Sahaj Nath

What do you all think about The Living Force that is "already here now".

 

How do you think this relates to reading philosophy books by dead people?

 

Discuss.

wow, i think this is a great question, and i hope others will respond!

i think it relates to getting hung up on various lineages as well!

i commented a little on this in my very first post in the lobby. people believing that older is better. somehow it's more authentic if it's precisely what was practiced 2,000 years ago.

humanity has changed and shifted considerably since ancient times. there is much we can learn from those who came before us, but our lives are the manifestation of the living force here and now, and i think it's a mistake to undervalue our current relation to the here and now in favor of some idea of

"old, and, therefore, more authentic."

i love my old philosophy books. i consider chuang tzu and nietzsche to be two of my best friends. but my 'here and now' connection to the everything is what i trust most of all.

i don't know if this is exactly what you were getting at, but that's my $0.02.

>>Sex; moderate and no orgasms unless you are making babies. Anyone can argue with me on it, and I will simply say I don't care. No matter what, if you want your cultivation to soar and develop properly, then no orgasms from any chakra, no wasting our fluids and no orgasm without ejaculation. Dual cultivation is fine, the woman can orgasm if she wants, but eh.<<

 

Hi Lin,

 

you invited us to ask questions and I politely accept.

 

That the topic of sexual activity for men is a crucial one seems to be agreed upon by the many who talked about it in recent years and coming from different traditions. Just the approach to it is manifold... no agreement at all, equal to the answer to the question of eating meet or not: a wide range of views available...

 

I am interested in a further elucidation of your statement above, if you don't mind.

 

You write:

 

"no orgasms" &

 

later you say:

 

"no orgasm without ejaculation"

 

so the advise then is to ejaculate without orgasm? This question may sound silly but maybe in your answer lies a truth I am not yet aware of!

 

"no orgasms" to me means: "you can have sex but do not go as far as to orgasm. This way you help your girl have fun or whatever, but you yourself don't lose anything"

 

right way to be understood?

 

"no orgasm without ejaculation": could mean: if you orgasm THEN do ALSO ejaculate...

 

but if that is what you mean one would lose fluid, which you advise against...

 

thankx for considering an answer

 

 

Harry

if i might chime in on this one:

i think he's saying "orgasm without ejaculation" as a term of art, as in to say "no orgasms, and no *non-ejaculatory* orgasms, either."

that's the way i read it.

no depleting jing or shen.

 

 

There is no price to pay except cashing in your past anchors. Why create such fears? Fear stands directly in the way of your own awakening.

i don't know, mantra. i think maybe it's a good process to go through as you come in touch with profound aspects of yourself that you never knew existed. the ego fears its annihilation. it fears being diminished. it fears losing its illusion of control. coming to terms with that is part of the cleansing process, i think.

i've had a number of students over the years who at one point or another got a little scared about the energy running through them. up until the transmission most of what they'd known had been beliefs and theories. but once they could feel it running through their veins they feared that maybe it was some entity of sorts, and it scared them that they couldn't just turn it off or take it out of their bodies.

a number of mystery schools use this in their initiation processes to activate and cleanse various subtle levels of being, all the while the initiate is questioning whether or not they have sold their soul. in the end they must find for themselves the courage to persevere and eventually realize that what they once feared is who they are.

but i think the process of having fear and then overcoming it is a valuable one.

One thing to keep in mind is that traditionally this practice was given to the student and then they were told to leave and come back in seven years. They were left on their own to discover their own truths and to fight their own demons.

Exactly!

overcoming ones own fear is an integral part of discovering ones own truths and fighting ones own demons.

this post is for the most part what i was talking about.

Get some periodic alone time. Every day, Every Week, Every Month, Every Year.

 

Don't let to much time pass before you reset your brain. Living in cities sets you in motion at a certain pace. This pace (and information overload) is important to get away from periodically. Like I said, it can be small, like once a day morning or night, forget about time, return to origin. Or a long hike once every year or something to clear the air.

 

You have to define your space clearly and defend your boundaries when people cross them.

 

Spectrum

i agree completely that what you said is sound advice for EVERYONE.

but do you believe that's all it takes for a high-level cultivator? i mean, you can't exactly schedule when your next cleansing cycle is going to take place, nor can you decide beforehand its duration.

i guess one could progress very slowly, very gradually, and maybe later down the line reach a crossroads where they either give up the world or accept mediocrity. but let us assume that this crossroads is here now.

is it/can it be practical for someone to be ensconced in the matrix of materialism and cultural hypnosis, yet strive for radical awakening?

ai wei,

i wish you were here in the states. i'd love to come study with you.

some day, maybe.

I won't be able to make SF due to work issues and energy issues..which I think I have already talked about.

 

Will be very interested in hearing peoples experiences who go.

 

I will definetly be in Phoenix of course and will enjoy sharing the fun vibe with friends.

 

And will see if this pyramid in the sky keeps vibrating

i really was hoping to meet you. but your decision is perfectly understandable.

unless requested to do otherwise, i will definitely offer my experiences to the forum.

following cam's metamorphosis (or at least the parts he's choosing to share with us, for which i am grateful) has led me to want to make this topic.

i don't want this to come across as a criticism of cameron, but i'm wondering what the general tao bum wisdom is regarding this matter. to me it seems like a gross misunderstanding of the purpose of spiritual cultivation to think that one can engage in high-level, wholly transformative practices, and still go on as one had before in everyday life.

for me, an integral part of my pathworking has been to divest of unnecessary attachments to the matrix of cultural hypnosis so that when the time comes i will be able to ride the wave until the day i drown.

i teach qigong and meditation. i do healing work. i used to have a little coffee shop job on the side to help make ends meet; now i don't even do that. my students and patients fully support me.

i walked away from a full scholarship at a top-level college and some amazing research and scholarship opportunities because i felt that those aspirations were incompatible with what i feel is my true life's calling. it was painful at times because the unknown is scary, there's no guarantee that i will succeed in attaining the highest levels, and i felt pressure from friends who thought i was "throwing it all away."

"What a waste."

now i believe it was the best decision i ever made.

i don't think what i chose to do is the right thing for everyone. but then i don't think that high-level cultivation is the right thing for everyone, either.

i've experienced my share of physiological ups and downs as a result of my practice (from feeling invincible to dizziness and vomiting, and a whole spectrum in between), but i have consciously fashioned my life to be adaptable to the ebb and flow as i press forward and seek balance.

for me, it's simply the only game in town worth playing.

SO...

if one has no intentions of giving up ones ties to the conventional/material, how practical is it for them to pursue realization of the Tao? profound transformation can not and should not be forced into a box, but rather it is we who should be breaking out of our boxes to accommodate profound reality.

OR:

is there some middle ground that can actually take one all the way? can high-level transmissions be congruent with someone who walks fairly evenly in both worlds?

...and again, i want to emphasize that i don't mean for this post to be a critique of cameron. he was the only tao bum to give us all a somewhat in-depth perspective of max and his abilities. it's because of cameron's posts that i decided to go ahead and commit to the SF workshop.

i just want to know what others think. i'm very open to changing my mind about what i think.

okay,

i finally got around to registering for the workshop today.

i still have no idea where i'm going to stay.

so if there's anyone in the area i might be able to crash with, i'd be more than happy to buy food for all of us. i'm a good and easygoing house guest. i promise!

i'm really looking forward to meeting those of you who will be there.

i really like this thread. i have a very, very strong affinity for the weather patterns.

clear, hot, summer days tend to energize my ren and du channels (the microcosmic circuit), whereas inclement weather tends to stimulate my center line (thrusting vessel). being that i seem to be naturally predisposed to introversion, i find times of overcast and/or inclement weather to be more energizing.

i think that times of energetic introversion are when we are able to truly activate both the third eye AND the true dantien. well, i think it's true for me, anyway.

having said that,

i think that thunderstorms can be dangerous to cultivators. we attract and accumulate more energy than the average person, and that can prove to be a liability during a thunderstorm. i think the original imagery of the fire serpent/dragon was derived from bolts of lightning. i think that resistance in our bodies is what makes the thunder current dangerous to us. i think there have been masters who could invoke the dragon without injury to themselves and achieve instant illumination. i think it's an ancient shamanic practice.

and i think this is what chunyi lin was hinting at in his book when he talked about letting a 120-volt charge pass through his body without injury as a part of his test for mastery from his shaolin teacher. not that he was in a thunderstorm, but that he's aware of this type of practice.

...and just to get on a soapbox for a quick minute:

i think some people in this forum have severely underestimated chunyi lin's wisdom and attainment. the simplicity with which he offers it should not overshadow the subtleties in his teachings.

okay, i'm done.

Why do you call it Kunlun energy and Red Phoenix energy when energy is just energy?

 

a part of me feels conflicted about responding to this because i have felt misunderstood (or worse) in a number of previous posts, but i've come to really enjoy this forum over the time i've been here, and i think maybe i should be doing more just to contribute to the diversity of voices. so here goes.

if i might draw an analogy from this question:

this is like asking,

"why do you call it Mathematical data and Historical data when data is just data?"

the way i see, if i might draw on a little biblical wisdom:

we learn in part; therefore, we are taught in part.

if any of us had the integrated awareness to truly realize that energy is energy, i'm willing to bet that such a person wouldn't be on this forum, except maybe to promote a lecture/workshop or two.

where we are, NONE OF IT is JUST energy. in the phenomenal world, microwaves don't do what music does. or a closer analogy, power lines don't do what healers do.

there's energy healing, there's energy pollution, and there's any number of variants both in between and beyond. but a highly elevated consciousness can perhaps integrate all of it as strands of the same cloth.

i'm not there. few people are, which is why i'm grateful for the masters who step forward to offer us more "parts."

mostly just fingers pointing to the heavens, perhaps. but such important instructions, just the same.

sean, anybody,

i have lost/forgotten my password, and so i can't log into the forum with my new computer.

i did the whole password recovery thing, but the system (for whatever reason) doesn't recognize my screen name. so most of the time when i'm on the forum i'm visiting as an anonymous user.

i don't want to open a second account. i like this one. there is glitch of some sort in the recovery system, but i'm wonder maybe if sean (or whoever) could just send my account info to my email address.

thanx.

I am thinking of maybe doing the Kunlun workshop in SF next month.

 

I think Yoda and Sean are committed to coming to the Phoenix workshop.

 

Any Taobums in SF interested in going?

 

Like Todd for example ?

i will be there.

and i would definitely like to meet up with some bums.

and cameron,

thank you for going and sharing some of your experience.

Hello all,

 

I have read much on this forum and other sources about the possibilities of negative effects of attempting to cultivate chi without proper methods of instruction. However, I like to meditate daily if for no other reason than to relax. I perform the very limited amount of Tai Chi movements that I know, and so far have had nothing but positive effects from these exercises: increased energy, better mood, and increased concentration. Are there any serious risks to this sort of casual meditation without official instruction? It seems that many people have meditated without any intention of energy cultivation for years and have only benefited from it, but I would still like to ask you all if it is a good idea to continue this way, or if I need to seek a teacher?

 

Thank you!

YOU ARE TREADING SOME DANGEROUS GROUND AND MUST TURN BACK NOW OR SUFFER IN THE NEAR FUTURE.

just kidding.

it's really the high level practices that need instruction, not the kind of thing that you're doing. IMO too many instructors and "masters" exaggerate the importance of direct instruction at all levels. listen to your body. no one else can be an expert on you.

you could get a lot more out of your practice by getting some solid foundational training, but you're in little danger of actually hurting yourself. direct manipulation of the energy vessels of the body would be another story. there are a lot of nei gung practices that can be dangerous without a skilled teacher, but that's not what you're doing.

enjoy your practice. listen to your body. listen WITH your body.

I have a question about teachers. I've read some of Mantak Chia's books, but I've also heard (here and elsewhere) controversy about his system. I've been burned badly by several martial arts teachers in the past, so I'm even more wary now, considering the time involved and the potential for injury in Taoist practices. Put honestly, I simply do not have enough time or energy at this point in my life to be "taken" anymore.

 

Can anyone clearly outline for me the concensus as to which parts of Mantak Chia's system work (if any), and which do not. Or at least which parts are verifiably true and not made up? Are there any more accurate or reliable books out there that anyone can point out, besides the various Mantak books?

 

Finally, I ran into a guy named Gary Clyman, who does Emotional Liposuction in Chicago. I had a session with him some time ago, and he also demonstrated Iron Shirt (allowed me to strike him), but I'm wondering if he would be a reputable candidate to train with. He does seem a tad...well...unbalanced. I don't know how else to put it. Seems like a dedicated guy and quite friendly, but I just have nothing to really compare him to. Has anyone here ever worked with him?

 

Any advice?

a few things:

what are your goals? it's hard to give you a legitimate answer without knowing that.

i always took it as a given that one must always have the time and energy to be "taken." path working is not a vacation, and neither is enlightenment, assuming one realizes it. one of the lessons in letting go of one's attachments is being able to abandon ANYTHING at a moment's notice, as soon as one realizes that it no longer serves them.

there is much that you could learn from either teacher, but if your hope is to look for someone you can follow so you can just relax and glide through their framework, i'd say that you've got some re-thinking to do. you and only you are responsible for your development. no one else can be an expert on you. it's good to get rooted in a discipline, but so many people forget that the internal arts are, first and foremost, AN ART.

i've learned a lot from chia. i've read well over a hundred books related to internal cultivation and spiritual development, so i never go into an author's work with the illusion that they will possess all that i'll ever need to know. i do that work myself. but with the foundation that i have painstakingly established (not really that "painstaking" at all, given that my life is thoroughly devoted to the internal arts), i have acquired many valuable insights from chia. i would and could NEVER follow his system exclusively, but then i don't think i would ever follow anyone's.

you're right about clyman. there's no ambiguity about his inflated ego and delusions of grandeur. in my opinion he is marketing his own sense of greatness through gimmicks (emotional liposuction?), not so much leading people to realize their highest potential. however, that's not to say that you couldn't learn something of value from him. i personally think his 'forceful' approach to cultivation is dangerous, and that he and his students are actually quite lucky that he DOESN'T have a lot of skill. but it depends again on your goals as well as how far along you are in your growth and maturing process.

i actually have a student/friend in the chicago area that i could maybe put you in touch with. he's talented and has enough skill to demonstrate his ability with qi. i'm willing to bet that he can manifest as much, if not more qi flow than clyman can, but that's not what he's about. he doesn't teach at present, but he could prove to be a good friend with whom you could work out some of your concerns and explore some of your interests. i would need to know about you,your goals, your history, your age, and that kind of thing, but i'm willing to bet that you would benefit from meeting with him.

if interested, send me a private message. we'll talk.

easy tai chi

6 harmonies by GM Zhang

i found GM zhang's website.

how long is the form? how many movements?

a while ago i saw one of your posts about you learning tiger qigong from him.

do you have many of his qigong videos? what do you think of them?

Wow! This is quite something. I'm going to try it... if you don't hear from me again, it might mean I tied myself in a pretzel knot I can't untie.

 

Here's a demo from my teacher:

very graceful, beautiful.

never seen that particular form before.

and i love that he's wearing chucks!

more than any other facet of one's practice, the genuine quality of self that one brings to their practice is the greatest deciding factor of whether or not authentic development will continue. there are thousands of techniques designed to accomplish common ends. most of them work. enough so that i feel fairly comfortable stating that, in general, all of them work. the tools of cultivation are plenty, but without a quality understanding of one's own being in terms of presence and motive, how can one expect to use the tools effectively?

here in the materialist west we seem to have a hard time coming to terms with the fact that it is WE who use the tools; the tools do not use us. meaning that the tools may vary in efficiency, but even mediocre or bad tools can be used effectively if one possesses quality understanding. the beginning stage of practice should be geared toward refining this necessary quality. quickly moving past this foundation is one way to ensure that the highest stages will never be realized in this lifetime. one NEVER moves past the foundation! i should repeat this point: one NEVER moves past the foundation. it's not linear progression; it can't be. everything we seek is already here, right now. NOW is the only place where anything can ever be. this accounts for why devastatingly profound awakenings happen periodically to novices and non-practitioners, and often DON'T happen to seasoned practitioners even after decades of practice.

if you live the vast majority of your life treating each moment as means to an end, it doesn't matter much what you practice. you're lost. and if you choose to remain in that state of (un)consciousness, it will likely take an external circumstance, such as a tragedy or a near-death experience, to shake you up enough to even begin the process of opening your eyes. sometimes it's an experience immense beauty that triggers it, but not as often.

for the person who bypasses the majority of life as a mere means to an end, awakening only happens by accident. the best that they can hope for is that their practices will somehow make them more accident prone.

breathe deep. embrace the simplicity of now. do it this very moment, as you read this. do it now. and most importantly, never stop doing it! THIS is essential to cultivation and evolution. it's a state which one strives to make a permanent condition. one never stops breathing deep. one never stops living and moving and being in the present moment. now is all there it. now is all there ever is. everything that has ever occurred, or ever will occur, can only occur in the now.

through this understanding each breath becomes a universe unto itself. each moment of relaxation becomes a whole and complete healing. nothing is wasted. nothing is ignored or denied. this is the true state of cultivation, and it is also the state that one works to acquire until it simply IS. this is radical presence, and there can be now wakefulness, no evolution, and no high level of development, without it.

every action is a ritual. every motion is a dance. every thought and emotion is an entity that either nourishes or depletes us. on a more subtle level we begin to understand that the constant flux of energy (within us and around us) creates as well as destroys. all phenomenon contains both. but the profound simplicity of radical presence entrains us to harmonious resonance with each breath, in each moment.

if one were to understand only this in one's lifetime, one would not have lived in vain.

hsing is both form and force. it has no direct translation in english. but it can be understood. one of the many basic principles that can be derived from the notion of hsing qi is that energy follows thought. the unconscious state is one of reckless, toxic thinking habits.

breathe deep. settle down. keep it simple. if you're always in the past or in the future, if you're seldom or never right here, right now,

you're wasting precious time...

i wrote the post but most of the techniques described are from various practices which i compiled together with my explanation and how they work for me.

i read my reply later and i realized that it could have come across a bit jerk-ish. my apologies if it did.

you should post this in the Articles section. it really is pretty good.

 

This sounds quite similar to the will of heaven. It was taken from a book by John Back: The Reluctant Messiah...

you must mean Richard Bach's Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah. i use to love that book. haven't read it in years. i may have to pick it up now.

This is Yogani's advice as well. Curious, where did you pick this tip up?

you're probably just asking whether i got this advice from yogani or not, to which i could simply say no. but if you're actually interested in how i came upon it, here goes.

a not so proud period in my life.

over a decade ago i went through some fairly severe kundalini experiences triggered by my encounter with the first qigong master i ever met. (well, triggered moreso by my greed in trying to siphon more of his energy than he was trying to share.) i thought he'd caught on to what i was trying to do and sent a negative burst of energy to teach me a lesson or something. but he called my house later when i was bed-ridden, apologizing for disrespecting my modality (i thought i was hot stuff because i had recently become a "reiki master"), and offering to train me at no charge if i was willing to travel to his place in southern california. i was a little afraid of him after that experience and didn't take him up on his offer, but the next few years had me all over the place energetically. i could honestly write a book about this time period.

it was probably a year or so later that i came upon information about kundalini awakening. i ended up in an on-line support group started by el collie (who passed away in 2002- a beautiful woman) and ended up connecting with a man who would become my friend and teacher for the next two years.

person after person in the support group had experienced premature awakening from focusing on the crown (and all of them admitted to trying to find a short-cut to enlightenment), and so it became the standard advice to stay away from crown charkra work. of course, the question remained as to what to do once the damage had been done (everyone had an opinion and no one's results were consistent).

that's where my (soon-to-be) teacher came in. when i met him in person for the first time, the first thing he did was tell me to raise my tongue and close my eyes for a moment. then he touched me on my brow. my energy immediately began to settle down throughout my body. the relief was incredible. all i could do was giggle like a kid for a little while. he smiled and told me that the 3rd eye was a window that allowed me to gaze into heaven on occasion, and that the only safe way to experience heaven was from behind this window.

pretty amazing first encounter. first time in over a year that i actually felt well. but more than that, i felt well-being. he eventually taught me how to do the brow thing, and i use it for my students to either increase their flow or mellow off their energy spikes.

long-winded, but that's as close to a 'nutshell' that i can manage.

wow!

this was a damn good post!

(no offense, but i hope this essay is your original work, as plagiarism is sort of forbidden here. the "multi-orgasmic" phrase made me wonder.)

my only caution (as i stated in your journal) would be to skip right past the crown and move directly to the 3rd eye. focusing on the crown is a major pitfall where SO many people get into trouble with cultivation. it's dangerous and completely unnecessary.

I don't know much about 5 rhythms nowadays, but years ago I stayed with a fellow whose wife taught it - I think it was pretty new then - I believe she was one of the first students of Gabrielle Roth. Ex-wife, I should say. It's no exaggeration to say she detested me.... something about her marriage breakdown being the result of her husband's interest in Tibetan Vajrayana, which I taught at the time. Funny thing was, I quite liked her, though she exemplified (to me at least) the disparity between 'new age' intentions and emotional reality. Her dance seemed to be all about connecting with and opening to the world, her dislike of anything that didn't conform to her understanding of it seeming to all but cut her off from any connection whatsoever. She sure could move, though. I even had a go myself and had a mighty time of it, though copious amounts of alcohol probably helped. Ended up buying a car off her - nearly killed me when the brakes failed on my way to a three month retreat in the hills.

 

She sure could move, though.

 

Peace,

ZenB

lol!

that's some story.

just funny how things can unfold sometimes.

=)

karen pretty much covered it, so my $0.02 will just be that.

the key in most chronic illnesses is the same in cultivation: the greatest determinant is the quality of the individual. it's not merely a matter of what kind of disease the person has, but also what kind of person has the disease.

the liver is the seat of anger, frustration, and half of stress (the other half of stress resides in the kidneys, the seat of fear). if the person is quick-tempered or prone to high stress, then cleansing is a great place to start.

organic pu-erh for clensing. very dark tea, thick as coffee, but surprisingly low in caffeine. this will aid in cleansing the liver, but will really work in detoxing the digestive track. it's probiotic with living, positive bacteria. it's the only tea i know that can be aged like wine.

organic rooibos for nourishing the lungs. in africa the folk healers would use this herb to treat asthma. this will actually help the body take in more qi and nourish the oxygen-starved areas of the body.

gentle, but effective teas can make a difference, if supported by necessary life changes and a little bit of energy therapy. i have had success treating this illness (and am currently treating someone with all the same symptoms), but it's not the same for everybody.

this person is not likely to recover if they take a couple of pieces of advice on diet and remedy, but continues with the same life pattern that got them there. chronic illness doesn't happen overnight. it's a consistent pattern over years that eventually breaks a threshold point where it manifests as a physical condition.

it's important to figure out what life-patterns contribute to the condition.

that's about all i can say without know anything about the person. the two teas are very safe and will very likely raise the person's energy levels immediately. the rooibos in particular with help to better oxygenate the blood which could decrease inflammation and lessen pain. i can't make any promises, but then, it's just tea, so what would they have to lose?

if the person has any issues with caffeine, the rooibos has no caffeine at all. just hearty goodness.

the person should meet with either a good herbalist or a good acupuncturist. unless, of course, they're in proximity to a good qigong healer.

If a chinese tells you after seeing your form that it is dance it is not to be taken as a compliment.

Although in reality they are too polite to say anything.

In their view your form is lacking in silk reeling connectedness, internal structure, purpose, meaning,

yin - yang balance to to site a few.

They don't dance they play their form.

1.)

perhaps,

but it doesn't change the fact that i don't make the distinction between 'play' and 'dance.'

and...

2.)

perhaps not.

many chinese practitioners (and many masters) DO, in fact, refer to the forms as dances, either a.) because they see in the association the same light-hearted sensibility that i do, or b.) because they recognize and honor the shamanic roots of qigong when all forms were dances- dances with purpose, internal structure, meaning, and connectedness, to name but a few. i don't know any serious cultivators or masters who fail to see that dance is oftentimes highly stylized and disciplined. i also don't know any serious cultivators or masters who fail to recognize that the requirements for transmitting a particular lineage (which you seem to be implying) are NOT necessarily requirements for authentic cultivation.

and...

3.)

what does it even matter? i'll concede that you're right and i'm wrong if it will satisfy you in some way. what's the impact?

it was not my intention to offend anyone.

and lastly,

4.)

your comment, though unintentional, just caricatured an entire race of people. "they" are not a homogeneous group and are entitled to determine *for themselves* what they believe and why, not to mention whether or not "they" choose to be "too polite to say anything" in any given occasion.

i live in miami florida

there is a shaolin wanham instructor in gainsville, florida. his name is anthony korahais.

http://flowingzen.com/

he is a disciple of wong kiew kit (the guy who split clouds that i talked about in the other thread). he's very knowledgeable, very real, very no-nonsense in his approach to qigong and martial arts.

i don't know how far miami is from gainsville, but perhaps at some point (even in a year or so) you can go there.

however far gainsville is, it's an achievable goal to set.