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steve
Posts: 39
Topic starter
(@steve)
Eminent Member
Joined: 4 years ago

An open invitation to everyone to offer whatever information about yourselves you would like to share.

Many of us have connected on other forums, please share other user names, for example from Dao Bums, Dharma Wheel, or others.

Peace

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37 Replies
steve
Posts: 39
Topic starter
(@steve)
Eminent Member
Joined: 4 years ago

I'll begin...

I am steve here and on Dao Bums and Steve is my given name.

I have occasionally visited Dharma Wheel where I was xuesheng.

I live near Baltimore and work as a physician.

I turn 60 this year, one full cycle of the Chinese/Tibetan zodiac, and I'm a metal rat.

I spent about a dozen years training in Daoist meditation and internal martial arts.

For reasons I won't go into right now, my relationship with my teacher was interrupted and led to me finding the Yungdrung Bön teachings.

I now focus my practice on Bön dzogchen.

I continue to practice taijiquan and qigong but now with an emphasis solely on health, no longer interested in martial training. 

Warm regards to everyone who finds their way here!

 

 

 

 

 

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qq266push
(@qq266push)
Joined: 5 months ago

New Member
Posts: 3

@steve dam

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dwai
Posts: 92
 dwai
Admin
(@dwai)
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Joined: 4 years ago

I'm Dwai and I go by Dwai on Daobums as well. I'm 44. 

I live in the suburbs of Chicago and am a techie by profession.

I've been a student of Taijiquan and Daoist meditation via the Temple Style tradition for close to two decades now. My master at present is Master Jose Perez, the first generation direct student of Grandmaster Waysun Liao of Temple Style Taiji. 

I also am a student and practitioner of Advaita Vedanta and yoga, as well as a student of Kashmir Shaivism.

Oh and in shameless self-promo, I also recently wrote and published my first full length novel 'The Mahāsiddha Field' (first of a new scifi/fantasy/mythology mashup series) and a collection of short stories titled 'The Night I Died and Other Short Stories'. If you're interested in finding out more, please check out the following --

https://mailchi.mp/dwailahiri.com/bookstore

or my website

https://dwailahiri.com

 

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qq266push
(@qq266push)
Joined: 5 months ago

New Member
Posts: 3

@dwai slot gacor

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Miroku
Posts: 21
(@miroku)
Eminent Member
Joined: 4 years ago

I'm Miroslav and I usually go by Miroku (eg. on Daobums). I am 25.

 

I live in Czech Republic in Brno and I study at a uni and am teaching English these days.

 

I am a student of Buddhism in general and of Drikung Kagyu in particular. My main teacher is Garchen Rinpoche and there are also many other lamas I follow. I focus on my ngöndro and try to study 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas and also Jewel Ornament of Liberation, however that depends on how much time I have. I don't really have any meditation experience, learning nor signs of practice, so naturally my ego is all over the place. 

 

I don't have much else to say. So, nice to get to know all of you a bit better. 

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qq266push
(@qq266push)
Joined: 5 months ago

New Member
Posts: 3
silent_thunder
Posts: 41
(@silent_thunder)
Eminent Member
Joined: 4 years ago

Nice to see you here Miroslav! 

Big shout out to the Czech Republic from Southern California!  I look forward to visiting there some day.

Some incredible history to that region. 

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Miroku
(@miroku)
Joined: 4 years ago

Eminent Member
Posts: 21

@silent_thunder Thanks, nice to see you here too!

Feel free to let me know when you do. There is plenty to explore and always a cozy place to have a glass at. ? 

 

Yeah, when you manage to be a nation with some of the most stable borders in Europe, history is bound to happen. We have some real jewels here found nowhere else.

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steve
(@steve)
Joined: 4 years ago

Eminent Member
Posts: 39

@miroku 

@silent thunder

Let me know too!

It would be a blast to hang out with you two...

 

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Miroku
(@miroku)
Joined: 4 years ago

Eminent Member
Posts: 21

@steve

@silent_thunder

In that case a proposal of Daosnet bums' meeting in Europe called 'In the Footsteps of Czech Magic and Spirits', there is plenty of both. I know because I used to work at a liquor store.

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manitou
(@manitou)
Joined: 4 years ago

Estimable Member
Posts: 119

@miroku

I'm on board.  I was thinking about the same thing.  Like maybe a conference somewhere, when this craziness is over.  I live in Palm Springs, which would be a great place, but not in the summer.  I'd be up for anything when the time is right.  The good thing about this area is that we have Taomeow, Liminal Luke, Silent Thunder, myself, Trunk and probably others who are right here in the Southern California area.

As for a synopsis of me, I was born and raised in Hollywood CA, went to Hollywood High.  Became an LAPD officer at the age of 21, lasted 12 years at that, then became a P.I.  My great-aunt gave me an early indoctrination into Christian Science metaphysics and healing, as she was a practitioner.  I would listen to their metaphysical lectures at a young age.  Around 1971, I started attending Manley Hall lectures at the Philosophical Research Society in Hollywood.

Being an alcoholic was crucial to my turn toward the light.  It wasn't until I left the LAPD that I realized how much trouble I was in, with alcohol.  I went to AA and just sat there and listened.  I realized within one day that this was where I belonged.  Once that commitment is made, then the journey is all about the steps of recovery that take you into yourself.  If you do this for long enough with enough depth, the egoic identity is finally thinned down to the place where it can be overriden by the clarity of finding your direct channel to the wisdom within.

What I regard as self-realization is the knowledge of who we really are.  As I see it, we are the tip of the spear of the unfoldment of _________.

Any name can be inserted there.  God, the Dao, the Void, the I Am, the Undifferentiated (my personal fave).  But the I Am is unfolding THROUGH us, using our sensory bodies to experience and to unfold in Love.  There's no choir director at all.

 

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dwai
 dwai
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(@dwai)
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Posts: 92

@manitou I was in Palm Springs last winter (December) and immediately fell in love with it and Joshua Tree. 🙂 

Joshua Tree has a big role to play in the next novel that’s in progress....

 

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manitou
(@manitou)
Joined: 4 years ago

Estimable Member
Posts: 119

@dwai

I want to read it!!!!  Is this a mystery novel?  I'll bet you have somebody living out in a desolate trailer in Joshua Tree.  Most likely the perp?

(I've written 2 novels, and they were police procedurals - written from the point of view of the detective).  But they were so horrendous by the time I was finished with them I realized I couldn't inflict them on the world.  I was able to see that they were part of my inner purge, and they had to be written.  I've since tossed them out.  But writing is such a lonely endeavor, at least it was for me.  I was just telling my roommate yesterday that I have the same writer's block with the watercolor artwork that I do - I do think creative blockage extends over genres.

If you get out this way again, please let me know you're coming.  In fact, I'll bake a cake.

                                                            

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thelerner
Posts: 11
(@thelerner)
Active Member
Joined: 4 years ago

I'm thelerner, first name Michael.  Life long resident of Chicago, of late its Northern suburbs.  Born a wooden dragon in 1964, I try to be careful not to hurt myself or others, with mixed results.  Half seeker, half dabbler.. seeking comfort and adventure.

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lo-fi
Posts: 1
(@lo-fi)
New Member
Joined: 4 years ago

Hello. I'm ocean form on daobums.

Good to see there is a community ... independent of domain name...

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Taomeow
Posts: 9
(@taomeow)
Active Member
Joined: 4 years ago

Hi and welcome! 🙂 

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Matt_J
Posts: 1
(@matt_j)
New Member
Joined: 4 years ago

Hello, I am Matt J. Same name on DW. FOE on TDB. 

From the outside, I have been practicing Buddhism for a couple decades, starting with Theravada and Zen. I was a student of Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, but now practice mainly through Mingyur Rinpoche. I also take Dzogchen teachings from Bon teachers. In addition, I have started to practice Taoist-type arts over the past few years after a long hiatus. I am probably overbooked. 

From the inside, I am an experientialist. That means what is most important to me is not the names/labels, but what is actually being experienced from moment to moment. I like to listen to teachers who can explain things simply and speak from experience.  

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dwai
 dwai
Admin
(@dwai)
Joined: 4 years ago

Member
Posts: 92

@matt_j welcome 🙂 

 

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ug266push4
(@ug266push4)
Joined: 3 months ago

Active Member
Posts: 4

@dwai depoisrt

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steve
(@steve)
Joined: 4 years ago

Eminent Member
Posts: 39

@matt_j

I like how you describe your approach and suspect it should serve you well, and anyone else for that matter.

Welcome!

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ug266push4
(@ug266push4)
Joined: 3 months ago

Active Member
Posts: 4

@steve

 
 
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ug266push4
(@ug266push4)
Joined: 3 months ago

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Posts: 4

keybind

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manitou
Posts: 119
(@manitou)
Estimable Member
Joined: 4 years ago
Posted by: @matt_j

From the inside, I am an experientialist. That means what is most important to me is not the names/labels, but what is actually being experienced from moment to moment.

Experience is where it's at.  So glad you're here.

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BeforeTime
Posts: 2
(@beforetime)
New Member
Joined: 4 years ago

Hi, saw a couple things which caught my eye so I'm hanging out here for a while. I'm been around dao-related  forums since 2015, I'm a minor actor so you wouldn't remember my name if I said it ?  

I don't practice anything. Seems like a nice place. 

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liminal_luke
Posts: 19
(@liminal_luke)
Active Member
Joined: 4 years ago

Hi!  Liminal Luke here and on Dao Bums.  I like the snappy masculine one-syllable punch of the name Luke, but many years ago my parents started calling me Jesse and that´s the name that has stuck.  Whatcha gonna do?

I´d like to be able to tell you that my spiritual life is dedicated exclusively towards the acquistion of modest superpowers: kindness rather than levitation; reasonably good health rather than psychic preknowledge of the stock market. Sounds mature, right? A step up from those who get their kung fu motivation from comic book heros? Of course the real spiritual elite aren´t trying to acquire anything, not even equanimity; they´re doggedly accepting of the world and themselves as is. They´ve discovered the innermost golden secret: that the fasted way to change anything, especially other people, is to be radically OK with the likelihood of no change. (This doesn´t work of you´re only pretending to be OK with no change while constantly monitoring for improvement. Believe me, I´ve tried.)

My secret desire, though I hesitate to admit it, is to be immortal. Unfortunately, I´m an overweight 54 year old with a clunky metabolism living at the threshold of what´s likely to be a historically deadly pandemic…so things don´t look good. If the Grand Prize of immortality eludes me, I´ll settle for good self-esteem as a kind of Honorable Mention. May I be my own best friend and most loyal supporter. May I hold the good and the bad of me gently in my heart, at peace, finally, with an imperfect body and mind, occasional less than stellar decisions, and a world that has thus far managed to resist vigilant and unrelenting attempts at control.

 

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manitou
Posts: 119
(@manitou)
Estimable Member
Joined: 4 years ago

Hi, this is Manitou.  I'm just coming back to life after a 2 year period of mourning my deceased husband.  

I've always been a seeker along metaphysical lines, but I also loved comparative religions.  I love the fact that the urge to understand the unknowable is contained within everyone, and what particular path we choose pretty much depends on where on the planet we were born.  I do understand that Life is one big entity expressing itself, and we are the tip of its sensory properties; and when we look into the pupils of another's eyes - even a cricket's - we are looking into the Void that we all share.  I understand that linear time as we know it is an illusion; that in reality everything is Now.  This gives me a great deal of assurance in all this craziness worldwide with the virus and with politics; if there's no linear time, then that means it's already played itself out and we're just playing catch-up.  It's  already happened, whatever it is.  It sort of removes the drama.

I got involved with the Dao Bums maybe 14 years ago.  I try to dwell in that place of commonality - the same place all viable paths ultimately go.  The truth is the commonality.

As I've heard others here say, ultimately Life is the Practice.  My personal feeling is that once the place of commonality is found, it's quite possible to speak with others of different paths and understand their direction.  That, to me, has always been the fun of the Bums.  If you're new here, please don't hesitate to jump in, once the process has checked you in.  You may just make lifelong friends here.  Friends that care about riding herd on their own character in this self realization experience.

You probably won't find rigidity here for a particular way of thinking.  This is a place of free thinking, but with many tools at our disposal from various paths.  I love our discussions.

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Mithras
Posts: 57
(@mithras)
Trusted Member
Joined: 4 years ago

I'm Naveed but I go by Mithras, I'm 19.

 

I go to college in Massachussets and am studying computer science. All the college's are shutdown right now so I'm currently living at home which is in Tennessee.

I've started walking the way rather recently, a few months now, but I've finally gotten down a solid routine. Lots of thanks to people like Dwai who helped me start out. Scary to think about where I would be without the help.

I passively practice watching the breath throughout the day and actively meditate on visualizing the skeleton. I also occasionally do Zhan Zhuang to spice things up but I'm unsure if I'm doing that right haha

 

Recently exited seclusion (kind of is seclusion regardless with all the quarantine) so I hope I can get to know you all better 🙂

 

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dwai
 dwai
Admin
(@dwai)
Joined: 4 years ago

Member
Posts: 92

@mithras Welcome! Very happy to see you here. 

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satya
Posts: 1
(@satya)
New Member
Joined: 3 years ago

Peace peace peace! This is neti neti.

 

I intend to behave myself as much as possible, but no promises. ? 

 

A brush with death in his descent through the womb, the newborn emerges victorious. All just to get back in this game as his very own reincarnated exact twin.

"How Auspicious! It's a Boy!"

"Welcome", exclaimed Self, "in all of your glorious, unrelentingly vivid Aliveness! Now... Breathe!"

And so they named him, Noble Brightness, the Shining One.

Here I am, I never left!

 

Peace peace peace!

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ug266push
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(@ug266push)
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mantap

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ug266push
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(@ug266push)
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slot online

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ug266push
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hadeh

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ug266push
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asfasdas

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ug266pro
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bray

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