BobD

Great post Sean. Ah, the joys of being a kid! I often feel that that is what it is all about, just becoming that innocent, that uncaring again. Being able to lose your temper completely, and then be totally fine and happy 5 seconds later! (Then of course I see someone's kids running around being noisy and getting in the way, and I just want to strangle them ) At the root of it, we all just want to be happy. Finding what it is that makes us happy (and of course finding all those things that we thought did, but actually don't) is the harder part. Slartibartfast: I'd far rather be happy be right Arther Dent: And are you? Slartibartfast: No, that's where it all goes wrong of course

Hi neimad The Sedona Method, also presented as The Release Technique/Abundance Course is a "formalized" method of surrendering. It teaches that you should look at all your feelings, group them into a wanting control, a wanting security or a wanting approval, and then allow yourself to feel that feeling, accept it for what it is, and then let it go. In this way you accept your feelings about what yoiu have done/are doing/keep doing. Seems fairly similar to what you describe. I'm not too good at explaining it but it does work for me.

Here is an article from another site that touches on this subject: Taoism.net

Cool. Doubt I'll be able to go, but I'll look into it. Cheers!

My thoughts also. My Observer is often far too well buried in the encumberment, but its there somewhere!

Great post, thanks rex

Again, I am lucky with my mother in that although she is a Christian, and more recently a Quaker, she is very open minded. I bought her a book that compared and contrasted Jesus and Buddha, quoting side by side from both and essentially equating them. I tend to find that anyone openminded enough, or at the risk of sounding snobbish , intelligent enough can recognise the common factors in most belief systems. I agree that it can help to talk in the framework that they are used to, although that can require a grounding in your belief system and theirs. There does come a point though where I just give up, and keep silent (especially with some people!)

Good topic! I normally just stop at "I do ChiKung, you know its like Tai Chi". Most people have heard of Tai Chi, so thats enough. If you go deeper, then thats when the blank looks start. It can be really hard to explain some of this stuff to people who have no inkling of it, so I just follow the route of "why bother?". Not really a problem. Those that know me are used to me going off to do some standing exercises (if thats what I'm doing at the moment), or sitting in the car with eyes closed (not driving!), "dozing". Those that don't me don't matter (and I tend not to do such things around them anyway) Ah, now that one is tricky! I have resorted to leaving books around the place, or talking about "this great book I'm reading says that....", but again its often just easier to leave them be. You can't force the issue. The best way (should it ever work, and I am not at the level where it might) would be for them to say "Hey, your life is really working, what's your secret?" and then tell em. Interested to read other posts on this!

Hi folks! I'm BobD, except I'm not. My real name is Mark, but where I used to work there were two people called Mark, so to avoid confusion we both got called Bob instead (ok, so I used to be (and still am for some of my time) a programmer, and our minds just don't work like normal folk's! It made sense at the time, honest I've been into Eastern philosophy for years. My parents were both Christians, and I did go to church a few times, but it was never for me. Drifted into Buddhism, then Zen and then Taoism. Now I guess I'm into a kind of combination of all 3. My mother became a professional hypnotist (ie she used hypnosis to treat people, rather than turn them into monkeys etc), so I have always been exposed to self-help style techniques, and have been encouraged to have an open mind (my father was both a Methodist preacher and a scientist/lecturer/radio astronomer which was an odd combination). I find Taoism suits me very well, with bits of Eckhart Tolle, Sedona Method and just plain old procrastination/lazyness thrown in. My level of practice various a fair amount, and at the moment I am in a chill phase. More later (maybe )

Yeah, still practicing and listening when time allows. As with all things, I am probably not doing it enough, but I'm not going to get hung up on that. I find them both very useful and powerful, often in retrospect. I will have a recation to something (or, lets face it, someone ) and at the time it will consume me, and i will sulk for a while. Then, after the event, I will remember the SM and AC and apply them, and go "Wow, that was a case of me wanting control/security/approval. Why didn't I see it at the time? Oh well, could I, would I, when etc". Very much like Tolle describes with the Pain Body. You can't quite catch it when it flares up, but you do notice it on the way down. So, the trick is to try to remain focussed as it happens (and this also links it to the posts in the Book thread about the Coming to your senses book, and being more grounded), and I'm getting better at that too, but still mostly catch things after the event. I still think I need to go back and address long term issues using the framework of the SM/AC. My parents divorced when I was 11, and I know that at the time I struggled with that (but I am so glad they did, I would (now) never have wanted them to stay together "for the sake of the kids", as that would just have sucked), and my dad died like 4 years ago (obviously that was a huge emotional whack), so these and other issues need to be looked at. Its a case of doing it when I feel up to it, and can find time. I think I am more chilled and balanced since doing them, but it so much easier to apply them when ou have problems than to regularly do so. I try to listen to them in the car going to work, and so apply them then, which works most of the time. I find the SM approach to be easier than the AC, or at least easier to listen to, easier to relate to. Its a more chilled aproach (could you allow.... rather than sticking tubes in, though I do actually combine the two, as I am fairly visually oriented), and the CDs seem to repeat themselves less. This may of course just be because its the SM ones I am mainly listening to now, and my opinion may change when I swap back! Those mp3 you sent are damn good! Again, I am listening to them when I get the chance. She sounds like she really gets it, and can express herself well (which is always hard with these kind of topics). I had read about this book on her page at the time you introduced me to her, but hadn't seen in on Amazon, or in any shops yet. Where did you read pages, online or in a shop? Tolle wrote the intro to this book, and the reviews on Amazon seem good. If you do buy in, let me know what its like, and if I buy it, I'll do the same. I tend to keep quite a few books on the go at once too, several at home, and several at the girlfriend's, but still have a pile of unread ones. Let me know what she is like in person. Should be really good. I took my mum to see Tolle in London last year, and we both really enjoyed that. He is such a quiet spoken, frail looking man, but his understanding comes through. Cheers

Yeah, I'd forgotten all about this thread, but it is one that still (unfortunately) resonates with me! I had a very good and long run of no problems, getting up early, doing my practices and feeling great, but everything changes eventually. I'm just waiting for it all to swing back in the other direction again!

I have to admit, when it doesn't really need an email but asks for one anyway, I do make up false ones (eg on product registrations, where I know all I'm going to get is sales emails) Oh yeah, good point . I was just thinking of allowing it for well-behaved people If there is any help I can give, let me know (can always find time to try to help out!) Fine by me, I can always just point the finger at someone else, and say "it was their idea"!

Thanks! Its been (and still is) a very busy time of year me right now, but I do plan to find some more free time (from somewhere!). I'm always lurking though! Fake emails can be for (at least) two reasons. One is so that you can flame and flood away without fear, and the other is just privacy. Even believing a site wont abuse your email, you can still rather not give away your email address. I'm also not sure that this is a way to get people to post. I think that encouraging them to post by someother means is better than hiding things from them untill they do. Its a friendly place here, but I can still see why people may not want to join in. We have many people who are fairly advanced in many ways, and so others might feel intimidated and not want to post. I don't know though really. Its perhaps the more Off Topic posts that might attract new posters, as these posts may show the more friendly, less focussed, less "experience required" kind of interests/areas/lifestyles. (I'm thinking out loud here, so this is all probably tosh!). Perhaps the glossary that has been mentioned elsewhere would help too, as a way of introducing stuff. In many ways this is hard to do without knowing who these non-posters are. Are they people with a passing interest looking for a bit of friendly advice, or pointers, or are they higher level practitioners looking for somewhere to hang out? Without knowing, its hard to know what would attract them in more. Perhaps making it so that it is possible to post anonymously might help. People could then post knowing that they wont look foolish as no-one will know it was them. Perhaps add a new forum that asks for these non-posters to post why they havent posted (again anonymously) would give us some clues. Its a tricky topic. I don't think its worth changing the forum structure unless we are fairly sure that it will encourage people to join in (which I am all in favour of), but we cant be sure until it does (or doesn't). But, as I say, from my point of view, it matters little, as I just use View New Posts. Cheers

Whatever works is fine by me (yup, I'm still here, vaguely wandering around in the background!) But how great is the problem of multiple user names, fake emails etc (just out of interest)? As Yoda says anything that makes your life easy has got to be OK, especially if it doesn't make ours harder. Multiple forums won't make too much of a difference as long as View New Posts catches them all, which it would. Not convinced this would work though. They might just read what they could and stay lurking (not that I can say anything about that at the moment )

Coming to the topic a bit late, as I have been busy elsewhere recently. This busy period has lasted ages, and will probably continue, and one casualty has been my 5 Tibetans morning practice. Really want to get back into it, as it did help set me up for the day, and I seem to remember feeling much better after doing them (more awake, fitter and they helped me lose weight/inches!) But its one of those things that (for me) seems very hard to start up again. I had such a long run of doing them that it was easier to keep going, but once I stopped its going to be hell to get going again! Same for my squats and push ups. I will have to try to start them up again (both squats and 5Ts), and go through them slowly, as I perhaps also rushed through them a bit before. I can certainly tell that I have stopped as (tiredness issues aside) I just am not as flexible as I was when I had been doing them every day for a while. Really must try to find more time in the day! No experience of Warrior Wellness, but can recommend the 5 Minute Miracle tape that Sean lent to me. Very good content and presentation.

Just started Shamanic Spirit by Kenneth Meadows, but literally just started, so no comments yet! Most recently finished When the Shoe Fits by Osho, another great book from him. Also finished Running with the Demon by Terry Brooks, and will have to buy the sequels.

I have done neti a few times (assuming we are talking about the same thing, pouring salt water through the nose?) Never done it with oil, I have just used warm water and added salt. I think I read somewhere that adding eucalyptus was a good idea, but never got round to it.

Good book, probably the best of those that I have. He has also written Way of Power and 15 Minute Chi Gong, both of which also cover ZZ, but Way of Energy is the most complete. There is also Warriors of Stillness by Jan somebody or other, which is good, but much more complex. I'd just stick with the one you have. No problem

Just out of interest, which book have you gone for? I think that you may have to be careful of what you mix at the same time (though I don't think you will have a problem with Ocean Beathing and ZZ at the same time). Anything that involves too much body movement will defeat some of the basic purposes of ZZ. Most of the books I have on the subject say that you just still the mind as much as possible during ZZ, but in my experience its OK to do other things with the mind, and also with the breath provided that there is no forcing involved. I would certainly say that doing another system after ZZ is fine (and is what I do). Just make sure that you finish your ZZ session with at least a couple of minutes in the Wu Chi position before starting your next system

Guess mine would be: 1) Sedona Method/Release Technique 2) Standing Meditation (Lam Kam Chuen style) 3) WSM/Inner Smile 4) Some form of exercise (5 Tibetans, Royal Court etc)

5'10''? You don't look that tall. That must be measuring from ear to ear right?

For a picture, see here I don't do standing any where near as much as I should. To be honest I'm struggling with my morning practices at the moment. Need a good kick up the arse. When I do standing, I follow the Lam Kam Chuen approach from this book, and try to stand 5 minutes or so in each position (or longer in those I am concentrating on - mainly 1 and 4 from spyrelx's post)

I come from a background of broken marriages. My parents split when I was 11, and I stayed with my father. My mother remarried many years later, and that too ended in divorce. There are some marriage difficulties within my siblings (trying not to be too specific here!). I am in a long term relationship, but have no plans to marry my partner (nor does she have plans to marry me, thank God). I can't see the need to get married in our case. My mother's last relationship, the one after her second divorce, was her deepest and most loving, and that was completely outside of the context of marriage. She and her then fella lived apart (as do I and my partner now), and never felt the need to get married. I think that marriage just adds too much expectation. I have heard of many cases of friends or friends of friends who split up when going through the organisation stage of getting married, who would (probably) have stayed together if they hadn't gone down that road. Now you could say that that just means that they were never suited, and it took marriage to show that, but it also could be that the unrealistic pressures and expectations of marriage blew it apart. Marriage makes the statement that you are together for life, that you are dedicated to each other etc but does so in a way that seems imposed (to me). You can still feel these things without marriage, without the pressure it creates. I think that it creates an ideal relationship, a perfect pairing, that your actual relationship then gets compared (usually infavourably) with, and that creates the tension that causes problems. I think marriage works for some people obviously, but much less in this day and age than before. Society has changed so that long term partner means (almost) as much as wife or husband, so I (personally) think that it is not for me, and should be considered more in earnest and realistically (and not idealistically) before getting married than it often seems to be (by those people that I know) (But then I do know lots of very happily married people of my own age, and older and younger. So this is of course just about my own feelings of marriage in my own case and not a general rant against the institution of marriage!)

Always a difficult argument! My stance is that in general "Good" and "Evil" are labels which can often only be applied long after the event, when all the consequences are known, as a deed initially thought to be evil can result (shortly or eventually) in desirable outcomes. But you also have to consider the motives for the actions. Is a deed that resulted in good outcomes "good", if it was executed by someone with "evil" intentions, who was hoping for "bad" outcomes? And, of course, what is good for one group of people is often/always bad for someone else, so (as with all labels) good and evil cannot be applied universally. Having said that, although it is easy to be way too simplistic when looking at this, most of us can agree on what would be good or evil behaviour in "normal" life. I am reminded of a short conversation between two characters in Stargate SG-1 (OK, so I'm a sci fi geek), when one of them (Daniel) is on the verge of death/transformation: Great episode, but always reminds me of my father's death, so I can never watch the last few minutes without being in floods.

Er, well the title and description say it all really. I have started reading Handbook for the Urban Warrior, and have some of his other books waiting in line. He teaches Taoist stuff from a seemingly unique perspective and with a very informal style. So, has anyone read any of his books? Any comments?