soaring crane

Oh, I'm happy that this thread is getting attention and feedback. I'm really very impressed with your work, and your knowledge :-)

Haha reminded me of a woman at the sauna a little while ago (we're naked at saunas). She had an alligator tattoo, very, very detailed, every scale, every tooth, the eyes perfect, it was like a painting. The tip of the tail was on her left ankle, and the snout was on her right shoulder. Fill in the blanks, it was huge. It was alive. She had a (soaring, haha) crane on her back and corn snake up her right leg. I asked her if she ever felt the spirit of the animals and she told me they were basically her constant companions.

Yeah, unfettered attributes was what I was trying to get at in my first post. As an analogy, would you agree that the trigrams can also be seen as slices in time, like the *children's game of 'stop dance'? (music plays, and kids dance around the room and when the music stops, they hold their position until the music starts again). *adults do it too

I don't understand that. Your description indicates a kind of stagnation or stasis, like yin and yang colliding and holding each other from progressing. But the trigrams and hexagrams are all about progression, merging, separating ... Two yangs below a yin = 2/3 yang power passing through 1/3 yin and likewise one yin power absorbing two yang. They'll merge proportionately, the yangs being softened by the yin; the yin being hardened by the yangs, and they'll separate, and merge in other formations. Not really in a linear timeline like that, but figuratively, that's what's constantly occurring, no? The sun makes an arc in the sky and the shady side of the hill progressively becomes the sunny side. The little yang acorn pushes its way out of the big yin soil, and grows into a big yang oak, with yang roots submerged in yin ground. It later begins throwing off leaves in the autumn, which in turn nourish the yin below ... At some point, the whole thing collapses and yin absorbs it again ... I don't see where things 'have already' occurred. That indicates that something has stopped. Unless I'm just reading you wrong.

I've only ever heard of it, never read it except for the odd excerpt and side reference. But I just searched and found this page (from a link at the wiki page on the cantong qi) http://www.goldenelixir.com/press/trl_02_ctq.html Quite advanced materials there. I'm curious now, thanks :-)

*rationale

who

and a little white dog :-)

ah man, sounds awesome. Maybe he'll have a visitor from Germany someday Btw - Austria? That's pretty cool right there!

UTI - I can't think of anything to offer at the moment. But I wanted you to know that your images affected me, in a good way. Thank you so much for posting them here! There's an image in 'Decoding the Dao' from Tom Bisio that shows the progression of the 64 Hexagrams along the pathway of the Microcosmic orbit. Can you visualize that? For me, very important is the interaction of fire/water ie Kan/Li. But it's more alchemy than TCM. If you could visually capture the 3D nature of the Taiji Yin/Yang symbol? A person/tree morph image? Five gates breathing? Sorry, just meandering, spontaneous thoughts.... Bump your thread now and then in case you don't get a lot of responses. You work is quite impressive!

ha! So true But now you admit it (that's the first step to recovery, you know).

As a jumping-off point, can I say: broken lines, unhindered, will sink solid lines, unhindered, will rise In groups of three lines, all but two of the groups encapsulate a unique dynamic tension, and the science of the Yijing is in the identification and interpretation of this dynamic. Something like that?

I just wrote up a little experience in my PPD that kind of ties in with 'the present moment', from my experience with a couple groups this evening. Being truly in the present is something we can practice and it's can heal. It can heal virtually anything, I'm convinced. I hope it's ok if I post the link here, just to share the experience. The last entry: http://thetaobums.com/topic/33926-tales-from-the-meadow/

Sweet :-) Red Pine has produced some really beautiful works

I think you guys are coming down a little harsh here. There are simply many points on that list that he (and others) can identify with. I don't see where U_A is proclaiming to be hard and fast Empath. He just came across something in the vastness of the internet that he could identify with and as he says he's curious and it looks interesting. It's all part of the growth process.

a lot of that is true for me as well. I suspect many Bums would recognize at least some of their self in there...

I really like this guy's series of ZZ videos. Very lovingly done, and I think the information is topnotch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO9vC-YFacc

Hi Fer - it's actually easier to make a video than to write out a bunch of text. This is the simple movement for the heart meridian. Before practicing it, familiarize yourself with the meridian (I assume you already know it anyway). It starts with 'fanning the fire in the breast'. You can also do this as a stand-alone exercise. You would generally do it until you clearly feel a 'ball of gentle, loving fire' begin to swell in the chest cavity. The 'fanning' motion is exactly that - fanning the little fire, to help it grow. So, you should try to angle the hands/fingers as though there really were a little fire there. In the step where the 'bowl' is extended, you should try to feel into the meridian. You'll see me move my hands and arms while holding this position. This is only to demonstrate that the the practitioner at this point would 'play' with the position until the meridian really 'wakes' up. You have to find the best position for yourself. Keep it soft, keep it gentle. Avoid stretching. An important step comes when the palms/Laogongs are opened to the front. In the video, I hold this for a few seconds, but you can hold longer. This is directing heat outward, you have to go with intuition to decide how long to hold this. Palms are forward, but the wrists are not 'locked'. Keep them soft. Last point, kind of funny, if you can see it, there's a clothes line right at the top of my head (that was just coincidence). Observe the top of my head in relation to the clothes line.You'll see that I'm gently rising and sinking - this is in harmony with my breath. I'm not suggesting any strict in-out-in-out breath routine, but do try to incorporate your breath (gently) into the movements. The 'wave' motion is actually coming from my pelvis, Elvis. And that's about it. Small intestine not really that important at this stage. See how this one feels to you. And if you feel bad - go to the doctor, please! Peace oh yeah, the video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d7RTGbYAq8&feature=youtu.be

Wind = down? Can you expand on that? Thx

be wary of 'real' singing bowls. Unless you bought it at the smithy directly, it's potluck. But if if is sings long and sweet, and with many over and undertones, and it pleases you, then that's pretty good criteria.

He Fer - I just scanned youtube to see if the exercises that I know would be there, because a video is so much more effective than text. But it isn't there. I did however come across this, and I think it might be very good for you. Self-massage: I'll be back later, have a good day! PS - with walking, walk slowly and relaxed, really loose and conscious of your movements, heel to toe, hold the hands in light fist, and with each step, when the balls of a foot are weighted, press the middle and ring fingers into the Laogong points (basically, when stepping with the left foot, gently clench the left fist and vice-versa). Try to breathe in harmony with the rhythm of your walking.

ok, I intentionally avoided reading through the thread, because I wanted my reply to him to be unfettered. Seems I was just a little too late.

So, let me if I got this figured out. First, you alienated yourself from the Muslims Next, you alienated yourself from the Zen group After that, you alienated yourself from the more traditional Buddhists And now, you're working at alienating yourself from the 'Taoists'. Have you ever heard the one about the man who kept doing the same experiment, expecting to get different results? When a clear pattern like this emerges, the place to look for the causes is very close, it's at the next mirror.

haha, I was joking with my dumb question. I know they're dangerous, more dangerous than bear. I have a second-party anecdote: A friend went on a moose-hunt in Canada. The guides brought him to a place where two forest tracks crossed, told him moose use the tracks, and gave him a pair of artificial antlers to clack together, to attract a moose. The theory was pretty simple - when a moose comes, he should shoot. And the guides said to expect the moose to come up one of the tracks. So he was there alone with his artificial antlers and rifle, clacking away, to attract a moose. After a while (I forget how long it took, but it was a while), he heard a noise in the forest. It wasn't coming from one of the tracks. It was a loud noise. A thundering noise. And then a noise like a tree being knocked down, and suddenly Bullwinkle on steroids leaped out in front of my friend, who was of average human height, meaning pretty puny compared to a raging bull moose with a hard-on, and shot a few dozen cubic meters of steam out of his nostrils in my friend's general direction, stomped the ground, lowered his head and charged! My friend dropped his silly artificial antlers, dropped his rifle, and ran like hell into the woods. He heard trees falling behind him but he didn't look back. He just kept dodging behind bigger trees and hoping Bullwinkle would lose interest quickly. And basically, that's what happened. The moose sensed immediately that he had won and quickly turned around and ran off in search a better opponent. Oh yeah, it was brooding season, of course. The point of the clacking antlers was to signal that there were two bull moose fighting over a babe. And the guides laughed themselves silly when he told them the story. It almost seemed like a set-up, hmmm...