soaring crane

I don't know. The results I've seen thus far have been pretty darned accurate.

well that counts me out then haha

"A finite game is a game which always ends after a finite number of moves. The hypergame is a game where the first move is that player 1 names a finite game, and then player 2 makes the first move. If the hypergame is a finite game, then when playing the hypergame player 1 can name the hypergame as the game to be played, and then player 2 can name the hypergame, etc., ad infinitum. But if the hypergame is not a finite game, then there is a series of moves that never ends." From the source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_paradoxes

Hello maldor, 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

That was a given, Master Chang :-) edit: we should use this test to help select moderators, lol

yeah, seems his/her teacher tells him/her as much, but s/he's having a problem following that angle at the moment. Also, I'm not 100% clear on what you mean by follow but, don't look at your hands or feet.

Oh, you didn't mention that in your original post and it's now not clear to me if this is happening when you're practicing on your own or during group instruction. It could be you're either practicing too much (yep, it's possible, and even easy to do) or, well, doing something wrong. What that could be, I have no idea and no way of telling. To diagonose it, I'd start with your breating habits, but that doesn't have to mean anything. Some things to think about: Have you mentioned this to your teacher (if it's happeing when you practice alone)? Do you do a warm-up routine? A concluding ritual? Are you geneally fit? Take care of your health in other ways? Get out in the fresh air often? Live a generally uncomplicated, simple life? Btw, groups are only for learning. Taiji/Qigong is always an individual practice. Try not to get overly meditative when in the group. Look at it as a purely gymnastic activity.

what?

Oh! haha, yeah, it's just around the elbow :-)

??

I learned to focus on the point Weilü (the space between the tip of the sacrum and the tailbone) for the movement, and Huiyin (the perineum) for lifting. I think some schools default to the anus because it's, well, easy to locate and also easy to control. I believe the hidden wish in the instruction is that you activate Huiyin and Mingmen. What does your lumbar spine do when you practice this, or try to practice it?

you do understand that he's talking about practicing Taiji, right? Also, that not everyone longs to be reborn in the empty abyss of clear light with a rainbow body?

yeah, Taiji / Qigong and really all the Taoist-based practices are generally performed with open eyes, it's part of the practice. But these phases do come up where for whatever reason, you just want to close them. At the same time, it's important to get past the western urge to over-analyze everything and I feel this could be a good opportunity for you to practice that discipline. What I mean is, as Rara says, let your eyes close because that's what they want to do right now, but keep your head clear of worry and overthinking. After a while, you'll be practicing with open eyes again. They might be closing as a way of turning off some of the sensory feedback, in order to allow the Taiji movements to settle deeper into your bones, so to speak. But Taiji is a martial art in the end and it'd be pretty dangerous to enter a fight with your eyes closed, unless you're a Shaolin monk, Grasshopper.

no, some words don't work neither do some people work a berzerk filing clerk

Hello Sean Shiva, 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

I see it and experience it like this: the condition cycles through yin and yang with each breath, and resides in pure yin or yang in the profound pauses between the cycles. That's a natural process and true for everyone. Being aware of the process amplifies it's profundity. Coordinating body dynamics with the cycle of breaths leads to unity of body/mind.

I only meant "what does it matter if it's called stealing or not?" It's an experience and you learned something about yourself and the other person through it.

Hello Chip, 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

Say hello to my newest best friend, I call him "Shui", to go with his Partner, "Feng": thumbnail Shui (and the Harmonie gong stand, plus a collection of gorgeus hammers) got delivered the day before yesterday. I bought the whole set through Ebay from a very sweet person. The 95cm gong is from a special smithy in Wuhan, commissioned by Peter Hess. It's thicker-walled and more resonant than the more mass-produced gongs (at least the ones I've had and played in the past). Shui is the perfect name for this one because the tone is so deep and thick, like falling asleep on the seafloor. But he moves a lot of air, and rings for a long, long time and has overtones that fly straight to heaven. Did I mention that I really love this gong? Need I say it?

Haha... A what?

I agree with you in principle thelearner but what I didn't know previously is that it's possible to make the last post visible only to members, and once you're logged in. So there's no advertising invloved. Regardless, I would prefer it remained hidden for the other reasons you stated.

I held a 4-hour, hybrid workshop/healing seminar yesterday and last Saturday. I called it "Spring cleaning" haha. Everyone was very happy with the program and of course the big gong was one of the centers of focus. But the singing bowls were also well-loved, of course. One of the participants took a few snapshots and sent them to me:

the place, though - right here my personal parking spot in the atmosphere

You're too good to us, Dawei :-)

quite probably. But that doesn't actually change my perspective of where I am.