RiverSnake

Simple meditation is an excellent way to learn to control the "monkey mind", it should be done daily. -Chi-Gung complemented with meditation has been very effective for me and i think would help you with all of your goals. Find a good system for you and use it, though like anything it takes time. -Good Luck

Yeah, i've gonna through that a bit myself. The first one is a doozy but IMO it gets easier with practice.

Cool, i really enjoyed and learned a lot from watching his old videos. But the site he used would lag out and was full of bugs.

This is actually one of the movements from Gift of the Tao

-Meditation has many positive side-affects on the body and people can manipulate there intent to have different affects: -In my mind ( ) it is not much of a stretch to say that meditation could help someone heal from a broken leg. -Also when people are in situations of great psychological stress they are much more open to hypnosis or the power of suggestion.

There are various activities associated with right and left hemispheres. Practice activities that correlate to each hemisphere in order to strengthen them. Meditation in my experience has a greater correlation to the right hemisphere.

Of course you can. Find what makes you angry, then get a punching bag. Temper A Zen student came to Bankei and complained: "Master, i have and ungovernable temper. How can i cure it? "You have something very strange," replied Bankei. "Let me see what you have." "Just now i cannot show it to you," replied the other. "When can you show it to me?" asked Bankei "It arises unexpectedly," replied the student. "Then," concluded Bankei, "it must not be your own true nature. If it were, you could show it you me at any time. When you were born you did not have it, and your parents did not give it to you. Think that over." Zen Flesh, Zen Bones

Interesting opinion.

I only posted my spiritual practices before so i perhaps may have misread the point of the thread. -In terms of the religions i have been involved in my parents were Roman Catholic and as a result i was technically also of the same faith. I snored and slept my way through sunday mass and nothing about Christianity ever really caught my attention. -I was never a very religious person to begin with and tended more to a Right Brain perspective of life: extremely logical. -At the present i enjoy both Buddhist and Taoist philosophy but i would not call myself either a Buddhist or Taoist. I am a human being first and naturally my own expression of spirituality.

I began with The Way of Energy. -Now i do Gift of the Tao and am going to be learning Stillness Movement: Both of which is within the same system.

Secret Smile link: http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?/topic/9719-dr-morriss-secret-smile-breathing-basic-kap-1-giri-for-the-tao-bumbs/page__hl__Inner%20Smile

So based on your post you have absolutely no practices. You read books, you are obviously a very intellectual person (much like me). However, i can say from personal experience that being an armchair practitioner will never-ever-ever-ever help you!! -You cannot think your way out of an emotional rut, fear is irrational, it will dance circles around the rational mind and create seemingly rational reasons for caving into your fears. Thinking is useless! Thoughts are often tools of the ego. -If you ever want to make any progress with yourself you must take action and do so on a consistent basis. In order for Alan Watts to understand Zen he had to first practice, intellectual understanding is superficial at best. -Find a stable practice that you enjoy: Chi-Gung, Meditation, Yoga...etc Find something that resonates with you and then practice it!. There are plenty of teachers on this site. -But i repeat you will never make any progress without taking action. -Another thing, NEVER beat yourself over what happened in the past (this is a tool of the ego), fuck the past, the present is more important, its the present that matters. Its in the present that you can heal yourself and make the most difference. -If you messed up in a situation acknowledge it and learn from your mistakes, but always LOVE YOURSELF UNCONDITIONALLY no matter what.

Awake i see that you have been a member since 2009, do you have any regular practices(Chi-Gung, Meditation etc...)?

1. Living and experiencing life 2. Helping others 3. Self Cultivation

The only thing holding this debate together seems to be semantics. We all have personal preferences...Vaj likes Buddhism, that's great, i like Taoism and also have a lot of respect for Buddhism. Stop being prickles

Noahfor i've never taken any psych-drugs so i can't really relate to your experience. But what i can say is we all have bad times and they all pass. Be strong and ride it out. -Twinner, Otis, Steve f, Stigweard: all gave good advice.

Had a question on the exercises. I just read the last 2 chapters and saw that there are several very different exercises for releasing trauma. However, the author does not specify each with a certain function...do all of the exercises bring about the same reaction or does each release different areas of the body? -Does anyone know?

I just got my IIH book back and began reading through it. I came across this particularly interesting excerpt dealing with psychic parasites. -I think i can say with ease that all people including myself have gonna through a time where we've been stuck on fears and unable to cut the mental chord that is sapping our energy. The following is about this very issue and i think Bardon has explained it better than anyone else. "Let us now discuss a different but somewhat related subject which will familiarize us with the so-called larvae. The difference between an elemental and a larvae is that an elemental is consciously created by the magician, whereas larvae form themselves in the respective mental sphere involuntarily through severe emotional or psychic excitement, regardless of the particular kind of excitement. The stronger and more severe the excitement, the more mental substance a human being loses and the stronger, more condensed and more viable the larva becomes, especially when one and the same psychic excitement repeats itself often and regularly. The involuntary formation of larvae in the mental sphere occurs to all human beings whether or not they are magically trained. It does not matter if they are young or old, if they are intelligent or not, or whether the person is knowledgeable about such matters or not. When the psychic excitement ceases and the person no longer pays any attention to the matter that caused the excitement, the larvae gradually fade away by themselves until they eventually dissolve and vanish completely. Therefore, you find in the mental sphere a continous cycle of the birth and death of larvae caused by psychic excitement, and this is always at the expense of the human being's mental substance. The cause of such psychic excitement can have many different reasons; usually fear, sorrow, shock, worry, hate, envy etc. are the originators. The shape that a larva assumes depends upon th ecause of the psychic excitement and is always symbolic. Anyone who is knowledgeable on the subject of symbolism will have a clear idea of this. For example, a thought of love will always be symbolized in the shape of a heart, whereas lightning and arrows are symbols of thoughts of hate. In spite of the fact that larvae, these unwelcome mental inhabitants, cannot be seen by the normal human being, they do exist and a well trained magician has the ability to percieve them on the mental plane. The mental substance of sensitive or easily excitable people separates much more easily, whether they are magically schooled or not; therefore the formation of larvae is easier and more intensive. People who are inclined that way harm themselves and the health of their nerve energy. Not only that, in a spiritual respect they even affect others who are are easily influences. All of the various kinds of mass psychosis or hysteria have their origin in this principle. I do not have to describe in detail how effective such mass hysteria can be; certainly everybody had made his own observations and gathered his own experiences. This leads to the conclusion that the larva becomes stronger the more a person returns to the source of the psychic excitement and the greater attention he pays to it. When a larva is vary highly condensed and the desire, the drive for self-preservation becomes greater, it will try to expand its life-span as much as it possibly can. It will therefore seize every opportunity to incite the spirit of that particular person in order to return the attention to the source of the excitement and to revive anew. Such a well-nourished larva can become a doom or catastrophe for oen who is sensitive or easily excitable. And many mental disturbances, such as a persecution complex etc., are the result of larvae. Many human beings live under the erroneous impression that they are being pursued or destroyed by a black magician, whereas in reality they have simply become pawns to their own fantasy, victims of their own larvae which they themselves have created. These people usually do not realize this until they have left their mortal shell. There is only a very small percentage of human beings who are magically pursued. These examples should again show the magician why so much emphasis was placed on the importance of introspection, thought control and mastery of thoughts right at the beginning of the practical part of this book. Should the magician, during his development not gain the ability to have his thoughts under his will, he could unknowingly create larvae which might sooner or later cause his doom." Initiation into Hermetics by Franz Bardon

Just changed my name. Thought about things i liked (nature) and about my personality. Felt that OldGreen expressed me well.

Cool stuff -I read of special ways of running for long distances without becoming tired in Opening the Dragon Gate.

Hmm...you said physical touching relieves the pain? -Maybe this will help...

Sounds like you got some cracks in your cup...some bad programming running.

Man...Sloppy do you ever get tired of typing? Just looking at these page long posts makes me tired. Make and effort to compress your sentiments.

No situation is hopeless, though it sounds like you could use some help outside of yourself.

There a lot of great teachers and practitioners on this site. Of-course there are a few trolls as well (some things can't be helped). -Enjoy the Taobums