Green Tiger

EDIT: Duplicate post, please delete.

Oooo . . I don't know if I even want to try to wade into this muck. No footing at all. Order us some golf shoes, otherwise we'll never get out of this place alive! This is probably a bit off topic, but I was intrigued by the point in the conversation about 'purpose' in evolution. I think it is often assumed that evolution is totally chaotic and random, but that doesn't jive with me, nor did it jive with Alan Watts. Mr. Watts was of the opinion that evolution can't be totally blind and random because we (people) are intelligent. Since we are the ultimate evolutionary expression of the universe (so far as we know) it is probable that the universe itself is intelligent and, thus, evolution is intelligent. Now. Tell me about those golf shoes, man!

Yes, I adjust my feet as I reposition. I try to gauge it by the big toes, but I don't think that's an especially accurate measurement. I also try to FEEL the ankle, looking for comfort and stability.

ChiDragon, When standing freely and doing the tai chi form, I am still at about the 15 degree mark. And that's after three years of good training! I have been dealing with a back and knee issue that I sustained previously from a car accident, though, so my progress has been somewhat slow. I've found that, in addition to standing freely like a post, it helps me to stand against a wall. I usually try to slowly slide my back down the wall and get into deeper knee bends, then feel for a while--press my back against the wall, and when I feel comfortable at one level I see if I can drop a little lower. I totally agree that you should not rush the progress. Pain and discomfort are signs that something is wrong with the alignment.

Try it against a wall some time. You should be able to quickly find any misalignment and adjust. I use the progression ChiDragon described against a wall, but rarely do I get that low without support. You've got to be loose and allow the earth to lift you, rather than forcing your leg muscles to hold you in position. That is just going to create tension. My back was somewhat messed up with to begin, though, so your mileage may vary.

Interesting coincidence, last night I had a session with a 'seer' who I visit with regularly. I had asked her several months ago about my 'abduction' experience and she said she would look into it. Last night she decided to share her findings. I thought it was odd, since I had been thinking about it a lot lately, and then this thread appeared the very same day she brought it up. Anyway, she said she contacted the being that visited me. She didn't seem to think that it traveled via space ship, but that it was able to astrally project itself (my terminology) in such a way that it could enter my physical space. She said that the alien is sick and, for some reason, thinks that I can help make it better. She said it is confused, possibly due to it's illness. She seemed certain that it was mistaken and there is nothing I can do to help the alien. No surprises there. Apparently the alien is STILL linked to me or attached in some way. So I had a close encounter with a Stage 5 clinger.

I think I might have been abducted, or had a lucid dream about beings coming into my room at night and taking me outside through the walls. I remember levitating over my bed and floating through the walls until I was in the front yard. Then I was just sort of laying there, staring up into the night sky. A woman's voice spoke to me. It was a strange voice. Alien. Robotic. It had a buzz to it. I can't remember what she told me. When I was little I think I could still remember . . . but I've since forgotten. I would have let it be a childhood dream, but I was talking with my mom about my childhood and she brought up an incident she remembered pretty clearly from when I was about three or four years old. She said she was feeding my baby brother in the kitchen and I was cowering behind her--wouldn't leave her side. She wanted to know what was causing me such terror and I said, "Someone's coming to get me." She assured me that all of the windows and doors were locked and I told her, "That doesn't matter, they can come through the walls." She told me about another time when I was even younger when I had wandered off during a party. No one could find me and she was really concerned because some strangers had been spotted driving around our small town. Eventually they found me. When they asked me where I had been I said that I had found a kitten and was trying to ask it where it was from. I don't know why, but when she told me that second story, my initial reaction was, "That was NOT a kitten." I also remember watching a Woody Woodpecker cartoon when I was a little kid. Woody's forest was being invaded by little green men. For whatever reason, that cartoon stuck with me and I've had dreams about it in adulthood. I have no idea what any of the UFO/alien stuff means, but I think it's noteworthy that Terrence McKenna saw something in his DMT trips he called self-transforming machine elves. If I remember correctly, when we sleep, our bodies secrete DMT. Could it be that the aliens encountered in lucid dreaming are the same self-transforming machine elves McKenna encountered in the DMT space?

Word. And open the hips. I had an issue with my right knee that was caused by tight hip muscles. Once I opened my hips via yoga, the knee issue improved. I've also noticed that it can help to stand a bit pigeon-toed. That seems to help bypass the knees and send your weight directly into the ankles/feet/ground.

pleeeeease.

Hooray!

Or perhaps they have experiential experience of God that is unlikely to be found in a library. 2c

One time I dropped acid and the world FELT like a hologram. BTW, don't drop acid.

Pun intended?

I think Taoists (and, to perhaps a lesser degree, Buddhists) are going to stay out of politics. I remember reading a Taoist story about a simple Taoist woodcutter-type dude who is really ugly, and lives in the back country of China. Chuang Tzŭ comes along and is really impressed with this fellow, so he takes him back to the capital to help out with something-or-other. The Taoist woodcutter fellow goes along but he does such a bang-up job in the capital that Chuang Tzŭ asks him to stay indefinitely. The woodcutter guy gets all upset and leaves, saying something like, "I knew you would try to trick me into staying here in this terrible place." Sorry for the awful rendering of that story. It is also noteworthy that Alan Watts said several times that the Tao Te Ching was written as instructions for a ruler. Not sure how he knew that, but I tend to trust Alan. And what does the Tao Te Ching advise? To act without acting. Basically--stay out of the way. You should run a country like you would cook a small fish. I'm a big fan of Thoreau, as well, and I think he is sort of an early American Taoist. Of course, he is famous for saying "The government which governs least, governs best." I think there is a theme here. I think most serious Taoists and Buddhists will probably stay out of politics. That's just their way. Personally, I don't even vote anymore. Not because I'm a Taoist, but because I think the Big Machine is way too out of control for a vote to matter. It is probably going to take something more drastic. And Taoists don't do drastic, do they? "There is the wisdom of the foolish, the gracefulness of the slow, the subtlety of stupidity the advantage of lying low." -- Lin Yutang

hrmm . . . I think that was a mistake. I thought I could create my own PPJ, but I think I just created a thread called Green Tiger in the PPJ area. Do you suppose that is why no PPJ has appeared? I feel silly.

no rush or anything just . . . you know, whenever you've got the time.

EDIT: This thread is not about literal dogs. It is about the figurative dogs that dwell within each of us. Lassie and Cujo, barking away in the kennel of our hearts. May we all strive to bring these two disparate forces into harmony with the kibbles and bits of love and understanding.

V, For someone who has a decidedly academic writing style, you certainly don't cite sources very often. Where are references to research articles and surveys? What percentage of dogs are really creating fear? Is that percentage smaller or larger than other types of fear creators? Who is to say that dog terror is any more of a problem than 'TV' terror, or tree terror, or *God forbid* CLOWN terror??? Or maybe all this talk of dogs is really figurative, and I should be finding the metaphors instead of the sources . . . hmmmm . . .

Succumbing to lovely ladies is what I'd most like to do with my last 8 months. Thanks for the warning, puritan!

So you're saying "Be here now." No? Is external consideration different from the concepts of 'living in the moment' or mindfulness?

Bruce Frantzis just posted a story last week about meeting Feng Zhi Qiang. Apparently Feng taught Bruce Chen style. Kind of an odd coincidence he posted that story just a few days before the grand master passed.

I don't know if any have been sold at this price, but I noticed that Michael Lomax's A Light Warrior's Guide to High Level Energy Healing is priced at $167.61!!! You can find it here. I'm guessing that means a used copy is pretty hard to find. :/

I know why the dragon is silver!!! Good to see you here.