the con side, with a home comes responsibility, maintenance, taxes, lawn care, they are complicated to sell or could go 'underwater', ie prices fall below what owners paid. Watch your fixed costs. People become modern indentured servants due to misuse of credit. A little here, a little there and soon every dollar you make goes to credit cards for crap you don't need. Beware of nonsense seductive purchasing, it's very important to live beneath your means. Save up until you buy large items without using credit. The easiest way to save money is not to see it; have part of your paycheck go automatically into savings or investments, not your checking account. Speaking of fixed costs, shop around, the internet makes it easy. You can find phone numbers and even scripts that tell you which department and what to say. Once you get to the right person/department something like 'I will be quitting your service.. is there anything you can offer me.' and have numbers for there competition ready. This is a must for service comcast that jack up the price every 6 months unless you play the game, call, threaten to quit and get the same or sometimes lower price. Every few months look at all your utilities and expenses, see what can be reduced. What other alternatives are available.

Cool video above, Foundit. I've seen it before and like it says, it turns our static view of the solar system on its head. I'll have to look in the comment section to see what astronomers think of it. Here is one astronomers thinking more indepth and skeptical report on the video: http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/03/04/vortex_motion_viral_video_showing_sun_s_motion_through_galaxy_is_wrong.html

Reading the article I see the secret diary was recently found by 'researchers'. Almost without doubt it has already snowed two days in a row in the city mentioned, ie in 1816 the terrible year without summer (due to Mount Tambora's volcanic massive eruption), Italy and Europe got it pretty bad that year. Similarly other pictures of Mary have been seen tearing up for centuries(?) I boldly posit that, the true believers have have missed the Apocalypse by over a two centuries! It already happened and we just forgot about it.

As you can see the most common answer is- stop the energy practices. If it weren't so bad I'd say slow it down, but they're right, you should probably stop. I'd add do some grounding exercises, one of the best being long walks in nature. Keep your mind on your feet, literally; feel each step, walk with an empty mind appreciating the sky, the air, the feel of the ground. Sometimes when you have alot of energy in your head (anxious, angry etc.,), hard exercise is good way to get rid of it. Work out long and hard til you're good and sweaty.

and don't forget sunscreen. that reminds me, I was taken to the movie Passengers, I didn't have high hopes for it, but it was good. A genteel scify film about a large space ship on a 120 year voyage to a new system w/ 5,000 passengers in stasis and some awake 90 years early. I kept waiting for aliens, bad buys, stories of dystopia, but didn't get it. Instead human ingenuity and love. Thus thematically like The Martian, no enemies, bad guys or aliens, just every day man, ingeniously surviving in a dangerous world. The 'Hope' genre.

I'll bite. You can say we're always living in the past. Surfing just behind or far behind, the now. Thus we live by memory. It is the imperfect holodeck we inhabit with all our senses. Thus our god.

Monty Python says it best