liminal_luke

Can people be mobile power spots? Is the force that draws us to some people the same as the force that attracts us to places?

Our own @Trunk ´s posting about qi spheres might do the trick. Qi Sphere: Beginning | John Dao Productions (wordpress.com)

Do you think it´s specifically a guy thing? Or maybe a straight guy thing? The stereotype of straight guys is that they don´t like to have long, "processing" kind of conversations, but I´m not sure how true that is these days. Has your socializing experience changed for the better since your transition?

Is it really so surprising that most Bums can´t get girlfriends? Many Bums don´t have a "self" and, for many women, particularly the more earthy types, that´s a nonnegotiable.

Actually, it felt really good. He had a white rock that he´d tied up with twine and made into a necklace. I commented that I liked it and he took it off his neck and gave it to me. In the end he did hit me up to give him something and I offered a banana from my grocery bag which he seemed happy enough with. I´ll give him something else if I see him again, food or money. An uplifting encounter.

Agreed. In "reality" I don´t eat fruit loops but, of the available breakfast options, I thought fruit loops worked well in my sentence so I scooted it in. Loops, loopy -- just think it works.

Unpopular opinion: These kind of discussions about the nature of reality are best quickly skimmed through while slurping up one´s morning fruit loops. (Just my uneducated, unspiritual opinion. Please don´t throw unreal tomatoes.)

Yesterday I befriended Mario, a guy who I suspect is homeless. He was hanging out in an empty lot filled with weeds and debris. He offered to cure my bum foot with his manos de milagro, miracle hands, but I turned him down. I just walked by the same lot a few minutes ago and noticed a still life of sorts very consciously constructed in the very center: two low cardboard boxes stacked on top of each other, topped by a piece of cement cinder block which was in turn topped by a potted green plant. To me, the arrangement had the feeling of an altar or a shrine. It seemed to heighthen the energy of the entire space, infusing the otherwise junky lot with the intentional consciousness of it´s creator. Did Mario put it together? Perhaps I shouldn´t have been so quick to say no to that healing treatment.

Logical consistency -- way overrated!

For most, reality-bending abilities, if they come, come after decades of dedicated practice. But the good thing is that a person can start on a path and see real life-changing results way before entering the miracle zone. Even if you´re not walking through walls in a year, you can absolutely be happier, more grounded, a better Bum in so many prosaic but meaningful ways. No shame, by the way, for wanting to walk through walls. I want that too! There´s a lot of juicy low hanging fruit though -- I´d pick that first.

My sentence above is a little confusing as it inverts the conventional wisdom but, if you read again, I think you´ll find we´re agreed on angels and devils.

Here in Mexico street fruit vendors often sell cucmbers as fruits too. You can get your mango, papaya, melon, or cucumber sliced up and served in a big plastic cup with optional salt, lime juice, and chile powder. I´m making another push to eat healthy (whatever that means) and considering daily salads. The angel in my ear wants me to use vegetables as a condiment; the devil, meat.

From a TCM point of view, is it healthy to eat a green salad daily? Would it be better to get one´s greens cooked rather than raw, say in a soup?

For those who might appreciate the visuals...

a big gay disco beloved by straight white cis men all-inclusive tao

We have different takes on boredom but I´ll say this: unlike some spiritual practices, your writing is not boring.

I´m intrigued by the shadow work of Phil Stutz. Shadow Work — THE TOOLS (thetoolsbook.com)

Good points, both. My opinion about good spiritual practices being boring was more of an intuitive hunch than something I had a well thought out basis for, so when apech asked me why I was a bit stymied. Didn´t stop me from reverse engineering an answer though! Clearly there are lots of non-boring moments on the spiritual path. I do think that boredom is an underappreciated state of mind that can be productively embraced rather than turned away from.

@Apech Why are the best spiritual practices boring? Hmmm...maybe it´s not so much that the best spiritual practices are boring, but rather that people shouldn´t be advised to stop a particular practice because of boredom. Spiritual practice can certainly have great peak moments, so it´s not as if it´s all a misery. Perhaps spiritual cultivation is analogous to journeying through all the layers of the earth´s crust to the very center. Being at the center isn´t necessarily boring -- it can feel great or super scary or just peaceful -- but to get there one has to go through a huge layer of boredom right underneath the surface. The surface of the earth is where all the Netflix programming is -- very entertaining but if you want to get to the center ya gotta go through the boredom. Sitting in silence isn´t boring if you are in the quiet center of your mind. But if you are a newbie somewhere between that center and Netflix-land, then yeah, you might be bored. Doesn´t mean that sitting in silence isn´t a good thing to do.

If all your political opinions line up squarely with the position statement of one political party or candidate, you´re not thinking independently enough. A more economical way to give dishes the umami kick of anchovies is to use fermented shrimp paste. In the present cultural climate, with it´s overemphasis on being "self-made," to call someone priveledged is a slur. I don´t believe in hierarchies of suffering. We all come into the present moment with complex histories, intricate webs of advantages and disadvantages in life. It´s impossible to say that one person is priveledged based solely on the groups they belong to. Most people will not be harmed by mixing and matching qigong practices. The best spiritual practices are boring. It´s a courtesy not to engage servers in conversation so that they can do their jobs rather than chitchat with the hopes of getting better tips.

I Will Survive: the anthem of Taoist would-be immortals everywhere.

In my (extensive!) experience, big gay discos are not often attended by nondualists or their detractors. I would love to go to a big gay disco with a Buddhist section, lots of sweaty queer mystics reclining on orange throw cushions, reciting mantras between sips of cheap well drinks and flirting in Pali.

I´m not Christian, kyoji, and don´t believe the Bible is the word of God. Does the Bible contain mystical wisdom? I´m guessing that it does although I haven´t studied it in any kind of in-depth way. I do believe there´s great value in humor and that, in general, we´d make more serious progress in life if we didn´t take ourselves and our pet issues so seriously. Still, I didn´t mean to offend. My apologies.

Guilty as charged. Let he who is without sin throw the first stone.

Learned this a long time ago from Michael Winn and have started praticing again. Noticing some changes right away--fuller breathing, a sense of centeredness. There have been threads about this before but nothing recent, I think. Anybody else practice this. Thoughts? Experiences?