manitou

This chapter says it all for me. The trick to peace of mind is to be able to walk around with it during the day; easy to do in meditation! For the sage to have the vision to see all things as they really are and what underlies them is the very thing that makes him the sage. It amazes me, after being on this metaphysical path for over 40 years, that at the end of the day it seems to boil down to losing our anxiety. Both physically and mentally. The 'religious' paths I took in my youth and the subsequent metaphysics, shamanism and taoism only serve to lead you to one place. Right here where you are. At this moment in time. Here now. It is so counter-intuitive to EVERYTHING we've been taught in life; if we just Be Here Now and let things come to us, it works perfectly. Perhaps not in the way we thought, but perfectly. It is in our attempt to control our future comfort by 'desires' (fear of not having enough, really) that things get contorted. Fear truly does lie near the bottom of the heap. Underneath fear is Acceptance and a peaceful heart. For those who are younger and must go out and grab for themselves and their families, that too is part of the cycle of life. I think it sometimes takes years of trying to figure out 'what it is', to realize 'what it is not.' I think that when the Nazarene talked about the birds and liles of the fields being taken care of, why not us?...this is what he was referring to.

TWENTY FOUR When you enlarge your mind and let go of it, When you relax your vital breath and expand it, When your body is calm and unmoving: And you maintain the One and discard the myriad disturbances, You will profit and not be enticed by it, You will see harm and not be frightened by it. Relaxed and unwound, yet acutely sensitive, In solitude you delight in your own person. This is called "revolving the vital breath"; Your thoughts and deeds seem heavenly.

Thanks for the thanks, StrawDog - I'm coming to the end of it pretty soon - two more chapters. This has also been a bit of a journey into self.

I think the sage takes everyone for what they are, good or bad. The sage sees the bad for the bad, only he reacts with love to the perceived bad. He knows that underlying all that manure is a pony. The sage is smart enough to know how much of himself to give....it is not a naivete that he still deals with those who are bad. He is capable of loving them regardless of what they are doing because he knows we are all One and that perceived bad person (the person you can't 'trust') is really just another phase of himself. And when we say we can't trust someone? What do we really mean? Trust them to do what? Always see things our way? Always put our needs in front of his? That's not realistic. The sage knows that you can only Trust someeone to be themselves. By acquiring this type of vision, the sage knows exactly how to deal with each and every situation by Not-Doing. The ones whose intents are highly visible, those you can't 'trust', are the easiest to see coming. The sage knows what he's doing, and I wouldn't worry about his naivete for one minute.

Hi Brion - I never had a chance to thank you for your individualized assistance you gave during the seminar. Thanks! And it was very nice meeting you and everyone else...

Enlarging our mind and letting go of it would be the same as stopping the categorization of things into good and evil, good and bad, superior or inferior, first or last. It would be the ability to stop the discrimination of what we love and what we don't love. When we relax our vital breath and expand it, we are in consciousness becoming One with all of the 10,000 things. The profit we receive, I believe, is control over our thoughts. Once our thoughts are tamed (no longer helter skelter) our lives straighten out into a nice pleasant path. We've spent a lifetime in meditation learning to concentrate on only the singular, or nothingness. Once this has been achieved (the ability to achieve the state of no-thought in our minds) this is when we truly see the profit in both our thinking and our lives. Our thinking becomes non-judgmental, we stop looking for things to profit us. It is in ceasing to look for profitable things for ourselves that we gain everything. When we're seeking profit we're eliminating possibility, as we have a pre-conceived mindset. If we 'make up our minds about something' we're eliminating 50% of our options. Making up our mind about an individual, for sure. To mentally discard an individual because we've 'made up our minds about him' is to deny our Oneness with that person and choose not to love him. If we choose not to love another, we're choosing not to love ourselves. I think this is why healing of self seems to be more difficult than healing of another. Because lying at the bottom of our mental heap remains judgment of all sorts. And when judgment is allowed to creep in, we cease being the Lover. If the Lover can't find a way to love everyone, he cannot love himself. This is one of the 3 Treasures of the sage - Love. I think the trick is to 'allow' the profit, because it will surely happen when the thoughts are aligned. We will no longer be enticed by disturbance of any sort, by the seeking of profit and pleasure. As to delighting in our own person, this seems to be what's waiting at the trail's end for us. The ability to Be Here Now, to need nothing other than the awareness of the One - no need for entertainment by artificial means; it is the awareness of Joy that life has to offer, and the willingness to accept it in full measure. It's just not what we think it is after chasing after the illusive dreams for so many years. It's something much closer, much more immediate, and infused with love for nature, for our brothers, and for our self.

Incredibly put, Aaron. I Am. It lies there in its totality.

The balance of a butterfly landing on a bubble.

This chapter seems to be an extension of the previous one, 22, where it continues about the balance and alignment of the human being. I think although this chapter talks specifically about 'eating', that the principles can be applied to how we process all information that comes in (mental eating). Overfilling ourselves with too much external knowledge also impairs our vital energy, such that the essence can't be experienced directly; we are too concerned with the mental cogitative aspects of understanding. this seems to also feed our Ego to the point where we're unable to experience our true vital energy because when we accumulate a little knowledge our Ego pops right up there and wants to take credit. Over-restricting, on the other hand, is apparently equally as harmful. Whether over-restricting ourselves from actual food, or mental food - this will cause our bones to wither. I think of many people I know that lead a totally unexamined life - a life where further knowledge of self is not desirable. Like once one has that high school or college diploma in hand, further education is never an issue again. I do see them withering in a spiritual way, losing their vital essence. I see Christians around me here in Ohio 'withering away' because their belief is that once that Get Out of Jail Free card is given to you because you've accepted their man as lord and savior, all further inner development and examination seems to come to an immediate halt. I think the wisdom of older people (the ones who get it) in losing their worries is partially attached to the realization that they have no control over the situation anyway. Sometimes it takes a lifetime to learn this, sometimes it's never learned in one lifetime. But giving up trying to control each and every situation around them is a difficult thing to do, particularly if one's life has been spent in raising children and exerting a degree of 'control' over their childrens' activities. It's like the mindset must totally turn around to understand that which we are seeking.

Thank you so much, Nanashi - and your impressions of Tom are most insightful. I didn't know of the significance of the trigram at the time I drew this, it was before I read anything on the I Ching. I've since come to read that that particular bagua is wind? (I don't know what Chen is, although I do remember seeing the word often in my recent reading.) I believe the true artist within is the one that wants to come out without forethought - it seems to want to capture the synchronicity of the moment. Your style of painting and mine are similar in that sense. An exercise I've been recently doing is playing the keyboard with my eyes closed. Finding order in the chaos is a challenge that continues to amaze me.

Very nice, CT. Be here now.

If we buy into the idea of All being One, then there is only one possible conclusion. We are the direct manifestation of It. We are It. We are the eyes and ears of It. Maybe the fact that it appears that the edges of our universe are expanding is really our mutual consciousness expanding. To know that we are It only works if the ego has been tamed, capable of being transcended, or sidestepped. In all cases, this involves not reacting out of ego when the 'We are It' question arises; particularly when it comes to the individual human being. Ego and an untamed thought process will degenerate the "We are It" mindset, in which manifestations are truly possible. A true humility must be reached first - a humility that is borne from seeing ourselves as we really are - warts and all - and working on those obstructions that keep us from the One realization. Fear must be tamed as well. To try and stay in the Now without fear moment to moment is the challenge. Fear is at the bottom of Anger (fear of not having something in particular, which warps into a type of anger and control). Total love must be the prize, I think. Love is Fearless and Egoless, in its purest state. How can anything or anybody be hated if We are in awareness that we're all One? And the bizarre thing is that the very hardest person to really Love is ourselves - I think this is why it's hard for us to heal ourselves - usually it's easier with another person. But to generate that kind of healing love for ourselves? That's nearly asking the impossible.

The meaning of qi you describe above sounds identical to the indigenous native American's idea of manitou. It is the substance which underlies everything.

This is a type of art that comes out of the ethers. I did this without looking at the paper I was drawing on, but by putting my ink to paper, just looking at Tom. what I know of Tom was that he was a U.S. Marshall, he's recently retired, and he's clueless. He's lost in a world of darkness right now because he's changing and doesn't realize it. The picture was done also by letting my hand have full sway over where it wanted to go. What occurs is that strange shapes come out of the background, which are telling about the subject. Tom is half Chinese, on his father's side. He swears by the pharmacists of TCM, and he does honor this form of medicine. But his attitude is still very cop-like and he's judgmental toward everyone and everybody. The background information contained within the picture reads from upper right (to where the Marshall's star is), down from the star (note the backward smokey question-mark which seems to illustrate his cluelessness - he doesn't even know the questions to ask. He's still all cop. The right side of the picture shows him wearing a military style garment; the buttons appear to be coin-like, which I interpret as 'change', since they resemble coins. The cup at the bottom right is for the Karma Cafe in Pennsylvania, where he has met all of us strange types. There's a part of him that blows us off, but there's another part of him that's intrigued by the ethereal discussions we get into at the Karma. The 'drain' on the lower left (that's what I thought it was when the form first presented in the drawing) - I interpreted it at the time that his old cop identity was ready to go 'down the drain'. Little did I realize at the time of this painting that the 'drain' is actually a bagua for wind? The winds of change? Also, if you notice up on the right shoulder (it would be his actual left shoulder) that his uniform has a dark spot in it, as though it is 'coming apart at the seams'. I believe this to be true of Tom's identity at some level, although he like to appear fully in control. The left side of the picture shows him wearing another type of garment - perhaps one you would more associate with an old Chinese master - that's the vibe it gives off to me. The fact that the yin-yang symbol being the basis for the entire drawing, this was intentional on my part. That's the only part of the drawing that was intentional. The green dragon on the upper left side (the end of the story from right to left) is obviously that part of his nature that he has yet to come in contact with. He is loath to participate in philosophical discussions about the Tao or anything else along those lines - yet it is there waiting for him. I call these unintentional drawings. The forms do come out of the ethers and tell a story. It's rather magic. P.S. - I'm so sorry this picture is so small. I'm really illiterate when it comes to resizing things and inserting things. This was the best I could do

This chapter strikes me a little because it shows how the physical is able to get the mental under control. It shows how the mental reverence (balance?) bleeds away because of the seemingly anxious situations we place ourselves in. Or, in some cases, our choice of perception. How very easy it is to get anxious at today's affairs and let the news of the world bleed our balance away. We must always keep in mind that these items are merely the perceptions of others that we are seeing; that for every anxious moment we have worrying about something, there is something equally wonderful on the other end of the scale that we're ignoring. We choose to live in fear, seems to be our path - until we figure out otherwise. It seems that life has provided us with the things that return us to harmony, if we choose to alter our inner course. Music, poetry, rites - those things that filter out the inharmonious and send us back to the One. Total focus on something other than the perceived problem. When you are inwardly tranquil and outwardly reverent You are able to return to your innate nature And this nature will become greatly stable. I like this part a lot. To return to our innate nature is to return to the child's mindset. Not in the sense that we become petulant, demanding, and cry easy. In the sense that we have made no judgment and everything out there is 'good', in the mind of the child. Until his parents teach him their fears and he starts adopting them. To be able to reach out to each and every of the 10,000 things without having to either express "Ugh", or "Ahhh". The place of non-differentiation is where the balance of the Tao is found.

And aware of who I Am is...really.

Interesting translation, and it seems to ring of truth. In order to understand the uniqueness of a person or situation, one must have the same quality within oneself.

Fascinating stuff! Wouldn't it just be wonderful if spacial observation as we know it was turned over on its head some day soon? When the pieces start to fit together and we Realize that we are a cog in a wheel? When science loses its arrogance and actually opens its mind, not fearful of looking foolish?

OMG. If you haven't seen The Green Lantern in 3D yet, do so immediately! Especially you, Steve F!! We just went today to put on some 3D glasses and sit in the dark and eat popcorn. Instead, we were both blown away by the incredible amount of metaphor there was for every single thing we talk about on this forum....from energy, to intent, to will....Everything. Even the green energy ball they kept manifesting is a beautiful visualization for the qi ball - to say nothing of the 'collective' ownership and stewardship of the Qi. I found this movie wonderful.

I'll bet it's the very same thing. The child-mind I am now capable of possessing, when in Awareness, is the result of 30 years of doing the same inner work you describe, only through the template of the 12 steps. It all goes to the same place. The room where all paths meet. The place where the obstacles and obstructions have been removed seems to be the onset of the child-mind. The child-mind can be accessed or not at will. It is from this position that healings are done combined with Vision.

I think there's a certain component to manipulating Qi, regardless of how we manage to do it, that isn't talked about much. It's the mindset of a child. It talks about this in TTC, even the Nazarene talked about having the mind of a child. I don't think they're talking so much about childish things, but the innocence of the child and the child's outlook. Did you not believe in magic as a child? I think these things can be done when the pure child's mind takes over - regardless of the fear of what others would think, etc. and we definitely need to remove the critical mind or the scientists mind to have the effect we intend. This seems to be the lowest common denominator for attempting Qi manipulations, in my opinion. I think the methods are neverending.

I love to do a 'listening' meditation at the beach, where no one sound is given any weight over the other. The sound of the rolling waves is just as important as the sound of the seagull pulling bags out of the trash can behind you. Or the man hollering at his dog over there to the left. It almost feels like you're in the middle of an atom, particularly when you feel the warmth from the sand come up into your body and smell the salt air. It's so very easy to Love each and every thing at the beach during meditation.

I think the outer things we practice are symbolic for what we are practicing inside us. It reflects our state of mind. If we are attracted to stillness movement, it may be because we've been able to achieve some degree of stillness in our minds. I don't think a person whose thoughts are running amok would be attracted to stillness movement for very long. I don't think what we're looking for can be achieved without getting to actually know ourselves to the bone; to take responsibility for our mistakes, our prejudices, our judgments, our selfish actions. It is in doing this that the real human bean will emerge.

Yes, I can give an example but I don't expect you to believe it. It's one of those things that you just 'know' is in alignment when it's happening to you, but if you try and describe it to another, they'll blow it off because it's in our nature to be that way. Blow this off at your own peril, lol. Another woman and myself, several nights ago, performed a remote healing ceremony at the same moment in time (or the intent was this, anyway, even if the actual minutes didn't pile up exactly). She and I were in two different parts of the country. The person we performed this for was a young man who has severe emotional issues having to do with a formative female in his life; perhaps a mother, a twin, or older sister, etc. It manifests in his anger toward women and sexual obsession. We decided merely to send him a nice mature dose of female motherly love. I performed a ceremony in a mirror with a teddy bear as a proxy for him. The ceremony involved making a large circle in a darkened room with a candle under glass - to do it in the mirror is to see the contrail of the energy suddenly take form into a circle which lasts for several seconds. This is not smoke; it is perhaps the burnt image of the contrail of the flame burn upon our eyes so we can see the residual light. Once I got the circle, I pulled the teddy bear proxy through the circle and placed the teddy bear in my arms, as though a mother carrying a child. The woman on the other end was assumedly doing something similar, something where she could actually 'feel' love emanate from her heart to her intended target. When I was holding the teddy, I felt love in my heart for the young man in question. I decided to sleep with the teddy bear; to give it a whole night of motherly love; so I placed it under the covers with me, down close to my belly. I went to sleep with the teddy around 11:30 PM. At 4:30 AM I was awakened rudely by my two cairn terriers (who had been sleeping with me since 11:30) and they were frantically trying to dig down in the covers to the teddy bear. It was a moment of sexual excitement for them, if any of you are familiar with how an animal acts where there is great sex going on anywhere. They seem to tune into the ecstacy vibration at some level. This is what they were doing; and the teddy bear was emitting some sort of sexual energy that they suddenly became aware of. I can only guess what was happening at that particular moment in the young man's life....I think I know, but I won't write it here. But the point of this dissertation is that we did manage to capture the chi or essence of the young man in question and place it in the proxy. The affirmation that it 'worked' to some degree was the sexual excitement of the two puppies for absolutely no reason other than trying to dig the small teddy bear from under the covers. something was going on at that moment with that young man; this tells me that we did capture his spirit to some degree, and that our Intent for infusion of mature motherly love was heard.

The first thing this made me think of is the threesome aspect of the ancient Chinese way of looking at things: heaven, earth, man. We're in the middle, we're the conduit through which the alignment is realized. It's tempting to view this chapter as one for meditative purposes only. actually, I'm sure a wonderful meditative experience can be had right after contemplating this chapter; particularly the part about restricting the five sense-desires and the illusion of dualism. But the thing this also brings to mind is that we can take this deep purifying breath and aligned thought into us wherever we are, whatever we're doing. It takes no time at all to Stop, to breathe in with awareness, realizing we're part and parcel of everything we see. That the person we're angry at is actually just another phase of Us. When awareness and love is infused into the situation, the situation changes. When it says 'do not be joyous, do not be angry', I guess the ideal of the Sage would be to be in the non-attached mindset. To take all things as they are, not as we think they should be. As it says in the TTC, to see something in its entirety, view it without emotion. To experience things, the emotions must be felt from the inside out. As for everyday walking around, it's a lot easier and a lot less energy-reducing to stay in a non-judgmental mindset. Days when I can actually do this are absolute things of beauty.