liminal_luke

I don`t know anything about Amma but I`m glad some here have come to her defense. Well, perhaps defense is the wrong word -- too polarized. What I mean is that people have illuminated this topic with their own calm, neutral wisdom. It feels good to think there`s good in the world. I believe good people exist -- that sublimely, awesomely good people exist -- and would prefer not to lose the innocence of this conviction.

Your question, Earl Grey, is addressed to Taomeow but in the fortune-telling spirit of this thread I hope you´ll indulge me while I put my own psychic powers to the test. Hmmm...where did Taomeow get the above insights into the year of the Yang Metal Rat? (Luke gets out crystal ball. Wraps himself in purple shawl embroidered with glowing planets and stars.) Did Taomeow get her information off the web? This is weird -- nothing is coming up. Did it come from a book? I´m not seeing anything. A real stumper this one.

Steve the Terminator has a nice ring to it. Terminator of injustice, I reckon. (Or perhaps Terminator of Ignorance, wrathful deity style?)

Some Bums have reported benefit from Voidisyinyang´s instructions and advice. Nobody is speaking up here to say that they´re Paypaling any money, but I bet he does get his share of PMs. @sean, is this kosher? I´d prefer if business advertising was confined to it´s own area, perhaps to people´s personal practice areas or...isn´t there already a designated thread to announce paid workshops etc? I´ve never belonged to the spiritual-stuff-ought-to-be-free camp, but one thing I like about this forum is that we´re all peers here. Lets keep the advertising to a minimum.

Thanks @Earl Grey. I´m not ashamed. Well, not of eating meat or buying things that "intersect with exploitation" (great phrasing from Sean). It´s more that I think there´s a balance to be struck. We can try to arrange our lives in such a way that we don´t harm others and I believe there´s value in the attempt. At the same time, it´s worth noting that such attempts will always fall short. Perhaps capitalism is the problem, I don´t know. Maybe it´s deeper than that, a fall from Eden endemic to civilization. Things being what they are, I believe it´s simply impossible to live without harming other beings, try though we might.

A person can go crazy trying to be good. It´s easy for ethical types to get anxious just grabbing a bite to eat or getting across town. It´s easy to get depressed reading the news. My mental health is shaky enough without the double whammy of excess goodness and excess information, so I minimize saintly behavior and knowledge of current events. I eat animals. I shop at Walmart. I´ve never taken Uber but I would if I was more comfortable using my smartphone. There´s virtue in being morally clean, no question. There´s also virtue in coming to terms with the inherent dirtiness and imperfection of life. We do the best we can. Or maybe we do a little less than our best. I try to stay in good contact with family and friends. I mostly (but not always) avoid saying mean things to people online. I tip at the coffeeshop. That´s about the most you can expect of me.

Wise counsel is always worth something, though often undervalued. The trick, I suppose, is to recognize it when you see it. I´ve found that it can be delivered from people in all sorts of poses -- full lotus, half lotus, standing on one foot, sitting in a wheelchair...you name it. There´s plenty of wise counsel available for free right here on this site. I trust that the people who graciously deliver the goods know who they are.

For ten cents I´ll lie on my bed for 15 minutes and make snide posts online. (Consider this one a freebie sample!)

This is fascinating. I like the idea of timing my practice to the most auspicious times of day. Does anybody have any experience timing meditations for solar midnight? Is there a perceptible difference?

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I wouldn`t normally post a Sprite commercial but I thought this was really touching.

It´s reassuring just to know there´s such a thing as yin intent capable of subtly steering me towards my destiny. I imagine that aligning with that hidden intent takes a bit of internal work (or perhaps luck? karma?) but the mechanism is there, part of being human. Thanks for the reminder.

By sleeping qigong do you mean lucid consciousness while sleeping? If so, training is available from Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. There are periodic online courses in dream yoga as well as sleep yoga offered through Glidewing.com that will set you back a few hundred bucks. Also, a book: Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep. I think the Bum most knowledgeable about these practices is @steve. He might be able to offer suggestions as far as how to proceed if this is your interest.

Woman -- where`s my tea??!!! (Luke scurries behind the couch to avoid the wrath of the formidable and always well-lit ilumairen.)

I`m all for brotherhood generally although to my ear "white brotherhood" sounds scary racist. @Nungali correctly points out that I got the title of the thread wrong-- greatings not greetings. My bad. There may not have been a whole lot of greetings but there have been plenty of greatings!

I nominate this thread for the category of Most Misleadingly Titled. Where are the greetings? Where is the brotherhood, white or otherwise?

Done.

You got to open the door and your wife got something arguably even more precious: she got to be the one who showed you how to do it. What a gift we give other people when we allow them to be our teachers.

I have a goal of checking Daobums every 15 minutes and engaging in as many pointless arguments as possible. My partner considers this self-harming and hides my laptop. Egregious violation of my personal rights or loving (albeit nonconsensual) intervention?

So good to hear!

We all effect each other energetically all the time, for both better and worse. To do so is neither illegal nor immoral -- it`s inevitable. Consent becomes an issue when we deliberately amp up the power of our influence through spiritual practice and then consciously direct this influence with laser-like intensity at unsuspecting hamburger-eating strangers.

You may have hit upon the essence of Daoism as a practical philosophy.

The practices of relating deeply to the natural world have always appealed to me. That´s an inspiring list!

A thoughtful post, as always, Yueya. Demonizing other people can be a way of distancing ourselves from our own shadows, as if to say that person over there did this horrible thing that I would never do. The truth, as Freeform has pointed out, is that all of us have base desires that can be amplified through spiritual practice. So I`m all on board with the not judging. At the same time, I`m in favor of ethical discernment. I want to know when there`s been a breach of good behavior, whether that behavior is my own or that of another. It`s good to speak up and say -- hey, that`s not right. Is it possible to be nonjudgmental while also holding each other accountable to uphold certain standards? I think so, difficult but possible. That`s the tightrope we face.

Good point. Now that you mention it, I´m sure I had something to do with my experience. My mom was with me on that shopping expedition and didn´t report any amazing heart openings. It´s possible that I´m selling myself short, I guess, but I can´t help but give the meditators in the other room some credit too. Maybe it was a case of serendipitious harmony between internal and external vibes? PS. If I was in a more @silent thunder kind of mindspace, I might point out how blurry the distinction is between inner and outer. I´d wax eloquent about the beautiful ambiguity of our alledged boundaries. I´d point out how the elements of the air contiually whoosh in and out of our bodies, how our digestive system is basically just a big transit tube for In and Out Burgers and other foodstuffs , how we are hosts to untold millions of microscopic creatures. One person in a bad mood can bring a whole room down; one person in a good mood can lift that same room up. Science is just now uncovering the astounding ways we connect with each other on a brain level (interpersonal neurobiology). In what sense am I the source of my experiences? Not the source of my experience? The answer is deliciously murky.