liminal_luke

You can`t always stop people from hurting themselves, but you can give them the gift of benevolent non-interference by recognizing that they have the right to live their own lives as they see fit. No small thing that. When my mom had breast cancer I had all sorts of ideas about how she should approach her treatment, none of which she had any interest in. She`s now cancer free and doing just fine -- thanks to the conventional medical care that she decided she wanted. She did it her way without vitamins or herbs or acupuncture needles. It was hard for me watching her make choices I thought might be harmful, but people have got to do what they`ve got to do. All we can do is love them -- and ourselves.

In my favorite time machine fantasy I`m transported back to high school. I`ve got my old adolescent body back, but have kept all my adult knowledge and, um, wisdom. All my old teachers are wowed by the amazing papers I write. Sadly, that fantasy never comes to pass. Instead I just lose my socks in the wash.

Well, maybe not the "we" of Taobums. And lots of people don`t at all, ever. But as a society (here in the US) I think it`s true. Not that I have stats to back it up or anything. You disagree?

Two things that are true about our culture... (1) We are very sex-negative. (Also sensuality-negative, body-negative, earth-negative, woman-negative -- one big mess of interrelated negativity.) (2) We watch a lot of porn. Weird, right? You`d think that we`d have to be really sex-positive to watch as much porn as we do, but that`s not the case. And here`s why: it`s negative attitudes about sex (and embodiment generally) that drive porn use. We don`t watch porn because we love sex so much, however much it might look like that; we watch porn because we are disconnected from our true sexual desires, disconnected from our bodies, and mostly because we are so deeply ashamed of ourselves. So, porn is a little bit like quicksand in that the more you fight against it the deeper in you get. The answer isn`t to become vehemenently anti-porn. That attitude, while understandable, easily morphs into the sexual shame that only leads to more porn use. So what does work? Compassion towards self and others. Mindfulness. Gentleness.

I think that we should bring back the "don`t like" button, and when a bum accumulates enough "don`t likes" they automatically become a moderator as a punishment.

Standing practice isn`t an expertise of mine, but my understanding is that it opens and clears the channels so that earth and heaven energies can flow and integrate. What does this have to do with Neidan? Pretty much everything, I`d imagine.

I wanted to share a poem I wrote this morning to express my recent experiences with the practice of Zapchen. Zapchen you know how the air is after you`ve been driving for hours on a highway bordered by pines and you finally reach your turnoff, a gravel road that twists up up up and civilization yawns so far below...until it looks like a shoebox without shoes that someone (maybe you) labeled "the way things are" and your car bumps over rocks and ruts, zigzaging toward the mist shrouded peak if the tires slipped you`d die but instead you reach a slight clearing where the road deadends and the trailhead begins or at least that`s what the guidebook says only now you realize that you don`t really know and it wouldn`t make a difference anyways because you are here.

The demonstrable results that mean the most to me...an open and kind attitude and a peaceful accepting nature, as evidenced by the tendency to refrain from criticism and belittling others and their paths. I'm happy to jump right into the fight myself -- but then again I`m not very advanced.

Oh Wow, Meow, Pasture Grazing Cow Natural intelligence, the end to all belligerence babies are now held, master/slave paradigm felled TaoMeow for President! Wisdom long lost, now remembered artificial mechanical hybrids, heartily dismembered TaoMeow for President! She wasn`t born here -- but neither was Obama let`s change the rules and end this trauma TaoMeow for President! Brought to you by the coalition for a Purr Cure.

My experience in the off-topic section of TDB lately has been somewhat paradigm blowing. On the one hand we have Trump, and I`m sorry but he just seems like an awful person. I`m not much interested in politics, and haven`t spent much time diving into the basic sources to figure out what I truly think would be the best policies. Unlike TaoMeow, I don`t know the way and make no bones about it. But I can listen to someone speak and get a sense for whether or not I like them as a person. I`ve listened to Trump and a don`t like him. Not one little bit. When I listen to Hillary she seems to make more sense, or rather, she seems capable of a reasonable conversation. Though I`ll admit that sometimes I get this little red light in my mind flashing the word Bullshit. I don`t trust her. Still, it`s hard not to override the message of that little light given that Trump is over the top nutso. Furthermore, ALL my real life friends voted for Clinton. All of them. And they all thought that the world would come crashing down if Trump won. So anyway, perhaps you see the source of my recent political discombobulation. In real life, everybody I know is Hillary all the way. But on TaoBums people I respect think she`s a weapon`s dealer, a pedophile, a murderess. What gives?

I voted for Obama but, I`ve got to say, that`s a hilarious poster.

About illegal aliens. It`s not so much that the United States shouldn`t deport people living within it`s borders illegally; it`s that we shouldn`t do so gleefully. Attitude is everything. There`s a huge difference between dispassionately enforcing the law and enforcing the law in a way that makes whole groups of people feel subhuman. What bugs me about Trump isn`t so much the wall he wants to build, but the pleasure he seems to take in it. Xenophobia is a little bit like pornography: hard to define precisely but we know it when we see it. Yes, there`s a lot of fear right now. And it`s likely an overreaction: people aren`t likely to be rounded up and put into camps or anything like that. Not anytime soon anyway. But I don`t blame people for their concern. It`s not easy to live in a country when so many people think you`re the enemy because of your religion or country of origin.

You stick around here enough, you get to know people. Well, it feels that way anyway. And one of the things I`ve learned, especially this election season, is that smart good-hearted people can have political beliefs that differ from my own. I have great respect for many Bums here, thoughtful people that know a lot and want the best for our world -- even when their understanding of what that "best" would look like is starkly different. These are so many Bums I consider my friends though almost all of them aren`t on my formal "friends" list. They are people who I believe want the best for our world and they include Bums across the political spectrum. Your votes may differ but I`ve learned from each of you. And that ends this Kum Ba Ya moment. Thanks for listening. Liminal

We all want to make progress towards a state of mind from which the very concept of progress (or lack thereof) will seem not so important.

Interesting, especially the image. Hmmm...that upward pointing triangle, doesn`t look like anything good.

Michael Winn just sent out an email to his Healing Tao subscribers with information about today, and I thought I`d pass a tidbit of it along. .............................................................................................................................................. We are at a potent moment -- Nov. 7 is the midpoint between the Fall Equinox and the Winter Solstice. This is one of the Eight Great Nodal Points in the annual calendar of natural sacred days. Please honor it by connecting into the heart of Mother Earth and Father Son via meditation or sacred movement... ​Michael Winn

I keep trying to Just Be and, no matter how much effort I exert, it`s still not effortless. Oh well. Practice makes...well, I have no idea what it makes actually. ​

Totally agree with this. I`ve taken several workshops with Michael Winn and practiced from his dvd`s --- good stuff. I learned the spinning orbit practice (not sure if this is what the OP is referring to as the Wudang orbit or not) but haven`t practiced it enough to provide a personal testimonial. The old style sexual stuff from Chia (and Winn) gets a bad rap, and perhaps rightly so, but there is so much more to what he`s doing and teaching now.

Looks like you`re not getting the kind of feedback you hoped for. Perhaps you can be the pioneer and try it and report back? There`s no experience like your own.

Thanks Brian for taking the time to spell out your views so thoroughly.

I`m not sure if I would call Karl violent though a few hapless Bums have been posted to death.

​http://naturesplatform.com/all_products.html For those who want to squat but find the rim challenging.

You may not have a vote, Dustybeijing, but your opinion is certainly relevant -- at least here. And good for you for budging. We could all stand to expand our capacity to be budged; I think it`s an essential aspect of emotional intelligence. I`ve got my own ways of coming back to center, but I think it`s a very individual thing so no particular suggestions here. When I start to get irritated with a topic, I often think it`s time to just stop, give it a break. That`s easier said then done, at least for me. The topic of how we relate to the board (irritated? angry? inspired?) is a rich one, probably deserving of it`s own thread.

Reading through this thread, I often feel like a creature from another planet. Trump, really? Not that I trust Clinton because I don`t. It seems oddly plausible to me that she would kill people who get in her way. ​ Anyway, I`m not voting. As far as I can tell, there`s nobody worth lifting a pencil for. Even discussing the issues, as we do here, is an exercise in futility. Everyone seems to have made up their mind and they`re not budging. We`re all aghast that otherwise intelligent people somehow manage to see things differently than we do. I know I am. I`m reminded of a practice discipline suggested sometime ago by BaguaKicksAss. She did a certain amount of cultivation practice every time she posted. That strikes me as an elegant way of maintaining balance, and I would like to suggest a similar discipline. How would things change around here if we all took a few minutes to breathe and center every time we read an outrageous opinion in the off-topic section? I suspect I`d be pretty mellow by now.

Oh gosh, I sure hope so.