Eric23

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Posts posted by Eric23

  1. Posted

    Beautiful presentation! Thanks for sharing. A couple of years ago a bowl found me in an antique shop along Ocean Beach in San Diego. Since then we've been getting to know each other. I'm starting to develop a feel in handling the bowl and mallet. This video has shown me some new possibilities.

    • Like 1

  3. Posted

    Would you discuss this? I love the imagery--

     

    It's all about now, right now. All you can really do is deal with what is going on now.

     

    Here could imply a process of getting to a point or even a position that is somewhere along the way to some there where you think you want to be.

     

    Now is now regardless of where here is.

     

    My first impression after reading the poem was, "I don't own a watch that ticks." I have several timepieces running on battery power, however none of them are worn in plain sight wrapped around my wrist. A decision made long ago before embarking on this journey. I was constantly looking at my watch and driving myself crazy. Apparently I should have been listening to the ticking :)

  4. Posted

    Yoga Nidra is all the rage in studios these days. I've been to several sessions and would recommend trying one out. Very relaxing and I have accessed some imagery during the practice. Check out yoga studios in your area for classes. I have version from a pod cast on my system but it isn't the same as a session with a trained teacher IMO. As mentioned above, it's a practice that goes beyond ultra relaxation and should not be taken haphazardly.

  5. Posted

    ...Yes, we meditate on the Oneness, and everything actually being Here and Now.

     

     

    Not here and now but now and here.

    If you don't know the difference

    is a matter of life and death, get down

    naked on bare knees in the snow

    and study the ticking of your watch.

     

    Jim Harrison

    from After Ikkyu and other poems

     

    This small book contains fifty seven short poems based on Jim Harrison's observations of the world around him and his take on Zen. After reading and re-reading these poems I'm just maybe getting a small inkling of what it's all about. :blink:

  6. Posted

    The complications of the surgery resulted in my broken leg being shorter than it was so I walk with a limp. The surgery required a lot of cutting of muscles and nerves to get the pins in place and these have not recovered and likely never will.

     

    A good friend of mine severely damaged his leg in a motorcycle accident. Had several surgeries done that left the leg shorter than before. He has his shoes altered (lifts on the short side) so that he can get around without limping as bad. Not sure if you've done this or not.

     

    I'll go back to lurking now. Very interesting discussion :)

  8. Posted

    I took KY for a while a couple of years ago at a local ashram. The yoga was very interesting, got my first real experience with pranayama. I did fry my knees after one session of squats. I had concerns of the organization operating the ashram. They were very sincere, decent people, however there seemed to be lots and lots of dogma. Eric23 does not do dogma. I moved on to another yoga studio not so much because of my wariness with the ashram's dogma, but I lost my job in that part of town and the drive/schedule did not fit.

  12. Posted

    Most laypersons don't bother to dig up the theologies.

     

    For example, If God or Holy Spirit is in me, then where does God reside? IN MY BODY.

     

    The concept Grace can correspond to the Divine helping us to draw closer. In fact, we may not awake without Divine helping, or perhaps you see the Divine in yourself.

     

    For example, without the Divine help at first, or a guru, per se, could someone reach enlightenment? How would we know to look? How would a child know to look?

     

    Your point is well taken. However, when you compartmentalize your belief system into a box, semantics get taken to a whole new level. From my perspective there is a tremendous difference between seeking the divine within and claiming to be The Divine. However a Southern Baptist would more than likely take exception.

  13. Posted

    Having been in a Christian church before... The primary concern with qi gong, yoga and similar systems is that if one approaches them from a spiritual perspective; you tend to find the "divine" within you. The Christian stand is that there is only one Divine, God the father up in heaven. To claim otherwise is blasphemy. So the issue is that qigong and yoga lead you to find God within rather than without. The most heinous of sins is to declare oneself a God, and in their minds, qigong and yoga put you on that path.

     

    For whatever it's worth, I do yoga and qigong every day and haven't been in a Christian church in many years.

  16. Posted

     

    There are some things that I'd like to point out.Now I can be quite calm and stop the mind partially but I still need practice to feel for example my whole body and be basically more aware.

     

    Till next time! :)

     

    It's not really a matter of stopping the mind, because you can't. It's more a matter of letting go of the attachment to your thoughts. When thoughts arise, don't become attached to them. Simply return to your breath. Do it as often as needed. As my yoga teacher says, it may be a couple of thousand times a minute :)

  18. Posted

    The last couple of days have been out of sorts for me. I pulled a muscle in my neck, haven't been eating good, my grand daughter fell down this morning playing with the puppy (both will survive) yet there was lots of crying and yelping; you get the idea. Finally got a chance to make a cup of tea and relax for a moment reading TTBs. Just sitting in my chair enjoying my tea and noticed my breath. Breathing in know that you are breathing in, breathing out know that you are breathing out. It was a crystallizing moment of my yoga practice coming together. Simply sitting, holding a cup of warm tea and knowing that I am breathing.

  23. Posted

    Yin Yoga, a link in on my sig line. It works connective tissue that does not respond to traditional stretching (which is good for muscle tissue). I've found it very beneficial, and the long holding times of the postures allows for a nice opportunity to still the mind. Depending on the posture, you can also practice pranayama breathing. You do need to add some more dynamic yang postures into the routine to work the muscles and bring a sense of balance. Here in Phoenix, more and more yoga studios are adding a Yin class to their schedules.

     

    I do 30-60 minutes almost every morning and it's a very nice way to begin a day, this includes some singing bowl time and a nice OM benediction.

    • Like 1

  24. Posted · Edited by Eric23

    Good question: Probably the spell-checker is a sage who read chapter 49 :lol:

     

    Looked it up in my old fashioned hard copy Merriam- Webster Dictionary :) judgment or judgement are acceptable. Should note the the latter got the red underline on TTB's spell check editor.

     

    I find taking the time to look up a word leads to actually learning how the word is spelled. Edit: In retrospect, this is somehow related to chapter 48 :lol:

     

    Back to chapter 49.

  25. Posted

    But, I never did like "Names without seeing," because, afterall, when we name a thing we are putting our limits on that thing and I think that this is something a Sage would not do.

     

    Hamill translates it as:

     

    The sage does not venture forth

    and yet knows,

    does not look

    and yet names,

    does not strive

    and yet attains completion.

     

    Without getting all hung up on texts and translation, this resonates with me in my native tongue ;)