thelerner

"[...]move in the direction of your dreams, don't expect them to come to you while you sit around." It's not about getting rich, its about moving your ass and doing things that align with what you want. Dropping new age crap of 'my thoughts create reality', when infact your thoughts interpret reality. So, you're following the opposite of what your rolling your eyes at?? Not putting your mind to it(I prefer feet to it myself), giving up easily, not learning from your mistakes. Maybe you can wish yourself stuff with those convictions, but I doubt it.

I've never been a fan of 'The Secret' or its philosphy. If you want something make a plan, make a change. I was about 19 or 20 when I lost my virginity. What helped in my case was cleaning up my act, getting a bit more aggressive.. joining a group with lots of girls (in my case a co-ed fraternity APO). And by getting more aggressive, I mean asking girls out, swinging at the ball, no guts no girls. There is someone for everyone, its about getting to where they are, acting confident and asking them out. Wishing...its not new, everybody wishes..books on how to 'wish' correctly. I do not know if the Universe is sentient or cares about our wishes, but whether or not it does, make a plan or plans, introduce change, move in the direction of your dreams, don't expect them to come to you while you sit around.

Perhaps at the highest level bending is possible, but there is the phenomena of people seeing fiction and taking it too literally. They watch star wars and thus think they're Jedi's, or watching an excellent cartoon like Avatar and thinking they'll be able to perform acts like the cartoon characters. IMO There's value in these archetypes, but it isn't in having the powers of a cartoon character. For me its in decision making and understanding the world and its patterns.

eh, why bother. I'd leave it for the religious chi-ologists.

Because its outside of my realm of experience I put most supernatural stuff in the 'don't know' bin, unless someone's trying to sell me something, then it's usually filed in another round bin. So, senior Pie Guy, how should we classify such things as ghosts, or the sprites, gnomes and other elementals that pop up in some magic systems. Thanks

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It's important to be an individual, yet (imo) a taoist is adaptable enough to thrive where's he's at. Be eccentric, have your own set of values, but show enough flexibility to fit in most places. Course if a place is truly toxic, move. Sometimes rebellion is big, othertimes its wearing psychedelic socks under our suit.

I appreciate the depth of your art work. This one, water-abysmal(?) is my favorite. http://www.etaoin.com/yj_29.the_abysmal_water_m.html

ah, so the secret is good karma. , I wonder if there's an app for that

ditto, though I think I'll start working through a dozen or so of his audio's first. Why read, when I can walk and listen.. If I was any lazier I'd forget to breathe.

RUN AWAY!!! You may already be tainted by us nonTAoers. It may already be too late, by posting here the TAo will have it in for you and the TAo will punish you, because the TAo is like that. RUNNNNnnnnn Seriously seems like a childish request. can't trust yourself to walk away and not keep posting.. believe me your writings here may as well have been written in sand on the beach.

Rats, I was just about to type this zen fable in. You beat me to it. I think it sums up the issue well.

Many congratulations. What a great experience. Out of curiosity, how did you end up getting the scholarship? Also out of synchronicity just before I read this I was reading about the San Francisco Zen Center. They have a retreat setting at Green Gulch, $63 a day, meals, Zazen, dharma talks, room & board and 3 1/2 hours of work required. Here is a link: http://sfzc.org/ggf/display.asp?catid=3,162&pageid=1768 . It's something to put on my bucket list.

I think its only a little part of your body that seems like iron after 100 days of no sex. More seriously, I've done some Kaishan Golden Bell gi gong. They wanted a 100 days of celibacy, but clearly the progression of time to begin to master the basics was much much longer then 100 days. Again 100 days, out of kindergarden.. ready to start learning..

light a piece of paper without a match? maybe help others and lead a richer life.. but so do many paths. conquer the world, historically..no; sometimes they advise, but rarely rule or conquer anything. anything external

Hmnn, for a lineage holder of 4(!!) different schools, it's strange he doesn't list a single 'master' he's studied with. Students from a traditional background usually give great credence to there teachers. I don't know if he's talented or not but his P.R. seems suspicious.

The Monroe series is very good, quite minimalist. A much cheaper series is by Anna Wise her High Performance Mind http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/annawise $26 for all 10 meditations or just get 1,2,4 & 9. Free Podcasts that have meditational audio- EnerSanctum- Healing Forest Hypnotic Meditation, Mentor Pattern Hypnosis are 2 good ones from amongst many. Meditation Station Podcasts are good. I enjoy there Evening Inventory Meditation. Zencast and Infinite Smile don't have guided meditations (actually Zencast has a 2 or 3), but they're excellent podcasts, Zencasts has some pretty indepth multi week classes on meditation, mindfulness, Dhammapada, etc., I think Rawn Clarks site- Abardoncompanion.com has some excellent series of free meditations. I've gotten quite a bit out of the Archaeous series, (Magic of) IHVH chant series, and Center of Stillness Meditation (CSM), he gets remarkably deep. His final lessons are often too deep for me, but they're worth stretching to understand. From a Taoist perspective Minke De Vos from Silent Ground has many great CD's. I highly recommend her Tao Basics. She works with Energy, Microcosmic orbit, Deep Body Smile (revitalizing major Organs the Taoist way) & Sexual energy- all done with biaural sounds and sound effects. Wu Dang Taoist audio CD's done by Master Chen are very good and seem pretty authentic to me. http://www.wudangtao...emart&Itemid=57, for $30 the evening and morning meditation are a good practice. Giles Marins audios from Chi Nei Tsang are good if you want to hear taoist meditations with a french accent instead of Master Chen's chinese one. my 2 cents.

But I only drink in horse stance . I'm reading the book 'Drop Dead Healthy' concerning the 5 hours of qi gong a day, he writes ' You can't know the middle ground until you've done the extreme'.

One assumption I make (gulp) is its a common condition. It may be poor circulation. You could look into herbs that thin the blood and increase circulation. Common ones like cayenne pepper, ginger, cinnamon.. Exotics like Gingko Biloba and pycogenol. One winter when I took pycogenol regularly I impressed my Phillipino students with my 'power' to repeatedly make snow balls without gloves . It takes a few weeks for herbs to have an effect. Do research, use good judgement. In my non teacher, non expert opinion.. Meditate, particularly work on longer breaths. As you gain experience (and 'juice') you should feel warmer, particularly as you work on longer breath cycles. Using breath patterns where you hold the breath develops more warmth. Even simply holding the breath creates warmth. After you have some experience with meditation you can seek out a tradition like Tummo. The KAP program (online skyped energy program) teaches a version. After you meditate, hold your breath and rub your palms together rapidly. You can develop quite a bit of heat that way.

Designwise I've always thought empty space (dao forgive me) is the enemy of forum design. I want to get to and read as much information without having to move my mouse (lazy bastard) or go to other pages. Personally I'd knock out as much dead space as possible, for example making the heading tighter, less wordy or better packed, condense where its possible without losing readability. dos centes.

Lots of food for thought in this. I admit I'm put off from experimenting because of ..I don't know..prissiness..old silly dogma. Might be time to teach an old dogma new tricks.

I've lived and worked in some dangerous areas. I've been fine by lessening my ego, following my gut, and walking away. There's nothing to be gained by arguing with a drug dealer, gang member or deranged individual. I'm glad things worked out well, but you stirred things up when perhaps you should have said, 'Let's go' There are times you have to defend what is real, but words are wind.

Its good to have the forum back online. Seems like a few minor changes in look. Michael

With a Mac running Firefox I get an 'Oops doesn't work' when I go to Chat. Also It'd be great to see a clean up of the Personal Discussion site. Moving inactive ones down and active ones up, there's a dozen or two that have been unused for years. Too many good personal sites get buried. my 2 bits.

Working out is a good way to control mood and anger. There are things to keep it simple, body weight squats, push ups etc., if injured slower is better. Shaking your body whether large apelike movements from the knees or smaller vibrations that start from the hand get surprisingly warming as you go for longer periods. Its in a few gi gung and martial art systems. Lately I've been going back to Gabriel Roths meditative dance sequences from her 'Wave' series. Because its free style you control what you do and the intensity, but 30 minutes still wakes up the body and gives a good work out. In many ways its a free style gi gung form. my 2 bits.