doc benway

LIV Cats climbing a steel fence to a garden. The thoughts of humans aching back to the first unfolding of Mind. by Afaa Michael Weaver

they prepare to dance arabesque, jetté, plié broken toes and dreams

I think the answer depends on what practice you are referring to. In neigong and Daoist practices, my teacher never recommended or taught any type of visualization, not even in qigong practice. On the other hand, we did discuss location and characteristics of points and meridians so to say there was no visualization involved is a bit inaccurate, IMO. I believe one reason to minimize visualization is to prevent the conceptual mind from engaging and misguiding the attention and interfering with the practice. My Daoist teacher’s core instruction was to focus on the practice instructions and the experience of practice rather than conceptualize, analyze, or follow the intellect. It was more about focusing and training the attention than creating any internal imagery. He even discouraged reading and study in favor of investing that time in practice. While those things have a valuable role in our lives, we rarely experience the world in any other way so it is important to learn to use the attention in a different way so that we are not overly dependent on, and consequently limited by, our intellectual and conceptual faculties. In Bön and Buddhist systems, visualization is useful and widely used. It is very useful for concentrating, focusing and training the awareness and attention which are otherwise prone to distraction and preoccupation. I think it could be especially valuable to us in this high-tech age when we always have ready access to every answer, image, or explanation we could desire at the touch of a screen. Our powers of focus and attentiveness aren’t getting enough exercise, not to mention our memory and other cognitive functions. In tantric practices, visualization is a core element and it’s efficacy can be readily seen in the results of practices like trul khor, tsa lung, tummo, chöd, dream yoga, deity yoga, and so forth. In these practices, it generally refers to a sequence of steps rather than a single, simple creation of a mental visual image. For example, we may first create and stabilize the visual imagery, then allow this to deepen into a more comprehensive imagination that goes beyond visual representation and may include other senses, then to a more intuitive felt sense of the thing, even a channeling of characteristics and qualities, and finally to simply being, or full embodiment. My teacher would often instruct in a retreat to first visualize, then imagine, then feel, then BE, eventually skipping the early steps when not needed. It’s important to acknowledge that visualization can mean different things. It can mean creating an internal visual image of something; it can be a wider imaginary representation that can include sound, smell, taste, and feel. It can be more intuitive. It can be to conjure up a memory or a plan. It can be creation of a feeling in the body like heat; it can be to imagine the pain and suffering of others and bringing that into one’s own field of awareness, lots of permutations are possible. I think it is difficult, if not impossible, to entirely exclude visualization in its myriad forms from our practice. For example, even those who emphatically discount the value of visualization in Daoist neigong carry in their minds some representation of the inner architecture, the inner anatomy, the expected and conceptualized characteristics of energetics, the expectations for outcome and so forth. All of this is, to some degree, visualization, IMO, and all of it can be useful. Visualization is a wonderful tool even in largely physical activities like golf, tennis, music, martial arts, weight lifting, etc… The power of mind is not to be underestimated. I heard a marvelous story of Arthur Rubinstein. He accepted a last minute invitation to play a piano concerto in London, one he’d not practiced or played in years. On the transatlantic flight, he spent hours visualizing the score in his mind and playing through it from beginning to end. He arrived in London and performed without error. My music teacher often recommended I use this technique to practice when I didn’t have the opportunity to actually use an instrument.

All Bread by Margaret Atwood All bread is made of wood, cow dung, packed brown moss, the bodies of dead animals, the teeth and backbones, what is left after the ravens. This dirt flows through the stems into the grain, into the arm, nine strokes of the axe, skin from a tree, good water which is the first gift, four hours. Live burial under a moist cloth, a silver dish, a row of white famine bellies swollen and taut in the oven, lungfuls of warm breath stopped in the heat from an old sun. Good bread has the salt taste of your hands after nine strokes of the axe, the salt taste of your mouth, it smells of its own small death, of the deaths before and after. Lift these ashes into your mouth, your blood; to know what you devour is to consecrate it, almost. All bread must be broken so it can be shared. Together we eat this earth.

Yes, raw cacao is grown best in volcanic soil and can have high concentrations of cadmium and other heavy metals. The processing of chocolate reduces those concentrations considerably but you need to be mindful if you consume large quantities of raw cacao.

Perhaps stirling will have some other comments but I’d like to offer mine. I would say your practice is developing nicely. The mind is like a river, thoughts and feelings come and go, constantly changing. In a similar way, we come and go, as does everything around us, even the planets and stars, just on a larger, slower scale. With respect to “there was still this point of view. Of a person watching, here I am." This is an important part of practice. Once the flow of the moving river of thoughts and feelings is less distracting and no longer carries the attention away, it is then valuable to turn your attention back to the “person watching, here I am.” This is the difference between mindfulness and dzogchen. In mindfulness, we remain identified with the watcher and perfect the art of staying present and attentive. In dzogchen, we turn the attention directly on the watcher and see what exactly that is. I don’t mean it should be an analytical process, per se, but that is what is called “turning the light around." When the looker looks back at itself directly, without thinking about it or analyzing it intellectually, both the looker and what is being looked at dissolve, if only for an instant. In that dissolution, there is the meaning of emptiness of self. It is not intellectual or conceptual, it is open and empty and that’s where we abide. Looking back at the observer is just one way to connect to the spaciousness and clarity of the present moment. There are others. I suspect this is why Buddha may have refused to answer the question about self, his non-verbal instruction being that it is more important to do the work than be given an answer.

No, my IT skills suck I can see why I haven’t read much lately Agreed Unfortunate, …it’s a sensitive subject for sure, for so many on both sides now (one of my favorite songs btw) I enjoyed those, pass the pepitas Cheers

My brother used to dance professionally and travelled constantly. We would stay in touch largely through hand written letters. I really miss that and have several of his old letters. I read them once in a while and they were so funny and creative. I’m inspired to send him a letter!

@Nungali As a partial answer to your question, when I was moderating I found it was not always easy, or even possible, to be certain that someone suspected of being previously banned was, in fact, that person. While it’s easy to be sure as a participating member, it feels different when you are the one issuing a permanent ban. There are tools that can help but without sophisticated IT knowledge and skills, the tools are limited. These uncertain cases were monitored closely and when there was enough certainty they were once again banned. The other factor of importance is the severity of offenses leading to the initial ban. If it was very serious (racism, misogyny, homophobia, threats of violence, etc…) there was no second chance given. If it was milder (posting too many GIFs, relatively harmless misinformation, getting caught up in the moment with an otherwise benign history,… ) then we sometimes gave people a second chance. The rules are useful but not definitive as there are many variables and shades of gray, and the mods do the best they can. I think some have erred on the side of permitting more wide ranging discussion, these are criticized for permitting racism, conspiracy theories, and the like. Others erred on the side of shutting down borderline discussion and these were criticized for censorship. Sometimes it feels like you just can’t win. Moderating is not as black and white as some assume, it requires quite a bit of nuance, and it’s mostly thankless. I think the current team is doing a great job and appreciate them very much! PS - I think this very thread is problematic in the context of racism. What is extolling the virtues of one “race,” to the exclusion of others, if not racism?

Yes, walking and running outside are wonderfully supportive, as is standing meditation and practicing taiji and qigong. I find great refuge in connecting to the natural world and elements, and in family, friends, and our warm little community here. Curiously, after about two decades of reading and listening to Dharma and other spiritual teachings nearly exclusively, I find they are not very interesting or supportive for me lately. My practice is far more beneficial these days and I am more drawn to literature - fiction and poetry mostly, than sutras and tantras. There is wisdom everywhere when I look in the right way and open my heart to it. And there is also pain. It puts me in mind of a quote from Nisargadatta Maharaj that goes something like, ‘When I look outside, I see I am everything; when I look inside, I see I am nothing. Between these two my life turns.’ He remarked just before the Cybertruck ran over his toes…. Yes, thank you. I find myself doing just that in the context of standing meditation frequently. And as you’ve pointed out so often, it’s so easy to bypass. And so important to be aware and unflinchingly honest with ourselves about what we are thinking and feeling. Even when the ultimate game is recognized, there is still plenty of shittola happening. This is the Two Truths, the Yin and the Yang. And when the shit is threatening to drown loved ones, or strangers, it is not enough to simply Rest. I really do appreciate every one of you and the fact that we are able to communicate once again.

I appreciate that. I’m OK. Things are pretty shitty on my side of the pond right now. Lots of negative emotion and reactivity coming up for me on a daily basis. Writing it out helps a little, sometimes.

Slowly working my way through a marvelous, mostly contemporary, poetry anthology, Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World. Padraig O Tuama, an Irish poet, curated the selections and wrote a brief essay on each. For anyone who is intimidated or bored by poetry, this collection could change your mind (or not.. ). There is a second collection I haven’t read yet as well as a wonderful podcast that gave birth to the collections, Poetry Unbound - a part of the On Being project of Krista Tippett. One of my favorites so far from the book is Wishing Well by Gregory Pardlo - https://onbeing.org/poetry/wishing-well/ Another poem worth checking out from the podcast (not in the book) is Gimaazinibii’amoon (A Message to You), written and sung by the author Margaret Noodin in Anishinaabemowin and recited in English - https://onbeing.org/programs/margaret-noodin-gimaazinibiiamoon-a-message-to-you/. There is also an interview with the author here - https://onbeing.org/programs/bonus-a-conversation-with-margaret-noodin/

On a related note, religion can never be separated from bullshit and opportunism. Ethics do not need religion, nor does morality. It’s quite the other way around, religion needs the ethics and morality that arise from community and empathy. Religion does not give us morality, it appropriates morality from the human heart/mind and claims authorship. We can readily see what happens with religion when empathy is absent. Btw #2, I feel the mods are doing a wonderful job trying to maintain the health and focus of this little, shrinking community. They have my trust and appreciation.

of the species. Meow. there are none so whimsical as Jellicle cats

Because they’re cozy and interesting, perhaps?

the life on the line is no less sacred than mine I don't fish for fun

It’s nice to have the site working. Thanks @sean, wherever you are!

You say it better!

This is why dream yoga can be such a powerful practice. You see this directly when awake in the dream. It helps loosen the solid feeling of waking “reality"

I find this segment a bit problematic and the message he is trying to get across, which I do get, could perhaps be better expressed: What’s disowned… nothing was never disowned and is always ever-present. …must be claimed… , who is claiming something and what are they claiming? … through knowledge, not action… knowledge is often interpreted in a materialistic, objectified way, care is needed here Action reinforces ignorance…. so can knowledge, particularly of the wrong kind or misinterpreted; and action can certainly express wisdom, removing ignorance, if engaged with full presence. Teaching, guiding, and pointing out are actions that dispel, rather than reinforce ignorance. With maturity and stability in our vew, meditation, and conduct, all action should dispel rather than reinforce ignorance.

God looks like the broken bodies of children when the dust settles, like dead fish floating belly-up with sea birds drowning in oil. She looks like the terrified, pre-teen victim of sexual trafficking, and the bloated, leering face of her abuser. God, the all-knowing, all-powerful Creator, created by such miserable creatures as men cannot look any other way.

My access today has been excellent with both Chrome on Mac and Safari on iOS

from Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World by Padraig O Tuama.

Still sucks for me most of the time.