soaring crane

Hello George, 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 Sechem, and welcome to the forums! You're membership is approved, we happy to have you here. You have some pretty interesting interests there, I think you might find a few members here eager to discuss them with you :-) 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

Yes, I should have made clear that I was speaking from the perspective of a mere mortal. You're in a whole other category here. In fact, I'd be interested in seeing you performing a deep horse stance. Do yo do it often? For how long?

Isn't it the other way 'round? If the hips/kua are highly mobile, the legs can align to the parallel feet in the wide, deep stance. Weight shifting to the edge of the feet, and the arches rounded, arched, making suction cups of the yongchuan. This is all true for basic qigong stance (which is often also called mabu, just narrower and higher - skinny horse/fat horse). I think Chang's post contains the basic ingredients. I had asked about energy flow parallel feet vs angled feet and he made clear that it's a question of kua. Feet turned outward makes the position easier, but the effect is diminished as the kua is closed. The answer isn't straightening the feet but rather opening the groin kua. Btw, sotg, this should be kid's stuff for you! :-)

I have a question about that. Since you come from the Kung Fu world and have genuine knowledge about the correct practice, how would you rate the importance of keeping the feet parallel? I can hold a deep mabu for a good long time if my feet are turned outward, it's part of my Fanhuangong. But with the feet parallel, not so much. It makes a huge difference in the level of effort, and I know that that isn't a personal indiosyncrasy of my own; it's pretty universal. So, from the energetic standpoint, how much would you say the exercise it watered down by angling the feet outward?

when someone has over 5,000 posts and maybe one or two slip-ups over about eight years, he doesn't get suspended immediately. He's given a chance to change his post, it's that's simple. As far as apologising, all I would do is re-word my post, but the basic sentiment wouldn't change a bit. Since this is a thread about moderation of the website, here's an example of a PM I might send to others in this situation: Hi Could you do me a favor and please find another way to express your opinion in this post? The language you resorted to comes across as abusive and insulting. You're free to express your opinions, but do try to keeo the tone more civil. Thank you for your understanding. PS - I'm going to PM Wells to see if he'll agree to change the text in his quote of your post. And 9 times out of 10, it goes exactly the way I request. Wells knows this quite well. If the person responds uncooperatively, then I take it up with the other mods, or something along those lines. Believe it or not, and I know you won't, I'd extend the same courtesy to you if you were to write something outright insulting to someone. But my problem with you're group isn't the language, it's the intention behind your very presence in these forums.

It's exactly what I do, and I'd be happy to edit my post, but it's already been quoted ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Actually, the way I do it when I see an abusive post is I pm the person first, to give them a chance to edit their comment. It's best if it's done before someone quotes it of course, but it's gone as far as asking the person who quoted the text to also change their post. This allows members a chance to reset things after an emotional slip up, something that can happen to anyone, including someone who is volunteering his time to try and keep order at the website. I'm thinking you're probably already familiar with the procedure... And if you feel like milking this to your benefit, be my guest.

Is it accurate to interpret the ddj as the Dao "gave" birth to the one, in the past tense like that?

I loved Life of Pi, the book and the movie. But it seems to have been mostly overlooked here. I don't know why

good info here: http://www.shaolin.org/general-2/horse-stance.html

no, I'm afraid it's not that simple. Enforcing a no spam policy would fix it, though.

quoted for emphasis. Merci beaucoup, bubbles.

It was clear from the outset that you're a space spammer: http://thedaobums.com/topic/39905-hello/#entry658787 But our vetting process errs on the side of trust, which you've clearly broken with your snake in the grass disingenuousness. You're basically a run of the mill, cheap spammer, congratulations on reaching level two or whatever it is.

I added a note to my post pointing out that I had the ones who come here in mind. I mean the ones who come here not to discuss their practice but only to create problems at this website. You're right to point out that the language I resorted to was inappropriate, I admit I was venting there, but you did read the Narew statements that I quoted, didn't you?

I think there are a lot of loopholes involved in this. Does it count if I find an item at ebay from a private seller cheaper than at Best Buy? My credit card tip: don't charge more than you can pay at the end of the month. Pay your bill in full at the end of the month.

I copy/pasted it from the member's log. There are plenty more to chose from, and now I'm wondering which one you're referring to :-) As I've already stated, any one of those sick statements made by Narew would have resulted in a lifetime ban at other sites. These MoPai trolls who are running through our forums at the moment on the one hand try to elbow their way through the masses by claiming there's no moral or ethical aspect to their cultivation. But on the other hand behave like children when they suspect someone somewhere on the internet is discussing their clique in terminology that they disagree with. Their practices lead directly to paranoid shizophrenia, far as I can tell. At least, that's the only characteristic I've been able to discern from their rantings over the years. I'd welcome evidence to the contrary, but, for now, I'm done with them. Edit: I was thinking above specifically about the ones who come here for no purpose other than to stir up discontent and to propagate the myth that there's a vendetta against them at TDB. Second edit: In an agreement with Wells, I edited the offensive language from my post, and he's agreed to chnage the quoted text in his reply. I have to say though, I didn't change much. And to be clear, this comment is not directed at Wells or KenB or anyone at all who simply wants to discuss their practices.

Any one of those statements I quoted would have resulted in a ban at any other forum, including whatever groups you spend your time with on Skype. The fact that you're still tolerated here speaks volumes about the leniency and objectivity of the TDB moderators, and any statements you make regarding unfair treatment of you or your sandbox friends are simply pathetic.

and it's gonna be deja vu all over again ...

just to put this sad little myth of yours to bed, here's a sampling of comments Narew made in these forums: "A big problem is that lots of users on this forum are New Age idiots and applying any kind of serious quality control would probably mean banning majority of the members." "That is just an ridiculous New Age belief." "It's also a fact that Baduan Jin is a simple, lightweight system, probably made for masses of uneducated pesants" "New Age stupidity." "If you think otherwise, you're seriously ignorant. Many Qi Gong systems treated as special treasures by their not necessarily sensible Western practicioners are actually stuff that is practised en masse by Chinese elderly women." "Baduan Jin is literally QiGong even an idiot can learn." "Yes, I'm condescending to a clearly ignorant person. And it's unfortunately a typical problem with Tao Bums moderation, which seems to tolerate idiots." "But still, I think that new users should be warned this is a low quality New Age forum. Perhaps some kind of special disclaimer should be made about that, in order to warn them. Maybe a change of name, like to "New Age Bums"?" How do you expect moderators of any forum to respond to that kind of sneering, seething disrespect toward the membership?

Hello Giovanni, and welcome to the forums! Your membership is approved and we're happy to have you 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

Hi Peter, and welcome. I'm very interested in the lies you feel you've met along the path. Can you point out anything in particular? Thanks!

Massaging the ears for bringing good fortune ... This is a pretty easy practice, and it really works, but I realize now that it'll take a lot of writing to truly cover all the details, so this is just an outline: First, be in a state of mind conducive to this kind of thing. We all have our idiosyncracies in this area, so I'm going to avoid getting into prep and finishing work. One tip though: this is good to do right away upon waking up, while still in bed. Warm the hands and the rub the ears in a general way, vigourously, make them warm, hot They should be glowing red when you finish. Massage the ears between thumb/forefinger (up and down the outer ear, and also the lobes). Massage and knead them hard. If you fiind a painful spot, knead it longer and harder. Pull on the ears, and try cupping them between the fingers and pulling on the roots, like you're trying to pull them off your head (don't pull that hard). Flick your fingers along the outer ear. You can use the middle fingers. Flick from top to bottom and bottom to top. Up and down, up and down. This hurts a lot. Alternatively, you can use the ring, middle and index fingers. The ring finger will at the top, the index finger at the bottom and the middle finger in the middle (good finger exercise). Do this till the ears are almost numb, or your fingers are worn out. Now fan the ears from back to front. This is a little difficult to describe, I'm thinking of making a video. Now you cup your hands over your ears, pushing the little cartilage "stopper" (I know it has a proper name, but I can't think of it at the moment) into the earhole. Hold the ears shut, feel the pressure in there. Then quickly release the hands, and release the pressure. There could be an audible pop when you do this. Champagne cork-style. I know a few different techniques but get the best results when I use the balls of my thumbs (fire point on the lung meridian) to seal the earholes, with my fingers on the back of my head. Do this at least three times and better nine times. Take a big inhale before sealing the ears, and exhale while sealing them. Hold until the exhale is complete (exhale slowly) and inhale when you release the pressure. Ok ... almost done with the physical work. The last stage is beating the heavenly drum. Easy version: seal the ears with the palms as before and use the index and middle fingers to "drum" the back of the skull. It sounds deep and booming inside the brain. There are youtube videos showing various techniques. You can time this with breaths. Take a big inhale and beat the drum for the duration of the exhale. Exhale slowly. Do at least three breaths, and of course nine breaths would be optimal. Have to wrap this up .... to finish, cover the eyes with the hands and begin to listen. Listen at first to your immediate surroundings. Then send the "ears" out a little further, maybe through the walls of your room into the rest of the house, or to the garden. Listen for little details. Then send them out further, listen to your neighborhood, or village, then send them out further, listen to the mountains, listen to the horizon, listen to the atmosphere, to the stars... send your ears out to the universe... like a tremendous antenna system picking up very fine signals ... then (this is one way I learned to finish this, but not everyone likes it) ... suddenly shift your focus to your eyes, still closed, behind your warm hands.... suck all that energy from the universe very quickly inward, you might even hear a sucking sound, or see a light flash, or both, or something else ... Observe the darkness for a few moments and open the eyes behind the hands... open the hands, like curtains being drawn ... view the world like you're viewing it for the first time, passive ... guide the hands to the kidneys and hold them there for a good minute or two ... close the lower dantian area, etc You have to do this almost religiously, at least once a day and better two or even three times. Don't think about money, just do the ear massage and enjoy it. It's a very healthy practice regardless of your bank account. Baolin Wu describes something similar in his qigong book (which is excellent, btw), but I learned it originally from one of my qigong teacher trainers. There are many ways to modify it.

Absolutely spot on! :-)