daojones

I'm curious as to why when I don't take care of my body it wants me to further degrade it's state. For example, no exercise desire to eat late, or if I eat a bunch of food that makes me not feel good...eat more not feel good food. WHY!!!! >:

Thanks for these recommendations. I will look through them and pilfer and the great knowledge I've actually found a bunch of stuff from thanissaro bikhu. I really like listening to his audio lectures - he has a very calm voice and I find the information he gives over to be clear and precise...it's clear what he's saying and not saying. Again, I'm really not interested in the sectarian pissing contests that seem to be abundant, or the ins and outs of histories (although that can obviously be important for understanding context) of this teacher and that. Just the goods people! Free stuff is here: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/index.html#notselfstrategy http://www.audiodharma.org/teacher/16/

I am looking to understand the foundational components of what the buddha taught - no sectarian stuff or practices per say, but just what are the theoretical foundations of his teachings. I recall a book title what the buddha taught or what the buddha said - I thought it was by an academic, but I can only find one online by a monk. I am trying to better understand psychology through the lens of buddha's understanding of being human. Would appreciate if anyone could point me in the right direction in terms of books. I am not interested in hagiographies, waxing poetry, or the like. Gimme the goods

attention ho is a ho. nice moves

Cane sugar...well now that's a drug. It's pretty obvious given the society wide addiction. Try giving it up. It's hard...but pays dividends for your health

Or youi could use your interest to piggy back it on something profitable

Thanks Bums! Lots of good info here, but I am still kinda confused in figuring out a strategy for dealing with this issue(s?). It seems theres a combo of physical and psychological stuff going regarding my psoas. Physically I would venture a guess that my psoas is quite short. In general my abdominal muscles/core is weak. My pelvic area is really tight and so is my diaphragm. There's definitely related psychological stuff going, but it's kinda unknown to me what is happening. I'd guess theres a feeling of not being able to relax and to always be in fight or flight mode. In terms of categories of things I can do, it seems: 1) stretch (sun salutations, yoga stretches, some stretchy qi gong) 2) activate (dao yin?) 3) some magic stuff I dont know about/understand? (hannah somatics, feldenkrais?) For the magic stuff...it sounds like I need to do some retraining of the muscles to not repeat traumatic/stress making movements, plus perhaps something else I dont understand. Would appreciate if anyone could explain the magic Also, does my general strategy here make sense...am I missing something?

Word. Are you in pain? Have the same thing, but my Dr said hydrocele shouldnt cause pain. I dont believe him.

I would like to get a tarot set, but am new to tarot and was wondering if anyone had any recommendations? I liked the looks of the jungian tarot deck...but wasn't sure if this would be more confusing to use.

Ah interesting about the osho deck, as that was the first one I was exposed to. I was looking into the jung deck by robert wang as well. I'll go ahead with the rider-waite deck for now. Thanks for the suggestions

I've been having some weird things happen to me over the past half year or, and they are starting to intensify quite a bit recently. The primary thing that caught my attention is shaking/convulsion episodes that have upped in frequency, as well as the altered states of consciousness that accompany these episodes and that are starting to seep into my everyday consciousness. I feel like there's a new part of my mind opening up and taking over. It will not let me ignore it, and can incapacitate me when it requires my attention. There seems to be this major divide between both states and the new one is basically trying to become the norm, despite strong resistance from the old one. At first I thought it was seizures, but now I don't think that's the case based on consultations with doctors. I originally ruled out kundalini energy rising or an awakening due to the lack of energy going up my spine, and that I feel everything is centered around my abdomen. In fact, lately I have really been feeling its my solar plexus that is trying to open up. Because of the intensity of the energy that's dealing with me, I was wondering if anyone thought this would indicate a kundalini awakening and if so would appreciate any advice on proceeding accordingly.

Thanks Mike. I agree...don't want to have 24 hour EEG monitor, but will do what's necessary.

Not doing any energy practice. Was not aware of the EEG thing. Would like to get an MRI done. Any other tests?

I've undergone a significant amount of personal growth over the past year or so, which isn't abnormal for me, but the depth and amount of it has far exceeded what I've gone through in recent years. It's mainly the shaking and the altered mental states.

This is a great thread! To answer the OPs question from the beginning - my teacher taught me sounds for some of the organ pairings. I cant remember them at the moment, but if I remember I will repost!!

I'm having a lot of trouble concentrating lately, but I have a lot of work that I need to do. I understand the underlying reasons why I can't concentrate and am working on allowing that energy to manifest/resolve, but in the meantime I need to get stuff done. Was wondering if anyone could recommend herbs for doing this.

Bonobo, Shpongle, Ott, Phutureprimitive (psybient)

@Marcus My abdominal issues have improved. I actually now feel more tightness around my solar plexus area, which seems to be the crux of the issue. Solar plexus is related to one's will and my plexus feels all blocked up! However, I feel I am on the path to healing and have had significant improvements in freeing up my solar plexus. All the advice dispensed was based on personal experience. In general I didn't find one particular emotion that was repressed would come up. Rather, I felt all my emotions more. I felt I had more permission to express certain emotions that otherwise I may have felt I shouldn't express. I feel permission to be myself and not require as much validation from other people. I feel more confident. More Yang and more like a man. I am ready to follow my path and am following it. Stay away from sugar! I find it to be a toxin just like alcohol. Although, it's not actually a toxin. I have found at different times I have different approaches to alcohol. Sometimes 1 or 2 shots of scotch will bring me down to the earth and ground me. If I am experiencing bad stagnation this feels great, because I get stuck in my head. Other times, I can't drink any alcohol b/c my body is just too sensitive to put poison in it. On the topic of meditation and qi gong and the like. I would do mantak chia's healing sounds and got amazing results....like the same results of post-acupuncture session (except much cheaper!). But like I said previously, all these things helped me cope and not actually resolve the real issue. Herbs, acupuncture, etc..are helpful and good things. But, if you don't deal with the big issue(s) then I believe those to be a waste of resources. It's just like throwing band aids at a gashing wound. It may not be like that for all issues, but for me I found this to be the case. Additionally, I got significant results from working with a shaman.

I absolutely hate liver qi stagnation. It has caused me significant suffering. I can tell you about my experience, but the truth is a lot of the technical info is already out there as to how liver qi stagnation will affect you. I think the interesting and unique thing is how some things affect you more (depression, or the extent of the attack on your spleen, or the other expressions of the stagnations in your body as it is left untreated). Basically you gotta get that qi moving. I've taken TCM herbs at different times throughout dealing with this. Sometimes it's been helpful and other times not so much. Mainly I find theyre helpful when it gets really really bad and I don't know what to do. Physical movement is one key thing. Do something. I find the more intense the exercise the better I feel. I make the most progress in dealing with the stagnation when I make real life changes. My liver qi stagnation stems from not doing things I want to do, not being aligned with my will and not doing what my will wants, repressing emotion and such things. It took me a while to realize that herbs could not solve my liver qi stagnation problem. The answer lied within me and how I was living my life. And yes, there are activities one does that can make it worse...but ultimately it is an existential issue for me. And based on what you wrote it seems that may also be the case for you. One major lesson I learned this year, and this is huge, is the importance of environment. I kept having the same shitty experiences this year and realized it was because I kept putting myself in environment's that were not supportive of who I am. The lesson is change your environment to one that supports you and your path. If you don't, you're basically shooting yourself in the foot. As well, general advice for helping with liver qi stagnation would be to change your environment (even if it's to another shitty one...you'll eventually figure out what's right for you- fail fast!). I've made amazing strides in getting my qi to flow and no amount of qi gong, meditation, herbs, or exercise could have helped me. In fact, doing these things extend the stagnation because they make it manageable and hide the root cause of the stagnation - existential/life issues. Once I started living MY life, how I wanted to, things started to change and it feels fucking amazing (ya, and it's also not easy to make those changes). Quit your lame ass job and go travel or something.

I have been dealing with quite a few deep issues lately, and I am having a lot of trouble understanding them. This is complex childhood trauma related, and so far it seems with this stuff that things change very quickly and when I resolve one area that appears to be paramount another seemingly of more importance comes up. That's the preamble..maybe skip it, it's kind of boring. I feel like a lot of the issues, symptoms, and feelings I have now are coming from being really angry. I'm not quite sure how to deal with it, except stewing around all day engaging in negative behavioural patterns and generally being unproductive. Was wondering if anyone had any recommendations or insights

Don't quite follow.

The adoption of hair in various spiritual practices seems quite significant to me. Hair typically represents 'earthiness', sexuality, and general physicality. As a result, (well without going into reasoning) hair seems to be quite polarized. There are usually very strong rules about hair in various spiritual disciplines or religious rules/societies. For me, hair can represent your power. Some spiritual practices want/need it to be channeled in a specific way for whatever ends. Some societies want to control it for whatever ends. Hope my opinion based on observation sheds some light on the topic.

I read the power of now and enjoyed it. Well, to be truthful I read about half of it in short doses, as I got kind of bored reading large chunks at a time. Continuing with the theme of truthfulness, I actually liked it a lot. I only read it because I was bored and that was the book that was around, but I found a lot of what he said to be helpful to me. I found a lot of the observations he wrote about rang true for myself and helped me to improve my overall happiness. That being said, before reading it I had lumped him in with the saccharine spiritual fancies of the masses. Which, may or may not be true - I've really only read half of his most famous book, so I can't judge. In conclusion, I really liked about half of the Power of Now - which is all I have read thus far. When I feel the need for a dose of the now and can't meditate I will go back. Reading this book is a great reminder for me of how to be. And again, I thought he wrote accurately about the goings on of the mind of modern human beings.

Kinda random, but for a while I've been feeling weird with my feet. I have tendency to touch the soles together and that just doesn't feel good, almost draining of my energy? Not sure how to describe my feelings on this one. Another thing I do is cross my feet and then I just feel really weird. Again, I'm not sure how to describe what it feels like, but I don't like it - yet I feel compelled to do this on many occasions while sitting. Would appreciate any advice based on experience or knowledge from a system.

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