lotusbud
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Everything posted by lotusbud
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I had wanted to become a vegetarian since I was a teenager but living in my parents house made it impossible to get the nutrition I needed as well as keep the peace. When I moved out I dived into a vegetarian diet with enthusiasm, but even when I had a large variety of foods and had filled my stomach to bursting I could tell something wasn't right. I wasn't getting something. It was the awful feeling of being both full and hungry at the same time. Like walking around with a hole in me. I craved meat and when I gave in I was satisfied, guilty but satisfied. I now know that I shouldn't have beaten myself up. That was just where I was at at that time. In the end I had a lot of help from many people to adjust my body so that I no longer crave meat. I am very thankful for this gift they have given me. If I did it on my own it would have been a longer harder road I'm sure. People should really listen to their masters and not put too much stock in general rules. They know what you need. Maybe she just wants to test you. As an aside anyone who thinks that plants are without awareness is, I think, assuming.
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More food for thought: Jesus said to them, "...After all, what goes into your mouth will not defile you; rather, it's what comes out of your mouth that will defile you." and also: Jesus said, "Blessed is the lion that the human being will devour so that the lion becomes human. And cursed is the human being that the lion devours; and the lion will become human." As usual the inner and outer meanings of things are not so different from each other.
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Boy! What a sticky subject! The problem I see cropping up is the division between pure scientists and "religious" scientists as I like to call them. The former are those who use science as a tool for further understanding, always advancing by disproving a hypothesis rather than proving one and always saying "the data seems to be pointing in this direction" rather than "this is the way it is." The later see the scientific method as the only thing they can count on, the only way of knowing, the only source of meaning. Generally they tend to see the world without awe. They don't seem to have noticed that when science scratches away the surface layers it usually challenges our basic assumptions. I bet there are many here who have a love/hate relationship with science.
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Thanks, Google found it right away.
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Hagar, what is the "How to Relax" title you mentioned? I looked on amazon and don't see anything relevent. A friend of mine joked about writing a self-help book with the title "Force Yourself To Relax!!!"
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Wow! That was amazing and brings up so much. It seems as if this is a field where there is opportunity for research into qigong and meditation. For instance can one observe an epigenetic change in descendants of holocaust survivor's stress hormones if those descendants are on a cultivation path? And if a cultivator can flip the genetic switch is this also passed down to their offspring? I admit it would be hard to do a multi-year study like this for such "fringe" research. Also you could do experiments in the field of external qi effects. I've heard that if you have a master it's a good thing to have some sort of contact with them at least every four months or so, possibly because there are limits to the changes they can effect before your DNA is re-copied. Could a master effect changes in an experiment like the one with mice where the inherited genetic disease switches are turned off at a selected generation? On the whole this film gives me an urge to get out of the city and return to the land. An organic mixed farm someplace where I can live a more natural and simple life for my own benefit and for future generations.
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Reminds me of things like this http://noosphere.princeton.edu/ and experiments with random number generators where people try to mentally influence data that has already been collected, just not observed yet. I've heard of a similar practice too. It makes sense if you believe that information from our ancestors is hidden in our genetic codes and it is possible for the energetic body to access this library. Taking good care of our parents and grandparents and respecting our elders generally would take on a whole new importance. As they say "Filial piety is the root of all virtue."
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Exactly. That is to say, I think the most important question is "What is the most important question?"
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Too much google hurts the noodle: Here's Google's Chinese to English BETA: Chapter 12 colorsAlthough offenses; Wuyin cause deafness; Nowhere in the population generally; Sail to hunt hunting, heart mad; 's rare goods, is OK nuisance. Sage is not for the purpose of abdominal, He passed away from this.
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There's a cool Bikram's yoga posture where (lying on your front) you supponate your palms flat under your body and try to touch your elbows, effectively crushing your wrists, hands and arms under your body weight. Then with your mouth on the floor you do a backwards leg lift. When over you rest. It cuts off circulation and then "whoosh" flushes everything out. It's extreme and not really anything I would do a lot outside of a full hot yoga session. Repetitive stress injuries are often when the blood that usually cleans up the waste from the effort doesn't get there anymore. The crap builds up and then the body says "yikes what's all this crap doing here!' and it attacks. Go climbing on the monkey bars more often.
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Believe it or not. One thing that can't be denied is that he's got one badass costume! Check out the cape! I've never seen a master wear a cape before. Could this just be something the Ripley's crew suggested and brought along or is this some sort of awesome taoist costume I don't know about. Maybe we can all get one...
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It's traditional Yang style. We are doing Tung Ying Chieh's version of the 108 move long form as my teacher is from that lineage. Your english is excellent, though I'm confused by "Until now". We are certainly lucky to find good teachers. I hope that I can become a good student as I know that those are even rarer. I have to trust that over time and effort I will iron it all out. I have a long, long list of corrections to work on, from my bum sticking out and my leaning back when I swear I feel straight, to my head looking in the wrong direction etc. etc. I've got to start writing all this out..... I hope you can help.
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Hello wolkenhand, 'Wave hands' is one of the moves that is giving me the most trouble right now, but welcome! I'm a taiji beginner myself so I'm glad you will be here for lots of discussion. You certainly can learn a lot just studying what you can see. I hope you can keep some room open for the possibility that there is more to it than that. lb
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I felt I should respond to this Flynn, because it is something I still struggle with. Especially when you are in school or college the schedule can get out of hand quickly. Sometimes this can just be a matter of honing your organizational skills, (which in most places they never teach you). Define your tasks and goals, and the steps involved clearly and give yourself time limits. Focus on your task and don't multi-task. This can go a long way towards giving you more free time and improving your results. But beware of launching into this with 110% gusto. Take it easy and let it develop naturally or you are sure to crash and be worse off in the end, just like meditation. Also beware of "resting" that isn't really restful. You can also incorporate your meditation into all your activities. Sometimes all it takes is three breaths to get back.
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MSG = Poison For me it's as simple as that. When I was 6-9 years old I began having bouts of vertigo, tinnitus and vomiting. In the end it was diagnosed as meniere's disease. Sodium and MSG in the diet were the culprit and when they were eliminated as much as possible I recovered. Unfortunately by then the hearing in one of my ears was gone. I'm not positive but doesn't MSG work as a flavour enhancer by basically splitting your tastebuds? Poison.
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How simple or complex does IT need to be?
lotusbud replied to thelerner's topic in General Discussion
Simple and complex can be two sides of the same coin (just a matter of perspective like in tai chi). I don't think complexity is a bad thing. Some things are really simple but have many aspects to them, tons of little details. But then some methods just shouldn't be practiced together. Some methods are just made up by people who don't know crucial parts of the picture. Again trusting the master and finding out the reasons for everything for yourself are more important. -
Hi Rainbow, It's too simplistic to just equate chi with electricity. It's more complex than that. There are many that say that qi, shen, void etc are all different energies or particles with totally different properties and effects. Science is currently way behind in trying to observe, measure and theorize about this energy. Any close look at the current state of particle physics tells us that the world is much stranger than we ever imagined. There is a huge gap between what we know from experience as practitioners and what we can understand using science. Part of the problem seems to be in designing good scientific studies that can have consistent results. Repeatable results. The other big problem is funding and interest. There is a lot of cash out there for research but if it's not going to produce a pill you aren't going to see a cent of it. It seems to be that if real scientific work is going to be done on understanding the human body and nature it will be because taoist thought has gained enough cultural momentum to really make it a priority for us. We have to build and live the culture capable of doing it. We are a long way off, it seems. But things are changing faster every day. With all this in mind, I truly think its really useful to be ok just not knowing. Just wondering. Just wondering opens you up to possibility just as knowing for sure closes the door. I would be suspicious of any answer that didn't bring up more fascinating questions.
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At the calendar converter page, I entered dates into the input boxes provided and clicked the Gregorian button until the result was the same as the days given on the other chart. So I'm assuming that Mimi's MKD dates are accurate. Depending on who you listen to this might be assuming a lot. I found this article on what is actually happening astronomically here and the complexity of it: http://www.absolutelyfengshui.com/library/...illing-days.php We are also assuming that the calendar converter is correct. He says its done with tables rather than calculated so I'm inclined to believe him. If you are really concerned about starting this business on the wrong day I would advise finding someone who can explain how the calculation is done. Can anyone recommend a feng shui master to Sunshine? It's probably worth mentioning that we just had a new moon event. It's planting time everyone! I'm actually more interested in discovering the master killing days of the body. I recall a horrible experience eating an oily biriyani after 1 am. Oh that was bad!
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I'm really surprised this topic doesn't arise more often. Certainly some of my most influential musical mentors have been very clued into the spiritual nature of our craft. Does anyone have any more references to taoist music or musical theory? Most of my most recent inspiring music lessons involved teachers helping me with my breathing and balance and the psychology of performance. Tai chi seems to me to be an essentially musical endeavour. We speak of "listening" to our partner. Our own awareness of our balance is centered in the ear. The ear forms first in the womb and from what I've heard is the last sense to stop functioning. Related to the kidneys and all that. Why does music seem somewhere behind calligraphy in taoist training? Is this a correct perception?
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This is a really interesting subject. I often get to see lots of people and observe how they seem to carry similar energy depending on the date. Often there are huge influences like when the last holiday was or the number of rainy days in a row. I always wonder though... I found this list of the Master killing days, with a slightly odd numbering (doubling the seven and ending at 12 (was this intentional?)) http://mimimoorhouse.com/masterkillingday.htm Then I went to http://www.mandarintools.com/calconv_old.html which gave me April 25th May 23rd June 19th for the next three.
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Cure to all disease in alkaline diet?
lotusbud replied to GrandTrinity's topic in General Discussion
Wow! That whole website is.......woah! I'm going to have to mail a link to all my friends now. -
bd2 I totally understand how you feel. After I get fired up a bit i can practice steady for a few days and then the motivation starts to wane, even if the effects are startling sometimes. It's worse when the training involves hardship as it sometimes does. Part of the answer seems to be, "just do it". Coming back into regular daily practice and training is just a macrocosmic version of leading our attention back to the form once it flies away. Fueling our interest is good, read books, meet people and share. I sense something else here. What are you looking for in practice? What's your goal and why do you think you need to force yourself to practice an hour? In my experience it's always bad to "force" yourself to practice. Better start with something easier, not an hour a day right off the bat. Keep a record or a journal. Pay attention to when you don't practice, is there a reason? How does it feel? Do you realize at that moment that you have a choice? Have you committed to a certain time? Can conjuring a motivation help you get started (like Sasuke must train to defeat his murderous brother Itachi (hopefully you have a virtuous motivation))? In short if you can't practice every day then the solution is not in forcing yourself to practice every day on pain of death. You just need to understand why.
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How often do you engage in stillness meditation?
lotusbud replied to sean's topic in General Discussion
I wonder if I'll ever be able to transition to "every day without fail"...? I am getting better at letting things just happen naturally regarding my frequency of practice and watching my interest and motivation ebb and flow just like the breath over a period of weeks. Maintaining interest by writing and observing, reading and thinking is important but I have had trouble maintaining the space(time) in which this can happen. Sometimes those crazy weeks just take over. I'm getting better at dealing with guilt if I commit to do something and fail. Something that works for me is putting in an awareness of important days and times. It's fun to lead up to a holiday (like the new year!!!) with a number of days of consecutive, gracious, celebratory practice. Mornings are one of the foundations of my success, even though I find it very hard to get up and it's cold etc.etc. Evenings are always too volatile and if I am always tired it isn't a great experience, besides now I have to a tai chi form to practice too. I find sitting either ecstatic (supreme comfort), or excruciating (torture), even the boring times can still be interesting, especially if I wait. I used to do no longer than half an hour when practicing with myself. Then one day it was so good that I decided to keep going until I naturally wanted to stop. It stretched on over an hour. So I started thinking of the first half hour as a kind of warm up time, letting my body and mind settle down. It's really at a point for me when if I decide to sit for 40 minutes, it's at the 45 minute point when really interesting things start to happen. I guess it's really crossing a mental threshold, suddenly it becomes unbounded, undefined, mysterious and astounding. -
There is a great show on this subject on CBC's Ideas: While You Were Out Part 1 http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/ideas_20061002_1059.mp3 Part 2 http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/ideas_20061009_1089.mp3
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Oh! You aren't by any chance talking about those hats worn by the Silly Hat Sect in their home, the Golden Alligator Lamasery founded by Dimdap Kram'ba? I mean of course the ones in Daniel Pinkwater's classic children's book "The Last Guru." Yes, I would very much like one of those hats. I highly recommend this book by the way (even though it's not his best work). But I must add a warning: those not capable of grasping its wisdom will spend the night groaning and end up with a stomach ache.