Miffymog

I think that Lam Kam Chuen suggests that some aspects of the 8 Brocades can be done sitting down, but it's not really what it was designed for so I don't know how good it would be. Worth a try I guess.

Curious you mention this. For the last 3 years I've been wondering what direction my life, or rather my career, should go in. I've been keeping myself busy, but not going in any particular direction. But just in the last month I've decided exactly what I want to do.

Interestingly enough, the path I'm now going on is one I've been aware of as a possibility for some time but not wanted to take. 2 months ago, the thought of doing what I'm doing now was quite unappealing, but now I'm quite excited about it and full of motivation.

I can't really pinpoint at any one thing that has helped me work out what I want to do, other than the time is now right for it.

If I'd started down this path before I felt I was ready it just would not have worked...

All the ideas here are very good. My rewording of what's already been said is to quote a book on Zhan Zhuang called 'The Dynamics of Standing Still'. There's a cleverly written section on motivation, although that word is never used in the chapter. The advice is

keep it tasty - so you keep coming back for more

which comes from the point of view of not pushing yourself too much so you maintain motivation. When you are ready to extend your duration, you'll just feel that you want to.

So what would people generally recommend as a good way to get started with Jing boosting?

I've looked into different methods, but my greatest success has been becoming happy with what I've got. There can be a slight danger chasing this one, not always, but there's definitely an addictive element that's worth being aware of.

My current place is that because the mind is always moving there are no absolutes or certainties. I don't know, but I reckon even for enlightened people, their minds are always in motion and changing too. This means that maybe its slightly unnatural to agree on any one thing.

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The thing is, as soon as you try to discuss it / enlightenment, you step outside of what 'it' is. However, there are 'skillful' and 'less skillful' mental attitudes you can have. I reckon that different masters could possibly come to some agreement as to what these are. But then again, maybe not ... 

Yes.  And I even suggest that it can be experienced.

For me - you have no choice but to experience it!

I love my chess! I'm not very good and I only play 5 minute games but I find it a great way to relax after I've been using my brain on work.

But I never play against a computer, the games are just sooooo boring because they don't make mistakes. The whole emotional roller coaster ride of a game of chess comes about from the simple mistakes either you or the opponent makes.

To this end I just play on line on various chess websites. My current one is chess.com as it's free and finds opponents with in seconds. It also has some really good tuition from beginners up to experts. You may have to pay $5 a month for them, but if you're new to chess, I really recommend them, just to get a good over view of all the different aspects.

bonsai is great as a hobby, and its really cool to see what other folks do with it. It takes a huge amount of discipline to do correctly. Huge ! .. but doable .

Yesterday I repotted my little Chinese Elm. Well, I took it out the pot, shook all the earth off the roots, cut some of them back and then put it back in the same pot. I've read in some places that when you do this you should seal the end of the cut roots so they don't get infected, but I didn't bother. Hopefully it'll be ok.

I like to think that with there being a few less roots in the pot the tree will be a bit healthier - time will tell.

getting off of my OP - I've come across various spiritual sources that say our souls/spirits originally came from other star systems as if that were a final answer to our origin, yet lets face it at one time those other star systems did not exist and also came from somewhere so to speak... (or arose)

 

<SNIP>

The simple question that takes you from the world of science and certainty to the world of mystery and mysticism

"... and what came before that?"

No links I'm afraid, just something I remembered reading somewhere.

They're thinking of using an ultra light device that will be 'blown along' by solar light. The advantage of this is that because it is has so little mass it can increase to a noticeable fraction of the speed of light and get there in a respectable time.

Now, I've absolutely no idea how it then stops when it gets there nor how it communicates back to us what it sees. But if this can be worked out, then it won't actually be all that expensive to send an unmanned exploratory device.

Just had a thought, maybe it just does a circular trip...?

Correct advice:

Link

Practice to strenghten the dang (inner arch of the legs):

Link

Nice links. These stances are far, far lower than I go though. I only just unbend my legs, this is in part due to my having slightly dodgy knees but mainly because I'm teaching myself and I don't want to risk injury.

It's true, holding your arms out requires your back muscles to work harder.  Actually that posture is used for fighting and taking force from ahead, the idea that it's required for cultivating energy is fundamentalism.  I did it so much that it messed up my posture so my teacher had me stand with butt out to correct it, notice how weight lifters stick their butt out for weight lifting and think about which way gravity is pressing on you.  You can stand either way in horse stance and it doesn't make a shred of difference either as a method of cultivating chi power or a way of meditation.

 

This posture is an example of how superstition gets entrenched into a system and how teachers like to make things 'different' in order to feel like they are teaching something, something useful only for absorbing force from ahead or exerting force towards the front, not for cultivating energy or meditation.  If I missed something do let me know.

Hmmm, interesting. I've been playing with the height of my arms for some time now, holding them between either 3rd position (holding the stomach) or in 2nd position (holding the balloon). I basically want to push myself a little bit, but not experience too much pain as I don't want to detract from the enjoyment of the practice.

Anyway, in the last month or two, when I started in 3rd position, I would find that very slowly the arms were raising by themselves in to 2nd. It was so slow that I wouldn't actually feel or notice them doing it, I'd just look down at my arms halfway through the stand and notice that they had raised. This is why I now start off the stand with them in low 2nd position and let them do what they like as it goes on.

Also, my stands are roughly 3 minutes in 3rd position, 15 minutes in 2nd, then 2 minutes in 1st position (arms by the side). So I'm not really putting myself under too much strain if I'm not doing something quite right.

Yep, standing up against a wall is a good way to straighten out the back and curves the sacrum in. I've got a slipped disc and if I straighten it out too much it aggravates my sciatica so I have to leave a slight curve.

The curve, or lack of is something that I vary and experiment with. If I've been holding my arms in second position for a while and then drop my arms down to my side my back naturally curves a bit more. I'm not entirely sure why but I think its because the back muscles have had to work slightly while holding my arms up. So when I lower them and there's less strain on my back, it seems to want to curve in the other direction for 10 to 20 seconds just to stretch itself off.

https://www.nytimes....ssues.html?_r=0

 

 

What about wiretapping Michael Flynn’s calls with the Russian ambassador?

 

In a related matter, some conservatives have raised alarms about why the government eavesdropped on the late-December phone calls about sanctions between the Russian ambassador and Michael Flynn, who resigned last month as Mr. Trump’s national security adviser. But national security specialists say it is routine that counterintelligence officials would monitor the Russian ambassador, who is a clearly an agent of a foreign power, and so would “incidentally” pick up Mr. Flynn, too. The rules generally require officials to “minimize” the privacy intrusion by masking the names and data of incidentally intercepted Americans before sharing reports or transcripts of those calls more widely within the government. However, there is an exception if the conversation constituted foreign intelligence and the American’s identity is necessary to understand its significance, as would be the case with Mr. Flynn’s discussion of sanctions.

 

Now back to the serious threat of national concern. Trump and his involvement with Russia plotting to take over the world. Hyperbole for effect 

God, all this just sends me going round in circles ...

The prior administration now finds itself between a rock and a hard place. If there was NOT a FISA warrant in place, then the wiretapping of Michael Flynn's conversations was unconstitutional and a scandal of Watergate proportions. If there was a FISA warrant, it is still a scandal of Watergate proportions.

 

A special prosecutor is in order.

This is what I was thinking when it was first brought into the public domain, but it all seems to be quite acceptable ?!? I can see why Trump wants to make a thing about suspecting his own lines were tapped when Flynn's was done with no real controversy.

I find it passing strange, as the expression goes, that not only the legacy media and the Obama surrogates but a significant number of citizens are essentially insisting -- demanding -- we not investigate what on face value may be the biggest and most disturbing scandal in US history.

It may or may not have happened. But there'll be no way it will ever be pinned on Obama just because the implications are too great. I'd be really surprised if any investigation actually finds out anything at all.

Making the claim is actually quite a safe thing to do though, because every one 'knows' its possible that it could have happened. And it doesn't matter how much it's denied, people will always disbelieve the denial (like the martian landings) and it quite nicely maintains a political tension which is one of Trumps modes of operation.

It will much to the dismay of those who want to take advantage of society eventually come. There is true happiness coming.

I really like the positive attitude !!!

I used to smoke quite a bit a while ago, but I completely stopped because it just left me with so little motivation. Really what it did is reduce my ability to worry so very little got done - to quite a detrimental effect unfortunately.

After reading these posts I very quickly got on my high horse and thought - you can't really energetically cultivate yourself and smoke cannabis. Then I realised that I get fairly drunk once a week and it definitely helps clear out tension acquired through out the week.

So, each to their own I guess.

^^^ So what's stopping you? Rather than demand an all-powerful central government use force to "look out for each other's welfare" why don't you just start doing it yourself in your own surroundings? 

Aaarrrgggghh - (a little realisation, not mild discomfort).

So some of the reasons in the differences of opinion between people is how to best govern a population of 320 million and how devolved it should be. This debate is continually going on over here with the EU.

If I'm honest, I might be a little Marxist myself

They only answer that O did not order the wiretap...  

When this thread was created as a split from the previous Obama thread, I felt the title was a bit too strong. I still do, but if things keep going in this direction, maybe it's not so far off after all ...

There are many parallels between Daoism and quantum physics. But at the same time, each talks about things that the other has little to say about at the present time. One day, there may in fact be a system of thought that truly encompasses and interconnects the current domains of both spirituality and science.

Oooooo - I'm going to have a think about this today 

all of us are nothing but pure consciousness. Matter, body, etc are mere projections

Am I in the world or is the world in me? hmmmmm

OP - Tao is a verb

That's kind of what I'm trying out at the moment, which is similar to the 'I was never born and I will never die' malarkey. So, in terms of Taoism, Tao is ongoing/continuous and present. The whole 'Tao gave birth' aspect is just a made up story/fantasy that has no relevance or significance to me

Lots of great stuff on this thread.

On to the original question. For me, my progress seems to be getting easier and easier. Although I'm coming at this from a different place than when I tried out a spiritual path a number of years ago. Right now, my only aim is to get myself back on my feet, and in that regards, the closer I get the easier things get.

Once I feel I'm 'back to normal', then I may well find further progress more difficult. But, I don't see why. At the moment I'm having to over come inner anxieties and insecurities, which I am working out how to do. My future spiritual path, what ever that may be, will merely be me continuing this, so hopefully I'll continue to find it easier and easier (although I'm not entirely sure just how this can actually be the case).

1 - Sometimes what someone does in one room is different to what they do in another. Could I, for example, be a Physicist while in a laboratory, but a Daoist while performing Zhan Zhuang?

2 - The search for a theoretical / mathematical understanding of where the universe comes from is quite different to the search for where 'I' comes from. Doing one thing does not preclude the other.

However, Physicists need funding to do their job and put food on their tables. The press releases that make it into mainstream media can give quite a narrow and limited view of what they do and what their opinions are. They possibly don't always come across as all that humble in these circumstances 

Hi cheya.

This is from my own personal experience so as I've said before, everyone is different.

The downward, cool flow is something that comes through acceptance and letting go of any preconceptions of what might or might not happen.

The upward thrust is when you initiate, almost 'force' something tangible to happen,(MCO, spinal breathing etc)

Depending on what type of person you are, one method will be more suitable than the other. I haven't tried the 'forcing' method so I can't really comment on it, but mixing the two sounds like a recipe for disaster.

My god. That letting go and acceptance is really something that is happening to me right now and I feel this has a lot to do with my standing practice. However, whenever I let something go, I then start to initiate and create something new. So for me in my life at the moment, this is a simultaneous thing. Whether this happens simultaneously during my practice, I can't say. But my practice is quite quiescent so there's no deliberate upward or downward intention.