Michael Sternbach

Yes, there is a time and place for (almost) everything.

Yes, I like Alan Watts. I read a lot of his books. He was relentlessly teaching that aspiring after Enlightenment was useless. Acceptance of yourself and the world as perfect in your/its very imperfection was the key. That sounds a lot like love to me. He was also very critical of what he called the "aching legs type of Buddhism" - the sitting-16-hours-in-zazen kind of thing. (And was in turn critisized by a representative of the latter school for his unorthodox attitude.)

The guy in the upper video looked awfully tense to me, and his breathing technique was reminiscent of Sanchin kata as practised in Goju-ryu Karate rather than of anything I ever saw in IMA. I quite liked the second video though - even if the 'attacker' was a student or friend of the master, the skill demonstrated by the latter was impressive.

Laymen may think that the show fight this topic refers to is telling something about the martial prowess inherent to Taiji. It does not. I watched that fight on Youtube. I got the impression that the Taiji man had little idea what he was dealing with. He was ill prepared. The secret of victory is to know your opponent as well as yourself. Best, the fight would have been between the MMA fighter and another MMA (or perhaps Sanshou) fighter who uses Taiji as his base. Only this would allow us to draw conclusions - not about the art's overall martial usefulness, but about its applicability in the octagon.

Regarding its foundations, Taiji is actually a most excellent martial art. And Taiji masters of yore were renowned for kicking butt. However, the art is rarely being practised with this aim today. As far as it's at all taught as a functional system of fighting, it is self-defence oriented rather than sport oriented. Much like the Southern Shaolin styles, it typically goes for the weakest spots of human anatomy. Which makes it less suitable fot competition fighting, where those targets are outlawed.

Since you seem to be quite interested in cosmological contexts, I shall mention that Polaris actually isn't completely static but, due to precession, revolves in the course of millennia around the pole of the ecliptic in Draco, something I once wrote about here: http://www.thedaobums.com/topic/35896-astrological-musings/page-4#entry575161 Not that it would be pertinent to our present discussion of ZZ - for whose purposes it was totally adequate to refer to Polaris as the star the whole firmament revolves around on a daily base -, but if you want to be really thorough, you may want to look into this further. Edkins writes that Draco was Tsi Kung, the Palace of the Heavenly Emperor, adding, that this palace "is bounded by the stars of Draco, fifteen in number, which stretch themselves in an oval shape round the pole-star. It was itself the pole in the Epoch of the commencement of Chinese astronomy." BTW, your linked Wikipedia article is rather interesting -thanks. And I think you have summarized ZZ's reasons well for using the examples that he did.

Yes, but only through a series of intermediate steps.

No, but he was.

And the pumpkin would not be able to follow its Dao if it wasn't eaten by Stosh.

Also, the eating turns the pumpkin into Stosh.

Okay, let me try to figure this out: The eating of the pumpkin wouldn't happen, if there was no Stosh. By the same token, without eating, Stosh could not exist. Edit: There would also be no eating without the pumpkin, of course.

Neither had Dolly Buster, since my research indicated that you're talking about Kitty Wells, born 1919. Sorry, she was long before my time. Would you consider 'Country Road' a song about the Dao?

According to the list linked below, you must be talking about Dolly Parton. http://m.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/top-female-country-singers

Many beliefs are adopted from parents and teachers already in childhood. They are rarely being examined later. However, beliefs are constantly self-validating due to selective perception. Meaning that data in accordance with one's established beliefs will be accepted more easily than data that contradicts them.

There is a polarity being highlighted: Polaris follows his Dao by standing still. Whereas Sun and Moon follow their Dao by constantly moving. I would say, the Luminaries were chosen because they are the most prominent objects in the sky, and also among the fastest moving ones; even though Mercury and Venus move faster than the Sun (as seen from Earth), they sometimes stand still and change direction. - And yes, Sun and Moon are among the most archetypal expressions of yang and yin. The celestial bodies were often seen as the Gods by the ancients - or as their visible bodies. Which isn't a far cry from the modern conception of the Earth being a highly complex system that indeed has its own kind of consciousness (Gaia hypothesis). Now, according to Newtonian physics, the celestial bodies are bound to move a certain way due to the laws of gravity. However, Poincaré showed that, in the long run (on a time scale that the Gods may be totally comfortable with), their course cannot be determined with certainty. The French scientist hereby laid the foundations for Chaos theory - but you could just as well say that the will of the Gods becomes a factor here.

That's akin to saying there is nothing to gain from a mirror.

Yes, the attachment to beliefs that have outlived their purpose.

I maintain that it is not possible for a human being to function without beliefs, just like a computer can't run without a program. Not to say that humans are computers, of course, but this is a valid analogy, IMO.

... (Oops, posted something in the wrong thread. )

'Whore frost' is defined by the 'Urban Dictionary' as: "The inability to get laid even if you pay for it." Sorry, what has that got to do with your American tourister?

Why is belief 'in the past'?

You lost me with that one. Not even the 'Urban Dictionary' helps...

Beliefs can imprison you. And they can free you.

Is that a metaphor?

Thus, the One Awareness split itself up into myriads of 'awarenesses', as to experience Itself from so many different perspectives, all of which are needed for the One to understand Itself.