kevincann

TI, I'm no parrot. For example a number of people find value in what you say, and if I was a parrot I'd join the pack. That I don't find value in what you say (not because your facts are much off), but because of the harsh way you treat anyone who disagrees with you, makes you poor company, for me at least. As for AYP, I'm certainly no parrot there either. Not 'before' and not 'now'. Yes I was obnoxious a year and some ago, just like you. I was a self-righteous know it all. Now please do not take these words as provocation or insult. I am in fact comparing you to myself back then. And also, my perception may well be wrong in every possible way in this matter. You and I could have been twins back then, and in fact we tend to dislike in others what we most dislike about ourselves. I am SO MUCH not an AYP parrot, that I'm even hosting a get-together for AYP people to come visit, and I'm not even teaching any AYP practices; and the man Yogani you seem to despise so much was apparently the one who approved that function. The one change that I made on AYP, is that I 'got over myself' and stopped being a douche. That's it. I show some respect in someone else's house, and that respect is deserved. I would also like to show respect in this forum, should I post here much, which I'll treat on a day by day basis. So, TI, it makes no difference to me one way or another if you wish to be friends, it makes no difference to me if you post up a storm and do whatever you like. So long as a child is not harmed, we are all adults here, and I wish you happiness in every possible way. For me at least, if I see you post, I will just scroll past without reading your words. I'd rather read the words of a good-hearted no-nothing, than a harsh expert on things that don't even matter. I'm sure you will do the same for me, and then we will get along just fine. I love you TI, just the same as anyone else. Kev

I see no reason for shame and guilt either. But that said, there are stages of spiritual unfolding that require 100% from your sexual energies, and during those times at least, it would be wise to not waste your jing. Also there is no doubt in my experience, that conserving jing does give a tremendous boost to health and balance; again at least for certain periods. Finally, consider the situation where one's marriage partner is very disabled. In that situation mastering continence is precious thing. -Kev

My observation is that meditation-only approaches can be problematic once purification has caused sufficient subtle changes in the body. It is understood that making Awareness the primary focus, without grounding practices, increase the flow of energy but give it nowhere to 'go'. Being a dual-purpose energy (sexual energy), if you do not focus it for spiritual purposes, it will just pile up as increased sex drive, and then it's hard to keep one's hands off oneself This is why I respect comprehensive systems, which honor both "as the mind so the body" and "as the body so the mind". Love, Kev

LOL. The unconditioned mind is not afraid to be alive! Does not have to be 'spiritual'. Love it when false piety is checked at the door, and the saints and sinners play liars dice while cultivating chi! Love, Kev

I read the policy, and in fact after reading it, I used the 'report button'. Now, I'm not couching anything here; I don't play games. This post would have sat here, giving food for thought, unless someone turned it negative. If the glove does not fit, you must acquit. If you think I'm attacking someone, and not following the policy, then there is that "report button" that works for my posts too. FYI, I've had a few people post condescending things back to me, and that will never be a reason for me to use that report button. I cannot be insulted. To be insulted takes action from both parties. The only reason I'd use it, is if someone abused a child or something really horrific like that. And just so we put this 'into the light', TI was someone I liked and respected on AYP. In fact 1/2 the reason I came here, is to read his posts, because I was told that he was here. My first action was to consider using the 'friend button' for him, but i decided to read a few of his posts first. Fortunately / unfortunately this was the first post of his I read, and it so concerned me, that I did not hit that 'friend button' Well there you go; I had thought TI and I were old friends from AYP, and instead the first thread I see is all out warfare, involving the harming of a child. I'm not making judgments, but yes, I'm not thrilled. So, does that clear anything up? And I've used that post you didn't like, since early 1990, only when there was a white elephant in the room, and the room's air needed clearing. Yah, I knew it would piss some people off, and others to send me happy emails. PS: I re-read the insult policy, and it did not cover my post. http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?/topic/4237-insult-policy-reminder/ However, I kept on reading to see if there was more detail further on down, that could apply. I did find one item, #14 "14. Do not play guilt trips with the other party." Now I can see where someone might misconstrue my post as a form of this. So on this limited basis, I apologize to TI, you, and anyone else who is offended that I wished to point out extreme rudeness and the potential abuse of a child in strict violation of that child's parent's wishes. But for that, I do not apologize. Next time I'll not be so kind, and just speak with extreme directness, which the insult policy recommended. Live and learn, or at least that is the desired outcome. Love, Kev

Hey DS, thanks for the post. You know that people tend to find what they are looking for! You know, I spent something like 30 years working with 'chakras', and I never noticed the LDT until my body needed it! I'm not saying it wasn't there, but of course is 'something really there before it's observed?' (quantum mechanics). Lots of yoga folks would say that dantien don't exist at all, and Tao folks often say wildly different things about chakras; Tao seems to document more like 70 chakras than 7. Now am I demeaning either tradition? Not at all. When we start listening to the body and learning it's wisdom, we will get everything that we need. Now this spinning thing; I'm not saying it's not valid. It certainly could be. In fact as everyone knows, a lot of people visualize chakras as 'spinning'. Really, this just helps build the sushumna, as the sushumnas analogue in the brain is the somatosensory cortext in the postcentral gyrus, and it is closely associated with the primary motor cortex, which is DEVELOPED (using neural plasticity) by imagining motion but not doing motion. This knowledge is also Tao! I talk about the silent center of kundalini in the lower body a lot (not just the more traditional one called brahmarandhra in the head. But this 'silent center' is not real for a lot of people (it's silent!). So is this center accessible before it's needed? Well obviously not. Thanks so much for your interest in adding value to my questions, and I'd love to keep learning from your perspective. Love, Kev

This is generally a wonderful forum to rub shoulders with other spiritual seekers. Welcome!

DNB, that look would make Chuck Norris shit himself. I love you man. It's impossible to 'win an argument' with someone who respects nobody but themselves, and other people who just happen to drone the same second-hand knowledge in the same dead-pan condemning, condescending mantra like they do. You know, the folks who know every last 'secret', but somehow no matter what they do, they remain a douche. Letting other people have a say, without jumping down their throat --- even IF they are totally wrong; now that is Tao. I'm just giving general advice here, and I'm thinking about a general personality type; if this does not describe you, then you have no reason to be offended. It's not my job to judge anybody; and if you judge me for talking with kindness on an internet chat forum; why then you ARE a douche. Kev

OG is right! The lower dantien is definitely where that sexual energy needs to go. Unfortunately the mind and emotions crave sex for release; not just physical release, but release of all kinds. You know that an orgasm is called 'le petite morte' in French, meaning 'the little death'. Our beings, which are very unbalanced at the first, crave 'the little death', because we are in fact seeking the 'big death' (the death of the conditioned mind). So over time, as we open up and purify, the craving for the 'little death' wanes, because we start to unfold the 'big death' - wholeness - Tao. So in short, just keep at it, and over time, probably in a later life stage you will find it much easier, for the reason stated. Now if you have a great mental / emotional purification practice, which opens you up even a bit to the 'big death', that in conjunction with the LDT practice will help you a lot. Love, Kevin

I'm always going roundy-roundy on this one. Yes, all 'sensory objects' of ANY kind are temporary and will pass. But even 'temporary steps' are steps. That is the nature of all spiritual practice. If you watch jing or yang or yin 'do something', that perception is a temporary sensory object. But people give those kind of 'illusions' / 'delusions' a free pass, because some great person first convinced us to use that terms; and BESIDES, those 'temporary steps' actually WORK. At least they can. So, if the temporary step is part of something which is helpful, I do not look down my nose at it, so long as that tool is not allowed to become a 'golden shackle'. Of course that nearly always happens, and that's ok, so long as you get rid of it when it's purpose is done. Now people often ask me about all this 'layers of being talk' that I use. Well all that kind of talk has been with us forever; 'very special teachers' have used terms like that for thousands of years. Of course i don't give a diddly about that myself, but it's an interesting data point to consider. But for myself, the reason I use the 'being model' as a basis for a lot of things, is that my first spiritual practice I ever used in this world; gosh going back nearly all the way.. was a practice that shot 'fire' through 'everything' and lit it up like a christmas tree. After that, I 'felt' and 'saw' and 'was' several layers of being at once; the 'sleeper' was awoken. It was only decades later that I discovered that other people had talked about these 'layers' of being for thousands of years. Now, eventually, all these 'layers' of being fall off like a dirty sock full of holes. They do not matter diddly. Eventually everything collapses down into the body, until even the body isn't what it was. Everything is a tool; all tools are 'salt to taste' for a different person. Everything that can exist, does exist, and exists right now, including temporary beings. It's all a matter of what you go looking for, that is what you will find. On the other hand, if you just stare at your navel and say, "my mind is empty! I am Tao!". Well that probably won't accomplish crap. The nature of Tao is that if you wish to experience Life, you have to ante up SOMETHING. Ante up any playing pieces you like; and if you chase them around for a while, you will build up some invisible muscles you don't even know you have, and eventually those muscles will carry you somewhere; eventually to Tao. Of course some paths, some 'temporary tools' seem to work a bit better, or at least have some consensus, so you can at least have some company while you do whatever you do. After all the spiritual talk do I *really* believe in those layers of being? Yes, 100%. Do those layers of being matter in the long run? No. Just like this 'layer of being' doesn't really matter in the long run either. I hope someone received some value from this post; it was paid for with a lot of pain before it all became clear, for me at least. Love, Kev

The kriyas have always been operating in me, since I was first properly conscious. Mainly they were relatively simple ones, such as samvhavi mudra, tongue seeking the roof of the mouth, buddha belly breathing, bellows breathing, mulabandha and some other situational ones. I'd also be 'inspired' to create new practices for me to follow,then I'd follow them. These were mainly Bhakti-Shakti practices as I call them; with which you can rev up that fire on ALL levels of being most powerfully. But apparently I had no concept of 'water practices', so the fire revved up and consumed me for all those years; until just recently (see other post in this thread). It was more than 40 years later, before I even heard of any of these practices, that my body had been doing all these years; as I don't read spiritual material; I don't like it. A lot of it is fake. I've just started serious reading of spiritual material in the past couple years, so I have a mutual frame of reference to speak to people with, and hopefully to smooth over some of the (no doubt) vast gaps in my knowledge and tunnel vision that I no doubt possess. Love, Kevin

I'm really fascinated that these things are clearly known, when at least my less than perfect knowledge of kundalini yoga and other practices does not inform me, whether all these Tao things are present in those other systems or not. But that is not important for me anyway. I don't use systems. Ok, I'll tell you a bit about the alchemical transformation I've been watching, and then you might be able to advise me in some manner. I was born in a blaze of gold and silver fire; the gold was 'hot' and the silver was 'cold'. The light was tremendous but gentle. While I was being beaten and abused, this fire was my companion until I was about 7, then the pain got to be too much, the noise in the world got to be too much, and it faded away; leaving me chasing after 'it' for the rest of my life. I'm not going to blather about kudalini and all that.. lets skip ahead 43 years. Until not that long ago, the sexual fire was roaming about my body driving me insane. There was nothing in my tradition to tell me what to do with it, and my body was not properly processing it, as I had a stick up my ass, and had the delusion that I was someone special, which I'm not. Then suddenly my body knew what to do; there was this 'click' and suddenly the pain and torment of 38 years (since puberty) was over. Completely over. With time, I realized that (apparently, I'm a newcomer to Tao) the Jing energy was being converted to yang (or so I'm told) and it's being stored in the lower dan tien. Now I have 2 other things to mention. The (what I call and see) as the 'gold phase of kundalni' has been over for a long time; my body is at peace with the golden fire and it does not bother me. It's integrated somehow. The (what I call and see) as the 'silver phase of kundalni' is just ending now, apparently; my body is at peace with the silver fire that is cold. The 'silent center' of Kundalini, which is not in the body at all, but just outside of it, seems very active; most of the energies in my body are collapsed into it. There is a wonderful, cold-silver fire emitting from this silent center, and it's feeding into the lower dan tien, and mixing with the fire. This mixed substance is transforming my body in every nook and cranny. It feels delightful fire-cold in my every cell and thought. I'm feeling very calm, after a life of torment. This is what I'm observing, but I certainly don't understand it. I just know that after I stopped being a prick about 'spiritual things', everything just seems to be taking care of itself. Again, I have no idea what's happening from a Tao perspective; I just know me likee. I'd love to understand more. Love, Kev

In your profile you have your email listed as 'private' so you won't accept an email; I have no way to contact you other than to list my private email address on the open internet, and I won't do that. So if you want me to email you, you'll need to at least temporarily unblock your block on your profile. Love, Kev

Very nice. In another system which will remain nameless, there is the concept that all the energies are to be activated and to sink within the body within silence; then just live. Of course it seems that most systems favor some energies over others, so there is a disagreement over what 'balanced' really is. Although hopefully Life itself will do the final balancing and keep it that way, once the practitioner gets it within the ballpark. It would seem this concept is fairly universal. Love, Kev

I watch life and practice compassion. My body executes 'automatic kriyas' (automatic spiritual practices) of a variety of kinds, as required. Recently it has started Tao practices, even though I know nothing about Tao. I watch the body and document what it does. Thanks for your information; I enjoy learning things in this way too. Love, Kev