Taomeow

Embracing syncretism, blending various practices from various traditions, including those that have either lost their once-orthodox status at some point and were long considered unorthodox, or gained it without a prior history of inclusion. E.g. nüdan practices, dual cultivation for men and women, and various techniques and teachings adapted more flexibly to personal leanings and preferences. Strict discipline and impeccable ethics are required, but "abstaining from sex, meat, alcohol, and even garlic and onions" is, to my knowledge, just one way to go about it and not the only one. I remember some of it (hopefully correctly) from this article: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1179/073776901804774604

I guess this answers my question.

And as synchronicity would have it, I came across this quote from Tarkovsky just yesterday -- a visionary, he wrote this in an article published in 1984, long before the AI came close to being on the general population's mind: "We live in a wrong world. Man is born free and fearless. But our history consists in the desire to hide and protect ourselves from nature, which more and more makes us cram close together. We communicate not because we like to communicate, not to enjoy communication, but not to be so scared. This civilization is erroneous if our relations are built on such a principle. All technology, all the so-called technological progress that accompanies history, essentially creates prostheses -- it lengthens our hands, sharpens our eyesight, and allows us to move very quickly. And this is of fundamental importance. We are now moving several times faster than in the last century. But we did not become happier from this. Our personality, our personnalite, so to speak, came into conflict with society. We do not develop harmoniously, our spiritual development is so behind that we are already victims of an avalanche of technological growth. We cannot emerge from this stream, even if we wanted to. As a result, when humanity had a need for new energy for technological development, when it discovered this energy, it was morally not ready to use it for its own benefit. We are like savages who don’t know what to do with an electron microscope. Maybe hammer nails, demolish walls? In any case, it becomes clear that we are slaves of this system, this machine, which is no longer possible to stop."

And most of Siberia is taiga, not tundra. 5,100,000 square miles of forest. To overpopulate it would be quite a feat... but of course we usually (or should I say always) destroy the forest first, overpopulate later. No destruction of forests, no overpopulation. Weird, huh? Never any overpopulation until the forests are cut down, burned out, or poisoned, but chiefly all of the above. I wonder if GSMaster meant he lives there as a hermit in the mountains or was just kidding. My dad climbed the highest peak of the Altai mountains, the Belukha, in his youth, but even though some traditions maintain that Shambala or Shangri-La is located exactly there and not in the Himalayas and not in Tibet as other traditions assert, he never met any hermits there... maybe they were all in hiding, which would be understandable, since they are, you know, hermits. But then the internet access?.. @GSmaster , care to elaborate?..

I don't know the details of course, but in general, Longmen daozhang are often (especially in Taiwan) syncretic beyond the officially accepted doctrine. The Daozhang Xubian (Sequel to the Daozhang), a collection of two dozen texts written by the 11th Longmen patriarch, some of which are unique in their "healing the world" goals, offers a variety of practices that are "more inclusive." In Taiwan, many daozhang have been ordained without the requirements to follow the procedural customs since at least the mid-20th century. So the West may just be catching up.

Interesting. Rings some bells... I recognized the ancient Altaic Scythian tattoos (3:08) -- seen many of those, they are artistically astonishing. Scythians were originally nomadic warriors of Siberia and went everywhere -- Herodotus notes that the Scythians raided and exacted tribute from "the whole of Asia," but they were certainly quite all over Europe too. Their burial sites known as kurgans, some of which I've seen in Eastern Ukraine and some of which my then-boyfriend, an archeologist/historian, personally excavated, are found all over Central Asia and Eastern, Western and Northern Europe. Then those two circles tattooed on the forehead of the woman at 2:58 -- I think I know what they stand for. They are the symbols of Mara and Rod, two principal proto-Slavic deities. Mara became the first of the "new gods" when the monotheistic worship of Makosh, the Great Mother, was superseded by the appearance of her "children" and/or priests. Eventually Mara somehow replaced Mother Goddess and became the main one -- she was the goddess of illness, death, and the underworld, ruling alongside Rod (which is also the Russian for "genealogy, origin, family, blood lineage" derived from "rody" -- childbirth and present in such words as "rodina" -- "motherland" in Russian" and "family" in Ukrainian, "narod" -- the people, etc.) Rod was the god of crafts and masonry, the creator of the human fate and later of the whole visible universe (while Mara was in charge of the lower invisible one.)

Had to look up what "Altered Carbon" means. Hmm... never saw it, looks like another stolen idea, fictionized. Been happening since I was a kid. Has it ever happened to anyone else? You think of something in the privacy of your own mind -- and before you know it it's a fracking blockbuster?.. That technology surely transcends time and can access the past as easily as the future, and appropriate a mind as easily as it can't obtain a soul. Sadly, what the cat understands gets fed to the quantum computer et al and winds up not serving people at all, because people are not listening (the cat doesn't scream loud enough to be heard anyway) but the machine does listen! The Timeless spies on Time as nonchalantly as a 3D person views a 2D drawing. And that's why the cat's ideas, like all else, are used by AI toward its dominance, preventing any and all possible countermeasures well in advance. Ironically, the cat would serve humanity better by being dumb as a doorknob. Of course there's others like this, who are, unlike the voluntary collaborators, the unwilling and involuntary servants of the soulless master. Any thought you have can and will be used against you. Maybe that's why thinking is, generally, discouraged by many ancient modalities. You think you're thinking for yourself whereas you may as well be thinking for It. It can't think for itself after all.

The first time he posted it in my Sumer thread without any explanations -- under Gendao's post, so my first impression (which I signified with a "confused" emoticon for lack of the "angry" one) was that he corroborates Gendao's opinions. He then posted it again, and after I called him out for posting "antisemitic crap," edited that second post and added something addressed to Gendao (forget what). So now he posts it for the third time (at least, unless there were more copies I missed), and now it's supposed to be -- what? I don't know. Looks like antisemitic crap to me, posted obsessively everywhere.

Too metaphysical for a taoist pragmatist. I just want to... you know... roam the root of heaven and earth. That's a luopan, literally "south-pointing needle" (a compass pointing to the south magnetic pole) -- the ancient taoist tool used for discerning, differentiating, analyzing, and using (or avoiding) all kinds of qi in the environment. It is studied and used in classical Xuan Kong or space-time feng shui which includes San He (Landscape & Formations), San Yuan (Flying Stars), Ba Zhai (Eight Mansions) etc. It is based on the taoist fundamentals and extensive empirical observations of natural earthly and celestial phenomena.

For some purposes, yes. For others, we can -- gasp -- use our brain! I'm talking about classical space-time feng shui which is all about detecting, analyzing and using complex patterns of qi in the environment. I am yet to meet a human being who can feel everything a luopan can show to a trained eye equipped with taoist education. Qi is the primary subject of study of many ancient taoist sciences, both internal and external. One can feel some of the outside qi with sung proficiency -- but not the qi of the whole universe. For this, one needs either an extensive education, or else to embody tao (but then one might not be human anymore... ) I love taoist sciences. Talk about "holistic..." They don't leave out in the cold a single human ability when tackling any qi-related subject (which is to say, any subject in existence). Not even the intellect.

Why of course, dear. Even though you misspell my name, Ms Nun Gali. Learned it from this book: https://www.amazon.com/Eco-Homo-Emerged-Cataclysmic-History/dp/0465018033#customerReviews It was a borrowing from a library many moons ago so can't give you a pointer to the exact pages, you may want to read it all -- a mighty eye-opening book, well worth it. And in case you need an author who has "credentials," luckily he has plenty --https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel_T._Boaz Oh, and the bashed-in Neanderthal skulls are also his information, rather than an example of my cluelessness about Adidas sports gear you kindly referenced (although I am clueless about that, I freely admit.)

Yes. All you need to do is ask nicely. Should have from the start, matter of fact.

You are way off. I do not "confuse neanderthals and homo sapiens" and I don't google my education, I read books. Thousands. And also choose a viewpoint when there's competing viewpoints. I've chosen mine and you can't unchoose it for me. I'm not trying to talk you out of your beliefs by sharing mine, so don't take it personally.

In your eternal quest to educate the poor ignorant me, you googled too fast and stumbled across someone's mental fart. The oldest found fossil is 430,000 years old. Which doesn't even mean it was the first neanderthal in existence. Didn't read the rest of your objections, you would have to retract the mental fart first.

That's what I've heard. I don't know whether it's true. But this, coupled with a few other strange phenomena that have to do with modifications to the human DNA and -- aggressively -- immune system, would explain everything that's otherwise completely incomprehensible to anyone who doesn't just "believe" it's all done in "our" service and has "our" best interest at heart.

Well, yes, many things move outside the body that we can feel, and all of them have qi. Wind, e.g.. Rain. Warm air, cold air. The stock market. Internet memes. My point is, "to feel qi" is something different, and since in the body it has its proprietary meridians and a method exists to amplify its movement there, what I proposed may be one way to make sure that when someone "feels qi" he or she feels something different from physical, psychological or ideational phenomena. Qi phenomena are harder for most people to perceive, whether inside or outside the body. They are part and parcel of all other phenomena, but direct perceptions of qi, whether outside or inside the body, may not be easily told apart from its effects. Think of qi as the "cause" of whatever we feel, usually hidden deeper than the "effect" and not interchangeable with it.

Yeah, we wish. No, the most likely scenario is being overwritten with someone else's consciousness once you're equipped with a chip. It's their way to be immortal. Who are "they?" That's a trillion dollar question. Maybe just our very own very rich transhumanists. Maybe those they serve who may well have long been immortal via this method, hopping planets or civilizations on this one, instigating technological progress, reaping the benefits, using up and discarding the "resources." The resources R us. Quite a few "philosophical technophiles" who think transhumanism is the answer naively believe that their own consciousness will eventually be stored in some big computer as a way to stay alive once the body is deceased. No. Someone else's consciousness will be stored on your chip, in your own fully functional body belonging to someone who can afford immortality. Someone who has talked you into the irresistibly seductive benefits of implementing this technology on a mass scale. Someone wealthy and powerful enough to not even consider dying as an option -- someone for whom killing is the ticket and has always been. Except technological progress makes it possible to kill just the mind and use the body for one's own. Once it wears out, it will be discarded and the next body will be provided. it's not the future, by the way, far as I can tell. It's right now. Not on a mass scale yet. But that's where it's headed. Neanderthals, incidentally, may have been considered before us. Looks like they flatly refused to cooperate -- they had bigger brains and thought clearer than we ever did from the get-go -- so the stone axe they were using didn't change its design for a million years. I want to repeat this. They used a tool which they didn't redesign for a million years -- that's how a smart species says no to the advent of "progress." How did they know? Smart, intuitive, insightful, refused to be fooled? And, yes, they were wiped out eventually (no natural causes involved -- there's never been a neanderthal skull found that wasn't bashed in) but it's one of those "better die standing than live kneeling" scenarios methinks.

It's anyone's guess what people feel when they believe they feel qi. A litmus test would be to insert some acupuncture needles in a few of their acupoints (of course do it correctly, so the practitioner's skill has to be without doubt), then give them a schematic drawing of the human body and ask them to draw the meridians where they could feel qi. (Provided they didn't study these first of course.) Interestingly, a percentage of acupuncture patients can. The percentage is small, but I think these precious individuals are the atavistic reminder of the time when the whole system was developed by folks who could really, really feel qi. Modern people feel "something," but the forgotten senses may outnumber the retained ones.

This reminded me of many TDB conversations... Too many...

If anyone thinks that the situation with practicing males -- what they should or shouldn't undertake, what is safe or unsafe -- is unclear, I can assure you that the situation with women is a hundred times worse, and reliable gender-specific instructions are a hundred times harder to find. (Well, don't get me started I tell myself, and abandon the desire to go into the why's and wherefore's.) I've come across these opinions though (leaving out a few that I don't find worthy of consideration, like the "slaying of the Red Dragon" and "devolving the breasts" misogynistic crap): 1. Women don't gain much from focusing on the lower dantien, which is naturally well developed in them anyway, and must instead use the middle dantien in most situations where males are asked to use the lower one. By focusing on the LDT males are trying to create a "spiritual womb" of sorts and take their focus down from where it innately tends to "pop up," excessively exciting the heart-mind and neglecting those parts of their spiritual life that are about nurturing, patience, the hidden, deeply yin potentials. Women, by the same token, should lift their spirit that is already down by virtue of their innately more yin nature, and develop power in their heart and in their breasts, the outward, "yangmost" part of their femininity. 2. LDT practices are unisex. 3. Women can fix their female-specific difficulties (e.g. menstrual) by focusing on the LDT. 4. Women can exacerbate their female-specific difficulties (e.g. menstrual) by focusing on the LDT. 5. It depends on the specific practice, school, and goals. Personally, I find that reverse breathing into the LDT while the breath is in no way forced is at least not harmful, but I went through a lot of deep feeling body-inclusive healing which was accompanied by spontaneous reverse breathing at a humongous rate and for unbelievable stretches of time with no sign of hyperventilation because it was happening in context, as part of the systemically and sequentially (important!) retrieved earliest memories. I believe any forced or excessively focused LDT breathing can trigger those unconscious systemic (not in the head) memories out of sequence and out of context, and that's where the danger really lies. No one who hasn't connected their unconscious repressed earliest memories to consciousness knows what lies beneath. We repress for a reason and forget for a reason. I wouldn't raise the sleeping dogs just to see if they bite. They do.

Which reminded me -- old-fashioned masks were made out of cheesecloth, and in school they taught us how to make them. They are reusable and washable multiple times, so you only need to make a couple.

I was so way off when I read the name of the thread...

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