EagerMind

I've been on this board for awhile, reading about all of the practices here and I'm a little overwhelmed. I found this board through a friend and am looking mainly for physical mental and emotional health. Ive looked into at least 50 practices so far but don't know where to start. Can I get some input on where each of you started and what you would recommend as the best practice to start with.

 

Andrew

I'm actually on the same page as you! The only thing I know that I want to do is meditate, obviously there are tons of different styles of meditation to choose from but I'm kind of fond of Taoist and Buddhist. I would suggest to try things out that you're interested in one by one. A good place to find a meetup group in your area is www.meetup.com , just type in your area code and then search for whatever your looking for: tai chi, ba gua, meditation! I think it's a lot easier to start a practice if you meet with people that have the some of the same interests as you, it helped me a lot with learning meditation (but you never stop learning!). Also read as much as you can, the library is your friend!!!

Four monks were meditating in a monastery. All of a sudden, the prayer flag on the roof started flapping. The younger monk came out of his meditation and said: "Flag is flapping". A more experienced monk said: "Wind is flapping". A third monk who had been there for more than 20 years said: "mind is flapping". The fourth monk who was the eldest said, visibly annoyed: "Mouths are flapping!".

After I read this I couldn't stop laughing!

I kind of agree with the first monk (maybe because I'm a newbie) but it's obvious that the flag is flapping (and the mouths) and not the wind. The wind is causing the flag to flap but I don't think the wind itself could flap, I'm assuming it's not dense enough.

What does everyone think?

Hey Drew, I've only been on this forum for a very short period of time but find your posts very interesting to read, I do have a hard time believing some of it sometimes but I'm a pretty skeptical person!

I'm definitely newbie compared to most people on this forum, my only experience is with yoga for about 2 months and I've been reading philosophy for about 6 months! I'm still trying to setup my schedule to work a couple of practices in but my main focus will be on meditation, I'm going to try to meditate for about 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes at night but my ultimate goal is to double the length.

I'm also extremely interested in the lotus posture and will be trying it out shortly, unfortunately it'll probably be very hard for me because I have bad posture, that's another thing I really have to work on!

In your mind only. I know what I was attempting to say, and you are clearly confused by what was written.

If in the context of my post does not apply any assumption whatsoever, only in that which you have yourself misinterpreted. The mind is a funny thing. Two people can observe the very same thing, and think they are right about it. You assume to be right about what I meant.

 

If you want to be at work tomorrow by 8 AM, you'll be sure to wake up before that to ensure that you will.

This statement does not assume that you want to go to work, it's merely what you must do IF your goal is to go to be at your job by 8 AM. That does not however imply in any way that your aim is to go work tomorrow at 8 AM. Your aim may be to play sick and watch tv all day, or do kunlun for all I know

Hilarious!!!!!!!!!!!!

About the rest of this discussion, debating is good and thought provoking but fighting is stupid! Nevertheless I'm very intrigued by the physics!

I hope you both have a wonderful birthday!

So what have your heard?

Not from anyone I personally know but from multiple people off of internet forums (which I always take with a grain of salt) that he has a huge ego and always talks about himself. I normally wouldn't believe in sh*t talking but I've heard it multiple times so that definitely influences me, I'm obviously still not sure though as I've never met him.

It's like using Amazon.com feedback, you read all the comments about a book that people left to get a feel for it.

I've always wanted to take Ba Gua, I think it's an awesome art! The first time I actually heard about it was while reading BKF's book " The Power of Internal Martial Arts: Combat Secrets of Ba Gua, Tai Chi, and Hsing-I", this is an amazing book and the book that turned me onto all internal arts!

I'd love to study with BKF but all of his classes are way to expensive and I've heard some bad things about him but I'm not sure how true they are.

What constitutes a waste of time?

I've only made my bed a couple of times in my life (mostly when I was younger) because I always thought it was a waste of time (I'm kinda lazy too). You're going to mess it up sooner or later only to remake again, ect... So why do it? Is it to show that you're responsible to your parents when you're young or maybe to help you along with the rest of the social standards of your environment. Either way I see no point and wonder why it's done!

The time wasted making your bed everyday adds up and probably could of been used for something more useful!

**edit**

now that I think about it I probably should have posted this in the off-topic section, sorry!

My late introduction! I'm a more of a lurker at first.

I became interested in philosophy about 7 months ago after taking some yoga classes. I've read a little bit about Buddhism, Daoism, and Hinduism, needless to say I'm very interested! I loved taking the yoga classes, I felt amazing afterwards and it also got me up off my lazy butt, which is one of my problems (a lot of my hobbies addictions include sedentary activities: reading, being a computer geek, watching tv...). I don't go to yoga anymore because it's really expensive but I want to start my own practice including meditation very soon, the only problem is it's really hard to change some of my bad habits but I'm working on it!

I'm also extremely interested in Asian culture, I've been a Japanophile for many years but for the last couple of years have started getting into other cultures such as: China, Korea, and India.

Interests:

Chinese Martial Arts

Philosophy

Meditation

Foreign Languages & Cultures

Reading / Learning