Songtsan

I have not practiced bigu ever, but I have some input.

I have read in scientific literature about an extremely obese man (over 450 lbs) who ate no food for over a year, just taking certain supplements, who weighed a little under 200 lbs at the end of it...so bigu isn't so impressive to me, however its still interesting.

http://thoughtcatalog.com/dr-chet-williams/2014/06/this-450-pound-man-fasted-for-over-a-year-and-he-lost-more-than-half-his-weight/

Yeah if you learn to slow your metabolism down, you could probably learn to do it for a few months at a time.

Reports of being able to survive on chi in the air and environment alone sound amazing and interesting. I am skeptical, but hopeful that this is possible.

It would seem that being in a parasympathetic state vs. sympathetic would be one requirement for bigu.

Breath control seems like it could be a key element of the practice.

Slowing down the rate at which the body uses glucose seems like it would be important. The brain uses a significant share of glucose, so stopping excessive use of the brain also seems like a key requirement - this means stopping thinking and creating mental constructs.

This is just my assumption.

If stopping thinking is important, this would be the hardest part.

I would focus on breath regulation and meditation leading to cessation of mind fabrications as per any appropriate tradition.

Sounds like there is a lot of co-dependence between you guys. You are all enabling eachother to stagnate in life in some way. Pragmatism might be best at this time. Why should you worry though? Your father has a job, it's not like they wont have money to find a place. You could always start with small excursions on your bicycle, lasting a few days, coming back every once and a while to check up on them and help out. You have given enough by now, and also become dependent on them as they have been dependent on you. It is good to help family whenever they really need it though. You will not be abandoning them if you move out. Do you have the free phone (Obama phone from Safelink)? You have food stamps?

The question now is what are you going to do with your life? Wander around couch surfing? Go to college? Get a job? Go live in a commune?

Money is definitely a plus in these times.

You can also dumpster dive in affluent neighborhoods. I find nice clothes, tools, books, things I can sell on ebay/amazon/etc. all the time. You can usually make a hundred bucks a week or more doing that in the warm seasons.

I think the main thing is how are you going to support yourself?

You say that you are overweight, so going on a calorie restricted diet will be good for you. You can get foodstamps, so food won't be an issue.

Hopefully you will get a nice bike soon, maybe one with a rear rack and saddle-bags to carry lots of stuff. And get a good U-lock with a steel cable to run through your tires and through the U-lock.

Honestly, you should spend at least $600 for a quality new bike. Make sure you get one sized right for you.

Living outdoors in the summer months should be easy and fun. It doesn't rain much at all in the NW where you are in the months of July-September.  If you have a water proof, warm sleeping bag, you can handle just about any weather.

If you have friends who will at least let you stop by and take a shower that would be great, maybe even let you do some wash. If not, get a gym membership at the cheapest gym you can find (maybe Planet Fitness) and use their facilities.

If I were you I would be focusing on physical health as a primary concern. You can get medicaid for free, and you should use all their services for any issues you have.

You mention lack of motivation and low energy levels. You could consider getting on anti-depressants as a short-term fix, but long term these things are best served by a combination of healthy living and having a purpose and creating a habit energy of progressive and continual improvement in all areas of life.

I would imagine that he meant an eternal life in heaven for that particular questioner, in contrast to the already existent eternal life of the soul/s.

When the unity consciousness occurred, did you still find yourself thinking extraneous thoughts?

Well, that used to be pure nature although recently I have heard some strange things about additives food producers are putting into our food.  That likely has something to do with this subject of discussion.

Yeah, supposedly the powers that be are trying to get us to become sex addicted, because this will also make us more sheepalized. And then the hormone like substances such as BPA, atrazine, and stuff in milk, etc. are supposed to mess with our male/female balance and again make us more submissive.

Western psychology would say that emotions occur generally in the gut region, and they are physiological events, before perception, which are then sensed as feelings in or around the heart area, and the feelings are then interpreted by the mind, and the choice to act is a confluence of these three things...it seems to agree with the triple burner thingamabob...

I thought Tao was listening to the combined minds of gut, heart, and head in perfect harmony with no blockages, imbalances, etc..

Interesting!

It was more than that...Keep the mind on the breath and the breath on the mind. Other things I need to go over...haven't finished it yet

That's the version I have (Thomas Cleary)...I usually get his translations if I'm buying a book

Breaking apart tribal societies, where large groups of related individuals took care of their own, spreading them out and making them dependent on the system, is one goal. But I also think that instigating oversexed individuals makes them weaker and less focused on other things, especially regime change...

In Dzogchen Thogal, you in fact look backwards into your heart and see with your eye vision what is there.

 

 

The best way to be clear about it is through direct experience.

In Thogal, you see directly what you are.

Is this similar to looking backwards in the reversing the light practice, where you follow the light pathways back to where the visual pathways merge, and then into the thalamus region, and then down the functional channel to the heart area?

The reason I questioned whether we are just an emanation at heart is that an emanation suggests an emanator....

If I was intending to have kids, I would praise it more. Dont get me wrong, I like sex, but it can cloud so many issues. In any event, I dont feel like I did when I wrote the OP...I was 'in a mood.'

I don't know. Is that lion hunting a wildabeast aligned with Tao? Is it operating by the Golden Rule? I thought Tao was Nature, at least in some aspects....does Nature operate by any such rules?

Hfyyyd xjfkfk!

I know exactly what you mean....

how does that work? That we are some type of radiance or emanation? We must be more than the emanation....that's just a show of sorts....is there any way to be more clear about what it is?

If 24/7 meditative state is possible, I was interested in breaking this down....creating a meditative state of texting......so if you have any system on how to enter into a state of samadhi while texting, share your secrets....break it down

I looked at both articles. Does not seem conclusive. I've always thoughht of meridians in terms of myofascial lines....need to do more research on it. I hope they can prove it scientifically. It would be a nice breakthrough.

Exposure therapy. Gradual incline.

No matter what, cultivation will occur, even if no goals are held in the mindspace. Goals could be seen as ego-achievements. It seems only an ego could have goals. But having the goal of being goal-less would be paradoxical or something like that. Might as well enjoy the experience of egotism and see a story unfold. Or not.

Used to weight train regularly. Ex-certified personal trainer. CSCS and ACSM HFI. Yeah, I agree that squats almost every day is overtraining. According to what I learned back then, 2-3x/week max for training legs. With 2x more normal...

Songtsan

OK, I get what you were trying to say now. Thank you. Essentially work with what I have from where I am, Flow not force. I dig that!

Deeper than that. The desires you have in you are actually tripping you up. If you could cut the root of all of your fascinations, you would be a Buddha. The fascination towards becoming a Buddha is a tripwire too. You choose to be friends or enemies or neutral towards your fascinations. If one is a friend of a fascination, one will seek it, if one is an enemy toward a fascination, one will hate on it, think on how to remove it, and because what one hates is verily oneself, you will hurt yourself. If you experience equanimity towards the fascinations, then you will be in the safest space, neither for or against, neither giving nor taking. If you find this place you will have the freedom that you desire.

I am doing that storytelling thing here. Telling the story of how I want things to be, not as they necessarily are.

The world is rife with stories, but they are all false realities. Know that the stories you tell yourself in your head about everything are never factual. They may be close, but never hit the mark. If you could get out of story telling mode, and stop the mind from being your host, and you the guest - instead switching it so that you are the host and your mind is the guest, then you will have gained a measure of realness....its hard to do, yet easy to do.

This is another viewpoint I just don't understand. Where in the annuls of time is it written that to be a spiritual person you have to live simply, with little? Everyone who does it, that I have heard from at least, say that they are happier. If they could live more comfortably, with every modern convenience, using the same amount of effort, if, in essence they could exchange their shack straight across, no-strings attached, for a well-furnished mansion, who is to say they wouldn't be just as happy in luxury as in sparsity? Who is to say that these modern conveniences somehow corrupt a person? How can a person be corrupted by anything unless they choose to? Why do authentic gurus in India live in caves instead of palaces? Why do they feel they have to?

 

Sometimes I feel that the spiritual life is being sold as something that has to be hard and lived with very little comfort. But I have yet to see any evidence in the overall laws of creation that things have to be that way. I think this is just another adopted human belief, passed down over the ages, right along with the idea of earning and working hard. I think we truly can make of the world what we will, and sometime ago humans decided the world had to be hard, had to require effort and work for anything of value, that this is the cost of a life filled with desirable things, while the cost of a spiritual life has to be empty of things, yet require just as much if not more effort and work. I think this whole thing is bassackwards!

 

I think having a desirable life can and should be easy, and a spiritual life can and should be filled with an abundance of all desirable things. That we can all live however the hell we want to, that there are no consequences, and the only power our "stuff" has over us is the power we assign it! That fancy leather recliner is no more capable of corrupting you than the bathroom scale is of making you fatter! Why is this so clear to me, so obvious, and yet its like I am the only one seeing it? i feel like I am looking at a unicorn in the woods, I am staring right at it, and yet everyone around me is incapable of seeing it. I honestly do not get it.

 

This gift, like the others before it, I thank you for, but I leave it where you left it. I do not subscribe to this viewpoint, and I am deciding, here and now, that I never will.

It is not some ethical/moral thing, it is simply a matter of pragmatism. I would like nothing more to have a few million dollars lying around to play with. The point is that if your ideal life requires mansions, then you are probably screwed. Everybody and their brother wants to be rich. By adopting a system of satisfaction with very little, you can still be in great bliss, if you follow the practices, which are many, to be so. The shortcut to bliss is in mental cultivation. Detachment equals bliss, if done right. Bliss is a trick. It's alchemy. Your posts indicate dissatisfaction. I recommend a way that requires no outside support. It is simply something you do with yourself which is free and always available. Accept what is easily attained, and limit desirous attitudes towards excess, If excess is naturally become yours, then do as thou wilst. Do not wait for external forms to meet your expectations. Find the bliss that always is available and exists within. 

Money saved is money earned. Learn to live with less: less food, less clothes, less "empty calorie" entertainments such as video games, netflix, etc. Eating less food, you will weigh less, and move around more freely, and live longer. Find satisfaction in simplicity, no need to have extravagant hobbies or distractions. The less you own, the less you are owned by your possessions. So a spartan lifestyle, with a devotion to health, longevity, cultivation, etc. will make you more free and adaptable. If you currently have no income, you could apply for food stamps? And the 'Obama phone' -

free phone: https://www.safelinkwireless.com/Enrollment/Safelink/en/NewPublic/index.html - I have one and its good enough for me.