Yoda

He's fun. I like his account of history. He was one of the early proponents of the idea of karma in the west. Just keep in mind that the concept of karma is glitchy when applied towards the non-physical realms. It's like taking Newtonian physics to make sense of things on the quantum level--doesn't work even slightly.

Lezlie--Solid review! Taoism at it's best! Just get it in the cooking section? New Meditation: Mrs. Yoda is out of town, but I came up with a great meditation as I had a few hours on the road back from Athens, GA. Here it is: I imagined that I was lapping the peach with the tongue moving up, eyes looking up, with the inhale (sometimes adding a subvocal "mmm") and then the tongue down, eyes down with a subvocal "ah" on exhale. I've been doing this microcosmic drill in dual cultivation, but shifting it to pure imagination was quite nice too. That's the magic of cunnilingus--lots of intense sexual energy but no danger of overload, so you can keep it going forever and many times throughout the day (at least in my imagination) I did it for about 2 hours straight on my drive until the rain made me concentrate more on the road. Over the past several months, I'm gradually becoming the Sex in the City tongue master. -Yoda

Getting more exercise will relax you. -Y

very cool drill, I'll check it out! -Y

Here's the real thing, a new DVD by Carl Gotch! http://www.scientificwrestling.com/DVD.htm#Karl CC is too intense for me, but I thought I'd pass it on. -Y

I forgot, it's not just the swimmers but it's the aura sperminals (or whatever Paracelcius called it) so a vasectomy wouldn't be a 100% solution for sperm retention. Interesting issue. -Y

stop producing sperm???? Really? Aye caramba! -Y

I can now show off next time I'm at a Chinese restaurant! -Yoda

mix and match is the way to go! Lam Kam Chuen doesn't recommend it, as it does change the effect, but so what? To be a great practitioner you have to find practices that you absolutely love. Try eyes open and eyes closed, healing sounds, inner smile, ocean breathing, whatever. My favorite drill at the moment is eyes closed standing and feeling the bottom of my feet. Sometimes starting out with an active practice or visualization will help the mind slow down so then you can let go of the practice after awhile and just be. -Yoda

Oh, that's a claim amongst sungazers that they don't have to eat food anymore and they call that attaining "inedia". Since I sungaze, I thought that it would be a fun goal, but I'm sure it's a pretty rare attainment, even if possible. -Y

Like liquor and cigarettes, everything down there is probably an aquired taste. What's one more for the list? If I recall the contents of the local sex shoppe correctly, there should be flavored lubricants that would be latex compatible. May I suggest butterscotch? yum! -Yoda

"Still the mind and good things will happen." Nicely put. -Yoda

coconut oil! Great tip! -Yoda

tea? Interesting. The things ya learn on the net! -Y

So eat those eggs, take your zinc, etc... don't blow your load and you'll have the best of both worlds. -Y

A friend of mine and I once plotted to become substitute teachers for two classes of preschoolers... we'd then pool the two classes together and teach them the Om Tara Tut Tara Ture Svaha done in dance style with the kids. The closest analogy would be to teach little kids the Hare Krishna mantra and get dozens of kids singin' it. We never did pull it off, our fellow Athens, GA citizens just wouldn't understand. I did eventually participate in a Rainbow Gathering where many a stoned hippy did the Hare Krishna chant 'n dance. It was intoxicating. One of the hippies died a few hours later, but the Krishna dudes told us that it was great timing to do a mass chant and then meet the Blue One within a few hours. What an awesome day for that guy, huh? Blue light special! -Y

I know Chia recommends the holding the breath thing as a daily jump start exercise. He says that the body starts pulling in chi through the pores and hairs when the lungs stop doing their thing, so it's a good way to jump start hair breathing, bone breathing, skin breathing, etc. Might be a nice way to kick off a meditation session. Actually, it just came to mind that I used to do breath holding after I've been doing 30 sitting meditation just to get real high on it for the last ten minutes. Right now, it might be a nice way to kick off my standing/sungazing practice. -Yoda

Haven't been out in awhile. The fam is out of town, went to the gay club and no girls and no dancin' so left. Backup bar was local bands--not my taste, so I hit the big strip club in Columbia, SC. I had totally forgotten the buying power of $1--awesome!! Got squeezed right good many times. It's really nice to have some innocent contact like that. Different women set up different energy flows which is good for jing masters like the little green one. No wonder brothels are so popular with Jesus, Zen masters, taoists and so forth... it stirs up great love. And if that wasn't enough, saw Rock Star: INX tonight. That's my favorite show of all-time!! Rock n Roll is one of the most amazing energies on the planet. Many of the performers were so good, I could barely deal. -Yoda

lest this thread escapes w/o anyone mentioning the big guns like singin' and dancin'--just wanted them recorded for posterity, so nobody would use it as proof that taoists ain't no fun!

Yoda's fav five in no particular order: running/walking--gets ya moving, relaxed, sunshine, pranayama, stimulates the bottom of the feet sungazing, moongazing, stargazing--lots o cosmic qi (sun=jing, moon=chi, stars=shen per Winn) standing & sitting zen--don't just do something, stand there! (I sometimes add techniques like inner smile, healing sounds, sungazing to the posture.) retention--no point in practicing if you are going to spend it. foot massage before going to bed. -Yoda

when you are obsessed with someone or something, that's good... your chi can flow more strongly having a specific focal point. Be sure to let it flow freely by focusing on what is good about the situation, the individual, etc. That way you channel the good stuff. Even if you want something that is impossible, don't trouble yourself with the details. Just appreciate and have fun with fantasies, etc and you will bring in more positive qualities that will eventually attract more people or situations like that. Be happy that you have locked on to the signal, don't try to wean yourself of that. It is a precious first step towards the creation of any desire. -Yoda

I do like your interpretation! -Yoda

Ever since I got my money back on Samsara, I've been extremely picky about choosing a post-death view. In the taoist view where you have to earn immortality, what happens to the kids and the animals? Children and animals have far superior energy flow than even the most top gun masters (Chia, Winn, Nan, etc) so they should fare the best in an attainment based view. Even if being 'dispersed' is painless, it still isn't satisfying to the core drive of one's soul whether human, animal, martian, etc. Life always wants more. It's only acceptable on the most superficial intellectual level during but is rejected with utter revulsion on a visceral level. -Yoda

I just had a cool coversation with a friend of my Mom's over the fourth of July. He had quit teaching in the 70s and made a mint investing in single family homes with a buy and hold type of an approach. I had been considering getting into this sort of thing, but talking with him really crystalized it for me. My friend followed John Schaub. Check out johnschaub.com or order his book 'building wealth one house at a time' on amazon. If anyone is interested, let me know, maybe we could share libraries, ideas, etc. I've been reading many books in the last week, and John Schaub's is the best single overview. -Yoda

I've been known to wear stilts under my robes when on the prowl.