thelerner

Not too many triumphs in 2020. Not a good year with the pandemic killing 100's of thousands, mass layoffs, wide spread fears, election lunacies. Personally, I wasn't horribly affected by the above. Thankfully no one close to me died. Many got scares. Outside my circle many had relatives or friends who passed away. Financially March thru May was devastating, but the market, surprisingly, came back. My kids who should have been at college were home for long periods. That was nice. The drama of the election made the US feel 3rd world. Our lack of a comprehensive safety net and less then stable President made me crave an European Style Socialism. Though that's no protection against a populist poor choice. Even now Trumps fantasy of over turning an election he clearly lost, drawing in his 10's of millions of followers is troubling. But it'll work out. I highly assume he'll be out on Jan 20th. The vaccine is underway, millions should protected each week. But we're in dangerous time right now. It's very catchy and hospital intensive care units are at there limits. Financially a huge percentage of our population is too. Jobless w/ benefits and payments at an end. We've been on various repeated lockdowns since Spring. Malaise and depression in the air and reflected in the suicide rate and wild rantings, but hope too. I've been good in the mornings. Waking up semi-early, Wim Hof breathing, cold showers, exercising, doing a 45 minute walk and not eating til those are done. Most days, I even have an excel chart for it. After the afternoon I suck. I should be doing the 100 Days of Python online course I bought, but I'm not. I should be doing Nathan Brine Meditation course, I'm not. I should be meditating more and I'm not. malaise.. Hoping 2021 snaps me out of it. <.. what else..things learned. I dress better when I do laundry every week, versus waiting til I have to. learned to grow mushrooms. Read and listened to many worthwhile books. Enjoyed some limited travel. Learned to play w/ the kettle bell, subtle things on balance and breathing w/ it. Learned the agony of defeat watching the Bears play. Found /reddit site. >

bump..

I'm sure that makes for healthier, deeper, wholer, slower, better foods. We have a thread on food porn. And the Almazan youtubes always take first place. As a man travels the wilderness w/ his trusty knife, making the most amazing food ever.

Democracy is messy. An authoritarian regime can act quicker and get near total compliance. There 'or else', starts with financial black balling and ends with state sanctioned murder. A Democratic country is full of states and countrymen all arguing disparate points.. ad nauseum. What to do, what penalties, are up for grabs and too often politicized. <course it helps to have leadership that listens and acts on the best available scientific information>

I'd say yes.. until calls come that it was creating cult members. then i'd want a cut

I am the modren man, with parts made in Japan. I get an awful lot of use from my Instant Pot. Being a pressure cooker it infuses flavors nicely. I tend to saute onions and veggies, put'em to the side. Brown the meat, put in a sauce, set for 15, and I get interesting one pot meals. Today made some nice Texas Chili. Fast and worked well with less fatty meat. Versus slow cooker where I'd use fattier chuck, would take 6+ hours and I'd dirty more pans. domo arigato

KAP system(google it, online classes), Stillness Movement system(founder was an old member here), Flying Phoenix (comprehensive system, long thread here), Damo Mitchell (free online class)Max Christensons Kunlun, Michael Winns various Chi gung videos and CDs,

Hi Milo. We've got a couple good threads around on the Golden Flower. Its a tough nut to crack. It reads like simply, yet the exact instructions and methods are hard imo, to decipher. I've got a short thread (https://www.thedaobums.com/topic/37570-golden-flower-thingamabobs/ ) on research I've done on it. I look forward to hearing your insights on it. Welcome to the board. We're an eclectic philosophy forum for learning, discussing and cultivation. Below are 3 important sections: Our Rules, The Insult Policy and our 3 Foundations. Before you join give them a read. Most of it boils down to being respectful. No name calling or trolling. Post as if your mom's looking over your shoulder. Discussion and arguments are what the board is about. Keep it civil, don't get personal. Don't be a troll or one issue zealot. We're here for good conversation and making some friends along the way, to be a community. Jump right in, start threads, ask questions, look for interesting threads and post your (relevant) thoughts. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. TDB team At your leisure, please review-

Again, good questions and a dilemma we all face/d. What is good, what is out there.. there's no guide or list as far as I know. Its very subjective. One person guru is another's fraud. One persons system of enlightenment is another's load of extraneous cultural baggage. So, you start where you can. Learn a bit. Meet people, get their subjective, limited opinion and fate steers you where it will. In truth Taoism is pretty small. It's not like there are temples w/ 'real' Taoists near by. So most people shoot for 'cultivation' with a Taoist influence. Thus don't dismiss a nearby Tai Chi, Yoga or internal martial arts place thats nearby. Where you start is not where you'll end. But starting is important and there can be gems in unlikely places.

Good question. You kinda want things to do double duty. I'd say night time meditation routine. Clear your mind and you'll sleep better and deeper. Doesn't have to be long 15 or 20 minutes. Learning deep relaxation and clearing your mind. Once you have that down you can begin some of the energy based meditations. Look around at some qigong routines. Preferably short easy ones. Like 8 Brocades or one of my favorites Pan Gu which is short and simple, Michael Winn has a good youtube version of it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lZVdt8t2WQ) look around for something connects to you. Learn the philosophy, you can start w/ Dao De Jing, then peruse works of Thomas Cleary, like 'Practical Taoism'. Or find a good Podcast, they're free. There one called Cup of Tao, has lots of subjects and most of them are about 10 minutes long. Good way to learn about Taoist philosophy. My favorite podcast is Infinitesmile, which is more Zen, but quite good.

I wonder if that's the definition of gossip? It's not that it's not true, rather its passing nasty innuendo to others in a mean spirit. fun.. possibly addictive but very corrosive.

Greeting Nam Sao, good to have you as a member. A number of people are taking Damo Mitchells MCO course here. Very generous of him to offer it for free. There's a thread on it, and it'd be nice to see more discussion in it. Welcome to the board. We're an eclectic philosophy forum for learning, discussing and cultivation. Below are 3 important sections: Our Rules, The Insult Policy and our 3 Foundations. Before you join give them a read. Most of it boils down to being respectful. No name calling or trolling. Post as if your mom's looking over your shoulder. Discussion and arguments are what the board is about. Keep it civil, don't get personal. Don't be a troll or one issue zealot. We're here for good conversation and making some friends along the way, to be a community. Jump right in, start threads, ask questions, look for interesting threads and post your (relevant) thoughts. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. TDB team At your leisure, please review-

Hi cbanerjee, Lots of interesting people from all over. It's great to get input and discuss things with a global group. Welcome to the board . Jump right in with comments and questions. We're an eclectic philosophy forum for learning, discussing and cultivation. Below are 3 important sections: Our Rules, The Insult Policy and our 3 Foundations. Before you join give them a read. Most of it boils down to being respectful. No name calling or trolling. Post as if your mom's looking over your shoulder. Discussion and arguments are what the board is about. Keep it civil, don't get personal. Don't be a troll or one issue zealot. We're here for good conversation and making some friends along the way, to be a community. Jump right in, start threads, ask questions, look for interesting threads and post your (relevant) thoughts. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. TDB team At your leisure, please review-

Beyond religion and philosophy, I don't see a moral karmic universe in history. Sometimes good triumphs, sometimes not. Over time groups play both roles. History is messy. We do better when family, community, kindness and sharing, personal honor are emphasized over selfishness. We do better when we act like its a karmic moral universe.

Universe moral..? I don't know but I operate that the Universe isn't moral or keeping score. Which means We have to. Honour the opportunity to be alive by leaving the world better than we entered it. To act in kindness and honesty because that creates a better world. Not that I'm a great example of altruism but I try.

It starts with getting an account at a brokerage firm. Vanguard, Etrade, Fidelity.. there are many and they all do pretty much the same thing. Over the decades I've found keeping it simple is smartest. 50% in Index funds, every broker has a cheap version of the S&P500, DOW, QQQ (nasdaq and tech stocks). 25% in High (or high growth) Dividend stocks. These will lag the market, but in a solid company you reinvest the dividends, over time the compounding affect can end up with very impressive return on initial investment. At a time when banks give .3% interest, after 10 or 20 years you can be earning 10% or much more on your initial investment. Very nice when retirement comes along. 25% in individual stocks that you like, that have promise. Keep an eye on these, follow their fundamentals, how their business and segment is doing. Don't be afraid to knock out a loser or two each year and reinvest in the winners. Having a couple of big winners that you hold for a long time can be very rewarding. Keep an eye out for diversifying too. Don't invest too much in the same industry. If you want to keep it simpler, don't worry about individual stocks, slide that part into Index funds too. Long term they are rarely beaten. Steady long term investment can mean retiring earlier and more comfortably. You don't need to take chances or be an expert. Investing steady and early, keeping it simple is imo all you need.. until you're seduced by egoic complexities of protective puts and covered calls..

There is room for improvement. Stretch when you wake up and increase meditation by 50% to 3 minutes a day. turnabout is fairplay. my powers. I was angry and irritated at my wife and friend, and I didn't act on it. Instead I listened sympathetically and hung out. In a warm shower I turned the knob to max cold and stayed in. Did Wim Hof Breathing.. the long hold after exhaling is no longer the self water boarding I used to consider it. I've moved doing 75 swings w/ 34# kettlebell to 80 swings w/ a 54 pounder. my failures. My clever trade from yesterday is down 30%. I wanted to get past level 4 of Rawn Clarks Archaeous, I can't (it's waking astral travel). I long to escape to the eating, drinking and debauchery of Key West.. yet live in the cold midwest. I have a dozen worthy books that lie unread. I have paid courses of study, most notably 100 Days of Python. I can't get past the boss on the next to last level of Drop Dead VR and my progress in Arizona Sunshine Zombie game is incredibly slow. I can't survive the helicopter episode in SuperHot VR game. I spend too much time playing games. Could go on but would run out of paper.

What you got so far? Anything? Tell me what you do daily, I'll tell you where you're going.

Paradigm of seed, soil & climate. You are the seed, your $ value is what you can offer the world. Your skills, hardwork, intelligence, dedication. Soil, where you plant yourself is very important. Location, location, location.. going where the need is. Where the money is. Getting into the right place. It's a mixture of planning, gumption, luck. Climate is similar to location, probably has more of a luck component. Tech can help, if your climate isn't great, build irrigation, savings, build a green house. If possible.

True that, but also body shriveled. Always playing games to fool people, never enough power, killed by disciple. I didn't see the last couple episodes. Sometimes those seeking POWER!! are really seeking Drama. Power without wisdom leads to imbalance, an imbalance that gets worse and worse til it self destructs. Part of wisdom is self control and keeping away from drama.

Maybe I was thinking of this post.. or from this interview with her- https://www.thedaobums.com/topic/35367-taomeow-ttb-interview/ ".. 9. You talk about ganying. Which feels to me a little like luck. How do we increase ganying or synchronicities in our life? Ganying is certainly an important component of “luck,” but “luck” is, in and of itself, a major notion of traditional taoist thought -- and a separate science, an application of certain universal relativistic, stochastic principles to personal human concerns. Ganying is understood as a kind of resonance, a fractal of reflections of events and phenomena into different scales and dimensions which on some level appear “similar,” “related,” “patterned on each other” and on some other level, blatantly “the same” – like the sound produced by plucking a string is the same sound of the same string whether you hear it from within one inch or one foot or a hundred feet away from the source. Whether there’s an amplifier in between or a soundproof wall. To learn to discern ganying, resonating meaningful relatedness of phenomena that don’t appear related to a superficial analysis by inadequate methods -- “coincidences,” “similarities,” “sameness” of phenomena -- one needs to learn to listen. It’s like with music – you recognize a melody, and then a style, and then a performer, and then an emotional or creative or mood-affecting, heart-affecting, etc., impact of music on your life, by listening, paying attention, and internalizing the patterns. Perhaps you can even learn to play an instrument. Perhaps you can become a true virtuoso if you practice daily and put your body and soul into the practice. Then you won’t have to rely on luck to hear your favorite guitar piece or violin concerto – you can produce it, anytime you like. That’s the relationship between ganying and luck.." <brilliant stuff, imo> We have one word for luck and tend not to delve into it to much. Interesting to see other cultures and how they relate to luck. The closet I get to it, is when I play Life as Dream; looking at life, interpreting it, as if it was dream. Where happenings are full of symbolism, messages and synchronicities.

I'm stepping down, but will continue to be active. We're looking for another moderator or two. If they choose they could also take on the role of welcoming new members. It's a great way to give back to the board and a chance to learn about group dynamics. The best way to grow is by doing. The currents mods are kind cohesive group. Who ever joins them will be lucky. Yours Michael

Wish I could find it, but Taomeow had some fascinating views on Daoism and luck. I wish I remembered more but Daoism has a system for creating luck. Heck its what amulets and Fu's are all about.

I'd guess some but not necessarily a whole lot, especially if it wasn't nuked to boiling. in my unresearched opinion using freshly roasted beans, grinding your own just before use, using closer to whole leaf teas.. keeping water less then boiling, all help to keep micro-nutrients more intact. A Whole Foods near me used to have a roaster and could pick up freshly roasted beans. Sadly they're not doing it any longer. I drink dark roast and that tends to have less caffeine than lighter ones. I make it w/ a french press which trends to give a fuller more robust drink, especially now that I'm using the Hoffman method which takes 10 minutes versus 3 or 4.

I fall into it naturally, during longer meditations. kinda luxuriating in its emptiness.