notes on the Dhamma

a friend asked:  Hi Frank, about using the macrocosmic orbit pattern for doing 16APS [ breath meditation] ,  its okay to spend as much time as comfortable to breathe through each channel correct? And for the channels that are on both sides of the body how do you do those? right side first then left side or both sides at the same time. And isn't there a concept of dont boil an empty pot in qigong? How is this different if I do this while the channels are not physically open? Thanks    frankk response: breath meditation step  3 of 16 - whole physical body https://lucid24.org/tped/g/goldcraft/index.html#16.3 video of marcocosmic orbit  https://lucid24.org/tped/m/macroing/index.html As far as what technique to practice,  for anything, any meditation technique, any physical exercise, any mental exercise,   you always have to carefully do some trial and error and see how things go.  What's ok for someone might be problematic for someone else with a...

Someone asked me, Do you also have any recommendations for teachers or retreats in (any part of the world)? I live like a hermit so I don't really get out much in the Buddhist community and have any specific groups, teachers, to recommend. I have some general recommendations though.  1. I assume you're asking this question because you want to, or need to get away from your house to meditate because of too much noise, distraction, etc.  2. If you already have a decent grasp of core EBT (early buddhist teachings) and its meditation methods, and just need a quiet place to meditate with a supportive community of meditators,  you need not restrict  yourself to communities of your sect.  As long as the environment is conducive,  and they're not requiring you to meditate using their method, you can join sitting groups in any Buddhist tradition, or even non Buddhist traditions. Most good religions probably wouldn't mind having kind, quiet, sitters joining their r...