mbanu

Talk to Plato.

Processed grains are less nourishing, but easier to digest. This was the original reason for why people bothered processing grains to begin with. The big problem with processed grains nowadays tend to be that many are not only processed to remove the fiber, but are also chemically treated and mixed with additives.

People who sleep less than they need to either stay up less (ie, take frequent naps instead of staying up long and sleeping long), thus always preventing themselves from "running on empty" or draw upon their jing reserves, thus accelerating the process of depletion. People who force themselves to sleep through drugs and such when no further sleep is beneficial end up waking feeling no more refreshed, anymore than trying to put an extra gallon in your full gastank will give you more miles. Unless you are privy to alchemical secrets, there is no way to naturally restore spent pre-natal jing. "Imagine you were only able to sleep 5 hours and woke up feeling absolutely energized, filled with a passion for life and bursting energy for the rest of your day." In TCM, this is called heart yin deficiency.

The amount of sleep you need is directly proportional to the amount of prenatal jing one has. This is why babies can sleep as much as 18 hours a day, while the elderly require less and less sleep. A half-assed anology is that of a gas tank. The bigger the gas tank, the longer it takes to fill, the smaller the gas tank, the shorter it takes to fill.

I'm around. I just don't have as much to say nowadays.

The idea that different emotions come from different organs is slightly incorrect, although as a practical matter it only comes up once in a while; all emotions stem from the heart, and are simply reflected in the various organs, much like the light of the sun is reflected in the moon.

If you follow elemental archetypes, those 6 points do a very good job of describing a Water-type person.

If you were using blood instead of ricewater, and were looking for power instead of merit, you'd be practicing a branch of Daoist sorcery. Genuinely interacting with the spirit world in any of its manifestations opens up a can of worms, whether it be aligning yourself with a diety, or trying to turn tricks with a succubus, or just feeding the hungry ghosts a bit of ricewater. Granted, the last one isn't so bad really, but it's best to think twice before taking such things lightly.

Wiki gone (or so it seems... anyone know what happened to FireWater over on seedwiki???), HT archives gone... (even the zip files of the first couple years of messages) looks like we're back at ground zero, eh? ...clearly these people have much deeper things the wish to ask, but haven't spent enough time walking the talk to even know what they are, let alone phrase them. So, they half-ass it around looking to start on-line relationships with other numb-nutz who have less experience than they do. On the other hand... We have those who have gotten a little deeper and see how the problem is in all of it's ugly glory. They KNOW what the question is, but don't have the courage to say it. The question is: "PLEASE HELP ME WITH THIS FUCKING MESS!!!"

Well, before the HT archives burned, a few of us were attempting to figure that out by cataloging the 5+ years of posts by former and current practicioners. As to worth, that depends on the circumstances. A fire extinguisher is quite worthwhile when your house is burning down, but is useless in the middle of the ocean. As to safety, that's taking the slow approach. That requires patience. I'd recommend the man immortal path. As to really delivered, well that stuff is riskier. Maybe tell him about dealing with kuei, sexual vampirism, martial yoga, and all that other esoteric, dangerous, and vaguely unhealthy and/or unethical stuff. As to really lead to freedom, well he could take the Yin path of becoming a leper or the Yang path of becoming an immortal. But probably wouldn't tell him anything, until you knew for sure he'd really fucked himself and had no other alternatives that lead towards him ever leading a satisfying life.

Sounds like a plan.

I'm at USC.

moved here a couple months ago.