sean

What's the word on tonglen? [edit]Michael Winn specifically warns against it on one of his tapes saying that in his experience he has noticed the Tibetans have the highest incident of respiratory illness as a result of this practice. I will dig up the full quote later. From Tonglen - 'Sending and Taking' by Thrangu Rinpoche "As one breathes out, imagine that with the exhalation out goes all one's happiness and all the causes of happiness, all the good karma that one has, in the form of white light rays. These light rays go out to all beings to touch them, so that they obtain present temporary happiness and the cause for the ultimate happiness of buddhahood. With inhalation one imagines that all the suffering, the causes of suffering and the bad karma that beings have are drawn into oneself with the incoming breath, in the form of black light rays. These black rays enter and merge into oneself, so one thinks that one has taken on the suffering of all other beings. Thus this Sending & Taking meditation involves giving away happiness and taking on suffering, in combination with one's breathing." From Transforming Confusion into Wisdom by Pema Chodron "Tonglen reverses the usual logic of avoiding suffering and seeking pleasure and, in the process, we become liberated from a very ancient prison of selfishness. We begin to feel love both for ourselves and others and also we being to take care of ourselves and others. It awakens our compassion and it also introduces us to a far larger view of reality. It introduces us to the unlimited spaciousness that Buddhists call shunyata. By doing the practice, we begin to connect with the open dimension of our being. At first we experience this as things not being such a big deal or so solid as they seemed before. ... Use what seems like poison as medicine. Use your personal suffering as the path to compassion for all beings." From Compassion practices of Tonglen By Christine Longaker "The voice of your ego may warn you that Tonglen could "harm" you, but this is not true. The compassion practices are designed to unravel the selfish patterning of the ego and gradually reinforce your confidence in the radiant wisdom and compassion of your true nature, which is indestructible. Tonglen is a skillful training in a completely new way of being, in which you begin to develop a limitless, fearless and unbiased compassion toward all creation. One key to attaining enlightenment is to develop your compassion so profoundly that you come to love and cherish all other beings more than yourself. Thus although at first the Tonglen practice appears to be a courageous response to the suffering of others, you will find that training in compassion is actually benefiting you and bringing you further along the path to liberation. The Tonglen practices may also enable you to: Bring difficulties and illness onto your spiritual path Heal your past and present suffering Prevent or relieve burnout Transform your relationship with others" ... I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Sean

Findley and Biff, one more personal insult and you are both taking a break from TTB for awhile. Sean

This one says INFP, over the years I've gotten INFP or INFJ. When I was in my teens I got INTP a few times. Sean

If you see a nasty ad and you are also endowed with inhuman motivation to prevent it, what you can do is very very carefully right click on the link (do not click the link) and select Properties (in IE and Firefox). Then in the dialog that pops up, select the entire huge ass link there and PM me that. I can specifically blog ads from certain domains from showing up, bother otherwise Pietro explains the situation very accurately. Best, Sean

I like the idea. And what about other languages? Surely we should support Chinese. Then I know we have people here speaking German, Russian, French, Italian, Norwegian ... what else? Maybe someone should start a poll. Also, can you think of any negative implications to this? Sean

findley, come on man. let's keep it civil and avoid personal attacks. Thanks, Sean

Thanks for reporting this post. Sorry for the delay. I guess the subject is not off limits if anyone wants to really discuss this. I found it interesting that while I was overcome with immediate agreement that the picture should be removed, the picture itself was not actually pornographic. In fact it was quite innocent, just a snapshot of some girls in sports uniforms or cheerleading outfits or something. What made it disturbing was the context. That we were being asked by the OP to consider the topic of sexuality with minors while viewing an otherwise innocent picture of young girls. I guess this is how many (most?) things in life are? Defined by context. Sean

One more insult and you're out. Sean

"Ooooh boy, Hardyg, I think you're on to something. The market for people who want rounded prices and to be educated on marketing strategy pre-purchase? HUUUUUUGE! Huuuuge market I'm tellin ya". (Inside joke for people who've listened to Bill Hicks) Sean

It seems this is the crux of many of your opinions. But it's just another ideology, no? IMO, a true embrace of Mystery includes an openness to the possibility that forms evolved precisely the way they have in order to create the potential for an incarnated consciousness evolving into and living as an expression of the Recognition of That. It's totally weird and you can get existential "theatre of the absurd" about it if you want. But the inherent Emptiness of Form is absolutely not the same as "there is nothing universal about form". Discrepancies do not prove everything is relative, they are playful variations on a basic theme. Clarity doesn't literally destroy the world. The manifestation of Form remains more or less consistent. This is the other side of the cosmic joke coin and it's just as hilarious. Mountains are, again, just mountains. Return to the market. Sean

The way uneven pricing works psychologically, is not to trick the consumer into perceiving the product as cheaper -- it's to communicate to the consumer that the value of the product has been carefully considered using a smaller unit of evaluation (ie: to the nickel in this case) and was not arbitrarily rounded up, just for the sake of having a convenient round number. I agree it's become an unanalyzed habit to just price things like this, and it can come across gimmicky when the .95 or .99 cent change is added to smaller ticket items. But consider if you were shopping for a car. On a gut level which price would seem more carefully measured to you, $25,000 or $24,700? Or a house for $200,000 vs a house for $198,800. It's been shown across the board the latter consistently sells more and faster for the reasons I'm describing. It leaves the customer happy, with a discount they wouldn't have received otherwise and a perception that the chosen pricing was thoughtful and precise, and the business does better for it. Seems win/win to me. If you make a living selling something (and nearly everyone ultimately is at least a small part of a business that is selling something), I fail to see why you would deliberately avoid a practice that makes your product cheaper for the consumer and sell more. /twocents Sean

Your topic was moved to Forum and Tech Support where discussions regarding the forum itself, including forum moderation belong. Do not post this again in Taoist Dsicussion. http://www.thetaobums.com/TO-ALL-attention...cuss-t9186.html

I don't say anything in private that I would not say in public. Feel free to discuss. Sean

A wonderful, very intelligent woman named Jana Dixon who goes by the handle "Plasmafly" over on Integral Naked Discussion Forum was kind enough to snail mail me a print of a technique she discovered called Cardio-Muscular-Release which will be included in her forthcoming book "Coping with Kundalini". She's given me permission to scan it in and share it here, so check it out. I've been playing with it and experiencing some pleasant shifts. Description Diagram Sean

By "stillness meditation" I mean a meditation in which one consciously chooses to remain relatively still, typically in some form of seated or standing posture. For the sake of this poll, I'd like to exclude moving meditations, such as Tai Chi, mindful gardening, etc. So, how often do you engage in formal stillness meditation? What kind of approaches to stillness meditation do you practice? What is working for you? How long are your typical sessions? I'll go first. I do stillness meditation almost every day, usually twice a day, in the morning and in the evening. I really yearn for "Every day, no exception" though. I am long time fan of Advanced Yoga Practices, which are free lessons representing an entire path of Tantric Kundalini Yoga, complete with an on-site guru. (Welcome to the 21st century. ) The AYP meditations are seated meditations that essentially start out with two parts and build in complexity as you progress. The first part is a pranayama meditation called spinal breathing. I've deviated from the AYP textbook here via my own Microcosmic Pendulum which I tend to prefer. Pranayama is followed by a mantra meditation. I am also a big fan of formless sitting meditation, Zuowang, and more recently formless standing, Wu Ji Zhuang. In a lot of ways these two approaches to meditation, the energetic Tantric and the empty formless, are kind of a little paradox in my practice. There is not a clear way that I've found to merge the two styles. Sometimes I will start out with Wu Ji Zhuang, sit and do AYP then and end with Zuowang, othertimes reverse or another sequence and other times just one or two of the meditations. This is not to mention the added variable of "eyes closed" or "eyes open" which also varies on what I am drawn to. I can say that, when I feel like I've "got it", when I feel like I'm awake and highly conscious, formless meditation is much more natural to me and I can sit for hours in a state of deepening presence. When I am feeling more stagnant, tired, depressed, or conversely, when my mind is racing, and I am caught up and identified with my (often) overactive thought processes, the energetic meditations of AYP become more of a vital "safety net" to help me turn my vibrations around, and bring them back to silence. As for the timing of my meditations sessions, this kind of wildly varies. With formless meditation, I find that it really requires extended periods of time for things to happen. At least an hour. Whereas with AYP, you can tap into some juiciness in 5 minutes, particularly if you practice everyday. Overall though, I tend to meditate for an average of two hours a day. What about you? I'd really like to hear from the rest of The Tao Bums. Even if consider yourself a total beginner to stillness meditation, that is great! You have a unique perspective to share, we can all learn so much from beginner's mind. Can't wait to hear your reports. Sean

http://www.thetaobums.com/What-is-the-Heal...rcle-t8886.html Sean

Few months ago I picked up some mp3s from the Hard Light store. If you are confused where to start, there are so many offerings, the wonderful women there at HL recommended this one: Five Stages of Pratyahara Meditation "This CD stands as one of the cornerstones of meditation in the Hard Light Center of Awakening and is a revolutionary teaching!" You can get all these as downloadable mp3s too, which is really cool seeing as I'm in a remote jungle and I have to take a boat to the nearest mailbox. I also picked up these and really enjoyed them: Kundalini Meditation - Seated + Standing Bindhu-Kundalini Meditation The Awakener Guided Meditation Good to know. Listening to these I definitely zoned way way out and was slightly concerned I wasn't "getting it". Mark is one trippy dude, that is for sure. Sean

But you didn't "only notice there were many negative emotions". You think you noticed them. You think you saw "hate and unresolved guilt and shame" in me via a text only post on an internet forum when you know nothing about me. These emotions simply are not there. Which shows why you can't be so quick to judge someone via a medium like this. Take that as food for thought next time you are projecting "wisdom" on to Stephane. The "teacher" didn't go batty, he started batty and is using spiritual words as a tool to rationalize and manipulate. It's ok if you used to be an iGer, I know a bunch of them still. I tell them, just accept that you were completely fooled by a clever stage magician and move on. No need to rationalize your mistake by continuing to sift for grains of salt in old garbage cans. Life is short and there is such an abundance of amazing, benevolent, powerful teachers with real integrity in the world, don't waste your precious birth with criminals. Namaste, Sean

Killed with affection maybe. Sean

I was never an iGer. I got to know Stephane because he was a client of mine I worked with very closely for over a year. I viewed him as a client and an interesting acquaintance and did my best to be his only adult non-cyber friend, despite his massive personal baggage. Every casual attempt to discuss spiritual cultivation or insight went way over his head in my opinion. You see wisdom in him, I see a fraud with a convincing keyboard. When he got drunk one night and almost killed his cat in front of everyone in the house (seriously) and then proceeded to insult Lezlie, my girlfriend, I told him I was not interested in working with him anymore. This is the last thing Stephane wrote me: "My betrayal paranoia 8 pattern indeed blinded me, and now I've fucked up the highest vibing friendship I've ever known.. you're the only guy I could *really* talk to" Yeah, I'm probably a little irritated at the volumes of annoying shit he's done in our relationship, sure. But "hate" and "unresolved guilt and shame", come on. Sean

Google maps has trouble with Central America I've noticed. Zancudo is close to Golfito on the southern pacific coast, very close to Panama: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&...mp;t=h&z=12 Lezlie and I used to live up in the mountains, in a town called San Ramon de tres Rios outside of San Jose but was a little too chilly. Hey, if you are in the area definitely stop by. We have a big house, plenty a room for fellow bums. Sean

His method is to regularly abuse drugs and alcohol and mistake the mental confusion for spiritual breakthroughs, consistently act like a self-aggrandizing pimp while never EVER meditating or engaging in sincere spiritual practice EVER, only half-read a handful of incoherent new age junk and speak from an assumed and completely unearned position of authority in order to convince teenage virgins to buy products he plagiarized from other teachers so he can have the cash to (back to start) regularly abuse drugs and alcohol and mistake the mental confusion for spiritual breakthroughs while consistently acting like a self-aggrandizing pimp ... etc. Sean

It's not urine, and you've clearly never made a woman squirt before. Once again SJ, you jump to "expose" things you have no clue about or experience with. Sean