BaguaKicksAss

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).

Well for me, at least right now, it's part of it. Lack of security makes it hard to be comfortable. If you don't feel safe, either financially or otherwise, it's hard to be really content, and hard to be happy. But I'll admit that how you define security, comfort and happiness plays a huge part in where you're going to come down on this argument.

 

Security can just be basic access to healthcare, money in the bank in case shit goes down, and some kind of income to meet simple needs. Without that I feel like it's pretty easy to stress. Pretty hard to be content. When you have no money, and bills are coming due, it's hard to tell yourself "if I am content within, then I am happy", and believe it. But all you gotta do to fix that is get a damn job and get the bills paid.

 

I think I'm just in the toughest part of my transition to some sort of different path, right now. The money I saved up is gone, and it's winter, so I can't just camp and live out of a vehicle and act like I'm on vacation, working seasonal jobs. Things just got real So how much I'm willing to work, and what I want out of life and what standard of living I want are very much on my mind, including the prospect of being dirt poor with no safety net (other than family and friends, which is actually a pretty good safety net). I've been going back & forth between knowing everything will be fine, and freaking out a little. And I'm not the type to freak out.

 

By the way, Thoreau lived within walking distance of town, and went there regularly, as well as having visitors over for dinner parties. He didn't preach against or deny society. He just wanted to be an example to everyone that you could slow down, live simply, and be happier than you were before. That much I already know about life.

 

If I had access to a cabin in the woods, fairly close to town, you can bet your ass I'd be living there, and at least 30% of what I'm currently stressing about would be gone. I don't think he had any mortgage or bills needing paid to disturb his calm.

 

Anyway, sorry I've made a couple threads "all about me". I'm a little frustrated right now and it's clouding my judgement. But even though it's blinding me to some pretty simple things, it's making it pretty clear to me that talking to people helps me nail down exactly what it is I'm looking for. I think what I'm asking out of life has changed a bit over the course of writing in these two threads, which is eye opening. It's pretty clear I'm still a little confused on what is the end goal, at least in the worldly sense. As the Dude said "my thinking has become very uptight"...or something like that...

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

Let's be clear about certain things, then.

 

By the best of both worlds and one foot in modern society, I don't mean going to clubs and rubbing myself all over women and casual sex. I don't mean getting rich. I don't mean having a bunch of stuff. I don't mean impressing my neighbors.

 

I just the ability to hang out with friends, go to a restaurant now and then, go on vacations, etc.

 

Are you saying that dropping out of society is the only way to commit yourself to the spiritual life? That my idea of making just enough money to have the "modern society" things like insurance and retirement and some money in the bank, while living more or less off grid and doing all my spiritual practices, and living virtuously, isn't going to allow me to reach enlightenment?

 

I take the Taoist idea of balance more literally.

 

Are you living by the ideals you're talking about?

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?

This is another fallacy to beware of - that there is such a thing as 'spiritual work'.

 

With the right inner attitude, any activity whatsover is spiritual activity. But, it just so happens that a person with inner peace loses the motivation to do certain jobs. The might, for example, find it hard to work in something like a bank because it seems so trivial and unimportant.

 

But this doesn't make banking unspiritual, not at all. It just attracts people who don't have the inner attitude that we call spiritual, and doesn't attract those who do.

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?

I am happy to see that my thread finally got some momentum.

 

I collected and read many books on Alchemy written from different perspectives, including secondary as well as primary literature. However, it is very difficult to arrive at a coherent picture, especially as far as the practical art is concerned, safe for some introductory works into 'Vegetable Alchemy'. Of course, Alchemy has always been notorious for its obscurity and lack of a terminology and symbolism common to most practitioners. Some scholarly efforts have been made by contemporary academics like Lawrence M. Principe and William R. Newman to figure out what the Alchemists of yore were actually doing in their laboratories. While some of their conclusions are illuminating, they still provide only a rather fragmented view, at best. Even how and with what material to start the Great Work is far from unambiguous.

 

However, as far as I figured out so far, there are two major methods employed by a substantial number of advanced practitioners:

 

The Wet Path

 

This starts with manufacturing a somewhat elusive Spirit of Wine and a preparation of lead acetate. The principal text is Johann Seger Weidenfeld's "The Secret of the Adepts". In modern times, it was attempted by Alexander von Bernus.

 

The Dry Path

 

This starts with manufacturing a star regulus of metallic Antimony. It is also called the Flamel way and was followed by such famous Alchemists as Eirenaeus Philalethes and Sir Isaac Newton.

 

The details of the practice of either path still elude me, however. If you have anything to share on them, I invite your comments. Alternatively, feel free to PM me.

 

Thanks.

 

Michael

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!

Basically, my ideal life right now, is "the best of both worlds". One foot in modern society, one in my own spiritual existence.

 

I could quit it all and find some eco village or commune to join. But I still have a nagging thing about retirement and healthcare. Security blanket. Taking part in modern society, with my own little world off grid that's always there waiting for me. Maybe that will fade away. I don't know.

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 .

HI!

 

If the temperature can be controlled it should be fine, iirc you need to stay under 800°C for organic salts.

 

The initial burning should imho not be attempted inhouse or in your furnace.

Do it outside and after that you can take the ashes and work indoor.

 

Long/Short Calcination: Depends what you're trying to do and the material you start with.

Purification through separation of finely ground ashes doesn't take too long.

 

Rose quarz is not a plant therefore you need other temperatures for calcining.

 

Chris

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.

http://www.alchemywebsite.com/johnreid.html

Since this thread has the attention of a few folks who practice physical alchemy, thought I would ask a question or two .

Would making plant or oak salts, using my metalsmithing metal melting furnace (not yet used) or my kiln, still work? Or is it necessary to do a long slow incineration? Using the stove indoors smokes up and smells up the entire house, so looking for some alternatives. Also something which doesn't take all day would rock too. A bonfire in the backyard also isn't feasible at this time unfortunately (though perhaps one out in the woods).

It looks like John Reids talks about using a kiln to heat up the rose quartz to make an oil of that. I of course also wonder if other non-toxic rocks make some interesting oils. Don't know how to use a soxhlet extractor though... youtube...

I'm on the offgrid folks' fb pages. Some really good stuff on there. Sure they are trying to sell property as their primary goal, but still good info and articles.

I still wouldn't mind a fimo clay (looking) house, I mean if I lived somewhere with a lot less rain, and much warmer climate

BKA, I believe you hit the nail on the head with your last point above. I can relate to what you are saying. Generally speaking I have found people In third world countries to be happier than in first world countries as well. I have lived and/or done some kind of work with locals in Indonesia, East Timor and Cambodia to experience this. The reason for this in my opinion is because they have less than us. In the first world countries again generally speaking, the more we have the more we want. Peace FT

It is also amazing how relaxed the atmosphere is compared with here.

Now funny is half of them want to move to north america to live the wonderful rich life we have. I tried to explain to the folks in Haiti that here in Canada we can't afford an entire bottle of rum for the Lwa every single day... they didn't get it lolololol.

I didn't want to start a new thread just for this, but check out these seriously awesome homes!

http://www.offgridquest.com/homes-dwellings/home-stylings/923-traditional-tiebele

But you can only be content with that bowl of rice when other needs have been met. But I'll agree, needs met or not, most people have a hard time being happy.

 

But you need to have some level of "success", before you can be comfortable and secure enough to be able to feel content with that bowl of rice.

 

Believe me I'm thinking pretty hard about this right now. I had a decent job up until Feb., which could have been a career job. Never would have made me rich, and unless I got married and had dual income, buying a house would have been a challenge, but possible. But I rented a house, lived within blocks of hiking trails, walking distance of downtown and my friend's houses, and I lived in the west, so vacation meant camping, backpacking, floating, hiking, renting a Forest Service cabin. Vacation pretty easily equaled cheap, if you wanted it to (and I do). It was really a great lifestyle. I was happy. Except...

 

It was an office job; boring, working with people nothing like me, who could be very petty and place way to much importance on silly little things. A lot of negativity, surrounding me every day. I sat around all day watching the clock. All I've got till I die is time, and I was wishing away 8 hours of my life a day, five days a week. So I quit.

 

Now...I want very badly not to fall back into the comfort of a secure, boring, soul-sucking office job (not all office jobs are like this!). But I wonder if it was my inability to be content which caused my unhappiness, or if that's a cop-out, hiding behind the safe, secure state employee job because it's scary out there in the real world.

 

In the end, whether it's an issue inside me or it really was a good idea for my sanity to leave, I left. I felt like I was wasting my life.

 

So I hit the road and drove around. When my money ran out, I worked a couple temporary jobs, then found family to spend to the winter with. I'm trying really hard to meet people who are more self-starters, not just people who work for companies. I need to be exposed to people piecing a living together in less traditional ways. All I've known is getting an 8-5 job working for someone else. I really don't want another 8-5. I can get by on very little money, so finding a path for myself which is contract-based or part time, and preferably doesn't tie me down to an office or specific location would be perfect. But how much do I need? I want to retire someday. I want health insurance. But all I really want is a couple-hundred sq ft house in the mountains (near town), where I get to spend most of my time. I could pretty easily get by on $2-3,000 a month (knowing insurance and retirement are coming out of this...), if I didn't have a mortgage or car payment.

 

But I have to get to where I don't have a mortgage. I can build my own small house without going into debt. But the land? Probably not.

 

So I'm using myself as an example and also because it gives me a rant outlet since I'm balls deep in this crap right now. Now that I'm free, how do I stay that way? "What job will not drag me down? What will I be happy with? What do I want out of my job? Out of my personal time?" I get to sit around being very careful not to commit to something that's just going to drag me down again. For a little while. I need to get back at it very soon. Just need to figure out what "it" is. This is not only a "are you happy with yourself?" question. I'm getting to know myself better all the time, and not just any job that pays the bills will allow happiness. In fact I feel like the farther I progress spiritually, the less I can handle a lot of certain jobs. Maybe that will change at some point...

 

1st world problems!

 

So with that aside, I agree.

 

With the right attitude, you can be happy with very little. Assuming you have all of your "base" figured out. How much do you need. Have you been lucky enough to grow up in an atmosphere that allowed you to slide into a type of work that fits those needs. Or hard working and clever enough to figure it all out yourself.

 

 

So...success is: doing some soul searching to find what you truly want out of life. Then getting it.

 

How the rest of society defines it shouldn't matter much, and there are still some places left where you can live true to yourself and not be battered daily by materialistic people judging you.

$2000-$3000 per month? Holy hell! Perhaps figure out a way of living on half of that, so you have more options .

I have found that the best way to get the exact life you want is to start it while you are still living the life you don't want, or even hate, but that pays the bills. Just up and quitting whatever it is and hoping and starting from scratch is far far more difficult from all I have seen. So perhaps work one of those soul sucking jobs for 4-5 years while saving up (eat lots of rice, with soy sauce , bike to work if you have to..). while starting your own business or night school courses on the side. That's on the physical level. Then on the other levels, making sure that your time away from work brings much fulfillment. Most folks I know who are pretty happy don't find enjoyment in their 9-5 job, but in all the other things they do after work, and the people they are around. They also tend to have side income from their hobbies as a retire early plan.

I agree with the first part but i think the second is too much of a generalization.

Have you not found this when traveling internationally? The difference is so obvious it is amazing. I of course mean the % of people compared with the % of people, not every single person.

Well the problem is, you can't patent and sell energy.

I have personally found this to be true, and seen it in others.

Also interesting to note how much happier folks in third world countries seem to be than in first world ones.  They tend to smile far more and show genuine happiness.

Measuring it (success or happiness) seems silly, because then you get all sorts of "not have enough", "am I better or worse off than others" sorts of thoughts.

Interesting to note, the person I know who owns 3 apartments and an extremely fancy car, is the most miserable person I know or have met in a long time. He likes to remind us regularly, how "successful" he is...

Always better to find a teacher . So many things just can't be taught via a book, and also folks tend to leave the good stuff out of books...

I'm still going to have a look through though, see if he goes into any details on the stones.