thelerner

I'm close to Kakapo's understanding but a little different. Spiritual hygiene to me is not filling your head with nonsense, real or not. Truth is less important to me, if a lie moves my progress along. I get that from my Aikido sensei, who'd say Everything I teach you is a lie, but a necessary one. The Speech "..Just because something isn't true that's no reason you can't believe in it. Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe the most. That good always triumphs over evil. Honor, courage and virtue mean everything. That money and power. Power and money mean nothing." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1-KbmIagFw I'm a believer in the power of Karma yoga. Doesn't take traveling the world or doing great or mystical things. It's giving your time to help others. It benefits them, helps us manage our ego and see the world with better perspective.

Seems like the guy was more Middle-Eastern than Western, like myself. I've never seen Jesus in a cowboy hat.. except for that one time in El Paso.

Golden flower's a tough nut to crack. Here are my notes on it..

Maybe not.. the body has wisdom. After decision making we can return to quiet. How long does decision making take? If wise enough, Dao enough, can we leave it the subconscious mind? There are those who make right decisions effortlessly. Almost without thought. In near perfect flow with the world. And when not perfect, accept consequences and circumstances with stoicism. Not me ofcourse, I stub a toe and call down blasphemous curses upon the object I bumped.

Guess my target these days is a quiet mind. Concepts like Void and emptiness conflict w/ my Western upbringing or maybe too hard. In any case, the fruit of a quiet mind is rest and rejuvenation. In sleep, the deep sleep is considered the most rejuvenating (though all levels play a role well being), in every day consciousness, quietness- doesn't waste our energy. I was just on a long car ride, 5 ½ hours, no radio, no conversation, just quiet.. was nice. Could probably write a book or blog about it, perhaps get sponsored by some petrol company.

bump Was looking over some old threads. It being opposite day, I started from the bottom up. This one was pretty good. In an 18 year retrospect, I have changed the way I meditate, no longer aiming for emptiness but to open up awareness, like Cameron, Red, Hagar were pointing at.

I could see hunting through Wang Liping books. They're good but can be pretty dense in instruction.

Similar. Not quite as wide a stance. The knees bend a bit more. When the hands go back, there's more sense of paddling water behind you. It's the same big thrusting motion that's stretching muscles and fascia. nice active stretch sequence.

Apparently the Buddha disagrees.

I like brussel sprouts. They may be bitter but they've tried to blackmail me. To be honest I had a greater supply of meds than I let on. I thought when I pulled the 'almost out' card they'd let me buy the medicine I needed to live, that they'd show mercy to my lying self. I was wrong Lesson learned- My survival means nothing to them, follows the rules, make the yearly appointment or die. I continue to exist thanks to their cold soulless mercy.

Last month I re-ordered my medicine and was told no. Calling learned no more unless I saw the heart doctor. I'd been on the medicine for years. Told them I was about to go on vacation, I was nearly out, just get me some. I assumed my doctor who I'd known for years would break policy and write me a subscription. Nope. I had to make an appointment later and was told no. Letting them know I considered them heartless soulless bureaucrats did not change their minds. So, had to see the doctor. There are worse but when you're on a vital medicine you don't want to feel blackmailed by your health care.

When meditating is hard due to a runaway mind, I like to use Guided Meditations or Yoga Nidras. Good ones will relax the body, put you into a light trance so when they end you're clear enough to meditate. Breathing rhythms will do that too. If you're interesting there are tons of meditations on youtube. If the idea is meditating after listening, go for a short ones with a pleasant voice and induction that draws you in, ie try a few. addon> For nice voices I like Kim Walsh and Lilian Eden. Also like Michael Sealy, Jason Stephenson. Entrance and Unlock Your Life are interesting. If you like a reader, they'll usually line to others who are somewhat similar. My favorite youtube for breathing rhythms is https://www.youtube.com/c/BreathingMantra I find the Dao to be an ocean filled with all things. Our path is to learn to move in harmony with it.

I took a seminar w/ Max many years ago. Enjoyed it, Kunlun was an interesting spontaneous chi gung art to add to my training. Max is a fascinating story teller but I wouldn't take the tales as gospel. The man has juice, and Kunlun seemed powerful, relatively simple but also a caveat emptor type of art, in that you were learning a potentially powerful system without backup, follow up or continued instruction. Which can be problematic, and we had some people develop problems with it. I never did but I'm not energy sensitive. Recently Trunk mentioned a Kwan Yin system that his teacher, Sifu Matsuo had. From what I see it has similarities to Kunlun, though looks like its part of much bigger system - https://alchemicaltaoism.com/DGSReviews.htm 1. Kwan Yin Magnetic Qigong This dvd is key for harmonization. If you get nothing else from my website at all, get this dvd. In fact, if you wanted only one qigong practice, period, get this dvd. KYMG has a number of parts, individually simple, that are keys to a series of central channel issues. Don't overwhelm yourself by trying to learn it all at once; don't rush beyond the pace of your own process. Just like learning anything with a number of parts: Practice small managable pieces, either exclusively or by emphasis, within a single session. Gradually over time your skills will build and you'll become fluent with more of the whole. Here is a free youtube 9 minute preview of the KYMQ video. The portion of 1m25s - 3m20s gives minimally enough instruction so that you can effectively create and start working with the sphere. I suggest that you gain familiarity and comfort with that part first. TIP: Once you get a feel for how the hands work in magnetic qigong, with a little creativity you can also do some of the most simple movements with your feet - in any comfortable position in which both feet are relatively free or even standing on one leg, working the free foot in relation to the center line.

Wish I had that kind of memory. Sometimes at night I'll review my day trying to see it like a movie going through a montage. Often it's relaxing. The practice is supposed to be done dispassionately. Watch without mental comment.

Bit of a tangent, but when I'm in a deeper meditation and I breath full, slow and low, there's a spot I hit at fullness that feels good. It's lower inner belly maybe closer to the spine. It's almost a sexual hit. Sort of a 'la grange' point between the sexual center and lower dan tien and when in the zone breathing deep its hits the point and feels good.

The best doctor I saw for my back said ultimately strength and flexibility will be.. if not the cure, the biggest help. Needless to say a surgeon recommended surgery, which I didn't do.

The story was from the actual rabbi who lived it and show cased good men of religion talking together. Your re-writing does the opposite.

I've had back problems in the past. Last couple years its been pretty good. I credit doing a few deep squats in the morning as very helpful. I grab the sink for stability and squat as low as I can, stay there, shift my butt a little, get up and repeat 3 to 5 times. Somehow the relaxed deep squat sit has allowed me to touch my toes for the first time. In Michael Winns Fundamentals one of the moves really helped, -Crossing the Ocean. Simple short Chi gung movement. You stand like a person about to do a racing dive, legs bent, bending forward at the waist, arms straightened infront of you. You straighten up and your arms move like they were paddling water behind you. Then you get back into the 'dive' position and repeat a dozen or so times. Perhaps more easily seen than written. In any case the rhythmic bending and motion usually made my back feel better. My final tool is Spoonk mat (there are many other on the market). Like a yoga mat for sadists, it has 1,000s of little ¼ inch plastic spikes on it. Lying down causes a bit of discomfort, even pain at the beginning but as you lay, you gain nice relaxation. A bed of nails for Westerners. Great for when my back is acting up or I just want to get deeper relaxation.

Like a wedding, everything's old, everything is borrowed, everything's blue. I like the story of a rabbi, going to a meeting in Phoenix who went to the top of the roof to say his morning prayers. There was another man up there, a native American. The Jew got out his Tefillin and intricately wrapped the leather around his wrist and arm ending with the leather box between his eyes. The Indian got out a medicine bag opened its contents and both prayed, chanted, bowed towards the East. Afterward they talked together. Learning about the medicine bag and tefillin. The nature of the others prayers and both saw much similarities. Judaism being so old, you can find shamanism, you can find mysticism, meditation. One mistake I think Christians make is they don't realize the depth and length of Judaism, instead they picture it frozen in biblical times. Whereas Judaism shifted from temple oriented to rabbinic oriented nearly 2,000 years ago. You had greats like Rabbi Akiva in the first century re-defining Judaism and our practices, prayers and relation to God. Stuff like if the Sanhedrin rule the death penalty once in 7 (some say 70) years, they should be considered blood thirsty. I've always found the writings of wise rabbis over the millenia a better source to learn about Judaism than the bible/ torah, which always struck me as amalgamation.

I think the question contains the answer. We reclaim our lives by starting to care about things. Preferably things under our control.

The facebook group is pretty lame. I just tried to brighten it up with some philosophical pornography.

Sometimes I think being lazy and letting things go by is about a third of Taoism. . 48 Thelerner is a play on my name. Way back, before the internet age, before the earth was covered by billions of AOL CD's I logged onto AOL with a 300 baud modem and tried to join it. It took 4 tries before I found a name it would accept thelerner.

Two days ago I went to a Thai restaurant in Florida. They had, not a waiter but robot server. Four feet tall, wheels, emoji head made of dots, body with trays. It's come to your table smiled. Asked you to pick up trays on its middle with a manga style voice. Recognized when the trays were gone and rode back to the kitchen. My son looked it up and found they cost $16,000. Here it is- In the spirit of Kruschev- When the robot revolution comes, we will provide the electricity. P.S It came 50 years ago, we just didn't notice at the time. & they took our jobs.

same, but I skipped over accepting things as they are and jumped to not giving a damn hmnn perhaps a Paladin , a hard class to play correctly.

I don't know if there's any god or universal mechanism keeping track of our actions. Often I doubt it, but What we sow, We reap is pretty common sense, usually. To personally act as if karma matters is a good way to live. Yet blaming karma for other people's misfortunes is imo a bad way. Thats a contradiction but it's what I got.