liminal_luke

I agree that there`s a lot of unnecessary negativity here and also a lot of truly wonderful posts and posters -- and that it`s always been this way. Unfortunately, pointing out the negative parts and complaining about them doesn`t change anything. God knows I`ve tried.

I know this is a spiritual forum, so perhaps some expect joy and bliss, but I`m all about dour musings. My PPF used to be full of nothing but.

About householders and renunciates... Seems to me that everybody gets to choose what works for them; there is no right way that`s necessarilly better for everybody. At first glance, the path of the renunciate would seem to be spiritually advantageous -- all that time for focused and uninterrupted practice. Then again, the demands of the secular world may provide spiritually useful challenges. The best environment is not always the most comfortable or the easiest. Also, who says that everything needs to be tackled with 100% devotion. It`s OK, I think, to approach some things more casually, even spirituality. I play piano and I^m pretty good though there are literally millions who play better. Should I devote every waking minute to become a more proficient piano player? That would be one valid choice. To me, though, it`s just as valid to enjoy my present level of skill such as it is and put my time towards a balance of other activities that I also find rewarding. Some people meditate for five minutes in the morning before work and that`s it. They might find it sets a nice tone for the day and helps them not be so stressed. Should they instead pack their bags for the forest monastery? Perhaps not. I think that no effort is wasted, no matter how small, and we`d do well to accept people where they are.

It`s probably just my stage of life, but right now I`m not so concerned on increasing IQ, more concerned about preventing dementia. Fortunately, dementia prevention is the easier hack and can be accomplished with tasty foods -- avocados, dark chocolate, and so on. People of all ages can benefit from eating in a way that nourishes the brain. You might not become a genius but you`ll be able to find your way home from the grocery store.

I like spontaneous movement and think something like shaking (or "jiggling" as it`s called in Zapchen circles) can be a complete system all on it`s own. You certainly can`t get any simpler. Long-term Bums will remember the Kunlun craze that spread through the board like wildfire. People were getting all sorts of results, both good and bad, from simply allowing their bodies to move without conscious direction. To me, such a system implies a profound faith in the natural wisdom of the body that feels very Daoist. We allow our body to move as it will, trusting an innate and deeply personal somatic intelligence to guide our journey so that it brings health, openness, and, ultimately, the awakening of our deepest spiritual potential.

Know! You must judge all people favorably. Even in the case of a complete rasha, you must search until you find some modicum of good in him, the part that is not evil! By finding this small drop of good and judging him favorably, you are genuinely able to lift him to the place where he has some merit and this enables him to return to his true, good self. –Likutey Moharan, 282 (Azamra) I like this teaching from Rebbe Nachman of Bratslav. One way of helping others is simply to regard them favorably. Because this intervention is so humble and unshowy (it takes place in the privacy of our own minds) it avoids the pitfall of narcissicism that can otherwise plague ostensibly helpful behavior. There`s no attempt to puff oneself up with ostentatious displays of saintliness. It`s not posting pictures of oneself helping poor children in Cambodia on Facebook. Instead, we simply look for the "good points" of others, especially in situations where such good points might seem in short supply. Regarding other people favorably, we naturally incline towards treating them in ways that allow the good we see to blossom. Notably, this practice can also be applied towards ourselves. Never mind the bad things we may have done, we can search our minds and find the good within ourselves and focus on it. Focusing on our good is like watering the plant of our own virtue.

You`re right that people are often not what they seem. And it is confusing -- and frightening -- figuring out how to navigate in a social world where deception is so commonplace. I`ll say this. There are many practices you might engage in that over time would strengthen your body energetically and physically. Along with strength, I think these practices would give you a sense of calm and confidence. A strong body is a calm body. Your nervous system would relax. Your heart would feel more open. From this place of strength and calm and openness, you would have a lot of power. For starters, you`d have the power of discernment. You`d know -- in a deep, natural way -- who could be trusted and who shouldn`t be. And you`d know how to deal skillfully with those who can`t be trusted. I think you`d feel less frightened. The beautiful thing about these practices is that everything comes from inside you. Yes, you might have a teacher, but ultimately it`s up to you to do the practices, or not, and feel for yourself what happens. I wish you the best. LL

You wouldn`t be the first. Have you checked out StarJumper`s Taoist retreat center there? I believe there are pictures in a thread somewhere here. It`s not a bad idea, if your life circumstances permit, to spend some quality time in nature away from the craziness of society. But far be it from me to offer a compassionate suggestion. And yes, I agree that a lot of what passes for "help" is misguided.

Rideforever, My opinion. You`re on to something but too eager to paint huge groups of mostly good people with the devil`s brush. Is there "violent greed, revenge and nastiness" in the conventional medical industry? No doubt. Perhaps you have some personal experience with it. That said, is it really true that every doctor, nurse, x-ray tech, and so on, is secretly a wolf? They are not. Most are well-meaning and sincerely want to help people. You don`t want to be fooled by false compassion. Fair enough. But to fail to see the real good in people is just as big an error as failing to see the real bad.

Wandelaar, I loved math as a teenager and the topic of complex/imaginary numbers especially intrigued me. I once checked out a book on differential calculus from the library just because I loved pouring over all the strange (to me) notations. Although I did my best to decipher the meaning of the text, my engagement with the material never really went beyond an aesthetic fascination with the mathmatical symbols. For better or worse, my life path hasn`t required me to do much electrical engineering. I`m purely a consumer of the electrical engineering efforts of others. That might seem sad, I guess, but nobody can do everything. Could you say a little more about why the average non-engineer Bum might be interested in the topic of complex numbers. Is there a tie-in with spirituality?

Physicists have equations to describe how gases diffuse into a space. Squeeze the nozzle of an oxygen tank emptying the contents into a closed room. At first the oxygen will be concentrated in the area immediately surrounding the tank, but before you know it the air will be uniformly saturated with the gas. Diffusion happens. Is there an equation to describe how love diffuses into a space? Perhaps some personal experimentation is in order. As Steve says: The organism and environment are mutually interdependent. It`s fantastically empowering, this idea that we are seamlessly connected with the larger world. I can be influential and I love that! Say I want my partner to be more loving or gentle or a more disciplined washer of the dinner dishes. I can cultivate the desired quality in myself and simply allow the expansion. Actually, I don`t have to allow anything. Good vibes are contagious; it`s a natural law. I`m goin` viral.

Hi Menezes, Could you tell us more about the kinds of results you`re looking for? Maybe it`s just stupid good luck, but pretty much everything I`ve tried has seemed real to me. There are so many things a person could hope for from their spiritual practice: relaxation, the healing of a specific condition, gaining healing abilities to help others, happiness, the development of compassion and other positive virtues, a pathway towards ultimate connection with the ground of reality (I just made that one up `cause it sounded good). What is it you want?

If you`re looking for a "comparable blender" -- consider Blendtec. I believe there are refurbished ones for less money than new. Mine worked wonderfully until I had some problems with the seal of the jar. Could have gotten it fixed, and still might someday I guess, but the fix would of been like $100 and I was over my blender infatuation by that point.

This is exactly my position, too.

My heart goes out to your sister, ST. Too bad Doug didn`t do his leaving in a more forthright way. I think people are often more open-minded and accepting than we give them credit for, even those whose religious affiliations make acceptance seem unlikely.

I love this. While there`s nothing "wrong" with big spiritual ambitions, this relaxed approach just feels so grounded, mature, and refreshing. Please post pictures when you wash up on one of the lesser Hawaiian Islands and start bartending.

The idea that only people of opposite genders should be sexually attracted to each other causes profound suffering. If you don`t have empathy for gay men, consider their wives. Believing that homosexuality is a sin, many gay men get married and have kids only to discover that outwardly heterosexual behavior doesn`t a heterosexual make. Oops! The marriages flounder for obvious reasons and, when the truth eventually comes out, great pain ensues.

Maybe spiritual cultivation is a little like investing in the stock market. Everyone is trying to find the perfect system when most would be better off forgetting systems altogether and focusing instead on simple principles. Take virtue, for instance. While ethics can get unbelievably complicated, simply considering what the right thing to do is and doing it puts us way ahead of the curve. If we add a little kindness to basic decency, the foundation is set for spiritual development. Everything works better in a body that is relaxed and healthy so that`s something to work on too. Exercise, diet, some sort of strategy for dealing with stress. Positive relationships with friends and family. These kinds of things aren`t what`s usually meant when people talk about spiritual systems but the underpinnings of a good life are the underpinnings of good spiritual development. The best system in the world won`t take you very far if you`re a chain smoking criminal enmeshed in a hostile custody battle for your alienated kids. First things first. To me, the idea of a system implies component parts. First you do this, and then, when condition XYZ is reached, you do this other thing. Trying to follow instructions in a book like Taoist Yoga is harder than putting together modular furniture from IKEA. And that`s saying something. If the goal is enlightenment or immortality perhaps such complication is necessary. But most people would benefit greatly from taking one simple thing and exploring it in depth over a few decades. Take a basic standing practice like "standing like a tree." A practice like that deepens and develops over time. Who among us has taken standing like a tree all the way? Have any of us gotten all there is to get from simple standing? I doubt it. So many things are like that. The inner smile. Watching the breath. I suspect that getting to enlightenment or awakening doesn`t take great cognitive skill. What it may take is great endurance in the face of boredom. Many of us already know a system that could potentially take us to enlightenment. Some of us know many such systems. And yet we`re still looking because looking is fun. Spiritual development, as ultimately rewarding as it may be, is often physically and emotionally uncomfortable. Not fun. (Note: These are just my opinions as someone who claims no particular enlightenment or awakening. Fact is, I could do with a good deal more spiritual discipline myself. I do however like to share my thoughts and often do so instead of practicing. Take with salt.)

I`m looking mighty debonair in that photo, Lost in Translation. Leangains style intermittent fasting must really work!

I don`t always do intermittent fasting, but when I do I follow the Leangains approach of eating in an 8 hour window, from noon till 8pm. Is this the way everyone should eat? Probably not. Everybody is different and has to find what works for them. This eating schedule does work for me and many others. It`s worth considering.

I like Steve`s idea of simultaneously embracing the relative and the absolute. Maybe these two views are like pedals on a bike and we need both to ride. Let`s just suppose it`s true in an absolute sense that people "create" their own reality and are 100% responsible for their experience. Many people believe this. Now imagine someone close to you gets cancer. From a very expanded point of view there`s nothing "wrong" with having cancer. Having cancer might in fact be a perfect expression of an inherently compassionate universe. However, not everyone with cancer will enjoy hearing this. An exculsively focus on the absolute can appear to lack compassion. And yet compassionate action is also hindered when our consciousness is narrowly bound exclusively to relative reality. We need the openness and expansion that comes with absolute consciousness to put relative experience into a compassionate context. Otherwise all we`ve got is "life sucks and then you die." Our hypothetical cancer patient might not want to hear this, either. Without the absolute, our experience seems to lack meaning and possibility. Kindness happens when we can hold these two views together, the relative and the absolute, without disparaging either understanding. Our relative experience is true and valid, and we can experience it within the larger field of absolute reality. In this way pain can be understood, validated, and transformed.

...

@Limahong, I love the quote you provided and think it goes to the heart of this whole thing about wanting secret teachings. Probably I was a little harsh in my original post because the truth is I want secret teachings too. It`s such an easy trap to fall into. Thinking that salvation or redemtion is to be found in the extraordinary when the ordinary world around us is every bit as potent if only we`d appreciate it. Thank you. LL

There are teachers that charge a lot of money for Daoist secrets, and there are teachers who give them away for free. I don`t believe that the expensive secrets are necessarily better than the free ones but students who go to teachers who charge have the advantage of paying. When people lay out good money they respect the teachings, they practice, they get results. It`s the rare person who will bother with free teachings, gold though they may be. Still, it`s possible that someone will read this who has the rare intelligence, drive, and heart to take advantage of a free and open secret. Such a person could go to https://healingtaousa.com/ and sign up for Michael Winn`s free Daoist newsletter. An email would then be sent to that person`s email giving them access to Winn`s 130 page ebook on the Inner Smile. It`s fantastic. Healing Tao material gets criticized a lot -- and not for nothing -- but you can`t go wrong with the inner smile. Anyway, there ya go. It`s not LMP. It`s not taking something from someone who doesn`t want to be taken from. It`s taking from someone who wants to freely give you something, in exchange for allowing him to send you occasional marketing newsletters. (You can always cancel after you`ve read the book.) Enjoy!

For those concerned about hookworm and other hazards, minimalist shoes offer the protection of traditional footware while preserving much of the earthy, proprioceptive zing of barefooting. The brand I`ve tried is Vibrams but there are many others. I remember one glorious Vibram-clad afternoon soon after I`d made my purchase, traipsing around downtown Berkely and delighting in all the little sensations that I`d been missing for decades in my tennies. Trying to walk in regular shoes is like trying to eat right after a dentist has shot your mouth full of novacaine: you`re not gonna feel anything. There are so many ways that technology cuts us off from what I`ll call, for lack of a better term, the real world. Following societal norms, we lose touch with reality -- and then lose touch with the fact that we`ve lost touch. We think so many things are normal that aren`t. Sitting at a desk for hours at a time. Eating genetically modified vegetables that have been sprayed with toxic chemicals and grown in mineral depleted soil. Living at the mercy of our "smart" phones and Facebook notifications. Shoes. Many Bums are expert at various spiritual arts and sciences. We practice tai ji and stand like trees. We meditate on emptiness and try to feel the stripped-down nature of how things are deep in our bones. I`d suggest that this endeavor is hindered if we also spend our lives sitting down in an office, interacting with screens more than people, and eating food that comes out of a box. Luckily, there`s one simple thing that goes a long way towards reconnecting ourselves with our senses -- taking off our shoes. Barring that, we can wear minimalist shoes. It`s something worth trying.