Try this now! Quick and easy way to start experiencing something different and generally feeling better, especially if sluggish or depressed: Donna Eden Daily Energy Routine (Acupressure point tapping + more; 10 min). Feel the effect!
One angle of the goal of meditative practices: it's the skill of getting your brain to produce "theta waves" on demand. And these waves aren't just figures on an EEG – they reflect a dreamlike subjective experience that grants you a new set of tasteful aesthetic lenses on the world. Read this 2 page overview on meditation & related from the book Sunrise Tai Chi: thetawaves.jacobcole.net!
Read/do at least one item from each of: Why Meditation is Awesome and Great Starting Points!

Why Meditation is Awesome

Old, good writing: Why Meditation is Awesome, or How to Achieve the Beginner's Mind
Do you like getting a massage? If so, you can give yourself an epic internal massage with just the right yoga poses

I found myself in a very "Stuck in my head" place a couple days ago and got my way out of it by exploring my body and finding this ridiculously tight muscle on my calf, just inside my shinbone
Also, have you had acupuncture before? or reflexology? (btw, imho one tool that it's worth becoming adept at is the Yoga Tuneup ball https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F33KYLdDHp0 )

you need a set of balls, a yoga block, some instruction, and some exploration / trickiness to figure out how to push hard and where to push https://www.amazon.com/Yoga-Millers-Therapy-Balls-Purple/dp/B00ERFBX9G/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=yoga+tune+up&qid=1605611207&sr=8-5

Experiential: see a great craniosacral therapist, osteopathic doctor who does hands-on manipulation, or massage therapist http://bodymasters.jacobcole.net/
Desikachar on the meaning and purpose of yoga (My favorite six pages of philosophy, of any sort, I have ever read.)
Passage on the experience of Kundalini Awakening from The Biological Basis of Religion and Genius
Heidegger’s idea of “das sein” (“pure Being is underrated”)
The Art of Learning #book #TaiChi

"Chen would look into my eyes from 20 feet away, quietly assume my posture, and relax his elbow a half inch one way or another. I would follow his subtle instruction and suddenly my hand would come alive with throbbing energy as if he had plugged me into a soothing electrical current." ~The Art of Learning #quote
"Tai Chi is the only time of day I feel I'm fully oxygenated”

Floating in a private heaven quote #qigong
#AGoalOfMeditation Touching the profoundness of the universe. Perhaps relates to a deep curiosity.
https://youtu.be/HX-TpHlx1As 2:07 “Everything is Brahma, everything is spirit, everything is light. Even as the man who was engrossed in crying in watching the tragedy in the motion picture when he suddenly looks at the beam and sees the beam has created everything he says: ‘Everything is shadow and light! How could I feel sorry about the tragedy picture?’

So is the perception of God.” ~Paramahansa Yogananda

"...There is one purpose, to get the beam."

Great Starting Points

Video/Audio

Donna Eden Daily Energy Routine (Acupressure point tapping + more; 10 min)
Bhastrika Breathing “Bellows Breathing.” “Yogic Coffee” (2min)
Desikachar on the meaning and purpose of yoga (My favorite six pages of philosophy, of any sort, I have ever read.)
Pranayama.jacobcole.net (Breathing exercises; 1 hr, or you could start with Ex 3: Extending Breath at 35:57)
Intense Qigong intro set https://vimeo.com/286706414 (1hr, profound; brief intro)
Qi Gong for Anxiety and Chest Tightness w Jeffrey Chand (less intense)
#todo Sabrina classes
#todo Roger 2 min short satisfying breath meditation
See also: http://mentalstatehacks.jacobcole.net/

Experiential

#todo Cacao Ceremony https://worldchangers.us/ breathing different tones at each chakra, like panting animal

Great Courses you can take to get into it

Recorded (many free)

#TaiChi Jet Li course https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcFqdJmJuJA

#qigong https://forestrock.com/ – quick clips – also has class library you can pay and sign up to access

(Not a course, but technically a complete system) Intense Qigong intro set https://vimeo.com/286706414 (1hr, profound)

Donna Eden Energy Medicine – How To Transform And Manipulate Your Body’s Energy Systems To Create Faster Healing And Be In Tune With Your Own Natural Healing Energies https://www.mindvalley.com/energy-medicine

Notes: energymedicine.jacobcole.net

Jeffrey Allen takes you on a journey to discover your non-physical self

How to Tune Into Your Spiritual Energy to Empower Your “Real World” and Live in Duality

Learn FOUR Powerful Yet Simple Energy Techniques To Tap Into Your Spiritual Body So You Can Easily Fine Tune Your Physical World For More Health, Wealth, Love, Inner Peace and Clarity.

https://www.mindvalley.com/duality/masterclass

Live

Roger Cole Zoom Iyengar yoga classes ( Tuesday 11 a.m. PT)

Tai Chi #feelQi https://www.wccchenonline.com/

#qigong https://forestrock.com/ – classes

#qigong http://www.sfhunyuan.com/ #SF

#qigong #private https://bionicinstitute.com/

10 day Vipassana retreat https://www.dhamma.org/en-US/index

Shinzen Young #vipassana phone classes

Friends’ Favorite Intro Meditations

Ways to introduce someone to meditation in 2 minutes or less

Victoria K – feel vibration meditation https://www.orenjaysofer.com/blog/2018/mindfulness-tools-for-pain

Feeling like really, really teeny into the seat underneath you. Whatever you're sitting on, and maybe that's the chair or you're on the ground. And think about what's below that. So it's probably, dirt or soil and more ground and tune into each frequency and vibration that you feel.

Great Tutorials

Noticing and releasing thoughts

From The Mind Illuminated: A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain

Inline image omitted — original Google Doc has embedded image; see source for original.

One thing to add to these basic meditation instructions in Mind Illuminated. For me, what the instructions don’t answer is “why do this anyway?“

In qigong, the whole purpose of “power standing” meditation (zhanzhuang) to “build energy” in the body, until your fingers and body feel like they are brimming with life and wellness.

I find the practice of “noticing a thought and letting it go” a mental way of doing same. Noticing something I was about to go do and letting it go enables me to “re-capture” the mental and physical energy that I was about to go spend on that thought or action, and then either bask in it or repurpose it for something else. It’s all part of the endeavor of “not letting the energy escape“ or transmuting transient sparks of directed motivation into a purer abstract “energy”. This also is the point of the principle of “forbearance.” It’s not some sort of severe austerity, it’s about getting the energy you were about to spend back, and thereby “building energy.”

A further interesting observation: it seems the more distractible you are, the faster you can progress in this practice (though it may be more challenging): you have more sparks you can “notice and release” and recapture the energy of.

More Great Books

Religiousness in Yoga: Lectures on Theory and Practice ~Desikachar

Sunrise Tai Chi ~Ramel Rones

The Mind Illuminated: A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain

^ highly recommended starting point for meditation, philosophically agnostic just teaches the techniques to get results from meditation

Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha

^ pragmatic dharma book, useful for a map/highest level overview of where you are going in meditation ("enlightenment") and how to get there.

Science for Greater Mindfulness (preview) #philosophy #practice #profound

Zen Mind, Beginners Mind

There Are No Secrets ~Cheng Man Ching

#complete The Complete Book of Chinese Health and Healing, Guarding the 3 Treasures ~Daniel Reid

Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior ~Chögyam Trungpa

More Advanced Resources and Tricks

http://qigong.connectordocs.com/

Cheng Man Ching Yang Short Form 37

William CC Chen's Tai Chi Chuan 60 postures

#TaiChiTrick Update bodymechanics tai chi chuan 2016 ~William C C Chen

Insights that Could Change the Whole World

#todo

“Ah! That’s strange.” Noticing every inner voice

"Tai Chi is the only time of day I feel I'm fully oxygenated” ~The Art of Learning

http://lifechangingthings.jacobcole.net/

Profound / Powerful Quotes

experiencing yourself as 2 input streams, one from outside, and another inside.

Why Meditate Sunrise Tai Chi ~Ramel Rones

One angle of the goal better: it's the skill of getting your brain to produce "theta waves" on demand. And these waves aren't just figures on an EEG – they are reflect a dreamlike subjective experience that grants you a new set of tasteful aesthetic lenses on the world. Here's 2 pages on it from the book Sunrise Tai Chi: thetawaves.jacobcole.net !

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Inline image omitted — original Google Doc has embedded image; see source for original.

“Qi from the earth into the sword” There are No Secrets ~Cheng Man Ching

Inline image omitted — original Google Doc has embedded image; see source for original.

For Reference

Great Masters

http://bodymasters.jacobcole.net/

#taiChi

Cheng Man Ching

William C C Chen #alive

Benjamin Lo

Classes

Meditation headset

Relevant Places

Naropa University, Colorado

Yasha

Sofia University Palo Alto

Conversations that introduced meditation

Second, I was reflecting on the conversation we had on meditation a while back. I felt like my explanation of why I'm so into meditative practices was good but didn't connect as much as it could have. I just unearthed some pages from an old book that might frame one angle of the goal better: it's the skill of getting your brain to produce "theta waves" on demand. And these waves aren't just figures on an EEG – they are reflect a dreamlike subjective experience that grants you a new set of tasteful aesthetic lenses on the world. Here's 2 pages on it from the book Sunrise Tai Chi: thetawaves.jacobcole.net !

You're in such a "Renaissance" state in your life – so alive, productive, and creative – it seems, that you certainly don't "need" meditation. But I have an intuition you might have incredible talent for it, and that you would gain yet another superpower and art form, if you are able to build the skill of producing theta waves.

Curious if any of this connects for you. Have you explored any meditative practices yourself recently?

Jacob

P.S. Just as interesting would be to find what blockages you have that make it difficult to produce theta waves – whether they are mental, physical, emotional, or due to the structure/busy-ness of your life

P.P.S. At some point you should meet dkthehuman.com, who is a Princeton grad polymath hacker who in some ways reminds me of you (blog). Also, he took an entire year off after graduating to train in meditation!

Curious if any of this connects with you too!

Also:

#AGoalOfMeditation Touching the profoundness of the universe. Perhaps relates to a deep curiosity.

https://youtu.be/HX-TpHlx1As 2:07 “Everything is Brahma, everything is spirit, everything is light. Even as the man who was engrossed in crying in watching the tragedy in the motion picture when he suddenly looks at the beam and sees the beam has created everything he says: ‘Everything is shadow and light! How could I feel sorry about the tragedy picture?’ So is the perception of God.” ~Paramahansa Yogananda

"...There is one purpose, to get the beam."

Book

People with Replicable “Unusual” Healing or Other Abilities #unusalAbilities

http://bionicinstitute.com/ – qigong healing ~ping jacob

http://feelingmind.io/ - focusing like method that causes repeatable introspective effects, ping markestefanos@gmail.com if you want an intro. Founder cured own bipolar

https://evolvevf.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orgone

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioenergetics

Each time you get distracted and return focus it’s “one rep” – therefore, the more distractible you are the faster you can get more reps in

Sheldrake -- morphic / morphogenic field

“Hundredth monkey theory” – taught monkey to wash potato

Evidence for collective unconscious of species?

Silva Method #meditativePractice https://www.silvamethod.com/ <> DirectorX

Emotional Freedom Techniques https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_Freedom_Techniques

The Recapitulation Exercise https://www.shamanscave.com/self-healing/the-recapitulation

Inline image omitted — original Google Doc has embedded image; see source for original.

Qigong

Source: http://meditation.jacobcole.net
Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Vfm09rHTbUwXn_55rED55oIkJJpa1QTXmGx3a36VItA
Scraped: 2026-01-30