escott

I read the Preface in Damo Mitchell's book online https://www.amazon.com/Comprehensive-Guide-Daoist-Nei-Gong/dp/1848194102 In here he says he spends a lot of time explaining sinew-changing practices in the book. My interest is now peaked. I might have to buy this. Has anyone read it?

You can get his course for $11.99 on Udemy right now. There are actually a lot of good qigong courses on Udemy. https://www.udemy.com/sounds-true-qigong-robert-peng/

Here's an example of real climate change. https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2014/10/14/what-the-disappearing-aral-sea-tells-us-about-the-value-of-water/

You're 100% right. But, for some reason the powers that be would rather have us chase the ghost of CO2 instead of investing in water technology.

Yep, any debate over man-made global warming doesn't matter. It's going to remain business as usual. Water Scarcity is the real issue everyone should be taking about. If CO2 is the real cause of climate change then the only ones who can know for sure are the high priests of science. The focus should be on Water Scarcity, that is the most immediate threat. What are we going to do to ensure a reliable, safe supply of fresh water to agriculture, industry, and people?

I did not see the direction this article ultimately took coming. I've been feeling burned out at work. I've been thinking a lot about how I'm going to keep this going for another 15-20 years before I can retire. So, one might think this is going to be your typical business/career advice article. It starts out telling a story about an unnamed (but real) celebrity/hero then moves on to Darwin, Bach, and some others. Then it takes a turn with an account about a visit to a guru in India, Sri Nochur Venkataraman, and lands on the topic of Vanaprastha (loosely translated as "retiring into the forest"). Then it goes on to discuss corpse meditation done in many Theravada Buddhist monasteries. Anyway, lots to think about. It's a fantastic read. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/07/work-peak-professional-decline/590650/

I really like the instruction and routine posted in this recent thread.

This is a good video to start with. It follows the same movements given by Lam Kam Chuen in The Way of Energy. There are many different versions, this is a great start.

"I’m not giving up on implausible dreams" This song has always resonated with me, I know the lyrics by heart - The Enemy Within by Rush (Part I of Fear). Things crawl in the darkness That imagination spins Needles at your nerve ends Crawl like spiders on your skin Pounding in your temples And a surge of adrenaline Every muscle tense — To fence The enemy within I’m not giving in To security under pressure I’m not missing out On the promise of adventure I’m not giving up on implausible dreams — Experience to extremes — Experience to extremes Suspicious-looking stranger Flashes you a dangerous grin Shadows across your window — Was it only trees in the wind? Every breath a static charge — A tongue that tastes like tin Steely-eyed outside — To hide The enemy within… To you — is it movement or is it action? Is it contact or just reaction? And you — revolution or just resistance? Is it living, or just existence? Yeah, you — it takes a little more persistence To get up and go the distance… Source: https://www.rush.com/songs/the-enemy-within/

The problem with hydrogen fuel cells TODAY is that they require a lot of energy to manufacture. This energy likely comes from a coal burning power plant. But in a FUTURE with fusion power, like @rideforever keeps mentioning, this will no longer be a problem. So, the fuel cell will be the high energy density battery of the future and will be a perfect solution to replace internal combustion engines.

If anything, I think we'll see more cars running on propane or compressed natural gas before we see fuel cells successfully used. A lot of city buses and UPS trucks already do this. I drive a Ford F150 with a V8 5.0 that is made to be easily converted to run on propane or compressed natural gas.

I had a friend who worked for an energy research firm in Colorado years ago. He said hydrogen fuel cells were a bad idea. It required more energy to produce them than what you got back out. At the last company I worked at I worked in the cubicle next to a guy who was the president of a Siemens fuel cell division. After that failed he wasn't a president anymore at a large company, he sat in a cubicle next to me at a small company.

Truth is, in the United States nobody pays enough for what water is worth. Properly treating and distributing water costs more than what people are actually paying. Check out the Waterfund and understand their investment philosophy to see what I mean. http://worldswaterfund.com/?accepted-notice=1 Although, none of this has anything to do with electric cars...

@rideforever I don't disagree with much of what you said. It's just that I made my bed and now i have to sleep in it (until I wake up).

I'm so thankful for this place on the internet. The Dao Bums always come through with insightful and comforting input. Here's some more details on where I find myself now. I'll be turning 50 next year, I still have a kid in preschool, I need to keep my income level as high or higher than it already is, and I have been a software developer my entire career (a field that requires constant retraining). So, you might say that I'm screwed on all accounts of ever attaining enlightenment. There will be no going off into the forest for me. I'm not complaining, though, this is simply a challenge that I need to work through. I'm not one that gives up easily. The toughest part is that I've lost interest in running the rat race. When I look at what other people do within my company, like project management or product management (things I could easily shift to), it doesn't seem any more appealing so I just stay put. I still consider myself a creative person, but I'm not sure how true that is anymore. I never intended to write software for a living. I got a degree in Computer Engineering because I was interested in the electronics, but there was always more opportunities to do software. Now it seems like I've hit a wall, and according to the article I'm right on schedule. Well, I guess I should just put my big boy pants on now and get back to work...

Have you ever seen images of the tar sands in Canada? Have you ever zoomed around on Google satellite and seen the distribution of gas well pads North of Edmonton? I can pick them out, because I'm in the heart of Marcellus Shale activity. Have you ever seen Fort McMurray in Alberta Canada? You can zoom way out and see the scar on the planet. I just got put on a project to supply equipment to LNG Canada. Imagine if Canada was building that same kind of infrastructure to export fresh water, instead. But that's not what we value. That's not where the money is.

Modern people don't seem to understand that they ARE the Earth. It is highly unlikely that humans that exist in the current form that we are in now could ever live for long periods of time on a moon base or other planet. Even if we could travel to another planet it's very unlikely that we could find one with water and air that we could drink and breathe. So this is it. This is all we are ever going to have. We need to take care of it. Don't piss in the pool... Where it's gets interesting is that we are currently at a world population of around 7.7 billion. The UN model predicts 11.8 in 2100. How on Earth is this planet going to support all of those people? It's not going to happen with organic farming and catching rainwater off of your roof...

If you want to do some moving routines to boost your energy and strengthen your tendons try Ba Dua Jin, 5 Animals Frolic, Yi Jin Jing. They are classic exercises, information is widely available, and all free. Another tip on strength training, it's not always about having big muscles (although, that's nice to have), but it's more about training your nervous system. The body is a very efficient machine. It is trying to conserve energy. Most of the time, even during weight lifting, your body is only recruiting about half of your muscles. Part of what doing multiple repetitions does is to tire some muscles so that other new ones get recruited to take their place and also get strengthened. That's what will make your muscles bigger. Doing low reps and even one rep at close to your max will cause your body to use all your muscles at once. This takes practice, though. It's going to take time to retrain your nervous system to do something it's not naturally inclined to do.

It's funny you should bring this up at this time. This past weekend I was at a 2-day seminar learning level 1&2 Limitless Gate qigong. https://www.limitlessgate.com/qigong/taoist-qigong-path/ Up until this time I had been doing Zhineng 'Lift Qi Up, Pour Qi Down' as my almost daily qigong routine. At the seminar I learned the '12 Devas Tendon Changing' routine. I have been practicing it daily and I have to say I'm feeling a different kind of energy than I felt before. I feel "Charged" in some way. I had also felt Qi moving when I performed Ba Dua Jin in the past, manifested by trembling in the hands. With Zhineng I've basically felt nothing. Just done spontaneous swaying, but I think this is just due to physics and nature. 'Lift Qi Up, Pour Qi Down' is performed with feet close together and eyes closed. Have you ever tried to stand on one foot with your eyes closed? 😁 Zhineng is intended to be gentle, though, with a low risk of Qi Deviation. I had a premature Kundalini awakening many years ago and while the experience was ecstatic I do not want to repeat the after effects of such an experience. Anyway, to get to my point, I see a lot of similarities between the Yi Jin Jing and the 12 Devas. I've been looking at this because information about about the techniques that I learned are scant and cannot be found on the internet. This seems to be intentional. From what I can tell, though, is that Limitless Gate was developed in the Huashan mountains and has similarities to techniques developed in the Wudang mountains (which is about 100 miles away as the crow flies). Maybe someone could confirm this for me.

Do not do reverse abdominal breathing when lifting weights. Take air in at the beginning of a lift let it out at the end. Have you ever seen a power lifter let out a big yell at the end of a lift?

This website has very thorough instructions in the "Methods" section on how to perform Zhineng forms. They are very close to what is in Dr. Pang's books. http://www.zhinengqigong.org/index.html If you have access to YouTube, search "Gina Lim Zhineng Qigong". She has very good free videos that demonstrate the movements.

Do you think, as King Thamus did, that writing has made us less intelligent? http://www.umich.edu/~lsarth/filecabinet/PlatoOnWriting.html

@rideforever How about we just blame it on "The Breakdown Of The Bicameral Mind" 😄

Here is an ancient method for dealing with water scarcity that seems to enhance the landscape instead of scar it. There are some nice pictures of Peru, too. I've been thinking that if the whole world goes to shit that people who love in the Andes mountains will be one of the few groups to survive. https://www.voanews.com/science-health/ancient-peruvian-water-harvesting-system-could-lessen-modern-water-shortages

Electric cars are a boondoggle just like hydrogen fuel cells. Interestingly enough, most people probably don't know that some of the first cars were electric. I saw them when I visited the Seal Cove Auto Museum. https://www.sealcoveautomuseum.org/ Internal combustion engines obviously won out. It was laughable (or maybe cryable) when Obama was claiming that the Chevy Volt was going to save the U.S. automobile industry.