DynamicEquilibrium

The four pillars for 2025/02/03 at 10:12 pm (china time)： 癸癸戊乙 亥卯寅巳 The time pilar changes according to the location. At first glance there's a combination between the day master of 2025 and the month stem supported by the year's branch which results in 丙. Interesting to note that the solar cycle is close to reach its peak. Months cycle for 2025 is： 戊己庚辛壬癸甲乙丙丁戊己 寅卯辰巳午未申酉戌亥子丑 How 2025 chart will interact with an individual Bazi chart and how two or more individual charts will interact together within the context of this year's chart is a quite challenging yet interesting problem for the reasoning, logic and analysis abilities. Inspiration or intuition can answer any questions any time but may not be so suitable to operate the four pilars which are not a divination tool.

If you understand chinese here's the explaination of some basic concepts about Taoist cultivation in the northern lineage. The lecturer spent 13 years living as an ermit, then he returned to the world and now is the abbot of the white cloud temple in Beijing. https://youtu.be/l1yEPiYfwGw?si=Cue75PrFcYKCsWqP

Very serious, if you understand the meaning of 收心 you also understand that it is the most elementary fundamental skill to posess before anyone from real northern lineage agree to teach you something more advanced.

Drop 2 pounds of rice on the floor then pick each grain with a pair of chopsticks and put them one by one in a jar. Repeat the operation 2 times a day until nothing can disturb your mind anymore during your practice.

Did you ever heard about 立春八字？ It is a more complete way of analaysis of the year cycle, more difficult to learn too. Here's an exemple for 2025, in cantonese sorry ! https://youtu.be/0UKfW0NW0uM?si=u9HlD-jkAwNQiLgw

Oh sorry, by underlying reasons i wasn't refering to afterborn psychological ones. Power and control describe perfectly some of the forces at play within an inborn individual structure. Today i'd say that without some type of study of the human nature based on natural principles it might be too difficult to identify our individual root self and start the education of its core 'spirit'. Thank you for your question, River, i'll try later when i'll have a bit more time.

Something i experienced several times too, fortunately at some point we may start to notice and begin to investigate the underlying reasons, or unfortunately repeat the same with another 'teacher' or in another type of relationship. Welcome here.

Hello Traditional teachings and the self-healing process usually found within are supposed to aim at the patient's or student's autonomy, but a lot of versions do not have this mindset and can sometimes create a dependent relationship.

In the Yinyang five elements system the sun and its Qi is symbolized by the caracter 丙 Yang Fire. Some people bear Yang Fire as their core nature which includes vitality/lifeforce.

Send me a message when you feel like. They would apply different skills rooted in the Yinyang five elements system. Most of time natal chart reading is applied as a separated technic, so it can sounds like fortune telling.

If you need another type of diagnosis i can redirect you to a Taoist medecine practitioner, otherwise as someone said it is maybe better to stick to this doctor's advices/prescriptions. To design a highly individualized practice a full picture is needed, year of birth tells absolutely nothing about such full picture, the four pillars and the big cycle a bit more, but still not enough. Baguazhang or any other types of martial arts, Qigong etc effects would be very limited as long as it is not integrated within a broader tailor made "Life treatment program" designed according to individual caracteristics.

From Yinyang five elements point of view, it is possible that a complicated arrangement of elements prevents you in the way towards the positive and healthy developement of your life. To tell more by taoist counselling require first to do a complete and thorough diagnosis and analysis of your individual inborn nature's structure before saying anything about the possible underlying reasons behind the problems in your life, and from there to begin to define tailor made solutions.

If efficiency in real fight situations isn't the purpose of one's practice, it won't work for it that's for sure. Another purpose doesn't makes it less real, an excuse or BS, but you are right, it's easy to believe doing one thing when actually doing another, what is BS IMO is when Taiijquan is sold as an effective martial arts whitout even just light free sparring included in the training regimen.

If we agree about the concept of individuality and that people have an inborn individual nature, then these traditionnal cultural heritages can serve as a common soil to support any unique tree in the vast human forest to reconstruct its own set of values and principles according to its inborn caracteristics, Xing and Ming. To me its very tricky, because if some natural principles are missed in the edification of individual ethics, it could change into absolute individual morals and rules enforced at the detriment of absolute common principles, so maybe no matter what someone practice, she or he is the one practicing it with her or his own content.

Very clear, thank you. Coming to Taijiquan from other martial arts background, i can say this is a common point to make these arts applicable in real situations. You point to an important and difficult problem, body/mind integration. It's so easy for theoretical concepts to stay stuck somewhere away from the body in the virtual space operated by our minds, even to make a set of 8 or 9 simple principles being clearly expressed by the movements is really not that easy. Same wishes to you on this infinite path.

Thank you for offering another perspective, how about Taijiquan being one of the practical methods to return to Taiji by the ways of Quan? There are sayings like "拳道不二 and 道拳同源 "Boxing and Tao are not two" and "Tao and Boxing have the same origin" something like that. I know i'm biased since what i'm trying my best to learn and practice is Quan taking advantage of the Taiji theory by embodying it, but of course any different point of view adds to the reconstruction of a wider picture.

Taiji means the state were Yinyang are about to differentiate but not yet, so if the practice cannot demonstrate a clear integration of opposites, there would be no Taiji in it, making it something else with a different purpose than the integration of opposites into a dynamic state of balance. Calling this something else "Taijiquan for such and such" is ok, perfectly fine, but from the above point of view it would remain a name whithout content if it fails to demonstrate the core theory of Taiji belonging to the wider subject of a "science of peace". According to the Taiji theory logic, "taijiquan for self-defense" makes no sense because where there is really a Taiji there are no opponents, if there is an opponent that means Taiji already differentiated into Yin and Yang and for some reasons one attacks the other, but yes martial arts can teach how to recognize and avoid dangerous situations and how to improve our self-control abilities to make better decisions in the struggle to maintain this dynamic state of balance, if that's what we are looking for of course. PS: just a point of view

No, from my own experience, when i was younger i used to travel back and forth to china to do static and dynamic exercices in my teacher's living room somewhere in Shanxi, during the weekends other students were coming to practice Tuishou and Sanshou in the backyard. Of course nothing is really coming to the melting point of metal. The point is how the mind affects the body and vice-versa? Through which interface ? And why doing something everyday to take control over various switches? For which purposes? At some point any of these practices will affect directly the psycho-behavioural patterns of an individual, so learning before doing anything might be safer than a leap of faith on a coin flip. Who wants to repeat the same mistakes over and over again and wrongly take it for a real knowledge and skills acquisition process when actually it's just some 'uncontrolled mouvements'? In a kung-fu movie the sword master tells his students "Think first before you move", really this is a verry good advice to prevent and avoid a lot of problems or to make those already existing worse.

https://brennantranslation.wordpress.com/2013/04/29/the-voices-of-sun-lutangs-teachers/ Part 1 of chapter 4 could be a good read.

Agree. We both know that subjectivity will always blur our conclusions, so how to come to the final one ? Some branches of martial arts still have Yijinjing embbeded in their fundamentals, at one point tendons feels like red hot steel wires and the bone marrow like boiling congee, later everything melts and the body seems like being filled with lead, yet extremely light and nimble with a feeling of deep comfort and peace. In application a natural side effect of such fundamental practice was also no holding or hurry in the breath, but whithout any breathwork involved anywhere along the process.

So opposite to: In my opinion, a scientific approach to learning, research and practice has to be rooted in the ability to constantly challenge one's own point of views, otherwise we would just be carving dogmas in the stone of our minds.

By such logic, it would mean that reversely the nervous system do not affect the breathing system in any ways right ?

So from your point of view intentional modifications of the natural breathing patterns do not affect the nervous system in any ways? Sorry to insist, just want to make sure i got your answer right.

Do you mean that to regulate or to control breathing has no effects on the nervous system ?

How do you prevent and avoid any autonomous nervous system disorders (走火入魔) to arise from your breathing practice ?