laughingblade

Joining a church seems anathema to any kind of spiritual practice. If OP wanted to *study*, rather than work, the University of Glouceseter has well-regarded degree course in Philosophy and Religion, and an MA in same which is mostly online and part-time. Might suit?

Confirmation bias. Try noticing 10:27 for a few days and see how that stacks up. But what really concerns me is that OP is thinking of buying a Zafira.

Keep your enemies near. Beware of near enemies.

Thanks!

The pictures are really unclear - I can't see what several of them are, just a blur. any chance you might simplify? Rich

My search-fu has deserted me. Any chance you might link that thread? Many thanks, Rich

Cool. Can you tell us anything about the spiritual aspects, or indeed the initiation/transmission content or the inner lineage? Thanks, Rich

Ace! Thanks. I only had time to watch a bit so far, but it resonates strongly in my ldt. Is there any horse stance later on?

Either: Make the breathing soft and smooth so the inbreath and outbreath flow into each other with no gap, holding or 'mental pushing/anticipation'. You'll find you can ride the breath with your attention at a slightly 'higher'level than the flow of air and movement of body. That's maybe a more vipassana approach - mindful. Or: Get right down and dirty with every little movement and sensation. Follow one in-breath from tip of nostril all the way to the belly. Every millimetre of the way. That's more concentrative. You don't care about in or out because you're concentrating finer and finer. Or: Pick a point - the tip of the nose is common - and concentrate on what happens there. Another concentrative option maybe. Did I get this right? Like GMP says above: cultivate and then some more. Attitude - interested aware attention is key. Without such then you can sit on your arse for lifetimes and not progress at all.

Shamatha and Vipassana are specifically buddhist approaches. Taoism doesn't understand them, perhaps because many of the more well-known Taoist cultivation practises are about qi development, and it's not afaik until Taoism gets to Shen development that such mind practises would even be relevant. You have to do a lot of horse stance to get off the wheel of Samsara. However I think these are complementary, and it seems to me reasonable in an integrative/mixin approach not only to do body, mind, and spirit practises but also to take from the traditions that have the 'best' tools. Ken Wilber has a lot to say about this. So shamatha is about achieving a one-pointed tranquility through concentration on e.g. mantra, flame. Then vipassana is about moment-to-moment mindfulness. If shamatha isn't achieved then vipassana tends to scatter or dis-connect IMO. If only shamatha is pursued then one can become quite the cold and unfeeling spiritual tough guy. Balance the two and you have clarity with compassion: bodhisattva here we come!

Pretty please?

Cheers buddy. Good to see you around. I think of you as Morgan Freeman in Bruce Almighty...

Hatha yoga for your body. Go easy and avoid injury early on. Sitting meditation for your calm (firstly) then development... Finding teachers? For Hatha Yoga I'd pick a well-known branch (Sivananda, Iyengar maybe) and a long-running local class. Mediation is harder. Many (usually Buddhist) centres run introductory meditation classes - often a series of 6 or so - and mix the meditation instruction with some philosophy or principles too. If you haven't meditated before then mainstream is probably the best place to start. These classes are often taught in a consistent manner by senior students, so you can get a flavour of "The Path" rather than the personality of some dude. Don't rush though - ease your way in, listen to plenty of people and try a few flavours before you nail you flag to anybody else's mast: your cultivation practise will be unique to you and is well worth letting unfold gradually and naturally. And as GMP advises: enjoy! Rich

Tim Robbins' Jitterbug Perfume had a hero taught breathing practices for longevity escorting the god Pan to the New World before he faded completely due to deteriorating belief in him in Europe. The masked his funky stink using a perfume with a bass note extracted from beet. One of my favourite books ever.

Are we certain he's not just a very naughty boy? Hey who cares! A new god - I'll bring my magic marker.

+1 You can now start your own cult..

I keep misreading GMP as GiMP. Daddy?

So I can relax for now? Will you make a new thread when the world is really about to end please? Leave enough time for GMP to get back from Tesco - if it's anything like ours the traffic is awful aruond the apocalypse. And Sunday afternoons. Thanks Rich

Sorry to hear you're having physical troubles. Don't they say that the Yi moves the Qi and the Qi moves the body? Just sit or stand however you can - spine straight as is comfortable. Lie down even. Set your intent clearly, and relax... My wife and I visited a local Buddhist centre shop, as she wanted to buy cushions for sitting: there was an older guy in there: skinny, long grey beard, faded tee and cotton shorts. Sandals. He straight out told her she had to sit in full lotus else there was no point meditating. We went elsewhere, and now she has a big comfy seat and enjoys her meditation. I bet the skinny guy was a vegan too. Rich

Amen to that! Carry on...

Dude we appreciate your zorba-the-trickster persona, but this is really going too far! How will serious cultivators ever find The Way if you're fucking with their heads like this?

For our colonial readers I should point out that the Daily Mail is now the undisputed source of truth in science and medicine in the UK. When we see an article in Scientific American or Nature we don't believe it until we see it in the Daily Mail. http://hellokinsella.posterous.com/the-daily-mail-list-of-things-that-give-you-c

52 next birthday and can stand easily with one hand and none if I grunt a little. Is it still valid if a bit of wee comes out?

So I agree S-M won't "give you nuts", and that a simple practise for balancing could be good idea if you feel you need it. Maybe S-M isn't that practise though, as it's a complete system, esp when GoT is included. I think you do S-M a dis-service by thinking you can just bolt it on to your existing stuff, and I was suggesting that (for whatever you choose) you try to isolate it to see what/how it works for you before you mix it in. I personally don't like not knowing what I did that works and what is just pointless or a superstition - like some bizarre cultivation cargo-cult. I have some experience with Chen-style TaiChi and I can confirm that S-M and GOT are at a different level, and would go as far as to say that IME S-M is not "the same practice of alignment and balancing and building thr internal power" as martial arts. Rich

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