Aetherous

This was a really great thread. In doing a forum search, I was attempting to find a couple of forum members that I recall from years prior...one of them discussed the different versions of the DDJ, but in a less developed way compared to the info in this thread. Another discussed how the DDJ was assembled by a political group rather than a person named Laozi...unfortunately I haven't had any luck finding info on the latter.

Removing chakras, "low energetic artificial planetary matrix"...these are such newagey ideas. I would suggest that we transcend them, primarily.

They are pretty healthy...few cavities in my life.

I've never had success with a fluoride-free toothpaste. My teeth began to hurt when using them. The amount in regular toothpaste is minuscule compared to what's in tap water.

I don't mind a small amount being in my toothpaste, but drinking it is slow poisoning. There's no need for me to have it traveling through my entire body when its only use is to prevent tooth decay.

Eh, I've said all that was necessary here...it fell on completely deaf ears. I didn't mean to piss you off...I actually am really fond of you as a forum member here...don't go thinking that I'm in that group you just typecasted without really grasping my perspective please. Peace.

On the other hand, those who knowingly give up the safety of their loved ones, do exactly that. Anyway...my point is that the opposite viewpoint of yours has nothing to do with "fear", and perhaps even to assume so is coming from a place of fear in yourself. ... Edited to add: I read an article earlier today that a leftist friend of mine posted. It basically states that liberals and conservatives have different ways of looking at and dealing with the world. The conservative is more sensitive to problems and faces them head on. The article seemed a bit biased toward the left...but anyway, perhaps this mode of functioning in conservative types is viewed as "fearful" by liberal types. When in actuality, what it truly is, is responsibility.

As someone who agrees with Trump on that issue, (in the attempt to make some sense out of a different perspective for you) I have to say that it has nothing to do with fear, but everything to do with love. It's about protecting those you care about first and foremost. Fear is aversion...such as the aversion some people have to everything Trump says and does. Or the aversion to so-called "Islamophobia". Actually, calling someone a name such as "Islamophobe" is a sign of fear...their opinion is too dangerous for your mind, so you attempt to socially ostracize it and them in any way possible. You call them scared, when really "when your finger points at someone, there are three pointing back at you". The one who calls someone else scared is generally more scared, and the person being called that is generally not. A fearless mind can consider rational points of view, but a fearful mind becomes irrational and calls names, attempts to destroy the other person, etc. An example of a rational point of view is that terrorism is committed by certain Muslims seemingly out of the blue. A fearful mind says: don't ever lump everyone into one group, because that kind of thinking is frowned upon in our society, and I need to fit in. If I don't fit in, bad things will happen. No hate, because hate is something to fear! On the contrary, it's obvious that Trump doesn't care if he fits in whatsoever, not even to the party he's running under. That's an example of a (relatively) fearless mind...as well as an example of shamelessness, to be negative about it. Finally, to bring this back away from politics to the original post...some have said that the opposite of love is not hate or fear, but apathy. At least with fear, one thing is loved and another thing you're averse to. At least there is feeling and life. With apathy, nothing is loved...everything is meaningless and pointless. To not care is the worst thing.

It's possible to really hurt oneself by doing breathing practices wrong over a period of time. It's very abnormal to be fainting from it...bad sign! And pain in the head and chest are also not good signs. You say you just do what works...but what is a sign that something is working? Fainting to me is a sign that something's not working. For the sake of your own health, it would be best to stop this current practice and find a teacher or a method that is more legitimate. What are your goals from all of this? Perhaps forum members could help you reach your goals by suggesting different practices.

So long as you're providing (for customers, for employees) it's very moral. If the exchange is equal, if you receive in equal proportion that you give, then it's simply a good thing. Customers benefit, employees benefit, you benefit. Fairness is moral. If you receive beyond what you provide, then perhaps it's beginning to become immoral. For instance, if the customer feels kind of ripped off for what they're getting, and you could have lowered the price but you chose to make a greater profit instead, because you have a kind of monopoly. Or if your employees could be paid what they're worth, but because there aren't a lot of jobs out there, employees will accept your lower paying job because they need to survive. You're earning lots as the business owner and they're barely getting by. Basically...always try to keep things fair for everyone, and you're a moral business owner. Try to gain more at the expense of others, and you're an immoral business owner. Providing a person a job but then scamming the employees out of what they're worth doesn't make things fair. Providing a job is good, but ripping people off is bad. It's immoral despite providing.

I'm pumped to see the new flick coming out soon. Also, here is a theory about the first three episodes...where people are saying that Jar Jar was actually the main Sith lord. Sounds so wacky at first, but after watching this video I fully believe it: It's got me going back to watch the first episodes...and after paying close attention to Jar Jar, the theory is fully confirmed for me. Very wild.

Yep, totally. Although perhaps it's limiting to say "consciousness itself"...just as it's limiting to focus only on locations within the physical body. Realistically, we can cultivate literally anything we decide to.

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/12/jerusalem-king-hezekiah/418431/

Those damn kongjing masters practicing in the street again!

Some CM people like congee. They like how white rice kind of tonifies and gently lifts the Spleen qi without contributing to dampness production (they consider the Spleen to be the root of the body's life)...then they add veggies to it, some proteins, and you've got a fairly tasty and healthy light meal. They can even add Chinese herbs, especially food therapy ones, to help make the congee do something if it's needed...but that requires an accurate diagnosis rather than just whimsical playing with the herbs or self diagnosis. However, rice is also a diuretic, increasing urination which ends up draining the true qi. So really, the people who it's indicated for most, are people who aren't peeing enough. Normal people who take it every day will be draining themselves at the same time of tonifying their Spleen qi. So, congee is good sometimes...when you want a light hydrating meal, similar to if you'd be eating pho. There are TCM nutrition books, where they list out various foods and some general qualities...for instance, lamb is probably "warming" and might enter the Spleen (not looking at the book at the moment to verify but just providing an example). My personal opinion: that approach to nutrition is only useful when there's a clear diagnosis, and you want to boost the efficacy of the acu-moxa-herb treatments, by doing everything in your lifestyle to match the TCM pattern. TCM is based off of an herbalist approach to every form of therapy, which is based on doing similar things in combination for a greater effect. Also, TCM zangfu patterns (how TCM nutrition is categorized) are a recent invention, and weren't historically how Chinese Medicine doctors thought about patients and dietary therapy. I think that if you look at a Spleen qi deficiency diet (which everyone wants to treat), then staying on that over a long period of time would be unnatural. The Spleen qi might end up being healthy, which is great, but perhaps there would be nutritional deficiencies of some sort. Just because the Spleen qi is the root of postnatal life, of qi and blood and fluids, does not mean that boosting that will heal everyone miraculously. I like the principle in the Zhong Zang Jing, a book attributed to Hua Tuo, where it's said that if the patient likes the therapy then it's the one that will be effective, but if they dislike it then it's not going to benefit them. It has to feel right. This is in line with the Daoist approach of naturalness. So perhaps a good Daoist and Chinese Medical approach to dietary therapy is to trust your instincts about what you're eating. If it feels like too much, despite it apparently being the best thing for you according to the experts, stop eating it for the time being. If you really crave something that some people say is unhealthy, perhaps you need some of it. The body tells us what's appropriate for it, and also tells us when it's no longer appropriate. In line with that idea, is how we prepare our food, and what state it's in. If food isn't fresh, for instance with something like canned sardines...perhaps it's harmful to us. A head of lettuce pulled fresh out of the ground is jam packed with pure life force, compared to that can of sardines, which has like no life force left. We can sense this and it's not an intellectual exercise to guess what things are better or worse...our bodies know and our intuition says it...so I think that eating foods that seem most appealing is good. Also, eating whole natural foods is of course good. If a food seems to agree with us more when cooked, then we should cook it...if it's better raw, then we should eat it raw. For instance, that fresh head of lettuce would be pretty weird and nasty if cooked, but is crunchy and sweet when raw. Following certain food wisdom which has been corroborated by science, such as soaking certain grains and nuts to improve digestion, is also a good idea. Perhaps we should not have too much of one thing. Imagine just eating just that head of lettuce for a meal...you'll be starving soon. Imagine only eating a piece of steak and nothing on the side. There are nutrients missing there...would have been better to have the lettuce with it. Imagine eating the same breakfast lunch and dinner every day for a year...it gets dull, and causes us to miss out on other nutrients. Having variety is good. Anyway, just kind of rambling. Something interesting...most Chinese medical dietary recommendations today tell us that dairy is bad because it produces damp and possibly phlegm, which are in opposition to the Spleen. Yet, the esteemed Sun Si Miao told us that a little bit of milk strengthens a person. Perhaps modern TCM dietary advice weakens people, and decreases longevity. Also...there are a lot of little gems in the various medical texts. For instance, the Ling Shu has a chapter which discusses the 5 elements and various categories of food that are good and bad for them. For instance, wheat benefits the Heart. The Jin Gui Yao Lue also has dietary advice. No one has compiled all of the dietary suggestions from the medical texts throughout CM history, as far as I know...but someone should! Can't think of a good cookbook, but if you just go full out with your intuition, perhaps using tried and true recipes, you'll be doing better off anyway. Oh yeah, and finally...it seems to me like food qualities that are warming or cooling are pretty reliable. A way to apply this realistically is, if you tend to be a person that runs hot and has inflammation etc, then eat more salads and fruits (which are cooling and also happen to be unprepared, and so are not warming). It will bring some balance. If you tend to be cool, passive, etc...perhaps eating slightly more meat, spicy foods, having some beer (all of which are warming, and the foods tend to be served warm and cooked) can help balance that out. But to classify foods based on what organs they enter, apart from what's in the Ling Shu, I don't really trust that all of the time. Just some random thoughts...I hope other people answer because this is a great question.

I hope it's understandable that because it's a dictionary, those are two different definitions...the same word is used in different ways depending on the context. So, in a Buddhist context, it can be translated as religious virtue...in a Daoist context, maybe not. For instance, in English we commonly speak of a "bird" as being a winged animal, as in definition 2 (in the hyperlink)...but we can also say "flipping someone the bird" in which case it has a totally different meaning, as in definition 10. However...perhaps it can be justified to think of Daoist "de" as being like religious virtue, despite what this dictionary is saying. Maybe the dictionary is kind of biased for some reason. Best to see how it's used in the Daodejing.

I'm just glad that people are calling this out as totally ridiculous.

Here are some nice resources for this info...a Classical Chinese dictionary (which provides definitions at least very close to the time period that the daodejing was written), as well as the Shuowen Jiezi... From Kroll's Classical dictionary: 德 dé Middle Chinese pronunciation: tok Old Chinese pronunciation approximation, from here (not in Kroll's dictionary): *tˁək 1. Innate power, potency, efficacy; sometimes thought of as projection of the 道 dào (Way) in the sensible world, hence the compound 道德 dàodé (the Way and its Power/Force/Working/Process); a potency vouchsafed by Heaven, so providing connection with Heaven, and permitting one who possesses it to influence charismatically but without overt effort the behavior of others in the same direction; especially associated with sages, ideal rulers, exemplary figures who live in harmony with all elements of existence. Traditionally translated as "virtue", but having no religious overtones. a. merits, essential properties. 2. Moral power, quality conducing to proper action in realm of social or community interaction. 3. Kindness, favor, gracious treatment; (in Buddhism) blessing, blessed. 4. (in Buddhism) 大德 dàdé, translation of Sanskrit "bhadanta", most virtuous, honorific term for Buddhist mendicant or monk. From the Shuowen Jiezi: "Originally from 彳 (chì) ‘footstep’ and 直 (zhí) ‘straight’. 心 (xīn) ‘heart’ was added later." ... Oh also...thinking of it from a Daoist context, this should go without saying but I think if we analyze its use in the daodejing then we derive even further meaning from that context.

Happy Thanksgiving to all you Daoists. Cooked my first turkey, and baked my first stuffing today...both have turned out exceptional! Recipes in case anyone is interested: http://cooking.nytimes.com/guides/how-to-cook-turkey http://www.latimes.com/food/thanksgiving/la-fo-stuffing-essay-20151121-story.html

There are lots involved in the martial arts community here. Good to be aware of this kind of thing. I don't think it was posted simply to show someone dying, which would be disgusting.

Do what it takes. There are low periods in life where you have to fight.

Some systems of enlightenment can cause a breakdown. Other systems prevent such a thing. Also, pretty much every system defines it slightly differently...you can only know you're enlightened if you have a clear definition of what it is. For instance, in some legitimate Tibetan Buddhism (not all branches of it are the same), they say that when there is no more trace of negative feelings, then you're on the right track. An enlightened person has none. Such a qualifier doesn't lead a person toward breaking down, but in fact, away from it (provided that no repression or denial of reality is happening). Perhaps the biggest factor is teachers who aren't truly qualified to teach. Teachings can easily be misleading.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHoou-uFkvI