de_paradise

I've always had trouble understanding what people meant by loving oneself. I cannot direct love towards this batch of qualities and historical actions known as me, I can only direct it outward. Maybe I've always understood "me" as a function of my surroundings and programming, so there really is no point to getting emotional about "me" in some kind of detached observer way. Maybe I'm just dumb.

Talismans are taught to initiates of the school of whatever sect that uses them. The are forbidden in general to be taught to others, and you need to have initiation for them to work. So in order to learn talismans you have to join some sect or school or lineage. Otherwise you are just writing stuff like doodles, or collecting information about them like a librarian. They are connections to other levels of reality and those beings.

Our individual lives are our greatest teacher or practice, so even if we could share our experience, you need to live through and learn from your own experience. You can't shortcut to the end with the decision based on someone else's end state because they went through all the crucial highs and lows. All depends on your other practice and cultivation and how you learn from your individual life. I was in the same place as you, doing sales, thinking that healing as a vocation is closer related to energy cultivation as well as earning karma. Your path may be giving up the family business for a while, it may not. It was easy for me to change occupations, and there is a certain spiritual progress one gets by leaving past habits behind. But healing is not necessarily the best occupation if you want to make progress directly on yourself, this is because you are always with people in need of remedial help, (so they can go back to grasping) and instead of focusing on your improvement, you give much time to their mundane problems, which never end, because thats your job. Healing may be the best occupation as well, since it is fundamentally good to heal others, and many deities can spot your intent and help you with your spiritual progress. I was lucky enough to find a lost and esoteric energy healing lineage of great power. I am back to doing sales, but I have stabilized my mind enough that I can cultivate doing this as well. When I have stablilized my mind still further, I might go back to healing perhaps. (energy healing, hypnosis,EFT) The goal of self-liberation remains the same, and not to get caught up in indirect goals is the challenge. Doing good, intending liberation is the direct goal; working and earning by healing money is indirect.

There's more than one solution or answer. One is to avoid the vamps and, like monks, surround themselves with people who are all training to be virtuous, and by default avoiding a lot of situations. Since we are in the regular society, and generally have to work and interact, there will always be vamping, or morally bad people pushing their views on us by conversation, actions, etc. It is very easy to get overwhelmed, thus feel draining effects. We are not to control or repress, but to live and express the truth of our emotions. Not expressing the truth is creating internal problems, sometimes known as karma. You can feel the truth by closing your eyes and feeling the emotions of your body. You can feel if there's a positive or negative emotion. The goal is to express but not be attached to the emotions of the body, that body that you are wearing, that body that is living with the illusion of separation. The body, the mind that is attached to this material reality is affected and conditioned by our interactions and surroundings, you cant help that. The training is to detach, which is the process of unwinding your own issues and triggers, living in the bliss of the natural state. This is attained by training the body, the channels, the breath, meditation, contemplations-- a process. There is no default behavior you can use in the interim that will perfectly give you an untroubled mind or to keep the draining vamping effects away. This is because we are not free from our own conditioning. But the best strategies have been mentioned, as in, filling yourself with positive emotions and let that flow, or just observe. You can practise hooking into the situation, getting really caught up in the emotion, then unhooking, really feel yourself unhooking. Practice when its not important.

Our bodies are filled with more toxins--antidote is conscious continuous physical detox and controlled diet, physical practice of yoga, pranayama, internal arts, etc. Physical practice was once considered low level, beginning step leading to more psychological type cleansing, then later a mind-only type. It has changed where physical body should be constantly looked after, no matter how open your channels have become Vajrayana is the practice of transformation of energies, negative or positive is looked at as opportunities. But it is rare to find someone who actually understands how to transform and use negative energies in the moment, and not fall prey to the negative energy.

"the ... aim ...is to capture the karmic prana within the central channel. What does this mean? Breathing in a distracted manner through the solar and lunar channels is the way we transmigrate. Through distraction all actions arise and karma is produced. That is why normal breathing is called karmic. When a living being is born, it already has its own character produced by a specific karma tied to the prana and the breath. If we want to become masters of ourselves and our minds without further distraction, first of all we should be able to control the karmic breath. The main method to do this is called "capturing the karmic prana in the central channel" through the practice of kumbhaka, which consists of inhaling the air through the two channels and forcing the prana energy into the central channel. In this way the air flowing in the two karmic channels is exhausted and integrated within the central channel." Chogyal Namkhai Norbu

Its so ironic that to be happy with what you have, or the ability just a modest living, a modest life, is something that other people want and even see as "sexy." But its completely true.

Can you give a visual illustration of meridians and myofacial overlap? Are all taught muscles and "knots" caused by myofacial adhesion, and I don't quite understand the difference between trigger point and myofacial adhesion. (in fact I had to google both) Besides the Yogic school, can you show examples of other cultivation schools that use stretching to clear meridians? How come Taichi and most Chinese type schools only do a few cursory standing stretches, in a quick, kind of bouncy way? Is that the best way? I'm a big fan of yoga, and have made alot of (energy) progress by doing long yoga sessions the last few months. Sometimes I think people on TTB's read each other's minds because there's always these topics coming up related to what I've been thinking about.

Thanks Cat, but I think its because I generally don't edit my posts for ambiguities and run-ons, nor do I restate the major points. I'm just happy to finish them as notes strung together rather than convincing argument. It does seem hard for quite a few people to grasp why their speech and mind should have their ego (doubts, distinctions, fears, desires, etc) ironed out as a result of their own effort, although its a major part of the Buddhist path, and there is plenty of literature. Often people point out how a realized person's points of views come from the same ego as anyone elses, thinking there is some logical inconsistency, but we know that the definition of "ego" has shifted with spiritual liberation. And whats important is not whether they are being nice or jerks, its whether their behavior lands them back in an unelightened state. Not for the permanently realized, things just wash by. For me, I definitely feel what pulls me back or lower, so I know first hand by trial and error what type of thoughts, emotions and behaviors to iron out, and what thoughts, emotions and behavior to maintain.

If you are realized then when you criticize someone, it doesnt have the same effect of drawing you back into your ego delusion, so its not the same consequences as an unrealized person. Unrealized people trade "its your ego" criticisms all the time, its silly. If you are like me, a little bit of realization and stumbing around in a body and mind used to criticizing people, having conversations with friends speaking ill of others, etc, tits ass, and making distinctions all day long, then you have to catch your mistakes one by one, repent them if you want to be consistent with the truth of non-distinction.

Hi Ish, Thanks. I just sent a purchase intent for the ebook, but since its "restricted", I just asked if I could purchase it. Not sure what that means to have a pre-requisite that is also restricted, but hopefully its open to people interested.

I just purchased yoga dvds off their website a minute ago, another wacky coincidence. What is the nature of the transmission? it just says guru yoga transmission.

Early morning loooong yoga session, open heart practices, stretch everything, to balance pathways of easily disturbed mind, and to keep negative emotions washed over by heart chakra energy . Contemplation of Vairocana, there is no self: it is all conditioning. As people around you get noisy, happy, or upset and celebrate the season, driving towards stimulation and desires, it is all conditioning--they only think there is an "I"--it is all conditioning. Look at all of us thinking that there is seperate selves! Its a funny thing. Vairocana, 'the omnivalent wisdom-body, that he is the unborn, unmanifest, unchanging reality that rests quietly at the core of all phenomena'.

Also what has not been mentioned, is that whatever the medium --Western or Chinese medicine, qigong, etc it's your body ultimately that cures itself, these methods stimulate one way or another, qi, chemicals, emotions.The older you get, the more slowly your body regenerates, so at 75 you must double down on your patience. If you spent many years creating the problem, perhaps by lifestyle and work, then you shouldnt expect a few hours of therapy to undo it. Sometimes it happens, and it seems miraculous, because unblocking stuck qi can have a domino effect, just like pulling away a bottom level can on a pyramid of stacked cans can cause the whole thing to collapse, and the disease just evaporates. Those are the kind of situations that get advertised or talked about. A qigong healer, like any naturopath or therapist of any kind does not need to preface each time for their patient that "it might not work for you." because the power of positive expectations is important in the body healing itself. Think of qigong healing as a modality, not a magic want cure, a less invasive option that could work, and you want to explore all the options going from least invasive to most, as you are doing.

I think Cat's point is that you are not spiritually attained enough to write an instruction manual, as in the blind leading the blind. This is a legitimate and even stylistic criticism because your attainment colors each sentence your write. Bite the bullet and thank her, because here's ego rearing its ugly head: the need to be heard and admired, to hear your valuable golden advice. This is an isse that comes of for alot of us here, since we know that relative to most people, we have alot to offer. Every once in a while I start thinking about forming a school, writing books, creating communities. Then usually what happens is Im walking along and some guy shoves me a leaflet on Jesus. He starts talking about the path through Jesus. And its all pretty reasonable spiritual advice. And yet we are both still in the maze. I think you should write your book but with the approach of humbleness, that you can make spiritual progress through the writing, and that it can reveal more of your flaws to you. Maybe some people will read it if you make it not so rambling. People write books all the time, why not you?

I do a variation of this, vajra breathing, part of a warm up set in a primordial yoga from a Tibetan Dakini lineage. We don't hold the breath, but the inhales are very long, and theres a few more steps, and that makes it more smoothy-chi than a holding the breath kind. Its become my favorite thing because it works very well for calming the mind and generating bliss. It is said that balancing the left and right channels has the effect of balancing the central channel, thus making the mind more stable and in tune with the non-duality. I just stick it in my compilation yoga routine after some standing poses. I've known about 9 bottled for so long, but never really adapted the practice until a month ago, and now I know I was crazy not to have done it earlier. Its good to do outside in the fresh morning air.

Longevity practice is not about extending some old age infirmed state while continuing to perceive the world though the value set of a pessimistic 30 something. Its about increasing vitality, health, detox, and opening the floodgates of phsycial bliss, mental stability and equanimity.

The difference between "meditation on death", and "suicidal thoughts" is not large, but one is liberating and feels good, the other feels like a hand crushing your heart. How you can generate one effect and not the other is a simple trick of the mind, a little training of thought patterns. In death meditation, you imagine your dead body, and note that dead bodies do not have worldly concerns, and you stay with that feeling of being unconcerned about anything that a human is generally trapped by. In suicidal thoughts, you imagine your death, BUT then go back to the ego and clamp down on it--so its not a true suicide, its just a touch of the result state so you can impress yourself how grave the situation is, and then focus hard on your problems again. Why not just mentally stay dead and contemplate the scene, and enjoy the peace that comes with the assumption of the death state? There is a way out of the box that you are now in, which is a whirlwind of worries, fears, pains, guilts, etc. The way out is staying in the present moment, to focus solely on what you are doing now, without commentary (sometimes called mindfulness). Tell yourself that there is no future, there is no past, and there is just now. When you are ready, generate some emotions, like surrender, trust, love, gratitute of the things around you. Hold the postive emotions as long as you can. This process takes some days or weeks, it takes diligence to stop your bad habits of run-on worry and complaint, but you will eventually notice results of well being. *note that if you need a good example of the unwinding of problems after the death of the body, watch a few seasons of "Ghost Whisperer" DVD series. The story is always the same, Melinda helps the trapped spirits drop their problems and they get to go free.

I think you started to abandon writing due to monetary considerations, not for the spiritual path; but you are also attached to proving yourself in the field of writing, yourself, your projected peers, family, etc. This may be dealt with in the future, and you are not at that bridge yet. If your kundalini were awakened, she would piss on that parade for a few years until you learned how worthless and pointless and burdensome self esteem is. If writing is so blissfull then you are tapping into higher mind, but I think you exaggerate how wonderful it is, and I think Bukowski would agree. Hope I'm wrong, and it feels that good to write, and can use it as a path to liberation. Everyone's path is different, and there are many twists and turns.

Dualistic or samsaric good behavior, such as our personal daily striving to show compassion or love gets a bad rap that it doesn't merit. From the point of view of ultimate absolute unconditional love of someone who is realized, its a bit tawdry or synthetic. But the bit by bit, situation by situation, thought by thought, impression by impression, dream by dream, posture, gesticulation, face, eye expressions, those slim little energy impressions that you have in your body moment to moment, all of this counts. Its not about karma, thats just a reductionist expression so we dont get lost in the complexity. Its about redoing your conditioning, and ridding your consciousness and body of those complexes, triggers, knots, of negativity so the love can shine through. Its about noticing the negative parts, stopping, and changing it. The good part of this is, if you are able to change the strong habit energy of one particular situation, there is a kind of elastic band snap effect that allows you to progress in a big way. What I mean is, it helps you more to have had a problem and undone it, than to have been neutral all along. This is why really messed up people are often the ones who can make the quickest progress. Meditation and energy practices do this slowly and thoroughly over the long term. The deeper state of meditation the more garbage gets resolved.

I use the words Taoist, Buddhist, Tibetan, Qigong, to describe to other people about my practises, but my main practices predate all the isms. So, really really ancient, or primordial. Out of sheer laziness, I just say, um, yeah, kind of like Tibetan Buddhist practises, you heard of that? No. Ok. How about qigong, thats like Taichi but less movement. Better than saying, well its many many thousands of years old, before recorded history, transmitted by deities for whom our earth time has little meaning. This is what I spend hours per day doing. You want to have people look at you askance, like a bowl of fruit loops, say that.

A good example that illustrates this is polygraph tests, which are so good at measuring lies because they measure how the body is somehow upset by this wrong behavior. If telling the truth and lying were the same, the body wouldn't be stressed, and show up on the polygraph measurements.

The translate option on your browser? (I use google chrome) Theres a martial art bookstore with some English books at Chongqing South Road, Taipei, No. 63, 5th Floor, Room 501 that is called http://www.lionbooks.com.tw/ Lots of times there is pamphets from teachers who have ongoing classes, in Chinese of course.

Ah ha ha. Yep. Happy Family, Taipei hostel, thats before I discovered the grungy hotels behind the station rented by the month. www.tealit.com to find aparments, also http://rent.591.com.tw/, and a site called Rakuya, and also Yahoo Taiwan called Chimo has listings somewhere if you can navigate it. Not like the old days where we had to schlep around areas looking at red colored notices.

Songtsan, you are cool too. And Cat is a treasure chest of good insights except she overstates the value of my blurbs. Apech, you are right of course about doubt needed for searching and understanding, and life and path. I am using the word "doubt" in another level of abstraction. The word "trust" is meant to symbolize a launching pad to an emotional state that is akin to a spiritual state. A state of innocent apprehension, "this is this." Buddha holding up the flower and smiling. Here, "doubts" are bad because they shake the state of "trust", and you go from a relatively blissful, enlightened feeling state back to a relatively egocentric state in a heartbeat. The cultivation practice or angle is that we can practice feeling deep trust by accessing it internally in meditation, and perhaps expanding it into daily life. And it only works "in the now." And yes Cat, it was hard-won. If you can imagine all the years practicing worry and doubt, until I hit the wall, or Kundalini turned up the volume. It just was so unbearable I thought, why don't I start with just practicing trust, and in the now, because that's all I can control.