thelerner

Speaking of tea, have any of you participated in a traditional Tea Ceremony. I've done it twice at Zen Festivals. Very worthwhile. The tea is a powdered green variety. Tastes almost like a powdered green drink like Barley or alfalfa. The ceremony itself is a wonderful practice of kata in the common place. Peace Michael

I've had some white tea. It fine, it didn't seem all that flavorful. I think the Republic of Tea makes a few types. If most of Republic of Teas's stuff is 6 to $9,l the white is 11 to $13. Still much cheaper then starbucks. But then isn't isn't everything. Speaking of tea, I had a bunch of limes that I wasn't using quickly. I sliced two thinly, coated them lightly w/ sugar and put them in a zip lock baggie. Very nice addition to my teas. I don't like things too hot. Oh and 20/20 had a report on green tea yesterday. It said despite evidence that populations that drink more green tea have lower cancer rates, and despite mice tests showing mice are more resistant to toxins and cancer, they COULD NOT MAKE THE CLAIM GREEN TEA WAS A CANCER PREVENTATIVE. I consider myself a sceptical person. But they seemed to be bending over backward to come to the conclusion they wanted. That is a poor scientist and a poor sceptic. Peace & Tea Michael I think the quote, "Making a glass of Tea I stop the War", was from a Christmas Humphrey book on meditation. It was a story of man wanting to go to Korea(?) to study meditation, and being asked/stopped at the airport by customs wanting to know why he wanted to go to a war zone. Something like that I think

I'm big into combining different teas. I'll throw some Cellestial Seasoning Zinger type teas in w/ some cheap Lipton & make great iced tea (I'll also throw in some Vanilla extract, float some lime & lemons). Add a fruity wine like Merlot makes a very nice sangria. Whole Foods has some dried fruit teas sold by the ounce, like Carribean and Sangria. I'll throw a small handful of those into a pot, add in Constant Comment or Earl Grey. Winter time is great for traditional green tea w/ toasted rice(genmai?) A store in China town has these incredible tea balls, a half inch round, that blossom up in hot water. They're green tea w/ an incedible light smoky taste. Beware, I tried to buy them at another tea shop, and it was 10X more expensive and just not as good. I also have a wide variety of Yogi Teas. They have an excellent Ginseng tea, and I'll use there medicinal teas as a first resort. Peace Michael Making a glass of tea, I stop the War. What book is that from?

I've learned a couple of them. I tend to use Zen fingers together on the bottom, thumbs forming level roof on top. Or upside down church & steeple, ie pointer fingers together and up, rest of fingers in and curled. I've always seen that kind of mudra as psycological. If you're calm and meditating when you make them, then they become Pavlovian which is very important. There are Ninja arts that take them very seriously. Peace Michael

Here's some. stand up and shake. Start w/ your hands shake'em up til your whole body is moving. Ideally your heels should be lifting off the floor. Let the shaking relax & energize your body. Keep it up for a few minutes. Then lie down, have your knees up if that helps relax your lower back. Get in touch w/ your breath. Breath deeply. Feel your diaphragm moving down. Your stomach rounding. Slow the breath. Breath deeply enough so that your lower rib cage slightly expands. Stay w/ that for a few breaths. Then focus on your hips. As you breath in focus on your hips opening and expanding. Stay w/ it for a while. Thats one way. Another is do lots of sit ups and variations of sit ups Do'em til your stomach is truly sore and you really feel the muscles. The next day, exhale your breath completely, focus on the muscles-tense them for about 10 seconds. Then let'em relax. Repeat a dozen or times each day for a while. This is an old time exercise to build up the stomach. It also will give you greater feel for tensing & relaxing them. Peace Michael

what do you do with the left over coconut ? Peas Michael

Just did Warrior Wellness Beginners for first time yesterday. I was surprised at how simple it was. I was expecting something more, strength oriented or stranger. It seems like a good warm out though. I'll stick w/ Beginner for a week or so then peek at intermediate. Peace Michael

Many of us are also readers and posters on the HT board. I don't think its a secret I'm not a big Danny fan. Matter of fact I think he's a poster boy for ..(self edited). But I wonder if I stepped over the bounds of ..uh.. hmnn forum etiquette by saying I think he should be removed. One of his last posts was about Chia scratching his balls & what Mikey Winn should do etc. He's actually been much better in his recent Satan & Jesus Christ personas then he's been in the past. But he posts(IMO) so much garbager, daily, hourly that I find him offensive. FAce it he's the 600# gorilla on the site by virtue of doing the most posting. I opened up a discussion on whether he should be thrown off it (for 3rd or 4rth time). Sites are not democracies, but if many people feel as I do, shouldn't the Sysop know it? What are your thoughts? Peace Michael

You bring up some good points. Its not divergent opinions or idiot posts, or preachy posts I mind. Its the combination of tons of them a day. Grrrr. I tried to make it somewhat democratic. He hasn't been quite kicked off yet. I know I came off a bit self righteous in this particular exchange. Matter of fact Danny has mellowed quite a bit from his voodoo, I'll curse you into the pits of hell days. I take some credit for that , after all I 'killed' Smiletao :0 You don't smite them above, you go face to face to flame. I can respect that. Keep the home fires warm, w/ any luck we'll be sending Danny your way. If you haven't scared him off from earlier. Peace Michael

Anna Wise has been EKG ing various meditative masters of different traditions for 2 decades. She has a good book and excellent audio series out, its 4 discs, has about 9 meditations on it. Interesting stuff on accessing Theta and Delta waves, as well improving general visualizations. She also has two interesting healing meditations. Worth googling Peace Michael

Your memory going RJ? You've blasted Danny in the past meaner harder nastier and more poetically then anyone else. I like unique strange people. You don't meet many Satanists for Christ guys every day. I honestly don't mind that. But lack of respect for the board and those running it, I do mind. Repetitive gratuitous posts-bad. Preaching on high instead of discussing-bad. Oh yeah did I mention Repetitive gratuitous quotes? Danny ain't cool(IMO), he's manic, you said if first, and I agreed w/ you then. During his last incarnation on the board, he was getting into his messiahship and wondering about who would become his disciple. As older semi-responsible board members, we should be brakes on reality checks on people. We've seen beginners crash from doing too much energy work too soon. And DRagon Masters go through schizoid episodes where they lost family and friends - all in the name of newly found powers. I'd bet you dollars to donuts if he became a regular on your board you'd inevitably end up flaming him big time. Cause of his heavy handed repetitive writing and he'd want you to become a disciple. Peace Michael

Danny, if you read this- the question is - Who are you? Peas Michael

Retreats like that take you way outside of the ruts of everday patterns, laying naked the inner working of your mind. It would be great to try one. I'll have to put it on my to do list Peace Michael

Great Essays, a great combination of sources linking inner energy to outer form. Kudos Michael

Death, its in the news, in the air, on our minds lately. I was reading a recent posting from Yoda. Let me quote it 'People are upside down re: death. They think it is bad and embarrassing. The truth is that the death transition is the funnest thing anyone will ever experience... going from a very intense point of focus through the body to a much more cosmic perspective is just plain fun. Keep in mind when the Buddha got foodpoisoning or Krishna got shot with an arrow, they thanked the perpetrators for helping make for a speedy transition. They "forgave" the perpetrators but also explained that no forgiveness really was called for, given that it is the return to our original home. Yoda said it in the last movie and he was dead on. All this paranoia inspires further negativity. Did you read in Discover Magazine, that people who have near death experiences are happier and their brainwave functioning is significantly altered? (a depressed person takes 60 minutes to reach REM sleep, a normal person takes 90 minutes, and a "refreshed" soul takes 110minutes on average--much happier and never again fearful of death. To them it's funny to see people speaking negatively on the subject or being fearful.) Most significantly, heavy duty mourning prepaves more difficult transitions for anybody who transmits mournfulness--people are effectively inviting more difficult transitions into their own experience by transmitting such vibrations' Interesting perspective. Worthwhile, but probably dangerous to give someone who's currently in mourning. Who do we cry and mourn for? Our loss or the corpses? Hmmnn. I've always admired the concept of an Irish funeral. A happy drunken party as a send off. Isn't that closer to what we want. There are amazingly parallel lines between the Jewish Orthodox view of what happens to the person after death and Tibetan thoughts. Both have a bewildered soul panicked and off balance after death. Hanging around for a few days. So a person is always w/ the body. I was at Tao Mountain when Ron Diana died. There was a nice meditation session for him. I was also at the Sivananda Yoga Ashram when the head of the sect came to visit. He had recently had a severe stroke. He was paralyzed and could barely speak. I'd like to report there was a happy light coming from his eyes, but they seemed pained and clouded. I think RJ said or requoted, "So, how will that help when you no longer have a body?" Beyond the feel good stuff. That is a question we might have to answer. In the Healing Tao Fusion practices, work is done to define the energy body, ie 8 major channels. Get the Shen organized. To what extent does a cohesive energy body, dream practice, death practice Powa really prepare us for the great unknown. Should we worry? Or is the great unknown what happens to us every day? Peace Michael

Being of a sceptical bend I tried to find if Emoto's work had been repeated by others. Couldn't find any. A listing of 150 peer reviewed 'something' from the film was a mistatement. The one print in a scientific journal wasn't a peer review but just a 'curiosity'. Other scientists looking at his papers were less then impressed. He never really measured liquid water. He measured ice crystal, which tend to form around impurities and tend to be both pretty and unique. He did have a test w/ rice though. I think the book said it had been replicated many times by school children, ie, sealed rice that people 'encouraged' had a sweet fermented smell to it, rice 'cursed' was a fungal mass, rice ignored was even worse. It seems that would be an easy experiment. But couldn't find people saying they did it. Someone here should try it sometime. 2 cents Peace Michael

I grow grape tomatoes in containers every year. For the past few week or so, everytime I go outside I grab a couple. They're wonderful, every day there are a couple just ripe enough. I have little yellows one and sweet 100's in the pot. Nothing like it, so easy, so healthy. Peace Michael

Why don't you email Rene or Michael Winn that question. I had thought about skipping Fusion and going for the Kan & Li course this year, but thought patience. Time enough for everything. Peace Michael

This is a good discussion. Knowing me, I'm probably postponing and procrastinating enlightenment until, oh just before death. I hope that Yodster is right. We, the human race, deserve at least that. This incarnation stuff has its high points, but only if you look high and to the right, else where there is darkness and echoes of darkness. Societies Taboos strip death, our deaths, of the pomp and circumstance and holiness that it deserves. Peace Michael

Daniel Reid published the 'ultimate' spring tea formula in one of his books. A real Kitchen sink recipe that took 6 months to slow brew. I believe its more exotic ingredients were 2 sea horses(one male, one female) and human placenta! I have one herbal book w/ a particularly interesting spring formula called Beast Juice. Its interesting because after putting in the herbs you fill them w/ half brandy, half apple cider vinegar. I made it, its tastes pretty awful, but does have a kick to it. Peace Michael

That is SO creepy Peas Michael

That is SO creepy Peas Michael

I was thinking of a sort of Taoist do it Better location in forum. Not so much discussion based, but a compilation of our best ideas. For example inside it would be RUNNING, we could compile different and significant posts on running there. Too often they run throughout Personal logs and through different posts. Urine Drinking. Weight Lifting, Sun Gazing, Elixirs, Water Therapy, etc. It would be made up of solid posts, and questioning and weaker posts would be w/ 'weeded' out. Not to be competitive, but so that we could quickly look up the heart of these things. Too often great ideas are sent down the forum stream to be virtually lost. Here we could have a short list of interesting tropics, presented w/ some depth. What do you think. Peace Michael P.S. I write for 2 minutes and propose hours of work for poor Sean, who is already a master at finding great connected ideas on posts.

Really? All of it? I used to just put in random words in its search and find interesting strings from the early 90's. But the future is now, the past is an old relic silenty gathering dust. Its nice to know it still exists. Q> What form is it in? Thanks Michael

Yoda's suggestion of using the Articles site for that kind of discusion is pretty good. Its such a shame that early history on the HT site got dumped. It had so many gems. Peace Michael Back yesterday from Dao Mountain & Fusions I II III