thelerner

Reverse breath doesn't happen to me when I do Kunlun. Neither does bliss. But I do shake (starting w/ the knees) and it feels like I'm dropping something, there is a release that doesn't happen during my regular meditation. I have respect for the teachings at wudangtao.com, Master Chens stuff. I have some of his CD's. In his morning and night meditation he has you do a gentle version of reverse breathing, IMO. Contracting the anus, during breath in, letting it go during breath out. A gentler version then most reverse breathing, but it has the same vibe. At midlevel in the Healing Tao you see some of the same energetic breathing (I think), Minke De Vos has it on her Energetics meditation. I think there is something fundamentally to the practice of breathing in and contracting. As if its gathering in energy. Michael

.. see below

I'll say I'm a greed. When people put up silly categories saying your either like me (good) or them (bad) I always like to exert a little individuality and be on the other side . Michael

Ofcourse historically the 'free' way was to become a disciple/slave. Something that doesn't fit into modern times very well. I've also been suspicious of highly charging masters. Its certainly a matter of caveat emptor. Still when someone who's charging $2000 for a seminar tells you to meditate 4 hours a day, you're likely to do it. When someone on a Youtube video tells us to do it, we don't. The person who's paid $2,000, or $20,000 (1 year college tuition) may end up with quite a bit of juice and insight. The skeptic with none. Still, I think the hours of sincere practice is as important an ingredient as the authentic master. I've been reading some of Phore's blog in the personal discussion section. As important as the Kap training has been to him, the secret ingredient is..his dedication, hours, 4 hours a day he recommends of practice. Maybe the 'juice' is acquired a drop at a time. Four hours gives a drop and at a gallon or so you become a master. my 2 cents Michael

Great poem. & fabulous moon, it seems to be syncing with the sunset. We're getting reds and oranges as it rises. Today in Chicago, the moon is rising at 6:14pm, the sunset is 4:51. Happy viewing.

I've been alarmed too. I've been looking for some autopsies and factual info on whats happening. Here is one calmer article thats come to my attention: By Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer / January 7, 2011 Washington First, the blackbirds fell out of the sky on New Year's Eve in Arkansas. In recent days, wildlife have mysteriously died in big numbers: 2 million fish in the Chesapeake Bay, 150 tons of red tilapia in Vietnam, 40,000 crabs in Britain and other places across the world. Blogs connected the deadly dots, joking about the "aflockalypse" while others saw real signs of something sinister, either biblical or environmental. The reality, say biologists, is that these mass die-offs happen all the time and usually are unrelated. Federal records show they happen on average every other day somewhere in North America. Usually, we don't notice them and don't try to link them to each other. "They generally fly under the radar," said ornithologist John Wiens, chief scientist at the California research institution PRBO Conservation Science. Since the 1970s, the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center in Wisconsin has tracked mass deaths among birds, fish and other critters, said wildlife disease specialist LeAnn White. At times the sky and the streams just turn deadly. Sometimes it's disease, sometimes pollution. Other times it's just a mystery. In the past eight months, the USGS has logged 95 mass wildlife die-offs in North America and that's probably a dramatic undercount, White said. The list includes 900 some turkey vultures that seemed to drown and starve in the Florida Keys, 4,300 ducks killed by parasites in Minnesota, 1,500 salamanders done in by a virus in Idaho, 2,000 bats that died of rabies in Texas, and the still mysterious death of 2,750 sea birds in California. On average, 163 such events are reported to the federal government each year, according to USGS records. And there have been much larger die-offs than the 3,000 blackbirds in Arkansas. Twice in the summer of 1996, more than 100,000 ducks died of botulism in Canada. "Depending on the species, these things don't even get reported," White said. Weather — cold and wet weather like in Arkansas New Year's Eve when the birds fell out of the sky — is often associated with mass bird deaths, ornithologists say. Pollution, parasites and disease also cause mass deaths. Some are even blaming fireworks for the blackbird deaths. So what's happening this time? Blame technology, says famed Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson. With the Internet, cell phones and worldwide communications, people are noticing events, connecting the dots more. "This instant and global communication, it's just a human instinct to read mystery and portents of dangers and wondrous things in events that are unusual," Wilson told The Associated Press on Thursday. "Not to worry, these are not portents that the world is about to come to an end." Wilson and the others say instant communications — especially when people can whip out smart phones to take pictures of critter carcasses and then post them on the Internet — is giving a skewed view of what is happening in the environment. The irony is that mass die-offs — usually of animals with large populations — are getting the attention while a larger but slower mass extinction of thousands of species because of human activity is ignored, Wilson said. also: Link of wheres and what of kill ofs http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/mortality_events/ongoing.jsp

Too bad its been cloudy here. For shooting the moon see if your camera has a 'Fireworks' exposure. Many digitals do, even the relatively <$125 cheap ones. The very slow exposure makes night time objects shine & tend to blur which is sometimes a cool effect.

It is. That's the kind of sensitivity that we need to be aware of and develop. Still, I find I don't fully 'know' my mind unless I put ink to paper. The act of writing makes me clearer on an issue. Michael Speaking of this, Robert Bruce has a program on Dream Work going on an open program going on, he has a intro to it in the bums, Introduction pages.

The book is amazing for its depth of martial knowledge and the way it connects the dots from Roman times to the modern martial arts. It shows great scholarship as well as real life grit. Thanks

I also missed it, thanks for the link Always. Its an honor to have such an esteemed teacher here. Thanks for the offer of the ebook, but I already own it . I look forward to your input and following along. It is my greatest hope that Dreamwork will snow ball and become a new area for communication, education and spiritual growth. Thank you for being one of its foremost pioneers. Michael Unfortunately, the more I work on it the worse my insomnia becomes.

Tidal power is amazing. The power is not just huge, but predictable and relatively easy to tap. They've been doing some small trials in New York and are about to begin a major Tidal Power Project. Here are some notes: "Back in 2006, Verdant Power started testing tidal-driven turbines in New York City's East River. Since then, the company has installed six battle-tested turbines that have generated electricity for several nearby businesses. Now Verdant wants to take the next step and build the nation's first grid-tied, full-scale tidal power plant. The company recently filed an application with federal regulators that would allow it to install up to 30 tidal turbines in the East River. The turbines would generate about 1 megawatt of electricity, representing just a fraction of New York State's potential tidal power, estimated to be anywhere between 50 to 500 megawatts (PDF). Most coastal cities are sited along estuaries (thanks to the transportation opportunities they provided back in the pre-planes, trains and automobile days), which are often ideal places for harnessing tidal power. Since the electricity-hungry population is right next to the source of energy, tidal power could also prove valuable to areas of the country that are having trouble meeting their energy demand, referred to as "transmission congestion." Taking a look at a map of congested transmission lines in the Mid Atlantic, for example, reveals numerous coastal cities that could benefit from some locally-generated, renewable electricity. Finally, tides are incredibly easy to predict, unlike wind and sunshine, so New York City can bank on twice-daily power-generating tidal surges through the short and narrow East River. The thought of turbine blades spinning underwater might raise concerns over the welfare of fish and other aquatic life, but it turns out that the East River turbines have been fish-friendly. Water is much denser than air, so tidal turbines can move slowly yet still generate as much energy as rapidly spinning wind turbine blades high above the water's surface. That slow movement means that instead of entering a real-life bass-o-matic, fish have an easy target to avoid. In fact, while conducting a two-year study of the impacts of the tidal turbines on a surprising abundance of East River fish, analysts did not see a single instance of a fish being struck by a rotating blade. It turns out that the larger migrating fish simply avoid the blades, and smaller local fish only venture out from their shoreline nooks and crannies when the tides are changing - exactly when the currents are too slow to spin the blades." This looks a winner for the near future. It may turn out there are 1,000's of potential Niagara Falls all across the world waiting to be tapped. Michael

Reality is .. what is left when you take all the things and concepts away. Definition of Hubris: I know reality

This is good, as is counting your breaths, 1 in, 2 out, 3 in..up to 10 then restart. Do it for 15-20 minutes, or just sit. Nothing complicated. There is a podcast called Zencast (podcasts are free and downloadable from Apple Itunes), they have some indepth recordings of beginner and intermediate meditation courses you can follow through. They last a few months and are done by very experienced people. Don't get too intellectual, find a course, sail it, be true to it for a while, you'll get places. Beyond the sense of boredom there are riches. Michael

Actually I took off the Pol Pot thing before you posted. I agree it was going too far. Though you do understand he also thought we were pathological and diseased, thus the murder. Going (stupidly) further with the Pol Pot thing, I don't think he wanted 'just power'. I think he was an idealist (&psychopath) who believed he was furthering mans salvation. Maybe its paranoia but the Venus project has the Cyberneticist who uses his science and machines to make the right and proper decisions for us. The FAQ talks about the elites who will disagree with his wisdom, when infact it may well be many common men. I don't understand enlightenment is reality. What I've gotten from this forum is that there are dozens of different definitions of enlightenment, and reality.. that can be an even shakier construct. It feels like there are big If's being ignored. The If of technological salvation, the If of a teaching of 'true value and inquiry' leading to morality. Those two concepts are taken for granted. Still I'm happy there's a foundation and planning going on. I hope as much effort is being spent on the technological side and real experimentation on True Education as is going into the Movie. Yours Michael

Still seems pie in the sky but I'll read through more of the 105 FAQ's. Let me just add. Historically a week or two after the revolution the nice guy idealists are killed off by the hard core fanatics who sit on the side line.

well put.

Negativity isn't always bad. In the discussion of an idea its needed, otherwise a discussion devolves into group think. I do apologize for the sarcasm, but your argument seemed to be saying one side thinks people should live, the other side says no. I mentioned giving out flocks of chickens (through Heifer) not to say 'mine is bigger' but to move the discussion in the direction of solid things that can be done now. Truthfully I haven't read the whole thing (separate paragraphs please), but I have spent time skimming it. As philosophy its good, in reality I think its dubious. Human nature works against it. But its worth discussing. There are ideas from it that I think can be adapted to smaller settings. When times are hard some of Venus's ideas evolve naturally. I've been employee, manager and boss. I've worn many shoes in my life. Many people are inherently lazy, myself included. In a world where I could get equal pay or in Venus's case stuff for working an easy job and short hours I would. If I was less lazy and perhaps brilliant and it would give me the opportunity to have even better stuff then I had at the moment, or better stuff then the people around me, I'd take it. I don't think those are minority traits in humanity. Outlaw money and people would quickly recreate it. Getting real If someone said today, they'd bought 600 square miles in Australia and were creating a sovereign nation based on Venus, would you go? A condition would probably be you'd have to sell everything you owned and give it to them as terms of entry. The costs of starting up a spankin new society is enormous. Think about..uh..tampons. Say you 40,000 people, 20,000 woman. Who designs and says how many there are. Are you the one working the expected 10 hours a day in the factory or the one who puts in 2 hours when they feel like it and go home? How do you feel when a guy walks out of the market place with 3,000 of them and tells you he's using them to build a kayak (unrolling and repasting as skin). These and there ilk are the real questions in my opinion. Your philosophical ones feel like a smoke screen. Looking through your other questions: SDog:"You ask about who has the power? Let me ask you... if this is a concern to you Michael, who has the power right now? Can you honestly say?" Me: I don't remember asking that question. Can you be more specific, power of what? We can back it up to the constitution and get into my rights to own property and stuff. It can't be taken away without due process. I have the power to travel, buy what I can afford, read, free speech etc. I'm actually incredibly powerful. My control over the environment at the moment is frickin amazing. I can make the lights go on and off, temperature rise and fall. I'm not being sarcastic, but I have powers that would make the kings of old pale with envy. One power I don't have and don't want is to force other people to be like me. I can offer a flock to a family in the Sudan, but They are going to have to be incharge of there education and mostly there own welfare. It would be stupid of me to impose my culture, religion or ideals on them. We circle back to how to help the less fortunate. I think Capitalism (with all its problems) has lifted more people out of poverty then anything else. For better or worse it clicks with the human condition. I think Communism historically did the opposite, created and spread poverty. Thats my opinion, I know its debatable. So my questions are would you head to Australia to join a Venus Project? How would Venus correct the inequities in the Tampon factory or would it claim they don't exist? Sincerely, Michael

Its a great feel good Ideal but the Who had it right, I'll tip my hat to the new constitution Take a bow for the new revolution Smile and grin at the change all around me Pick up my guitar and play Just like yesterday Then I'll get on my knees and pray We don't get fooled again Don't get fooled again Meet the new boss Same as the old boss It dances around who has the power. Giving it to 'Cybernetics' who'll 'fairly' distribute the goods as they/it sees fit. I'd welcome and applaud anyone who had the guts to create a commune or city based on these ideals. One where people weren't forced into it. We could see if an MIT's professor's thesis translates into real power or stays on paper. There may be a reason why he's not an engineer. Whether resources were used wisely or squandered. If people had freedom or were forced into being 'good comrades'. Show me it working. I haven't checked on it lately but Trunk had some good posts and sites on Communal based living and hyper farming. That kind of thing works best when its purely volunteer. Seems like Venus wants to take over the world first, solve problems later. Michael Yo Sdog you seem to be dancing around with soft ball sophistry like: "Joeblast, you can't honestly believe that human beings have no innate rights to live and be alive and be educated and contribute to society? Can you?" Uh, I think Joe (and 99% of all people) would say people have the right to live, shocking!!!, they have the right to contribute to society ?? Thats a deep question, NOT. Education, at least there is some meat to that one. So does Venus say we should all get an elementary education or highschool or Masters degrees. If people could stay in school (avoid real work) til they're 32 and have free master degrees thats wonderful, not practical, but wonderful. In the here and now, what are you actually doing to see someone in say an African village is getting an education?? Anything??. Here's what I'm doing. Every month some family somewhere gets a flock of chickens thanks to thelerners. Its not a lot, its not an education, but its food, fertilizer, pest control, a renewable sellable resource. IF well cared for it will grow, slowly, but possibly exponentially. Slow, but real. Versus the Venus Plan of give us Everything and the Cybernetics will treat you kindly. Michael

I share JoeBlasts sceptical view, too much Star Trek, not enough Animal Farm & 1984. In the 1800's and 1900's there were a couple of Utopitarian towns built in my state. They all failed. Most communes fail. In Israel where they had various forms of communistic villages and farms called Kibbutz, some of which were even had raising the kids away from parents as a group, they've tended to do poorly. After a generation or two the kids left. Idealists continually underestimated the hard work it takes to house, feed, and clothe society. So far in history the communistic model has tended to produce starvation and stagnation. I don't see how this plan is different or how those who run it don't become powerful Overlords who will try to dictate people lives from start to end. I think North Korea would applaud this plan and say (very truthfully)'We've achieved it'. Before people sell there goods and give up there power, I think we'll need a generation or two of large scale success. There are still places with open land. Good luck. Michael

Hmmnn, I'm a few days late paying the telephone bill. Perhaps I'd go back in time and remind myself. Actually From my vast reading of scifi I've learned 1-its best not to change the past (no matter how crappy things are there's always room for more crap) and 2-when in doubt, reverse the polarity of the neutron flow. Seriously, if I could change history I'd be very reluctant to do so, without G-dlike intelligence you'd be setting things in motion you couldn't foresee. Unseriously, heck I don't even try to change the present . Michael

The last post here was the end of July. I wanted to see people had any words of wisdom on how there gardens turned out. What they tried, planted and learned from the growing season. In the Midwest we had a lot of rain and everything grew like crazy. My mix of Mesclun lettuce grew great, but I wished I had planted a milder mix (& some spinach). I grew mammoth Jalapenos, which did brilliantly and were milder then small ones, at the end of the season they turned red and sweetened. I planted yellow grape tomatoes, despite being planted in the same area as last year they did great, giving me 3 1/2 months of sweet tomato berries. This is my second year planting on the super simple raised square foot garden(from Mother Earth mag). Last year I laid 8 40Lb bags of cheap soil end to end, I made one long cut on the bottom and totally opened the top. I mixed in one bag of miracle grow, things grew well, at the end of the summer I removed the plastic bags. This year I had to pick out some grass that grew as weeds & I mixed in another bag of miracle grow soil. It was very productive. My plantings, especially the lettuce and carrots was helter skelter, no rows just dumping everything down. It didn't hurt the mesclun lettuce (I think it helped keep it weed free infact), some of the carrots were stunted by over crowding. Still it was 30 or 40 carrots from a $1.99 bag. I didn't have a fence last year, and I didn't lose too much. This year instead of putting a fence around the garden I laid down some fencing on top of it. The wire lattice had point edges. It worked, the plants grew through the fencing and it mostly escaped animals. I suspect they might have been poked by an edge or bitten into wire and given up. Or other gardens were tastier. I did have some marigolds on both ends for looks and the supposed ability to detour some pests. Michael

Dealing with Sexual energy is a little like dealing with fire. Those who are sensitive or over due can get burned. I've heard specific criticisms about that book. I've heard criticisms over the MicroCosmic Orbit meditations. In my opinion they're worth while, but if you start heating up or have any symptoms, stop. At least until you can do it under the guidance or an experienced teacher. Michael