thelerner

There is the low lying fruit; not taking offense when no offense is intended. A little higher is not taking intended slights personally. Then there's being outright insulted and realizing, it don't mean nothing. Morihei Ueshiba quoted above created an art where at the higher levels you receive an attack without hurting the attacker. In one book he's asked 'What is the relationship between defender and attacker?', he replied 'It is as parent to child'. Pretty high level stuff that needs great equanimity, strength and skill to achieve. Part of the personal art of peace is valuing your peace as so important that you don't give it away for trivialities. There's a cartoons showing someone frantically typing away on there computer, the moon in the window shows its late out. The caption is 'Someone on the Internet is wrong and needs my correction'. The best rule for peace on forums is state your peace/piece then walk away. Your body of writing is your reputation, not what others say. Write your truth and generally don't get tangled up, especially once an argument has circled around, both sides are hardened and things are getting personal. Walk away, you will not win; you're feeding the ego and giving away your peace.

Grease is the Word Welcome

What kind of immortality is Swami Paramananda talking about? In Taoism there's are different kinds of immortality. Also is he pointing to the world as Mara? Or is his meaning elsewhere?

hmm, so you're staggering the inhales. First one fast, second one concentrating on depth and fullness, then repeat. Interesting. A variation I was working on was a slight hold at the end of inhalation. Not long, just keeping the fullness for a half second or so. Giving my body a chance to absorb all that O2. Don't know if it really helps, but an interesting change up to try.

I liked the movie Passengers. A well done, low action, romantic sci fi flic. It came and went quickly. It involved members waking up early on a 90 year trip to visit another inhabitable star system. The technology and methods seemed pretty well done.

This is also slightly off topic, but in sitting meditation, after a while of sitting my back would 'slump', not be as straight. Keeping the same feeling of 'pelvis tucked forward' makes my posture while seated better. So, its not just for standing.

Interesting theory, using 10,000's of tiny 'chip' ships that sail along a laser beam, but with no deceleration they'll pass there target, decades later in a fraction of second, then have to pass that information down the line for another decade. 50 to 90 years to see information taken in a thousandths of a second. I don't see that happening unless its real cheap.

The martial arts tradition may be different then qi gongs. The horse stance (in Shotokan Karate) was all about building strength of body and mind. No fancy philosophy, only the repeated saying 'You're only as strong as your horse, keep going..". Good sweaty times, they were.

My sensei used to say 'Don't leave your Aikido on the mat'. Meaning, you move, you interact, it's all Aikido, blending, seeking harmony. Likewise, one of the main goals of meditation is not to leave it on the mat. The quiet mind- keep it, protect it

Can't see any possible trip for many generations. Still, the tech involved in creating such a ship, might have huge benefits for those on earth. More efficient, cleaner energy, the ultimate in recycling. The technology developed, the metallurgy, the way they grow food, whether people are put in 'hibernation' the things imagined and developed might affect the earth for the better. We do our best when we're stretched. Sometimes having an almost impossible target, leads to new thinking outside the box. Maybe getting better data, that might show all those planets to be uninhabitable, would have a strong affect of having us take better care of this one.

"We" need to learn to let things go. To move on. 3Bob, if you don't have anything to constructive to say about the OP, then stop the trolling or start a new thread- On whatever your point is.

Glad we got the above drama out of the way, because the quote in the OP is pretty deep. It boarders some interesting Taoist philosophy. In Taoism the senses are considered thieves. In some branches the goal is to go deep, beyond them. We have a hermit tradition of hitting the caves, staying for months, motionless, while a disciple takes care of the body. Or less extreme, leaving society and devoting most of the day to deep meditation.. communing with, I don't know, deeper forces. Transcending nature.. finding immortality.. very Taoist. A branch anyway. I wonder how applicable it is for the householder? In either tradition?

While philosophy and study is good, practice is better. There is a problem with turning into the worst kind of scholar who doesn't focus on practice and spends too much time on dogmatism and language. I don't mean to disparage the great masters of the past, but hopefully, they wrote there knowledge and got back to practice. Didn't spend there time debating and arguing; mostly living there art.

If I relax my eyes and stare long enough I see fire roosters in the monkey picture. (seven of them) I think its perfect. Just gotta relax and stare. course I also thought for a site that doesn't allow porn, those monkeys sure have big balls.

To me, it explains itself. It's an accurate symbol/pictograph of its philosophy. Yin flows into yang and the reverse. It expresses the circular patterns of the seasons and nature. Within deep yin in yan, and the reverse.

Zhan Zhuang is a great practice. Do a search here and you'll find a couple of threads on it and those will lead you to books, websites and youtube videos that will give you more information. In essence, its easy. Still its good to have someone with experience check your posture live every now and then. Subtle things like tilting the pelvis an inch can make a difference. I've found people in arts like yoga and even Aikido may have good input on when you're standing with proper alignment.

interesting. I always heard master bates was bad for the eyes, if you did it too much you'd go blind. Kidding> Though I've seen so many high level people wearing glasses that I'm under the impression that fixing it is possible, but a low odds thing. That shouldn't keep anyone from trying it though. Good luck and let us know how it goes. old wife's tale. master bates = pleasuring onself. low brow but mildly clever

and sometimes, its good to give up on answers and questions. No books, no videos, no projects, no philosophy, spend some time, listening to the silence.

I always thought using the term conspiracy theorist was being polite. There are very paranoid people out there who lives of fear, anger and obsession believing most things from water, air, food, government, vast segments of society as well as tiny secret segments are out to get them.. aliens too. They can be high IQ or low but are willing to believe extremist sites, build up long fantasies and connect virtually everything to there paranoid obsession du jour. A small percentage of these 'true believers' turn violent. The rest merely lead sadder lives, following websites that almost always claim apocalypse soon.. buy our stuff. Course how do you tell a genuine conspiracy from fantasy? Maybe you can't. Yet getting information from sites that are extremist and historically play loose and apologetically with the truth is not good. Reading unbiased history (there are real historians who dig deep and view all sides), preferably books and going beyond finding articles that back up your cognitive dissonances into studying both sides. I fear we now have a President who is a conspiracy theorist or simply knows how to play and manipulate that segment of our population.

If you're going 'all the way' and the aim is to be a Taoist Monk or Hermit, then imo you're aiming to become a non-sexual. For those taking the house holder path, there are many factors into what makes one closer or further from the Tao. To me, Tao is harmony, harmony with nature, harmony with self. If the heart of the question is Can a Taoist be homosexual, I assume sure, why not. Personally I wouldn't be surprised if the 'hardcore' priesthoods and monk orders tended to run a bit higher then the social norm in such things. Probably easier to forsake your sexuality for extreme spirituality when you're in a culture that frowns on the former.

I've been drinking kombucha lately. GT's trinity. I pour in a third, then fill the glass with seltzer. Its very tasty. Good probiotics and nutritional profile, though a bit acidic and you wouldn't want to go crazy. Seems like Jun is similar, same yeast/mold scoby but it likes green tea and honey. Its supposed to be a little sweeter, more effervescent and brew faster and cooler then standard kombucha. I think I'll try to make some. I'd like to do the continuous method, cause I'm lazy. I just ordered a 62 ounce glass kettle. I'll order a jun scoby, brew up some sweet green tea w/ honey and see what forms. The thinking is every week, pour off half into bottles, fill up 30 oz w/ fresh green tea. When the scoby gets too big, floats too high, or too much yeast on the bottom, clean it out, and start anew. Shaving the scoby thinner and putting it back in the tea to do its light fermentation. any thoughts? or Jun (or Kombucha) drinkers out there?

Somewhere it said that because it can have a trace of alcohol <.5% stores would rather play it safe then sorry.

eeyup. Soros is the Right wing's current boogey man. Kind of the Left wing's version of the Koch brothers, but not evil (not that they are either, they're just very partisan, though originally quite libertarian). He's a philanthropist. Often giving to the Democratic party as well as causes for democracy and free speech. He is very anti fascist.

Anne Wise who did research into mind-body control and biofeedback found that when people relaxed their tonque, thoughts slowed down. She used it as a starting point in many of her meditations. In Taoism the tonque is traditionally connected to the heart. When it touches the roof of the mouth it completes the circuitry of the orbit. Not that it guarantees much energy is running.

Pond Story It was a bright and sunny day. A man called Freeform walked with his son along an old jogging trail. They came to a fork in the road and took the path less traveled and that made all the difference. (cliches out of the way for now) They stopped by a clear stream. Almost small enough to jump over, but not quite. Freeform sat down on the grass to watch the water flow by, so did his son. "What sound is the brook making?" Freeform asked. "Its babbling Dad. Its going babble whoosh whoosh whoosh, babble babble whoosh whoosh whoosh." said his son. Freeform smiled at his son and looked up. "What sound are the clouds making?" he asked. The son pursed his lips and said "They're going Shuushhh, Shuuushhh." Freeform smiled again. Looking down he saw a little fish in the stream. "What's the fish saying?" The son puckered up and made kissing sounds "Suhma suhma suhma, that what he's saying Dad." While they talked a young woman pushing a jogging stroller came near to see what they were staring at. Freeform smiled at the young woman and looked at the young baby in the stroller. "How old is he?" he asked. She smiled back, "Nine months". "Half his time in, half his time out. I wonder what he likes better?" said Freeform . Chris's son walked up to the jogger, looked into the babies bright blue eyes and said "Do you know what the water saying?" Then he put his ear close to the babies mouth. He nodded his head and asked another question, "Baby, what are the clouds saying?" "Uh huh" said the son to the baby after listening. He pointed to the stream, "Baby,do you see the fish?" he asked. The mother tilted the stroller up slightly so the child could get a better look. "What are the fishies saying?" he asked and again put his ear close to the babies ear. At that, the little boy's head rose, he cocked to listen better. He smiled and said "Yes Baby, you're right". Then sat down and stared at water. "So, what were the babies answers" asked Freeform. "He said that they were all saying the same thing' replied his son. The woman kneeled near the boy and said "So what was it? What were they all saying?" "Thank you God" Chris and the woman smiled at each other. The woman took the baby from the stroller and they sat by the stream and listened together. http://www.thedaobums.com/topic/2370-michaels-misc-stories/?p=21872