The Observer

Truth.

Hey Virtue! My start in meditation was originally with closed eye/yogic/TM style meditation. A few months down the road I read about Zen and got interested in it. Ever since I've been practicing Zen-style breath counting with walking meditation for the past 4 or 5 months. I've recently become interested in Qigong/Daoist alchemy and a few days ago added standing meditation to my practice, partly due to our previous conversations in that other thread I started.... My current routine is basically Morning-30 min. zazen followed by 5 min. of walking meditation. (Plan on maxing out to 45 once the depth of the meditation increases) Night-5 min. of standing (progressively adding more time until I master it and move on to Tree Hugging lol)

I'm loving the Tree Stance! My body complains a bit but I really enjoy being out in my backyard amongst the plants and my cat I'm feeling good these first few days.

Hey, First off my sincere sorry for what your lover went through. I wouldn't ever wish that on anyone . However everything happens for a reason...we are here to learn from ALL experiences...even the ugly ones we'd rather forget. I don't get to say who deserves what or why bad things happen to good people. I don't have all the answers. All I have, or try to have, is a can-do attitude, ready to learn from all and forgive all for whatever wrongs have been inflicted. Oh and I'm pretty sure reincarnation is not as cut and dry as you put it. Beings sometimes don't reincarnate as humans or wait a while to come back. I don't know what you mean about the Pleiades either...you lost me there. Much Peace and Love to you and your lover Easy P.S I didn't see your post when I was typing my original response. It wasn't meant to provoke you :/

Our bodies are not used to a sedentary lifestyle. Millions of years of hunter-gatherer existence is a hard "habit" to break over the course of a few thousand years (the span of time civilized society has existed for). So for there to be increased levels of disease is not surprising. Recently I had this idea that increased rates in cancer as well as other disease are a symptom of humanity's growing pains of transitioning from nomads to sedentary/ant-like colonialism.

Often times our enemies or people we love to hate are our greatest teachers. I agree mainly with the last part; this is the essence of true alchemy I think .

Knowing you're not in it on your own is a good thing I suppose! Plus there's a sort of collective energy to feed off in a sense...

I'm taking you up on the offer friend! I already started what your doing about a week ago, but all the same ! I'm doing 30 minutes in the morning of sitting meditation and 5 minutes at night with standing meditation (short time because I'm just learning about standing meditation/qigong movements). In addition I'm also practicing semen retention for the next 100 days (longer if necesary) in order to fill up my lower dantian.

Although I believe we should always make our speech courteous and polite, I believe all kinds of speech/views should be allowed to exist, even if it is filled with poison and hatred. At the end of the day it is only you who allows yourself to be hurt by words. Instead of opposing someones views, analyze their words and most importantly analyze yourself instead of taking someones verbal jab personally.

Yes people do get what they deserve. Your current situation is only the result of your past actions, in this life or another. I've come to realize, more and more, that life, as well as dreams, are essentially strung together "learning scenarios" in which our progress is gauged off of the maturity of our response to whatever situation we're in.

In all seriousness, what does it mean when you sit in full lotus meditation for a half-hour and your genital region gets numb? Am I sitting wrong in a way were circulation is being restricted or is it business as usual?

Any good sites/tips for teaching correct standing posture/attitude? I have a few myself I just wanna see what others say.

It's ok. I was a bit harsh on Zen anyways. Different strokes for different folks as they say.

I don't think anything elaborate is needed, just a little prayer like: "I'm guarded by a harmonious white light from all negative influence" or anything asking for protection/help from whatever diety/god you subscribe to. I like to do mine as positive confirmations (for ex. : "My meditation is deep and insightful") plus I mentally salute my spiritual teachers.

Ah I see, very interesting (strokes scholarly beard). But seriously, I studied/practiced the Japanese Zen tradition for a bit and it always seemed they practiced different alchemical rituals, without really seeming to know what they were for (eg. the cosmic mudra, concentrating on hara/abdomen while counting breaths). Either a lot was lost in transit as you allude to or perhaps a lot of the knowledge was abolished/forgotten/confiscated during the Meiji Era centralized government take over/westernization.

I relate to the part about losing friends and learning to love solitude. But sometimes people go seperate ways and its for the better you know... If you want to learn compassion for strangers try to smile (doesn't have to be a huge creepy one either lol it can be a slight one/mental one as well) through out the day and feel unconditional love in your heart. I read about it on this forum recently and it really made a difference in my own life. I'm feeling much better. Oh and as an aside look at this site: alchemicaltaoism.com. It really helped me out! Peace and Harmony The Observer

So does practicing Zen-style shikantaza have the energizing effect to build a sufficietly large energy reserve in your dantien?

For one thing visit: alchemicaltaoism.com. Keep an eye out for all the parts aimed at people practicing semen retention. What helps me keep my sex drive under control is preforming a bridge while engaging my lower stomach in deep breathing...Good luck!

Lol the joint pain/injury actually had nothing to do with the lotus itself. It was from me falling out of a yoga shoulderstand too quickly. At first it was so bad I was limping. Eventually it got better after a day or 2, but for the past month (maybe more) it has remained as a dull, bruise kind of pain inside my knee. It tends to come up when I put a lot of weight on my knee (IE kneeling, squatting). Ah I see. If you don't mind me asking, is it effective to perform more conventional strength-building excercises (in my own case hindu push ups, hindu squats, lateral squats, sit-ups) as well as moving qigong exercises (i.e dedicating a day to one, the next to the other)? Or am I better off focusing my efforts on one or the other? Many thanks for the helpful replies

Well it's wasn't much of a challenge to sit in lotus because I did a bit of hatha yoga before so I was fairly flexible already, so as soon as I was able to do it I came to love it compared to other sitting postures for the great stability it gave me. However now I'm mulling over whether I should stop using it for a bit because of a nagging pain in my right knee joint...I would try some standing meditation but I heard from another post in the forum that it's better to move on to that after building up the energy in the dantien through the microcosmic orbit/other exercises...so I don't know. What do you think?

How does the moon affect one's meditation? Are full moons really beneficial to meditation?

Ahh I had a feeling but wasn't sure thanks for clearing it up.

Ah thank you! Very helpful advice sir. As with all things it is much more dynamic than I originally realized lol.

Haha thanks for all the replies guys, they were really helpful. Alot of it was really just common sense, should of thought about it before posting on the board.