Aetherous

"North America" is a continent, and not the name of the nation. South America, too. Sometimes these are considered subcontinents of the Americas. The United States "of America" implies both the continent as well as the country, America. No other country on Earth has "America" in its title. On the other hand, if you're in "South America" you're not called an "American"...unless you're just purposefully being wrong. Some people who hate the US do that. Since we're referencing Wikipedia, check out how the US is also called simply "America". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States If you want historical context, check out what the second President of the US called the nation: https://www.bartleby.com/124/pres15.html Was he just confused? Think about this: do we call US citizens "United Statesians"? Or "Americans"?

I'm not at all a historian...I just think how the Western world looks today is largely a result of US Independence (which was a result of many other movements), and that things may have turned out a whole lot differently without it having happened. I know that my statement could be viewed as a kind of patriotic hubris...but I think it's true nonetheless.

That's a common misunderstanding. It's actually both the continent and the nation itself.

I'm not sure that Canada would be what it is today without the US.

I was just thinking yesterday...sometimes when we're on the spiritual path for a while, if we were sincere and full of passion for spiritual matters, we might no longer behave like normal human beings. Just being content in ourselves, we let things go, and don't seek after the same things others do. In some cases, this can lead to dissatisfaction with how life is going, due to that lack of drive (or due to our redirected drive). At first when we start out on the path, we're gung ho about it, and maybe agree with the notion that selfish desires are bad...without really knowing what we're talking about. We agree that we need to starve the ego...that it's virtuous to deny ourselves everything for enlightenment. That it's good to stand apart from humanity and be pious. But maybe these things aren't true. What if our friends and family want to see us earning good money to support ourselves, to be starting a relationship and family, to be respected in the world for our leadership, etc. A Confucian might say that we must have filial piety, and strive to respect the wishes of our family especially. Basically...often our notions of spirituality might be a bit imbalanced, either due to how our culture views the subject, or due to our excessive passion directed toward that venue. A more balanced perspective would be equally considerate of the mundane. So, what if there's a virtuous type of hedonism? Or in other words - what if after a long time on the path, when it's no longer natural for you to care about worldly things, that it's actually important to start caring...that it's actually a form of cultivation to take care of yourself the same way normal people do? Making the spiritual path just one aspect of your life and who you are, rather than being all consuming. Just some random thoughts the past two days.

Happy American Independence Day!

Ideas: Practice first thing in the morning, after the environment has been cooled by the night. In the shade rather than under the sun, of course. Nothing wrong with a "gentle breeze", but when it reaches the point of it being a "wind" then it has the negative effect. Intuition and/or experience tells us which is which. Air conditioning is useful. If you live near caves, they can be cooler temp.

I can only speak for qigong in general and not FP...but yes that takes qi out of your body in a similar way to the wind.

It's really a matter of whether the individual can digest it well or not. If you have poor digestion, and eat things that can worsen a poor digestive system, then it's unhealthy. If you have good digestion, then you can eat those things and be even healthier than if you hadn't (because veggies are filled with nutrients). For instance, not to ruin a thread about summer salads...but if you have loose stools, then that's usually a sign that you're not ready for salads. But there are many other signs and symptoms beyond this one. To be really clear on whether your digestive system is ready for it, a Chinese Medicine practitioner can discern that through their diagnosis. Or you can try to figure it out through researching spleen qi deficiency...but tongue and pulse diagnosis can help immensely.

There are so many possible reasons for why this may tend to happen. Them being fraudulent is one idea. Another is that they are speeding up their own evolution, so they really just burn out faster. Along those lines, if they're on a spiritual path, they may have had to go through a lot in life, and life experience can take its toll. It could be that some methods are taxing to the cardiovascular system (not in the same way as healthy exercise), so they get heart disease. Maybe when it's cancer, it's due to heat buildup from practices not having an outlet. Could be that they'd have been far worse off if they'd have done nothing, and they needed to learn and practice their arts in order to stay alive as long as they did. There are many more things we could think of other than this. I think it'd be fair to say that a practice is life shortening if the same phenomenon happens to everyone in the lineage - the teacher and all the students. If the teacher lives to 56, and some of the long term students end up living to 99, then we can't say the system is at fault. About judging the veracity of teachings based on the practitioner's physical appearances...I want to believe there is some truth to the idea that beauty is the result of cultivation, and that it's inextricably linked with wellness - that people who do the right things in life end up getting good results, and that it shows. On the other hand, I think if we look at people who cultivate themselves in terms of wisdom, kindness, intelligence, courage, etc...they don't end up looking like models. If we look at the lives of gorgeous people, are they looking so good on the inside? I've known some beautiful women, for instance, who were horrible human beings (not that the inner and outer are always opposite of each other). It's hard to say what the truth of the matter is.

I made this ratatouille almost exactly as described in the video, using less olive oil and less eggplant (yuck), and it was incredibly awesome...alongside pan fried salmon, and some toasted sourdough with salted butter. ... Another recipe that's awesome is Finnish Korvapuusti (translated as "slap in the ear" due to its shape) https://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipes/finnish-cinnamon-rolls-korvapuusti It's a cinnamon roll, but for the variety I made this past winter, I basically modified the recipe in the link to include as much ground cardamom in the filling (with the cinnamon) as in the dough. It's absolutely essential to get the green cardamom pods, open them up and discard the outer shell, then grind the cardamom that very day. My "ear" shapes need some work, but this dessert was awesome. ... I look forward to making Pepin's crepes suzette: ... This was inspiring to watch, after having failed at making omeletes that way. Talk about "cultivation":

Just the other day a guy made tacos out of his amputated leg and fed it to his friends.

Yes...you will have less nutrients, so your body will end up not lasting as long as someone else's (in my opinion). Buddhists etc do it because it makes the mind more clear...it's a process of supporting shen, but not tonifying qi and jing.

Yes, people who exercise have better qi flow. They might not be as sensitive to qi without that training, but their channels are more open than a non-exerciser.

I thought that was kind of funny...but definitely an ethnic food taster here.

I don't practice Wild Goose, but if I did I would definitely want to learn from the books and DVDs of these guys: http://www.dayanarts.com/ I think they have the best detailed information for how to perform it. And then I'd learn with Michael Tse for more advanced stuff...for instance, there are forms like Plum Blossom Gong that sound really interesting. Not impressed with the Dr. Hu materials at all.

Extremely very little...totally unimpressive, considering that my goal for so many years was to develop "the sight" for the purposes of knowing how to heal people.

I've heard that a strong or more defined looking jaw and bigger cheekbones show it. Big ears, especially the lower lobe part. Strong teeth and bones, good posture, teeth not a dental disaster but normal positioning. You should be able to see the lunulas of all fingers except the pinkies. Low back and spine both warm to the touch, not cold. Intelligence and wisdom higher than normal. Full head of healthy hair.

I feel this way too, on the other side of the Earth. Lots of people aren't having high enough standards for themselves.

We're taught in healthcare that if they have a plan to do it and the means, then it's serious. So if I were you, I'd make sure to ask them directly about that. If it's serious, then they need to be monitored until qualified help arrives...probably best to call EMS or police in that case. There's still a chance that they'll do it if they don't have a plan, of course. You don't want to live with it on your conscience that your coarseness might have been the last straw for a person's life...at least I think you won't in the future, when you look back. It's better if you help them. You can tell them that you're very worried they're serious, and that you're not qualified...give them the national suicide help line to talk with someone who can offer more real help. If it's just seeking attention, I can attest that is really annoying to deal with. Suicidal people are super draining and not fun to talk with. But maybe you could put yourself in their shoes, and consider what it's like to be telling people you're going to no longer live, and they just push you away annoyed and won't even give you the time of day. At least personally, I would feel very worthless and alone if that was happening to me. So...I encourage you to man up and give them a little bit of your time. Make sure they're going in the right direction getting help. I understand if even this is really hard to want to do, but if you do it, you can look back without deep regret.

We = you and I. I was ending the conversation. I'll try to take some more time reading your recent responses. I encourage you to start a new thread about modern Chinese politics impacting various groups...it seems that it deserves its own space, and at least to me it feels out of place here.

Yes, when I was trading between altcoins and BTC, it really seemed like only the top few coins (Bitcoin, Ethereum, and maybe Litecoin) were legitimate. Everything else was basically just set up as pump and dump coins, from what I could tell watching their charts day to day. I did hear good things about Cardano, apparently the team working on it has some smart people, but didn't really understand it enough to know whether that's not all just hype as well.

You should probably give a lot more details, telling us the whole story. For instance, why were you a part of this? I think it makes sense that you could avoid it by not going there.

I think about doing it again from time to time, but chose a different path which doesn't work so well with it. The Kunlun school had (maybe still has?) red phoenix and kunlun method united at the heart of it, to cause the 'gold dragon body' effect...which in my estimation, is kind of like completely dissolving into the source (physically, too) while still being human. Apparently they could take pictures of people experiencing this and it looks like they're disappearing...not sure if those weren't just photoshopped, but I did feel this effect happening a few times. To me it felt like an emptiness or void, similar to who I am, to the feeling of being perfectly eternally at home and normal, descended from the head down through the center of the body and made who I think I am (my body, etc) seem to feel as if it weren't really there. Yigong is what Jenny Lamb was teaching, which apparently was a preparatory physical method for later work that involves more spiritual stuff like manifesting. In all honesty, I think spiritual growth is another matter...growth depends on the type of person you are, more so than a method that causes an effect. Even Max himself told us in a class, you can have a practitioner with the brightest halo as a result of their cultivation methods, but they can actually be evil in their heart...such a practitioner is not spiritually mature. For me, the methods caused some positive as well as negative symptoms in terms of health. It was explained that negative stuff was purification happening, which looking back, may have been the case. Positive stuff was like blood pressure going from prehypertension down to normal. I think it opens up a lot of stuff, so one could say that the qi flowed much better and stronger. Analyzing it, I think the method affects the kidney channel, the qiao mai, ren mai, and chong mai...and through those, has more wide reaching effects. I've always found it super challenging to pin down exactly what it's all about...it's a very mysterious practice. At least in my experience, pretty much anything I say about it later on seems to be inadequate or even wrong. Generally I think no, unless it's just a physical exercise type like the eight brocades. It's hard to say what will cause problems with it...for most people, they don't have the ability to discern for themselves, and can end up causing some damage. I think one could say that it is neidan, and not be entirely wrong. But it might be important to note that it's said to come from the Shangqing/Maoshan school, which to really sum things up badly, was originally more about divination and internal deity meditations, than about internal alchemy.