Trunk

Just barely getting oriented, myself, busy with other stuff. I guess that’s an advantage: participate as much/little as you like. I’ve read at least one of the assignments (there’s absolutely no obligation to do nor to share)... they are substantial if you take them all the way. And the exercises with the imagery that you produce... they have instructions that ... go deep - is my impression. List of steps, last step (if you dare), then, “That’s how Jung did it”. It’s fucking interesting and not fluff. There’s opportunity to download the documents, assignments, instructions ... So I’m gonna download them all (as they are posted) and I can review and dig as I like as long as I like. People are posting their stories along with their art. A lot of people, a lot of art. All of the art is deeply connected to their process. I’ve been hungry for some community along this line... I’ve joined some other art therapy groups on facebook, but this is 1. At a much more consistent serious level, partly due to method and understanding, I think. I don’t have my head around it yet. 2. The number of people posting. Good exposure: similar to here, it can be helpful to see others processing similar method etc. It’s not a “small group feel”, though. - Trunk

https://appliedjung.com/finding-philemon/ I am registering right now - and finding out that "$19 pm" means "$19 per month" ... for the 6 month course. 6 x 19 = $114 total over 6 months. Once I paid via paypal, it redirected me to join the facebook group. The Red Book isn't required for the course, but I got it yesterday from Amazon. Only $10 to get same day shipping on it, f### yeah. ... should be interesting. amazon book description:

Oh my GOD Say three “Hail Mary”’s and a “Hare Krsna” ...

Cool how that uses a mirror to simultaneously show the angles. I started a kuji-in photo project with the intent to not only make artful pictures but ones by which a newbie could get into the hand position. That’s a tough shoot! Some of them are complex that you need step by step photos of how to get into it, then the finished mudra from front & back. Yikes, ugh. Not the fun personal art project that I’d signed up for, lol.

As I've written about at JohnDaoProductions.wordpress.com (shameless plug), my experience is that the qi sphere (the hands' sphere resonant with energetics/sphere/s along the central channel) goes together with finger-knitting mudras (any of 'em, but especially the kuji-in) ... ... like peas n' carrots. The finger-knitting feels like it courses the channels on a level closer to the physical. The qi sphere ... working the qi sphere slowly up & down the core with resonant assistance of the hands-qi-sphere-refinery, addresses more subtley. Lots of practices end up complementing each other, working on the same ol' classic aspects from different angles... opening the channels, deeply-centering, integrating vertically (yeee-ouch!, an*other* shameless plug!) ... cheers, Trunk

Super important meditation, imhe. There are different layers to develop, experience, from most physical to most subtle. I tend to experience this meditation as very physical. (Obviously the other results of deeply subtle and energetics, very cool, and I applaud.) ... The focus of attention (yi) goes from hui yin up the center to the level of the umbilicus and back down. Repeat over and over. For me, this triggers a physical pulsing between my navel ~ ming men (along the line that I figure the umbilicle cord was in the womb, and the kidneys pulse into ming men). Similarly the genitals, urogenital diaphragm pulses with the sacrum. Those two physical pairs, all pulsing. Goes to deep physical, prenatal jing, could be I think? There are some more detailed variations that I work with that have to do with either going more slowly, or emphasizing the luminous & empty quality of the pearl. But the basic is just up & down, developing the center-line resonant connection between hui yin and umbilicus level. As always, I appreciate hearing about varieties of methods & results, learning from/with each other. cheers, Trunk

p.s. ... and, for those serious internal arts nerds here's a pdf document that a friend gave to me some years back: just lots and lots of finger-knitting mudras pdf. I feel like I have plenty with kuji-in and several other mudras, but maybe some of you are hungry to chip away at the linked extensive doc. Have fun. - Trunk JohnDaoProductions.wordpress.com

I’ve played a little with teaching friends finger-knitting mudras... at a very casual level, with friends who are *not* serious internal arts nerds. The nine mudras of kuji-in are *WAY* too much. I can walk someone through them, with good energetic results ... but it is just too complex, often leaves them intellectually overwhelmed. Obvious solution: just one mudra, lol. The “vitality mudra” is a good choice and today I was walking a friend through it. We ended up nicknaming it the “start-with-peace mudra” because putting both hands into the peace sign is a great setup for getting into the mudra. video courtesy of Sifu Matsuo

Gutting science from the dept of agriculture ... Makes sense. Pesky scientists. https://youtu.be/iQkdu6c9g6w

Wow. I think I’ve found a post where I actually *partly* agree with you! I think that most of your assessments of the Dems are off, but we do share some overlapping criticisms of the left. I do think *some* of the Dems are going too far left with some of their approaches to health care and student debt reduction. Not politically viable in this country and only weakens their cause, easy to mischaracterize, is political suicide. I think that the Dems want sensible immigration reform, that doesn’t fit into a simple chant (“build the wall”). I think that the “open border” is a false criticism of Dems. I do think that the Dems should focus more on the economy (Obama did *very* well in rescuing the economy) and campaign finance reform (and some other areas of concern re: cleaning up politics, such as gerrymandering, etc). The earth’s ecosystems are being destroyed from every angle and means. We’re headed towards global environmental dystopia for all foreseeable future generations. The GOP uniformly ignores the problems and speeds the destruction. Dems respect science and want to do many things about it. Unfortunately, the current GOP has followed their leader into an asylum. It’s not the GOP anymore; it’s just a cult, plain and simple. Turns out that a lot of people respond at the level of the National Enquirer, and that’s where djt lives. ... and so it goes. And the masses have not sufficiently learned from history maybe the most elementary lesson: avoid having an egomaniac with violent tendencies run a powerful country. P.s. And what we REALLY need are two (or more) healthy functional parties that can agree on basic facts, communicate and compromise for the better of the whole. We are FAR from a healthy democracy, both in terms of politicians and the national populace.

I’m not sure which way to read your post. (?). (And people are so divided in this thread, it could be either... ) Those “who believes in common decency and some level of morality”... Are you saying there are none in the GOP?, or none in the Democratic party? ... or something more complex that I’ve not guessed?

You’re parsing my sentence incorrectly. For clarity, Separated the phrases and bolded the portions that apply to (many of) his followers. The many ”feeble minded chumps/devotees” are his “willfully blind” followers.

All you have to do to “mercilessly batter” Trump is to just show what he says and does. The worst insults to him are his own words and actions. And so ... Video recording (or any other reliable record of events) is his basic nemesis. ... and he’s a con man and feeble minded chumps/devotees are many, so all he has to do is chant “fake news” and the willfully blind follow along. Merely describing him accurately brings us quickly into areas that would normally be vicious hyperbole grotesque obscene immoral slander. Areas of verbal expression that the more refined are loath to participate in by even saying what is the blatantly obvious behavior of this vile antithesis of a human being. So, yeah. Secondary nemesis of djt: accurate description by others.

Conservative columnist George F. Will, who left the Republican Party after it nominated Trump in 2016, explains to Lawrence O’Donnell why Republican lawmakers are standing by Trump and the long-term damage he thinks Trump is doing to America's civic culture. George Will "I believe that what this president has done to our culture, to our civic discourse ... you cannot unring these bells and you cannot unsay what he has said, and you cannot change that he has now in a very short time made it seem normal for schoolboy taunts and obvious lies to be spun out in a constant stream. I think this will do more lasting damage than Richard Nixon's surreptitious burglaries did." Justin Amash "If you're a Republican, please ask yourself if the party really represents your principles and values. You don't need to become a Democrat. Simply stand up for what is right. America's tradition of liberty is beautiful, and it depends on our love and respect for one another."

Umm ... ok. So, maybe, territories to clarify and how they interact: society (dystopia, utopia, all that) one’s own humanness mystical experience. Some sort of sensible proportion, approach, tempo of influence, how much to expect those areas to solve each other / and not. Really. Not pie in the sky. The serious seasoned viewpoints do not match the advertising, lol. There is a Daoist saying, “knowing the white, keep the black”. Mystics do spend more time alone, and there should be vigilance about that masking escapism & neglect. Marsha Sinetar wrote an excellent book, “Ordinary People as Monks and Mystics”, in which she sought out and interviewed mature people with *functional* lifestyles.

@alchemystical I saw your post some while back and it’s been knockin’round my head since and I’m here to make the voices stop!!! I guess what resonates with me is that - especially now - human beings are a mess (really from any angle, from where ever you’re standing), and surprisingly so. I’ve been kicking around the internal arts scene for some decades and you’d think I’d understand people enough so I wouldn’t be surprised over and over and over. And I’ve a few friends (from various orientations of serious internal looking) who are older than me and better students that I am, and *they*’re surprised. And I guess my question is, “why are we so surprised, over n’ over?”. What false presumptions about the human condition do we hold, that get knocked over time and time again by actual events? What understandings are we lacking? One presumption I’ve found in my own psychology that, “generally, people are good”. Whether true or not (and certainly it is flawed, naive and true), it doesn’t prompt much ongoing discernment as “functionality”. And god knows we’re all flawed and improving at our core levels in the areas we’re not-so-good-at: veeeerrry long term slow work. A friend of mine had a hard knocks interpretation of Buddha’s first noble truth, “life is suffering”, saying that there’s not a solution to it, that’s the fact of it, and to just be able to get through it. Books come to mind: P.D.Ouspensky’s “The Fourth Way” Any of the non-fiction books of essays by Wendell Berry. Someone here on the board, a long time back, mentioned that when they were in college deciding on a major and considering psychology vs sociology and checked out all the professors from each discipline and found that the sociologists were all depressed. Anyway, those are some rambling thoughts, relevance questionable. cheers, Trunk

3bob was suspended in mid-June, about 3 weeks ago, pending review. A rather long time. And no mention in moderation log, only this thread here (+ his three threads in Hun Dun shut down, of course). What’s up?

I guess I like learning from articulate, intelligent, experienced, well informed people in their area of expertise. If you like following those who specialize in 3 word slogans that a crowd can chant to stir their base emotions, that's up to you.

This is an interview from a week ago with Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell's former chief of staff.

a little clip

Climate change...

@Hattaway this might be relevant https://johndaoproductions.wordpress.com/2017/08/11/qi-sphere-beginning/ welcome! 😎 🙏

Yes. The process of painting the unseen-yet-partially-felt interior clarifies, excavates, expands what I already partially felt. And gives an external reference that is helpful in the moment and also for later reference, and for noticing changes, stages of progression, that one goes through with a practice. Like, for the same practice, different paintings of a. here's what I felt in early January b. here's several weeks later c. here's several months later I look back in the sketchbook and see, quickly easily vividly, what the practice is doing in my body, how the progression is working. Often surprisingly so. Where as, without doing that, it's all invisible and mostly lost to the cognitive process. I've found it very helpful. Helps me integrate. I didn't know. Nice to meet you. I've read some of Jung's works ("Memories, Dreams & Reflections") and some related works ... but I still can't say that I clearly understand what Jung's model of the unconscious is. So, I'd have to say, "I don't know".

Art. Occasionally, after practice, when you feel inspired... Paint what you *feel* in your body. You'll find that the process of painting helps you clarify, uncover, excavate, what you feel. Meaning, you probably won't have an entire idea of what you are going to paint... The process of painting, itself, reveals the picture. You'll be surprised at what comes out. It provides an external feedback, you can look at it. Then do it again weeks or months later: you will see changes in the painting that very often correspond to the progression of the practice you are doing. Materials? I suggest: 1. A brush pen. You can get one for less than $10. 2. If you're into color, a Crayola Watercolor set, again, < $10. 3. A journal that has watercolor-quality pages, so that you can use it as both a written journal and a sketch~paint journal. 4. The Sumi-E Book teaches brush technique, and the brush (with just a little training) can allow a poor untalented schmuck of a not-at-all-an-artist to make rather beautiful strokes. Some of my own personal art is at https://invisiblewell.wordpress.com/ . I do publish some (free) essays re: the internal arts at https://johndaoproductions.wordpress.com/ . I have an upcoming essay entitled (something like) "Art Therapy for Mystics". If you want to be notified when it gets posted either follow my wordpress site or follow my JDP thread here on TDBs. I was decades into my practices before I discovered how utilitarian painting could be. It is something that would have been useful from the very beginning. - Trunk