morning dew

Yikes! What happened? I hope nothing too serious.

Thanks to everybody who sorted out the new layout. It looks great, especially on a tablet. I'm slowly getting used to all the options, and I find this new setup quite nice and flexible.

Yeah, this is another classic video of that mindset.

Thanks, these look awesome. I'm slowly working my way through them. Thanks, this is fascinating. When you get a chance to answer the questions, I'd be interested to hear what number(s) the mediumship and possession of the Chinese shamans correspond to in this article: http://www.northernshamanism.org/levels-of-deity-assumption.html

You sound like you have an awesome library. This might be of interest to give you a basic overview of Qigong, and description of loads of styles and techniques (although it's too difficult, really, to just learn stuff using this book without a teacher or DVDs, IMO). I'm not an expert, so I will leave it to others to comment on how good Ken Cohen's book is. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Way-Qigong-Science-Chinese-Healing/dp/0345421094/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1494670962&sr=8-1&keywords=ken+cohen

I had a feeling if I looked up a different translation I would see a different word used for 'shaman'. 'Shaman(ism)' (like 'witch' and 'daoism' and 'pagan', etc.) is one of those words that seems to have all sorts of different meanings to different people, especially these days with the Internet. Here, Legge translates the character 巫 ( wū wú ) as 'wizards': http://ctext.org/dictionary.pl?if=en&id=41964 Do we have any thoughts from Chinese readers as to the interpretation of this character? http://ctext.org/dictionary.pl?if=en&char=%E5%B7%AB And you have asked much that I wanted to ask of flowing hands, especially star cultivation.

Yeah, now this guy would have been a bit more interesting to watch fighting Xu, IMO.

I don't know enough about Tai Chi fighting, but that's what I remember from doing something like Wing Chun. I used to watch UFC on TV when the Gracie brothers kept winning years ago. Yes, they are talented, but, I agree, it's a bit unfair trying to judge different styles against each other when you're barred from crippling people or fighting to the death lol. Also, it got very boring when they just kept dropping people to the ground and forcing them to submit with locks; that's fine for one-on-one, but against multiple opponents it won't get you very far, IMO.

Ah, fair enough. I didn't realise it had caused such a big fuss. I'd be curious to see a decent fight of Osipczak's if you've got a favourite one on YouTube.

Even without knowing who these people are, I could tell that guy was going to get slaughtered as soon as I saw what they were both wearing. I think this is a great idea, personally. I would be fascinated to see the fight. Is the second paragraph just 'locker-room' talk? I seem to remember 'saving face' is quite big in China. Does Osipczak actually think he will goad Xu into fighting him by calling him a coward?

Thanks, guys. Lots of interesting stuff for me to go over; I'm staggered as to how much decent information is on this forum. Ah, sorry. With Eva Wong, it came at the beginning. I think it was chapter 1 and it was giving a history of the roots of Taoism before DDJ and ZZ. Yes, it could well be the pace of Yu; it's been years since I've read her book. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yubu#Present_day This looks interesting. Sounds like an invocation of Taiyi from Polaris, rather than a journey to Polaris. No, that was it. You're not missing anything else. I just wanted to confirm the possibility that he was suggesting this.

Reason 5: to illustrate Daoist cosmology/working of the universe? Maybe I am just overstretching. I guess it doesn't really contain any teachings; it just continues a theme, perhaps? The Dao/One/Polaris is static, never changing; Yin and Yang/moon and sun are dynamic/always moving/ always changing (or causing change). I'm not sure what you meant by 'in context'? I don't think my question has any relevance to ZZ. I just saw your links and it reminded me of Eva Wong. I don't think she mentions any particular reason why they did that, although I seem to remember her including the dance steps for the shuffle. I'm not familiar with Xi Wang Mu. I shall add her to my list of investigations. ETA: I just saw this random snippet. I didn't realise Wu shamans appeared in ZZ although not very favourably. I'll have a bit more of a read on the subject tomorrow and see if I can find anything else. http://world-news-research.com/shamanism.html

Thanks as well. This is very interesting, although I'm not sure I fully grasped it all or who everybody was (I shall have to do some more reading on this). Okay, to recap: ZZ may have picked Polaris and the sun and the moon because (1) they display a very clear polarity – static and dynamic; (2) they are very obvious to see in the sky; I would also suggest (3) they are examples that are easy to be understood by anybody whatever educational level they may have; and (4) they are natural examples, i.e. he didn't suggest something artificial and manufactured like a water clock to represent dynamic(ism). Going by your links it does seem that some people would view Polaris as symbolic of the Dao (big 'd', noun) or the One, a static entity, and the Milky Way as the 10,000 things springing from it with Yin and Yang (symbolised here as moon and the sun) as the dynamic element that changes and transforms them, etc? Could this be reason 5 (i.e. to have multiple meanings and suggest Taoist cosmology), or am I just overstretching here and pursuing a lost cause? Also, an unrelated question: IIRC (from Eva Wong), the shamans of Wu were into the bear dance/shuffle around 2000 BCE to induce trance states so they could journey to Polaris. Why would they do this? Any idea? Would it be to meet Da Yi?

Thanks, very interesting. I also found this link quite fascinating: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stability_of_the_Solar_System#Overview_and_challenges

Yeah, no knowledge of 'The Truth'/'Reality' can really be gained through language, IMO (although we all seem to be talking about it including the DDJ and ZZ lol ); as soon as you start conceptualising you lose sight of it. I'll come back to this and the plausibility of gods riding on stars as I think it would be an interesting discussion. I'm still struggling to understand who some of these people are and exactly why all these things have been listed. IIRC, Polaris, the North star, never moves in the sky viewed from our position on the earth; all the stars rotate around it? But, so what? Is ZZ just saying Polaris has obtained its particular way (little 'd' dao) and that's it? Why did he pick Polaris and not something else? The sun and moon are always moving. Okay, but so are lots of other things. Also, why pick two things here? Why not just one, such as the sun or the moon? Is there another meaning/layer here, or did he just have to pick something as an example and that's what he happened to pick? I was going to ask if Polaris might represent the Dao (big 'D' and noun – i.e., 'Reality'), and the sun and moon, yang and yin, but I'm not sure that would make any sense given the context of the quote.

Hey, welcome to the group. I found a copy of his Chinese Yoga on the cheap in a charity shop the other week. I was also wondering what Stephen Chang is like. I'm just a bumbling newbie, I'm afraid, so I can't really give you any input on the quality of his work.

That's fair enough. I didn't realise you were having long-standing problems with some members.

Yeah, I will have to look at this little section in more detail when I get a chance, but it seems to me even from the beginning of the ZZ with the giant bird, Peng (?), and the little birds he's on a relativist drive. I remember seeing quite a fascinating film many years ago (might have been directed by a current or ex girlfriend or wife of David Lynch) that could have been interpreted in many different ways: a mundane film, horror film, or something else (can't quite remember). It was very cleverly designed so the interpretation was completely open and you couldn't really argue either way as to what had happened in the film and how it ended.

This is an interesting little section and discussion on it. I'm not really familiar with this part of the book; I was a little surprised to see ZZ getting theological. Perhaps this part (and others) are specifically designed to work either way, i.e. religious or materialist/philosophical interpretations, reflecting the uncertainty/scepticism of the butterfly dream from earlier chapters? Perhaps, ZZ didn't even have an opinion either way and left it open to people to decide? I'm not sure, just speculating.

Not that I disagree with old Plato, but it should be obvious that we would all (Roosh included) be shooting ourselves in the foot to deny women equal access to opportunity in higher education: we have no idea where the next important medical/scientific discovery is going to come from, for example, and plenty come from women. The reason I posted that video was to illustrate the end result of having this kind of attitude in the quote in the OP (although I don't know how much of him in that video is just persona/edginess/click-bait designed to earn money through things like ad revenue from number of views or whatever). Yes, I'm sure we've all been in a bad relationship in the past and, yes, there are 'low quality' men and women out there who will make your life a misery if (general) you go out with them. I find, however, it's more productive to take responsibility for your relationship choices, find out where you went wrong, learn from your mistakes and not repeat them. Blaming big sections of society (or the patriarchy or gynocentrism, etc.) for your poor decisions is just going to end up making you into a train wreck, such as Roosh in that video, IMO. If you want to be single and focus on your career, be celibate, be married, be poly, be a swinger, or whatever, just do it and own it; no need to have an 'us and them' mentality, IMO. Same with the other bits on consumerism and corporate America. I'm not into consumerism, particularly – not because I'm spiritual and above all the ignorant herd but because I don't really care about material stauts and get bored very easily when I buy new things (especially when I don't really need them). Also, I'm into working for myself rather than a corporation – not because I want to be Neo and escape The Matrix but because I enjoy working on my own in my own environment, get bored of office politics, want to travel while I work, etc. My two cents

I've always found this thread quite helpful: http://www.thedaobums.com/topic/9183-taoism-taobums-faq/

If this is the end result of following Roosh's game guides, I think I'd rather spend the next two weeks eating Ramen noodles.

I'd never actually heard of this style before I started the short form this year (I'm around a quarter of the way through right now). I was wondering if there were any advanced Wu Tai Chi practitioners in here and what your experiences with it were. Personally, I do it for health (I have a muscular disability, fibromyalgia) and I seem to be slowly becoming a bit more flexible in my range for certain hand movements, for example. I also feel quite loose sometimes after the lessons and springy in my knees (it's a strange sensation). Furthermore, I feel quite grounded/solid/centred/together after I do it in the mornings. Anyone else found health benefits with it? Also, I'm aware there is still a martial side to it. I was just curious if anyone actually fights in purely that style (not that I was planning to myself lol).

I remember the 80s, as a teenager, hearing this kind of thing about some of my favourite bands (Priest and Maiden), my D&D gaming, meditation, etc. There's already plenty of good advice and comments in this thread, so I'll just recommend watching the first video. If that's not enough, the full version is afterwards.

This is a nice video. I've not come across this guy before. I thought it was very interesting.