thelerner

I assume if someone gave the Guyana guy the 'first world problem' to his whining, a light bulb goes on in his head, and they (like me) sheepishly admit, it's not so bad. Imo the phrase is a great use of satiric humor; a little whack of insight to reset our sense of entitlement.

such as where..? The grass is always greener on the other side. We can idealize the far away tribe or the nearby Amish. And a brief visit would certainly show many of there benefits, but each life style comes with its own pro's and cons. Its the individual who makes the life worth living, finds the sweet spot and adapts well.

Maybe burning off bad karma is the wrong mindset. How should we understand bad karma? Is there such a thing as Bad Karma? There are times in my life where thoughtless or selfish actions have created a ton of problems that I can try to stay ahead but ultimately can't avoid. You could also say similarly there are genetic traits I've inherited as well as cultural behaviors. Like it or not my country's leaders decisions carry consequences for me. Consequences. To what extent is that word a good substitute for Karma? I think its a good substitute in some ways. It takes the morality/subjectivity out of Karma, much as we like to keep it in.

True, shit happens, we grow old.. then more shit happens. Yet, as my daughter uses the phrase, to sarcastically and accurately express 'Stop complaining, you've got it good.' about people with 3rd world problems.. apologies to the sensitive..

aww, i don't know maoshan from moonshine . and the video above is so old. we should probably let unpleasant dogs lie, cause the worst thing thing you can really do to them, is leave'em alone. Anything else, any engagement, just gets into game play. course that's true of most of life and doubly on the internet.

extra credit. Can anyone talk about how this might work in our bodies? How internally in 5 element theory the organ/gods turn metal into water?

The member we're thinking of was (and I'm sure still is) a great guy. Family members were cured through Mak Ti Sin's advice and/or Fu's and boom he ended up a true believer. The terrifying power of a healer and group acceptance. I had conversations with MTS here on the bums, but I can't help but think he's gotten darker and more paranoid over the years. There was another forum that was joined by MTS, he posted several times a day. His followers would echo his posts and praise him there. In short order he took over the forum and his posts were full of swearing and who his people should be against. Always on the look out for enemies. Currently even the (walking) dead aren't safe

Good luck to it. It'd be great to see some large island or country taking part in such a bold experiment. It's really doesn't seem too different from an idealized based Communist system with a little bit of sci/fy mixed in.

I remember Michael Winn had a version of an orbit that just went from the yin-hui point to the dan tien. As I recall he used the colors red and white, kind of a liquidy mix circulating. Red for blood, white for..I forget (semen?). Just doing a miniature orbit. Personally I think you need to begin with concentration on one point at a time, breathing into it, developing 'feel' for it, spending significant time, before moving on to circulation.

Gendao, if you don't have any thoughts Chinese pollution ignore the thread. You don't have to keep switching subjects 3 or 4 times within a post. There are threads around that touch on the various topics you mention. Sorry, but I don't see any connection between the various subjects you brought up and the OP.

I haven't looked at it in a while, but didn't the whole Venus Project rely on finding some sort of 'God machine' that would create/manufacture anything you wanted? So without the science fiction like tech isn't the Venus Project impossible?

Is the Hui yin point what is commonly referred to as the perineum (between anus and genitals) in English? If not what is the more accurrate spot for it?

Here's a random, unformed thought. We often see arguments on TDB's that get circular and tit for tat on subjects that are so abstract that neither side has any power to change things. I wish there was a way to defuse them. Either by one side, or nudge from a general member. Cause sometimes they cause bad feelings, other times you see they're clearly heading for the pit and in essence, once people's views are out, neither side will change, facts, quotes and sources become meaningless and unread. I'm looking for a meme, I think. We all know what a troll is, but here I'm looking for something to describe a tangled argument that's heading towards bad blood and a warning to stop it. I don't want it to be a moderator's warning, as much as a regular members way to saying enough is enough. Something analagous to 'you've jumped the shark' but in internet terms.

Too likely be returned with a 'Damn Right I am' Too poetic Too Dirty Harry'ish. though not bad and might make someone's day. Too oblique.. but has a nice creative spark Don't sweat the petty things. best so far imo. could we make it more taoish? daosh.. daesh? it might cause confucian.

Its been rough. how rough you ask- My wrist watch broke which meant a trip to Switzerland to get it fixed. Then at my airfield I backed the lambordini into the lear jet. One problem after another! oh the troubles i've seen. Truthfully (mostly) I was at a college information dinner yesterday. One woman said, 'The school has a great equestrian program, my daughter went there and brought her horse with her.' The other woman said, 'We applied to that school. After filling out the long application form, they accepted our horse, but not our son!'

I get that from my teenage daughter all the time. Its almost not worth complaining to her

Actually if Mak Ti Sin says we're bad, thats actually a good indication we're doing our job as an open forum with various viewpoints. He's not all bad, but he's extremely one pointed with the point being towards himself. Opinion that vary from his aren't just wrong, but evil and he'd tend to turn them into crazed vendetta's with a dozen videos because someone somewhere on the internet disagreed with him.

I think thats a good place to be. Sometimes we push, sometimes we just practice.

I hate sometimes troubled that great men have to become mythologized as gods in order for there philosophy to be taken seriously. I think it distracts from there teaching. bit of editing to chillax.

The movie Cafe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caf%C3%A9_%28film%29 Low budget filmed in and about daily life in a cafe. Lots of interesting characters, one a computer programmer who writes simulations who is visited by God who tells him, that he and the world are a simulation.

It could be jury rigged now, by creating a topic (in General area) and in the introduction telling people to hit the link to the same thread in the Personal section. Each time someone puts a comment in the General thread put in a Please don't & redirect after it. Maybe they'd learn .. or not. Not as clean as a real Controlled Conversation Area, but doable now. On one hand we've lost people because they've gotten angry (and abusive) when their threads were high jacked. On the other , when its a good topic in the General area, having someone delete or even change someone else's post is treading dangerous ground, unless they're clearly aware thats the risk of answering in the CCA area.

hmm, sounds like the ability to create a post, similar to Personal section where the creator has complete editing rights over the whole thread. Interesting. Might be hard to program. As an experiment I say..why not, if the powers that be can do it. What would we call it?? Ontrack section. Controlled Conversation Area, yeah thats better. CCA's where the conversation is controlled by the creator. Though to me its the opposite of anarchy, its tight control. There is something in the air these days. I know I've been taken on a more negative slant lately. But.. its the dog sled days of winter, we're all tired, cold and hungry for the sun and warmer better times. Less tolerant, seemingly even when almost but don't quite agree with us.

Innersound your spending alot of time trying to convince people that smog and pollution is bad. Fine, you win, pollution bad. If it'll make you happier its irreversible and will kill us all. I'd also add people spread can be bad. In the 1910's and 20's the government encouraged and offered free land to homesteaders. People went, they tried to build farms on poor land, ended up scraping off countless tons of topsoil which led to the dust bowl of the late 20's and 30's. An incredibly destructive happening, dropping a couple of atomic bombs on the area would have been kinder the destruction the home steaders wrought. At the same time period Japan was also encouraging homesteaders to move to unpopulated areas. Aikido founder Ueshiba was one those who took the offer and according to stories only his ceaseless hard work and unbreakable spirit kept people alive. Eventually he had to call it quits. My point is, its easy to see pollution is bad, its harder to see that people, especially those in hard scrabble areas can also devastate huge areas. Might be nuclear disaster areas will end up the best cleanest sanctuaries in the long run because they don't have people. <later addition> I'd also add that until a country (or individual) claims responsibility for its own problems, they're up shits creek. Much as you blame America for China's problem, they're screwed if they take the same liberal route. The solution to there problem is painful, but easy and straight forward. No more coal plants, and start rolling back the ones you have. Have better environmental laws and put men and teeth into keeping them. End the corruption that skirts them. England did it, we did it. You want Chinese to smoke less, also easy. Ban U.S cigarettes, raise taxes on them steeply, sponsor campagns on the dangers of smoking. Painful, but hard, but that is what stop blaming the other guy and taking responsibility for yourself is all about. For people and nations.

I wonder, how much do I lose by being a half lotus sitter, ie a relatively tight half lotus, one leg rested on top of the other. and sometimes I'm 'looser' then that, sitting 'indian style' with out leg further out, not on top of the other. How would you compare the 2 stances energetically?

I thought meditation was the fundamental .