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A story told on the Tim Ferris podcast (interview with Elizabeth Gilbert) about a conversation at the Omega Institute. Woman 1: Have you got a job yet? Woman 2: No, I´ve been really busy being non-dual.

One way to look at meditation is simply that meditation is life. In the tradition I follow there are three basic steps. First step is to recognize the proper view, to have an experiential understanding of the mind's foundation. Second step is to cultivate familiarity and stability, to develop an intimate relationship with this foundation. Third step is to take every experience of life as the path, that is to bring the meditation off the cushion and into life. This is called integration. A comment about boredom. I look at boredom as resistance, a form of aversion. The mind is always trying to become, it is not often satisfied with simply being, with what is, at least not for very long. This is its nature and that characteristic has some definite advantages, but also disadvantages as this endless longing for something else, something more or different, may be a major source of physical and emotional stress. If I simply notice this tendency and develop the skill to be able to be with that boredom, eventually it eases and opens me to what is actually there, which is everything. In each and every moment of life we are surrounded by such beauty, such magic. We take so much for granted but if we can see what is all around us with fresh eyes and an open heart/mind, it is nearly impossible to be bored. Sitting on my front porch this morning, surrounded by the leaves and grass, a raccoon, squirrels, a beautiful family out for a walk, birdsong, the moisture of an overcast day... thoughts and distractions coming and going.... magnificent!

Sounds a lot like objectless shamatha (calm abiding) with the dissolution of vasanas (mind habits). Sorry.

They big bikkies here . Out to the east of the valley the macadamia plantations were ripped up and replaced with avos . That Maccas were all the rage , quick get them in while the price is high , but by the time they started pulling money in avos got more pop ( after someone came up with the brilliant idea of 'smashing' them and adding them to 40% of menu items ) . So bulldoze, rip up replant wait . According to Avocados Australia , national avocado production grew from 48,715 tonnes in 2013–14 to 150,913 tonnes in 2023–24. Over that same period, export value soared from $5.6 million to $96.1 million. BUT that is 'asking for it ' ..... I see hills and valleys of them - monoculture ! and ya know what that means ! One place, a 'back way' drive into town along the north side of the river , I noticed trees looked sick, then worse , then dead .... now avos are bulldozed in places or look like painted stumps ! Avocado crops in the Mid North Coast region of NSW face several challenges, primarily related to diseases and environmental factors. Phytophthora root rot is a significant concern, as is stem-end rot and anthracnose, which can impact fruit quality and orchard productivity. Additionally, adverse weather conditions, like excessive rainfall leading to waterlogging and root rot, or dry periods impacting fruit set, can significantly affect yields. - and we certainly get 'excessive rainfall' .

imo during this life I am only inside my own body; all else is in my mind's eye.

that is very lovely, pure and transcendent Small Fur, thank you; but with most of us on Earth still dealing with and being human in the context of various types of suffering with some of it being very horrific and violent that, "happiness" is very far away although right under our noses. Btw, I'd say it is telling that long term Buddhist monks/nuns and Lamas/teachers are often not in agreement on all the teachings and interpretation's handed down and what they mean, thus the different schools there-in and students having to deal with some difficult conundrums and to whatever degree the "world" first (and or simultaneously) which can not simply be by-passed karma wise. (but its great that some have made it over the wall and left pointers on how to climb it)

Except for everyone that lives above the Arctic Circle

When the Buddha- or any being whose consciousness has dissolved into Emptiness- offers a blessing, it is not for the fulfillment of psychologically derived states and mundane desires; these are not wishful words welling up from want, but Realization as inspiration bestowed in blessing. And so, the joy spoken of here is deeper — a quiet bliss arising from the formless, known in the seat of shen (the heart) as the stillness of peace, even if called 'happiness'. Its essence does not depend on circumstance, nor is it touched by time. It is offered to all beings, without measure, without exception. This joy then, is also love — the wisdom within compassion, the radiance of the Tao — spoken in many tongues, revealed not only through words but through wind, stone, and the hush between all things as created by Tao. Thus, it is more a recognition than a feeling, more a remembrance than a state. Not a thing, but a Way. Not a possession, but a return. For this is the truth of unconditional love — the grace of noncondition — the beauty of Nothingness when it flowers through the silence of Enlightenment. From this view, you can see that the terms I use — love, peace, joy, emptiness — are fairly interchangeable. Not because they lack nuance or discernment, but because in the light of Unity, all things are distilled into essence and returned to Emptiness. This is why, when we overanalyze or dissect too many terms, we risk losing the heart — becoming entangled in logic, we fall away from essence. So this Unconditional love as blessing of happiness is just that: prior to, and untouched by, condition. It is what we are — all of us! And the wish for beings to return to this, to realize this, is the very same wish held by all Buddhas, Immortals, and sages throughout time: for all beings to be as we Truly Are. Sometimes this is spoken using small words, like “happiness.” Sometimes in great ones, like “peace.” But regardless of language or scale, what is offered is the same... In true realization, one sees how distinction gives rise to unity, and unity gives rise to distinction. This is the living truth of non-duality —not merely a term, but a direct, transcendent unfolding. The Buddha gave it shape in these words, so that its vibration might echo in the heart. But its truest form is found not in sound and thought, but in the stillness where all longing ends, where everything beloved is already whole; where happiness is the essence of all Being: a happiness in the True Being that you already are. <3

If meditation means samadhi or a feeling of oneness or dropping the sense of self, count me out of this discussion. When those things happen to me on the regular, I´ll let you know. But if meditation means sitting on a cushion and attempting to just be, then yeah, I can speak to that. Most of us, me very much included, have things about ourselves that are back of mind, things maybe we don´t like to think about so much. Like maybe the very ordinary but still real trauma of growing up with parents who didn´t know how to give us what we needed when we were five. That´s the kind of stuff I don´t think about very much -- unless I´m sitting on a cushion and attempting to "just be." In that meditation context, all the BS that was in the back of my mind moves to the front. Oops! I know meditation isn´t supposed to be therapy, exactly, but I do think that getting to know the hidden parts of myself better is therapeutic. It´s relaxing. All that stuffed away ordinary trauma can tighten my muscles and constrict my breath. When I become conscious of it and let the associated feelings run their course, my body relaxes. This feels good. Perhaps none of this has anything to do with real purpose of meditation in a formal or technical sense, but this has been my experience.

In some of the oldest shamanic traditions (e.g. Mongolian), meditation is called a "horse." Same idea as your "walking" -- only faster. It's neither the goal nor the destination of practice, it's not self-serving. It is a vehicle that serves to take the practitioner to some kind of "elsewhere." A meditation aiming to get "nowhere," to arrive at "nothing," may accomplish just that. An exploratory one -- "wherever it may take me" -- may accomplish that and take you "somewhere." A taoist meditation (the kind I'm most familiar with) may be "free form" or highly structured (typically combining the two, either in one sitting or in different ones), and the goal you're aiming at may keep shifting, or even disappearing, and something entirely unexpected might take its place instead. It can be "boring" (with a nod to @liminal_luke ) or joyous (when I experimented, rather briefly, with Max's kunlun, it often had me in stitches -- I would wind up laughing half the time, at nothing in particular, it was just "funny" in its "unattached" state, sort of like the Platonic idea of "funny.") It can be easy or difficult -- I'm in favor of difficult, there's things to overcome there and if one gives up unless it's easy, it's like what Castaneda's (possibly made up) protagonist, Don Juan, called "indulging like a son of a bitch." On the other hand, you don't want to whip that "horse" mercilessly, you need to understand that it's alive and feeling, and just summarily ignoring the fact may finish off your "horse" before you arrive anywhere interesting.

box breathing, also known as square breathing. squarrel shown here

Look ma, no hands! No mention of meditation, at all! No where to go, nothing to do. Written almost fifteen years ago, now. Waking Up and Falling Asleep I have a practice that I’d like to offer, something that I believe is already part of the general repertoire of this community, even though the details I will provide here are new. The practice I have in mind is a practice that everybody is already familiar with, even if they don’t think of it as a practice. What I’m referring to is waking up in the morning, or falling asleep at night; if you’ve ever had a hard time waking up or falling asleep, then you know that there can indeed be a practice! In my experience, the practice is the same, whether I am waking up or falling asleep: when I realize my physical sense of location in space, and realize it as it occurs from one moment to the next, then I wake up or fall asleep as appropriate. This practice is useful, when I wake up in the middle of the night and need to go back to sleep, or when I want to feel more physically alive in the morning. This practice is also useful when I want to feel my connection to everything around me, because my sense of place registers the contact of my awareness with each thing, as contact occurs. Just before I fall asleep, my awareness can move very readily, and my sense of where I am tends to move with it. This is also true when I am waking up, although it can be harder to recognize (I tend to live through my eyes in the daytime, and associate my sense of place with them). When my awareness shifts readily, I realize that my ability to feel my location in space is made possible in part by the freedom of my awareness to move. I sometimes overlook my location in space because I attach to what I’m feeling, or I’m averse to it, or I ignore it. The result is that I lose the freedom of my awareness to shift and move, and I have difficulty relaxing or staying alert. When I allow what I feel to enter into where I am, then my awareness remains free, and I can relax and keep my wits about me. To me, a lot of what this community is about is living life from exactly where we are. When we really live from where we are, we discover that everything and everyone around us is a part of where we are, and that our actions truly belong to where we are. This kind of action is the only really selfless action I know. There’s nothing special about having a sense of place, and yet I find my peace of mind depends on my sense of place most of all. That is why I would like to recommend the practice of “waking up and falling asleep” to everyone. Wrote a book about it: https://zenmudra.com/A-Natural-Mindfulness.pdf

Obviously, it depends on what one means by meditation. If you mean samadhi, then one the method is fairly simple as set forth in the Yoga Sutras. 1. Follow a moral code. 2. Choose an "object" of meditation. 3. Disengage from other objects. 4. Place your mind on the object of meditation. 5. Repeat 3-4.

Since I was mentioned I thought I would reply. I think @Surya you meant 'taught' not 'thought' ... so one of the worst taught subjects out there. Agreed. It is badly taught. My approach is to say that if you do it (and many people including probably most Buddhists don't) then it is the most important thing you do. There are a very large number of techniques for meditation (which I have heard by a great Lama described as 'toys') none of which are anything other than that. Just techniques - which may or may not be useful depending on how applied. Even then those techniques only seek to replicate or encourage processes which naturally happen in your body or your mind. Motivation is the starting point. You want to be relaxed? Ok have a cup of tea and listen to some ambient music ... or go for a walk in the park. You want powers? You'll probably end up with haemorrhoids and myopia. So what do you want? Ask yourself that first. Spend a long time asking yourself. If you have problems you'd like to cure ... why have you got those problems in the first place. Do you have an explanation for that? Did they just drop on you like cosmic bird shit from heaven? Or do they arise from somewhere for some reason? Why would sitting down to meditate have any relevance to that? Maybe you want some kind of relief. A break from stress? Maybe you want your thoughts to stop? Maybe you want better health. All reasonable things to want. But will meditation help you with this? Well maybe but then you will have turned it into your therapy. So no. Meditation is not therapy. It might actually make you feel worse! If you still want to meditate don't start with your mind so much. Just start with your body. Don't worry about thoughts and feelings that come and go. Just settle your body like a cat does. Just sit for a short while. That's a beginning. Expect nothing. You won't be disappointed.

I am pretty new these in earnest. I have been pretty depressed for a while. I am now rising out of it. Thus, the name "Lotus of the abyss". I look forward to learn and share my thoughts.

I'm not certain what exactly brought me here. I grew up Christian, turned away, found esoterica, and then found the Tao De Ching. It blew me away, and ever since, I've felt like there has been a pit in my chest when not pursuing it. I'm here searching for resources to deepen my understanding on a fundamental level and meet some like-minded people. All the way from New Zealand

As the title says. One of my Dzogchen teachers recently told me explicitly that Guru Yoga is essential for practising Trekcho. She also said that she suspects I am confused abut the meaning of Guru Yoga. She may well be right. What's the deal? It kind of gives me religious ick vibes, and I know there are modern interpretations (e.g. Candice Rinpoche, I think) who dispense with the cultural embellishments. How do you relate to Guru Yoga? What role does it play in your practice? (None, a pre-meditation ritual, something else?) If I can't swallow the Guru Yoga pill, should I look elsewhere for similar teaching relating to resting in open awareness (e.g. some Advaita stuff, or contemporary mindfulness methods)? Curious to hear your thoughts. Thanks in advance.

( Hey Cobie , you missed somebody .....

I look at the color and skin condition, watching for white on the skin at the bottom (or anywhere--rot, sometimes when they're not even ripe). I pick them up in my hand, that way I can tell how soft they are without squeezing. Just barely starting to soften is good, sometimes need a day or two before they go in the fridge. Taken me years to be mostly successful in my store picks. I frequently take none, as they are too ripe or underripe. I run a knife around them from pole to pole and back again, use the knife to break them into two halves, one with the seed. I take a spoon and turn the seedless half out so I can see if there are black spots on the skin side of the meat, if so dig 'em out with the spoon. Put the half with the seed in the fridge for another day, they keep fine uncovered if you don't mind the discolored exposed edges. a little salt, mmm good.

Hey everyone I am from Australia and what bought me here was to learn more genuine information about Taoism and to seek Taoist practitioners advice on where to find authentic teachings and proper methods. thank you!

Hello guys, a friend of mine recommended me This Forum. I will come straight to the Point. I am on a big awakening Mission and I have a feeling that here are some relevant Informations for me. Everything is stronger already and for those who are familiar with the hindu way…i had a major kundalini awakening from the root chakra straight into my Heart. Does anyone know how to proceed? thanks in advance 🙏🏻❤️

paging Dr. Steve, there is a Dzogchen question over on another thread, response requested. i sent you the link. Thank you!

@BigSkyDiamond That scene sounds right out of a movie. I´d say you won the "pissing contest."

I am trying to think if there is an equivalent for us females. I remember an incident with my then-husband at the time (lnow ex- for a long time). The subject of "pissing contests" among men came up, and the various forms and ways men engaged in this including the literal pissing contests, such as guys outside standing around and seeing who can piss the farthest distance away. The then-husband grinned and nodded and was quite pleased with himself, likely recalling fondly and proudly his own memories and escapades. So I said "Oh! It's kind of like this" and since i was a new mom at the time and still breastfeeding, i whipped out my ample breast and sprayed a stream of breast milk in a lovely arc which extended several feet across the room in his general direction. In an instant his expression went from proud grinning at his own accomplishments, to utter disgust at mine. He was genuinely angry and sneered "that's disgusting, you are making a mess, that is filthy and dirty" and stormed out of the room. I was rather impressed myself, since I had never done that before. So i can actually understand the "isn't that cool" factor guys have around pissing contests. I kinda sorta doubt he ever got the point i was making though about how others might view male pissing contests. And since he had left the room, he didn't get to hear me say that no, breast milk is not filthy and dirty, it is sweet and nourishing and literally sustains the life of our child. Whereas piss actually is excrement. there are many reasons the marriage did not last.

Yep I agree about the sense of religious ick ... but in the end I found that when I practiced this as part of the ngondro those kinds of reservations disappeared. I don't practice Dzogchen so its slightly different but essentially there's a point in meditation where your own efforts are not enough and you draw on 'blessings' to get through. The origin of the blessings in the first sense is your Lama (regarded as a Buddha) but in the end it is your Buddha-nature itself.

what made me laugh? well there is a thread here on Dao Bums, and on page 19 there is a discussion (including photos) of practitioners who lift 50 lbs (and more!) with their genitals.

i would like to hear from @steve on this. He is my go-to person on this forum for questions about Dzogchen practice. i have never heard of Guru Yoga but am curious to hear more. I do practice stillness silence spaciousness, as laid out in the book "Awakening the Luminous Mind" by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. Good topic for thread, i look forward to hearing more.

i do recognise the experience; and it is imo vital to allow my mind to flow to its outer limits.

here is a question for those whose practice may include or consist of resting in pure awareness, it is a "what happens when you do this, how do you experience it" within the following parameters when you are sitting eyes closed in "meditation" or quiet sitting and resting in silence, stillness, spaciousness deep breathing, just observing resting in pure awareness, being awareness let's say you are awareness. and nothing else. only awareness, pure awareness. that is you. what happens, how do you experience it, when you expand the awareness that is you so that it extends beyond the physical body that is sitting with eyes closed. the you that is awareness now fills the whole room. you contain the whole room, and you expand further and you contain the whole building. if (since) i am pure awareness, then i am not contained within a physical body. i am not limited to the physical body but extend far beyond it. rather it is the other way around. The physical body is contained within the me that is pure awareness. how do others experience this, what is your sense of it. thank you.

Enjoy. Spoiler alert

I love this paragraph. For Taoist meditation, yes, some of those have so much things to do during meditation that I sometimes wonder if the term meditation is correctly describing it or not. Boredom is very useful and essential. If boredom is an issue, how can a person can sit more than 10 minutes after the initial "fun" or relaxed phase. For me, I found boredom gives me a more quieter mind during the Covid period when the whole society was bored including myself.

Thank you all! I have just received two translations of Secrets of the Golden Flower and intend to study these over the coming weeks! I'm excited to get to know people here better and journey with you all!

In my view, what is described above YES has everything to do with it and YES it is very much part of meditation. Trust your experience. It does not have to look a certain way, and it does not have to look or be like anyone else's. You are the authority on what works for you, and on your own healing. Nobody else is.

The biggest exporter of avocados in the world is Mexico. California also produces quite a lot but those are eaten domestically. Both places have various axes to grind and I believe avocados are one of the passive-aggressive manifestations of the fact. A perfect one is worth its weight in gold, but try not wasting three out of four to under- or over-ripeness. Which explains why that perfect fourth one is worth its weight in gold.

What is it? Many answers are possible and valid. One that is meaningful for me at the moment is that it is my personal investigation into who I am not in order to discover who I am. How is it done correctly? By being true to myself and fully open to my own authentic experience. Much, much more can be said of course but this is what comes up for me at the moment that seems worth sharing.

Well, I had posted "The Tubes" playing "What Do You Want from Life", but it was too depressing. Sorry about that...

Hey there. New Zealand here as well. I can't recommend the teachings of Yuan Tze (and Ren Xue) highly enough. He's based in N.Z and I believe he is likely one of the best teachers alive today. Check out the Ren Xue TV channel on youtube, there are some great little documentaries on there. https://www.youtube.com/@RenXueTV https://www.renxueinternational.org/

Kia Ora Winter I can see you place from here .

The quote is from the "Tips for New Meditators" guide, published by a Buddhist monastery. https://www.dhammagiri.net/post/tips-for-new-meditators If it is jarring, well, there are a whole lot of smiling Buddha statues out there. I remember a few years back at work, someone mentioned a silent meditation retreat was being held (three days? three weeks? something like that), and it was hilarious to see the visceral instant response for the three of us who shared that office. My boss practically ran out of the room screaming. I lit up in a huge grin and said sign me up. The third guy looked utterly baffled and perplexed and said why would anyone even want to do that.

Yes, I agree.

Hi antipode, it’s summer where I am (the Netherlands). Welcome to the forum. Great you love the DDJ (Tao De Ching). There are all sorts of very different views on the forum. Enjoy.

Should it? I´m not sure but think this is a great question for discussion. Do you have any perspective on this, @stirling? My own experience is that meditation is definitely not fun. I´ve sat for several vipassana retreats and each experience was worthwhile but decidedly not fun. Sometimes I experienced physical discomfort, often I experienced emotional discomfort. There was plenty of joy too but it mostly appeared after I´d faced difficulty. On the other hand, I think there´s great value in gentleness. I´m something of a Type A personality, always wanting to do more and perform, and I bring these traits to my spiritual practice, not always a good thing. I could probably stand to be more compassionate with myself and stop meditating when it gets hard. Or maybe not???

Welcome! This forum is a great resource for Tao Te Ching.

Speaking of avocados I wonder how much of a health difference there is between organic and sprayed and if organic grown in Mexico or any other country including the US is really so or how often is it so? Why... because we could ask the question of how many inspectors have the time go on site and do detailed checks with all the cuts to their agencies manpower and funding that is going on? Of course such does not just apply to avocados but to all veggies and fruits! It's a multi-million or multi-billion dollar industry with lots of competition, and there are probably many of cases of corruption that we never hear about to sell produce as organic for the higher profit while the honest farmer or farms have a hard time keeping up! (or staying in business compared to certain companies ) Has anyone out there studied up on this issue? Also with major drought or other types of climate impacts in some areas it makes one wonder how much longer the grocery stores can keep their shelves stocked without prices going astronomical. Most of us can handle say 10-20% increase's but not so well at 50-100%+ !

There are many types of meditations, for many different purposes. They range from sitting to walking to varied movements, from immobile to slow or even faster. They may empty the mind yet some actively engage the conscious mind. Some can be learnt in 10 minutes and the others could take 10 years to start off. It is like walking. Walking is merely a process for your purposes.