thelerner

Nice, love to hear details about how people do standing meditation, but time for me hit the sack. Good night.

No improvements but my Oura smart ring tracks my heart rate and heart variable during meditation. I usually set it for 30 minutes and see the record. My meditation has 6 parts. Some sections create faster heart rate then others. I want to do better quantifying it. Maybe do each part for the entire meditation and see how my heart rate does for each one singly. For example 4rth part is concentration on the dan tien. 5th part is letting that focus go, but breathing as quietly as possible. The 6th is letting that go and just sitting, welcoming thought, doing nothing. I'll track my heart rate during these meditations. Why, idk. gotta use my gadgets and something to do.

Have a good night. Since I'm 2 hours in the future, I can tell you, it'll be a good one.

well save some of that savory grub for me. screw isolation, I'm heading over that video you had today. Showed the guys doing shots of horse radish vodka!

I like Peng. I've gotten some small works by him from True Sounds. I should probably review them soon. One was on breathing, I think the other was a guided hypnotic. I didn't use it much but it was good. I'll have to dig it out.

Me and mine are healthy. Nothing much, need to listen to the audio book I got from the library using the Overlook app. Whats the Yi Jin Jing video like?

testing looking for @liminal_luke and @Taomeow, what's happening? What you up to? .. now I wait.. and @Seatle185 or @anyone this is like the Old Chat where you'd log on and wait.. still sometimes it worked nicely.

Only if they catch you w/ a vacuum cleaner. I kinda like the symbolism and comfort of being at a grave yard. There is an inbetween. At a cemetary in Marco Island there was an area that had 2 benches. You could sit on them and they had placards naming and honoring family members. The benches were hollow and had urns inside, so with the space of a grave or two could hold extended families, and give mourners a place to sit and remember. I kinda like that.

True that, but I've heard people point out that trace amounts and amounts that are actually 'catchy' may be different. As I walk people are circling me by 10 feet, that seems a bit much. But in the end, I worry that you're right, most of us won't be able to evade it perpetually. Hopefully we'll have beds, respirators and better medical treatments when the bulk of elderly get hit. Hope is cheap, so is soap & water.

you can become a learner, but There Can be Only One thelerner. Seriously though, Ajahn Brahms rocks. Lately I'm learning on the opposite end of the spectrum. From General Jim Mattis listening to his wisdom on Call Sign Chaos.. got another 9 hours to listen. Its way different but then Daoism is about understanding the compliment of opposites.

What a great youtube channel. like Anthony Bourdain, seeing the world and its people through the universal prism of a great shared meals.

The top Thailand master I'm familiar with is Ajahn Brahm (sometimes the longer Brahmavamso). Australian, became Thai monk, became head monk. Funny, deep, contemporary with great knowledge. He's got tons of free stuff on the internet, example-https://www.dhammatalks.net/Ajahn_Brahm/audio.htm or books https://brahmstalks.wordpress.com/b-o-o-k-s/ He believes that Siddhis are possible now, not in another life time, including seeing the whole other dimensional world. Yet the big siddhis are clear mind, clear thinking etc., not too flashy. It's still a chop wood, carry water world. With monks doing a whole lotta work in near poverty conditions. Another teaching he stresses is beginner monk has beginner monk problems; little sleep, poor food, much work. Head monks have head monk problems; listening to lazy monks complain, sympathizing with troubles of all there constituents, paying the bills and balancing the books. Similarly poor man has poor problems, rich man, rich man problems. We never really escape problems, just move on to new ones. Through skillful means we accept and do our best. <I was just listening to one of his riffs on the benefits of dying in a plane crash. He was very persuasive. If my plane ever goes down I hope I remember his wise words, cause that way I'll die with a smile on my face>

From the middle of the 20th century to the end, the Chinese communist governement arrested many Daoist masters, putting them in re-education camps; knocking down their monasteries. They are undoubtedly spiritual, learned and cultivated but not powerful enough to keep that from happening. If any Daoist masters could meddle and stop the atrocities to their religion and way of life, I assume they would have. You see a similar pattern all around. 1,000 years of Egyptian magic against the Roman legion, didn't work. Powerful Indian shamans blessing weapons and making followers bullet proof. Not effective. There are wonderful anecdotes and individual stories but as a whole, mystical masters of all stripes have gotten the fuzzy end of the lollipop facing off against governments and armies. Similarly stories of Rainbow body never seem to end with recipients staying in the monastery and teaching. Instead its usually, then they were gone. I don't think a normal person would skip out like that. Not on there friends, teachers, students. Wouldn't most of us stay and teach, at least for awhile?

not really, maybe a long hAaaaaaahh to accompany it, (if you're not doing it now). A little bit of sacred sound goes a long way

Many of us will be spending more time indoors. Wondering what books, shows, sites and cooking that people might want to share. Shows, maybe I'll rewatch HBO's Westworld from the start. Loved season 1 for its philosophy, found season 2, too blood thirsty. Books, got a backlog. I should switch between one thing for fun, the other spiritual or helpful, like a biography. Someone here recommended an update of the Odyssey (or was it the Illiad?) that looked good. Cooking, made a nice lentil soup. Onions, chopped sweet potato, red lentils, veggie broth, various spices, olive oil & apple cider vinegar. Delicious thick and filling. For sites, I like cracked.com for comedy, some funny video series too, like After Hours, they had couple funny Star Wars parodies too.

I'm willing to bet this is not a man who spends his time arguing with strangers on the internet. Not now, nor the equivalent in his past. I assume he'd find it silly, pointless and egoic.

Nope, we're both men. I tend to be optimistic*, you tend to be very very very pessimistic. That's the main difference, the filter we see the world thru. Looking a little closer, the kids aren't yokked to anything. They have bright yellow ribbons on to be seen and identified easily. They work(or play) together to hold up the 'cord' thing they're holding onto. They seem happy. A good thing. * I'll look at a glass, see its half full and wonder where I can get some ice. You look at a glass, see its half full and wonder if its poisoned.

The good news is you can get the gentleman in the nofap video to tutor you, if you pay the right amount. He will teach you to 'In this series you'll discover the mindset secrets I used to get to $30,000 a month in income at 22 and everything that I've learned from my millionaire mentors.' According his Youtube, this cultivation star will teach you to make $30K a month, $360,000 a year. You just have to believe and follow his advice. Learn lessons about making money off social media and facebook ads. I am sure its helpful to some. FWIW I agree with him on cold showers, but I find a guy like Wim Hof who's much more laid back to be a better mentor. These days the biggest online cons play to the ego.. ie this is only for the super smart. other guys won't understand it. Take the hook and lose your money.

I don't think they're going to teach kids to cut off their genitals anytime soon. That's a strange exaggeration. Evils been here for a long time. Its not going anywhere. Past was in no way free of it. Same as Good, its coming and its already here. Having 3 kids and having taught classes, I understand that when you're taking 4 or 5 year olds out for field trips, where it's crowded, that yokking them is a good idea. Sometimes I've seen a cord used that they have to hold onto. As a parent I approve of either. Having been a volunteer for field trips to crowded museums keeping kids, especially young ones together is tough. Them getting lost is terrifying for everyone. Let there parents give them free reign, while under school care we're responsible and need them to follow instructions and stay together as much as possible.

I've already figured it out, for myself. Plus that guy is Western, like most White Western Caucasian Men he probably shouldn't be trusted anymore then the ACbFST . Also the fact he's nofap doesn't stand him in good stead. If nature didn't want us to play, it wouldn't have given us toys. imo, for some not playing with them leads to neurotic and increasingly self righteous behavior.

I'll listen to Buddhist inspired Podcasts by InfiniteSmile and Zencast, but today I started listening to audiobook Code Sign Chaos by General Jim Mattis. Lotta good dharma in it; lessons for life. You can't shut yourself off from wisdom of other traditions. I'm getting back into cold showers and arduous breathing exercises. Good health seems to require a little bit of self torture, at least at first. If you like it, you're doing something wrong!?

So.. where you from? <nothing wrong with leading a monk life, or even a very conservative one with no alcohol, tobacco or deviant sex. What is deviant anyway to you? premarital?.. Anal? Only for reproduction?>

So.. what do you think of English-Speaking Western Men? and aren't you one? What do you think the two older American Caucasian brunette Female Spiritual Teachers(toACbFST for short) would think of you? Would you ever travel to meet them or try there class? lastly.. why should members here look to you for dating and marriage advice? Do you have any experience or credentials with it?

Like Trump, I don't think you're wrong, but you do exaggerate greatly. ie seeing outliers as the norm. You will undoubtedly find much that agrees with you on the Russian TV site- rt.com .

<<<apologies for the bottom stuff. I've been writing short stories and the questions seemed like really good prompts>>> the story of the satellite beaming kinetic energy to the center of the earth, thus dooming it ends with ..like my grandma always said- you can't make an omelet without heating up some butter. -notmybestwork We seem to be straying from the OP, quite a bit. but If I was to take these questions, I'd say answering 3 easy questions is invalid because question 3, has at least 5 questions in it. Thus you can't answer 3 questions when in fact there are 8 questions, thus the request implodes on itself. However if it didn't implode, I'd answer a middle one, like uh how would I get electricity- I'd probably set up geo-synchronous satellite that would harvest the kinetic energy of the earth itself and beam it as heat and radiation into a hole, deep into earth's center creating vibrations that could impower machines throughout the earth. But that's just me, others would have different methods. How would I connect the internet. There's no school old school. I'd bring back AOL. If it not broken, don't fix it. All we have to do is dig up the billions of CD's they mailed out. Let me tackle question 2. I'd say I'm more distracted then helped by this administration. I'll make number 1 a quickie. If I asked the head of the executive branch any indepth question about ' highways, air travel, electronic communication, satellite navigation, interstate and international commerce, agriculture, food safety, testing of pharmaceuticals, deposit insurance, and the electric grid'.. I don't think they'd know the answer.