thelerner

In the same vein, for an easy dual sexual practice- One person, usually the female, on top, and as one breathes in, the other breathes out. Large relaxed belly breaths. There's a nice feeling, maybe some energy exchange as it goes on.

I see some wisdom there, in that you don't want pieces of information to get all 'telephone' game- Spread out and mis-repeated or done in the wrong steps. Maybe its my American conceit, but I don't see anything wrong with using better English words to describe processes to English speakers. Especially in the beginning and intermediate stages. Some people seek the scholarly route and that's great, but for those looking to experience and learn a system, foreign words are less important than the teaching.

Wonder if the problem isn't really a cure. We're closing on 7.8 Billion people in the world. That's alot. If population growth slows or stabilizes I won't shed any tears. An organism grows until it overruns resources or begins to poison its environment. This is a warning shot. We can sustain, even grow slowly but we need to keep our environment clean. In any case if it becomes a real problem, people will demand cleaner air, food and water. Which is not a bad thing. Mother nature kicking us in the balls to wake us up. random thought. I wonder if Space isn't the next frontier, but planned created islands? With cheap energy and good desalination maybe it's not other planets but our own that we'll start colonizing.

meditation to mysticism. that got a little too out there, went for grounding in the martial arts, moved to softer martial arts, back to meditation, swerving every now and then into esoteric energy practices.

Bowing down upright I find myself upside down Must set my soul straight.

I'll second all of these and raise you, Ajahn Brahms who has wonderful books and dharma lectures. Haven't read Midnights w/ Mystics but I've enjoyed Sadghuru's dharma talks. Most authors have indepth articles, interviews and writings available on the internet, so its a good start to see if the author connects with you.

A book I was reading delved into this (Everything is F*CKED by Mark Manson), that we are more comfortable than ever, but also more anxious and depressed. The Paradox of Comfort is going on. Without meaning and real struggle we blow minutiae out of proportions and make ourselves crazy. We are a society aiming at the wrong targets.

I'd like to think so. Course I'd be happy w/ silver or bronze

hopefully they didn't have to drown too many to come up with that statistic I think the authorities should keep their eye one Dr. Grachyov. I was walking near Lake Michigan recently. It holds one quadrillion gallons (though I'm always suspicious of such round numbers). Its said if you drained 400 billion gallons it would go down one inch. https://blog.livnfresh.com/how-many-gallons-does-lake-michigan-have/ Looking at it, is entrancing. Like the sky there's a feeling of infinity in its glittering vastness.

I'm another w/ poor visualization. Yet as an avid reader I get swept up in books. I get swept up in guided meditations and yoga nidras.. its generally not imagery I see, rather its feelings brought on by the words. With practices like microcosmic orbit it may be just as well one can't imagine, it makes you rely on the sensations going on.

Rerun

Not at all. Good point. When my wife complained of my snoring I bought a wedge pillow that keeps your head and shoulders angled. It worked nicely, but wasn't that comfortable. Later I found I got the same affect by placing my pillows in a T, which also raised my head.

I noticed the PIne Pollen tincture I get from The Rural Apothecary says that '.. Before my pollen is tinctured, it goes through a quick freeze to crack the cell walls as well, again allowing more of the essential nutrients to tincture into the alcohol.' which I find interesting. The recipe for the last tincture I made required recommended 190 proof and wanted you to freeze the herb and the Everclear before sealing up a small jar. In Chicago not only was Everclear strangely cheap $17, but the place had a knockoff for $14. Cheap for potential poison. Everclear should not be messed around w/ lightly. It was banned at my college due to deaths. Anyhow I used 6 oz, and when done let about 1 ½ oz of that evaporate, to concentrate it. A dropperful burns pretty nasty beneath the tongue. Next time I wanna experiment w/ ice chips for a few minutes before using. Before the last one, I simply bought cheap herbal tea bags, in this case Ginger/turmeric and left 6 or 7 of them in ½ pint of vodka. Left it there a week or two. Worked nicely. For health and digestion.

Let what you're doing evolve, the qi gong and zhan zhuang. There's a world of variations. When the time is right you'll find a teacher and method.

I wish I was less concerned about my nostrils at night. In bed, I feel one is open, the other side is closed, so I switch the side I'm sleeping on until the other opens. Then go to my back.. til I feel one nostril closing then switch to that side.. The concern tends to work against sleep. A piece of qi gong I do is moon/sun breathing. You make a 'chi ball' breathing up, the hands move up the right side meridian to the shoulder. Breathing out, they move down it, to the lower dan tien, then breathing up the left meridian to the shoulder and repeat. What I like is, moving the hands up the side opens the nostrils, breaths in and out thru each side. So its a non-yoga-ish style of alternate nostril breathing.

dot

Maybe, keep it simple. The problem is giving such people too much of your thoughts and emotions. Reading a whole book about it might be giving them and even more time and effort. Perhaps googling your question but use 'article' instead of 'books'. It might be 2 or 3 simple steps well practiced are better than a whole book. Forgiveness is hard, its good to remember we do it for ourselves, our own well being, not necessarily for the other person. Lots of good articles with methodologies here https://www.google.com/search?q=articles+to+help+with+letting+go+of+the+past+%2C+anger+%2C+%2Cforgiving+people+from+your+past&oq=articles+to+help+with+letting+go+of+the+past+%2C+anger+%2C+%2Cforgiving+people+from+your+past&aqs=chrome..69i57.7729j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Worthy goals. Seen as often in internal martial arts as in purely spiritual practices. I didn't realize Bodri had an ongoing blog. I'll have to look for it.

Welcome to the forum. I'd love to read about what the Sophie Johnson retreat was like.

Like Illumaren I was put out by the set up, but the full story, particularly the the ending was pretty good- a reincarnation love story full of sacrifice, misunderstandings and with a happy ending. I cut some slack to old people and old stories, from a time and age when prejudicii were the norm. The wife/prostitute made it to enlightenment.. the highest, rarest reward; higher than her dedicated husband, and the judgey town folk weren't even close. That's not a bad moral, ie to me, the real meaning is Don't Judge.. which works real well to the Original Post. I spent some time reading the other stories on the blog. Many were quite good. A great way to access the wisdom of Hindu thinking without cracking a scripture. <I'd add in the stories guys get it as bad as woman. ie another one has a proper religious man annoyed at a beggar he sees walking down the street. Poor timing, he dies, despite lifetime of piety, reborn as a beggar. Later becomes king due to an enlightened elephant, but ends life disgraced, throwing himself a fire. M. Shylaman twists all the way >

I'm not qualified to speak about karma, but in big cities, there is certainly a dark side to prostitution where young woman with few resources are conned and/or controlled into it. A bad scene where the money goes to pimps, and the women are abused and at high risk for violence and disease. Its not always that way, and I suspect there'd be less of it, if prostitution was legalized and had some regulations. Question 2, when done right, the prostitute gets money, usually much more than they'd get working 9 to 5 retail jobs. In the best cases the prostitute is a sex worker, giving services and consolations beyond just sex. 3. I suppose it depends on the person and mutual respect in the act. Whether either party sees it as degrading or a professional transaction. If a woman is being controlled, shamed and taken advantage of then the people using her are should be ashamed (&stop) for their part in contributing to it. Similar, imo, to drugs, ie good or bad, some contribute to horrible cartel violence where they're grown and shipped. Thus users bare some responsibility. So.. to me much depends on the individuals, their motives and true consent.

actually looks like there are regular Quaker meetings not too far in Evanston Sundays 10 to 11 <currently done on Zoom>. This Spring, maybe late in Spring when Covid' s a little less I'll get the chance to experience one. fwiw https://www.fgcquaker.org/cloud/evanston-friends-meetinghttps://www.fgcquaker.org/cloud/evanston-friends-meeting

I'd a be a poor advocate since I don't know what they are and I'm not Christian. Though odds are one day, I'll wander into one and see what it's like. Just like I wander into Buddhist temples, Protestant and Catholic Churches. I'm not looking for change, just soaking up the atmosphere and what's useful.

That old toad. Ribbit Got company this winter that old Hare, Rabbit

bump good read.