Taomeow

It could be if falling cows landed on their feet like cats.

RIP Brian... Missed him since he was gone from TDB, and am deeply saddened by his passing.

Strange days indeed...

We have the opposite method of getting the same confusing results -- too many signs. I've been thinking of putting together a compilation of sign songs to play in my car. I saw the sign and it opened up my eyes... Sign sign everywhere a sign... Every breath you take, every move you make, I'll be watching you...

A good illustration of how exactly history repeats itself when accurate and timely information about prior history is not available https://x.com/TaraBull808/status/1840413728099139962

Don't know about "all" MA but in taijiquan the most prominent part of it (and of the whole enchilada too) is what we call rooting, and it is a skill of establishing connection with the ground that goes far beyond what can be verbalized or visualized. It involves establishing your whole body's structure and dynamics and your mind's focus in a way that facilitates this connection. And then a lot of work with your qi (not "energy") and then testing what you've got in push-hands. It's very easy for a skillful practitioner to tell when someone is imagining being grounded vs. someone who is, and if someone is, the extent and depth of it. Beginners are indeed sometimes encouraged to use various visualizations to help develop the skill -- it's a minor device that can't replace the rest of what you're going to be doing, but it can be somewhat helpful at the early stages. A rather common visualization toward that goal is to grow roots into the ground, like a tree, every time you settle (another all-important skill.) And grow them deeper still. To the center of the earth! But like I said, it's just a minor device, the rest is... well, the rest of it. Strange but true, although you need particular foods for this -- some will unground you even more.

My Chen taiji master and grandmaster both wear shoes for practice that I was told have ox tendon soles. I found those shoes on ebay and have been wearing them for years -- the soles are neither too "sticky" nor too "slippery" for taiji on literally any surface, the rest is butter soft but indestructible leather, and they are feather light and very comfortable. Alas, when I wanted to buy another pair of exactly the same shoes in a different color and tried to locate a source, I found out that "ox tendon" is a commercial term that really refers to a particular type of synthetic rubber which "looks and feels like" ox tendon. Commercial terms that are designed to deceive and misguide seldom fool me... but this time they succeeded. No big deal of course... but I keep wondering what real natural ox tendon soles, the kind Chen Wangting may have worn, might add to the experience...

I love being in touch -- visually and physically -- with quality natural materials, I appreciate the look of many vintage and antique things made from those materials, and I am convinced that all things plastic are qi-draining. Ideally I would eliminate them from my environment altogether -- that's a pipe dream but I do the best I can. (There's a youtube channel by this guy, Rajiv Surendra, who makes videos about the appeal of handmade, authentic, traditional, artisan, vintage etc. stuff he tries to hunt down and incorporate into his immediate personal environment, and occasionally learns to make. I'm a bit like that too.) Don't know if it makes me bougie -- I don't do it toward making any particular impression on others if that word presupposes that aspect... does it? I keep my meditation pillow, which I made myself, under the bed. My cat loves to sleep on it whenever she feels antisocial.

The term "grounded" as used in some contexts does not refer to gravity and has the same meaning as in things electrical, e.g. as a "grounded' vs "ungrounded" wire. In this sense it was originally proposed in relation to bioelectricity which exists in the human body, primarily in the cell membranes. Different electrical potentials are created via particular concentrations of ions operating throughout cellular ion membranes. It's a fundamental metabolic mechanism that allows every cell to "decide" what to take in (and how much of it), what to stop from permeating the membrane, and what to expel from the interior. It's also how the brain works via synaptic discharges which are electrochemical in nature. Qi, doubtlessly, has something (not everything!!) to do with electricity as well, as shown, e.g., in experiments conducted in a number of countries that consistently measured higher electrical potentials in the acupoints than in surrounding tissues. There's a theory which I take to have at least some truth about it that for our bioelectrical processes to work properly we need physical contact with the actual ground under our feet without the mediation of shoe soles, flooring, asphalt, concrete, and so on. Unlike the surface of the earth whose electrical potential is zero, all those surfaces are capable of accumulating static electricity that may constantly and continuously interfere with our bioelectrical processes. In environment where high precision electronics are used, they use special flooring that is grounded and discharges that static into, well, the ground. The theory exists that asserts we need to do that as well, the more the merrier. There's other contexts too of course -- e.g. "grounded" in the psychological sense, as opposed to a "space cadet."

Is it even legal for them to do that?

What occult shenanigans could have caused a simultaneous posting about dimensions (see my latest response to you in Supremely Unpopular Opinions)? I didn't see this one as I was writing -- you didn't see mine either, judging by the timing... Yikes.

And dimensions! Old school magic had, in most places, 3 (7 in taoism) and Occum's razor took care of the rest. Modern science can't agree whether it's 11, 24, or an indefinite number. What's an indefinite number? Here's some examples: "some," "many," "not many," "several," or "a few." Empowering a Maoshan talismanic spell requires a lot more precision than this.

I think he may have studied (and used?..) what was known in the West as "natural magic" for the first 700 years of the last millennium. It was, indeed, a technology like any other, in that you proposed a theory first (e.g. of signatures/correspondences, astrological phenomena, "Great Chain of Being" meaningfully connecting everything to everything and everything to the creator, etc. ) and then tested it empirically to find out what works and how to make it work its, ahem, magic. The later advances of science were 100% dependent on plundering the empirical methods of natural magic practitioners -- and, as these things are usually done, proceeded to marginalize, ridicule, and ultimately negate exactly the disciplines and methods they were stealing from. That they would also throw the baby out with bathwater was inevitable. Thieves often grab the flashy trinkets and overlook the secret hiding places where the real treasures are stored away from prying eyes and sticky fingers.

He didn't, he did something I really like instead: changed and reinterpreted a famous quote in a quirky way. The lexicological term for this kind of stuff is "stylistic deformation of phraseological units." (I once had to write a term paper on this literary device and have been collecting examples ever since.)

Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology. -- Elon Musk

Whatcha gonna do about the qi of inanimate objects such as the mountains, rivers, computers, or money? The sun and the moon and Jupiter?

If you are after Wang Liping's material -- this is what Nathan attempts to teach -- he's not a great presenter online, but he has two books out, I have the first one, it was useful for refreshing the terminology (especially considering I originally learned it in a different language.) For the simplest possible explanations, not bad I guess (haven't read all of it), and indeed prescriptive rather than descriptive. I have Wang Liping's own book (Ling Bao Tong Zhi Neng Nei Gong Shu) but the translation is not perfect, it's a difficult read and I don't know how someone would fare who hasn't learned this in person or from the best of Master Wang's long term instructors. Not long ago it was translated once again and edited by Livia Kohn, I don't have that version but I've seen very favorable reviews from people in the know, and Livia does have a long-standing reputation for producing top quality translations.

In 2017, American Heart Association (AHA) held its annual dinner in Anaheim, CA. All the dishes served were what they promote as "heart healthy." In the course of the dinner, AHA president, Dr. John Warner, had a heart attack.

It's sort of both. First you learn how to unfold an acorn into an oak tree. Then, how to fold an oak tree into an acorn.

All I know is, some terms are avoided altogether by my Lingbao Bifa teacher when instructing beginners. It's more like, "do this and this" -- in great detail -- "and after a while you may see something wonderful." Once you see it, he may name it. Lots of things are named, of course -- in a way similar to how things are named on a map, with an implied understanding that the map is not the territory. Whatever says "Paris" on the map can't possibly accommodate the Eiffel Tower -- even on a very large scale map where they might even draw a picture of it. Whatever says "Rome," the Colosseum won't fit in, and unless you visit it personally, you may never find out that cats now live in the cages where they once kept lions and tigers. Not that cats are mandatory to see, but a teacher who saw them too will know you're getting somewhere you're supposed to if you mention them. And, yes, it's complicated...

"State of mind like the moon" is actually derived from the idea that cinnabar -- the first meaning of "dan" -- produces mercury, which has an alchemical association with the moon. Cinnabar is alchemically associated with the sun. By the same token, the moon is associated with yin and the sun, with yang. So indeed a neidan practitioner has yang in the lower abdomen and yin in the head (relatively to each other of course), which is a reversal of the state of affairs of a regular non-practitioner. Obviously these are metaphors, like all other verbal renditions of things neidan (and some, though not all, things waidan). But it may be useful to grasp the general idea that the relative "field of action" in neidan, neigong, etc., is in the lower abdomen, and the relative "field of inaction," in the head. For a practitioner, this metaphor can get more complicated, since the states of the body and the mind experienced are multifaceted, not yielding to descriptions easily and not yielding to definitions at all.

Is anyone keeping score? I have an idea for a post that can be downvoted to oblivion -- but what if it damages my social credit?

Image didn't post. but I'll find it, thanks

This is the image of two entangled photons.