thelerner

Beyond sitting style there is the importance in a straight back, not rigidly straight though. It can be hard to know if the back is proper without someone giving you a 'straightening' adjustment. For years my lower back tended to slump during longer periods of sitting. I also like the Stillness-Movement style of seated meditation which encourages a slight natural rocking motion while meditating. For me, it slows down the depth a little, but helps me sit longer and stay fresher.

Thank you. I was wondering if somebody could put a negative spin on such a nice comment.

Sour Cherry trees can self pollinate. Sweet ones need more loving. "All fruit trees need to be pollinated. Without sufficient pollination, they may blossom abundantly but will not bear fruit. Self-pollinating tree include quinces, sour cherries... Sweet Cherry: Bing, Lambert and Napoleon (Royal Ann) cherry trees do not pollinate one another. Plant a pollinating variety, such as Black Tartarian, Republican, Van or Windsor, or a sour cherry, such as Montmorency, nearby. " On Subject, at the Healing Tao and a Ya Mu Seminar I've tried Tree Chi gung. And felt nothing, no interspecies communication. May well be me and not the practice itself. Still I stand under trees, relaxed and open. Sunshine, tree, quiet, earth, all good things. They may not talk to me or exchange energy, but they have lessons nonetheless.

I agree with the moderators. Every few months the relatively same topic get posted on several threads, where they often end up devolving into pissing contests. Worse they begin to litter the front page, hurting the flow of other conversations. I don't care if its PUA, Aliens, Fungus, World Domination, some subjects get over posted need some form of trimming. If some of the threads get thrown into Off Topic, no tears on my part. Though I understand egos getting easily bruised. Again its not the subject, its having 3 or 4 active with the flare ups on each ie 3 or 4 people engaged in multi thread pissing. Fine on one thread, silly in several at the same time. I get the feeling 'You're like China' , is gonna be the new 'you're like Hitler'

Thanks for the link, obe4u.com has some nice information. Just printed out pages 5 through 24 of there online book for further studhy. Looks good.

I've been fascinated by lucid dreaming since college after reading some of Stephen LaBerge's work 20 years ago. I've had some limited success, but nothing consistent or controllable. Recently I found a semi recent LaBerge book, from Sounds True, complete with CD. I'd been working on the spiritual side of Lucidity, but LaBerge's roots are academic, he's a PH.D who ran sleep lab at Stanford u. and did some of the first scientific work on lucid dreaming; actually training oneirauts and finding ways to send messages back and forth to lucid dreamers. In the book his favorite 'tell' (vs. Castenada's hands) is looking at things twice, particular writing, but anything will do. In dreams reality is less anchored, thus things change from look to look. I guess the advantage is the 'tell' is everywhere and everything, not hands or outrageousness. His guided meditations in it are very interesting. From a relatively standard relaxation start to the constant question 'Who is Aware' (followed by a gong!?), he puts you on a beach drawing numbers from 100 down with each breath whilst waves erase them. Later you breath in, out through an open mouth, a butterfly escapes, you become it, and go on to a dream state. It hasn't worked consciously for me yet, but I've only had the book for a week. Interestingly I didn't register the the butterfly part til I'd listened to it 3 times which means I was too far gone to have it register consciously. In any case, its a good book (Lucid Dreaming A concise Guide to Awakening ..), $6 from Half Price Books. While not easy, I think lucidity is the most attainable of psychic (if you could call it that) Siddhis. I believe it can open the doorway to a wide variety of knowledge. Its a double edge sword though. Sleep is an important necessity. Training tends to screw up mine and I'm reminded a traditional Taoist goal is long deep dreamless sleep. Still one thing at a time. I'll work on long and dreamless once I've gotten lucidity under my belt.

I'm happy with my core practices (emptiness, some standing, chant in the shower, kunlun on the toilet), yet I'm looking for something extra to do in January. Winter..it seems a time for hunkering down, gathering. I suppose Tumo..ie body heating which I learned in Kap would be good. Also taking a few blood thinning herbs might be good for warmth. What else??? I'm still working on Lucid Dreaming. I've gotten Stephen LaBerge's book Lucid Dreaming, A concise Guide..', I've been listening to the guided meditations in it daily. Result, as per usual heightened insomnia, yet I can't help but think if I can push past it, the book might open some doors. Or just more. More sitting, I've been only sitting for 20 to 30 minutes lately. Maybe winters a time to up it. Today I listened to a podcast of Eckhardt Tolle. I think I got it from Zencast, it was him reading his book and it was set to biaural beats. It felt powerful. A big reminder to set aside thoughts, watch'em but don't be them. Be separate, don't confuse yourself with thoughts. This actually echoes the Lucid Dreaming meditations which constantly ask 'Who is aware?' Getting off topic.. So, what are y'all working on this January?

TTC Chapter 5, vs 1 "Heaven and Earth (nature?) are impartial; they treat all of creation as straw dogs." A wise bum noted, straw dogs are ultimately thrown away, but during there time of use are valued. Personally, shit happens, asking why(?) is secondary to how can I help?

Happy New Year to all and to all a Good night. May we find a silence so deep we find in it the echoes of truth. As usual As always apologies to those in the past I've wronged or slighted (of late Sinsenser) and apologies to those in the future I will wrong and slight (though you bastards probably will deserve it)

Thing is many of us have a basic foundational practice of 'non active mindful meditation'. Emptiness meditation, thoughts come and go, til they settle. Clearing the mind .. just sitting.

You look through hits on SOPA and they're almost all (and rightly) negative. I can understand that some special interests would push for it. Thankfully it looks like it would be political suicide to pass it. I don't think it'll pass or go anywhere. In the unlikely event it did pass, it'd be back in courts immediately, tied up for years and probably over ruled. Wholesale ripoffs hurt artists and creative industries, but this was way too heavy handed a solution.

Beware, fame often doesn't equal most talented. Its more a measure of advertising skill. I've personally done a weekend training with Max Christenson. He's pretty amazing, but in many ways an unconventional teacher, lots of crazy wisdom, along with lots of 'juice'..or what I'd call high voltage inner power.

Go to a Healing Tao seminar and they'll teach you a dozen in the first hour. Which is their strength and weakness.

I think its better to be a little more specific.

A very spiritual man once said 'I meditate once a day.. for 24 hours'. Another very spiritual person meditated only 24 minutes a day (a minute for each hour). I assume its partly because they spend most of the day in a meditative state of mind. Still I think long long hours of meditation come before that state of constancy becomes a norm. There are some intellectual routs to the top levels. But they become as unbalanced as the meditative ones if you don't have a great teacher or stray off the path. Seems like me you can reach the 'top' and still be unbalanced. Wu Wei, Emptiness, non duality.. requires mastery of oneself and that requires knowing oneself, others, nature, yin yan, 5 elements and there interactions.

We're closing on a new month and new year. If you have something you'd like to learn. Give a shout out and see if there is a practitioner here who could give advice and act as a coach. Same if you'd like to mentor someone in an aspect of an art you have some proficiency in. I see this as a small step practice. Nothing aggrandized, one month of practice with guidance and feedback by someone who's has some level of expertise in it. Small steps, consistent practice. Michael

I agree, Zazen as defined and practiced in Japan is very well explained in Bubbles zazen instructions http://www.mro.org/zmm/teachings/zazeninst.pdf. If you want a basic understanding of what Zazen is, start there.

What he said

I'm heading to Chat. I'll be there for a while. Join me?? if you care too. As it gets later, just add a reply and let others know you're heading there, then wait for a spell. Michael

Apparently iPads can't chat. Oh well, no chat for me fora few days. Too bad I had a nice time during the last chat.

Fire..Water...For me it's about balance. Though as the years have gone by, I move closer to water practices and away from fiery ones, though that could change if I found the right teacher. Why do it at all? Not for powers or enlightenment, other then attaining a lightening of my social/cultural conditioning. To some extent there is the relaxation response I get from meditation. When I meditate my nose runs, my sinus's open, my eyes will tear. That's just what's apparent. Perhaps my internal organs experience a similar catharsis; a state with rejuvenal properties, maybe. Psychologically there is also a resetting, a little mellowing. Who knows how crazy I'd be without it? Goals?? It's like the Olympics only it's faster deeper longer. (that's what she said; could've help myself). To see myself better, not be as controlled by circumstances, find a few truths, not by reding or choosing, but through personal experience.

WE have 6 people online at the moment. Taomeow discussing lineage and tan tien with Lao_tzu from China. Quite worthwhile to read.

World Peace?? It'd be interested to find out how much of the world is at peace. Technically we're at war, but its probably only a small fraction of 1% of the country thats doing any fighting. How much of that is going on in the world? It's a tiny fraction. We're not in the midst of world wars or grand invasions any more. Its mostly nationalistic and ideological things. Correction, its mostly civil wars. There was a TEd video that made the point nicely. Since WWII war has been on a steady decline. We don't notice the good, we take for granted the lack of bad. Few people cheer about the decline in the last 10 years of crime, but in the last 10 and 20 years its been dramatic. But it slips through our consciousness. You wish for World Peace, and you have a world that may be as peaceful as its been for the past century. Happy?? Its not a perfect, probably never will be. Problems of hunger and pollution etc. But war is actually one front the human race is seemingly getting better at. Will it last? I don't know. Here is what I get on current active wars creating a 1000+ casualties in 2011 Its not pasting well, here is a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ongoing_military_conflicts Its horrible, but its also relatively, even surprisingly small. According to the site, which gets there statistics from the UN there are only 11 conflcts right now causing 1000+ deaths a year. A third of those are producing under 2000 casualties. The majority are civil wars. Which are notoriously hard to end. These are by there nature cold blooded calculations, but compared to driving accidents, cancers, starvation, it pales. These targets could make a real difference. There are a dozen diseases which easily kill off more then the numbers listed. We rally for world peace, but if we could end car accidents we'd save a magnitude of more lives. Provide safe drinking and we'd also save more lives. Just saying if any of us are granted wishes, we'd save many more lives wishing for a dozen things other then world peace.

I agree with much of the article, but in some ways I think it over reaches. As if it was written by the Chinese government as an anti Falun Gung piece. I think the 'power pushers' tend to be more likely illegitimate, but I don't think in most cases its a 'reefer madness' situation.