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Hi all, today is summer solstice. Are there any common taoist practices to celebrate this event ? Do you celebrate this day in some particular way ? I've spent a lot of time outside in the sun, even though berlin is not that hot - but I was very grateful to the sun anyway Cheers

Thanks for the good Link ~jK~ : I think I'll plot this image on a big piece of paper and use it for my meditations

My meditation path is going quite well: I practice every day and I'm slowly smoothing my imbalances, I'm quite happy about it. What I'd like to improve now, is my concentration. I noticed that it's really hard for me to keep 100% of concentration, and it's more evident when I meditate. Of course meditation itself is already a practice that improve concentration, and I've already had some good benefits in this field. Still, I'd like to reach a whole and deep concentration - that actually already happens, but not always. I know that this incapacity is due to years of bad mind/body conditioning: stressful life of style, too many hours in front of a computer, partying hard, smoking pot, drinking alcohol. Now I'm quite relaxed, I don't pollute my body/mind or I can balance when it happens, do a lot of kung fu and meditation. Should I stop worrying about improving my concentration, keep meditating, and full concentration will be there eventually ? Do you have any practice to improve concentration ? maybe simply meditate on the dan tien, the everlasting medecine ? I know that it takes time, I'm not looking for a shortcut, just for good practice and interesting discussions

With concentration during meditation, I actually meant emptyness and staying focused there. Of course I let flow my thoughs, but eventually I get lot in my thoughs and that's bad. I'm usually don't experience tension during meditation; instead I sometimes get lost in my thinking process: at that point I go back to my meditation practice (lower dan tien or MCO) but it happens again. I noticed the same happening in my daily life, especially when I'm working at a computer; it happens that I start doing smt and then I end up in a chain of "related subjects"... I mean, it's nothing so bad: I have a job, I go to the university, do kung fu and I have the necessary concentration for everything. But in this moment, I feel like I could do better, and I wanted to train this side of myself too. @buddhasbellybuttonfluff: I usually practice single-pointed concentration (lower dan tien, MCO, 5 elements meditation); yeah, I should try some inclusive mindful awareness and thanks everyone

Actually I'd say that every culture connects spirituality with science, even ours But since around 1600, our knowledge has been splitted in little pieces, and "real" science emerged to be more "serious", leaving behind the connections with humanistic sciences, spirituality; this lead to alienation and unconscious technical connection with the spiritual level. As taoists, we should try to find this connection again, in our daily life.

I totally agree with your point of view about technology - Walter Benjamin was definitively right: could you give us a more specific reference to the "ecstatic communion with the cosmos" ?

I agree and understand your point of view. I think that filling the need of love of other people is always a great thing, and it's smt that give you back a lot of good energy! Unfortunately the people that need love, often don't realize the importance of the exchange, they just wanna TAKE, because they are actually too full (of bad energy) and they don't know how to receive, how to be empty. In this case it's not so easy to help the other, eventually you could just share his/her bad energy - in this case it's better to give up, and don't throw away your preciousness, but cultivate it to a step further. It's always depend on you and the situation, so it's hard to have a general rule. But trust your experience and intuition, you'll not go wrong

Great subject durkhrod chogori: when one raises his own energy level has to face bad energys that surrounds us - whether avoid or transform them. I use to be a number 1 & 2, and I've been always quite good transforming other people's bad feelings in good ones and forgetting to care about myself... Now I'm balancing and I'm more likely to say NO! to bad energy people that just want to suck me out. On the other side I don't want to erase my empathy, but use it in the right situation and people. I think that's the challenge for everyone, building up an enduring and invulerable compassion

ehehe, dunno actually: I've just read it some english translations and the german one of Wilhelm - it's difficult to find italian books in Germany, but some friends will bring me some copy from Italy, soon or later. Julius Evola's translation should be quite interesting, but I haven't read it yet... I'll let you know

I think that Björk's albums are almost taoist, especially Vespertine Here some texts that come to my mind: How do I master The perfect day [...] If you leave it alone it might just happen Anyway [...] I can decide what I give But it's up to me What I get given =============================== it's not meant to be a strife it's not meant to be a struggle uphill you're trying too hard surrender give yourself in you're trying too hard you're trying too hard it's not meant to be a strife it's not meant to be a struggle uphill sweetly to enjoy it's not meant to be a strife it's not meant to be a struggle uphill it's warmer now: lean into it unfold in a generous way surrender surrender undo it's not meant to be a strife it's not meant to be a struggle uphill i'm praying to be in a generous mode the kindness kind the kindness kind to share me quietly ecstatic it's not meant to be a strife it's not meant to be a struggle uphill undo undo: if you're bleeding undo: if you're sweating undo: if you're crying, don't be undo ================ And they will assist us 'Cause we're asking for help And the luminous beam It feeds you Henh-yeah!, yeah! Don't get angry with yourself Don't, don't get angry with yourself I'll heal you With a razorblade I'll cut a slit open And the luminous beam Feeds you honey, heals you Don't get angry with yourself I'll heal you, i'll heal you luminous, i'll heal you ========================== enjoy

Sounds good Santiago, two questions: - 12:00 am but which time zone ? - what's the skype name to connect to ? Thx

Thanks everyone for the links, very cool stuff!

Hi all, with some friends of mine we decided to use white lighting meditation in order to welcome the spring. To do that, a friend of mine read the text; then I edited the text and put it on a 40 minutes audio file, that Bum Grassoper sent me as the Kunlun brainwave entrainment file. I think is quite nice, have a try and let me know what do you think: https://download.yousendit.com/S1VCK2VnMm1CSWRFQlE9PQ Enjoy

Hi everyone, I'm already feeling the spring coming, very nice energy: winter is going to end and our bodies are waking up Just want to share this pre-spring feeling with you, hope you're enjoying it too! Cheers

totally, more and more Merry Spring Equinox too!

yeah, defintevely a lot of nice energy lately, I think too that it's _just_ the spring: enjoy

Intresting stuff, thx Drew!

I'm thinking about buying some too, which one did you buy ?

Thx mal for the wonderful meditation, I'll try it out soon. It could be even used as spring meditation, doesn't it ? Cheers

Thanks to meditation my insomnia is getting better, but still not solved: when it happens again it compromises all my meditation work and I would like to solve this problem. My insomnia problem started 5 years ago when I had a really stressful situation: I was in a new city, noisy room, lot of time in front of a computer, no exercise at all. I had almost 2 month of continuously torturing insomnia. It was a bad period for me, and I "trained" my body and my mind to insomnia: insomnia is actually the paranoia of not sleeping. After that I found a better situation, and I started again to sleep with a normal rhythmus. Yet insomnia came up every now and then. Nowadays, insomnia still there sometimes, not because I'm living a stressful situation - on the contrary I'm rather relaxed - but because my mind had experience very bad moments through insomnia. So it happens, especially when I have an important appointment next day, that my monkey mind starts to remind me of the risk of insomnia: it's a process that bild up tension in my mind, and ends up in real insomnia. This process it's exactly the opposite of meditation: with meditation we try to clean our mind, the insomnia obsession add bad energy to your life. Now, I've realized all this just lately, thanks even to my meditation practice. The problem is now quite clear: I've insomnia not because of my current situation, but because of a body-mind conditioning happened when I had insomnia. How can I cure this problem with meditation ? I'm sure it's the only way, but I don't really know how. Even if I do a good well focused meditation, the insomnia worry still there.... Any help is heartly appreciated.

Insomnia happened again, I'm still monitoring it. I've noticed that when I cannot sleep, I loose a lot of water: I go to the toilet a lot for pissing; next morning I feel really dry and I have to recover a lot of water - and I do, with water, tea and fruits. Could be this drying process connected to the adrenals ? How can I prevent it or limit it ? Any other sensible explanations ?

I want to buy a book about Feng Shui. I've already an idea of what Feng Shui is. Eva Wong is a nice writer, so I was evaluating one of her books: - Feng Shui - A Master Course in Feng-Shui Has anyone already read these books ? What's the difference between the two ? Which one do you suggest ?

Feiyue Shoes are like being barefoot too, they are quite standard for kung fu. Moreover they are quite cheap

Push ups are definitively a great way to condition your body without weights. Every fisical training like kung fu has them for sure. Do Push up bars really worth more than normal push ups ? I'm still doing every kind of push up but never tried with this tool...