voice

For sure, most psychotherapy is egocentric, because many people have a poorly functioning ego. And, yes, many problems are rooted deeper than the ego and so psychotherapy by itself won't get it done. But, a growing number of psychotherapists recognize the continuum/web of being, and so realize that combinations of egocentric, physical and spiritual practices need be engaged in for the resolution of "problems".

Ken Wilber recognizes the value of psychotherapy because he believes that without a healthy and well functioning ego, spiritual practices will rest on an unstable structure. Spiritual practice often exposes ego/character problems, which prompts what Wilber calls "descent in service of the ego" - going into the dark depths of magical/pre-egoic thinking, and integrating it with the light of rational and trans-rational experience. He goes into this in many books, but I read about it in Sex, Ecology, Spirituality

John Welwood, a Buddhist psychotherapist, also writes about the need for psychotherapy in Toward a Psychology of Awakening. From the Amazon review "Have you ever noticed that self-described spiritual people are not necessarily all that easy to be with? John Welwood has a term for what often happens--spiritual bypassing. This is when a person reaches for the stars while forgetting about the goop on his shoes." I recently ordered the book. He is also involved in the Focusing practice that I engage with, as it subtly integrates the psychotherapeutic and spiritual.

Chris

(whose really proud of himself for integrating Amazon links! )

Better. And interesting how things load piece-wise: background, then banner and then forum. But, for me the forum is still a little bit too narrow for the "effect". For me it still feels like the forum is squished, a bit wider and I'd have the sense that it is floating.

Background a little better now?

Yes, for me too - 20.5 mm of middle section on a 34 mm wide screen = I feel squished.

Chris

Hi Sean,

 

on my computer only a quite narrow middle section is visible, left and right are black collumns. Makes me feel a bit claustrophobic...

 

affenbrot

 

p.s. also couldn't click clickable smiles

Exercise and eating!

1) Exercise. If I remember correctly, you like to bike. I know it is winter, but you can still get out on the bike if you bundle up. Or, try a stationary bike. Cheap ones are usually available in the local buy and sell.

2) Eating less to lose weight. Here is a breathing chi gung that I learned at a weight loss retreat. Do this a few minutes before each meal, and you will eat much less.

a) Stand with feet a bit more than hip width apart and arms at your sides.

Breath 3X normally, up from the Earth through the K1 in your feet up the core channel to your head. The outbreath goes down the core channel, through the K1 to the Earth.

c) On the third breath, bring your arms up in an arc along your sides, and then as you breathe out, they descend down the thrusting channels and you lean forward and squat and place the hands on your knees. On this breath out, you empty your lungs completely. As you empty your lungs, pull in your perineum.

d) With your lungs empty, gently pull your abdomen up towards your lungs - you know, suck in the gut! As you do that, again pull in ther perineum. Then relax your abdomen and perineum, but don't breathe in! Try and do that 3X with the breath out. Then, allow your breath to come in to your lungs, and gently straighten up.

e) Stay standing, let the energies swim, put your hands over your lower tan tien (left on body, right hand on top of left) if you feel too spacey. When you've recovered, do the breathing again. Aim to do the whole process 3X.

f) Tip: don't force it! Be gentle.

Please let me know if you have any questions about details.

Best of luck,

Chris

Sorry to hear of the bad day.

I'm not sure if it is the same thing, but I know in the past when I would "push" my practice, I wouldn't be as in sych with things. Although I'd have intense experiences while in meditation or chi kung, I'd get into arguments with people, not do my job well etc.

The solution for me has benn to stop pushing the experience, and make life more of my practice, using the practice of Focusing and often being lead by it natually into a state of yuan chi.

But, there will always be people that hate other people, and no practice will change that.

Hope tomorrow is better.

Chris

wu wei

the paradox

doing

not doing

the techniques - the practices

doing

with no doing

the paradox

like a zen koan

wu wei

Thelerner,

I have taken Lesser Kan and Li once (4.5 years ago) and Greater KL twice (3 and 1.5 years ago). And, I am only now getting a sense of Shen as intelligences in nature - that is, that are not just centered in me.

The KL meditations, from the start though, have been deep, intense bliss; like Jeremiah, I was pretty much floored by the first KL meditation in LKL.

So, I say go for LKL this summer - you will love the meditations, and they will start opening up your communication with the Shen. LKL, though, is really inner work, and it isn't until Greater KL that the Shen of the directions really come into play.

Chris

So, I was walking along last week, shuffling through the falling leaves, and I decided to try the AYM mantra of "I AM" of which Yoda and others have been singing its praises.

I said it for a few minutes and, for me, it just became a head-space, and I didn't find resonance in my body. I then thought about the sounds of the syllables, and realized that both of them had a nasally sound that caused me to contract my sinuses a bit to make internally (bad habit that I could probably correct...).

So, I thought about how Michael Winn had taken parts of the healing sounds and used them to create a series of tones to use to tone the directions in the Primordial Qi Gong. I find the 7 tones a bit many for me, and wanted something simpler like the 4-syllable "I AM" (ah-ee ah-mm).

I had recently taken to saying "sun-moon-earth" and feeling the lower tan tien while saying sun, middle tan tien while saying moon, and solar plexus while saying earth. I then realized, while shuffling through the leaves, looking for an alternative to "I AM", that the words "sun and moon" had tones in them similar to the relevant healing sounds.

Sun has an ahhh sound similar to the heart healing sound of haaaaa.

Moon has an ooooh sound, similar to the kidney healing sound of tchooooo (leaving the way part out).

Earth, however, is not simlar in sound to the raspy whoooooo for the spleen. So, I chose the word "home", said in a way that sounds more like the whooo.

So, I have "sun - moon - home" said in a way that matches the healing sounds. I hear the sounds emanate from as deep in my core as I can - with the sounds coming from the Greater Kan and Li arrangement of sun in lower tan tien, moon in middle tan tien and earth in solar plexus. The emphasis in the sound is on the vowels. I allow a transparent image of the planets to appear with the sounds, but the focus is on the sound (which is, for me, more shen level than is the image which is more jingy for me).

It's sunny out, so I'm off for another walk. I wonder what will happen today?

Chris

ripples?! I thought the topic was nipples...

After reading the above, though, I'd say off the top of my head that a nipple is the inverse of a ripple. But, nipples can ripple a shirt, and send ripples of energy through a room and...oh, hey, it's Friday night!

Chris

Michael,

Interesting that such a simple thread has gotten Danny so crazed. I guess family has a healthy, hidden power to it - good for you getting this out in the open!

Chris

Michael - the cookie recipe is right on: easy, fiber-filled, gluten-free, and tasty! Even a neighbor kid enjoyed them. All we did is add some salt to the recipe...plus the chocolate chips.

Chris

Sean - this place is great, thanks again.

So, how many hours do you put into it now?

Michael - I'll be trying that recipe tomorrow when a PD day puts me on duty.

Funny that the recipe is flourless as your post on your finicky eater had me start one on my problem eater, only to have the server reject it repeatedly!

In any case, my 6-year old (at home today with one of his two girlfriends from whom he gets kisses) has all sorts of later-heaven diet problems:

anaphylactic to nuts, which means that many candies are off limits

intolerant to dairy (gets really stuffed up and immune system goes down)

intolerant to gluten (gets really itchy and immune system goes down)

throws up when given chicken and sometimes egg

doesn't like anything mixed (no stews, soups etc.)

But, he loves lamb, burgers, fruit...and sour candies.

____________________

About their Taoist natures, things just flow on - it was halloween yesterday, so lets take down the decorations! That was last that he was into dinosaurs, then it was reptiles, then Australia, then...., and now planets! Yet, I am still in the past: whenever I see a train, that he was into when he was 2 or 3, I still want to tell him all about it when I get home!

Chris

Hello Throddy/Ian/Munch (TIM?)!

So nice to know that you are part of this community. Now that you are no longer a teacher, and having to hold up to the need to be the expert, you are free like the rest of us to just be a bum!

I had wondered a couple of times if Munch was you, what with the (fairly) unmistakable great humor.

Sorry to hear you lost your pup.

Chris

Yes!!!!!! Thanks Rex.

At 488 pages is this the one?

 

Mahamudra: The Quintessence of Mind and Meditation

8648[/snapback]

Goddam Amazon lost my "wish list" where I kept track of resources I'd want at sometime.

Anyways, someone recommended a Buddhist book in the past 6 months that I think I am wanting now. Abhidharma? Something about mind? It was thick.

It wasn't by Trungpa or Nan or about inner fire.

Any ideas?

thanks,

Chris

A few times in my life I have had to intentedly grieve the women I didn't love. The women witt whom I connected, but could not hook up. For letting the flower die.

Don't think about it, if you love her or like her purely, then do what feels comfortable.

But, sex is a powerful act, and you will have energetic cords that bind you to her.

And, feeling a sexual attraction and not acting on it, you will have wierd energetic cords that bind you to her. It is those cords that I grieved, and transformed.

You're in the spider-web of later-heaven...what do you do!?

Bums...I have actually been a little negative about the word. When "The Dharma Bums" was written, I think bumming around wasn't such a bad thing, but a bum now does have more negative connontations.

I suggest we move the cultural reference from the 1950s up to the 1970s and 1980s with this new name: TAO Adventurers Overdrive, with TAO as the acronym.

The references?

Overdrive for the 1970s group "Bachman Turner Overdrive", and many members of this group are certainly in overdrive!

The 1980s reference is from "Godel, Escher and Bach" and the idea of a recursive acronym. TAO is a recursive acronym - TAO stands for TAO Adventurers Overdrive with teh TAO in that name standing for TAO Adventurers Overdrive. In GEB, the acronym was GOD (GOD Over Djinn etc.).

Only half serious!

Chris

Someone (I think it was sean?) gave these two links some time ago in regards to information on Hun and Po. These are articles by David Twicken, a Healing Dao guy.

http://www.acupuncturetoday.com/archives20.../08twicken.html

http://www.acupuncturetoday.com/archives20.../09twicken.html

Chris

Hi Pietro,

I certainly welcome you here. But, it is really up to Sean, as this is his space.

I don't remember you saying or doing anything inappropriate other than just complaining to Sean that he wasn't doing what you wanted. Was there anything else?

Happy 35th!

Chris

So, turbo and 1776 (and I guess now Yoda) all vote for "Mindfulness in Plain English". And the description in Amazon.com does look like the sort of book I was wanting.

"openness, clarity, sensitivity" is unfortunately not in print and is $101 used!

And, yes yoda, "Zen Mind Beginners Mind" is a great book (the first or second spiritual book that I ever read), but not what I am looking for here.

I'm still interested in any other votes people have.

thanks,

Chris

I'm really getting into integrating "Focusing" with "Inner Smile" and "Fusion".

What I would like next is to integrate those methods with the methods of "empty mind" meditation - whether you call it Zen, vipassana, mindfulness, insight etc.

There are so many books on those forms of meditation. I am wondering what book you have read that you really loved.

What I am hoping for is a book that discusses the technical approach to their method and combines that with personal stories of people working with the method. I am NOT interested in the theory of mind.

thanks,

Chris

Congratulations on soon becoming a father! It is a very interesting experience - nothing harder, nothing better.

Chris

Bach's "Goldberg Variations", played by Glenn Gould. This is on the cusp of Early Heaven - ordered brilliance on so many levels at once.

Mulatu Astatqe's "Ethiopiques 4: ethiopian jazz et musique instrumentale 1969-1974". Way cool music that makes me feel like I'm in a opium filled bar in Africa circa 1970. The theme music from Jim Jarmusch's latest movie "Broken Flowers" with Bill Murray.

Chris

The early heaven bagua is nicely ordered in opposing pairs and has heaven and earth at the top and bottom. All is just fine and dandy.

The later heaven bagua has much less order to it in terms of opposing pairs (other than fire and water), and has fire and water in the places of heaven and earth. Things are not fine and dandy and down right confusing.

The two different baguas are, I think, simple models of the differences between the early and later heaven state. But, don't mistake the model for the reality!

Some books suggest ways of changing the location of lines to turn the later heaven into the early heaven bagua, but I don't much stock in that other than it hints that we need to change internally to come into an ordered state.

Chris