Gaia: Friends of The Green Bough

My favorite book on Chi Gung:

http://circlewalker.gaia.com — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 05:12:29 GMT

WIth Chinese Health systems like Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tai Chi and Chi Gung (also known as QiGong) becoming more and more popular, I wanted to recommend my favorite book on the study and practice of Chi Gung.

It's called appropriately enough " Chi Gung: Chinese Healing, Energy and Natural Magick" by L.V. Carnie.

Lily of the Valley's book is written in an easy-to-read, almost conversational fashion, like two friends talking over a roaring fire on a cold, dark night. She begins with the fundamental principles of Chi Gung and then moves onto discussing wonderfully diverse ways to train yourself to increase your experience of Chi.

You can literally open the book to any page and find an intriguing discussion on topics like how to use Chi Gung for healing, enhancing your sense of smell, training with colors, flying a kite, or even how to practice Chi Gung while fly-fishing.

I really enjoy Lily of the Valley's book because she beautifully conveys the most important lesson of any Chi Gung practice, namely that the point of training is to move beyond the practice and be able apply it to all parts of your life. A simple approach that can lead to great understanding and growth.

I'd highly recommend it to anyone interested in exploring this ancient art.

Core Programming

http://fernando.gaia.com — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 20:34:46 GMT

The Green Bough was launched in early 2005, with a mission of introducing world-class "holistic lifestyle" programs to mainstream communities in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

Our core programs include:

* Movement programs: Yoga, Qigong, and the ITP Kata.
* Meditation programs: Yoga and ITP Kata.
* Complementary & Alternative Medicine (CAM) Awareness programs: Presentations and demonstrations by accredited physicians, professionals and practitioners, as well as wellness fairs.
* Green Lifestyles and Sustainability programs: presentations and demonstrations promoting whole foods nutrition, energy conservation/efficiency, green construction, recycling/reuse, as well as environmental consciousness.
* Study Groups: IONS and ACIM, and Esoteric Philosophy study groups (William Meader)
* Movies: special screenings of inspiring movies, hosted under direct agreement with the organizations that produce them.
* Music: Conceerts, Drumming circles and Master Drummer-led workshops.
* Visual Arts: Gallery shows and healing programs through the arts.

Re: 4 quadrant sustainability

http://fernando.gaia.com — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 20:01:12 GMT

Again, thanks for sharing. Good stuff!!

Re: NOW communitycation for sustainability

http://fernando.gaia.com — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 20:00:01 GMT

THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH for what you shared. As we see it, sustainability is the essential "ethic" indeed.

We have been interested in the BALLE framework (see www.livingeconomies.org) for organizing a LOCAL-action oriented business alliance framework to work with, under a sustainability umbrella.

We are being asked to organize a "community awareness" event to highlight *actionable* choices that people can make to help reduce the level of pollution we generate. We will keep you in mind.

Re: who is i

http://fernando.gaia.com — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 19:46:06 GMT

What we are looking for is program suggestions for enhancing an INDIVIDUAL's ability to go further INWARD, along their journey towards self-realization. I would expect a fair deal of discussions about different meditative practices (in gross, subtle, causal states) that people have tried and found successfull, and are thus looking to further them with some help from The Green Bough.

What practices get us to move most smoothly into our instinctual selves, from there to our magic mind/mythic mind selves, form/formless selves, interconnected selves and beyond... (this is all Integral Model or AQAL-talk).

Examples: yogic meditation, TM, Zen meditation, Big-Mind Meditation, Ramtha Meditation, Osho Meditation, and many others...

who is i

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 18:17:13 GMT

Could you give us a example of what you want ? Like maybe you go first.I'll be right behind you. your friend, Don

Re: Green-fuel/energy sustainable communities

http://telesterion.gaia.com — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 22:53:12 GMT

http://www.greennow.org/

When are you going to build the website?

Green-fuel/energy sustainable communities

http://personalgrowth.gaia.com — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 22:38:28 GMT

Neriah Lothamer here from RippleTV.blogspot.com I want to mention I take a stand for Peace and Planet-friendly sustainability. I have put several videos up at my blogsite that show what I am talking about. It is just a start, plenty more to come But what I am posting here is very important. If you have seen the Al Gore movie, then you know what I mean. It is time to get serious about the petroleum problem, and to quickly switch to “appropriate” fuels. My partners and I are starting GreenNow.org as an information hub to facilitate the changeover to sustainable non-polluting fuels and energy. We invite any and all interested people and groups to participate. Currently we are drafting our business proposal and seek investors. But mostly, if you or your group or community are at all interested in becoming a sustainable community, you should connect with us, get on our newsletter list and get all the info about this. Here are 2 links that explain why and how to do this. They are by World business and technology expert Vinod Khosla (Sun Microsystems & AOL), and are the most important information now available about the “non-polluting” energy resources on our planet. Watch the movie and view the powerpoint presentation, and become completely informed on this extremely important subject. Join us in the adventure of becoming Kyoto compliant by 2008! We can do it!!!! Copy/paste the links below into you browser address bar. http://www.khoslaventures.com/presentations/BiofuelsAug2006vinodV2.ppt http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-570288889128950913 sincerely, Neriah Lothamer

4 quadrant sustainability

http://personalgrowth.gaia.com — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 22:37:50 GMT

NOW communitycation for sustainability

http://personalgrowth.gaia.com — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 22:37:00 GMT

What Blaming Does

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 16:42:20 GMT

I sat down and asked him, “What is so funny?” He said, “I’m not laughing.” So I asked, “What are you so happy about?” He said, “I’m not happy.” I said, “I know, I’ve noticed. Do you want to talk about it?” He said no at first and then said, “Yeah, you want to hear?” I said, “Yes, maybe I can help you.” And he started to say what was bothering him was a story a friend told him and ever since he had been bothered with it, that he can’t let go of it and it really hurts him. He has a friend who was in the Vietnam War and his friend told him he had to kill men and women and said it didn’t bother him. But what was bothering him that he couldn’t live with was that he was ordered to tie children’s hands behind their back and then throw them from the chopper while in the air. As soon as he said that I was affected, and I said, “You know better than to say something like that to me,” and I turned my head down and started weeping. I sat there and I said, “It was not the man’s fault because he was taking orders, and it wasn’t the commanding officer’s fault because he was also taking orders, or he was taught this, and it was not the children’s fault because their father taught them and it was not their father’s fault because he was taught also.” I believe by me not blaming anyone for what had happened that I was able to take this from my friend and I was able to let it go, and I started feeling good again and my friend looked at me and had a big smile and laughed and said, “Gee, Don, I feel good,” then he thanked me for helping him. This was a lesson for me to learn about ‘not to blame.’ This was a lesson for us both to learn. He thought I had helped him. Well, by me wanting to reach out and help somebody else, I learned and helped myself. I learned how I could. help others and myself by not blaming anyone for anything. If people will learn to see good, or God, in everything, then they can feel good or feel whole. My friend may not have learned anything from this except that I helped him. I have learned that in life we only see the part we want to see. Now in this experience where I reach out to help someone but who was really helped? He was helped but I had a wonderful learning experience. There is no telling how many people’s lives were affected by hearing this story and blaming someone for it. I really believe that by me not blaming anyone I broke that chain! I may have released everyone even the vet. I know everyone is not ready for this but there are some that are. Your friend , Don