silent thunder

Hi Edward M. Your question reminds me of something I encountered recently that really surprised me. My wife, does not visualize... at all, like ever. It stunned me as one of the things I've sought in my practice is a break from the constant visualizations that can be very distracting. She sees nothing in dreams, she feels them. She has a very clear inner sense of how a place is in dreams, but unlike me, who sees a particular room and the color of the flowers and the furniture, she feels the room, has a sense of the room she is in, but does not see anything. She feels it. She experiences the room without visualizing it. When you dream about a place. Do you see it in detail? Or is it more of a sense, or feel of a place...

Much appreciated... thanks mate.

We had our first hummer visit in months today as well; their colors are just jaw dropping. She swung by to sample a blooming milkweed that I picked up in the hopes of enticing some Monarchs to our porch.

I find the world is a magnificent teacher. Teachers everywhere really. Birds, bones, beaches, trees, stones. There is also the teacher within... But to me, there requires nothing to connect to tao. Indeed the only impossible thing to me, is to ever be separate from tao for even a halfmoment by even a hairs width. You are tao/dao. Walk outside and then sit in the sun. Listen and feel the wind. Get thirsty. Stand up and go take some water. Drink your fill. Sleep in the shade. Wake when rested. Tao.

bump

Never underestimate the potency of warm water to relax and soothe. A nice hot bath with some mineral salts, low lights in silence, or with quiet, calm music is very effective for me in letting go of the tension under the tension in my body. Even a simple warm footbath, (with some ground raw ginger) induces release states for me.

posed the antonym of lonely to my gal over breakfast... she sat looking out the window for a few heartbeats and then said... 'content'

perhaps, instead of lonely present

What a potent bone to chew... there is strong medicine in this question for me, what is the opposite of lonely? Its presence resonates so palpably... I can almost taste it. It's closely related to a question I've long harbored which is 'why do I continue to support this manifestation and not suicide? connection is my raw answer, it's why I joined the bums... to cultivate conscious connection. It's why I smile at strangers and am not stand-offish. Connection maintains my manifestation. But that's not it, not all of it and words are such clumsy burdensome beasts in these areas... lonely... lonesome and yet not alone, surrounded by all, yet lonely... disconnected. separate. unfastened. untethered. isolated. withdrawn. abandoned. excluded. alone, yet not lonely. connected, integrated... interwoven... belonging. connected, imbued, entwined, integral, inalienable, inseperable, undifferentiatable (that's my word I guess, don't see it listed and is rather chewy, but is entertaining and seems to transmit the idea of inalienability that I am trying to convey), cherished, belonging, associated, hmm... inalienable unified merged kinship perhaps kinship There is a sense of tribe that connotes connection and belonging and some element of being cherished or valued. Yet tribal also connotes a self group and 'others' who are 'not tribe', which seems to shift the lonely from individual to group... so doesn't work. Acknowledged returns again and again in this realm for me... when folks are reaching out to me... strangers, or friends. They seem to be not needing even for me to agree with their sentiments when reaching out, but to establish/reinforce a connection through simple acknowledgement of their presence and whatever idea they are sharing, even if no agreement is made, the simple acknowledgement of another seems to be what is sought... to complete the moment. Resolution of the individual through acknowledged connection. Too many words now, but this... this is stirring deep, potent waters. Going to go be empty with this for some time. Thanks bums.

all of your answers live in the breath all of your questions live there too silence and emptiness support and define your form with no constraints without any pressure or hurry, your beingness occurs... effortlessly.

It's an experiential realization for me, that the vast majority of my energy comes from my breath, not food. Food provides a bit of energy for motion and mostly building blocks to replace worn out cells and regenerate body tissue. This realization was made evident through repeated experiences when I have an illness and my lungs are compromised and not working efficiently... when climbing one flight of stairs is enough to cause me full bodily exhaustion and need to rest. No amount of soup will rectify this... my lungs need to heal before I will regain stamina and vitality.

I don't understand and that's a boon, since it no longer troubles me, or brings tension to not understand. whether I understand or not, things are as they are... (to me, unified beyond meaningful distinctions) Being the path is not knowing it, or understanding it.

My wife and I have had a couple of very powerful experiences that were both internal and together. One was of the thunder within silence... we experienced it when we sat down to rest in a deep ravine in the Bad Lands of South Dakota while hiking one very hot afternoon in August on our honeymoon. Suddenly we both looked at each other, eyes widening in the dawning realization of the absolute silence present with us... in us... through us. We abided in it sometime and slowly, dawning, growing from the essential core of this silence... came a thunder so profound, so palpable it seemed it would shake our very bones apart. This alchemical experience changed us both. silent thunder

menah menah (doo DOO do do do)

Funny you'd say that Marble... so many of the great teachings of HH and others I've encountered, felt energetically to me, like a great hand cuffing me suddenly into lucidity.

This sentiment really resonates with my experience. Wang Li Ping addressed the MCO briefly one afternoon, (paraphrasing) "the MCO is a natural process in all of us right now. It is functioning if there is life. It is not a goal, but a tool with many uses, such as refining energy. Do not be concerned with achieving MCO, or worry over it, it will open up naturally in the process." My experience tells me that the more relaxed I am... the more emptiness I embody, the more flow occurs naturally as a result of the lack of tensions due to my 'trying', 'coercing' and intentions. The body has wisdom. Emptiness is seems the source of all. Simply be one's self and allow nature to take its course. edit: to fix the quote

As I read these together my mind clearly said to me 'yup... be where you are.' thanks bums! gems of light

Well said. Reminds me that any longer I am not much troubled, or overly concerned about the nature of relative truths. All untruths serve truth when they are inevitably revealed as untruths. Yet i clearly recognize that no longer do I abide long in the presence of, or tolerate inauthenticity in my self particularly and others to a lesser extent. Resonates in a manner akin to my observation of a shift in my recent behavioral nature, that lately, I am rarely serious, but very sincere.

beers!

Master Zhou! I was healed by Master Zhou and trained with him. Changed the course of my life. Able to run and play with my son due to training with him. Didn't have to change careers as I regained my ability to walk normally. 12 years of chronic pain, I walked/hobbled with a cane for years after multiple surgeries. Almost lost my left foot. I have used the first two forms in his system to turn my health around and heading into my 50's am healthier now than in my 30's. His lineage is Wudang, 18th generation, learned from his Uncles. One Wudang, another Shao Lin. And traveled learning from many others. Started young, 5-7. He's a medical intuitive and the only other person I've encountered with similar presence is Wang Li Ping. Just being in his presence for a weekend, I spent the next 4 days blissed out of my mind and pain free for the first time in years. It was life changing.

tai qi

I've spent some time around snake handlers at work and met quite a few rattlers. When on certain locations here in SoCal, we hire them to care for the crew and the snakes while we are in their areas. They learn as they grow to modify the amount of venom they use, as its not easy to produce I imagine, but until they have some experience, they just dump the entire reserve everytime they strike. So much to be learned from that simple lesson. It's always resonated with me. And I've watched many times as the handlers have to dig and dig, and to fill their dens with water to flush them out... and then, even when rousted in this aggressive manner, I have yet to see any of them ever come close to striking... they really resist having any kind of contact. They seem so pure. So seemingly unfettered by the clusters of mind stuff and illusion I juggle endlessly. Sniff, survey, react, stillness. (yoda voice) learn much from them I have