Eric23

So so many years ago in high school, I wanted to become an architect; took drafting/mechanical drawing classes. Architecture didn't pan out, wound up spending my entire adult life as a cartographer. So my work life is spent developing very accurate, tightly done maps. This has spilled over into my art and my style is rather realist (although other artists have told me I'm a surrealist). Never the less, what I would really like to be is an impressionist, however my mind just simply doesn't work that way. So yes, I'd like to try doing art in an altered state of consciousness just to see if it would loosen me up. I've really considered doing acid or shrooms (have only done one hit of grass in my entire life-not a drug user at all) just to see what my art would look like. The past several years have been devoted to figurative work, you can add shading and shadows to squiggly lines breathing.

Would it be fair to say that meditation is quieting down that part of one's self that gets in the way of just being (as so wonderfully described by Taomeow)? I notice that there is this part of me (self, ego whatever you want to call it) that wants to be in control, have its say and provide a blow by blow commentary on the process. The mechanical process of meditation is to slow everything down to absolute stillness so that we can have a chance just be.

I read Dyer's Erroneous Zones back in the 80's. Really helped me through a tough stretch. It was all about saving your emotional energy for things that truely matter. As for the Tao, as mentioned above, go right to the source, numerous versions are on-line. I found Alan Watt's The Watercourse Way very helpful in filling the gaps and providing some definitions. Edit: Speak of the Devil!! Dyer is on PBS at this minute giving his Tao talk.

While hookers may take care of the physical urge, most of them are energy vampires. There are a very few who really try to provide a theraputic service rather than the usual empty the horny guy's wallet. The typical aftermath is that the guy walks away from the experience wondering why can't he have the great sex (if the hooker is a good actress) all the time with his SO, wife or any normal woman for that matter.

Cat, Went back through the introduction and yes, it is based on Chi Nei Tsang.

I'm reading a great little book called Unwinding the Belly by Allison Post & Stephen Cavaliere. When I finish reading it I plan to post a review here at TB. Meanwhile, I'm up to phase 3 of 5. They teach a wonderful self massage technique for unwinding the lower abdomen and toning the digestive tract. As mentioned above I'm up to phase 3 and have noticed a dramatic improvement in breathing and digestive functions. I do a quick phase 1 massage as part of my morning yoga routine and do a full massage when I go to bed at night. They haven't gone into colonics, but my experience so far is that their program gets the system up to speed and enemas for relieving constipation are un-neccesary.

Pietro- All time classic As a 50ish guy who has lived an entire life in "the rest of us" catagory, every bit rang true. Witch- You've got to understand that our society (puritan No. Am and to some degree, W. Eur) looks down with great distain at women with highly visible sex drives. It's not necessarily men who foster this but also other women. If I told my wife that she could repair her lost libido (hystrectemy, diabetes, hi blood pressure, high profile career track w/ associated medications etc.) with your diet, I honestly believe she would find the whole notion "sick". Having met so many men of my age in the same prediciment, I really feel that for the most part, when the vast majority of women are done having their children they decide that sex is no longer a need in their lives. You freely idendify yourself as pagan, so your outlook on your body and sexuality is more than likely 180 degrees opposite of the average judeo/christian woman on the street. Don't get me wrong, I wish like hell my wife and every other woman out there had the same outlook as you. But you are not even reading the same book, let alone being on the same page with every woman I know. I do hope your book resonates with younger women, and perhaps future generations will benefit.

Art is my avocation and when I'm on a creative roll, stillness of mind is almost impossible. The imagery is always there and problems/issues with how to get it on a piece of paper occupy most, if not all of my mental capacity. I've learned to just roll with it and accept it as part of being an artist. I still stand and put the time in with my practice. Letting the thoughts and images come and go has become part of the artistic process. From an art perspective, one of the hardest descisions is knowing when to walk away from a piece. There comes a point when fiddling with it (constructing and deconstructing) ruins the spontenaity of the original vision. You have to walk away from it and consider it done. Move on to the next project.

I caught it the other day on the Independant Film Channel. Great scenery. I'm still up in the air over the story line, think I was looking for a different ending. Would agree that a second viewing would definately bring additional light to the movie.

Thanks Learner. Coming from an artist's perspective, the same sort of process happens with drawing and your subject. They say that a drawing is with you forever. A very helpful artistic exercise is to re-draw a subject from memory. Very interesting approach, thanks again for bringing it up.

Not to highjack the thread, but since healing sounds came up. Is there a particular order in which they should be made? Thanks Vortex for the excellent quote and description.

Thanks Mike. Very interesting comparison. Kind of with Learner, like the poetic v.4.1 Learner- Could you please expand on your idea of translating and writing down holy books? Are you refering to translating from the original texts (and language) or getting it down as you read it in your own mind?

Yes. Facinating thread. Lot's of wisdom among the Bums

Thank you Aiwei and Spectrum. Your advice and insights are very valuable and helpful.

For me, Taoism has been a journey of self discovery with no particular destination.

As a professional cartographer, I have a great love of maps. The key is to study the map and let it become a part of you before you leave for the territory. edit, I know we're speaking metaphoricly, however the map can still become a part of you in real life navigation.

From my reading on the subject... Our bodies have fast twitch muscles that we use for movement and slow twitch, stablizer muscles that actually hold us up. Zhan Zhuang strengthens the stablizer muscles. Several things drew me to this practice; I developed bad posture habits and the idea of strengthening from the inside out seems most logical for getting myself straight. After first reading of standing forms in Eric Yudelove's book, I found standing wuji to be one of the most profound stillness/meditative experiences. Years of a pretty active life style with my share of injuries, makes sitting cross legged (forget lotus) painful and counterproductive.

I bought the same book and am standing like a tree on about the same schedule as you. 2 x15 minutes. I also get in one session of the 8 Treasures as given in Chuen's book. So far I have noticed a noticible increase in energy. Like you, I'm contemplating when to add an additional form. I find standing wuji to be a very agreeable meditation form as well.

If you're into Chai tea. Drop by the Paisley Violin on your next trip to Phoenix. They have a hand blended version that is dynamite. Just smelling the leaves and spices gives me a natural, euhphoric sensation (maybe there is something to aromatherapy). They have many other varieties also. I'm a tea heretic, use the microwave to heat the water.

From an artist's point of view, the cast shadow is very real. They add to the finished piece and they fill in what would be empty space with facinating shapes. From an aerial photography interpretation perspective, shadows give you valuable information on the profile of objects. If you look at a building in an aerial photograph (assuming a vertical view used in mapping) you will only see the roof from the air. The shadow it casts tells you how tall it is.

Hey Lozen, Thanks for the tip! Great resource. Will check out the other sites as well. Eric

Cameron keeps posting You Tube links to Adyashanti: 1) My overtaxed broadband network constantly has to buffer forcing me to listen to Adyashanti for 10 seconds, wait for 20 seconds or so to hear another 10 seconds ect. etc. etc. 2) Having to google Adyashanti and go through his website 3) Having to read all 20-30 of the written teachings, and then ponder. However any buffering issues at this point are not a result of my broadband network but my limited brainpower! Pietro and the whole sheep f**cking on a motorcycle urban legend: 1) For all the years I've been riding, I've never f**cked anything on a motorcycle, in a sick way I am jealous. 2) That's all

One of the main issues I had with Christianity was dualism. Paul's letters to the early churches really brings the point home. Just never really accepted it. The particular church we attended had more to do with my in-laws than anything and they're still around going to the same place. Changing venues would be a hard nut to crack. Truth is, for all her talk of wanting to go to church, sleeping in on Sunday seems to have a higher priority. She has many health issues that could be helped by qigong. One of these days it will come up in conversation.