de_paradise

Hi, I think any ol' mantra and an egg timer to time your sessions would be fine. Get a mantra and repeat it inwardly. Its so simple and there's not much to know. Its a question of readiness. Are you ready to practice? Really there isnt any more to know. Really that all there is is practise.

2 thumbs up!

Morality has gradually eroded in the economy, and that is what can change or improve, because we know that "de" is not just philosphy to be debated but actually the glue that holds the universe and us as beings together. The masses and intelligentsi do not know this therefore have gone more and more astray. Morals inform society and companies and their actions. It is the base. The modern society is skating on thin ice because instituted selfishness can only lead to self-destruction of the society. Issues such as free-trade, too big to fail, corporate domination, or changes in the taxation, and regulations are merely derivative of the main issue of "de" and lack there-of. The solution is relatively simple.

I have found that the biggest challenge in fasting is breaking through one's conditioning. If you can create a model of fasting for yourself recognizing this, and optimize your intake, and for each person is a little different. Many people like to think that it is the hunger or detox pain that is the most difficult but I have found its just the boredom of sitting around during lunch or dinner, not knowing what to do that can equal the pleasure of food. As soon as I read that you'd planned to fast 2 days a week, if I were in front of you, youd here me chortle and mutter, because I have had those similar plans and have not been able to do it. I think fasting for several days back to back is easier, just because you get in the groove of it. But each person has their own strategies, psychological strengths and physiologies, as well as goals and preferences.

Im sure that you would be fine, as you have relatively open channels already. Its the beginners with the big blockages and naive or fearful attitude towards detox that encounter problems. I find the shaking type of spontaneous movement, like silly dancing is very balancing.

Ok. Have it your way. Probably reading through some books on the subject would give a better lexicon and understanding of what you term "knowlege" and allow you to conceptualize in a way that is more standard for cultivators.

I think you are talking about what we can classify as siddhis or superpowers of some sort, but all these need direction from or interpretation of the mind, so they cannot be classed as seperate knowlege, just different from what is normal. Generally people hold these cards to themselves if they have, because the sceptic will say prove it, then if it is proved, they move along, but the next person says prove it, and so on, and it becomes a lamentable waste of time for someone who wants to focus higher levels, and not the doubters who are often pretty hostile.

Good topic. Heres some bits. Sometimes its useful to have thoughts, at least you know you are not gripping down on some emptiness when you have passing thoughts. I think Vispassana is so popular is because its simple enough to teach that students cannot screw up, eventually everyone makes progress. If you told them that at times, thoughts can be useful, and one can throw in a fake-unconcious-style thought, and it can work to hasten a deep state, this would confuse students. Fake unconsious thought? Spaciousness is not no thoughts, but a kind of evolution of one's consiousness. Just lately I have come back to "attention to sound" and to try to find the origin. I kind of know what Im looking for, a kind of patterny mixture of sound waves, similar to music. Yet consciously finding what comes before sound is kind of like trying to push though a cement wall. My only hope is that I can get so deep one day and get to the patterny mixture, and then beyond. Attention to sound is the way Matreiya and Kuan Yin acheieved enlightenment, and these are huge personages, great Buddhas, yet dont see any practioners around here of this method. I have noticed that one's effort is rewarded, but one may be completely oblivious to this. What I mean is the attention to sound (I use music or some aircon humming) with the instruction to oneself to find what comes before the sound, creates a very potent type of direction along with the focus. A big key to having this meditation work well is to be already in a good meditation state, in this meditation induced spaciousness already. If you are too conscious then it will be too graspy, and you will remain on the surface of meditation and the effects will be minimal.

You got to admire her nerve for cheating and then telling you its alright we'll get back together next year. Keeping her options open and stringing you along because she knows you have feelings for her and can manipulate them in case she needs something in the future. I'm sure in her female brain shes made up some story completely justified and doing the right thing, its your fault and her friends all agree.

Elementalist, I like that avatar pic.

Yeah, I have found myself shockingly grumpy or selfish sometimes when dealing with people, which is completely different from the peace and bliss of meditations, or how I think I would act or want to act, with compassion. I feel its programmed behavior that has to be programmed out, but it takes some dillegence and effort to break one's own behavioral patterns, deepset and subconscious ones too. Even by working with the energy body and reaching new spiritual levels, this only serves as a kind of lamp with which one can atune one's behavior. The unconcious bad habits dont atune themselves, as some people might like to wish. I find that people who go around telling the dubiously mocking jokes have a negativity or energy vampishness to them, but they (their ego) will deny it, and blame the others for being to serious or "not getting it." Congrats on your effort to catch yourself. If you can picture a blocked energy due to a negative or slightly selfish behavior, become unblocked due to a more compassionate/good/virtuous behavior and demeanor, it pretty much works that way, that simply. Im not sure if I addressed your question, because your title didnt really specify, just ".....?" But thanks for the opportunity.

Oh, so what attainments (spiritual) have you acheived through your system?

Speaking of meat. Ever wonder why your favorite steak place is able to sell so cheaply? This documentary is about the astoundingly kept secret of meat glue. PETA has their hearts in the right place as far as animals, but if they do not understand subtle energies, as noone does in our great biology science circa 2011, then they may be missing some important data about test-tube grown food would not benefit us to eat. In fact, I think it would turn people into zombies. But since today's workforce requires more zombies, this can easily be overlooked, and be a social benefit. Something like how little American girls are growing boobs earlier due to all the chemicals they consume. Big boobs are a good thing, right? Who complains.

Very interesting. Thanks for your effort. I dont think Fox news could hit the broad side of a barn in the search for truth, because there are alreay pretty much explicit instructions to reach immortality through Egyptian alchemy if they only saw what is already apparent. Perhaps they are looking for an engraved invitation at the end of a tunnel.

Obi-wan Kenobe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjCyZ2P9bCA

Ahh, my Tarot card have revealed an overturning of the conventional ruling order shifting towards an yin-type of revolution, perhaps the rise of some female changing the social consciousness. (maybe like Oprah or a Aung San Suu Kyi)

dude....

Not everyone gets goosebumps like that, perhaps its fairly rare. Have you considered that it could be your mind giving you the goosebumps in reaction to the feelings of qi, not the qi itself giving your skin this physiological reaction? In that case more relaxation would solve it.

Of course I believe that immortals exist, and that we cultivators here also have a shot at becoming immortal. Wha you think, Im doing all this stuff to relax, be a happy person or to fit in with mundane society better? Yes the immortals are looking (hi, by the way) , and the Tao is apprehending what we write and what we think.

Suppose there is lots of techniques to manipulate qi or focalize it that are kept secret. The demo on the girl looked much more convincing due to the type of blotch on her skin. Its a clever thing if its not a clever hoax, and could attract the type of person who likes John Chang vids, not quite on the spiritual path, but runnning parallel to it in some respects, and perhaps will build enough wisdom in the future to get beyond wishing for abilities to do parlor tricks.

Facinating book, a type of cosmology-explaination of how things work that I have never seen before. Things like, the void (which is not a void but one dimensional intellegence full of groovy things) being the mother of all invention, because the human inventors actually just are shown mental pictures of things that have been invented all long before. Want to have babies but dont want to have sex? Intuit the birth if you can find another high level mate. Not sure how your previous incarnations were like? Maybe you are a brand new soul intuited by your parents. How does grass grow? Well, pre-birth intellegence is lifted from the earth into clouds with water, and sent back down to earth in shimmering raindrops, and when filled with the necessary minerals, produce the potential, that eventually becomes a material seed. This book is perfect for the Kunloonie type who is ready to expand their conception.

Daniel Ingrams instructions Well, there are thoughts and there are thoughts, as with attention and attention. If you have done this type of meditation you may understand the quality of thoughts that tend to come into one's head, and the type of attention one gives, which is a kind of tagging, or noticing, not a full-on attention that you get sucked into the conversation. A very well known form of this meditation is known as "noting" and is practised by the Burmese Buddhists, and if you want instructions there's Daniel Ingrams instructions. Daniel Ingrams instructions

Ah, ok. There is no one answer to the questions at hand because there are several aspects of the technique "mind watching" at play here, and depending upon your experience one aspect can be emphasized as more or less important. So for instance, having a relatively still mind is a wisdom or insight practise, but it is also run of the mill meditation where the energy bodies have a favorable stillness to increase their cleaning and deblocking. Perhaps Steve would be more towards insight, and I'm in the trenches with all my cheats and gambits, just getting it done. "Is the idea simply to build on the ability to maintain awareness of the thought-stream as it develops, or is the technique of watching thoughts supposed to prevent the stream from developing in the first place?" It depends where you are at. In my experience, the real goal is neither. Stillness of thoughts are just kind of an aspect of letting go, or relaxing the mind. The relative evolution of your energy body determines how much progress you can possibly make at any time during meditation. So for example, me 2 years ago would have to meditate for 1 hour to acheive the progress of what I can do in 5 minutes now, even if my meditation is interrupted by my thinking about my groceries etc. All that energy getting conducted in more and more as the energy body evolves. Definitely "Is the idea simply to build on the ability to maintain awareness of the thought-stream as it develops" is not right. This is a basic ability one should aquire, but it doesnt really get more complicated than that. And as you said, when you bring attention to the thoughts, they naturally die down. I would footnote, that there is an intention involved there underneath the attention, and its the intention that brings them down. This is why you have noting practise, or you can mentally tag the thoughts, or many other things. But without the intention underlying the noticing, it wont work, and you will go on talking to yourself. I would also add that when you do have thought disturbances, and you do the work of noticing it and then it disappears, something kind of magical happens: you go slightly more deeper into the meditation, deeper than if you had had not thought disturbance to begin with. This is where meditation starts to get fun, like a video game, not some torturous blank mind state. And this harkens back to my first point about energy body evolution, because thats where things really start to happen as far as your qi body deblocking, growing, and becoming able to conduct more energy--the virtuous circle continues--because thats how the mind is able to relax and become more spacious in a REAL way, not just a fake way, which is what people do when they simply block their thoughts, or pretend that they are good meditators because they were able to keep very still for an extended period. The real way is about greater energy, relatively more open chakras, the mind is not the same, it has achieved progress. There is also the insight approach, which perhaps involves flipping oneself into higher states due to ones extreme calmness of mind. I dont claim any expertise in that. Maybe thats what you are going for. I'm in the trenches with the energies and the nei-dan, and a bit of insight by accident. **edit: hope you can find something useful in this jumble

Cat, if the nattering gets carried away, feel free and interrupt it, you dont have to be so pristine grade A student and hope it will die down itself each time. Why waste 15 minutes watching yourself talk to yourself when you can hack the thoughts off there and then? Always have a plan B. You know, alot of meditations have a kind of pre-meditational something to either exhaust the body or the mind first, from a yoga asana routine, or a zen koan. Dont be a hero. Whatever works.