Trunk

A few things... A SHIFT in MODERATION APPROACH (Mods just a little, Admin more) I've come to the realization that occasionally more aggressive moderation is necessary in order to maintain a more friendly board atmosphere. This forum started with just a few people who already e-knew each other... At that point, there was *no* moderation, none really necessary and it was just really wide open. And I think that staff, at all levels... well, we've just been a very open, kind, forgiving sort and you'd just about have to burn the place down (which has happened a few times) before you'd get suspended/banned (and often times, even at those extremes, that wouldn't even happen, lol). That approach just doesn't work with a forum this size; as it's grown it's become more chaotic... the more aggressive elements take root and the kinder souls stop posting, leave, or never join at all. So, solutions. Basically the moderators will be doing mostly the same job they always have been, with some minor encouragement to occasionally (as appropriate to the situation) be more aggressive with warnings, suspensions, bans. I've emphasized with moderators to "do what you think is right given the situation". Of course moderators will still be following rules and principles foundational to TTBs, but there's also an acknowledgement that the mod situations vary endlessly so they also need to be able to apply their own judgement within the rules to those unique situations. Realize that each moderator is different (we're human, y'know)... though we hope for some broad consistency, we *never* promise. These are all unique human interaction situations and we're all making calls as best we can. Admins do our best to choose *kind* discerning moderators: there's no attempt to change moderators into, ... I dunno, ... something they are not. We've also implemented "immediate temporary suspensions". Sometimes, when a mod situation is reported, members will be suspended immediately (temporarily). It takes time to discuss and sort out a mod situation and this allows mods to stop the chaos while they sort things out, then apply more resolute action after a decision is reached. I guess the main change is with me, and with how I see the role of admin. I'm taking a stronger role to sometimes employ quick-to-ban action, at admins prerogative. My view is that there are often just a few people who are basically too aggressive such that the safe space to discuss the delicate issue of one's spirituality is lost. Some times those people have been allowed to stay on the board for just way too long. Other times a member will show up and it's immediately clear that they're just here to cause trouble, not contribute quality, and I intend to take more immediate action to "nip in the bud" those situations (rather than let it go on endless months to maybe eventual longer suspensions, maybe ban - or maybe never ban, lol). Those situations are what I want to remedy; that's the safer space I want to foster... even though I know it's not entirely possible on an open internet forum, and still I want to leave room for a variety of people and for lively debate... but I feel that, just sometimes, with 1 or 2 or 3 people gone, the whole atmosphere changes. So, as admin, I'm more apt to sometimes jump in and take those actions than I have been before. This is a process that I'm continuing to navigate, issues I'm sorting out. It's been a long road. OTHER BUSINESS Zanshin is moving from moderator back to steward of the Healing Circle. Thank you! for your help, Zanshin! Yascra has joined as an additional Lobby steward. (Chang has been on his own there and it's one of the busier steward positions.) Welcome, Yascra! We have a new I Ching section under Taoist Discussion. Why-oh-why didn't we have that from the beginning??!!!? Well, it's here now. Thank you, everyone, for your patience... and for your quality contributions to this discussion forum. - Trunk

~~~~~~~~~ Well, at your request you got 1/2 of it: banned. ~~~~~~~~~

Epic!

I think important to repeat what I just mentioned in another thread: How things actually progress, we'll have to see.

Well, many of the things you list are typical of a cult, and I'm not advocating joining the Krsna movement, but just to mention a few good parts from my pt of view... There's a major Krsna temple in Culver City and their restaraunt, "Govinda's", serves *excellent* food; I often go there when I'm in that part of town. I've also read some sections of the Baghavad Gita and it seems to me a spiritual classic. The scene where Arjuna drives his chariot out to the middle of the battlefield, sees friends and relatives on both sides, and throws down his weapons ... and then dialogs with his charioteer (Krsna)... is a very moving metaphor for life. Also the central of "live life while keeping your consciousness focused on God (or an enlightened intermediary)" is central to many religions. I've been to a few chants at the Krsna temple and the vibe is a lot more pleasant and refined than around town generally. So, all that Would I join the community, follow all their rules, lock stock & barrel, the whole schmeer? No. Is approaching people at airports with the Gita in hand silly? Yup. - Trunk

You're right. We're *supposed* to post in the moderation logs section already... but sometimes we (including me personally, plus I am responsible for directing the team, so twice me, lol)... Sometimes after: getting the mod report, discussing it, coming to a decision, posting publicly in-thread, posting in the appropriate spots in the (private) moderator dungeon ... sometimes after all that I've gone, "ppffftt, I'm tired, gonna do other things in my life", lol. But, yup, we should be doing that already and your comment is a good reminder to be better at it.

Not a bad analogy. p.s. Even some things that haven't been overtly against the rules (i.e., overly sexy gifs) might be simply hidden (maybe a little stricter in the office).

lol, got me too, lol

Zerostao has served time as moderator beyond the call of duty and fishing season recently started , so he's rotating out of moderating. Thank you!, Zerostao, for all your help! TheLerner has offered to help moderating, so he has started on the team. Let the punishment begin! Welcome! - Trunk p.s. Always looking for new mods for the pool...

~~~ admin statement ~~~ Icedude has been banned. - Trunk p.s. Original post hidden. ~~~ /admin out ~~~

~~~ admin statement ~~~ After reading TheExaltedRonin's thread TBH, this site is quite useless in taoist forms, and various of his posts elsewhere, my comment is this: Decide to contribute positive quality to this forum or move on to elsewhere. That's my single warning in this matter. I don't have patience for further. (And, this is independent and in addition to whatever the mod team decides to do.) I'm moving to more of a general position of policy to more efficiently clear out those who post negatively in this forum, to make a safer kinder space for those that want to share in an open eclectic atmosphere. - Trunk ~~~ /admin out ~~~

1. Healing Tao cautions. (TTBs thread accessible to members only) 2. Essential reading external link: (available to anyone on the www) Essays/posts by 5 different Healing Tao instructors cautioning about the "Healing Love" and "Iron Shirt 1: Packing Breathing" practices within that system.

This site started with a small group of guys (including me) that migrated from another forum. Just a few of us; we all knew each other. There was no moderation, none necessary. A long arc from there to where we are now... though the essential premise has stayed the same, much has changed. At an admin level, we've been considering the stressors on the model of TTBs and the edges of what might be possible. What, if anything, might come of these thoughts, I don't know yet. - Trunk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLZl6R7JGCc

A fundamental cultural deficit (contrast the image below) that I think most members of TTBs are dealing with. I think it's super important that members find ways to connect to like-minded (or, rather, "like practicing") friends to hang out with, and train with casually, locally. It's a topic that needs to be kept alive here.

~~~ admin statement ~~~ Banned Thunder_Gooch. ~~~ /out ~~~ ~ edit ~ I'm quoting the ban post from the other thread below, as it was in a private discussion section and so perhaps not available for TG to read from banned status: I don't have to make up a new rule. This rule (at the bottom of TTBs 3 Foundations document) was already written as a catch-all for unforeseen situations (as they often come up, we've found that we can't pre-imagine everything): Thank you for the heads-up that trouble is on the way; I'll take the opportunity to avert it. What TG is proposing is harassment of the community and wasting of staff resources. I usually would give zero official concern to what people say on other forums and I'm not making this any kind of general rule, but in this specific case I take exception. Invitation accepted: Thunder_Gooch is banned. Listen people: If you can't gracefully roll with a mere two weeks away from an internet forum... well, I don't know what. Go out and get some sunshine more often. - Trunk p.s. Part of this is the repeated circumvention of suspension by posting through other members. ~~~ /admin out ~~~

Appreciated, particularly the latter statement. The moderation team (myself included) make rulings on how things look at the time, and that doesn't always match how the post/s was actually intended. That's difficult territory to navigate. We don't always garuntee (sp?) that our rulings are always precisely just: we do our best and call them as we see them, like referees in any sport. And, really, members should take it like a referee call: there's a little room for debate sometimes, but not much. If people got into a huge debate every time there was a minor penalty call... well, it's just not how things roll along. There were other post/s involved in this decision and, honestly I'm in a rush today and don't have time/energy to post an exhaustive description. The team went over this (as with most rulings) more extensively than members might imagine from the outside and I'm not willing to spend exhaustive staff energy over a small thing like this. (I've become more and more protective of *volunteer* staff energy, want to keep things efficient.. I've not always been good at that.) I don't consider two weeks off from a discussion forum to be any where near any kind of harsh sentence (often I think of it as an opportunity to take a small vacation, sunshine, fresh air etc). - Trunk

Listen to this spoken while reading (mp3). (rec'd open as new window / tab.) The quote above (posted with permission) is an excerpt from the November 2009 Hard Light Intensive, titled Form and Consiousness. One of the key points during this talk was a penetrating look into the inner mechanics of SoHam. Mark continues to peel back layer after layer to help us understand this great mystery, and this talk opens up new areas for our use in awakening. 79 minutes - digital download or CD - or 16 page transcript. Hard Light Center of Awakening

I find the testimonial videos to be *very* convincing. There are *many* of them, people are obviously sincere and having strong positive results from G.Clyman's treatments. I have difficulty seeing how anyone could watch all those videos and not see that *some*thing was definitely going on. G.Clyman's personality .. "loudness" I find to be just an example of the common fact that all sorts of personalities become teachers, develop abilities, etc, "pobody's nerfect".. at least Gary's idiosynchrosies are right up front!, lol Good for him! If I was closer to Chicago, I'd seriously consider getting a treatment from him. p.s. Though as far as statements like "most effective in the world / u.s. / etc", I think those sorts of statements are inherently unsubstantiated... You'd have to visit *every* chi kung master, spiritual teacher, etc in a nation or the world AND have the capability of deeply & accurately assessing each of them to credibly make that statement: it's just impossible for any one person to do. ime, there are various mostly-hidden teachers who are *very* high level in various low key places. ... but clearly, imo, Gary has developed something quite strongly.

I've been working on combining mantra with LDT breathing and "so ham" seems to work most simply. "So" corresponds to inhale and (more esoterically) to opening sushumna to receiving and then "hammmm" corresponds to exhale (and resonating sushumna)... the whole thing kind of went from LDT breathing to sushumna to a version of white skeleton meditation. (spiraling thrown in there) Though I know that "so ham" is a classic mantra, I still think of Mark Griffin of HardLight.org when I use it, as I learned it from him and I found his talks on it to be... very deep, clear, and practically helpful. Anyway, where I started with it this time was "what mantra could be used in conjunction with lower dan tien breathing?" .. and I'd be curious to hear if any of you use "so ham" like that, or any other mantra? p.s. It's funny how LDT breathing keeps changing, integrating... I've kind of had the attitude that it was just a simple static "thing" to learn ... and it just keeps transforming to include more, deeper... in a way it makes me feel kind of stupid, "haven't I got it yet???" and yet that's the way of it, I guess, that these practices that rest on deep fundamentals just keep going deeper deeper including more more.

Korean ginseng is too hot for me... I'm actually drinking some tea w/ dong kuai in it right now. When I want the bone broth cubes to be a little more yang and circulating, I include some ox tail along w/ the beef short ribs. Once frozen into cubes, I dump them into a zip lock bag, labeled with kind/s of bones used, dated, back into the freezer. Super convenient, never goes bad. ~ later ~ in line with the topic... I would suggest that, for someone w/ awakened K, that any of the hotter ginsengs are probably inappropriate... (I helped out a little in a couple of different herb stores in the LA area in the mid 90's) ... K is already too yang, which is a big part of the problem. Preserving yin (in a balanced way) is important in that situation. Along w/ gradually opening all of the channels, and learning the deeper teachings about how K refines into the potent points along sushumna. Lots and *lots* of people have gotten K awakening in the last several decades, but it's still pretty difficult to find the right kind of help, methods, etc for after it's been awakened. It's kind of like pushing someone off a cliff and then yelling, "now learn to fly" ... there's generally no responsible preparation, etc etc (I could rant on n' on)... and a lot of the teachings that are advertised as helpful are not (often even worse than no help)... it's really a pathetic and tragic situation. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I've found Sifu Matsuo's (Dragon Gate Sanctuary) teachings to be the best, by far, that I've come across for prep and post K, fine also w/ no K. His presented methods "put the body together" in a very healthy way, aligned with deep principles.

lol, funny ... I've been drinking it all this time and am having trouble finding the words to describe it's taste!, lol It's has a taste, but it's not really strong tasting in any direction ... kinda tastes "like a moderate tea", lol. OrganicRooibosTea.com Discount code of "DESTINY" (no quotes, all caps) at check-out for %10 off.

Not me, I've learned to stay away from crazy.

I don't think there's any quick fix, just the long gradual of... - eating nourishing (cause K tends to burn you out), maybe some tonic herbs for same reason - bone broth (simmered for at least 6 hours) draws energy inward, grounds, nourishes bones... I freeze bone broth in ice trays, "bone broth cubes" and add 1-3 to soup occasionally... this is a really good trick, and cheap (I get beef short ribs for free at the local organic butcher) - continue to open the channels in a balanced way, self-acupressure as a long term hobby is a good thing *If* you can find a *really* good acupuncturist / herbalist, that can really help.

*bump* re-ordering Rooibos tea. the 1 pound lasted me about a year, still diggin' it.