manitou

And being willing to be seen as the fool is freedom. It takes courage to be a high minded fool.

My guess is that the universe is expanding because our consciousness is expanding. And so very much faster now that competent minds have a meeting place on the internet, much like our discussions. Those of us on the enlightened edge are developing in consciousness because we're finding each other. What an incredibly fascinating time to be living in.

I'm particularly partial to the various translations that refer to the Tao as a bellows. Inherent in the outgoing breath is the onset of the new breath. And ad infinitum. As to the Tao blunting all sharp edges and untying all tangles, it may very well be talking about us. How sarcastic and feisty I can be - how very offputting to anyone who's communicating with me. To be truly in the Tao is to not be sharp, angry, irritated, short-tempered. The Tao is slowly softening my sharp edges, filing down the buttons that sit in front of me that I can give anybody the power to push on any given day. But not if I'm in the Tao. My edges are seeming to disappear, very gradually....not fast enough. My edges disappear with my judgments, and seemingly at the same rate. And the tangles. How can they be untied? Because the Sage knows himself. He knows his own intent and his own imperfections. The Sage trusts that the Tao will bring to him everything that he needs to fill the voids within, one character defect at a time. The situations will raise their heads; situations that are exactly what we need for our further character development. The ones we fail to pass, well they come around again. And again. It unties all the knots and tangles in us, leaving a clear chamber in which to process information that comes in to us. We will have been given the gift of clarity, when all is said and done.

A shamanic friend of mine in Palm Springs owns an art gallery. He would be all over you to get further away from the problem and triangulate what your community needs. Study your community in an abstract way and Create something for yourself that addresses what your community lacks. This is getting away from looking for the traditional "job" mindset and getting into something much more creative. Even consider volunteering at something for a while to learn new skills or as an entree into a particular field you're interested in. Say you love animals; there are many ways to volunteer within that sphere. Volunteerism leads to jobism. I once approached an escrow company to work free for 2 weeks, and she could hire me if she liked what I did. It worked - I was an escrow officer for her company within a couple months. What I'm getting at is that in these times, the onus is on us to be more creative than the next guy.

As to getting away from the Tao because of the postings here - I agree that there is some definite abrasiveness from time to time; if someone crosses my ego (which I do my best to keep tamped down but sometimes it catches me off-guard) I find myself thinking about their response - say later that day when I'm driving down the street - or what my response should have been. (This is sheer ego, I know...but the damn thing is there whether I want it or not). But the point is that it is because of these little tiffs that I get to work things out in my head, often times leading to a wonderful Aha! It's after that moment that love and peace can return to me.

Didn't quite finish my thought, I guess. A lady with cancer (this is the only cancer patient I've worked with that lived) was a serious Catholic; she was in her late 70's and was all aflutter about my husband and I working on her at all because we were on the shamanic side, not the Catholic side; and yet, this was also something she wanted done. This was when the picture of Jesus was not only helpful but absolutely necessary. She needed "permission" from her beloved Jesus for this to work; otherwise she would have felt guilty for being there in the healing ceremony at all. There's really something to it, I think....In that particular case, I had her bury a picture of Jesus and a picture of her son and his wife, and then say a prayer asking Jesus to take care of them. This, I figure, is why she was manifesting breast cancer. A mother issue. Indeed, her 54 year old son and his wife had been scrounging off her for a couple years and she didn't know how to get them outta there. She became aware of total remission at her next appointment. Who knows? Her entire church was praying for her as well.

Kate, I think if the person believed in Santa that would be perfectly workable. I don't know about any great work I'm doing, but I would use a picture of Jesus in the healing circle if the person I was working with loved Jesus. Same with Buddha. Or the Devil. It doesn't matter. It's just what's important to them, not to me.

LOL. Not true.

There's another type of kundalini energy too - I guess it's probably the same thing, just in a slightly different form - that comes out of the ground, up through your feet, and up your legs. This energy is wildly powerful, it's only happened to me a couple times - once when I did a healing ceremony on a cancer survivor, once when I was handing a pair of metal-toed workboots to another lady; we were both jolted by the energy and we were doing nothing spiritual or metaphysical at all. I was just handing her the boots. The wild pins and needles electricity came up through the floor, up the legs, across the boots, into her hands, and down her legs back into the ground. She is a psychic woman and things like that tend to happen to her too. I know there are methods for working with this ultra dynamic kundalini energy (assuming that it is the same thing in a stronger form) but I don't know them. The stuff that goes on in my body is strange enough. But I keep hoping it'll return for healing ceremonies - but it hasn't yet.

The form I was speaking of is the form of our spiritual paths, or more specifically, the form of the religion we adhere to. It's my observation (and maybe it's wrong) that enlightened people share formless-ness when it comes to their 'religioius beliefs'. They are gone. There is no religion, no structure. They've been transcended; the form has been used and re-used for years, and then one day it is outgrown. All structure (i.e. Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, shamanism, wicca) is outgrown because we come to the realization that we are all the same entity. Form then becomes a choice, something to be used as a tool, something we can reach back into and grab something we need. In a shamanic ceremony it's very useful to utilize something from the person's form of choice. If someone is a Christian, say - I will often include a picture of Jesus in the ceremony because the thought of Jesus plucks their heart strings and makes the ceremony more powerful.

I am such an airhead when it comes to posting on this site. Sorry for the double dip. Nashenas - there are lots of people on this site who could give you various methods for diffusing the energy in your second chakra. I would suggest posing this very question (about the stuck qi in chakra 2) as a separate question in a separate thread. I, like you, got here through a different path (more shamanic) but find that all the paths seems to meet here in some fashion. My way of dealing with my own kundalini activity (when it gets too fired up) is to lay face down on the grass and to let the energy drain into the earth. But it sounds like your problem is more complicated. Please start a new thread on that question so you'll get the really knowledgeable answers....

Or....It's all good. Hate to get so pedestrian on you, but my favorite self-imagine, when I'm in the Tao, is Snoopy sitting on top of his doghouse with the wind blowing his ears back. A big smile on his face.

Sounds like you're in a pretty stripped down moment.

When form is transcended, truth can appear. This forum is turning into the Room Where All Paths Meet.

I can't imagine a better internal description of kundalini and a better grasp at what it's purpose is. He infers that K-active folks are receivers of energy, constantly flowing. He refers to it as a vibrating consciousness which makes its presence known and is the eternal source of creativity. Just a quick story. My husband and I were rear-ended by a car about 5 years ago. I had studied various translations of the Tao Te Ching for approx. 15 years at that point. He had been on the Castaneda shamanic path for many years at that point. We had both been 12-steppers for many years. After the accident, we both "became" kundalini active thereafter (me, about two weeks later. Him, about 6 months later). Mine is more immediate and constantly with me all the time. His comes and goes. The point is, he didn't have an artistic bone in his body before that. Now, he is a wonderful artist that carves and dremels, and the ideas flow out of him. In my case, I had played the piano (by reading music) since I was about 6. But I've never been able to play by ear. Now....not only do I play by ear, but I "hear" the arrangement of the piece as I'm playing it. The piece comes out beautifully and differently each time. I play at some of the local restaurants / coffee houses in the area. No sheet music, just the music I hear in my head. This is directly attributable to activated kundalini energy; this is my experience, this is my belief, this is my Knowing. We never went out seeking it but it found us; apparently at some level we were ready. But I think more important even than reading the Tao for 20 years or him studying Castaneda, was the fact that we arduously worked the 12 steps of the recovery program. For those who aren't familiar with the purpose of the steps, it is to uncover your real self and let it shine through by removing our character flaws. This process can only enhance any spiritual path that one may choose.

Also, someone in this thread said something about the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous be applied to the same problem we're discussing - the reasons why we manifest lack. I've looked back and tried to find it but can't - But I've been a member of AA for 30 years, and it occurs to me that the 12 steps would absolute Kick Butt on the manifestations of lack. I wouldn't be surprised if others haven't already thought of that and started it...the steps are used for everything else under the sun.

My god, what a wonderful thread. What wonderful responses and incredibly different abstract approaches to the same problem. I LOVE the idea of thinking of a penny the same as a $100 bill. No differentiation, no judgment; perfect for those of us who have the deep guilt of being a 'have' rather than a 'have-not'. In a little anonymous book called The Impersonal Life (a metaphysical must-read which will lead directly to the I Am consciousness) it states somewhere that money is the perfect analogy for something else, but it stops right there and doesn't quite tell you what the analogy is. Apparently this question's been knocking around my brain, because the answer suddenly came to me; I think the analogy is ENERGY. Money, whether it's a penny or a million dollars, is a representation of stuck energy, just waiting to be used. How very Tao.

To me this again goes to making no judgments. Yes, it's hard to do. But our continual effort to remove that from inside us that obstructs our vision is the very thing that gives us the clarity we seek. If we remember in all instances that we are all One, it's a lot easier to do. The very traits that we find judgable and irritating about another are traits we have within ourselves...otherwise it wouldn't bother us, it wouldn't cross our egos and make us angry if it weren't there. The obnoxious traits we see in others are merely a reflection of our own selves in varying degrees. We have the whole menagerie in there; monkeys, peacocks, snakes, pigs.

I think wisdom is self-realization. After the self-realization begins to occur, (Know Thyself) wisdom is infused into our words and actions.

Hi Xeno - As far as I can see, there's only one thing for you to do. At this point, if you really don't want to interact with her (and I can see why...) you can exercise your forgiveness by doing something nice for her that she doesn't know about. Maybe periodically send her money anonymously, or if that's too close, you can even donate money or volunteer for a charity "in her name", if you know what I mean. But I think finding the most direct way to her (maybe the anonymous money) would be the best thing to keep your heart tender and soft, which is what it's all about. The fact that you are transcending and willing to forgive, for your own heart health, is rather wonderful. A nasty mindset toward someone else does nothing to hurt them; it only hurts our own hearts and spiritual progress.