soundhunter

Yuen Biao, I've heard criticism of the kind of Tai Chi I've been learning from many other practisers, which is why if I'm losing the benefits of the class anyways I wondered if I might as well check out some of the other types, or if there was one particular video of a respected style that could be easy for me to learn from if I already have some base understanding of the moves and what it can feel like. I have loved learning tai chi, even the tai cheese I've been learning so far, it did have great health benefits for me, particularly elongating my spine which had been scrunched before, but I'd love to take it up a notch if there was a way I could do that without access to a class. Lin, I googled what you posted and it sounds good and the youtube videos look beautiful, I'll look more into it, thank you. Mal, I don't think I could've learned tai chi well directly from a video or book without previous experience, unless it was a really good one then maybe. I haven't seen anything that great on youtube yet that is easy to learn from though, maybe I'm just not seeing the good ones. I keep looking, admittedly I haven't looked ~that~ hard yet though, hoping someone will make it easier for me here As for your friend though, I think she'd need a damn good video but I found the intricacies of the moves to be pretty challenging to learn the first year within a class, I'm not sure I could've personally done it without the class, though I was no formally trained dancer.

Any old punk rock fans here? Lux Interior from the Cramps died In his words: Life is short Filled with stuff. R.I.P. Lux I'm listening to their awesome album "Bad Music for Bad People"

That's a very good idea, and I could probably borrow one for free from one of the locals! Duh! Such a simple and good idea, thank you. I was too immersed in disappointment about the class changes to see this option.

This is what has drawn me to taoist philosophy at first, and then further into the spirituality part of things. I am a mother to small children and a frazzled overtired wife too, and getting my emotions and angry outbursts in check is my life's mission these days. I've been having some success too, catching myself in mid anger and laughing at the situation, which I was unable to do without freaking out a bit until recently. Stillness Meditation has helped and I only have very small increments of time in which to do it, reading and listening to Thich Nhat Hanh, reading Eckart Tolle (I don't agree with everything he writes, but his words definitely help me to takes things in stride instead of being so emotionally reactive), Tai Chi and now listening to t that has me so inspired, which Scotty shared in a similar thread. I don't even have to know what he's saying, his eyes, voice and laugh demonstrate to me the way to not take these day to day things so seriously.

Oh my gosh, I love this guy! I can't believe how good I feel listening to him laugh. He seems so, universal too, he reminds me of my crazy old Polish family members, and some of the First Nations elders I've known, he just has a kind of jolly wisdom that I hope to grow into some day when I'm an old fart but hopefully young at heart I totally think you're right, acting like this guy is an excellent way to handle conflict. I'm going to post this link to the other thread where the guy is asking how to deal with conflict.

I'm still figuring this freaky place out. I'm not sure I'm opting for a Taoist path for the same reasons as the vocal majority here, and some of the voices here freak me out, some of them make me uncomfortable, and some of them astound me and blow my mind with their brilliant and beautiful words. I've been a member of other boards for other subjects but none of them have ever featured such diverse characters as this joint. I'm not sure I see rampant know it all-ism, but there are some people who seem to have really strong opinions that I find offensive at times. Considering that diversity thing though, it's inevitable and this place is growing on me despite the posters that get me all riled up and annoyed when I read their discomforting thoughts.

Fascinating reading, fascinating. What was that older couple who were intense energy workers where they unlocked some kind of crazy thing in Egypt and think it gave the woman cancer and there was discussion here about how this kind of stuff can be dangerous, appealing and hard to resist, but not benign? Reading this link reminded me of them and the discussion about them here. Plus some interesting debate on how harmful, or harmless the pursuit of power is (and money, or popularity, or other things similar to power). My guess is that the pursuit of power itself can draw one towards evil, whether one is a Taoist or a Muslim or whatever.

I used to work in music retail, we had to categorize record albums and cds according to popular genres and categories, even though the categories where more often than not, inadequate. I think of the term New Age as being the same thing, a category that is an inadequate label for the huge range of stuffings that go under it.

In this season of my life as a mother to 3 little kids, time to myself is very rare and shortlived, so my meditation sessions are often only a few minutes at a time, multiple times a day. By nighttime I'm too sleepy and don't bother. I do Tai Chi twice a week and also practise it throughout the day around the house. I've been surprised to make some progress and feel some interesting things and gain some insight with such "lightweight" sessions, it's really surprised me how much those little sessions have added depth and wonder to my life.

Well today: 20 minutes of tv full time wireless router for internet, no cell phone Granola with dates, blueberries, organic yogurt, dots of honey lox with capers, red onions, cream cheese on buns raw peppers/carrots/broccoli/peas dipped in hummus apple sauce water with lemon juice black tea 2 coffees with milk and sugar approx 4 hours of sleep (one failed attempt at a nap netted a bonus 15 minutes!) a chicken enchilada ground bison/tomato/mushroom/pepper stew with rice and a mixed greens salad nused the two children in total about 10 times and probably will another 10 times before my next stretch of sleep. Writing, then reading this, I realize it's the lack of sleep that's a big contributor to turning my conversation and practical thinking skills to mush, probably. I spend an average of 3-5 hours a day online, mostly at night when nursing with and laying with our 6 month old in bed, but moments throughout the day as well. I probably should sleep instead of being online, perhaps my information addiction is the source of my blurry offline head as well, however it's only when I type out my words vs speaking them that I'm able to communicate gracefully and adequately to other adults. This here post of mine is the perfect example, writing this all out helped me see it more clearly. The only solution is to cut online time to sleep more, but perhaps this will make a big difference. I think I eat pretty healthy, though I'm open to suggestions. I have alot of fresh kale and parsley in my garden that we eat regularly, and I'm also into wildcrafting, which is the harvesting of wild edible plants, especially during stinging nettle and miners lettuce season but we also eat dandelion greens often and I just started picking chickweed sometimes. We do consume too much sugar many days and I'm trying hard to reduce that. I know I should probably take calcium and D supplements......eh?

This is true Meow (and wow, you have a talent with words!)...there is a gift of bliss and the most tender eye contact ever given from a baby to mother once the mother learns how to be comfortable with nursing. I think we're done having kids, and it's sad for me to know this is probably the last time I will experience this with a new human being. I've been feeling really drained though, that said. I'm nursing two of them, and am with them all the time, the oldest isn't nursing but is an exhausting little hyper person. I'm foggy, unfocused, forgetful, absent minded. At the same time, when I meditate, I'm able to get to a still place quicker than when my mind is sharper, and full of too many thoughts, it's almost a helpful stupidity, helpful when I'm doing tai chi or meditating. So I wondered about the energy I'm putting out there. I think I eat pretty well though I often don't drink enough fluids, it's been a dark grey sky for ages on the northwest coast so it might be some absence of sun. I went to see a tcm guy who was putting me on various herbs but they were really expensive, as in $75 a week and they weren't working so well, I would pay that if they were working really well, but I can't afford to toss money at something that's not working. Maybe I just need to be foggy for a bit, and this is the season for me to be a dimwit. anyhoo, sorry to hijack your thread here, that video prompted me to Here's a question...if women don't lose essential energy to nurse a baby, would men who successfully lactate? Like this guy

sweet! This resembles my practise, as the mother of 3 little ones 5 and under Speaking of which, I'm a newbie and all, and I am totally new to this whole alchemy deal, but I'm curious what the ideas are around nursing, if sexual emissions and menstrual emissions are energy drains, what about breastmilk? Just curious

I'm a woman who went through a number of struggles to become a mother to my three children, related to those struggles I became part of a couple of support groups online for families having problems becoming and or staying pregnant, infertility both male and female etc. Anyways, a herb that is popular with TCM and easily found is Horny Goat Weed which is long known to be helpful for male libido and has helped a few women get pregnant when their husbands previously had low sperm counts. Another excellent herb that is easily found and excellent for libido is Maca though I bought some that was low quality, if you try it do some research to find a good source of it. Maca has also helped some families concieve babies where the male previously had low sperm count and low libido. These two supplements are proven to me personally, because I've seen the results in the form of baby pictures, they definitely helped the fathers become more virile and all.

Thank you for sharing this

This for me, is the highlight of this thread! And Lin's perspective which was thought provoking. The rest of it has me wondering what the heck I'm doing here. Just a newb here and all, but I find this whole pick up artist deal to be disturbing and...creepy. Anyone got a bottle of brain bleach kicking around?

Perhaps they are This is my favorite dumb quote sorta relevant to this: Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing. - Redd Foxx

created? by who?

Nice to meet a linkminded person here Kyle! We live in BC Canada, it's very easy to do the unschooling thing here. I'm part of a few unschooling mailing lists on yahoo, lots of great folks with great conversations. Quite a few participate in these lists with grown kids who turned out just fine, in college, jobs, relationships, and most importantly, free, intact spirits! Do you guys participate in these communities at all? Our kids are young, 5, 2 and 6 months, yours? Have you guys been to any of the unschooling conventions that go in? I hear they are amazing, and that the teenagers are amazing, no rebellion, close to their parents and much more passionate about life than the average sullen, adult resenting teenager.

I think Bum Grasshopper is dead on, I think that humans throughout human existence have been opportunivores, eating what was accessible to them at the time. Inuit people, as mentioned, eat raw meat. So do many other cultures, mmmm, pickled herring, sushi, salt cured pork like proscuito. The taste for cooked meat, that is aquired, but I'm betting that human beings have been eating raw animal products for a very, very long time. We can look at how people ate in older times by looking at what tribal rainsforest people eat, guess what, they eat meat! Lots of it, and little of it cooked. What is abnormal in old human times, is the consumption of grains, this didn't happen until agriculture and stationary societies were created. what do most vegetarians eat an abundance of? Grains. We are an adaptive, opportunistic species and that this is the reason we've adapted to different diets in different climates all around the world, our adaptability is one major characteristic of the human species that sets up apart from most animals. There's a movement of people following what's often called the "caveman diet" which is based on research into human history and what ancient people ate. It was not a vegetarian diet. I know lots of healthy vegetarians, I know lots of healthy meat eaters. Humans can be either.

I could've agreed with this until I had small children. Children inevitably trigger our childhood memories, and trigger behaviors based on the ways that we were treated, which is why most parents are horrified at some point when the worst of their own parents comes out of their mouths. While mindful awareness is a huge part of preventing this from happening, most parents that I know who struggle with this kind of thing and are also practising mindfulness need to work out some of their past so that they recognize who's voice it is that's in their head, particularly when it's not their own. Most parents should do some dealing with their pasts consciously so that they don't do it unconsciously on their children.

I've just started the Ringing Cedars books and while I'm still trying to sort how I feel about them (anyone else here reading them?) the relationship the main character, Anastasia has with plants is wondrous. Especially old Lebanese cedars. Here on the West Coast the native people revered cedar trees and would only harvest fallen ones, or the bark in non destructive ways, killing cedar trees was considered a gross sacriledge. I haven't heard trees or felt them like that, but my favorite meditations are on drops of tree sap sparkling in sunlight, far more colorful and light filled than any diamond, but so very temporary because before long tehy dull to an opaque creamy yellow and sparkle no more. There seems to be no way to capture this glittering rainbow sparkle, it can't be put on a ring, words can't capture it, I doubt a picture or video really could, as soon as one tries to pick it up to examine it it loses the perfect orbness that allows that beautiful sparkling. It can only be enjoyed right there on the tree right there in the moment, and it for whatever reason, captivates me and provides an inspiring focus for me to look at while I still my mind. My oldest daughter gets excited when we're in the woods and she finds a sparkly drop of tree sap now, and always calls me over to look at it with her.

One of the recurring themes in the two books that I mentioned about applying Taoism to parenting is that children are not ours, and to avoid the parenting practises that involve putting our thoughts and views into their heads. So a big part of my parenting practise is to let my children find their own way, when it would be easier most of the time to enforce my ways on them. We are also choosing a form of homeschooling known as unschooling, which is basically child led education though that's a simplified and not completely accurate explanation, however it's based on the idea that we all learn best when we are interested in learning about something, so it's a form of childhood education that minimizes what the above paragraph describes. Interestingly, I know of a couple of other Taoist unschooling mammas, who also practise non-coercive parenting, where they try as hard as they can within the constraints of modern society to not actually force, or make their children do anything. Children are naturally present, naturally in the "now", newborn infants are the wisest sages I've personally ever met, so a big part of my practise is trying as hard as possible to avoid doing what the quoted paragraph describes, which can't be done perfectly, but which is worth striving for to protect the spiritual integrity of my children.

For me, pregnancy, children, they led me to Taoism, the desire to be a better parent, to still the violence and impatience and high strung emotions that curse through my veins after a childhood full of these things. The only way I can see myself changing my reactions is to become still first, if I can't still myself before I react to things I don't see how I'll ever be able to change them. So, this is what I seek, inner stillness, the ability to still myself and I believe that Taoism offers a beautiful language to describe what I'm seeking to accomplish. I discovered my interest in Taoism through a beautiful book called "The Tao of Motherhood" by Vimala McLure. Now some reviewers have mocked the book as not being real Tao and all that strange type of taoist snobbery I seem to encounter while out and about online, but the book really resonated with me, particularly the idea of stillness that I found she very beautifully wrote that made sense to someone nursing, nurturing and struggling with little people. I read this book when I was losing my marbles after the birth of my second child, my first was 3 and having a very hard time adjusting and was acting out almost violently, I suffered much abuse as a child and would react to this violence from my small daughter with pure rage, and i was also crazily sleep deprived and post partum blues had kicked in as well. The ideas of being still, non doing, going with things vs fighting everything, these ideas where balms to my temporary post partum crazies, and in that state of extreme exhaustion and post partum hormone craziness I was actually able to be still for moments in ways I haven't been able to since (though I'm expecting our third child anytime now and I wonder if I'll find it so easy to become still again) Another wonderful parenting book is The Parent's Tao Te Ching by William Martin of StillPoint, are any of you familiar with their Taoism courses btw? anyways, that book is full of wonderful inspiring writings about letting our children be, not getting in their way so to speak, but quietly guiding them and keeping our expectations, and their lives simple. Not that I'm so good at these things, but I do try and for me, parenting and my spirituality are one and the same, my parenting practise IS my spiritual practise. I think my goals, and my path are a bit simplistic compared to many of yours here, so I've read this board for a few months without contributing, this thread is the first to inspire me to say something ~ Rachel

Been reading posts on this board for a couple of months now and finally have found a thread that inspired me to contribute. Many of you seem to be inspired to accomplish great spiritual feats, I'm personally drawn to Taoism because I seek stillness and simplicity after a conflict ridden past. I hope that cultivating stillness will help me to accomplish my biggest challenge, which is to practise peaceful parenting to my young children without losing my temper and getting regularly annoyed and angry, a big challenge for someone who grew up with endless conflict and disfunction. I'm also a big fan of Taosit Tai Chi though I'm currently on a break from it while pregnant. Anyways, there's my intro, not sure how well I'll fit in here or how often I'll post, but thank you for giving me the opportunity to learn more about Taoism and to participate in this community. Kind regards, Rachel