thelerner

I was thinking of adding a line saying that aimed at an individual, it might be accurate and as you point out, diagnostic, not necessarily a slam. I just find when aimed at groups, it tends to say more about the accuser then the accused.

Kabbalic diagrams are a bit to cerebral for me. I like practices like Rawn Clarks where during a chant yud hey vav hey, the letters are imagined on the body. Where feeling of internal, universal, temporal are felt and placed during the chant or rather canticle. A kind of We are Tree of life. It included healing variations too. Sadly abardoncompanion.com doesn't seem to be active anymore. hopefully thats temporary. Some great practices on it, including some sophisticated 32 level tree of life stuff.

To me, accusing groups of people of not having a soul, most often means we don't know them and we don't like them.

me too. Up at 3:30am and that was that. Double the energy cause big storm was going on. Got in some meditation though.

Its kinda silly for me to keep posting here but.. When you write elders of the school, don't you mean Spirit Elders (literally), who came to him in a dream and told him to stop or else. Which I can dig.. some lineages reputedly have such things happen. If you are referring to Jim McMillan, isn't that hard to measure? Didn't he write that after a year and half John Chang told him he was doing the breathing the wrong/opposite way? How long did he spend studying directly under JC? Was it years or more of catch as catch can during long vacation stretches? I'm sure he was good dedicated student with talent, but Eastern teachers have been known to flatter naive Westerners cause they got money and connections that might be needed later. Westerners can have a hard time separating myth, legend and leg pulling, which happens in the other direction too.

Do you really know that? Eastern Mo Pai has living masters who teach and give feedback based on a lifetime of dedication and study. Seems to me, you don't. Have you talked to any current senior students or instructors in Asia? Given the chance to study under a Mo Pai master, you wouldn't need to because you're sure there's no difference between what you do and those who train under the arts current leaders do. Its the exact same, no lessons.. forms, techniques, devotions they could teach you? Powerful arts have subtleties, endless depths and some dangers to them, if done improperly (at higher levels). Lineage isn't just a history of who taught, there's a spiritual dimension to it. One can't know things one has never been exposed to.

James Clear- paraphrased. author of Atomic Habits. When I'm anxious to resolve some big life problem, often What I really need is: 1. A glass of water 2. A 10-minute walk outside 3. A good night of sleep

Magic isn't my cauldron of tea (other then Bardon style Hermetics). It'd be good to the see the 'Esoteric & Occult Discussion' section here re-invigorated. Its always a fascinating to read. Plus insights from magic touch on most other disciplines.

I'm more tolerant of the watered down, the eclectic, the mish mash, then most. I think such things give newbies a taste of the real thing. Maybe a small one; an introduction to a deep subject they otherwise wouldn't have a clue to. Community center yoga is a fraction of whats taught at an Indian ashram, but its healthy. Some may fall in love with it and there path will take them to those ashrams. Those who don't still gain flexibility and insights into yogic mind/body solutions. Similar to community center Tai Chi. There are worthwhile gains to balance and control, even though its a far cry from studying with a master. A problem is when such versions claim to be the real authentic thing when they're not. Learning Aikido, my senseis would fly to Japan every couple years, and study under their lineage masters. Lineage teachers would come to the US and we'd have the privilege to train under them. Things evolve.. even with that, there were cultural things that couldn't be transmitted. For true authenticity you needed to go there and be dedicated enough to be an ushideshi, live in student. Otherwise a kind of telephone translation game creeps in.

The Korean spa I go to has wooden 'stool' pillows in its many strange healing rooms (Gold, amethyst, charcoal, hot, cold..). It takes awhile but once your relaxed enough they work. Latest sleep habit I'm doing is just before bed, sitting at its edge, consciously relaxing.. head, face, body. Then letting my thoughts run down, while keeping an awareness of my body being deeply under. Its works pretty well, especially since its on the bed, just before I go to sleep. Not much movement or time before I tuck in. shades of 'Cai Jitong 蔡季通, a scholar in the Song Dynasty, suggested that calming down the mind was the key to falling asleep in his text ‘Knacks for Sleep’ 睡诀. Overthinking and overexcitement of the mind are linked with the activeness of Yang, which could keep one from sleeping.'

I liked the old chat room. I think it was a good source for getting people together. Under used though. I never got the hang of Slack. I messed up the password and seemed too much of a bother to set it straight. I'm getting old, passwords are my nemesi.

.. .. So.. how's the Western Mo Pai group doing these days?

Well then, we'll expect few but impressive things from you Alchemy and meditation are such broad terms. What have you researched the most, what's shaped your practice?

I've used the Buteyko breathing method to clear my nose and make breathing easier at night. Simply meditating also helps clear my nose. Some mornings I'll listen to a guided hypnosis audio on getting through allergies- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR_qnwaCsJg&t=58s . Othertimes I'll take a pill. Add some eucalyptus oil spray to my showers helps. Watch the paper and see which allergens are out if force.

Fascinating and uplifting for those of us looking at solutions for today's problems with sustainabilty. Many great ideas, yet within it are lines like 'Some of these Uyghurs, Kazakhs are sent to the reeducation camps and they are forced to learn Mandarin Chinese and the latest drip irrigation techniquess .. each village is assigned with one or more communist party members to guide them through to make sure that they don’t mess up the newly cultivated land.' I get a little wary when lines like 'sent to re-education camps and.. forced to' slip into narratives on sustainable farming.

For people more knowledgeable then me. Any religious Daoist practices that would benefit other cultivators? I don't see others creating things like altars. A major part of religious Daoism. I should probably re-read Brock Silvers book "Manual of..Daism' (I forget the actual tittle).. which broke down many parts of the religion. Including the practices done, before the practices inorder to get you into the proper state of mind/body/worthiness.

me three. Look for Yin Yoga, there are many youtubes and its one of the styles taught at my health club. Its about slow movement, holding poses for two or three minutes. Mostly easier poses too, hold, breath, stretch, relax.

I think you'll fit in well. It'd be great to hear about your favorite Zen and Taoist tales. The best are very koan like and its fun to discuss & dissect them.

The wish that we had an ancestral book of memories. Writing down our deeds, good and bad, seeing into the lives of ancestors. Game of Thrones had one, a book celebrating the deeds of the noble house. In one of the Ender books, they had Speaker of Truth person who at a persons death spoke of them, all there good, bad, trials.. My family grave yard is full. No room left. But on the graves of my great grandfather & great grandmother are lockets with there pictures, so with my grandparents and there siblings resting there. Pictures of people I never met or only have fuzzy memories of. Even physical books are lost. In this age of electronics and cheap storage it'd be nice to create Book of Memories. Filling it out, beyond genealogy, into interconnections. Even going so far as diaries yet keeping a front page that's tighter and highlighted. I guess a Wikipedia for memories. Do people here have any thing similar. Books, diaries, bibles w/ long genealogies?

I'm not sure what Dao is, but in action I think its connected to harmony with nature; internal and external. Thus I'd recommend against celibacy. If you're not in a direct program that requires it then a healthy discipline might be better, ie finding harmony with your body's natural cycles, not fighting them. There are sophisticated systems that use and transform 'jing' energy, that are advanced. If you're not in such a formal system it tends to be skating up hill. my opinion, there are others.. Systems.. when young look at a couple, try'em out. I recommend not going for flashy promises, but look at ones that stress solid foundations. You won't become the teacher, rather your most likely to become an average student, so look at those. Are they happy? healthy? cult-like or knowledgeable? Ultimately you'll need to 'marry' one, decades or lifelong commitment, but can still flirt with others.

What I was getting at is, we want both. thought forms ie ability to 'think' things out and the ability to function well without constant measuring, judging, planning.. thinking out loud to ourselves. Trusting our innate intelligence. We function best with a quiet mind but that's not to say the thinking mind isn't a good tool when needed. In the West we tend to over emphasize it. Until its only seen in states of mastery or when tired or meditating. Quiet flow becomes something special instead of our usual state of mind.

I like it, doesn't feel too different, but more efficient. I wonder if it makes sense for this section 'Forum and Tech Support' to be moved lower, ie in the Tent section, the very last? With the thinking this generally isn't used too often.

imo, a good smooth one. Thinking is a great tool but not our only one. We don't need constant measuring, planning and judging all the time. We have a vast deep consciousness that can function quickly and efficiently without 'talking' to ourselves. Having a habitual 'thinking' voice in your head can be bit like moving your lips when reading. Alright for somethings, but in general slows things down.

*In Russia; You don't watch the TV TV watches You. <**GLOW>

Yes, I'd refute it. the U.S doesn't own them or have a huge influence on there government. I don't take what I see on TV, particularly Russian TV as being particularly accurate.