Trunk

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Posts posted by Trunk

  2. Posted

    All,

     

    As you know, there are wildfires in Maui currently.

    Sifu Matsuo lives in Hawaii (no, I've not heard from him but assume that he and his immediate family are safe), and it got me to thinking to donate to relief funds ... and to post something here along that line. 

     

    Here's an article put out by Hawaii Public Radio listing ways to help:

    https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/local-news/2023-08-10/heres-how-you-can-help-those-affected-by-maui-wildfires

    A lot of it is ways to help if you actually live in Hawaii, here's a section of opportunity to donate from afar:
     

    Quote

     

    Maui Strong Fund: Online

    The Hawaiʻi Community Foundation started a Maui Strong Fund to support residents affected by the wildfires, which firefighting crews continue to battle in Lahaina, Pulehu/Kīhei and Upcountry areas. Individuals can donate at can be made at www.hawaiicommunityfoundation.org/maui-strong.

     

    There is a credit card processing fee, but HCF will not take an administrative fee, and 100% of the money will be given to the service provider.

     

    The fund has been seeded with $1 million.

     

     

    - Trunk

    • Like 5
    • Thanks 1

  11. Posted

    1 hour ago, Daniel said:

     

    Chains connecting heaven and earth in stained glass.  Mid-1800s Orthodox temple NYC.  There were chains everywhere.  On the undersides of the arches even.  The star itself is interconnected triangles pointing up and down.

     

     If you want to go deep... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seder_hishtalshelus

     

    image.png.2ff88b47c6a72f8f3c3c3968d4a77a3a.png

     

    Beautiful!  

    And really nice to have someone here steeped in Judaism.  It occasionally crosses my mind that that’s one where I’m nearly entirely lacking in education.

     

    One of my pet theories … something like …

    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 … similar to the stained glass.

     

    - Trunk

    • Like 2

  12. Posted

    On 8/9/2023 at 1:11 PM, Knightgame15 said:

    I've been wanting to get deeper into Taoism as a philosophy ..

     

    I grew up as and am still a practicing and believing Christian ..

     

    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.

     

    stonewindowcross.jpg

    • Like 2

  14. Posted

    .. 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.  :D

    • Thanks 1

  15. Posted

    i’m thinking I should split the above few posts off into a new “crystals” thread.  I’m out and about right now; I’ll do it after I get home sometime. It seems like I’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

    • Thanks 1

  16. Posted

    5 hours ago, silent thunder said:

    Crystals and minerals have sung to my awareness as long as I can recall.  

    …

    Lately i find, the objects engaged with no longer need to be spherical, nor do they need to be between my hands necessarily, or even in my line of sight.

     

    Interesting how people resonate~gravitate into various aspects of the path.  B)

    Pretty clear that you’re enjoying a latter stage development …

    Curious what specific/general/tips you might have re: effective crystal practices for beginners?

    Anything that you feel inclined to share.

    • Like 2

  19. Posted

    Note: The following few posts were split from the KYMQ thread, because it became clear that the crystals aspect could lead to broader rich discussion beyond the context of KYMQ.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     

    uh... hey, ummm ...

    Has anyone tinkered with doing the most basic KYMQ moves with a gem-mineral-sphere (ebay link) at the center?

    (yeah, basically: a crystal ball)

    There are lots of different gem-minerals ...

    41ZETWDAsPL.jpg

     

    I've never grooved into gems etc, before.  Yeah, "pretty bracelet", or "yeah, I feel a *little*" - though never saw any skillful strong application (also, I've hardly looked around) always seemed kinda cloudy-wowdy to me  :rolleyes:

    ... but an old friend of mine is into collecting stones (via ebay) and I recently saw one of the spheres and thought heeeeyyyyy, waaaiiit-ahminit ... iinnnnterrrresstiiinnnggg  :huh:  

     

    ... and did the basic KYMQ hands' sphere ( around ) - not touching - it

    jdphandssphereheart.jpg

     

    (if you do this, I suggest that you do at the level of lower center/s, solar plexus on down.  Perhaps in a standing posture and - by bending the knees - you might fluently address a significant section of the center line from solar plexus down.  It's too strong to do with upper centers, ime & imho.)

     

    p.s.

    And, just to be clear, I mean that the sphere would be stable, on a table or stand of some sort, and you'd work the hands around the sphere at varying distances.

     

    I'm not referring to practices that roll the balls around in one's hands (or along one's arms, etc) in various forms of more physical exercise.  Huge other topic, I suspect.

     

    Basically, KYMQ around a stable mineral sphere.

    ... and for the same purposes as KYMQ

    (not for the various other that we see in film).

     

     

     

    @Taomeow, @zerostao, @spiraltao

    • Like 6

  20. Posted

    This story comes up in my mind this morning, and maybe it has nothing to do with this thread …

     

    Back in the ‘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 didn’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, “I just want to keep cycling through”.  Deepening, integrating, resolving.  

    • Like 3

  21. Posted

    On 6/15/2023 at 12:35 PM, Saan said:

    Through the practice of Buddhist meditation known as "whole-body breathing" (in the style of Thanissaro or Rob Burbea), I discovered that Taoism has a very similar technique called "pore breathing."  …

     

    On the other hand, it seems that there is an almost infinite number of practices, which makes it immensely challenging to conduct a comprehensive search. …

     

    … Is it necessary to learn all styles of breathing to make progress?

     

    Agreed that breathwork is a vast subject… 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 you’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 wouldn’t expect “whole body breathing” to be the only breathing method that someone would practice (as you’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 “Tsongkhapa’s Six Yogas of Naropa” contains a method called “palm and sole breathing” 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. 

    • Like 3

  24. Posted

    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.

     

    102fb571-440f-49e4-9356-2892f418b39a.png

     

    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).  B)B)B)

     

    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.)

     

     

     

     

    • Like 1