Taoist Parallels

[blue eyed snake]

Oh, that's wonderful! Often imbalance just needs a nudge in the right direction, but gosh it can be hard to identify what needs to move in which direction. This is why teachers can be so helpful, offering our would be forcefulness a path into efficiency with little nudges here and there. Certainly they aren't necessary... but really in the end we're all students and teachers. The more we are open to hearing feedback from others, the more we allow ourselves to be guided from the perspectives we cannot see. And in return we can help others see what they cannot. It doesn't take being a master, though it helps to be mindful of what someone has room to hear... often people will close off and become defensive if they have no room, which defeats the purpose of sharing feedback.

 

Back when I was a musician, my teacher had me record myself. Even though I felt I could hear myself just fine, when I listened to a recording all these little things I hadn't caught started jumping out at me. From that I began to realize how easy it is to become biased to our own perspective, thinking what we see is the whole picture.

 

Many people with intense personalities have trouble figuring out why people are so cautious around them, even as they react similarly when confronted with people who behave as they do. I find this very revealing.

 

Perhaps a parallel here is related to refinement. With qi gong, I noticed that after I had restored my full energetic foundation and was able to fully extend my energy from my core to my extremities.... well when I full expanded to my extremities I was able to turn the energy around and return inward... not retreating back, but as though creating a new path after turning around, coming back from the outside in. As I worked with this, I realized my energy had started refining itself in a whole new way.

 

So perhaps refinement happens most effectively from the outside-in.

 

It sure helps me to refine a post after I've already submitted it. Preview helps but just doesn't feel like I'm seeing what others are seeing.

 

I'm happy with your changes, makes it more readable.

 

<gosh it can be hard to identify what needs to move in which direction> yeah, and the harder you try, that's just it. It should just happen, without trying.

 

and, well, I think teachers, all kinds of, are needed, no man is an island, but the kind of spiritual teacher you are pointing at now just comes when you need him or her. And i guess... it has something to do with being able to surrender something in you,

 

<often people will close off and become defensive if they have no room, which defeats the purpose of sharing feedback.> I do not see how this piece fits in with the seesaw-story, but do have an opinion. In my experience when you want to try to teach something to somebody. Whether the basics of arithmetic to a child or difficult thing with a grownup there are two things that need to be fulfilled ( or something)

 

First there should be a feeling of trusting the teacher, without trust nobody can open up to learn something new. And second, there is always a gap between teacher and student. Often high-school or university-students do very well at explaining things to each other. The gap is small, they remember very well how they've struggled with some concept.

 

Teaching happens in a small 'bandwidth', when the teacher is far above the student, he needs to be able to lower himself to the appropriate level, thereby also taking care that the student can still feel worthy of himself. Not being overwhelmed by the teacher. Something like that.

 

Having said that, I'm always looking at how my qigongteacher can, with the tiniest of nudges get us where we want to go...It's an art!

 

<From that I began to realize how easy it is to become biased to our own perspective, thinking what we see is the whole picture.>

I like that, it's a good example. The nicety of it is that you can really listen to your own creation from the outside. Nobody is gonna hurt your ego by telling you that you muffed it...But imo the key here is that you're not intimately attached with it anymore, not as when you're playing. You can observe it from the outside so to say. And that is something that might relate to the wuweithing. Observing the things/world/people around you happening, but not become ( too) attached to it, something like that.

 

The last two paragraphs i have trouble understanding.

 

<Many people with intense personalities have trouble figuring out why people are so cautious around them, even as they react similarly when confronted with people who behave as they do. I find this very revealing.> What is revealed to you?

 

And the piece about qigong, can you explain in a more practical way? with an example. maybe I just can't get it, not being there yet. On the other hand. My energy is building awfully fast with all kinds of 'strange experiences ' to boot. My teacher even acknowledged it and on his advice I'm doing almost nothing now. The body just can't handle these amounts of energy (yet)

[Marblehead]

ah, no offence taken, actually you're close on...My father wanted a boy and so my tomboyish character was allowed to run wild. I never became 'handy' with those little womanish things , never yearned for it either.

I saw a tree, i just had to climb it

Okay. Great. I'm glad I wasn't totally lost.

[Daeluin]

<often people will close off and become defensive if they have no room, which defeats the purpose of sharing feedback.> I do not see how this piece fits in with the seesaw-story, but do have an opinion. In my experience when you want to try to teach something to somebody. Whether the basics of arithmetic to a child or difficult thing with a grownup there are two things that need to be fulfilled ( or something)

 

<Then I stood up, walked to the biggest kid, went on my knee and told her to move forward a little bit. Big blue eyes were looking at me, but she did as I suggested and the seesawing went much better >

 

I felt an implication of hesitation here, a moment of fear and concern because a complete stranger was telling her to do something, a moment where her little ego had to get beyond its attachments and just be. Maybe it wasn't the picture I saw in my mind - I wasn't there - but this is what I see happening all the time.

 

I used to work in wilderness therapy, and late at night every week the staff would share feedback with each other. A strength and a growth. When people were telling you how you needed to grow, sometimes it would be gentle and encouraging, other times it would be humiliating. At times I felt myself wanting to respond with justifications for everything a person saw, and needed to learn to swallow my ego and hear them out. I didn't need to take what they said as absolute truth, but I needed to truly listen and receive it as something true that this person saw.

 

When teaching, it can be difficult to teach someone who thinks they know everything already. When someone's cup is full, they don't really have ears to hear what other people think - it won't get very deep. In emotional conflicts, I've seen others get into tense arguments just in attempts to get the other person to take what they are saying seriously, because they don't feel they are being heard at all, and just want the other person to hear them.

 

So I think a teacher is wise to see what a person is open to hearing, and to work from there, rather than focus on what they would like the person to hear. I think your next two paragraphs speak to this from a different perspective.

 

First there should be a feeling of trusting the teacher, without trust nobody can open up to learn something new. And second, there is always a gap between teacher and student. Often high-school or university-students do very well at explaining things to each other. The gap is small, they remember very well how they've struggled with some concept.

 

Teaching happens in a small 'bandwidth', when the teacher is far above the student, he needs to be able to lower himself to the appropriate level, thereby also taking care that the student can still feel worthy of himself. Not being overwhelmed by the teacher. Something like that.

 

Having said that, I'm always looking at how my qigongteacher can, with the tiniest of nudges get us where we want to go...It's an art!

 

Yes, I have learned so much from how my teacher is always right there at the level of every student, both advanced and beginner, in the same breath. Always so simple, so accessible, yet deeply subtle and profound.

 

<Many people with intense personalities have trouble figuring out why people are so cautious around them, even as they react similarly when confronted with people who behave as they do. I find this very revealing.> What is revealed to you?

 

That a person can become so attached to the necessity of their ego that they lose sight of how they behave around others. They are operating from a set of patterns so necessary to them that they have lost the ability to modify their behavior depending on the responses of their environment. When they are told what they are doing they won't believe it is true, because they are blind to their own actions.

 

I find this type of pattern in people who are older and might be somewhat related to past trauma.

 

And the piece about qigong, can you explain in a more practical way? with an example. maybe I just can't get it, not being there yet. On the other hand. My energy is building awfully fast with all kinds of 'strange experiences ' to boot. My teacher even acknowledged it and on his advice I'm doing almost nothing now. The body just can't handle these amounts of energy (yet)

 

Yeah, my teacher would just say it all takes time, and advise us to keep our experiences to ourselves. I threw it in because to me the principle fit in such a complete way. I think this is related to how the meridians connect to each other at the extremities. Once one is able to feel their lower dan tien, and feel qi moving through their arms and legs, the task is to connect the lower dan tien to the extremities, to fill the body with qi. But of course this is geared more towards inner martial arts. Other types of qi gong likely have different techniques for working to open the meridians. I believe it is a higher level manifestation that will naturally unfold when all the blockages have been dissolved, and leaks repaired, and the three dan tiens harmonized into oneness. What I experienced was more of a recognition of the refining that was beginning to happen as my meridians were wanting to connect to each other. At another time I was simply so dissolved and fully inside myself that they naturally opened all at once. That lasted many months, but then I got lazy and it faded.

 

But yes, probably best to not worry about understanding how the qi gong of it all works - the principle can still be applied. The more we are open to hearing the external cues from our environment, the more we are told where our leaks are and where we need to return back into ourselves. Like here how I tend to share too much - I should work toward sharing less.

[Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan]

Reality/real life and video games/fantasy.

Not my example, but a good primer for mine: Avatar the Last Air Bender. Very good martial arts stuff in there, and some real stuff too! Dont get caught up by the dazzle of air bending though!

I've been working on a Role Playing Game system for many years now, and every year it gets better than the last.
Each time i add to it, i take something real and mold it to fit something interactive. like taking the unyeilding (real) peanutbutter and mixing it with the separated oils (interactive) to create something that wouldnt exist without both.

Taking the existing Chinese 5 elements and molding them to (shamelessly) fit the Pokemon "type chart" interactions to result in 21 elements is the most recent example of this.

[blue eyed snake]

<Then I stood up, walked to the biggest kid, went on my knee and told her to move forward a little bit. Big blue eyes were looking at me, but she did as I suggested and the seesawing went much better >

 

I felt an implication of hesitation here, a moment of fear and concern because a complete stranger was telling her to do something, a moment where her little ego had to get beyond its attachments and just be. Maybe it wasn't the picture I saw in my mind - I wasn't there - but this is what I see happening all the time.

 

yes, little ego, growing disbalance between trust and fear

 

I used to work in wilderness therapy, and late at night every week the staff would share feedback with each other. A strength and a growth. When people were telling you how you needed to grow, sometimes it would be gentle and encouraging, other times it would be humiliating. At times I felt myself wanting to respond with justifications for everything a person saw, and needed to learn to swallow my ego and hear them out. I didn't need to take what they said as absolute truth, but I needed to truly listen and receive it as something true that this person saw

The more we are open to hearing the external cues from our environment, the more we are told where our leaks are and where we need to return back into ourselves. Like here how I tend to share too much - I should work toward sharing less.

 

you've got your share of shit, take care of yourself

 

So I think a teacher is wise to see what a person is open to hearing, and to work from there, rather than focus on what they would like the person to hear. I think your next two paragraphs speak to this from a different perspective.

 

yes, other words, other perspective same meaning

 

 

Yes, I have learned so much from how my teacher is always right there at the level of every student, both advanced and beginner, in the same breath. Always so simple, so accessible, yet deeply subtle and profound.

 

sources of development, makes grateful

 

That a person can become so attached to the necessity of their ego that they lose sight of how they behave around others. They are operating from a set of patterns so necessary to them that they have lost the ability to modify their behavior depending on the responses of their environment. When they are told what they are doing they won't believe it is true, because they are blind to their own actions.

 

I find this type of pattern in people who are older and might be somewhat related to past trauma.

 

yes, and now I see why I didn't see it..that was me, and it's not gone yet

 

 

But yes, probably best to not worry about understanding how the qi gong of it all works

 

I'l be patient

[blue eyed snake]

Reality/real life and video games/fantasy.

 

I've never played videogames Vanir, so it doesn't ring any bell for me

[Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan]

I've never played videogames Vanir, so it doesn't ring any bell for me

 

Video Games are the closest artificial medium to reality itself that humans can reach. They are genuinely important in this regard. but in spite of this, they are also highly addictive wastes of time

[Marblehead]

... they are also highly addictive wastes of time

I didn't want to "Like" the entire post but I like this.