Jordan of the Shire

I can see that deeper insights into the importance, effect, and connection of consciousness increases the capacity to feel more spacious and comfortable, connected, and tangibly alive, and these insights can lead to developing the capacity to nurture in cool ways. When I have an insight, it's spacious. That's how it feels. Each person is going to have a different body so the way the energy from insight, I can imagine, will function differently.

On the topic of addiction, It's clear to me that we are all addicts. In practice, in letting go, when you release your attachments, the energy invested into those attachments has nowhere to go, so it exists in a kind of grey zone before it can be transmuted or given to something else. I've learned this recently. Things like the dark night of the soul, or different integration periods seem to resonate with this, where after deep releases there can be periods of withdraw, and lower states. The process of spiritual development is kinda like recovering from the addiction of whatever we falsely rely on for a sense of hopeful permanence. Upon realizing these things are not for sure or continuous. We become more free, energy comes back, reality is less distorted with views and ideas, and impressions, and we can be more clean of clutter in ourselves. Then the dao gradually comes into focus.

Ideas and concepts are a frame or view. It's possible to see this way, or another way, but the truth behind things lies in the underlying undulations behind thought and within this consciousness. When you frame things in the way you have, it is fine, but also, it can be too serious. There is contraction. See if you can notice these contractions in your awareness, and underlying thoughts and concepts. It is enough to soften in relationship to contraction - this too is metta, loving-kindness and leads to compassion for sentient beings, and is a loving action in itself. But without the contraction on good and evil.

Tiger Cave Temple (Wat Tham Suea) in Krabi, Thailand is the only one I know of. There are many others. I don't quite know how to get involved there but maybe you can do some research and see if it fits what you're looking for.

Disclaimer: You want to be careful with drugs while doing spiritual practices. The shen, the upper energetic qualities, and the consciousness quality, can become distorted, deluded, and sick. Qi deviations can develop which can cause problems. There is a long series on Qi deviations by Damo Mitchell online. He has a more medically official one for tcm students in his school, and a more generalized one on youtube.

This way of viewing Karma is not quite on point. You'll end up creating more Karma by putting yourself in states of chronic delusion, creating addiction, and fueling trauma in yourself and others. If you have a craving that you cannot control and cannot get yourself out of, this is different. Then observing the craving, the state, and addiction while youre in it, observing from the knowing quality, contemplating it, this is a way to get out of the craving... and guess what... that's similar to anything. The way to burn karma is to realize there is no self and cease identifying with your body and mind. There are slow ways to do this, ie. Making the mistakes. Or fast ways to do this, ie. penetrating reality with insight through empowered concentration, virtue, and wisdom. As well as grounded embodiment practices. There are 3 types of craving. Craving for becoming, non becoming, and not wanting things to end. When you crave for becoming, often you're craving for the non-becoming of something else. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning, they don't cancel eachother out. The satisfaction you're looking for - release from karma - comes through wisdom.

Hey brother, I'll describe a method that's working well for me. I come from a Neigong / Vipassana background so we use the energetic anatomy as well as the clear seeing distinction from buddhist practice. The steps in this process are as follows: In all postures: sitting, standing, walking, and lying down, we saturate the awareness into the lower part of the body. The Feet, and waist. The goal of this is to relocate the awareness so that it resides in the lower abdominal space. This allows the awareness to better easily distinguish between the conceptual mind and the awareness itself. This method uses various understandings of the body mind and spirit. We soften the eyes in relationship to the lower abdominal space. On seeing a bit of space, this causes a shift in the awareness around the head, we become aware of pushing and pulling within the awareness around the head, when this arises within our experience, we release with this. This is the process in buddhism known as the 4 sublime abidings. Compassion, Loving-Kindness, Joy, and Equanimity. Compassion is this distinction that the misery we all experience at its very root is simply a contraction. With compassion, this grounds the person. Softening the eyes causes a release of contraction in how we look at things. This is loving kindness. In the softening in relationship to the feet or the lower abdominal space, or any location in the body, space arises within perception. From this, we experience a level of joy. In accepting this joy and not chasing anything afterwards, we rest in equanimity. This process is a meditation process. The problem with meditation is the fight of the mind to resist it. The conceptualization, and more. In practicing this way, you practice discipline, concentration, and gain insight into actuality. You earn merit within your behavior, and you meet successive moments with more release. Meditation comes as a nature absorption over time rather than a strict forcing of attention on an object. When one attains emptiness they are imbuing it with warmth through this process, so not only is one moving towards meditation, but they are becoming more loving.

anytime

Gotta clone yourself then forget which one is the real you - that's how you have a lot of fun.

Hey brother Top down: How much money do you want to make for your ideal lifestyle? How much time do you want to have each day, month, year, for rest, love, and self growth? How many hours do you have left each week after that? How much do you need to make per hour? How much money is "enough"? What can you "live" with? If you have what you need, then build from there. Diversify how you earn an income so that it's not all time for money. Also - what are you doing? Are you passionate about it? If the service is empowering and meaningful it will give you more energy. One thing I would also consider is taking up qi gong, functional patterns training, neigong, and meditation. By developing the fascia, integration of the tissues, energetic system, and managing the contents of mind, the qualities that arise in the mind which are draining, you'll find your energy start to increase dramatically. Endless ways to tackle energy. But sometimes you just need to invest a good amount of time into the cultivation of energy. Sometimes you need a meaningful mission, Sometimes you need to be ruthless with your non-negotiables. Ie. I am going to makes sure I have enough rest each week so i show up energized, even if it pisses off my clients. In my own life - i prioritize energy rather than production. I was the opposite at one point. When scheduling your projects - makes sure you have a buffer, a week in between every once in awhile - and do what do you want. Sometimes 2 weeks. You don't need to work all weeks of the year, and if you're charging 35-50%-70% gross profit, and getting leads which convert, you should have good money coming in that can afford that. But if your expenses are too high and it's keeping you chained to the kind of working lifestyle you currently have, then you'll need to reduce your expenses so you can work less. If you are making a lot of conversions, then maybe increasing your prices is what you need to do. In my business I aim for a 50% gp on labor and 20-35% gp on materials. I only need to work 1-2 weeks a month. I intend to add more to this but for the last 6 months its been enough and has afforded me time to work on other things.

Becoming an attractive person is the best way. Hormonally, mentally, emotionally, intentionality, and in how you communicate. Understanding what causes attraction and what maintains it. How to listen and how to be a good communicator. If you regulate yourself, strengthen yourself, empower yourself, and become an uplifting and pleasant person to be around, then you'll attract good quality people in your life. I think this is the way to develop a good life. Strive for the causes rather than the outcomes you want. Sure you can be good at pick up , but if your shitty internally, you're going to pick up someone who is going to match that, or you're going to be a real pain in the ass for someone else, because you got someone emotionally attached to your soggy being.

I've been drinking this smoothie in the morning and it's been great 3 kale leafs, 3 chard leafs, 2 eggs, 1 apple, 1 tomatoe, 2 carrots, 3/4cup of high fat grass fed cream top yogurt, 3/4 cup of bluebs, 2 scoops of collegen powder, 1 banana, 1 avocado, 1 celery stalk, teaspoon of coconut oil. I sit and drink it slowly, paying attention to how it touches the teeth, the mouth, tongue, throat, and belly, and I focus on releasing in relationship to it, softening the awareness and feeling it. Noticing the joy and paying attention to that. Have found it to be a nice addition to the morning. Dinner I've been livin' cheaply. Noodles, frozen veggies, and chick peas. 4$ meal, easy, and filling. I try not to eat much enriched flour, sugar, or seed oils.

Yea this makes a huge difference. And I want to add that maybe his compulsion and fixation on strictness and control can contribute to illness as well. One of the benefits of things like Neigong is the cycle of Wu and Wu Wei. Daoists make it a practice to stop trying to control things and to allow things to work - allow energy to do what it needs to do. Daoists (I mean people who do the practices typically attributed to the shamanic path) They understand that the capacity of the mind to control every tiny aspect in perfect balance is not possible, and that nature knows what to do. So in balance - doing, setting the course, the watercourse way. Then letting the water flow. Trying to control everything has its problems because control by its nature leaves gaps. Nature flows and fills and expresses. So using control a little to lay the river beds, then letting nature do its work. What comes up for you in relation to this?

Immortality is something that has been looked at by people in the past. There's an extensive tradition that involves deep spiritual alchemy and waidan or external concotions for changing the body to allow for this. It's great to see Bryan making efforts to improve the baseline health of people by constantly advocating for the basics, and by going into the deep end. I see Bryan as a Modern day Daoist Immortality Focused practitioner. However, I don't know if he buys into the Daoist Alchemical Practices. I think it might be important for someone to look into if they were interested in that kind of thing. Because there are changes that happen to health when you develop different energy centers by changing the conditions of the attention and the shape and substances in the body, which might have an important part to play in the game of living longer and curing problems of the body. I want to add too that in Waidan, the shamans knew it wasn't just the substance consumed, it was how the practitioner worked with it internally. The relationship between the substance and the person matters, so, I think, in consuming anything, the quality of mind that it is consumed in will affect what it cultivates on both a physical and energetic level.

Not yet but re-centering has eliminated relationships with neediness and clinging and has brought balance to the force ;P

@LordFall My priority shifted from a committed relationship to addressing my distorted views about the world, the deficiencies and excesses in my philosophy, and to dealing with what gets in the way of presence and kindness. I walked away from relationships for awhile while i sorted some things out within myself.

Hey brother, It sounds like you have contraction around the whole dilemma and also not having that intellectual connection. I had the same issue in the past. But learned that it was my own inability to feel content in myself and be at peace than it was the qualities of my partner. I left that relationship and later realized i wasn't seeing things clearly. When you see the nature of thought as being something to disregard and to abide in awareness. I mean this as repeated action, done over time, than you'll have joy. I would practice this method of softening your relationship - the awareness of the perceived lack you see within your relationship. Soften how you see, literally, how your awareness knows the ideas and intellectual dissatisfaction you have. See if there is spaciousness there and relax with that. Keep doing that, and do it when you're with her. Keep doing this, and when that thought comes up like "this isn't enough" "i want something else" "I need something different" etc, soften in relationship to these thoughts. Perceive the spaciousness within thought, around the head, within the body, and let go, drop the stories. When you see her, soften your eyes, become aware of the aversion you feel, use it as practice. The greatest spiritual practice is with our current conditions, whether we are completely satisfied with them or not. And when you release like this, and let energy flow, than the right decisions and clarity will arise for you my friend. Hope this helps, let me know how you go.

Yes, letting go is a powerful tool. I see his values as stemming from a lack of self-awareness and some foolishness. By "letting go," I mean something quite specific: it’s the practice of seeing things directly - clearly observing their qualities without distortion. In that direct seeing, a natural sense of space opens up, and release happens effortlessly. From there, I drop the urge to chase or grasp for the "next thing." I simply relax. In this context, letting go isn’t about dropping, ignoring, or suppressing a problem, fixation, or attachment. It’s a penetrative, clear seeing that naturally brings peace, while simultaneously releasing the compulsive drive to keep seeking or moving on to something else. It’s relaxing in relationship to whatever arises, and relaxing in relationship to the habit of constant seeking. When this cycle is carried out, values change This is what I do for work in some cases. Someone comes in with distortions, and instead of debating or socratically addressing them, I teach them how to see space within contraction through training. This process changes them.

Ting means listening in chinese and you can use ting to listen internally, or externally. There are levels of ting. What you can listen into. Practicing Ting could help.

Hey Judy I sometimes feel this way too. There is a quality of the normal way of living that requires constant and unending productivity and strategy that can be exhausting and limiting when not doing something you feel purposeful about. Even when there is purpose and passion, it is possible to become too focused, too tense about it, which ultimately affects happiness. There is a happy balance between doing, and non doing. When doing something all the time, we don't have time for things that are done, to settle and work on the subconscious or collective level. We need periods of rest and acceptance of the way things are to be able to let things happen. There is a causal connection between control, and things getting stuck. It can be difficult to let go of control, but an easy way to get some experience is to have a sip of water. When you do, notice that refreshing feeling. Notice how for a moment, things in awareness expand just a bit. Then notice how there is this thing that comes in, to push you to the next moment, or that moves you to the next thing. That thing is the craving for the next thing. It is sometimes phrased as, "the craving for becoming, the craving for things to stay the same, or the craving for things to go away" These are called the Tanhas, and they can be felt as contraction, or control. When you observe the feeling, and soften your eyes or hands, or something in relationship to it, then there is peace. Then the degree to which you can allow yourself to enjoy that peace will determine how long it lasts. Another way is , try standing on one leg. Are you trying to keep a perfect posture so you don't fall over? Or perhaps youre in a yoga class and doing a posture. Are you trying to look good? Or can you let yourself wobble, and relax the muscles around the posture. Maybe you're not perfect, but things are open, energy can flow. This is also another way that we can see this quality of control. We can use these moments of noticing control as a way of becoming aware and releasing in relationship to this to allow things to flow. When this quality of release has moments in your day, you will find yourself experiencing more happiness, and you'll find yourself enjoying that happiness for longer. Do you have any questions?

I can see that - it's an exploration of the phenomena of myopic vision based on assumptions and expectations created and lived by to the extent that it creates problems. I like how you indicate why you put it in self development - a different take on what self development means. As to the truth of the matter between who's right and wrong in the situation. That to me is debatable. It shows up to me as reality drama television with an emotional bait. We can get caught up debating about these two people and his validity or her validity, but it doesn't matter. For me, I see this - I go through the cycle, see (the internal contraction i have about the situation), know (see space within the contraction), and let go (enjoy the spaciousness of not actually getting attached to this arrangement of energy), and enjoy Then the situation doesnt matter. Not that it isn't happening, but that - these people are not releasing. They are caught in some way. And psychologically and philosophically we can go into all the reasons why. But I think , its just contraction. He's contracted. She's contracted. There's a problem.

Brother, this seems like a waste of attention. In my opinion. This kind of glamour reality television deserves to be ignored and disregarded. Why waste any thought on some petty dispute between two people? One is a liar, the other may be vain. Who cares. They got into this mess because 1: lying. 2. Vanity. and 3. This looks staged. "Why waste any thought on some petty dispute between two people" This isn't rhetorical actually, though i initially meant it to be. I'm genuinely curious about your perspective. Though I frame it in a potentially negative way, I'm open to a reframe. I personally see it as a petty dispute not worth attention.

Compassion has helped me deal with difficult to stop behaviors. Non judgement. What kind of meditation are you doing?

@Natasha Tori Maru Yea this makes a lot of sense. @Lyubov It sounds like you had a healthy relationship with your teacher. I see why it would work well to have a teacher give you the skills, then encourage you to go practice on your own for awhile. I'm experiencing something similar. It can be a trap to get involved in a never ending treadmill of new skills and teachings. Dependency in a way. @Jodistrict I see the benefit in a gentle hierarchy based on recognizing a difference in expertise, while still acknowledging our common humanity. I like the term spiritual friends or sangha. Respecting the sovereignty of eachother, while still being in community. Even when the gap in skills, knowledge, wisdom, etc etc could be large. @Olaf As an example: I am impressed by someone like Damo Mitchel. After close to 50 years of dedicated practice and mastery in the arts, he sees his teacher, who introspects and reflects with him about his intentions, actions , failures and successes, and the responsibility he has as a teacher, and guides his development. He speaks openly and advocates for teachers even at the highest levels. His humility inspires a sense of humility in me. ----- I think too that having no teacher and sourcing through the path with the tools you have is fine too. But you could say that a forum like this is kind of like a sangha, where we are collectively guiding eachother, whether directly or indirectly. So though we may not have a dedicated teacher, we are still learning through osmosis through relationship. ----- Imo, it's kind of an art - trying to figure out your own path and what works for you.

Hyperion was really good