doc benway

And he’ll bounce back again as a dragonfruit!

ChiDragon’s back, 😁 Nice to see you again!

He was quite the character! I enjoyed his enthusiasm and fearlessness but it is also good to know one’s limitations! 🙃

ChiDragon is a self-taught taiji and qigong practitioner. He considers himself an authority on both subjects based on his translations of Chinese source material. His ideas and interpretations are literal and practical but his lack of any guidance or instruction results in limited and often mis- understanding. I believe he was suspended or banned from the site a while back but you can search on his name and then his content and there are volumes of posts to explore. Enjoy!

Try Shaolin Soccer

“When you run after your thoughts, you are like a dog chasing a stick; every time a stick is thrown, you run after it. But if, instead, you look at where your thoughts are coming from, you will see that each thought arises and dissolves within the space of that awareness, without engendering other thoughts. Be like a lion, who rather than chasing after the stick, turns to face the thrower. One only throws a stick at a lion once.” ~ H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche ~

~ Chogyal Namkhai Norbu In order to be able to truly integrate one’s practice with one’s life, a few sessions of sitting meditation a day are simply not enough, because we live a twenty-four hour day, and an hour or two of practice just won’t give the right results. “Integrating”, on the other hand, means understanding the condition of “what is” in relation to life itself, without correcting it, so that every circumstance of one‘s life becomes an occasion for practice. *** ”The Self-Perfected State”

From Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche: On this special occasion of the anniversary of the parinirvana of Chogyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, I am reposting these prayers I wrote for him. Rinpoche has been a very important part of my journey in the West. I'm forever grateful for his blessings and guidance in my life. ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་གསོལ་འདེབས་སྨོན་ལམ། Prayer to the Dharmaraja འགྱུར་མེད་དབྱིངས་ལས་གཡོས་མེད་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ། ། དགོངས་རྟོགས་མཐའ་དང་བྲལ་བ་ནམ་མཁའི་ཀློང་། འཕྲིན་ལས་ཐོགས་པ་མེད་པའི་ནོར་བུའི་འོད། ། དུས་མཐའི་མུན་པ་སེལ་བའི་རིན་པོ་ཆེ། ། ། Unwavering Dharma King, from the unchanging space of your knowledge and realizations beyond limit, in the expanse of the sky (Namkhai), Your enlightened activities are the constant shining Jewel (Norbu) Banishing darkness for all times, O Precious One (Rinpoche). འཁོར་བའི་ནད་གདོན་འཇོམས་པའི་བདུད་རྩི་སྨན། ། ཐར་པའི་ལམ་གྱི་བར་ཆོད་ཟློག་པའི་གྲོགས། ། མ་རིག་སྨག་རུམ་གཞིལ་བའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་འོད། ། གསོལ་བ་འདེབས་སོ་མཁྱེན་བརྩེས་ཐུགས་རྗེས་ཟུངས། ། You are the medicine that eliminates disease and obstructions. You are the friend who clears away obstacles to freedom. You are wisdom’s light, removing the darkness of ignorance. Please hold us in your enlightened state of wisdom, love, and compassion. མི་མཐུན་རྐྱེན་ལས་སྒྲོལ་བའི་སྟོབས་ལྡན་ཕ། ། ལུས་སྲོག་ནུས་པ་གསོ་བའི་བྱམས་ལྡན་མ། ། ཉམས་རྟོགས་བོགས་འདོན་བསྐྱེད་པའི་དགེ་བའི་སྤུན། ། གསོལ་བ་འདེབས་སོ་མཁྱེན་བརྩེས་ཐུགས་རྗེས་ཟུངས། ། You are the powerful father who frees us from negative circumstances. You are the kind mother who nourishes our body and life force. You are the Dharma brother who supports and increases our insights and realizations. Please hold us in your Enlightened State of wisdom, love, and compassion. རྟག་ཏུ་ཉམས་མེད་སྙིང་གི་ལྡུམ་རའི་དབུས། ། བཅོས་མིན་དད་པའི་མེ་ཏོག་དཀར་པོ་འདི། ། བརྩེ་ཆེན་ཆུ་ཡིས་གསོས་ཏེ་ཁྱེད་ལ་འབུལ། ། གསོལ་བ་འདེབས་སོ་མཁྱེན་བརྩེས་ཐུགས་རྗེས་ཟུངས། ། In the unblemished garden of our heart center, This white flower of genuine devotion Is sustained by the water of great love; this I offer to you. Please hold us in your enlightened state of wisdom, love, and compassion. ཀ་དག་གཡོ་བ་མེད་པའི་ཀློང་དབྱིངས་ན། ། ལྷུན་གྲུབ་འགག་པ་མེད་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྒྱས། ། འོད་གསལ་རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་གདམས་པ་སྤེལ། ། གསོལ་བ་འདེབས་སོ་མཁྱེན་བརྩེས་ཐུགས་རྗེས་ཟུངས། ། In the space and expanse of unwavering primal purity, The spontaneous presence of continuous wisdom increases, And there you spread the message of clear light Dzogpa Chenpo. Please hold us in your enlightened state of wisdom, love, and compassion. ཅེས་དུས་མཐའི་རྫོགས་ཆེན་རྣལ་འབྱོར་པ་ཆོས་རྒྱལ་ནམ་མཁའི་ནོར་བུ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་སྐུ་གསུང་ཐུགས་ཀྱི་མཛད་འཕྲིན་མཐའ་རུ་ཕྱིན་པའི་དྲི་མེད་གསོལ་འདེབས་སྨོན་ལམ་འདི་ཉིད་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་མཆོག་སྐུ་ཞི་དབྱིངས་སུ་གཤེགས་པར་ཐོས་མ་ཐག་ཏུ་ཚིག་རྐང་བཞི་པ་དེ་“སྙིང་ནས་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས་སོ་ཐུགས་རྗེས་ཟུངས་”ཞེས་པར་ཁ་སྒྱུར་ཞུས་ཏེ་ཞབས་འོག་པ་བསྟན་འཛིན་དབང་རྒྱལ་གྱིས་རྒྱ་གར་རྒྱལ་ས་ལྡི་ལི(༢༠༡༨།༩།༢༨)ནས་གསོལ་བ་ཕུར་ཚུགས་སུ་བཏབ་པའོ།། In these end times, the Enlightened Body, Speech, and Mind of the Dzogchen Yogi Dharmaraja Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche have fulfilled his Dharma Activities, and now that we have heard that his Sublime Form has entered into the Dimension of Peace, the fourth line of each shloka I have now changed to “Please hold us in your enlightened state of wisdom, love, and compassion.” I, Tenzin Wangyal, humbly composed this sincere prayer in New Delhi, India, on September 28, 2018. (translated by Steven Goodman)

No Very practical otherwise the training would not exist. These methods are not theoretical or speculative, they are solely for practical application.

A precious moment of awareness!

Exactly the same?

I don't think God "wants." That's simply anthropomorphic projection.

I am no expert on the subject but this is an innovative website that could be useful - https://www.stuffthatworks.health/mcas PS - use caution with potassium supplements. If you use them, good idea to check serum potassium levels periodically

Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous to be understood. How grass can be nourishing in the mouths of the lambs. How rivers and stones are forever in allegiance with gravity while we ourselves dream of rising. How two hands touch and the bonds will never be broken. How people come, from delight or the scars of damage, to the comfort of a poem. Let me keep my distance, always, from those who think they have the answers. Let me keep company always with those who say “Look!” and laugh in astonishment, and bow their heads. ~ Mary Oliver

@blue eyed snake you now have access, enjoy!

One of the many benefits of prostrations! 😁

I haven’t been moderating actively and simply wanted the mods to be aware of the question. I agree that anything here is basically public domain. We can’t stop people from copying anything we write here or anywhere else on the web for that matter. I don’t know if there is any rule prohibiting it here at the moment.

This sounds like a wild cat!

@Cobie - I made a report so that the active mods can weigh in on your question. Thanks Steve

I’m curious, What criteria do you use to establish so (x5) many systems as bs? What would make you feel a system is good and real?

Essentially yes. Mind alone does not refer to the conceptual mind. Mind in the sense I believe you are referencing is far more comprehensive than that. There really is a difference between scholar and practitioner. For example, imagine someone who studies taijiquan, reading the classics and perfecting their theoretical knowledge of the art for a decade but never engaging in the physical training. Now imagine someone else who never once opens a book but practices taijiquan daily with a credible teacher for the same amount of time. Do you think the scholar and practitioner will have comparable skill in a pushing hands match? One has mastered the concepts and theory but the other has mastered the art. The scholar has knowledge but the practitioner has expertise, there is a very tangible difference. It is the same with meditation.

Jamgon Mipham was a Tibetan Buddhist master and teacher and his words should be seen in that context. The use of the word yogi is widespread in Buddhist circles and synonymous with practitioner, in contrast to the word scholar.

@SigmaTropic You PPD is ready for use, enjoy!

As a Tibetan Buddhist it’s interesting to me how attached you seem to be to your samsaric stories and how carelessly you publicly share harmful gossip. You are welcome to say and think whatever you like as far as I’m concerned and I’ll respond as I see fit when so inclined. On the other hand there are rules of conduct here and misogyny, homophobia, and right wing conspiracy theories tend to rub the mods and admin the wrong way so I would advice some caution on those topics.