thelerner

Great post. Another for my best of Taobums collection. It doesn't just ring true, but tells the reader to take action; confront and dig deeper into their psyche.

I enjoy using guided meditations. Some of them are in the trippy category. I certainly don't have 100% reality with them, but they're enjoyable. There's a Shamanic one with a constant hypnotic drum beat. After visiting the wise big headed woman you have a choice to leave her cottage and go anywhere you wish. For me its always the same. Its dark, I'm on a Hawaiian beach with my wife. We're just mellowing in each other arms. The kids are playing, there's a large bonfire. Other couples are around the fire. Thats it. Pretty much my idea of heaven on earth for a night at least.

The spirit of MPG lives on. The tradition of silly spammy sparguments lives on. Not pointing fingers at anyone, but really isn't this whole line of reasoning ridiculous? A rehash of old grudges. Lets move on.. Nothing to see here. Unless you want to wade in months old garbage

Actually he wasn't banned originally, he was given a 2 week suspension. During which the mods got an email from him which included a 'this is how I will have my revenge' section. Relatively mild but it was a tipping point. We decided to say bye bye Mo Pi Guy. We've had to deal with multi reports on him, had to split threads because of him as well as throw many into The Pit. Its a running gag that all Mo Pai threads end up in the Pit (not so much since MPG's leaving) MPG sent out so many posts saying You're all Deluded or You all live in a Fantasy World/ Wasting your Time with your Practice etc.,, that he became a negativity magnet. By denigrating almost everything that wasn't Mo Pai, he opened the door to much bad will. It wasn't Mo Pai that people were against, it was people reflecting negativity back at him. back on track. my point is he had control problems before the ban.

This: Essence of Taoism Story From NonTien There is an old story that once Confucius, Shakyamuni Buddha and Lao-tzu were drinking some peach wine together. Buddha opined that it was bitter, Confucius that it was sour – but Lao-tzu, smiling, found it to be sweet. The wine, of course, represents human life. Taoism is not a philosophy or religion of salvation or of escape, but of appropriately enjoying and dealing with the real life which we have. Taoism finds perfection in imperfection, and taking the eternal and universal viewpoint of the Tao, realizes that the good is not to be finally judged by personal or human preference. Taoism suggests that happiness is found in accepting our situation. There is no reason not to do anything reasonable to better ourselves, of course, but resentment, denial or a negative outlook on life do nothing towards increasing our happiness. Cheerfulness, humor and a freedom from fussing are the attitudes that will stead us best in life. This is not to say, however, that Taoism is any kind of forced and strained "positive thinking". It is fine to be sad or melancholic from time to time. This is a perfect occasion to read or write sad poems, listen to sad music and complain to our friends, and (in moderation) can add to the overall enjoyment of life. Taoism is also unconcerned with ideas of "advancement" and "success" through some special mode of thinking. A Taoist is only willing to struggle to survive up to a point, after which he is content not to survive, death being a natural commitment of life. Lesser considerations such as career, popularity, fame and wealth are then obviously highly trivial, and not such as to cause serious unhappiness. The Taoist takes his positive pleasures from the enjoyment of love (in all wholesome forms), learning (of interesting and worthwhile things), productive labor (of a kind actually beneficial to human beings), contemplation (whether of the taste of tea, the beauties of art or the moods of Nature), and Taoist practice (of meditation, t'ai-chi ch'üan etc.). Above all, he or she endeavors to preserve the basic human integrity and innocence with which we are all endowed at birth, and not to be subverted by the concerns of worldliness. The Taoist strives not to want and get, but to enjoy what is already present with gratitude and grace.

I always thought monks shaved there hair because hair is wrapped up in beauty and ego. So shaving it is a sign of humility. I do think think there may be something to long hair. Could be an electrical static thing or something else at work, but long hair may do something. Or as Edward said, long shiny hair means kidneys or some system working very well. Certainly in several chi gung's there is hair breathing techniques.

The sweet water phenomena runs through a wide gamut. I've seen old school kabalah talk about changing water into original water for life and showing microscope pictures of before and after. Certainly Emoto's (http://www.masaru-emoto.net/english/index.html) work on the sensitivity of water, showing it how crystalizes once frozen after being shown good or bad images is interesting, though I don't know if its been independently confirmed. You have high up saintly guru's who use spit and dust to make medicine balls that are highly prized in Thailand. I wonder if the many cultures who bless there food are unconsciously trying to achieve just this change? In Franz Bardon's Hermetics, food, especially water is magnetically infused w/ positive messages. In orthodox Judaism there's specific prayers for each kind of food, invoking multiple holy names. Beyond words there is a mental focus called for. As an age old survival mechanism, is the person blessing food, improving it, making it safer to eat? Or are they making themselves, there body more accepting of food that could be tainted? How's that for a turn around? What if its not the water changed, but the observer?

Telling people to fuck off (SoG), in my case- screw off etc., is probably not show casing a uh.. site thats.. uh going to attract the best people.

Yeah, I don't think you necessarily have to 'live' there permanently, but getting back to basics and leaving the baggage of civilization behind is a cycle we all need.

I agree. I also think that this sound bite from MPG in the first writing in the first locked thread called 'Warning To Forum Members' is a bit passive regressive. It's very likely your account on another forum like TTB might get suspended or banned for something you do or say over here. This strikes me as willfully wrong, disrespectful and a bit paranoid. Though maybe he's got a point, after reading some of his comments over there I am glad he's banned.

Cool, we need more poets. Ones with hard words wrapped in soft stanzas. You seem alot like Me.

Glad to have you onboard . I always wanted to visit Silent Grounds. I don't think the island retreat is happening these days. I've gotten a lot out of Minke's audio CD's.

When I started a 'Q's For Teacher Response Only' thread, It felt like I had put out Spam bait. Mods have a hard enough time without having to check and issue 'credentials' plus put out fires such credentials would bring. Still even with official Teacher status it'd be great to bring more of 'em here. Let me throw this out. At some point we could start a thread 'Are you a Teacher? Tell us about your Art & Experience In It' and make clear that this would be a no spam, no troll zone. The noutroll zone as it were.

Why?? Its obvious. There have been 4 Jurassic Park movies. Special effects for all of them combined was 666 million dollars. So once they can reproduce the dinosaurs from Chickens they'll be able to reduce the costs down to say $66.6 million. A huge savings. The whole movie could then be autobiographical <about a producer who created dinosaurs for a movie about a man who created dinosaurs for a fun park> and as people have stated.. what could go wrong?

I feel in the future chickens will re-evolve into dinosaurs, they'll become intelligent too. And religious. The name they'll give their devil will be Colonel Sanders.

Flash back: In the days when dinosaurs ruled the earth and the internet was young, innocent and naive: When I looked at the Kunlun site I groaned, at the over the top writing, especially the 1 hour = 1,000 hours of other programs (still do). But a couple of respected bums who did the seminar gave it high remarks. A couple of bums were going to the Phoenix seminar, so I thought, its cheap, different and gives me a chance to get there a few early and have a nice mini vacation. I especially to meet Yoda and Cam (who clearly was gaga for Kunlun) We met up with some fellow bums a few days early in Sedona, did some hiking. I enjoyed the seminar, I'd never been exposed to that kind of spontaneous chi gung. While I picked up the movements, I never got hit by the bliss other people reported, even after practicing it for months. For better or worse its still my go to bathroom gi gungs. When I'm on the pot, especially at night I'll hit the position. My knees jitter, my upper torso will occasionally jerk and twirl. Its a bastardization since I'm not doing it as long as I should and especially not doing the important and required closing sitting afterwards. I'm very glad I went. Great trip, interesting people, Max was fascinating. Kunlun became a tool in my box, but not a main practice. edit: I know I did a write up about the Kunlun experience. I can't find. Here's a link to what I wrote during the trip, just before it started but the seminar write up must be somewhere else: http://thetaobums.com/topic/695-michaels-stuff-fluff/?p=42 Kind of fun looking through my old posts.

I never found this comfortable but KAP and Glenn Morris recommended sitting on your heel edge, when sitting cross legged. This heal to perineum modification sealed up a leak spot. For me it felt uncomfortable and made my foot fall asleep faster. Others reported success with it.

The pen is more powerful then the sword. And paper makes it even more useful. Journal. Get into the habit of writing without self editing. Write out dreams and desires. Write out weaknesses and problems. Write out goals and aspirations. Write out love between your brothers and your sisters, all over this la-a-and.

To me the big question is how deep does karma go? You can't argue w/ cause and effect, but with a wider view, things don't fall straightly, or according to our view- moral, personal and objective. I guess that is the question behind all religion and mysticism. Is there a mechanism keeping score and what are its rules?

Personally I think thats more a function of conscience then cosmic law. If you're a good person, empathy and sympathy effect you on a mental and spiritual level, as you move along an emotional scale towards psychopathic, you may get a free ride from such deep down internal pain. In other words those without a conscience can act like assholes, without the psychosomatic reaction a balanced person would have.

Kunlun ala Max used to advertise Egyptian rods. Never had any experience with them myself. Here's a link though: http://wands-of-horus.com/en/wands-en.html eeyouch, not cheap. And as I recall for some practices you needed 2. I've been interested in harmonic tuning forks, they're much cheaper and at least if you bang'em they make noise.

it is very subjective. We tend to remember the best of conversations and the past always seems greener. Still, I was going to say Same, then I moved up to 'Increased'. Mostly because we don't have the flame wars we've had in the past. I'm hoping it moves up significantly.

Weightlifting is great but there's a whole world of exercise regimes out there. If lifting weights is causing you this much agitation, consider stopping. There's kettle bells, which may or may give you similar problems. Body weight exercises run from simple to highest level athletics. Running, aerobics, tons of different exercises. Even a move to yoga, tai chi or martial arts might be a good change. Personally I like kettlebells.

So.. what living pop figure would you choose for a guru?? At the moment, I can't think of anyone. Thats bad because its important to have people you look upto and can model your behavior from.

True to a point. You certainly see this dynamic happening in Venezuela. Where the solution to shortages has been to strangle the producers and distributors. Still there are lesser evils. Food and housing should be affordable. I don't mind a tilt towards subsidies to make that happen. In some ways we've been doing the opposite as far as food. By making laws and requirements for ethanol, we've ended up skewing corn prices upward, creating hardships for poor.