Member Introductions and Backgrounds

[Anonymous]

I live in Nanoose Bay, BC which is on Vancouver Island off the west coast of Canada. I’m originally from the Kingston/Ottawa area in Ontario and did a lot of martial arts there in the 1990’s and early 2000’s starting with karate, then shaolin and wing chun but rather quickly being drawn to and putting quite a bit of effort into qigong and seated meditation, and the internal martial arts, in particular taiji, but with some hsing-i and bagua thrown in. All this paired up nicely with a long-standing interest in Taoist and Chan Buddhist philosophy.

Then life happened and I spent a lot of time first helping the previous generation of my family make a rather messy exit from the planet and then recovering from a major illness. I managed to keep my qigong practice limping along through that but the rest of my practice fell away. I’ve been meditating again for the last year and now feel as if I’m back on track. I was delighted to find Bruce Frantzis’ material and organization on-line. I thought I would join the Energy Arts Training Circle initially but explored it and realized I had too many gaps in my knowledge to really benefit from it. I am looking forward to working through the TMC material and laying a really good foundation for my meditation practice. I’m also looking forward to sharing experiences with other members of this forum.

[Anonymous]

Hi Martha,

Nice to meet you in here! I lived on Vancouver Island (Campbell river and Victoria for 6 years and am now living in Kimberley, BC. Nice to see another Canadian member. I am currently working through my second round of the TMC. I’ve also found all of The Energy Arts materials/programs to be very helpful to say the least. This is such a wonderful program and feel I’m learning a lot this round too! I hope you find it helpful as well. I hope to learn and share with you somewhere along the journey!

Warmly,

Kevin

[Anonymous]

Hello Keven,
Nice to meet you too. I hope you’re enjoying the Kootenays after so much time on the Island. I’m glad you’ve found the TMC so helpful; that’s quite a testimonial. So far I’m really finding it very helpful. I can see that there would be lots to be gained by a second time round.
All the best, Martha

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone, my name is Jeff. I was born in Luxembourg/Europe in 1982 and live in Bremen/Germany. I work as a freelance illustrator and language coach.

I joined the Taoist Meditation Circle some six months ago, but I have a hard time disciplining myself, and as a result only started the practice this week. My goal is to get myself into a regular routine of practice and stick with it.

I’ve never been active in an online forum before this, and it’s a lot to take in when you start, so I’ll probably be reading here and there for a while before I’ll write anything anywhere. But if I feel like I may have something to contribute that could be of interest to a topic/question, I will.

Best greetings to all of you.

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone!!

I’m a new member and this is my first post!!

I am Isabel and I live in Barcelona.

I’ve been interested in personal growth practices for some years, but for one thing or another this is my first commited attempt at meditation.

I hope everything goes well and I can improve in relaxation, mental clarity and understanding myself and the world I live in a little bit more, but let’s wait and see…

Anyway I’m looking forward reading your posts and comments.

Regards,

[Anonymous]

Hello!

I’m Jim and I live in NY, USA. I just joined the meditation circle last week and have been following the 5 Keys for the past 9 weeks. I will be starting a Master’s degree in Acupuncture and Oriental medicine this coming fall and wanted a head start into Daoist practices.

There doesn’t seem to be many active members on the forum these days, but I’m happy to have the resource regardless.

drop a line if you’re interested.

-Jim

[Anonymous]

My name is Mark,

I’m just now starting with the Taoist Meditation Circle. Month 1, day 1.
I intend to be regular and consistent in my practice.

[Anonymous]

I am from Bulgaria, Eastern Europe. I have studied meditation only from books and have long experience in this activity. I want to study daoist meditation because I practise chinese martial arts and want to understand their inner meaning and neigong components in them. I am seating for about an hour now every morning and just watch what happens with my body and energy. My goal about meditation is similar to goals of other participants in this forum. To learn on a deeper level meditation and, why not to be an instructor too.

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I’m Sabrina, from Oregon USA. I am not new to the ideas of meditation, bit have always struggled with stopping my body and mind long enough to commit to practicing. I have spend over 20 years trying to “fix” myself, scouring every self help books, looking for a mentor with answers. I have felt the build up to this year, and suddenly a month ago after starting to delve into the Tao I realized that all of the self help books have only been adding baggage to a mind already conditioned by society to see itself as “not enough”. I feel freer now than I ever have in my life, and I want to continue that journey into my Tao.

I would love to join a Taoist group in my home town, alas there are many Buddhist temples but no Taoist, so I searched online and found this site. I am excited to get started and go deeper into practice.

[Anonymous]

Hi, I’m from the east village NYC and studied Bagua with students of Bruce many years ago. As I settled down, I had a family but continued too dabble in internal study. As my children became independent I gained a grater interest in maturing myself thru disciplined practice. Starting six years ago I began to practice every day. I must say that the access that the internet gives to this subject really helped me find a way. A couple of years ago I started with Bill’s Dragon and Tiger, that has been great. Now I’m on to the third month of Meditation, and feel excited to be here. So far it’s been very interesting to start back with basics. The first time many years ago it really didn’t make sense the way it does now. Although then as now the affect on me is quite pronounced, especially with regards to my physical health. As I’m older now this is very fortunate. I hope now to achieve better mental acuity and balance by learning to meditate deeply. Clearing past anxiety and training myself to be present are my current objectives.

I hope everyone partaking in this course finds success.

[Anonymous]

Hey all,

My name is Brady, age 20, currently studying at Uni in California. I’ve been meditating, with gradually increasing regularity, and finally achieved a sort of flow. I want to meditate twice every day, but never do I do less than one 30 minute session.

Im in the first few days of week 2 meditation, and I’m seeing very interesting results, in addition to the expected relaxation, clarity, and calm. I hope to dive down this rabbit hole as fast as the coefficient of friction in mindspace allows me.

Namaste

[Anonymous]

Hi I’m Agustin, I’m from Northwest Indiana and I have practiced different types of meditation, mysticism, and martial arts. I have been interested in Taoism for a long time and am grateful to have found this work and group. Thank you all
My goal is to uncover as much about myself in this vein as possible, and do nothing while I’m doing that !)

[Anonymous]

Hi there. I live in Canterbury in the UK. I signed up to the Meditation Group as I have realised that I need more stillness in my life and am open to whatever I need to learn and let go of via the process.

I have avoided meditation for a number of years, but today as I saw this group on Bruce’s web page I knew now is my time to start this process.

Exciting!

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I am from Massachusetts. Started training with EA just recently. I have some beginner experience in analytical meditation (Tibetan tradition). I hope to learn Taoist mediation.

Thanks,
Ark

[Author]

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