thelerner

That is Seiza, favored in Japanese style dojo's. The good, it makes it easier to keep a straight back. Lets you get up quickly to attack foes !. The bad, your sitting on knees and you put your legs to sleep relatively quickly. You have about 10 pain free minutes then if you're an average American its painful, but after 25, 30 minutes you lose sensation, til you have to get up. With practice it gets easier, though for American seem to have a harder time of it then Japanese and Chinese who do it from childhood. I don't do full formal lotus, but its highly recommended. See some of FullLotus's commentaries. Some call the full lotus a wonder posture. We've had some long discussions on it. I usually meditate in half lotus with a thick pillow (zafu) for my butt and soft rug beneath my knees. My hands relaxed in my lap. In the beginnings I'd keep a formal 'Zen' mudra (finger position, thumbs touching each other) with my hands, these days they're more relaxed. Sometimes I'll stray from keeping my body still and allow it to bend and rock a bit, ala Ya Mu's Stillness Movement teaching. When I'm nostalgic for my 13 years of Aikido, I'll sit seiza, imagining my sword by my side. It's a strong focused posture. But after 15 minutes I'll usually switch to half lotus.

I'm not sure what you mean. It's not from Buddha, its from a Buddhist foundation??

You're using that quote to become an existentialist? It allows you to claim perfect ignorance? There are no facts, there are no things. ? The Buddha taught different things to different people at different times. I think its a true quote, but when reading a religious script its essential to know where its from(a sutra?), who said it to whom and what the situation is(when is nice too). Otherwise people use and abuse religious scripture to there own ends. There's a Theravedan Buddhist practice of describing the world without including the concept of me, thee, and verbs. Its very interesting and I can see where it could help develop a less 'I' oriented consciousness. And that's a worthy goal. But there is still a real world filled with real stuff that shouldn't be ignored because you're trying to lessen 'I' based consciousness. Seems to me that ye olde Time Zen Masters carried sticks and gave hard whacks to those who'd ponder what really exists.

The latter is correct, literally, factually totally correct. Its not a matter of viewpoint. Its a sphere, it bulges a bit in the middle. While its good to keep a quiet empty mind thats open to all things, its bad to have a mind so open, so empty it doesn't know basic facts. Cause there's dangerous things in the world, we need to get out of there way and not debate syllogistically if the car coming at us really exists. Get the facts wrong and you're afraid to explore the world cause you're afraid you'll fall off. Learn, test, explore, grow.

The important question is What can we do? I'm pretty sure none of us are buying Rhino horn or exotic genitals. Nor do we have much influence on some rich guy in Shanghai or poacher in Zimbabwe. I eat meat, quite a bit of it really. I'm not slaughtering an endangered rhino, but I'm responsible for a fair share of dead fowl, hooved mammals. I don't think there's any health benefit from so much meat, 1 or 2 portions a day. But its culturally acceptable and they taste good. Though taste is to a great extent cultural conditioning. Its not all that great for the environment either. Still I don't want to be a hypocrite by announcing I'm becoming a vegetarian either, because at this point I'm not. Would we be happier if the Rhino was killed by a local tribe who ate all of it? Probably. Maybe the real enemy is stupid thoughtless waste. That's a target thats all around us. Knocking out the stupid thoughtless convenient waste, the paper towels, the unrecycled streams of garbage that move through our day. We can't save the Rhino, but maybe if we begin to target the stupid waste we are at least involved in the war instead of just griping about it.

Early on I thought I found a cheat.. that he was putting his hand into water before placing the cakes and herbs. But it Ghee, clarified butter. Can't think of oil as much of an insulator. Seems superhuman to me, a bit like the Marathon Monk of Mount Heie, http://www.der.org/films/marathon-monks.html who do a death fast of no food, water or sleep then spend hours putting sacrificial pieces of wood into a fire. I have to think its as much the years of strict body training as well as the spiritual training that plays a role in these amazing acts.

Yes, childs play, I light myself on fire every morning just to wake up when I'm out of coffee . Seems like a saintly man w/ a pocketful of Siddhis to me. As always its saintliness that is so impressive. Siddhis and silliness are often linked, but saintliness combined with staying in the every day world, that's hard.

These days I'm trying to hold on to my beliefs gently, not take them too seriously. For better or worse I'm less interested in truth (a concept lauded by the ego) and more interested in what is the best predictive model.

Much Respect, I'd add that a master's words carry weight and he does have a responsibility for them. We are so far from that level that our words, yours & mine, aren't as heavy. For better or worse we're not going to be quoted as experts in anything. Our words are for fun and communication. I don't think you need the same concern for your words, though I can understand why his teaching would effect you to watch your tongue. I will miss your presence here. More then your words, your willingness to travel to new places and learn new things, that has more weight and teaching then the words you've used. Yours Michael

I've seen a few capoiera demonstrations and work outs. Its a fantastic art, fun to practice and watch, but it has a high physical requirement. If Aikido is about being centered, then capoiera is about dynamic imbalance. I may be generalizing but you have to be quite athletic, flexible, thin to master it. Think cart wheels and handstands. In the 70's there was a Kung Fu episode where Caine faces a capoeira master. A great movie with it is 'The Mighty Quinn' starring Denzel Washington; top cop using capoeira. Another one 'Only The Strong' had lots of capo in it, kind of a Karate Kid w/ Capo.

Wow, amazing you dug up those old posts from some of Healing Tao's wilder days. I found this quote on them which I liked (warning, nothing to do with topic. I just found it a profound quote from the old HT thread you highlighted) from Michael Winn: "Life is Suffering" is perhaps the WORST negative thought form that one can hold, and the main reason I am so public in my attacks on this disempowering philosophy. Of course life includes suffering. But if you focus on it, it grows. Focus = sending chi to the negative thought form of suffering. Why amplify it? If you want to get rid of suffering, you focus on the opposite: love, hope, good health, balance and harmony, the healing power of chi. That is why buddhism was described to me by one qigong master from China as "the path of eating the pill of bitterness". The second fallacy here is that immortality is about overcoming death. Immortality is not about living forever, it is about integrating so deeply that you preserve your will even as you pass through the death experience. That is what the collective WANTS - the integration of inidividual will even while merged with the collective. We can know this because we can witness it in ourselves as well as in historical trends.

Good luck with that. Don't buy or sell anything and don't use anything that's bought or sold. Don't trust anyone with over $30. I can't help but think you're setting yourself up. Derivatives didn't cause the problem, it was the housing bubble. Even if there were no derivatives made we'd still have huge problem. People create bubbles; we love'em on the way up; they burst, we're devastated. Its not scum who created the conditions. It could be argued it was well meaning people who wanted to make housing more affordable and put extra money in peoples pockets by allowing them to refinance cheaply. Money for nothing. So interest rates were lowered, down payments and eligibility were relaxed, leverage was expanded, every third commercial talked about no money down. Most people benefited until the bubble burst. They always do, real estate bubbles happen regularly, neatly spaced a generation apart. Whether beanie babies or turnips, there's a powerful human psychology going on. As long as the problem is Them. You'll be blindsided because you're staring at a tiny group and not taking in the whole dynamic. A dynamic that happens over and over. The do gooders are culpable, the bankers are culpable, the person who bought too much house with too little down is culpable. I think, and history backs me up that market forces tend to be fairer then those artificially imposed. Still, in my opinion some vital human resources needs like food and energy, controls and laws should be made to keep speculators out of the system. Unless you have a use for 100,000 pounds of corn and can take delivery, you shouldn't be able to bid on it, because people starve when speculators bid up commodities irrationally. Yet if these speculators are 'scum' they're probably less harmful then the 'Do Gooders'. Those with the best of intentions also destroy, kill and impoverish. Unintended coincidences are a bitch. We see it over and over. Take some African countries that were net exporters of food. New government sees big farms as unfair, takes the land away, gives it to the masses, in short order the the surplus food is gone, hunger spreads, poverty becomes a norm. Same type of things happen here, but capitalism and property rights help. They create a higher standard of living. Most often the market place makes wiser decisions then anything that can be artificially imposed. Its not an absolute rule, but as long as human nature is the way it is; it cannot be ignored.

Yawnn, hardly startling. My kids are studying the Scopes trial of 1925. Even then it was getting to be old. Finding holes and insulting other people's religion is so easy that I consider Fundamentalists to have more moral high ground then the debunkers because there's is a harder path. You can throw stones at any religion, but in the end you're just a stone thrower. The internet doesn't even make debunking an intellectual pursuit, its too easy and there's too much egoistic pretension wrapped up in it. Its the secularists who come off as more bigoted then fundamentalists. Get too intellectual and you suck the mystery and fun out of life. Let some things be, keep some things sacred. In the end the person with the most sacred things wins. To me life is a game of live and let live. You got your beliefs, I got mine. Act nicely and I got no problem with you. Matter of fact rubbing mud on the belly, dancing around a camp fire, and chanting at the moon is a hell of a lot of fun. Good camaraderie too. But so is lighting candles, breaking bread, saying prayers.

I have a book, the 30 Biggest Conspiracy Theories. It was done by a reporter who started each investigation with an open mind. Most of them were fantasies. Some weren't, but they generally didn't get far. The most infamous being a take over by some of the U.S. top industrialists in the 30's. They tried to recruit an anti Roosevelt General who blew the whistle of them. The subsequent trial was low key and somewhat hushed up. People simply aren't good at keeping secrets for long. The more people and the more complex they are the more likely they'll be exposed and most of the time you'd have to be extremely dumb to try them in the first place. Like Doctor Evil, there are simply smarter ways to get what you want. Most claims are conspiracy are better explained by two human constants of greed and stupidity. Not a cabal of evil near omniscient masterminds. Someone mentioned Rupert Murdoch, for all his control he's still considered a right wing douche bag by a wide portion of the population. He gets a huge amount of bad press, his empire is crumbling. There are limits to control. Even in Eastern block countries where news was 100% censored, people knew the score. You can't fool all the people all the time. Those who try to write the history books inevitably have letters, journals and actions that betray them to later generations. Yes there's grade school history taught thats politically correct butkis, but serious historians, the higher level college classes have a depth and detective work that gets close to the truth. Its easy to scape goat. Paranoia provides easy answers. Its a whole lot easier to destroy then to build. Still I think society is getting better, a little more conscious and conscientious in the last few generations. I may be wrong or it might be a simple swing of pendulum that will reverse when the shit hits the fan. But evil tends to be self destructive, whereas goodness echoes on.

I'd add that some people have pretty well timed clocks ticking in there heads. For instance they can say to themselves at night 'I want to wake up at 6:04' and they will. Next morning same thing but set there clock at 6:15 and they'll wake up exactly on time. Its a mundane explanation but you may have a well developed internal clock. It knows the time and if asked you'd 'guess' accurately. Because you noticed the numbers and showed interest, your subconscious is rewarding you with more.

Long walks, bike rides, in new areas. Seeing new strange things and eating them. Come summer I might be inspired to drive to some of the Springs mentioned in http://www.findaspring.com . It might be cool to hike around the areas and get a few gallons. Even the questionable ones, like the one by Chicago near the grounds of an old nuclear site sound intriguing (Argonne). Not so much for the water, but to find the open spring and hike around the site. Some are checked and have purity tests. There are probably a dozen within a 3 hour drive, why not check out a couple? The closest to me is a hand pump at a nearby forest preserve called something like 'Well of Life'. Its just a non descript free water pump, but allegedly people line up for it during the weekends. That'll be my first target, fill up a 3 gallon container and keep it in my office. Then onto the Winslow Spring..

Most of the replies here and for other health type questions should start with: 'I am not a qi doctor I just play one on the internet'. We don't, but please understand that is implied. And in a some cases we do have people with vast experience. I am not one of them..nonetheless.. That knee shaking is reminiscent of a spontaneous chi gung practice called Kunlun. Where you hold a certain position and in most people the knees start shaking, sometimes followed by energy surges and bliss. The important thing is Kunlun has some safety features. You begin when you're in a relaxed state. You also end it with a considerable amount of seated meditation. I think the book wants at least 30 minutes and mentions its importance many times. Let the energy and mind settle. Last, do less and even stop if you get over heated/energized. You may be doing something different, but I assume the principle of start only when relaxed and end with a long seated emptiness style meditation is applicable. Personally, I'm not energy sensitive, but there have been techniques that have 'over heated' me. When it has I've taken the common sense advice of my seniors. Back off, slow or stop the practice, in my case it had been long standing meditation in the strong afternoon sunlight. Too often we train without qualified mentors. In that absence, caution is needed. It will slow us down, but keep us safe.

I made some seiza benches for a fund raiser for my Aikido club, similar to the last picture. I've thought some leather on top, maybe with clay underneath would be interesting in a seiza bench. Perhaps it'd help conform better. I've also thought making them with rounded legs ala rocking chair, would have some benefits, people could roll til the adjustment is right. I've dreampt of really high (3 or 4 feet) meditation chairs made out of a single tall log that forced the user to be perfectly still or else. Some kung fu flick must have something similar, but higher. For portability I've found a 2/3rds blown up beach ball works pretty good. If you could build a little round stabilizer you've got an instant low mini meditation seat. & gives you something to blame the little farty sounds on

I was thinking this was totally impractical until I went to the findaspring site. It listed a spring not too far away. Looks like its just a hand pump on the side of the road. That on weekends there could be crowds waiting in line to get some. Very cool. Thanks for the link.

When I'm to fidgety to meditate I'll do some exercise, push ups, squats.. and/or take a hot shower. Then I'm ready.

This site has some solid articles on medical Qigong. http://www.medicalqigong.org/resources.htm Personally having gone to one of Ya Mu's seminars and seen some of his techniques first hand. I think there is validity to Medical Qigong. I've also seen Dirk Oeilgardht work do healing energy work and it was remarkable. There are undoubtedly Charlatans, but there are also people and lineages with healing abilities.

That Genmai Cha from Hime. So cheap and soo good. $3 or $4 bucks for a big bag of it at a local Japanese grocery. The puffed rice make it hearty and a little sweet, yum.