Yoda

I'm doing a bit of research for a little Chinese New Years kids party we are having this weekend and I'm not sure why dragons are chasing orbs? If anyone can give me a Chinese Dragon Symbolism 101, that'd be great. My research did turn up a cool link between dragons and dinosaurs that I hadn't considered before. The Chinese had discovered dinosaur bones 3,000 years ago, called them dragons and created cool mythologies about them. Even to this day, some cures and tonics call for ground up "dragon bones" and believe that that dinosaur fossils carry curative powers when ingested. Maybe that's why many cultures have their own concept of dragons--that they've all bumped into these bones at some point in the past. The idea that dinosaurs were discovered 300 years ago simply tracks the modern western awareness of these amazing beasts.

I've been diagnosed with "Outrage Fatigue"

Been wondering how intuflow, clubbells, and prasara fit in with each other mostly in terms of their psychological effect on the practitioner. Here's what I've figured out thus far: Mobility. General Training. The intuflow branch is the first branch and focuses on simply being able to move and they talk about 'wiping the slate clean' with this practice. From my experience, it seems to generally open up the body, relax chronic tensions, and allow a better energy flow throughout, improve general posture and body functionality. This branch is 100% easy practice--no hard stretching, straining, loosing the breath, not much energy expended to do it. You can roll out of bed and do it. Also, the level of complexity is very low--just very simple movements and movement combinations. Creates a base camp of relaxation, ease, and gentle energy flow. Movement. Specific Training. The Prasara/Flowfit branch focuses on developing the above foundational freedoms and to put the whole thing into motion with more focus on breathing and combining very different moves together in one flow as opposed to the a la carte Intuflow presentation. This can be done 'easy style' but can be done at a very challenging level. The practice makes one actively face and transcend fear held in the body as opposed to just being generally relaxing like Intuflow. Strength. Specific Training. Clubbells. Here we can more easily relate to the psychological virtues of feeling strong and the benefit of doing a taxing workout. The thing that has been surprising to me so far, is that I have excellent strength through kettlebells and traditional training, but my 'circular' strength through the full range of motion lags a tremendous amount. Obviously, there's a lot of overlap between these three branches and I'm very new to the whole system so I may be inaccurate in some of my assessments here. Misc links: http://www.conniesclubbellcafe.com/trainseq.htm (dated practices, but gives a good bit of info on the three branches) http://www.circularstrengthmag.com/forum/v...opic.php?t=9271 http://www.circularstrengthmag.com/forum/v...opic.php?t=8746

Seans take: it looks like FlowFit is more in the direction of giving you a conditioning workout, whereas IntuFlow is more geared toward recovering mobility and active rest.

Interesting. At the moment I am doing my last 5 minutes back with the hands by the side, but with the palm facing down. I didscovered this position when I was trying some minutes on each posture of the beginning of Tai Ji, and interestingly after 5 minutes in this position I feel PERFECTLY OK with the energy. I feel so normal I can sit in front of a computer, chat, have a shower, or do anything I normally would not do immedialtly after a session. That was a little breakthrough. But I might see if some sitting helps / is-helped. The palms down as part of a cool down drill is a technique taught in Jan D's first Warriors of Stillness book to drain some of the tension/negativity that has accumulated by importing so much energy. He says to go 5 minutes with the position, but don't overdo it. I've never tried it, but now that it has an endorsement, I'll check it out.

It's nice to have a bunch of dead friends. Now that they've attained superconsciousness, they'll help you out in a way that you can more easily relate to than some angel or "God" or whatever. That's why the Chinese love having their ancestors around.

improved my digestion Actually, Mrs Yoda started getting heartburn around the same time. I'm not sure if this is connected or just coincidental. Let me know why/how your supplement has helped. Thanks, Yoda

The spacemen fucked the monkeys.

Great book. They sell it for a quarter on amazon. It's a made up story from a guy with a checkered past but it's very sweet nevertheless. Whenever I look at the Dogstar I think of Little Tree and needed to get a copy for my kids.

circle your hips like a bellydancer in a quiet room. Can you hear anything? I'm convinced that I'm actually hearing spinal fluid. Or maybe I'm feeling spinal fluid pressure that I'm interpreting as a sound, but it seems to be a real sound though.

Here's a thread by Steve Barnes: http://www.circularstrengthmag.com/forum/v...opic.php?t=8746 Sounds seriously orgasmic.

Sean, What's your take on the difference between the benefits delivered by Intuflow as opposed to Prasara/Flowfit???? Thanks!

truth is love, baby! Nice quote.

flowfit sounds pretty fuckin cool. Scott is a pretty amazing fitness guru. Sean, thanks again for converting me.

One of the reasons that standing is so confusing is that WXZ taught everyone differently. (I forget if I got this from one of Jan's books or an online article)

Soup has been mentioned as a secret weapon on this forum in the past. Especially if made with fresh veggies. I've been experimenting with soups and I think that cabbage is a very powerful chi ingredient. It stands out. Also, the spice mixes at penzies.com are worth knowing about too. Powerful they are.

I might not be able to get Sean his third of a cup of Starbucks... then again, they won't ship tomorrow anywhoo.

you cannot soar towards the sun until peace and harmony reign within you how true.

I think that the modern world has learned to get off on the sympathetic nervous system, but is clueless how to take pleasure in the parasympathetic system (the one that loosens the anus: "It conserves energy as it slows the heart rate, increases intestinal and gland activity, and relaxes sphincter muscles in the gastro-intestinal tract" (from wikipedia)) So our entertainment needs to get gnarlier and gnarlier to get a better pucker going! -Yoda

Great thread! Extremely cool on the skull plate thing too. I've always suspected that there's a huge ocean of information about standing that isn't in circulation yet and the above post supports that suspicion. Standing is so powerful that it can be harmful and I don't think any one approach or sequence is a one-size-fits-all would work for everyone.

the undiscovered blog!!! Good stuff in there.

Plus, I knew it would get a rise out of Cam!

Thaddeus, I just thought it'd be fun to kick around this issue some more. I'm conflicted over the practice, myself. Thanks for a cool jumpoff point! Yoda

Hey, I was just driving around with a crying two year old--it was the perfect opportunity to try out the whole tonglen thing. I tried the normal tonglen drill out of my heart center and it sucked. I kept wondering if there was anything I could do to make him stop crying. Then I did tonglen through my ass and it worked wonders. My three lower chakras especially the root and sex center ***really*** don't give a shit so they can transform the energy without getting emotional or tripped up in the complicated storyline. Suddenly I couldn't care less what he was doing and my vibration immediately became happy and radiant and soon he became influenced by my raised mood and he stopped crying too.

Can't avoid the "Web Cam" can you Sean? I like that 'beer is addicted to me thing'