soaring crane

Moderator message the gratituitously politcal posts that quickly dominated this thread have been split to Off Topic

Hello Junko, and welcome to the forums! Glad you found your way to us, we don't have enough husband/wife teams here :-) Please take the time to read the two posts pinned at the top of this Welcome page and take a look at the forum terms and rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you, SC and the TDB team

I think it's far more important to strive for healthy fascia, the membrane that encases the tendons (and muscles, and bones, and organs, and everything).

Taoists observe and emulate nature

you're American, right? :-) I feel like a mutant when I'm in the US and order "no ice" in my water. More often than not, I'm served ice anyway.

a little more on my previous post - think about: on your marks get set go! Where does Zhan Zhuang fit into that? It's the middle, the "get set" stage. That anticipation of the "go!" is there, but the "go!" doesn't happen. Like a cat watching a bird's nest. And because we're standing in anticipation, our conditioning tells us that something must be on its way; there must be a reason for standing there, because, if there's nothing happening, well, we'd normally just sit down, no?. Aversion to lounging on a sofa? Not likely. But aversion to standing still is completey normal because standing still, without fidgeting or slouching, or talking, is not "normal". Nervous energy begins to build up, and can take many forms e.g. impatience, sexual arousal, virtually any emotion, physical stiffness, strange muscular spasms, yawning or other breathing irregularities, etc. These are all different expressions of the same thing - energy denied an outlet. Basically, energy is energy. It can't be created or destroyed but it can be collected and converted, and stored. That's ZZ. So, there you are. Standing for no good reason. All this potential for action, but you don't act. The will is there but the body remains static. If you continue at least for a while, a portion (nothing like 100%) of that potential action, the energy, returns to where it came from, back to the source.

It's a general recommendation, you come across in much of the qigong literature. There are various explanaitons, from adversly affecting or reversing your qi flow to attracting the negative energies (aka demons) that are active during thunderstorms.

Definitely. A glass of plain (no lemon, no ginger or tea or any kind of flavoring at all) hot water (as hot it comes out of the tap) is first thing to cross my lips after waking. In more modern terms, it's a soothing start of the day for the gut bacteria. It's also very good before sleeping, quite possibly for the same reason (?). And never eat or drink anything ice cold (ok, that's the dogmatic view, but sometimes, a scoop of pistachio ice cream is just the right sensuous sin, lol)

That aversion is the energy that will be converted and stored through the standing practice. Don't stop too quickly, but do adjust time to allow for age, experience and health.

light calisthenics like arm swinging and bouncing, plus some basic stretching and slapping

Artifical Intelligence?

Hello spaceage, and welcome to the forums! Glad you found your way to us :-) Please take the time to read the two posts pinned at the top of this Welcome page and take a look at the forum terms and rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you, SC and the TDB team

my first post was inspired by this: Does Taoism have as its goal the same cessation of rebirth that would give rise to karmic laws? Karma is something that can be fit into many molds, including modern physics, but rebirth? not so much.

Herr Hilfreich :-) It's easy enough to search the ancient, pre-buddhist roots of Dao science. And you know you said all that needs be said in your reply to my first post haha

me

nope

All animals have sex without the intent to reproduce.

Was Jesus a Christian? :-)

Pure Tao philosophy recognizes no such concept.

Hello Keeper, and welcome to the forums! Glad you found your way to us. You can now join the discussions. Please take the time to read the two posts pinned at the top of this Welcome page and take a look at the forum terms and rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you, SC and the TDB team

Hello intuitiveone, and welcome to the forums! Glad you found your way to us. I would suggest editing your post here to a simple introduction and creating a new topic in the General Discussion forum with the text you're posted here. I think you'll generate more dialog that way. Please take the time to read the two posts pinned at the top of this Welcome page and take a look at the forum terms and rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you, SC and the TDB team

Hello magyar, and welcome to the forums! Glad you found your way to us :-) Please take the time to read the two posts pinned at the top of this Welcome page and take a look at the forum terms and rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you, SC and the TDB team

Hello digitalox, and welcome to the forums! Glad you found your way to us :-) Please take the time to read the two posts pinned at the top of this Welcome page and take a look at the forum terms and rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you, SC and the TDB team

Hello quantumdragon, and welcome to the forums! Glad you found your way to us. I would like to suggest editing your post here to a simple introduction and creating a new topic in either the General Discussion or Women's Cultivation areas with the text you're written here. Please take the time to read the two posts pinned at the top of this Welcome page and take a look at the forum terms and rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you, SC and the TDB team