What does everyone practice :)

[johndoe2012]

On 8/1/2017 at 3:07 AM, roger said:

A practice I find very helpful is affirmations beginning with, 'Every part of me is.....'

 

Every part of me is worthy. Every part of me is healthy. Every part of me is divine.

 

It's been said that the best affirmations are 'I am......' affirmations.

 

I've found it helpful to use 'Every part of me is....' rather than 'I am.....' because the former tends to give the benefit of the affirmation to one's entire self, whereas it's possible that with the latter, parts of oneself will be untouched by the affirmation.

 

Interesting how affirmations work. I find they can go really deep.

[Stonehouse]

I practice sitting meditation as recommended by Dogen Zenji of the Soto School. 

I would like take up a physical practice as well, like Tai Chi or another martial art that puts health and mental cultivation at the forefront. I see that there are Yang Tai Chi classses at my local cultural centre. I am definitely thinking of pulling the trigger on them. My partner practicies Aikido and enjoys it as well. 



 

[silent thunder]

Ho'oponopono is my most relied upon ox/companion lately. 

 

Walking meditation which blends readily into breath/body awareness in all activities.  Readily combines with Ho'oponopono and is a companion throughout the day at work/home/running errands.  Embodying presence through awareness of the breath and body sensation/awareness has been a potent manner of decreasing the power of emotional spikes and releasing assumptions and attachments.

 

There hasn't been a ritualistic formal practice for some time, but when the impetus arises, and the conditions permit, there are two Qi Gong forms I play, as taught by Zhou Ting-Jue from Dragon Gate.  One revolves around emptiness, the other involves small orbit and qi compression and extension.  Or I play Wu Wei Qi Gong and simply allow the breath and body to move to its own flow without form or thought of duration or end game.

 

Dragon Gate sitting/emptiness meditation as taught by Wang Li Ping.

 

Tree work. 

 

The majority of cultivation intention is in fostering awareness... then acknowledging conditions and mostly, radical release of attachment to outcomes and actions.

 

edit to add: 

as I woke this morning, the image of the Kintsukuroi bowl... so prominent.  like a veritable physical manifestation in my mind. 

 

kintsukuroi... mending broken pottery to bring use back to it

and is appreciated more, for having been broken

treasured now as perhaps not capable before

 

the various teachers, teachings, insights, pursuits

all contribute to the process of my kintsukuroi

mending my experience of my self.

 

so grateful for having been broken

for if I hadn't experienced that...

would I ever have arrived

where I am now?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 9, 2017 by silent thunder

[Sebastian]

I practice Spring Forest Qigong.... although I could interchange it with anything else that takes me back to the Divine.

 

Recently my Master framed correct practice as being a leaf in the wind, as opposed to someone driving a Volkswagen and needing machinery, fuel, and some type of external mechanism to go forward.

 

When you drift, you practice being guided by the Divine.  When you drift, you practice being a beginner, open and willing to go anywhere. When you drive your Volkswagen, you practice accumulating things to get somewhere: like fuel (energies, blessings) or repetitions of movements & meditations, and you drive along your own limited spiritual perspective. And you try to go fast, often thinking you've got the Divine figured out. You are indeed an expert in that case, and there are fewer possibilities in your mind. The Divine has less room to maneuver in you, because if you are already perfect, what use do you have of the Divine ? So always stay a beginner.

 

Some last thoughts from things I've learned from my Masters in recent months....

 

Setting up a practice pattern is a good thing for your body to sort of know what to expect. So I have a practice. Being attached to the brand of your practice isn't as helpful. Being attached to your spiritual perspective is deceiving, because everywhere you look all you see is your perspective. That's why profiling people based on energies can never be done. No expert mind can ever grasp the Divine fully. So always stay a beginner and establish a relationship to the true expert, which is the Divine nature in you.

 

[roger]

5 hours ago, Stonehouse said:

I would like take up a physical practice as well, like Tai Chi or another martial art that puts health and mental cultivation at the forefront. I see that there are Yang Tai Chi classses at my local cultural centre. I am definitely thinking of pulling the trigger on them. My partner practicies Aikido and enjoys it as well. 



 

 

 

I've found that physical exercise is a form of 'spiritual practice'.

 

It definitely helps one develop Chi and mental strength.

 

I've been exercising regularly for about six months, and I'm emotionally stronger and more confident and powerful in my interaction with others.

 

There have been many studies done that demonstrate that exercise helps with emotions like depression and anxiety, and also stress.

 

It doesn't require a ton of exercise to get the benefit. I just do a few sets of push ups, body squats, and calf raises, and curls with a dumbbell. I do each exercise twice a week.

 

It sounds crazy that physical exercise is a great spiritual practice, but I've honestly found it probably at least as effective as meditation.

[RiverSnake]

Revolved through a lot of different practices....nowadays i use methods i've created for myself. They would fall under this umbrella: 

 

1. Martial Arts 

2. Chi Kung 

 

 

[voidisyinyang]

Kosho Uchiyama-Shōhaku Okumura - so he taught in Minnesota - where the qigong master who befriended me also trained - http://guidingqi.com - so he was a student of the first teacher at the MN Zen Center and then met http://springforestqigong.com

 

https://www.pdf-archive.com/2017/04/10/idiot-s-guide-to-taoist-alchemy/

 

This is what I practice. There is a scribd version online also - and someone posted it on their tumblr and I posted it here in the MCO variants thread.

 

So practice varies with the situation depending on what the pineal gland tells me (my left brain) what to do or what is going on around me. I rely on the pineal gland - or at least it informs me of stuff.

 

So the situation varies by what people I'm around, or what my environment is, my nutrition, and the change of seasons, those are the main causes of energy blockages to transform.

 

So I asked people to donate for me to go into the Emptiness to then resonate energy with people - by doing 8 hours of full lotus meditation for $20. So based on that donation system I had proper legitimacy or more than usual to be able to meditate in my room - as people were paying me.

 

Of course that wasn't enough money to stave off the attacks and also the energy I cultivate I need to use to heal my direct family - as a kind of exorcism.

 

So then I will be moving to a hermitage I am setting up - basically a pit in the ground - a cob cave little hovel - to meditate in full time. Then I will do monthly healings on my family.

 

I looked into the Theravada monks that you mention (like Pa Auk) but they don't seem to do much long term meditation, like a week long fast, that is necessary for "achievement of cessation" as the 1st level of real samadhi in Buddhism.

 

Have you heard of Westerners doing a week long fast of constant meditation while at Pa Auk?

 

So also Master Nan, Huai-chin says if you can't even sit in full lotus for one day, nonstop, then how can you achieve real Emptiness? He says then a week of nonstop full lotus is the next step. The http://springforestqigong.com did 49 days of nonstop full lotus cave meditation, no sleep, no food - just as http://qigongmaster.com also does.

 

my free pdf goes into more details.

 

So my view is practice is based on harmonization as purification - and is an eternal process from the Emptiness. We can say that no one is practicing but nevertheless there are specific methods based on complementary opposites, modeled by music theory that is empirically universal and found in all human cultures: the 1-4-5 music intervals as 1:2:3:4.

 

Taoism just happens to be a lineage that preserved and cultivated this original human spiritual training modeled by music theory.

 

Since I have seen ghosts from my training - now I know ghosts are for real and each of us has a ghost within us that we can cultivate to build up the qi to surround and guide the spirit from the Emptiness. When the pineal gland opens up then our ghost is constantly sending out energy and interacting with the ghosts of the people around us. In this way we can say modern Westernized peoples are living ghosts, controlled by the lower emotions. I go into this more with my free articles and pdfs - books, etc. on my blog http://ecoechoinvasives.blogspot.com

 

Ghost pollution is real, as Taoist Master Ni, hua-ching discusses and the person I took classes from does healings of these spirits - I had read the biography of Acharn Phra Mun who describes the same things happening - and then when I attended the Level 3 retreat of http://springforestqigong.com for the weekend in 2000 - I had fasted one week meditating the whole time with just a half glass of water - and so that is how I saw ghosts and the qi energy got very strong. So after that I did some serious healings and I could smell cancer at this time as well. The original human culture, the San Bushmen, that we are all from, as modern biological humans from 100,000 years ago, describes very specifically this exact same experience - the enlightenment experience - as seeing ghosts, and smelling the rotting flesh of disease and doing healings.

 

But when I looked into that monastery again it seems that the serious training is gone. And we can say the same of many places - serious training is not very common, as it requires retreat and solitude based on celibacy and constant meditation.

 

Instead it seems most places get stuck in ritual - so require eating food every day, going out to beg for it or whatever - and if you attempt to go beyond that then you are castigated as being "holier than thou." haha.

 

I got a long response letter from a theravada monastery in California telling me they are taking the slow path and so the experiences are not much to build on.

 

 

[Stonehouse]

17 hours ago, roger said:

I've found that physical exercise is a form of 'spiritual practice'.

 

It definitely helps one develop Chi and mental strength.

 

I've been exercising regularly for about six months, and I'm emotionally stronger and more confident and powerful in my interaction with others.

 

There have been many studies done that demonstrate that exercise helps with emotions like depression and anxiety, and also stress.

 

This is my experience as well. Before I started my career in law, I did Olympic Lifting and Bodyweight fitness. After a couple years of desk work, I feel like a pale shadow of my former self. The strongest argument for the reality of Chi is the absolute sense of spiritual weakness I feel working 9-10 hours a day in an arid cubicle. 

This is something I intend to fix this year as I transition out of law and into a career in counselling. Lots of time to get back into the gym. I'm going to start nice and slow. 

[Mudfoot]

39 minutes ago, Stonehouse said:

After a couple years of desk work, I feel like a pale shadow of my former self. The strongest argument for the reality of Chi is the absolute sense of spiritual weakness I feel working 9-10 hours a day in an arid cubicle. 

 

A strong, fit, socially dominant ape is not confined in a box for hours upon hours. Only the weak and unfit have to hide and feel trapped. 

 

Evolutionary based psychology place importance on aspects like that. 

 

Standing tall, taking up space, expansive movements, that is what we are made for. 

[CedarTree]

On ‎8‎/‎2‎/‎2017 at 5:22 AM, johndoe2012 said:

 

Interesting how affirmations work. I find they can go really deep.

 

Totally agree

[voidisyinyang]

49 minutes ago, Mudfoot said:

A strong, fit, socially dominant ape is not confined in a box for hours upon hours. Only the weak and unfit have to hide and feel trapped. 

 

Evolutionary based psychology place importance on aspects like that. 

 

Standing tall, taking up space, expansive movements, that is what we are made for. 

 

Evolutionary based psychology has to also be "social psychology" - so chimpanzees are very strong but the males are rapist war-mongerers just like modern humans. Why? Because male chimps had fewer natural resources and so more competition and so fought over their paternity rights of the females. So the chimps evolved to have big testicles in order to produce lots of sperm so that their sperm competes for paternity.

 

Now consider the bonobos - they had more natural resources and so the females, relying on gathering the resources, instead joined together as a social group to stop male violence. So the males might be strong but the females are stronger as a group and stop any war-mongering and raping.

 

The female chimps instead turned to technology as the answer - so instead of getting raped by the male chimps when the males present iron-rich meat to the females - the females instead turned to making spears to hunt meat on their own.

 

So you can see how our genetic ancestral cousins evolved different strategies and the San Bushmen original human culture is more like real Taoism - where the "weak" is the strong through a social psychic energy.

 

Whereas modern industrial humans are based on  chimp patriarchy of ejaculation addiction with the females trying to solve the problem with technology - and yet technology does not address the "rotten root" or original sin of ejaculation addiction.

 

The male bonobos had sex all the time but only ejaculated when they had sex with females for reproduction. The original human culture learned how to then evolve that skill into spiritual psychic healing energy that helped in hunting success and to heal social wounds.

 

Modern humans lost that ability and so devolved back into chimp psycho-physiology where the supposedly "strong" male is better but in reality is controlled by ejaculation addiction and so is weaker.

 

The social female primate aligns with the earth-lunar energy that is much stronger than male ejaculation addiction.

[voidisyinyang]

47 minutes ago, CedarTree said:

 

Totally agree

 

Did you read my response to you?

 

I asked you a question:

 

Quote

Have you heard of Westerners doing a week long fast of constant meditation while at Pa Auk?

 

since you didn't reply then maybe you didn't read my response.

 

thanks.

[roger]

4 hours ago, Stonehouse said:

 

This is my experience as well. Before I started my career in law, I did Olympic Lifting and Bodyweight fitness. After a couple years of desk work, I feel like a pale shadow of my former self. The strongest argument for the reality of Chi is the absolute sense of spiritual weakness I feel working 9-10 hours a day in an arid cubicle. 

This is something I intend to fix this year as I transition out of law and into a career in counselling. Lots of time to get back into the gym. I'm going to start nice and slow. 

 

You did Olympic Lifting? Cool!

 

Is that to say you competed in the Olympics, or are you referring to a type of weightlifting?

[rene]

On 07/30/2017 at 3:52 PM, Marblehead said:

I practice no-practice.  And that isn't as easy as it sounds.

 

 

On 07/30/2017 at 6:16 PM, Fa Xin said:

I try to practice no-practice, but it ends up being practice.  So then I stop practicing, and once I realize it's no-practice, I automatically start practicing and thus defeats the purpose.

 

One day I'll give up all practices and achieve the elusive no-practice practice.

 

But it takes practice...

 

On 07/31/2017 at 10:16 AM, CedarTree said:

 

You two are masters of course.  I was more referring to us lay individuals

 

Hi CedarTree, I'm a lay individual and my path is WuDao. Warm greetings (-:

[neti neti]

Nisarga Yoga, which is essentially the one-pointed focus of complete identification with consciousness.

[roger]

3 hours ago, neti neti said:

Nisarga Yoga, which is essentially the one-pointed focus of complete identification with consciousness.

 

Is that like the teaching to 'live as pure consciousness'?

 

You're saying to not identify with the CONTENTS of consciousness, but with consciousness ITSELF?

 

How do you do this? Can you share the approach you use to accomplish this?

 

Is Nisarga the guy who wrote 'I Am That'?

[roger]

On July 30, 2017 at 5:13 PM, CedarTree said:

I practice Zazen (Simply sitting) method that is taught in the Kosho Uchiyama-Shōhaku Okumura lineage at places like Gyobutsuji Zen Monastery in America, Sanshin Zen Community, and the famous Antaiji.

This method is harmony of body and mind and utter alertness and presence (Bodymind).

It is the practice of learning who one is and also moving beyond.

I also practice Samatha in the tradition of Theravada in which one enters absorption states (Jhana). From these states I experience and gather insight (Vipassana).

I would associate more with the Ajahn Chah style than the honorable Pa Auk as I don't codify these experiences as strongly and directly by writings of the Abhidhamma and Buddhaghosa's Visuddhimagga.

These deep meditational experiences I believe show how when conditions change one changes and this can be in radically different way.

I also believe it helps purify ones practice as when one establishes deep Samadhi one moves past sensuality and other factors that can trap someone in basic practice.

Please share your practices and how you would define them I look forward to hearing from everyone.

 

I asked a guy on Twitter for advice once, and he said, 'Stop seeking and simply be.'

 

The guy was big into Ramana Maharshi and the guy who wrote 'I Am That'. (can't remember his name)

 

I haven't tried this, but it's one way to approach the path of awakening.

 

Eckhart Tolle also teaches that seeking and searching arise out of and reinforce ego. His approach is to just live in the moment and be aware of what's going on in the here and now.

[Marblehead]

6 hours ago, roger said:

Eckhart Tolle also teaches that seeking and searching arise out of and reinforce ego. His approach is to just live in the moment and be aware of what's going on in the here and now.

Good advice, I think.

 

[Aletheia]

Revised -

 

Morning and an hour or two after food: a few rounds "quick fire" in deep horse stance. Maybe seated for the breathing and then standing while I hold my breathe.

 

Throughout the day: 15/20 mins Moving yin/yang (with acoustic synesthetic visualisations because I realised I wasn't visualising) with wide horse stance

 

Evening and perhaps throughout the day too: 60 mins+ seated meditation on DT starting with a quick fire and 2 or 3 a long the way plus concentrating wherever energy goes (right now it's in the head and face and magnetic) and finish by putting everything back in the DT and closing with Master Lin's routine.

 

 

WARM UPS:

 

 

 

Edited August 4, 2017 by Aletheia

[neti neti]

9 hours ago, roger said:

 

Is that like the teaching to 'live as pure consciousness'?

 

You're saying to not identify with the CONTENTS of consciousness, but with consciousness ITSELF?

 

How do you do this? Can you share the approach you use to accomplish this?

 

Is Nisarga the guy who wrote 'I Am That'?

 

Sure, but that's like saying water strives for its wetness. Without differentiation, consciousness is life and all therein. Its contents are also the consciousness, to include the practitioner's practice, the practitioner and this concept of being the consciousness.

 

The guru is consciousness, therefore, consciousness is the guru. When perceived as such, one appears to stand apart from it all as its witness... aware of the awareness that you are.

 

When the witness is also realized to be the same consciousness, then awareness and unawareness alike vanish, and yet you remain. "The natural state."

Edited August 4, 2017 by neti neti

[mrpasserby]

'What does everyone practice':  

Thanks to the cultivation that I have received while posting about this forum I feel confident enough to mention my more in depth practices. I feel the need to make a comment on a skill that I use for survival, among those which are called Norms by some I use what I call 'Abrahams truth', this practice allows me to speak my truth while not inciting to riot the Norms that in the past have gone about destroying the lives of magically inclined people such as myself. As a point of interest the practice includes but is not limited to: speaking the lowest form of any given truth in order to have a conversation with someone who has a contrary belief.

Example: 
I travel within the world of spirits using my energy body to find usable arcane artifacts:  I am currently trying to comprehend Taoist philosophies. 

I repair spirits that are strong enough to reiterate and continue on their path to growing fully functional energy bodies so that they can move on:  I am currently trying to comprehend Taoist philosophies.

I do psychopomp work:  I am currently trying to comprehend Taoist philosophies.

Now when I say this in conversations, Norms just nod their heads try to look interested and don't run away or get angery. 

Edited September 9, 2017 by mrpasserby
import a clearer understanding correct formating

[CedarTree]

14 hours ago, roger said:

 

I asked a guy on Twitter for advice once, and he said, 'Stop seeking and simply be.'

 

The guy was big into Ramana Maharshi and the guy who wrote 'I Am That'. (can't remember his name)

 

I haven't tried this, but it's one way to approach the path of awakening.

 

Eckhart Tolle also teaches that seeking and searching arise out of and reinforce ego. His approach is to just live in the moment and be aware of what's going on in the here and now.

 

That would be Zazen as the lineage I follow

[doc benway]

16 hours ago, roger said:

The guy was big into Ramana Maharshi and the guy who wrote 'I Am That'. (can't remember his name)

 

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

 

[oak]

As much as i would like tai chi and contemplating nature to be my primary practices they're not! With few time to myself at this point in my life i need to be adaptive and practice what I can with the life that is given to me. So... after many internal struggles with myself because it is not , in any way, quite the contrary, a daoist internal practice I've finally let my instinct lead the way and started having as a primary practice 100 push-ups a day. I do them 3 at a time which makes me breath deeply for about half hour giving me the energy I need to keep up with my stressful life. A cold shower follows.

 

Also pray everyday, 

Also try to be as mindful as I can of sensations in every short break that I have.

Also, during the long trips on the passengers seat of my boss's car I keep practicing mentally my tai chi and my hatha-yoga, and... do I notice improvments in my practice? yes I do.

 

Also find a few moments for walking meditation almost everyday.

[beingnature]

I practiced zuowang style meditation and zhang zhuang ( lam kam chuen way of power) for up to 6 hours a day for ca. 7 years then a lot of "crazy" things happened and spontaneous movements appeared ( from new stances to circlewalking, mudras, sounds and so on.Since then i am into this "spontaneous" practice.I just stand or sit , meditate and look what happens.