Munch

Sure. Be good to meet up. Am away, touch wood, in Jan and Feb, otherwise in Oxford for the foreseeable. When you next about? Have pm'd you burgs's email.

My name's Munch. I'm a small black dog, with an unlikely interest in esoteric practices. The best guess is that I'm half Collie and half Jack Russell, but we don't know how they managed it or which one had to stand on a chair. I'm based in Maidstone, England, but have travelled widely. I'm nearly sixteen, which is pretty ancient for a canine, so very curious about what happens next. My main interests, esoterically, are in not thinking and physical happiness. I guess being a dog gives me a head start in those directions. I'm female and unmarried, but more interested in socks and tennis balls, to be honest. Pleased to meet you all. Happy to be here.

Munch is dead. Long live Munch. Committed to the earth in Maidstone, England, a week or three ago. If anyone was sitting to meditate and felt an astral sock or tennis ball being manoeuvred into their hand by a skillful and persistent astral snout, that was Munch passing by. The consciousness which has been speaking through her will reappear shortly in a more honestly bipedal fashion. A last message for Cat: Arf! ArfArfArf! RrrrrrrrArf! ArfArf! RrrrrrArfArfArf! Arf! ArfArf!

This is a great step forward. How about a companion volume: "meditate with your human", for the likes of me?

This is absolutely completely positively utterly 100% perfect. Don't discuss it, don't apologise for it, don't even think about it. Especially don't think about it. Thinking is your past unhappiness speaking. And it's not selfish neither. You can't make other people happy. Just make yourself happy and your idea of self will gradually expand to include more and more, previously "outside". Can't force it. Other people? They gotta do it for themselves. Sooner or later they just get to a point where suffering isn't enjoyable any more. Like it sounds you have, kinda. You can't accelerate this for them, especially if you're trying to. Be happy. Be in your body. Use your mind lightly. I'm happy for you. M

I recall Michael Winn saying that systems which set up an observer are dubious because their observer is not really neutral in the way that a yuan presence, i.e. the immortal foetus generated by kan & li, is. But then he would say that, wouldn't he? I would say this: if your observer uses words its value is questionable. I think for many of us, (i.e. me ) what we call the observer is just a subsection of our ordinary thinking mind, which we use to notice when we have strayed from whatever we were trying to do, either in life or practice. Its job, therefore, is just to say "not this, thanks" with as little fuss as possible. So in that sense of it, it's something that wants to become ever lighter and smaller, rather than being developed in the way we might think of developed. As ever, just an opinion. M

This is exactly what I've been taught elsewhere. And beautifully put. Especially the last line.

There is lots of evidence that people who receive transplant organs, especially liver and heart, also receive aspects of the personality of the donor, and sometimes even specific knowledge. Which implies that you are passing on a lot more than just meat which would otherwise spoil. But how you feel about that depends, I guess, on what plans you may have had for the indwelling spirits of the organs.... Undecided, but nervous, myself...

Relaxation is everything. EVERYTHING. If you are totally relaxed you will be a god. But you can't do it by doing it. Relaxation techniques just add a layer. Relaxation is what remains when you stop doing everything that is unnecessary. We have a false idea of relaxation as being slumped, passive. That, you can have too much of. Ok?

Here's my contribution. There is too much material to comment on, so I won't address what's already been written, but instead just put out an opinion or two. Opinion one: It is a mistake to conserve jing unless you have already done a great deal of purification practice. You're just circulating desire and defilement along with it and it's no wonder you get jumpy. Sit still, do not manipulate, put your awareness into your body, light will appear, tangles will untangle. The light which is generated tends to rise and can usefully be redirected downwards, when you become aware of this. This is an altogether different interpretation of "reversing the light." At a certain stage, when enough has been cleared, the lower body starts to feel liquid, and the kundalini, more like a big sperm than a serpent, starts to rise as part of the clearing of the central channel. As this stage, not before, one needs to abstain. This is years down the line for most of us. Opinion two: Sex in the meantime. "Great sex" as we see it, involves excitement. Excitement is produced by, and adds to, emotion in the body and thought in the mind. This increases the burden of impure jing and stuff you need to clear. A better practice, though very difficult to accomplish, is just to bring the bodies together and wait for them to make love. This will seem awkward and unnatural because there is no personality, no excitement and no thought. You just attend to the sensation. It may feel like going to the doctor. It may take months before you shed the old habits enough for it to work. Your relationship may not stand it. But, I assert, every other sexual practice, no matter what energies you circulate where, is counterproductive. Feel free to disagree, but don't say I didn't warn you

I do now. Been meaning to try it since I read your post. But now, newly single and dossing with friends while I save up for travel, the time was right. So I got an army surplus bivvy bag off ebay, and just used it for the second time. Not exactly in the wilderness - a friend's garden- and I can't see the stars cos I'm too damn shortsighted. But just the air across my face is enough. I find I need to make sure my ears are covered. It's surprisingly comfortable, and cures me of morning laziness. Once you wake, outside, you're awake, and there's nothing you can do about it. Thank you.

Good choice. It is a great set. One of my only two moving practices. I especially love some of the spleen, kidney and triple burner moves. But that probably just reflects my weaknesses. Going to do some stuff with Dirk in a month or so. Really looking forward to it.

May I recommend that the best way to avoid neglecting a practice is to not learn any new ones? How many do you need? Either divide this way: one sitting practice, one moving practice, one "while you do life" practice, total three, or.... Make sure your practice embraces physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. Either way you covered. imnsho, a leading cause of "not getting anwhere" is that if i have too many options my resistance can navigate me away from something that was just about to work. And i don't notice because i'm doing something "even better" Obviously, a degree of exploration is valid, but sometime you gotta bite the biscuit and say right, this for five years... What do you think?

One of my teachers had a bit of a fucked back, and he used to take his wife's period medication, just to relax the muscles enough to do gentle stretches. Feminax or syndol, if you're in UK. On a different tack entirely, I had some really painful back stuff recently. Couldn't bend, could barely walk upstairs. But when I laid down, the whole area felt really open and flowy. As if, in order to have that part of the body open, I had to learn new and more suitable ways of moving, under the intense guidance of pain. I feel I partly succeeded, and partly let it close up again. Don't know if that helps, M

generally a useful release, provided you don't encourage it or get involved in it, but rather just continue being with whatever you were doing. can often take the form of moves you used to practice or admire in others. anything that got into you once.... i got a friend who spins like a top and talks in tongues - highly entertaining. i just get a spine twitch, sometimes in meditation, sometimes for no obvious cause, making me seem a bit of a freak.

I did one about four years ago. I hated it, but had to acknowledge that it seemed to work. At one point I felt the unmistakeable pain of my tattoo rise to the surface and leave. I missed a couple of the early morning sessions and was warned to behave. Sometimes it was agony, sometimes really smooth. I could not believe how much anger was stored in my body, nor the absurd daydreams my mind would invent to distract me. Like the school hall was really going to be invaded by gun toting weirdos, from whom I would have to rescue attractive young women.... Totally, totally agree about persevering with one practice, rather than shopping around when it gets tough. Great post. Thanks. P.S. I took my contact lenses out for the whole ten days and wandered around in a haze. At one point I came out of a session, went over to my favourite tree and said "hello beautiful", unaware until just afterwards that there was a big bald bloke sitting just behind it... PPS I've since done very similar retreats, seven days rather than ten, with much more sophisticated instruction. Goenka's tapes are good and funny, but there's much to be said for a live teacher who can evaluate your progress.

If you look at the HT board, you will discover that Michael Winn has appealed for help for Ron Diana, who is very ill. I'm not entirely sure I understand his analysis of the situation, nor exactly what kind of help he is requesting, but I would encourage you to have a look and to send any energetic help to Ron you think appropriate. Because Ron is great. Thank you, Munch

In this pose what is the strap doing? Is it providing a stretch by pulling your feet towards you? Or just holding everything in place? Why is it necessary? I'm only little and I don't understand.

Peter Falk, How did you use the Berne material? It's fascinating, and relevant, but I don't see a way to benefit without the help of a Dr Q figure. Maybe that's my script talking. Did you sort it out for yourself? Thank you, Munch