thelerner

Goats rule. My sensei used to say, don't be like a lion. There are jackals who'd get street creds for taking down a lion. Don't be a sheep either, never act, walk or talk like a soft target. Be like a goat he said; they're a little tougher then ordinary, non threatening but they have horns. Able to scramble away or fight. Adaptable survivers. yup goats rule.

Closest I have to daoist yoga nidra are from Minke De Vos, her Tao Basics CD from Silent Ground. The longest one, Deep Body Smile has a brief relaxation then takes you through the organ/gods with there taoist features then sweeps out the brain. An excellent experiential 'trip' through the taoist map of the body.

I've been into yoga nidra lately. Mostly in the form of listening to yoga teachers audio's that bring one into a deep trance, work out san culpas/desires as well as move through opposites. Probably easier to experience then describe. Here's a very good source for free downloads - http://www.yoganidranetwork.org/downloads and another more informational - http://www.swamij.com/yoga-nidra.htm To the question of Tao.. some taoists I've spoken to were surprisingly against dream practices, at least doing them as a regular practice and rather saw sleep as a chance to go into a very deeply refreshing state. No work, just going deep and dark, not even any dreams!? In some ways maybe that is the most natural, the very essence of sleep, descent into a pure rest state.

Good to hear a word out of you Sean, even if it is for generic changes. Frankly, I don't give a tsit about spelling. Hope to see you sharing more the spelling philsophy soon. Yours

Good practical advice. For a beginner build a foundational. Stay out of your head, find a path that clicks with you then work on it with integrity.

Beware throwing out the baby maker with the bath water. The 'You' right now is not the you that will always be. The sexual drive is a two edged sword, one linked to our life source. Be wary of getting rid of it, rather consider sublimating and controlling through skillful means.

hmnn, i call doing that.. wednesday.

Awareness is not an artifact of thought, awareness is what is left when thought is taken out of the equation. Wanna solve a math problem? Engage the rational mind. Wanna wrap your head around quantum gravity? Engage the rational mind. Wanna describe beauty? Engage the rational mind. Wanna experience beauty? Disengage the rational mind. Wanna experience awareness? Disengage the rational mind. Bear in mind, though -- the rational mind will want to argue. By Tao Bums Brian

For me, nothing too special. In general a quiet relaxed mind and body generally sharped awareness. One that doesn't jump or react to a sudden noise. Also my tummo skills are better when I'm running at 'fuller' energy. I can take cold and generate heat better.

Personally no, my modus operandi is to stay away from and/or ignore such things.. ie don't feed'em or give'em attention etc., There are a number of sources for dealing with 'exorcist' stuff discussed in some of the threads in the Healing section (one of the subtopics under General Discussion). Take a quick look and I'm sure you'll find them.

For a while I've done ZZ while listening to Rawn Clarks Archaeous audio lessons, a series of 15 minute elemental stacking exercises. They make the standing go by very quickly and the way they place the elements onto the body gives a natural affinity with standing, ie feet to hips earth, belly area water, chest- air.. Lately I've been standing to Yoga Nidra audio's. They also work well, teach a lesson and make the time go by quickly cause otherwise I find ZZ to be much more boring then sitting. Though you should be able just stand without such tools/crutches.

There's are practices that cause the body to shake up and down quickly. That's what several spontaneous qigongs, especially Kunlun and Sifu's Jenny's practice are all about. It takes a few hours to get it, but its an interesting phenomena. People bounce and sometimes the chair flexes up with them. I wasn't there.. Its a good sign but it may not be a 'powerful psychokinetic experience'. Rather the result of the body expressing energy.

Gurdjieff used to say to his disciples, ’When my grandfather died I was only nine years old. He called me close to his death-bed and whispered in my ear.’ He had tremendous love for this small boy. He must have seen the potential of the boy. He whispered in the ears of the boy, ’I have nothing to give to you except a simple piece of advice, and I don’t know whether you will be able to understand it right now or not. But remember it! Some day you may become capable enough, mature enough to understand it. "If you want to do anything wrong, postpone it for twenty-four hours. And if you want to do something right, never postpone it even for a single moment. If you want to be angry, violent, aggressive, postpone it for twenty-four hours. If you want to be loving, sharing, do not postpone it even for a single moment. Just live it right now, immediately!’ And Gurdjieff used to say to his disciples, ’That simple advice transformed my whole life.’ How can you be angry if you can postpone it for twenty-four hours? It is impossible. To be so calm and quiet as to postpone it for twenty-four hours is enough guarantee that you are not going to be angry. And who can be angry if he can postpone it for twenty-four hours? Twenty-four hours of contemplation, and the whole absurdity will be plain to you: the whole thing will look ridiculous. And Gurdjieff was really transformed by this simple message. Sometimes very simple messages can transform you, but you have to live them. from Book of Secrets.

Hubble Telescope Spots an Emoticon in Outer Space Hubble/ESA/NASA Galaxy cluster SDSS J1038+4849 It's actually a cluster of galaxiesIn the center of this Hubble Telescope image is the galaxy cluster SDSS J1038+4849 — and it appears to be smiling back at you. The two orange eyes of the grinning face are actually two distant galaxies, and the peculiar smile was caused by an effect known as strong gravitational lensing. Galaxy clusters are so large that they can create a strong gravitational pull that warps the time and space surrounding them. From afar this creates a distorted view of reality, known as a ‘cosmic lens.

I've restarted an old practice of doing the Glenn Morris's Secret Smile practice (slightly abbreviated) when I'm in the wash room. Its the most mentally positive energy style exercise I've been exposed to. He (& KAP) would do it before doing any other practice saying energy runs best (and safest) in a happy environment.

definitely the classic mythical heroes journey kind of story. From young naive everyman into warrior/king. As such it'd be interesting to compare it to Star Wars.

Right, so regular normal unplugged folks (unwashed masses of Zion), had no magic. Only when they plugged into a video game and were aware that they were did they get the 'magic'. In plain old reality was still plain old reality, except for the One.

It gets way darker then what I wrote. Smith only became a true world destroying psychopath when he got his psyche mixed up with Neo's. The machines constantly had ways to kill Neo and continually didn't use them. Even at the end the machines are willing to sacrifice 10's of thousands of robot lives in order to save Zion. Obviously the machines could drop an EMP down the hole followed by a nuke ten seconds later, If they wanted to kill all of Zion. Instead they choose to sacrifice 10,000's of sentient robots so they could degrade the military capability of Zion. The humans never hesitated in killing machine or human. Neo literally killed thousands (at least) to save Trinity and no one even mentions it, there's absolutely no remorse. Human in the Matrix are just fodder to them, even though they're as real and alive as they are. Trying to learn Taoism from the Matrix is like trying to learn soldiering from Rambo movies, except Rambo's less violent and had a much lower body count then Neo. Its no accident that the Matrix inspired kids to dress goth and mow down others, like there hero Neo. That's not counting the <less intelligent> who learned the lesson from the movies that if they believed real hard they could fly and went splat. Its an insult to Taoism to compare a confused an uber gratuitously violent pop psych action film to it. Not that I didn't enjoy'em. above slightly tongue in cheek

Wait, in the Matrix movie I saw you could only transcend reality by going into a sophisticated computer simulation. Otherwise the 'real' people who 'knew' the truth were living pretty hard scramble lives, until they plugged into the computer simulation that is. Am I the only one who rooted for machines? Clearly Neo and his friends were remorseless psychopaths. In the first movie the machines seemed to care about human lives and warned people to be aware of Neo and gang who pretty much slaughtered any one they felt like it. Not just the dozens of guards who were doing there jobs until Neo would pull out a submachine gun instead of pass, but as the movies progressed he'd kill off thousands of people without batting an eye. The only welcome viewpoint is he was too dumb to realize he was still in the Matrix when he started shutting down machines in what he thought was 'real' life. In reality the machines or powersthatbe simply gave the worst psychopaths a secondary illusion to act out there violent impulses.

Keeping a journal and in one section of it, writing out the facts and just the facts. With a bit of time in between, seeing your actions in black and white print can be very revealing.

Its an old lesson, but counting your blessings before bed really has some power behind it.

Don't trust everyone, don't trust just anyone, but there are good teachers out there, good schools, solid lineages.. get evaluations from those you respect who have walked the path, then surrender and learn. Perhaps later with some solid experience under your belt, re-evaluate. Continue or go on a little wiser. A great teacher is an inspiration and creates one hell of a head start.

9 lbs 11 oz, sounds like a monster already . Congrads.

I think people are often damned by success. A person is a great teacher, what started as a small class where they intimately knew each student becomes a large class. That becomes seminars where you can't know anyone too personally. Then comes books and videos. As the teacher moves further from the student so much is lost. Good teachings turn bad when given to all, especially without a teachers feedback and attention. Anything powerful can cut both ways.

I'm all for the idea as long as there's no 'Sponsored by Marvel' plaque in the corner. yes, yes, yes and yes-, as long as I have my special effects team nearby.