EagerMind

I'm going to be starting a meditation practice soon with the goals of health in mind. I've read a decent amount of taoist and buddhist philosophy over the years but was wondering what meditation I should start with. I'm a bit of a skeptic in a way but would love to learn how to circulate chi through my body to heal myself! I'm planning on starting with 15 minutes twice a day and go from there.

I've had inflammation for about three years, I think I might have an auto immune disease. It took me a while to figure out what my problems were but i've switched over to a vegaterian diet and it's helping a little but I still have inflammation and pain in my prostate, kidneys, bladder and now my right leg is slightly swollen. I've been to a couple doctors and while they help a little almost all of the progress I've made has been from my own research!

So far to combat the inflammation I've switched to a vegetarian diet, I take probiotics three times a day (which help tremendously), and take two 81mg asprins a day. I'm pretty lazy so exercise is only walking 1 mile a day.

So my question is what can I do to help the healing process besides seeing doctors? I was thinking tai chi any suggestions?

I'm a 33 year old male.

I just started reading this book yesterday "The Wisdom of Solitude" and so far I find it very interesting and entertaining!!! From what I've gather so far (I'm on chapter 3, it's a short book 140p) it's about a women who does a rigorous 100 day buddhist retreat in the woods inspired by her teacher Korean Zen Master "Seung Sahn".

I borrowed the book I'm reading from the library but the link to amazon is The Wisdom of Solitude

Ironically I was just reading "Opening the Dragon Gate" yesterday! It would be amazing to meet and learn from Master Wang Liping but unfortunately $3600 is a crap load of money I hope all who go have a wonderful experience!

Interent Sacred Texts Archive

Enjoy

Free Buddhist Ebooks

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Check master mantak chia, he is >65 and he looks like 40!

That could be a combination of lifestyle and genetics. I look very young for my age even though I'm 29, I get mistaken for 18-22 all the time. Not to say I don't take care of myself but that wasn't always the case, I did a lot of bad stuff when I was younger (heavy drinking, heavy smoking, horrible eating habits, some recreational drug use). I also think a lot of asians have the genetics to look younger than they are!!!

I've had the same thing happen before, it's because you're excited. As you become accustom to the person and continue being affectionate you'll become less and less excited and the leakage with stop or dramatically decrease to almost nothing.

I was hoping I could get a couple awesome book recommendations that deal with Eastern Philosophy/Religion/Spirituality (other awesome books would be good too even if they don't deal with the topics mentioned above).

Some of my favourite books that really inspire me are:

Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits

I love reading this book, I almost always have it with me!!!!

Classics of Buddhism and Zen, Volume 1: The Collected Translations of Thomas Cleary

This whole series is great (as well as the the Taoist series) but I keep this one with me the most because I love reading "minding mind", I still haven't made it all the way through the book though. Thomas Cleary is an amazing translator, I can't believe how much stuff he's done!!!

The Teachings and Practices of the Early Quanzhen Taoist Masters

I borrowed this from the library and skipped around in it a lot but recently bought it and started reading it from the beginning and am enjoying it.

The Secrets of Chinese Meditation: Self-Cultivation by Mind Control As Taught in the Ch'An, Mahayana and Taoist Schools in China

Another book i can read over and over again!

The Art of Living: Vipassana Meditation

My favourite books on Vipassana, I've read this multiple times but it's been a while since the last time I've read it.

Twenty-Five Doors to Meditation: A Handbook for Entering Samadhi

Awesome book on different types of meditation with descriptions and examples.

Opening the Dragon Gate: The Making of a Modern Taoist Wizard

Awesome read!

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!!!

Free Books Main site

http://www.dlshq.org

Download free books

http://www.dlshq.org/download/download.htm

Some other cool links I found when I was researching Hinduism and Yoga over the past couple of months (sorry if I get a little crazy with all the links, I like sharing )

Yoga

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga

This guy is a total badass, he's trained most of todays top hatha yoga instructors, B.K.S. Iyengar, K. Pattabhi Jois, ect... Also just to let everyone know K. Pattabhi Jois died about two weeks ago at the age of 93, very sad!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Tirumalai_Krishnamacharya

http://www.yogawiz.com

http://www.abc-of-yoga.com

http://www.yogaforums.com/forums/

Yoga Centers

Awesome yoga article about studying yoga in India, a link to the place they studied at is after the article link.

http://www.thewanderingnomad.com/yoga_in_india.html

http://www.yogapoint.com

http://www.sivananda.org

http://www.whitelotus.org

http://www.kripalu.org

Hinduism

Some very interesting stuff to read about

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimurti

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigveda

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purana

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanishad

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabharata

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayana

http://www.celextel.org

http://www.sanatansociety.org

http://www.srimadbhagavatam.org

http://www.ganesh.us

Happy reading

I'm rereading a book called Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits (which by the way is really good!) and while doing research have stumbled across a couple links that some might find interesting.

Hermitary

Sacred Mountains of China

Sacred Mountains of China - wiki

Zhang Daoling

Amazing!!! It's too bad that I'm scared to take drugs

I've been through some pretty bad experiences when I was younger because I blindly put my faith in my parents and family doctor. Not to say they didn't care, I know they did! Fortunately I came to the realization that I have to listen to my body and not to take what people that are older then me as absolute. It's really hard when you're brought up to rely so heavily on your parents!

I do get a little upset but I don't really get angry with the hospitals and doctors. I'm pretty healthy I eat extremely healthy, take vitamins, don't smoke, don't drink, don't take illegal drugs, and occasionally work out (I should definitely work out more!). So I hardly ever go to the doctor, I'll actually be going soon though to talk about some really bad GURD (Acid Reflux) I've been having but the last time I was there was for a check up at least a year ago.

On the other hand I get extremely pissed at my parents because I really care about them and they can't break their cycle of bad habits. My mom is 50, smokes at least 2 1/2 packs a day, eats like crap, doesn't sleep much, drinks a ton of coffee, and doesn't exercise. I don't know if I'm leaving anything out but she's in really crappy shape! I try and get her to workout with me, I offer her some of my healthy vegetarian meals, I use to constantly yell at her about her smoking (I figured out it does neither of us any good).

My dad is just as bad! He's at least 30lbs overweight (I'm sure more), doesn't exercise, eats like crap, he runs a business so he has tons of stress, and even though he takes blood pressure medication his blood pressure is still high. The only good thing about my dad is that he's willing to try, it's just hard for him to stay on track. I can occupationally get him to work out with me and for a while i got him to eat egg white omelets. Just an example of how bad his health is: when we go to the gym he can only do a maximum of 15 minutes of walking on the treadmill before he starts to have chest pains from his blood pressure shooting up

I haven't lost hope and will do my best to get them into shape!

Also I completely agree "health doesn't come in a pill"! I think people should try and treat the cause and not the symptoms.

Cause: I'm fat and my blood pressure is high

Solution: lose weight, eat healthy, exercise

Stupid solution: take a pill, become fatter, feel like crap

I know for a fact it's extremely hard to change your lifestyle, one of the hardest things for me was to quit smoking about 8 years ago but because I didn't want to feel like shit anymore I knew it had to be done.

It's ok, I still love you

There's a torrent for it with english subtitles here --> http://www.d-addicts.com/forum/viewtopic_60873.htm

Here's a site I recently stumbled across and thought some of you might be interested in!

www.freebuddhistaudio.com

Who among us will change our lifestyle based on an internet discussion?

You never know what kind of an effect this discussion will have on people, words have a very profound effect weather spoken, written or typed!!!

Just discussing this has encouraged me to try being (I tried complete vegetarian before) semi vegetarian again. I'm going to go for excluding all animal products except milk, butter, and fish. And the only reason I'm going to be eating fish is because it's necessary to get some animal protein, the fatty acids are extremely good for you, and vitamin b12 is essential. Right now I get most of my protein from beans and milk anyway so it's not that much of a change, I just have to cut the occasional chicken breast and stop eating eggs (which I hardly ever eat anyways). I obviously would love it if I didn't need to eat fish to get protein, and omega fatty acids but I'm not sure of any other way, I do want to be healthy while saving the fuzzy creatures.

I've heard about this before and since I'm not a scientist can't verify it for myself. Some people say soy is amazing for you some people say it will kill you, I have no idea but I do eat it every once in a while (probably more that I know). I occasionally eat miso soup with tofu in it but only once every couple of weeks and I also occasionally drink soy milk but not very often. If I knew it was health I would eat it a lot more often!

Also, to quote the great George Bernard Shaw : "Animals are my friends, and i don't eat my friends".

I love that, it's hilarious!!!

Look, i'm not an elitist about it, and i actually think a pescetarism diet (vegetarianism plus sea food) it's the most perfect diet to go in these days (as it all revolves around meat, we are not yet prepared as a race to go full veggie). Fishes at least live in the wild, they seem different somehow (i know they really aren't, well they are not mammals at least), and it's the only meat i would eat as a last resort. I don't see any justification in killing pigs, cows, chickens, ducks, and a large etc, just human appetite. Meat eaters don't have a point to defend at all, unless they want to defend cruelty.

One of my friends actually does that pescetarism diet and I actually would probably be able to pull that kind of diet off easily (did I mention I love sea food ) but I don't think fish are different. I'm kind of like an all or nothing guy and it would still make me feel bad if I was eating fish, I'm still killing animals. So I just stick with eating all animals instead of one specific group, fish have feelings too . I usually eat sushi about 3 or 4 times a week and I love, I could probably make that my only protein source of the day and kinda be vegetarian but I would still feel bad about killing the fish. Another reason that I don't just eat sea food is because I'm kind of scared about getting mercury poisoning, I think I'm already pushing it by eating fish so much. That's also why I eat Salmon and very rarely eat Tuna (maybe once a month) because it's a much bigger fish so would tend to have more mercury.

Thanks for the encouragement I'm thinking about being semi vegetarian again (pescetarism diet).

Another big reason I like vegetarianism is because it's also good for the enviroment, it takes up to 16 pounds of grain to produce just 1 pound of meat.

I became a vegetarian an year ago or so. I think the human body was created to adapt basically. You can definitely eat plants and animals, but you are not forced to do so. I think the only justification for eating an animal (even a human being, we can digest that perfectly too and i don't see anybody saying is natural) is for your own survival, and even in that situation, you still have a choice. The real problem though, is that we are killing billions of animals just for our own appetite's sake, just to add bacon to our burger. The craving for pleasure is that huge, and the killing of animals is just a tiny part.

 

I don't agree with veganism as a lifestyle, although i find it very noble, it's just some sort of protest or activism against cruelty but nothing else. I don't see anything wrong in milking a cow humanely for example, some animals, like dogs, are so used to be with humans that they won't survive in the wild. Also, the whole B12 stuff is kinda ridiculous, everybody is trying to tell you how unhealthy it is to go vegan, but they don't have a problem eating in McDonalds and die of a heart attack at age 45...please.

 

Even if it's based mostly on veganism, i suggest you watch Earthlings, it's a fine documentary with lots of insights of the whole industry (not only meat).

The people that eat at Macdonald's everyday don't care about vegetarianism or their health. I on the other hand do greatly care about my health that's why I try to eat a balanced diet and for me that includes animal protein sources. I actually read a couple of books on vegetarianism before I tried it out so I'd be aware of the risk factors/benefits. It obviously can be very healthy if you eat sensibly, one good thing about being vegetarian is not eating as much fat or cholesterol which is very healthy for your heart but even if you are vegetarian you can still eat bad stuff (chocolate, butter, ice cream, french fries, etc...). You also have to be careful so you get the vitamins you need, some of the vitamins lacking in vegetarian diets are calcium, iron, b12. Most people get calcium from milk but if you're vegan or don't drink milk then you have to find it elsewhere. Iron is another problem because most people get their iron from meat but you can also get it from beans and oatmeal (I was looking for alternative sources of vitamins that I could eat). Now to one of the big reasons I'm not vegetarian, it because of b12. One of my doctor friends told me that the only way you can get vitamin b12 is from an animal source! Let me know what you think about this one, if I can find alternatives for b12 that would make a big different for me!

Overall I think most things are good for you in moderation!

The only reason I wanted to be vegetarian (beside getting into buddhism) is because I really started thinking a lot about everything I was eating and i don't want to kill little fuzzy creatures! It's still a problem for me because I don't want to be unhealthy by not getting the vitamins and protein I need. I think I eat pretty healthy I eat lots of vegtables, beans, rice (a lot of rice, I'm kinda chubby because of it), some fruit (I try not to eat to much because of the sugar), and for protein I eat Chicken, Salmon, and Tofu. Another reason it was hard for me to be vegetarian is because of one of my vices which is sushi!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I try to limit the amount of meat I eat so I don't eat that much but maybe someday I will be able to be vegetarian. It's not an easy change when you've grown up all your life eating meat!

Thanks for the suggestion on "Earthlings", I'll definitely check it out!

**Edit**

Oh ya I forgot to add, another reason it's hard for me to be vegetarian is because I'm allergic to wheat. I already have a restrictive diet by not being able to eat any bread, pastas, a lot of bakery like cakes and cookies which isn't to bad but it does limit a lot of what I can eat. It doesn't bother me though, I'm already use to it. I actually think this helped me to become healthier.

I use to lurk on here for a while: http://www.buddhachat.org

I like Buddhism but a lot of the precepts are too hard for me! Also I don't agree with all of them, especially vegetarianism. I went without meat for a week and besides always being hungry (and eating every 2 hours), I don't think humans are suppose to vegetarian. We have teeth for eating both plants and animals so it would make sense that we eat both. Also the only way people can get vitamin b12 is through an animal source!!!! I don't like the thought of creating a market for the killing of animals but I do have to eat.

The only classical taoist text that I've read is "Tao Te Ching" but I've recently purchased "Chuang Tzu" which I'm looking forward to reading. So unfortuantely I'm of no help with suggestions because I haven't read that much but as Yoda said, I also think this is an awesome project. One of my friends has done the same thing that you're doing now, he burns a bunch of copies of his favorite audio books and gives them away to people, he gave me one of Wayne Dyes that I still haven't listened too.

I curious to see what people here have to say about this though, obviously stealing is wrong but giving away copies of audio books doesn't hurt anyone (at least I don't think so) so is it still wrong. This is a question I've struggled with for a while!! I'm 28 so I grew up in the era of everybody downloads music and movies and I still do but over the past year I've been thinking about a lot of my actions more carefully. I'm kind of at a 50/50, it's obviously wrong to steal but this way I get exposed to a wider range of electronic entertainment which for the artist and corporations is free advertising. There are a lot of things I would have never purchased if I hadn't downloaded them for free first!

Let me know what you think!

I already have really bad anxiety, I guess it's just one more thing to worry about

The helmet is actually a primitive form of SQUID, using highly ferromagnetic solitonic wave motion of solenoid fibers that magnetically penetrate the pi matter of the brain cells leading to a birefringent seratogenic hemispheric storm in neurons composing the corpos collosum einstein-bose rosen bridge condensates that enhances the perception of "THE Presence" the feeling that one is being observed by a DIVINE CONSCIOUSNESS, that intensifies during Kunlun practice.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've haven't been on here a long time but have seen a lot of kunlun posts! They don't really bother me, if you see something concerning kunlun and don't want to read about it you can always pass it by. If it's a scam or not, I have no idea, it does seem a little fishy but I'm a see it to believe kind of guy. I do think the way Pat went about this wasn't very productive or kind, it would of probably been much better to just find another forum.

Jim