Cat Pillar

Just curious if any other bums were planning on attending the Kunlun seminar in Austin at the end of March. I'm planning on going, would be cool to meet up.

I'm glad you enjoyed the workshop, and doubly glad you found needed inspiration from it. I enjoyed hanging out with you there, and hope the practice continues to provide what you're looking for (I think it will.) It was nice having your company on the shuttle back to the airport. I hope your return trip was smooth!

Yeah, I missed this review as well! Saturday night was indeed fun, you impressed me, sir.

It has not been my experience that cultivation is limited to deep meditation/trance. I would agree that the most efficient cultivation occurs in deep meditation, and that there's no replacement for dedicated sitting...but I have managed to bring dantien to a solid burn while at work.

I'm curious about this. Does someone steal your money if you save more than $200? This seems to be rather self-limiting. If you can save $200, why can't you save $400? It may take twice as long, and I understand you may feel an urgent need to get away...but I don't understand the nature of that limit.

Regarding the OP... I've found that while books and such were great for getting me introduced to the concepts of cultivation, self-reliance is an absolute must on the path. Yes, I have a teacher and practice within a system...but no teacher or system can make you virtuous, disciplined, change your habits, or take responsibility for your actions. All of that is on the practitioner, and while guidance can be helpful at times, you still have to pick up your feet and take the steps yourself.

Word.

Currently reading "The Concept of Mind" by Gilbert Ryle, at the suggestion of a philosophical friend. Not even through the first chapter yet, but enjoying it already. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00E5X5ZEO/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

I know this can of worms has probably been beaten into glue already, but I wanted to bring it up. For me, the question has always been "does experience end with death?" Many state they have had personal experiences which leave them with no doubt, but personally I expect I'll never know until I actually die. Recently, though, I have been thinking a new question about this issue. And that is..."does it matter?" In other words...should the existence or non-existence of after-death experience be allowed to affect our decisions in life? I'm curious to hear your opinions.

Apricot heffeweizen? That sounds fascinating, although I can't decide whether it sounds tasty or not. I need to find meals that take less than five minutes to prepare but are still healthy. That seems to be hard to do.

Me too!! A friend of mine loaned me a copy of "Illusions" and told me I should read it. It pretty much rocked my worldview and jump-started my interest in figuring out just what this reality thing is. Others that have helped me the most: Robert Monroe Robert Bruce (these two helped crack open my worldview even further) Lao Tzu Greg Goode Michael Lomax Alan Wallace (most recently) And I have to say the conversations here at TTB's have helped me immensely as well. Nothing like live interaction to see how things play out dynamically.

Some schools also say using the wire or touching the ground are the only way to gather yin qi. I think Mo Pai is one of them. It is not said to be so in the lineage I practice.

Yup, I know exactly what you're talking about, Dwai. I've experienced the same thing with certain maintenances or troubleshooting activities. Sometimes you just "know" it's about to go sideways.

I see Ganying in action all the time at my place of work. Device failures and issues tend to happen in clusters. One day it will be load balancers, another day firewalls. One day will be switch reboots, another issues with Juniper routers. It's always fascinated me. Great thread!

My dreams are often in third person. I don't think that's uncommon.

I finally found one of my favorite science-y jokes again, and thought I'd post it for others to enjoy. I'm sure many of you have already seen this. I snagged it from "http://www.enlightened-spirituality.org/Spiritual_Humor.html" [The following is supposedly an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid-term. The answer by one student was so interesting that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now can enjoy it as well.] Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)? [Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle’s Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following:] First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let’s look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle’s Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added. This gives two possibilities: 1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose. 2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over. So which is it? If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, “it will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,” and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number 2 must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct... leaving only Heaven—thereby proving the existence of a divine being. Which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting “Oh my God! [This student received the only “A” grade.]

Supposedly it was in a chemistry class. I personally think it was probably just a funny piece written by a comedian somewhere, but who knows?

Life has already been quite kind to me. Although I admit it has taken purification for me to see that clearly. Anyways, I try behave as virtuously as I can regardless of what name I'm using. It's a matter of personal integrity for me.

Yeah, I would only participate in such a forum if there were stringent security measures involved, such as Sean recommends. It would have to be heavily guarded, because there's enough crazy people out there that an easily accessible public forum requiring real names could get someone killed.

I'm sort of with you. I have friends who love me, and I don't reject that love. Are you talking about a specific kind of love?

I am not sure what you mean by this.

Heh, yeah I had to admit wondering at all the anger management books. But there were enough titles in there I was interested in that it was well worth it. I never mind being offered free stuff, hehe. Especially when it's 'taoish' material!

How synchronous! This is something that has arisen a lot within the past couple of days. I've been working on opening my heart back up, starting with learning to love myself again. The first step; Realization. To speculate on any goal beyond that first step seems...premature.

I outbid Dainin, but got massively outbid in the end. However, I did walk away with Sean's book collection. Gerard - thanks for the tip, I recall seeing Magharabi's name on an IMA forum before. I may have to try giving him a call and see if he'd be a good match for a teacher.

Two reasons. One, without a conceptual basis to operate on, there's not really anything to be done. There's no basis on which to determine a course of action. Two, while one may recognize the inability of conceptual understanding to encompass reality, this doesn't mean that the mind stops trying. At least, that hasn't been my experience. Recognition can put a temporary halt to it, but the habituated patterns don't disappear overnight. And it seems likely that the noise from habituated patterns covers up Knowing. Thus, it seems like a waiting game for Knowing to manifest while the mind winds itself down.