BaguaKicksAss

Is there anything with an inherent root?

Everyone is capable of spiritual evolution. Definitely keep up regular practice, as it takes time and work. You have some certain things to overcome, and other people have others. I would also say "allow" instead of "force" these things to come. Ever tried Tonglen?

Good doesn't have an inherent root either . I mean aside from these being man made concepts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krampus

In case you haven't seen this, I saw that Michael Saso put out a Daoist cookbook . Saw it at a Buddhist center the other day.... I flipped through wondering where the meat dishes were (Saso is vegetarian lol)

I have asked around, people who work in the psyche field, and healing field and so on. So I asked what about people who are rich with perfect lives, do they have stress too? Apparently yes, just as much as others, but over different things. Their job mostly, relationships, and little tiny things get to them far more than it does your average person. Btw, no worries, I wasn't personally offended... but... calm down on the generalizing a bit will ya . I hope things turn around to the way you most want, soon! On a side note, times like you are going through now tend to have to happen for MAJOR life changes to occur, we as humans are really bad sometimes at figuring out what we want, making that change needed to get it, and going for it. Well I'm off for the weekend, yeah no laptop!

I have a feeling that it is more like most are not willing to admit their hardships, especially around a large group of people. We are all trained to at least appear that everything is perfect, we are doing well, we are making lots of money and so forth. I know this for a fact with at least a couple of members...

Btw, working for less money, but in a job you really enjoy (or with coworkers you really like) is far more worth it from what I have found. Making lots of money is no fun if you are miserable. Also manual labor jobs can end up paying more than office work if you plan it right.

Those are a lot of assumptions you have there! I did live outdoors, in the forest for a total of 3-4 years of my life . Once was in a shelter with no walls. The snowy season was pretty cold! The other time was in a camper. Though both times there were hot showers nearby, so cheating a bit.... It perhaps would have sucked, but, waking up each morning to a huge forest all around was pretty awesome. Worrying about where your next meal is coming from; I think everyone has gone through that for at least awhile in their lives... at least while they were a student if nothing else. I don't think I can eat ramen every again lololol. Then there was that season I ate nothing but blackberries (amazing how it was the best bumper crop for the area in about 20 years ). Oh and during most of my life pain as bad as labor pains more hours on than off. So just having to live with your parents for awhile? If that is the worst thing that has ever happened, that's pretty good. No really. A few other TaoBums have ended up with no roof nor hot water for a time. Money in the bank? I only know one person in person who isn't living paycheque to paycheque (and most of them with maxed out credit cards too). Also keep in mind, anyone who is online a lot either is retired (low income), has serious health problems preventing them from working, or is in IT or some computer field where they can go online at work. Your replies are getting a bit offensive actually. Perhaps ending the pitty party would help to bring positive things in .

Hold on, wrong thread .

But I'm allergic to soy sauce! ROFL ROFL ROFL Sorry couldn't help it.

If you live in the USA, your country has free health insurance for folks without income, or very low income. Btw, a LOT of artists of various sorts here are actually making a living from their creative work. I find that really awesome. Even more awesome is that we get more and more resources for it daily, such as community places with fancy tools to make things :>. I think figuring out what you really want, as in prioritize is best. No matter what it is, whatever is MORE important to you than anything else. Sure we want it all, but if you make a list of want most, want nearly as much, and on down to don't want at all, that can help the focus. Sure it sometimes takes years to get what we really want, but if you had started working on it 5 years ago you would be there now (I keep reminding myself of this for new projects which seem really daunting).

Hey no problem with threads about you, how else can you ask these questions . If we didn't like them, we would just ignore them...

I wouldn't say I live as simple of a life as you are describing, but more simple than many. Most of my food is nuts. (I'm allergic to pretty much everything else) If/when I eat out it is Pho ($6 bowl of really filling vietnemese soup). I take the bus or walk most places. Some years I just bicycle everywhere. I don't buy myself stuff if I can help it, clothing not very often, just a warehouse sale every few years. What I do spend the money I make (from my at home job) is my business, so I can offer more types of products and learn more. I also enjoy attending buddhist or taoist teachings. I hitchiked to and camped in the pouring rain at the last one. Was a lot of fun . Everyone kept offering me a room to stay in during the teachings as soon as they saw the rain. I do prefer trees more though, and it was only for a short (10 days) period of time. I always stay in youth hostels when I travel. Costs less, and I find the people are much more interesting there! My not so smart phone is about 5 years old now. I bought this laptop after the last one finally finished dying its slow and painful death lol. I did go through a period when I was younger buying fancy clothes, newest electronics, hair cuts and etc. It was fun and all, but was I happier, I would say more ups and downs (positive and negative) compared with more even level of just happy, but not extremely happy. Though I don't feel I'm lacking in, or need more happiness. The change could be due to age too though, and irrelevant of my situation. I've been there done that on the worrying about making rent and affording food, sure it sucks... but the times in between the worrying each day were still quite awesome, since I only did volunteer work then, didn't have to do a job all day. I think your unenjoyment of things is the big change, and it hasn't balanced out yet (rent and food covered without much worry) yet. I have found that happiness and relaxation can come from only having a bowl of rice, when it is a choice, instead of being forced into it. If you sit down and decide yes this is enough and it is how I would like to live, that is way different than just having lost everything and going from having nice sashimi on top of that rice, to plain old rice. With stress, well either I stressed about making rent/food, but when that was over I stressed about getting my job done within deadlines, or stressed about my relationship, or stressed about a friend in the hospital... I think I just like to stress lololololol

So after building your pretty designed clay house, you might need a few hundred of these http://www.offgridquest.com/energy/752-make-your-own-solar-panels

I can see this point somewhat, not that I currently practice it, but it does make sense. I performed a 6 month retreat with no access to other people, nor leaving the house when anyone was about (just went hiking at night in the local park for exercise). This sort of seclusion was definitely needed for the particular spiritual working I was doing. The reason for this is that our friends, and even complete strangers to some degree, and most definitely family, do try to keep us the same. They are pretty uncomfortable with us changing at all, even the ones who say otherwise. Also, we use distractions, whether they be people, the internet or things, to keep us just a little bit (or a lot, depending) away from truly merging with whatever spiritual forces one prefers, or letting go of our perception of "self". So I guess it would depend how deep one wishes to go. Also setting aside half an hour per day for practice is far different than most of the day. Personally, presently, I'm doing halfway on each, and preferring it .

I am curious if the last 2 posters would count working a minimum wage job for mcdonalds in their ideas?

I just mean, have to actually meditate, perform ritual, use energetics, and etc. to create each item. Very good point about the more "mundane" jobs though . I used to use my old very mundane warehouse job to memorize mantras, correspondences and such, since the work didn't take much mental capacity...

I wonder if half the benefits of ZZ and Bagua regarding the shoulder meridians are due to the completely relaxing and dropping the shoulders?

So what is "mercury" as outlined in most medicinal alchemical recipes pertaining to medicines? Does this change from country of origin of the writings/recipes? Some folks claim there is a process by which they are able to make the mercury (and cinnabar for that matter) non-toxic (I don't understand alchemy enough to understand how they go about this), while other folks state that those terms mean other substances entirely...

Sooooo I have a setup to keep the tinctures and etc. at body temperature for however many days or weeks.... but always wondered about that whole bury the various preparations under manure bit. Is there some reason for this aside from just keeping them at the right temp? I also noticed that most of the time you also bury them in the ground, under the manure. Did most old alchemists have cows too?

Bartlett teaches about working with antimony a lot in his class apparently: https://www.spagyricus.com/product/tertia-intensive-3-days-november-8th-november-10th So what is spirit of wine and lead acetate good for? In other words what is the goal for making such things? Same question for the antimony . All I have learned so far was what a sulfur, mercury and salt was, and how to make them (if you don't have a roomate lol). Also how to make a stone with salt.... as for prep for stones with a "salt". Also was told about various advanced stones concepts.

Bagua!

I do both best I can. I work for myself, in a spiritual field creating supplies and jewelry. My job requires spiritual work . I have talked with others who do various health care jobs who see things in the same light, but have a more "mundane" job. Health care, hmmmm, immigrate to Canada? Cuba? How old are you? If you are still young-ish, not like you couldn't spend 20-30 years doing what you love most, as long as you don't need a huge retirement fund... I still think that is crazy americans have to pay $200 per month for healthcare .

Definitely doing it outside, as my roomate just isn't up for the smell and smoke of roasting plants into ash over many hours . So I'm guessing my kiln is out too? Darn. OK perhaps a cauldron in the backyard? Under 800 definitely gives me a lot of leeway. I was going to do some salts of oak wood. Making the sulfur and mercury of plants was much more doable indoors . Fortunately for rose quartz there are specific instructions including temperature. Now that I have a kiln (for my metalsmithing), I want to try that one out. Cause I don't already have enough jars around here full of herbs, incenses and tinctures lol.