wandelaar

I wonder whether it would make any difference as regards my (lack of) sensitivity for chi. Because I already do forms from the book: https://www.amazon.com/Qigong-Health-Vitality-Michael-Tse/dp/0312141289/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8

Just did 15 minutes of standing in the wuji posture. I didn't feel any chi flowing, but I sure had a burning feeling in my calf and shoulder muscles...

Are these the forms that you do?

Is the commentary by Sung Ch'ang-Hsing on the Tao Te Ching available in an English translation?

Why would he be wrong when we don't know what he is saying?

I hope you are happy with your new (anti-)religion, and we will no doubt hear more about it in your coming posts.

A Taoist sage is not a nobody, but somebody who realises his insignificance in the greater scheme of things. See how Lao tzu describes himself: The Sage both knows his own worth and his own futility.

Sounds like just another religion to me, complete with the misplaced arrogance of those who reckon themselves to the elect. Conscious creation is the opposite of Taoism in the spirit of Lao tzu and Chuang tzu. You have to move beyond your Ego to follow the Way.

I don't think one can actually prove anything as regards moral choices. So she is right in attacking ideologies and religions that claim to know how one has to behave. But ironically Ayn Rand didn't leave it at that, but she wanted us to embrace her own dogmatic ideology in stead of the old ones.

Nonsense! The simplicity and seductiveness of Ayn Rand's ideas lies in the fact that she presents a partial truth and declares it to be the ultimate truth. In this she is no better than the religions or ideologies that she attacks. As always: the best road is the middle way.

Even trying can be overdone.

@ Zhongyongdaoist Please go ahead with your expositions! It has become clear to me that they don't answer to my original purpose with this topic, but they are interesting nevertheless.

Maybe - but I found your ranting post anything but convincing. Perhaps you could explain how you accomplish sitting in your forehead?

I started many years ago, but there were long periods in between in which I discontinued my daily practice. I do just sitting with eyes open for one hour. I experience feeling much more relaxed through the day as long as I keep doing these simple daily meditations.

I already read the book. It was interesting.

That's no serious answer, but a frustrated rant. No use continuing.

I already do that as most of the time that I have a headache it's because I have been too busy thinking or ruminating in my head, so I then imagine that the basic locus of my internal activity sinks into my belly and I withdraw the energy from my head. It helps.

There is also the feeling of the subtle body suddenly contracting inside my physical body when I am startled by something.

@ rideforever There certainly is a kernel of truth in what you say. When a scientist critically investigates some result that is considered as almost certainly correct than the results of his own investigation will most likely replicate what is already known. Thus hardly anybody will care about such research and it may not even be published. On the other hand: extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence: https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Extraordinary_claims_require_extraordinary_evidence So there is nothing wrong with the EmDrive being tested multiple times and the results being critically examined.

First I want to find a way to relate my body feelings to chi, if that is possible. That will then give me a handle to further explore the concept of chi in the human body. Until now all statements about chi flowing in the human body are just empty talk to me. It has to relate to something that I can understand and/or feel before I am prepared to actually work with it.

All this talk about "I" doesn't impress me a bit. Whether or not there is free will is a scientific question, and being an inventor or freethinker doesn't prove anything for or against the existence of free will. Most ideas about free will are just muddled thought. As to what science says about bumblebees or EmDrives that is another topic. Many urban legends about the failings of science are just plain wrong... A few seconds of Googling gives: https://www.livescience.com/33075-how-bees-fly.html And the EmDrive is still in the experimental phase...

Then what is the foundation of the non physical world? Did that precede even the Tao?

This Bum doesn't think there is some master "I" involved. Our mind is more in the nature of a society of relatively autonomous subsystems that all more or less play their part in what we eventually do without any one supreme commander making the final decisions. The idea of "an I with a free will" may be a useful fiction in courts of law, but that doesn't make it any more realistic as a psychological model of what actually happens.

Thank you. Happily the "indistinct thought-like things wildly bouncing around mainly within my head" only happens when I have a headache! I never take medicines against that as I consider it a very useful signal to slow down and take a rest. Then things slowly return to normal. Still thoughts keep appearing in my head whether I like it or not. Even while meditating...

@ rideforever I think the power of rational thought is greatly underestimated. A substantial part of the Tao Te Ching can be understood by rationally thinking it through. But I agree that rational thought is powerless without feelings, intuition, etc. As to chi, I have started another topic about that: