wenwu

ok, so i have been practicing being present in every moment, it's is ok so far, not great i still need a lot of practice to catch when mind my is drifting, I have noticed tht these days when my mind does start to wander is is far more forceful than before, i find myself cmpletely lost in day dreams and have to really switch on (or off depending which way you look at it) anyway... for you guys that are better at this than myself, how do you stay present and give complete attention when you are doing two things at the same time? I know this sounds like a silly questions but today i was eating and reading a book at the same time and i found if i concentrated on eating i lost my place in the story and if i set my mind on the book i lost the focus on my eating. I know the simple answer is don't read and eat at the same time but what about other examples or times when you have to multitask? thanks for any help you can give me on this or just help on staying present in general

to talk about enlightenment gives some thing a tangable quality that makes people chase it and not reach it there are only practices which might help you reach it, when you get there you will know it, or maybe there are may levels and you will never reach the final one enlightenment= no more darkness

they lose the day before

funny ever since i started this thread i have been off beer not becasue of the chenical effect but becasue i don't want anything to rule me, next addiction kick, porn, hahahaha

wow so many replies kind of mute now but thanks for all the help my 2 cents for all this, if you really live in the now all the time there is no pain and no good or bad there is just what is, we only have good or bad because of the relation of what went before or what we hope to happen later, but the best place to be is now and more than that it is the only place you can be, if you ignore the now you can't learn. an easy thing to say but difficult thing to do attention and focus means being present in everything that you do, which is why i have problems trying to do 2 things at the same time but the other posters (sorry i don't remember your names) only when you thing of it as multitasking is when things slip away thanks all stay cool

what are the peoples' here take on sprit guides? As i have mentioned before on of my best friends/teachers was a shaman and she was a great believer in people sent to guide you on your path, I have had a few different conversations with other people and chatted to them about their experiences, this usuallly inculdes them slipping into a "no mind" state or what ever tag you want to give it and then seeing a figure or figures that they take to be their spirit gides. I practice meditation and standing qigong but i have never had any experience like that. I haven't been searching for it i just know that it hasn't happened. anyone no more about this?

Just a quick question, that i have been mulling over Is Yang always less effective/desiralble than Yin?

so short term it may give you light to something that you have to chase in more sober times? io would agree wih this statement as i said before a little quiets my mnd enough, but i woant to reach that stage on my own long term if you are drinking would it damage you, stop you from develping if so in what way? a simple chemical reaction or would it stop you because you are giving in to an external stimulus?

Thanks Taeguk through experience i know that there is yin and yang in everything, people have a habit to lean to yang becasue it is forceful and may be aan easier energy to manifest through my dealings with people i know that yin is often more effective. is it more effective becasue of the yang nature of people? if people were more yin would a yang response be as effect? i would write more but it is late at night/early in the morning?

Musashi did have teacher at the beginning, someone to set him on the path, if i remeber correctly his name was Tankun and he was a zen monk. His teaching included tying Musashi to a tree and locking him in an attic full of books where Musashi spent 3 years reading and studying and found the more spirtual path. or at least so the story goes. A teacher is important to lay the foundations, after that it is important that you spend some time alone consolidating the information and fnding your own way. after that a teacher will come to you

how do you guys balance your life, following the way and having a partner, i find it very difficult to find time or at least distrating to go and practice what i am meant to be practicing when i feel i should be spending time with my partner?

well done on dropping coffee for a whiile, i try to do that for a couple of weeks everys every now and then, beware of depression like feelings! as for tea, for me you just can't beat a good cup of Chinese green tea, it is the most refreshing drink i have had, and great if you have been out the night before (not too often) or if it is just a really hot day. luckily for me all of the resturants here offer you free tea with your meal

so i have started toying with a few things, Taiji is a great excerise, qigong etc but if it is only used for that 15/20/40 mins in a day and the rest of the time you run around with your mind all over the place we are not really getting what part of taiji is teaching us. recently i have been trying to put the same attention and focus in to normal everyday activites, such as brushing my teeth, when doing this paying attention to every little detail/ or at least noticing it and quietning my mind for a while. i am finding this quiet helpful in noticing how much i do these things automactically and let my mind run wild during fairly mundane daily tasks.

I used to observe many taboos, mostly brought on by the society i was brought up in, over time i hav realised that these taboos were mainly control mechinisms brought about by strong roots western culture has in religion. since then i have been not shunning these Taboos but not as strct as i was about them You have to accept that even if it is a taboo you don't hold, other people think differently and be offended by your actions, and rightly or wrongly you will be judged by everybody by you words and actions.

hi there when i was home i trian with this guy http://www.quanshu.co.uk/ he is know as one of the best in the country in Daoist arts and the like, he is one of the few westerners to be allowed into the Wudang temple to see the training (not the tourist stuff) and organises trips to China once a year. he is based in the North of Scotland but he has students in a few different places maybe one near you. Happy hunting

i'll secong that, happy new year to everyone, and if you live in China, happy headache pills kaboom

does anybody have experience with with the 8 healing sound or the lohan patting methods. what did they consist of and did you find them effctive

yeah, extrenal styles go very much for the this attack = this counter, internal arts that i have studied spend a lot of time working on shen fa (body method) in this you are not so concerned with sticking your arms out but moving your body to project you arms, this way you don't lose so much of your natural movements. one the topic of one move, when you get to an advance level of Taiji the whole form is just one movement

i love readig the zen stories, sometimes just for fun and sometimes to try to get something out of them, i came across a few good sites on the internet and on one of the m was this story Whenever anyone asked him about Zen, the great master Gutei would quietly raise one finger into the air. A boy in the village began to imitate this behavior. Whenever he heard people talking about Gutei's teachings, he would interrupt the discussion and raise his finger. Gutei heard about the boy's mischief. When he saw him in the street, he seized him and cut off his finger. The boy cried and began to run off, but Gutei called out to him. When the boy turned to look, Gutei raised his finger into the air. At that moment the boy became enlightened. i really dont get this one on any level, does it make sense to anyone else?

great to have another seeker around, bet i can out odd you on the questions though

hey guy i am quite interesting in this practice to and the tensing of the p muscle is part of the qi gon that i practice. just a quick question is this one of those practices that are dabgerous if you try them without proper instruction? btw feinandong i notice you are in Dengfeng are you practicing shaolin gong fu? if so who are you practcing with if you don't mind me asking?

i am by no means an expert but i'll through in my 2 cents feet shoulder width part and legs slightly bent, this activates sinking of your qi no mater what you are doing with your hands they should be as relaxed as possible, this will make arms feel heavy to you as you are using less muscle than usual to hold them up you should push your head up gently (like you are trying to make yourself taller) in turn this will relax your shoulders your spine should be a stright as possible, you will not be able to get it perfectly straight so dont panic, but make sure that the centre of your head (bai hui point) is above the point just behind your testicle (some other chinese name) and these points are in turn above a line between your feet, it is a common mistake that people start leaning back when they start studying as for the breathing first "hollow your chest and open your back", you do this by pushing your shoulders a little forward, this stops you from breathing with your chest and makes you breath with your stomach naturally. lose all ego about having a pot belly and let it all hang out duirng qigong you will have many duifferent sensations but if i tell you what i feel you might start looking for it and maybe imagine that someting si happening to you, better you let us know what you feel and we can tell you if we feel it too lastly once you are in a posture that you feel comfortable with forget everything and just breath, you can come back and check your posture later to see if you have shifted and then correct it but don't get too stressed out and friend of mine almost passed out becasue he was too concerned with having the perfect posture during his practice hope this helps

yeah right on with the gate story no future, no hope, only the present moment

first all all well done on getting back into training if you are taking from a fight perpestive then most good fighter and especially the great fighters of the past had one move that they used, i have asked myself te same question a few times the truth is (at least for me) that the forms are mainly a system of movement they teach you how to use your body in a number of different ways to create power in all sorts of directions and situations, martial arts were not created for one person, or body type they were added to and taken away from by many people before we got what we have now. so within the forms we all have the one move that we like, but if we don't know the other moves we may not get a chance to use our favorite. sorry i my post is meandering a little, i ahve had a valentines drink or 2 with my beautiful girlfriend will post more later

my current take ont he story is this: while the young boy was running around making fun of the old man is attention was always on the old man, by cutting the boys finger off he brought the boys attention back to himself, the man raises his finger at the end to show to keep his attention in the present and on himself not let it wander to other people i expect my answer will change next week bu t that is it for now.