WHITEROOMENERGYMINE1

This is a fantastic thread so far, I have greatly enjoyed reading everyone's posts. I just was looking for a little input on bone realignment that seems relevant due to the nature of this thread.

Yesterday during my Zhan Zhuang practice I felt tightness and increased blood flow in my right shoulder and so I pulled it back into line with the rest of my body with a nice *CRUNCH*.

It feels so much better and loose than before, but with one problem: my left shoulder is clearly higher than the right!!!

Physiological realignment is freaking dope, but the lack of symmetry is a niggle. hehe just learned that one

I believe that with continued practice the other shoulder should fall into place, but is there anything I can do to increase the speed at which it happens?

Thanks for the input

theNERD

For what it's worth, most teachers I've encountered from the Buddhist side have all said that they are different, while people from the monotheistic side have said that they are the same.

 

I've been in a unique position to have tasted both, and I would say that they are different. Nirvana, I believe, is not something you gain, but what happens when you lose everything. It is important to remember that the purpose of Buddha dharma is the end of suffering.

I will have to take the Buddhist's views on this one then. So if the two are different do you think that one is better than the other? Obviously they are not attained together so one path should be chosen, unless you can do both?

A good question. What Buddha awakened to was the presence of God, he just didn't call it God. To have Right View is to see the presence of God in all things, knowing such objects and creatures are a single itness. So what Buddha noticed in Venus, Jesus noticed in the sky while being baptised and Moses saw alight in the bush. This is not a God that is separate...we are that God but have forgotten. To awaken is to notice once again.

 

When we are awake to what is holy we find Nirvana for it is everywhere, it is all. Nothing exists other than God however to realise this is to know God does not exist. Terms such as void, emptiness or Nirvana do not mean anything...if you Awaken you know emptiness is it and fullness is it, there is only distinction when there is delusion.

 

So in answer to your question it is not possible for a person to know one and not the other, if this is so they still view the world through duality. What ever name you give to anything is to create distinction. When there is difference it is because that person is still deluded.

 

If you want to know God the Bible said all you need to do in a single sentence...Be still and know God. Why? Because God is expressed in all things including us as a settled presence, an endless pool of undisturbed stillness. To come to notice one must manifest the same qualities as God...this is how you notice what you and things are.

Thank you so much for your generous wisdom. I will continue to cultivate awareness and stillness and attempt to transcend this duality!

great question!

 

i also look at things as a "one and zero" model. One one hand, when pushed to the extremes of the limits of knowledge or experience, we tend to fall back on a self, or on god. The doctrine of anatman is the only way to train the mind to rest in its own formless essence, free of concepts, which, as divine as they might be, are an obstacle to true and total liberation.

 

but on the other hand, there seems to be a spiritual intelligence "out there", as if life had a design, intentions, and a mind of its own. As much as some party-line buddhists want to say that there is no causal power, the true idea of god transcends the limited framework of "creator deity" or "causal power". The idea of god is just this: oneness! That there is a dimension of oneness in which the limitations, exclusions, and dualities of the ordinary world are merged into a singularity. This pops up in buddhism in the idea of non-duality, dissolution of subject and object into the pure experience itself, without "experiencer" or "experienced", a state called a god state in shaiva. Buddhism just looks at is as a natural state, without the prop of deity.

 

In my experience, there is a divine consciousness in the universe. Thinking of it in terms of god or goddess or even "transcendental" is silly. Transcending what? there is no second thing. All concepts are dualistic, and it is beyond all dualism. But just like the cells of your body are alive and reproduce, interact, and heal themselves in order to maintain "you", i believe all living things in the universe act on their own and in unison to express the dance of deity, the indescribably oneness beyond idea.

 

so i don't think that the buddha was not aware of the existance of divine realms of being. He had his experience with gods and goddesses while he was meditating, and he never said "there are no gods" or "there is no god" to my knowledge. I think he formulated the doctrine of anatman because there is a yet more liberating truth to be experienced by the seeker than even union with god, and that is the complete extinguishing of the self-construct (even the god part of it) into the bliss/awareness of non-self, non-deity.

 

So i think there is a kind of ecstacy that comes from union with god, realizing the self as divine, and there is also a kind of bliss that comes from recognizing the total emptiness of phenomena and the lack of fundamental reality, or the voidness, inherent to any so-called reality. But in my experience they act in tandem: they aren't really mutually exclusive. And at the higher levels of most of the mystical deity paths (kaballah, shaiva, sufism, for example) they teach the emptiness of god and creation. like the name of Ain Soph Aur, which i have seen translated as "limitless light in the void"... when you get to the most sublime levels of god, there is always the void closeby!

 

hope you get some interesting answers, im sure there are a lot of opinions out there! cool post

Fantastic! I guess my ego is just getting scared that I am about to smother him into non-existence and is trying to find some way of slowing my progress

Thanks for the answers they're awesome!

Excerpt from the Meditative Mind by Daniel Goleman:

"Things first began to jell in my understanding, though, with a remark by Joseph Goldstein, a teacher of insight meditation, at Bodh Gaya. It's simple mathematics, he said: All meditation systems either aim for One or Zero - union with God or emptiness. The path to the One is through concentration on Him, to the Zero is insight into the voidness of one's mind."

My question to all of you is do you think that they are both simultaneously possible in the same person, or is it one or the other? I ask because my insight meditation has gained significant momentum and there is certainly no stopping it now. At the same time I long for a connection with God.

Can one attain nirvana and also attain union with God?

I know that the male deer exercise I have begun doing recommends rubbing your dan tien 81 times with each hand while cupping the testicles. CW and CCW. I have been doing it every morning and it supposedly increases vitality.

Everybody waits.

Although some people wait more.

Sick of it? Not yet.

Sick of it? Not yet

The TV remains turned on

precious moments gone

Have you thought that it may be the stomach?

He did tell me it may be acid reflux so I just have to keep watching.

If chest pains persist, repeat the physician approach -- my wife was told, in the nine months preceding her sudden-death experience, that she had a pinched nerve, that she had pulled a muscle, that maybe she had a touch of pleurisy, and that she was just too tense. In fairness to the doctors, she was an unusual case (it took eight days in the hospital to catch it in the act after she "died"). My point is just that heart attack symptoms should NOT be taken lightly...

I am terribly sorry for your loss Seeker. And thank you for your advice if it gets worse I will get it examined again.

Excellent news. are you still getting pain?

I have only had minor pain since that early morning, it has not been nearly as intense.

Fantastic! thanks for posting!

I finally went to the doctor and told him about my chest pain. I got the all clear and he says that I am perfectly healthy and I should not be having chest pains! Im going to assume at this point that the pains are related to energy moving matter. Either way I don't intend on pushing it.

"You might also consider simply starting off with a form of zhan zhuang, and perhaps then a shaking practice, to help clear your channels and meridians first - before specifically focusing on storing qi into your dantian."

Thanks vortex

I have been doing Zhan Zhuang for about a week and a half and am loving it. every morning I get up and do them and I can most definitely feel my chi much easier now.

theNERD

Go and see a doctor first make sure there is nothing physically wrong.

 

What practice are you doing and why do you think this pain is related?

I am doing Soul Mind and Body Medicine by Dr. Sha and just started doing Zhan Zhuang. It SMB medicine the middle dan tien is called the Message Center. Im not sure if it is opening or what.

theNERD

Ok. I just did Zhan Zhuang, my practices, and went for a long walk and I feel much better. Either way I am still looking for help as to what is happening? / any thing extra I should be doing.

Thanks again,

theNERD

Hello Tao Bums,

I awoke this morning at 430 am with pain in the center of my chest right over my middle center. It is very painful and I am not sure what to do, does this mean it is opening? are there any practices I can do to help alleviate it? I am 99.9% sure it is from my practices and not a random physical mishap.

Thanks in advance

theNERD

Awesome! Gotta love some Watts

If everyone could see the world like that you can only imagine the changes that would occur. The more you see the world as the way it truly is, the more beautiful it becomes.

Thank you so much for all of the replies, I am truly grateful. This is clearly a wonderful forum and am excited to become an active member of it. I think I am going to go with the embryonic breathing because I have been spending most of my time during the day practicing abdominal breathing and this seems to be a good start for embryonic breathing. But my decision is not set in stone.. If you have any other recommendations let me know.

Thanks a ton!

theNERD

Hi Bums,

I am fairly new to cultivating and I was wondering if someone could point me to the best practices for building up your Lower Dan Tien. I am struggling a little to navigate the forum and was just hoping to get some direction. My goal is to just increase my overall energy and start a very strong base for building upon.

Thanks a ton,

theNERD

I for one am still a huge noob when it comes to the Tao but I have to say, when I smoke marijuana it feels like my Lower Dan Tien is far more energized. After one of my stronger sessions of smoking and cultivating my stomach became significantly larger in size. I literally had a pot belly and I am a skinny dude normally. Sometimes I feel energy pouring from my hands and my third eye has opened (once) while under the influence.

THC significantly increases blood flow and dilates your blood vessels which I believe may help increase your internal energy, if only for the duration of the THC's affects. I can not be sure but I think periodic moderate usage has sped up my initial progress by allowing me to be aware of energies that may have only been a belief at one point, and which I can now discern as real forces.

I know it is important not to become reliant on any drug or external help in your growth and that is why I am going to be taking a large break from marijuana for the summer. But nonetheless to me it appears as though THC temporarily raises your energy level.

But that's just my opinion man.

Peace and Love

theNERD

Hey everyone,

I was wondering if anyone lives around Albany New York and knows of any good teachers. I am looking for guidance along the way and need help. Please let me know if anyone can help, Thanks!

Peace and Love

Hey everyone,

Im new here and just wanted to say hello. Im very interested in the Way and have been meditating for a year and a bit now. I took a class at school that I learned Soul Mind and Body medicine and it is very close to Taoism (I have been building my LDT for about 5 months now). I am very interested in inner alchemy and was hoping someone could point me in the right direction.

Thanks a ton!