thelerner

In between boiling water and doing laundry I'll be at Live Chat. If people are on but not responding, make a noise. 2:45 Chicago time Michael

grok

The person we sponsor should be the best at reporting to us. The person who'd give us the best taste of actually experiencing it. To that point I'd say Yoda, who is our most prolific writer. Then I'd consider Spyrelix who wants the job and says he'd do a great job recording it for us. To that extent Trunk would be a good choice too. If people are really serious, we should make it into a real vote, with Sean O, to get the final decision with regards to honest and fair counting. If we're serious someone should put it into a poll. Michael

I can't draw worth a damn, but I get the image (black & white) of a sword slicing the Tai Chi image in half. Its not to show disrespect to the symbol, but to illustrate the work needed to cut through imagary into the real. If done well it should have some eye catching drama to it. Michael

I really admire your book, '100 days'. Glad to have you here. You know what they say, Old Taoists never die, they just transform and reform Michael

This site is a a gold mine of global dialogue. Spend some time hunting down the best threads, bam you have 20 or 30 pages of very interesting philosophical dialogue. With permision there are some interesting personal logs here and on the HT site that could make interesting fodder. Michael

In my day we only had one tantien and that was the hara located in the belly. Now you whipper snappers have lots of them. Middle ones in the heart or sometimes the solar plex, high ones in the brain somewhere. This tantien inflation has to stop. Pretty soon you'll be calling them chakras, giving them colors and then where will we be? India thats where. Like Cam, I started off in Aikido where there is a tradition to concentrating and centering on the lower tan tien(hara). In alchemical taoism I do find using 3 tantiens useful, belly, heart and head. Michael Pole star is usually another name for the North star, Polaris. The light purple star that keeps its position at night and has the other stars (hence the universe) circle around it

Your always poetic often cryptic messages will be missed. Don't stay away too long, even forever takes coffee breaks Michael

I bought David Deida's "Enlightened Sex" book last week. I'm a sucker for books that also contain audio CD's. I like the book a lot. You can clearly see Chia influences in it, such as MCO and Big Draw type control. There is very little technique but much emphasis on relaxation, body awareness and opening your heart and connecting it to your lover. Its written from a man's point of view and much of it is answering the questions of how to relate to woman. The line between staying sensitive while being masculine. Its probably not as 'enlightening?' for woman as for men. One book I have that is simply called Tantra by Val Sampson is very good. Its an easy introduction with many good pointers. Sampson is a journalist who did an article on Tantra and got sucked into it as a serious hobby. Its conversational and not very technique oriented. Again Chia's name pops up every now and then as someone who influenced one of her teachers. I probably pick up some sort of trantric book every year or two. Sex is too important a part of our lives to let get stale. Michael

I'm in category of joining here to find the non-ordinary reality. Despite some deep experiences and years of meditation I'm still a rational mind in a Newtonian Universe- which is too bad. Hopefully I'll follow Tonytao experience and be dragged out of it. Michael

Welcome Glad to have you aboard. Don't hesitate to post questions or great thoughts or telling us about the style of chi gung you practice. Is the Giles you mention the Giles at Chei Nei Tsang? Michael

You've trained longer and harder then most of us. Seems to me you're sitting pretty high up and wondering what next? From my point of view, you are very accomlished. You've spent long ernest time 'on the mat'. There are fruits of your practice that you take for granted that many of us may never know. The only thing I might suggest is- Sometimes when you work hard for something and it seems its eluding you, take a break, surrender your desire and let the universe decide. Michael

I call it being a regular American. (apologies to neighbors north and south ) Michael

My very favorite is Michael McAllistair for his zen inspired talks, his website is Infinitesmile.com or better yet search for free podcasts at the Itunes store. You can use Itunes (a free program) to convert it into mp3 for any non ipod player. His half hour talks give me the same feeling I get from say, Eckhardt Tolle, only he is easier to connect to because he's a regular guy. I highly recommend his talks to everyone. Deep, accessible and resonant. Michael

Lately I think the 'work' - meditation and contemplation has mellowed me out some. There were times when meditating quieted some of my mind, and made me much more aware of the crap I was thinking. I'd be amazed and regretful at the anger and anxiety that circled through my head. Maybe thats better then not being aware of it, but it was dark and stressful. I think it moves in cycles. I don't think meditation alone solves psychological problems. A quiet mind can make you aware of an issue, even amplify them. The worst is when you assume that 'it' is not a problem, 'it' is a benefit of your higher mastery and others can't fathom it. Eventually you have to see where the emotions start and make peace with them. Michael

the true meaning of karma is causeless action, a complete action with no reaction. I've been trying to wrap my mind around this. I believe the opposite of a great truth is another great truth. Still, karma as causeless action... One aspect where I might see this is in children. Same family, same conditions, totally different personalities and traits. We look for why's and causality..but it just is. Accept initial conditions and move on. Thats where I'm at w/ it now. Looking for causalities is just another mind game. Karma accepted is karma denied Michael

What can we come up with? I'll dig up the address on a Manual on Consciousness, which is a book/course on lucid dreaming. Michael

No its different. I could have sworn I put in the address. Here it is again http://www.geocities.com/lucidmetro/coursetable.htm A good lengthy course on advanced dream work. Michael

Dream work has been on my to do list for a long time. Unfortunately when I get serious about it, I end up with insomnia. Its also a mountain I'll have to climb one day. Ultimately it can become a portal to another world. Whether that world is 'just' internal or external I don't know. What are you guys doing and how advanced? Michael

Here's a 'Course on Consciousness' a week by week course on indepth dream work. Seems like a good method, well thought out, well done, but personally it didn't help me. If your interested in dream practice its worth a look and maybe a print out. Michael

Taomeow your mud idea is fascinating. You just bivouac in some warm muddy place? A year or two ago one of the European guys here talked about the spirituality of sleeping out doors w/out a tent. Sounds like you're taking it to a new extreme. Michael

I could see it being done w/ transparencies, like old anatomy books. Each page showing a different meridian or system. Michael

I'm sceptical it would work. Even if by some miracle everybody followed it, we'd go from using 10 million gallons of gas a day to 10 million gallons of gas a day. No net change just a redistribution of who get the big bucks. Gas has a big bottle neck in refining. Whether you buy at some poor shmoes gas station doesn't matter to the huge companies who do the refining, so the big boys win again. At the moment only conservation will put a dent, possibly a big one into the costs. Hopefully we'll have more meaningful alternative energy choices in the near future. But the coke guys plan is just a shell game. Michael- Prius Owner & small minivan Actually if you wanted to save mucho gas you'd have drive the speed limit day. That would save millions of a gallons. Just one day a week, most people, especially trucks, driving the speed limit would make a considerable dent.

I'm working on the psychological step I from Franz Bardon's Initiation into Hermetics. He has you make a dark mirror. You write down all your bad habits and traits. You do it seriously til you have over a hundred. Then you categorize them into there elemental features. Then put the elemental lists into order of seriousness. Step I is not a matter of problem solving. Its looking at your darker side closely. Seeing the deeper patterns, the triggers, where the emotions and thoughts come from. It takes a few weeks, then you do the same for a 'light' mirror. Things that are you at your best. In later steps you work on self correction, but only after deep contemplation of the mirrors. I think this kind of work is absolutely neccessary. A modern interpretation in seeing karma, beyond the simplistic problem, fixit mode that only looks at and solves surface problems. Michael

You totally don't get it. Third time, my criticism of your writing has nothing to do w/ what you think of Winn. Its about your childish attacks on any one who disagrees with you. I keep repeating the same thing to you. Its not about political correctness or mindless agreement or ganging up on. If you think Winn or the HT is dangerous you have every right to say so. This site was made to get away from HT control, but almost every thread you're on ends with you making personal attacks on other people. Its something you should work on. One of the things Sean the Sysop has done is create an exceptional well run site w/ a wide spread interesting group of people. He does ask us to be respectful to each other. Michael