konchog uma

I would think that as a male, one might have enough yang already, and would want to garner more yin. and after some thought, i think being able to do it both ways is way more awesome than just stretching out one side and doing it one way. I won't be happy til i can do it either way. yeah small increments. I'm in no mood to strain myself, but it feels good to finally be able to sit that way. THANKS BUMS! yous are inspiring

sssshhhhhhhhh

No i have absolutely no thoughts about how awareness began, except that one thought i just shared right there. And if i ever had a thought about the source, i would at least have already had 1000 thoughts about how the source must transcend thought and the mechanism of thought, language, in order to truly be the source. And if anyone wants to chime in here with any stupid thoughts about the origin of consciousness and awareness and the spirit, i will laugh to myself but that will be the only incendiary thing i say about it. I used to bend my head thinking "why is this" and "how could this have arisen" and I have read many theories on the subject, from many capable minds and religious/spiritual/shamanic worldviews, only to conclude that subscribing to such ideas causes a very unhealthy ossification of the psyche, dangerous in the EXTREME, because at that point at which your ego convinces you that you actually understand reality or the FIRST god damned mysterious thing about it, you will stop experiencing reality as-it-is and you will begin to perceive through the filter of reality as-you-think-it-is. so you can think "why" into your right hand, and take a shit into your left hand, but i can tell you right now which one will get full first. Thoughts of this kind aren't worth a god damned thing and are a total waste of fucking time get it? im swearing because this is actually important to understand. Reality is a subtle mystery, and deserves better than to be insulted by the notion that some ignoramus like one of us can comprehend it. Give up. Experience the dream, not your theory of "the holgraphic reality matrix of such and such" or "the square root of the speed of light times the weight of gold" or whatever nonsense your left brains produced and your right brains mistook as the oasis. Its a mirage. Sorry. The wise call it the ineffable mystery for a reason. Leave it that way, its way better for the quality of your experience.

hahahaha at least mister numbskull finally seems to have killed this dreadful thread and lived up to his handle

unthinkably amazing that people believe themselves to understand the unknowable mystery the entirety of all human understanding is obviously a grain of sand on the vast beach of knowledge... and within that understanding, any one ignorant person's understanding is worthlessly incomplete we would all be better off to start from scratch, with the mind of a beginner, admitting our ignorance and attempting to learn instead of purporting to be teachers instead of so much posturing and grandstanding, putting others down because what they have experienced of reality is a different slice than what you have. get real

i've been working on my full lotus. I sit on a cushion ordinarily, and I am wondering if it is recommended one way or the other, on a cushion, or without one. I am still only doing short stints, 10 min max so far, and I personally like the cushion better, but some of the advice i have seen says "sit on the floor" etc. Can anyone clarify? Thanks.

the government hahaha

wujifa looks like good info, thanks for the link. bookmarked!

pretty awesome form... I only think its funny because I laugh at the thought of holding a 90 degree horse stance for more than a minute without shaking. My laughter was mostly a joke of course, I thank you for your advice. thats a great vid! Are there more shaolin vids like that? I've seen one called yijinjing and that one? I like that guy!

Thanks everyone! except ChiDragon hahahaha ninety degrees?!? ok thank you too chidragon, even though i would point out that one is not faced with an either/or situation when dealing with breathing and qi in their qigong cultivation.. All that i have read and been taught about the five regulations indicates that one is cultivating both their breath and their qi, as well as their physicality, their mind, and their spirit. One need not choose between one or the other, but embrace all of them (in time) as they build on the ones before them @monoka: i had the same question for my teacher, and he agreed with lifeforce that as long as one is careful and listens to one's body there is no fear of practice from well written books. @lifeforce: haven't checked that site out yet but thanks in advance!! its gonna have to wait until later, cause its 3:45 and i'm meeting someone at 4 thanks for all the helpful words @jaysahnztao: yeah i have the same confusion. ??? i guess it depends on who you listen to, so i would rather err on the side of caution! I think I'm gonna start soft and gentle, just a few minutes per stance at first, not trying to meditate or focus on emptiness, but trying to listen to my body and feel the flow of my energy.

hahaaha maybe if you critics sat for 2 hours a day you would go a little crazy too. I don't agree with every word he says but.... at least he's doing something worthwhile with his life. what does any of this have to do with awareness of non-duality anyway?!? you guys ARE drew hempel!! and he is you. except that he meditates for 2 hours a day and you don't

Thanks! I will check all those links and books out. My qigong teacher doesn't teach ZZ, and since i lost my job, its been all i can do to afford to pay him. So it seems like paying another teacher is out of the question. Thats why I want to learn from books. With that in mind, I would want to read books with a series of posture guidelines so that I can check myself, haha get in touch with my own inner master so to speak I asked my qigong teacher if that was okay, and he said with ZZ it was, as long as I really studied those books and was always correcting myself (i just mentioned sifu Chuen's books to him). He said that if i was smart I wouldn't cause any harm to myself so finish the books before i start the practice. Thats why I am taking notes on Xing Yi Nei Gong, to learn the six harmonies and all the "images" and other guidelines in there. That books is completely awesome btw. I get the sense that as long as I don't overdo the posture, and as long as I am vigilant in keeping to the guidelines, I should be able to benefit from the practice without causing myself harm. So that's why I'm asking here.. i saw someone on another thread say that one should just hold stance for 3 min in the beginning, working up slowly from there, but never hold a stance for more than 10 minutes. That wasn't anything I had seen in books, so it prompted me to start this thread. Hope that helps you bums understand where I'm coming from, thanks for the helpful advice

or just do it secretly with a zesty transmission bonus merit if you say nothing about it!!

I find that mine are pretty close to the middle of the body. In that, they work best for me (inner light, feelings, etc) when I work with them as slightly forward of the spine. I like this picture although its just a representation The root chakra sits right on the perineum so is not quite on the spine, but if are getting good results from working with them in the space of the spinal column, i would go with that for as long as it works for you. The spine actually extends inward almost to the center of the body. To me, they do not make a straight line, but like the back curves, so does the vertical plane which the chakras are on (when viewed from the side that is). Maybe with some more exercise you will be able to feel it. I suggest keeping at it, and doing chakra meditations as often as you can. Things that work for me to power up my chakras: kuji-in hand seals and mantras, visualizing them as counterrotating spheres (or a sphere moving in both directions at once) on a vertical axis, visualizing the color of the light as if pure cosmic light or light from a pure white star were shining through a crystal which was deeply the color you wish to evoke (once you have the color in your mind very intensely, you can transfer it to the rotating sphere), daily practice when i invoked my root chakra last night i felt pulsating energy which went down into my thighs and up into my chest.. I also felt a sense of wellbeing and personal strength, and all the ideas which i already associate with that chakra of course (that i can trust life to take care of me, that everything is already perfect, that i am empowered and strenghtened)... then i took that power (which some might call kundalini) and i invoked the third chakra, bringing it up my solar plexus to light up the golden light of the manipura.. i used that golden light to fill my whole energy body and in my mind's eye, to light up my whole physical body with healing energy. That light and that chakra is also associated with personal empowerment and willpower, spiritual power, and healing power, don juan matus told carlos that that is where intent is activated. So when a chakra is really blazing and going full force, I experience it as those sensations, which can be sort of a feeling thing, but not really emotional (with the exception of the heart chakra, which i find can sometimes be passionate with love and empathy). I experience them as inner light, not like i see them lighting up as a blazing ball of light, thats something i kind of feel like i feel the sun touching my skin, but on the insides. But i will get a flash of the color of light in my minds eye, like a wash of bright yellow which might last a half second or 3 seconds, and is a good sign that the chakra is "activated" hahaha its hard to talk about without sounding newagey, but its so far from new-age nonsense its not funny the better you understand what the chakras are, the more accurate your visualizations and intentions can be, and the more accurate they are, the more effective in awakening or balancing that center you will be. I find that visualizing them in rotation is quite important to awaken an energetic feeling inside me. The color is not even as important as that, but most important is the realize that your chakras are the expression of the spectrum of your spirit. Learn about their different attributes and relate to them as simultaneously functioning parts of your consciousness body, or spirit. For example, the root is all about survival and strength/power. The sacral is about desire, love, harmony, etc. The solar plexus is about empowerment in a more spiritual sense, about intent as a force that is both personal and transpersonal. The heart is about love, compassion, empathy. The throat is about vibration, communication, and the ability to be silent. The 3rd eye is about perception, creativity, inner vision and subtle vision. The crown is about the spirit, as opposed to the mind. That is the tip of an iceberg. Learn as much as you possibly can retain about them and the different ways other people experience them. The truth that i have realized is that each chakra is an attribute of perception, that we perceive with our spirit in this way, and that they are like little brains or processors dedicated to the awareness that they represent. That is not a good way of saying it but maybe it is. you sound like you're doing fine, keep at it! Here are my chakra hand seal notes for you to use. If you have any questions (especially about the crappy pictures and how to actually do the mudras) fire away notes on chakra hand seals (kuji-in) revised.pdf

holy SHIT those sites are halarious!! Glaring inaccuracies on every page.. yikes

Thanks for saying so steve! i didn't mean i was leaving TTB. I can weather a storm of dreary buddhist knowitallism. I just meant that I wasn't going to engage this thread any longer. Except for this post of course. I'm not going anywhere, but the attitude of the brigade makes me want to swear off buddhism for fear that my mind will harden and i will become convinced that i actually understand anything. GAAAHHH pinch me im having a nightmare!!

When i first started to read TTB every day and post here, i was like "oh hi guys btw im a vajrayana buddhist" and people came out of the woodwork to say "oh no the dirty B-word" "hahah a buddhist" and those sorts of things and i didn't get it at all. I was like whoa who are these guys, so called modern taoists But all the logical reductionism, intellectual masturbation, and otherwise stale and uninspired rhetoric that has rendered the last 3 topics i have viewed totally unreadable is getting on my nerves. Hahahah why don't you guys go post on dharmawheel or something? This is why I don't go to sangha... all the buddhists. I'd rather be at home by myself thankyouverymuch. I'm following Scotty, ouuuuuutta here, and i'm keeping my views and practices private, so the buddhist brigade can't critique it.

some helpful stuff in that first (robust!) thread, but still can't find the one i'm looking for. Maybe it was a site that linked from a TTB post. Doh, memory fail. Thanks Rainbow Vein

Thanks for your response. I am a taiji player, and I love the small universe. Do you mean just the governing and conception vessels? I have practiced sublimating the life force energy for years, and I am still a beginner But since you seem to make reference to its efficiency in transmuting the sexual fluids and circulating them to the upper dantian, I was looking forward to getting more comfortable with the position and working with those energies. I will not be celibate hahahahah but i don't masturbate and love going long intervals between ejaculations. Im at ~20 days right now. I've read Taoist Yoga, its in my bookpile right now actually cause I am reading it again, years later. I only got as far as the 1st chapter, and haven't completed the first meditation yet, so i haven't started reading chapter 2. I tried to get into full lotus when I first woke up this morning but i couldn't. I put my left foot on my right thigh, but when i tried to put my right foot on my left thigh, the left foot kept slipping off and going down between the right calf and thigh. I thought maybe it was because my muscles were stiff from sleeping so i did some pidgeon asana for the flexors and periformis but still couldn't get into full lotus for some reason. I got sick of trying and just did my morning meditations in burmese. I need to stretch more. But I will continue to work on it. There was a great thread with all the asanas that one should work to stretch in order to achieve full lotus.. i wonder if i can find it. If anyone knows what that thread was called (it had a lot of pictures, drawings of the postures with men and women in them) I would be really happy to look over it. Well anyway, thanks, i'm off to search for that thread

http://shuttersalt.com/blog/most-amazing-time-lapse-video-milky-way-ever-made-seriously The Mountain by Terje Sorgjerd this is worth 3 minutes of your time. Most of it focuses on celestial phenomena but not all gorgeous

I would like to thank Drew Hempel and the contributors to this thread for inspiring me over the recent past to stretch my hips and groin and become flexible enough to sit in full lotus. It may be slightly premature, since it was only tonight before taiji class that i finally was able to achieve the position, and then only hold it for ten minutes before pain caused me to get out of it. But i intend to work on it now that i can do it. I am really excited about it actually and really looking forward to sitting in full lotus. Drew, do you have any good advice for me? I found that after 5 minutes I wanted to give up but i chanted om mani padme hum and made it another 5 minutes.. the pain went away but then it came back hardcore. I find your posts really helpful and inspiring, and I keep meaning to check out your blog. Maybe i will go do that now. But i wouldn't mind any insights you have, or if you have already written it in your blog, if you could post a link that would be splendid! Thank you in advance for any help you might offer, and again thanks for the inspiration to finally take my sitting to the next level. Peace!!

i can so totally relate.. this living world we experience is not the product of some random explosion in space. i pray to and thank the creator every day, but i don't find any real conflict with buddhism, cause i'm not a hardline orthodox buddhist. I guess if i took the buddha as infallible, i would be saying that HE was some kind of god, so i just figure he probably got some stuff wrong, and chalk it up to religious paradox. The vajrayana i practice in my heart is really just an import of shaivite tantrism, which is why i also pray and give thanks to shiva every day. Some orthodox people would say i am a mixed up confused buddhist but i think religious orthodoxy hardens the heart and mind. No bueno. Bless your path Seth Ananda whatever you identify yourself as

Indeed that is super hardcore. I just ate a bowl of granola with rice milk. Now my 3 worms are wriggling with joy!! I would like to try a vegetables plus meat diet without grains for a while and see how i feel. That will be next methinks

principles, personal standards, integrity, lack of love for cartoon ponies and if i had watched that video i wouldn't have had the time to answer your question thats five good reasons

funny that a thread about non-duality has become so self/other