Taomeow

To what has already been said: I concur with the opinion that when it comes as a "side effect" of practice, it is normal, natural, individual, beneficial, and not to be suppressed. In this situation it is a sign of release of some internal tensions, loosening up -- perhaps even on a cellular level. The cells that didn't dare ask for more oxygen because they were part of some clammed up, numbed-out structure or other now dare, and do. Many people also get other signs of release and "detox" -- discharge from the nose, tears, and occasionally burps, including very deep ones that may sound obnoxious but actually involve removal of harmful tensions from the diaphragm and more (in an advanced practitioner, they may release the muscles between the ribs, restoring their voluntary mobility which is often lost in modern adults.) Old Chinese masters also like to do some farting qigong every morning, but I don't think it will take in our culture. My taiji teacher actually taught me some yawning techniques specifically designed to induce deep relaxation, to be practiced before bed.

Does look like ringworm more than anything else, seeing a doctor is a good idea, pau d'arco tea (externally and internally) is another good idea. I was in a weird mood for this new year too. Haven't felt this alienated since 2001. It's not the real thing yet of course, the real new year comes February 8th this time around, but the energy is already felt. Man it's going to be challenging. Haven't looked at this kind of feng shui challenges in a long time. Hang in there. For some, it will be a good year, but there's this built-in not-so-good aspect too, on a global scale. I'll post some predictions a bit later...

Nope. Not bollocks. High level skill. Prerequisites are very demanding. I can assure you that killing and healing is done with the same scalpel in skillful hands. You don't do brain surgery without years of study and training. And you don't do dim mak without years of study and training. For brain surgery you need to know, among many other things, things that are absolutely not material, but absolutely real. Ditto for dim mak.

Theatrics is right. It's a very nice dance. Definitely zero martial applications. Given a choice between the two, I'd rather try kicking someone's ass with yoga.

Never to step out of the bar thirty minutes before New Year's midnight, be locked out by a woman of unclear authority, perhaps the bouncer's sidekick, who makes the list of the outgoing people but refuses to see them as incoming on return, on the grounds of the bar being full to capacity, and freeze half to death in a chiffon outfit, drink champagne out of a plastic goblet courtesy of the management apparently prepared in advance for such happenstances (unlike me) with other locked-out not-let-back-in outsiders, and at the strike of midnight be passionately kissed by a stray Mexican waiter for lack of access to people i know who are actually busy providing music entertainment inside, nice and warm on the stage, ever again. Alternatively, try my dim mak skills on the woman, the bouncer, and whoever else is interested in providing a freezing New Year for me next time and see if it still works after all that champagne.

But are still vacant rooms to fill with creatures great and small? Write that book.

Three to turn the house: Father, Son, the Holy Ghost. Sign on the door: MEN.

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Meditation on the One The One resides at the North Pole, in the midst of the abyss. In front is the Hall of Light, behind is the Crimson Palace. Imposing is the Flowery Canopy, great is the Golden Pavilion! On its left is the gang star, on its right the kui, waves and breakers propagate in the void. Mysterious excrescences overlay the cliffs, vermilion herbs enwrap the hills; on the rocks is white jade, the Sun and the Moon spread their light. There you go beyond fire and pass over water, you cross the Mystery and go past the Yellow. Walls and gates intersect, curtains and hangings are adorned with gems; dragons and tigers are lined up on guard and divine beings are at their sides. --Baopuzi 18 (translation Pregadio)

"So is this what you do? Do you follow this advice?" -- I'm no sufi, my friend. What I follow starts in the hollow of the Mystical Way, and might end in the whorl of a flower they call Purple Rose of the North in the Sky -- for its fragrance leads those who will follow only their nose.

This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they are a crowd of sorrows who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond. ~Rumi

'neath the suns soft glow worlds of morning dew dry up like my tears for them.

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An old figure leans Wu style -- bamboo in the wind, rampant cobra sway* * kake-kotoba alert: rampant cobra's way

Drenched from the chin down in wine, the sorcerer's beard draws a talisman

"Dual wings, hard to beat" -- that's a true haiku device right there, known as kake-kotoba, "words that suddenly change the meaning, or the expectation of meaning, of a sentence, as you read it, a kind of grammatical double exposure." Well done! Dual wings, hard to beat -- my sword makes bat spaghetti with spaghetti sauce.

Run outside and scream Basho: "Haikai are made of plainness and oddness."

Who is doing who? Don't ask for whom the bell tolls: the bell tolls for "whom."

The black budget dwarfs all expenditures on all social services combined -- and the paying/taxed party is not even informed what it is they are paying for. Sorry, that's classified. To uphold constitutional laws is patriotic. To uphold any which laws just because an agency or ten or a hundred were created to enforce them that have nothing to do with the constitution, the will of the people, or the apple pie is treason. It's funny how many cross the line between good law-abiding social behavior and society-destroying passive acceptance of any and all atrocities without noticing. Watched a movie the other day, "Bridge of Spies," based on a true story, about an American lawyer defending a Russian spy in court in the 1950s. He reluctantly takes on the assignment, is told it's "for show," takes it seriously anyway, he's a professional used to doing his job well. Earns universal contempt and hostility from everybody -- the whole society, even his own family: it's the height of the cold war and you are supposed to hate the loathsome spying enemy, no ifs and buts. (In the meantime, an American spy who is not supposed to exist gets caught by the Russians, the plot thickens...) The lawyer gets tons of hate mail, ostracism, shootings into his house nearly hitting his children, etc.. And all the while he's trying to explain to whoever doesn't want to listen that what he's doing is not treason but true-blue patriotism. It's exactly the values we are supposed to defend he argues -- what's this cold war about anyway? -- defending our way of life, right? -- well, what is it, this way of life we don't want to lose? -- and how is it different from the way of life we don't want if we start picking and choosing who has and who hasn't the right to due process?.. Those were the times of innocence... People hated who they were told to hate, no questions asked. And the enemy to hate was always the "other." I see much nostalgia for that kind of a simple deal today. People are eager to hate, but get frustrated when there's too many targets, they can't focus properly... Well, welcome to the new and improved way to hate thy neighbor: why don't you hate whoever is politically or spiritually incorrect -- hate the hater. But of course you shouldn't call it hate or you'll be the hater yourself! You should call this universal love instead. And then exclude whoever loves something different from what you love, or doesn't love what you love with enough devotion, or otherwise is "different," "other." Easy peasy.

Beat me to it by one second!

Defined to a "t," tea for two is two for tea -- dual cultivation.

What a scary tulpa.

Oh yes I do.

Today I saw a one-year old, who already walks, pick up and then drop a stick, or rather a taiji equipment piece known as a bang, on the wooden floor, which produced a very loud bang that scared him. He immediately gulped in what looked like a huge amount of air -- stockpiling for the job at hand -- and then screamed at the top of his voice, face turning a blotchy red, tears streaming -- got picked up and comforted -- the screams, piercing and forceful, three of them altogether, took thirty seconds to get out of the system, and then he was done. In another thirty seconds he was smiling. He almost always smiles and is happy, this was the first time I've ever seen him upset. This kid has been the lucky recipient of wise, beautiful parenting I've observed since he was one week old, and so far, because of that, he has the right idea of what to do with his feelings. Most people never did and that's why they never will. Parent, teacher, preacher, cop, doctor, politician will teach them how to stop knowing what they feel, and then how to stop feeling, and then how to fake feelings that aren't felt. The little kid hated something for thirty seconds -- the loud noise or his clumsy unreliable grasp or the stick that refused to be nice or the parent who failed to prevent the little mishap -- for thirty seconds. That was a healthy reaction. Hatred is neither transient nor lingering by design, in a healthy scenario it is commensurate with the transient or lingering nature of its cause. If someone was to abuse this kid or any other, molest or torture or be emotionally cruel to him or any other kid, I would hate this someone for much longer. Possibly forever. If someone dropped something that scared me, I would perhaps differentiate between their dropping a stick vs. the atom bomb. Some things are just not insignificant enough for a pop-sagely indifference -- others are not significant enough for strong, deep, lasting emotions, any of them, hatred or love. Yes, some people love their smartphone, or their pizza, or their ability to make someone bite the dust.

Incidentally, there's been a British study recently. (Oh, the things they study! I wonder what the return of a valuable bit of information obtained per tax dollar is...) People who take the position of "positivity" in life vs. people who take their feelings "as is" were compared in terms of their health and longevity. Result: "positive attitude," 'focusing on the good things," "manifesting happy feelings" seem to impair health and shorten one's life. That's because we spend more life force on maintaining lies -- truths are more energy efficient. Happy happy joy joy by choice rather than by inner reality is very taxing on the organs and systems of the body and mind. Of course if one is "really" happy and loving, not "decided to be happy and loving" via policing oneself inside and out, that is likely to prolong life and improve health (one's own and that of the surrounding people I'm sure.) But they don't know how to study that. How to tell real happiness and generosity of spirit from happiness and love imitation by convolution and denial of one's inner truth.