little

From time to time I read that alot geniuses in history had a certain sexual orientation. Its either celebacy, a- or homosexuallity.

e.g. Leonardo, Newton, Tesla, Sidis and such

If creativity is related with sexual energy there should be a noticable connection into a certain directions.

I would like to limit geniuses here to inventors and people with remarkable mental abilities.

So is there a relation and if yes to what type of sexuality?

(except for fixing this back pain. But it's pain that I can live with, many suffer MUCH more)

May I ask where in the back it is located?

Hello

 

My retreat is wery long.

 

Have you heard about the story of the western adept wery interested in yoga and meditation going to the Himalayas to wisit a guru. He traveled for a long time and did do alot of investigation to find the man. (Are the gurus in India never women?). After a few mounths of asking people where he was and a long travel in the mountains he found the man. The guru did give the man an advice and this advice was the only thing the guru did tell the man. "Go home"

 

So basically my retreat goes on as long as I live where ever I am at. And I will do my comon practise, which at the moment is moslty practises from mr Eric Steven Yudeloves books or from the universal tao system.

 

Inner smile

fusion of the five elements

iron shirt

sexual kung fu

bone breathing

8 brocades

some hatha yoga

Different kind of breathing exercises

tao yin

 

And I will soon start to open the 8 extraordinary meridians and to learn the practise of the golden elixir qigong acording to Mantak Chia.

 

I look forward to here more about your retreat and what adventures you will go true during it. And I hope I will be able to do something similar like a longer retreat myself someday, untill then my life retreat goes on

 

Happy Journey and may you find something that realy is aligned with your spirit, and something that is not, for the learning of it.

 

FD

Of course a special retreat is not necessary. Integrating things into the daily live helps alot especially if a critical mass is reached.

Your practice sounds interesting much luck and success with it. Opening the extraordinary meridians should be very helpfull from what I hear. Some of the other practices can also be real jewels if developed to a deep level.

Until I aproach a long term retreat it will probably take some years but there is no rush.

Hello

 

I will do my retreat in a litle apartment in the southern part of Stockholm.

 

Welcome to thetaobums

 

Fire Dragon

Hi Fire Dragon.

May I ask what kind of retreat it will be?

Without knowing your constitution, it might be difficult to bail on western society, and move to a developing country to spend significant time in isolation. I'd suggest a couple things.

 

1). Look at retreats here in the states. Such as:

 

http://diamondmountain.org/retreat/

 

http://ymaa-retreatcenter.org/about/dr_yang

 

2). Look into visiting China with someone like Michael Winn. His trips are 2-3 week excursions where you can get an overview of several Taoist mountains with translators, and guides. Provides a good foundation for future trips on your own. I went with him in 2006, and again in 2008. I've been back many times in the last couple years on my own with relative ease thanks to his introductions.

 

http://www.healingtaousa.com/chinatrip2011.html

 

3). Pilgrimage. Look into some of the longer pilgrimages around the world, and see if any resonate with you. I walked the Shikoku pilgrimage in Japan about 1.5 years ago, and it was truly incredible. You're not completely shutting out the world, there's an end point, and you can walk as fast or slow as you want.

Thanks, some good tips. Yes, it will definitely be easier to do some retreats in the west.

The Diamond Mountain looks interesting. Especially as they allow shorter and longer retreats.

It would be helpful if you had given a brief account of your experience with retreats, and your inclination as to which tradition you favor.

 

Most of the Tibetan centers organize retreats ranging from weekend-long ones to ones that lasts three years. As you may already know, the longer retreats are for practitioners who have been on the path for a while, and feel ready to commit themselves to spending lengthy periods 'locked' away in seclusive practice and contemplation. These longer retreats - starting from one month - are in a group format, led by a retreat master, usually someone who has already attended at least one 3-year retreat, or it could be directed personally by a senior lama of that tradition, although this is quite rare, as these teachers seldom have the time to lead such groups full-time hence they assign one or two of their trusted students to oversee the daily running of the retreats. During the retreat itself, the senior lama will visit on occasions and partake in certain practices with the group, explain certain 'higher' practices, and/or give empowerments for such practices to proceed. The longer the retreat, the more protocols involved.

 

Retreats that last from one month on require the participant to temporarily release him/herself from the mundane world so as to eliminate distractive elements. As per the norm, all worldly things have to be put aside, even communications with family, unless dire emergencies arise. Basically, its about renunciation - on the outer level, this renouncing takes the form of cutting out 'worldly' life with its array of distractions, on the inner level, its about renouncing dualistic thinking, and on the secret level, one renounces all subtle attachments to attain the ultimate realization of Great Perfection.

 

A typical day at the longer retreats usually begin at half four in the morning with meditations for a couple of hours, then breakfast, followed by a short break of half an hour, then formal practices or sadhanas would begin, and these lasts right thru to lunch time (usually this would be the last meal of the day), after which another short break of half an hour of free time, and then back to formal practices again until maybe 4 pm. From around this time, for about an hour, physical exercises like walking, prostrations, reflective moments are encouraged.... Then its back to group practice, chanting, recitations of sutras, doing prayers as per healing requests sent in from sangha members, and phowa practices too for the recently deceased or those who are close to dying. Bed time/lights out is about 9 pm, but this is optional. As the retreat pushes on, less and less sleep is needed. I have heard of some retreatants who, towards the end of the retreat, no longer has the need to sleep at all. Sshhhh.... cant say why though.

 

Its a regimented routine and can be quite blissful once the gears are engaged fully. This is why some people get addicted to these retreats and get lost in substituting distraction of a worldly kind for one more potentially harmful, the spiritual kind. As a caution, its been observed that some retreatants become quite huffed up with pride and arrogance, usually disguised as humility, after completing the long retreats, so this is something to be watchful for.

 

Hope this information helps. All the best.

Thanks for the post.

Concerning tradition I'm rather open as long as they are not to secretive regarding western disciples.

If that's your time frame, then there's always the 3 year, 3 month, 3 week 3 day retreat in the tibetan tradition. The 3's represent the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

 

I think you might need to be a memeber of their club [take the precepts] to do this one though.

Yes.

Some interesting points concerning the three year retreat:

http://www.directcon.net/thubten/three_year_retreat.htm

Have you done any retreats or pilgrimages before ? Where in the "east" have you traveled ? Foreign languages spoken ? What type of practice do you have now ? These are all kind of important. . .

The longest retreat was ten days.

India.

No foreign language beside english.

I didn't mention my current practice to get an idea what people on ttb would recommend without limiting it by my background.

Recommendations: it all depends on the school that resonates most with you. There are three major Buddhist schools: Mahayana, Theravada or Tibetan as they can be significantly different in their approaches to meditation practice.

 

In your case, I would be looking at a 3 week retreat in Thailand or Burma first and see if you can become accepted as a monk. But becoming a monk is not a prerequisite to attain arhatship. You can still be a lay practitioner and still attain that level.

 

Good luck.

 

My approach for this was to look what kind of deeper reatreats are there where a western has a chance to attend and decide then what kind of school/practice resonates of them the most.

Shorter retreats would be definitly necessary first.

Ooooo luck you! If that's the case I'd try China if you can I believe that 2 months is about the max you can stay without an invitation from someone out there. You can get a sort of business invite to stay longer although I know very little about that.

Yes, at the moment I'm just looking around what could be interesting. From my last stay in the east I know already a little bit about such things but problems and how to solve them comes later.

We have a couple of retreats coming up, if you like the flavor you might want to try a taste The next one is in Tehachapi, California; I've posted some information on it this morning, but the event is just now being planned so it's low on details atm. The only thing that's for sure is the time period, I'll have more information posted soon though.

http://www.qigongmaster.com/events/2011/04/30/april-30th---may-7th-at-ahomm/index.php

 

If you're looking for something a little more exotic you might want to stay at The Palace of the Celestial Dragon which is Master Zhang's center in China;

http://www.qigongmaster.com/retreatcenters/palaceofthecelestialdragon/index.php

There is information that's missing as I'm revamping the site, but enough for you to get the general idea.

Hi Red Pheonix. I'm looking for retreats with a rather long time period. From months up to years of duration. So it's the more exotic ones.

Anyone here with experience from a long term retreat?

Impressions? Recommendation for a specific one?

I have lurked around in the ttb forum for quite some time and it lead to creating my own account for this.

So hello everyone.