Capital

I approve of this.

Not to be too audacious, but I have a question. Why would you want to find a place full of like minded individuals? If such a place existed, the members would be constantly reinforcing each other with no means for expansion or conversation. TaoisTheWay: Hey I think there's no such thing as immortality. Sounds like a grasping obsession with the body to me. Revel: I agree TaointheSand: Me too! /end thread, times a million other threads. Sounds invigorating, nay?

Well, we aren't all gentlemen. Though I'm one. I hope you continue to see positive results, too. I wonder about your comment on dreams. I certainly haven't had something I'd characterize as a nightmare in years. Even when I wake up in fear, it's thrilling. But I still connect with my dreams, and I never have any awareness within them, other than experiencing that dream being. Has it made your dreams more fruitful to be somehow aware during them, as though you are watching rather than experiencing. And, I guess, I don't particularly want to let go of them. More attatching. They are rather fun.

Thank you for posting that. My father is quite sick, and they gave him a prognosis. He really needs to watch this video, as I think it will help him to understand his own enormous role in getting well. I try to tell him, but from me it doesn't have the same umph.

At first I wanted to say not to steal his thunder, and not to ruin it for him in case he is really enlightened. Then I realized that if he was, he wouldn't give a damn what anyone thinks, especially the faceless masses of the internet. The idea of being free reminds me of something; it was only a few days ago that I really felt what it was like to give up being a creature of habit and memory, if only for a little while. It was... I'm not really sure how to describe it, but I've been able to go back into that state. I guess novel might be a good word for it, though obvious, if only because I was experiencing sensation without any grasping for certain senses and without caring how I must look, even to no one but myself (who judges me more than any other ) I wonder if it's helpful, or whether I'm just kidding myself. The idea of 'it doesn't matter too much; just be with it because you want to, not to reach a goal' is great, but I feel it has become something of a mind mantra to me, full of habit and lacking the wisdom it held at an earlier date. Earlier I mentioned disliking words. I don't really dislike them, but they have become a way that my mind organizes and confines. It's annoying to have this understanding of life through words, while knowing how arbitrary they are between the minds of all individuals. I can say something or write something, or hear or read something, and my understanding is fundamentally different. The only words that seem to come around this is often lyrics, for you can listen to the WAY an artist sings without ever hearing the words, yet reach what they mean to convey so much more meaningfully. Sorry for more rambling, but that also reminds me of fiveelementaltao's thread about Runes...

I wonder what characteristics one would find in an enlightened individual. I've never met one, that I've known of. I wonder if they would seem extraordinarily kind or utterly blunt. I wonder if they would move and act with complete control or whether every moment would be new to them. I wonder if murder, rape, and other such horrors would be still seem as negative, or simply neutral. I love music, and I love sounds, but I don't like words too much. They are so very arbitrary, yet so confined.

First, let's qualify that if you believe that this current age is one for a mass awakening of people into spirituality, then it will happen and should happen through natural forces. From there, I'll say that the best thing that those on the Taobums can do is to try to impart wisdom over knowledge here on the forum. Those are useless words, but I think what I mean is simple and clear: Give less descriptions of the way and the path, because the key to the Tao is that it is without description. Cease comparing and fighting over this style and that Qigong, because it creates an energy that forces many greats to leave, yet those that bask in conflict grow and thrive, pulling in more of their kind. I have found many pearls of wisdom buried deep or hidden quite subtly at the very top, and these have changed the way I've lived life, and I've been able to walk with my head held high breathing in life as I go. It hasn't been any specific Qigong that has done this, nor a thread that blew my mind, nor a poster whose infallible wisdom has cracked the prison that boxed in my thoughts. It was the mass will; the collection of those that wanted to help others, to discuss and contribute: That age of Aquarius that you wish to have come together, when it is already here. What I'm trying to say is that the Tao Bums is already a mass of individuals working to try to help others, yet those on the forums often forget this. You've changed my life in many ways, Bums, and you will continue to change others.

Actually, when you label me you label me. I am not negated.

Michael, Is there an opening that corresponds to the closing? I've been wondering this since I began your system. Now that you say 'it is OK IF you do the closing', I feel like doing the good old 'head-to-wall' bash. There was a period where I thought I wasn't getting anywhere, and that I was still trapped in my head and was only kidding myself. This was after a time when I felt a huge difference in my life after starting your method. I realize now, that while what was happening during my meditation had been trickling out into the rest of my life, AFTER I stopped doing the closing that stopped.

First, to answer the OP's question, which many seem to not want to do: I'm somewhat sure I'm completely heterosexual. I've never found a man sexually attractive, though I have been shocked by how good looking some guys are before. Wouldn't particularly matter to me though if I realized tomorrow that I was bi. Nebulous Gas, I'll say first that perhaps if you wrote with a touch more care and precision, you might be taken seriously. More so if you were to lose the bright colors of text. Now, I was going to go through your post and highlight all the things that were counter intuitive. Hopefully, I had thought, when you saw them beside each other, you would realize that many of the things you have said were dishonest. Then I realized that literally every phrase you made was counter intuitive when compared to the ones before and after it, so I will simply give a couple examples and go on my merry way with some advice to those that would try to argue with you: just don't. The highlighting is my own work, obviously. These two sections were right on top of each other, yet they are absolutely The amount of times you use 'gays' like a slur, the amount of times you speak of balance, the amount of times you project your own insecurities onto another... I am truly unable to do anything but I think this was the height of the hypocrisy in your post. Just because one uses intelligent terms to make their argument, doesn't mean they're trying to show you up in any way or need humility. Your belief in your own opinion is just as lacking in humbleness. In fact, your need to cast judgments on an entire population (your 'Gays' as you call them) based on nothing but rumor and 'your gut' implies quite a bit of arrogance and an enormous lack of introspection. Please, consider the simple fact that you and I and everyone on this board exist as individuals, not statistics, and we differ slightly or immensely from those that stand beside us, whether we have are categorized arbitrarily together through some random attribute or not. You see, I'm not that much like you, but I bet we're both straight white males that like death metal.

Happy? air in lungs Unhappy? air out of lungs an odd distinction

This is a forum, and forums focus on discussion. Thus, we must all remember that there are plenty of people here, and they will all have something different to say about something that you personally feel strongly about. If you can't take that someone else openly dislikes your ideas, then you have a lot of options. I love the way Goldisheavy thinks, so I'd say go back and look at his posts. You'll find a lot of valuable ideas. I don't know if this makes any sense, but, fear and anger and hurt are not a reaction to a stimuli. They are a secondary, physical response to your primary, mental reaction to a stimuli. That primary reaction is a lot more subtle than the latter, and it's hard to feel, but if you calm it and nurture it I don't think you will have as much emotional reaction to a simple forum post. Btw, a certain internet law ^above post^ was just given even further support.

Hmm.. My father's first name means 'Rock' My first name means 'straight or channel' My mother's first name is questionable, but it came from an association with either the god Jupiter or Julus. My maternal grandmother's first name means 'eagle'. My maternal grandfather's first name means 'God is gracious'. My paternal grandfather's first name means 'Brave power'. MY paternal grandmother's first name means 'Lily' I couldn't find any meanings online for the last names in my family. If anyone has a good site for this, especially one that my google skills couldn't locate, I'd appreciate it.

Very odd... I put the name Iblis in google and all I came upon was that Iblis was the name of the Islamic devil. Even when I type in 'Iblis Arhat' I get nothing but sites linking to satan.