liminal_luke

This doesn´t go exactly to your question perhaps, but my sense is that there is infinite space "outside" the body, and infinite space "inside" the body. The more facility a person has to go out, the more facility a person has to go in, and vice versa. Liminal

Students who demand perfection of their teachers on every level (harmonious personal relationships, charging very reasonably for teachings yet not suffering financially, humble yet authoritative) have a long search ahead of them. Many have noted Michael Winn´s less than exemplary body mechanics. So what? I wouldn´t learn martial arts from him but it would be a mistake to conclude he has nothing to offer. Master Chia got a divorce. Yawn. I´ve learned so much over the years from people with great spiritual refinement and (sometimes) lousy personal lives. Liminal

I'm interested in working with my breath more, and wondering if anybody has any breath pacer recommendations, either stand alone devices or an app. Already have a Resperate but find it cumbersome to use. Is there something out there with sound cues (so that I don't need to be looking at a screen) and very customizable in terms of breaths per minute? Thanks, Liminal

Practitioners of Michael Winn´s version of primordial tai chi might be interested in this video of him showing refinements of the movements. It might be old news for some but I´d never seen it before, and found the changes fairly dramatic. I don´t know how to embed youtube videos but search "Michael Winn Corrections" and you´ll find it. Liminal

Hi Spotless, Thanks for weighing in. Certainly you may be right. I remember Michael Winn saying something about how the Po (lung spirits) ultimately rebel against such exercises. And I do have a tendency towards overly controlled, overly mechanized approaches. So there´s that. The idea for me comes in part from my former use of Resperate, a device used to gradually slow down the respiration rate in order to lower blood pressure. I found the Resperate machine cumbersome and frustrating but nevertheless like what happens to me when I´ve been practicing slower breathing for a time. I find that in my everyday life (when I´m not specifically practicing) I don´t so much breathe slower, as breathe differently--I think my diaphragm relaxes. Anyway, it feels good. Whether or not it leads towards awakening or deeper spiritual progress I really can´t say. Liminal

Life is but a dream sing it sing it sing it sing till dizzy you fall.

Thanks Hundun! Have been using a metronome on the web, but these look good. Will try them out. Liminal

As others have pointed out, this is probably a dangerous position to take as a would-be hexer. But if you are the one whose hexed it might be just perfect. Along with doing whatever necessary to come out from under the bad spell, it might be useful to examine the possible lessons such misfortune brings. Liminal

Silence and a deeper silence when the crickets hesitate Leonard Cohen

If you´re interested in a Tai Chi--esque form that is specifically for spiritual development, as opposed to martial arts, and can be effectively learned from a DVD I´d consider Michael Winn´s Primordial Qi Gong, or, as he calls it, Tai Chi for Enlightenment. My two cents. Liminal

The placebo effect brings up some interesting ethical issues. Is the good doctor the one who maximizes the placebo effect by talking up the medication (at the expense of the "truth") and engaging in questionable but flamboyant procedures which give patients reason to think something special is really happening? Or is the good doctor someone who plainly lays out statistical evidence, good and bad, for every proposed treatment? Liminal

Hi Brian, I love reading personal accounts of how practice changes lives--thanks for this! S-M is on my radar too. Am also a massage therapist, or used to be anyway, so I like the idea of something that specifically develops healing ability. Perhaps more important though is the other thing you mentioned: calmness. Sure could use more of that. At the moment I´m still following through on other things, but if the moment seems right I´ll take a workshop or read the book. Appreciate your spreading the word so I know about the possibilities. Liminal

Hi Dreambliss, It sounds like your brother is having some real difficulties. As far as I can gather from what you wrote, nothing that would likely warrant involuntary hospitalization though. That doesn´t mean what he´s going through isn´t serious. As a brother, you´re naturally concerned for him. You say he´s isolated and doesn´t have friends. I´m wondering how your relationship is with him. How regularly do you talk, see each other? If you are both up for it, this would be a place you could start easing his isolation. A friend to take occasional walks with in nature could go a long way. Unfortunately, our ability to get other people to take care of themselves is limited. If he won´t seek counseling or psychiatric care you likely can´t make him. Part of this, for you, might involve coming to terms with the limits of your influence. But just having a brother who he knows accepts him as he his, maintains contact with him, and cares about his wellbeing--these things mean a lot. Liminal

For me, the whole subject of semen retention is a little like superpower talk: I know I should probably just forget it but there´s this strange, and possibly unhealthy, fascination. I just can´t stay away. This phenomenon of testosterone peaking after a brief period but then (possibly?) falling to lower than normal levels with continued "practice" mirrors the reported subjective experience of some practitioners. To wit, they start out feeling energetically enhanced (greater libido, more chi, etc) but after some time end up depleted. Others seem to experience benefits indefinitely. I wonder what separates the two groups. What are the people who benefit from semen retention long-term doing differently from those that run into problems after some period of time?

Hi CT, Hope I didn´t come across too stridently. I actually do think there´s value in the ideas the article presented. Just that there´s a historical tendency to romanticize depression in a way that I think leads people not to receive necessary treatment. Liminal

There´s certainly value in seeing the silver linings in adversity but the message of this article is a dangerous one for people who suffer from depression and their loved ones. Saying you can have a constructive depression is like saying you have a touch of constructive lung cancer. Well, maybe it can be constructive. Maybe it wakes people up to the true meaning of their lives, and so on. But this glorifying of disease--and, make no mistake, true depression is a disease--is dangerous. Perhaps what the author really means is not depression at all but a constructive sadness? That would make more sense. If it´s depression, by definition it´s "got way out of hand." Liminal

A thought that occurs to me... As opposed as they seem, perhaps the world needs both Manitous and Marbleheads. Instead of arguing about which perspective is right, what would happen if we mixed their disparate world-views up in an alchemical elixir, combined their yin and yang without needing to reach for some unequivocal truth, just let them cook together for a while. Liminal

I think a certain amount of rapport with a therapist is essential, otherwise nothing else gets done. But it´s also true (perhaps this is what SC was getting at?) that good therapy is work and will often feel challenging. If you only want support a good friend will do; a good therapist knows how to push. Liminal

I´m glad we have free speech and don´t want to take away anyone´s right to say things that offend. I´d be even happier though to hear more compassionate speech. People have the right to do all sorts of things that are not kind, I just wish they wouldn´t. Liminal

Hi Marcus, I think the right therapist is the one you trust and feel willing to open up to. Sure, there are tons of different modalities but nothing counts more than the interpersonal connection, or lack thereof. Good luck. Liminal

I believe the sensations we experience in our bodies reflect what´s going on in our lives. We can choose to look at the meaning of these sensations through many different lenses: the lens of modern physical medicine, as emotions manifesting physically, as energy. You´re clearly experiencing something and yet "skeptical" of any of these possibilities. You´re "quite certain" it´s not an obvious physical problem, and don´t "believe" in any of the likely alternative explanations either. And yet you´re here, on Taobums, a spiritual forum where you´re likely to hear spiritual answers. So I can only guess that a part of you wants to hear an explanation that another part of you (the rational inner scientist perhaps) will likely reject as too woo-woo. Can you sense these two parts of your personality...the part that senses something emotionally/spiritually interesting and meaningful is happening to you and the part that wants to reject all such talk as hogwash? My hunch is that an inner dialogue between these two opposing aspect of yourself will yield at least part of the answer you seek. Liminal

If some guys attacked me in the street I´d do whatever I could to protect myself. Once the immediate threat was averted, I´d do whatever I could to prevent them from attacking others in the future. And then I´d let it go (or at least the best version of myself would): no indulging in fantasies of painful death and revenge, no cultivation of anger and hate. I´d fight the bastards one moment and forgive them the next; lock them up and love them forever. Liminal

I´m not personally designing political cartoons that inflame the moral indignation of people in, say, the Middle East-- but I know what it feels like not to be at peace. Over the years, I´ve been more than a little worked up about some conversations right here on Taobums. And sometimes I´ve lashed out. And I´ve read posts by others who have lashed out and got caught up in the ridiculous drama of it all. As above, so below. The larger disharmony between religious groups, is mirrored by the tensions right here on the forum, is mirrored by the tension in my jaw that I feel when I quiet down and breath. Liminal

I´m not very educated about this, but had a thought/question that might possibly pertain to the whole question of whether the Bhrahmaviharas (sp?) are only a relative practice that will take people only so far, or whether they lead all the way. It seems to me that the counterbalance to the sometimes flowery seeming (to me) practice of Metta is the Bhramavihara of equanimity. Metta feels soft to me whereas there is something metalic and hardheaded about equanimity. Equanimity is very "I´ll be me, and you be you"--the antidote for codependence. I´m wondering if there´s something alchemical that happens as practitioners wrestle with these two pulls of Metta and equanimity. Maybe something similar to the taoist process of alchemy that takes place at the intersection of yin and yang. Perhaps Metta by itself is incomplete. But doesn´t the Bhramavihara of equanimity provide the necessary balance of wisdom? Liminal

I know it isn´t very Buddhist of me, but wouldn´t it be useful for somebody like myself--not very interested in Buddhism as a path but with a desire to be a more loving person--to do Metta practice without getting into the nitty gritty Buddhist meaning of the words? Can´t I just wish myself and others happiness as I understand it at this moment--even if my understanding is naive, materialistic, and arguably mistaken--and cultivate love? Liminal