Earl Grey

And some people I know watched that movie as recently as last week just like I watched Taxi Driver recently too (and Cloud Atlas for the bajillionth time since it is my favorite film and I was part of the international fan club as well in 2012). The premise is that you say you don't watch movies full stop. If you said "Recently, I no longer watch movies" then it might be a different story.

Hmm?

Oh, but it is. This is how Donald Trump thinks. Also, that non-apology there takes no personal responsibility for any of your actions--that is a typical backhanded insult masquerading as an apology that a lot of passive-aggressive people use. More like you are selling what you don't actually have to people who don't actually want it.

No anger. Just amusement because you're too predictable. You're really not good at reading people--or self-aware. Seriously, kid: take a break and go get help. This forum isn't going to go anywhere and you'll have a lot more fun when you're not trying to prove your relevance (hint: you're proving the exact opposite).

Ooh, hit a sore point there, huh? If it isn't the weed or the practice, then you still have a lot to learn because you're still involved in your "never my fault" approach while pointing fingers, which everyone can see here. I hope you get the help you need, because there's only so much we can do here. And no: do not contact me for help until you have some humility and remorse along with some self-awareness. Dealt with patients just like you before too. Same script--nothing new. If your ego matched your skill, you'd be quiet. If your actions matched your words, you'd be quiet. If you knew what's good for you, you'd be quiet.

Come back when you're not smoking weed or and doing improper practice you've collated from your "research" and "intuition". Then we might take you seriously. Until then, I have no interest in engaging you and only replying as a courtesy while I am focused on talking with the other lovely ladies and gentlemen here.

Now you're lying because I said no such thing. I also have no master named Fa Xin--that's a former moderator's username! Actually, I only changed my attitude because you apologized and asked for help. Because you did! And your old private messages, e-mails, and our Skype call don't even need to be brought up, but they do reinforce the point of you as an unreliable narrator. You've nothing for me to be jealous or envious of--and there's a huge difference. Actually, they are talking with me. HARD PASS.

Hmm, I said I'd step away from engaging Welkin himself, but the rest of you guys I'm happy to continue discourse with here. In a forum where everyone has their own experience and opinion, much like the Millennial on YouTube and social media, attention and likes validate a person's quest for relevance. An oldie but a goodie that I have used several times with our young friend here: I personally like being insignificant because I can what I want and let others be as they leave me be--but when I see something not cool, my hive mind goes off to help keep things in order, much like the white blood cell senses a disturbance and imbalance in the force body. Those who scream for everyone to give them relevance are like the loud college kids suddenly come while you're alone on a hill enjoying the quiet calm stargazing, only to hear WAP and autotune music played from their mobile phone speakers, or people reading status updates aloud and taking selfies while tripping over their own two feet. I once knew a French lad who drove up to the mountains once here in the Philippines, and in a place where people value silence and good manners, he was sorely lacking in all of those, playing loud rap music and speeding around the small streets, getting drunk, and insulting locals and expat residents while trying to find prostitutes as he bragged about being wealthy and French. In an attempt to show his relevance, he chose to make me his target for violence and was upset to find out I don't suffer stupidity or abuse, whether verbal or physical, which in his case was all of it. He then made the mistake of looking for weed in a place that is fairly straightlaced, and of all groups he could approach, he went to off-duty police officers, who first were happy to let the locals beat him black and blue for the disturbance, then the other locals being the nature spirits curse him as well for the disrespect to the quiet, then they reported him to on-duty officers. He left with exactly what he wanted though: attention and notoriety, but he became a persona non grata in that town forevermore, which became a recurring theme as he started fleeing across the country that year, and ended up with no friends along with a lot of money lost posting bail. The lesson three years later was not learned by the young Frenchman, and last I heard, he was in informal house arrest by his own family because of the trouble he was causing. It may be fun and games to some people to scream for relevance, but the consequences are sadly going to affect those around them potentially more than their individual selves.

Speaking frankly at someone who initially got annoyed with you in the beginning, you actually quickly became one of my favorite teachers when I saw how you do a damn fine job of holding up the mirror and being impartial... not to mention understanding and open for my own boneheaded behavior. I hope lil’ Welkin doesn’t need another medical emergency to wisen up and take in the support offered by you and others like shunka here.

I've actually done a lot of research and writing on the perils of big data...my partners and I were ridiculed in the late 2000s and early 2010s, especially as we got off social media in the early 2010s. Fast forward a few years later and everything we predicted was prophetic, especially for Facebook. A lot of it ultimately amounts to how Facebook especially is the college mind, the lazy college student mind who never got out of the college mindset of popularity and meeting girls or getting even with exes. What was once the realm of the young adult finding their way in the world has now tainted the global social norms, and homogenization of language--especially Silicon Valley startup culture slang and Americanisms--is made worse by how Facebook talks about opening up the world, but somehow is very happy to place authoritarians like Hun Sen in Cambodia and Myanmar--countries that have 90% of their population using the news feed for their information as opposed to newspapers and blogs, making them especially susceptible to fake news. Let's not forget how authoritarians like Duterte in the Philippines also abuse the cyberlibel act that is so vague that they can turn anyone's rant or a joke into a justification for probable cause to incite insurrection, and have demanded for extradition from countries that they have no formal extradition treaty with such as Taiwan for Facebook status updates criticizing Duterte. Hun Sen of Cambodia has used this multiple times as well to find dissenters in Cambodia, and it has also been very influential in populist politics, especially India, Myanmar, and so on.

We look forward to above Welkin to return someday instead of insult-dispensing "never my fault" Welkin.

Notice me sempai is the attitude you're displaying here, not me asking for your attention. If anything, I'm saying that I intend to give you a bit of a caution not just because the mods are now zeroing in on you, but because you're regressing further than you were last year. Anyway, you'll do what you want to do and throw away any lessons you may have picked up during your health problem and apologies last year...your life, your free will, your repeated lessons failed. Hubris and smug self-certainty aren't praised in any spiritual tradition. ...a little more self-awareness could help too. Sigh. I'm out.

There goes the progress you made with your apologies for this very behavior last year. Seems you want to regress and need attention...but the only attention you'll get is from the mods at some point. Tread carefully... "Notice me sempai."

Erm, being spiritual and developing with love doesn't mean being a sensitive new age guy in love with the law of attraction and the cult of positive thinking. There are countless sources from Abrahamic faiths to Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Zoroastrian, and other philosophies that detail it has nothing to do with this criteria. As for Hollywood--man, I worked there for years before too and this kind of broad statement is hilarious because Hollywood is at least not in denial about creating narratives. Hell, they get paid to do it and are at least entertaining rather than the narratives most people make about themselves thinking they are special. You really need to stop using blanket statements based on personal assumptions and no experience, dude.

High school memory: in our Spanish class, we were sharing a bag of Oreos in the back, chewing quietly and discreetly. Miss Powell looks in our direction and says, "Earl Grey! Are you eating in class?!" I say, "No, ma'am!" but grinned in embarrassment only to reveal cookie crumbs in my teeth, which the giggling of my classmates only served to reinforce the guilt, and one buddy, Abdul, said, "He ain't eatin' cookies and he's got shit in his teeth!" Busted, we asked Abdul why he fingered us. Abdul: "You didn't share any with me!!!" Teacher walks over to the corner, demands us to open our desks and reveal the cookies...and helps herself to a few, then goes back to teaching as though nothing happened, then warns us to not get caught again.

T.T. Liang once told Stuart Alve Olson that Confucians, Buddhists, and Taoists handle mosquitoes differently: A Confucian would kill the mosquito because everything has its proper place and role in a hierarchy, and the mosquito has little significance to a man. A Buddhist would allow the mosquito to take some blood because everything deserves to live equally. A Taoist will move if the mosquito keeps following him because it means that that place is the mosquito's and he will find his own place away from the mosquito. Liang said sometimes he will be one of the three when appropriate. In the case of mosquitoes, he makes no hesitation to take the Confucian approach as he is not ever going to be strictly one or the other.

Waking up and going to bed cuddling with my dogs and cats, getting in all my training (6-8 hour average), reading and playing video games, eating well, and sleeping a long time on a comfy bed with the fan on.

I’ll nudge him. I specifically mentioned this to him.

https://www.clearmartialarts.com/xing-yi-quan/

It’s the little puppy that shits on the carpet that you tear your hair out over, but can’t ever hate it. It’s the little kitty that keeps shredding your couch that you somehow feel compelled to still dote over even if it’s causing you stress by overwhelming you with its cuteness. It’s the bird that repeats the same shit every time, and you wonder who taught it crazy things as you try to teach it to say better things for everyone’s sanity. A chimera. You nurture it and at times it pisses you off, other times it brings joy. Fickle.

The feel good argument is one I am not a fan of--one can "feel good" taking recreational drugs whether it is a high or a low, but those aren't ever going to be the measure of something being good for someone's health. "Eating bitter" is one of my favorite approaches, but even then, just because something makes you feel terrible doesn't mean it is working well too.

I suspect you’ve not tried Relaxation qigong then. 😂 an actual style.

Then he has very limited experience if he believes this is as absolute. Totally different. It is the opposite. Years. Intellectual understanding is different from actual knowledge and skill.

Most of those who claim to be Taiji masters aren't that good to begin with, like the ones who were destroyed by the MMA guy in China trying to prove how they were fake. Lots of the good masters no longer exist in China and their arts are very well guarded or hidden. Incorrect. Taijiquan is a fighting style, but taiji is a philosophy and refers to the Yin and Yang symbol. There is of course overlap, but rarely do people learn proper Taijiquan to fight. Those who do know how to fight with Taijiquan know what it means "supreme ultimate fist". Focusing on violence, yes, but the martial arts aspect is what helps look beyond the binary view that good is good and evil is evil--hence, the use of the taiji symbol. If one thinks martial arts is synonymous with violence, then they lack creativity and understanding. Often, the health benefits were secondary to the martial practice, and the spiritual awakening came as a result of transcending the battlefield. In our practice, it's to ground the self in reality before the yogic practice, lest we end up with deviations.