Trunk

Admin
  • Content count

    6,329
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    34

Everything posted by Trunk

  1. Unpopular Opinions

    Beautiful! And really nice to have someone here steeped in Judaism. It occasionally crosses my mind that thatā€™s one where Iā€™m nearly entirely lacking in education. One of my pet theories ā€¦ something like ā€¦ a series of different polar potentials, integral yet separated by semi-permeable membranes (physical or otherwise, could be just space). The above could be applied to things as big as the sun and the earth, or as small as microscopic living cells, or heaven ~ man ~ earth ā€¦ similar to the stained glass. - Trunk
  2. Unsure where to start

    My view is that basic mechanics are the same across traditions ... we all are human, after all. You might find that JohnDaoProductions.wordpress.com (free, concise) gives a very broad overview quickly, which might help you orient more effectively to various other more detailed avenues.
  3. Enlightened movies

    British comedy on Amazon prime. Lovely clever.
  4. .. to recap .. For those that're fairly new to TheDaoBums ... The qi sphere tips that Sifu Matsuo gives in his Kwan Yin Magnetic Qigong (KYMQ) video (ordering info in the youtube description) make the practice startlingly effective. Basically, most of the people that I've seen (or heard of) that try it for the first time: they feel it *immediately*. Like, not after a month, not after 20 minutes of a really good session: *as*soon*as* they try the practice, for the first time, with no prior qigong experience. And alignment with deeper principles is built into even the most basic parts of the practice. It does the right things. So, if you're curious about that, there's the links. .. and to kick-off .. I mentioned in a previous post that that a friend collects gems & minerals (via ebay) and had a mineral sphere and I thought "hmmmm, KYMQ around it" and results: Kicked up the energetic intensity enough that it was a jolt, within seconds. Subsequent practice sessions confirm. No extra time nor effort. Not years of focusing to the-next-level-of-purity... This is an easy up-my-game, and feels like it's gonna be a fun ride.
  5. Kuan Yin Magnetic Qigong

    iā€™m thinking I should split the above few posts off into a new ā€œcrystalsā€ thread. Iā€™m out and about right now; Iā€™ll do it after I get home sometime. It seems like Iā€™m just tickling the surface of a very big topic on its own. OK, I split the recent few posts re: Crystals & KYMQ (but could easily expand into all kinda crystal stuff) into a new thread: @silent thunder
  6. Interesting how people resonate~gravitate into various aspects of the path. Pretty clear that youā€™re enjoying a latter stage development ā€¦ Curious what specific/general/tips you might have re: effective crystal practices for beginners? Anything that you feel inclined to share.
  7. What are you listening to?

    @stellarwindbubble, Iā€™d overlooked the entire classical genre, and I love Wagner. thanks, Keith
  8. What are you listening to?

    Amy Winehouse is just killinā€™ me. Iā€™ve heard her before some, but now diving in. OMFG! Here is the SAME song (preceded by interview) sung solo w/ 1 acoustic guitar only. Her *VOICE*. o-m-g
  9. This story comes up in my mind this morning, and maybe it has nothing to do with this thread ā€¦ Back in the ā€˜80s I was studying with my first meditation teacher in smallish group and the teacher was amazing and everyone intended to be enlightened (though we didnā€™t know what that was nor how to get there). High goals. And there was this one meeting where students were sharing what their spiritual goals were and I remember a remarkably wise, much-further-along-than us-noobs, humble and centered student said, ā€œI just want to keep cycling throughā€. Deepening, integrating, resolving.
  10. Agreed that breathwork is a vast subjectā€¦ but there is a simple basic direction to it: integration. (which might be said of all of the internal arts principles & methods) We are integral but heavy & light stuff in us tend to separate out such that they overlap less, from top to bottom: mind breath body. When we are stressed breathing is shallow into the body and awareness floats even higher. The BASIC direction is that you start blending, unifying those things more deliberately: you focus your awareness deliberately on your breath and train to breathe more deeply into your body. These things blend (stabilized awareness, breath, body) and alchemy occurs: more unification and through layers. And, so, over a long period of time (if youā€™re into this sort of tribe you end up doing it your whole life) - you get so you more fully feel like you are aware with your whole body and that you are breathing with your whole body. A practice session might not *start* that way, but gets more integral, more smoothly, more quickly over time. So, I wouldnā€™t expect ā€œwhole body breathingā€ to be the only breathing method that someone would practice (as youā€™ve already implied), but the result of working with the breath generally, and in a variety of specific ways, over years to integrate to that level. In ā€œTsongkhapaā€™s Six Yogas of Naropaā€ contains a method called ā€œpalm and sole breathingā€ that is notable and in the Tibetan tradition (unsure if this is relevant to the branch of Buddhism that you practice in). Probably you know a lot of this already from your studies. - Keith p.s. Iyengar's "Light on Pranayama" is a modern classic book from the yogic tradition. It's a thick one. p.p.s. You'll find that, in most body-wisdom-disciplines that are movement based - the breath is integral with the movement. Either in a general way or more specifically. Breathwork (stabalized attn + breath + body) is *EVERY*where. Every yogic stretch. Every qigong movement.
  11. Newcomer

    Welcome! Some cautions re: retention that we've accumulated over the years
  12. New post

    I'm current admin. I'll send you a pm and we'll work it out. - Trunk
  13. What are you listening to?

    My old utilitarian-very-simple car was totaled earlier this year (no one got hurt). I searched for a fun car with the settlement $ and found an affordable 2001 cloth-top convertible. The stereo (it had a cassette player in it which I upgraded to CD) is lit. Even with the top down in freeway traffic the sound system creates it's own atmosphere: it sounds like the music is coming from *every*where and resonating. The car is so small that essentially the whole inside front of the car is a convex resonator being fed by the actual speakers at each side (and behind). So, as I burn CDs for-carry in my new little space capsule, I'm looking for music that was produced, engineered with that "coming from all directions" atmosphere in mind. Notable ones that I've found so far, below. (Not sure if that experience is preserved in youtube recordings). So, I'm looking for musical suggestions to explore: What music have you found that especially creates that "coming from all around you" experience? (Please quote or tag me in your reply - or simply 'like' this post - so that I know I have a new reply.)
  14. People have been reporting UFO's for so long ... ... and most officials have been denying it for so long ... and various officials have been coming out for yrs n' yrs giving exposes ... Now, the public is blase about it, like, "aliens? .. *yawn* .. of course". No panic, no surprise, just, "yeah, we all 've known this for a looonnng time".
  15. I gave you regular member security rights, so you're set now. - Trunk TDB's admin
  16. The amino acids have recently left me feeling a little dry (despite protein rich diet), so I thought I'd jet to Whole Foods and get some friendly oils. Then I remembered the Budwig Diet - the main idea of which is basically that friendly oils + cottage cheese makes both the oils and the protein assimilate easier. (The Budwig Diet people try and cure serious diseases w/ it, and take it pretty extremely. I just add friendly oils to my cottage cheese as a take-away, not expecting miracles.) Really appreciated the results of cottage cheese + friendly oils + amino acids.
  17. I somehow missed the theoretical importance of collagen, recently 'discovered' it. Basically, collagen is the main protein for the entire continuum of connective tissue: fascia ~ tendon ~ ligament ~ bones, which is a main component of what gets developed in qigong, internal martial arts, Daoist internal arts. A friend of mine mentioned that she'd been taking collagen for a while and her hair was noticeably softer. The reviews on amazon: people notice better hair, faster growing nails and joint pain disappearing. These are signs that a lot is going on on the inside that is *very* relevant to connective tissue growth. from Wikipedia I'm pretty sensitive to this stuff, and I start anything new with microdoses. Disclaimer (and I'm not kidding): Health is an *extraordinarily* complex and personal thing. Impossible for me to tell whether this'd be helpful or harmful to any of you. Be discerning.
  18. Flying Phoenix Chi Kung

    We must be groovin', because that was exactly on my mind in my approach here, now ... The topic was pinned by default, as it was pinned in the previous PPD section, and I was too lazy at the time to sort it. Now that I return to the idea, I'm deciding to leave it pinned. The FPCK thread has been at TDBs approaching 1/4 century (since Dec, 2009) with steady quality contribution. I think that having the thread pinned is an unusual courtesy well earned. - Trunk
  19. Flying Phoenix Chi Kung

    ~~~ admin statement ~~~ The owner of this thread, @zen-bear , asked me to move this thread to the General area. - Trunk ~~~ admin out ~~~
  20. Continuing to enjoy the above book, continuing to be impressed. Too early to say that I 'know' anything, yet, lol. Dinner, couple of nights ago I felt decadent and so did what I haven't done in a long time, but used to do more frequently: pastrami special, w/ chili fries and a coke. And I thought to have 1 capsule of each of the amino acid supplements afterward. Now, usually, garunteed, the next morning I'd feel greasy inside and out ... y'know, just kinda yucky that was the hangover part of the 'special'. ... and I'd feel like I had some pastrami & fries still in me the next day ... This time? After taking the amino acids? I felt CLEAN the next day. My skin feels clean. I didn't feel greasy nor heavy at *all*. Impressive. I think that I've gone through most of the extreme results that are often signature of just-starting-something; it's mellowing some. And I have a better sense of what each do, pacing, and dietary complement. Plenty more to learn. Good topic.
  21. Authentic golden body

    @Taomeow, Those are beautiful! I've never seen twisted chopsticks! They look like they feel good! Those are special; thank you for sharing. Any back-story: I'm all ears. - Keith
  22. Authentic golden body

    Just my personal take on this, not that I have a perfect nor classic idea-model of this area, but partly what I've observed (and at least three contradictory ideas that are each important, imho): #1. I think it's important to keep the idea of the integrity of each layer of being, and not generally discard a basic respect for each layer in itself. Someone once said something like, "a problem needs to be solved in the layer it originated in". Build a life that suits you, take realistic care of your human aspect and respect it, etc #2. During some methods (like meditation, etc) you might emphasize a certain layer of being (such as emptiness) as a serious focus and everything subsumes to that during the practice. That's the view, that's the practice. (... and I get that it integrates more with daily life, but ...) And there are pieces of your path where you'll want to emphasize that, a lot maybe... to develop depth and fluency. And, over a person's lifetime, it gets deeper ... no end. So there is that emphasis, that focus, during the practice. There's a phrase in one of Cleary's Taoist books, "manifesting and un-manifesting at will". Merge into The Big Silent One gradually more deeply, more fluently... and be able to put yourself back together with integrity, also. Both of those parts, weave into each other. #3. The Deeper Stuff. Well, if the measure of 'reality' is something like "is it a more foundational, more enduring level of life that we're mindblowingly profoundly part of?" Yeah, well, then I'd kinda say that The Deeper Stuff is more real, lol.
  23. Authentic golden body

    My experience is that once I got the concept of the basic dynamics of what I call the ā€œdeep-centersā€ (specifically, how they integrate with emptiness), then I started seeing that concept in more and more places, ā€¦ kind of most places. I would suggest that whatever system youā€™re digging into, itā€™s there. For instance, if youā€™re Christian, you can find the Light of Christ in your heart. I guess I want to say a few steps, points, thatā€™ve been helpful along my way ā€¦ with some pretty strong disclaimers, and encouragement to excavate the classic resources where ever youā€™re digginā€™. Disclaimer: There are whole systems about sequence and if I even start to talk about that what come up in my mind is everything Iā€™ve skipped. Also, itā€™s extremely difficult to tell what is the right next step for anyone. Geez, I should just pin this sort of disclaimer into my automatic signature, because it applies to my every post. Yeah, so, a few things along the way for me (and skipping a whole lot): - Some training in view and practice of stillness, assumed. - Then there was Healing Tao system introduced idea of the pearl, and I experienced it as nourishing ā€¦ but *not* as integral with emptiness. I was subtly gently ā€˜holdingā€™ the nourishment of the pearl, which does have some use but ā€¦ - The simple Tibetan pith instruction of ā€œenter, abide, dissolveā€ (though surrounded by an *extremely* ornate system) blew things open for me (conceptually and practically) that the pearl was integral with emptiness and resonated potent points along the central channel ā€¦ - How to find those potent places (the deep-centers)? They feel like nothing. Like, if you focus on the front of your chest and slowly move your focus back into your heart area there will be layers of feeling ā€¦ then there is this little still space in the ā€˜centerā€™ that feels like nothing. *Thatā€™s* where the magic happens. The "mysterious pass". The deep-centers can also be found by slowly searching vertically, up and down the center line. Mark Griffin encouraged becoming familiar with "every inch of sushumna". So, those principles dovetail into methods. While *far* from any comprehensive list of what's out there, these are merely a few that jump out at me right now. - The pearl meditation, as described above. - The mani mantra, secret style. Linked from the "enso" essay at my blog. (I think a breathing method linked from there, also). - Kwan Yin Magnetic Qigong I find is one of the more accessible ways to start in on this process. cheers, Keith
  24. Authentic golden body

    There are steps to finding and cultivating the center that are accessible and understandable. There are some in various essays at my free blog https://johndaoproductions.wordpress.com/ It's *not* that there is this high thing that we see but have no access to in our own systems. It can be commonly understood, and accessed incrementally. I've posted more than usual (which was really fun, thanks all) and for now I'm outta gas. "All of my practices promote the center". - Sifu Matsuo and, yup, this phenomena shows up across cultures, across traditions. "The clear bead at the center changes everything. There are no edges to my loving now." - Rumi in Open Secret