thelerner

I did 13 years of Aikido, I'd agree with Sol's comments. Not the best for MMA, but as a business/family man under relatively high stress it was a life saver. The movements, intensity, philosophy.. meditation, healing system within.. helped me immensely and I wasn't headed for profession fighting either. At times being relaxed in the face of a challenge and having the instincts to walk away before a bad situation happened was all I needed. Instead of a single system, its not so bad to stay with a system for a years or decades then move on to something fresh.

I'd recommend umm letting loose every 2 or 3 weeks. Establish A healthy discipline. Control yourself by knowing yourself. You're young, not a monk, no need for all or nothing. Setting up repression. Real celibacy, the best kind comes naturally. For now I'd recommend setting up a solid practice and having some discipline. No need to go full monk until you've learned the various arts for transformation. And most often that takes many years and schooled cultivation.

Huge respect for Dr Glenn Morris (& KAP). I started out with his books and tape series Meditative Mastery. Always got the feeling what I really needed was them, and time on a desert island to practice single mindedly.

I admire your dedication. May I ask, what system or teacher you used? Thanks

My standard advice is if things get strange, heated or strained.. back off. Depending on how severe, less intensity or give the practice a break. Esoteric energy practices were meant to be done under the watch of masters.. we do them at our own risk when we don't have a competent experienced hands on teacher. People can confuse danger/damage with signs of progress. So the best safety net is going slow and steady, and backing away when things over heat or pressurized. Grounding is always good, whether simply sitting or long walks in nature. The journey is a marathon not a sprint.

It'd be interesting, paradigm changing if anyone came forward who could levitate and did so as if it was no big deal. Be able to investigate where the power/force was coming from. But odds are we won't get that.

I think there are a couple of practices that talk about cranial bone shifts and a its not uncommon for monks and some long time cultivators to take on a androgynous appearance.

As its getting colder in the West, sometimes salad is disguised as soup (from https://www.spendwithpennies.com/weight-loss-vegetable-soup-recipe/) Ingredients 1 small onion diced 2 cloves garlic minced 1 cup diced carrots 4 cups chopped cabbage approx. 1/4 head of cabbage 1 cup green beans 1″ pieces 2 whole bell peppers chopped 1 can 28 oz low sodium diced tomatoes 6 cups low sodium broth (veg, beef or chicken) 2 tablespoons tomato paste 2 bay leaves 1/2 teaspoon each thyme & basil pepper to taste 2 cups broccoli florets 2 cups sliced zucchini Instructions In a large pot cook onion & garlic over medium heat until slightly softened. Add carrots, cabbage & green beans and cook an additional 5 minutes. Stir in bell peppers, undrained tomatoes, broth, tomato paste, bay leaves and seasonings. Simmer 6-7 minutes. Add in zucchini & broccoli. Simmer an additional 5 minutes or until softened. Remove bay leaves before serving. This recipe got many good reviews. I'll probably make a batch soon, probably throw in some kidney beans for more protein and fiber.. maybe some hot sauce to kick it up a notch too. A little fish sauce adds alot umami so does a squirt or two of vinegar at the end.

long earlobes too. still, better to concentrate on his words, then his appearance or dress. i like my buddhas regular folk, not gods.

I used to do some of the less extreme exercises. Where you don't look directly into the sun, but while its low you move your eyes around it slowly. Doing chi gung and zhan zhuang infront of the sun, ie late afternoon, looking at the sun w/ eyes closed, feeling the various luminescence moving in from the bones outward. Its very energizing, maybe too much. Westerners tend to be too yang to begin with. I found it over heating. Plus full on sungazing can cause permanent eye damage. I still enjoy when the sun is beneath the cloud cover, looking like a neon moon and I can focus on it. Feel it coming to me. Not to different then some exercises with the full moon. Wudang inspired stuff.

Thinking of kung fu. There was a very talented Aikidoist I trained with for awhile who was lured away by kung fu. She went to study with a woman who though trained in Kung Fu, went on to win an Olympic medal in Korea in TaeKwonDo. Not an art that she'd studied much, but she was a prodigy. But such things took a toll. While young she retired due to many injuries and the beginning of arthritis in her late 20's. With that in mind, you wonder if its worth it. Probably is.. so much talent.. Here's a video on Jet Li.. the gift and price his career has cost.

I wish it were closer to computer science, with clear instructions, some systems are closer to that. Maybe that's the question that should be asked. Not what's the most powerful or fastest system, rather which one is the most clear, ie step by step, saying which signs you need before getting to the next level. What system is satisfying as a Snickers and keeps instructions clear and simple? Not the best or most powerful but simple, a to b to c. Explaining what to do, and giving sign posts along the way.

Inspiring blog, very worthy of study. Shows what depth of practice really means.

I also heard from a friend a friend that they dragged John's dead corpse into a court room. Good to have back up on that. plus others play the same.. do you have a link to that? game.. keeping it simple, on the other thread it was quickly established that John's death was an unfounded rumor yet certain 'Western' people kept it alive page after page because.. i don't know why.. its what they do. bottom, bottom line- he doesn't want anything to do with Westerners as per his spirit elders.

I agree with Cheya's thinking that its a good to have such skills on the side, and have another profession to 'pay the rent'. There's a catch 22 in the professional healing game. It takes alot of money to be certified, and establishing a career can be difficult and hard to sustain. Under guise of 'massage' and energy therapy.. a healer might be able to get worthwhile reputation. An old member Yamu/Michael Lomax was a teacher from the Stillness/Movement chigung healing tradition. You can look up his words here http://www.qigongamerica.com/ I did a short seminar with him and learned alot.

My dad would never be into anything like meditation yet he'd swim a mile at a very slow pace. I'm sure that was a meditative practice. The long silent repetition.

Thanks, hoping to get insight into everyone's practice.

Would you guys mind describing how you practice the Golden Flower meditation? How you sit, breath.. put your attention and for how long? Getting away from philosophy and the book, into how you perform it. If you already wrote it up, could you link to it? Thanks For example, this is what I do, influenced by GF, but probably not GF itself. During seated meditation, I'll relax, count my breaths 1-10, repeat til breath and mind quiet (not GF, but a pre-meditation set). Then breath in through 3rd eye for half of in breath, then send it down, tip of nose, throat, heart, solar plex, lower dantien. Then hold my attention there for there through the out breath, repeat. Little things, sometimes I'll an inner sound, like a hahhh as my attention moves past my heart. I keep my hands against my lower dantien. After 10 or 15 minutes I'll breath as quietly as I can, for 10 minutes or so, then give that up for just sitting.

oh my, this thread is 15 pages long. That's why I favor imaginary numbers. nobody knows the crazy things they do in my imagination. makes me better at accounting too. starting with the final figure wanted, then, like a mystery writer, working backwards, til the puzzle works out nicely. addon> apologies for my part in moving the thread away from the OP's intent.

The ignorelist is a good crutch, ie not seeing things you find ignorant or distasteful. better is to read and disregard, ie be unmoved by it. perhaps best is to see, read, consider and move on, ie giving oneself a chance for empathy & understanding. Addon course with swamps like the Talk Trump thread, I mostly ignore.

yeah, who'd of thunk. A little more seriously, as soon as I went to the site, the bottom left side of my screen started showing things being loaded into the screen and/or my computer. While that's not necessarily bad, it could be. When I see such supplemental 'loads', its a good idea get off the site real quick, especially if its an unknown one. addon> let me add that the Soviet Union produced many genius ground breaking mathematicians in the early and mid 1900's. Outstanding men who worked for a pittance, nearly starving in some cases. Math was practically there religion.

First let me say I have great respect for Michael Winn and his products. This isn't about him. .. A member just had a link to the Healing Tao usa website. It was our 'mother' site, that we broke away over 13 years ago. I was really saddened to see it so barren. Or worse then barren. Other then Michael Winn, only two people seemed to be contributing of late. One writing random posts, the other dour musings. addon> thankfully if you dig deep, you can find the varied eclectic, sometimes very deep poignant writings of the glory days. There was no ideas or exchanges at all. It was like looking at ruins, inhabited by a few scavengers. Sad because at one time it was vibrant and cutting edge. Filled with discussions great and small. It was that way for many many years. Our Mods (and techies) have done a good job keeping away spammers and bots who threatened our board. At the moment there are good conversations and exchanges. We're seeing a nice flow of new voices joining with old ones. The board is doing really well. Still, the healingtaousa board is a warning to keep things balanced here. I may be wrong but I get the feeling that without active supervision, things drifted off to chaos and abandonment there. So Thank You admin and mods for keeping the site going strong. Making the hard decisions. You're worth every penny and more, that we don't pay you.

As I stated earlier, I don't want this to be about me, or what I want. I'm looking for members to discuss what they consider to be a simple, clear systems. I consider WH method, a little crazy, and so did my neighbors as I walked around in skivvies in the winter, and posed with Yeti's downtown beaches for polar bear swims. You've got a point, WH can be considered a cultivation system, yet I was thinking of longer term, more steps.. a bit more holistic. WH is great, but its a ten week course that you keep at. Lately I've been sloughing of, but winter is coming and it'll be time to make friends with the cold again. Matter of fact I saw a sweet deal on a fairly deep kiddie pool that'd be great for winter dips. Just add water and salt to keep it from freezing.

i gotta stop typing and eating at the same time

Here's a good interview with the author that was done a couple years ago- (the whole thread is quite good)