thelerner

You show a picture with no details, no explanation, no particular conflict, and we're supposed to immediately understand its a picture of horrendous civil war because... they're black people in the picture?? Seems a bit prejudiced. Happiest nation on Earth?? I didn't mention that, from the picture you don't know what's going on and the assumption one group is happier then another seems filled with materialist assumptions.

Hmmn, in one picture I see 100's of people in the other 4. Truthfully I don't know if those 4 are happier then the 100's above. Yes they're carrying large colorful bundles but that could be for a festival or positive event. Those 4 waiting on a bullet train in an empty station might be there at an ungodly hour trying to get to a far away job they have to go to each day. I don't know. We don't know, so its easy enough for our prejudices to fill in the gaps. High tech, socioeconomical-success and money may not be the keys to happiness. It has been repeatedly found that while living in poverty does suck, that after a certain point, more stuff, more money has nothing to do with happiness.

Its small but there's a verbal bias here. Concentration tends to denote force/work. If we substitute the word Awareness we can keep the same phenomena but stay away from the forehead creasing stereotype. I tend to agree with some advance people that what most think of as MCO is not. Its a body/nerve mantra that can possibly lead to MCO but its more a drip then fire hose of the full blown 'real' phenomena. note I am certainly at drip level though like any mantra there are benefits there. I think getting more familiar with the points along the route is a must.

Haven't we all had that involuntary leg vibration thing going on? I always thought it was a tension/anxiety thing. The body's reflex to burn off energy. It goes away. Some practices like (Max Christensen's) Kunlun seem almost built on the reflex, harness it. Since its a natural thing, there's not a whole lot to do. Perhaps hard exercise burns off enough energy that the reflex isn't triggered. It tends to go away as you get older, imo.

I'm looking for short playlists suggestions for healing purposes. If someone is angry, depressed, anxious, in pain etc., what list of music songs would help them? I'm looking for specific songs, well thought out and in order, that could help snap people out of negative moods.

Interesting question. Course its not the kind of thing where we have much choice. For instance, if you're lying bleeding after an accident you probably won't ask 'Who's blood is this from?'. It can be possible to donate your own blood early for a planned operation, but it takes much effort and coordination for many people. Some things are so subtle that if your not sensitive you won't notice. Its a drop in a big cup, a pint in a few gallons. Its unlikely to be as dramatic as receiving a transplanted organ which can have psychic residue. From the modern point of view, I've heard giving blood can be very healthy. Its gives the body a chance to get some exercise generating some new fresh liquid vitale.

I find ZZ more boring then tiring. When I do it I like listening to Rawn Clark's Archaeous meditations (at abardoncompanion.com). They're 15 minute long, relax the body, then stack the elements from feet to head, moving from earth up to fire. They make the time go by faster and the feeling of legs as earth, middle region as water, chest as air, head as awareness/fire, improves my standing.

There's some good answers here. A roundabout for part of the problem is meditate with your eyes open. In many traditions seated meditation is done using eyes half closed, focused on a spot a few feet ahead. See if a slight distraction helps. Like listening to a biaural recording, or counting breaths. Lately I've been doing long counts, ie 1 to 100, breath in = 1, out 2, in 3.. less traditional but keeps me focus. After 100 I'll let go of counting and just be there focused on the breath under my nose. Another roundabout, eyes open, work on standing meditation. A good yang, build up energy and strength kind of thing. To make it yangier there are warrior variations with one foot out. Or just go to yoga's Warrior poses. They're called that for a reason. Build up the warrior spirit, even consider a martial art, anything close, instead of losing fear, gain confidence and courage. I've found top Yoga people have excellent and calm warrior spirit. Join a class, maybe meditating in a group will help.

As emperor, I think I'd mostly steal from it. Enough to buy a nice tropical island. Move there and relax. People often get the governments they deserve. No sense messing with the flow of destiny or pushing against a river. But thats just me. Others might be more proactive. p.s. hopefully this won't be used against me in case there is a vote for emperor and i'm in contention. Add on> Ofcourse that's part A. Part B. Would be to hire a smart competent guy to hire an excellent cook, masseur, mixologist and support personnel. Preferably from the 3rd world where'd I get abnormal loyalty and discretion as I do i-legal, i-moral, and use iproducts on my i-land. Then I could fire the smart guy. Part C. Buy Yacht. Nothing ostentatious, but I would like a small helicotoper on top and escape sub on the bottom incase my loyal subjects prove otherwise. Part D. Implement some of the ideas in Save the World thread. I'd rehire the smart competent guy I fired in Part B and put him to work building some new planned communites with government, business and environmentalists working in concert. A house shouldn't look like a house, an office building or factory, shouldn't look like a standard building. I want people to walk outside every day and see something way different then a modern city or town. For examples some homes might be hobbit style, built into hillsides to take advantage of insulation and leave more open spaces. Other areas the homes would built in C shapes, smaller but with open space courtyards in the middle. Few sharp angles, with space and light accented. There'd be a strong tradition from the start on strong community ties. Weekly or monthly celebrations- potlucks, music, dancing. Building projects where everyone in the community shares responsibility, working together for a common good. Building an ethos of strong community. If these proved successful, I'd want to start adapting them around and into cities. Keeping things small. Instead of improving the world from top down. I'd work from the bottom up. Creating small communities that worked together with strong ties. Improving the world from community up.

Great documentary recommended by fellow bum on Bhuddist mountain Hermits. "Amongst White Clouds is a look at the lives of zealot students, gaunt ascetics and wise masters living in isolated hermitages dotting the peaks and valleys of China's Zhongnan Mountain range. The Zhongnan Mountains have been home to recluses since the time of the Yellow Emperor, some five thousand years ago. Many of China's most realized Buddhist masters attained enlightenment in this very range! And now? It is widely thought that this tradition was all but wiped out by the twists and turns of history. Amongst White Clouds shows us this is not the case. One of only a few foreigners to have lived and studied with these hidden sages, Burger reveals to us their tradition, their wisdom, and the hardship and joy of their everyday lives. "

That's not so far from Gabriel Roths method that starts out slowly, getting into one of the 5 Rhythyms, like percussion, staccatto, even stillness.. and once you have a feel for it, letting it take off, so you find your own dance.

how do you get into spontaneous movement? Any particular technique. I've enjoyed Gabriel Roth's material, The Wave. Which gets there through music and dance.

I'm sorry for your horrible experiences, yet I also realize that in the 70's and 80's there were psychologists who used hypnosis to suggest and implant tales of satanic cults into young children's minds. One in particular destroyed many families before his 'technique' was revealed. There have been crazy preachers that have also found everyone in town that wasn't in their church or who disagreed with them was in a Satanic cult.

Not really. Trickle down economics was done by Reagan and followed by a few other Republicans. It was about lowering the top tax rates and creating other tax breaks for the wealthy and hoping there new found wealth would in end up trickling down to the whole economy. Wasn't that wild an idea when top tax rates were over 94%, but these days with a shrinking middle class and wider disparities it makes no sense, imo. I'd also say, don't kid yourself, everyone is greedy. The rich have no monopoly on it. In his first term Obama dropped 100's of billions into the economy with make shift jobs programs. Didn't seem to accomplish a whole lot but got money on the street and into peoples pockets, it never had as much kick starting effect as it could have. Perspective: Keep in mind $3 for each citizen is a billion dollars ish. $30 each is $10 billion, $300 each = $100 billion. Giving each person a million dollars would cost 320 million million or 320,000,000,000,000,000, 320 quadrillion? doesn't matter, it'd create Zimbabwean wall paper. Quantitative Easing 1,2 and 3 (which has ended) bought up Government bonds. Which had the effect of pumping money into the system, probably inflated some commodity prices for a short while, pumped up stock prices too (in truth I don't fully understand it). Made money cheaper for banks. Its helped a bit but like adding paper to start a fire its a short term kind of approach. It generates heat, but you can end up with choking ash. Economists were amazed that Obama's acts didn't trigger more inflation, but much of that is due to timing, ie the lower velocity of money I mentioned above. Timing is everything. Five or six years ago we could have been heading for Greek style monetary apocalypse (& in truth our money debacle triggered a world wide recesion). Instead of austerity we went Keynsian, expanded the money supply and launched 100's of billions of dollars into the economy. Its worked out okay, not great but a whole lot better then many countries.

Course that would devalue money, making it lose value. Dump that much money on people and it'd be rapidly worth nothing. Its done in a slower more roundabout fashion. And its done when the velocity of money is decreasing. What that means is when a bank loans someone money it has the same action as magically increasing the money supply. You borrow a $100,000 from a bank to make a mortgage and you've sort of created that much of that money, poof!, ie the bank has $100,000 and loans that same 100k to a dozen people. Money is created out of nothing. In a recession that loan effect phenomena is greatly reduced. The money supply shrinks so the government is freer to pump new money into the system. When people are borrowing again they can't. In a recession you can hand out money, I think Bush did it that way, not millions but a few thousand and it didn't create mad inflation cause it was done during a recession.

Shaking. Getting your whole body to vibrate, especially if you can position yourself so your heels slightly bounce repeatedly off the floor. It good to start with shaking the hands, getting the wrists and elbows in on it, then bigger til it includes the knees and becomes a bit apelike. In Ki-Aikido kept it at the hand level w/ small movement. In KAP they liked it whole body, big shake. Yes, this isn't meant as a joke, slapping up and down your arms, torso, down your legs is practiced as a warm up in a couple of Qi Gong regimens. Wakes you up and is said to drive the chi into the bones.

Numbers: The financial position of the United States includes assets of at least $269.6 trillion (1576% of GDP) and debts of $145.8 trillion (852% of GDP) to produce a net worth of at least $123.8 trillion (723% of GDP,) [a] as of Q1 2014 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_position_of_the_United_States). Note GDP is about 17.71 Trillion up from 16.77 Trillion in 2013. (*note I'm all numbers here are contestible but found on internet) How much does the US earn/tax a year? (http://www.usgovernmentrevenue.com/total) Total Government Revenue in the United States 1yr Fiscal Year 2015 Federal Direct Revenue $3.2 trillion State Direct Revenue $1.6 trillion Local Direct Reveue $1.2 trillion Total Revenue $6.0 trillion Speaking of debt and perspective, here are 2 charts from Heritage Foundation a very conservative organization What If a Typical Family Spent Money Like the Federal Government? If a median-income family spent and borrowed like the federal government does, it would spend $61,000 despite earning only $52,000. It would pile $9,000 on top of an already massive debt of more than $311,000 like having a mortgage, only without the house. Sonofabitch, the charts won't show up. What they show is in 2013 If a Typical Family Spent Money Like the Federal Government Median Income Spent Like Govmnt On Credit Card Total Debt 2013 $52,000 64,000 12,000 $ 312,000 http://www.heritage.org/multimedia/infographic/2013/08/federalspendingbynumbers2013/page-10-chart-2 2014 $52,000 61,000 9,000 $ 311,000 http://www.heritage.org/federalbudget/typical-family-spent-like-government What's interesting is from 2013 to 2014 debt should be up to 324,000, right. Another $12,000 added on due to overspending. But its not, its lower, by a $1,000 to $311,000. Not great but improvement, and 2015 should be better still, I assume. Why? Because things change. Sometimes they get better. Hard to believe, particularly if one has political bias's. The chart implies federal spending is down from 64k to 61k, about a 5% reduction. It doesn't show it but more people are employed thus paying into the pot. This is shaky math and the metaphor breaks down a bit but if the US has 269 trillion in net assets divided by 340 million people then each person has about $790,000 thus each family has a million or 3 in asset or the Gov family does. Still, is a family with millions in assets, making $52,000 (probably more now) spending $61,000 (not good) with $9,000 of credit card debt and owing another $311,000 in a horrible position? Its not great or even good but its not terrible. Especially the fact the total debt is going down. If they can get the income up, they'll be in good shape. Also let remember inevitable inflation makes long term debt cheaper. Thus $311,000 paid over 30 years is really 200ish thousand because it'll be paid in dollars worth 60 or 70 cents of what our current dollar is.

I'd put it a different, less psychological way. The road to hell (& financial ruin) is built on good intentions. ie 'it was the regulators who relaxed these standards--at the behest of community groups and "progressive" political forces.… For years, rising house prices hid the default problems since quick refinances were possible. But now that house prices have stopped rising, we can clearly see the damage done by relaxed loan standards.. spreading of these looser standards to the prime loan market that vastly increased the availability of credit for mortgages..' <Yup> It seemed win/win at the time. Easier loans to maginalized groups, giving more money (thru refinance) and home ownership to more people, what could go wrong?? answer: A bubble. Once it started growing, easy money spigots should have been turned off, but weren't. A housing bubble formed, a nasty one, since it allowed huge margins on assets in long term loans. Real Estate is one of the legs of the economy and once thats kicked out the whole damn thing collapses. When the bubble broke it effected nearly everyone and devasted the economy for years.

Invented by John Lloyd Wright in 1916, whose father, Frank, designed the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, one of the large buildings that escaped the great Tokyo earthquake. In way or another, everything is connected. In the art of carpentry fewer screws and nail was always a mark of superior craftsmanship. Intricate connective joints were always the mark of superior design. A nature park nearby has life size Lincoln Logs and its great to see the kids cooperate to lift and build with them. .

In Stillness-Movement when sitting in meditation the hands are placed resting against the dan tien, touching the body, palms facing just under the belly button. That simple difference of moving the hands closer to the body seems to have a good effect LDT.

Just wondering if there were any practices you guys thought every should do, or at least be exposed to. I think everyone should have some sort of chanting practice, whether its sanskrit vowels or opera in the shower. There's something about making noise, finding the right vibration, easier in the shower, links the physical and the spiritual, like breathing exercising. I'd also recommend a listening to and finding a favorite Yoga Nidra audio. There are many of them available for free. They're an old practice that taps into quite a few modern theories. An excellent way to get deeply relaxed, into the body asleep, mind awake phenomena. Here's a link to a few downloads http://www.yoganidranetwork.org/downloads

An economist once described the U.S like a very rich family that overspent its income. We have amazing wealth and pretty good productivity. Greece (unfortunately) is like a poor family, mortgaged to the hilt, has pissed off its creditors and has negative income. By most metrics the U.S. economy has been steadily improving for the past 5 or 6 years. The arguments used to predict a crash (ie huge deficits etc.,) were much more persuasive years ago, since then we've been on a consistent uptick, by and large. The crash of 2008-09 was terrible but the economy by most measurements (not all) has come a long way. Personally I don't see recession coming in the near term, not in the next couple years. Wouldn't be surprised by a market correction which is quite over due and would create better buying opportunities. on the third hand, one never knows.

Hi Daniel, Thank you for taking time out to share your insights with our forum. What is your practice schedule like? ie what practices do you do daily and for how long What kind of 'practice' schedule would you recommend for a beginner? Here's a an Americanized question- What technique have you found gives the best bang for the buck? Thank again.

Welcome. A book I found very helpful on relations was Hugh Pranthers 'A Book For Couples' http://www.amazon.com/Book-Couples-Hugh-Prather/dp/1567314252/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8 I found it sensitive, practical and insightful. Seeing that Amazon has 160 copies on sale for 0.01 cents, perhaps others find it .. less valuable.