silent thunder

My practice revolves around a few forms. Two of which are Qi Gong and the others are about how I act and react to others in daily life. In regards to the Qi Gong practice, I recently experienced a big surge and wanted to share. I returned to daily practice three years ago after meeting my teacher, (seemingly randomly.... HA!). I hadn't studied with any intent for a long time due to what I thought were limiting physical issues... again HA! Recently, within the last year or so, my breath work will come on spontaneously throughout the day when I'm engaged in other tasks, seemingly unrelated to my forms. This has been fostered in me by my intention to incorporate the forms and breath awareness into the real cultivation, which is full time. While driving home this day, I noticed I was breathing fully and deeply again as in my forms, but while just sitting in traffic. So I allowed awareness to settle on the breath, which brought me into full body awareness and soon my entire body was buzzing lightly and the energy was flowing. And as clear as day Bruce Lee popped in my head and said: He just said in my head, stop thinking about the practice now and feel. As I've now fully ingrained the forms into my body, the mind can relax and isn't needed for much, yet I have still been clinging to rigidly counting and paying 'attention'. So when this moment dawned on me, I decided to really put that into practice and release the mind and simply work the forms with feeling and un-pointed full accepting awareness.... Wow. It was like plugging into 220v. I don't think this is any sort of end point, nor is it going to be the full focus of my practice from here out, but wow, releasing the mind and settling in raw awareness opened up such sensitivity to things that were already happening unawares... So... thanks Bruce! Wisdom doesn't die...

This sounds amazing. Thank you. I'll be trying it.

for me, recognizing synchronicity is akin to the awareness of the interconnectedness of all things

Makes sense to me. For years I was tormented at work, by the relentless machine and tool sounds and by the non stop repetitive music. Then one day I realized I hadn't been aware of it, though it had been going on for hours. This trend continued to expand and deepen It's also spilled over into another far more interesting form for me. I've noticed becoming aware of a thought chain that was happening, but I was not participating in, in the same way I'll sometimes still become aware of the music that has been playing, which I was not 'aware' of, more precisely I wasn't participating in it. If that makes sense. either way. The Witness abides Dude...

*deep bow* Thank you. What an amazing thing to wake up to... Wow...

That sounds awesome and strong.

I've experienced this all over the web, but as GP points to... the waters here are rich in it. The entirety of life is my I-Ching however. When the mood strikes, I will pose a question to the Tao and then open up. the answers can come from a snippet of overheard conversation while walking... from the side advert on a bus driving by... from a few words as I'm changing radio stations... from a book lying nearby where I'll just flip to a page and start reading... or an interaction between the cheeky squirrels outside my door... Everything connects to everything else. So that's where my impetus for such a process came from originally.

so I'm standing in the kitchen making myself something... my wife is sound asleep in the bedroom and I suddenly get this crystal clear image of her all curled up like a ferret, under the covers, like she always does... and that instant... Paul starts wailing this in my mind... life is good

I agree. The Tao of Physics initiated deep shift within me.

curiosity

It all depends where you are at with your state of dis-ease. To pay a few thousand dollars to relieve chronic years of pain was nothing to me. I lived it. I had severe, intermittent pain in my left ankle for well over a decade. For years the Dr's would take xrays, find nothing wrong, call it Tendonitis, hand me anti-inflammatory scrips and send me on my way. I've lost count as to how much I spent on visits back then. For years it would come and go quickly and I was able to operate, but eventually, I was having trouble walking without severe pain. Finally someone ordered an MRI that showed that the entire base of my Tibia had been aggressively eaten away by a fibroidal cyst. This cyst didn't show on x-rays. He said when I shifted my weight onto my left foot that it was being held up by 1/16 of an inch of bone. If it caved in, there was a serious possibility of losing the foot. He then said he did not want to attempt the surgery and referred me to someone more accomplished. These sessions and copays for MRI and all was in the $500 range. The next two surgeons to a look at my MRI and rejected me outright for treatment, referring me to someone more accomplished. The fourth said he would do it, but I thought his method was too severe and sought yet another opinion. The fifth surgeon was the one I ended up going with for the two surgeries. The two surgeries were spaced out over two years and worked very well. Bone from my hip was inserted after the cyst was removed. The integrity of the Tibia held and my foot was saved, but I was left with constant, debilitating pain. The procedures cost over $150,000 each to insurance. My share was around $5,000. They did what they could with a very difficult situation and saved my foot and I still send them all Holiday cards, but there was little they could offer aside from pills and physical therapy for the pain. I paid another $1,000 for my share of the physical therapy sessions. The therapy yielded no relief. A year or so after the second surgery I did experience improvement when I changed to a new physical therapist who was much more knowledgeable and effective. He was new and just starting out and would not collect a co-pay from me. He also took whatever my insurance company offered as payment in full, so there was zero out of pocket for me. He is really gifted. I've referred many people to him over the years. I experienced longer periods between flare-ups and the pain was not present all day every day. $0 At this point my pain was manageable with a mixture of stretching, anti-inflammatory and pain meds. But I detested the pills and would stop taking them because of the side effects. Some time later, a friend led me to my teacher and in two days, my entire quality of life changed. After two days of intense Qi Gong with a group of about 20 people, I had a healing session that changed my life. I spent $125 for the seminar and $140 for the healing session. I walked out of that room and the pain was just gone. It's never returned. I can still see the look on my wife's face when I came home and told her to look. She turned from the kitchen sink to see me hopping. Something I did a lot back then, if the left foot hurt. When she realized I was hopping on my left foot, she just started crying with happiness. $265 I've continued on with the regimen of stretches that I learned from my PT, but I've added daily Qi Gong and a complete overhaul of my diet. What occurred in that room and in that weekend fixed a lot more than just my ankle. Years of emotional and mental blockages were removed and channels were opened. I walked around in a beautiful haze for four days afterward. I could feel people's laughter bouncing off my LDT... What occurred in that room changed my paradigm and experience of reality. We really are so small and we are often exposed to so little. It nudged me onto a path where I no longer need to seek out healing but I'm constantly learning to maintain my own health. I think all of the money I spent was worth it. I was doing the best I could within the conditions I was involved in and so were all the healers, so they earned every penny. After what I went through, if facing it again, I'd gladly spend double what I did... to get to where I am now. which is: Being able to walk without thinking about it... Walking barefoot up and down mountain trails whenever I want. Chasing, tackling and wrestling my son whenever the mood strikes. Running into the ocean and playing in the surf. Simply walking up and down stairs without thinking about every time I put my left foot down. priceless...

Great idea! My wife and I spent part of our honeymoon in the Badlands, SD. On one hike we got into a very remote place and stopped for a rest. We shared an experience regarding silence that is the reason I chose my name silent thunder. The silence we experienced was so complete, within some minutes we both heard a rushing sound, almost like water. Extremely faint, but steady and present... it grew until it became oppressive. The ensuing roar that came to us within the silence was truly deafening. It changed me on some foundational level.

not all those who wander are lost... Tolkien

going to check this one out. thanks

I can see where you guys are coming from, but my experience allowed no room, nor ability for chaos to propagate itself. It was nothingness. Absolute and pristine, pure and untouchable, unfathomable. Perhaps I'm barking at the wrong mongoose here. I'm talking void and you're all talking abyss... think I got it now. *bow* peace and happy hunting. edit: Yea, I'm talking about the abyss it turns out as I let it settle further... Abyss as in void of anything... a great emptiness. Not filled with horrible things, vengeful things, or neutral things or... anything. Abyss... agreat emptiness, void of things.

resonance

We are so over-sensitized in everyday life. To sit in the quiet dark and simply be, allows deeper aspects to approach from the depths. Very rewarding and quite beneficial for me.

Love it! Thanks for the update and thanks for being who you are mate. World needs more people like you.

We walked on some very new stone in Hawai'i recently...

Well, that's one type of abyss, but not for me... The one I experienced there was no devil, no concept of devil, no concept of anything. No world, no light, no objects of any kind. Pure void.

The one Colonel, (why is that pronounced kernal?), that I heard interviewed was part of the original program and he described it like a skill that could be improved drastically with training. I imagine a certain amount of natural talent has to exist though.

There is always the option to say 'no' as well. It would not be compassionate of me to interfere in your Path and deprive you of your opportunity for growth.

There's a restaurant in Los Angeles called Opaque that I want to take my family to soon. All the servers are blind. You enter into a dimly lit entry room where you place your entire order. Your server then leads you into the dining area which is pitch black and you eat your meal without the use of sight. Of course, this is pointless now in the days of everyone has a phone out for their meals... Hopefully they ban phones in the dining area.

could go to a local playground like we did and have your friends spin you on the whizz n puke like we used to

I know how my teacher handled it. With tact and integrity and by being a moving target. Not being in one place for more than a few months or weeks offers some time to do the routine before going 'back into circulation'.