Harmonious Emptiness

I think you wrote something about this once before. Is there a topic with more info on it? Also, what is the measurement of phi? .. something to do with chaos theory?

Agreed, but also, as Old Green said above, building a solid foundation from the teachings of others can make those experiences even better. Really, it's just same old yin/yang learning/experience thing.. You know yourself and then you can learn more about yourself by learning from others. Sheeeeiiit. This is a Taoism forum. We know there's no one answer to everything all the time .

Yeah, that pretty much describes my approach... If it feels like doing some sitting qi gong in the middle of sitting meditation will increase the awareness then I'll do some and then continue from where I left off. Though, to describe awareness is difficult because it's more like I just let things happen and so I happen to be aware of them (chi flow, muscle relaxing..) rather than being aware of them intentionally, since I find that distracting and tensing. Speaking of distractions, I also meditate with distractions around me since it helps to train the mind to focus past them. This is maybe not so conventional but useful nonetheless. I find almost nothing makes me jump anymore, not that I've ever been super jumpy..

For sitting, it's usually due to intense physical discomfort that I'll adjust my posture. I know that in Zen temples you might as well have went to go comb your hair if you adjust your posture before the given time. The idea being that that "the iron cools down" when your trying to shape it, I believe. I've read that it takes 20 minutes "before the water starts to boil" for sitting meditation. For 8 section brocade, I'll usually do more than 8 reps. I'm sure this is not harmful, per se, but I thought someone might have reason to disagree. Another big one would be doing parts of a qi gong series without the rest of it. For example: doing 8 section brocade, followed by walking qi gong (basically like tai chi walking but doing ocean wave breathing, expanding on the step, contract when feet come together), followed by sitting meditation. I'm sure there would be more benefit to doing entire systems since the movements tend to come together holistically, but it is so bad to do just a few of the movements without the rest? Will this end up causing imbalance in the other organs if one is generally healthy?

Yeah.. I didn't feel like editing it... but you know what I mean

The Lesser Truth that we do know is more valuable than the Greater Truth we only search for in books....

The I Ching says we communicate with animals when our spirit is in harmony. Animals are not constrained to the structured forms of human language. This is also why music and arts can be so purifying, for artists especially.. and why Ebonics plays on language are more than meets the mind, sometimes.

Learnt lesson one hopes To gossamer wings he clings Icarus kowtows

No... not my Father Bees pollinate June gardens Cloud unveils Sunlight

Asking the unanswerable question, then, why did humans show up on the scene?

The answers are found within ourselves, but it helps when someone can lead us to them. Reading too much and asking for answers at every turn would be focusing on the finger pointing at the moon.

I think humans have a different purpose than other animals. I suppose each animal might have it's own pupose, like bees pollinate the plants. Really, if you look at humans from any other animals perspective, we're like SPIRITS, forces of nature which can take any physical thing in existence and CHANGE it to make it do something else. To other animals, we are like the weirdest things in nature since we go around taking pieces of the environment and reforming EVERYTHING around us. As the Native Americans say, we are the caretakers of the earth. If you look at the beauty in that, it's quite awesome. We are (supposed to be) like these benevolent beings that walk around making plants grow here, fixing water currents there, and creating the environment that is needed for our survival. In many cases the environment doesn't need to be changed for our survival, but we as humans have a very unique role. On the other hand, I think that animals probably see humans as having this higher role, but at the same time we are ignorant of a lot of things which can be learned from animals attunement to nature. This is not to say that "Dogs have the Buddha nature" since other animals do not have the same opportunity to conquer passions (not inspiration, but lust, greed, selfishness).

George Lukas liked kung-fu movies. You might start there.

lol

magnesium oxide powder is probably more of a natural state than the liquid to some degree, but the liquid absorbs better. You might want to cut down on the green tea while you get it back to normal, but 1 or 2 cups per day shouldn't be an issue. All diuretics will somewhat reduce magnesium level, but they are beneficial in other ways. So be aware of overuse.

I would take some liquid magnesium and cut down on alcohol and caffeine since they both reduce magnesium stores. Magnesium plays a huge part in keeping the body cool. Just follow the instructions on the bottle, and don't wash it all away with a glass of water before or after taking it.

Another note of relevance to this would be the fibonacci formula. This forumula was actually the basis used by ancient Egyptians to build all of their temples because it is the way that life is created in nature. This pattern takes the number before it to create the new number. Simply: 0+1=1, 1+1=2, 1+2=3, 2+3=5, 3+5=8, 8+5=13, 5+13=18, and on and on and on. This way, whatever is made is balanced, and is why leaves don't pull over stems, and all bodies are balanced. There's a good explanation of it near the end of this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5xSsVyngbU&feature=related

Basically ghost sightings that were not too uncommon. One was a blazing ship which the guy knew nothing about at the time. Maybe these buildings made an imprint on the landscape in a similar way

The hoax videos of ufo's go on and on and on. Some people love to practice their imaging skills or something. Still, I wouldn't throw out the possibility entirely, even if this video was bs. I know a couple of people who've seen weird mirages of things that happened at the same site about a century before.

Yeah, really if we look at the uses of energy points, TCM would have one for pretty much every 8 inches of the body. Dragon Gate Taoism also talks about 9 centers in our scalp which correspond to the planets. So, true, there's more to learn about energy centers than the few that run up the center of the body, though they seem to be of some central importance. Thanks for the names, hopefully I'll be able to find out more about them...

I'll have to write a bit more when I'm at my own computer, but, for me a lot of the proof is in the make up of Egyptian mythology. The goddess raises the sexual energy of Osiris to create Horus, both Osiris and Horus are sculpted with a serpent coming out of the 3rd eye. They may likely have had more than the 7 chakras, I can't confirm on that part. They knew the body extremely well and built their temples with a geometry that encompassed the body make up with make up of all creation and it's connection to the cosmos. I would venture to guess that their chakra knowledge coincided with their astrology, since a lot of their practices revolved around the stars and planets. There were likely different practices pertaining to the same chakras, but I have no good reason to doubt that the same chakras were used for the purposes that they can be, ie - 1 chakra is the source, heart chakra is compassion, 3rd eye is the 3rd eye, crown chakra connects with the cosmos. These were understood not by logic but by the feeling they created in the body, so the feeling would be the same so long as the masters reached a certain "entry" level. From there, maybe more subtle zones were discovered. Taoists have 3 zones, Yogis have 7, maybe Khemetics had more.. They sure had a lot of freedom and time to discover, having the entire culture revolve around the priesthood and the Pharaoh being one of the highest initiates of the mysteries, for 3000 year and quite possibly many times more than that going by the water marks around the sphynx. To me, regardless of available proof, this suggests to me that they knew everything and more about it. Then other people came along and decided it was time to decentralize this power and knowledge.

Thanks for the video. This totally confirmed every way I've been ignoring instructions lol, like focusing on a spot in front of me the entire time, keeping the eyes open all the time. From studying Taoism I knew that relaxing and letting that feeling guide the meditation would be the most beneficial for my purposes. When I try focusing on one point with my eyes open the whole time I felt like I had too much coffee eventually, too much chaotic energy in my head from over focus. Not thoughts, just chaotic energy. Relaxing the brain... exactly. There is a sutra where the Buddha instructs his first disciples (children) to eat a tangerine and be aware of the whole thing. When applied to a tangerine this is very easy. There's so much sensation in eating a tangerine. I feel the same applies with meditation. There are so many sensations to be aware of, but not with the mind. Like the brain is aware of it relaxing, the shoulders and arms are aware of themselves relaxing, rather than the mind being aware of it. This way the mind does not become too officious in the meditation. For the original poster, you should do your meditation in a sitting position with an upright posture and relaxed shoulders, arms, neck, mind, etc.. The bad feelings in your muscles was probably from lying down the whole time, though you'll have new pains in your legs or back when your getting started. Also, if you want to increase the experiences of fear - you're in the wrong place man . Proper meditation should eliminate such feelings. As the above video quoted, though, feelings of "I don't want this, I hate that" are mixed up with fear. Overcoming these feelings will make you much stronger, but being aware of them might be more motivation to eliminate them, though awareness of them is not necessary in the process of true cultivation.

That's a worthy point, but, if they were working with the same Chakras.. What else could they have been doing?

On reading my last post here, I'm remembering, too that there was a lot of sex involved in certain Egyptian celebrations and maybe rituals. The worship of different gods was/is comparable to the diversity in Hinduism, though I'm pretty sure I've read it was a "Bast cult" and maybe a particular Osiris cult. The religion was very ingrained into the daily life at the time so what the populace did and what the highest priests did (keeping in mind that alchemy has usually been very esoteric, sometimes maybe to keep the power from misuse or from would be competitors) was not necessarily the same.