Aetherous

I wanted to try this out, but 80 bucks!? Ouch.

Find a new girl. Seriously. She won't change. There are tons of girls out there...look for one who won't cheat on you. They do exist.

Well I could say it not using false speech, then: "I think those Christians got the bible all wrong, so the person who only reads the source material and doesn't listen to anyone else will gain more knowledge than everyone in the church. I think they're all mislead and focus on unimportant things which actually have nothing to do with what Christianity is supposed to be about." I don't mean to start an argument. I'm simply sharing my point of view, that religious Taoism isn't real Taoism...to counter your point of view that only religious Taoism is real Taoism. No need to fight. I don't cater to hot headed people's wishes for what they'd like to hear. If what I consider to be true makes them mad, that is their karma. Bad mouthing bad or wrong things is good karma as long as it's done in a good way. I don't believe so. I'd be willing to try. What I consider an actual Taoist is someone who is like the sage in the Tao Te Ching...not someone who is ordained, etc. So I guess a good question to ask is: what's going on with joining a temple and being under a master. Is it necessary? Why? What is the goal of doing it? Then once those are answered...if we don't need to do that to attain the goal, then those things are unnecessary. But what if this scientist sees many other scientists test out the same chemicals and blow up their houses? They can predict it will happen to them as well. But on a more practical level: you're right. I shouldn't put down your path without having any knowledge in it. Some scriptures might be useful, some might not. This isn't false speech, it's just the truth. To be a true Christian, you don't have to accept everything the bible says. Although some think it's so. There is an essence to the religion, just like in Taoism. Living by that essence is what's important, not studying tons of stuff...in my opinion. You too.

Perhaps those Christians got the bible all wrong, so the person who only reads the source material and doesn't listen to anyone else may gain more knowledge than everyone in the church. Maybe they're all mislead and focus on unimportant things which actually have nothing to do with what Christianity is supposed to be about. If someone wants to be a religious Taoist, I personally don't see the point. So you want to wear robes, and perform rituals? What does that have to do with the Tao? To me, nothing...that stuff seems just like cultural add ons which aren't necessary. Religious Taoism seems to contradict the Tao Te Ching. Just like modern day Christianity often seems to contradict the actual teachings in the bible.

In my opinion, everyone should get the book. It's that good.

I enjoyed it, being a kid at heart.

LOL

Truly deeply realizing that and living it is enlightenment...but intellectually grasping it is the opposite.

Hi, welcome BlueCinnabar, Please do share all that you like...I'm interested!

I agree the cover is the worst part...but other than that the book is probably the best quality I've ever seen!

Awesome question...if you actually answer this it yields a lot of insight, I think. But if I answer it, it won't be a complete answer so I'll leave it open.

I just got Esther Gokhale's book today from amazon. It was $16.47, and it's actually worth like probably 40 bucks in quality. Awesome deal. I haven't read it yet...will report back.

Having been overseas, I'm glad the actual military is made up of volunteers and not draftees. Just my opinion. This way we get more intelligent people (a lot of us join for the college money), who actually care about what they're doing (I personally joined after thinking a lot about 9-11 because I thought it'd make a difference in preventing it from happening again). If there was a draft for the "war", I think it'd be a lot more chaotic. People breaking the rules and disrespecting how the whole thing operates. It's bad enough for the ones that volunteer, but being forced to do the stuff that I did....I'd say "hell no!" We are lucky there are a lot of people that volunteer... And yes, private security companies are ridiculous. They make so much money to do it, too. I met a few guys who were pulling in 150,000 for a few months of doing the same exact mission I was. Plus: they got to drink alcohol and basically wear anything they wanted. No fair. We felt like preschoolers, being watched over like hawks by our chain of command. And those contractor guys were like rock stars. It would've been AWESOME to be a contractor. For that very reason, I think they shouldn't be utilized. It just adds to the chaos...and it's true, they aren't that accountable. Although Blackwater did get in trouble, and the company was suspended from Iraq for the 16 dead civilians incident. Who knows what happened with that one...I tend to believe they were actually defending themselves and their VIPs...but who knows. I think we're spending too much money over there. There is no reason to have such extravagant things on bases. No reason for Popeyes chicken stands, or Pizza huts on bases. No reason to have such a huge selection of foods in the dining halls. AND absolutely no good reason why KBR charges over 60 dollars for each bag of laundry to wash, and charges 4 meals each at like 20 dollars per soldier per day....and also having the contractors make so much money. We should be saving all of that. In the past, countries have lost wars (England lost the USA in its battle for independence) because of too much money going elsewhere. Hopefully President Elect Obama keeps that in mind.

Maybe absolutely nothing will happen and we'll continue on as we always have....

I agree. Plus: these guys are from Australia.

If someone could get it somewhere closer to Wisconsin/Illinois/Minnesota...I'd truly appreciate it and buy you a meal out.

Word up. Besides...the kid has said before he isn't a Buddha. Just because he chooses to sit in meditation for a long time doesn't mean anything. Anyone could do it if they're actually meditating. The metabolism slows in every human body. Also...what his practice is: it's some weird form of visualization where he imagines tons of deities praying in the midst of violent storms. He belongs to some sort of esoteric school. At least that's what was on his website like a year or two ago.

In my view, for realistic combat, if you ignore the great aspects of taiji training you'll miss out on a lot. And if you ignore the great aspects of more aggressive training, you'll miss a lot. It's all good and worthwhile training, period. But sometimes training isn't just for combat. So we shouldn't say it's useless, just because some aspects aren't directly related to beating the crap out of someone. It has other purposes as well. My 2 cents as a non practitioner.

I think it's good to meditate in the most quiet place you can, even though meditation isn't dependent on quietude. But even if you're in deep meditation, you can be startled by someone touching you or hearing a sudden noise. It's not good for your nervous system to be shocked like that, I don't think. But on the other hand, getting pissed that it's noisy around you is the opposite of good meditation.

Yup.

Hello! Here's an article about it... http://taoism.net/supplement/ Go to the one that says "The Tao of Star Wars". It was written by a guy here whose name is Starjumper7.

Ape....you really confuse me.

I agree, this is what's important if in a street fight scenario. Plus: "#4. Luck." Because even someone who can do the first three will get beat half of the time if facing an opponent that knows something.

Burning palm seems to be about concentrating qi into a body area and stimulating the skin to remove toxins. Iron palm is more about having a super damaging punch.

Enlightenment is when your perception changes from assuming you're a self, to a more pure state of experience.