thelerner

That sounds really really adult. It may be more maturity then we can handle.. or maybe not. Try politeness, once, twice, then rat'em out..?? maybe something like.. a person gets enough complaints about abusing the chatroom and they get booted out for a day or three. get a warning, then are booted out for a while? I'd still rather have everyone act like adults. Leave if you don't like the language or ask them politely to stop or go to Private Chat.. Act like polite adults and there should be no problem. on the third hand. There is a chance that this won't be much a problem at all. That we're making a mountain out of mole hill, that abuse is rare and can be handled easily with a warning or two.

It's usually a bad idea to compare the best of one world to the worst of another. You can find beautiful music and great people here and now, if you look. They're there in every culture. I'm sure St. Gemma was a lovely caring devoted person but she died young, suffered from poor health, including spinal meningitis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemma_Galgani There are undoubtedly people around like her today, ecstatic mystics, and they probably live longer by taking advantage of science, technology and modern medicine. These would have saved her siblings from early death from things like tuberculosis. To me they're too important to dismiss out of hand.

Good point, but I'm a little more optimistic, perhaps because I'm thinking smaller then 'survival of the species'. I think what turns me towards people are neutral and have great potential for good, is the hard work and sacrifice done every day for their family, the love and compassion shown to children. It's so common we tend to miss it. Course neutral can be turned the other way too. We are creatures of many wants and the world can be a cold place. Yet where we've flourished the most, is where there are strong bonds of love and tolerance.

** usual disclaimer, no expert, often wrong but well meaning. Others might be circling this conclusion, but let me say it straight out- You may want to consider staying away from meditation and especially from energy type practices for a while, like a year. Forget about the concept of energy and dan tiens and concentrate on a healthy life for a while. Cause it sounds to me like you're very energy sensitive. For now, I'd say your job is to 'normalize' get your body and nerves back to there default state. Sometimes, doing nothing is the fastest way to get there. At some point you can find a good teacher, get proper feedback and move forward, but for now, focus on healthy things in your life. Esoteric cultivation will always be here. There's no rush. Pushing it, when you're off balance will just move you backwards.

Don't we all consider ourselves witty good old boys and gals?? Problem is one persons playful banter is others discomfort and another's outrage. We'll never moderate Chat in real time. I was mildly discomfortable, and as an adult I left. No harm, no foul. Knowing myself at another time, I might have caught the spirit and joined in. I think the onus was on me to either leave gracefully or ask them to 'get a room (private chat)'. I have a harder time when aspects of the board are monopolized. I can stand a little bit of most anything, its when we get a dozen repetitive posts, or single minded groups monopolizing for hours that I think its a problem. Not when its occasional.

interesting.. I was just in Chat, wanting to check if private rooms were available. I found you can create 1 on 1 private chats, but not separate group areas. There were two others on Chat, they got into sexual innuendo kind of quickly, which made me bow out. That may be the nature of chat. You go with the flow or you bow out. There's a third option, I could have asked them to go Private Chat but bowing out, leaving, seemed my best least obtrusive option though.

I wonder if a group doing something specific could immediately create there own 'subchat' room, that others would have to pick, once they entered chat? That may be possible, and good etiquette so newcomer's aren't automatically thrown into something they don't want.

Good to know. Were people against the Teacher Lecture, Socratic conversation led chat or Directed chat in general?

as FreeThinker said, counting breaths from 1 to 10, then repeat is widely taught in a few traditions. Seems simple, but long term the mind wanders one miscounts. Glenn Morris would have a person go back to 1 if thoughts intruded on the count, making it very hard indeed. I'll count my breaths 1 to 100. It forces me to sit past boredom into calm, then I can forget the count and just be there.

I think you'll fit in well here. You may want to add martial art to your todo list. The physical nature and exertion coupled with honing your awareness might be a perfect match for where you're at now. Get you into shape and maybe put you in a spot where you'll interact with a girl or two. Most of my martial career has been in Aikido, but I've found the actual art is less important then the feeling you get from the dojo itself. Most will allow you to try a free class or two.

I'm a better note taker and researcher then Understanderer. I took some pretty good, incisive notes from different sources and edited them down a while back. Here's the link: http://www.thedaobums.com/topic/37570-golden-flower-thingamabobs/?p=607715 Worth looking at if you're interested in GF. I should probably go back and take a gander, so my queries can run deeper then, it's alot of looking at the nose. from the section concerning the nose: (note this source is from Osha, a very controversial teacher, not one I generally recommend but I found this writing to be clearer and more direct then most) '..THE SECRET OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER IS an alchemical process. These are the words of those who have known. The Golden Flower blooms in you when you are utterly empty. It is a flower in the void. In the lake of the void the golden lotus blooms. ONE SHOULD LOOK AT THE TIP OF ONE’S NOSE. Now the practical point of the whole sutra – very simple, but try to understand it correctly, because mind wants to distort even simple things. Mind is a distorting mechanism. Why? – because this helps, it brings you in line with the third eye. When both your eyes are fixed on the tip of the nose it does many things. The basic is that your third eye is exactly in line with the tip of the nose – just a few inches above, but in the same line. And once you are in the line of the third eye, the attraction of the third eye, the pull, the magnetism, of the third eye is so great that if you have fallen in line with it you will be pulled even against yourself. You just have to be exactly in line with it so that the attraction, the gravitation, of the third eye starts functioning. Once you are exactly in line with it there will be no need to make any effort. Suddenly you will find the gestalt has changed, because the two eyes create the duality of the world and thought, and the single eye between the two eyes creates the gaps. This is a simple method of changing the gestalt. ONE SHOULD LOOK AT THE TIP OF ONE’S NOSE. BUT THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT ONE SHOULD FASTEN ONE’S THOUGHTS TO THE TIP OF THE NOSE. That’s how the mind can distort it. The mind can say, ’Okay, now look at the tip of the nose. Think of the tip of the nose, concentrate on it.’ If you concentrate too much on the tip of the nose you will miss the point, because you have to be there at the tip of the nose but very relaxed so that the third eye can pull you. If you are too concentrated on the tip of the nose, rooted, focused, fixed there, your third eye will not be able to pull you in, because your third eye has never functioned before. Its pull cannot be very great in the beginning. Slowly slowly it grows more and more. Once it starts functioning and the dust that has gathered around it disappears with use, and the mechanism is humming well, then even if you are fixed on the tip of the nose you will be pulled in. But not in the beginning. You have to be very very light, not a burden, without any stress and strain. You have to be simply there, present, in a kind of let-go. WHILE THE EYES ARE LOOKING AT THE TIP OF THE NOSE, THE THOUGHTS SHOULD BE CONCENTRATED ON THE YELLOW MIDDLE. So don’t concentrate on the tip of the nose or – the second trick the mind can play... The Master is simply trying to make you alert to all the possibilities, to all the games that the mind is capable of. First it will say, ’Okay, so the Master says, ”Concentrate on the tip of the nose.”’ He is not saying, ’Concentrate on the tip of the nose,’ he is simply saying ’Look. Just a very light, effortless look.’ Or the mind can say, ’Okay, if you are just looking at the tip of the nose, then concentrate on the third eye.’ Mind is always in favour of concentration because mind feeds on concentration, lives on concentration. Hence in your schools, colleges, universities, concentration is taught not meditation, because they are all factories for creating the mind; they manufacture the mind. WHEREVER THE EYE LOOKS, THE HEART IS DIRECTED ALSO. HOW CAN IT BE DIRECTED AT THE SAME TIME UPWARD AND DOWNWARD? And then the mind can say, ’Look, this is impossible, the demand is illogical. How can you look in two directions simultaneously, at the tip of the nose and at the third eye? It is not possible, it cannot be done. Don’t be foolish! ’And another function of looking very lightly at the tip of the nose is this: that it doesn’t allow you to open your eyes wide. If you open your eyes wide the whole world becomes available. And there are a thousand and one distractions. If the eyes are completely closed you fall into a kind of reverie, you start dreaming; you become feminine energy, yin. To avoid both just look at the tip of the nose – a simple device, but the result is almost magical. And this is not only so with the Taoists, Buddhists know it, Hindus know it. Down the ages all the meditators have somehow stumbled upon the fact that if your eyes are just half open, in a very miraculous way you escape two pitfalls. One is being distracted by the outside world, the other is being distracted by the inside dream world. You remain exactly on the boundary of the inner and the outer. And that’s the point: to be on the boundary of the inner and the outer means you are neither male nor female in that moment. Your vision is free of duality; your vision has transcended the division in you. Only when you are beyond the division in you do you fall into the line of the magnetic field of the third eye. That is very important to remember: you are not to pull the light in, you are not to force the light in. If the window is open, the light comes in of its own accord. If the door is open, the light floods in. You need not bring it in, you need not push it in, you need not drag it in. And how can you drag light in? How can you push light in? All that is needed is that you should be open and vulnerable to it. And that’s exactly what happens when you are looking at the tip of the nose. Just looking, without any concentration, just looking, without any heaviness in it, without any strain in it, suddenly the window of the third eye opens and the light starts streaming in. The light that has always been going out starts coming in too, and the circle is complete. And this circle makes a man perfect. And this circle makes a man utterly restful, relaxed. This circle makes a man whole and holy. He is no more divided. LOOKING AT THE TIP OF THE NOSE SERVES ONLY AS THE BEGINNING OF THE INNER CONCENTRATION, SO THAT THE EYES ARE BROUGHT INTO THE RIGHT DIRECTION FOR LOOKING, AND THEN ARE HELD TO THE GUIDE-LINE: AFTER THAT, ONE CAN LET IT BE. ONE LOOKS WITH BOTH EYES AT THE TIP OF THE NOSE... Remember, you have to look with both eyes at the tip of the nose so that at the tip of the nose your two eyes lose their duality. So, on the tip of the nose the light that is streaming out from your eyes becomes one; it falls on a single point. Where your two eyes meet, that is the place where the window opens. And then all is well. Then let it be, then simply enjoy, then simply celebrate, delight, rejoice. Then nothing has to be done. And remember, not concentrating but just remaining alert, just a slight alertness. Look at the tip of the nose and remain slightly alert to the third eye. In fact, the moment you look at the tip of the nose you will become alert to the third eye, because that is the other pole of the nose. One pole, the outer pole, is the tip, the end; the other end of the nose is joined with the third eye. The moment you become aware of the tip you will suddenly become aware of the other end too. But just remain aware, effortlessly aware.'

I'd mention Zhan Zhuang, ie standing meditation. Nice way to increase energy and get some meditation in. It can be as simple as just standing or 'hugging' the tree. If a person is really tired and can't do a lot of movement, I'd suggest Pan Gu, very simple energetic form.

I was hoping to see examples of things more jewelry oriented or medicine bag'ish.

Hope this isn't too tangent. Is it too much of a simplification to say the bulk of the Golden Flower is keeping a quiet mind and concentrating your eyes on the tip of the nose?

Speaking of Old School. I hadn't looked at this for a long time, but it bears reminding myself and maybe others: TheDaoBums' Three Foundations: Eclectic, Egalitarian, Civil.http://www.thedaobums.com/topic/31825-thedaobums-three-foundations-eclectic-egalitarian-civil/?p=480483

Well.. there's no school like old school. I've been on this forum a long time. We used to have to pause in order to pour more electrons onto these computational devices. I'd like to thank the mods for their trust and thank the whole board for being here; part of this experiment in community that is the Dao Bums. Its given me a chance to learn, discuss and be creative. I'd rather be with you guys then the best of people on the net. Undoubtedly the first person I'll moderate is myself. The Dao says be natural, the Bums says don't worry so much. Here's to the Dao Bums.

I believe he was writing that with the French revolution in mind. Which turned bloody awfully fast. At the time there wasn't much practical history on Democracy. We've had another 152 years of data and democracies have imo, proven themselves better then dictatorship/monarchs. John Adam's wasn't the sanest president we've ever had, he also rallied against and outlawed Free Speech with the Sedition Act of 1798.

Glad to have you here. I look forward to learning about your studies. Since you mention Longevity, we should probably start up a new thread on Daoism and Longevity in the Daoism section soon. Some of us got our starts reading a book by Daniel Reid called 'The Tao of Health, Sex and Longevity'. Who considered Longevity one of the fruits on the tree of Taoism. Not a bad book, but perhaps a little dated.

or holding it (pee) in with the minimum of tension..?

Not even reading the last page or two but focusing on the OP and title. Shit happens. One should always do one's best. Work hard, look for opportunities, but shit absolutely happens and sometimes you don't have bootstraps to pull yourself up with. Life and one's situation can be overwhelming. For many in poverty, there are plenty of road blocks and no easy solutions. A little humility helps, a bit of- 'There but for the grace of God, go I', stuff. Because even icons of self sufficiency like Ayn Rand end up getting public assistance when medical bills overwhelm them. And such could happen to us. So, humility ends up keeping us from hypocrisy and makes us better human beings. Better able to take the shit and ask for help, when it happens to us.

To supplement meditation, which can be kinda boring, let me point you to an interesting site. abardoncompanion.com Rawn Clark has a couple of free practices there that run pretty deep, lots of hidden depth there.. Like the Archaeous series http://abardoncompanion.com/csm/contents.html, 9 levels that will take a long time and give you some interesting insights. On the same page is his YHVH, which at first seems like chant, but later on is a canticle that delves into hermetic magic and some healing techniques. Not everyones cup of tea, but things like that, which will take years to master, are out there, waiting.

I think the quiet mind (and Karl may be right, its not perfectly quiet, rather stepping away from conversations with yourself; being the back seat driver that reads every sign post and comments on every sight), is our birthright and always available to us. We don't need to wait, days or months for it. It is always there at our center, accessible. We sell that birthright, give away our peace, way too cheaply, clinging to nonsense that'll change and fade. We need to get a sense of our quiet mind, and a path back to it. Maybe its different for everyone. For some a piece of classic music, or heavy metal. For others a walk in the park, or remembering such. For others just the ability to realize they're not under attack right now, until that happens, they can relax and be at peace. Cause right right now, things are fine, most likely. I should add its one of those things that is simple but not easy. When our buttons are pushed for some ungodly reason we're more likely to repeatedly poke ourselves with emotional needles, then go towards our inner peace.

I've been making talismans in my imagination during self hypnosis..!? I turned this youtube video into an mp3. Like most of Jason Stephenson's work, it is very well done-

When the going gets crazy.. take a vacation. You can't make a smart decision in the middle of a maelstrom. You're not this woman's husband, or keeper. You are in a relationship that is tearing you apart. So take a break, so you can get perspective. Maybe 2 weeks, maybe a month. In that time, focus on your life, your health, your well being. Makes plans, stay busy. See how that feels, and at the end, make your decisions with a new sense of perspective. Preferably one with limits. We're not Jesus or magicians, we can't live another's persons life. We can provide some support but we can't save them, they have to do that themselves. When people are in a powerful downward spiral we can throw a lifeline from a distance but to wade in is to let ourselves drown along with them.

Thinking mind is best as a tool. When you have problems, use it to solve them, now. Think, deduce, chew on it and when you're done, let it go.. get back to quiet mind. re-reading the OP, I'd add, when your sad, its okay to be sad. Its okay to be angry, just control your actions and decisions then. To me, such feelings, don't need 'thinking', I just am and always the emotions settle down. Unless I think and use memory to prod myself, keep repeating why I'm mad or sad. From there imagine scenario's that'll make me angrier and/or more loss. In that case I'm indulging in the worst of the thinking mind. Better to just be sad or mad, go through the process then if needed use that thinking mind to work on something solution oriented.