Earl Grey

Pretty low—a lot of Asian American and Chinese -Filipino kids I know are actively trying to be unlike their heritage culture. Qigong to them is superstitious.

I gave cold hard facts and sources cited from Rappler, a credible source with reporters who have multiple awards internationally, and you gave a few articles from a web search that painted a distorted picture because there was no context, even if one of those sources you cited was Rappler, which was only a snippet of the whole situation. No contest there. On your end, you go on to cite memes, David Icke and Zecharaiah Sitchin. Let's get this straight: besides invading every topic possible to post about the Annunaki rubbish and colonialism, you have yet to provide your qualifications both from your educational and professional background about why anything you say should be taken seriously, nor have you really shown any experience internationally. Now, let's also look at this: you were trying to tell me that you could vouch for Duterte with the level of understanding you have that implies you have better insight into it than me, both a resident in this country and Asian guy, who not only has lived here for a combined total of 10 years, but I also have educational background, professional training, and contacts in government and organizations here and abroad related to the diaspora as well. You, likely a white guy, with no qualifications, are unsubtly implying you know more about this country and the demagogue here than me--that's you either being completely oblivious to the parallels of white guy colonialist who knows more than a local in the country, or you're smoking some crack to think that you have superior insight with what little you provide from false comparisons, zero understanding, dubious sources, and no life experience, let alone never having actually listened to, not talk over, people here. I think I've seen enough. As for Bolsonaro, at least I agree with you there, because he's inarguably a terrible human being. Sorry, this was inaccurate--he has zero humanity and the world would be better off without him. Now, as for this country's climate change issues, staying on topic, we just had record floods. https://www.rappler.com/move-ph/236928-heavy-rain-floods-areas-metro-manila-august-2-2019

More of a riddle there, but here’s one from me. Where can you see farther, in light or dark, and why? And a joke: Trump, Putin, Erdogan, Modi, Duterte, Bolsonaro, and Xi all jump off a cliff to see who lands first. Who wins?

Karma bit their ass, dogma still eats the people’s souls. When does it end?

Pleased to meet you fellow practitioner. I got to level 3 two years after my level 2 and think somewhere along the lines of 10-20 or even 40 years is how long I need before I can call myself that, but even then I'm healing without even calling it Reiki anymore at times. Loved your post on the Reiki thread, by the way.

Who gives a duck?

There's no doubt you are well-learned, especially in OTO, old chap. Those who know are the ones best able to laugh at themselves as much as they laugh at others, and you have that jovial bellows laugh that can bring even the most stoic-faced a smirk. This is something I've been vocal about on this forum a lot more recently. The self-initiated who think they know Zhan Zhuang from LKC's book or a YouTube video, think they know neidan from a few posts here, or those who believe they are the next messiah after a Reiki attunement on Skype that made them a master in a weekend. Even a simple question such as testing one's skill is met with either ridicule or name-calling, and if there is no skill to demonstrate, they call us who are observing negative, narrow-minded, or unable to see the subtleties that they can because they are awakened and we are caught up in old paradigms. Those old paradigms exist because they worked, mind you...Agrippa, anyone? Sheesh. Yes, how does one have self-discipline without having the criteria to measure their discipline against? It's like a slob being told to be clean and he insists he's clean because that's his standard of cleanliness: not looking or smelling ungodly even if he's wearing the same shirt for two weeks now and argues that it still smells okay and doesn't look dirty because it's a dark color. I read once that Crowley and his order were pretty tongue-in-cheek, and for all that "Beast" talk, he was an outright dandy who loved to press people's buttons. Used to love his stuff, but like most western occultism and hermetic studies, it's easier when a teacher is around because I alone never would have understood a god damned thing even when reading again and again. Sometimes I find a lot of these societies are a lot like these guys too: Point taken and clarified. I haven't read most of his posts, honestly. He's a new member and quite gregarious, I only saw his introductory post and figured he has his own growing pains to go through still. I learned humility from verbal and physical ass kickings. When I was on my way to university and I thought I was tough shit, I was dressed down and lectured by a 15 year-old in front of my friends, who at the time was far more mature and well-reasoned rhetoric on the plane from Beijing to Manila. Yes, Crowley and his teachings is a huge field of study in of itself. There are criticisms from old school students of Agrippa and John Dee's writings, but I can't deny the massive influence Crowley had on the occult world and popular culture. Here's a story Alan Moore wrote which was told by Crowley in the comic Promethea: A man is on a train and sees another man with a box inside. He asks the man with the box what's inside, and he responds that it's a mongoose, because his brother is afraid of snakes in his house. The man asks if the box man is afraid of the snakes in his brother's house, and he says no, because the brother is delusional and the snakes are imaginary. The first man then asks why the box man has a mongoose for imaginary snakes. The box man says he isn't worried, because inside the box is an imaginary mongoose.

Okay, you know you're ignoring all the children and innocents killed in Duterte's drug war and the issues with China and their attempt to grab natural resources exclusively through their BRI program and debt diplomacy here, right? And how he contradicted himself in his policies, words, and actions on the environment already, like with the Lumad? https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/181323-lumad-philippines-stories-photos-issues https://www.rappler.com/move-ph/178181-infographic-lumad-indigenous-peoples https://www.rappler.com/nation/105847-timeline-attacks-lumad-mindanao https://www.rappler.com/move-ph/178203-rappler-talk-love-hate-relationship-duterte-lumad https://www.rappler.com/nation/180913-lumads-want-new-bangsamoro-basic-law Actually, no, I don't think you have any idea at all about what you're talking about aside from a quick Google like you tend to do, no context, depth, or experience. You don’t even know a thing about the country or how he’s made more than enough deals that contradict his environmental statement you quoted nor have you actually been here or seen what he’s done to displace indigenous peoples with his policies. Or that his attack on christianity is because the church here is one of his biggest critics for the disregard of due process, rule of law, systematic killing of people, selling out to China, environmental issues, and supporting the Marcos family while claiming he’s a fan of Marcos among other things. https://www.rappler.com/science-nature/environment/232293-groups-intensify-campaign-vs-kaliwa-dam-world-environment-day-2019 https://www.rappler.com/nation/183878-duterte-absolving-bongbong-imee-marcos-lagman https://www.rappler.com/nation/170759-duterte-martial-law-no-different-marcos https://www.rappler.com/nation/204865-duterte-threatens-catholic-church-after-filipino-priests-killing Things you would only understand with context instead of a quick Google search and now you look like a complete fool as usual. Thought you might have some sense but I was wrong. Never mind.

Bolsonaro is the Brazilian Duterte.

Well, the ultimate test of anyone's skill and understanding is applying it. For martial skills, how can one demonstrate not just their forms, but their ability to defend themselves or how long can they stand in Zhan Zhuang with good posture? Do they have rooting or grounding, have they developed linking? For healing, are they just making someone feel warm or can you see subtle changes like lower blood pressure or are they even able to fa qi and make the patient feel electricity? For magical practice, this is where it becomes hard to measure criteria for whether something works or not, but I've heard stories of people doing rituals properly and candles becoming like blowtorches to indicate yes, someone was there with the adept and it made the candles react. Due to the nature of this forum, there are people who find their experience and understanding reinforced online through discussions here and might make them able to see who has and doesn't have skill or understanding satisfactory to their standards, but again, this means nothing. I have people here tell me all sorts of things about my martial skill but they don't know about my fight history or my forms, and I'm happy with letting people think that because my teachers and my opponents tell very different stories to characterize that skill, which likewise, if you are confident in what you have, you won't mind too much what others say. Good luck here!

Feeling the same and having good results are totally different things, but I think that point has been hammered in already by Desmond.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/08/reddit-hate-content-moderation/ Proof that Sean eliminating the right-wing shit on this forum was necessary based on what happened over at Reddit.

Don't mind Nungali, he's a kook, but he's a good chap and has had a go in poking fun at me too, and I like him still. What is important to understand that experience and analysis criteria are two separate things. You are coming from a an experiential approach that is popular with New Agers and self-appointed adepts (some even self-appointed masters), whereas he comes from both experience and analysis with his training in teachings that include Crowley's work. I personally believe experience is very subjective, yet there are commonalities. Analysis criteria, however, is where one uses a common frame of reference so that the consistency allows people to make sense of what they are looking at. What this means is that there's a framework that one gets usually from formal study or having an actual practice--e.g. you understand the rules of football because you played on a team with others who agree to the same rules and goals versus someone who picked up the ball and decided to make things up as they went along, e.g. Calvinball. So he is coming as somewhat of a playful indirect teacher because he sees you use the word adept that you've taken to characterize yourself and your experience and he gives you the lowdown from his own studies and the analytical criteria. This is common on the forum where you have people who use experience to define esoteric practices, which is great because there is overlap, but some people get so caught up in sensations and experiences that they lose themselves in it rather than understand them as signage on a highway indicating where you are going and how far you are on your journey. You will also have people with formal training and systems like him (and me as you can see in the sidebar). Long story short, don't get yourself too worked up. I get worked up from time to time here and am weaning myself on to being here no more than 2-3 days out of the week. I also mean not to get worked up with your own experience because some people may see you as thinking highly of yourself and decide to play with you for laughs rather than viewing you as a humble seeker and being nurturing as their way of supporting you. Both are fine because you'll learn either way if you're open to it.

https://www.rappler.com/world/regions/latin-america/238644-brazil-rejects-g7-aid-fight-amazon-fires "No to colonial or imperial interference" said the populist leader of an almost all-white male cabinet.

Zhan Zhuang can be harmful when done for a long time, such as an hour, as energy can get stuck and stagnant, and a moving form like Baduanjin at the very least or even a basic Taiji form, even a short form, is necessary. While people may may have many benefits from LKC, if you’re only looking for health, do the movement exercises in the book so that you have something to allow the energy to go there or learn a simple form. In terms of martial purposes, Zhan Zhuang alone has nuances you won’t learn from the book and a good instructor at that point is necessary. One great friend who learned a lot from the book supplemented his learning with a lot of research in other books and his own dedication for hours. Ask my dear friend @NATURE BEEING for his insight.

On a different note, here's something very interesting to discuss: http://evonomics.com/no-productivity-does-not-explain-income/ Excerpt: Clark was also explicit about why his theory was needed. The stability of the capitalist order was at stake! Here’s Clark again: So the neoclassical theory of income distribution was born as an ideological response to Marxism. According to Marx, capitalists extract a surplus from workers, and so workers get less than what they deserve. Clark’s marginal productivity theory aimed to show that this was not true. Both capitalists and workers, Clark claimed, got what they deserved. The message of Clark’s theory is simple: workers need to stay in their place. They already earn what they produce, so they have no right to demand more.

Ah, thanks for clarifying. As for photos and ecology, let me get clearance from my old employers before I post as these belong to them. And yes: Bolsonaro to me is more dangerous than Putin or Xi or Trump because of what he can do to the Amazon rain forest...Sorry to any of his supporters, but he's a populist piece of shit and a homophobe.

Are you even able to read and comprehend that you're making false comparisons of the capitalistic businesses such as mining firms versus development organizations being the same thing, which is what was just explained thoroughly how they are not the same thing? Anyway, this is for you and everyone to read: https://www.rappler.com/views/imho/237729-humanitarian-worker-frontlines

I’m more interested in Brian than Jesus.

I’m happy to give one free session to answer questions if you want someone to check your form and stances after you’ve done it for a few months. I come from a Yi Quan background and will officially become an instructor next year, and I notice a lot of people have a fundamental mistake when learning from books or YouTube.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/08/24/753511276/when-temperatures-rise-so-do-health-problems

Quite correct especially in that capitalist interests either reached those groups long before development indices and protections were in place or that those indices and protections were and are and continue to be not just ignored but completely disregarded. Much of the development context is arguably seen by many in the small and medium organizations as the foundation for the third way, but the challenge is that it’s the long game towards self-determination for all that is routinely undermined by the global capitalistic structure. As a result, many people either live like Sisyphus pushing his boulder up the hills and Atlas carrying the world on his shoulders, or grow old and resign themselves to what little progress they have made may end up undone by change in government like Duterte and more contracts with China for biodiesel at the expense of groups like the Badjao or Trump undoing a lot of climate change action. https://www.rappler.com/nation/114975-badjao-nameless-forgotten-faceless

This is nice, but it’s still not what a lot of people are thinking of when trying to provide for their families. We can talk about this as idealism and we can mention some cultural groups who are thriving as Taomeow mentioned above. But for every Miao tribe I think of other cultural minority groups like the Lumad, https://www.rappler.com/move-ph/178181-infographic-lumad-indigenous-peoples. Leave them alone? Not as simple as it sounds because the local government is systematically oppressing them under the Duterte regime, not to mention Canadian mining companies displacing them. People are deprived of access to their own way of living on one hand, and this is mutually exclusive on those who want to participate in that ugly thing we call “modernization”. Now in terms of development which in the language of this field actually no longer uses “Third World” officially but more often Global North and Global South due to the baggage behind the terminology spells out the great divide between (mostly) urban industrial economies of the Global North and their opposites. However for sake of reference within development context, it does not actually mean countries with traditional culture(s) that do not rely on the new world system for survival. To clarify with more cynicism, they are underdeveloped. When we speak of underdeveloped, we mean that not only are their education, infrastructure, healthcare, or human rights indices far below global standards as outlined by the UN, it also means that they are vulnerable to systematic exploitation in their broader attempts to catch up. And strictly speaking, we actually use the Human Development Index rather than first world or second world or third world or fourth world. I will again refer to both the macro level and micro level, the macro level being the one people commonly associate with colonialism like the Chinese BRI that has caused problems in Sri Lanka through debt diplomacy, and the micro level where people historically connected to their lands such as the Rohingya or those in the Crimea who are deprived of their land through displacement from external forces like government oppression to mining companies that also completely destroy the lives and the land of the people until they’re stripped dry like in the Philippines or Latin America. A capitalistic abomination like mining companies drain the respective resources in an area and create an economy based off of service to the mining group, deal permanent environmental damage and irreparable social damage, and the community is left without anything to do to reclaim their old life. In a development context, this is not development, this is an abuse of rights and in a country with a weak level of development in that its representation and state power should theoretically be representing minority group interests—meaning that mining contracts would never have been awarded had their been full consideration of the groups who would be potentially affected by that activity because it would cause externalities and problems for them. Where the field of development sees this hypothetical scenario is that it’s a case of capitalism over community. The indigenous cultural groups could be left to their own devices, yes, but the development context is that there needs to be guaranteed protections for them in any kind of context whether it is access to resources they have historically held or that activity must have them as key players in decision making as primary stakeholders. Instead, however, we have seen capitalist interests completely disregard development context and focus on shareholders and pretend these cultural minority groups within a state don’t exist, whether it is mining or other other natural resources. Near the area between the Philippines of Sulu and Sabah with Malaysia, one source of contention is the tens of thousands of dollars made off of natural resources there by the Malaysian government whereas the original deal made to the sultan earns roughly what is only a few thousand dollars dollars while the Malaysian government earns hundreds of thousands. He has little sovereignty in his view compared to what the state earns and even then this is not the whole picture. Long story short, we can talk about how nice some groups have survived historically without infrastructure or development and access to healthcare, but they often do not actually have adequate access to support themselves and they often try to send children to the cities so that they can send money home if that’s even attainable as they get stuck in service work and if left totally alone and disengaged they won’t even understand their rights that allow them to speak up and make their claims and interests known as stakeholders over both their community and their country as a whole. I think the key problem in our discussion now is we are confusing the difference between idealism and historical self-sufficiency rather than the economic and systematic context, so the overlapping terms such as poverty actually have different definitions rather than the idealized “living in nature and self-sufficient” romantic view. Oversimplification with that romantic view thus ignores the fact that people and their homes aren’t protected or the structures meant to protect them are ignored in favor of capitalist interests rather than development indices that respect them. Addendum: development does not mean more capitalism, capitalism actually runs contrary to development.

A very interesting series of insights of our wired and weird world.

Yes, thank you, Luke. A little reference I like to use is this: https://blog.udemy.com/types-of-poverty/