Mal

I wish it was cold enough to grow apples here...without actually being cold So difficult, but I feel it's a rewarding practice. Even if I don't always acheive it it's what I aim to do.

Well I'm glad we are not seeking to peg but do we need to deliver a lecture either? I prefer to lurk and read to get an understanding of the diversity of views and posting style when arriving at a new discussion forum. Perhaps all the computer tecs are starving from eating ramin noodles and currently discussing healthy recipes? But then I go to forums to learn, and ask questions. Perhaps share views if I think I might be able to contribute and not just be a noob, so perhaps we have different goals.

I've thought this too, the amount of heated water and ease with which we can access it is very different now than in the past. So I wonder if the basis of "traditional" showering and washing "rules" were developed because people were living in cold climates with cold water. Liked 97 too relaxed - confident - happy - loving - blissful

"How would you kill your human ego?" Why would I want to kill it/me? It/I will just naturally die one day.

and I just read "DharmaBum" in the poll, cute I was another who wasn't real keen on the Taoist discussion split either as I always enjoyed TTB as a big melting pot of all these different views. I don't actually know that much "Taoism" but so far it seems to be a good addition. So the idea that people who are part of our community may want to get together and:- discuss Generally spiritual things (whatever they are), discuss Taoism, discuss the Chinese language, discuss Buddhism, discuss anything that we feel like (off topic) It's an ideal I find attractive. Yet given the amount of moderator debate threads I'm surprised more people aren't already migrating off to other boards. What could we offer, as TTB, that the online Buddhist community needs?

I like the discussion of similarities and differences between Buddhism and Taoism. The idea of trialing Taoist Discussion was to help General Discussion be... well... "Eclectic discussion across a wide range of spiritual thought and practices" (With Taoist discussion being more "Taoist focused" and off topic for the stuff that didn't fit in them ) It's all evolving / growing at the moment, so I'm interested to see if there are TaoBums who would enjoy a Buddhist Discussion forum. Some very cool Buddhists were/are TTB's But dare I say that there are already a LOT of online Buddhist forums

I can even be a bit more constructive The hardest thing with TTB is I don’t WANT to stop people saying “that’s bullshit”, but I want to prevent the escalation into “you are bullshit” I don’t care if people get passionate, even upset and then settle down and discuss the issue. But I want to prevent people getting so upset that they can’t settle down to a discussion. As moderators we do try to hold up our own behavior as an example, that's something Sean wanted us to do. And generally I think the majority of the "elder" members of TTB do show the more “juniors” TTB's good examples of behavior to model. Just like how a good family / tribe would work, that's the direction I want to move in, and I feel we are moving that way pretty well. “If the young are not initiated into the village, they will burn it down just to feel its warmth.” Yes, so how best to welcome people to our little village that Sean has provided?

Now you understand me How do we as a community become more self-moderated?? Follow this principal as a member - Be respectfull of other, No personal insults.

*moderating* I note the "LOL" as I know you can report posts, so I'm guessing this is a joke as I'm just confused by that. As to MarbleHeads post. I feel he called your arguments BS (as he later clarified) so it wasn't, as such, totally directed at you. Although it did look like that was before I read thread. Given the type on information/point of view tulku is presenting here, I don't think it's unexpected to see some strong replies in return. But please try to stay reasonably civil.

I did use the million dollar point when younger, I'm glad I didn't do it too often. Sometimes it worked sometimes painful. Personally I agree with dmattwads, dual cultivation is much better, really does feel satisfying/balancing. and with fiveelementtao as we dont emphasize retention at all in KAP (only as a 2 week preperation for one practice IIRC) The "spiritual stuff" is much more important... but I didn't buy "Taoist Ways to Transform Stress into Vitality: The Inner Smile & Six Healing Sounds" as a teenager, I brought "Taoist Secrets of Love: Cultivating Male Sexual Energy" (which actually has safety tips, that I skimmed over to get to the "good stuff" ) p.s. Shepherd you have already felt this and are searching in the right direction. Advice and help is good; but trust yourself too.

no worries. It will give you a great overview of techniques and perspectives available, from there you can explore the practices you are drawn to. Many people here have tried many of these practices (and other systems) so you will usually get lots of feedback and experiences.

"Some gets to me from other people" That's pretty much it for me too. Mostly only bad stuff gets talked about in general conversations but people talk about what's of interest to them, so by listening I don't feel "out of the lop" with regards to news. I enjoy listening to football on the radio, it's ABC (national government broadcaster like the BBC) but IMHO they have a very good balanced news service, so global info that people don't talk about gets to me that way. I also likeTriplej's Hack Never got into newspapers. On commercial TV news seems more like gossip and entertainment via people suffering (i.e. I wonder how that cat lady is living, hopefully others have forgotten her name like me) Rather watch TED than the TV news (or torrents of TV shows for the entertainment I want when I want it) I guess the intent with news was to keep your community informed. Anything I want to know more about I toss into a search engine.

Ever seen this site? http://www.alchemicaltaoism.com/ specifically http://www.precisiondocs.com/~altaoism/HLIntro.htm It's Trunks site (he is a moderator here) lots of very useful links to the direction you are looking.

thanks for sharing this experience _/\_

before enlightment: chop wood, take a shit after enlightment: chop wood, take a shit

So.... anyone notice. Taoist discussion became - general discussion - and then Taoist discussion re-appeared The Tao works in mysterious ways i.e. it wasn't really planned like that just sort of happened.

this IS fun don't think... Shit Shit... don't think

Please be respectful when flinging your shit ^THAT IS NOT INTENDED AS MODERATOR MESSAGE (just incase)

What a nice sleep If anything a 13 page thread (well it was when I started typing) 14 page thread with vastly different points of view might help point to exactly how difficult it is to moderate TTB. But everyone knows that That’s why, no matter what the moderation action, there will always be people who fit somewhere on Strongly disagree - Disagree - Don’t care - Agree - Strongly Agree An example in this thread. CowTao. Perhaps the only public thing that people see is my little message. What you don’t see • the reports (yes there are more than the one from last night now, not everyone is online at one time.) • The pm from another moderator to CowTow (which we know hasn’t been read yet as he has not come back online. Some things can’t happen instantly) • Another moderators message in the post. • And the moderators discussion about the issue. Now there are other, rather nasty IMO, posts here too. Are people just ribbing each other or it is serious? I can’t tell from the text. But there are no reports on many of them, so there really isn’t any justification for me or another mod to jump in and do something about it. Other posts have reports, so we have a better idea how people feel about that, and we are PM those posters. When we are not sure we go with - do nothing. Sometimes we prefer non public action via PM Sometimes it's an in thread message. Sometimes it's a posting suspension. I’m sure that makes us mods look inconsistent. I’m sure that makes us mods look like we play favourites. All we are trying to do is run a discussion forum where people can DISCUS with each other. Rather than a huge list of rules all we ask, before you hit post, is to- Treat other members with respect. No personal attacks.

Yes you do (need to hit report) my thanks to the person who did. I DO NOT spend ever moment of my life here, so as to where I was, I was teaching class. As to the state of this thread I think we should take 5 and chill out..... As pointed out this is not the pit. People are IMO taking this REALLY a bit too far. Personally I'm going to eat my dinner, try and relax and then go to sleep. So I do hope things look a bit calmer in the morning. Good night.

I know, after some of our exchanges at that time I was grateful, even somewhat honoured, and I was tempted. But "throwing away" the other mods was exactly how I interpreted it.

Yes.... and the gatekeeper / super mod idea with yourself and me in those rolls, along with throwing away the "lower level" of moderators after they had given 6 months to moderating was why I wouldn't support this. After discussing that implication with Sean and the remaining moderators Sean sugested something different.... which is what we have now.