Maddie

You mentioned the monk you spoke to was Chinese. That is another place I have pondered going to for meditation purposes, as I am in TCM school and know a lot of Chinese people. What do you know of monasteries there?

Is there an advantage or disadvantage to this approach?

Ha ha that's funny cause I just finished a meditation session and I was trying to use more carrot rather than stick. What I mean is when I began I again felt my concentration not liking being brought back to the here and now. So I was trying to change my emphasis on not so much making my attention come to the present but telling myself how nice and pleasant it could be to enjoy being present. I think it helped cause it was not quite as difficult this time even though I kept having to bring my attention back repeatedly but there was a greater relaxedness (grammar?) about it. One thing I have noticed lately though is that it seems like the duration I am able to meditate is less than before though my focus on the now is greater. What seems to happen now is that about around the hour mark I start to feel pressure in my head, my ears clog up, my heart starts to beat hard and my lungs constrict and I start to feel funny. So an hour at a time (though I do several sessions a day) seems to be my cap at the moment, and I'm not sure why that is. *Seeker. I went to your profile and read your bio. It seems that we have a lot of similarities as I also chant the Zhunti mantra, and see qi cultivation as an auxiliary practice to my main practices on the enlightenment path. :-)

The way you describe it does seem to be how it feels in a way.

Interesting. I seem to have experienced some of those things listed both the pleasant and unpleasant. On a brighter note though as I was walking home from clinic this evening I really enjoyed how beautiful the trees and sky and wind all were with a certain stillness that is rather uncommon. Yea I sort of figured that the mantra was meant to be dropped later down the road, but for the time being it sure helps a lot, especially using "be" and "here" cause it keeps reminding me to be present and helps me to bring my mind back to the here and now on pretty much every breath cause that's how quickly my mind wants to wonder lol... sheesh. So it goes inhald "be" and exhale "here" over and over.

Hmmm I wonder if I were to go there after I graduate if I would be able to put my TCM skills to use? I wonder if you can sort of split up what you do there, as in have part of your time go to meditation and part of it going to help people there in some manner. Seems like both would be mutually beneficial as in you cultivate and get good karma.

So then I'd assume a westerner wanting to go to Burma to study in a monastery like they do in Thailand would be out of the question then. What effect has the regime had on Buddhism there?

So I'm wondering if there are any good relief or charitable organizations that help people and/or monasteries in Burma?

Hmmm that's a different version than I heard but it is interesting to ponder in that it supposes the possibility of someone having already been reborn while another part of them remains to be a ghost. interesting.

I googled this article from the Seattle Times about some common herbs that grow in the NW. http://seattletimes.com/html/pacificnw/2009328305_pacificplife14.html As far as which to use for cultivation is a bit more tricky as the specific goal is required and the person's specific diagnosis and constitution.

I saw this post during a study break from my herbs book haha. I was glad to see a post like this cause herbs are one of the best ways to apply Tao to our lives. They pertain to the various elements, and yin and yang. They enter various channels and meridians and have various qualities of qi. Granted out of all the subjects at school this is probably one of the most difficult due to the large amount to memorize and the Chinese names, but they are so effective. Following Tao is following nature and what better way to follow nature than to use it in the form of herbs.

According to Taoist thought the only part of us to survive death is our etheral soul (hun) that resides in the liver. One of my text books described it as the flame at the tip of a cigarette, and the spirit (shen) as the smoke that arose from the flame. The tobacco was the jing and the ash was the po or the corporeal soul. So when we die its like the last stub of the cigarette is used to light a new cigarette thus the hun soul is passed from the old cigarette (body) to the new cigarette (body). The Po soul dies,(ashes go to the ground) and a new spirit (shen) arises from the flame of the hun soul.

We were actually discussing this in class today. Most of the women were horrified.

Thanks that helps lol. Yea in the talks I listen to of Ajahn Brahm he mentions relaxation as being key as well, so I am trying to keep that in mind. Yea up until this point I had not so consistently brought my attention continually back to the present and nothing else. Its hard lol. But I keep reminding myself that its worth it for those reasons you listed. Aside from it being difficult, does that fact that I feel kind of sad go along with it? I guess what I mean is that I did not realize how much my mind loves to be some other place until just now. I was a history major after all haha. And now with me bringing my mind to the here and now in meditation its as though I almost feel a sense of loss. weird.

Actually if you look at the very first post in this thread where he is explaining the contents of the book its mentioned. Also I was watching one of Ajahn Brahm's talks last night where he mentioned that as well. But the main point I'm interested in isn't the mantra part, but the issue of staying totally present the whole time. It was like when I really did this my mind wanted to go berserk.

wow. Go with in, let it go, relax

I actually had an experience like this a couple weeks ago. I was doing mindfuless meditation and noticed this hard knot in my solar plexus area. I just kept awareness on it for a good long while and simply observed it and gradually it began to disolove.

Who then makes the distinction as to when its ok to eradicate someone with out consequence? At what point is it ok, and at what point is it not ok, and how does one distinguish this point?

I'm not sure, that's why I' asking lol

Fight, kill, attack! Ok consider this the people doing these bad things would not be doing them if they had more loving kindness, more compassion, more selflessness. So if you decide the answer is to kill these people, fight these people, attack these people then what do you replace them with? Someone else who lacks compassion, and loving kindness. That is why revolutions tend to replace one tyrant with another. What is it that these people want? what do they care about? Money. They don't care if their own soldiers die cause they lack compassion, so fighting them won't make them care. But as Nelson Mandela understood if you focus on what they care about then you get their attention. They want money, that is why sanctions helped to end apartheid in South Africa. On that video the generals in charge of Burma want to develop tourism to get more money. Since its money they are after, then it would stand to reason that affecting their cash flow would be a better way to get their attention. Since they don't value human life, they don't care about people getting killed in a fight.

Yea that part (about how is a man thing in India) I'm aware of, so what is the thing in the west (marketing, perspective) that makes it predominately female here?

I was reading Ajahn Brahm's Anapansati instructions and this caused me to be aware that my mind tends to drift quite a bit during Samantha meditation. I had been doing the "Budo" mantra but Brahm said that it does not work quite as well for westerners. So instead last night and this morning I used "be here". "Be" on the inhale and "here" on the exhale (mentally). Well I think it worked cause I was aware of this CONSTANT tendency to drift like every second. So I just kept bring myself back to here and now. It was hard lol. I felt exhausted afterwards and I meditated a shorter amount of time than usual. But what I noticed afterwards was that I kind of felt sad. I'm not sure exactly why, but I'm wondering if its that I actually enjoyed drifting off and now feel like I had that taken away from me?

They already tried riots, it just got a lot of people killed. Gandhi and Mandela promoted change in their countries with out violence and more bloodshed. Violence begets more violence.

No I was being quite serious.

alright enlighten us with the solution then.