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When you tap a bell, it makes a sound that is derived from its physical form. The resulting tonality is indicative of infinitely more than just pitch and amplitude. The harmony of the natural order is a radiance, like an omni-directional echo... It is not an enforced systematization. There is (of course) much reactivity seemingly demanded by the "corruption" of the world we live in. And make no mistake, the civilized world that people have made is truly fucked up and incredibly dysfunctional. But while an effort to save the world is indeed noble... in essence, it is the same shit, different day. It is the externalization of ideals at the expense of personal integrity. It is another easy way out. Forcing the issue is already at hand, expanding options for the issue is not. Animals are motivated to survive by the fear of death. Challenging this motivation will not be easy, by any means - however it is the purpose of humans to rise to this challenge and derive a new motivation from it. Consciousness growth is the increasing interconnectivity between word and deed and thought and action and feeling and sensation and intuition and reason - and so on. It is activism at a primordial level. There is a distinct clarity of purpose when alignment between intent and expression is cohesively supported by the harmony of the natural order. When there is a great dissonance between intent and expression, mind and body, left and right, etc. the chips fall where they may, the other shoe drops, and so forth. Unfortunately such dissonance tends to contribute to apprehensions of the natural order as chaos, which are further reinforced by the narrow focus of obsessive addictions - and that includes spiritual disciplines, practices, meditations, studies, and so forth. The masturbatory aspect of bliss junkies spending all day on the meditation mat in the beaming golden light of rainbow purity and magical awesomeness and so forth - that is not "growth". It is yet another addiction, another cage, another slavery - and although there are much more favorable results for this kind of addiction in the short term, the long term results are the same as any other addiction. Ananda is only part of the equation in sat-cit-ananda. The unbalanced or obsessive approach may work in the context of a personal endeavor to generate sufficient escape velocity from the machinations of the social order, but it will only be a temporary and very conditional release until the missing functionality regarding the totality is consciously restored. And such functionality will be restored one way or another, sooner or later... and in the case of minds which are enslaved by their own obsessions - it will be done unconsciously, as it is easily possible to dream that you are awake. The totality will extract its due from your life, regardless of your ability to cooperate or not. If there is nothing left over for you, it is not a problem for the totality - it is only your problem. Freedom is available, but you must be willing to pay the price. As human beings who can potentially die at any given moment, the opportunity to consciously contribute is an ever-closing window that must be taken advantage of while it is still open. The "cubic centimeter of chance" is an apt metaphor. The addicted mind, the enslaved mind - is not rare, or uncommon. It is the most common thing, it is the lowest common denominator between ALL peoples. Starting with the victorious/defeated scenario of self-importance/self-pity, the spikes get driven in early, and they get driven in deep.

That's correct,...Buddhists authorities or the sutras, are merely pointers. For Avalokiteshvara, her inquiry through hearing showed the validity of the Shakyamuni's instructions. Today, in my opinion, the utilization of light/relativity/quantum cosmology as part of the ground, accelerates the inquiry,...although from my observations, this would be most difficult for a conservative type person, such as: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Society/Conservatives_Deconstruct.html It appears rather unlikely that a conservative, as described in the link, could access Maslow's level of Self Actualization, to surrender and transcend to the level of awareness where Empty can be realized. Maslow's Self-Transcendance has been discounted by most modern psychologists,...just as that link on conservatives is discounted by most conservatives. All part of the "Conspiracy of Mediocrity" There are many "Transformational Triggers", which I've mentioned in other posts in detail, like the Just Because Club activities, which can help with the shift from skandha consciousness. Except for numerous rebuttals, most all my posts on this forum are pointing to transformational triggers. I have 37 years experience on the subject,...from Yogaville in Buckingham, to McKenna's ethnobotany seminars in Palenque,...I am fully dedicated to the liberation of sentient beings (from all their delusions). For those honest enough, I'm an admirable friend,...for those who are not, I'm perceived as an enemy of their hopes and dreams. As a Canadian said: "Waking up is not necessarily pleasant; you get to see why all this time, you chose to sleep. When you wake up the first thing you will see is Reality does not exist for you, you exist for it. Shocking as it is when you let it in, there is rest. You do not have to labor anymore to hold together a reality that does not exist; forcing something to be real that is not real. You and this life you have been living are not real ... In letting it in, even through the shock... pain... shattering, there is rest. Reality is when all you want to know is what is true ...just so that you can let it in and be true. Reality is not a safe place for you - the you that you have created. It is the only place where you would die; where there is no room for your hopes, your dreams. Once you have let it in, once you begin to re-awaken; to let Reality wake you up, nothing can get it out. That is the beginning of your end. Waking up can be much more painful than the agony of your dream, but waking up is real." V

Watch the Dalai Lama's talk on The Four Noble Truths (netflix). http://www.amazon.com/Dalai-Lama-Four-Noble-Truths/dp/B00005UO7Q The "key" to all Buddhism is Dependent Origination. The Four Noble Truths are about Dependent Origination. To understand Dependent Origination, find five Absolute Bodhicitta aphorisms, and repeat them numerously, everyday,...for example. Treat everything you perceive as a dream. Find the consciousness you had before you were born. You will never understand Who you are, until you realize When you are. There is no Present in Time. Between meditations, treat everything as an illusion. An Absolute Bodhicitta aphorism is a ground upon which Bodhicitta can be realized. Relative Bodhicitta aphorisms are fine,...but only address the relative. "Relative and absolute, These the two truths are declared to be. The absolute is not within the reach of intellect, For the intellect is grounded in the relative." Shantideva 9.2

Thanks to Shin Buddhism, I see no inconsistency in doctrine (not that doctrine is a reason to believe or disbelieve anything) between seeing the sacred life in all things, the drop of water in all life corresponding to the ocean, or the spirit in us that is the spirit of the Creator, that is, that is the Creator, that is, that the Creator is, or whatev we experience this as. I never felt like going for transmissions and all that stuff. I've been reading about Dzogchen and Rigpa, and what they describe as rigpa does not seem so impossible to realize on one's own with the righ amount of background study, yet they still say "but you can't know it properly without one of our transmissions." I'm just not buying that. So I'm going to go and get someone to touch me on the shoulder and make me feel nice and then strive for that feeling all time, when it's only something that already happens within me at certain times. Not to mention, as Seth did, so many people get these "transmissions" only to fall into the trap of all this pride that "now I've got a transmission, and Speedy's gonna do my windows finally. (non-westerners google "cause at speedy" if you missed that one)" when if this transmission doesn't even get them over THIS hump then they need to get granny's transmission of a slap upside the head for thinkin they's a big shot first. Hurts to know that the places we migt believe we can really get farther spiritually are just full of too many people that just "wanna be somebody" and they don't even get past THAT stage before they receive some super high double double transmission. WTF. The spiritual world has always been like this. Every serious dude says this exact same stuff (not that doing so makes me any more or less like them). Anyway, for these reasons, to whoever cares for advice (let alone MY advice) I say read everything you can and get every angle possible from the people who you know really know what there was to know, and then seek to learn more about what you want to learn about. Just figure out what you want to learn and then learn that from who ever and however you want to or can. Learn to love more, to fear less, to have energy, to dream and create, and to make macromay. If I can meditate for 12 days straight, thats great, but if I gained nothing more of what I really want to accomplish spiritually and otherwise from doing so.. ok, rant over

Yeah I spent 20 years doing ecological activism -- greenpeace, earth first!, citizens for a better environment, UW-Greens, clean water action, Resource Center of the Americas - those are non-profits I worked for. I got arrested at least half a dozen times protesting. I organized campaigns that got concrete results. The main thing I learned is that humans should not "save the planet" but rather Mother Nature saves us -- we do activism because we don't have a choice. haha. So if people are not effective in activism then that is o.k. -- there is no need to "save" or even "defend" Mother Nature because she will always win in the end. Activists tend to get neurotic and are over-stressed, etc. but there's also a controlling dynamic going on -- and the thing is that it is important to achieve results - public results on the record -- but at the same time people often get confused -- seeing it as a materialist power struggle. So if a person gets results then that person must want to just get personal power. haha. This causes organizations to have internal power struggles -- all the time. Most people involved with non-profits in activism just want a decent job that will ideally get them a decent house and a car. So the "American Dream" lives on in the non-profit scene. The lessons from Mother Nature are too radical for the modern city dweller -- we take our power for granted. I live in the country now - we lose our power regularly. All the shit of humans gets wasted into clean water when it should be composted into fertilizer. So when we run out of oil then these lessons will hit hard. Yeah Mother Nature will win -- human civilization is just like a catastrophe of extinction on Earth -- like a comet hitting Earth or a supervolcano going off. In the biogeochemical cycles that cover the billions of years of life on earth -- most of life is microscopic bacteria. So if evolution starts over without humans - that is a normal process. As for our spiritual nature -- the astral spirit needs strong electromagnetic chi energy to power it. Only very rarely do any humans cultivate this in our modern times on earth. And for what purpose is unclear. Buddhism considers rebirth as a human as a means to gain enlightenment -- but that is only a small blip of biological evolution on Earth. It seems silly to consider humans so important when we represent such a minute amount of time of ecological history on Earth. Ecology is the real radical science -- and civilization goes against evolution not for it. So Taoism and the Bushmen shamanism and the indigenous shamanistic cultures are not human-centered. Like Jet Li says in Fearless -- the tea leaves may be graded differently by humans but the tea leaves don't judge themselves so tea is tea. there may be different levels of skills but people compete to better know themselves. haha.

An Ode to Loneliness: Left the house at 8 a.m -- going into the cold rain just above freezing. Ran down to my leaf fort in the woods -- an army cot with a comforter surrounded by three feet of leaves as insulation in a buckthorn pop-tent style construction with some foam insulation board and some tarps. Crawled in -- no space to move. Finally fell asleep. Had a couple lucid dreams from the really fresh outside oxygen air. Dreamt I was in my leaf fort only the fort was moved to different locations. In my dream I said - wow this is so real but how do I know I'm not dreaming? Then this pretty female with red hair and green eyes said I should kiss her if I was dreaming. haha. So after a nice open mouth kiss I said -- yeah that's too good to be true I must be dreaming. So then I woke up. Had a few more lucid leaf fort dreams like that then I heard the noon siren go off. It was still a cold rain and I didn't have any food yet but I had enough sleep now -- I had chanted Om Mandi Padme Hum before I slept -- chanted doing mind yoga while laying on the army cot -- for a good half hour. Now I ventured into the cold rain and I got a fire of buckthorn going in the burn barrel. Had to start it in the rain. But I had collected the wood yesterday so I was prepared. It was soaked wood though. Got it going. Was getting too cold from getting wet in the rain. So then I took an old kid's little swimming pool and set it upside down over a couple of trash cans. So then I sat under that as the fire burned -- had some newspaper under me so I wouldn't get too muddy. The fire was going good but the rain was too strong. I was getting cold. Back to the leaf fort to lie on the army cot. Laid there for as long as possible chanting Om Mani Padme Hum. A couple of hours about -- lying on the army cot in my leaf fort in the woods alone. Waiting for time to pass but then pondering how in meditation time could disappear. Happy that the comforter and the leaf insulation was keeping my body heat insulating the little leaf fort -- just could change positions on the army cot. The rain kept up strong. Finally had to see if I could go back into the house. Left the woods and went back to the burn barrel into the cold rain. Fire still going but almost out. Added more wood and got it going again - fanning the burn barrel to get oxygen in there. Then I was called to drive to Goodwill to deliver to stuff for donation. Was happy to get out of the cold rain as I wasn't that wet yet. It had been seven hours thus far for the day. I enjoyed being alone outside. Still being the car with classical music and the heat blasting felt like Shangri-La. haha.

Hi Link Letting go is a good thing especially as a stand-alone practice but the letting go part in samyama should be the letting go of everything else which is not the object/sutra. You know, there are many kinds of samadhi ranging from light with seed, deep with seed and deep without seed. Here is a link: types of samadhi The interesting thing on that page is this: "Entering samādhi initially takes great willpower and maintaining it takes even more will." My experience with samadhi from practising Deep Meditation has been "a very short bob" into the depth, like a buoy that bobs up and down on a stormy ocean. And upon returning, the mind feels like it is returning from sleep or a happy whiteout. And, if I do not bob, I inevitably progress through to the dreaming stage where I get bombarded with visions and dream-like videos. I believe this is the state of laya, from the quote from Patanjali that I listed previously: "called laya or a state of passive dullness leading to all the miseries of irresponsible mediumship. " Actually I spent a few years doing that, thinking that that was proper technique until I started researching it and found that AYP's definition of dharana is not conventional. My experience with samadhi from the Patanjali's classic samyama is like one meditation today which lasted 35 minutes: Sit in meditation posture, do some kunlun type deep breathing, drawing in the prana and focusing on the dark smoke while exhaling while sitting on a lotus in the middle of the blue sky.. 4 minutes. Short bout of Anapanasati, relaxing the body, letting go, deeply relaxing the face and watching the breath. Think the mantra "AUM". See the light inside the center of the head. Focus on the meaning of AUM (God's word), the sound of OM and the light. Lose it, so repeat. Persist at this for about 7 minutes until the mind calms down. The light becomes brighter. Sustain concentration on the meaning of AUM, clearer of obstacles, word of God, hear the AUM resonate, see the light. Turn up the concentration. Attempt to forge a steady stream. Maintain focus. The light becomes very bright, like an arc welder's torch. Tingles and waves start coming out of the heart going upwards. The light grows. Stream of bliss starts to occur. Body falls away. Mind falls away. Immense light and bliss, joy, peace... tibetan bell timer goes off.. rats! So you see, both techniques "work", it's just that they don't take you to the same place, do they? The goal of Patanjali's samyama is to develop concentration to the point where you can hold onto anything with a steady stream of awareness, whether that be an object, a sutra, empty space, or even the feeling of being. Without the ability to fix, hold on, sustain a steady stream of awareness, you just bob in and out. And from what I've read about TM meditators, they can bob in and out for decades without any self-realization or enlightenment. Isn't that the whole point of the exercise? Link, if you found something that was inaccurate, that was deceiving, that you were caught in for years, wouldn't you feel like you had an obligation to warn others about it? Isn't it your duty? If someone would have told me four years ago that the AYP meditation is actually a form of customized TM and not Patanjali's dharana/dhyana/samadhi, then I could have had the choice to follow or not. If someone would have told me that Yogani invented AYP, that he is trying to marry the TM and TM-siddhi program with Kriya Yoga wouldn't it be proper to tell people that instead of trying to claim that AYP is Patanjali's Eight Limbs of Yoga? Yogani says: link: http://www.aypsite.org/149.html If the eight limbs of yoga are so logical and easy to understand, how can Yogani have misinterpreted samyama, dharana and dhyana? And when I asked him about that, this was my response: Well, an understanding of the last three limbs of yoga has benefited me greatly. And it was obtained by comparing the AYP's interpretation to six other interpretations of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras (which all say basically the same classic thing). I am only interested in truth. Sometimes you have to dig deep and upset some people in order to find it. I don't have to discredit AYP. If one starts to closely examine it's teachings, customizations, practices, it discredits itself. But a novice would never discover that on their own. You have to dig deep and know your stuff... You asked... So, if you are unwilling or unable to tell us about the differences between the experiences of classic samyama and AYP's samyama, it makes me wonder what your purpose is here. What are you basing your claims on? What do you practice now? Are you perhaps someone from AYP trying to maintain the parrot and the brown-noser? TI

haha. Yeah you want the feet up against the hips as Wang, Liping detailed. I didn't know that but then yesterday after I did a good meditation session with my feet against my hips -- I could feel this amazing acupressure energy on my hip spot and it felt great -- like that's where my feet belong. haha. Still when I did my 2 hour session this morning then my feet slide down by my knees. Still on the thighs though. Actually then I was doing lifting -- you know lifting up your body while in full lotus. I could only do that for about a minute. I wanted to do a handstand in full lotus but I've never even down a hand stand normally. haha. Just wasn't that interested -- I mean as a kid against a wall. Anyway I realized it takes amazing arm strength to go into a hand stand from full lotus. I gotta watch that Eddie Bravo vid again to see how he did it. Still the real focus should be on sublimated and transforming the life force energy into chi. I can feel as my chi gets deconverted by people around me sucking it back down to sex fluids -- as that's where their electromagnetic focus is on -- creating sex fluids. So then I just go back into full lotus at the computer, even though I'm not meditating -- and that reverses the damage. Last night I almost lost the alchemical pill. Or this morning. Anyway I was sleeping and a dream turned on me and then as I have successfully done -- I woke myself up before I lost anything and immediately did the PV muscle flexing and then I went into full lotus on the bed. So then I thought I was really doomed as I also had to take a leak -- so I wouldn't have time to sublimate the sex energy. So then the energy was going into my skull and the tendons on my neck were cracking and snapping as the sex fluid went into my skull cavity. haha. So I thought maybe I have a chance. I relaxed and tried to bring the energy back down the front as well -- to purify it. I waited in full lotus as long as possible until my bladder was bursting. then when I pissed there was no foam! So I was amazed I had not gotten it stuck in the prostate as it was a close call to be sure. So then after I finished my 2 hour full lotus session then I felt the chi electromagnetic energy so that I had good protection during the day against the lower emotional attacks. haha. Oh I got it -- so when he went into full lotus with no hands - he leans his body way backwards. Wow. that makes sense. I was trying to do no hands while sitting upright on a big foot rest deal I sit on -- not back even. haha. then when he goes into full lotus in head stand -- I was in full lotus and trying to do a head stand! haha. He does a head stand and then goes into full lotus. big difference. Still I just sit in full lotus. I haven't practiced flexibility. But I do remember when the electromagnetic fields were really strong I literally felt as limber as a baby. It was really strange. I never tested my flexibility at that point - but it reminds me of how Dr. Andrew Weil said when he did LSD then he could do these yoga poses but then when the LSD wore off he could no longer do them. haha.

I would call an empty mind an imbecile,...as an empty eye is blind,...and an empty ear is deaf. Forget the intellectual jargon on what is "empty",..simply realize the emptiness of the 6 senses. The Tao that is non-dual is not empty,...it is Still. Yin/yang are empty,...all energy is empty,...time is empty,...the Present is not empty. As for me,...I generally do not "think" of concepts,...it's a distraction, and delusional. Awareness of absolute bodhichitta, or awakened mind, through the clear recognition that everything one perceives is a dream, necessitates an understanding of the feminine aspect of nature. Such insight is beyond the cognizance of relative thinking, which arises soley through form. Form, by itself, has no perception of the field that holds it, as a particle is oblivious of its wave, or the Six Senses ignorance of stillness. Shantideva wrote, "The absolute is not within the reach of intellect, for the intellect is grounded in the relative." Society-at-large is unaware of nature's feminine characteristics because thinking accepts a fabricated feminine that sustains a strict patriarchal, form-based viewpoint. In other words, there are two feminine's - the feminine (yin) of nature, and the feminine (yin) of man. Both are empty,...but the latter oscures that fact. Fundamentally, there is no reality of things,...just as music does not exist outside of things. But there is Absolute Tao, the fulcrum upon which relative Tao effects its motion. It's all quite easy. Simply understand the nature of Light. http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?/topic/19803-what-is-light/

What I bolded is exactly true for the observer, IMO. However, it may not be true regarding the thing being observed if the reflection is distorted by the observer's mind. Ah!, the butterfly. One of my favorite people! I have been a butterfly. Really! In Korea a man who constantly chases after different pretty women is known as a butterfly. Yeah, dreams are funny. And some people dream while awake! That oftentimes creates problems.

As Chuang Tzu so aptly wrote in his story of a butterfly Dream: I dreamed I was a Butterfly and upon awakening I was unsure if I were in fact a Man who dreamed he was a Butterfly, or a Butterfly who had dreamed he was a Man. Reality is a term that indicates only what the observer/experiencer witnesses. change the perception of what is observed/experienced and you change the Reality. Back to sleep now....I think I'll fly over to that flower....

The air above is filled with huge, thick and lengthy chemtrails that cover the atmosphere like a thin blanket as the wind blows it about. It has been good weather here so far. Just a chill breeze, no snow. Still haven't used my gloves at this time of the year even. Its abnormal the amount of chemtrails I see these days. Then when I see one of those regular big commercial passengers aircraft flying right above my head it leaves not even the slightest of smoke behind, when everyone says that the chemtrails are from passenger aircrafts, when these planes that leave the trails gain altitude in a way that a passenger aircraft can not even dream of doing. When people say that these are pilots, I still wonder why they practice right above our heads, when they could do that above the ocean. Not to mention that these planes never fly at the same spot twice. As if they wish to tactically spread the chemtrails over the atmosphere. Also when it rains, the rain smells like rotten eggs sometimes. Especially if the chemtrails are allot. What is the meaning of all this?

saying that reality is an illusion isn't saying that it doesn't exist. It is saying that it is like a dream or a hologram or, well, an illusion. it exists, just not in the way that it appears to exist.

XD YES +1 indeed, existence is a dream we are all creating the universe, together, whether or not we are aware of it; e.g. we are unconsciously creating on many levels and consciously creating on few, and that ratio is currently changing for the 'better' (at least this is how it appears from our silly human point of view, inside time and karma and all that good stuff) : )

Hi Twinner , Sorry to hear of your troubles. It is heartening to see everyones care and help though. I have been living kind of an alternative lifestyle most of my adult life till some years back. Mostly squatting ,living in communities and sometimes nature. Living in nature was less often than Id like too , but it is my long term project to try again and pursue my dream of living in a tree house and see how I feel. So I am quite professional in living and travelling with very little to no money , it is my skill in a way. It is possible, and it is possible to do it with dignity by working for accomodation, exchanging skills and assesing 'your 'priorities . It is easy if this lifestyle is a choice and not a necessity of course. Here are some links taht may be of some inspiration, WOOFING links etc: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:MZ-EEcdB-LYJ:free-wwoof.info/+costa+rica+vegan+farm&cd=9&hl=en&ct=clnk&client=firefox-a&source=www.google.com Here are some ideas in Europe that may be interesting for you or someone who reads this(dont know places in USA).. There are many squatted villages , especially in Spain (now sprouting in Greece and Switszerland too I hear) . They are 'ghost' villages in ruins where people have not lived since fifties or even longer. People get together and renovate them. They accept visitors and after someone proves to be useful and fitting into the community ,they can often stay and build up some sort of dwelling too and stay. Here is one for example: http://thatroundhouse.info/matavenero.htm However this people are smart and sensitive and weary of freeloaders and scavingers. This is their home. Then there is this for example http://falconblanco.com/, the guy sounds a bit wierd but he kindly accepts people to stay for free for long/live there retreats(just search the page , youll find it) if they fit in with the rest of community. There are so many communities that take on people all over the world. Most of retreats and sanghas in Europe have volounteers living and working there. I have lived in sangha too for a while although not Buddhist , but becouse my keen interest in spirituality and liking of Buddhas teachings they took me in . Than in Granada (Spain) there are caves outside of city that are inhabited by people, converted into dwellings, it is like a community. No electricity and such though. Some are parts are full of artists and alike. Some are full of dodgy caracthers. Another interesting link: http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/sustainable_communities.htm http://www.en.argayall.com/work-with-us/ OK this is costs , but its a good opportunity for someone with a bit of cash, worth mentoining in here (a friend of friend volounteered there and had amazing time and said that the deal was very fair) http://www.yogafarmcostarica.org/volunteering.htm I found this , dont know of anyone using them http://www.workaway.info/12634161864b-en.html Just read your post on going to work in Georgia. That sounds great. Proabably very big culture difference to Florida. Good luck.

Hi Somamech, Thanks for sharing your experience with the Five Basic Standing Flying Phoenix Meditations on Vol. 1. As several contributors have noted already, going back to the Basic Standing Meds after doing the more advanced FP Meditations is fine. As long as you get around to doing them all and experience their cumulative energizing effects...that's all that matters. The instruction that you got from your teaching in the Yogendra system is a very good general one. In any form of meditation, the goal is first to quiet the mind, to turn off the internal dialog. And this of course can apply to FP Qigong practice. But as I've explained from the very start of this discussion thread, once you do the FP breath control sequence and the posture and movements (if there are movements in the exercise)correctly, the energizing/rejuvenating effects will occur regardless of how you focus the mind. Once you start any of the FP Meditations, you can think about anything that you want. That's one of the extraordinary features of this Qigong: once you bring the organ systems (orbs) under the regulation of the subconscious mind, your conscious mind can be doing virtually anything. I will post his entire 1997 letter to me sometime, but a workshop student and good friend of mine, Prof. Fred Underwood,who btw was Bob Thurman's predecessor as head of Indo-Tibetan Studies at Columbia University's Department of Religion, wrote that the Flying Phoenix Qigong showed him what "the early Buddhist writings meant by 'touching Nirvana with the body'." Again, just performing the breath-control sequence of each exercise and holding the postures and doing the slow movements will get you to this experience with Flying Phoenix Qigong. No additional breathing method, no visualizations, no concentration on any particular aspect of your body or your physiology or on the cosmos, or on any symbol, character, icon is required to gain the health benefits from FP Qigong practice. For similar explanation, visit http://taichimania.com/chikung_catalog.html and http://taichimania.com/flyingphoenix.html I hope you realize your dream of becoming a Taiwanese farmer with your partner! Best, Sifu Terry

and at 1:17 approx, a young Jet Li, who does a fantastic drunken sword after his cup o' noodles. Wow. I did sleep sitting up in a chair for awhile, for the same reason. But I attributed it to my lacking the coordination that my housemate at the time had. I'm a real geek. I first learned martial arts out of books, you know, and when I started Judo my instructor had me show his senior students what I had learned of judo. I found out later they thought it was so funny! Anyway, I slept sitting up for about six months to avoid the occasional surprise dream, my housemate was sexually active and had an innate coordination that I would have to say I lacked. I fall asleep in the lotus sometimes, but only for a few seconds, if that. FYI, Master Hsuan Hua of City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in Talmadge, CA (and of Gold Mountain Monastery in S.F.) could do the one-finger hand-stand as well. I understand they sit 50 minute periods and then walk almost like running for 10 minutes. Get about three hours sleep in sesshin. My hat is off; don't think I'm going to ever do that, I will be happy to do another 3 days' sesshin in a relaxed style sometime- maybe! I think that looks like a good exercise, and I will try it sometime. Maybe it's pandiculation, I understand why Hanna uses that description but I guess until I try the exercise I won't really know if the feeling matches the feeling of stretching in a yawn. Hard to just sit where I am, this morning; I'm sure the sight of me would drive a lineage teacher to get off their cushion and come over and correct my posture, but I still have faith that the posture is self-correcting, from the place consciousness occurs. That's my path, and sometimes it gets up and walks around; how will a teacher correct my posture as I rise to walk, then?

I'm guessing this opinion isn't going to be very popular here but for me that film was a really good representation of the perfect ego dream or the image which the ego strives to make reality, as the ego wants us to be the perfect superhuman who is good looking, incredibly sophisticated and intelligent, very charismatic and popular with the ladies who always says the right thing at the right time and not the loser stuck in a rut like the character is at the beginning and it presents the possibility that it is actually possible to attain this image. So it is no surprise that people love this film as it taps into all the egos desires and gives it hope that they can be fulfilled and happiness can be obtained by such self improvement. If the film strengthens the belief that such perfection is possible and obtainable then I'm not sure it's very helpful spiritually, for me spirituality is about self acceptance and integration not self improvement. That's my 2c anyway.

Very nice post. I thank you for it as well. I think we tend to forget the influence we have on our own lives, believing blaming something else for our misfortune will make it easier, but in reality it is only when we accept responsibility that we can ever truly be free from "destiny". In Quantum Sprituality, one is said to create his reality by his own perceptions and that only through viewing reality as it is that we can break free from these shackles. It is by knowing that just because everyone sees something as it is, doesn't mean that it is as it is, that we can ask, "isn't that so?" In my own life I am experiencing great hardship now. I will undoubtedly be on the street in a short time, most likely by the 15th. During the day I am fine with it, I feel very little stress or anxiety, but at night my true feelings arise in my dream consciousness and I find I sleep very little. So for me it is only by coming to terms with my issue, both on the surface and deeper within that I will be able to find peace. Part of this is understanding that my fear arises from my perception of what a perfect life is and not what life really is, imperfect. I will survive, I have no doubts about that, but the fear arises from something that is not according to my wishes. Each day I am finding that I can gather more strength simply by accepting my situation for what it is and giving up my perception of what it should be. I am simply a leaf in the wind, the wind takes me where it wants to go, but perhaps I am more than the leaf, perhaps I am the wind also. In being the wind I can direct the leaf that is me to where it needs to go, but I also have to have faith in that part of me that is the wind. In understanding that I am the wind I must also understand that the wind will often take me where I need to go, and not necessarily where I want to go. It is only by not wanting to go anywhere that the wind and the leaf have their truest freedom. Aaron

People have been screaming about the need for campaign finance reform for decades. Politicians are beholden to their campaign contributors, not their constituents. Congress deflected the challenge by putting term limits on the books, but that really didn't solve the problem. And now the Supreme Court has ruled that unlimited campaign cash is protected under the Free speech amendment. We can kiss the dream of political accountability goodbye for another generation at least.

@Seth I meant kindlier as in helping people to navigate states rather than leaving them to figure it out ALL alone. Sort of like the difference between throwing someone into a pool to "teach" them to swim when they've never even taken a bath before and letting them play in the shallows with floats on. I don't see any merit in unecessary injury. Even tiger cubs get to play at killing before killing. Yeah, the DSMV is an, er 'interesting' codex. Irony being they've recently included culturally-specific stuff like "qi-deviation" (I think, you'd know better:-)) but what happens when a Westerner gets spontaneous teachings from a dream master or meets their spirit guides or massive synchronicity becomes almost a banal constant (cough cough) or they decide to pretend to be various mythical characters for various reasons (not just for fun)? The current bottom line advice is "Don't mention it" and my take is that if people are having trouble with the "neighbours" as you put it, they ought to be able to mention it and be taken quite seriously. Reasoning being, that mental illness like other illness very often resolves itself, if indeed it is illness and not just a different expression of being, but gets worse if you arrest the state with whatever. I'd also like to point out the relative increase in grey-world of what I'd call "flat-world adaptive syndromes" like Aspergers and autism spectrum diagnoses. Also that it's likely that our cultural selects for pathological leaders (as in "no capacity for empathy" per the latest neurobiology experimentation).

Yeah last week I listened to this lady doing "toning" and then I had this dream where I was singing deep from my heart -- it was a powerful toning experience. Then last night on cable they had the documentary playing "The Story of the Weeping Camel" http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6668096176688447819 my niece and my mom had been playing piano but I had previously told my mom about this documentary so I said it was on. So then they watched the ending == you all have to see it. It's amazing. How the music is used to heal the camel and the camel is crying for cathersis. It gets me every time.

Call Center Blues by Aaron How easy it is to get lost in the halls of this building. White washed with blue trim, the length is a long step taken backwards. And in the open spaces lay rows of cubicles. Steel and cardboard coated with tan fabric sewn to surfaces- a thousand monitors sit patiently waiting. This is the center of the earth, the well where buckets are drawn. There is only a soft hum of the computers, and the deep breath of the ghosts that dwell within the framework of a dream. Look out the window, that world is not yours, it exists only in fantasy. The trees are a commodity. The roads are vessels of production. The parking lot is filled with hearses, waiting to shuttle the dead to their homes.

Yes, tea brings us closer to the 'Spirit.' Here's a nice doc to watch: Meanwhile, let us have a sip of tea. The afternoon glow is brightening the bamboos, the fountains are bubbling with delight, the soughing of the pines is heard in our kettle. Let us dream of evanescence, and linger in the beautiful foolishness of things. The Book of Tea (Okakura Kakuzō)

i hear everything you're saying here, but i don't think you read my responses very closely. you're asking questions that i answered in the link. have i gone through similar difficulties? YES, AND THEN SOME! go back and read that page. Creation was talking about a dream, but i was talking about real life events and real spiritual practice. so yeah, first, go back and re-read that page. i'll make it even easier this time. Creation's post, which includes a quote of my original comment: http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?/topic/17753-seth-ananda-please-teach-me-about-kundalini/page__view__findpost__p__305139 THEN read my response, which basically answers everything you've stated here: http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?/topic/17753-seth-ananda-please-teach-me-about-kundalini/page__view__findpost__p__305158 FIRST, something that people don't say enough around here: maybe these types of practices aren't for you. maybe it's time to move on. it's not for everybody. SECOND, it's not about eliminating the fear; it's about accepting it. as i said in the link above, what i mean by saying i'm fearless is that i'm not afraid to feel afraid. and THIRD, if you don't have a teacher to help guide you through your practices, you could get yourself into a lot of psychological trouble. so again, you might want to think about moving on. i don't know what you practice, and it would help if you'd share with us what exactly you do. but there is no virtue in continuing with practices that lead somewhere that you already know you're not ready to handle. that's how psychosis happens. know your limits. and figure out what's important to you in life, because even if you succeed at overcoming this barrier of yours, it may come at a price.