宁

Ken, he was the first loud voice to say this to the West, that traditional dao does exist, and it looks mighty different from what we knew.. This information alone was priceless, to me, and am sure to many others. I don't know what he writes about now, I only meant what I wrote.

MPG, you should consider that your purpose (which i think is kinda sad...) MAYBE due to an energetic imbalance. As such, you should work for a virtual Purpose B, in case you won't have the first one to hold on to But any rate, one thing I've learned is that you DON'T come into training with expectations and plans of your own, you do it just because you do it, you like doing it. It seems to be the crux of it! All things considered, i agree with Ken regarding this... you should start right where you are, in time i learned not to trust 'practice' plans that are made for 'tomorrow'. Tomorrow belongs to nobody Edit: Since we're at Verdesi... We should 'render unto the Caesar what belongs to Caesar. He's writing of traditional daoism inspired many to search for the authentical, personally I am grateful for this. Like yourself, it was then that I made my commitment to learn Chinese, and [maybe someday] [real working] traditional practice. I hope I'm halfway there!

I've got some piece of news to you, manitou: WE're not Taoists or Daoists EITHER! Were Tao-bums. Tao-bummers. Wannabes. There may not be any remarkable achievements, yet there are no strings attached either, no obligations, a whole lot of freedom & freestyling..! It would be a waste to explore all that freedom alone! That's why we meet here

I think Stig's initiative is more about honesty than anything else. And as such am sure he will agree with you on more than one points that you made. The main idea seems to be, not rushing into attaching tags...

IMO, the importance of the -ist, and -ism is as follows: - it's as important as describing yourself as a engineer or a lawyer or whatever. - what gives you competence in a specific field - which in turn makes your opinions more valid in that specific field There is no shame to be less than a specialist, if you are happy living as a sympathizer, why not. Why not admitting that we only dabble these issues. Why returning to the old new age rethoric, of all is one and one is all. Obviously this is not the case - if it would be, this Universe wouldn't be that diverse, we'd still be a uniform mass of pudding floating into nothingness. We are individuals! And as such, we have features, which grow and develop thru work over long periods of time (gongfu). This is not to say that I agree with the age-old pointless battles between scholars. There is a measure to everything

Btw, how would you justify the 3000 clams? How about 2000? 1000? Mmm??

If i would make a business out of it, i wouldn't put much in a book of sorts, lest it would spoil my darn steady seminar income!! So do not trust a hope

That was kinda great Otis! Great wording too!

Synchronicity or not, I'm just reading Red Sorghum by Mo Yan, about the atrocities of Japanese soldiers in the sino-japanese war... Blood curdling to say the least. There is alot of publicity about the Holocaust, we tend to forget what happened in China - which was much-much worse! That said, nobody deserves to suffer, for any cause whatsoever!

Marbles, what is Qi to you, as a daoist philosopher?

I'm not sure how to put this, Exorcist, you have given me quite a couple of wonderful insights over the years. However I still take allegations like the ones in your post above with a serious spoon of salt. You are still elusive regarding your own training and won't back up your views with experiences that you had or witnessed. I am sorry my friend, your efforts however appreciated, are not personalized enough to make a difference in this vast arena of air-heads (myself included ) I still hope you should change your mind someday, and [really] share.

Great thread! I think it's becoming harder and harder to work in the field of 'social' service, even more so if you are paid for it. You say it started with television, I say it largely evolved with supermarkets!

Garlic!!! Tons of it!

Becoming an immortal?? I guess the first step would be finding the most expensive Qigong seminar!!!

Could someone give this gentleman a fine cuban cigar? He is right on the money

That's what I also thought, Neiye. There are many more on youtube... @Craig, welcome! L1

edit: change of heart

I think it would better serve your purposes if you guys would share something significant about the teachings, without having to resort to a guru worship type of talk that looks very suspicious, in the eyes of a westerner, at least... Something has to be said, when you try to present someone, and if people don't see anything constructive, discussions like this one will be a normal occurence. So don't blame others for it...

We ALL spend, Nature comes to collect. Relentless.

Yin nurtures Yang Yang nurtures Yin Usually weak Yang has it's roots in childhood, the father not being there as a male model, or mother being a castrating type. The situation with most of today's males is that their Yang is weak, and they seek a strong Yin. Also many of the women have weak Yin. The situation is generally due to the labor hours that the parents have to take in order to provide for their children. Women with weak Yin appear Yang/brutal to men with weak Yang, yet they are still attracted by them, compulsory. At the beginning the relationship may be a bit of a drama, because the male is oversensitive and the female is not so. Then he has two basic options: Option no 1: If he chickens out and runs away, he will remain a weak Yang. Option no 2: If he gathers his spirit, and takes responsability for the relationship, gradually they will come to a ballance first, and in time his Yang will become strong, and her weak Yin will gradually be replaced by real and sensuous feminity. These options work very well with the female counterpart also. I see many of these situations in my life everyday, WOMEN as well as MEN do suffer from lack of their dominant quality, Yin, and Yang respectively. It's a major problem! Unfortunately it's easier for people that don't have this problem to understand the above. Thank you for your time! L1

That's truth for you, men fearing women. I've been around girls long enough to know, that if a girl is blind enough to get laid with one of these mofo's, she will probably ditch him at the next corner... Try to put yourself in a girl's shoes, and imagine looking up to a looser like dat for a secure future and to be the father of her children. The only constant companions those guys deserve is the left and right palm of their hands If they can't respect their partner in life, that kind of relation lacks the evolution aspect, and I'm not interested in that as a model. And... talking shit about ladies is not only a male problem. Ladies also talk shit about men...alot. Whenever I see that, I know I'm not dealing with happy folks with merry relationships