Sanzon

I can only once remember waking up feeling refreshed. I do suffer from sleep apnoea, but have worn tape over my mouth to encourage nostril breathing which helps a little in regards to energy levels. My dreams are always Pandora's boxes and frustrating, and i have troubles leaving my dreams behind mood wise. I always feel like I need to stay in that space becausw i havent digures things out or sorted it out. Hence, I always wake up feeling anxious. A yoga practice of salute to the sun will stir things up for me & make me more anxious. I would say I am an anxious person overall but present myself and act pretty chilled. Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions on what I may do to being myself back into balance when I get up? I have no experience in Taoist practices, but keen to try something out. Thanks.

http://www.okeanosgroup.com/blog/water-as-art/the-grandfather-of-freshwater-aquariums-takashi-amano/

Thanks for your replies so far. It is probably a good approach as suggested to start with the obvious, like daily habits, and work from the outside in towards th emore subtle stuff. The other tools will be helpful along the way. Mike 134, the tape over the mouth is part of the Buteyko Method, which is helpful, but I will admit to not practicing the recommended daily breathing practice all to often. I did have a sleep study done where they monitored the use of a CPAP machine on me, and showed it to be unhelpful, despite being the "gold standard" measurement of sleep apnoea intervention. They had nothing to offer apart from that. It was a bit like a sales pitch in that they have the "answer", & all they need to do is have you realise you need it.

Thank you so much for posting, & for your honesty Dao rain Tao. I should read this often. Embodiment in all it's mysteries is, in my opinion, to be embraced. We have become human and to lead human lives & lessons for good reason.

Non judgmental entanglement. I like your perspective on things. I have witnessed someone asking an entity who they are, who they were before that, and before that, and before that, then asking who will they be next. Through this process, the being becomes self aware, and that they have choices for their future, gain perspective, then choose to leave in order to pursue their own future & leave the entanglement behind.

This blows my mind! I feel good inside about it, but my mind does not quite get it yet. Say, if I wanted to stop the Belo Monte Dam project from flooding the Amazon & displacing 40,000 traditionally living indiginous people (here: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2486/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=11870 ), it would be a good act by my own values & judgement. How could this be done without accruing good karma?

May I play the devil's advocate here? I have met Christian people who have been spontaneously healed of medical conditions. One was living off ventolin as a chronic asthmatic. His condition was life threatening. In an instant after prayer, never used it again, nor had another attack. The other was lactose intolerant since childhood. He bought a flavoured milk on the way home from church & never looked back. If God doesn't exist, is belief in Him enough? These things aren't limited to the Christian faith. Other faiths & beliefs have similar happenings. I think I have read somewhere that an external God/dess is a projection, or an archetype/manifestation/anthropomorphisation of an existent universal force. Powerful, but perhaps disappears once reality beyond that point is experienced. Perhaps duality is at its most convincing the closer you get to non duality. Great food for thought.

Dude, everyone loves a good horse stance, point made. I think my perception of your comment here was maybe coloured by someone yesterday calling you a f#%&ing pr!ck after they didnt take to your original response, and you followed it up with a Manga music clip of "I'm so happy". If you truly dont want people to misunderstand your good intentions, a suggestion might have been to start your response with something like "Sorry to hear you're still struggling WllingToListen.....". WillingToListen, its pretty normal to question everything about life & what you understand it to be after experiencing something like this. In the psoitive sense, you can redefine what you understand it to be according to where your journey takes you. The basic everyday rules still apply even though your life is turmultuous at the moment, like looking after yourself as best as you can, a balance between quiet time & exertion, that politeness, kindness & respect are worthwhile things to practice with others etc etc etc. Keep your chin up mate, its a hard road, but you will make it through with patience & persistence.

Here's a few more pics of energetic anatomy from various sources, all subject to variations for many reasons. Aura & Chakras Side View of Chakras Sushamna, Ida, Pingala, & hakras A Representation of Kundalini/ Sushamna / Ida/ Pingala/ Chakras Caduceus as a representation (even though it's Greek, but you get the general idea)

Sooo, Protector. Acting your age here I see. Are you pissed that your meditation you made up wasn't a cure all? Its not that potent I would assume, as may your be your expectations of your self. Picture this. A young man with little grounding in energetics is overwhelmed by having his world turned on its head comes to a forum to seek help, gets overwhelmed by new information and advice, your meditation didn't work for him, and you have the tenacity to have a go at him because he is still not on top of things. Grow up mate.

The truth on the other hand, as in Tao, Upanishads etc has always been presented as bigger than you can comprehend. Another koan?

You know, there is a good way to side step the whole existential dilemma, it's to accept that we are here now, and ask what do we do next. In my mind, I think existentialism is like a zen koan, great for opening the mind, but not designed to provide answers. You could spend your life asking why am I here, & look to all past civilizations for clues. I find it all incredibly exciting & stimulating, lots of interest & theories come & go but the question never gets definitively answered.

Greetings from Newcastle, there are some Brisbanites on board here too. Welcome to TTB.

Willkommen October. You will also find other active members here from Germany as you view through the threads!

MCO is the mIcrocosmic orbit. Other practitioners will be more qualified to speak on how it works & how it may help with kundalini syndrome. http://www.holisticwebs.com/crystal/tao.html

Hi Falio, & welcome to TTB.

Hey WTL, I'm glad to hear things are stabilising with you. That's awesome! I think the general message here is to go with the flow. Stability is your first goal, & I have described my own experiences with Kundalini in that turbulant time as "riding the snake". If it were surfing, I would describe it as being on a huge gnarly wave, and not looking to pull any fancy moves, but just crouching in survival stance & doing my best to hold on until I wont get the speed wobbles. After achieving a bit more stability, you are open to start playing and experimenting with it, whether it be through meditation, conscious cultivation or personal development such as creativity etc. The energy will go where you put your attention either by conscious direction, or by act of simply living day to day, but one thing is not to stress too much, if that is possible. You are not goiong to do any damage from writing music when you have the inspiration to do so. Do what nourishes you. Keep asking questions for reassurance & guidance. In terms of being incompatible with society, it is easier to ponder the cosmos from within the peaceful surrounds & comfort of nature. Are you into camping?

Thank you Stigweard, I was just stirring the pot for fun, but your explanation here of wei wu wei & ziran is awesome, and so ideal. I am new to Taoism, so am here to learn, & going to ponder on this today. I come from a background of social activism, and changing the world is definitely on my agenda. Social movements in history have shown that the world can be changed from ground level upwards, people power, versus the personal disempowerment I feel as a consequence of "blaming the system" as I held in my youth, and did nothing to improve it. This path has had me meet with some wonderfully gifted & spiritually well developed people. People who put their spirituality into action. Don't get me wrong, my ego gets a boost and is in the drivers seat for most of my actions & motivation, but the spirit is getting exercised along the way, and pats my ego on the back like a parent has been pleased when welcoming home the child who has been let out to play, acknowledging it is just a child. Yes, it has brought suffering upon me, and I welcome that, as it is trials for growth, and my efforts have helped alleviate the suffering of others. There is a point I would like to make here. Alot of the focus on Hindu & Buddhist philosophy is based on the idea that enlightenment is the goal, and reincarnation is a bad thing, and that one must clear themselves of karma to progress spiritually. Even Abrahamic religion frowns upon the material over the spiritual. there is little focus on embracing embodiment, of embracing our human life, humanness & being human. Embracing life is also about embracing karma, and given any other skill worth learning, even with our current level of unelightenment, one can develop this skill through practice, being brave enough to make mistakes, learn that lesson, and move on from them. I do not see karma as negative personal spiritual luggage alone, but as a law in action, to embrace, and to set positive wheels in motion rather than dwell on the past & the negative. Like energy cultivation, getting a good flow of clean fresh water will clear out the stagnation & the muck. Positive cause & effect, both internally & within the world around us, and the people living within it. There is every reason to change the world, and affect others karmically. And to do this, one has to be happy enough to get their hands dirty at times. Lots of generalizations here, but I hope the illustrations get my general point across.

1st lecture in Philosophy 101 spent 1hour discussing the statement "The sky is blue if, & only if, the sky is blue". I never forgot it. And I never went back

WWROA, I dont hold you accountable, as both you & I are products of our generation & environment, but I must say I do find your take on things here in Australia personally distasteful. So, we disagree on this, but what the hell, we may agree and have many other things in common. No problem. For anyone who wants to investigate further than what info has been presented so far by WWROA, my opinion is ALOT of Australians support the improvement of health, education, support & relations in reagrds to our Aboriginal population. In fact, back in May 2000, a staggering 300,000 people walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to show their support. Now THATS THE TRUTH! Here's a bit of light reading on cultural & political forward movement in Australia in current times: The Bridge Walk: http://www.reconciliation.org.au/home/resources/factsheets/q-a-factsheets/bridge-walk-anniversary Constitutional Recognition: http://www.youmeunity.org.au/ Improved Health Care: http://www.humanrights.gov.au/social_justice/health/index.html Indiginous TV Launch: http://www.nitv.org.au/

Really, truly, you guys would sit back & practice breathing technique while the planet that sustains your life & vitality gets degraded, your brothers & sisters suffer cruel injustices, while whole species taken trillions of years to evolve get wiped out every single day???? Really? Humph, action through inaction never really did appeal to me....

This is probably not new to many, but I only just saw it & went wow! Thought I might start a thread (hopefully in the right section) dedicated to demonstrations & discussion of human movement.

Not so much in response to the military rights to detain without trial, but simply to all the above connections of Obama & socialism/communism, with all due respect, here in Australia, we have had a medical system that will allow for any citizen to recieve adequate medical care in our public health care system, funded by tax payers money, for many years now. We hear stories of how someone not holding a credit card in the US will be refused treatment, say at a hospital after receiving gunshot wounds & ask WTF? I remember when President Obama suggested a similar change to your public health care system, his opposition was in outrage crying socialist, communist! In my mind, I ask, whatever political label this is placed under, is the end result such a bad thing? Human rights abuses are another issue. I hope the first post is conspiracy theory, you guys seem to love that sort of thing.

Hey WTL, I might have mentioned to you that while my kundalini was active, my nervous system was on high voltage & although I slept, I was very active within my sleep astrally. I didnt have any advice at the time energetically & was wondering if someone else might suggest one here. Is the micro-cosmic orbit applicable? I once lived with a very energetic guy who often couldnt get to sleep & I would brew him up a concoction of home grown valerian tea. Neither of us could ever stay awake long enought to make it to the bottom of the cup