thelerner

Sexual desire is normal. And enjoyable. With some knowledge and discipline it's a pleasurable part of life. Sex is easy, the consequences of reproduction hard.

I have no familiarity with it beyond Thor and Thor II. Could you quote a few favorite lines?

These days I find the language of propaganda is the language of Outrage. A picture or small clip, somewhat edited, an inflammatory headline that only tells a partial, highly partisan side of the story. All sides seem to use it.

I've read it but don't have a copy these days. Question- is it against the boards policy to quote a few paragraphs every now and then (its a very short book) so we're all 'literally' on the same page? I'm guessing there are many versions out there off copyright. (not that'd want to mess with Sun Tzu ) If so, I'd recommend Woodcarver paste a bit of the section he's thinking of to get more people involved in the discussion.

I'm thinking France for its sense of stye, savoir faire and vivaciousness. I'm Italians for a sense of family connections. Up until the last year or 3, I'd say Greece for being laid back. Speaking of laid back I'd put in a place like St. Lucia, a Caribbean island that hosts a large party each week in the category of doing better. I'll include Key West in the U.S too, while a bit commercial celebrates the sunset each night and has wonderful large carnival free atmosphere afterwards. I give kudo's to Europe and Canada for appreciating a slower pace, being less materialistic, the idea of having less but making it special. What other things do some countries do really well?

Thank you for this. What a great practice for honing awareness.

If a tree falls in the forest and hits a bear pooping in the woods.. does it make a sound? The answer is Yes. The tree, bear and poop all make a sound. Likewise you can consider Bodhidharma Buddhist. And a very practical one at that. imqo. in my quirky opinion.

Two thoughts: One- Young is relative. Maybe you'll be a youngish 40 year old, more established and ready. Two- as my grandmother once said, 'If the iching told you to jump off a bridge would you?' actually she may have talking about my friend, still, same principle applies. Dumb advice is dumb no matter who gives it. If you follow the iching religiously then be open, but don't seek it out, or actively pursue it, ie let fate run its course.

I sometimes think of meditation as a reset switch. Meditate for awhile and you end up relaxed, mind clear. With the Secret Smile you end up mind, body and energy systems moving beyond 'reset' into positive mode.. feeling good; literally feeling relaxed, confident, laughingly happy, loving and with a bit of sexual energy. As the doc said energy moves best through a happy body. Working with internal energy can have pitfalls of falling into depression or paranoia. This counter acts that. I've gotten out of the habit but at my best I was doing it when ever I was in the washroom and doing it often, even an abbreviated version led to feeling positive and stronger.

I collect wheaties, pre 1959 cents, a few weeks ago I got a 1936 penny for change. I thought about it for a few days and considered an omen, that I should take some profits in the market, walk a way a bit. So I did. Its worked out okay. Thing is, on the face of it, its illogical to see omens at all. There's no way getting a penny of a certain date should mean anything at all. Yet 1936 was deep into the depression. Getting old coins is increasing rare (recently got a silver quarter as change). Two rarities combine, so..? practically everything that happens is unlikely, at least in combination. What do I think? I'm uncertain, but one way to think is that I wanted to leave the market and that getting the coin gives me a reason to. Thus no omen, but a permission to do something that was percolating in the back of my mind. I haven't made up my mind about the nature of reality. I hope its not so mechanically tic toc, yet that tends to be my default. Still even if it was there are layers to the mind, subtleties grasped that the conscious mind misses. Tapping into that is its own kind of power.

One thing I've observed is some people can't stay long term on a vegetarian diet. They get weak and eating some meat brings back better health. I have a good friend who was a militant vegetarian in high school experienced this when he hit his late 40's got hit with severe allergies, skin conditions and lethargy. He bounced back when he reintroduced meat to his diet. Hardcores will deny it until there vitality fades and they even die. Sad because a serving of fish once or twice a week would be all it takes to renew there health. Its by no means a blanket statement, 10's (100's?) of millions of people live happily vegetarian style, but its doesn't work for everyone. I also believe the opposite is true, swinging more towards vegetarian would be far healthier for most of us.

Hmmn, is the OP a pre-amble to the movie Seven or Silence of the Lambs? Feels like a free flowing stream of rationalizations. Particularly for things one will regret. When somewhat psychotic ie '..you truly experience these states you will feel that no humanly created law can bind you any longer.' very importantly police can still arrest and jails can still bind you, caging you in a small toilet room for decades. Thus you should carefully watch ones behavior when one is in such moods. or perhaps I'm missing some therapeutic value here, akin to know the mind of a serial killer to help them?

This is just spit balling so take it for whats its worth, ie someone with little experience with pooling. anyway.. Chi and blood tend to go where you put your attention. If its not a medical condition there's a chance you've set up a feedback loop that you keep going by focusing on that spot. So, as we say in the mob business, forgetaboutit. Go for some long walks, do some relaxed sitting, watch a good funny movie that gets you laughing. Relax and ground. Strategy 2, Heeeiee is the throat sound. When you make it you can feel the focus and vibration in the throat. Haaah is the heart sound moving lower, further down is Hohoo accenting Oh is belly sound- lower dantien, which fades into Oooo a bit lower. You breath out making the sound quietly and gently, feeling the vibration. You can try starting with the throat sound heeeiee, moving down to heart's aHaaahh, moving down to HoHoooo, moving down to ooooo. Feel the energy and your focus moving down. Do it gently. I find this practice, outlined in Ecstatic Kaballah and from a much older source, very soothing. Its power seems greater when done in the shower where you have some good echoing acoustics to work with. Plus the falling water helps the energy move down. Play around with hot as well cold water. See what works. Good luck, take it easy. be sensitive if what i suggested isn't working drop it immediately, and know these things pass.

Its as if its trying to dumb me down, take away my free time, cripple my body through to much sitting and stifle my creativity through dumb cat memes.

here on a discussion forum, yes, great. But when visiting someone else's place of worship, not so much; unless its a public forum and they ask your opinion. Entering another's Church is like being a guest in a person's house. Why go out of ones way to disrespect there views? When it comes to religion, one shouldn't expect perfect (or much) rationality or historic accuracy. Pointing out others religious foibles is easy. Most religions seem crazy and illogical to outsiders. Even within the same religion different branches seem ludicrous. Its the cause of so much violence and strife. The answer to me is to nod, go my own way, rub mud on my tummy and howl at the moon.

True, arguing and debating are central to Jewish culture since forever. Most (all?) of the prophets were pretty rebellious characters. Hardcore study often means dividing into twos and arguing over every biblical point, often tearing down biblical figures. Though its balanced by some concentration on what's good too. back on point. Focus is everything. Why argue with people in there holy sanctuaries? Why be flabbergasted a Catholic in a cathedral states Christ is Catholic? Neither should you walk into Buddhists temples and insult there statues and lecture them. Seems like a wasted trip, learning nothing and spreading ill will. If angry and wanting to fight, join a dojo. They are excellent places to learn respect. I'm not Christian but when I travel I'll go into Churches, look around, appreciate the art, soak up some of the wah of the place, see what I can learn. Part of my kids's religious education was going to Mosque, cathedrals and churches and learning about other religions from there respective pastors. Our temple sponsors it, and the first rule is Be Respectful. It goes a long way. Without it, the ego swells.

Posted Today, 03:41 PM Karl, on 28 Jul 2015 - 15:30, said: Hamlet: that makes sense 'cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war' and all that good stuff uttered by the Klingon. No Way. Julius Caesar wasn't Klingon. <he was Roman or maybe Romulan>

I look forward to you input .

A long time ago I took some supplement, Pine..something.. not pine pollen but some kind of pine extract pill that was reputedly a tonic especially good for circulation. I was teaching childrens classes in Aikido at the time and had a very talented group of Phillippino's. There were 5 of them cousins and brothers, great bunch, respectful and dedicated. The thing I did that wowed them the most probably wasn't my martial prowess but my ability to make snow balls- w/ my bare hands! Growing up in a snowless place, they were amazed I could stick my bare hands into freezing white stuff repeatedly and make rock solid balls. I think the pine extract helped w/ the stunt. Being young and willing to risk minor frost bite to impress youngsters also did. I'm sure I was to them, what Wim Hof is to me.

Before picking and choosing to interpret his 'prophecy' as global warming you'd have to take into account (and believe) everything he said. So we'd want to see Elijah rising from the dead and probably some messiah action too. Also we'd have to discount the more obvious connection that the hot oven as a metaphor for hell.

Again, I think you might be more accurate to say communism not socialism, since people here, especially the Europeans see socialism as modern Western Europe style government, not as the Russian and Chinese system you tend to aim for. I think religion tends to be born of rebel mystics, which quickly becomes dogmatic and a bit stale as they organize, of necessity splits into subgroups based on interpretations and like any revolutionary system, generally moves towards reform as it ages, though extremist groups ebb and flow, often using religion as cover for power and thievery. Religion can be made (or perverted) into what ever tool the people want.

I'd like to thank Dr. Ingram and Seeker of Wisdom for creating this interview. I was looking over a book an old book I had on Jewish meditation (by Aryeh Kaplan) and he mentioned flame meditation, in this case using an olive oil lamp because it had a greenish flame in it. Perhaps it's synchronicity saying I should get a wick and burn some oil. Just so I have an easy record of it in one place here is more on the Why of flame meditation. from firekasina.org: Oochdd: So probably this is a stupid question, but maybe someone can clear this up for me: but what is the goal here? .. Does it have some positive effect on daily life? Ans: Florian The goal was to get into jhana states by concentrating on the visual field or parts of it, like the afterimage and the resulting nimitta; to have a lot of fun; to see what a mind which is still and directed and focused over longish periods of time can do; to explore intent, magick, siddhis / iddhi, visions, weird sensory expansion/augmentation in the afterglow of such concentration states; to observe the "three doors" type experiences just before fruitions in high detail in good, solid concentration states, and so on; to have good dharma companionship and eat nice food and enjoy the atmosphere of spending two weeks in a medieval tower with dangerous stairs and low-hanging rock ceilings Does it do anything otherwise? Well, yes, even if the focus was on samatha, we all found we could not help powering the insight cycles, experience fruitions, explore the ñanas in high detail, including the dukkha ñanas, and dealing with quite a bit of "content" along the way. We all left behind loved ones for these two weeks, we all found various degrees of previously unconscious stuff surfacing, and so on. Does it have some positive effect on daily life? Speaking for me, these were very restful, healing, insightful weeks. Bathing the mind for 12+ hours a day in steady focus did a lot for me. There is something to not yanking the mind around all the time, focus on this, consider that, fend that off, open to this... simply staring at a candle or the back of my eyelids allowed some irritated spots to heal, I think. I returned to work the day after I got back, and while it was certainly a bit jarring, it was nowhere as bad as I had imagined it would be, and it seems to keep on giving in some way (now on day three of back to work). I'll try to expand on these in a future blog post at the site Daniel set up for this, referenced in his initial post. Cheers, Florian Ans: Daniel Ingram: The visual kasinas have many benefits, some of which were noted by Florian above. I would add that the visuals add a great appreciation for things about the jhanas, as their widths of attention, their phase aspects, their frequency predispositions, and the like are greatly clarified when you can see it before you like a diagram. It similarly vastly increases the ability to phenemonologize well. As Duncan said, he could now see clearly all of the stuff about frequencies and the patterns of attention in the jhanas that he had previously wondered how in the world I could know. Things about the Three Doors similarly became much clearer to those there. When playing around with kasinas in high dose, one learns a ton about attention, about its regulation and control, about what it does, now it interacts with phenomena, and how this varies in various phases of practice. It is knowledge that is hard to gain in that same clearly defined way elsewhere. They also help develop strengths of concentration that objects like the breath often don't, as the visuals give such immediate feedback on how concentration is doing in that second, sort of like what they are trying to do with million-dollar fMRIs and $80,000 EEGs but costing about a dollar for a candle or free by just using the LED on the camera of your phone or a video of a candle on your computer screen (thought it doesn't get quite the same retinal burn to produce a good learning sign.) We actually used 30x300mm German church altar candles that burned very well and cleanly, and, if you do this, I recommend similarly good candles, as they make a difference in not having to deal with their maintenance, dripping, guttering, and the like. 30mm (1.25in) is a nice width for this, neither causing the flame to crater into a valley with tall waxy sides nor dripping due to overflowing the insufficient edges. High-dose kasinas often produce siddis (powers), and siddis teach you lots of things about yourself and the experiential world and are just darn interesting. Plenty of people watch fantasy movies and yet few say, "Why would anyone watch fantasy movies?", and yet you somehow have to explain the fun it is to play with siddis to people: very odd, that. One also gets to experience many strange ways of seeing things. Example: there is a stage up in the sequence where the visuals exhibit what we began to call pseudo-paralax, meaning that the distant parts stay relatively anchored when you move your head side to side, as if they were fixed things in the room, but the closer parts move with your head in a way that is graded by the closeness to you, such that you get this really strange thing that is like paralax but not quite the same as typical visuals. There can also be this marked appreciation of color in all its rich shades and variants that applies not only to the images produced during the practice but also after you open your eyes, such that the colors of the ordinary world seem enhanced and the nuanced depths of shade and tone one can suddenly perceive are much more than they were before. This effect fades, but I can still feel something of that lingering a few days after I stopped and I really like it. It enhances the joy of simply seeing things. The jhanas also have their own rewards: the deep restful states, the bliss, the rapture, the peace and the like are skillful, healing, very deeply enjoyable, and also allow one to enter into territory regarding one's stuff that is hard do to in less refined states. Just as one notices that one may have markedly reduced or totally absent physical pain from sitting while in jhana, which often contrasts sharply to the pain from sitting just minutes before the jhana set in, just so emotional issues perceived in jhana are much easier to handle. It is like getting a free pass to see what one is feeling and thinking about old wounds and current issues while not having so much pain around them, like becoming a much more objective and yet attentive party to them, and this allows degrees of clarity and wisdom to arise that it is much harder to find in non-jhanic states. The sense of mastery that one acquires as one progresses deeper and deeper into the sequences of presenting stages and visuals with more competence and skill as the practice progresses is very rewarding. You can clearly see the fruits of your labors exactly as the various phases become more clear and more accessible and you learn how to progress to the next phase of the visuals. It is hard to get that same sense of clear progress using other non-visual objects. In that same way, as the stages are so clear, one gets immediate feedback on one's attentional experiments in how to progress, and that greatly increases the meta-skill of how to figure out how to improve attention in deeper and deeper states, which is of such value to the competent meditator. There are probably more benefits, but that is a good start. Practice well, Daniel Also- Red dot initially is first jhana. When it gets the rapidly spinning gold inner parts that change with the phase of the breath, that is 2nd jhana. When you get the black/dark larger area and the complex somewhat 3D lines around it, that is 3rd jhana. When you get to the very nicely 3D images doing their own thing filling the visual field and perhaps the whole experience field, that is 4th jhana. There are other fine points and pathways, but that is the basics. How much time we stared at the flame totally varied. Initially, most of us looked at it fairly often. In general, we would look at the flame for a minute or two, get the retinal burn, close our eyes, see the red dot, it would get the spinning yellow stuff, then it would fade, move off to the side, and finally vanish, and we would open our eyes and do it again a few minutes later. Thus, we were looking it maybe 10-30% of the time with rapid cycles. However, fairly rapidly, we began to push farther out into the murk, that which happens when the black/dark area appears around the place where the red dot was with the vague colors and complex but faint patterns. This takes time, and exactly when to stop is hard to determine. So, within a day or so, I am estimating, our ratio of open to closed eyes shifted farther to closed eyes, and our cycles got longer. This is something you have to determine for yourself when you are doing it. I have no perfect answers. So long as you are paying really good attention to the visuals, more candle time with more rapid cycles is ok, but eventually you need to get good at going out past the red dot into the wider, more complex murk, as out past that murk is the high-def 3D stuff, traveling, the molten gold, the photo-realistic images, and all of that.

I'm usually a big fan of homeostasis but VonKrankenhaus's (&Orion) point is a good one. You don't want to gain a benefit at the cost of a crash when you stop. You don't want a new herb to become a crutch that knocks you lower when you stop taking it. As always I'm wondering if there's an intelligent sweet spot. The best method of 'cycling'. It might be the only way to find it is self experimenting. I follow some people in the Self Hacking movement who do so many blood tests on themselves they wear special monitors. I'm not that determined and its easy to fool oneself and let the placebo effects overly influence you.

Took a short cut and ordered some tincture. Should be here in a few days. I'm older, 51 and probably could use a lift. Still.. wondering if there were any paths to avoiding homeostasis. Maybe a few days on, few days off kind of thing or something similar playing with dosages. I assume I'll try a 1/2 (or 1/4?) dropper once or twice a day to begin. Maybe put it under the tongue so some of it get into the blood stream without formal acidic digestion. Often less is more. Matter of fact with some things just a few drops in a glass of water can have an effect. Whatcha all think? <if i like it, i'll make the next batch. ordered from -https://www.etsy.com/listing/207403154/4-oz-wild-harvested-pine-pollen-tincture?ref=shop_home_active_4 (had a coupon and I liked the write up, how they waited 3 months and did a flash icying(??). >

Good stuff, lets see how they copy and print- from http://www.unfetteredmind.org/includes/sixwords.pdf Six Words of Advice six essential key points by Tilopa ཏི་ལོ་པ་ translated by Ken McLeod Don’t recall- -Let go of what has passed Don’t imagine- -Let go of what may come Don’t think- -Let go of what is happening now Don’t examine- -Don’t try to figure anything out Don’t control- -Don’t try to make anything happen Rest- -Relax, right now, and rest This advice consists of only six words in Tibetan. The translation to the left in bold letters was developed to capture its brevity and directness. Some people prefer the translation to the right.