soaring crane

lol, good observation, MB. She came from a farm up the street, started hanging around our house looking for a quiet place to have her babies, being pregnant and all. At that time, she was probably about a quarter the cat she is now - completely emaciated, missing a couple teeth, with all sorts of diseases and parasites, maybe four years old, she'd led a life on the farm that I wouldn't wish on a dog. We took her in. She's incredibly intelligent and personable. She really is like a dog in many respects. AND she doesn't plan on ever going back to the farm again. She's made herself comfortable here and we let her enjoy herself. She gets fat over the winter, but as soon as the weather turns warm, she'll be outside most of the time and her weight will come down to normal ranges. She's also a mouse-terror. It's happened more than once that she was sitting on the window sill in the living room and suddenly goes into a panic to get outside. She runs down the stairs and comes back up with a mouse in like a minute. Meaning, she spots a mouse moving out on the lawn from the 2nd floor window and runs down to the exact spot and snatches it like it was a snack bar or something. When she first "moved in" and was still mostly outdoors, she was bringing home up to twenty mice every day. All for me, of course. Yum

This came out pretty neat. Our cat Linzi likes going for walks with us out behind the house:

This reminds me of the kebab stands here - they usually have an ornate pot of "tea concentrate" on a burner that they dilute with hot water, before adding about a tablespoon of sugar to the tiny cup they serve it in. Ah well, it's gratis while you wait I drink this stuff: http://7x7-kräutertee.de/index.html hmm, no link in English. It's called 7x7, with 49 herbs, comes from Switzerland. Jentschura's preparation guidelines say to use boiling water and only let it steep for 2-3 minutes. I think this is true for most herbal teas. 7x7 has strong de-tox effects and is intentionally supports a de-acidification of the body. With green tea, I boil the water and let it sit a few minutes before pouring it over the tea, like Stig said. I got that from the directions on a package once. But, I learned a trick at a Chinese restaurant - at first, only pour a little water over the tea, to "shock" it, let it steep a few seconds and then pour that out, dump it. And then pour the rest of the water in the pot or cup and let it steep a few minutes, not too long. (edit: I mean, pour out the tea water, not the tea leaves, of course). Also, you can and should use gren tea leaves a few times over. The second or third "pouring" is very good. I like basic Chinese Gun Powder. I saw a travel show years ago about Japan where they visited some very exclusive tea regions. The most interesting was a tea made with spring water that was extremly hard - like almost skin burning alkaline. The tea was neon green and foamy, it looked like something from the primordial soup, but was apparently indescribably delicious. Anybody know more about this?

Hey Bums, Remember asking each other this, and arguing the point adamantly in the seventh grade or so? Well, I'm just curious how the Bums would react to a forced choice either losing their vision or hearing, permanently. Which would you give up, and likewise keep, and why?

At the moment of having to choose, I would probably get scared and give up my ears. But when I meditate on the two possibilites, I keep coming back to the more fundamental, animalistic, nature of hearing and think it be more difficult to get through life without it. The deaf people I've encountered seem more frustrated by their difficulties in communication than the blind people who have to deal with physical obstacles. People who are born blind seem to adapt in incredible ways. They can feel color, they can hear space. There was a short report on TV here about a blind man who navigates his way through the world with echolocation, same as bats. He came riding up a path in the woods on a bicycle and stopped right in front of the camera crew. Blind, on a bicycle, on a winding path through the woods. He constantly makes a small "cluck cluck" sound and can "see" the echo in 3D inside hes head. When I went to school in Munich and rode the U-Bahn a lot, I was amazed by the blind people who would come walking along with their sticks, tip tip tip, gabbing with each other nonchalantly and stopping right at the spot where the train would stop. They knew before the trains stopped where the doors would be and they were often the first ones to get on. Hearing is our first real contact with the world outside. The ears are very active in the womb and pick up everything going on outside of Mama. The eyes are there, but if they see anything, it's just black. We can close the eyes, but we can't close the ears - sleeping deaf in a cave could be a death warrant for our ancestors. So, yeah, I'm sure that if really faced with the horrible choices, I'd still be more afraid of loosing my vision, but then maybe after a few years, I regret the choice.

???? Movement is Yang, Qigong and all "training" is a Yang activity, because activity is Yang. See the spiral? Everything about it except for the dot in the middle and the very tip of the arm, is Yang.

You didn't finish the story: The first student laughed outloud and rushed home to tell his master about it. His master then stopped what he was doing, ran as he could to the teacher of the second student and said, "Master, please teach me". And your post proves... ah well, I won't go down that road. Cat's comment pretty well sums up my thoughts on the subject in general. Also, what a person does today will be a memory ten years from now. If I saw someone doing now the things I did thirty years ago, my first impulse would be to warn him to stop. But then I look at where I am now and think, nah, let him live his life and make his own experiences. You can't learn discernement without having to discern a few things.

Remember this one? Stare at this for about 30 seconds and then look at the back of your hand... (look at lot's of things, lol)

I think you're right that there's more in the USA, there's more of everything in the USA. Which part of Europe are you asking about? There are huge Qigong and Taiji societies here in Germany, and I know a couple "Daoists" in Munich, and as I wrote a minute ago in another thread, I'll be going to visit Qin Ling (Dragon Gate) in June... There is a lot of Daoism in Russia/Ukraine, too, and probably Mao Shan Nuns as well, afaik. I think maybe the languages are an obstacle in "Europe".

True that, lol. I'm going to spend a weekend with Qin Ling in Germany this June, pretty soon in fact. She bumped out Yang Jwing-Ming, so that says something about how much I want to meet her: http://www.dao-meditation.com/dao-meditation_english/Qin_Ling.html Taomeow told me about her. She's a long-term student of Wang Li-Ping. I'm looking very forward to June! I want to do the whole nine day seminar but it just doesn't fit into my schedule this year.

I attended a few seminars with Mingtang Xu here in Germany and found him to be, well, I don't want to put this badly but, kind of a show off. He goes for the whiz bang effects a lot, perhaps because he's used to American and Russian audiences and feels pressure to impress people. However his ZY Gong is a potent system for sure, which I would love to learn completely if I had the time and cash. It centers around the "X-Ray Vision" therapy but includes, for example, 100 days retention and up to 60 (or 90?) minutes of standing like a "Big Tree" every day. He's not a "Practicing Daoist", btw. (who is?), but very knowledgeable in many arts. I imagine a multi-week retreat with him and his cadre would be pretty intense. He used to hold two week retreats on Mallorca, I think. And those were done, as far as I recall, with no food/water, so, that gives an idea of how far he goes. (of course, he's got a huge reserve of calories to get him through - he loves German bakeries...).

Actually, those methods aren't so modern anymore, are they? People are getting intelligent again, they're rotating crops in ways that specifically regenerate the soil from year to year. At least they are here in Germany and other areas in Europe.

The package turned into a dysfunctional web of red tape and loopholes that won't benefit nearly as many people as it could have if it had just stuck to the basics. The problem is that the US has a de facto parliament made up of thousands of private interest groups with no oversight and no accountability. Even the two parties that rule the country are self-regulated, there being no mention of parties or the rules they need to follow in the Constitution. Regardless, the gist of Dr Maffetone's writing on the subject is that "Health" Care and Insurance is a red herring tossed out to the U.S. public as a way of keeping them sated and distracted (again, de facto, not necessarily consciously or intentional). There should be cries of indignation when Pepsico and Kraft Foods barter contracts to peddle their poison in the public schools, but, no, that doesn't happen. You see, the "Health Industry" has medications available for kids who develop diabetes, so no worries mate. There are few things in life that are more unappetizing for me than a stroll down the aisles in an American grocery store. And that's specifcially because virtually every item on the shelves screams out at me with some bogus health claim. Related question: what are deductibles and co-pays like in the US now?

heheeee... that's why I phrased it the way I did Good to know that you've got it under control, my stark reaction was really intended for anyone who may read the conversation and not have the experience to deal with it.

Over and over Tommy James and the Shondells Crimson and Clover

and marshmallows too sometimes land in the fire. Ashes to ashes.

It's difficult for me to get riled up over lineages, and can even tolerate someone making one up for himself. It doesn't affect the quality of their teachings for better or worse. Virtually every text in the Taoist Canon has been attributed falsely to one great master or another, some real, some not. On a cosmic scale, does it change anything? But, I actually read the Qi Dao book online, the parts that matter, and didn't see anything terribly unique in it. So, to that end, for me personally, the whole thing is just a detour. I might go listen to some of the interviews, though, if I get a chance. I wonder if that other great shamanic Russian, Taomeow, knows the Lama? She seems to know more about Shamanism than he does. (Also, I got a bit of a jolt when I read: "Rinpoche holds a degree in Cultural Anthropology and certifications in Qigong, Hypnosis and NLP" - that would put the kibosh on any thoughts of joining his Academy)

I would stress this a little more. It can become quite unproductive if you get caught up in the sensations. It can be a trap and if you fall through it, you may need many years to untangle yourself and return to the original state. To the OP - This could (but doesn't have to ) become a difficult period for you, requiring a cool head

Joe - That's not a "bit", that's the whole point. That's what Maffetone's been writing about for 30 years. He accurately labels the entire argument about "Health Care" a big lie that benefits people who profit from making sure as many of us remain as unhealthy as possible. He might be somewhat diplomatic in this particular article, and he's not a foaming-at-the-mouth-zealot in any case, but I'm familiar with his work and I know his views on this and other topics. And I think they're quite accurate. The man knows a lot about training for a marathon, too

lol, MB - I'm going to take a risk and suggest that you didn't read the article I posted. It's about being healthy, which has nothing to do with insurance or even medicine in most cases...

Considering the intro text, I was expecting clothing with a little more... substance, lol. $450 organic silk Taiji suits, etc. But the T's are still pretty cool, made me smile when I opened the link

pssst - be careful, don't say that too loud: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangdi