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Does anyone simply walk for exercise and to meditate or reflect while doing so? I am 21 but started moving more when I noticed myself starting to age, youth fading and my body deteriorating. I now try to walk 10,000 steps a day and while doing so I reflect on life. I am a runner as well, but don't do it as much (only about 18 miles a week) because it is more "yang" to me and seems to degenerate the body in excess. The rest of my health practices and body / weight management are via yoga, healthy diet and fasting. But I like walking

I was under the impression Mantra was one method available to quiet the mind yet recently have seen some TTBs insist this is not its purpose. If Mantra is not a tool to aid in quieting the mind then what exactly IS its purpose and why do so many different spiritual traditions around the world use it?

I would like people to recommend particular practices that they have found beneficial. I realise that this can span a fairly wide area of experience, and so I hope others can respect that. I think it would be particularly useful for people to discuss their own experiences, rather than to attack or disparage what others have, or are, doing. I can assure you I've had my eyes opened by a lot of things that I didn't expect, and found prejudices to be deeply unfounded. So, please, some positive recommendations. The idea here is to offer people some beneficial areas for them to investigate. Everyone will have their own particular inclinations, and so there will be differences of opinion. That is fine, as long as people remember everyone finds their own particular path, some of whom will be fellow travelers, and others who will be seeking the same destination but via a different route. That a particular path did not suite one person does not mean it is not right for another. Finally, I would request that if someone trolls, please do not respond, but simply ignore them. That way they have no effect on the conversation and will soon disappear (either by choice or by moderator intervention). Thank you.

The start to meditation is in all literature vague at best, long-winded, and so non-productive that many people bail on it before reaching any positive results except for a nap. Part of that is the funky descriptions, expectations, and sometimes thinking it is some kind of special condition to be reached or held onto with a mental deathgrip. Looking at this from another point of view, I looked at the practices of SW Native American tribes. From the old Celtic view. From other avenues of relgion and practices. The common ground is very interesting, from prayer to ritual and back again. And it points to some basics that don't require lotus positions or other difficult practices. We pass through a brain condition daily. It is not a foreign place. It is not something special. Holding it for a period of time longer than the short passage between being awake and being asleep is special, and the point of most practices. The "charge" point that people pass through while falling asleep appears to be enough to keep life going. One short spark is all it takes. So you would think that falling asleep over and over should increase the storage of energy. Dipping in and out of that state, if you will. Meditation is made even more difficult by special breathing techniques and body positions. Without which, the claims are, you will never make it. I disagree totally. I think that certain methods and techniques help move the mind and expectations into certain directions, but those are not for everyone, and are not the alpha and omega of accomplishing anything. They are simply, one way of many. And pursuit of them should be kept relative to the desire to keep traditions alive, but not held as the only way to reach Nirvana. Making special promises to not do this, or not share that, has become a tragic way of screwing people by many charlatans. But now we can measure them, and no chirp wave means they are full of crap and have no power, and should not be teaching anyone. One of the basic ideas is that you have to "store" energy, fill up your center or Dan Tien... This can supposedly take years, and if you don't graduate from this or that, you should give up and stop trying. Looking at masters, however, at their mental and emotional condition, whether they smoke, fight, drink, or have some serious moral and ethical issues, it appears that ethics and morals do not seem to matter one bit. Living clean and healthy doesn't seem to matter. They still get sick, they still die. Most of them at least. So accomplishing the things we see on YouTube or read about has nothing to do with how you think and feel, how good or bad a person you are, and probably many of the other things that typical religions try to force you into doing to become a master. There are forms of standing or sitting that do evoke a more extreme awareness of gravity, lowering your center of gravity is extremely important. More than likely, this is the awareness of the pull of gravity, like feeling sunshine, which is also moving at about the same speed as gravity. And now science can see that gravity also stimulates forms of photons, yet they seem unaware how they got there. Breathing is mentioned, as the "force" is contained in the air we breath. When in fact, breathing from the diaphragm actually stimulates the flow of spinal fluid. Anything that hurts the nervous system or causes nerve damage can block the flow. Insulators block the flow. Metals are good and solid conduits that can retain this energy. They are also dense, heavy, gravity attractive. So there is much more behind the scenes that science might still uncover about these practices. And that would make sense to the Western scientific mind, and make it easier to produce feedback equipment and create a means to better measure progress and better help us non-esoterics along the way. So what do we know about meditation and science? Brainwaves for one. Alphawaves are the basic strong measure when we observe meditation. Rolling your eyes upward and holding it produces almost immediate alpha waves. So add the eye roll to your practices. To stop yourself from falling asleep, there is a simple technique. Simply hold up one hand. If you become so relaxed that you might drift past the point where you should be, your hand will drop, and this motion can usually catch you before you drift into sleep. A sign that I have noticed, is the change in sound. Everything suddenly becomes louder, or sometimes an echo is generated. I have not found any science behind this yet. Of importance is also emotional energy, and interesting wordplay is E-motion. Without it, the energy does not seem to flow or focus. Also of importance are the visual techniques used by different cultures. The mind is capable of focusing attention on different points of the body, like moving your "attention" to different parts of the body, and visualizing light, expansion, contraction... feeling something tangible. Feeling the energy ball between the hands in Tai Chi is one of these, and after practice it does produce measurable "chirp" waves, which are the same waves detected when science measures gravity. So the assumption is that not only are we becoming more aware of gravity, and the flow of it, we are capable of snatching some form of energy from it, or it is the energy, or the photons are the energy. Regardless, we are capable of manipulating gravity, changing how it interacts with us, and thus producing chirp waves, which in turn stimulate CD34 stem cells, which in turn can heal almost instantaneously. What we can measure, is that the magnetic fields change, the stem cells change, temperatures change, visual sparks fly, people jerk like an electric shock when in contact with it, etc. So if ever there was a reason to practice meditation and awareness of gravity waves, there it is. Alone the stimulation of CD34 stem cells should be number one on the list. The other list, the one with iron skin, starting fires, defending yourself, may also be variations of these same sciences. Science is coming in fast. Please add your own science or experiments that have helped to improve practices, of any kind, since I am very sure the energy is the same, no matter what background or cultural ethnic origin.

Hey guys, A truly beautiful experience happened to me yesterday. I was with a friend. And as we were talking and getting to know each other, I let the idea that I wanted to meditate slide into the conversation. The reason bringing that up wasn't weird was because we were discussing spiritual subjets, and one of those happened to be meditation. So it wasn't outside the theme of the converstation. Anyway, I can drive energy from my head to my toes, I told her. She looked at me puzzled and curious at the same time. I interpreted the silence as an invitation to show her what I was talking about so I reduced the distance between the two of us and sat in front of her, a few centimetres away. I extended my hand. She grabbed it And I said, "I'm going to send you my energy now. You're going to feel electricity (That's the best way I could describe it)." The technique I use to meditate, without going into how I'm able to do it, is to squeeze a part of my brain using my willpower. The effect of this is the same as when you squeeze a sponge and water comes out. Obviously instead of water energy would come out. The way you percieve it is like a rain of white energy that massages your whole body and relaxes you. So I began meditating and she started having all kinds of sensations: crawling sensations on the skin, strange visions about birds and lakes, etc. Another person, on another day, in a whole diferent set of circumstances, told me that she saw a white aura around me and felt electric-like sensations on her face after I had meditated. I have to mentionne that both these individuals are extremely sensitive to energies around them. I doubt "normal" people would've noticed anything. Do any of you have any explanation for all of this? Truly apreciated Regards

What are some of the main techniques in classic Taoist meditation? It would be very helpful to hear some simple explanations on some of the fundamental techniques. There are many different techniques that have been developed such as the Inner Smile and Micro Cosmic Orbit, but as I understand these are just thought forms given to processes that occur during meditation and the movement of energy through the body, and are just different ways to achieve the same goal. Going back to the origins of Taoism, and man's essential nature, there are no words or techniques, just feelings. How did these masters meditate and achieve immortality? It is doubtful that they were practicing a wide variety of techniques and visualizations, each with their own catch phrases and number of repetitions. It is more likely that the early Taoists practiced a simple form of meditation, with little technique, just basic guidelines from experience masters, such as collecting the mind and breath in the lower dantian. What is the classic form of Taoist meditation? It would be great to hear some opinions on the basic steps. Thanks.

Hi there My name is Alex, 27 years old. I really enjoy reading taoist literature and after discovering Mantak Chias books I aim to take the written knowledge and create some experiential understanding. Hoping along the way that can find some junior bums on this forum to start up on the path with and make use of the experience already gained by those who have kept up the practice for a long time. I have experience with meditation and completed a 10 day vipassana course with S.N. Goenka,.. I had known about Mantak for some time after a friend of mine had explained how he had been to Tao Garden 20 years ago and loved it, a few months after I went to vipassana and then on my first day back into normal life Mantak Chia had done an interview with on my favourite youtube channels called 'London real', it was literally one of the first things I saw when booting back up my phone. Tao Garden have given me contact details for one of Mantaks instructors who is sometimes in Bangkok (my current place) and willl start some work with her when possible. I am focusing for now on the inner smile which I find to be a relaxing and rejuvenating exercise and with the teachers guidance I hope to open the micro cosmic orbit. During that time I have started to do some of the exercises in multi orgasmic man. Mainly just the PC pull ups as am using the time to calm my mind away from quite strong sexual urges. It's been 23 days since that started and have been quite strong is resisting the urge and thoughts. This is welcoming and surprising as have had previous attempts in life which never seemed to go past 10 days, this process seems to be much more about the ease and think that this will help the Qi Gong journey. Not directly linked Taoism/Daoism? but am also doing breathing exercises from a book called 'The oxygen advantage' which is about retraining the body and mind to breathe calmer, slower and deeper through the nose at all times even when sleeping and even though he goes about things in a much more western scientific approach he quotes Lao Tzu and Taoist literature once or twice. He has also attended vipassana retreats so I believe he is well into this kind of stuff but for marketing purposes has chosen to position his books in a certain way. However anybody who is interested and would like to try the exercises please send me a message and I look forward to assisting where I can. Thank you for taking the time to read and look forward to this journey.

The food we consume - is the all that we take in We bring in through the eyes vast cubic miles every day The ears hear a thousand vibrations we never notice The nose speaks directly to our ancestry in each breath Our skin sinks to the marrow Please share here beauty that you have found so that it might be a well of delight and wonder

I make time to meditate every day. I don't always make a lot of time, but that's a different issue. Sitting in silence is a strange thing. Sitting. Breathing. Observing. Sleeping? The sudden fall of my head that wakes me before I realize I'm beginning to sleep. Dreaming? My emotions run in cycles. I'll be fine for weeks. More than fine, I'll be content, maybe a little bored, feeling like I'm going through the motions, like it's just a silly game. Then BAM! I dread meditation - hate it - , start looking for excuses to not do it. I'll wake up in the morning, chest heavy, and start crying. Or I'll be driving my car, think of a deceased loved one and start laughing. I can smell their cigarettes, right next to me! Sitting in silence is a strange thing. I don't know where this road leads. In my youth I wanted "enlightenment". He he. Young people want a lot of things. Now I just want truth. Peace is always appreciated. Happiness is good, too.

Greetings. I need help. I am not very sure what to start and what to quit doing, but I've got to change something in my life. It's been about 6 months since I stopped trying hard, and tried to go back to basics. A short background: I've got very ill at the age of 19, after just about 2 months of living by myself in a new city. I hated the university, ate terribly, slept for 4-5 hours and practiced guitar for 10-12. Pretty soon I got stressed and depressed. Next I got carpal tunnel syndrome, inflammation of wrists and all the joints and muscles/tendons in my hands. Got more depressed. Few months later I ended up in hospital, because of severe stiffness of lower middle and upper back. Not able to sleep, not able to focus, had blurry vision, and was just awfully miserable. Shallow breath. Barely functioning. Oh I forgot. I had acute hyperacusis and tinnitus even prior to that. Nothing helped much, time healed some of the issues, to a certain degree. OK so 2 years later I did a 14 day water fast, followed by a 30 day water fast. Cured the inflammation, ears and back problems and CTS to about 70%. I'm finally able to use computer keyboard and even play guitar a little, which is nice. Cool but now I have some digestive issues(very fragile stomach) and have some trouble gaining weight( I'm 5'9'' and 118lbs). During the fast I felt a lot of tension around and below my navel. My stomach now is very sensitive and when I'm frightened or even surprised it hurts as if electrically shocked(previously I felt neck tension and head pain when under stress). I'm glad I'm so much more emotionally and mentally stable and don't have panic attacks and paranoia tendencies as I used to. I'm not depressed anymore. The downside is I'm still regaining strength 3 months after the fast and it's kinda slow. Still have a shallow breath and get exhausted pretty easily. I Think I need some sort of plan guys! If anybody could take time to address any of the following points, I would be most grateful. I feel somewhat stuck. No.1 Diet, sleep and basic activities. I've been following raw vegan fruit based diet since the fast and it was great for a number of reasons, but recently I started to see some limitations. Main problem is I guess lack of enough ripe fruit available here in Europe. So I started introducing cooked millet, potatoes, lentils and diary. Diary is fine, but over all I just feel week, lazy and lethargic. I tend to overeat on these things, since non of them is as satisfying as ripe fruit. It's really a pita. Will this last until I regain all my weight? I used to weigh about 75kg. I use cronometer.com and try to get about 3500-4000 calories daily now. I started following ayurveda for my dosha(vata) and it's amazing! Different foods like peppers, mushrooms eggplants, beans and other things always gave me problems, and now as I follow the guidelines I don't have to fear the food I'm eating lol. I try to get a litre of water before each meal, I can then eat normal sized portions. I try to sleep... as much as possible lol. In a few days I'm coming back to work. Walking around a warehouse picking up items for shipping( luckily not very strenuous). Anything to change here? Is the Chinese method of eating worth exploring?(Don't know anything about it, heard it's kinda complicated). Would it be a good idea to go to a Tibetan Medicine centre? I'm open. No.2 Meditation, Martial Arts and Qigong. I'll give you my goals: -fix my body posture( I have very weak back, slouch, my shoulders are tight and high. Shoulder blades stick out like crazy and it's hard to relax sitting or standing. -improve circulation(it used to be terrible before the fast, but still could be better), -spontaneity(you know in life, in guitar improvisation, even in conversation I feel the lack of flow) -Calm the fucking Dan Tien(lower, and perhaps middle I'm not sure my whole stomach is a mess recently) I'm trying Zhan Zhuang. Have the book The Way of Energy and watched the YT channel. I find it exhausting, even ust the1st position. I tried it a dozen of times over past few months and couldn't hold it for more than 3 minutes. It's appealing, I see the potential and acknowledge it is a foundation, but it's harder than this Anyway, the second I heard about Baguazhang, I didn't want to look back anymore. At anything, even Taiji. I'm sold for life. I don't know why, I'm totally mesmerised. Something about the spinning circle flowing motion... and I see myself as somebody who's trapped in cycles anyway so why not lol? Do you think it could be appropriate for someone like me? Right now? How can I find a teacher? Do you know anybody who does it in the Netherlands/Germany/Sweden? OR should I already start learning Chinese ? I understand it's even less popular then real Taiji. Is it really so rare? And before I find a teacher, would it be ok to learn from books/dvds or I'd be better off joining Taiji classes? One Taiji instructor I met even suggested I should go back to Karate and do that for some time, before I get into the internal styles and qigong... I'm confused. As for meditation, I always did like a simple body scan relaxation, or progressive muscle relaxation, and rarely got satisfying results. Only recently I had some success with BK Frantzis Taoist Meditation CD's. I'm sort of used now to breathing from the belly and the back and focusing on the Lower Dan Tien is kinda effective. I feel it. Still it's hard for me to stick to the practice. If I do it one day properly for few minutes, the next day don't even feel the interest and get bored easily if I try. It's like it stirs my body energy, and then I lose the drive to repeat the exercise. Same with Qigong massage I tried few days ago. I yawned like crazy, and didn't feel too good afterwords... I know I have a tendency to overdo everything, but for Dao's sake- is there anything I can practice for more than a minute and not feel totally exhausted??? I would really love to get into all the energy meditations, organ massages, moving and manipulating chi inside the body... you know, the fun stuff. How can I get there? What should I read? Most Importantly: what I SHOULDN'T be doing? What could hurt me? And again, how can I look for a teacher of meditation and qigong? I also occasionally do Trauma Releasing Exercises, which are awesome: Has anybody heard of this? And I'm also interested in the Alexander Technique... No.3 Would something like Initiation Into Hermetics by Francis Bardon or other such curriculum contribute in any way to my vitality? I'm still kind of clueless about all the occult stuff. Would appreciate some feedback on that as well. I'm interested in inducing trance on the fly. Why? I'm not sure. But you've got to be able to in order to play like Jimi Hendrix, am I wrong? I would also appreciate any magick and spiritual inspired fiction and "fiction" books. Novels perhaps. I really dug Carlos Castaneda a while ago. Finally, and this is minute but can you share with me what type of shoes and clothing do you use for walking, and practicing martial arts? I recently realized it also matters. What type of materials? I'd like to get some loose(traditional/modern Chinese perhaps) clothes that would be socially acceptable lol. Any good sites? Kinda love shopping To end this huge lament of a noob I'll just throw some titles on you and if you want share your thoughts on them( just your general opinion): Book of Five rings - Musashi Baguazhang - Hidden Knowledge in the Taoist Internal Martial Art Ywing-Ming-Yang-PHDThe-Root-of-Chinese-Chi-Kung The Complete System of Self-Healing by Dr. Stephen T. Chang Way of the inner smile by Michael Winn Daoist Body Cultivation by Livia Kohn Taoist Meditation by Thomas Cleary Becoming Te Iceman. Any recommendations? Peace. PS. Please excuse my English, I know it got a little rusty recently.

I've progressed in my spiritual development and meditative practices and discovered myself to possess Astral Blindness that is a rather persistent problem over the years. Does anyone have any recommendations or practices to begin working on this?

My name is Jolanda, I think I was here before . Studying Daoism: learning from texts, reading books and scriptures, teaching and doing Tai Chi and Qigong, recitation, meditation, zhan zhuang, circle walk, letting go, returning ... In this moment my Daoist name is Xìn Rù, disciple of Liu De MIng. Living in the Netherlands, wanting to manifest a Dutch Daoist Center in the future, but then again, letting go of desires: just starting with welcoming people to learn, read, recitate and meditate with me, for recognizing the Dao, in a very simple Way ... through email, skype or facebook. Maybe starting a community - group on facebook, if there is interest.

We have some meditators here that are very good technical long meditators - it would be good to mention techniques for staying awake during what I refer to as "hitting unconsciousness". I use breathing techniques but I no longer know from what tradition they came (if any). Ya Mu mentioned a comparison between Zen and Qi people meditating, wherein awareness was quite different and the creative part of the brain was stimulated in the Qi people. I am not sure what the main differences are between a Zen meditation and a Qi aspect but I use a mix of teachings that I have learned over the years and also invented on my own, and staying in an aware state and not sleeping or going unconscious has never been a problem for me during meditation but it may be that Raja Yoga meditation is good at this which was my original early path or? I do not want to imply that I don't hit walls of unconscious energy - I definitely have but I move through them - they usually only last a few minutes but sometimes they are quite tenacious - in any case, I do not stop the meditation. In some 40 years of meditation I can count on one hand the number of times I have fallen asleep or konked out from hitting a wall and I don't think I need all of the fingers. I would say that in those 40 years I have very rarely stopped a meditation short because my body clearly needed sleep and meditation was pointless, probably also something I could count on one hand. I bring this up because one should start meditating with a reasonably good bank of sleep already in ones space so that falling asleep should not be a technical problem ( you don't start if you are exhausted). My point is that I agree with the general notion that it is highly beneficial to sit for long periods - certainly at least 1 hour. But quite a few appear to have problems with the Unconscious Energy Walls and do not sit for more than 40 minutes and usually less than that. If you can offer clear concise techniques that you have experience with for moving past the various walls to long meditation, please offer them up.

I have had this problem for so many years. I have been to monks, I have been to teachers, I have seen my guru many times, nothing ever, ever, permanently fixes this problem. When I meditate, energy moves into my head, it builds into a giant ball of pressure, and then anger, delusion, confusion, and insanity start to arise as a result. For years I have tried to fix it, I have been taught so many techniques to fix it, nothing fixes this problem. When the pressure builds up in my head, it starts to hurt my heart and lungs below. I have felt like I was going to have a heart attack before. Every morning I wake up, there it is, the big ball of pressure stuck in my head, i meditate, it gets worse and worse. Everyday is another day of suffering and misery. Horrible horrible emotions constantly arising day after day due to this energy being stuck in my head. Is there anyone in this world that knows how to fix this problem? I haven't met one yet :\

Lately, I discovered that my meditation was actually hacked by a mind function that conceptualizes and creates an image of an experience and faked my experience of reality. an example: the experience or state of no-thoughts, at first it was a genuine experience and it felt really nice, during meditation. but after a while i discovered that, during my practices in the past months, I wasn't actually in that state that I started with and i was actually in a thought of no-thoughts. In other words, I was living in a conceptualized image of what i experienced first time i started the practice and the mind automated the process by attracting my awareness into it. which got me question a lot of my experiences, and ask you in this thread: How is it possible to identify whether the experience, state or the feeling we are having is a result of reality and not a fake, mind made image? When i say between myself, i forgive that person for what he did or give love to a person or deep inside pain, how to know whether it is coming from a real feeling, and not from a conceptualized dry image of forgiveness or love? Maybe it is by looking for the intention behind it? In buddhism, they say, you should approach pain with equanimity, and not with aversion, because aversion=resistance= persistence, but wouldn't you try to be in equanimity in order to heal (get rid) of pain which is by itself aversion but in an indirect way? or when you try to allow things to be as itis, but you are allowing it to be as it is, because you want to get rid of that pain (which is not allowing). Thank you,

In course of meditation, often the mind-stuff (mind's contents - aka thoughts) rises up and we can end up getting attached to it. We are not always good at not judging ourselves as the contents of the mind reveals some not so pleasant aspect of us. So a very significant revelation in not such a wholesome way became apparent... Consider for a moment that we have a very wholesome, healthy, balanced diet. As a corollary thereof, our excretion will be smooth, uneventful and will keep us healthy, our digestive system functioning properly. If we have a day or two of binging on really unhealthy dietary choices, the results may be painful the next morning (or later in the day, as our schedule dictates ) No matter whether we had a good BM or a bad one, we don't hold on to the notion that the by-product of the process belongs to us. We let go of it...flushed down the toilet...gone... Same too with when we do cleanses...a lot of deep junk comes out...we let go...flush it down and are happy about it being gone. We feel cleansed after... The mind-stuff is no different. It is a by-product of what our consciousness consumes. If our consciousness consumes wholesome and healthy material, the thoughts that are generated will gradually become wholesome and tranquil. We watch and let go... Even if our mind has had a day or two of binging on unhealthy and toxic stuff...the thoughts that are generated will reflect that. We should still watch and let go. The by-product of what the consciousness consumes (mind-stuff) does not belong to us, any more that what the by-product of what our body consumes is. Similarly, when we do cleanses of the consciousness (mind-body practices, meditation, etc), a lot of deep junk comes out...as mind-stuff. Why then should we feel bad about it's contents? We should watch, let go and be glad that it's gone. We might have to cleanse over and over again...until the consciousness is clear of all the garbage. But that garbage should not define who we are and how we behave. We have to let go... Suffering happens when we hold on to the garbage, thinking that it defines who and what we are. The fact is that we are not. The garbage is just a reflection of what we are impinged with (stimuli - objects of our perception and conception).

I have been noticing that different people use different tools, through which, they get over, or face their issues and fears. Some of different tools so far I knew about: - The use Lucid dreams through which they face the issue in dream world, - visualization. - The use hypoginia state - NLP (Neuro-linguistic programming) professional or psychotherapist. - The use the present process, in maintaining focus on the now. - observing thoughts. What are your technique to release your triggers and problems ? how it works for you? did you try any other technique ? and you ever wondered that some technique may fall under the "escapism" way or maybe dualistic approach ? Thank you for your time

For the past couple of weeks, I haven't been able to meditate. I just sit down, and get a sudden feeling as if banana pudding is being spilled in my body and I just cannot go on sitting. Has anyone else experienced this? How do you get through it?

I have been lately doing more meditation where i focus on my nose and feel the breath going in and out, and this helped me in increase my awareness and my ability to observe thoughts as they arise from in my daily life. whenever the thought arise, i notice it and once i notice it disappears, and i m left with a sense of peace and ease. Even though, i did notice how much some of the thought are compulsive and negative too. After the negative thoughts decreased, my mind has been flooding me with "positive" thoughts or more like sending me thoughts that i like or would prefer to engage in or think about, and they are nice, but at the end they are thoughts. But i m trying my best to not dwel. I was wondering if anyone has any idea about the state that i go into when i observe a thought and it disappears ? that state of peace and i call it state of bliss. Even though, that i m able to to observe the thought before getting triggered, would that also help me in releasing fears and problems in my life? do you suggest to continue with such practice? or to move forward with something to deepen it? And do you consider it, an escapism technique or enhance duality? Also do you suggest any book, youtube video or so on that practice to understand it more? Thank you

hey, I practice vipassana, even though lately not having time to practice it.... anyways my case is, when i m really feeling and focusing on body, a really painful sensation arises around heart, more like a circle or lines around it (around the middle of my chest where the heart is located). Also, when i investigate other parts of the body (with focus), there is a string of pain (dunno if it is a meridian) coming from my middle finger and moves up my arm to chest and to that circle of pain. usually that string of pain comes like waves of pulsation going into the heart. this pain arises most when its been a time, I didn't masturbate and when i m focused on my body. when i masturbate, the after it goes and decrease and thus i won't feel it anymore up till a period of time. feeling that feeling of pain and trying to deal with it, with watching/observing allowing it to be... didn't work much. Also, the more i focus that pain is very tough and strong... and thoughts of "it seems i won't last much on this earth...etc", it is not like i fear death, i don't mind it but yeah. I do have some kind of throat pain (when to doctor and said there is nothing) that arises from time to time when i focus on my body but that is maybe a different story but currently this is stronger any ideas? any help is appreciated. Thanks

I have been coming to a conclusion that, running to meditation or any other "healing" techniques is just another way for the mind to escape what is and build a resistance to it, which win turns creates persistence. So, my conclusion seems to be going toward loving and enjoying what is even if it was negative as much as sorrow, which will allow us to experience it, and thus, there is no resistance. and maybe it may heal the permanent reaction to the memory that is causing sorrow and such. Please, don't throw concepts like (accept what is, allow, let go), please, provide explanation in terms of how to, what state of mind, or a feeling state that is needed to reach a Genuine feeling of loving and joy, not just a fake one that is like: "oh i love you, i'm enjoying this" but deep down we hate it soo bad and want to be positive. And please avoid techniques that are used to make us focus on something else to feel happy and joy as a result of escaping the negative feeling and ignoring it. Im looking for something that would dive deep into that feeling and embody it to love it and enjoy it. Thank you!

Do you think that nothing in life is static and everything is relative? In other words, if you dnt believe in chi/energy, you won't feel it. It could be that the belief is what creates our own reality, what we feel, see, hear, touch, smell, taste. And nothing really exist... we just inherited genetically and got taught beliefs that makes our own reality and put us with people with same of those beliefs that reinforce them and thus lead to make it a very real reality. Nd could be that the chakras, energy/chi, meridians...etc just another packaged reality, that we can choose to believe in out of many other realities, all is real but nothing really exist? Are there some static stuff in the world? That foes beyond all possible realities? Or could a majority belief be made a a static to all other possible realities? Does nothing really exist.. because all realities cancel each others out and what is left is emptiness or just another belief? thank you

After couple months of good, general stretching, I figured out, well it's kind of easier to move around and throw some kicks in the air, but that Padmasana probly ain't gonna happen so easily, and since one day I hope to dig real deep into meditation, it would be nice to start a routine that is going to prepare my hips and all for that. So in short: who can recommend a simple, day to day thing that is not too hard to perform and that kind of forgives mistakes? Not looking for something dramatic, just safe and effective in the long term. For example, will this do the trick? I should add I'm currently doing first few of these every morning. Thanks for help!

Dear All, I am pleased to let you know that Singing Dragon is going to publish Serge Augier's first book in English! Shen Gong and Nei Dan in Da Xuan A Manual for Working with Mind, Emotion, and Internal Energy Serge Augier. With translations by Isis Augier. Weaving a masterful presentation of both astonishing depth and refreshing simplicity, Serge Augier covers the Daoist practices for developing mind, emotions and internal energy and provides specific exercises for cultivating and transforming the Jing (body energy), Qi (life force) and Shen (mind or spirit) on the path to enlightenment. He explains theory and practice in clear, easy-to-understand terms and explores the deeper reaches of Daoist internal alchemy in a way that gives access to practitioners of all levels to the necessary knowledge. You can have a look at the table of content and pre-order the book here: http://www.singingdragon.com/catalogue/9781848192607 As one of Serge's student I strongly recommend this book. Serge's teachings are very clear and offers a lot. It is by far the most precise information you can find in the West on Shen Gong and Nei Dan!