thelerner

I think one has to start with oneself first. Otherwise its a flight of fantasy. And a dark one because you want everyone to have your set of beliefs, think the way you want them too, otherwise they're considered children, without rights(?). You sorta want to found your own religion. There are so many devils in the details too, your 'enlightenment' is not going to be others definition of it. Will you be the one who decides who's enlightened or will you force into service those who are considered to be, but probably aren't interested in joining your cause/religion. It's been done before. Better to cultivate and be a shining example to those around you. Speak little but shine much. Instead of a which nation, think about which block to persuade to your new found faith. Grab a bull horn and proclaim your truth from a street corner. It'll go over better then a foreign country. You already speak the language and having an American lecture Europeans or Chinese about what they're doing wrong probably won't go over too well. Here you'll only be crazy, but you never know.

I'm a big fan of Lifeway. Tasty stuff with a high protein to carb ratio. Silas's probiotic ginger ale sounds good too.

I like this but I think most spiritual seekers even advanced ones go through a dark night period akin to spiritual sickness. In the process of questioning and sorting out what is truth, its almost inevitable to reach a desolate wasteland at some point, but it can be pushed through to the other side where life's miraculous. For some people its the dark night, a shattering phenomena, like the loss of loved one or hitting absolute bottom that pushes them towards enlightenment.

I honestly find them fascinating. I'm looking for forest walks with professionals to learn more about them. and when I do, you bet I'll put lipstick on them, maybe some butter, broth and onions too.

Is the moral of the book not to do business with manipulative shamans who use magic to control people? Have you gotten any Pusunga and tested it to take away others free will? Or can you name instances where you or a friend had there free will taken away by the use of pusunga or magic?

I'd say flush the self help and new age books for a while and concentrate on a few simple things. Develop a couple of good habits. Start w/ getting up early and going for a walk. Consider it a number 1 priority. When you get back a good breakfast. Make out a list of short term and long term goals. Keep the short term ones easy, detailed w/ when and where and do them. Cross them off the list daily. Keep it simple, simpler then you think but write'em in the morning, cross'em out at night. Get many easy consecutive successes under your belt. Build up momentum. For 1 week you've gotten up early, big success. Doing easy exercise, even if its standing during commercial breaks, Success. Or maybe turn off the TV and meditate for 3 minutes then turn it back on. Begin to break an addiction to having your mind filled. If you think too much, lessen TV, radio, news. Start by telling yourself no reruns, no crappy shows or movies, only quality. When bored have a positive todo list to fall back on made just for that occassion. Set yourself up for many easy successes. Crap I sound like another self help book myself. Still..develop good 'gateway' habits and you'll break the cycle you're in. 'Gateway' habits are ones that lead you to do the next thing, too often our gateways are bad. IE a late night cap leads to snacking on bad stuff, leads to poor sleep, leads to bad morning etc., The habit of working out leads to more energy, better sleep and better consciousness of our body, so we take better care of it.

No, they're really fun guys.

Learned or not, humans get sick. There's no choice. I've heard it said, being in pain is not a choice, but suffering is. There's a trick to it, you can be in pain and not suffer. Most of us can do it for a little while, especially when its not too intense, way harder when its intense and long. Course much of pain is psychological, our worry, fretting and anger. I think the more aware we are, the greater the space we have to see such things as thoughts w/ only power we feed them and we can take things as they come without added baggage.

By that logic, you will never allow yourself to be happy. It's a world of 6 billion people, there will always be cause for great sadness somewhere. Always, course there's great happiness and joy too, one can choose to focus on that or strive for equanimity in the face of it all. I suppose my way is to reserve everyday tide of emotional feeling for a circle of friends and family. To let there happiness and sorrows affect me. Because to weep for a strange 3,000 miles away where I don't really know all the facts seems wasteful to me and does zero good for them. To cry because little Puchi in a tiny village in another continent lost her purse or mother feels self indulgent to me. But my family and friends I can offer help, comfort or an ear to. That's not to say helping others far away isn't my responsibility. I give regularly to Heifer.org (flocks of chickens); that helps someone, constantly feeling sad about strangers helps no one and may be a bit of an ego trip. To live life without happiness is a waste. Be real, but enjoy the world and what you have.

To me the right thinking here is living under your means and focusing your life on what you like. The fuzziness begins thinking you or the average person will make $100 grand a year (& for 30 years) and have $70 g's to save. That's generally not how it works. The reality is most people are lucky to put away a few thousand a year with some of that going into an emergency fund because every year or there's an unexpected medical needed or roof that needs repair. If you figure a more realistic even optimistic saving rate averaging $5,000 a year, suddenly the math is having $150,000 which after 30 years of inflation is more like $60,000 or 2 or 3 years of retirement income. If you've been putting the $5,000 into a diversified investment account or even the Dow or S&P500, and earned a say 7%, you'd have over $500,000. While investing has risks, you can be on the conservative side and come out way ahead of stuffing money into a CD or mattress. Nor does it take 1 to 3 hours a day or week. Maybe that much a month or even a quarter. A conservative style portfolio might be one that concentrates on high dividend stocks that pay between 3 1/2 to 7% interest. Where to find them (good articles) Seeking Alpha website, general financial web sites (many dividend based sites, I like Dividend Monk). Pick good companies that tend to raise dividends yearly. Keep an eye that the companies aren't tanking, but don't let a few a poor quarters upset you either, they're actually good because you're accumulating shares cheaply. As dividends payouts out rise, you'll get to an average of 7% in 7 to 10 years even if the stock stays flat (as long the stock dividend rates rise, good example of this is JNJ). This year dividend stocks have risen with market, many up 12 to 14% in 5 months and if they drop back down, no matter you're in it for the dividends. On retirement you may be earning well over 12% and getting a much lower tax rate to boot (15%) because of dividends special tax status. Ofcourse there's a chance we'll be ruled by damned dirty apes or aliens, so enjoying your life is the main game, money just lets you play it with a more options. Low interest rates screw seniors and conservative savers rich or poor. But they're low to encourage home buying and save home owners big bucks as well as encourage new business and business investment. That's the theory anyway.

To me at least, these words answer the question of the Tao of Living and Dying. From the beautiful mundane 'We look after one another' to the sublime, through it all 'I am ecstatic'. The answer presented- 'battle the mind, once it's defeated then all is One'. The How-'Look at the your mind, Question your mind and every thought. Who's running the show?' Tao of Life & Death, its all there. All we have to do is practice. Thank you Gentlewind.

Zerostao would be good. So would Stosh and Vaina. There are many people here who'd be excellent.

I care a lot for the board and I'm probably on it more then is healthy (since I work at home on computer). But my bias's lean toward older conservative ethos. So I'm not the counter weight we might need. I'm from the old strict martial art era, enough that if someone started a conversation calling me a dictator, then complained I wasn't treating them with enough 'respect' I'd tell'em strike 2 and to pick there next post carefully. I'd make Viator and Panda look like the most open liberal guys in the world. I'm just plain nasty at times, enjoying the peace and quiet when everyones tossed out (just kidding, mostly). Still we need a call out for more moderators. It's a good job, great benefits, looks good on a resume. The 'spiritual' types here are very understanding. Qualifications: Skin: like a rhino. Wisdom; As good or better then Lao Tzu. The nobility of Lincoln. The tenacity of Teng and the flippancy of Flip Wilson.

I think the moderators do a hard job for no rewards. There was a much more laissez faire time on the board and we lost excellent members because every other month there was a flame war that made the site look like it was populated by angry children. The boards been moving toward stricter moderation. Not to everyones liking but its made it more focused, with more quality (to some extent) discussions instead of long top threads based on two guys seeing who's got the larger tool. Its good to give the mods feedback. They won't necessarily change there decisions, but they'll listen. In the latest case they'll converse w/ NAJA and see where he's at, because people were concerned it was too aggressive. Keep in mind these people were picked because they exhibited even handedness (thus I'm out), wisdom(I'm out again) and love of the board. I think we need to give them feed back and also trust'em too. my 2 bits.

I've been reading threads from members about how isolated they feel. It's probably not just young people either. I don't know if its epidemic in our society, but its pretty common, more so then it used to be. We don't connect because we don't have to. We have forums, computer games, TV, videos, facebook tons of choices and faux relationships to entertain and fill our time 24/7. We don't need to look to others and too often we don't. We don't have the opportunity to meet others and too often ignore old friends. Meeting others has become a niche event instead of common place. There's no easy solutions. Self confidence helps. A great builder of that is the Secret Smile. If people are interested google or use search here for the directions. It's basically running positive emotional energy through the orbits ie relaxation, confidence, humor and sexual. It's fast and works well, but to have a real effect it needs to be done consistently. The second, because meeting a niche event, people need to get out there comfort zone and join up with something. Then use that connection to make friends- actively call people to do things. That's my two cents on the subject, but its an important one that's affecting our lives.

This summer when I have a little time I want to do an experiment that's in the back of emoto's book. Its very simple, just put fresh cooked rice into two closed bottles. Label one w/ hate, sad, bad etc., The other w/ Happy, smiling, pure, goodness etc., He claims one will rot the other will ferment with a nice smell. If any cares to beat me to it, excellent. Just make sure both bottles are sanitized equally and have the same amount of light focused on them. note I should probably put my kids in charge of it since they are without bias, Me..not so much.

As the years go by.. ..I think I've changed, but truthfully, not by much. ..I move this way and that, but return to where I was. Caught in a web of comfort.

Wonderfully flowery,. Do you get the concept? That if you write about going postal, ie hurting others, it means your either immature or disturbed and shouldn't be on the board until you get your act together. What do you mean by postal? Do you mean taking a bat to your mom and dad? Cutting others with a knife? Using a gun? You do understand that is the common usage of the term. If you're using it for shock affect or attention, you need help. Not spiritual help, professional help. Keep on your current path and you'll get thrown out of the bums, out of your parents house, etc., plus its just plain childish. You don't have to fit in, but you can't threaten other people. With maturity comes responsibility. Understand most of your problems are in some part your fault and you can start getting a handle on making your life better instead of wondering where Oz is. Who's going to help you? Where can you can go to be accepted? Here's the cold truth. You've got to help yourself. Discipline, maturity, focus. Get away from your flights of fancy and martyrdom complex. You don't have to change core beliefs but you have grow up. There's not a magical place for you to go, but there's a time for you to grow up. We've already circled around the possibility of you joining a moneyless society like a monastery or commune, but they require long hard work, plus buying into the groups ideology. Can you work hard? Have you worked hard? You need to mature. Take responsibility beyond blaming society. Get your act together, find peace and focus. Find a practice and not follow a warm fuzzy do what you feel.

You see it in the Franz Bardon's work where you 'charge' water with good intentions. It's in several chi gung systems. The hebrew prayer for food, or say wine is actually less a thanks then lifting up a glass focusing your attention on it and saying the The spirit/(breath ruach) of God is every where, his mystery suffuses everything, Wow fruit of the vine. So even there you have 'charging'.

I was thinking along similar lines. 'Be the feather', then you're doing its thing; lying there peacefully with no need to prove anything.

I'd add don't worry about communities letting you be born or not, it won't make a whit of difference in your life at all. Though if you want a certain community to accept you, they'll want to know you'll be a good fit and how you'll help them. "How hard CAN i work for it if i have no work that guides me TO it?" Find it, make a plan, have a strategy, Work Hard. What the hell are you doing on the bums if you're not learning from people who have different practices. Commit. For gods sake I started the 30 day mentorship here, have you taken advantage of it?? Are you waiting for someone to come to your house and move your limbs around for you? How hard do you work? How hard can you work? Are you spending more time typing cleverly to strangers then in practice? Do you even have a practice?? You gain strength with persistent effort. You lose it when you sit around and complain. It's simple. Later edit: The last week or so you've been posting more and more about how you might go 'postal'. Imo That probably won't play on this site for very long. You'll end up banned. I have no idea how serious you are and I'm not a moderator, but if you view the statement to harm others as a harmless attention getter, it may get you off the site.

Thanks, looks good, though Wayne Wang sounds like the name of a giant Panda .

I prefer not to mix Western theologies w/ my Chi gung. I don't think its a good combination. Gets too mental. Adding cultural conditionings when I want to be in my body. Let element theory and nature be my guide here. I'd rather go by how a cat stretches then some chapter in a 2000 year old semi mythological book that's been rewritten and edited many times. That's not to say there's no wisdom in the bible but it doesn't mix with cooking or computer programming either.

I'd shoot for human again, maybe female variation this time. I'm not into the spiritual trip for its rewards and perfection has always seemed like too fuzzy a goal for me. The pursuit of spirituality is worthwhile for its own sake. Given a choice I might go for something like Amish.. something low tech but somewhat prosperous, maybe island life somewhere pretty. Maybe I'll go that route this life, once the kids are out of the house. Head for an island.

Some of it has good life lessons, some is ugly based on manipulation and deception. Our culture doesn't have much tradition when it comes to dating anymore. So it's worth a look for young guys who want to hook up, but look to the better areas, like David Dieda (mispelled), not the game players who target woman's self esteem to make them easier target crap.