doc benway

I can think of no better exercise for senior well being than taijiquan. I find it to be better than most qigong forms in that it requires shifting of the weight, stepping, and cultivates leg strength and balance which have been shown to reduce falls and fractures in seniors. One caveat, I do not think learning through books or videos are adequate, particularly for seniors. I base this on having taught taijiquan and qigong to seniors, several of whom had tried to learn without live instruction for a time through books, videos, and online resources. My experience was that seniors often require a little extra time, patience, and explanation/demonstration to become comfortable and self-correcting in their form practice, as compared to younger adults. Several of my students had significant health challenges - back, knee, and shoulder issues, arthritis, cardiac and respiratory issues, and more. The majority of them stuck with the program for long enough to feel tangible benefits. Qigong can be wonderful for them as well but, provided they are capable, the weight shifting and stepping requirements of taijiquan make it an optimal exercise for seniors, IMO.

🤣 Yes and yes, and raised in a rural farming community and a Daoist. One of the first people to interest me in Daoism... And one of the best nurses I ever worked with 😷

Shaking can be used to help process and heal traumatic effects trapped in the body/mind. Trauma Release Exercise is one method for that. TRE is quite different from the shaking that Walker suggested in the OP. Anything that mobilizes trauma in the system, however, can potentially bring up memories and related energetic effects so always good to be cautious and have support available if you are a trauma survivor.

Reminds me of what a nurse once told me defines the male reaction to life. She felt we are limited to three possible choices - eat it, kill it, or fuck it....

The Teachings of Don Juan - Carlos Castaneda When the Shoe Fits - Osho Awareness - Anthony Demello Total Freedom - Jiddu Krishnamurti ... among others

The Nine Breaths are a tantric method of energetic purification. Each of the three major channels are associated with energetic content - disturbances, trauma, blockages, habitual patterns... The awareness rides the subtle winds, like a rider and a horse, through the channels clearing and opening us to an unlimited source of inner creativity and healing. It's usually the first, or early, step in a comprehensive program of energetic methods which include tsa lung, trul khor, and tummo. We work from more coarse material and practices to progressively more subtle levels, leading to ever deeper purification and connection.

Buttons

"Charity is really self-interest masquerading under the form of altruism." ~ Anthony Demello

Imp

Interruptive

I'm currently reading The Overstory by Richard Powers. I'm not very far into the book but I am completely blown away by Powers' vision and his masterful command of the written word. His style reminds me a bit of Salman Rushdie. This is a book that may take me a while to read, it is one to relish and absorb rather than finish, at least it seems that way so far. Wow! Just finished this book and it affected me far more deeply than most books I’ve read. I’m in awe of Powers’ intelligence and humanity. I may read it again...

All of the various types of teachings and spiritual paths are related to the different capacities of understanding that different individuals have. There does not exist, from an absolute point of view, any teaching which is more perfect or effective than another. A teaching's value lies solely in the inner awakening which an individual can arrive at through it. If a person benefits from a given teaching, for that person that teaching is the supreme path, because it is suited to his or her nature and capacities. ~ Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche

Just finished The Magician of Lhasa, another thriller with heavy spiritual content, this time in the form of Tibetan Buddhism. I thoroughly enjoyed it and found it an inspiration for my own practice. Highly recommended, especially for Dharma practitioners and anyone who enjoyed Alexandra David-Neel’s books or Thomas Shor’s A Step Away from Paradise. https://images.app.goo.gl/9JkMBxdF3mCGZZA27

@manitou I just finished reading a fun book called Recursion by Blake Crouch that I mentioned in another thread. These concepts you mention are the foundation for the book - the illusory nature of linear time, the primacy of mind in establishing our reality, and so on. It's a thriller about a woman who builds a machine to capture and restore memory in hopes of helping her mother who is suffering from dementia. What she creates leads to unexpected and catastrophic consequences. Some of it is a bit speculative but I enjoyed the ride. You may want to check it out.

Just finished another book I enjoyed It's a fast paced thriller that plays with the nature of memory and reality.

A bit of a detour but I started watching a Netflix series, Age of Samurai: Battle For Japan. One episode in and it’s quite good for anyone interested in the political and military history beginning in the 16th century.

I follow my heart Since it was liberated From my intellect

As others have pointed out, DDJ and ZZ are important core texts and should be studied, they're a lifetime study not a casual read. If asked about the very first book one should read about Daoism, I would recommend "When the Shoe Fits" by Osho. I'm not generally enamored of Osho's books and talks but this book is a brilliant introduction to Zhuangzi and Daoist thought, IMO, albeit a bit colored by Osho's unique perspective. The other book I've found to be very valuable is "Original Tao" by Harold Roth. It is a translation and commentary on the Neiyeh, possibly the oldest extant example of a practical and explicit guide to inner cultivation. For me, reading Dao De Jing and Zhuang Zi was challenging, dull, and of little value until I first had a taste of what they were pointing at. I got that through a variety of commentaries and modern teachers, including Osho, Anthony Demello, Alan Watts but, most importantly, from my own Daoist teacher and the practices he strongly prioritized over reading.

Visualization is only one method and can be a distraction, even a dead end for some. Not being able to visualize is not, in and of itself, an immovable obstacle. Same with finger surgery. Even if you lost the finger, the hand, even the arm, you can be a master. We work with what we have, whatever that may be, not with what we think we need to progress. Being human and having the motivation to practice are all you really need. Having a teacher or guide is also a great blessing and advantage, particularly on the path of Qi cultivation. Welcome to the forum and I wish you well on your path.

Recursion

Wonderful book. I've recommended it to a few people over the years and it's generally very well received. I often recommend a book by my current teacher, it is the book that introduced me to him. It's a book filled with practices which I found very easy to adopt and incorporate into my life. It's great to want to let go. The tricky part is, once you let go, what fills that space? What prevents the problems from filling us right back up? What do we connect to in order to prevent that? Where do we turn when things are really tough? Where can we find support? This book introduces us to that support, which is in and available to every one. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13227894-awakening-the-luminous-mind

Signs of proper meditation. The sign of correct meditation is that our attachment decreases and our consciousness increases. There is no separate recipe for understanding light and emptiness. Let's just stay cool and not get attached to anything. However, our alert consciousness (rigpa) is clearly present and we remain in this state. Fewer and fewer thoughts appear in our minds, while our vigilance becomes more solid and clearer. When the feeling of immediate presence shines brightly, it is called ′′ vipasjana." All the signs listed so far indicate that we are doing meditation properly. In addition, another sign of correct meditation is that one cannot put his experience into words. It is also a good sign if our drowsiness dissipates due to meditation and if we suddenly think during practice, ′′ My master is very kind, I am doing my exercise successfully, I am completely satisfied ". If we meditate during the day and continue this in our dreams at night, it is also a positive sign. . More favorable signs may be the following: our appearance remains young, our thoughts become quiet, we don't get heated emotions when visiting our relatives, and we don't have any influence on the words praising and belittling. We don't feed expectations even when we receive teachings from a Buddha himself. We don't get discouraged if the results are late. We look into our bodies, we notice signs, we become capable of telepathy, we see the six worlds and the suffering of the creatures living there. Even in the darkness of the night we see clearly. All of these are excellent signs, which manifest spontaneously, without effort, due to the effect of meditation. We feel comfortable and free from scattering. We are always balanced and neither happiness nor sorrow can disturb us. ~Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche