sean

I've seen you post his link on HT before and I've been meaning to check him out. I think I'll pre-register for this retreat. Thanks for posting. Sean

Via To Live the Truth, A Weekend Inquiry with Adyashanti. Inspired me enough to transcribe it. Enjoy. "As Ramana used to say, let what comes come, let what goes go, find out what remains. Awareness needs no contrast. Awareness is. What have you been forever? The best way to find out is to be still and let it discover itself. Just be still and let it discover itself. There is no trick. If I could hand out the trick of awakening, if I could get like the five step plan, that'd be great. I'd love to have one. I know a lot of people, most teachers have some sort of five step plan, ten step plan, two step plan. I don't have a plan. I've never seen a plan that works, even very often. Right? There isn't really a plan, because it just doesn't work that way. This is my invitation. To be still and let that which is awake within you remember itself. Allow it to remember itself. Don't think you are wrong because you can't do it with your will. That's what's right. You can't do it with your will. It remembers itself by itself. The less you struggle, the easier it is for consciousness to reveal itself. Struggle makes it very difficult, because it ties up consciousness in this process called struggle. Where does your heart lead you? What do you know? What do you know? Follow your heart. There is no prescription for this. We do it or we don't. When you do you find there is a tremendous force to it. Following what you know to be true. See, I can't tell someone, ok, go home, sit such and such hours of meditation a day and it's going to work. Because I know it doesn't work that way. The way it tends to work, follow what's really, actually, authentic within you. And if you don't know what's authentic than find out. Right? Then sit down in a room and find out what's authentic. If it takes you two seconds, great. If it takes you two months, great. But find out that authentic place within you, and follow it with all of your heart. That is the most powerful thing within you, within any of us. That is our personal invitation. It guides you in the way no exterior force can guide you. And if it says sit six hours a day than sit six hours a day, and if it says don't bother with it, don't bother with it. And you'll find that force, that still small direction, it's not what this mind wants to do or doesn't want to do is it? It's very different. Do you see? There is nothing wrong with you. It's all there isn't it? It's all there. Everything you need. The direction. Which way to go. What to do or not. It's all there. That's what I have great trust in, because I know everybody has this complete, built in road to their own being. But let yourself know that this is important. As my teacher's teacher used to say, Suzuki, 'the most important thing is to find out what is the most important thing'. And that sounds like very cliche and very Zen, old guy wisdom. But when you realize that the most important thing is to find out what is the most important thing... and find out how important it actually is to you ... that is what lights the fire. That is what gets through our lethargy, or in some people it's resistance, in some people it's anxiety, in some people they gotta move through fear, everybody's gotta move through something. And it's not a technique that's going to get them to move through it. It's really contacting, with what's the most important thing. What is this life about? What is the one thing that is more important than all the other things that are important? You see what I mean? ... We go through our whole lives, being moved, and we don't really contact this force. Just touching into that has so much power... And when you really tap into this, it's not the power that makes you just feel extremely anxious, like, "I have got to wake up yesterday!" That's the ego's distortion of that beautiful power. That's the ego sort of turning it into a goal oriented process. But when you really feel it, it's something very powerful, very deep. More important than anything else in this moment. And really not about achieving your mind's idea of something. It's deeper than that. This is what has all the power in it. You contact with that, you don't really need to know what to do anymore." Namaste, Sean

Yeah, thanks for posting that. I'll give that a try. It's very yin yoga-ish which I'm into.

Yup. Enlightenment doesn't make you superhuman. Imagine being from a different culture and suddenly having huge groups of Americans (including attractive women) treating you like you are a god while simultaneously trying to manipulate you for what they imagine as "spiritual power" ... with endless variations of games including those involving money and sex. It's enough to make almost anyone go crazy. I think the better modern gurus understand the deterioriating power that an unhealthy group of student seekers can have even on the most awakened consciousness and maintain more appropriate boundaries. And really, in the case of long-term, voluntary (key words, long-term and voluntary) relationship with someone who is mistreating you, WTF are you doing there? IMO in this case you are as suspect as the "persecutor". If you didn't manifest an Osho to manipulate you, you'd have manifested a crappy wife or something to do the same thing. At least Osho could teach you some Yoga. Sean

I recently read The Taoist Body by Kristofer Schipper on the advice of my Taoist teacher Liu Ming. I highly highly recommend everyone here with even a passing interest in Taoism read this book. The Taoist religion is the least understood of the major religions and this is one of a miniscule number of books available in English bridging this gap. According to Ming it's also the best with Taoism: Growth of a Religion a close second (which I will start soon). From the book: To answer your question about gods and demons, it's funny to me now (after reading Taoist Body) to see how Taoism was imported mostly as a philosophy and later as a form of Yoga while it's incredibly rich, almost exhaustive pantheon of gods for nearly anything you can imagine has been so thoroughly neglected that most people (myself included) didn't even associate deities with Taoism at all. Sean

Heheh... I wouldn't say it was stupid, just curious. I think it's cool that you went with your first impulse, even though you doubted it afterwards. I know what you mean about people accepting things as gospel. It's possible I've created a bubble of open minded people around myself and easily forget that most of the world is still stuck in fundamentalism. Sean

Didn't realize Sarno had a new book, I'll have to check that out. In my early twenties I had chronic lower back pain for nearly two years that originated from a nutty Yoga stunt. Sometimes it was so acute it would buckle me to the floor. I read one of Sarno's books one week and played with the ideas which were new to me at the time ... my back pain disappeared almost instantly and never returned. I've spoken to a few other people since then who've had similar experiences. I think the basic concept, that emotional trauma can "hide out" as chronic pain, especially around the site of an injury as it lends more credibility, is powerful in itself. Unfortunately it's rarely been taken well when I've tried to share this information with people ... it really sucks too to watch people you know pay thousands of dollars to have their backs ripped apart for ghosts. Sean

Hey hagar, do you have pictures or a reference for this sequence? I'm having trouble visualizing it for some reason. Maybe it's late.

Why is that of course? Heh. This is a really funny question. First, from a wider angle is it even humanly possible to accept conceptual ideas without comparing them to previous knowledge? Isn't an idea the meaning that you derived from it based on your own existing concepts? Then, assuming that this is somehow possible to just allow another persons thoughts to enter unfiltered directly into our brains and instantly begin assuming them as our own, if the person you were asking this question to were conscious enough to recognize that this was what was going on, wouldn't they have already stopped doing that? In other words, when you ask this question do you ever expect to get a stunned response of "Damn! You know, all this time I have been accepting my teachers thoughts without a single question and for the mere fact that he or she said so". Anyway, I guess to answer your question, at the most fundamental level of which I am aware, I am nothing that holds beliefs or pushes them away. Taoist is just a word. Fundamentally, in the space between my thoughts and sensations, it means nothing more to me than Yogi, Christian, artist, employee, man, or even Sean. Words are just words. I don't believe or disbelieve in a man-demon-god progression but I do find it interesting and in the moment I find it more credible than an absolute distinction between demon and God, especially if by God you are attributing any specific qualities. That's the guy! Isn't he a trip!? Very scholarly, yes, and he damn near comes off like a standup comedian in his lectures. And yes the Presence comes through being around him. Thanks a lot for the tip about his articles, I will follow up on that. He has been working on a translation and commentary of the DaoDeJing for many years now that I believe will be published soon. Currently it's just circulated in photocopied sections in the meditation group and it's really good. Sean

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4OaIGYDkXg...related&search=

Sex with many students, which might not be so bad except some of them were minors and if I remember correctly one was very young. Like the child of a student young. [edit]Just noticed you found your own info.

Can you say more about this. I'm kind of oddly attracted to resolving things I find myself instinctively hating for no apparent reason.

I've read and listened to a bunch of her stuff. I really love her. She is coming from a similar place as Adyashanti and for awhile her words hit me more powerfully than his. I would like to go to a satsang and maybe even a retreat of hers someday. They've gotten so much bigger over the years though. I could shoot myself for not checking out these teachers years ago when their circles were much much smaller. http://www.gangaji.org/

You kick up into it but you also tuck your upper body down at the same time. The latter can be scary so most people try to power up with just the kick which isn't as effective. Practice against a wall. I think step one is being able to do a two minute handstand leaning against the wall. Otherwise you will get tired and frustrated going for the handbalancing without the strength. When going for the handbalancing, make sure you keep the leg you are kicking up straight (knee locked) and once you kick up put your legs together right away and point your toes. Really though, step one is just start kicking up against walls whenever you are bored during the day and get down like 30 seconds before failure. The balance will just come over time as you consciously hold the pose. It's like upside down qigong. Really addictive. [edit]Least favorite pose is the bow.

In the Taoist religion I understand that one must become a demon before one becomes a God. And even the Gods are unstable at best. Like freeform says, the hardest thing to face is what's under the surface of our own hard feelings for what we consider so "other". I imagine this is another one of those endlessly difficult features of being human. Various methods of self-inquiry help enormously. Byron Katie's work, the 3-2-1 Shadow Process, any good parts work (ie: Internal Family Systems). Re: Osho, I've gotten some good gems out of his stuff. Same with Chogyam Trungpa. Same with Muktananda. Same with Adi Da even. I'm fairly glad I was never in a situation where they were crashing at my place regularly, but I enjoy checking out their insights from time to time. It's a shame these people and their organizations have also caused suffering. I am not against a call to accountability but I'm also not into victimization movements ("poor us"). Often I even think there should be more said about abuse and decline of teachers at the hands of deranged students than vice versa. Sean

Naww, it's great. I'm looking forward to your reviews.

Adho Mukha Vrksasana I'm getting up to 45 seconds hang time these days and have enough stability to start eeking toward the scorpion bend. Little by little. Sean [edit]Oh, well I guess this isn't a stretch really. I saw asana at first. My favorite stretch is probably Urdhva Dhanurasana (bridge).

I wanted Shamrock to win. Not really sure why. Did you hear something about Shamrock trying to storm Ortiz's locker room after the fight and the police had to get involved? Pretty lame.

Have you seen this site? http://www.pangushengong.org/ This guy teaches in San Francisco, I was thinking of checking him out but haven't gotten around to it yet. Sean

Just let me borrow your bike to take it off some sweet jumps. Ok, are you ready for the CUTEST THING EVER? It's These animals heart chakras are wide open, I love it. Sean

My guess is because Zen is an attempt to focus almost as exclusively as possible on the everpresent stillness and inherent emptiness of all form, no matter how subtle or gross that form may be. From this perspective qi flow is not fundamentally unlike any movement of form ... blood flow, taking a walk, cooking breakfast, sleeping. It's all still "the world of manifestation". Not to say that qi flow cannot be presented with perhaps equally skillfull means though. IMO when qi is framed like this, as movement itself, as thoughts, desires, perceptions, emotions, etc., all an endless flow of qi that will never be finished and simultaneously the question "what is Silently Aware of movement?" is held until the separation between the imagination of yourself and That Which Is Aware falls away, then we have a spiritual path and not just healthful qi exercises. Not that there is anything wrong with healthful qi exercises of course. If you pm me your email address I'll send you an mp3 of a Zen teacher talking about energy flow like this although I don't remember her ever saying qi outright. Sean

A liger. It's pretty much my favorite animal. It's like a lion and a tiger mixed... bred for its skills in magic.

Try as many as you'd like and return to the one or two or five that grab you. Sean

Wow. I've seen that performed but never thought of the acupuncture correlation, that is a cool piece of research. Sean

I was curious about this form as well. Let us know how it goes. Sean