Top 5 Revisted

[Cameron]

Back in the day I had started a thread asking what people's top 5 practices-'spiritual' or otherwise-are. Would be interesting to get an updated feedback from Taobums practitioners. What have you found that really 'works' to make the quality of your life better?

 

I noticed Bagua Zhang seems to be really popular here now. When I first moved to China I dropped in on the class of an internal martial artist. He gave me his teacher's Bagua Zhang book in English for free. Which I lost! I sort of took that as a sign that it wasn't my practice at this point in my life. Although perhaps later.

 

So for myself I would say.

 

1. Red Phoenix

2. Kettlebell lifting

3. Bodyweight excercises

4. Yigong or Kunlun Method

5. Standing meditation

 

 

What's yours?

 

[GrandmasterP]

Being married to Mrs GMP.

Our menagerie ( kids included).

QiGong ( was Bagua MA but I got too old and slow)

Kite flying/Zazen ( same thang but one includes kites)

Cycling

 

Not an especially spiritual list but I'm not an especially spiritual person.

Edited July 27, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[eye_of_the_storm]

Sattvic diet
Exercise
Fire Gazing
Solar Charging
Being in Nature

[Spotless]

Qi Gong

Meditation

Vegan

Media diet - ignore prefs here and in life - music without lyrics

Morning practice - of any kind

[joeblast]

1) the mindful awareness of turning the light around

2) the mindful awareness of anapanasati, so deeply ingrained it carries forth into all daily and nightly operations

3) energy center/taiji pole work

4) physical exercise

5) equanimity, the choosing of a path of happiness, reinforced daily

[Daeluin]

Media diet | Thought diet

Grounding and Turning the light around

Discerning the pull of cyclical activity

Activity to open blockages and avoid stagnation

Qi gong that goes deep but also full spectrum of transformation

[silent thunder]

drinking clean water

healing loving touch

qi gong

creating/drawing/sculpting/painting

swimming

[soaring crane]

First five to occur to me, in alphabetical order:

• Barefoot running
• Qigong (practicing and teaching)
• Sauna
• Standing meditation
• Walking qigong (barefoot on natural ground -- meadows, forests, etc)

Edited July 27, 2014 by soaring crane

[zerostao]

listening to nature

observing the qualities of clouds

wandering in wonder (sometimes beyond yonder)

remaining carefree and nonchalant

playfully existing savoring the exquisite moments as they unfold

[doc benway]

Awareness

Guru Yoga

Inner Refuge

Compassion

Shamanic Internal (Martial) Arts

[Taomeow]

Studying war

Studying war

Studying war

Studying war

Studying war

 

(Cam, you said top five, right? 'cause I have other practices too, but the top five are, these days, these.)

[MooNiNite]

meditation

weight lifting

drawing/painting

Work

more meditation

[liminal_luke]

Studying war

Studying war

Studying war

Studying war

Studying war

 

(Cam, you said top five, right? 'cause I have other practices too, but the top five are, these days, these.)

 

Hi Taomeow,

 

I'm intrigued. Studying war wouldn't of made my top five, though, now that I think about it, learning how to better relate to the aggressive impulse in myself and others would certainly come in handy. If you'd like to elaborate I'm all ears.

 

Liminal

Edited July 27, 2014 by liminal_luke

[Taomeow]

Hi Taomeow,

 

I'm intrigued. Studying war wouldn't of made my top five, though, now that I think about it, learning how to better relate to the aggressive impulse in myself and others would certainly come in handy. If you'd like to elaborate I'm all ears.

 

Liminal

 

Hi Liminal,

 

no, not that, no aggressive impulses involved. The impulse is to perceive reality rather than any which make-believe BS ideology or "spiritually" motivated indifference to absolutely everything for as long as it's not biting your personal ass.

 

I listed this as a taoist practice because I am convinced a taoist, no matter what else she is occupied with, must never slip-slide into comfortable numbness, and, discerning the nature of her time, sometimes keep her hand on the strongest pulse of this time. Know pulse diagnostics in TCM? -- this is mostly used to find out about disorders striking individuals, but the same skill can, and would, be applied to disorders of societies, of the larger world. You sort the symptoms broadly first: a yin or a yang disorder? External or internal? A war is a yang disorder, but then you have to figure out if it's the outcome of a yang excess or a false external yang manifestation of an internal yin deficiency. Depending on your conclusions, you proceed -- wuxing analysis, which organs are involved, what's going on with qi... Going up or going down? Blocked, stagnant, entangled? Acute or chronic? Self-resolving or not? Lethal or not? and so on...

[liminal_luke]

Thanks for clarifying Taomeow. Reminds me of some posts you made awhile back about the covering over, rather than reality-perceiving, nature of "positive thinking."

 

Liminal

[Harmonious Emptiness]

In no particular order

 

integrity of practice/mindfulness throughout the day

cooking and cleaning kung fu style (practicing no hesitation)

learning and playing improvisational music (practicing no hesitation)

qigong/taiji foundation practices

sitting meditation

[Taomeow]

cooking and cleaning kung fu style (practicing no hesitation)

I'd like to hear more about this one.

[Harmonious Emptiness]

I'd like to hear more about this one.

 

I'll see if I can explain it.

 

Basically, working in a kitchen, you can't hesitate, and when you don't hesitate you usually do things with the right amount of effort to do them the best you could.

 

For example, you want to flip a fish filet, you poke at it and see it's pretty stuck to the grill, so you carefully work around the sides to get at it and eventually pull it up with a bit of damage. There's no time for that in a professional kitchen. You have to learn to do everything the first time the way you do it that time. You have to slide that spatula with strength, confidence, and a balance of calm awareness.

 

When cleaning it's the same thing. You can't go "I'm gonna grab the broom here and carefully try not knock anything or make unnecessary noises when I pull it out of the closet." You have to just grab and go.

 

The next day you plan to clean your house, watch a good kung fu movie for a bit until you feel like kicking ass. You know how they do everything like "RAAAHHHH!" and it makes you want to do the same - apply it to the way you clean, scrub, etc..

 

With cooking it's a bit more of a balance though, for energetically aware people like ourselves, as you don't want to insult the food or the client by putting repressed anger into the ingredients. That's why it's good to train things like "Bagua teacups" (see my PPD for example) so that you can move quickly but smoothly. You use your body weight and positioning as leverage a la tai chi, rather than agression. You need to keep a harmonious mind in the process, while moving fast and gracefully, without holding anything back, effort wise.

 

 

 

edit to add: I use "insult the food" as an improper borrowing from TCM terminology like "the liver insults the spleen" as in an energetic insult.

Edited July 28, 2014 by Harmonious Emptiness

[Taomeow]

HE,

 

thank you, great ideas. I sometimes get inspired like that by a martial movie too (though I haven't seen one in a long time -- any recommendations?) My greatest feat was my earliest, beginner's luck -- I was reaching for something on a shelf in the kitchen cabinet high above my head, without seeing what's there, and knocked off thence a porcelain tea pot I didn't even see coming. Next thing I know, I'm standing in a very low SIngle Whip holding the pot in my right hand and its lid in my left!

[lifeforce]

My wife and family time

Xing Yi Nei Gong

Zhan Zhuang

Deep diaphragmatic breathing

Walking in nature with my Siberian Huskies

[Apech]

listening to nature

observing the qualities of clouds

wandering in wonder (sometimes beyond yonder)

remaining carefree and nonchalant

playfully existing savoring the exquisite moments as they unfold

 

 

Young man! how's that going to pay the rent

 

(Seriously love your top five).

[Apech]

My top five in no particular order:

 

- maintenance through daily practice

- meditating by not meditating

- learning to make things (by trial and error)

- remembering ethics

- cultivating uselessness.

[Harmonious Emptiness]

HE,

 

thank you, great ideas. I sometimes get inspired like that by a martial movie too (though I haven't seen one in a long time -- any recommendations?) My greatest feat was my earliest, beginner's luck -- I was reaching for something on a shelf in the kitchen cabinet high above my head, without seeing what's there, and knocked off thence a porcelain tea pot I didn't even see coming. Next thing I know, I'm standing in a very low SIngle Whip holding the pot in my right hand and its lid in my left!

 

Five Fighters from Shaolin [1982] and Taiji boxer [1992] are both worth watching.

[Daeluin]

HE,

 

thank you, great ideas. I sometimes get inspired like that by a martial movie too (though I haven't seen one in a long time -- any recommendations?) My greatest feat was my earliest, beginner's luck -- I was reaching for something on a shelf in the kitchen cabinet high above my head, without seeing what's there, and knocked off thence a porcelain tea pot I didn't even see coming. Next thing I know, I'm standing in a very low SIngle Whip holding the pot in my right hand and its lid in my left!

 

Back in college a one credit hour yang style taiji class was apparently changing my life. The simple warm up exercises we did were seriously great... like slow neck rolls. I would do these a LOT, and reached a state of neck relaxation where I could simply lay down at night and focus on relaxing my cerebellum, and immediately I'd be asleep. I still rode my bike everywhere in those days, and frankly it was faster than driving a car around, with all the traffic lights. My major at the time was Trombone Performance, and I'd learned how to carry my heavy trombone case over one shoulder, holding it with one hand and riding the bike with the other hand (or no hands).

 

Well... one day I was riding back from getting my trombone repaired, and unfortunately my bike wasn't in very good shape. One of the brake handles you squeeze fell off, and swung down by the cable to lodge in the spokes of my front wheel. Instantly the front wheel stopped and suddenly I found myself somersaulting over it. The next thing I know I'm standing on two feet with my trombone case swinging down. The handle is still in my hand so I just lift up so it doesn't hit the ground. But the whole part where I somehow did a flip in the air at high speed and landed on my feet just happened automatically somehow. I also passed engineering calculus I with an A that semester.

 

I like this Donnie Yen movie.

Edited July 28, 2014 by Daeluin

[Stosh]

In no particular order

 

integrity of practice/mindfulness throughout the day

cooking and cleaning kung fu style (practicing no hesitation)

learning and playing improvisational music (practicing no hesitation)

qigong/taiji foundation practices

sitting meditation

Two words ,

Samurai Delicatessen