spyrelx

I'm not a juicer but I do use something called the "Total Nutrition Center". It's basically a glorified blender and turns anything you put into it into baby food. Basically, rather than juice -- which is really often a lot of sugar and vitamins -- what you get with TNC is all the fiber and other complex aspects of whole food that are filtered out by juicing. Doesn't sound appetizing? It is actually. It's like a thick shake. You can use it to make thick soups (hot or cold), or to "drink" your fruits and veggies. I usually have it in the morning an go heavy on the fruits. I find if you throw some apple juice in there for added sweetness, you can pretty much throw anything in and it will taste good.

Sorry but I'd just be remiss if I didn't urge both of you to stop smoking. "Organic" means next to nothing in this context. Aside from being king of gross, it's a pernicious habit that -- on virtually every level -- is detrimental to your health and well being. Not only will it shorten your life, it will make the life you have left less enjoyable, particularly in your later years. I know, it's worth it because it gives you pleasure. And you know, that's a crock. OK, that's my public service anouncement. Sorry for the lecture.

"Is it true that the former WTC "wagged" in the wind? If so, did you notice this at all while being atop?" I don't know what you mean by wagged, but it definately swayed. You could be in one of the high offices and feel the whole place move a bit, particularly when the wind blew. You'd hear it too, the wind and the structure move. This, by the way, is as it must be. For buildings that high, they have to be flexible enough to sway, otherwise they'd crack and break. (Taoist martial arts lesson here -- a fighter that yields will remain intact, like a young blade of grass, a fighter that resists will break, like an old twig).

"Everything has energy in it, and human consciousness can absorb that energy if it so desires. But some substances are easier for the human body to change into a usable form than others." What do you all think about all the microwave energy that we're bombarding ourselves with (cell phones, wifi networks, etc.)? -- not to mention radio/tv waves we've been bombarding ourselves with for decades? It strikes me that this should also be "digestible", though I'm not aware of anyone teaching how to do it. Just wondering if anyone's given this any thought.

What he said. A Very Happy Birthday to you (a few days late). Ain't no one like you, yesterday, now or forever. Glad you're around. spyrelx

Thanks all.

Thanks I knew abuot them. They are weird about pictures though (i.e., you can't post directly but have to make links. I haven't looked into the mechanics of it but it looks like a pain in the ass). I may ultimately use blogspot but was hoping to get one that would just let me put some low res pictures up directly.

A handful of adolescents, jacking off good luck

I'm partial to the archer pose, first because it looks kind of cool and second because I always feel I really connect with something. It's like you expand your energy a number of directions. Rooted through the earth on your back leg, and out through the opposite buddha-palm of your hand. Even the curl back before the next release is cool if done with presence ("it should all be done with absolute presence and seriousness" said my instructor, "because you could die at any moment").

[it's the only thing I do that grosses out Mrs. Yoda, so it's important to me.] I'd say Mrs. Yoda's discriminatory taste is equalled only by her benevolent acceptance. Good luck (to you both).

My question to all you piss drinkers out there is: why do it? I assume it doesn't taste all that good. So, it's not a particularly pleasant thing to do. I mean you don't finish a work out and say, "boy I sure would like a tall glass of my own piss". So it tastes bad and you drink it anyway -- Why? Do any of you really feel it's gotten you that much healthier or -- and it's kind of hard not to smirk while writing this -- closer to spiritual enlightenment? Sure, it's not detrimental, and it's sterile, and it's probably marginally better for you nutritiously but -- assuming you're already leading a healthy lifestyle -- I can't really see any health or spiritual value in it. Which get's back to why do it? I suspect the answer to that question lies more in the incessant search for the "quick fix" that afflicts all of us. And also in the sort of pathology of obsessive behaviour about one's own body that sometimes afflicts new agers/meditators. Just my two cents worth.

I've just recently gone back to bone breathing and some of the related practices. I remember when I took that class with Ron Diana he talked about bones being deep deep repositories of our essense, even centuries and centuries after we had died. So I cam across this article in the NY times today, and thought it might interst some of you Bone Marrow practitioners out there. New York Times, March 25, 2005 Dinosaur Find Takes Scientists Beyond Bones By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD live as dinosaurs may seem to children, knowledge of them as living creatures is limited almost entirely to what can be learned from bones that have long since turned to stony fossils. Their soft tissues, when rarely recovered, have lost their original revealing form. But now a 70-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex discovered in Montana has apparently yielded the improbable, scientists reported yesterday: soft tissues, including blood vessels and possibly cells lining them, that "retain some of their original flexibility, elasticity and resilience." Moreover, an examination with a scanning electron microscope showed the dinosaur's blood vessels to be "virtually indistinguishable" from those recovered from ostrich bones. The ostrich is today's largest bird, and many paleontologists think birds are living descendants of some dinosaurs. In a paper being published today in the journal Science, the discovery team said the remarkable preservation of the tissue might open up "avenues for studying dinosaur physiology and perhaps some aspects of their biochemistry." Speaking at a teleconference, the team leader, Dr. Mary H. Schweitzer of North Carolina State University, said, "Tissue preservation of this extent, where you still have this flexibility and transparency, has never been noted in a dinosaur before." Dr. Schweitzer, as well as scientists not connected with the research, cautioned that further analysis of the specimens was required before they could be sure the tissues had indeed survived largely unaltered. They said the extraction of DNA for studies of dinosaur genetics and for cloning experiments was only a long shot, though at least reasonably possible. In a separate article in Science, Dr. Lawrence M. Witmer, an Ohio University paleontologist who had no part in the research, said: "If we have tissues that are not fossilized, then we can potentially extract DNA. It's very exciting." If the tissues are as well preserved as they seem, the scientists hold out some hope of recovering intact proteins, which are less fragile and more abundant than DNA. Proteins might provide clues to the evolutionary relationship of dinosaurs to other animals and possibly help solve the puzzle of dinosaur physiology: whether, as argued, dinosaurs were unlike other reptiles in being warmblooded. "If we can isolate certain proteins, then perhaps we can address the issue of the physiology of dinosaurs," said Dr. Schweitzer, a biologist affiliated with Montana State University as well as North Carolina State. Excavations of dinosaur remains sometimes turn up preserved tissues other than bone, including feathers, embryonic fragments and internal organs. But as Dr. Schweitzer's group noted, while in these cases their shapes may be preserved, their original composition has not survived "as still soft, pliable tissues." It is usually difficult to determine what such modified tissues were like in life when fossils are more than a few million years old. The last of the dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago. The T. rex with the soft tissue was found in 2003 by a fossil-hunting team led by John R. Horner, a paleontologist with the Museum of the Rockies at Montana State . Mr. Horner is a co-author of the journal report, along with Jennifer L. Wittmeyer of North Carolina State and Dr. Jan K. Toporski of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The trials of fieldwork led to the discovery of soft tissue inside a thighbone. Scientists cannot be sure why the tissues survived as they did, though the protection afforded by the bone was almost certainly one factor. Another may have been the possibility that the animal was buried in a virtually oxygen-free environment very soon after death. Geologically, the T. rex skeleton was excavated from the Hell Creek Formation, in sandstone laid down about 70 million years ago. Geographically, this was deep in a remote corner of the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge, in Montana. The only way to get the heavy fossils out was by helicopter. Tyrannosaurs were famously huge predators. This one, estimated to have been 18 years old at death, was not as large as most. Its femur, or thighbone, was three and a half feet long; some T. rex femurs are at least a foot longer. But the creature was large enough so that some of the rock-encased long bones had to be broken in half to fit a helicopter rig - not something paleontologists like to do. At a laboratory in Bozeman, scientists inspected the broken thighbone before anyone had a chance to apply preserving chemicals, which would have contaminated the specimen. Dr. Schweitzer and colleagues noticed unusual tissue fragments lining the marrow cavity inside the dense bone. Fossilization had not been complete. When fossilizing mineral deposits in the tissues were dissolved by a weak acid, the scientists were left with stretchy material threaded with what looked like tiny blood vessels. Further examination revealed reddish-brown dots that the scientists said looked like the nuclei of cells lining the blood vessels.

It's a fine chi kung form. Actually it's many chi kung forms. Everyone teaches it differently. I find most systems share the palms up head over the hands move and the shooting the arrow move, but the other six are kind of up for grabs. Personally, I use the one from The Way Of Energy, which to me seems more like seven pieces because the eighth is just shaking.

Can you elaborate a bit on the differences between taiji, xingyi and bagua? Thanks.

I think virtually everyone agrees that whole grains are good for you and processed grains (white rice, white bread, etc) is bad. Despite all the different views out there on nutrition, pretty much everyone agrees on this. I eat mostly whole grains, but I'm not religious about it. If I'm hungry and the only thing handy is white bread, I'll eat it. But I'd say 95% of my grain diet is whole grains. Since this is a daoist discussion site, you should all be aware that there is a whole ancient school of thought in daoism that counsels to avoid grains (whole or otherwise). It gets very esoteric and involves one of the three "worms" that live inside you and thrive on a diet of grains (you have to try to starve the worm). The basic idea is that eating grains will impede your spiritual growth. It should be noted that the taoist advice against grain is not an Atkins "pump up the protien" diet. Rather, it is meant for people at very high levels, living in caves on less and less food and doing increasingly less physical labor. So, in sum, I would STRONGLY advise thinking long and hard before eliminating grains from your diet. They provided fundemental fuel for your body and, along with vegtables, are what keep you healthy. You cut them out to the detriment of your overall health.

Thanks Michael.

Michael, I've been thinking of delving back into fusion and have been looking for an instructor/tape. How's her fusion stuff? Does it hew close to Chia's stuff or does she "reinterpret" it? Also, how are her breathing tapes? Thanks

I gave up coffee and alcohol for a month (I chose february -- being the shortest month -- so I've just come off the wagon). Both were hard for different reasons. Alcohol was situational for me. Certain times during a meal I wanted a glass of wine, and most socializing involves alchohol, and I'd really want one. Coffee was more need driven. I agree with the post above, that its pull is greatest when you're bored or trying to slog through something. It's really a mood-elevator as much as a stimulant. It changes your head. Yoda, I don't know why you'd be taking 200 mg of caffeine at the end of the day. It seems like an incredible waste, at the wrong time. If you're trying to quit, I would think by the end of the day the headaches/withrdrawl are at their weakest point and you're body just wants rest (i.e., it's EASIER to avoid grabbing some coffee). So it seems counter-intuitive to me. I also agree that yerba matte or regular green or black tea, is a helpful substitute (all three contain caffeine in some form or another). You could also try ginseng, which is also a good overall stimulant (in powerdered capsule form -- one or two capsules broken open in hot water -- much stronger than the teabags). Good luck

Thanks for all the work Sean. Looks great.

If anyone has any more instructional information on Buteyko breathing please post it or send it to me. I've been looking to start up a breathing practice for a while and I'm intrigued by what I've read, but I don't want to drop the $500 on a lesson or, at least right now, the $100 on the device. Anyone who's done the method or used the device, I'd love to hear what you think it did or didn't do for you. Thanks

First -- you are correct. Bodri is somewhat contradictory. If it's all about sitting mind then a bunch of his practices are as irrelevant as running the microcosmic orbit or spinning chi, both things he criticizes. It's important to remember that Bodri neither knows -- or claims to know -- everything. He's pretty much a translator for the teachings of his master. Like any lineage, and any translation situation, and any student-teacher situation, some things are handed down without fitting so nicely into the GRAND EXPLANATION OF EVERTHING that is also given out. There's a lot of what I would call "buddhist superstition" interlaced with Bodri's stuff. Who knows if this stuff is true or not but it undoubtedly has been handed down. So have "active meditation" practices like white skeleton. Neither of these fit so nicely into the pure zen stuff that Bodri (sometimes) claims is the BEST WAY, but they're all part of the package he's learned. My own view is that dogmatic arguments are fun but we shouldn't try to be so dogmatic in our practice. For instance, I believe that empty mind is important, but so is guided meditation. They are just two different ways "in" to the same thing. I see no reason not to use them to complement each other (as many practices do) or to really emphasize the one that seems to work for you. Hope that helps.

I've got very little problem with Chia. I find him a genuine guy who is trying to teach what he knows. And I think a lot of what he teaches is very good. Though I appear to be in a minority here. Michael Winn kind of bugs me on a personal level. But I think what he teaches is pretty good as well. So there you have it. At least one of us thinks they're both OK.

Max rocks.