Spectrum

Just throw it all away and start over. Its easy when it's not all in your head to hang on to.

Open the channels and circulate daily w/ natural cycles. Increase the alkalinity of your body. Practice cultivation specific exercises such as tai chi, chi gung, and internal gung fu. Learn the peaks and troughs or your cycles, when to ride and when to rest... when to hold em and when to fold em. Spectrum

Letting go of what we have "learned" is difficult but necessary for advancement. Learn to let go. Its most important. Be where you are today. Put one foot in front of the other. Breathe one more breath. Relax just a little more.

I enjoy your progressive response towards peace.

Every time another synapse forms.

"Then the "Holy Cow!" realization springs to our head again. That's when we've stepped from living mindfully to actualization" Profound. How long did it take you to do that?

Isnt that Dharma? Rhymes w/ Karma? Works for me. He-He.

Can you keep the foam in your mouth please? I like my tea black. Yoda is into channeling? That surprises me. It's very darthsideous.

... and I Rode it like the Tiger You need another dose of medicine

Not really a satisfying form of spirituality for me. No need to jump through all the western hoops of intellectualization. The self evident is natural. The flow of life is a story. It's repeated again and again. The collectively common vernacular exists in physical being, and language has been built upon that or behind that or in front of that it doesnt matter but the multidimensionality of word games exist in mind because they exist in universe. The epic battles have been fought in body and repeated in the mountains in solitude. There is no difference. That is the illusion. No duality. Only the harmonic singular. Applying this dissolution of subject object relationship to all mediums of communication is a form of travel. A Work. Seeker & Sought. Swimmer and Water. Being aware of beings on other planes is a distinguished level of personal awareness and (ref) can accompany the cleaning and opening of the meridians. Unfortunately it is easy to be deluded away from discovering personal revelation and ones path towards Tao/God/Unnamable by replacing it with the revelations of other entities (through) oneself. Now I'm not beyond saying that if someone flew right up to me and said hey you want to go fly around, on your own accord, then yes, lets go, we're the same you and I, lets do it together. Once the dimensional bounds are breached...personally I would rather spend my time making art rather then listen to yet ANOTHER autonomous being give THEIR account of reality. Duh. How rediculous. I regress. There is far more FANTASTIC things to see & hear in the universe. Even water has more tonality then that fellows voice. Forgive my stark cynisism. "If I may be who you are" I AM. "Channeling" The Uknowable Spectrum

Isn't the transformational effects on consciousness of "practice" akin or superior to the conscientiousness bred through mindful living?

Side Note: there are days in which the "Effects" of chi gung seem further away and thus it "seems" like you need to practice "more" or "harder" or "with more spirit"... but alas... illusions... less is more. Just do it everyday.

At least an hour. Wake & Sleep 30 min each. I am usually able to secure more time than this by setting expectations and working into routines that feed off one another. It's best to practice w/ partners AT LEAST once a week, but you need to practice ANYTHING 3x a week to sustain & 4/5 to really improve fast. This even goes for the ukulele. I alternate between tai chi, chi gung & kung fu ... and uke practice right now. Sometimes practice is NOT DOING, so I think that ultimately the 24/7 principles apply to internal artists who are cultivating the 3 treasures. ... and when it doubt, learn a new song. Spectrum PS - Anything that you build a routine around will yeild results. The most important thing I think is to realize when your body is done absorbing the knowledge for the day. Knowing when to rest is more important for daily training then "making a schedule" for yourself. You can learn a lot more w/ a complimentary training routine, for simple example moving forms like tai chi one day, and very slow or still chi gung forms the next, and into bag work the next. Or another as in weights: arms, core, legs. Only thing in Taoist Arts everyday you let go a little bit more.... My Yogini like significant other is sure I'm wrong, yet when I compare my daily practice to her cooking without recipes... I digress.

Single Leg. Yes. Perhaps not "exactly" what he's doing with his hands, but all the principles are there w/o a doubt. Stand on one leg w/o revealing it to the people around you at the bus stop. Good practice. It's harder around corners ;o)

Damn good apple ain't it? It isn't even there...

Local Files: Shifu Wong:

Can any of our China bound bums or elsewhere aid me in my search for a Horse Hair Whisk? Aka Fu Chen? Spectrum

Suggested Ref Links for Yi Swallows Chi? Searching Archives.

"Song VII There is a glow in the sky; soon he will be rising in the east. Now on my balcony falls a ray from Fu-sang I touch my horses and gently drive THe night grows pale; now it is broad daylight. He harnesess his dragon-shaft, rides on his thunder wheels, He carries banners of clouds that twist and trail. But he heaves a great sigh, and when he is about to rise He cannot make up his mind; he looks back full of yearning, Chiang! Beauty and music are things to delight in! He that looks lingers, and forgets to go on his way. The zither-strings are tightened, drum ansers drum. The bells are beaten till the bell-stand rocks. Sound of flute, blowing of the reed-organ; A clever and beautiful Spirit-guardian; Lightly fluttering on halcyon wings. Verses chanted to fit the dance, Singers who keep their pitch, instruments in strict measure; The coming of many Spirits covers the sun. Coat of blue clouad, skirt of white rainbow, I gather my reins and my chariot sweeps aloft. I take up my long arrow and shoot at the Heavenly Wolf. Then draw toward me the Dipper and pour out for myself a drink of cassia And bow in hand plunge into the abyss, Am lost in mirk and darkness as I start on my Journey to the East." Word Brother Preach It, Spectrum

Standing Meditation, Zhaun Zhuang, Pile Standing, Universal Post, Stand Like a Tree, Standing Stake is the primary foundation of chinese martial arts in general, and is the axis in which chinese healing arts pivot. The visualization you mention is a combination of concepts. Standing Meditation being strongly chinese w/ a even some viens in chan but mostly all the lineages of the standing schools come out of china. Funny at these intersection we see Carlos Castenada writing about Tensegrity his standing postures of safety, and again anyone who knows Bucky knows synergetics was basically what the inventor of the geodesic dome was calling chi gung. <wink> We keep it fun on Tao Bums for the sake of referential clarity. <french drop> Emptiness or nothing is what you think about while standing. No thought. What's between a thought? The paradox presents itself of what internal mechanisms are in action when you are acting w/o acting, for instance in jam jong pile standing. You are standing there holding a ball. Yes. What happens to the ball when you feel what you interprete as discomfort, or worse, pain. The firing mechanisms that your muscles must adopt must be observed and learned one way or another... what ways are you moving and what ways are actually POSSIBLE to mov e ? These "arts" are hidden in plain view. Look at Balans. Unreal. Completely different relationship to gravity. Ergonomically speaking the modern man living in metropolis is moving fractions of the possible directions that man has locked in DNA memory that has previously been a part of existance. What if escaping the matrix was litterally as easy as figuring out all the possible ways you could walk down the street and do it all at the same time? That seems almost a philosophical or religious topic though. But honestly, I think once the student in the movement arts begin the inquiry processes with goals in mind they learn what helps and what inhibits forward progress. Be this learning how to golf, ski or play tennis, the movement that is conducisive to those A-HA mojoments are perfect in a sense. We are living breathing moving floating around upright biological geometric bipods facing upright looking outto vast space doing what again? Dancing the dance of creation and destruction. Chi Gung is like eating. Tai Chi is like digesting your food. People who engage in standing meditation and don't DO something w/ the energy are asking for future problems. Your moving chi gung is the answer here, as w/o a balanced wei dan, generating heat from limbs thru core, the nei dan (generating heat in core and moving outward) is ineffective and can cause problems. Moving chi gung is the way to succeed w/ the stillness chi gung. This way you contemplate both stillness in motion, and motion in stillness. The end result being your orbit meditation. The Yang Style of Tai Chi is great for illustrating these principles, and is itself a multi purpose art of martial and breath mind body unification cultivation. Chi gung really focuses on the health aspect and the breaths interaction w/ the body mechinism. It's really great stuff all of it. It has changed my life dearly and tenderly. This is a primary teaching of Taoist meditation strategy for the student. Standing w/o standing. Usuaully pulsing in any one is avoided as the goal of the meditation is the circulation of your chi for the purpose of cultivation. The focus if need be is on the breath, and eventually on nothing at all. relinguish the attentions need to attract thought to a center point. By Releasing the central attentions need to focus on any one thought, thus freeing it from thought all together, your peripheral states of awareness naturally fill the space between the circumfrential edges and the field in which the periphery forms. THe primary exercises in the type of Taoist meditation i have sought has been single point and empti point meditations in which stillness of mind is the primary "goal", which is no goal at all, because no thought is wasted in it's effort. God I hope not. <group hug?> PS.. heard that next stage is adding breath retention... seems like tummo breathing ( or 9 wind meditation) with different chakras but standing Avoid this until you have familiarized yourself w/ the process of wuji. Wuji itself may produce a variety of "effects" but avoid "guiding" any of these sensations. Just breath naturally. The practice of placing the tongue on the roof of the mouth on the inhale is universal. Release the tongue on the exhal. The practice of placing the awareness on the dan tien is enough w/ the operation of the breath that wuji posture induces. The fundamental postural changes that wuji will help you undergo can be life changing. You won't need to make up visulizations, your body will drop into the zone quiet easily thoughts still movement and intent meet across the medium of your breath. The goal of the first two years of chi gung is the clear out your primary meridians. This is Wei Dan. After that time you usually reach a state of optimal heath and can proceed to cultivate further in various directions. Best of wishes to your seeking and gunging. Proceed w/ caution and do not "force" anything. Stillness and Observation are the primary means by which students of the Taoist lineages of meditation proceed. Spectrum

>>verrrnacularseekers.<< What do you believe will happen by practicing chi gung? What are the feelings associated with successful practice? In daily practice everything is about feelings. You constantly must ignore what your eyes tell you and go by your gut or intuition. You can't practice chi gung and not feel your body. Pull the blaster sheild down luke. Then again how can you expect what it is you will feel on any given day? A spectrum of feelings exist between movement and stillness, yet anything you do everyday... you just get better at. What meditations we love to partake in shape us as humans rather it's tv, music, painting or taichi chuan. The embodiment of chi gung is all about alpha state which is relaxed body alert mind. So yes and no on letting go. Moving meditation is the goal. Moving without moving. Stillness in motion, and other poems of the body, physical koans of sorts present the internal artist w/ problems to solve through balancing action and inaction, full and empty, and other dimensions of sense that exist between the western dicotomy of mind & body. Once a certain ground zero is established by the seeker. Wu Ji. Empti Readiness. Can be dropped into and out of, and consistant practice yeilds "results" that are best left for further research in traditional allegoy and myth. Do fluctuations in sensory and thought perception ensure success? I do not believe it does, else every person who experimented with drugs would be instantly enlightened. Does practice induce altered states of consciousness? Certainly. I think that a simple methodology and operative practice based on neutral observation and inquiry offers the greatest insights into the nature of any seekers "problems" that keep them from the state of flow they seek. Daily flow being the result. Alignment is You must forget you learned, then you can relearn it easily. Daily. This a practical skill of embodiment. This is the daily practice of letting go of preconcieved notions... being reliquished to a state between belief and disbelief opens your peripheral concouisness up to a wider range of possible choices. This is true in chess and movement arts alike. In the big picture standing your ground means just as much as dutifully relocating. I always feel so "high" at the end of chi gung practice. Funny that as deep as you go is as high as you go. You know seeing tracers is indeed cool, sure it is, but that's just "effect" but honestly is your mind a toy to be played with? It's beautiful, the taiji experience of relaxed embodiment, of form in fluidity, is a cultivation art. I find myself surfing more beautiful niche in taiji spheres, which are within, the form to look for is illusury, there and not, how many ways around the taiji sphere are there? Take notes and forget about it. There are many masters who recommend keeping a journal of "effects" simply so you won't get distracted noting them. The action of writing them down allows you to "let go" of the experience itself, while simultaneously allowing you to recall more details of the experience. Ultimately the space between what we percievce as thought/mind/yi and body is transformed. With consisant mind/body practice the division is slowly healed in subtle ways. The very experience of embodiment changes through consistant honesty with movement. Mnd and body are reunited though very simple yet enduring practices. The traditional 100 day gung is a great example of this. You belief should be suspended by the end of the 100 days. Most people in america can stand on stake for a minute before they start wiggling all over, and quit. I can't belief that. Ya gotta push the button every 108 minutes ya know. Yeah at some point we started talking and writing things down. Truth most definately exists outside of our interpretation of it. We are aware of such a small window of frequency. Then again I believe everything that has occured in my life is true. Especially things that happen more then once or are witnessed by multiple people. Outside of my own personal experience I have no idea what is true. This paradox is presented to me everytime I learn something new, and everytime something I thought I knew fails me. Thus at times, i simply die inside, and cyclicly, i seem reborn, renewed. Regardless of my "belief" about any phenomenon and or recognizable patterns that seem to occure in a natural language, my ability to respond to these patterns are dependant on the ability to let go of preconcieved notions on what shape these patterns will take right NOW. One of many reasons I want to make the trek to Wu Dang Mt. Sacred Ground. The Earth knows who her friends are. Right NOW. Spectrum

Have you been practicing your tai chi chuan everyday?

Marmas are acupoints. The classical models of chinese acupuncture offer equivalent but not identical number theory. Indian maps look a little different but really functional mapping is a hands on experience. Your teacher should show you. The landmarks offered by the body give you both topological reference and a measuring stick. Sometimes locating them and opening them is a synonomous experience. What is 360 divided by 108?

yeah there's some right in being wrong official to humanity Word of mouth from teacher to student, like father to son before that. Tribal knowledge has evolved, as it has communication has changed. Its important to preserve the lines of traditional knowledge and communication which include the unspoken language of the classical arts, of which chi gung is one in example, yoga another. That is really the beauty of it in my interpretation and as it's been shared with me. Being the most natural to us, the path is made navigational through relaxing into the most natural of outcomes. This is not just a concept for example in taiji the principles are made manifest through two person exercises in which the FEEL of physics takes over the minds need to hang on to illusions that are not true. If you find yourself at the top of a wave theres only one way down. Ride well friend. Spectrum

Usually about 1-3 days into the water portion of a fast produces the metalic taste in my mouth heavy. A lemon or coffee enema produces tar that the epa would have a problem with, if the fda didn't let it get in there to begin with. The body most definately flushes toxins stored in the top most layers of fat that accumulate. I enjoyed you sharing your breathing practices, I'm going to experiment with the abdominal spiral you described as my significant others interest in belly dance has be gunging up internally in a lot of different spiral direction that in theexternal martial arts you avoid because you don't want the energy to dissapate out of the horizontal plane/dimension. The interensting thing about internal arts is that as long as the central axis maintains spin and balance, internally you can gyrate the yin/yang empty full aspects in figure 8s and spiral through your body. The belly rolls I'm seeing her doing are identical to this, but mysteriously femine, but not un-referencal to my experience as a man. Spectrum