Taomeow

No. Just be prepared to have your beliefs busted all to hell if they are chauvinistic and supremacist. And if you want respect from like-minded individuals while expressing this kind of beliefs, you can join some exclusive club that selects its members on the basis of ethnic purity and claim it there. Hardly here. (moderator's note while we're on the subject: This goes for everybody. We had a few reports about another member in another thread who seems to have mistaken this site for a place where he can belittle someone because he or she didn't have the set of parents ethnically identical to his own. A watchful eye is kept on this kind of BS. Yes, the veiled kind too.)

You were born too late for that. Used to be Russian that was taught as a second language at schools in China, but now it's English, so whirlwind kick thou shall, and tornado kick thou shan't.

Nope. "Nowadays," top level Chinese masters who could make it to the West live in the West and teach top level taiji right here at home. Alternatively, much of what's available in China is competitive "for show" taiji, diluted "for health" taiji, and so on, not that real masters aren't there, of course many are still there, but many, many of the ones who really wanted to teach the public and had top qualifications all moved where their art is appreciated, which is, "nowadays," right here. In my taiji school, e.g., taught by a Chinese teacher with all-Chinese top level qualifications and all-Chinese lineage, there's a mix of Chinese and Western students, but no trace of superior abilities guaranteed by virtue of being Chinese or hampered by not being Chinese. The leading students who are the best are French, Russian, American, Chinese, in this order. Chauvinistic ideas are easy to maintain if you never face reality. Come to class, smell the freakin' roses, you don't have to prop up your self-worth by the accident of birth alone, do something to be proud of yourself yourself, so you won't feel the need to be proud of something that's not your doing at all -- to wit, having been born to a set of parents of a particular citizenship. Seriously. Get over it, I know dozens of Chinese, a few of them quite intimately... you can't be news anymore just because you're Chinese. No one here will admire or dislike you just for that. You will be admired or disliked on your own merit. Time to live with that, don't you think?..

A sugar addiction is very easy to overcome if you go cold turkey (not gradually) and keep your diet on the very high fat/moderate protein/low to zero carb side. High fat means quality fat -- organic butter (raw if you can get it), animal fat and lard (from organic grass-fed animals), coconut oil, ghee, and for salads, olive, sunflower, sesame in moderation (don't cook with any vegetable oils except coconut). Watch what fats you use and put an absolute ban on hydrogenated frankenfats and vegetable oils that are GM and not fit for human consumption to begin with (corn, soy, canola). On this regimen you lose sugar cravings within 24 hours -- permanently. If you still get them, up your fat intake. You won't get fat on this diet, I guarantee it. It won't clog your arteries, I promise. It won't do anything mainstream nutrition (a bunch of ulteriorly motivated lies) asserts it will. It will just rid you of sugar cravings, for starters, and then start doing more. One thing that always worries me when people (rightfully) attack sugar is that behind those campaigns lurk powerful pharma cartels that push "diet" substitutes. Those are incalculably worse than sugar, no comparison. Don't get duped.

I used to know a woman who was a very religious Catholic, who actually had Jesus come to her in a dream, shine his divine light on her, and proclaim the only message he had for her, in a commandeering and somewhat indignant tone of voice: "Darita-Rose, Get Off Sugar Already!" This story cracks me up every time I remember it, yet Darita-Rose took this unique divine intervention absolutely seriously -- and her health benefited greatly.

Cool! It worked. Thanks!

You are quite right. The maddening disappearance of the high skill push-hands partner into nothingness -- you see him, he's a visual certainty, he's there, right in front of your nose -- and you can't freakin' feel him at all, he's not there, there's nothing there! Oh the frustration! Oh the helplessness! And if he happens to be someone who loves to gloat... ...I've pushed with a guy who is like that, he's gloating and you can't do anything because he is just a puff of nothing to the touch... How do you attack a nothing? How do you defend yourself against a nothing? What weapons can you use, what skills? Totally infuriating!

On no. Fajin relies on peng. Peng relies on the internal movement -- the lower dantien primarily -- and manifests when the pathways of transfer are connected throughout the body AND the space "owned" by the body. Your qi rotates and twists inside your abdomen, without any muscles tensing up, and the invisible rubber bands connected to that inner spiral and stretching or relaxing in the space between your left arm and right leg, right toe and left heel, right shoulder and left elbow, left knee and right hip, etc., align themselves and create an invisible tight twist in the space in your body -- beyond your body -- a twist OF the empty space outside your body! -- nothing is tight IN the body -- and then -- pennnnnngggggg! -- you release them and fajin arises. You don't get any of that unless the structure is in place and the sensitivity is guiding it. Sensitivity cannot arise unless you remove tightness. Tightness of any muscles is in the way of the correct skill. If you start out with the idea that you "need" it for any situations and for any purposes, it doesn't matter how long you practice, you will still be quite permanently removed from an internal art. Which is another way to say that qi is guided by yi. If yi is misguided... well, no taiji. An external sport, yes. Taiji, no.

The main problem here is that an answer online is executed in typed words, while fajin is executed in controlled and disciplined qi, guided by yi bypassing li, and the former can't give anyone even the foggiest about the nature of the latter. Fajin is learned empirically under a teacher who has it, and no amount of theoretical musings can change the fact that beginners can't avoid using li because their qi is still very crude and very poorly controlled, intermediate practitioners can't use their own yi to satisfaction yet, the best they can do is imitate what their teacher is doing -- if they get it down pat structurally they might fajin when they're lucky, and still fall back on li most of the time; high level practitioners can bypass the use of li completely in fajin, shorten the jin all the way to invisibility, and control it with yi to a greater or lesser extent (even very proficient among them may still be prone to releasing "too much" or "not enough" accidentally); top skill practitioners who "embody taiji" don't exert any muscles at all in fajin, have absolute yi control over their qi, have absolute control over the opponent's qi, and look like absolute fakes to an unskilled beginner, let alone to a non-practitioner!

Even men of great power who can make millions do their bidding and bow to their will have no control over this...

just felt like throwing in a pun, is all.

Two of my friends are at the Burning Man, and both have money to burn.

The full lotus is way easier than this one.

Yes. In fact, the majority don't concern themselves with human affairs. It's been my understanding for a while that the "feng shui of the celestial realm" is similar to that of the earthly realm (as above, so below) -- i.e. the overall "landscape and climate" take precedence over the features of the house, the position of the house over the layout of the interior, the layout of the interior over the placement of the furniture. Most religious systems are concerned with the placement of the furniture, so to speak. They will choose a big cupboard that seems very prominent and important inside their house, put all their valuables in one of the drawers, and announce that it's the Supreme and Highest deity. But it isn't. The supreme and highest isn't even the continent on which that cupboard sits -- it's just that they are familiar with the cupboard, but not with the view from beyond the void.

I guess (correction: not just "guess," I've seen some of it in an "altered state") at some level of existence a vibration and an entity are interchangeable and the "proficient" among them may take the form of their choice if they choose to interact with mortals. There's many such stories in taoist mythology, and not only. A star can be "just a star" and a planet, just a planet -- you can study their "physical" properties (or whatever passes for "physical" between the extent of it all our unrefined senses and our unrefined technology can grasp between them) and miss out on all their "other-dimensional," "other-manifestational" properties. Or you can personify the hell out of it, make a statue of a wise elderly deity and believe that that's what it actually looks like at all times and for all purposes, and not recognize it at all in a tidal pull, in the pull of a superstring, in the manner in which the core of a collapsing star acquires an iron "heart." But you are on to something better I think, something more real. When we are dealing with enormities, it's a grave (though very human) mistake to reduce them to what we've been trained, coached, or told to perceive. We better believe it there's more, more than more -- different... and have respect.

The picture would be apt if I ever attempted digging into your mind, YM, but did I ever?..

The reason for the disagreement may be historic -- I think we have earliest taoism pitched against much later modifications. (This has been the crux of my disagreements with He Who Can't Be Named in the past too -- I'm a digger-upper of the earliest, un-influenced by Buddhism and Christianity, non-mutated, deeply shamanic in its roots, proto-taoism and taoism proper, taoism the way it was before institutional use in the service of assorted bureacracies and general brainwashing purposes which is what any institutionalized religion amounts to.) So, in the early taoism, stars and constellations always played a most important role and abstract philosophical ideas, none at all. Stars and constellations were deified -- pretty much all the most important deities were thought of as Star Gods, not just the three that still retain the label today, but scores and scores of them. And the highest gods of the taoist pantheon were without question actual stars that dwelled in different parts of the sky. Some of it got lost and reinterpreted later; some remained. E.g., I've seen taoist priests' robes in museums (don't know if they still wear this kind) showing some of the most important stars and constellations worshiped in Taoism. In the center of the robe, 28 dots representing the 28 Lunar Mansions: constellations through which the moon passes during its rotation of the earth. These constellations played a vital role in Chinese astrology; a different deity governed each one. Above these constellations are three gold dots representing a group of stars called the Three Terraces. These stars, near the Northern Dipper (Big Dipper), represent what the ancient Chinese considered the most important part of the sky and the most important star deities. The much later reinterpretation of these highest deities as the Three Pure Ones who took on abstract attributes instead of the astrologically sound Star Gods they've been for millennia was part of the "mongrelization" and "pidginization" of taoism as it was losing its pragmatic, scientific (i.e. astrological, alchemical and magical) slant inherited from shamanism, replacing them with religious dogma and empty ritual.

I think he meant tao does not lie, in response to your question. I happen to disagree. Tao can fake a pattern -- it's called mimicry. There's bugs who lie "I am a twig" with their twig-like bodies and there's butterflies who lie "I am an owl" with huge owl eyes on their wings. The cuckoo sneaks her egg into another bird's nest, the fledgling kicks out all the legitimate offspring and the other birds end up feeding him instead of their own. They are all tao's lies. More often than not tao discussed, defined, described online sounds like the Christian god. In my experience and understanding she's nothing like that. Tao lies, steals, kills, all that. The very first time I heard the word tao and asked for an explanation, many moons ago, I got the best answer -- from a monk at that. He said, "Tao is not unlike you." Now the problem is that "you" can be "unlike you" -- that's when we do not follow the tao. I'm with the classics who assert that tao in the human world has been destroyed. I used to think tao is unaffected by a local case of deviation like ours. I don't believe that anymore. Tao responds to a wound with healing, not with pretending the wound is part of the normal state of affairs. We respond to a wound by pretending it isn't there, or doesn't matter, or doesn't hurt, or that the way to remedy it is to inflict a new wound. That's another thing tao doesn't do. There's more. Tao is not unlike you -- when you are yourself. Tao is nothing like you when you are not. I mean the generic "you" of course, not you personally.

Hi Rene, of course! Tao doesn't do flaky behavior, e.g.. One of its attributes ("virtues") is "reliability," "long-lasting commitments" -- heng. If you discern a persistent, consistent natural pattern -- e.g. sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset, etc. -- you can count on it to be there for a long, long time. (Not forever, because change is another attribute of tao-in-motion, but for a stretch of reliable "count on this to be like that for quite a while, don't hesitate to trust and plan accordingly.") If you observe natural phenomena, you perceive their pattern and duration, and you can count on the pattern and duration to repeat themselves instead of changing abruptly and arbitrarily. A pregnant house cat can be counted on to give birth to kittens, not to little elephants. This reliability of pattern is tao's attribute. Tao doesn't do genetic manipulations of a radical sudden nature and narrow, ulterior, not-thought-through goal, unlike, e.g., scientists who splice a mouse with a glowing jellyfish for the hell of it and get a mouse that glows in the dark and, in nature, would go extinct because of that since every predator would see it, night vision or not. An oak tree can be counted on to produce acorns, not little Japanese television sets. And so on. This is one thing tao doesn't do, out of many that we do: tao does not abolish an established natural order without a good reason, does not arbitrarily break promises, does not, as Einstein put it, "play dice." Or rather she does, but once she plays dice, she doesn't suddenly switch to tennis.

Tao is not an "is" or an "isn't." Tao is a "does" and a "doesn't." The closest thing to a particle of tao you'll ever observe is you. Some of the things you do, tao does, and some of the things you do, tao doesn't do. If you do more of the things tao does, you're closer to tao, and if you do more of the things tao doesn't do, you're farther away from tao. "Closer" and "farther away" do not refer to spacial distance, they refer to the similarity or dissimilarity of your processes to the process of tao. Also sprach Taomeow.

Arthur's name, Pendragon ("Chief Dragon"), points to his true nature even more straightforwardly.

"Study the cat, Saihung. Everything you need to learn, she knows already." -- Deng Ming-Dao, "The Wandering Taoist"

I saw something on youtube that made me reconsider my prior statement that you can't learn fighting skills by merely watching. [/media]

His name is Fu Daqing, he's doing taiji on the beach in Penglai (where my teacher grew up). The background is Penglai Temple ( 蓬莱阁 ), where the Eight Immortals practiced longevity methods and crossed the ocean. Penglai, the "Fair Land on Earth" ( 人间仙境 ), was also General Qi Jiguang's hometown. Chen taiji is traced by some researchers to General Qi's work 400 years ago, crediting 29 postures to his original 32 boxing training methods. Here's some additional information: General Qi Jiguang (1528-1588), from Dengzhou (now Penglai) of Shandong Province, was an outstanding militarist and national hero of the Ming Dynasty. He inherited the position of Dengzhou military governor and took responsibility for military affairs. Qi Jiguang's training of the Army of Qijia Family is famous for his strict discipline, honesty in dealing out rewards and punishments, and equipping the troops with refined warships and weaponry. Not only was Qi Jiguang a brilliant general, he also left behind his invaluable practical experience in the form of two books: New Book Recording Effective Techniques (Ji Xiao Xin Shu紀效新書) and Record of Military Training (Lian Bing Ji Shi練兵實紀). In New Book Recording Effective Techniques, Qi Jiguang wrote about strategy, armed and unarmed fighting, and many other aspects of warfare. He promoted the training of unarmed techniques (quan fa拳法 ), a boxing routine comprised of 32 forms selected from what he considered to be the foremost styles of the day. He created the best practical application training in Chinese military history. His work influenced a later generation of Chinese martial arts -- importantly, Chen Wangting (陈王庭 1580–1660) the creator of Chen style taiji.

Not a concern. Taiji is primarily defensive. Shaolin monks took up MA because they were pestered by bandits. Chen village folks, for the same reason. Self-defense is a karmic neutral, and defending your loved ones is a karmic merit.