Trip

I suggest we think about this carefully! <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value=" name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> This might be true: <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value=" name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Me agree with da dude who say ya all should stand in the tree instead of making war on da TB forum (unless ya wanna join us for some Chess)! Trying to achieve nothing, who's got time for anything else...? Greetings to all, MPD'd or not! Trip

Pietro, It's quite interesting to hear about your experiment. I'm glad you're well. What were you trying to achieve through this lifestyle? I actually miss the ability to sleep longer (as time goes by)...

By the way, there's an excellent hypnotic/NLP procedure that works with our "parts" by Connie Rae Andreas called "Core Transformations."

How about Smeagol spelled backwards: Log A(i)ms? Or, annagram you: Me as Log?

Your pontificating and condescension are exactly what make you an attractive target for anyone who enjoys puncturing illusions (and that's not me). Please don't try and go one-up on us, and good luck in your practice. Trip

Really, Lozen, you do go on! Must I have been "paying attention" to post to you? (Sorry, I haven't.) When I ask about the one thing you wrote I found of interest, you stick your tongue out and laugh. But a great deal of what you say isn't as "really obvious" as you'd like. For example, in your first paragraph you write you "don't really care" whether or not I enjoy Ron's posts. You PERSONALLY feel different and are pointing out "THE effect" Ron has in this forum. It seems I am being selfish. You also write that "luckily there are lists [you're] on where people speak freely without having to worry too much about the aftermath," and miss entirely the irony that you would remove this forum from that category, at least from Ron's point of view. Meanwhile, you belong to a "sacred fire community that holds fire circles" (oh my!). And you tell "a lot of raunchy jokes" (oh no!). But you do this in an appropriate way (okay!) because you have learned THIS REALLY IMPORTANT THING about the SACRED called "timing." Please. The sacred supports the points you're making the same way God supports the fundamentalists (west or east). As I said, I enjoy reading what you write (as I come across it, no more homework please) but that's because you're an obviously intelligent person working through their issues, spiritual and (mostly) profane. Actually, I think you're a lot like Ron. And I'll repeat my request that you share with us some of those stories that we can't find in books or on the Internet. I'd be very surprised if anything you could write would shock us. Enjoy, enjoy. Trip

Hey, now I'm really curious. Tell us one of your obscene goddess stories about Baubo or Coyote Dick, please.

Yeah I forgot, I also luv kicking Ron's butt around the chessboard and he luv doing the same. So if you're looking for a mate, come to http://www.taobum.com/ronnietsu/webchess/, now featuring a cool shit-for-chat feature that should appeal to the loquacious.

Lozen, Ron has made me laugh more in the last seven years than anyone I know. Real laughter, big laughter, tan tien laughter. And that, me thinks, is more valuable than all the highly intelligent comments posted on all these boards put together. Please don't tempt us by hinting at the quality of your thought which we're missing because you self censor. Personally, I enjoy what you write, but your self censorship is just that, YOUR self censorship. Ron doesn't have that problem and you might wonder why you do. I would also respectfully suggest you could seize this opportunity and learn how to ignore without resorting to "Ignore." Then you would have got something from RJ too. Trip

Hey, take a tip from fellow desert rat T.E. Lawrence: "the trick is not to mind."

Hi Yoda, It's basically a counting thing, so I can tell which set of 10 I'm on: I do the thumb first, for numbers 1-10, and then switch to the pinkie. The pinkie, looking at my left hand palms down, is the first finger in, and numbers 11-20 fall on it; the ring finger (2nd) catches numbers 21-30, the fuck-you digit (3rd) gets numbers 31-40, etc; when I work my way back to the thumb (5th finger), numbers 51-60 fall there. Pretty anal, I know. Thank God in the HT we just have to count our blessings and not our breaths. Probably at first you won't feel the tendon, or much of it, but this should change with time. Remember to keep your shoulders down, arms parallel in front of you, and initiate the movement from the scapula and then the elbow. We're just tacking this tendon work onto the beginning part of the squat; as I said, I don't try and hold the stretch through the squat itself, so it doesn't add too much overhead. Enjoy, Trip

I haven't had time yet to check out the video and articles you guys have been mentioning (I've only read the CC book), but I've started combining Hindu squats with some light tendon work. The basic idea is to feel the tendons connecting through body: the thumb connects to the big toe; the pinkie to the little toe, etc. So taking the thumb as an example: As I pull my arms towards my body and inhale I (1) LIFT and pull my thumb slightly back while keeping my other fingers level and (2) press down slightly on my big toe. Lifting the finger and pressing on the toe stretches the tendon (be sure to keep your elbows and wrists parallel); as I drop into the squat I tend to release the stretch. On the next rep I (1) DROP my thumb while keeping my other fingers level and (2) press down on my big toe. So I do ten reps (five with the thumb going up and five with it going down) and then shift to the pinkie and little toe. And I continue this way, working my way through all five fingers and toes, ten reps a finger. By the way, this makes counting reps a snap too, as you're only counting to ten. Doing all five fingers ='s 50 reps, so it's easy to keep track of your total number of reps. After a couple of months, this has begun to get interesting and I can feel the individual tendons running through my kua, in my neck, etc. I'm going to keep playing and see where this leads. Trip

Warriors, come out and play!

And Yoda, you've got one from me too!

No laughing matter, Mr. Trinity. Please allow me to translate. It was David Shen who first introduced to the HT a technique of lifting with weights firmly anchored to the anal region; a finger, of course, is much safer for your wife or girlfriend.

You mean as in pulling up the testicles (and weights) from (first) the kidneys and (then) the liver, spleen, heart and lungs? Press your tongue to the roof of your mouth and, ultimately, your crystal palace. As you do, pull from up from the organ (especially your kidneys) to the tongue. The testicles and weights will take care of themselves. But you don't need the weights to develop this internal strength. Just put your hands on your balls and yank down, and as you do, pull up from the organ(s) to your tongue. I say you don't need the weights because whatever you do, it don't mean a thing if you can't lead that ching.

And be sure, like it says in the book, to get the necessary training from an instructor. The weight lifting is pretty trivial; what's important is leading the hormones and external chi to the marrow. Until you can do this, you're more or less wasting your time.

Hey Harry, check this out and count your sheep. Most memory problems occur when you're encoding the material; you really should be checking out study and mnemonic techniques, which will help your memory far more than anything you can pop in your mouth.

Is there a transcript of the conversation?

Sean, I think Plato is pretty right-on, especially about your intending to take over the HT board from the start. But "Doctor Trip" says this expresses your desire to learn: you wanted to grasp all that crazy energy on the HT board by swallowing the board whole and then regurgitating it with collapsible threads, something familiar and safe. Pietro of course has his own wet dream. You were in fact quite sensible when you suggested he simply use the board for what it was intended, but that's not his way to knowledge and power. And who's to say whose wet dream is butter? If I'm right about your desire to learn, then this is the 'Hero's Journey 101' test where you have to consider abandoning all that's familiar and safe. And I'd say the same to Pietro: you may or may not have noticed that in another life on another board you once wrote a journal that had a thriving, active readership. And then you began tinkering and focusing almost entirely on the presentation of your thoughts, and after years of work you had a beautiful, beautiful format which no one ever read. As to the direction we take here, I vote 'the simpler the better'. If Pietro fully understood the ancient practice of COBOL he'd realize that I too was once a demon programmer. And that's why for me today, like Plato, a simple thread is more than enough. Trip

But Sean, Is there any way to view the training blogs in the old-style format? I don't enjoy having to click on the "comments" bar just to read someone's comments (although I'm sure I'll get used to it). Re Pietro's comment, I'm not exactly sure what he means in his farewell either, but probably he's referring to his poll and posts about WP Press 1.5. As far as I understand the situation, Pietro was hawking a particular blog/product (Greek to me), and you responded to his initiative unenthusiastically. He then reminded you of his/our/your "group" ideals and promises, but you never answered that post. And without any group discussion and/or warning, you then installed a wonderful but completely different package. I guess that has made Pietro feel a little burnt. I imagine your expressing your wish that 'he one day soon finds a place where his idealism intersects with reality' hasn't helped. Personally, I think you're doing a wonderful job. And by nature I'm more autocratic than communal. And I'm not particularly attracted to the big blog wet dream either. But the merits of your/anyone's selection don't seem to be the point, particularly regarding Pietro's complaints. How do you see the situation? To Pietro: why draw stupid little lines in the sand? Now you've got to go, or eat your words. Pretty silly either way, but I hope you'll stay. Meat to you all, except the vegetarians. Trip

Harry, You mentioned a severe sleeping disorder, and this must be a terrible, terrible burden. You didn't write much about it though, and I wonder what it's like. Are you simply unable to fall asleep, for example, or do you wake up in the middle of the night? And has your life now patterned itself around this insomnia? Maybe, for example, you no longer have obligations each morning and can just stay in bed, and so also stay up later and later tossing and turning each night. Just how far has the insomnia thrown your rhythm out of balance? And when you do awake, does your mind keep churning? Probably most of the time insomnia is mixed with psychological issues like stress, anxiety, tension... Do you suffer from more than your fair share of these? You've written quite a lot, yet there's so much you haven't told us: are you married or single? Worried about school, sex, love, work, retirement, death, being alone? ... Can you, in your heart of hearts, name the source of your insomnia? Because I think it's important you consider whether you are going to work on it as an issue apart, or treat it as one aspect of a more general rebalancing. I think Chi Kung and meditation can work miracles, but in the beginning, when we need these miracles most, we may be too fragile to tap into their power. You've described many of the practices you've looked at, but not why you're looking. Maybe you should treat meditation now as one aspect of a many-sided process of rebuilding, and not as an end in itself. A lot of the things we must do to have a productive meditation practice are anyway the same things we must do to live a balanced life: eat healthily (whatever that means), work and play, get plenty of rest... Meditation is not really possible without a certain amount of order. Have you thought about meditation in this more global context? For example, what is your relationship to the medical / psychological establishment? I have no idea whether you've talked to 1,000 doctors about 1,000 aspects of your life and feel abused and let down, or whether you've never even considered asking for such "more traditional" assistance. But you might want to seek out the council not only of a good meditator, but also of a good psychologist who can help you build a firm foundation. There are, for example, a number of psychological ways you can tackle your insomnia (whether you treat it as the issue you'd like to work on, or as a symptom of larger issues in your life). One approach involves being in bed only when you're sleepy, and not going to bed early or taking naps during the day. Enter your bedroom at the appointed hour and if you don't fall asleep within ten minutes, get up and leave the room and do something else until you are tired. If you follow this approach, you shouldn't do any reading, TV-watching, etc. in your bedroom. You must also get out of bed each day at the appointed hour, whether you've slept enough or not. I should add that this approach, like the two that follow, needs to be practiced for a while. These are not one-shot cure-alls. A second approach is to be perverse. Lie in bed with your eyes wide open. Try to stay awake as long as you can. A third approach uses relaxation techniques and self-hypnosis. Here's where I think you could involve meditation, either in place of self-hypnosis, or in conjunction with it. I'd suggest you practice simple techniques like the inner smile and six healing sounds, or their equivalent from another system. You could easily incorporate them into the process described (only sketchily) above. Used this way, meditation will give immediate, practical results you can build on. It will assist you through a larger process. Later, when you're sleeping well, you can expand your meditation practice and watch it make you stronger, healthier, happier... Your practice will become like a snowball rolling down a mountain, gathering momentum and growing. But you should do first-things first, clear out the obstacles. Take good care, Trip

Harry, Your reply is fascinating. If it's not too personal, would you mind sharing whether you think the shaking was caused by the practices or by something in you? I mean, were you a perfectly healthy piece of meat before you started doing energy work, or did you have issues or blockages or addictions which the practices unleashed? And what exactly did you do? And did you do it either to excess or too hard? And did the problems start when you worked with Chia, or later with the teacher(s), or when you were by yourself? And, most mysterious, what do you know today that would have maybe caused you to continue practicing then? Personally, I wouldn't have if I'd been in your shoes. By the way, I want to second Peter Falk's recommendation on Dirk Ollebrandt. He's amazing. Sorry to ask so many questions but I'm really curious. Trip