de_paradise

There are many many opportunities to create good karma if a person wanted to. Does this person stand in the way of your spiritual progress and your magnificence? If they do, then I would cut the emotional ties. You could try this out by visualizing the chi-thread between you and slicing it. See how it feels. I can really relate to this problem. With a more open heart due to meditations, why then are we led to an act that is for self preservation? Its like I expect more of myself than I would have last year, but at the same time I avoid the people who use me as an emotional douche rag.

I do both practises and they dont really go together, as the energies are pretty different. Not only that, but visualizing is not "letting go" In my experience, the visualizing the bone unleashes some kind of forceful energy that feels similar to sexual energy. It continues to work many hours after the meditation session, which I do for 25 minutes only (not including the emptiness afterwards) To extend the time of this meditdation, I just revisualize each bone, say going left foot, then again left foot, then ankle and lower leg, then doing left foot again. This method gives a nice surge.

I stumbled onto this redneck, who knows his stuff about food storage.

They borrow from the next generation, ie. the national debt. If you havent noticed, this is what Bush has been doing all along, this time is no different except its not buying missiles and bullets- he's buying worthless debt. The brits-europeans are not flooding the country with money, they are buying stakes in the banks and becoming gurantors for loans. They become shareholders in real businesses.

Hi Santiago, For cutting the etheric cords, do you mean by way of vizualizing blades or hoops chopping the cords? Could you give a little detail on your method?

wow, 2! arent you sumthin.

Useful for halloween, or if you like to play dress-up.

So what happens to the guy besides getting a red handprint on his back?

I think preparing in advance is smart, especially if it gives you peace of mind. America is too much reliant upon the threat of law to for social order, things can erupt in the blink of an eye. Chlorella is a superfood which is almost a stand-alone food. I have vacuum packed tablets which I notice are good until 2011. Another idea.

Yoga is popular in Taiwan, and wouldnt be hard for you to set up something on the fly. ESL Teaching pays more than in China, less than in Korea, but Taiwanese are so much nicer to live with. The visa situation in Taiwan is still stupid and inconvenient though (6o days) Look at tealit.com for job stuff. I lived there for too many years. If I went back to Asia, I would probably teach in China or Thailand, because in the old days, these countries didnt pay zip, but now its at least something. For China the visa is unofficially easy: go to Hong Kong and get a 6 month or 1 year multi and then just show up at some school, as WDQ says, doing border runs every 2 months.

I am not so concerned with conspiracy involvement, even though it may be the case. Its not my immediate problem. What is priority is staying financially safe, when its possible there is going to be runs on banks, government regulation over your savings accounts (look at Iceland today), and erosion of purchasing power as the government prints more money to finance its efforts to prop up the system. What collapses and who gets left holding the bag? This is all too real now, not a fanciful doomsday scenario.

Crystal clear to me Taomeow. I remember taijimen from when I lived in Taiwan, they are HUGE there. Its the kind of group that can fill up football fields, all doing some tai chi in unison, wearing the same t-shirt. http://www.taijimen.org/tjm2008b_eng/html/index.php

I'd like to learn from a deity. Whatever is offered.

I like to change up and cycle the meditations that I do. Within stillness meditation, or single pointed meditation theres MANY different objects, many ways to apply one's awareness. Even within repeating silent mantra there is so many variations as to how to keep ones awareness. For example the mantra can be visualized as well. I even was visualizing typing fingers over my third eye while saying the mantra--results. Or you can become aware of the mantra as your entire being, or you can pay attention to the tones and change up your inner voice. The narrower the focus, the easier the chi starts to accelerate/thicken. General body relaxation helps too. Last night I relaxed parts of my head, part by part--results. That Zen story about the Master berating the student by polishing the floor stone, saying you cant reach enlightenment by meditation--I interpret that to mean you shouldnt be robotic about meditations. One can observe and test to get to the deeper states.

Good comments. Along with Kunlun, I'd agree with the breath watching stillness meditation and yoga because that directly gives you physiological calmness. I have personal biase, but I really recommend hypnotherapy as the quick way to take away the sweaty palms and the anxiety.

Stillness seems most pure, the chi gets stronger incrementally, and there is a refined mental componant in stillness that is missing in energy practises. I somehow feel like I'm slumming when I do energy practises, though no doubt energy practises can make significant leaps in progress. I think it comes down to personality. I dont like holding weird postures while standing, but it seems fine for others. I can sit altered all day long though. Buddhist monks often look like wussy boys. They should give them gym passes.

Kunlun, at least 1 and 2 are pretty dynamic, so its not about trippy weird states like you can get in stillness when chi decides to do something interesting. But trippy states from stillness are very rare, wheras in Kunlun 1, its pretty frequent a kind of blissful field around me, with varying degrees of intensity and internal-ness. Definitely this is a far-from-mundane state which is regular human wakened state.

I've had my tongue go outwards to my chin during Kunlun a few times, but it felt somewhat like most automatic Kunlun movements. I had a spontaneous Kechari in December, which was completely felt like my tongue muscle was under the control of some force. It pressed to the roof of my mouth to get a kind of S shape then, went back as far as it could. I think the force realized my limitations so it started working my tongue out frontwards and backwards as if doing stretching repetitions. Then it tried again up my throat. It did that for 20 minutes. It seemed the upper palate and throat area were somehow changing shape as well, receding somehow. In the end my tongue was stretched and sore, and I felt I had failed the Kechari energy by not getting far enough back. Maybe it was good enough though, because really weird stuff started happening after that, which was like visiting the dentist/orthodontist for 3 weeks straight.

I went through something similar with a friend recently. She went on the offensive and became very obnoxious and arrogant--unusually so. With the emotional level beyond what I had prepared for, I lost my cool too. But lets backtrack, because the Doctor and my friend both erupted in an unusual fashion--emotionally. With the doctor the clue is the cognitive dissonance. Who knows what he went through that he went from acupuncturist to pulling a 180, some emotionally compelling reasons for sure. He has a huge stake in justifying his behavior to himself and others. Carolyn was just a bystander really. My meaning is that you are not going to get rational debate out of someone whose emotions are tripped like that. Probably there is no graceful exit either. My friend is a depressive with a very tenuous grip on life, but one thing she can rely on is rationality and conventional belief. Now, our spiritual stuff really pulls the rug out from this ediface, hence her ego comes out slugging to shut it down, and its gonna make sure it wins. Just being aware of when people react abnormally or very emotionally to certain issues, that it changes the whole context of the way you can respond. Sometimes just retreating is the best you can do, and reframe the negativity into a learning situation so it doesnt rankle so long.

Does anyone have experience with the tummo meditation and acheived that warmth state, the blissful fire? Bodri points out that it is one and the same as the Kundalini attainment, though clearly the ability to control the warmth is another matter. This is the meditation (sadhana)I found: http://www.llewellynjournal.com/article/392 Any suggestions?

Cool post Big J

I disagree. And I was thinking of Mencius who said something like every person would come to the aid of a child who has fallen down a well. Therefore, someone with a healing ability would use it if given the necessity. Of course not everyone would go prospecting, or silently sit in hospital wards curing people (like some teachers I know). There may be a certain level of ego-gratification at the outset, but that is cured by the fact that ego-gratifying behavior leads to boredom and dissatisfaction, so the person doesnt even bother scratching that itch anymore.

A doctor would probably perscribe anti-depressants if you told him you wanted to release emotional blocks by holding your breath and imagine yourself melting.

Qui-dao pulls out the old clunker of "you said one thing but you unconsciously meant another." Huh? I dont see it, but speaking of unconcious interpretations, how about your insistance that Mantra is ruled by profit motive. Thats just the way you seem to interpret the world. Have fun with that, and all your other "neutral" judgments.