<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" version="2.0"> <channel> <title>Miscellaneous</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_category?p_l_id=&amp;mbCategoryId=10278</link> <description>If you can't figure out how to categorize it, try here.</description> <pubDate>Sun, 19 Oct 2014 01:13:34 GMT</pubDate> <dc:date>2014-10-19T01:13:34Z</dc:date> <item> <title>RE: I wanted to delete a post, instead I delete the whole thread!</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5606985</link> <description>Thanks Beoman, it must be the refresh of my PC then. Still know when when I look at My Posts, the thread has vanished. I&amp;#039;ll reboot the computer, and everything will be alright. Thanks again.</description> <pubDate>Sat, 18 Oct 2014 23:10:13 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5606985</guid> <dc:creator>Pablo . P</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-18T23:10:13Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: I wanted to delete a post, instead I delete the whole thread!</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5606927</link> <description>The thread is still available, see &lt;a href="http&amp;#x3a;&amp;#x2f;&amp;#x2f;www&amp;#x2e;dharmaoverground&amp;#x2e;org&amp;#x2f;web&amp;#x2f;guest&amp;#x2f;discussion&amp;#x2f;-&amp;#x2f;message_boards&amp;#x2f;view_message&amp;#x2f;4620018"&gt;this link&lt;/a&gt;.</description> <pubDate>Sat, 18 Oct 2014 22:12:49 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5606927</guid> <dc:creator>Beoman Claudiu Dragon Emu Fire Golem</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-18T22:12:49Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: I wanted to delete a post, instead I delete the whole thread!</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5606907</link> <description>Thanks for your help. My thread is &amp;#034;Pablo&amp;#039;s Zen/Taoist Practice Log&amp;#034;, and you won&amp;#039;t find it in the Practice Logs section. Please see attachment below. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;How it happened? As any new post was added as a reply to the previous, after nearly 30 posts the identation was reaching the right side, so I made a reply to the original first post of the thread. After posting it, I tried to edit the fonts but didn&amp;#039;t manage to, so I decided to delete the entire entry and post it again. But when I delete that post, the whole thread dissapeared. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If it&amp;#039;s impossible to recovery it, don&amp;#039;t worry, I&amp;#039;ll re-enter the whole thread.</description> <pubDate>Sat, 18 Oct 2014 21:56:40 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5606907</guid> <dc:creator>Pablo . P</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-18T21:56:40Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: I wanted to delete a post, instead I delete the whole thread!</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5606879</link> <description>I&amp;#039;ll second Beomans question and ask how did you go about deleting the thread? Deleting single posts is unrecoverable but that doesn&amp;#039;t remove the whole thread (unless perhaps it was a single post thread?). Deleting an entire thread is recoverable, but I checked the deleted threads and didn&amp;#039;t find one from you.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Simon</description> <pubDate>Sat, 18 Oct 2014 21:09:32 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5606879</guid> <dc:creator>Simon Ekstrand</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-18T21:09:32Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: I wanted to delete a post, instead I delete the whole thread!</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5606841</link> <description>&lt;div class="quote-title"&gt;Pablo . P:&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="quote"&gt;&lt;div class="quote-content"&gt;Fortunately, I had a copy of the thread, my practice log. But, how is it possible to recover it from the system? &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;Hmm I&amp;#039;ve asked Simon before and he said deleted stuff is unrecoverable. But did you click &amp;#034;Delete Thread&amp;#034; or you just deleted the top post? If you just delete a post it shouldn&amp;#039;t delete the whole thread.. and you shouldn&amp;#039;t be able to delete other people&amp;#039;s posts if they were in your thread, I don&amp;#039;t think.</description> <pubDate>Sat, 18 Oct 2014 20:47:22 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5606841</guid> <dc:creator>Beoman Claudiu Dragon Emu Fire Golem</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-18T20:47:22Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>I wanted to delete a post, instead I delete the whole thread!</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5606726</link> <description>Fortunately, I had a copy of the thread, my practice log. But, how is it possible to recover it from the system? </description> <pubDate>Sat, 18 Oct 2014 16:40:01 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5606726</guid> <dc:creator>Pablo . P</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-18T16:40:01Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Vipasanna experiences with toddlers</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5605426</link> <description>This is a cool topic. My son is turning 6 in December. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I think there is a really interesting balance between simply creating a safe place for him to learn to regulate himself and learn to implement the values of our family and culture, and planting little dharma seeds. In some cases these things really dovetail: like impermanence and the equation clinging=suffering are pretty easy for a kid to grasp, in practice, and appreciate the significance of in terms of being happy and kind. Your example with the plastic toy and song is great and i think just being able to sow a seed with a little phrase like that is an excellent way to do it. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;No-self IS more difficult in this context as at this stage of development I think it&amp;#039;s really important for kids to develop a stable sense of being someone. So how to let that happen in a more porous, flexible way is an interesting question. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That said, I also think that individuals are born geared to having very different styles of identification. For instance, I&amp;#039;ve always felt my identity as more of a complex of partially overlapping situational identities and I&amp;#039;ve always had a sense of how my actual being exceeds my identities. Some folks have a much more solid stable identity from the get go, and my son appears more like this. He&amp;#039;s very hard-headed whereas I am more dreamy. He&amp;#039;s very physically handy and can allready provide actual help with little tasks around the house and I&amp;#039;m pretty bad at handy household things by nature. He&amp;#039;s attracted to sports and I never was. All these differences in ways of being mean that I simply don&amp;#039;t know what&amp;#039;s the &amp;#039;best&amp;#039; way to raise him to be a healthy, reasonably happy adult much less be his dharma teacher (which is a role I don&amp;#039;t take with anyone else, either, anyway!). So for me there are obviously plenty of lessons as well in terms of adjusting expectations and providing a space for him to develop in his own way rather than trying to direct his development. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So ultimately I think I look at it more in terms of giving him a sort of baseline of internal skills around being aware of his own states, being responsible for how he acts those states out, but basically being OK with whatever feelings are coming up and learning that feelings, impulses, etc. don&amp;#039;t have to automatically be translated into action. I think this plants seeds of seeing that &amp;#034;I am not (limited to...) whatever is coming up at the moment&amp;#034;. There is an interesting parallel between the psychoanalytic concept of &amp;#039;ego strength&amp;#039; and the Buddhist concept of &amp;#039;mindfulness&amp;#039; in that ego strength simply means the ability to non-reactively be aware of one&amp;#039;s own feelings, thoughts etc in real time without defensiveness. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So I think rather than trying to teach him insight practice or principles for me it&amp;#039;s simply about raising (reasonably) healthy happy kids with good ego strength. This will naturally lay foundations that will be optimal for them if they later choose to pursue insight (such as a stable mind with low reactivity, good ability for delayed gratification, self-awareness without excessive self-judgement, a sense of the difference between co-dependance, a fantasy of hyperindendence, and the actuality of interdependence, etc.).</description> <pubDate>Wed, 15 Oct 2014 12:51:18 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5605426</guid> <dc:creator>. Jake .</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-15T12:51:18Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Vipasanna experiences with toddlers</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5605083</link> <description>Father of three checking in here. I have a 4 year old son with autism, a two year old daughter, and a newborn. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Having kids is like super-morality training. It is an experience of surrender and love that is beyond anything I have ever encountered before in this life. Training in morality is obviously very beneficial, as it provides a basis for powerful sitting practice. Metta is ridiculously easy with kids.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As for the insight aspect of things...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Impermanence-- this one takes time, but it is easy when you tune into it. Your children get older every day. They outgrow diaper sizes, clothes, they learn to speak, they develop new habits as they grow up. It feels like just yesterday I was watching my son being born, and now he is four. The older they get, the faster they grow, and experiences transfigurate into memories faster than you can comprehend, becoming only mental images and feelings of the past.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Suffering-- this one is fairly easy as well. Babies cry a lot. Toddlers fall and throw tantrums. The cry of my children prompts an immediate quivering of the heart-- profound compassion.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;No-self-- the trickiest, as it tends to be. The only experience I can offer here is looking into the eyes of a child and seeing sentience staring back at you.</description> <pubDate>Tue, 14 Oct 2014 23:42:27 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5605083</guid> <dc:creator>Eric M W</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-14T23:42:27Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Vipasanna experiences with toddlers</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5605053</link> <description>I have a 3.0 year old child (no siblings yet) and I&amp;#039;m interested in bring the dharma/vipasanna into the way I interact with him.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I am fully involved in my own Vipasanna meditation practice so that I am more present and responsive in a helpful, authentic, playful, perceptive and expressive way when with him.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This post is about specific situations that always come up with kids, and how to shape his environment and respond and model in ways that experientially informs the little guys understand the truth of the world he lives in.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For example, a friend said to me: &amp;#034;having a sibling is worth a million meditation classes&amp;#034;.  His point of course is that having a little sib enhances entropy in a way that is very &amp;#039;impermanence&amp;#039; informing.  Also, he would see plenty of examples of compassion for suffering, cause those new babies have a lot to be uncomfortable about.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Another much simpler example is: we listen to a music CD in the car and there are some tracks that toddler does not like.  He says &amp;#034;I don&amp;#039;t like that song, would you change it?&amp;#034; (He&amp;#039;s a very good talker for his age).  I used to figure, just change it (or delete it from the song list).  Now I do something different, I say &amp;#034;It will be over in just a minute, I&amp;#039;ll turn it down just a bit&amp;#034;, then I turn it down a noticeable but not muting amount.  I think this is a way of having the experience of choosing the non-suffering option of hearing a song he does not like.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Another: it occurred to me that plastic toys (they break) is a frequent lesson impermanence; I say something like &amp;#034;you never know how long something is going to last&amp;#034;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;No-self:&lt;br /&gt; This is a hard one for me to understand myself, let alone help a child understand.  But I do have one idea: that is to look for situations where a tangible thing that is desirable and needs cultivation is utterly dependent on a shared effort.  For example, keeping a ball in the air in beach ball.  For myself, I find that I do better at keeping the ball in the air by recognizing that no one person has ownership of the results, but every-bodies participation is required.  This is hard with the 3 year old because beach ball is really about chasing the ball as it rolls away.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&amp;#039;m not looking for scriptures here, I&amp;#039;m looking for other parents or relatives of kids who have found ways to interact with a child in a way that fosters natural awareness of impermanence, imbalance, non-self.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Matt</description> <pubDate>Tue, 14 Oct 2014 22:38:55 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5605053</guid> <dc:creator>the real matt</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-14T22:38:55Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Hello there!</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5603555</link> <description>how to search the Dho (Dharma overground) &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Google this ---&amp;gt; site:http://www.dharmaoverground.org searchterm&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Tons of questions already answered. &lt;br /&gt;Good Luck,&lt;br /&gt;~D</description> <pubDate>Sun, 12 Oct 2014 16:32:10 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5603555</guid> <dc:creator>Dream Walker</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-12T16:32:10Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Hello there!</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5603546</link> <description>Thank you Katy!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Very nicely put. Failing in public is indeed often a scary concept... failing publicly online - even more so. &lt;br /&gt;But I&amp;#039;ve been trying to welcome the failure as much as success.&lt;br /&gt;If/when someone wants to take that as an opportunty to attack or otherwise act in an &amp;#034;unskilful&amp;#034; way I try to remember that&amp;#039;s a problem for them, and it doesn&amp;#039;t have to be mine.</description> <pubDate>Sun, 12 Oct 2014 16:10:53 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5603546</guid> <dc:creator>Doug M</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-12T16:10:53Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Hello there!</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5603541</link> <description>Thanks folks I apprecaite the welcome!&lt;br /&gt;I&amp;#039;ve made a bit into the book and I&amp;#039;m really enjoying it.&lt;br /&gt;(which is a blessing and a curse as I&amp;#039;m also enjoying about three others.) &lt;img alt="emoticon" src="http://www.dharmaoverground.org/dho-theme/images/emoticons/happy.gif" &gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Lots of questions already coming up from the book, but will read more and re-read some before inudating everyone with them. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Thanks again!&lt;br /&gt;Doug</description> <pubDate>Sun, 12 Oct 2014 16:07:32 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5603541</guid> <dc:creator>Doug M</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-12T16:07:32Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Routines?</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5603287</link> <description>Aloha Friends,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I want to learn what everybody&amp;#039;s daily routines are, if any. Morning, mid-day, evenings? &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Do you have a routine that you stick you religiously? Or do you just &amp;#034;go with the flow&amp;#034; and do whatever feels right in the moment?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I remember reading a well-known Advaita teacher&amp;#039;s book, and he says he usually does not have any plans for the day, except to perhaps spend a couple hours in a nice town (or something like that). I know lots of monks have good routines that keep them disciplined. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I am going through a phase of lots of restlessness and a lack of discipline, and want to get back on the discipline train. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Any thoughts and ideas are greatly appreciated.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Be Happy!</description> <pubDate>Sun, 12 Oct 2014 06:25:05 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5603287</guid> <dc:creator>Be Free Now</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-12T06:25:05Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Looking for noting pong comrades</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5603055</link> <description>&lt;div class="quote-title"&gt;Derek Cameron:&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="quote"&gt;&lt;div class="quote-content"&gt;I have downloaded and installed the app. However, it&amp;#039;s too late to try it out tonight. It&amp;#039;ll have to be over the weekend.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That&amp;#039;s great. Buddha Pong is an exciting project. The 10 minutes format and the random pairing make it very convivial to use. </description> <pubDate>Sat, 11 Oct 2014 20:15:02 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5603055</guid> <dc:creator>Simon T.</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-11T20:15:02Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: DhO Addiction</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602928</link> <description>The way I see it, our minds are going to be filled with some sort of garbage, so it might as well be skillful garbage that&amp;#039;s conducive to freedom from garbage.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That&amp;#039;s my deep thought for the day.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;-T</description> <pubDate>Sat, 11 Oct 2014 15:52:11 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602928</guid> <dc:creator>Teague</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-11T15:52:11Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: DhO Addiction</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602871</link> <description>Haha, I wasn&amp;#039;t being that serious, guys.  It&amp;#039;s a good addiction, it&amp;#039;s making me practice more. &lt;img alt="emoticon" src="http://www.dharmaoverground.org/dho-theme/images/emoticons/closed_eyes.gif" &gt;</description> <pubDate>Sat, 11 Oct 2014 11:15:08 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602871</guid> <dc:creator>Not Tao</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-11T11:15:08Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: DhO Addiction</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602846</link> <description>Further to Morgan&amp;#039;s suggestion: it&amp;#039;s very normal. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So, like with Internet surfing, one can just start carving out small tracks of time (like 5 minutes) to not be online and enjoy sensateness: sitting on couch, taking walk, just-eating meal. But, regardless, I think it will pass-- that a person gets fed up with the site/being online and rejects it all naturally-- then comes back and so go these little cycles which expand and contract in time-in, time-away, gone, here. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And if you stay &amp;#034;obsessed&amp;#034; with it, well, there are people who just do one thing exclusively and they are usually pretty talented about it. So that&amp;#039;s okay, too, to become/be that &amp;#034;I do this one thing&amp;#034; person.</description> <pubDate>Sat, 11 Oct 2014 10:35:59 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602846</guid> <dc:creator>katy steger</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-11T10:35:59Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: DhO Addiction</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602838</link> <description>&lt;a href="https&amp;#x3a;&amp;#x2f;&amp;#x2f;www&amp;#x2e;youtube&amp;#x2e;com&amp;#x2f;watch&amp;#x3f;v&amp;#x3d;i288Lnb7NOk"&gt;This Shinzen clip&lt;/a&gt; worked for me, to decrease discussing and increase meditation.</description> <pubDate>Sat, 11 Oct 2014 08:47:28 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602838</guid> <dc:creator>Morgan Kauppi</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-11T08:47:28Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>DhO Addiction</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602821</link> <description>Anyone know a cure? &lt;img alt="emoticon" src="http://www.dharmaoverground.org/dho-theme/images/emoticons/closed_eyes.gif" &gt;</description> <pubDate>Sat, 11 Oct 2014 08:33:47 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602821</guid> <dc:creator>Not Tao</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-11T08:33:47Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Looking for noting pong comrades</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602791</link> <description>I have downloaded and installed the app. However, it&amp;#039;s too late to try it out tonight. It&amp;#039;ll have to be over the weekend.</description> <pubDate>Sat, 11 Oct 2014 06:03:26 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602791</guid> <dc:creator>Derek Cameron</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-11T06:03:26Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Hello there!</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602728</link> <description>&lt;div class="quote-title"&gt;Teague:&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="quote"&gt;&lt;div class="quote-content"&gt;Ah, I remember when I stumbled upon this site.  I felt like it was just the bunch of Dharma renegades I was looking for.  People who would tell it to me straight and not beat around the bush.  As dreamwalker said, check out the book.  You can also get a hard copy from Amazon.&lt;br /&gt;-T&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I second that. I got a hardcopy on Amazon recently and the quality of the book, print, etc. is great. It&amp;#039;s a longer book than I thought too. </description> <pubDate>Sat, 11 Oct 2014 02:23:50 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602728</guid> <dc:creator>heath</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-11T02:23:50Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Looking for noting pong comrades</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602687</link> <description>&lt;div class="quote-title"&gt;Dream Walker:&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="quote"&gt;&lt;div class="quote-content"&gt;hey, that appear.in looks pretty cool...does it work well?&lt;br /&gt;~D&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I tried it earlier and it was surprisingly easy to use. I was looking for an easy way for people to connect to each others. &lt;strike&gt;Video quality isn&amp;#039;t very good (t&lt;/strike&gt;ried it again and realised that the problem was my camera. Quality is pretty good) but we don&amp;#039;t activate video in noting pong anyway. Sound quality was good enough. It doesn&amp;#039;t work with Explorer but works with recent version of Chrome, Firefox, and Opera, even on Android. They have an iPhone app too. It use WebRTC which is a new standard for voice and video chat. Buddha Pong is based on the same technology and there is many providers for WebRTC right now but appear.in is the most easy to use as it doesn&amp;#039;t requires any sign-in.</description> <pubDate>Sat, 11 Oct 2014 00:58:50 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602687</guid> <dc:creator>Simon T.</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-11T00:58:50Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Looking for noting pong comrades</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602680</link> <description>hey, that appear.in looks pretty cool...does it work well?&lt;br /&gt;~D</description> <pubDate>Sat, 11 Oct 2014 00:35:03 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602680</guid> <dc:creator>Dream Walker</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-11T00:35:03Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Looking for noting pong comrades</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602655</link> <description>I started doing noting pong using Kenneth&amp;#039;s Buddha Pong app and I&amp;#039;m truly impress by the results. Each sessions leaded to notable release of tensions. Noting pong appears to be a nice remedy to many challenges we face in equanimity, being lost in thoughts, boredom, not knowing where do go, etc. It&amp;#039;s probably effective in other stages as well. The interaction is truly keeping me alert and the little social anxiey associated with it become a good way to make stress bubble up so it can be released. I had lost the habit of doing noting in my everyday life but social noting is nicely conditioning my mind to allow me to note during everyday activities. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Following Kenneth example, I started doing detailed noting (only pairs for now) and there is indeed great potential with this approach:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http&amp;#x3a;&amp;#x2f;&amp;#x2f;kennethfolkdharma&amp;#x2e;com&amp;#x2f;2010&amp;#x2f;08&amp;#x2f;detailed-noting-is-better&amp;#x2f;"&gt;http://kennethfolkdharma.com/2010/08/detailed-noting-is-better/&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href="http&amp;#x3a;&amp;#x2f;&amp;#x2f;kennethfolkdharma&amp;#x2e;com&amp;#x2f;2013&amp;#x2f;06&amp;#x2f;1571&amp;#x2f;"&gt;http://kennethfolkdharma.com/2013/06/1571/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you have an iPhone, I invite you to install Buddha Pong but for those that cannot use it or want to connect using another system, I invite you to contact me as I have a lot of free time to practice using this technique but there is not always someone available. We can use Line, Skype, Hangouts or &lt;a href="https&amp;#x3a;&amp;#x2f;&amp;#x2f;appear&amp;#x2e;in&amp;#x2f;"&gt;https://appear.in/&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Text me in the chat or send me a private message if you are interested.</description> <pubDate>Fri, 10 Oct 2014 23:33:08 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602655</guid> <dc:creator>Simon T.</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-10T23:33:08Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Hello there!</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602648</link> <description>Ah, I remember when I stumbled upon this site.  I felt like it was just the bunch of Dharma renegades I was looking for.  People who would tell it to me straight and not beat around the bush.  As dreamwalker said, check out the book.  You can also get a hard copy from Amazon.&lt;br /&gt;-T</description> <pubDate>Fri, 10 Oct 2014 23:20:00 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602648</guid> <dc:creator>Teague</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-10T23:20:00Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Hello there!</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602577</link> <description>Hi Doug, &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Yes,  welcome to the forum!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="quote"&gt;&lt;div class="quote-content"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #111111"&gt;Still have LOTS to learn. Lots to do.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I wanted to add a biological tidbit: &lt;br /&gt;So sometimes fear is the reason for coming to meditation and sometimes fear comes up in meditation.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You may know this, but when we trigger fear through either hypervigilance (constantly anticipating a threat) or through an actual hazard, the the brain is said to shut down to the brain stem and some amygdala function. And we know this is happening by three things. We find ourselves:&lt;br /&gt;a) in a fight (physically or emotionally)&lt;br /&gt;b) in a flight (same: retreating physically or emotionally) and/or&lt;br /&gt;c) in a freeze-- we become immobile.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The brainstem and amygdala are small &amp;#034;learners&amp;#034; relative to the rest of the brain. So if there&amp;#039;s threat/fear arising, then one can take up long, slow deep breathing to help recover the use of the WHOLE brain and get out of the limited brainstem.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And another really common fear that arises in a community setting is making a mistake in front of people. Boo! So I want to welcome you by sharing two mistakes and helping to ensure that DhO is a safe place for learning and, naturally, making mistakes, which are a great sign that curiousity and learning are happening. So, one, I made a mistake this morning and didn&amp;#039;t see irritation arising, so I communicated a little testily. And, two, I got very into long sits a year ago and didn&amp;#039;t walk enough: now I do a lot of yoga for piriformis tenderness. So I keep my whole brain available to learning by saying, &amp;#034;Okay, one mistake was fear-driven: I sort of fought. And the other mistake was just a natural learning mistake: my body had a limited to sitting last fall so now I put meditation everywhere I can and sit fewer long sessions.&amp;#034;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Welcome &lt;img alt="emoticon" src="http://www.dharmaoverground.org/dho-theme/images/emoticons/happy.gif" &gt;</description> <pubDate>Fri, 10 Oct 2014 21:37:05 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602577</guid> <dc:creator>katy steger</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-10T21:37:05Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Looking for a specific thread</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602463</link> <description>This does not make a local copy...it&amp;#039;s a snapshot from a time...stored for you.&lt;br /&gt;way back machine&lt;br /&gt;http://archive.org/web/&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;~D</description> <pubDate>Fri, 10 Oct 2014 17:53:49 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602463</guid> <dc:creator>Dream Walker</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-10T17:53:49Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Hello there!</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602388</link> <description>&lt;div class="quote-title"&gt;Doug M:&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="quote"&gt;&lt;div class="quote-content"&gt;It&amp;#039;s a little overwhelming as there&amp;#039;s so much here, but that&amp;#039;s a good problem to have!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A good place to start is by reading Daniel&amp;#039;s book MCTB. Here is the link -&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http&amp;#x3a;&amp;#x2f;&amp;#x2f;www&amp;#x2e;dharmaoverground&amp;#x2e;org&amp;#x2f;web&amp;#x2f;guest&amp;#x2f;dharma-wiki&amp;#x2f;-&amp;#x2f;wiki&amp;#x2f;Main&amp;#x2f;MCTB&amp;#x2b;"&gt;Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha,&lt;br /&gt; an Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book, &lt;br /&gt;by Daniel Ingram&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Lots of good stuff in there and most of the people here use the vocabulary if nothing else.&lt;br /&gt;Welcome to the forum&lt;br /&gt;~D</description> <pubDate>Fri, 10 Oct 2014 16:10:36 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602388</guid> <dc:creator>Dream Walker</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-10T16:10:36Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Hello there!</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602374</link> <description>Hi folks,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Wanted to find a spot to introduce myself without getting in the way of more focused conversations so &amp;#034;misc&amp;#034; seemed appropriate. &lt;img alt="emoticon" src="http://www.dharmaoverground.org/dho-theme/images/emoticons/happy.gif" &gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I heard Dan on a podcast this morning and after a google search found this site.&lt;br /&gt;I can&amp;#039;t wait to dig into it.&lt;br /&gt;It&amp;#039;s a little overwhelming as there&amp;#039;s so much here, but that&amp;#039;s a good problem to have!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&amp;#039;m a relative noob, and it&amp;#039;s hard sometimes to find truly good groups and teachers outside of the major metros.&lt;br /&gt;I&amp;#039;m hopoing this site may help fill that gap for me.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;u&gt;Some &amp;#034;about me&amp;#034; stuff if you&amp;#039;re interested...&lt;/u&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Been playing around with meditating (on/off/on) for a while, but only got serious about a legit practice earlier this year. Along with that came a desire dig into it and understand all the &amp;#034;Eastern/Buddhist stuff&amp;#034; behind it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I had tired of the most obvious spirituality choices presented to me as a westerner, and was instantly drawn to the practicality of Buddhist thought. I was focusing in on the Theravada flavors at the time, and the fact that it boiled down to techniques to be tried/experienced vs. blindly accepted (the lack of dogma) was amazing to me. That it was all done with a goal of living better here and now was refreshing.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I was impressed that the practice of these “Buddhist teachings” were completely compatible with any belief system &amp;#x2013; or the lack of one. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Since then I&amp;#039;ve been reading, studying, and practicing.&lt;br /&gt;Seen unquestionable improvements in how I feel, and how I react to the people &amp;amp; world around me.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Still have LOTS to learn. Lots to do.&lt;br /&gt;Looking forward to it.</description> <pubDate>Fri, 10 Oct 2014 15:51:33 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602374</guid> <dc:creator>Doug M</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-10T15:51:33Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Looking for a specific thread</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602222</link> <description>&lt;u&gt;ftw (&lt;/u&gt;10/9/14 5:54 AM as a replyto Chris J Macie.)&lt;span style="color: #0000ff"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: #0000ff"&gt;&amp;#034;Use program like wget. It runs under windows also.&amp;#034;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http&amp;#x3a;&amp;#x2f;&amp;#x2f;www&amp;#x2e;dharmaoverground&amp;#x2e;org&amp;#x2f;c&amp;#x2f;my_sites&amp;#x2f;view&amp;#x3f;groupId&amp;#x3d;10186&amp;#x26;privateLayout&amp;#x3d;0"&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Daniel M. Ingram &lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (10/9/14 7:22 AM as a reply to Chris J Macie. )&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: #0000ff"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: #0000ff"&gt;&amp;#034;I do recommend one of those site-scraping programs, as, while it might be possible to get you a copy of the database, … takes technical&lt;br /&gt;expertise that is hard to find…&amp;#034;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http&amp;#x3a;&amp;#x2f;&amp;#x2f;www&amp;#x2e;dharmaoverground&amp;#x2e;org&amp;#x2f;c&amp;#x2f;my_sites&amp;#x2f;view&amp;#x3f;groupId&amp;#x3d;2251129&amp;#x26;privateLayout&amp;#x3d;0"&gt;&lt;u&gt;Simon Ekstrand &lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (10/9/14 1:22 PM as a reply to Daniel M. Ingram.)&lt;span style="color: #0000ff"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: #0000ff"&gt;&amp;#034;… impractical from several perspectives…&amp;#034;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;#034;Using something like wget to create a mirror … though … its own set of&lt;br /&gt;problems …&amp;#034;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Wget sounds like it could be generally useful. (There&amp;#039;s a &amp;#039;wgrep&amp;#039; program that runs in Windows and has proven useful &amp;#x2013; as the native Windows search function becomes more and more decrepit with each release.) So far I&amp;#039;ve not found a similarly packaged application for wget &amp;#x2013; just open-source code etc. that a Unix-savy programmer could use to generate such.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I guess using &amp;#039;Save page as…&amp;#039;(Firefox or Safari) does work well-enough.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;(20 years ago, I&amp;#039;d have hacked out a Smalltalk-80 application, using the VisualWorks Wave www interface, and got the job done in a few dozen (&amp;#034;or so&amp;#034;) lines of code, in a couple of hours (&amp;#034;or so&amp;#034;). But that moment is long gone. Hi-tech geekery is such a splended lesson in the workings of &lt;em&gt;anicca&lt;/em&gt;. Since then (and having retired from the software industry), I&amp;#039;ve found the &lt;em&gt;Abhidhamma&lt;/em&gt; a more rewarding playground for the systematic bent of mind (Enneagram type 5, some would say), and, whatever the mostly under-informed critics may say,&lt;em&gt; Abhidhamma&lt;/em&gt; is ultimately about practice.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Thanks for seriously considering the issue.</description> <pubDate>Fri, 10 Oct 2014 10:23:16 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5602222</guid> <dc:creator>Chris J Macie</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-10T10:23:16Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Looking for a specific thread</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5601839</link> <description>Regarding distributing the DhO Liferay database I think that would be impractical from several perspectives. One is as Daniel mentioned that it takes quite a bit of technical knowledge to do anything useful with it, getting a running liferay installation using the database is quite a bit of work. It would also be impractical from a privacy standpoint as the database contains things like account information, private messages etc. that would need to be scrubbed first.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One possible option is generating a simple static version of the DhO forum content from the database that could be exported for offline use. However I am unsure if there would be enough interest in an offline version of the forum to warrant the time needed for that. If there is serious interest in an offline downloadable version I could probably get this done with a reasonable amount of effort, though with a new baby at home time availability is sporadic.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Using something like wget to create a mirror as has been previously suggested might be a good idea, though I suspect that would run into its own set of problems and take quite a bit of time and bandwidth.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Simon</description> <pubDate>Thu, 09 Oct 2014 18:22:32 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5601839</guid> <dc:creator>Simon Ekstrand</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-09T18:22:32Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Looking for a specific thread</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5601583</link> <description>In reality, it is me as administrator, etc, with a group of moderators, a few people who volunteer for tech support, a few people who sometimes get paid to do more heavy-lifting Liferay specific programming, and this fine community of people who help keep it all together. I am doing fine with the place, but do wish that the recent spasm of hyper-psychological fixation would subside, as I find it taxing and a distraction from the things I care most about.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I do recommend one of those site-scraping programs, as, while it might be possible to get you a copy of the database, I doubt it would be in a format you could read unless you wanted to use it to create your own Liferay on a local server in your home, which takes technical expertise that is hard to find, I can tell you.</description> <pubDate>Thu, 09 Oct 2014 12:22:28 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5601583</guid> <dc:creator>Daniel M. Ingram</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-09T12:22:28Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Looking for a specific thread</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5601562</link> <description>Use program like wget. It runs under windows also.</description> <pubDate>Thu, 09 Oct 2014 10:54:21 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5601562</guid> <dc:creator>ftw</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-09T10:54:21Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Looking for a specific thread</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5601480</link> <description>Not sure where to pose this question, so here goes here...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Is it possible to download the complete DhO website? to be able to browse it off-line. (I don&amp;#039;t have my own direct internet account, and the one I use isn&amp;#039;t as reliable as it could be.) I.e. the model here might be like &amp;#039;accesstoinsight&amp;#039; allows downloading the whole thing, as it is at the moment (a vipassana &amp;#039;snapshot&amp;#039;?), for off-line grazing. Also, but much more static in nature, the &lt;em&gt;Chaṭṭha Saṅgāyana Tipitaka&lt;/em&gt; Version 4.0 (CST4), but this only for Windows OS, i.e. not browser-based.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http&amp;#x3a;&amp;#x2f;&amp;#x2f;www&amp;#x2e;dharmaoverground&amp;#x2e;org&amp;#x2f;web&amp;#x2f;guest&amp;#x2f;discussion&amp;#x2f;-&amp;#x2f;message_boards&amp;#x2f;view_message&amp;#x2f;5570015&amp;#x23;_19_message_5570015"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Also, am not sure how to get questions like these to the proper &amp;#039;authorities&amp;#039; in DhO -- the only email is Daniel&amp;#039;s. It that where to inquire? &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If so, ok, but I would have thought such stuff might be a bit delegated, committee, or whatnot, as Daniel&amp;#039;s either got incredible (&amp;#039;immeasurable&amp;#039;?) energy (to hold down the ER, family, writing, reading this stuff, moderating, traveling, speaking,...), or he might burn-out one day, and this all fizzle away... in a wisp of &lt;em&gt;anicca&lt;/em&gt; dust...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Chris Macie</description> <pubDate>Thu, 09 Oct 2014 07:18:33 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5601480</guid> <dc:creator>Chris J Macie</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-09T07:18:33Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Common grounds visitor in Minnesota, coming out of the lurker closet.</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5601150</link> <description>Thanks for for the warm responses.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;@Jane,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I would definitely be down to meeting up with other practitioners in Minnesota. Common Grounds is pretty well run from what I&amp;#039;ve experienced. Anyways, Let me know what you think in terms of a Minnesota meetup. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;@Daniel, &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I can only hope so. I personally skirt the edges of openness about practice with people and talking about attainments, magick, and such at common grounds, some are into it and many aren&amp;#039;t. It may be simply my own bias (As someone who is 26), but it seems from what I can tell the younger people at a place like common grounds, are more serious about practice on average than the baby boomers, but that could be my self-selection bias in who I socialize with. But I have found decent receptivity towards the more open, serious, pragmatic attitudes. That bridge isn&amp;#039;t there yet, but I think it has a good chance to happen in time.</description> <pubDate>Wed, 08 Oct 2014 18:01:10 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5601150</guid> <dc:creator>Ryan Kenneth Johnson</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-08T18:01:10Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Common grounds visitor in Minnesota, coming out of the lurker closet.</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5601056</link> <description>Another Minnesotan here! I know Mark Nunberg well (was even on retreat with him and two other people at IMS last summer) and would love to get together with others nearby, if you all are so inclined. I also will be going to Buddhist a Geeks the weekend after next. I&amp;#039;ve talked with Mark about Daniel&amp;#039;s work, and he has positive things to say about pragmatic dharma. So, maybe that bridge is not too far off in the future. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And BTW, Common Ground is one of my favorite places in the world. Not kidding. </description> <pubDate>Wed, 08 Oct 2014 13:36:40 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5601056</guid> <dc:creator>Jane Laurel Carrington</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-08T13:36:40Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Common grounds visitor in Minnesota, coming out of the lurker closet.</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5600967</link> <description>I am glad you have gotten something out of the community and its related communities and that your practice sounds like it is going well. Give my best to the IMS kids. Despite a long and rocky history with them, perhaps one day perhaps we will all figure out how to bridge some of the things that divide us and realize more about our commonalities.</description> <pubDate>Wed, 08 Oct 2014 09:22:09 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5600967</guid> <dc:creator>Daniel M. Ingram</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-08T09:22:09Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Common grounds visitor in Minnesota, coming out of the lurker closet.</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5600900</link> <description>Minnesota here too (down south though). &lt;img alt="emoticon" src="http://www.dharmaoverground.org/dho-theme/images/emoticons/closed_eyes.gif" &gt;</description> <pubDate>Wed, 08 Oct 2014 05:01:19 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5600900</guid> <dc:creator>Not Tao</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-08T05:01:19Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Common grounds visitor in Minnesota, coming out of the lurker closet.</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5600884</link> <description>Greetings from the Twin Cities! &lt;img alt="emoticon" src="http://www.dharmaoverground.org/dho-theme/images/emoticons/happy.gif" &gt; (no, I was not that guy)</description> <pubDate>Wed, 08 Oct 2014 04:20:38 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5600884</guid> <dc:creator>Mind over easy</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-08T04:20:38Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Common grounds visitor in Minnesota, coming out of the lurker closet.</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5600809</link> <description>Hey, so I&amp;#039;ve been meaning to post here for awhile, I was hanging around the BuddhistGeeks community sparingly a few months ago. But I was at the local IMS affiliate Common Grounds in Minnesota today with a 1-on-1 interview, and the teacher Mark Nunberg mentioned at the beginning about the person who had their 1-on-1 interview just before me, &amp;#034;so and so was talking about your friend Daniel Ingram...&amp;#034; Which Daniel doesn&amp;#039;t know me as I&amp;#039;ve never posted here or contacted him, but I mentioned him and the DhO when being interviewed about practice at this center previously and have recommended this place to quite a few people IRL.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So I figured that person might be lurking or posting here, so in case I don&amp;#039;t see you at CG as I don&amp;#039;t go there too often, what&amp;#039;s up? It would be great to meet like minded people to talk about practice.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Also, seeing as this is my first post, I&amp;#039;m open to questions about my practice if there are any. I&amp;#039;ve basically been using MCTB and googling &amp;#034;thing I want to know about&amp;#034; + dharma overground via google to find questions pertaining to my current confusion. Shinzen Young is my largest influence in terms of how I think about practice and what techniques I choose. I&amp;#039;ve been meditating coming up 3 years, the first year was casual MBSR stuff, then after I found Shinzen just under 2 years ago I really stepped up time investment, usually 2 hours or so a day. For various reasons I would guess I am at equanimity pre-stream entry in terms of MCTB maps, but it&amp;#039;s hard to say.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And also thanks to Daniel and this community, it has been a huge help to getting serious about practice and from what I can tell doing it right/skillfully/etc., I&amp;#039;m tremendously grateful as a now ex-member of the lurker legion.</description> <pubDate>Tue, 07 Oct 2014 23:58:47 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5600809</guid> <dc:creator>Ryan Kenneth Johnson</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-07T23:58:47Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: What is Sam Harris saying here?</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5599345</link> <description>&lt;div class="quote-title"&gt;Daniel M. Ingram:&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="quote"&gt;&lt;div class="quote-content"&gt;First: Here is a guy who by his own admission did months of practice at least and may have been doing this for years. That is not a beginner. He had, through hard practice, seen something essential and lost it. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;I&amp;#039;m confused by that last bit. What do you mean &amp;#034;lost it&amp;#034;; what did he lose?</description> <pubDate>Sun, 05 Oct 2014 21:36:53 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5599345</guid> <dc:creator>Tee P Kay</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-05T21:36:53Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: What is Sam Harris saying here?</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5599341</link> <description>&lt;div class="quote-title"&gt;Simon T.:&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="quote"&gt;&lt;div class="quote-content"&gt;I would really like to see Sam Harris engage with the pragmatic dharma community. There are definitely people here that could engage him at an high level intellectually and dharma wise. I would also like to see him engage in exchange like the Hurricane Ranch conversations with the wise of the community. Anyone like the idea? Any idea how we could convince of doing such thing?&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;Absolutely (to the &amp;#034;like the idea&amp;#034; part; no idea about the &amp;#034;how&amp;#034; :-) ).&lt;br /&gt;I would love to see a discussion between Daniel and Sam, the way that Sam and Dan Harris had a discussion (only by the sounds of it, Sam is quite a bit further along the path than Dan is).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;While Sam&amp;#039;s book gives a lot less information than Daniel&amp;#039;s does, I think it plugs a gap that Daniels may not have. In fact, I could envisage some kind of progressive reading list, being a guide to beginners:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1. Read Dan Harris &amp;#034;10% Happiness&amp;#034;&lt;br /&gt;then&lt;br /&gt;2. Read Sam Harris &amp;#034;Waking Up&amp;#034;&lt;br /&gt;then&lt;br /&gt;3. Read MCTB&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Except ... hmmm ... WU is pure theory; there is little or no practice in there, whereas MCTB covers a lot of both.&lt;br /&gt;Sigh, I dunno what I&amp;#039;m saying, except that I think Sam&amp;#039;s book is *extremely* important, and I&amp;#039;d like to see him and Daniel in a room talking about ... the stuff.</description> <pubDate>Sun, 05 Oct 2014 21:34:34 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5599341</guid> <dc:creator>Tee P Kay</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-05T21:34:34Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: What is Sam Harris saying here?</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5596023</link> <description>Just FYI--I practice mainly by following Thai Forest meditation guides, such as those by Thanissaro Bhikkhu and Ajaan Lee. I don&amp;#039;t do noting practices at all. I am going to go ahead and say now that, yes, I got stream entry in less than 100 hours, in almost exactly a year, with no teacher, which to me seems pretty fast and effective. However, I will also say that my encounter with the MCTB map of the Progress of Insight and this forum made all the difference in the world to my being able to tweak practice in stage-appropriate ways and progress consequently through Equanimity. I&amp;#039;m just not sure I agree with lumping Thai Forest techniques in with &amp;#034;vipassana-lite.&amp;#034;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Jenny</description> <pubDate>Thu, 02 Oct 2014 04:47:40 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5596023</guid> <dc:creator>_</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-02T04:47:40Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: What is Sam Harris saying here?</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5595831</link> <description>I would really like to see Sam Harris engage with the pragmatic dharma community. There are definitely people here that could engage him at an high level intellectually and dharma wise. I would also like to see him engage in exchange like the Hurricane Ranch conversations with the wise of the community. Anyone like the idea? Any idea how we could convince of doing such thing?</description> <pubDate>Wed, 01 Oct 2014 23:17:59 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5595831</guid> <dc:creator>Simon T.</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-01T23:17:59Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Meditation as a profession?</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5595157</link> <description>I&amp;#039;ve looked into this as well, for the same reason as you-- it&amp;#039;s what I love, and I can&amp;#039;t stand the thought of spending 40 hours a week as a corporate slave when that time could be spent meditating. Here are my thoughts...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Meditation for a living, that&amp;#039;s probably not going to fly in the typical &amp;#034;work to pay bills&amp;#034; routine that most Westerners follow. Who is going to hire you to sit in a room meditate? Many teachers are volunteers, or otherwise live off &lt;em&gt;dana&lt;/em&gt;, generosity of others. However, there are other ways of living in the world outside of the 9-5 grind. If your housing and food is provided, you really don&amp;#039;t need to work in a traditional sense. Whether this means doing extended work retreats at meditation centers, or buying a patch of desert land and trying to live in a self-sustaining off the grid manner, is up to you. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When you think about it, the driving force behind having a job is all the meaningless bills we have to pay. I know a guy who makes about $600 a year and that&amp;#039;s all he needs; he has his own house on a patch of land out in the boonies somewhere. He grows most of his own food, hauls water from a lake, generates his own electricity, and so on. You could certainly live like that.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here&amp;#039;s an option-- write a book about meditation. If it&amp;#039;s good, and a high quality publisher picks it up, you may be able to live off the income of that alone.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you want to score some real money, train in concentration and develop siddhis, then start picking up followers and become a guru. From a morality perspective, this is a terrible idea, but people with no spiritual abilities or insight at all have done this successfully, as sad as that is.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For myself, I don&amp;#039;t think pursuing meditation is a career option, as much as I&amp;#039;d like it to be. I have four kids and they need to be fed once in a while.</description> <pubDate>Wed, 01 Oct 2014 02:01:25 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5595157</guid> <dc:creator>Eric M W</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-10-01T02:01:25Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Meditation as a profession?</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5595074</link> <description>Hey there!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Check out the Center for Mindful Learning&amp;#039;s residential program. I&amp;#039;m there now and it might be exactly what you&amp;#039;re looking for. &lt;img alt="emoticon" src="http://www.dharmaoverground.org/dho-theme/images/emoticons/happy.gif" &gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;www.centerformindfullearning.org is the website, and the residential information lives on www.cedartraining.org. Here&amp;#039;s a direct link to information about the residential program:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;http://www.cedartraining.org/train/residentialtraining/&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Best,&lt;br /&gt;Daniel</description> <pubDate>Tue, 30 Sep 2014 22:26:19 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5595074</guid> <dc:creator>Daniel Andersen Thorson</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-30T22:26:19Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Meditation as a profession?</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5594970</link> <description>Yes, I think your only option is research if you don&amp;#039;t want to be a teacher - most centers are run by volunteers. If you want to do research, you will probably need to go to graduate school. This isn&amp;#039;t so bad, because I&amp;#039;m sure an engineering degree can get you in somewhere for MRI/modeling stuff. However, make sure you understand what a life of meditation research entails (you won&amp;#039;t actually get to meditate more, academia is generally NOT more relaxed than engineering, and the publication mill is not the paragon of purity you might think).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Another somewhat dramatic option is to join a long-term meditation center. I cannot suggest any off the top of my head but other members probably have more experience with retreats. You can basically live there indefinitly but it&amp;#039;s sort of an end-game decision, it&amp;#039;s hard to turn back.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Obsession with meditation to the exclusion of everything else is exceedingly common in pre-path post-A&amp;amp;P, and Daniel Ingram specifically warns to avoid dramatic unrevokable decisions during this time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My honest suggestion would be to make boatloads of money as an engineer and use this to fund extended retreat/downtime to study meditation. Once you have enough experience, it may become more clear what you want to do, and it will be easier to start a career if you already have developed ties with the meditation community.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If the morality thing is really bothering you, consider that the most efficient way to help others in the world is to donate as much as possible to effective charities, rather than actually volunteering yourself.&lt;br /&gt;See for example http://www.givewell.org/&lt;br /&gt;If you disagree with their criteria, then you can donate to meditation research, I guarentee it will be more valuable to progress than working in it yourself (not to discount your abilities).</description> <pubDate>Tue, 30 Sep 2014 20:34:52 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5594970</guid> <dc:creator>David Orion Girardo</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-30T20:34:52Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Meditation as a profession?</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5594942</link> <description>Hi Maher,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What I did first was to ensure that I have enough time to do training a) with teacher/s and b) meditate on my own, (a lot). I think that there are many kinds of meditation teachers out there whose level of experience varies greatly. It is of course up to the person how will it be. Personally, I think that there is no way around the sitting cushion. My advice to you is to find a good teacher or few of them. Then do training with them (perhaps residential), you know, to get you going. Then stick with it for a good period of time. In case you don&amp;#039;t wish to do residential training, then find a way to as little work as possible to get by to pay your bills and at the same time sit a lot. I don&amp;#039;t know if you are familiar or interested in praying, or how it is done in the trad you are familiar with but what I did in my own case was to pray my a*s off for help from the masters of my lineage so that I could have perfect conditions for my training. I spent some time in a monastery but mostly did training on my own while being married, paying rent and so on. What happened was that I worked about 10-15 hours a week and got paid minimum wage for 40 hours. That was perfect. The work wasn&amp;#039;t something I was educated to do but it worked. Then I had other similar jobs over the years. I got a lot of help in subtle form from the tantric masters of my lineage. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If there is a will, there is a way. Best of luck!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Baba</description> <pubDate>Tue, 30 Sep 2014 20:19:57 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5594942</guid> <dc:creator>Kim Katami</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-30T20:19:57Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Meditation as a profession?</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5594783</link> <description>Hi all,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&amp;#039;ve recently graduated college and have been in the process of looking for full time employment and what the hell to do with the rest of my life. People always tell you to pursue what you love, and I do love meditation, vipassana or samatha. It&amp;#039;s actually one of the only things that I feel is &amp;#034;worth&amp;#034; pursuing in a professional fashion. I actually don&amp;#039;t even care about my degree that much at all. (Mechanical Engineering) It feels like any job I pursure would not be ideal for my sila due to the fact that most companies aren&amp;#039;t exactly adept at morality and partake in some morally reprehensible activities. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My question is: do any of you know a way to pursue meditation as a career? I&amp;#039;m not particularly interested in becoming a teacher as I&amp;#039;m pretty certain I haven&amp;#039;t attained  first path, and I don&amp;#039;t think I&amp;#039;m anywhere near qualified. I also don&amp;#039;t like the idea of corporate mindfulness workshops and all that stuff because I think the Dharma should be free of commercialization so it retains it&amp;#039;s purest form. The only thing that really leaves for me is mindfulness and meditation research. Is there anyone who knows how I could get involved or get in touch with someone in the field? Unfortunately, my degree is in Mechanical Engineering, and I do not have a Psychology degree. Do you think that would prevent me from getting a job in research in the field?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If there&amp;#039;s anything I missed about the meditation &amp;#034;industry&amp;#034; or any insights you think I missed, it would be much appreciated if you would share them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Metta</description> <pubDate>Tue, 30 Sep 2014 19:24:13 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5594783</guid> <dc:creator>Maher K</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-30T19:24:13Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: The Usefulness Of Negative Emotions</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5593884</link> <description>I tend to look at negative emotions like the book Focusing by Gendlin. You simply need to understand what the negative emotions are saying and that&amp;#039;s enough. The wants and desires will always be on about something but reality cannot support endless satisfaction because our lives have limitations. I find that accepting failure while following projects is what can keep you sane and moving forward in life. Entitlement will kill you.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The best way for me to evaluate negative emotions is skillfullness. I find the negative emotions draining, (cortisol), and they prevent me from growing and improving. I prefer the Buddhist way because I&amp;#039;m actually getting more work done when I don&amp;#039;t follow habitual preferences. I&amp;#039;ve had plenty of negative emotions in the past and they limit your growth as a person. Negative beliefs involve a negation of action by challenging the worthiness of actions to an extreme. If people gave into negative emotions all the time they would have zero resilience and lay in bed all day.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In the context of positive psychology the lack of negative emotions would only be a problem in rare circumstances (rich people with no real problems). I don&amp;#039;t think that&amp;#039;s a problem in modern society for most people so the error that they make the most is having too little positive emotions and too many ruminating/spinning wheels reactions that stunt their potential.</description> <pubDate>Mon, 29 Sep 2014 16:18:08 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5593884</guid> <dc:creator>Richard Zen</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-29T16:18:08Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>The Usefulness Of Negative Emotions</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5593792</link> <description>There is a new book out right now by the psychologists Todd Kashdan and Robert Biswas-Deiner called &amp;#034;the Upside of your Darkside.&amp;#034; While the two psychologists are both positive psychologists, they believe that a little bit of negativity is good for what they call &amp;#039;wholeness&amp;#039; and that negative emotions such as jealousy, anger , etc can be useful in certain situations. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;All of this of course is based on studies of normal individuals. Not dharma practitioners. So I ask you , especially those who have navigated far along the path if you find negative emotions to be at all useful? What is your relationship to these negative emotions? Do you find them to be irrational?</description> <pubDate>Mon, 29 Sep 2014 14:21:11 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5593792</guid> <dc:creator>Jinxed P</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-29T14:21:11Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: ebb, flow, moon phases and meditation</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5592258</link> <description>&lt;div class="quote-title"&gt;SeTyR ZeN:&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="quote"&gt;&lt;div class="quote-content"&gt;Thank you for your kind replies Jeff, Simon ;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Jeff, prior to theses feelings or habitual patterns, there is a mechanical (as in physics) action, right ? ; I think it exacerbates the feeling of felling, more than generates something ; Habitual patterns are exacerbated by consequence i think too;  I am definitely sure it has its clear influence;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What i&amp;#039;d like to find is any or some reference to this in traditional scriptures or pratices, if that exists &lt;img alt="emoticon" src="http://www.dharmaoverground.org/dho-theme/images/emoticons/happy.gif" &gt;&lt;br /&gt;But on the other side, i guess it might not be that important after all, as all there is is just something to live with , anytime, any circonstance &lt;img alt="emoticon" src="http://www.dharmaoverground.org/dho-theme/images/emoticons/happy.gif" &gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;SeTyR&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;ps: Happy new moon btw ! &lt;img alt="emoticon" src="http://www.dharmaoverground.org/dho-theme/images/emoticons/happy.gif" &gt;&lt;a href="http&amp;#x3a;&amp;#x2f;&amp;#x2f;www&amp;#x2e;moonconnection&amp;#x2e;com&amp;#x2f;current_moon_phase&amp;#x2e;phtml"&gt;http://www.moonconnection.com/current_moon_phase.phtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;yes from my own investigations  typically the body reacts instictively to a situation, releasing chemicals. These chemicals are energy that creates and feeds the feeling and the feeling feed thoughts. The energy can be experienced as either expanding, contracting, rising, falling, opening or closing. Think about that expanding rush of anger that rises up and consumes or that contracting sinking feeling of fear. Those situations were your mind goes a thousand miles an hour or gets stuck in a loop thought after thought. The energy for this has to come from somewhere. Energy just changes from one form into another&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As to traditional sources any good book on chinese acupuncture should explain the waxing and waning of qi.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The doctrine of Yueti Najia (The moon embraces the heavenly stems) in Wei Boyang&amp;#039;s Can Tong Qi provides reference to practice, the Ten Heavenly Stems the appearance of the moon and tide as well as their relationships with the principle of tonification and purgation of qi and the blood&lt;br /&gt;You can find information on the practices in Wang Li Pings Ling Bao Tong Zhi Neng Nei Gong Shu&lt;br /&gt;But this is also something you can discover yourself through practice.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;cheers&lt;br /&gt;Jeff</description> <pubDate>Thu, 25 Sep 2014 10:33:57 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5592258</guid> <dc:creator>Jeff Grove</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-25T10:33:57Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: ebb, flow, moon phases and meditation</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5591618</link> <description>Thank you for your kind replies Jeff, Simon ;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Jeff, prior to theses feelings or habitual patterns, there is a mechanical (as in physics) action, right ? ; I think it exacerbates the feeling of felling, more than generates something ; Habitual patterns are exacerbated by consequence i think too;  I am definitely sure it has its clear influence;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What i&amp;#039;d like to find is any or some reference to this in traditional scriptures or pratices, if that exists &lt;img alt="emoticon" src="http://www.dharmaoverground.org/dho-theme/images/emoticons/happy.gif" &gt;&lt;br /&gt;But on the other side, i guess it might not be that important after all, as all there is is just something to live with , anytime, any circonstance &lt;img alt="emoticon" src="http://www.dharmaoverground.org/dho-theme/images/emoticons/happy.gif" &gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;SeTyR&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;ps: Happy new moon btw ! &lt;img alt="emoticon" src="http://www.dharmaoverground.org/dho-theme/images/emoticons/happy.gif" &gt; &lt;a href="http&amp;#x3a;&amp;#x2f;&amp;#x2f;www&amp;#x2e;moonconnection&amp;#x2e;com&amp;#x2f;current_moon_phase&amp;#x2e;phtml"&gt;http://www.moonconnection.com/current_moon_phase.phtml&lt;/a&gt;</description> <pubDate>Thu, 25 Sep 2014 00:05:25 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5591618</guid> <dc:creator>SeTyR ZeN</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-25T00:05:25Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Looking for a specific thread</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5590155</link> <description>Damn son that was quick. Thank you!</description> <pubDate>Tue, 23 Sep 2014 16:34:06 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5590155</guid> <dc:creator>Jake WM</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-23T16:34:06Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Looking for a specific thread</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5590151</link> <description>Boom shaka laka.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;http://www.dharmaoverground.org/discussion/-/message_boards/message/1978584#_19_message_1973107</description> <pubDate>Tue, 23 Sep 2014 16:31:41 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5590151</guid> <dc:creator>J J</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-23T16:31:41Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Looking for a specific thread</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5590136</link> <description>Cannot find the thread where Daniel has about 1 to 9 different levels of insight practice? For example, level 1 &amp;#034;can barely concentrate, lost in ones stuff, etc&amp;#034; to 9 &amp;#034;can perform the chosen practice without distractions, can clearly see the three characteristics&amp;#034;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anyone know what I&amp;#039;m talking about? I&amp;#039;ve been searching but cannot find it.</description> <pubDate>Tue, 23 Sep 2014 16:16:01 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5590136</guid> <dc:creator>Jake WM</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-23T16:16:01Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Musings and... [Psi Phi] [MIGRATE]</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5589862</link> <description>&lt;div class="quote"&gt;&lt;div class="quote-content"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #181818"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: georgia&amp;#x2c;&amp;#x20;serif"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;“There will always be rocks in the road ahead of us. They will be stumbling blocks or stepping stones; it all depends on how you use them.” &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: #181818"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: georgia&amp;#x2c;&amp;#x20;serif"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: #181818"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: georgia&amp;#x2c;&amp;#x20;serif"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;― &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http&amp;#x3a;&amp;#x2f;&amp;#x2f;www&amp;#x2e;goodreads&amp;#x2e;com&amp;#x2f;author&amp;#x2f;show&amp;#x2f;1938&amp;#x2e;Friedrich_Nietzsche"&gt;Friedrich Nietzsche&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description> <pubDate>Tue, 23 Sep 2014 04:37:16 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5589862</guid> <dc:creator>Psi Phi</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-23T04:37:16Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: ebb, flow, moon phases and meditation</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5588692</link> <description>Hi,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I can&amp;#039;t speak for affect on meditation, but I&amp;#039;ve had several interesting discussions with healthcare workers about how they get a lot busier (when working nights) near/at the full moon.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Personally I tend to have more nightmares around the full moon.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&amp;#039;m sure there are many possible explainations for this, some completely mundane and some not.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Simon</description> <pubDate>Mon, 22 Sep 2014 12:52:29 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5588692</guid> <dc:creator>Simon Ekstrand</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-22T12:52:29Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: ebb, flow, moon phases and meditation</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5588669</link> <description>&lt;div class="quote-title"&gt;SeTyR ZeN:&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="quote"&gt;&lt;div class="quote-content"&gt;Hi !&lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;I am new to this board, and am a complete neophyte , linguistically speaking , in Budhism, meditation etc..  but i can tell i have many many shared experiences i read here and there on this forum, and it is turning tremendously usefull to me, many thanks to each and everyone of you ;  Also, excuse my question if it has already been debated &lt;img alt="emoticon" src="http://www.dharmaoverground.org/dho-theme/images/emoticons/happy.gif" &gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Does anyone take in consideration the moon&amp;#039;s actual phase and use it to assess the influence it might have on the intensity on the meditation&amp;#039;s effect or phases you are about to have ?   &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Thanks for your answers &lt;img alt="emoticon" src="http://www.dharmaoverground.org/dho-theme/images/emoticons/happy.gif" &gt;&lt;br /&gt;SeT &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="quote"&gt;&lt;div class="quote-content"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hi SeT,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are very subtle energy changes or cycle  that I am aware of as the lunar phase approaches full moon and then wanes. The yang chi in my dantain has a growth cycle that matches the moon cycle it  blooms on a waxing then fades as the phase goes from full moon to wanning Moon. When yin is extreme ( no moon) yang is born (something appears from nothing). This is a similar to out of stillness movement is born&lt;br /&gt;If you think about it a womans menstrual cycle also waxes and wanes over a 28 day cycle. Farmers were aware of natures cycle and planted crops on a waxing moon. The moon affects our body just as it affects the tides of this world. The energetic affect on the bodymind includes thoughts feelings and habitual patterns&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;cheers&lt;br /&gt;Jeff&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description> <pubDate>Mon, 22 Sep 2014 11:46:16 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5588669</guid> <dc:creator>Jeff Grove</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-22T11:46:16Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Meditation App Reviews</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5587344</link> <description>Hi Dereck, i bought an app too but don&amp;#039;t use it anymore. You can change the default &amp;#039;radar&amp;#039; sound in &amp;#039;timer&amp;#039; app and choose another one. Just press on the sound name and menu pops up ;-)</description> <pubDate>Sat, 20 Sep 2014 18:00:19 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5587344</guid> <dc:creator>ftw</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-20T18:00:19Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Meditation App Reviews</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5587324</link> <description>I didn&amp;#039;t even know that was there. I tried it for the first time this morning. It certainly has both the functionality and the simplicity I&amp;#039;m looking for. But it definitely sounds like an alarm clock when it goes off. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For an extra two bucks, I prefer the singing bowls. I don&amp;#039;t begrudge app developers their two bucks. I&amp;#039;m sure it&amp;#039;s a lot of work to produce something functional and esthetically pleasing.</description> <pubDate>Sat, 20 Sep 2014 17:25:32 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5587324</guid> <dc:creator>Derek Cameron</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-20T17:25:32Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Meditation App Reviews</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5586818</link> <description>I tried many apps, even payed for one. In the end i decided to use the native ios timer app. Its located under clock. Who needs a fancy timer with circle running around for two hours. You dont look at it.  And native timer runs nicely in the background too (small power consumption). Perfect.</description> <pubDate>Fri, 19 Sep 2014 20:23:43 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5586818</guid> <dc:creator>ftw</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-19T20:23:43Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Meditation App Reviews</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5586736</link> <description>&lt;strong&gt;Insighttimer &lt;/strong&gt;(i bought the deluxe version)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Nice community, nice forum.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I really like that you can see on a map where people are meditating worldwide, and the number of people you have meditated with&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I also like that the app keeps track of your meditation statistics, total time and graphs of the past days/weeks/months&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The app is flexible, different sounds and different numbers of strikes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;.</description> <pubDate>Fri, 19 Sep 2014 17:44:24 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5586736</guid> <dc:creator>Pjotr Hill</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-19T17:44:24Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Meditation App Reviews</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5586717</link> <description>ZenFriend looks like a good one, but before I saw your post I had already purchased Serenity (two bucks), and this morning I tried it out.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Serenity&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;Serenity is more configurable than Mind, offering a generous choice of sixteen different sounds. Some of the sixteen don&amp;#039;t seem that usable (didgeridoo, anyone?). The default of singing bowl #1 worked fine for me.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You can configure the number of strikes of the sound. I put two strikes of the singing bowl at the end, so that the first strike would wake up my powered speakers, and the second would be audible. The sound of the singing bowl lasts longer than five seconds, so I actually get the tail end of the first strike and then the full sound of the second strike. I turned up the volume on the speakers louder than I usually would, so that I got the volume I wanted.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Serenity also allows an &amp;#034;interval&amp;#034; sound and a &amp;#034;cool down&amp;#034; sound. These are not things I would use, so I set them to silent. The app has four presets where you can set up patterns you commonly use. I found it a bit confusing switching between the preset selector screen and the main screen, as the main screen doesn&amp;#039;t seem to mention which preset you are using.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I did notice when I was testing it that the screen stays lit up all the time (i.e., doesn&amp;#039;t go to sleep). This wasn&amp;#039;t a problem, since the app didn&amp;#039;t seem to have any appreciable effect on the battery.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Overall, I would say that Serenity works quite well for me.</description> <pubDate>Fri, 19 Sep 2014 16:57:58 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5586717</guid> <dc:creator>Derek Cameron</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-19T16:57:58Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Meditation App Reviews</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5586697</link> <description>ZenFriend for iOS is great &amp;gt; http://zenfriend.com/&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Lots of different bells to choose from, different volumes, starting and ending delay bells, easy to customize. You can also save presets, and there is a little community.</description> <pubDate>Fri, 19 Sep 2014 16:27:07 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5586697</guid> <dc:creator>Jake WM</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-19T16:27:07Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>ebb, flow, moon phases and meditation</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5586293</link> <description>Hi !&lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;I am new to this board, and am a complete neophyte , linguistically speaking , in Budhism, meditation etc..  but i can tell i have many many shared experiences i read here and there on this forum, and it is turning tremendously usefull to me, many thanks to each and everyone of you ;  Also, excuse my question if it has already been debated &lt;img alt="emoticon" src="http://www.dharmaoverground.org/dho-theme/images/emoticons/happy.gif" &gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Does anyone take in consideration the moon&amp;#039;s actual phase and use it to assess the influence it might have on the intensity on the meditation&amp;#039;s effect or phases you are about to have ?   &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Thanks for your answers &lt;img alt="emoticon" src="http://www.dharmaoverground.org/dho-theme/images/emoticons/happy.gif" &gt;&lt;br /&gt;SeT </description> <pubDate>Thu, 18 Sep 2014 22:27:02 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5586293</guid> <dc:creator>SeTyR ZeN</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-18T22:27:02Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Meditation App Reviews</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5586128</link> <description>&lt;strong&gt;Mind&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;Mind is a deliberately minimalistic meditation timer app. I appreciated the simplicity of this app. However, it was too minimalistic for me in the following respects:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;(1) The sound volume was too quiet and could not be adjusted.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;(2) I have my iPad on a stand, with the display sideways, and the app did not adjust for this. I had to tilt my head sideways to read it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;(3) Perhaps no app can deal with this, but I&amp;#039;ll describe the problem. I have my iPad connected to powered speakers. These speakers go to sleep when no sound is playing, and take five seconds to wake up after a sound is sent to them. For this reason I did not hear the beginning bell at all.</description> <pubDate>Thu, 18 Sep 2014 14:18:18 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5586128</guid> <dc:creator>Derek Cameron</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-18T14:18:18Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Zen Stick - New Meditation App</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5585692</link> <description>Hey,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I don&amp;#039;t have any iStuff, so I can&amp;#039;t test it for you, but as a fellow app designer, I thought this was kind of clever, so I want to bump the thread for you. &lt;img alt="emoticon" src="http://www.dharmaoverground.org/dho-theme/images/emoticons/happy.gif" &gt;</description> <pubDate>Wed, 17 Sep 2014 19:15:44 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5585692</guid> <dc:creator>Not Tao</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-17T19:15:44Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Dealing with fear in meditation</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5584824</link> <description>Heh, I wanted to talk to her about formless realms but I thought no way she has access to those. Maybe, who knows.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anyway, her main obstacle is this feeling for presence of spirits. I think it&amp;#039;s all in her head. Maybe she should start with some formal declarations. Calling highest entities (buddha) to protect her or something like that. We can prolly deal with the feeling of no breath. I found some good advices on this forum but the things with presence of &amp;#034;spirits/ghosts&amp;#034; will be though.</description> <pubDate>Tue, 16 Sep 2014 00:43:03 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5584824</guid> <dc:creator>ftw</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-16T00:43:03Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Zen Stick - New Meditation App</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5584669</link> <description>Hi peeps,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: #141823"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Helvetica&amp;#x2c;&amp;#x20;Arial&amp;#x2c;&amp;#x20;lucida&amp;#x20;grande&amp;#x2c;&amp;#x20;tahoma&amp;#x2c;&amp;#x20;verdana&amp;#x2c;&amp;#x20;arial&amp;#x2c;&amp;#x20;sans-serif"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;I&amp;#039;ve created a new free app for iOS called Zen Stick. Its a meditation timer that *whacks* you to make sure you&amp;#039;re still paying attention. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;While meditating, the phone will vibrate periodically to remind you to come back to your object of focus.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: #141823"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Helvetica&amp;#x2c;&amp;#x20;Arial&amp;#x2c;&amp;#x20;lucida&amp;#x20;grande&amp;#x2c;&amp;#x20;tahoma&amp;#x2c;&amp;#x20;verdana&amp;#x2c;&amp;#x20;arial&amp;#x2c;&amp;#x20;sans-serif"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&amp;#039;d really really appreciate any feedback and frustrations from anyone who tries this.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: #141823"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Helvetica&amp;#x2c;&amp;#x20;Arial&amp;#x2c;&amp;#x20;lucida&amp;#x20;grande&amp;#x2c;&amp;#x20;tahoma&amp;#x2c;&amp;#x20;verdana&amp;#x2c;&amp;#x20;arial&amp;#x2c;&amp;#x20;sans-serif"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;a href="https&amp;#x3a;&amp;#x2f;&amp;#x2f;www&amp;#x2e;facebook&amp;#x2e;com&amp;#x2f;l&amp;#x2e;php&amp;#x3f;u&amp;#x3d;https&amp;#x25;3A&amp;#x25;2F&amp;#x25;2Fitunes&amp;#x2e;apple&amp;#x2e;com&amp;#x25;2Fus&amp;#x25;2Fapp&amp;#x25;2Fzen-stick&amp;#x25;2Fid913341882&amp;#x25;3Fls&amp;#x25;3D1&amp;#x25;26mt&amp;#x25;3D8&amp;#x26;h&amp;#x3d;sAQHEE_xN&amp;#x26;enc&amp;#x3d;AZOtFtyIWTGhCeP431MGFfxq8QDcqf1Psof9L3SF-unk6Mmo1VB8KA4Sy6Hjc4-F4xsrDa9Z4MBU99F847VGdThdO_VaPM8t5HsOygEk7IXyGEHM7ngowjl14GyFOJBPjZx_3WGZPyADFM7HqVu-_Vsj&amp;#x26;s&amp;#x3d;1"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zen-stick/id913341882?ls=1&amp;amp;mt=8&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;</description> <pubDate>Mon, 15 Sep 2014 21:09:27 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5584669</guid> <dc:creator>Justin Chapweske</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-15T21:09:27Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Dealing with fear in meditation</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5584624</link> <description>&lt;div class="quote-title"&gt;ftw:&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="quote"&gt;&lt;div class="quote-content"&gt; After couple of minutes (very fast) she is &amp;#034;out&amp;#034;. She says she out of her skin and feeling spacious. She can&amp;#039;t find her breath anymore which causes her to panic and stop meditating.  Another thing is, she feels presence of somekind. &lt;br /&gt;Thanks!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Have her read this - &lt;ul style="list-style: disc outside;"&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http&amp;#x3a;&amp;#x2f;&amp;#x2f;www&amp;#x2e;dharmaoverground&amp;#x2e;org&amp;#x2f;web&amp;#x2f;guest&amp;#x2f;dharma-wiki&amp;#x2f;-&amp;#x2f;wiki&amp;#x2f;Main&amp;#x2f;MCTB&amp;#x2b;Boundless&amp;#x2b;Consciousness&amp;#x25;2C&amp;#x2b;The&amp;#x2b;Sixth&amp;#x2b;Jhana"&gt;MCTB Boundless Consciousness, The Sixth Jhana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul style="list-style: disc outside;"&gt;Probably useful to have her start at the beginning of the jhanas but what you describe lines up with jhana 6.</description> <pubDate>Mon, 15 Sep 2014 19:26:06 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5584624</guid> <dc:creator>Dream Walker</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-15T19:26:06Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Dealing with fear in meditation</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5584199</link> <description>Hello,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&amp;#039;m trying to give my coworker who is the only person I talk openly about spiritual stuff an advice on dealing with fear while meditating. She goes on yoga classes and meditating on breath this is what happens. After couple of minutes (very fast) she is &amp;#034;out&amp;#034;. She says she out of her skin and feeling spacious. She can&amp;#039;t find her breath anymore which causes her to panic and stop meditating.  Another thing is, she feels presence of somekind. She told me she has a fear of ghosts from early childhood.  Maybe there&amp;#039;s more but I didn&amp;#039;t poke.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;She&amp;#039;s very dear to me and me being beginer I gave her some basic advice on trying to &amp;#034;note trough&amp;#034; her experience and being mindfull of feelings prior to fear onset.   I feel like I&amp;#039;m letting her down somehow since I&amp;#039;m not qualified enough from practical point. I&amp;#039;ve read a lot on meditation. Countless books and  forums. But I&amp;#039;m still nowhere in terms of practice. Just started again with basic concentration practice. She trusts me and I her. We&amp;#039;re like two people who share a secret and can talk about things other wouldn&amp;#039;t. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Can you offer her some advice on how to dealt with that fear?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Thanks!</description> <pubDate>Mon, 15 Sep 2014 13:28:16 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5584199</guid> <dc:creator>ftw</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-15T13:28:16Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Missing Inbox</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5584121</link> <description>Yep. Me too. Otto. &lt;br /&gt;Kind of glad it brought me back here, I haven&amp;#039;t been here for ages (but I have been practicing).</description> <pubDate>Mon, 15 Sep 2014 09:08:49 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5584121</guid> <dc:creator>Allison A.</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-15T09:08:49Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Message from Otto</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5583614</link> <description>Got this email about otto as well</description> <pubDate>Sun, 14 Sep 2014 18:14:42 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5583614</guid> <dc:creator>Matt</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-14T18:14:42Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Bulletproof coffee</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5581682</link> <description>Dave just announced a new supplement. He claims it is the first ever whole-body nootropic...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="https&amp;#x3a;&amp;#x2f;&amp;#x2f;www&amp;#x2e;upgradedself&amp;#x2e;com&amp;#x2f;unfair-advantage&amp;#x3f;utm_campaign&amp;#x3d;Unfair&amp;#x2b;Advantage&amp;#x2b;PreOrder&amp;#x2b;Interest&amp;#x2b;List&amp;#x2b;&amp;#x25;289WZUqX&amp;#x25;29&amp;#x26;utm_medium&amp;#x3d;email&amp;#x26;utm_source&amp;#x3d;Newsletter&amp;#x2b;&amp;#x25;2B&amp;#x2b;Purchasers&amp;#x2b;&amp;#x25;2B&amp;#x2b;Active&amp;#x2b;on&amp;#x2b;Site"&gt;https://www.upgradedself.com/unfair-advantage?utm_campaign=Unfair+Advantage+PreOrder+Interest+List+%289WZUqX%29&amp;amp;utm_medium=email&amp;amp;utm_source=Newsletter+%2B+Purchasers+%2B+Active+on+Site&lt;/a&gt;</description> <pubDate>Fri, 12 Sep 2014 21:51:49 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5581682</guid> <dc:creator>Kurt</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-12T21:51:49Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Bulletproof coffee</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5581152</link> <description>&lt;div class="quote-title"&gt;Piers M:&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="quote"&gt;&lt;div class="quote-content"&gt;You might like to also read this: &lt;a href="http&amp;#x3a;&amp;#x2f;&amp;#x2f;healthimpactnews&amp;#x2e;com&amp;#x2f;2014&amp;#x2f;mct-oil-vs-coconut-oil-the-truth-exposed&amp;#x2f;"&gt;http://healthimpactnews.com/2014/mct-oil-vs-coconut-oil-the-truth-exposed/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Cheers, Piers&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Read it. Very slanted. Why is lauric acid so wonderful? Cause they searched alibaba? Wow....Sounds like they sell coconut oil for a living.&lt;br /&gt;Not that they are wrong at all....just very unimformative and very biased&lt;br /&gt;That said I&amp;#039;ll probaby go back to adding more coconut oil to the coffee to stretch the mct to last longer</description> <pubDate>Fri, 12 Sep 2014 18:34:05 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5581152</guid> <dc:creator>Dream Walker</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-12T18:34:05Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Missing Inbox</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5580902</link> <description>Perhaps someone with more experience on here than me should start a thread about not following &amp;#034;Otto&amp;#039;s&amp;#034; link?</description> <pubDate>Fri, 12 Sep 2014 17:08:00 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5580902</guid> <dc:creator>Lawrence Sheperd</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-12T17:08:00Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Message from Otto</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5580837</link> <description>No message from &amp;#034;otto&amp;#034; in my inbox. Wingfoot.</description> <pubDate>Fri, 12 Sep 2014 16:51:51 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5580837</guid> <dc:creator>Cary W Raditz</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-12T16:51:51Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Tips to Dealing with Loneliness while on personal retreat</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5580813</link> <description>if it is hard to note it out I found beneficial to listen to short interviews with teachers or hardcore practitioners. it can pump up the motivation to keep going with the practice. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;also better to let to know your friends what are you up to even if they don&amp;#039;t understand as total isolation can be a problem later. &lt;br /&gt;if it is so hard that you can&amp;#039;t deal with it I think better to go out for a weekend (eg. for a shorter time)...maybe your practice will be more effective during the week.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;you can start insight meditation anyway as momentary concentration can suppress the hindrances.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;self-retreat is hard especially surrounded by friends&lt;br /&gt;good luck</description> <pubDate>Fri, 12 Sep 2014 16:45:11 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5580813</guid> <dc:creator>Noting Monkey</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-12T16:45:11Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Tips to Dealing with Loneliness while on personal retreat</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5580760</link> <description>&lt;div class="quote"&gt;&lt;div class="quote-content"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 10px"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 12px"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: #111111"&gt;I&amp;#039;m on self retreat because I want to improve my concentration, hopefully getting towards access concentration so that I can begin insight practice in the style of MTCB.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 10px"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 12px"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 10px"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 12px"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here is a reasonable caution about retreat in solitude before one has concentration skill: &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: #4242c4"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3F0t00"&gt;The Buddha’s Instruction to Upāli&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Times"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 12px"&gt;1&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;table&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #323232"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3EFt00"&gt;Then the Venerable Upāli approached the Blessed One, paid&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #323232"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3EFt00"&gt;homage to him, sat down to one side, and said, “Bhante, I wish to&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #323232"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3EFt00"&gt;resort to remote lodgings in forests and jungle groves.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #323232"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3EFt00"&gt;[The Buddha replied,] “Remote lodgings in forests and&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #323232"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3EFt00"&gt;jungle groves are hard to endure, Upāli. Solitude is hard to&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #323232"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3EFt00"&gt;undertake and hard to delight in. When he is alone, the woods&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #323232"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3EFt00"&gt;steal the mind of a bhikkhu who does not gain concentration. It&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #323232"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3EFt00"&gt;can be expected that one who says, ‘I do not gain concentration,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #323232"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3EFt00"&gt;yet will resort to remote lodgings in forests and jungle groves’ will&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #323232"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3EFt00"&gt;either sink or float away.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #323232"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3EFt00"&gt;“Suppose, Upāli, there was a large lake, and a bull elephant&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #323232"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3EFt00"&gt;seven or eight cubits in size would come along. He might think,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #323232"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3EFt00"&gt;‘Let me enter this lake and playfully wash my ears and back. I will&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #323232"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3EFt00"&gt;bathe and drink, come out, and set off wherever I want.’ He then&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #323232"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3EFt00"&gt;enters the lake and playfully washes his ears and back. He bathes&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #323232"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3EFt00"&gt;and drinks, comes out, and sets off wherever he wants. How so?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #323232"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3EFt00"&gt;Because his large body finds a footing in the depths.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #323232"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3EFt00"&gt;“Then a hare or a cat comes along. It might think, ‘How is a&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #323232"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3EFt00"&gt;bull elephant different from myself? I’ll enter this lake and&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #323232"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3EFt00"&gt;playfully wash my ears and back. I will bathe and drink, come out,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #323232"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3EFt00"&gt;and set off wherever I want.’ Then, without reflecting, it hastily&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #323232"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3EFt00"&gt;enters the deep lake. It can be expected that it will either sink or&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #323232"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3EFt00"&gt;float away. Why so? Because its small body does not find a&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #323232"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3EFt00"&gt;footing in the depths.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #323232"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3EFt00"&gt;“So too, it can be expected that one who would say, ‘I do&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #323232"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3EFt00"&gt;not gain concentration, yet I will resort to remote lodgings in&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #323232"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3EFt00"&gt;forests and jungle groves,’ will either sink or float away.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;img src="" /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3EFt00"&gt;1Anguttara-nikāya V 201ff.  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3EFt00"&gt;Translated by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3F2t00"&gt;The&lt;br /&gt;Numerical Discourses of the Buddha&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: TT3EFt00"&gt;, Pali Text Society, 2012, pp. 1476f. &lt;br /&gt;______&lt;br /&gt;EDIT: so if you are &amp;#034;floating away&amp;#034; from your practice for a bit, a weekend, the practical training folk of this tradition anticipate that.  To compare (uh-oh) I would think floating away from it is safer that getting stuck.&lt;/span&gt;</description> <pubDate>Fri, 12 Sep 2014 16:37:20 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5580760</guid> <dc:creator>katy steger</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-12T16:37:20Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Bulletproof coffee</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5580692</link> <description>&lt;div class="quote-title"&gt;Alex L.:&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="quote"&gt;&lt;div class="quote-content"&gt;Yes I drink a lot of green tea which I believe supposedly has the L-theanine you refer to. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I should mention that that my longest and best mediations usually happen in the early morning before I&amp;#039;ve has anything. But I think that just reflects when I can sit as everyone&amp;#039;s asleep. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anyway I&amp;#039;m enjoying low carb clarity most days and the coffee definitely helps me function in life&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;thanks for sharing your experience. I will look into PQQ&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;I, too, have been following a &amp;#034;paleo&amp;#034; (so-called) diet. It is truly amazing the difference in mental clarity. I have always been hypoglycemic/borderline diabetic, and the reduction in carbohydrate from drastically cutting back on cereal grains and beans has made a huge difference for the better.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I definately want to try the BP coffee. Thanks for the heads up and to others for the links.</description> <pubDate>Fri, 12 Sep 2014 16:18:21 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5580692</guid> <dc:creator>Lawrence Sheperd</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-12T16:18:21Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Missing Inbox</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5580669</link> <description>Add me to the list. My message was from &amp;#034;Otto.&amp;#034;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Edit: not &amp;#034;message&amp;#034; as in private message, but should have said &amp;#034;email&amp;#034;.</description> <pubDate>Fri, 12 Sep 2014 16:13:30 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5580669</guid> <dc:creator>Lawrence Sheperd</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-12T16:13:30Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Bulletproof coffee</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5580512</link> <description>You might like to also read this: &lt;a href="http&amp;#x3a;&amp;#x2f;&amp;#x2f;healthimpactnews&amp;#x2e;com&amp;#x2f;2014&amp;#x2f;mct-oil-vs-coconut-oil-the-truth-exposed&amp;#x2f;"&gt;http://healthimpactnews.com/2014/mct-oil-vs-coconut-oil-the-truth-exposed/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Cheers, Piers</description> <pubDate>Fri, 12 Sep 2014 15:28:22 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5580512</guid> <dc:creator>Piers M</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-12T15:28:22Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Missing Inbox</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5580484</link> <description>Yes, also had one today.</description> <pubDate>Fri, 12 Sep 2014 15:16:22 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5580484</guid> <dc:creator>Piers M</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-12T15:16:22Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Missing Inbox</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5580377</link> <description>yes</description> <pubDate>Fri, 12 Sep 2014 14:22:10 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5580377</guid> <dc:creator>Robin Woods</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-12T14:22:10Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Tips to Dealing with Loneliness while on personal retreat</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5580323</link> <description>&lt;div class="quote-title"&gt;Daniel M. Ingram:&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="quote"&gt;&lt;div class="quote-content"&gt;there are ways to make practice more fun, such that, while obviously you are losing out on some fun activities, you are having some fun yourself.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;try adopting a more playful attitude, a more sports-like attitude, and see if that helps.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;this is your time, your mind, your adventure, your exploration, your experiment, your precious opportunity to learn things that are really, really cool and interesting, your time to figure out how your mind works, to push it to places it has never gone before, to get to know yourself at a level you might not have before: all precious opportunities.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;why are you on a self-retreat? what were you hoping to get out of it?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Daniel&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;This is great advice. Thanks.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&amp;#039;m on self retreat because I want to improve my concentration, hopefully getting towards access concentration so that I can begin insight practice in the style of MTCB. Which I want to do because I want to live the happiest life possible.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Side benefits of increased concentration include the benefits of having better concentration in itself, of being more relaxed, peaceful and less stressed.</description> <pubDate>Fri, 12 Sep 2014 14:05:05 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5580323</guid> <dc:creator>Jinxed P</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-12T14:05:05Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Missing Inbox</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5580294</link> <description>Sorry if this is the wrong place.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I got an email saying there&amp;#039;s a message in my inbox but there&amp;#039;s nothing there when I follow the link. I suspect the mail server is acting up, anyone else have this problem?</description> <pubDate>Fri, 12 Sep 2014 13:55:24 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5580294</guid> <dc:creator>David Orion Girardo</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-12T13:55:24Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Tips to Dealing with Loneliness while on personal retreat</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5579723</link> <description>there are ways to make practice more fun, such that, while obviously you are losing out on some fun activities, you are having some fun yourself.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;try adopting a more playful attitude, a more sports-like attitude, and see if that helps.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;this is your time, your mind, your adventure, your exploration, your experiment, your precious opportunity to learn things that are really, really cool and interesting, your time to figure out how your mind works, to push it to places it has never gone before, to get to know yourself at a level you might not have before: all precious opportunities.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;why are you on a self-retreat? what were you hoping to get out of it?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Daniel</description> <pubDate>Fri, 12 Sep 2014 01:41:58 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5579723</guid> <dc:creator>Daniel M. Ingram</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-12T01:41:58Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Tips to Dealing with Loneliness while on personal retreat</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5579709</link> <description>If you want to be inspired towards the rigorous self-retreat though, the Ch&amp;#039;an teacher Sheng Yen retreated in winter in Japan at one time in his younger monastic years. He was the only Chinese monk among his Japanese peers to attend this winter retreat and I think he wrote something about wanting his conduct to reflect well on his own countrymen so he did not quit the retreat and tried extra hard despite very aversive conditions: Apparently they slep upright and had very short blankets that could just cover a portion of oneself while sitting, and it was so cold. He did not like that retreat style in the beginning, but he wouldn&amp;#039;t give up. I think he wrote that he grew to love sleeping upright and in cold from this retreat discipline. This account may have been reprinted in a Dharma Drum magaze in in Winter 2014. That&amp;#039;s when I read it anyway. Best wishes with your practice either way.</description> <pubDate>Fri, 12 Sep 2014 01:14:08 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5579709</guid> <dc:creator>katy steger</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-12T01:14:08Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Tips to Dealing with Loneliness while on personal retreat</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5579550</link> <description>&lt;div class="quote-title"&gt;Jinxed P:&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="quote"&gt;&lt;div class="quote-content"&gt;I&amp;#039;m starting a bit of a personal retreat -in my house - as I still have to go to work for about 4-5 hours per day.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;but this first week I have been overcome with loneliness, and that I&amp;#039;m missing out on all these fun activities my friends are up to. Especially when the weekend rolls around.  I would suppose that you all would tell me to observe the loneliness and dissect it,  although I&amp;#039;m not sure on how to do that?  Perhaps that is the best advice, however I have yet to begin insight meditation. I&amp;#039;m still working on building my concentration skills. Not even close to having reached access concentration in my opinion.  Does that matter?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Any help appreciated.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hi,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Are you dealing with loneliness or boredom? Either way, it&amp;#039;s okay to go out. That is great practice too.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you should create the experience of &amp;#034;isolated retreat&amp;#034; this will certainly&lt;em&gt; not&lt;/em&gt; be better or worse than &amp;#034;weekending with the friends&amp;#034; unless one creates a bunch of negative experiences/outcomes in either &amp;#034;going out with friends&amp;#034; or &amp;#034;isolated retreat&amp;#034;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And if you feel you wasted the time or created regret/something unhelpful, then just do a different experience the next weekend. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This is not an easy practice often, just meeting with own arising mind, own habits... &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Good luck and thanks.</description> <pubDate>Thu, 11 Sep 2014 19:59:43 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5579550</guid> <dc:creator>katy steger</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-11T19:59:43Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Tips to Dealing with Loneliness while on personal retreat</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5579472</link> <description>I&amp;#039;m starting a bit of a personal retreat -in my house - as I still have to go to work for about 4-5 hours per day.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;but this first week I have been overcome with loneliness, and that I&amp;#039;m missing out on all these fun activities my friends are up to. Especially when the weekend rolls around.  I would suppose that you all would tell me to observe the loneliness and dissect it,  although I&amp;#039;m not sure on how to do that?  Perhaps that is the best advice, however I have yet to begin insight meditation. I&amp;#039;m still working on building my concentration skills. Not even close to having reached access concentration in my opinion.  Does that matter?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Any help appreciated.</description> <pubDate>Thu, 11 Sep 2014 17:37:23 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5579472</guid> <dc:creator>Jinxed P</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-11T17:37:23Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Can a Sotapanna experience (extreme) depression?</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5578794</link> <description>You know a lot about this field. More than I can possibly comment. Perhaps it is something I should look into. I haven&amp;#039;t even heard of &lt;span style="color: #111111"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;SNRIs, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: #111111"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;5HTP or &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: #111111"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;MTHFRs (looks like an abbreviation for a rather rude word)  :-) &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;@ ERIC MW: &lt;/strong&gt;Good answer.&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;</description> <pubDate>Tue, 09 Sep 2014 17:08:18 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5578794</guid> <dc:creator>Piers M</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-09T17:08:18Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Can a Sotapanna experience (extreme) depression?</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5578699</link> <description>&lt;div class="quote"&gt;&lt;div class="quote-content"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #111111"&gt;If someone was depressed do you think he/she reached for a bottle of prozac? Of course not, but surely some of them also had those issues too?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span style="color: #111111"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;IMO, depression is common in our society for a number of reasons, none of which I have scientific support for. Hectic schedules, jobs that don&amp;#039;t provide a sense of meaning, extremely limited contact with nature, reduced exposure to natural sunlight, unhealthy diets, fragmentation and isolation of family units, and so on.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&amp;#039;m not saying that modern society is awful, but something is definitely wrong when over half the population is medicated for some variety of depression or anxiety. I suspect mental illness was less common in pre-industrial societies, such as India during the time of the Buddha.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;</description> <pubDate>Tue, 09 Sep 2014 11:59:57 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5578699</guid> <dc:creator>Eric M W</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-09T11:59:57Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Can a Sotapanna experience (extreme) depression?</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5578634</link> <description>Piers, by &amp;#034;fix your chems&amp;#034; I mean take antidepressants, whatever class of them works, which for me is SNRIs because I seem to have problems with too much dopamine and too little conversion of norepinephrine. When I have the SNRIs onboard, it is like someone flipped on a 2000 wat lightbulb. It is pretty amazing. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;During this last bout, before going back to SNRIs, I tried some supplements (5HTP) that only made things worse. Vitamin and mineral balance is crucial, though, and I recommend being tested for the MTHFR mutation, which about half of Americans have. I have it, and taking the correct forms of b vitamins helped my migraines a ton and my chronic fatigue.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;High serum copper and low zinc cause anxiety, period. I&amp;#039;m working on this after finding out my copper is sky high. This is a huge subject.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; Whether depression is triggered situationally or, as in my case, some endogenous neurochemical imbalance, the truth is that the chemicals are out of balance while the depression is ongoing. If the depression is a matter of &amp;#034;issues,&amp;#034; that it fine; deal with the issues. But in my experience, it is extremely hard to deal with &amp;#034;issues&amp;#034; until one gains better neurotransmitter balance. </description> <pubDate>Tue, 09 Sep 2014 03:01:15 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5578634</guid> <dc:creator>_</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-09T03:01:15Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Can a Sotapanna experience (extreme) depression?</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5578486</link> <description>&lt;strong&gt;Eric M W:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;div class="quote"&gt;&lt;div class="quote-content"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #111111"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;But as Daniel says in the first section of MCTB, to understand two characteristics simultaneously is to understand the third, which is cause for immediate first awakening.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Funnily enough I was listening to Ayya Khema last night, and she said you only need to focus on &lt;strong&gt;ONE&lt;/strong&gt; of the characteristics and that if you understand any one of them you&amp;#039;ll understand the other two.&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;</description> <pubDate>Mon, 08 Sep 2014 20:56:33 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5578486</guid> <dc:creator>Piers M</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-08T20:56:33Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Can a Sotapanna experience (extreme) depression?</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5578483</link> <description>&lt;strong&gt;Jen Pearly:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;div class="quote"&gt;&lt;div class="quote-content"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #111111"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;My philosophy on depression is this: &lt;strong&gt;Fix your chems first&lt;/strong&gt;, issues and spiritual practice second.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But just how exactly do you go about doing that? Do you mean visiting doctors to test your blood for deficiencies? I&amp;#039;m not sure it&amp;#039;s my problem at all. (And I have had that done in any case during routine check ups and one or two vitamin/mineral deficiencies were highlighted and yes I did then go and take them). &lt;br /&gt;My mum was taking me to homeopaths and other alternatives when I was a chilld for this or that. As an adult I often looked to acupuncture/chinese herbal medicine thinking that this was what might help &amp;#034;fix&amp;#034; me. I have taken many many vitamin and other health supplements all my life - until very recently. I decided to stop because I don&amp;#039;t feel any different whether I take them or not. (it also saves a small fortune!) Plus, the irony is that most people who take health supplements are those that need them least because they tend to be eating sensibly anyhow, wholefoods, organic etc.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;Also, I noticed a tremendous amount of attachment to them. Thinking I need to have x or y.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It often gets me thinking about the Buddha and his disciples. Especially during the earlier part of his teaching before the monasteries sprang up. Living in the forests and caves of Northern India and surviving on one meal a day. Do you think they took their omega 3 cod liver oil supplements too? If someone was depressed do you think he/she reached for a bottle of prozac? Of course not, but surely some of them also had those issues too? I mean not all of them as is commonly described became enlightened just after hearing a single sermon or even just a few words. There were others striving for years in the jungles with great hardship. One guy even misunderstood the instructions and kept walking walking walking till the soles of his feet were bleeding... I think I&amp;#039;m a long way from striving with such intent and disregard for the body.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;More so than outright depression, over the last 5 years or so, I have suffered more from a nagging sense of anxiety/panic. Sometimes it has been really strong and on other days it has been more in the background, like a computer program running behind the scenes. Logically I&amp;#039;ve thought &amp;#034;Okay, I&amp;#039;ve got food on the table, a roof over my head. I&amp;#039;m not in dept. I&amp;#039;m surrounded by people who love and care about me. I&amp;#039;m also fortunate enough to have heard about the Buddhas teachings and tried to practice them&amp;#034;. Why then these feelings of despair? I&amp;#039;m sure someone will point out it is classic dark night stuff or symptomatic of this or that particular stage.</description> <pubDate>Mon, 08 Sep 2014 20:49:57 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5578483</guid> <dc:creator>Piers M</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-08T20:49:57Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Can a Sotapanna experience (extreme) depression?</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5578370</link> <description>This thread is really close to my heart Piers and contains stuff I have been reflecting on this year. I believe I experienced first path last year but since then things have played out quite differently than expected. With regard to the event, it had the EQ-blip-bliss wave characteristic followed by a week of automatic cycling from A&amp;amp;P back up to fruition. However, the ‘clear’ cycling appeared to stop after a week when an incredibly painful ache entered my heart, which I’ve described as both a ‘realisation of the fundamental suffering we &lt;em&gt;all&lt;/em&gt; experience’ as well as straight up existential angst.&lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;Even more confusing is that I don’t experience better access to jhana than I did before. In fact, I’ve had to work extremely hard at getting absorbed again but when this has happened (mainly on subsequent retreats) things have opened up and enriched the experience [&lt;a href="http&amp;#x3a;&amp;#x2f;&amp;#x2f;www&amp;#x2e;dharmaoverground&amp;#x2e;org&amp;#x2f;web&amp;#x2f;guest&amp;#x2f;discussion&amp;#x2f;-&amp;#x2f;message_boards&amp;#x2f;message&amp;#x2f;5546234"&gt;http://www.dharmaoverground.org/web/guest/discussion/-/message_boards/message/5546234&lt;/a&gt;]. This leads me to conclude that gaining sufficient shamata is necessary to dwell in the fruits of insight experience?&lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;At times I’ve doubted what happened last year but I can say for certainty that something has changed/ is different than before. And one year on (in fact 14 months on) this is still the same. Another way to describe it is that I feel I have a greater exposure to deeper feelings &amp;#x2013; like they present in higher contrast than before. At times this is fascinating as I can see the ‘size of the thread’ but at other times it’s painful when the difficult feelings seem keener and more persuasive than before. Paradoxically, however, I believe I’m communicating more honestly and openly with others and with less collusion that I (as an approval seeker) might have done in the past.&lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;I hope this provides something useful to your original questions.&lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;With best wishes,&lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;Nick</description> <pubDate>Mon, 08 Sep 2014 17:06:50 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5578370</guid> <dc:creator>Nick Green</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-08T17:06:50Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Can a Sotapanna experience (extreme) depression?</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5578291</link> <description>&lt;div class="quote"&gt;&lt;div class="quote-content"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #111111"&gt;If you have read Eckhart Tolle&amp;#039;s &amp;#034;The Power of Now&amp;#034; and elsewhere in some of his books/talks, he talks about the time he had his &amp;#034;awakening experience&amp;#034;. He was seriously depressed at the time and afterwards, when he woke up both literally and metaphorically he did not have a clue what had happened to him only that he felt good. And everything seemed alright. It took him years to work backwards as it were to understand on an intellectual level about what had happened. Later he met zen monks and others to find out that he had reached &amp;#034;the place&amp;#034; so many others are striving for. He was not doing retreats, never meditated, was an academic etc.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: #111111"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: #111111"&gt;Whether in Buddhist terms he is an anagami or arahant I have no idea. Seems like it to me though. I can only rationalize it that he must have been doing some consistent practice probably in his very last existence and possibly in many many lifetimes, otherwise how can he just &amp;#034;wake up&amp;#034; when so many others are burning holes in their cushions without getting much of a taste of what he talks about.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span style="color: #111111"&gt;I have read it. Immediate awakening is not unheard of even in Theravada, unless some of the stories in the old texts were exaggerated. But as Daniel says in the first section of MCTB, to understand two characteristics simultaneously is to understand the third, which is cause for immediate first awakening.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As for Tolle&amp;#039;s depression disappearing, I realize that depression can crop up in the middle paths, as has already been mentioned. However, I would say this is the exception rather than the norm. From what I&amp;#039;ve gathered, most folks in the middle paths won&amp;#039;t have to worry about being depressed ever again.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="quote"&gt;&lt;div class="quote-content"&gt;You are right that there is no shame in it. However, apart from not feeling drawn in that direction at all, I believe there are very few good therapists out there. Many many therapists but I&amp;#039;ve a feeling that some of them are just as messed up as the next person, only they somehow seem to function in society without too many hiccups or else they manage to hide it. Is that too harsh an opinion?&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&amp;#039;ve only had experience with two therapists, when I had severe depression in my early teens. One was a counselor, one was a psychologist, both were very good. I also had a low dose of medication (zoloft) but the talking therapy helped way more. Then again, perhaps the therapy would not have helped if my chemicals weren&amp;#039;t balanced in the first place. Even ancient cultures had herbal &amp;#034;brews&amp;#034; for addressing imbalances in the brain.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Finding a good therapist can be difficult, but if you get your chemicals balanced and your life in some kind of order, you have a much better chance of success in therapy regardless of the therapists&amp;#039; flaws.</description> <pubDate>Mon, 08 Sep 2014 13:17:40 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5578291</guid> <dc:creator>Eric M W</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-08T13:17:40Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Can a Sotapanna experience (extreme) depression?</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5578222</link> <description>Thanks for your responses:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For the record. Yes, I have suffered from depression on and off over the years and about 20 years ago it was really extreme (suicidal), somehow came through that period with a little help from friends, one who helped me get a job back then. So, probably just being out in the real world helped in that case - meeting and mixing with people, although thinking about it it did take several weeks (I can even remember hiding in the back office once or twice when customers came in the shop as I was so nervous at the time. However, that was a long time ago (I&amp;#039;m 42 now) and long before I ever did my first retreat in 2001.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Actually, I just came back from a 1 month retreat in Thailand, feeling a lot better than I have done for a long time, even though nothing &amp;#034;spectacular&amp;#034; happened whilst on retreat, and some of it was really hard work but I still enjoyed being there if enjoy is the right word. Let&amp;#039;s just say, that being there at that time just felt right. The time. The place. The teachings. The practice etc.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I posed this question purely because I was reading Jen Pearly&amp;#039;s practice journal and her recent admission of stream entry. I then read another thread about depression &lt;span style="color: #111111"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #111111"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href="http&amp;#x3a;&amp;#x2f;&amp;#x2f;www&amp;#x2e;dharmaoverground&amp;#x2e;org&amp;#x2f;web&amp;#x2f;guest&amp;#x2f;discussion&amp;#x2f;-&amp;#x2f;message_boards&amp;#x2f;message&amp;#x2f;5576282&amp;#x23;_19_message_5576282"&gt;wowwww this path is confusing&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="color: #111111"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt; by Adam..)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt; and Jen Pearly commented on her own struggles with it. That&amp;#039;s what gave rise to the question.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Eric M W:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="quote"&gt;&lt;div class="quote-content"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #111111"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;There are a few criteria for determining whether or not someone is a sotapanna-- cycling, cessations, and jhana access are the ones I see discussed the most. What leads your friend to believe you may be a sotapanna? Some people get stream-entry without knowing it, but they usually are in other traditions without good map access.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you have read Eckhart Tolle&amp;#039;s &amp;#034;The Power of Now&amp;#034; and elsewhere in some of his books/talks, he talks about the time he had his &amp;#034;awakening experience&amp;#034;. He was seriously depressed at the time and afterwards, when he woke up both literally and metaphorically he did not have a clue what had happened to him only that he felt good. And everything seemed alright. It took him years to work backwards as it were to understand on an intellectual level about what had happened. Later he met zen monks and others to find out that he had reached &amp;#034;the place&amp;#034; so many others are striving for. He was not doing retreats, never meditated, was an academic etc.&lt;br /&gt;Whether in Buddhist terms he is an anagami or arahant I have no idea. Seems like it to me though. I can only rationalize it that he must have been doing some consistent practice probably in his very last existence and possibly in many many lifetimes, otherwise how can he just &amp;#034;wake up&amp;#034; when so many others are burning holes in their cushions without getting much of a taste of what he talks about.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="quote"&gt;&lt;div class="quote-content"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #111111"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 16px"&gt;Talking therapy is also helfpul. Working with your psychological stuff is an important part of the first training, there&amp;#039;s no shame in it.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;You are right that there is no shame in it. However, apart from not feeling drawn in that direction at all, I believe there are very few good therapists out there. Many many therapists but I&amp;#039;ve a feeling that some of them are just as messed up as the next person, only they somehow seem to function in society without too many hiccups or else they manage to hide it. Is that too harsh an opinion?</description> <pubDate>Mon, 08 Sep 2014 10:36:46 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5578222</guid> <dc:creator>Piers M</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-08T10:36:46Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>RE: Can a Sotapanna experience (extreme) depression?</title> <link>http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5578211</link> <description>I agree, I am also a medicated Dharma practitioner, medication (Prozac and Abilify) obliterated my depression, personally I had often had bouts of enthusiasm or moments of conviction that I had entirely wasted away my depression myself, but nowadays the consensus between my parents and I is that it was the medication that cured me.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It&amp;#039;s entirely curable, really.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Peace, love, strength, regards,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;James</description> <pubDate>Mon, 08 Sep 2014 07:51:54 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dharmaoverground.org/c/message_boards/find_message?p_l_id=&amp;messageId=5578211</guid> <dc:creator>J J</dc:creator> <dc:date>2014-09-08T07:51:54Z</dc:date> </item> </channel> </rss> 