Ryan T.

My experience is that a person should start with what they want their life to be like. You already seem to have a good idea what it is you want to learn and the type of existence you are searching for. Now just work backward from your presupposed end point. Handyman skills=Take some classes at a technical college. Wilderness survival=Start with camping and go from there. Growing your own food=Neighborhood garden might be a good place to try your hand at that. Cooperative societies=Start with natural food coops and other coops that might be available to you. See if you think they actually work and how you can apply that to your larger community. You seem to be asking the questions. The answers are there. But you are the only one who can know if the answers are correct for you. Ultimately you just need to get out and pursue these questions to their end and see if you get the answers you think you want. Good luck!

I guess I don't know if you are talking about those that are close to you that you confide in or coming onto public forums like this one. If you are talking about the latter, you should know that the internet does not necessarily allow for the type of intimacy that is conducive to supportive help with one's problems/life questions. You might find support but you are just as likely to find scorn and taunting. Caveat Emptor! If you are talking about the previous, then you should find other people to talk to who can be more supportive of you as a person. And there is also a HUGE contingency of people in the world(I'm not saying you are one of them) that all they do is complain about things in their lives other than engaging in the act of living. I would say just try to focus on those close to you who care about you. They will give you the balanced opinions that you require. You take your chances with the people of the internet. If you decide to take that chance then you should probably be a little more thick-skinned as it is a gamble as to who will respond. Just like this!

You are enveloped in these waves daily if you are living modern life in the city so tough to get away from this stuff in any meaningful way. Amazon does offer a non-3G version. That's what I purchased. Mine just has WiFi capabilities, I just turn it off when I am not downloading anything. Saves the battery anyway. I would be surprised if you couldn't just turn the 3G off when you are reading. I cannot speak highly enough of the Kindle. If someone loves to read, they should have one.

Most, if not all, threads involve a certain amount of ego on the part of those starting them. So that part of the comment seems both banal and, to some extent, a rib meant to create conflict. As far as the rest of it. You don't know what you are talking about. I have known folks in "The Program" who have gotten and stayed sober with just this kind of spirituality. You will see it phrased often times as "Higher Power" but you will also see it as a "Power greater than ourselves". I would have to think that most "true Taoists" see the Tao as a power greater than themselves. And Tao, from my limited understanding, has very much the same concept, also from my limited understanding, as the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. They are both simple paths. But neither are easy. I personally don't see the need to Tao-ize the Twelve Steps. I think like so many other spiritual systems and ideas the Steps open the door to Tao. But it seems me, at least in the spirit of recovery, an unwise idea to try to cut down other folks attempts to be useful and of service to others.

Wasn't this all covered in last weeks "The Economist"?

But new pathways can be forged. Read "The Brain That Changes Itself" by Norman Doidge, M.D. Very interesting and heartening as it relates to the individual. And the whole idea of multi-tasking has been, of late, proven to be a delusion perpetuated on society. Most studies are showing that people that think they are doing a great job of multitasking are actually less aware, have lower retention rates and make considerably more mistakes in whatever their arena of study is. The modern life concept is something I have been thinking about a fair amount lately. To me it comes down to this: The world at large is wholly about consumption. The design is either for you to consume as much as possible and/or you are a disposable battery for the machine of consumption to be used up and discarded when you are no longer able to produce and/or consume. Our world has been taken over by an extreme form of capitalism thats only desire is to create profit wherever possible no matter the consequences. Modern life, especially of the last 30 years, is mostly a product of this desire for profit. Small enclaves of quiet, stillness and beauty can still be found. But ultimately the machine consumes all, until eventually...it consumes itself.

Seems like a limbic response of some type. A flush of blood to one of your important perception areas when you sense a threat or just have a need for heightened awareness. Just a guess.

But that seems to me where people have it wrong. The real world IS this made up world of economics. Capitalism, post-Feudalism, has been and will continue to be one big shell game/ponzi scheme. It is only when we are now coming so close to the brink of collapse that the veneer of this illusion starts to thin. Quantitative easing is just more fiat currency. Fiat currency has no intrinsic value. All of our money has no intrinsic value. The fact of the matter is that since these systems have been put into place there has never been such a real systemic threat. Think of the U.S. economy over the past 25 years as an economic bubble that is now starting to deflate. Everything the Fed and the U.S. government have been doing the last couple of years is an attempt to stop the bursting of the bubble. Of course with mininal results. I'm just waiting and wondering what the coup de grace will be.

All countries have just as much good and evil within them. North Korea's dark cloud is just one of the more visible currently. Many countries see what life is like like in the United States and see a similar existence to those in North Korea.

Funny but when I read this it made me think of all the people I see everyday walking around the mall I work at. That sure doesn't seem to be the case here in the United States. Unfortunately, I highly doubt it will be until this whole house of cards comes crashing down. It never ceases to amaze me the vast amounts of suffering that the human race is able to create.

I have been feeling the same way for several months now. More and more I find that the world we now live in is nothing but a world of distraction. I struggle with my own goals and practice. Bread and Circus anyone?

There is nothing I write on any forum that I wouldn't actually say to someone face to face. If I start to take anything on any forum personally I know that I need to look at my own state of mind for the answers to my unrest. This is only an environment for an exchange of ideas. Every environment will always have both good and bad ideas.

Doing too much "good" for yourself can sometimes be just as crazy as a lifestyle of doing too much "bad". I might suggest that you relinquish as much of your crazy lifestyle as you can and slowly(gradually) ease into your fasting and new exercises. I think you will find a great deal more success. Don't trade one crazy for another. Good luck.

From what I understand you would be better off going with a corded earbud/earpiece/headset vs. bluetooth. Corded you get the cell signal but not the actual waves. And bluetooth is just another type wave energy. I just try to not make many calls on mine. Plus I never carry it next to my body. Always in my bag or at worst in my hand. Never in my jacket or pocket. In spite of the fact that I love my iPhone. It kind of concerns me the amount of signals, waves and frequencies that we have streaming at and through us these days. We have had nothing like this kind of exposure for our entire history. Only within the last hundred years and increasing exponentially in the last twenty-five. We really have no idea what this stuff is doing to us.

Mind the breath and relax.

You can find "deeper" Tao wherever you are. I would even say going to China, Wudang especially, you might experience less of it. Most of what is left of Taoism in China is a tourist trap. And to teach you certainly do not need a certificate. You need to have the skills. Have you mastered the forms? Weapons? Pushing Hands? Find teachers that have these skills mastered. You will gain mastery of the principles through the mastery of the skills.

1. Work to reduce ALL stress. 2. Start a food journal, include what you eat as well as external things that might affect you internally. 3. Eliminate all known allergen foods(gluten, egg, fish, dairy) 4. Slowly reintroduce foods and see how it goes. You will probably end up finding something that works specific to you and potentially no one else. But those steps should help you at least gain some insight into what makes things better or worse. Good luck!

Nope, never heard of it.

I don't have any suggestions for Russian tea. Never really had any interest. Japanese is actually quite easy. Gyokuro is the top grade of Japanese green available, it is the same grade that is ground up for powder, matcha, for the famous Japanese tea ceremony. Sencha is probably the most popular grade, quite good and very drinkable. Genmaicha is the green tea/toasted rice/sometimes popcorn blend that I have found to be my favorite from Japan. There are other grades but these are probably the most common and most available.

IMO, stick with Chinese or Taiwanese teas to start. Get a solid green like a medium-expensive Dragonwell. Find a good semi-fermented tea, my favorite is a Taiwanese Jade Pearl Oolong(Tung Ting Style). Then you just need to pick a black. Keemun or Yunnan are two of the best and most available. I would steer clear of the Pu-Erhs to begin with as they can be a bit of an acquired taste. Starting with those three will give you a good cross-section of what camilla sinensis has to offer both flavor-wise and energetically. And all are quite accessible. Most tea purveyors will give you the brewing instructions, make sure you follow them. Especially on green teas. Certain teas can be quite susceptible to over-steeping. The correct temperature water for that specific leaf and the amount of time the leaves need in the water are crucial to whether or not it will be a good cup/pot.

Your body is addicted to these substances currently. One of the more difficult ways to overcome this type of addiction, as you have found, is through complete abstinence. Allow yourself other sugars/caffeine in other forms and in lesser concentrations. For sugar, try better forms of grain, if you must, such as oatmeal or other less processed cereals. Or fruits. Even better would be for you to start your day with more protein to get yourself off of the sugar roller-coaster that you are currently on. Sausages(organic meats or locally produced free-range meats) and steamed veggies will sustain you much better throughout the day. For caffeine, start with black tea with honey. Then later remove the honey. Then switch to green tea. Ultimately go to your lemon-water thing, although one of the greatest pleasures in life is high-quality teas. Also, dedicate yourself to a good exercise program. Your body is smarter than you. It will crave higher quality inputs such as clean fruits, veggies and meats(if your belief system allows) when you put it into a mode of higher efficiency. It will tend to reject junk in that mode as well. I would also say that your schedule is your schedule. You own it! You will have to take a little more time to do some food prep instead of just stopping at the convenience store on the way to class or the job or whatever. Good luck!

I totally agree. But I see egg consumption as totally natural. If humans do anything really well it is perverting nature. Sustainable egg production: free-range, local, organic = mostly as it should be. System conventional egg production: chemical-laden, seeped in pain and torture, highly disease-susceptible = crime against nature. Seems like you want to throw the baby out with the bath water.

A bit flawed considering many of the U.S. wars have been nothing more than maintaining a footprint in oil regions and yet the price of oil has consistently increased from all oil producing countries. So you don't chalk any of Canada's seeming vitality up to the fact that the U.S. has been the main player on the global stage as far as military action is concerned? You don't think they have reaped any benefit from that? Again just to reiterate, I think much of the United States foreign policy has been catastrophically flawed for decades. But to think that countries like Canada, France or the United Kingdom have not shared in the profits of those policies, with little or none of the costs, seems incorrect.

Many of the wars/conflicts that the U.S. have been involved in are related more to oil and control of resources. Are you saying that Canada's economic "independence" has not been helped through those conflicts?

I agree that the United States foreign policy/military policy has perpetuated and continues to perpetuate global problems into the future. But do you really think Canada would or could be as neutral if it wasn't because of the power that the U.S. yields across the globe? Again I agree with the overall sentiment but much of Canada's security has come on the coattails of the United States.