Mal

Anyone want to read Journey to the West together? A chapter every few weeks or so? Nac posted the link Having looked at the first chapter there are all sorts of layers here and I suspect almost all is going to be WAY over my head. I would have known nothing about the timeline in the "genesis" story at the start except for the recent Ten Celestial Stems and Twelve Terrestrial Branches thread. And the imagery of four great continents and even getting into the HAPPY LAND OF THE MOUNTAIN OF FLOWERS AND FRUIT, CAVE HEAVEN OF THE WATER CURTAIN made me think of. http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?act=At...post&id=109 I'm not going to be able to get much more that a good story out of this journey without a lot of help, anyone want to come along? So...... starting right at the beginning, they first poem reminds me of the big bang or that "one gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, three to the myriad things." The Divine Root Conceives and the Spring Breaks Forth As the Heart's Nature Is Cultivated, the Great Way Arises Before Chaos was divided, Heaven and Earth were one; All was a shapeless blur, and no men had appeared. Once Pan Gu destroyed the Enormous Vagueness The separation of clear and impure began. Now the timeline of 5,400 years of course reminds me of the genesis story but I'm sure there is there more "information" but honestly I skipped to the magic stone Of course rereading gives hints but I'm unable to penetrate deeper on my own.

Yes I do hold to a view that the universe is "friendly" rather than "adversarial". Of course things may very well want to 'eat you'. But from their point of view they are just looking after themselves rather than acting specifically to 'harm you' (The actual result may be the same but like how a Lion will stalk an Antelope rather than a serial killer stalking a victim)

And now she is geting married Anyhow I voted, and the wedding present idea sounds cool. (Depending on how "open minded" her hubby to be is )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WKP8-Ni-m0 Good to see all ages still appreciate good music

Actually you got suspended from posting for a few days not banned. Everyone is welcome, and encouraged, to clearly voice opinions. Lino's above post is the 1st one that actually helped me make sense of what he was trying to say. Personally the profanity and language choice is making your message rather confusing and difficult for me to decipher. But I do believe I get what you are trying to say. Thanks

+1 Hear Hear

Check them all out in person. Look at how the teacher moves and the students, do you want to be like that too. It the class a "nice" place that you want to go back too? Those feelings are much more important than any schools technical or theoretical "Best-ness" p.s. while not important "I study peaceful dragon Tai Chi" sounds very cool

Wow what is going on in this thread

*Moderating* Lino I think I'm getting you point but those posts are not like you Take a few days off to think about things.

*Moderating* Wow this thread is long, we have been getting reports on various posts (Thank you for those reports everyone) I was actually just reading one back on page 8. GIH has been suspended from posting for a week. Please watch the language and personal insults. btw Vortex certainly is not a Troll I personally value his post on TTB highly. Thanks Mal

Yes, just an instance of human error, all good now With the recent superpower threads we should post a screenshot one day off all the cool buttons we can push

Bookclub thread with .PDF of Journey to the West and some discussion http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?/topic/11372-journey-to-the-west/ The nature of Monkey was irrepressible!

Most guys just pal around with their friends or workmates. Some will have a girlfriend and they also have a circle of female friends. The group starts doing things together, paring up. They start to get married, so there are weddings to go to. People will start setting up unattached friends. Kids start arriving, families are formed.. It just happens naturally Of course people usually want a partner, but their focus is on living, the rest just happens while you are doing it. That is how your "average naive nice guy who is insecure, isolated and in his comfort zone" ends up married with 2.5 kids I'm typing this, listening to my partner snore, and also to the party-goers coming home from the tavern up the road. Clubs and pubs are a different sort of environment. If you want to go hunting there you need a different skill set from the "average nice guy" if you want to stand out from the competition and perform above average. And honestly you tend not to meet your "average nice girl" in that sort of environment without a network of friends to break the ice with them. Just like guys that perform well in a club setting, because they have skills that work well there. There are also girls that are in that setting because they are attracted to those sort of skills. If can be easier to hook them as it's basically what they are expecting. Some people naturally enjoy that, some people want to learn how to do it too, others just enjoy siting on the balcony relaxing in their comfort zone....... but I met a really cool girl here at Tai Chi and I might tag along to the meditation she goes to after the next class. Sometimes it's just fun to spend time with interesting people. Being on holidays in a tourist town makes it just so easy to start conversations and find out about other people. Making friends is fun. I could see a guy at the surf school I went to this week was pretty quiet, turns out he was from Sweden and traveling around Aus before his brothers wedding. Just an average nice guy whose girlfriend was flying out to meet him in a few weeks for the wedding

Cool post I basically feel this way. Well I'm starting to find the hot young backpackers not really attractive anymore Superficially they still look very sexy, but the conversation and their interests are just not what I'm into anymore. Basically what I want isn't what they have, starting to prefer a bit more life experience. Probably a good thing as I'm getting a bit old to hit on the young ones anyhow Also agree with the poster about building up your energy. People can feel it and will want to interact. Just be yourself, find out about them. Basically have fun.

Don't give up, try again and see if you can go for longer I recall Soda is an "issue" for you ..... perhaps try, I won't impulse buy an a soda in a shop instead I'll buy the cheaper ones at the supermarket when I'm there shopping for groceries. (I have success with, I don't eat chocolate in the daytime )

Cool thread. I'll admit #3 (and 4) can really get to me. I'm working on being more tolerant. But I do feel it can easily bring the level of communication down which is something I personally would like to avoid.

It's really rare for topics to be deleted. The search is reliable, but a bit tricky to use unfortunately. You could try advanced search looking around dates you think the post may have been. I also use google advanced search just searching thetaobums.com. That sometimes gives better results. p.s. I was going to search for posts by pietro as I though it was his thread, but I think I found it on page 2 http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?/topic/3238-different-kind-of-polarities/

Hi Xian, Welcome to the 'bums My apologies for that, you left the field blank so I just copied it in when I was checking out why you couldn't post. You can change it in you control panel, or just let me know what you would prefer and I'll fix it for you. Hope you have fun here.

Despite knowing Tai Chi, some yoga and a few different meditations I've never been a morning practice person. Even though I knew intellectually it was the best way to start the day, I was just never successful. I needed something not too time consuming, energizing and enjoyable to do. For me the 4 chi gung set from KAP fit those criteria and made a big difference to me. I still practice them every morning (basically, it's evolved slightly) This weekend I got up and went for a walk up a nearby hill, did my Tai Chi form 2x and then some seated meditation on a nice rock, overlooking the town and ocean. That was great fun but took over 1 hour 30 min, can't really fit that in and go to work