sean

In the Sanskrit "ha" means "sun" and "tha" means " moon" so I believe Hatha Yoga was at least originally intended to be a type of Kan Li. Revisiting Yoga after working with Taoist stuff for a few years and I'm finding it's a lot more balanced than Chia/Winn make it out to be ... I think Winn was probably doing some really unbalanced Kundalini methods when he met Chia for the first time ... the path is not all ascending fire. Sean

Chuck Norris once ate three 72 oz steaks in 1 hour. He spent the first 45 minutes having sex with his waitress. Chuck Norris lost his virginity before his dad did. Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried. Chuck Norris only masturbates to pictures of Chuck Norris. To prove it isn't that big of a deal to beat cancer, Chuck Norris smoked 15 cartons of cigarettes a day for 2 years and aquired 7 different kinds of cancer only to rid them from his body by flexing for 30 minutes. When Chuck Norris was in middle school, his English teacher assigned an essay: "What is Courage?" Chuck Norris received an "A+" for writing only the words "Chuck Norris" and promptly turning in the paper. Chuck Norris uses his forehead as a flyswatter... and he has never missed. Chuck Norris's belly button is actually a power outlet. Chuck Norris doesn't get drunk. He drinks to get sober. Chuck Norris once tried to defeat Jackie Chan in a game of chess. When Norris lost, he won in life by roundhouse kicking Chan in the side of the face. Chuck Norris roundhouse kick is so powerful, it can be seen from outer space by the naked eye. One drop of Chuck Norris sweat can cure you of anything, even death. Chuck Norris has never blinked in his entire life. Never. If you can see Chuck Norris, he can see you. If you cant see Chuck Norris you may be only seconds away from death. Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits. Chuck Norris does not hunt because the word hunting infers the probability of failure. Chuck Norris goes killing. A blind man once stepped on Chuck Norris' shoe. Chuck replied, "Don't you know who I am? I'm Chuck Norris!" The mere mention of his name cured this man blindness. Sadly the first, last, and only thing this man ever saw, was a fatal roundhouse delivered by Chuck Norris. When Chuck Norris sends in his taxes, he sends blank forms and includes only a picture of himself, crouched and ready to attack. Chuck Norris has not had to pay taxes ever. According to Einstein's theory of relativity, Chuck Norris can actually roundhouse kick you yesterday. A Handicap parking sign does not signify that this spot is for handicapped people. It is actually in fact a warning, that the spot belongs to Chuck Norris and that you will be handicapped if you park there. Someone once tried to tell Chuck Norris that roundhouse kicks aren't the best way to kick someone. This has been recorded by historians as the worst mistake anyone has ever made. Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants. Chuck Norris is not hung like a horse... horses are hung like Chuck Norris If you ask Chuck Norris what time it is, he always says, "Two seconds till." After you ask, "Two seconds to what?" he roundhouse kicks you in the face. Chuck Norris once ate a whole cake before his friends could tell them there was a stripper in it. Filming on location for Walker: Texas Ranger, Chuck Norris brought a stillborn baby lamb back to life by giving it a prolonged beard rub. Shortly after the farm animal sprang back to life and a crowd had gathered, Chuck Norris roundhouse kicked the animal, breaking its neck, to remind the crew once more that Chuck giveth, and the good Chuck, he taketh away.

My two cents. 1. Start taking hot baths followed by very cold showers (this is your kick in the ass) 2. Get a water bottle and drink lot's of fresh water every day 3. Read Potatoes Not Prozac, start step 1 and get involved in their community. 4. Get Intu Flow and start the Beginner set. 5. Start reading the free Yoga lessons over on aypsite.org and begin a morning and evening mantra and pranayama meditation practice. (Or if you prefer the Taoist angle, borrow Winn's fundamentals 1 and 2 from someone, they are great.)

I've read that if you go a whole week favoring the opposite hand you are used to using for everything it increases your IQ/creativity incredibly. Always wanted to do that.

this loaded phallus has becum the prevailing metaphor of the day you've spent your chi on cheap versions of the virgin you've worshipped loopholes in a story and war shipped mythic men to glory if in god's image then your god's a plastic surgeon a tyrannic dictator a coward behind a curtain with a megaphone an aging oil tycoon on viagra ramming his plow into the earth turning up disease and disaster out of an ever-drying womb ... your prayers between rounds do no more than fasten the fate of your children to the hammered truth of your trigger a truth that mushrooms its darkened cloud over the rest of us so that we too bear witness to the short-lived fate of a civilization that worships a male god your weapons are phallic all of them --- Saul Williams

Three month silent vipassana retreat, that is intense! On my vacation in Philly I read about this beat poet Bob Kaufman who took a 10 year vow of silence from 1963-1973 during which he did not speak or write anything. He broke his silence with the opening phrase to a poem "All Those Ships that Never Sailed". Kind of wild. I can't shut up for 10 minutes. I think us guys in particular have trouble with the little steps, we want to just have some huge dramatic experience that blows up all of our illusions in some fiery explosion and then we roundhouse kick samsara in the head and are enlightened. Anyways, welcome to The Tao Bums man! Sean

OOooh cat, this is great and happens to me as well. It makes me shiver a little when it happens and I feel all these little microadjustments and subtle twitching as "I" relax falling backward into Being ... mmmmmmmm *smile* Sean

Great topic. I think something is only an addiction when it causes problems for you or others and yet you still compulsively do it regardless of repeated attempts to stop. Also sometimes a so-called addiction, for example let's say too much forum browsing/posting ... this could be just a symptom of a deeper addiction ... to procrastinating housechores or avoiding intimacy with your partner, etc. So you quit surfing but suddenly take up compulsive knitting or something else, heh, it's like pushing on different corners of a balloon. I think the Internet is about as much of an addiction to me as is having a warm comfortable bed to sleep in. Here is a great topic over on RMAX about addiction and peak performance that I imagine is related to all this somehow.

Hagar, I'll miss your presence man, I've learned a lot from you. Please pop in at least once a year and say hi to us bums.

I do a hot bath then cold shower. I was using coconut oil afterwards but have switched to almond oil and like it better. I'm noticing my tolerance to the cold is increasing and am thinking of moving on to throwing a bag of ice into the bath and doing it that way once or twice a week. I figure by the time I'm 40 I'll be one of those nuts who goes skinny dipping in frozen lakes.

Love this Ian.

I love Alex Grey, you got a link to that calendar?

My interest in David Deida led me to get a subscription to Integral Naked. Lot's of great content. I've been studying Ken Wilber's AQAL briefly and today was inspired by his four quadrants to use my lunch break and map cultivation practices on a grid of active/passive, subtle/gross. I also made a further distinction in each quadrant between methods conducted on the self by the self (inside the "i" circle) and methods conducted on the self by outside help (outside the circle in the "o" area). Here's a pic: Any thoughts? It's possible I've gone insane. Sean

I tried to resist but someone had to eventually start this thread, right? The only one I've thought up so far is to rare back on reading so many books at the same time. Like only one or two books at once. I was up to trying to juggle I think 10 or 11 at one point earlier in the year and it just gets kind of ridiculous at some point. Sean

Ahhh.. yes, a wonderful Taoist friend of mine keeps nudging me to check out this work. There are ongoing Ecstatic Dance events in my area. I just haven't worked up the nerve yet. Somehow being arm-barred and choked out in jiu-jitsu every other day is less scary to me than soberly dancing from the heart in broad daylight. Sean

Yes ... Franz Bardon, the famous Hermeticist, recommended a dry brush every morning. One of the practices he taught, very similar to Taoist work, was pore breathing and he felt that exfoliating the skin regularly was vital so the whole body can breathe. I've never used a dry brush though ... where can I pick one up Karen?

Let's give the guy some page traffic too: http://www.jonathancoulton.com/songs/

Hmm.. I think it's possible to progress independently in each of them which is what I think is most interesting. Because I think a lot of people see development in their favorite one as being the "ultimate exxtreme" one. Like I think many spiritual circles tend to view yin with the most reverence and probably for good reason because we are sorely lacking it's cultivation. I watched this hilarious clip from a David Deida seminar the other day where he is talking about how Ramana Maharshi, a universally beloved saint of Advaita Vedanta, would just be considered totally insane by spiritual circles in America today ... like he is the equivalent of a homeless guy under a bridge who just refuses to speak on any other level but the absolute. Just refuses. Barely acknowledges that anything truly exists. Unrelentingly pointing to the infinite. Has to be fed and, almost kind of flipped over from time to time. But India has a context for this kind of holy sage that is just so extremely developed in stillness, yet, you could almost say crippled in movement. And in the same token I think there are probably many highly realized masters of movement, just super high level Tai Chi geniuses and what not, that are sorely out of touch with emptiness, with the unmoved. I posted my pics here on that Integral Naked forum and caused a little discussion. Someone posted one of their grids that I thought was interesting, check it out ... (note, he is using the terms yin/yang in a very different context than I did in my diagram) ... GrandTrinity, yeah Ken seems like a cool guy. I had this intuition from flipping through his books in bookstores over the years that he was really dry and kind of like, adding this unnecessary layer of intellectuality to spiritual practice, but in listening to him speak and watching clips of him, he has a ton of humor and personality so I've been reading his work in a different frame now. Sean

Dr. Bronner's, check. Baking soda, check. Sea salt, check. Coconut oil, check. I'm ready to go man, great tip, already got the water running! Adding this to my daily hot bath/morning shower ritual. Probably seems insignificant to some, but I think this kind of daily routine can really get you moving .. especially through the winter. I've read a lot of people swearing that it cured depression, anxiety, chronic fatigue, etc. Sean

Hey Dan, may not be what you are looking for as it's not traditional Chi Kung per se, but I think Yin Yoga does something like this. Here's a blurb:

Welcome back neimad! Hey man, I hate to be a pisser out of the gate, but I need to talk to you about something serious here. Please don't request the distribution of illegally copied materials on The Tao Bums, neither publicly nor privately. It's very important that we all work to keep this place clean, for it's legal safety obviously, and also, frankly, for ethical considerations as well. And plus, we have a Lending Library here man! That's what it's all about! So post in there and anyone with a Body Flow DVD will be more than happy to lend to you I'm sure. And if you don't mind tapes, I have a set I can send to you, just PM me. From the FAQ: No posting, attaching or linking to illicit serial numbers,"cracks", keygens, or anything related to the illegal pirating of copyrighted software. No posting, attaching or linking to copyrighted material, for example books or mp3s not part of the public domain. No posting, attaching or linking to the private information of individuals for the purpose of harrassment or fraud, for example personal phone, social security or credit card numbers. Thanks man, Sean

What I think is cool about the diagram is that it lays out nearly all the work we do on a continuum. Think of all the artificial divisions created in this community alone between alchemy vs. emptiness, visualization vs. zazen, practice vs. no practice, therapy vs. spirituality, surrender to flow vs. making shit happen. It's all on there! The way my practice moves through all the quadrants is this: 1 - spinal breathing (actively clearing obstructions by moving prana up/down spinal channel), cognitive therapy, aggressive study of spiritual literature 2 - IAM mantra (resting in pure bliss consciousness), sedona, letting go of seeking 3 - intu-flow, body flow, jiu-jitsu, running 4 - raising my bhakti through reading/listening to inspirational teachers such as Adyashanti, Gangaji, Ramana Maharshi, Papaji, etc. ... zhan zhuang, stopping periodically through my day to rest/surrender into my physical structure Sean

Another version:

"Stored emotional insulation refers to what happens when areas remain unmoved and fear-reactivity, density and motor amnesia creep in. Muscle atrophies, adipose accumulates, fascia thickens, synovial fluid decreases / cartilage dehydrates, and nerves/sensory organs diminish in strength. It becomes progressively more difficult to move that area - hence the emotional releases which often result from reopening it." Full Article

RedFox, awesome post. You got me hooked on foot awareness now. I really want to hunt that circulation technique down. And in general I am focusing on "foot flow". As silly as that may sound, I think it's a neglected area of development. You know that flow on WW where Scott makes "waves" with his hands? I'm playing around with doing that with the foot. Also trying to develop more sensitivity in the toes ... moving all the toes up, down, then left, right (left,right is still really difficult) and then also trying a "toe wave" where I start with my big toe, bend it down, then bend the next one down, next, etc. to my pinkie toe than back. It's amazing how crude my toe control is, and yet there are people missing arms who can do amazing shit with their feet/toes .. type, paint masterpieces, etc. That is awesome! And Hawaii seems like the right place to do that at. I did something similar once. Just packed up all my shit in my car, put $50 in my pocket and travelled the US for about a year as a bum ... getting stuck in random towns until I could work/barter for a new tank of gas to move on. Good times. California man. Or maybe Oregon. I think about moving up to Eugene sometimes. PS, I'm saving for IOTA so we should meet up. Sean