soaring crane

Or all of them!

jeepers ... the thumbnails at the end of the videos are a treasure trove of... um... incredibly weird shit that lives in the oceans.

watch all the way through: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byG5ZZUHMgc

spamalot: googlemail real email: my German internet provider (t-online)

thinking of them as parasitic does them and the universe a huge injustice, imo.

With elderly people, old habits are sometimes quite stubborn, but it's never too late to start abdominal breathing. Chances are, the problem is less the kidneys not grasping the qi and more the lungs aren't able to send it downward because, as JB indicates, they're hitting a stone wall where there should be a diaphragm. One really common and effective way to start somebody on the path of deep breathing (meaning from a deeper center in the body, not necessarily "more"), is to have them lie on their back with a medium-sized book on their belly, right over the navel. The first task is to push the book upward gently, and allow it to fall slowly. This simple exercise in itself automatically bring the mind's focus to the lower regions of the body, and increases body awareness. The next step is to begin gently associating the inhale with the lifting and the exhale with the lowering of the book.

Dun SUN, yes! Lots of it And rainbows when available :-) edit: why did autocorrect default to that?

no one remembers the blue heron, yesterday flying to heaven

what Dawei said is of course fundamentally where it's at. But you can do some specific things: slapping/striking the body. There are many techniques and tools self-massage, ditto the many techniques cold showers hot/cold alternating showers hot sauna dry brushing the entire body eating chili (hot enough to make you sweat i.e. keep the mucous membranes lubricated) drinking enough water during the day barefooting moderate exercise (avoid extremes) qigong/martial arts specifically with the connective tissue/fascia in mind belly breathing; whole body breathing; four or five gates breath good food I do all of these .... and there are probably many other things.

i just want to clarify that I'm not claiming here to be any kind of healer or qigong guru. I just do the most basic things imaginable with the patients -- arm swinging exercises, head-to-toe self-massage, belly breathing, and even a few easy qigong movements. It's simply the realisation that they can do these things, that they can in fact work on their own bodies with their own hands which opens up a world of possibilities for the future and puts the dogma of the past into a new light. Even very basic body awareness in itself can be such a tremendous tool in overcoming difficulties. And these are the things that western medicine either has no time for, or perhaps in a more cynical moment, keeps hidden from patients. I'm thinking of the average orthopedist's waiting room. You'll see a lot of, mostly elderly, people sitting in uncomfortable positions on crappy chairs, for half and hour, or an hour and a half, waiting their turn to go to the exam room to get their cortisone shot and be sent home to wait for the next appointment (a generalization, of course). If the doctors really had the 100% healing of their patients in mind, their waiting rooms would be outfitted with exercise equipment, for example. Or they'd let people wait outside in the fresh air and encourage them to go for a walk in the meantime. Anything other than sitting there, cramped up and stiff, getting sicker and sicker ... But that doesn't mean I'm a militant western medicine hater. It has its successes for sure, and has served me well when necessary, but the allopathic nature of the schooling will always mean it remains strictly symptom-oriented.

How about a game? Try playing the devil's advocate and answering your own question from the viewpoint that you don't agree with.

7 o'clock

may well indeed :-) And you?

I love that (think I posted it a while ago, too) and it inspired one of the quotes in my signature down there vv

it's a compliment in many cultures :-)

superb freshness isn't necessarily Daoist. Soups should be cooked for days. And rice cooked three times And water double-boiled. Btw, hot plain water is a major part of the formula. The first thing to pass the lips after waking should be a glass of it.

CloudHands 133 :-)

:-)

one of my Qigong teachers is up at 3am every morning, starts his days with an hour of standing, and spends his days holding courses in a variety of disciplines, including Pekiti-Kirsia-Kali. He's vegan and doesn't eat anything after 12 noon. I'm not that disciplined! And don't think I ever will be ... but I'm happy with the medium I've struck, and doubly so when I see where most of my friends and family in my age group are now, from the health perspective.

well, to be strictly Daoist, as Gerard says, you have to enter the 5E kitchen. I used to do it but it gets complicated and I find myself thinking too much about food and food preparation. My attitude toward food is like my attitude toward tanking up my car: I want quality, but I don't want to spend a lot of time at the gas station. I have a car to take me places, same reason I have a body. I don't have a car because I enjoy planning my next trip to the petrol station. In fact, I usually stand there looking pissed off while I wait for the nozzle to click. (that comment was inspired by a runner joke: How can you tell a jogger from a runner? At a red light, the jogger does jumping jacks and stretches. The runner just stands there looking pissed off)

well, about that (and resisting the urge to pounce on the typo), I fill in for the qigong instructor at a 'psychosomatic' clinic in the area (will be taking over the position in December, it seems). This is a clinic where people land once the allopathic, university medical doctors have given up on them and decided that their very real physical ailments have psychological causes. Psychosomatic Clinic, it's in the name. I've helped more of those patients start on the path to real healing, self-healing, than any medical professional ever did. And it's soooo simple. All they need is someone to tell them that it can be done, to show them a few techniques, and to help them break out of the passive role, stop playing the victim, and to stop waiting for the next appointment or pill. Of course many of them completely block the lessons with the wall of ignorance that their doctors helped them build. But I give them the information and inspiration, and have to then leave it to them to decide to take control of their fate, or not.

woah! I swear, not that long ago I would have written that kind of thing off as paranoid lunacy, but these days, I'm finding it harder to be skeptical.

well, as a base food. As described, you can bring it along anywhere and drink it in small amounts. It's for warming and beefing up the body's defenses. But you can obviously make soup with it. What I did this afternoon: basically the same ingredients mixed in a pot, then added frozen organic vegetable mix, some tofu cubes that I had browned in a pan with garlic oil, and a smoked salmon steak that I cut up in cubes. Then I poured that soup over some noodles that we cooked the day before yesterday. There ya go. Easy peasy.

66 ^^ (just checked MB's profile --- he's a couple days older than I thought!)

a note about pasta: we've gotten completely away from the standard white/wheat variety and buy only organic spelt (it's easy to get here, has been popular for a long time) and really notice the difference. I notice the difference every time I eat regular pasta, that is. For an actual meal, I started a thread about this a little while ago, and I'll update it soon with a pumpkin soup recipe: http://thetaobums.com/topic/36457-winter-brew;-liquid-power/#entry582920