thelerner

Chicago's filled with great taco places. One favorite The Taco Joint, first rate mexican style tacos. You have to pay extra for a clean glass. In Chicago you want to find a great Mexican food, follow a police car. Police know great tacos and you probably robbed either.

hit quote instead of edit, when I wanted clean up the prose.

I can dig that. The last 2 nights that's where I've been heading. Hiking to the edge of town, searching out the dark places. Me, the cold the wind and silence walking beneath the pickaboo moon. It's been nice.

or like the Arthurian myth, where as the King goes so goes the Kingdom.

I'm missing the guy who started this thread, silent thunder. Haven't read him in awhile, and miss his gentle musings. Course there is much wisdom in taking breaks from social media. One should keep watch of the practice to computer time ratio and make sure it doesn't get out of whack.

Let me take advantage of your presence. What are your thoughts on eyes during meditation. I've spent most of my meditative life, keeping them closed. Maybe a little bit in zen half eye. Lately I'm keeping them open and defused, until they fall shut by themselves. Any recommendation or general philosophies on the eyes during meditation.

I'm cold man but its a good cold. Just done with a 50 minute hike to see the eclipse of the wolf moon. Very nice, surprisingly slow. Your insights rings very true. Not because I'm close to it, but from advanced practitioners I've read. I think I'm more in an apathetic stage of development with no road beneath my feet. Keep moving and the road will come.. or something will.

Just seeing this now. Welcome back. I hope you'll be active and share your wisdom and considerable experience here. How are you and what have you been doing lately? As a long time practitioner how does ones practice evolve? Thanks Michael

I fill my belly with water. From waist down I am earth. My lungs and chest are air. My head is lightness of awareness, shifting and exploring. I keep the elements close so I can call on the one or combination that I need. addon: I'm not kidding about belly/water thing, I enjoy Rawn Clarks Archaeous series. 9 levels of hermetic elemental stacking http://abardoncompanion.de/Archaeous-Links.html Synopsis- RAWN'S SELF-HEALING ARCHAEOUS Stage #1) Healing through discerning and integrating your three bodies -- Integrating the Physical: Situate yourself comfortably. Turn your attention to your feet and relax them completely. Intimately experience every physical sensation that your feet relay to you at this moment. Slowly move your attention up your legs, relaxing and connecting with each vein, muscle, bone, organ and patch of skin. Continue upward in this manner till you have established a clear and relaxed awareness of your entire physical body. Though certainly healing in its own right, this primary step of connecting closely with your physical body, is a common one and therefore is not counted among the Archaeous' thirteen enumerated "levels" of healing. In effect, this step corresponds to zero and, quite appropriately, it is where the Archaeous both begins and ends. Integrating the Astral: With your awareness thus spread evenly throughout your physical body, expand your focus outward a few inches till you sense your astral body's vibrant energy. Though difficult to adequately describe, once it is encountered and experienced, the feeling of the astral body's "bright" energy will be unmistakable. Generally, it is physically stimulating -- for some people, it is dangerously so. Therefore, it is best to approach a conscious sensorial contact with your astral body, in controlled and small increments. Begin with just a few brief moments of contact with this energy, and then immediately restrict the focus of your awareness back down to the dimensions of your physical body. Whatever energy you feel stimulating your physical body, must then be consciously integrated into your physical muscles, bones, organs, skin, etc. By mentally guiding this bright astral energy into your physical body, into your very cellular structure itself, you effect the first level of healing in the Archaeous. Acclimate your physical body to your astral energy slowly. Your goal over time, is to be able to comfortably sense your entire astral body and consciously integrate it into your physical body. Your focus at this point is not to be upon "astral travel" or the separation of your astral form from your physical; rather, it is to be exclusively upon the integration of the two. Again, a note of caution is in order: The astral body acts as a matrix for the physical body. Its bright energy is the medium through which the mental body determines the nature of its physical vehicle. The character of the astral energy, is that it is shaped by the mental level (thought and will); and in its own turn, it shapes the physical level. Therefore, when you consciously (mentally) connect with your physical body and then expand that awareness to include your astral body, you will have opened nature's own pathways of healing. Consciously integrating your astral matrix into your physical body, grounds this bright energy into physical manifestation, bringing your physical body into closer accord with your astral matrix..

We are Pavlovian animals. We set up 'If Then' Loops around many of our behaviors. Some things physically light up our pleasure senses, ie fat sugar sex**. Some things do it psychologically, praise, material gains. We set up or are conditioned to set up feed back loops. I suppose in the spiritual game its a matter of setting up healthy disciplines and down grading desires into preferences. Where I'm happy if I do, and its fine if I don't.

In the West we're considered to have 5 senses**. I was told in the East it's 6 senses, with applied imagination, ie how well we can turn the minutiae of tiny almost subliminal cues into a full real picture, being the 6th. **Did they include a magnetic compass-like feature as 6th sense. Some people, like birds have enough iron near the eyes. researching.. https://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/17/the_odd_body_nose_compass/ Do humans have a compass in their nose? Asked by Lee Staniforth of Manchester, UK Some years ago scientists at CALTECH (California Institute of Technology in Pasadena) discovered that humans possess a tiny, shiny crystal of magnetite in the ethmoid bone, located between your eyes, just behind the nose. Magnetite is a magnetic mineral also possessed by homing pigeons, migratory salmon, dolphins, honeybees, and bats. Indeed, some bacteria even contain strands of magnetite that function, according to Dr Charles Walcott of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York, "as tiny compass needles, allowing them [the bacteria] to orient themselves in the earth's magnetic field and swim down to their happy home in the mud". It seems that magnetite helps direction finding in animals and helps migratory species migrate successfully by allowing them to draw upon the earth's magnetic fields. But scientists are not sure how they do this.

Anything with the potential to help, also has the potential to damage. It's just the way things are. Intelligent people realize this and use care.

glad I don't subscribe to the OP's religion. I think we have to battle the greed and selfishness within ourselves and not project onto gods and what not. Mankinds problems are caused by well.. mankind, us. If Shiva beats up some dark goddess, we're still the same, and will create the same problems. Blaming gods for the problem of man or our own shit, doesn't get us anywhere**. Usually violence begets more violence and crappy unintended consequences. Best to work on ourselves and try to do some positive things, even the small stuff for our fellow man and our environment. **heck, maybe we're the ones driving the gods crazy. cause that's what kids do.

Don't know about them, but I have a teacher friend who highly dislikes charters. His main points are in Chicago, they tend to pay teachers much less, depending on the school, not give them health insurance. Because they can pick there kids, so they can 'poach' the best and leave problem kids at public schools. He feels privatizing education hurts public schools in the short and long run. The advantages are, they cost the cities less, which is good for the cities, and can set tighter rules for staff and students. Some perhaps many have better academic outcomes then public schools, but some of that is because they can pick and choose. Some is because they can practice newer bolder systems of teaching and may get more of the all important buy in from parents.

only the good die young. or at least are most remembered. there are probably incredible artists who out lived there fame. Is it better to grow old and fade away or burn out and be remembered?

Actually I thought we were seeing more youth/millenials willing to give up higher pay (and hours) for more free time. They're marrying later (or not at all), having fewer kids etc., I don't see a revolution brewing but I do agree leadership is using fear to try to persuade people to there positions. Not exactly a new development but stronger then usual. Without huge need, the call for fear is less potent though. imo odds are we'll see a shift away from it. A calm level headed leader can be equally popular as the demagogue. Societally, if THEM**, who ever them are, opt for creating a more socialist policies with fewer work hours that comes at a cost too. It is a competitive world. Fall too far behind and you go bankrupt. You could go further down the rabbit hole into Communism, but that has an even larger share of problems. Communes often fail, requiring very hard work for idealistic rewards. Living simpler and thriftier is a valid choice and hopefully open to many. Probably a good solution, but all solutions take work, risk and sacrifice. Actually the U.S doing pretty well, relatively. Prosperity helps. As more people work, wages will rise. Workers will get more bargaining power and if they want fewer hours they'll get it. There's plenty of politically stupidity around, but the stalemates are largely artificial and easily solved with simple compromise. Which will grow to be inevitable. **THEM.. imo, Them tends to be a whole mess of people and groups with conflicting desires and goals. Often its the generic name for groups that oppose what you want. They're THEM, groups that agree with you are us.

I like Insight Timer too. Course having a smart speaker like Amazon Echo Dot or Google one, both around $35ish, mean you can set timers by voice. Speaking of ZZ, I like standing to Rawn Clarks Archaeous series, and the lessons are about 15 minutes long, so they act as a natural timer. I wonder if you could find 3 minute music segments, even better if they somehow relate the posture and string them together in a playlist. Might make for a pleasant experience. I suppose even the same 3 minute piece repeated a few times would act as a timer

I believe its supposed to be a very reddish full moon too. In that it'll rise close to the sun's set. Here abouts in Chicago, moon rise 4:26 pm, Sunset 4:50 pm. Which can mean a spectacular moon rise over the Lake Michigan.

I thought that too but a preamble I often do before meditation is I'm not my body, it is the vehicle I inhabit and a prized possession. I'm not my thoughts, they are like clouds passing in the sky I'm not my emotions, I acknowledge and let them settle.. I'm not my past.. future.. possessions, family.. ..I strive to be breath and awareness. A couple years ago, I had a heart procedure, a stent was put in. I was doped up, but not completely under. I heard the surgeon say, 'well this isn't going well'. Because I so often repeated I'm not my body.. not my thoughts, I could accept the moment gracefully. Keep calm and be with whatever happened next without fear. or maybe it was the drugs but holding things too tightly, creates tension and fear.

I've had fun moving in the opposite direction. Having a metal pipe as a jo and using a suburito, extra heavy bokken. Heavy creates respect. Slows you down, enforces proper body mechanics, especially if you want to control the weapon rather then have it control you. It's nice to whirl around a light instrument, hear it whistle as it moves, like a cheap kung fu flick, but heavy has its rewards and honesty to it. As does old fashion striking (repeatedly) a large tire. Striking the air, no matter how fast or pretty does not substitute for hitting a hard target.

To live well centered with a sense of flow. To have grace and shibumi, simplicity and efficiency.

Some traditional teachers, particularly from Japan, were very strict, and off putting but.. thats window dressing, a cultural flavor.. how they were taught. It was important to look beyond it, play by there rules and thus learn from them. I'm sure our Western flippancy was just was just as hard for them to stomach. I think its good for people to be exposed to ye olde strict traditional. No nonsense, little instruction- see and do, then shut up and listen. Not everyones cup of tea, but good to be flexible enough to deal with it. back to OP. I don't think most people have problems with beginning energy meditation, but some are energy sensitive and too much too soon, screws them up. Thus for them and most, when things go sidewise, heat up, its best to slow down or stop. As people advance, I've found getting more energy without getting more equanimity, balance, te, means they wobble more. Bad traits become worse. Most traditions have dharma lessons for a reason. Without wisdom, power, internal, external- corrupts.

funny, I was just thinking that my favored style of immortality would be to grow old, and at some point have control to set myself back to say, 22. At which point the clock starts again. No healing powers, or super powers other then that reset button. An accident could kill or cripple me, but risk adds spice to life. Growing old is an integral part of the human experience. Just seems one life time is too short, but after a few, I think I'd call it quits and see what if anything comes next.

What's a problem you have? See if you can break it down into 5 elements. Which ones are there, which are waning, which ones are complimentary or warring? Giving some time for analysis, what strategies, also based on the 5 elements can you employ to solve the problem?

unsafe is best measured statistically. Take train journeys. Are the odds of not getting there safely, ie stabbed during a ride, 1 in 1,000's, 10,000s, millions or 10's of millions? These things can be quantified. Knowing the odds makes living life safer without being traumatized by highly unlikely events. There's a good chance that riding on the rails is many times safer then riding in a car, cause 1,000s of people die in car accidents, or is 10,000's in your country (hint its roughly 1.25 million people a day world wide**). Probably you should be much much much much more afraid of driving in a car then being stabbed, but the point is take the time do the math. Right off the bat, what's your assumption of the odds? Then find out, how many people ride a year, and how many are stabbed on a train. ** note this internet 'statistic' I wrote is wrong, by a huge margin and should logically been caught. Cause 1.25 million a day would be = 456,250,000 (456 million) dying each year. The human race would be wiped and cartoon cars would rule the day in a decade and a half. The correct is 1.25 million a year. Unless that too is incorrect, but it probably isn't or is at least close.