How did you get here?

[manitou]

I'm just curious how many folks here are here because life did you in in some way. Most of the younger people, I wouldn't expect that to be the case. But maybe the older ones? In my case, it was alcoholism, pure and simple. I merely had to find a way to live comfortably in my skin without booze to mask the feelings, which for some reason I was always afraid to experience or emote. It required changing my thinking about life 180 degrees. That brought to my attention the spiritual path. It was 1981 when I got sober, and I had to go through an obnoxious born-again Christian thing at the beginning. The evolution has continued since then.

 

Any other examples of seemingly bad becoming seemingly good?

[Marblehead]

Mine was rather simply. I was looking for a philosophy or religion I felt comfortable with calling "mine". Taoism found me and we have been together ever since.

[humbleone]

I'm just curious how many folks here are here because life did you in in some way.

 

Mine was a speech impediment - stuttering. It finally went away when I was 27. I am now in my late 40's. still healing...

 

All the best. good topic.

[TaoBee]

I'm just curious how many folks here are here because life did you in in some way. Most of the younger people, I wouldn't expect that to be the case. But maybe the older ones? In my case, it was alcoholism, pure and simple. I merely had to find a way to live comfortably in my skin without booze to mask the feelings, which for some reason I was always afraid to experience or emote. It required changing my thinking about life 180 degrees. That brought to my attention the spiritual path. It was 1981 when I got sober, and I had to go through an obnoxious born-again Christian thing at the beginning. The evolution has continued since then.

 

Any other examples of seemingly bad becoming seemingly good?

 

Good Morning Manitou-

 

Part of the reason I ended up here....life handed me a childhood of various forms of abuse, and then I managed to marry a man who abused me then my daughters in the same way I was abused as a child. He (and his entire family) are Bible thumping Christians. Anytime I argued about what I felt was wrong with what we were subjected to in church...which I did often, ended up in week long arguments. Then the day I found out about my girls...I turned my back forever on organized religion. Between the Catholicism I grew up with (after a very young childhood of being exposed to Zen Buddhism by my Japanese side of the family- going to Catholic church really perplexed me!!) and the hypocritical "church family" from my marriage...DONE.

 

Once I broke free, I found myself thinking back to the Zen Buddhism. Little by little, I started exploring other studies of spirituality. Looking back now, I went to what IMO was as far as I could from christianity to basically Paganism. Lol silly Bee thinking I was so HA take that! It took a while to just finally realize that I needed to find me. In doing so I found my way to amazing things. A new life with my children. A real love. Even to this day, I am still finding myself. The TTC has helped me with that. It helps me, everyday. To finally let go of residual anger. To open my eyes and see. I came to it because part of me was Tao without ever knowing..and knowing now is just AWESOME!

 

Peace and Love

 

Samantha

Edited February 5, 2011 by TaoBee

[RiverSnake]

Late in High-School i realized i'd become disenfranchised from my natural masculine energy and realized that when i pealed of the surface of myself there was a lot of insecurities and bad programs in me. I was being run by fear.

 

-From that day forward i have been cultivating myself in one way or another. My path has led me to meditation and chi-kung and i will continue practicing for rest of my life.

 

"The Divine grows from crap!" ME

[Gerard]

In my case, in this lifetime the events of my childhood would warrant a spiritual path for healing purposes, but it wasn't. I was always a very sporty and energetic kind of person and practiced several of the so-called "adventure sports": rock and mountain climbing, cycling and freediving. This last sport is the one that involves heaps of breathing exercises, mainly pranayama and other meditative practices. No need to continue what happened to me next once I started slow breathing while sitting on the floor...

[devoid]

My health was in rapid decline and after a while I grew impatient with the single-minded approach of my doctors trained in western medicine. Acupuncture was an alternative I tried that led me to the theory of energy meridians. Qigong was the natural next step, shortly followed by internal martial arts. As I read about the tao for the first time, my earliest childhood intuition suddenly had a name.

[sifusufi]

Almost a year ago I signed up, I was doing searches on Glenn Morris.

 

Thanks to all above who were brave enough to share.

 

Echoes of my life in the above posts...

 

Thanks again to all here who tread the path and stealthily keep me on it.

[hagar]

In my case, in this lifetime the events of my childhood would warrant a spiritual path for healing purposes, but it wasn't. I was always a very sporty and energetic kind of person and practiced several of the so-called "adventure sports": rock and mountain climbing, cycling and freediving. This last sport is the one that involves heaps of breathing exercises, mainly pranayama and other meditative practices. No need to continue what happened to me next once I started slow breathing while sitting on the floor...

 

Funny thing. So did I.

Found myself in Austria for the season of 92, skiing, and after months of doing the same thing over and over again, I found myself lying in the forest with my skis on, breathing heavy after a wipeout, and happened to stumbled over, just by accident, something I much later would recognize as a genuine spiritual experience.

And for the most part, it has brought with it a shitload of trouble. After that, things really didn't make sense the way it used to. And I've been trying to cope ever since.

Meditation, qigong, philosophy, art. It all ended up being this big pretense.

 

Only later, realizing my huge hubris of copying an experience of reality did I come across the realization:

how tremedously idiotic it is to chase after the experience of losing one's self consciousness.

 

Better yet how destined to be its own downfall any attempt to gain insight into experience by having an experience is. No matter how groovy.

And how basically stupid it is to work at something that eludes any understanding.

But I guess there's nothing else to do, like a mosquito drawn to a flame. No use trying not to get burned in this life.

 

h

[Birch]

I thought there was something wrong with me.

 

Then some misuse of qi-gong and "energy arts" in an attempt to rectify - leading to a K crisis. Then finding TTB's, KAP, and all the good people here.

 

There's still probably something wrong with me, but it doesn't feel half as awful as it used to And I'm working on the bits that need working on.

[Gerard]

Great to see Tao Bum dwellers teling their own experiences about revealing their true natures, real humans. I wish this could happen to the entire humanity. Unfortunately we all know it is an impossible dream

 

The rest remain like this, sleeping beauties:

 

 

I like to use this example even though it is just a movie. But hey when I first saw it I was still unawakened.

[The Observer]

I think I came here because I was looking for alternatives to my previous Sivananda Yoga practice!

[Cat Pillar]

I wound up here due to an existential crisis.

 

I started with fundamentalist Christianity. After learning about some of the shady things going on behind the scenes at churches I was going to, I was really disillusioned. It seemed like no one was taking this spirituality stuff seriously. This, in combination with severe clinical depression and an enjoyment of black and death metal pretty much turned me from Christianity for good. I spent a long time as a nihilist, and then was given a book called "Illusions" by Richard Bach. This book really struck a cord with me, and it made me begin to question my hard materialist view on the world (I was stoned off my rocker when I read it too, so I had a really open mind ).

 

After looking up more information about the book, I got led to a site detailing studies of NDEs. That led to sites on astral projection and dreaming (I spent a lot of time over at Robert Bruce's forum, some really nice people over there!). I never got into any serious practice of anything though, I was mostly just reading anything I could get my hands on. Eventually I came across Taoism, and I think my initial introduction planted a seed.

 

Recently I'd taken a hard look at my life and decided it was time to start taking responsibility, and also time to look for a path I could dedicate myself to. All signs pointed to Taoism (including a Tarot reading by a gypsy friend at the renaissance festival, interestingly enough ), and having been familiar with these forums from both Half Past Human and J.J. Semple's Golden Flower Meditation site...well, it just seemed a natural place to come to as I started my journey.

[RongzomFan]

life has been kicking my ass since since I was 4

[Gerard]

life has been kicking my ass since since I was 4

 

However, your "true nature" will always remain the same, indestructible. Take this life as another experience and enjoy your spiritual path, whatever it might be.

 

I like the words written by hindu-saint Sri Anandamayi Ma when she met Parahamsa Yogananda:

 

"Father, there is little to tell." She spread her graceful hands in a deprecatory gesture. "My consciousness has never associated itself with this temporary body. Before I came on this earth, Father, I was the same. As a little girl, I was the same. I grew into womanhood, but still I was the same. When the family in which I had been born made arrangements to have this body married, 'I was the same... And, Father, in front of you now, I am the same. Ever afterward, though the dance of creation changes around me in the hall of eternity, I shall be the same."

 

Namo Amitabha.

[adept]

I experienced a death in the family.

From that day on 15 years ago, my spiritual quest started.

I don't know if I'll ever find the answer though.

[manitou]

I love the way negative turns to positive in life. These very things we fear happening are the very things that push us forward on the path. This is the beauty of recovery meetings of any sort - the seemingly bad is not bad at all.

 

It's all good.

[devoid]

I love the way negative turns to positive in life. These very things we fear happening are the very things that push us forward on the path. This is the beauty of recovery meetings of any sort - the seemingly bad is not bad at all.

 

It's all good.

 

Hi Manitou,

 

Indeed the constant flux and change - the opposite powers rising and falling, balancing out after each extreme.

 

Re. "It's all good" I am not sure if I understood you correctly: Certainly, I don't agree that all is good, yet I will agree that nothing is so bad that it is not good for anything

[manitou]

I've sort of come to the conclusion that all this is, is spirit (or the creative urge) wanting to experience itself. No good, no bad, no nuthin'.

[zerostao]

I love the way negative turns to positive in life. These very things we fear happening are the very things that push us forward on the path. This is the beauty of recovery meetings of any sort - the seemingly bad is not bad at all.

 

It's all good.

in october 2008 "these very things" all came upon me at once. i had a steady job where the management decided to make conditions at the workplace so unbearable people

would choose to walk away. i also had a sideline hobby of day trading ....you can imagine how that was going at that time. the previous 2 1/2 years i had 2 steady gfs and in that october both of those relationships ended. then my breathing nearly failed completely. it was measured on what i call a "breathometer" that had a range of

60-800. i could get it to 80. i checked myself into a hospital and after 4 days of breathing treatments every 2 hours, the medicines i was up to a level of 150 and went back home. over the next 4 months visiting a doctor(western) using all medicines prescribed my breathometer ratings stayed in the 120-200 range. i was not satisfied with my quality of life at all. i remembered from my past martial arts experiences hearing about chinese breathing exercises. i started researching about qigong and medicinal herbs. i quit my medicines and quit going to the doctor. i found a book online for 2$ Beginning qigong steve comei. within a month my breath was 250-350.

i started doing a little taiji. 2months later 350-450.2 months after that 650-800.

i decided to go into baguazhang and try and keep my thoughts in taoist thought. i am more flexible than ever. i know i owe my health to chinese ideas of herbs and qigong. in my area there are no tcm practioners. i was able to find the info i needed online and find which books to order and practice. my outlook has changed , i dont even think about looking for a job. i am not on any govt assistance. i now own my own house since may 2010. i play bgz everyday and my happinessmeter is way off the charts. i am in a romantic fascination with taoist thoughts/ideas. each and every day since i got onto this path has been filled with wonderful new discoveries. there are many things on my to do list. manitou i agree its all good

[Marblehead]

Hi Zerostao,

 

Your story reminded me of the "fortunate/unfortunate" story. I think it is posted around here somewhere.

[manitou]

i've heard it said that when a soul is not in body, it craves being in body. To "feel", I guess. To experience sensation. So, even when times are bad the spirit is delighted to be playing out this little part. that just helps me keep it all in perspective.

 

Even when the seemingly bad hits, we can be reminded that all we're really doing is showing a movie to Spirit, or whatever we call it. Somehow I find that very comforting and it reinforces that it's all illusion anyway.

[The Observer]

i've heard it said that when a soul is not in body, it craves being in body. To "feel", I guess. To experience sensation. So, even when times are bad the spirit is delighted to be playing out this little part. that just helps me keep it all in perspective.

 

Even when the seemingly bad hits, we can be reminded that all we're really doing is showing a movie to Spirit, or whatever we call it. Somehow I find that very comforting and it reinforces that it's all illusion anyway.

 

Have you read Robert Monroe's books on his OBE journeys? I think you'd really like them.

[suninmyeyes]

Nice to read everyones expiriences.

Being raised in mad bohemian enviroment(not the cool one,well not always at least)as a child ,always trying to to and dreaming of getting away from home,than being a teenager with the war raging in my country,poverty and all that depression around with mum growing more and more alchocolic..When 18 finally able to go away and live abroad by myself,becoming a petty criminal(nothing too exotic)and there is much more -cant be bothered to write all.

By the time of 24 Ive expirienced too much of intensity of life and decided to change almost literally over night becouse a palm reader told me it would be a good idea hahaha.

I thought it sounded interesting suggestion and decided to try since I ve promised myself to try everything once.

37 now and never turned back.Meditated each and every day since than without missing a day .Sometimes a long retreats.Plus took up other spiritual disciplines and this all changed my outlook and personality(still metamorphosising) and raised me in a way.

[Otis]

For me, it was a bad back, and more generally, a body that was neglected and prone to spasm. Learning to undo the spasm led me to love sensing my body, and from there, to the discovery of an inner path.