lotusbud

I was just about to marvel approvingly, out loud, at the use of upper case AND lower case!

What this guy says makes so much sense to me. What bothers me is that crystal. The laziness that most people fear will balloon into one big life failure is a need for rebalancing and healing. I see this most in education where people are told "you must learn this subject and then these concepts at this time" rather than following their curiosity. Too much will kill one's desire to learn. So if we let all children quit school will they just stay home and eat candy all day while watching cartoons? Yes, for a while. That excitement has it's day and then turns into avoidance. Watch the video games wither, the tv drone, the junk food sour, and you leave a big emptyness. A gaping chasm. The kids call it boredom, I call it the mother of everything. Anyone know where I can get one of those crystals?

I think this is fantastic advice. I have to say that 7th Day Adventists and Jehovas Witnesses don't have reputations of thinking outside the box. You are likely encountering a lot of fear and weird assumptions. I get a lot of worry from my parents about tai chi and medititation. They usually just have no understanding of what it is I am doing and what my goals are. My advice would be not to discuss the esoteric traditions of Christianity with them, that is for you to explore but will likely confirm their fears that you've fallen prey to some evil cult. So definitely don't start talking about the Cloud of Unknowing with them. Talk to them from a place of common ground. What you can do is address their concerns. Usually their biggest fear is that you are replacing the gospel "you are a redeemed child of God" with something else "you must do whatever to be saved". Make clear to them, if it is what you believe, that enlightenment or unity with the Tao, however beneficial they may be, are something different than and not a replacement for Christ's work and message. The other fear is of posession. What sort of practices are you doing? They don't involve trying to bring about posession do they? If they do you really need to rethink all this. :-{ I'm guessing not though. ;-) Most meditation practices actually develop concentration, awareness, clarity etc. All virtuous things from the Christian perspective and things that should actually discourage possession from their point of view. Self examination is good, surely they agree. Cultivation can be thought of along the lines of hygene and exercize. Like brushing your teeth. De-mystifying what you do can go a long way to helping them accept that this is not somehow abhorant behaviour.

This is a common feeling to anyone trying to learn any advanced skill. You are obviously hungry for more. Channel that energy into examining your practice. Don't take for granted that you know something, but go deeper, look deeper, look honestly at what is really happening in your movements. If you have a million questions that is a good thing. Don't worry about getting the answers from your teacher, follow the questions and see where they lead you. This will produce results. Your teacher will see the improvement and lead you in the right direction or give you correction if you go off on the wrong path. Also I recommend against thinking that your progress is grinding to a halt just because it isn't apparent. Sometimes it's like a seed germinating underground. Remember, the brain learns quick, the body is much much slower

Hi Unconditioned, Laziness happens to be one of my favorite topics. I've been working on it a lot for a long time. And while I haven't overcome laziness completely I've improved a lot. Here are some of the practical things that helped me: Take care of yourself. Start from the center and gradually expand outwards. Try to understand the problem on the level of the universe and your body simultaneously. The end goal and right now have to blend. Meditate. Eat a healthy balanced diet, and less rather than more. Get some exercise. Nourish all your social relations and especially take care of your parents. Maybe volunteer. Find out why this relates to laziness. List what is hanging over your head: doing taxes, clearing debt, writing a thesis, getting the car fixed, unfinished novel, forgiving that person, returning that favor.... Whatever it is you have to clear it off. The less of those things you have the more your momentum will change, they are chains. Change your environment, find a better place, move the furniture, get rid of the furniture, throw away 5 things and give away 5 more on a regular schedule for a while. Reduce, reduce, reduce! In short be good at letting a lot of things go. Be good at losing. Find out what you want. What can you contribute to the world? When you have an answer, make it clearer. Find out what is the very next step. Whatever it is you are doing, try to achieve a very clear result. Try to make clear a beginning and an ending. For instance, if you are learning something from old posts on this forum narrow your focus and after spend 15 minutes writing a quick and dirty summary of a topic for yourself. With questions for further study. If you are unwilling to do this do you really have enough interest to be wasting your time on it? At the same time, run from perfectionism, just do your best without fuss and move on. If you put a timer on for 15 minutes daily and tidy things up, in a month your whole place will be clean, (provided you don't have kids). When starting something you have been avoiding I have found it helpful to become fuzzy. Fuzzy and unclear. Become plain. You have been thinking about why you hate doing that thing or what you would rather be doing. It's actually easy to let a bit of fog descend so that you can focus on the task at hand. Who is it doing the task anyway? And who wants to delay starting until a snack and a cup of tea is had? Slowly develop routines. You will probably try to accomplish too much once the wave of motivation hits you. It isn't going to be that simple. Do things at a steady pace and welcome the rest when it arrives but don't search for it. Believe that the change is actually taking place right now. Be optimistic about that slow and subtle change no matter how small and enjoy it because it is going to change your whole life.

Pranaman, your situation sounds so similar to what I went through while I was still living with my parents. In my own case it was a long time before I accepted the idea that you are the only person you can change. Please don't ask your parents to read Siddartha or to stop eating flesh. We try to change others because changing ourselves is hard work and we can be lazy sometimes. You want your parents to change because you love them and want to care for them, and yes it is very important to honor them and live in thanks to them. But they are YOUR parents, not the other way around. They are your origin and you are who you are because they have helped bring you here. All the positive changes you make and your new ways of seeing the world and living ARE your thanks to them. So find your own feet, your own strength. You can explain why you do the things you do but don't expect them to change. You may not realize it but they have probably had their own long journey full of change to today from the way their parents raised them. I began to revere my mother after I uncovered how sick and backward her own childhood was, how much pain she went through, and realized that she had really changed her destiny and mine for the better by changing all her sick ways of thinking and transforming them to optimism, by becoming joy. That said, you are their child and they will see themselves in you. You can definitely find ways of resonating with them. For example your father's sense of thrift that makes meat appealing might change if he knew more about how that meat is produced and how industrial meat production externalizes costs on taxpayers and the next generations. (It's important not to accuse them of anything, just give them the facts and at least they will understand your choices and perhaps be proud of you for them even if they don't change themselves). As far as your mother's "addiction" is concerned, perhaps you can offer to cook one course for the family periodically. There are plenty of really tasty veggie meals they might like and incorporate into their diet. Start with what they eat that IS healthy and go from there. I should say again, don't do all of this as a great service to them. Do it for yourself. Take care of yourself and make sure all the positive (and difficult) changes you make are supported by yourself. Your whole family will benefit from your cultivation. Don't doubt this. I was just reading how people can affect the variable heart rate of others even in a different room. We are sharing energy all the time.

Yang 108 all the way!! I'm really loving this right now and feeling like a lot of progress is happening. And oh, the metaphors it evokes for all maner of concepts and teachings. I've definitely got to write more about it. I think I'm going to go practice right now!

Happy birthday! May you become younger, softer, lighter every year!

Last year I kept daily records of my practice experience and after a few months a clear pattern surrounding the lunar cycles was apparent. Always the days before and after are a bit of a wild ride. I never thought of fasting and or eating less on those days, just practicing more, taking advantage of the extra energy to do some vigourous exercise... I'm definitely adding this to my routine. Thanks y'all!

Dennis Lewis has a book titled "The Tao of Natural Breathing" which is a good primer on breathing, only a few pages on reverse breathing but some good pointers.

The lungs are bacically shaped like cones or pyramids pointing upwards. Every tiny bit they expand downwards their capacity is increased by quite a lot. I find it a fantastic guide to how much tension is in my body (and mind). Has anyone mentioned the skin?

Man, I want something like this on a t-shirt...

I don't think you can say there is a "right" time (unless of course you mean right now). It is fun to experiment, keeping in mind the body's cycles and different organs ebb and flow. I also read somewhere that for every decade of life the average body's circadian rhythms move one hour earlier.

I built my own computer and put some thought into making it quiet. It's definitely worth it! After working many hours on a noisy old sun workstation that sounded like a helicopter it was heavenly. Easy ways to go about this: - Go with bigger fans that turn slower. For the power supply, case and cpu, big fans rule! - I found a found a copper heatsink to replace the fan on my graphics card. - It's fairly trivial to find switches to lower voltages on most fans. - If you aren't a gamer you can sometimes getaway with underclocking. There are some pretty crazy homebrew water cooling systems out there on the web. Then of course there is the most taoist of computer practices: shutdown! The quiet is so good!

I don't think there is any conflict with meditation and procreation. Even sexual expression is not a problem. Desire on the other hand....

Hi Matt, I still practice, though the effect is very different when not practicing regularly with a group. Group practice is much stronger. I stopped because I felt I had to sort out a lot of personal stuff that held me back. Some of the benefit I received was improvement to my health, most noticeably my immunity to colds and flu. I used to get colds all the time through the winter and after not getting a cold for two years I had to admit some changes were happening. Things like not getting sore after exercise, not craving meat, staying calm in stressful situations, serendipitous chains of events. I still don't consider myself anywhere competent to evaluate the entire method or compare it to other methods as I am still a beginner at qigong. I can tell you that it changed and continues to change the way that I think about everything, why I am here, and just how do I go about changing my destiny. The method can take very big concepts and make them very real, very concrete. Peace, L

http://www.yanxinqigong.net/contact/index.htm It's best to contact the IYXQA and inquire. I don't know if they ever hold new classes like they did years ago. There should still be chapters meeting in most major cities. Of course as with almost any system it is NOT recommended to try to learn without a qualified teacher and supervision. This is mostly for safety reasons and out of care and concern for the students but also because the efficacy of the system has many requirements and the energy of the master is one.

Everyone's experience is different. I don't itch myself but I have read that itchiness is often experienced by those adjusting and improving a blood deficiency and any heart condition. Just don't scratch. Uncontrolled body movements are pretty common and normal.

Just an update on my experience. I took some bentonite a couple weeks ago and went for a walk. I felt a very grounded feeling, like gravity had increased 10% and a lot of tension in my body that I usually carry around had melted into a kind of relaxed solidity, and, yes very calming. Reminded me of kids with mental problems who wear heavy flack jackets for calming because it helps them feel safe. My instinct tells me that, for me, occasional use would be best. (Like during cleansing periods.) A neat discovery though. Happy Mid-Autumn Moon festival everyone!

OK be warned, this stuff is definitely an aquired taste. The first time I ate natto I nearly hurled. I would love to try out having the stuff on a regular basis but there is not a source of it close to me. I don't know if you can consume Nattokinase in a pill, I don't like pills anyway. Organic non-GMO soybeans in comercial natto? I'm not holding my breath. Actually I might try making it myself: http://www.gaia21.net/natto/natto.htm I have a small cooler that I could use to ferment it in. I have no knowledge about it's effects on sitting cross legged. I think numbness has more to do with posture, muscle tone, flexability, tension and practice than clots. Clots are bad though so lets all eat lots of natto! My legs used to always go numb when sitting. I'd endure it sometimes, and sometimes I'd move them or lie down for a few minutes. I wouldn't be too strict about it unless there is someone posed behind you with a stick. My leg circulation has gotten better and better as my body does it's own figuring out how to sit for long periods comfortably (I sometimes spontaneously gyrate wildly in circles). Has anyone ever heard of a meditator getting deep vein thrombosis?

I'm going to be doing some fasting soon and I was thinking of doing a bit of experimentation with this myself. So I started looking up what I could find. I'm still confused about some points. The leaching and detox functions seem to be due to the negative charge so that minerals don't get absorbed by the body, they suck trash out. How then does any mineral supplementation occur? Sea salt is still probably the better option for minerals. This argument that the clay is not absorbed is often used to allay fears about the aluminum that is in the clay. I also want to track down sources from this candida researcher http://editor.nourishedmagazine.com.au/art...-candida-part-2 (scroll way down) on longer term use resulting in abnormally low potassium and iron deficiencies. How out to lunch is this? Any thoughts?

I laughed when I heard this but really it's brilliant not only making some rap sound as ridiculous as it is and injecting some more soothing sounds. Nina Gordan: I grew up on Public Enemy and KRS-ONE but the only original stuff I've heard recently is cLOUDDEAD. Maybe rap really is dead? Oh well, there is always bhangra which I always find more uplifting anyway.

On the contrary it's an essential discussion. I'm glad it seems we are all mostly on the same page. :-) Why can't somebody offer a million dollars for true demonstrations of empathy!

I agree with everything you say wholehartedly. I'm just adding that the opposite is true: that such things don't exist is also in the realm of faith. You can't prove that the sasquatch doesn't exist or never existed. You can only look at the evidence and say "It seems unlikely". This is a scientific way of looking at it. It also seems unlikely that any positivist will ever achieve the tao

Back to the science Vs. Religion thread. I agree. These are the people I am talking about when I say there are religious scientists. They obviously can't even imagine any claim could be true. They are right in their own minds and the million buck proves it. Thus it is a "simple matter". I'm all for exposing the faith healers after grandma's savings, fine. But I don't think that the world will be served by someone proving he can bend spoons. Everyone has to make the journey to understanding on their own. Right now science is like a baby that knows pooping and hunger and not much else. In short, don't choose your teachers based on if they can split clouds or some other trick.