thelerner

Similar. Not quite as wide a stance. The knees bend a bit more. When the hands go back, there's more sense of paddling water behind you. It's the same big thrusting motion that's stretching muscles and fascia. nice active stretch sequence.

Apparently the Buddha disagrees.

I like brussel sprouts. They may be bitter but they've tried to blackmail me. To be honest I had a greater supply of meds than I let on. I thought when I pulled the 'almost out' card they'd let me buy the medicine I needed to live, that they'd show mercy to my lying self. I was wrong Lesson learned- My survival means nothing to them, follows the rules, make the yearly appointment or die. I continue to exist thanks to their cold soulless mercy.

Last month I re-ordered my medicine and was told no. Calling learned no more unless I saw the heart doctor. I'd been on the medicine for years. Told them I was about to go on vacation, I was nearly out, just get me some. I assumed my doctor who I'd known for years would break policy and write me a subscription. Nope. I had to make an appointment later and was told no. Letting them know I considered them heartless soulless bureaucrats did not change their minds. So, had to see the doctor. There are worse but when you're on a vital medicine you don't want to feel blackmailed by your health care.

When meditating is hard due to a runaway mind, I like to use Guided Meditations or Yoga Nidras. Good ones will relax the body, put you into a light trance so when they end you're clear enough to meditate. Breathing rhythms will do that too. If you're interesting there are tons of meditations on youtube. If the idea is meditating after listening, go for a short ones with a pleasant voice and induction that draws you in, ie try a few. addon> For nice voices I like Kim Walsh and Lilian Eden. Also like Michael Sealy, Jason Stephenson. Entrance and Unlock Your Life are interesting. If you like a reader, they'll usually line to others who are somewhat similar. My favorite youtube for breathing rhythms is https://www.youtube.com/c/BreathingMantra I find the Dao to be an ocean filled with all things. Our path is to learn to move in harmony with it.

I took a seminar w/ Max many years ago. Enjoyed it, Kunlun was an interesting spontaneous chi gung art to add to my training. Max is a fascinating story teller but I wouldn't take the tales as gospel. The man has juice, and Kunlun seemed powerful, relatively simple but also a caveat emptor type of art, in that you were learning a potentially powerful system without backup, follow up or continued instruction. Which can be problematic, and we had some people develop problems with it. I never did but I'm not energy sensitive. Recently Trunk mentioned a Kwan Yin system that his teacher, Sifu Matsuo had. From what I see it has similarities to Kunlun, though looks like its part of much bigger system - https://alchemicaltaoism.com/DGSReviews.htm 1. Kwan Yin Magnetic Qigong This dvd is key for harmonization. If you get nothing else from my website at all, get this dvd. In fact, if you wanted only one qigong practice, period, get this dvd. KYMG has a number of parts, individually simple, that are keys to a series of central channel issues. Don't overwhelm yourself by trying to learn it all at once; don't rush beyond the pace of your own process. Just like learning anything with a number of parts: Practice small managable pieces, either exclusively or by emphasis, within a single session. Gradually over time your skills will build and you'll become fluent with more of the whole. Here is a free youtube 9 minute preview of the KYMQ video. The portion of 1m25s - 3m20s gives minimally enough instruction so that you can effectively create and start working with the sphere. I suggest that you gain familiarity and comfort with that part first. TIP: Once you get a feel for how the hands work in magnetic qigong, with a little creativity you can also do some of the most simple movements with your feet - in any comfortable position in which both feet are relatively free or even standing on one leg, working the free foot in relation to the center line.

Wish I had that kind of memory. Sometimes at night I'll review my day trying to see it like a movie going through a montage. Often it's relaxing. The practice is supposed to be done dispassionately. Watch without mental comment.

Bit of a tangent, but when I'm in a deeper meditation and I breath full, slow and low, there's a spot I hit at fullness that feels good. It's lower inner belly maybe closer to the spine. It's almost a sexual hit. Sort of a 'la grange' point between the sexual center and lower dan tien and when in the zone breathing deep its hits the point and feels good.

The best doctor I saw for my back said ultimately strength and flexibility will be.. if not the cure, the biggest help. Needless to say a surgeon recommended surgery, which I didn't do.

The story was from the actual rabbi who lived it and show cased good men of religion talking together. Your re-writing does the opposite.

I've had back problems in the past. Last couple years its been pretty good. I credit doing a few deep squats in the morning as very helpful. I grab the sink for stability and squat as low as I can, stay there, shift my butt a little, get up and repeat 3 to 5 times. Somehow the relaxed deep squat sit has allowed me to touch my toes for the first time. In Michael Winns Fundamentals one of the moves really helped, -Crossing the Ocean. Simple short Chi gung movement. You stand like a person about to do a racing dive, legs bent, bending forward at the waist, arms straightened infront of you. You straighten up and your arms move like they were paddling water behind you. Then you get back into the 'dive' position and repeat a dozen or so times. Perhaps more easily seen than written. In any case the rhythmic bending and motion usually made my back feel better. My final tool is Spoonk mat (there are many other on the market). Like a yoga mat for sadists, it has 1,000s of little ¼ inch plastic spikes on it. Lying down causes a bit of discomfort, even pain at the beginning but as you lay, you gain nice relaxation. A bed of nails for Westerners. Great for when my back is acting up or I just want to get deeper relaxation.

Like a wedding, everything's old, everything is borrowed, everything's blue. I like the story of a rabbi, going to a meeting in Phoenix who went to the top of the roof to say his morning prayers. There was another man up there, a native American. The Jew got out his Tefillin and intricately wrapped the leather around his wrist and arm ending with the leather box between his eyes. The Indian got out a medicine bag opened its contents and both prayed, chanted, bowed towards the East. Afterward they talked together. Learning about the medicine bag and tefillin. The nature of the others prayers and both saw much similarities. Judaism being so old, you can find shamanism, you can find mysticism, meditation. One mistake I think Christians make is they don't realize the depth and length of Judaism, instead they picture it frozen in biblical times. Whereas Judaism shifted from temple oriented to rabbinic oriented nearly 2,000 years ago. You had greats like Rabbi Akiva in the first century re-defining Judaism and our practices, prayers and relation to God. Stuff like if the Sanhedrin rule the death penalty once in 7 (some say 70) years, they should be considered blood thirsty. I've always found the writings of wise rabbis over the millenia a better source to learn about Judaism than the bible/ torah, which always struck me as amalgamation.

I think the question contains the answer. We reclaim our lives by starting to care about things. Preferably things under our control.

The facebook group is pretty lame. I just tried to brighten it up with some philosophical pornography.

Sometimes I think being lazy and letting things go by is about a third of Taoism. . 48 Thelerner is a play on my name. Way back, before the internet age, before the earth was covered by billions of AOL CD's I logged onto AOL with a 300 baud modem and tried to join it. It took 4 tries before I found a name it would accept thelerner.

Two days ago I went to a Thai restaurant in Florida. They had, not a waiter but robot server. Four feet tall, wheels, emoji head made of dots, body with trays. It's come to your table smiled. Asked you to pick up trays on its middle with a manga style voice. Recognized when the trays were gone and rode back to the kitchen. My son looked it up and found they cost $16,000. Here it is- In the spirit of Kruschev- When the robot revolution comes, we will provide the electricity. P.S It came 50 years ago, we just didn't notice at the time. & they took our jobs.

same, but I skipped over accepting things as they are and jumped to not giving a damn hmnn perhaps a Paladin , a hard class to play correctly.

I don't know if there's any god or universal mechanism keeping track of our actions. Often I doubt it, but What we sow, We reap is pretty common sense, usually. To personally act as if karma matters is a good way to live. Yet blaming karma for other people's misfortunes is imo a bad way. Thats a contradiction but it's what I got.

My personal mantra practice, most often done in the shower, is more a canticle, thus longer than Indian ones. Like them its repeated, has sacred meaning and the vibrations themselves are important. From Rawn Clark's interpretation of the Hermetic tradition. His YHVH practice. Uniquely, it has you locate sounds on certain body parts as well as feeling/swirling other sounds around the body. If anyone's interested instructions are here- http://abardoncompanion.de/IHVH-Info.html I think everyone can benefit from a mantra/kotodama sacred sounds practice. For me they make the shower into a sacred spot.

In a Japanese Ki-Aikido sitting and standing the lower dan tien is considered behind and below the navel. But as you move around it also shifts, it also being a center of gravity as well as focal point. Wonder if the Chinese look for precision whereas the Japanese seemed fine with a looser definition, ie dan tien as Hara- thus when asked where it is might just pat his belly. Or maybe every tradition has a different location. So often a founder or great practitioner sets the philosophy and that's that. A definition is frozen for generations, where it was really one guy's opinion.

These days I just sit, keep my senses and mind open, things come, go and my mind settles. No particular focus points. Influenced by Adyashanti. Over the decades I've done other things. Started w/ counting breaths 1 to 10 repeat. For years. Later counting 100 breaths, than 500, takes awhile and much concentration. Doing KAP training I worked with a big rib expanding to stomach tightening breathing style. Being in Aikido my main focal point for years was lower dantien. Also slower breathing, in Ki-breathing it'd be a slow one minute breath cycle. Not easy, took months to get it. These days I still like using some breathing rhythms, most often an easy 7in7hold7out is easy and relaxing. A benefit is it makes both my regular breathe better, slower.. and when I meditate my normal breathing is slower and deeper. I studied qi gong and healing tao's microcosmic orbit. Got into circulation. After years I dropped it for simpler, breathing in and feeling/hearing my head.. heart.. lower dantien, and reversing the order on the breath out. That felt good, whatever kind of 'orbit' there was would have to happen naturally. Did it? Probably not. Sitting, I like half lotus or Indian style w/ legs a bit more spread. Inside on a zafu resting on folded blanket, outside I find tree stumps quite good. From Stillness/Movement I picked up keeping my hands together resting on my dantien. These days I'll keep them tucked, hammocked, under my shirt, touching the dantien area. Sometimes I'll do a slight bobbing motion. When its hot or I'm outside I'll keep my hands on my knees. A more open form. I've been meditating for over 40 years. Different styles, different aims. Of late moving towards simplicity. Doing more walking meditation, where I strive to balance staying out of my head, with having bright awareness. Senses opened up around me, without clinging and naming..

I'm Jewish, historically I tend to cringe at some of the comments when 'Abrahamic' threads pop up. Still, if it happens organically, it's fine, I don't think we need any kind of subsection or anything.

I agree and didn't like it for that reason. Maybe closer to the mark was What Dreams May Come. I found it genuinely touching and philosophical. Starring Robin Williams it explores an afterlife scenario. People are truthful and can live out their dreams, yet for Suicides their dark dreams follow them into the afterlife.

Not me. I don't see the need to blame the supernatural for the bad, ugly, selfish, evil that men do. Blaming things on the devil seems a way to slip human responsibility. Even in natural disaster or disease it feels like blaming a deity mitigates the need to build better, find the source because it's supernatural.

Bit of a comedy but Ricky Gervais's movie The Invention of Lying, had that exact premise. It was kind of a depressing world, everyone told the truth, often little unpleasant things that we normally wouldn't talk about. History and arts tended to be boring. The title character invents lying, and since it was new, everything he said was considered truthful. Hijinx followed until he could get a hold of his awesome power.