de_paradise

Well I dont have any SF qigong experience, but I can offer my general point of view shaped from my experience. Bliss states come when you break through to some new level, sometimes its because you have changed you meditation a little or a lot. Nothing was holding you back per se, just a new way often yields immediate results, like breaking a dam from different places that finally allowed the water to flow. If you continue practising you may find that the new practice wasnt better, it was just different, and it later doesnt yield such amazing results consistantly. Secondly, you should no longer equate "feeling bad" with "doing something wrong" because in the world of energy detox and detox in general, the opposite can be true. Mood swings, feeling crap, feeling bliss. This is real progress. Wednesday morning here. And thirdly, theres time to pursue different things. My feeling is that you are sincere and basically a good person, and things will work out for you one way or another.

Mick Jagger channels so much energy with such ease, crazy youthful body.

Sifu Rel, could you say what tradition are you learning from in the first place? Personally I've looked at yin and yang qi as classifying aspects, but qi is just qi.

Ha Sloppy, sometimes I get the feeling that you are just a part of my personality debating with another part that is dominant right now. And perhaps I'm filling a kind of role in your own debate. I know this question is another age-old debated question not going to be solve by us in this thread: cultivation in society or removed from it. The flaw in your arguement is your assumption that by interacting in dating you will acheive progress, not be worse off, create more karma, or more psychological stuff, complexes. You are not a master just yet, so it would be hubris to think you can navigate through the mine fields. Hubris means false pride, delusion of grandeur. Many a cultivator get swept away into mundane society via sexual attraction. Oh, and "sitting in a room meditating for 15 years" is an exagerration tactic, it wont work: in reality, we are laymen practitioners in society, relationships on many levels is inevitable. When I said "hermit" it was an exaggeration to, kind of berating myself I guess, for being so antisocial. It pisses me off to be such a loner, but I dont want to start a relationship with a girl when I know my Kundalini awakening is more important, and when K says jump, I can't refuse, its not a choice to fight evolution at this stage. Maybe you think we are not talking specifics, but we always are, everything is a metaphor for something else anyway. John C, "clear example", I cannot relate to what he's saying, but it makes perfect sense to him. But in some way hes saying the same thing, meeting psychological challenges head on is a faster route than sitting "Zen" and purifying emotions by meditation.

Yeah, the more I thought about it, the more I thought what you were communicating, and how its probably part of your path to do this, and its intertwined with your previous development. Likely some other people are not needing this type of love triangle drama on their path.

Well that was more than I anticipated, thanks. I'm sure things will work out one way or another. One thing I noticed is that alot of this, and I'm sure you are aware, is not what one would call free will, but a kind of timeless archetypal drama where you are drawn in as a participant, and even cool thinking will not extricate you from the forces at play here. So even your "belief in free will" is a kind of point of view expressed deep inside the drama, part of the drama, which is ironic. I do get your point of how things can be speeded up by facing these issues day to day.

Really? Like what kind of stuff specifically, (if you are not embarrassed to say)?

Bah, I'm just a hermit. What is dating for? I cant remember. Wouldn't that interfere with cultivation too much?

I dont find fault in MPG's plan or that he cant cultivate much by working two jobs, he does seem to have his goals exceedingly clear and not just paying lip service. Things take time to pan out. As far as genuine schools, they come into existence, and go out of existence, the masters don't die and the information doesnt go away, but it may be kept in the higher levels. Probably hundreds of years ago, probably thousands, the whole search for the genuine school complaint was the same, and rooting around the corners of the earth. I agree with the whole work on yourself with the information you got, because there's more than enough information out there. And well, since its all one information field conspiring to help you evolve, within the auspices of a school xyz or not, the potentialities are fairly unlimited.

Its the way to go because story and embedded metaphor slip past people's conscious objection. Modern people dont like to get preached to, put up walls.

There's this flavor of gelato you can get at Fenochio in Nice, called "Pain d'epices" or spice bread. I think they renamed the flavor to make it sound more current. I think this tastes like Taoism. It tastes like winter solstice or sumthin.

Sure, but then you can take the individual "I" and broaden it, and it no longer is just about your own secure beliefs. I mean to say, beyond one's own individual ego struggle with piecing together a map of the world that works, there is a whole spectrum of interacting for the benefit of others. When you speak to someone who knows nothing about the path of spirituality, you are speaking for their benefit, not to merely bolster your own ego's version of truth. That is called "Dao De" The basic message that you dont need to be a vegetarian to be spiritual is what they are trying to express, I am trying to express that its helpful, skillful, perhaps has a larger context in human's evolution.

We all want to share and help, but as soon as the post gets written, the debates start. Nature of language and forums. The irony is we are guilty of something we accuse others of. Noone is saying you need to be vegetarian to be spiritual, I am saying its skillful in the Buddhist point of view, and its indicative of a broader compassion for animals. You may have noticed that alot of the new agey types, the people who tend to be the spontaneous kundalini types, with all sorts of odd beliefs--these people tend to gravitate towards veganism---they are not being brainwashed or adhering to some fake idea---its just happening naturally--the ideas build and stick by their own forces underneath conscious level thinking. Notice this, ask why, ask is this is a trend that is building on its own, is there a social evolution happening based on broader compassion? If you don't notice this or question its statistical valibility, then maybe you are missing something. My feeling is that there is something to this trend, there is something worthwhile in trying to understand.

If give a task to your mind, it will seek to complete this task, whether you use or even apprehend the data it gives you or not: this is proven if by hypnotists who acess the literal part of your brain-- we call this the subconscious. It is more powerful than our regular conscious because it has memory access to all your experiences. The question is whether the subconcious embodies the data we call the soul, spirit, past lives, and etc, like void, akashic records, other people's memories. It gets pretty soupy, and if someone gave you a pat answer, I wouldnt trust them, because that only means they have not penetrated still deeper levels. I just woke up, and I was thinking of this question. There's a large component of "manifest reality" in what we write, the metaphors of the language, our culture, our present experience. The deeper writers acess deeper parts. Some people cannot access these parts at all, they are uncreative. What we write gets re-translated by the subconcious, and fit together with other metaphors and takes a path of its own. So what you write doest stop there, its rehashed in a bizarro way deep in your subconcious. The mind boggling bit is that these retranslated metaphors interact with your mind and manifest reality. This is to say, you affect your dreams, your dreams affect you. I guess the conclusion would be, watch what your write.

Thanks for your reply S-B. I'll read the links carefully. Sounds like the Cron diet. I just had the most amazing pinapple off the truck, Taiwan has such great fruit and vegetables. Its not the thread that depresses me, its the disappointment of the cold intellectualizing style of many posters here (and in other threads in TB's, often I see them so off the mark because they are stuck in their heads), makes me feel often estranged in this forum. Yes I feel strongly that vegetarianism is part and parcel of the evolved state that we can acheive due to having widened your compassion from just humans to include other sentient beings.

Go to a good source of info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_China_Study_(book) I wouldn't recommend eggs if you are a man: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2043180/Prostate-cancer-Eating-just-3-eggs-week-significantly-increases-risk.html Seth makes some great points, thanks for your patience. Suninmyeyes is the poster who I resonate with most, because she just "gets it" at some intutitive level like me. I watch all this right brain style hodge-podge discussion with a certain amazement and sadness, and how they dont seem to "get it" or feel it how vegetarian is right. Health-wise I have never had more energy, looked better (slender, ripped abs), shining skin, than when I was on the raw vegan diet. The trick to making this sucessful is getting enough carbs, because we are used to dense refined carbs, you need to consume alot of fruit and greens. GLTA.

Noone's addressed them because this thread is not about you, as I have pointed out, but you've yet to grasp. Your posts are drop in the bucket, and with a unusually selective point of view of whats valid or not. (emotions not valid for addressing ethical questions, only logic valid in deciding what can be killed) I agree with the boring part. Time to meditate. Love and healing.

Big teacher makes for a big ego. Rationalize it how you want. I write for OTHER readers who may have been raised in meat, but perhaps want to change and want some perspectives. Yamu, its not about you, really. Personally, I dont read the "meat" thread in the forum, but I think this is more suitable for the type of commendable contributions that you are making. Please dont write "yawn" at me.

Buddhists avoid killing animals because its unskillful to add to you karmic debt you owe, and will have that debt to the animal through your lifetimes. Guanyin is considered the patron boddhisattva of vegetarians, of compassion in general. (who is the patron of meat eaters? dracula?) Some people think that modern day hunting, with precision scopes and high-powered rifles pointed at completely oblivious grazing deer is being one with nature, and better than buying the decomposing steroid-injected sterilized stuff from the grocery shelf. They may have a point about the latter, but consider that more sensitive souls consider that form of "hunting" unfair, like murdering a gentle beautiful being. Some people have a difficult time at understanding compassion, sociopaths for example, but there is a whole array of people who do or do not feel enough compassion to avoid killing animals at various levels. When I speak up for those who are compassionate and empathetic enough, care about the planet enough to not want to kill animals, I dont like to be called "holier than thou" If it were to happen, I'd rather drop my wallet in a vegetarian restaurant,its just obvious, the ethics and level of attachment to desires is transmitted. People get this, and why meat eaters get peculiarly defensive or aggressive to vegans, because at some level their ego is crying out to be defended. They dont want feel like the bad guy or wrong, so they lash out. The book "China study", a decades long research volume, on the shelves alot of bookstores, points to the vegetarian diet as being optimal. This is real research, real science, not the b.s. pseudo-science created by the meat and dairy industry.

Defending vegetarian lifestyle and animals, period. No exaggerated appelations or sarcasm needed.

Pure vegan feels natural to me. Holier than thou? A grade-school teacher brought his class to a farm-slaugherhouse, many students got sick, puked, many had to undergo councelling. Meat is natural? Why not eat it raw, the way god intended, it will make you ill. Use your teath to rip into raw side of dead animal. Cannot? Don't have the right teath, dont have the right stomach. Meat eaters dont give up, I know. I see their beady eyes when they have meat in front of them, addicted, very different from the eyes of veg restaurants people, relaxed, zen.

I watched only 2 minutes in, for the same reason a InfinityTruth. I think she is more about humanism and wants that to be true on a spiritual level. If she wanted to make a point that sometimes fighting is better than acceptance and surrender, she could have chosen a better example.

I have found that learning a devination system of some sort, Tarot, reading tea leaves, etc is making a conscious effort to flex those intuition muscles. Also creative fiction writing. These are skills that take time, and require commitment, not just juvenile dabbling.

I dont know if I can help you sort through that mulch of catch-22's. Faith is justifiable as expedient means, the quicker way of making spiritual progress. If you resist beliefs that can help you, then that is the slower route. The is the basis of the Vajrayana path, but all known "paths" in some sense. There is some part of you that would know in advance what is good for you or not, call it say, the higher mind, and that part of you communicates to you through intuition. Get good at intuition is to get good at sorting through the morass.

As usually happens with me: I sit down and write something with my intellect, and "poof", a whole level or levels of meaning get crafted into it. I start to catch a drift of what deeper meaning I was trying to express and go with that, consciously writing that in. And while still keeping the surface original ideas going, as if toying with it, daring people to start going down the ladder with me to something still deeper.