skydog

When I go to a foreign city i feel like everyone is after my money and while it is a somewhat self fulfilling prophecy it is pretty true. Anyways I close up, dont look at people so much or feel warm and friendly at all. Opinions?

I guess this is a paradox...but also good point in being gentle to yourself

I was doing a lot of spontaneous dance in the last month- 6 hours a day or so..In Osho's resort in Pune and in Goa. After a while I started to touch different body parts, apply pressure with different parts and hold my hands over my heart spontaneously for like half an hour. As in Reiki, Qi healing, Accupressure, Qi self massage. I started to get a little ego about it and enormous amounts of Qi I feel when doing Qigong. But now I realise its just normal right? I read an article about spontaneous five animals qigong...Spontaneous Five Animals Play Qigong (Wu Qin Xi, Wuqinxi) http://www.qigongchinesehealth.com/fiveanimalsplay also in the book shaking medicine it talks about this. Anyone have similar experiences? I like this practice because there is not so much dogma, structure, routine and hiearchies.

I am considering becoming a healer, or Qigong practictioner. Unfortunately I dont believe I will go far without a qualification. I have the capability to go to China and study there properly. Tai-Chi, Qigong, Kung Fu, Bazhaung, H-sing.....All seem appealing to me. Any ideas.

What is compassion? If I wish for someone to be happy, I am wishing for them to experience pleasure which leads to pain? If I wish for someone to have the things they think they want, will that make them happy, will their happiness be permanent? If I wish for someone to be happy, is that the same as peace and non duality? But if its likely they will never understand the reality of nature..then maybe I should wish for them to be happy or at least live in conditions that their mind allows them to experience happiness? Or feelings of a high frequency? What about being horrible in order to be kind? Or doing things of a small bad in order to do a big good? WHat is good? What is bad? it is a belief system?

So Ive been trying a lot of practices lately...trying the tibetan dream yoga book where you focus on a chakra every 2 hours, do purification breaths, guru yoga and imagine dakinis around you as well as imagining life as a dream all the time... I spent a few days actually following it through..but it seems so controlled. Last night I felt a wave of sadness so I tried to be aware of it, then I tried to develop feelings of compassion, then I tried to just accept the feelings and surrender... But I was reading a section in shaking medicine and it was talking about shamanic conversation is just gibberish and the unconconscious higher mind is smarter than the conscious you and it knows what to heal that so I did that and felt great. I decided to dream spontaneously as well like dreaming whatever I wanted to dream as an expression of fun with no judgement...so I close my eyes..fall asleep while letting the picture come up and from there move to a similar picture or experience...so its a smooth flowing from one picture or experience to another....whilst being aware...I am correct in saying this is lucid dreaming...for me this is like when I took peyote.

I was watching this clip and it basically explained how the kick in capoeira is the most powerful, I never knew this, I thought it was just a fancy dancing art that wasnt effective.. So I started watching clips of it and realised it is actually a very spiritual practice.. Anyone know Carlos Castenada's Magical Passes- Well the movements in Capoeira seem to be very similar to the movements in the Magical Passes, I have done the passes many times and notice significant differences in my energy and stillness. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lauKs7tbtV8 It is also a form of spontaneous dance, whilst it is not as loose as shaking medicine, gibberish meditation or ecstatic dance..It is very similar..these are very spiritual practices. Anyone experienced in Capoeira, interesting to hear your thoughts.

EFT, certain types of meditation methods..versus the philosophy of zen/taoism With methods your trying to get somewhere, achieve something, be somebody, resist something...so "you" can achieve something, get somewhere be somebody etc...so your in this state of constant intefering with yourself so "you" can attain, achieve, resist With Zen or Taoism..you dont know, what is you and what is not you, you are here, you dont know whether future or past exists or doesnt exists, you dont know whether it is good or bad to "achieve or attain something" you dont need to get anywhere because everything is one already...hmmm

well however egotistical your comment is..I want time to practice as well, so Im going to countries in south East Asia..and volunteering a couple of hours a day- basically talking english etc in exchange for food and accomodation on top of that I get to see nature and other culture...workaway.info, couchsurfing.com, helpx.net also where there is a will there is a way..for example..if you think not having any money is a barrier towards getting to the other side of the world, well im sure there are ways of doing it illegally etc lol

When it comes to politics, education, music, friendships, relationships, religion, spiritual practices, life.. How are your beliefs, the ones that benefit you the most, make you feel the most secure, happy etc..

lol at your patronising higher than thou comments..so what is zen koans or philosophy in taosim..etc..if you destroy your concepts or dont believe them when they come up, then you will barely have any emotions..I know this through experience also.. If your meditating for reasons of peace, power, love, control etc then those paradigms are in charge and you will always be in the future..maybe one day you will realise this

also I respectfully disagree one hour of contemplation as to your negating concepts/beliefs/ideas for example of time/myself/reasons why you want to meditate/things you dont like..is worth a lot more than 1 hour of inner smile for example..

lol thanks for the words of wisdom I didnt say having beliefs was good, just being aware of how people reject or accept beliefs depending on whether they think it will help them achieve the desires they think they want..In fact I think this is a good method to realise that beliefs are beliefs

In Zen they have two methods- one is just sitting, one is zen koans, and some schools dont teach the other.. So koans are pretty much the same as negating knowledge, ideas, concepts, or even affirming it- to the point of nothing (although this description and any description or concepts are innacurate) So Why are you meditating? (honestly) To get more peace, to be happier, to become more powerful, to be in more control, to be more liked, to not make mistakes, to get more sex and better relationships, to live life better, to have mastery over death, to find a way to be better than others, to carry on the illusion of ego.. Why is peace a good thing? Does peace exist? Why is peace bad? Is peace impermanent? Why do you want to be happy? Why is happiness bad? Who is it that wants peace or happiness? Why do you want power? Does power exist? Can power be bad? Is power a form of weakness? Why is control a good thing? Who is powerful? Who is in control? Does control exist? Why is control a good thing? How can control be bad? Why do you want to be liked? Does being liked exist? Why can being liked not be a good thing? Is there such a thing as a good thing? Is there such a thing as mistakes? Why do you not want to make a mistake? What is a mistake? Why can mistakes be good? Why do you want more sex? Who is the you that wants more sex? Why can sex be a bad thing? Does sex exist? What is wrong with sex? What is right with sex? Where is sex? What is sex? What is a relationship? Why do you want a relationship? What is wrong with a relationship? Who is a relationship? Does a relationship exist? What is life? What is better? Who is living life? Why can better be worse? What is death? Does death exist? How do you know death exists? Why can death be a good thing? Who is it that doesnt want to die? What is others? What is a way? What is better? What is find? What is Ego? Does it exist? What is bigger Ego? etc

Yep every thought is merely a thought, slightly different way of putting it across that truth is not contained in a thought..or it is a mere fragment or whatever way you can articulate and yep being aware is not doing, but it sort of depends on whether its "your idea of yourself" thats trying to be aware and your getting an idea of it or wether its just pure observance and yes being still and paying close attention is where you meet reality, which is what "im doing" but I dont think "enlightenment" exists, its like something that can comes and goes, one second your aware then you drop out of it..

yeh because meditating is doing, and trying to not do is doing, and trying not to not do is doing...and trying not to try is doing, and being aware of all these things is a sort of doing..

Well thanks for the advice, but that is not stuff I got from literature..It is truth..alan watts points I try and articulate.. every thought has an opposite thought,,

http://www.osho.com/online-library-knowledge-insight-listening-55a5c6ca-8f7.aspx

I dont think there is anything wrong with anything Ive said, not knowing does not imply lack of wisdom, infact it may be a form of wisdom, also it could be possible the literature is flawed/useless, and methods have no real value

I dont even know lol, Googling this there seems to be many taoist "methods" and zen "methods"..so im not sure what to think

haha very honest I like it Ill go politics- I think its stupid, run by businessmen who want the interest of profit, knowledge and materialism at the cost of helping everyone, basically controls other people with lies (This benefits me at the moment) education- I think some things are cool to learn but most of school is crap, you learn more on the internet (this benefits me to think this way) music- I like gangster rap, some people say I shouldnt, but I do lol, I like the expressiveness, anger, self esteem, honesty, dark side, coolness, I like some santana, I like to dance to music, I dont like love songs (This benefits me to think this way) friendship- I think I prefer to have a few good friends who I can trust and be myself around than millions of fake ones who put you down for their own ego, I believe if you are more valuable/confident/more status people warm up to you, i believe it changes like everything, I believe its possible to make anyone your friend, religion- I think its good in some ways, but a big form of control, dogma, fear, shame, guilt (Im not religious so it benefits me to think this way) spiritual practices- I do what I feel like, I often set goals for the day but cant be bothered.. life- I believe that its great, you can achieve what you want, and it is how you think about it.. I believe I should keep these beliefs as they serve me, but then I think it is bad to keep beliefs, but then I think that you should not allow or resist beliefs, but then i dont care and cant be bothered to think about it, but then I realised how most of the beliefs or attachments to beliefs I have are based on the needs I think I should have and what I think I need and what i think would help me achieve those things, and who i think I am, and how this would make me feel, but then i think im thinking too much, but then i think i dont care.

This may be a silly place to ask this question.. But I have been into different spiritual practices for a while, I dabble in different ones, and I see a lot of them as useful in their own right.. I want to make a career or a living out of these things being young, I am going to travel and learn different practices and see what works best. The thing is in order to make a living, I can be a dabbler I have to have one, maybe two or three practices that I can teach well. So I have to focus, I am finding this difficult because I see different practices as useful for different things. The things that I see as most benefificial for transformation at the moment is: 1) EFT with various psychological tools 2) Breathing Meditation 3) Shaking Medicine and dance What have you specialised in? and why? Do you go for the ones which make the most money..

ok I will investigate this thanks

Ok, thank you, I dont know that much about taoism, have just heard some lectures from alan watts, what are the best resources to learn..ideally I would have to download from the internet lol

Also I dont like this idea of healing others, as I may be mistaken but transforming someones consciousness, is not something you do eg giving someone a fish, rather you give the tools and knowledge to get their own fish.