Hi

[Todd]

I've been following this board for nearly a year, with a long break in the summer. People here have similar interests to me, so I find what you talk about to be generally very interesting.

 

I was seriously considering not visiting this board anymore, however. I am booked up in terms of practices for as far into the future as I care to look, and I found that keeping up with everything you guys have been posting was seriously cutting into my disposable time. Today, however, I found myself in a discussion of Shen in relation to Jing and Qi, and in attempting to express my viewpoint I felt distinctly inarticulate. It made me realize that perhaps there is a practice to be found in attempting to express the experiences I have with cultivation and life in general. You guys are already doing this, so maybe I could join in from time to time.

 

My vitals: I'm an oriental medicine student (2nd week). I started standing about two and a half years ago, inspired by Ken Cohen's book, and then Lam Kam Chuen's stuff. This eventually led to reading Wang Xiang Zhai's writings, then Bill Bodri's (mostly) free stuff on the web, then Nan Huai-chin's material, then working most of the way through Awakening101, on the web (still plan on going back eventually), which branches to Ramana Maharshi. After all that I still pretty much just stand. I am taking a Qigong course for school though, with Zhu Liping, and she is teaching us something I'd never heard of, Zhong Gong, which stresses standing with a hand mudra and doing reverse breathing with a feeling of breathing out through the hands. This is quite a change from my previous mental stance of just standing, but I have decided to give it an honest go for at least the 10 weeks of the course.

 

Looking forward to some interesting conversations.

 

Todd

Edited June 27, 2006 by Todd

[Cameron]

Welcome...

[cloud recluse]

..... Bill Bodri's (mostly) free stuff on the web...

 

FREE STUFF !! Where ? Tell me,tell goddamn you !! I want freebies Regards,Cloud.

[Todd]

Hey Cloud,

 

His website is Meditationexpert.com. You can sign up for his newsletter, which occasionally has lengthy discussions of various topics (confucian cultivation being the most recent, though I still haven't gotten around to reading it), or you can go to his free articles page, which I believe is mostly old newsletters. There is also a 189page discussion of the Taoist way of classifying the stages along the path, which heavily emphasises chastity as necessary in the "beginning" stages. You can find this by following the STAGES link on the first page and then scrolling down to the bottom. He also has another long (book length) discussion of samadhi, which I haven't read yet.

 

Also, if you find yourself with plenty of free time, there is Awakening 101, which has literally hundreds of links dealing with Zen, Buddhism, Advaita, Modern Masters, ect... as well as some more out there topics such as UFO's, Thunderbirds, and Shamanism. The introduction page cleared up some things about the different types of meditation for me, much more so than Bodri's material, and the rest of it ranged from mildly interesting to enlightening (to the extent that I am capable of knowing such a thing at this time). In the sixth folder there is a link to free book presenting a "comprehensive" method of meditation, which starts with breathing and eye movements, moves on to a mantra, then sleeping meditation, and ending with practicing the presence (I think). I would probably still be doing the mantra if I wasn't living with people and mostly standing as a practice. It has a pretty profound effect on either my perception of leg numbness, or else blood flow in my legs, because I can sit much longer while intoning it. Also my legs aren't asleep when I uncross them.

 

Hope you find something interesting in all that.

 

Todd