ShenLung

The same reason my bookshelves are double stacked, sagging, and fill the house, I suppose .. Curiosity.

I can certainly understand a person's desire to back down from enlightenment and 'live normal', more or less, because I did, but I also went into the experience with the intention of having an awakening. Working with one's energy is a tool intended to aid in the process of awakening, not a toy for gratifying urges, as you now know. Reversing it, on the other hand, may not be completely possible; the veil between the former illusions you had regarding reality and the arrival of some sorts of insight have already been breached. In short, you will likely have difficulty being completely normal ... but in addition to Taoiseasy's suggestions, other things to try: 1) no more energy practice unless you are going to use it for it's intended purpose, with this exception: using normal, relaxed breathing (no muscular contractions aside from those necessary to breath) Tongue down, mouth slightly open, draw the air in through the nose, energy sinking down on the inhale. No locks, no lengthy pauses. Tongue down, exhale through the mouth, heat going out of the body. It isn't a cure, but it might help when your head is full of light and you can hear what the cat is thinking.

I want to learn to be a better teacher I need to learn how to diminish my pride, while retaining confidence. In exchange I have a technique for making the usual cleansing breath very potent, I can safely teach this one now.

"...and let that be a lesson to you. From now on, when I am giving instruction in a technique, you will listen attentively, and not attempt the technique until I have fully explained it, and you fully understand the instructions. This is nei gong, not guided meditation hour."

One of my closest friends is currently planning on expanding his dojo into a complete academy, with living quarters for students, gym, practice areas, library .. the entire enchilada. During one of the planning sessions, as we were going over floor plans, discussing features, ect. he asked "what is this missing"? Among those things that were needed was a space for the creation of art - painting, sculpture, pottery and the like. Development of the whole person is very important. I would like to think that most practicioners natrually fill in those areas with the activities in daily life, but it never hurts to take a look and see if there is an area that might need improvement. Going over the plans, and asking "what is this missing"?

Dedication of merit does two things, the first of which the (nun, I think) spoke of in CT's video post. I think this is similar to the teaching of jesus "store your riches in heaven, where thieves do not break in and steal". The second, I will mention momentarily. In meditation, if one is directing the intention of aiding other sentient beings towards enlightenment, or wishing good weather and a fruitful harvest so that persons will not be suffering due to very worldly concerns, these directed thoughts do have real manifestations, and can so be called virtuous, or accumlating merit. Stopping to help someone stranded on the road, or giving a drunk a ride home from the tavern are direct, personal excercises of virtue, and also accumulate merit. A person recieving this sort of direct aid may tend to regard one as a 'good person' or virtuous. Too much dwelling upon one's own holiness, or seeking to achieve that status is not beneficial to a continued practice, so one might say something to the effect of "I am not a good and virtuous person; all the virtue that you see is owed solely to the dharma teaching". So, by this dedication of merit, not only presents an opportunity for another to learn of the dharma, but helps prevent the practicioner from suffering from spiritual materialism.

Conspiricies ... the first thing to know about them is that not everything is a conspiricy. Simple greed and incompetance compose most of what is thought to be a conspiricy. If non-powerful people can conspire and do better, the powerful could certainly do far better still. This I do not see too much evidence of. The second thing is that there is not one, great conspiricy; there are a multitude of conspiricies .. people enter into them all the time, both low and high. Persons and institutions do form alliances from differing conspiracies, but this is not a unity of purpose; lust for wealth and coveting power lead this type to reach for more. Thirdly, there are individuals of a certain ideological bend who would like to establish a world government - conquering the world has been a fond dream for many for as long as there have been dreamers. The character flaw inherent in the type may allow them to collaborate briefly, but since the desires of their hearts are based in selfish pursuit, they will never hold together for long. Building a tower to reach the heavens requires steel and stone, not sand and rotted wood. Finally, when standing beside the switch, the current in the lines desperately wants to complete the circuit, to flow through the filament and bring illumination. By closing the circuit, one does indeed 'let' there be light.

God is an interesting concept. Can there be such a thing as God with no religeon attached to it? Can God be what we call "I"? If the "I" conciousness and the "God" conciousness are sitting in the same place, manifesting, fulfilling, and recognizing the existence of all things (the 10000 things) what does this say of the "I" nature, and what real power is inherent in this? I am begining to think that Tao is just the begininning of a more comprehensive understanding.

Nihilism is a very pervasive trap; an intellectual prison from which one can only escape though personal enlightenment. It is resistant to all attack, and that enlightenment comes in only two forms: Death and rebirth, or death and reanimation. If a way can be found to pass through the self reinforcing delusion of the sufferer, then the nihilist might make progress in their current incarnation. The question I posed IS sincere, in that this is something that one would like to know ... it is sadly unanswerable within the realms of consciousness. The main purpose was, and is, to draw the sufferer out from behind the prison so that help may be rendered, if possible. Truly compassionate persons will be needed to aid here, since my facility is more of a lance than a bandage, if you get my drift.

I kind of tie this into Malik's post above .. mental discipline can come from more than one source, but for me (personal experience caution) it came from studying the way to freedom, a core teaching of tibetan buddhism. The author is one that, I would agree with him, inconsequential; it is what he was taught, and he passed on from that teaching that is important. Old stuff, translated to english. As english is my next best language, it works for me. Individual results may vary, of course.

Not to get too far off topic, but would you then agree that the most impenetrable fortess is also that which one can not escape? As a wee dragon playing in the clouds, such things amuse me. In emptiness, there is no mind to conceive of such things as logic, or cause and effect. Nor are there such intellectual conceits as fulcrums or levers. (no mind to conceive of these fancies). I'm glad you came out to play, but your strategy needs some work. Perfect logic only works when two or more are playing for the same stakes, after all. Love you

I am not an overly wise person, nor very bright. Please take your time, and use small words. This logical method of seperating cause and effect is something that, I feel may be of great benefit to many suffering people. (edit) even english is hard for me

Could you, perhaps, expound upon this concept in a way that would enable one to help others attain liberation from false beliefs in such a way as to disregard the belief in a thing such as Karma? The unbroken line of cause and effect in experience is something that we, as observerse of nature in the purely intellectual sense, have always relied upon in order to test theory and hypothesis; If it could be proven by logic to be false, then we would naturally have to re-order our method of determining scientific truth. Sometimes, "I don't know" is a perfectly acceptable answer. It is, at least, an honest one.

Oh boy I'm putting the theosophical waders on, it's going to get thick in here! Ponies! its all about Ponies, damnit!

Yes, MH, I agree that defining Tao as a noun is usefull for discussion .. but as Tao preceeds 'beingness' (not a word, but go with it) can it be a noun, per se? Bah, putting an experiential truth into intellectual terms .. not good for development of self realisation. I think we confuse ourselves.

Now there's a cult philosophy I can get behind!

Bah, I was looking forward to a conversation with Recep on pink-color love vs other colors, and how that relates to the feelings of the person for the other vs other for the person, ect. ect.

That, and I suspect MH will firmly smack anyone who starts regarding him as a diety.

Indeedy-do, which is what makes the joke so funny!

If, as man, one can open the concious mind to awareness of the bodily chakras, then why could one not open the concious mind to the chakras of one's planetary bodies? Yep, that's how we travel .. errr ... I think the modern termonoligy is "That's how we roll" Quit looking through the eyes of the tiles in my shower. It creeps me out

I think Laozi describes the way just fine. This is turning into an argument over minutia instead of a discussion. If I were Laozi, I would add this: The Way is like lightning; when the storm clouds gather, the path of the heavenly light is laid before the light emerges, the path is. Understanding is like love. When one is in love, one knows it with absolute certainty. It is not an intellectual realisation, it is deeper, bones deep - no, deeper still. Intellect cannot approach this.

Welcome to the forum! There are plenty of teachers here, a goodly smorgasboard of philosophies and ideas. Some of us are learning, too

I don't know this Josephine McCarthy, but there is a reason why thought forms should not be given a significant shape, to prevent them from developing independent ego. Mind conditioning should have been undertaken long before the understanding of how to shape an astral body independent of the self has been imparted, as well. Was this an outgrowth of an attempt to learn astral projection?