doc benway

What mindfullness means to me is to pay attention to what is going on. By attention, I mean to really attend deeply in the moment. This is an active thing but very receptive - sort of an active receptivity if you will. It is not easy but can be cultivated over time with practice. It takes enormous energy in the beginning to sustain but gets easier. Think about your normal behavior when someone is talking to you. Don't you start thinking about what you want to reply rather than paying attention to them? Or get distracted by something else? Don't you jockey around for the right opportunity to interject your thoughts and ideas? What if you really paid attention? Looked at them as if you've never seen them before - their eyes, hair, skin, and so forth. Really listen to their words and beyond their words to their meaning. Paid attention to their clothing, their body language, the environment, the feel in your own body, how you are reacting to them. I don't mean to think about these things - open up to experiencing these things, it's very different. What seems to work for me is to completely immerse myself in the senses - pay attention to the sights, sounds, touch, smells, and so on, in whatever situation is present. The more I am paying attention, which is receptivity (yin), the less there is thought distracting me from being present. As soon as I get lazy and ease up on the 'active receptivity' practice, the thoughts flood back in and the moment is a memory. It seems to me that when you are able to completely immerse yourself in the moment, you can approach the point of merging the observer with the observed. As this occurs it is only the process, the observation, the relationship that is present, the person and thing are gone. Well, not really gone but no longer important. The distinction is no longer real. The illusion of separation fades. This is difficult to maintain. It is ellusive and fleeting but it is very real, more real than anything, and it has a quality that is very.... I don't know what to call it. I don't like the normal words - blissful, joyous, transcendant, and so on, it all sounds too analytical, arrogant, self-indulgent. Words don't really work because it's not having to do with thought. Mindfullness is an interesting word - it really should be mind-emptiness. The mind must be empty to receive. On the other hand, it is filled with the moment, the experience, not the thoughts or the analysis. So it starts empty but fills with experience, with reality. Once the moment passes, it fills again with thought. Are you familiar with the ACT (Acceptance Commitment Therapy) method? Mindfullness has a very important role in ACT. I think that many of the Eastern concepts like mindfullness can have a profound effect on mental health although they are not easy practices, particularly for people raised with Western conditioning.

Very interesting and well said... thanks Smile

Emptying your mind is difficult and can lead to frustration when done directly. Trying to empty the mind is fighting an uphill battle. The thoughts will continue to arise. You can't stop it. The more you try, the more you reinforce the presence of someone trying to do something and that is the antithesis of meditation. I agree with the advice of simply watching the thoughts rather than trying to stop or let go or quiet them. Imagine your thoughts as cars in a long train. Most of the time we are one the train. See if you can step back and watch the train as if you were on a bridge and it was going under you. Or watch the thought float along like a leaf on a stream and off into the distance as if you are just standing on the bank or a pebble in the stream. Another method I like is to open yourself to simply being aware of the sensations around you and in you. If you are immersed in sensory perception, there's generally not much room for thoughts to interfere.

I'm not sure I get your meaning relative to quan. It sounds nice - forming the fist out of the unformed hand but I'm not sure how that relates to Taiji. That sounds more like Wuji perhaps. Please clarify if I'm misinterpreting you. I simply look at the quan as referring to a method of boxing, as in Xingyiquan and others. I definitely agree that The Taiji form is a form or structure that encapsulates Taiji principles...

My first shot at some Hanzi etymology: Tai Ji - Tai - 太 - Means greatest, highest, extreme, supreme, most remote. It derives from a stick figure of a person with outstretched arms implying opening or expanding or aging. The stem on the leg implies the divine spark or some distinguishing characteristic. Ji - 極 - Means utmost point, extreme, or pole. The left radical is a tree. The right radical is heaven above earth connected by man using hand (left) and mouth (right). Putting these together connotates extreme poles or opposites. It seems to imply that two opposites come together to form something greater or something whole and complete. It implies a union of extreme opposites. Add Quan - 拳, which means fist or boxing and you have Taijiquan. Most people translate Taijiquan as Supreme Ultimate Boxing. This is literally correct and it's certainly possible that the advocates of this style chose the name to imply the extreme effectiveness and perhaps, a supernatural quality to the art. I believe, however, that it's more accurate to simply look at it as Tai Ji Boxing and interpret it as a style of boxing that is based on principles of Daoist philosophy embodied in the concept of Taiji. That is - soft is meaningless without hard, high without low and so on. Therefore, taiji applies these complimentary principles and uses soft against hard, high against low and so on. Furthermore, training in taiji allows one to develop extreme strength from extreme weakness and to contain extreme hardness within extreme softness and so forth... Whether it is the Supreme Ultimate martial art is certainly arguable but there's no question that the principles are deeply rooted in taiji philosophy.

I'm no expert. I believe that there is no specific law regarding paying income tax yet there is a method to enforce tax payment and punishment if you don't pay. I don't know the specifics and I do pay taxes...

Would it be better to start a new thread on this topic? I'm not sure if this line of inquiry is where Adam wanted to go with this thread... Nevertheless, I'm enjoying the discussion.... To achieve pure awareness, pure experience, nothing can be there (in the mind) to cloud that awareness. This means a complete letting go of all of the conditioning, all of the desire and expectation, all of the comparison. Is this really possible? In my view this is a question that cannot be answered lightly. It is a question that requires enormous energy, persistence, and sincerity and must be explored and experienced first hand. No one can answer this question for another. The answer is meaningless if it comes from outside. It can only come from inside. It's really the question that counts and even that doesn't matter if the individual does not invest enormous energy to answer it for themselves. Once everything is dropped completely and nothing remains to cloud the moment of pure being, who is it that is present in that moment? If someone is present in that moment, then is the moment still pure? That is the nature of the question - Who Am I? Who Am I? - once all the conditioning is dropped. Once there is pure experience with no distinction between experience and experiencer. Mind is nothing more than it's total content - memories, desire, fear, thought, attachment. Once the content is dropped, what is left? Who is there?

I remember reading about this a while ago and sharing it with my son. It looks like a unique opportunity. Oh, to be young again...

Perhaps I'm splitting hairs but this is worthy of investigation, IMO... Can there be experience without thought of experience? Can Now exist as pure being, perception, awareness, receptivity? What would the quality of mind be like in this state? Is this the state we are often approaching in our meditation? Once thought enters....like you said... then there is time and Now is gone ... Cool stuff to ponder... I think that's why I'm so drawn to J Krishnamurti's work

I believe that there can be a Now without past or future. Past is memory, which is knowledge. Future is projection of knowledge into the unknown. Both are the process of thought. Thought is time. Now is experience, pure and simple. Now is outside of time because time is thought and now is experience. There is never any moment of being which is not now. The issue arises that once we think about the experience or the now, it has already passed and is a memory.

Silly illusion The crest of the wave feels free Then blends with the sea...

Is it possible for the mind to become fully still? totally blank? For how long? If so, what is there to remain aware of this stillness? If there is something aware of total stillness, is that total stillness? Like Who Am I?, these are more or less rhetorical questions intended to stimulate introspection and, perhaps, some discussion. Definitive answers to such questions are rarely meaningful...

Fascinating - do you mind sharing more info about your shifu and where you work? Does your facility have a website? I'd be interested in learning more. Thanks,

Nicely said. I'm not sure that I feel the same significance in words as you do, but that's all well and good. I agree that the exploration of etymology is a wonderful educational opportunity. Furthermore, clear communication fosters harmonius relationship. Finally, Chinese characters, to me, are the best possible illustration of your points as they are clearly an example of symbolic representation of ideas, concepts, reality, and so on, and can speak to the reader at a deeper level than one usually experiences with reading the written word.

I like Cleary's translation a lot better. I don't think this has anything at all to do with astral travel.

I also enjoy etymology but I'm relatively ignorant of it. One limitation of etymology is that the original intention or meaning of the word is not necessarily related to it's popular use or interpretation.

Currently, I consider wisdom (at least in part) to be an understanding of the process of and limitations of thought. One method to attain this is to cultivate a state of awareness or mindfulness that allows you to passively observe the process of thought - this includes attachment, the reduction of reality to words and images, the role of images in relationship and behavior, the motivators of fear and desire, and so on... Once the thought process is understood to a certain degree and the ability to observe without interfering is cultivated, many traps can be avoided and progress can be made.

I LOVE Puppetji! Thanks for turning me on to him. I wonder if he is on the seminar circuit? If not, I may just have to go study at his ashram!

I'm very sorry to hear of your situation. If you truly think that you could replace the bullets with blanks, what would prevent you from removing the bullets entirely and not replacing them or getting the gun away entirely? The ethical question of suicide in this circumstance is a difficult one and if it is your wish to prevent that you may need to consider getting a law enforcement officer or mental health professional involved... Good luck

That is interesting. Are there any studies that confirm that this can be done? When a disc herniates, the outer fibrous layer of the disc tears open and allows the soft, gelatinous inner material to protrude out. It is a very small amount of material (smaller than a marble, usually smaller than a pea), and is buried deep under several inches of bone and muscle. If one could somehow manage to get through several inches of bone and muscle and manually replace the gelatinous material without damaging the delicate nerve the disc material is resting on (which falls apart when grasped with instruments), the outer fibrous tissue remains torn and there is nothing to keep it from protruding again. One would need to do an MRI before and after the procedure you describe to demonstrate that what you are describing is physically possible. If such a study has been done, I'd love to see it. I don't mean to be disrespectful but I am concerned when people describe such procedures because to my knowlege they have never been demonstrated to work by appropriate investigation and could potentially be very harmful. The good news is that the majority of people get better spontaneously. If you have persistent numbness or any muscle weakness, clumsiness, loss of bowel or bladder control, or sexual dysfunction, I would strongly recommend that you see a medical specialist immediately.

The inquiry "who am I?" is not dependent on time. It is only worth asking now because now is all that exists. The future is a thought and the past is a memory, which is a thought. Time is thought. Nothing more, nothing less. The inquiry is not dependent on anyone else because "I" must be there before anyone else can arise. "I" must be there to experience the presence of anyone and anything. Matt captured that well in his post. When one asks "who am I?", answers come up quite quickly: I am Steve (nope, that's just a name), I am a doctor or a lawyer (nope, that's a job), I am a person (another label), I am this body (really? - what part of the body? where exactly in the body? show me), I am the whole thing (what if you lose a part), I am my brain (what about your heart?), I am my heart (what if you have a heart transplant?), and so on. Every answer can be refuted as every answer is incomplete or incorrect. The nature of the question gradually peels away layers of the onion. It is not at all self-aggrandizing, quite the opposite. It isn't bigger or better than human. It is much much less... This is not a question that one asks out loud (unless you feel an urge to do that), nor is it a question that one is likely to ever answer in so many words. It does not even need to be asked in words. It is enough to remain with what it is that makes one feel as if they are an individual and go into what that feeling of what "me" is verbally or non-verbally. It is however, according to thousands (or more) of Advaita Vedanta practicioners, a very effective method to go beyond the normal thought process. It requires patience, persistence, and sincerity. The two most famous advocates of this practice in the past century were Sri Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj. Two men who, by just about anyone's criteria, were self-realized. Both are well represented in books which are extremely illuminating. Some people aren't interested in things like the nature of self, the nature of consciousness, and so forth - that's fine. It really doesn't matter at all in the long run. We will all live and die irrespective of that. In fact, nothing matters - we will all live and die despite anything we think, say, or do. Some people, on the other hand, develop an itch that just won't go away when it comes to these sorts of questions. For those who are interested in these questions, ask yourself - what is it that is behind my eyes that thinks it is an entity that is separate from the world and all other entities? This is the question, Who Am I? You need to do much more than ask the question. You need to investigate it deeply and persistently and wonderful things can happen. I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything - perhaps it's all a load of crap. I read once that a famous Zen master was asked about the nature of the universe - his response was to pick up and hand the questioner a dried turd... If anyone thinks this sort of inquiry is a waste of time, cool. If you get off on name calling, fire away! I can yield and neturalize and practice my cyber taijiquan. However, if there are folks out there who are interested in these metaphysical questions, this is a very good method to explore.

Looking forward to seeing your impressions.

My reply would be that if you continue to sit with these questions and let them sink into you deeply as you sink into them you may no longer feel that you need or want someone else to answer them for you. They are very good questions and deserve a lot of time and energy. Answers from another will cause you to nod your head and agree or disagree but won't really help you very much. Spending time with the questions, with or without answers, may be very valuable. Good luck!

Cool clip! It looks alot like a Stephen Chow movie.