thelerner

Its problematic in a dozen ways. Globally it ignores the 100's+ of millions saved from Small Pox, Polio etc., by immunizations, the 10's of millions saved from TB to Syphillis by penicillin, the millions saved from malaria with medicine and mosquito control. It also presumes We are morally higher then Them because we're not sick. Versus the reality of better modern medical care and cleanliness and general living conditions. What makes it personally dangerous is if fully believed and a child or loved one gets sick, then all that's needed is higher vibration and not medicine. On the third hand, laughter, qi healings help; but if modern medicine is available that should be a first stop in life threatening situations and alternative/Eastern medicine complimenting it imo.

I think you set science back 150 years once you think its vibration and not viruses and bacteria. OP: "You will never get sick, if you are naturally happy and confident all the time. No disease will ever reach and alter the structure of your being when you love and feel loved all the time. It is impossible, it does not work." That would be nice, but unfortunately not true. I think you can walk into any hospital and or read the biography of anyone you consider happy and confident, loved or loving, and you'll find they've gotten sick at some point and even died.

To everything there is a season. When you're in college, learn. Take advantage of what is offered. Become an excellent student, get to know the professors and learn about extra curricular and internship opportunities. You may never have this kind of free time and choices again. Don't fritter it away wishing you were somewhere else. The time will come when you're working 9 to 6 to earn food, rent etc. wishing you could go back and gain more expertise make some connections. Question: If you dropped out now (and mom & dad dropped there support), what kind of job could you get? Will that job, help you find your harmony? If you're seriously wondering, then grab some part time work now. Perhaps you can find some social work that will appeal to you and help you with direction.

Sometimes when I meditate outside, I'll begin with a visualization with from my waist down I am Earth with all its qualities, from waist to sternum (belly area) I am water with its nature, sternum to neck, I am air with its principles, neck up, I am electric awareness with its qualities. I'll hold the imagery for a while then let it go. Its nice to do by the beach because you're reflecting the nature around you.

I watched the video. Seems to me she lays out a real problem, ie people avoiding confronting there problems then she lays out a straw dog argument that this is an incredible mystery that no one addresses, naming Catholicism, meditation, new age etc. She's wrong, each of the systems she mentions does have mechanisms and traditions for self analysis and probing problems. Its just the usual egotism at work to say, Only I have the solution. If she wasn't so wrapped up in Only I, game, she could learn some fairly wise approaches from the various traditions she immediately dismisses.

I think its important to begin at a skeptical point, ie 'is this a creation of my own mind?' and work with that first. The sages of my tradition, have tended toward the belief, such forces rare but real and the best way to deal with them is to ignore them. Go about your life, don't impower it. That tends to work whether they're manifestations of the mind or other. I suppose in extreme cases an expert should be called in, but what constitutes an expert is questionable.

Don't know if this is useful or not, but often when I end seated meditation I'll rub the bottom of my feet hard and fast until I feel some heat building up. Its a closing ritual and helps bring awareness to palm and foot points.

Hmnn, in other words you don't get my point. You ignored all the times I wrote the need for balance, not to be Pollyanish and went straight to assuming I meant to be 100% positive. You literally quote half a sentence, ignore the 2nd part and the gist of what I wrote. Missing my point go on to wax poetically about the Great Feminine. It makes replying to you hard,. Notice how often I wrote Balance. Many times cause its important. I do think people in general are by nature pessimistic so you need a boost of optimism, lets say positivity to overcome that part of human nature. Being positive also opens up possibilities that may not be seen by someone who is more negative. You took a few hours of learning about Ki stuff from the Ki Society and Koichi Tohei, I spent 13 years training in it. I learned that with a positive attitude you can turn negative situations to your advantage. You have to be realistic but often its there. For example one advanced physical koan was we'd have one person grab our arm with two hands and pull, on the other arm someone would pull the opposite way, stretching you out. A third would be behind you choking you, and a forth infront and when you made a move would punch you in the stomach. Now that's negativity. Yet, be positive and escape is possible. Matter of fact a couple ways. For example instead of feeling you're being pulled apart by 2 people, why not think, 'Its me, and the guy pulling on the right, against the guy the left. Two against one! Suddenly you can move the 2nd person strongly. With a change of perspective, you've got 160# weapon to use against the choker as well moving out of the way of the punch. In other words the realist sees 4 attackers and impending doom, the Aikidoist will see possibilities and that comes from positive thinking. In life, in general, be realistic, but allow in a positivity that opens up possibilities. I had to travel recently and though planes were delayed and canceled it wasn't too bad because the people around me were nice. We fist bumped, we danced, we consoled each other. Even in a crappy situation, you can be positive and enjoy yourself, because just being neutral in that situation would sit there wallowing in Sucksville. You need back up plans, but in the face of adversity, being positive opens up more possibilities. Again that not 100% positive and ignoring the negative, but being realistic, balanced, seeing the whole picture in perspective then adding a dash or two of positivity, maybe 6.345% extra , its gives you an edge in life. You don't deny the negative, but you don't wallow in it either, you meet the Great Feminine and get her phone number for later. I'm a financial analyst (portfolio engineer really) and each decision mean making or losing money. I have to throw away as many blinders as possible in order see the big picture. Those who very partisan tend to be lousy investors because they color the truth. Prejudices are the same as blinders. Ofcourse to me, financial truth number is nobody knows nothing. Firmly knowing that (except for a long term pattern of expansion) one can give up trying to anticipate market moves and craft portfolios that do well in up and sideways markets and not be badly hurt by down ones.

I can't imagine a life without being positive, at least about some things. You don't want to be too Pollyanish, its good to be prepared for what's likely to happen. Yet when you don't know the outcome you may as well hope for the best. Otherwise its too easy fall into negativity about everything and not enjoy life. Human dynamics the way they are, one's attitude towards others often determines the outcome of ones encounters. Be negative, expect the worse, and that's what you'll get.

Because they're in chants I do, Adonai and Elohaineu. You connect and impower what you repeat, especially when done wholeheartedly. Like many Hindu expressions they contain long vowel sounds and for kotodama (sacred sounds) they allow more play, with vibrational frequency and where they 'hit' and are expressed within the body. Mystically (in my understanding), Adonai is everything within the universe, and Elohaineu is the essence and connection beyond and behind the universe.

Brian and OldChi were mentioning the practice in another thread. While I'm sure there are different versions of it, can anyone give me some insight into how they practice? Thanks Michael

Thanks for your answers. Its been 4 or 5 years, I'll have to put getting to another seminar and Gifts of Tao II on my to do list for 2015.

I don't know. If you wanna buy a house, you wait til you can afford the 100,000 or more dollars? All in all imo, civilization does better when credit is available. Though you need rules against greed and folly on both sides of the deal. I think there'd be a better chance for world peace if there were less fundamentalists around, especially the kind who think the world would be perfect if only everyone believed in the exact same 'Absolute Truth' that they do. hmmnn, to what extent do we get the world we deserve? Personally.. nationally?

, and Magicians help those who help themselves. Sometimes you gotta network too. and demonstrate intelligence and integrity.

Whenever anything is embraced by the masses it inevitably going to get watered down. That's not necessarily bad if it leads some of those people into deeper study. Face it, people will always come up with self serving assessments of things. Hell, it seems the writer is saying 'When I go to yoga, I’m often surrounded by wealthy white women who can afford expensive classes'; so are they in a class complaining about how wealthy white woman are in the expensive class they're taking? I see some hypocrisy and pettiness in the writing. The author's solution seems more inline with what you'd get in any Church, ie ' I’m suggesting that if we work to complement our gratitude with mercy and compassion for those who are less fortunate'. That's not bad advice, but its not radical.

For many years after, on the edge of sleep, my legs and body would make the same sudden twitching motion I made the instant the bark broke on a large old tree I was climbing sending me down. I think the sensation had a fear component too. Some trauma's play out physically in that unconscious arena. It went away.

I don't think its a religious thing. Lots of wars between non-Abrahamic religions. I think most 'religious' wars tend to be good olde land/resource/nationalist ego grabs done under the cloak of religion. Hate to say it but a country that gets too la de da peaceful is at risk of getting screwed by more aggressive neighbors. Lets not forget physical violence is just one side of nationalistic war, there's also economic. Human nature being what it is now.. world peace is not in the cards any time soon. That's not to say there isn't less right now. Comparatively and statistically there's less conflict/people being killed, going on now then most of last century. Course WW I and II were meat grinders with cold war flare ups not much better. There was still a sheen of glamour to war in the 1900's. I think in the Western world and even the third world that's off. You know whats fueling some wars right now imo? Boredom. People who see no chances for a better life, even if they're middle class, go to join a cause. Even when its in most eyes its an evil one. Not widely admitted, but its there, maybe it always has been. In the Civil War, the South was hyped by glory, gala parties and certain euphoria to fight before the war started. History has a tinder box nature to it. We are an aggressive species. We fight as kids, family, all the way up the chain. Yet as our destructive power has gotten more devastating and war loses its claim to glory, some wars will be given up. Few would have thought WW II would be the last time the world would ever see an atomic bomb used in war. There are gentility forces at work in human civilization. Maybe due to common sense decency, maybe increased interconnectedness. Course with 7 billion + people, war for resources (water, oil, farm land, metals) is the biggest powder keg that we, the world will have to contend with.

Any particular aspect of the art? I'll generally do S-M meditation before I sleep, ie, keeping my hands on my lower dantien during sitting meditation. Having a slight rocking motion. Doing the full body closing afterwards (probably somewhat shortened). Is that somehow replicated in bed? Or do you mean the movement sequences? Thanks Michael

Congratulations. Great work, must feel good .

Happy Thanksgiving, may we all have a chance to lay back and appreciate things we are grateful for.

I like to think, maybe, just maybe reincarnation plays a roll in some of these heroic videos. edit> especially in reports of friendship between unlikely species.. such as pygmy hippo and tortoise.

A little off topic, but my 14 year old said he was interested in building a computer. I think I'll let him, there's probably not much cost savings, but learning how its done and the ability to upgrade later will be worth it. Matter of fact that might be an good angle for you MooNinite. If you go ahead, create a class where people prepay then go to your place to learn how to put it together. Why? Learning innards of computers, great customization, future upgradeable. Planning class free- talking about how's and why's, then a money commitment is needed and class starts in 3 weeks. Learn and build. You make the same or more money, but the students do the work!!

Music and biaural recordings are a meditative crutch, in time you have to leave them. You may want to try finding a piece of meditative music and meditate to it. The extra input can often relax the mind or give it something to chew on. Ultimately you have to drop it, but for now it might be just the ticket. When anxious I like to listen to Stin's Evening Inventory meditation, a short 15 minute hypnotic session where you face your anxiety instead of covering it up, (google it) then music maybe rain or one of a dozen musical pieces that entrance me. I have a couple of such playlists on my ipod. Hypnotic piece followed by soothing music can put me under and greatly relax mind and body. You can find selections of both as free podcasts on Itunes. Though I've noticed some of favorite ones have gone commercial.

A Gradual Awakening by Stephen Levine The Gods Drink Whiskey by Stephen T. Asma

I for one would welcome the coming female overlords. though I fear as usual, Meet the new boss same as the old boss.