Amazing obvious practice tip I've been wanting to share for years: Finish diminish, and finish the mission

 

I haven't shared it yet, because I couldn't figure out how to explain it in a way that people could fully grasp and feel genuinely motivated to really go for it, everyday with relish.  

Any kind of obvious good advice that's (relatively) easy to do, people will nod their heads, agree that it's a great idea, maybe try it for a few days, and then forget about it because they didn't see quick results.

I still can't figure out how to appeal to your good senses, but I'm just going to spill the beans and hope you get it. At the rate I'm going, I'll be dead before I ever write about it in detail with super clear examples. So better now that I share the great idea even if it doesn't completely convince you. Ask questions if I'm not being clear.

The full explanation (which is still my notes in raw form) is here

4👑☸ → ☯🦍 → 🦍❤️  <--- click that hyperlink to Gorilla Heart Sutra

This mantra is an acronym that contains essential jhana and taiji practice tips to be performed every moment, every day, whenever applicable.  

always WASTE FREE F³.A.R.M.I.N³.G. 

The two amazing related tips I'm about to share, fall under F1 and F2 of the "Farming" acronym.

f1: finish diminish: cease activities when you reach a point of getting diminishing returns

cease doing exercises at a time you get diminishing returns.

it’s good to try out bite size samples of various exercises like a buffet, to see how they feel and whether you need them. (see ‘m’ measure for pleasure and ‘a’ assess to progress)

f2: finish the mission of exploitation

Not to get the wrong idea from (f1), if you haven’t reached a point of diminishing returns, you should exploit every exercise and squeeze as much benefit you can out of it. For example, I fixed my neck problems by doing turtle neck exercises every hour every day, or about a year, then as neck healed I did less of that exercise, and now I only do a few minutes per day of turtle neck.

it’s good to try out bite size samples of various exercises like a buffet, to see how they feel and whether you need them. (see ‘m’ measure for pleasure and ‘a’ assess to progress)

Best way to show benefit is with some examples

1. Instead of "buddho, buddho" as a mantra or "amitabha, amitabha", try this as a mantra.

SN 22.29 Abhinandana. This is one of the best suttas of all time, so short, so easy to remember, really captures the essence of EBT. So pragmatic, so simple, and has unlimited replay value. The very first sutta I memorized, the fire sutta, I discovered some amazing properties of the oral tradition, of memorizing and frequently recollecting and reflecting on important Dharmas. In process of committing to memory, I necessarily had to chant out loud for hours on end. The amazing thing I discovered, is that suttas like fire sutta, and SN 22.29, has unlimited replay value, you always need reminding of the meaning, every second (unless you're ariya), and you could chant it forever without getting sick of it or doubting if your practice time was being used effectively.

"finish diminish": cease competing activities like singing songs to yourself, endlesssly obsessing on social media, where you get diminishing returns and limited short term pleasure of fools gold.

Instead, "finish the mission of exploitation", clean your mind and fully exploit the power of suttas and frequently reciting and reflecting on the meaning of SN 22.29, fire sutta, anatta lakkhana, etc.

Try it out .SN 22.29 .  This is one of easiest suttas to memorize, and you give yourself constant timely reminders on how to abandon suffering and walk towards true happiness. 

2. I thought lower back pain was an inevitable and permanent problem every adult has to face.

I sound like an infomercial don't I? I'm not trying to sell you anything, just sharing important obvious ideas that people don't take advantage of. 

This year I started experimenting with immortal fang exercise (I describe a little bit in my qigong gorilla blog). The last exercise in there, is much like an exercise that I do on the pull up bar, and many parks in the USA even have pull up bars with rings on chains set up for this exercise. Doing circles that flex your spine and really give it a range of motion you don't get anywhere else. 

So wondering if I can fix my spine and end all back pain, I "finished  diminishi"ng return exercises that were redundant or superfluous from my qigong, and made time to do a massive amount ("finish the mission of exploitation")  of spine loosening exercises. The results have been encouraging, it does seem possible I can completely fix the spinr and end all pain (within reasonable constraints of anicca and dukkha). It feels like I'm getting a soft rubbery gooey magnetic coating between every vertebrae, and the more my qi smoothes out, it gets difficult to crack my knuckles and crack my back (those satisfying loud sounds from chiropractic adjustments). My spine and waist movement feels like a bag of water now, frictionless, whereas years ago it felt like a sack of grain require force to turn.

Must like how I fixed my neck in my early 30's by doing turtle neck exercises every hour of the day for a few minutes, I'm doing the same thing now with a pull up bar, and some other core exercises, a few minutes every hour.