silent thunder

No church, or religious ideology can claim authorship to the concepts of virtue, sin, good, or evil. Religion in any form, is merely an attempt to explain such concepts within the parameters of their given social perspective; they are not the source. When we focus on the finger, we miss the Moon.

I love that book! It triggered much healing in my wife.

water

I'm reminded of two things in regard to this. The first is a meditation called the pillar of light. Which begins with placing awareness in a large white sphere, about a foot above the head, then drawing that energy through the crown and down into each successive lower chakra, followed by a series of other visualizations throughout the micro/macro worlds. The second is something I read in reference to the shape of the ankh and how it related to the process of opening the chakras. As one opened the heart chakra, represented on the ankh by the point where the two arms cross and the lower point of the loop starts/ends, this creates a field that encompassed the upper three chakras, simultaneously clearing the way for access to them as well as harnessing and returning the energy to the heart which, in the context of the article/theory that was being shared, became the working fulcrum for all energy work. While thinking replying to this thread, I came across this synchronistic pic on the interwebs... fun.

My wife's lymph nodes have swelled up on several occasions and she has experienced similar sensations, it was not cancer. Our GP was next to useless in any reasons after tests showed it was not cancer and we spent 10 agonizing days awaiting results. I'd suggest a Dr of TCM if you have one nearby.

I could argue, based on my experience growing up in the church, that to one with faith, no explanation is possible, as they have in their own mind, everything figured out and will simply ignore, attack, or refute anything anyone brings to the table that differs from their faith. And to one without faith, no explanation is necessary, as they are open to continuing to explore and learn...

I hear ya Marble... I'm in agreement with your sentiment much of the time, it's a powerful draw, my perspective, but more and more often, it's becoming what Brian eloquently said... an underlying sense that it's all relative and my perspective is not the definitive answer. Life is a verb, nothing is fixed and my perspective dictates often how I interpret the conditions of the flow, usually from a combination of conditioning, laziness and projection. Nothing is fixed it seems. I have met two people in my life who I consider to be Sages, and neither ever addressed love and hate in this manner, nor did I think to ask. It's odd for me, being in the presence of the sagely is often like it is for me being in a music store... I know there's a shit ton of stuff I want to explore, but when I'm faced with it, my mind goes all blank and I am like ..... derp, lots of cool stuff. When I get home, is when I smack myself on the head and remember something 'pertinent'.

sympathetic resonant vibration

Every type of bigotry, every type of racism, sexism, prejudice, every dogmatic ideology that allows people to kill other people with a clear conscience, every stupid cult, every superstition, written religion, every kind of ignorance in the world all results from not realizing that our perceptions are gambles. We believe what we see and then we believe our interpretation of it, we don’t even know we are making an interpretation most of the time. We think that this is reality. In philosophy that is called naïve realism. “What I perceive is reality.” And philosophers have refuted naïve realism every century for the last twenty-five hundred years starting with Buddha & Plato, and yet most people still act on the basis of naive realism. Robert Anton Wilson

Over that last few years, I have more often been occupying a perspective where hot and cold, love and hate, self and other are no longer viewed as separate things that oppose each other, but rather, one thing, expressing the varying extremes of its nature. Yin and Yang are not separate, they are Wuji flowing and expressing natural extremes of potential. How I interpret that is my process, not necessarily the nature of how things are... When I observe from a point of duality, I filter my perception of this one thing, into a convenient separation out of a combination of laziness, conditioning and the nature of my observing apparatus. Robert Anton Wilson constantly comes to mind on this matter, when he quoted Husserl that "All perception is gamble". He then expands on this very potently for me... the resonance of this has never dissipated for me, if anything, it resonates more intensely the longer it sits within my awareness. It's very liberating to operate from a position of uncertainty. It opens me up to real listening, not just with my ears, but with my whole process. It reinforces something that also resonates more truthfully the longer I sit with it and that is, just because I thought something and felt strongly about it, doesn't make it real, true, or important. Just because I saw something and then had a thought about it and perhaps also a strong feeling, doesn't mean I 'get it'.

reminds me of that savvy ad by snickers... where does my hunger go when I eat this?

too many assumptions in both the baker and thief and with the finger trap/animal analogy for my taste... sure, in one case with one theoretical baker and one theoretical thief that situation may apply but there are myriad other scenarios we may easily make up that would not fit and would all be equally salacious and fabricated... as to animals being unable to process logic, ever watched a raven solve an 8 step puzzle? too much certainty in any regard almost guarantees absurdity of position

under there

ephemeral

salvia

<holding hands>

<smiles>

No matter my practice, the only real fuel is love. With that,all things become effectively practice. Without love, it´s just sitting or waving my hands in the air. That said, it seems to me at this point, that the only impossible thing, is to ever manage to be even a hairs breadth away from source. All the practices eventually point away from practice until all that remains is...

At last! A thread with a winner.

Nourishing

Up Down down up These bellows move along the insider's grooves

Hey Charles, I'm not inclined to share much... I've only talked about three specific things to my wife and son, the rest is just really beyond words and I'm still processing. I will say it was remarkable and I am deeply grateful to Masters Wang and Liao for their efforts and compassion. I look forward to attending again and I'm truly stoked for your coming experience. The process for this retreat was to sit twice a day, mid-morning and afternoon. Couple days in, they added an early morning walking meditation and most evenings there was tree work and/or sleep meditations. One thing that is easy to talk about and I will share, is that at some point mid retreat, I realized I hadn't been using my reading glasses for a couple days and I haven't needed them yet, so I'll find out if this is a temporary effect of the field, or if Master Wang effected something more permanent in my case. I requested no healing as I am healthy. My entire focus for the retreat was to close down excessive shen, open up the heart and stabilize energy in the foundation. All of those things manifested and continue to play out as I continue to use what was shared.

All of my human teachers so far have displayed human tendencies. If palatable, I look past the human to the teaching. If not, I move on. Like Sifu Lee said.... It's like a finger pointing to the moon, don't look at the finger, or you miss all the heavenly glory.

I relate to the Virtue described by the concept De, in the manner that it is a virtue of grass to be green. Not that green grass is somehow virtuous. There is no morality in it to me. Property is a synonym for Virtue in the context of De, for me. It is a natural expression of essence. It is the virtue of a taoist to follow nature.. Not that this is somehow morally above, or beneath any other way of being. Merely a description of the properties exhibited.

Interesting question. I've always harbored the assumption and so far the forms I have studied all start with healing the body as the premise for all other work, once this foundation is established, then the other work commences naturally from this point on... I hadn't even thought of bypassing the body altogether. But then, I really enjoy my body.