Trunk

I sometimes play a little (really very little) harmonica. Sometimes I run to the park close to my house, then alternately do qigong and play harp. Anyway, I was emotionally out of sorts earlier this afternoon and picked it up... the breath control really calmed me down. Obviously, joyful to play also. I wonder if any of you have taken up harmonica (or any other breath related instruments) and have enjoyed the internal arts breath control benefits? (need I say that's not me in the vid? lol)

unpinning this thread..

Enjoying all the posts. This guy basically started a youtube harmonica movement back in 2007... (similar things have happened, of course w/ guitar & ukelele and probably every other subject, lol)

I think step 1 was, "admitting you're a TTBs addict", lol Thank you for your most excellent help!

I just posted TheTaoBums' Three Foundations: Eclectic, Egalitarian, Civil (pinned & locked in the Office). This is some writing that I've been working on in concert with Viator and Sean. It is a background document that states the basic premises of TheTaoBums discussion forum... that provide the basic philosophical structure of TTBs as well as the basis for most of the rules. - Trunk

I'm working on that very idea. I'll be producing a few documents to facilitate that process. ... several for free, several at minimal cost, through John Dao Productions. Also, there are some ideas in the background that Sean has voiced, possibilities based on the 'like' button ... that allow people to see the posts w/ the most 'likes' ... within a thread, or over a period of time (week, month, etc). Ways to efficiently read for quality, based on members' assessment of quality. Not sure if / when it will happen ... but there are ideas in that general direction. We know the downsides of TTBs current format and are exploring ways to remedy.

I want to echo what Zerostao just said. Moderators are also members and if they insult, etc, feel free to report them! They are subject to the same ToS as everyone else.

p.s. The complementary clickable text is at the bottom left of the page: "Mark Community Read", which you can use to mark all threads as 'read' by you, after you've selected & read those of the "View New Content" that you want to. So, upper right corner and lower left corner ... what could be more obvious???

An aside... Brian, I'm getting a kick out of your avatar & name reference every time I see it.

As I always say, and it's worth repeating imo, the "ignore" feature is *really* helpful for diminishing static between members and tends to be under-utilized, imo. Thanks, everyone, for your input. It helps.

Thanks! Not sure if that's an intended metaphor, but it's a good one. Various things get experimented with, often there's room for incremental adjustments depending on how things go. Other things need to be clarified in stone and that document was some chisel work. I'm not sure where things currently are with that implementation.. ? I think it's an issue worth discussing. Right now I am temp-admining, while Viator is on vacation. The way we'd talked, we made a casual assumption that things were steady, and that probably I'd need to do nothing (which was fine by me). (TTBs' 3F rules were pre-agreed upon.) It's been somewhat more active than that (things happen, change happens, y' can't stop it, lol), but I'm basically just maintaining a steady ship right now. My plan is: No changes to staff, rules, structure while Viator is away, unless his vacation goes considerably longer than we'd originally thought. .. of course we here are continuing to talk about and explore ideas, continuing to interact and evolve as a community, and that is welcome, progressive and helpful.

<3 that quote. imo the "ignore" function is way under-utilized.

More important than changing your current pw is to do not click-confirm any password-change-confirmation e-mails that you did not initiate.

Two basic reasons: 1. As part of TTBs Foundation principles, An underlying foundation of an open forum is that members get to speak, and that their communication is treated (to a very far extent) "as their's". Members get, to a large extent, control over their own communication. Without that, a forum couldn't exist. Now, that's not an absolute law... when it comes down to it, the board owner could throw a switch and this whole board could go *poof*. There are limits, we do delete some extreme things. If we deleted more frequently, people would (rightly) rebel; it'd be chaos and destroy the fundamental of TTBs being "a place to speak". 2. Historical, we'd lose the ability to review what we'd deleted.

Just to emphasize that part of it: Someone has tried (unsuccessfully) to hack TTBs and sent false password reset e-mails to a number of members. If you got a pw reset e-mail that was not initiated by you then do not click the link in the e-mail that confirms the password change. Just one of those little TTBs adventures, Trunk

Both TTB's search and the member-history-of-posts functions are lacking. They don't show everything, not by a long shot... going back they just sorta cut off. Sorry, it's just what we have for now. - Trunk

One of the more useful tactics is to plunge higher energies (heart & above) down into the dense jing.

Correct, inviting discussion. Though the nature of this document is "the non-negotiables". The basic premises are not up for a vote, but they are up for discussion, clarification, exploring permutations. Just to state that paragraph in its entirety: That paragraph was deliberately left broad and undefined. Partly because this is a "bare bones" document (more detailed rules are elsewhere) but more importantly in that paragraph, the fact that we can't anticipate everything. As a mod / admin, it's sort of a seasonal exclamation to say to yourself, "wow, I never saw that coming, never imagined this". Trouble comes in unexpected shapes, weights and angles. That paragraph means that the admin has broad power to deal with whatever comes up, to protect the board, the staff, to some extent the members .. within the parameters of this e-community. That paragraph is intended to deal with relatively extreme and unusual situations; the mods & stewards have plenty of position (and more detailed guidelines) to work with the usual ruckous. Both of those angles have been considered and are possible causes for action. Unlikely that there will be an on-going tally beyond the conversations that we already have in the mod dungeon, where we already keep track of things. Thank you for sparking conversation in this thread. - Trunk

Hey. How's about a thread about "ming men"? Ming men is mentioned all over the place as being important; we've never really talked about it. Any quotes you have about ming men? Any practices you do to get the ming men mojo happenin'?, or none at all? What's you're experience of ming men?: nothin'?, just wooshin' through that train station?, or something particular happenin there? Wtf!, How do you locate it? What's ming men? ~ edit ~ If I might add, to those who are contributing, what specifically does it feel like for you? (... there are methods, and there are results.)

One of my favorite threads, fun and care free.

Open & honest: A friend of mine makes a modest commission from the sale of Rooibos tea. Still, I'm being honest about my experience w/ it; I wouldn't be posting if I wasn't impressed. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In the couple of years since this thread started, I've been drinking tea daily (still love my 2 qt carafe), trying different teas, and Rooibos (African Red Tea) has become my default tea... I'd have to say, my favorite by a margin. Reasons: 1. It is not astringent (drying). On the contrary, I find it to be somewhat moistening. Most teas are astringent to some degree and so are contrary to one of the reasons I drink tea: to hydrate. 2. It is healing, in ways that I don't fully understand. Part of it, according to a doctor friend of mine, is that it prompts blood circulation. When I first started drinking it I had the distinct sensation that a stuck place within me unstuck. Link to the wikipedia entry on Rooibos w/ some of the healing details. 3. Of course, it tastes good. Upon trying it, I was impressed enough that I bought 1 pound of bulk Rooibos from OrganicRooibosTea.com and it is lasting me months and months. Enter discount code of "DESTINY" (no quotes, all caps) at check-out for %10 off. Get it where ever you want; I'd still recommend it. - Trunk p.s. I still think pu-erh is exceptional, and a number of other greens, oolongs, that I enjoy and go to occasionally.

The psychological aspect is what strikes me about the situation. Here is a guy (maybe gay or bisexual in the first place) in a nearly all-male institution (the military) and he summoned up tremendous courage to do the right thing and the legal thing (by international law). What was the response by the males (military)? Try and convict him and put him in jail for decades. Seems not surprising to me that he would, as a result, want nothing to do with maleness. We are looking at profound trauma done to an individual by an overwhelming group.

Family and local culture is more important than race. Which womb. What cultural resources are available. Timing as to when / where high level teachers will be available. It's a pretty high skill level to be able to choose. (MG has talked about this topic occasionally.) For most of us we are carried along by our own momentums. Practicing consistently is important: produces karmas that bring you back to practice. Also blending your mindstream deeply with heavenly lineage is *really* important .. has deeply beneficial results in life and in between lives.

I don't know if these are feasible, or even good ideas, but they are floating through my head right now... - a section for diet / cooking / supplements - a section for the arts p.s. There are a lot of old threads on juicing, blending, mineral supplements, raw food, etc. Threads on the arts are on the rise, but largely undeveloped, imho. Anyway, could be that it's not the right thing for specialty sections re: those on TTBs, but thought I'd mention.

Mark Griffin gives several excellent lectures on "so ham". I don't always connect with the theory presented at HL, but I've found "so ham" and the explainations about what it is, to be invaluable. I've come to relate to "om" as sort of a concatenation of "so ham" and it has changed "om" from, "ok, I'm supposed to get something out of this? right?, but what? just resonance?" to an incredibly useful tool that I can use with precision and fluency to "do the right things" (as Spike Lee or Winnie the Pooh might say).