Maddie

The same can be said for many books that actually made it into the Bible as well as many of the sutras. It's commonly recognized that many of these were not written by the author that claims authorship. This tends to be more of a problem in the Western mind than in the Eastern mind..

It would seem so. I'm questioning a lot of things lately.

One reason I was asking is because the method of breath meditation I was taught in Buddhism said to focus on the air going in the nose. I would notice when I did this I would eventually feel qi at my third eye area and since I felt something there my attention would go there and then I would feel it more, so on and so forth. So I think I accidently fell into upper dan tien breathing meditation accidently. As I have mentioned in other posts lately I felt like meditation was making me go nuts. This is one reason I was asking.

Do the eight brocades only improve health or can they be used for cultivation? Is there a deeper aspect?

What to do when one feels like that nothing makes sense, and they know nothing? I know this is not the best place to ask, but lets see what happens. But how to know what one does not know but one needs to know?

I remember watching the 60 Minutes documentary about Mt. Athos. At one point they showed this monk in ecstasy while doing the morning chanting.

I find this very interesting and surprising. Perhaps it was due to the low level of Christianity that I left, but after I left the church and began to study teachings from the east I tended to look down on western things like Christianity as being "quaint". So to hear there are systems within this religion that are advanced is quite a revelation. I wonder what the path is and how it works?

Yes kindness and compassion are extremely important to me.

I have been wondering if this would be ok, though I guess I'm a bit hesitant due to the severe reactions I have. I'm also worried that I might accidently fall into meditation doing something similar, as this has happened to me sometimes just sitting and relaxing.

Yes, TCM can deal with trauma. In fact its the primary means that I now use to deal with past trauma in both myself and my patients. I found that due to the fact that I have had a lot of trauma in my life that meditation was much to volatile for me to do as it would dig up to much trauma. This being the case I have now primarily turned to TCM, and it has been much more successful for me than meditation ever was. There are a few TCM terms that can be used to relate to trauma but the main one I would use is "phlegm". The "phlegm" is of the "invisible" variety but make not mistake usually people that have had a lot of trauma, especially childhood trauma have lots of knots of "phlegm" that can be felt under the skin. This idea is to deal with this phlegm naturally and safely.

A few questions I have in regards to Taoism in relation to Buddhism. One thing at the time that really attracted me to Buddhism was the emphasis on kindness and compassion. Is this emphasized to the same level in Taoism? Most of the Theravada teachers I listened to seemed to be of the opinion that Taoism places too much emphasis on the cultivation of the physical body, whereas in Buddhism the body is mostly ignored and the focus is on the mind. What would be the Taoist reply to this?

Thank you I'll consider it, though I feel myself drifting from Buddhism. I'm not sure where things are headed yet, but about a decade ago I favored Buddhism because it had lots of guidelines and definitions and Taoism (at least in as much as I had learned didn't). Now I wonder if the guidelines I once found comfort in, have become restricting, and lack thereof in Taoism is now its appeal.

I had given up meditation because I began to suspect that it was causing me severe anxiety and insomnia. Last spring I dropped it. Yesterday I decided to try 20-30 minutes. Last night I didn't sleep most the night and was tossing and turning with anxiety and weird thoughts. I have had enough of meditation. Prior to that I had been feeling and sleeping much better.

This actually seems to explain a lot of what I'm going through right now. I guess I'd thought "dark night of the soul" was a term overly dramatic emo kids used. This seems to make a lot of sense.

Generally I need to be pretty desperate to ask for advice since most advice is bad, but I was wondering if anyone has ever experienced hitting a "wall" where nothing makes sense anymore, and if so what did you do?

I've noticed a few things about meditation. The first is just even a little bit can cause me to feel either quite anxious or depressed or both. The other is that I realize many things about my mind to contemplate. I don't know why even a little amount can make me feel so bad.

I wonder what it is about the mind that it always wants something.

I suppose that's a good answer LOL

Well that is a very broad question. If you have more specific questions that would be easier to address.

practice defensive crossing and look both ways anyways ;-)

Um look both ways before crossing the street :-D

The thing to realize with Chia's method is that you do ejaculate with orgasm, except the ejaculate is prevented from escaping the body. As an acupuncturist this is just creating a lot of stagnation and imbalances. I do not recommended this practice at all.

I was wondering what happens if one does upper dan tien breathing as opposed to lower dan tien breathing?

That would be to assume all westerners are capitalists, and all western countries are capitalistic.

I think a lot of westerners are uneasy with the idea of Good karma equating to having abundant money and I think it's because Jesus said the love of money is the root of all evil. So therefore in the West we have negative connotations about money versus spirituality and the idea of plenty of money being indicative of Good karma is uncomfortable.