markern

Those two things are not compareable at all. Individuals with controversial opinions get death threats in all societies. But you will not find large numbers of fundamentalist christians wanting those who leave their religion to be killed.

NOn, have you looked more into budhism? You mentioned you had gotten interested in it. Jack Kornfields a Wise Heart - Buddhist psychology for the west is a nice intro to buddhist psychology. I think you could get something out of it. And have you gone to any local Sangha? I think it would be good for you to get in touch with a local teacher and a local group of like minded people. I think a powerfull energy healer could help you. If you change your perspective you could change how you feel and the quality of your energy but a healer could also change your energy and so change your thougts. Springforestqigong.com has great healers. It has been my experience though that for real results you need to have many sessions over a long period of time just as with acupuncture or therapy. But it is REALLY powerfull. I also second the threapy suggestiong made by Sloppy and others. I also think that the inner smile meditation would be perfect for you as just physiologically forcing a smile starts creating smiling energy and once this builds up to a certain level you start smilling naturally and then you can spread the energy out to your body, to all your organs and glands and all parts of what you sense that "you" are. That will provide you with most of the happy neurochemistry you need and help you love yourself and then all the other stuff won`t matter so much. If you do the inner smile for 20 minutes a day for three months something has GOT to change for the better for you.

Wow, just wow

I mostly agree with it as well. However, I do belive that political institutions change culture. It just takes time and there is a limit to its effects. I also belive that in time attitiudes will change in the middle east as they get more time maturing in democratic values, even more people get educations and get them in freer societies and their economies start working better etc.

Yes, but they are a much smaller problem than they used to be some centuries ago and a lot smaller problem than the similar minded people in the middle east are. For example 84% of Christians do not belive apostates should be killed. Even amongst the most hardcore fundamentalist christians you will find very few who believe that. There is a fundamental difference here.

I recomend SFJanes post in this thread about the effectiveness of reiki when thaught to those who do not cultivate properly. THose reiki people I have encountered so far do not cultivate properly and that is the general impression I get of the reiki crowd: http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?/topic/3871-reiki-tummo/page__st__32

What are your practices? It is generally wise to choose one core practice and focus on that. However, there are some practices that can be beneficially added to most other practices with little risk of energetic mix ups. Inner smile, shamatha, VIpassana, Zen, Regular standing meditation, tai chi and Secret smile are practices that in general rarely give people problems if praticed alongside something else.

No he is Norwegian. The essay is here but is in Norwegian: http://skepsis.no/?p=594 As mentioned several of zetigeits references reference books that themselves have no source for their claims other than fiction written in the 1800. Most of the other sources are amateurs from the 1800s and 1900s that in their present day and even more today was looked upon as unserious and whos claims have been thoroughly critiqued by actual religious historians. Here is another critique: Chris Forbes, Senior lecturer in Ancient History of Macquarie University and member of the Synod of the Diocese of Sydney, severely criticized Part I of the movie, asserting that it has no basis in serious scholarship or ancient sources, and that it relies on amateur sources that recycle frivolous ideas from one another, rather than serious academic sources, commenting, "It is extraordinary how many claims it makes which are simply not true."[28] Examining some of the specific claims made by the film, Forbes points out that while there are parallels between the story of Jesus and many ancient mythological figures, many of the ones mentioned in the film are false, as are other aspects of the film's description of these myths. Forbes states that there is no evidence in Egyptian sources that Horus' mother Isis was a virgin, and says that Ra was the Egyptian god of the sun, not Horus. Similarly, neither Krishna nor Dionysus nor Attis were ever said to be born of virgins, as Krishna was the eighth child of his parents, Devaki and Vasudeva, and Dionysus' mother, Semele, had slept with Zeus. Forbes asserts that Horus was not adored by three kings, and that neither he nor Attis were crucified nor resurrected. Forbes and interviewer John Dickson, founder of the Centre for Public Christianity, took issue with what they perceived as an argument centered on the homophony between the words "Sun" and "Son" in regards to Jesus, with Forbes dismissing this point as a pun, and pointing out that those words are not homophonic in ancient Egyptian, Latin or Greek. Forbes also points out that neither Horus, Attis nor Jesus were born on December 25, as the ancient Egyptian calendar did not include the month of December found in the Latin calendar, and that the date of Christmas is a celebratory tradition historically derived from Sol Invictus and Saturnalia, rather than the Bible.[28] Forbes also criticizes the movie's use of Roman sources to suggest that Jesus did not exist, noting that the list of supposed contemporaneous historians alleged by the film to have not mentioned Jesus is actually a list of geographers, literature professors, poets, philosophers and writers on farming or gardening, who would not be expected to mention him, and that the modern sources cited in the film are either experts in fields other than ancient history, such as German literature, or uncredentialed amateur Egyptologists. Forbes challenges the film's allegation that Josephus' mention of Jesus was doctored by pointing out that Josephus actually mentions Jesus twice, and that only one of these mentions is believed by scholars to have been doctored in the Middle Ages, in order to change an already existing mention of him (see Testimonium Flavianum). Forbes also argues that while Emperor Constantine I legalized Christianity, it was Theodosius I who made it compulsory later in the 4th century, and that contrary to the film's thesis, Constantine did not invent the historical Jesus, as early records show that his historicity was already a key element of early Christianity prior to Constantine's conversion to it.[28] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeitgeist:_The_Movie#Scholarly_responses If I were you and believed Zeitgeist to be an important movie I would look into academic per reviewed material wether the critique in what I quoted is right nor not.

There is also another possibility. A lot of girls will actually loose interest fast if you don`t sleep with them after the second, third, fourht or whatever meet. This will often be the case even if they explicitly tell you otherwise. On the other hand some girls would find a man that does not rush this the best thing ever. But it is a recuering phenomenon.

Look up the tapes that have been released of Kennedy, McNamara and Lyndon B. Johnsen, Nixon and others in the administration talking from the very first troops were sent to the withdrawel of american troops and you will know a lot about how at least THEY were thinking. You will discover stuff like Jhonsen pushing for war while McNamara actually was oposed to the war more or less the whole time and arguing that position but also planning and running the war as his belief was that as a government official his job was to implement plicies even when he oposed them. Very itneresting.

I saw the first zeitgeist movie a couple of years ago. After seeing it i surfed the net a bit and found an essay about it by a religious historian that is also a hardcore atheist. He basicly slaughtered what it had to say about religion and backed it up with a ton of sources. One of the more interesting things in it was that he showed how some of the claims came from books that in turn had no other source than the claim having first apeared in fiction. I found that hilarious. Then I went searching for information on the claims about the federal exchange and found tons of stuff about most of the cliams being pure bullshit. Personally knowing people who deal with central banks at a very high level and people who do economic research at quality institutions . Does not exactly increase my faith in the claims. I can`t remeber much of what the details of the zeitgeist movie nor the critical information was so I am not looking to go into a debate but I just wanted to throw this out there to encourage people to do some proper research.

Shinzen youngs article on equanimity and also his articles on pain and emotional expression on shinzen.org are great at clarifying what "detatchment actually means in Buddhism. Jack Kornfields a wise heart buddhist psychology for the west is also good for this.

How do you define control over sexual energy? In a relationship you can both control your sexual energy in terms of saving it and sending it to higher centers through practicing karezza or tantra in the style of Diane Richardson. That would also help you achieve mastery in terms of having multiple valley orgasms. Over time it would naturally teach you how to have multiple peak orgasms as well although they can often be unhealthy and relationship destabilizing. Unlike conventional multiorgasm techniques these styles of sex do not require you to do much else than stay connected, breath slow and relax and try to calm down i you get too aroused. It can take some time until it starts to feel really good or it can do so immediately but it will happen naturally by itself so long as you keep doing this. This is different from the multiorgasm techniques you have probably been trying to master as they are focused on lying very close to the point of now return. This normally lead to mulitple peak orgasms which are a more powerful variation of what you already know as orgasms. In the approaches I refer to you try to stay quite a bit further away from the point of no return and relaxing is even more important. This leads to valley orgasms, a more yin style of orgasms. Another way to come in to more or less this teritory is to buy an aneros, stick it into your taobum and then just relax and breathe deep. It might take some time (as in several/many attempts) for it to start to feel really good but it should happen in time as it taps into a natural response in the body. If you read in the aneros forum you will find stories of exceptional multiorgasms. They can eitehr be a source for making you even more depressed or motivating you to try the aneros. reunting.info is an interesting source on karezza. WHen they talk about not having orgasms they just mean not having peak orgasms. Valley orgasms are very different. If you want techniques for sublimating sexual energy many have a fair amount of success with adding the sixth rite to the five tibetans. Trunk has had a lot of success with turtle breathing. You can find it at alchemicaltaoism.com

The ratio of women to men ARE 1/4 in yoga courses. Why this site is so different I don`t know. Maybe because guys get here through having done martial arts or read philosophy. I did not say spiritual guys were hot or considered hot by virtue of being spiritual. What I said was that a CULTIVATOR will build up energy that is highly attractive to women. You have read enough such testimonials here to know that that is true. Secondly I have written that a cultivator can change his emotions and personality to such a degree that his level of confidence, his calm, his happiness, his ability to tolerate discomfort without flinching and so being able to handle fear and the pain of anything difficult and a bunch of other attractive psychological and personal characteristics can not be matched by most guys. That means a highly attractive personality. None of this is because of being perceived as a spiritual guy or not it is just general personality as developed by being a cultivator. As for attraction I agree that it is mostly about lower chakras and primal things but these get immensely powerful in a cultivator that practices in a balanced way. Attraction is about love and heart chakra as well though. I remember reading something at another forum were a guy said that after his kundalini awakening whenever he held a lot of energy in his heart and was at a club lots of women would gravitate to were he was, if he then moved they would in 10-15 minutes have moved after him again and be standing nearby fiddling their hair and sending flirty signals. This was the heart chakra, not the root or sacral or manipura but the heart. Witch also says that women like third eye men. I don`t understand why exactly but she tends to know her sex and attraction stuff so I`ll trust her on that. The survey about spirituality and sex were done on people who defined themselves as spiritual or were interested in spirituality in some way not on cultivators which is a much rarer thing. People who think of themselves as spiritual and not cultivators tend to often hold a lot of energy in the higher centers and very, very little in the lower centers. They tend to have shame about sexuality and view assertiveness in most ways as bad, they try to behave "nicer" than actually feel like etc. etc. All very unattractive qualities for women. Also a lot of these men tend to be voluntarily celibate for long periods of time. We have seen a lot of that on this forum. Interestingly it is almost always the guys that want to be celibate while the women seldom seem to have much interest in that. I would guess energy drain, mens desire for freedom as opposed to womens desire for love to be to important explanations. Another probable one would be that a lot of women that doN`t cultivate experience their strongest spiritual moments during sex while this is not nearly as likely for men who have not learned to have multiple orgasms but just a tiny ejaculation orgasm squirt. How principles and values are expressed is I think a lot of the explanation for why spirituality often is deemed sexually unattractive and weak. A lot of teh typical spiritual folks will seem to eager to please and like they are trying to anihilate themselves almost. But I think many of us have met teachers where you feel that when their principles and niceness is expressed it is with an incredible strength, like a mountain that can not be moved. The reason it does not want to move is niceness. The reason it can not be moved is strength. IF not the niceness is attractive certainly the strength is and I would see a spiritual practice that does not also aim for this strength is lacking in important regards. I personally have gotten a lot of attraction from women from talking about all the stuff that we talk about here. They find it fascinating and it creates lots of powerful emotions in them, often emotions they have not felt before and that is useful in creating attraction. Having the will power to practice like I do impresses women a lot. Seeming to them knowledgeable in these matters (which I am not but compared to everyone else they know it seems like I am) creates attraction. Coming of as an exception to the rule, coming of as different is in itself always good. Even more so when going against common beliefs is perceived as strength. All of this depends on how you spin it. Most spiritual guys spin it badly, I spin it well. Not that I use it directly to impress women as these things are too "holy" to me to "use" but I do present things in ways that I know are beneficial to me rather than detrimental. My point is if spiritual guys play their cards right they can have it easy. The much higher number of women interested in spirituality is one of several reasons.

Lets presume you are right Non. WOmen are vicious creatures seeking murderous men. Forget about women and focus on what else there is to life then. Even if women are like this that does not stop you from cultivating and reaching a deep happiness, from being stimulated by academic learning, from getting a meaningfull challenging job, from loving martial arts as a hobby, from gaining happiness by helping others and showing compassion, from just getting friends without anything sexual being implied, and many many other things. Sure the stuff about women will be one big sad thing but it is still just one out of many things. It is not the entirety of your existence. Besides seeking therapy I think getting help from an energy healer would help you. I also think you should eat at least a little bit meat.

I would looooooove that job

Thanks!

It is all a matter of perspective and focus. "For women, however, spirituality was the strongest predictor for the number of sexual partners, the frequency of sex, and the tendency to have sex without a condom." So not only are yoga classes and meditation course filled with 80% women, they are also the women that are the easiest to get into bed and probably the ones who likes sex the most. These women are also highly well aware that there is a lack of men who share their interests. They are afraid they won`t find a boyfriend that will be willing to practice tantra with them or who will be willing to discuss their interests at and their spirituality at all. So even it the do find vegetarians slightly less manly the vegetarians are much likely to get those women into bed. It`s just basic supply and demand. Anyway, we all know from the experience of many taobums that as long as you don`t just have belief and a diet without meat but actually cultivate you will develop your energy to a level women find highly and instantly attractive. Probably especially so for women who are into spirituality. IN other words qigong classes and yoga retreats etc. are a mecca for guys like us. It`s basically our hidden harem.

I am and have always been very happy to start with very basic practices and do them thoroughly before advancing to higher level stuff. I think I very much need to also. Actually I got burnt seriously just doing regular breath based meditation because I was so out of balance energetically to begin with that the meditation created more problems. I had so much more energy in my crown chakra than anywhere else that when I just started getting some results with meditation it blew of and have been difficult to calm down ever since. In fact I have had to revert to the most basic physical exercises in order to ground because once my crown had become overactive in grounding energywork would activate it before the exercises had time to start giving a grounding effect. I think most people would be better of using the first phase to gain psychological and energetic balance rather than going to high level stuff quickly. A year at least and for many people more than that should often be used to focus on getting your alignment in order, doing stuff like healing sounds and inner smile to gain basic self love and psychological health, basic stilling of the mind etc. and doing some psychological work. I am not saying people should not do practices aimed at enlightenment such as Vipassana or kunlun from the begining just spend enough time on foundational stuff as well and consider if you are better of doing JUST foundational stuff for quite some time. Once you have laid that foundation you are much, much less likely to end up having trouble on your path such as a healing crises that makes you unable to cope, grounding issues that make you totally spaced out for ages, having all your energies out of whack, becoming psychologically imbalanced, not being able to handle or digest high level insights etc. When you consider that many of us will be on this path for many decades spending your time on laying a foundation might prove cost effective in the end in terms of time spend reaching the highest level you have time to reach in this life. If you are 25 then it is likely you will spend a minimum of 40, probably more than 60 and very possibly 70 or more years on this path. If you spend say 2 years only laying the groundwork that means you still have 38, 48 or 68 years left. If those to years leads to you having only minore problems on the later years you probably save time over all. A grounding issue can take anything from a few weeks to a few years to sort out. A hardcore kundalini crisis can make you unable to progress in any way spiritually and dysfunctional in mundane life for a decade or more if you don`t find proper help. You might also find that you do reach a basic level of enlightenment but because you ignored energetic balance you find it near impossible to keep your hands of your young female students because now you have such and overload of yang energy and you crave yin energy desperately without understanding how to get it but your body sees young women as a quick fix for that. You might also find that you are still insecure and overcompensate for that in all sorts of ways but are unable to realize that because you have a basic level of realization and so should be beyond that you think. ETc. Etc. Etc. All that being said I believe a lot more practices should be taught openly and earlier on. There are huge variations between how early something is taught in different traditions and what is considered safe and not. B.K. Frantzis wrote that what was jealously guarded "high level" breathing techniques amongst martial artists on Okinawa taught only after decades of study was taught to unfit housewives in beginner classes in qigong on Taiwan. In Hatsumnis (correct spelling?) Glenn Morris said basically only one or a very few was taught enough to learn how to raise their kundalini. Those who take Glenn Morris` KAP course or follow any number of other good systems today can learn to do the same in a safe and balanced way within a few years. So when someone in a system claims with great authority that something is too advanced there is every reason to believe he might just be parroting his tradition without it actually being true. But it is also highly possible that he is correct. Some practices are impossible to get any sort of result with unless you already are an advanced practicioner. Some practices are very dangerous unless you have the foundation in order. Eventually trial and error will reveal the level of accomplishment required to succeed with every practice that is available as people try them out, some people get burnt, some people get nowhere and some people succeed and people exchange experience in an open way like it is done on this forum. That will make it possible to develop guidelines that are both rational and will have credibility enough for most people to follow them. For example in AYP they do not advice spinal breathing from root to crown unless one already has done it root to third eye for a long time and done lots of their other practices and once you start doing it they advice you to do lots of small try outs where you do only a little bit at a time so you can check if you are ready without getting serious issues. From reading in the forum it seems like almost everyone follows that guideline because it is actually based on experience one can trust not just tradition. There will be a human cost in figuring out what can be done at what level etc. because some will get burnt and some will waste time. Eventually after a period of suffering most that get burnt pcik up the pieces and gain balance again anyway. Paying this price in terms of suffering is worth the gains in efficiency and rationality we gain over the long term. If we don`t make that sacrifice we will be stuck in a world were people do asanas and pranayama for eight years until they even try to do beginners level meditation just because Iyengar has some strange opinions and we will suffer decades in Okinawa trying to learn what the local masters woN`t teach when all we have to do is take the boat to Taiwan. THis being said I think it is very important to be thoughtful about what one tries to do and that one do listen a lot to the classical advice given about the level required for a practice. One also need to safe pace as in AYP and do careful tryouts to minimize risk. At the same time as I value this process of tryouts and experiments as a historical process I would never advice any one individual to do such experiments other than to a very modest degree. SO although I am happy some are foolish I advice you not to be a fool. Thogal and all that is highly unrealistic to master for a beginner. Don`t bother. And as I said you will suffer less and likely be more efficient over the course of a life time if you lay the foundation first.

Mantak Chia talked about only the nails and hair being left I think and also about ascending to heaven in broad daylight.

What is the Jamilian university of the ordained? Where is it from?

Actually the karezza aproach leads to something similar. THe intense feeling of sex drive disapears and you get a softer desire that still leads to people preferring to have sex often but without the same sense of compulsion. I think the buildup of jing to a high level has something to do with it.

I would read the practice journals of some of the people mentioned as that gives you more in depth udnerstanding of what they do everyday and how it feels and effects them. YOu could try the secret smile right away as its a key kap practice. There are isntructions for it in one of varjasatvas posts here so you can dig it up. Just google secret msile and thetaobums or soemthign and you should find it.

Thanks. Hows that different from enlightenment? But it does nto seem like anyone understands this very well or gets it to the level where you reach elightenment. If you look at christain monks their techniques of prayer and cultivating love for good takes enldess amounts of time. I read one monk say the dark night usually takes 10 years to get through in his tradition. If they did vipassana much less time would be necesarry to get through it.