voice

Feeling the Love of the Universe is hard, too touchy feely.  Other then air, food, warmth clothing family and friends, what has it done for me lately? 

Hmm, I'm the absolute opposite! I am pretty much dissatisfied/unhappy with the world - my wonderful son, my beautiful wife, my prestigious job, my nice house, my awesome body (well, the last is a lie!)...they've all regularly let me down, not been easy, haven't provided me the perfect love that I crave.

Bliss, early heaven, ahhh...never lets me down. Non-addictive, ever-available, asks nothing of me...sweet.

I have a friend who is so much fun, an awesome cook, a wonderful musician, excellent teacher, and very skilled with psychic type stuff. But, she often says how tired she is of the pain in this world. For years I just didn't get her position, but now I do. Later heaven is ignorance and dissatisfaction and so much pain. Pain, that of course, provides the impetus to develop spiritually, to learn to transform that ignorance into beauty, that dross into gold.

But, you seem to have found a happy place in this world, so more power to you! I look forward to hearing more about it, and how you cope with the difficulties in life. Until then, my stomach is bloated from DQ ice cream (that also seems to have given my son a nose bleed) on this very hot night. Sigh.

Chris

Ooops, I meant to phrase that as a rhetorical question. something like,

"I bet you'd love to hear all about my wife's oh so perky ass!"

I BE *ALL EARS* MYMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Hey Ron, should I tell you about her oh so perky ass!?

HEY CAN YA BOOK ME A SESION WITH YER WIFE????????????????

LIKE, 1 HOUR???

ALL I NEED BE DA INDEX FINGER CATTAPULT TECHNIQUE FOR DA HOLE HOUR!!!!!!!!!

AARRGGHHAARRGGHHAARRGGHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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My wife has been a massage therapist for 12 years, and she is a real cutie (37, but looks like she's 25). She has twice had icky guys who were trying to get aroused by it, and she embarrassed them and that ended that. And has a couple of times had guys who were unintentionally aroused, and who apologized to her for it. She changed the way she was working on them, changed her energy, and they calmed down. At her school they were told to flick the penis hard using the index finger catapulted off the thumb; a friend of hers had to do that once to a client, and he was in pain!

So, at least with my wife and her colleagues, it isn't common, but maybe that is because in Canada it is a two-year course (not 6 months) and they are much more medically oriented).

So, the wood could be: her intention/style, your thoughts, or some interaction of the two. As a good Taoist, you should be able to recognize the energetic flow that is leading to the wood. And, therein lies the fun!

Huh, you leave a BIG imprint in the sheet do ya!

Chris

Some great shots. And, nice to see pictures of typical scenes, not just the classic photos from books. And, interesting to see the contrast between the classic sites and the tourist present - strange vibe with the waving monks from the window in Wundang! Finally, you seem to have lost some hair since you had your avatar pic taken!

Great Peter!

The first two parts about travelling are classic. Reminded me of experiences I've had. Too funny! I'm glad that when I go to China with Winn that I'll be spared all of that, so I can just enjoy myself.

I wish in Part 3 that you'd had time to visit the mountain and birds and comment on their energy and what your shen had to say about it all.

Interesting contrast between the students sent flying by their teacher and you only being bumped.

Too bad you didn't have a chance to meditate with the instructor, and not just talk. Different people have such a different vibe to them, that take us to different states.

thanks again,

Chris

When I tried it a couple of years ago, the flavor was just like very foul stinky feet. YUCK.

So, I'll wait for the three-month report!

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Groundhog Day

Koyanaasqaatsi

Magnolia

Nostalgia

Princess Mononoke

Sean,

In Eva Wong's translation "Cultivating Stillness" she calls this the 'wu chi diagram". Going from top to bottom, it is the process of creation; going from bottom to top it is the process of alchemy. This diagram is very much part of the 7 formulae.

I googled "wu chi diagram" and the following site came up, in which an academic talks about the origin of that diagram. He also calls it the "tai chi diagram".

http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/...71/ChouChu2.htm

Chris

I don't think it is a good to become a healer or qi gong teacher if there is any question about it. I think it must be something that you just do naturally.

Ideally, you would do the practices for years and years and peel through the layers of yourself until you understand the practices from so many different angles. You will have done the practices, left them, done them again, gotten disgusted with them, been drawn back to them, gotten bored with them, taught them to friends, had your friends have problems with them, gotten depressed, left it all for a couple of years...come back to them etc.

But, some people are naturals: they do it well, have a pure heart that protects them from the projections of your students/patients, and just do it with no thought.

Good luck on your search!

Chris

His approach reminds me of two things.

1) For a while I was trying to create an I Ching calendar/clock for Sun-Moon-Earth alchemy. I came up with various forms, but was slightly frustrated with bigrams only being able to represent 4 elements, but not earth. One solution I came up with was using a line broken into 3 parts, like he did. But, Winn rightly suggested that since it is not traditional in I Ching symbology, it did not fit well. I agree that it was too mental, and got away from the more simple and elegant symbology. In a couple of months I'll have some time to work a new version of the calendar, and I'll let you know.

2) The "rave I-ching" combines the tree of life and I Ching symbology. It seems to be more astrological than alchemical. Winn got a free reading from someone and said it was right on. It is somewhat expensive. But, look it up on the web.

Chris

I loved the pre/trans fallacy. Intellectually, it is a superb set of ideas. And, like any idea, it can be used as a weapon. I used it as a weapon to put down other paths like shamanism and wicca because of their earth-centredness. I used it as a weapon to protect my mind-centered meditation.

Enter Taoism and the learning from the Shen of the 4 basic directions, and from planetary beings such as the Sun, Moon and Stars. That has no place in Wilber's paradigm, but it is central to the Taoist way.

Wilber does, in is all-levels all-quadrants model, have absolute spirit in the center, and from it the involution of all forms, that we than traverse back through physical and spiritual evolution. But, those forms he has are primarily mental. Unlike that Taoists, he is has few correlates of higher spiritual states at the jing level - he doesn not recognize stellar consciousness etc.

So, his model is great, but it does not include what I find so useful in the Taoist approach. Maybe in ten years when I've been able to take, digest and embody all of the HT practices, I will be able to revise his model. But, right now, I know to that to do so would just be intellectual.

Chris

Hey GT,

I read alot of his stuff back in the early 1980s (what he later calls, I believe, Wilber 1 and Wilber 2). Then in the 90s I got back into spiritual things after reading his "Sex, Ecology and Spirituality". His approach totally appealed to my very-analytic, structure-loving mind.

I then got into HealingDao stuff, and kept puzzling about how to integrate them. I know that in one book he shows a chart that shows correspondences between his levels and some Taoist thinker. But, I found it forced.

In trying to show similarities between all paths, I think that he loses the personality of each tradition. And, traditions will contradict each other, but that contradiction works in the broader context of their path.

From a Taoist perspective, I think that his major problem is that he just talks about spirit. He doesn't talk much about method. And Taoism is largely about method. He doesn't talk about yin, yang, yuan, the 5 phases, the 7 directions, the 8 forces etc. He has a really ego-centered approach, with no real recognition of the importance of learning from the shen of other beings (like Sun, Moon and Stars).

Don't get me wrong - his stuff is great, and I am really, really looking forward to when Volume 2 of his trilogy finally gets released.

I though of getting his KC CDs that you are listening to for long drives.

What do you think?

Chris

What a wonderful set of honest, non-incendiary posts. And, Plato, great insight into power dynamics. I am not so sure, though, about the honesty in your quick sleight of logic at the end of your post, wherein you give one ultimatum-like acceptable solution for Sean. That doesn't seem to me any more democratic than the approach Sean has taken.

Like Plato and Max I prefer threaded view, seeing everything at once, and having the ability to not have to wade through earlier posts in a thread to get to the later posts. Right now there are too many clicks needed to get to all of the separated new posts, and so I end up not looking at some things that I probably would if it was threaded.

And, for once I agree most with RJ - who gives a crap about style, the important thing is to have a site that is free from the HT banner. Even me, a big-time believer in Winn's wide world of wuji, enjoys coming here and being part of a non-denominationed community. There is a very different vibe here.

The solutions I would like:

1) have a vote about different board styles (e.g. threaded vs. flat, how many "sub-forums to have and what their names could be).

2) but first, allow Pietro to suggest concretely how his wiki vision could work in a complementary way with the board. Alot of the off-topic things (e.g. CTs) and blogs seem very wiki-ish to me.

Sean has done a great creative job getting this going, now I think it is time to do the hard part of stepping back, figuring out what works and what doesn't, and going at it again. Which is easy for me to say, because I can't code!

Chris

Harry,

My sense is that once you have had the experience, you can connect with it energetically. Can you remember the taste of chocolate? Can you remember a sunny day? a cloudy day? There is a difference in feeling when you have those memories, as those memories have an energetic basis.

By experiencing the external world, we learn to connect to its origins through the ever-originating portal inside of us. We can connect with the energy the energy that drives the Sun, without needing to connect to the Sun.

Of course, you need those experiences first. As you stare in the sky, or are simply aware of the direction in which the Sun now is, meditate/ruminate on memories of sunny days you have experienced. What is the type of sunny day you want right now? Feel it, picture it, with you in it, inside your lower tan tien. Play with other elements if you want to (water, wind, vegetation, soil). That is part of Winn's fusion audio tapes (and they are fantastic!).

I live in very cloudy Ontario Canada, which was a real change from the big cloudless skies of Western Canada where I grew up. For years the winters were kind of depressing here. But, after learning to play with the ideas of fusion and kan & li, I am now not so dependent on the outer weather. Again, it is always nicest to have the ideal outer weather, but learning to explore our inner weather is available and ultimately needed.

Chris

Peter Falk is right that there is squatting in the primordial and deep healing forms. But, hey, you can modify the forms and add a horse stance, squat deeper, add squats etc.

I sometimes do Primordial with a wide horse stance and move very slowly, with it taking close to an hour to do the whole form. I find that if I don't move so much more slowly with the wide stance that it just becomes exercise chi kung for me. Doing it slow and wide like that, though, makes it intense at the jing, chi and shen levels of experience.

Chris

Keith,

Thanks for the resources, but I know that things medical are beyond my brain. Once I've got the sensitivities worked out, a trip to a herbalist in the Toronto Chinatown would be a great idea. As I can't always keep avoid the foods that will bother me, so some herbs to help me along would be great.

I am sure this is genetic, as my mother had a permanently bloated belly (I recognize in retrospect). The other side effect of these food sensitivities is constant itching; it is so much easier to meditate when not itchy!

Chris

Plato,

I react to gluten or wheat, beans that haven't been soaked for many days, maybe corn, maybe dairy, maybe soy. I have to get organized and do a proper elimination diet to figure it all out. I get all bloated and then have a bloody anus. A bit worrisome as my mother died of rectal cancer. Maybe once this has all cleared up I will get interested in the prostate.

Chris

Hi Matt,

My reply was to Plato's post, not yours. I look at things in a threaded view, maybe in flat view it looked like my reply was to you.

I don't doubt your experience at all.

I do wonder about who is behind things. Just as I feel into, and don't go with, some energetic experiences because of who their "author" may be, I am careful with identities (e.g. "RJ") on the web. (I still can't believe that you offered up your wife to the DM who pretends to be RJ.)

To me, that website read like a PR job, and by PR I was refering not to "public relations" or "prostate revelations", but to the authorship of Plato Rosinke. Am I wrong? Plato may let us know.

In any case, I am probably averse to putting things in my ass for two reasons. First, because for most of my life I've had a sore and bloody rectum from the food intolerances that I have been discovering over the last few months . Second, I'm with Max in trying to not be dependent on physical methods.

There is a primordial galactic experience in my ltt that I glimpse, that is better than any experience in my life, but that evaporates under force or desire and that I cannot yet blend with this existence for less than a nano-second. My destiny is to unfold that primordium from my being, fold it into my being, unfold and fold again, weaving being and non-being into a flower dropping petals.

Than again, I watched Paris Hilton in the "simple life" last night.

inner peace / outer screech,

Chris

Chris

I think that DM refers to Dragon Master. If it does, it confirms my suspicion as to who RJ has been.

Or, maybe it refers to some other way of being such as: DonkeyMan, DickMondo, DarkMatter, DildoMouth, DestituteMuthafucka, DrunkenMilquetoast etc.

Chris