thelerner

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  1. This is the classic. There is some interesting history behind it. There are couple of people who've written fairly indepth explanations of it. Mantak Chia is one.. someone will have to dig them out. Found it: http://www.universal-tao.com/tao/inner_alchemy.html There are a couple other ones out there to. Another is 19 page indepth PDF w/ pictures of the original(?) and indepth explanation by David Teh-Yu Yang- http://mongolianmind.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Nei-Jing-Tu-a-Daoist-Diagram-of-the-Internal-Circulation-of-Man-1992.pdf From Mantak Chia and the Universal Tao: Explanation of the Inner Alchemy Chart This chart was never copied for over a couple of hundred years. There was only the original. It was never passed down to the rest of the world because it is so profound and mysterious that an ordinary person would have no way to understand it. It was re discovered in the library at High Pine Tree Mountain in China suspended from the wall. It was carefully drawn and the printing was clear, so it was eventually reprinted at that time. When I first discovered this, I decided to reprint it with a complete explanation using the Universal Tao practices. By practicing the Universal Tao formulas you can start to comprehend the detailed illustrations of this mural connecting with our body and the universe. It is with this understanding that I give you this explanation of Internal Alchemy so beautifully illustrated in this ancient Taoist rendering. The Tao adept saw human body as a microcosm of the natural world. Its anatomy was a landscape with mountain, river, streams, lake, pool, forest, fire, stars a natural harmoniously landscape. It shows a torso and head with few easily identifiable structures - Master Mantak Chia The numbered areas 1 to 5 are a series of nine sacred mountain peaks. These mountain peaks are like the funnels, which are able to draw down universal energy. This energy is then concentrated in the caves of the mountains. Taoist adepts go to mountain caves for initiation. In the human head there are nine different centers (peaks or points), which are able to extend to the heaven to make the connection to the cosmos. The cavity in the brain, the body and energy centers are like those caves in a mountain which you can concentrate, store and transform energy. Download high resolution Color Image (110k)Download high resolution B&W Image (176K) IMMORTAL REALM is located in the center just in front of the crown. It is this point where our energy is able to ascending to heaven making the connection with the heavens drawing down even more powerful universal energies. TOP OF THE GIANT PEAK is located in the back of the head. When we tilt the head and push the Chi back it reaches its highest point. This peak is connected to the North Star and the thymus gland. It is where we receive the descending universal energy. MUD PILL is located in the center of the crown (Bai Hui or the hundredth meeting point) and when it is open it feels like soft mud. The crown point is connected to the Big Dipper and the hypothalamus gland. It is at this center that you can project your energy (soul or spirit) up or receive the energy down giving way to a two way street. HOUSE OF RISING SUN is the third eye. At the middle of the forehead likely above, this center is able to receive the sun and moon energy, and is used to launch the soul and spirit bodies into space travel. NINE PEAKS MOUNTAIN is more directly connected to the mid eyebrow and has a close connection to the pituitary gland. This center is used to received the cosmic force and used for launching the soul and spirit bodies the earthly plan or human plan traveling. OBSCURE SPIRIT ALTER is between the Mud Pill and in front of the Giant Peak where the spirit and soul bodies are leaving and entering into horizontal flight. CAVE OF THE SPIRIT PEAK is the jade pillow between the 1st cervical and the base of the skull which is know as the God mouth where we can receive universal knowledge. TRUE JADE UPPER GATE is a water gate near to throat connecting to the brain. SOURCE OF RISING LAW is behind the soft palate which is connected to the pituitary gland. 9a.The two circles representing the sun and the moon within us are the left and right eyes. By learning how to roll the eyes in a circle motion, we can blend these different energies together enabling us to direct the energies with our eyes. When we roll the eyes up looking to the crown, these energies along with the sexual energy will rise up to the crown. When we roll the eyes down looking to the lower Tan Tien, we bring the premixed energies down to our energy centers (reservoirs) storing them there. 9b. The figure of the old white headed man with eyebrows reaching down to the ground is Lao Tze (one of the founders of the Taoism). He is a seated figure with long eyebrows which is connected to the earthly energy. 9c. The blue eyed standing foreign monk holds the heaven in his hands. The standing figure is Bodhidharm, the founder of the Zen Buddhism in China, which is holding up his hands to reach the heavens being more connected to the heavenly energy. These two energies or natures are mixed together to form a new Taoist concept, the practice of the Modern Taoism or the Universal Tao System. It is the blending and the harmonizing of our heavenly destiny and our earthly nature. The DRAWBRIDGE is the tongue and the POND OF WATER is the mouth which holds the saliva. In the Taoist practice, when you touch the palate with the tongue (the Source of Rising Law known as the heavenly pool), we connect the circuit forming the link between the governor channel (yang) rising from the perineum up the spine to the head then down to the palate and the conception channel (yin) descending from the root of the lower jaw to the perineum. Once the tongue touches the palate, the Chi is activated. The sexual energy is pumped up to the brain, activating the hypothalamus, pituitary and thymus glands secreting more hormones. The sexual energy, especially the orgasm energy, will help draw in the heaven energy from above and the earth force from below. When you mix these two forces with the sexual energy the hormone secretion is stimulated. This creates an abundance of Chi and fluid. This fluid which flows like a waterfall down through the palate across the upper palate to the back down to the mouth and the throat (Twelve storied pagoda) from where we are able to swallow it down to fill the other two Tan Tiens. This water is also know as the nectar, water of life or the golden elixir. GOVERNING MERIDIAN is located from the perineum up the spine to the head then down to the palate. CONCEPTION OR RELEASING MERIDIAN is located from the root of the lower jaw to the perineum. TWELVE STORIED PAGODA or twelve story tower is the throat center, CV-22. When the sexual energy is pumped up to the crown (reversing the flow) due to the Universal Tao practices of Testicle and Ovarian Breathing, Power Lock, and the Big Draw through the spine to fill the Lower Tan Tien (kidney and sexual centers) (lower reservoir), the Middle Tan Tien (solar plexus and heart center) (middle reservoir), and Upper Tan Tien (brain, and crystal room) (upper reservoir). During its passage through the spine into the brain center the sexual energy is transformed. After the upper reservoir is filled, then the energy flows down the palate through the tongue down the throat into the heart nourishing it. I TILL MY OWN FIELD (Tan Tien or Elixir Field). Inside my field is a magical sprout (the immortal fetus or the unborn spirit) that lives 10,000 years. The color of its flowers (opening of the consciousness and the wisdom) resembles gold and they do not wilt. Its seeds are like Jade pebbles. Its fruits are round. To cultivate it, I depend on the earth of the middle palace (the solar plexus). To irrigate it (the sexual energy reverse the flow up to the crown) I depend on the fountain of the upper valley. After much toil, I achieve the Great Tao and stroll freely through the earth becoming an Immortal of Peng Lai Island. COWHERDER BRIDGE STARS symbolizes the yang elements of the heart, fire and compassion fire. He looks like a child which we call yang heart. In Taoist Text and the Christian Bible, they refer it as becoming like a child again which is the symbol of spiritual wisdom, innocence and simplicity. Extending out of the cowherder's crown, you find the Big Dipper, which symbolizes the connection of the heart to the heaven seeking harmony with the cosmos. The Taoist regard the Big Dipper as the cosmic timepiece. During the course of the year, the Big Dipper makes a 360 degree rotation pointing to all the stars collecting all the universal power in the Big Dipper's cup. The law of the heaven is called destiny and the law of the earth is called nature. The harmony between the destiny and the nature is the Tao, the great way. Those who follow the Tao fulfill their spiritual destiny and enjoy the fruit of the earthly nature. The Taoist way of life is to tap into the energies of the heaven and earth while blending and harmonizing them with the human energy in order to cultivate and conserve the vital force in our bodies. Heaven Forces manifest into the celestial energy and its power appears to us as thoughts, consciousness, fate and destiny. Universal Tao is the practice of connecting the heaven (destiny) and the earth (nature) together. Some system or religion separate the heaven and earth into two realm forcing us to choose one. WITHIN THE 50 REALMS IS CONCEALED THE MYSTERIOUS GATEWAY is opposite the heart which has a close relation and connection to the heart that generates the Big Aura protecting the heart and the crown. 17a. LUNG SPIRIT HWA HAO FROM THE EMPTY IS COMPLETED is the power and ability of the lung to totally empty so it can received more. Each inhale and exhale of our body is the breath of the universe expanding and contracting. 17b. HEART SPIRIT TAN YUAN ALSO CALLED GUARDING SPIRIT is located in the liver area. 17c. GALL BLADDER SPIRIT LUNG AU ALSO CALLED MAJESTIC AND BRIGHT is located in the middle of the liver. 17d. LIVER SPIRIT LUNG YIEN ALSO CALLED CONTAINING WISDOM represents the liver, the largest organ of the body as a forest. In Taoism we regard the liver as the controller of the Chi flow. Too much Chi in one place can cause stagnation or congestion, and too little causes weakness and depletion. Both conditions are results of a liver imbalance. The weaver maid (kidneys) also receives the water from the sexual energy, but also makes water which helps the wood (liver) to grow while the liver provides fuel for the heart fire. Each organ is interdependent to each other. 17e. SPLEEN SPIRIT CH'ANG TSAI ALSO CALLED SOUL PAVILION is located in the spleen area. 17f. KIDNEY SPIRIT HSUAN MING ALSO CALLED NOURISHING THE SEEDS. The kidneys store the constitution of inherited energy from our parents. MIDDLE TAN TIEN (heart center) is surrounded by the pericardium's ring of fire. WEAVING MAIDEN CIRCULATES AND TURNS is yin (kidneys and water element) and the cowherder standing above her is yang. The weaving maid has the ability to store energy, and to go inward to maintain quietness. She weaves silk like garments out of moonlight (Moon Light and the Milky Way energies accumulated and stored in the lower Tan Tien) by using the mind with the gently, soft, long and deep breaths like spinning or pulling silk drawing in the cosmic force and weaving into an internal Chi Web or Network. The Chinese legend says that the cowherder and the weaving maid were lovers once, but they neglect their duties and were change into stars and put at the opposite ends of the sky. One night a year, celebrated as the lover's day about September 15, the birds make a bridge (the milky way) across the sky to join them together. Likewise our heart (spirit, fire, compassion fire, love, and destiny) and the kidneys (earth nature, water, sexual energy, and physical body) are separate since the day we were born and never met again. By reuniting again the heart essence (love and compassion fire) and the kidney essence (sexual energy) we can form the immortal fetus giving birth to it and growing it. KIDNEY CAVE (GV-4, Ming Men, or Door of Life) is know as the door of fire which is the gate where the sexual energy will pass and help to transform us. CORRECT TAN TIEN (Real Tan Tien) is located in front and below the kidneys just behind the navel closer to the spine. 21a. YIN AND YANG TAN TIEN are the four yin yang symbols represent the Tan Tien area (field of the elixir) located slightly below the navel approximately 3 inches near the sexual center. This area is the first alchemical cauldron. Tai Chi (yin and yang) represents the moving force. By using the mind, eyes and abdominal breathing to move the Chi and accumulate the sexual energy you will start to cook and be transformed it into Chi (steam) flowing through the channels of the entire body to repair and energize the cells. NORTH SEA WATER FLOWS IN REVERSE is located the sacral hiatus (GV-2). When the sexual energy is pumped up to the crown (reversing the flow) due to the Universal Tao practices of Testicle and Ovarian Breathing, Power Lock, and the Big Draw through the spine to fill the Lower Tan Tien (kidney and sexual centers) (lower reservoir), the Middle Tan Tien (solar plexus and heart center) (middle reservoir), and Upper Tan Tien (brain, and crystal room) (upper reservoir). During its passage through the spine into the brain center the sexual energy is transformed. After the upper reservoir is filled, then the energy flows down the palate through the tongue down the throat into the heart nourishing, cooling, and irrigating it. YIN AND YANG MYSTERIOUS WATER WHEEL is located at the perineum. Sexual energy is the most vital life force that humans inherit from their parents. We need this energy ( orgasm force) to run our life each day. In the Human way this sexual energy is like water, which tends always to run down and out. Each day we lose this force through sexual desire, greed, or unnecessary worldly materialism. We need to reverse this process causing the sexual energy (water and earth nature) to flow inward and upward. The boy and girl represent the testicles and the ovaries connected to the kidneys and eyes working on the water treadmill step by step pumping the water (sexual energy) upward. This is the beginning of the Healing Love practice with the testicle and the ovarian breathing. By starting to roll the eyes like a ball down the front and up the back, we begin to become aware of the testicles and the ovaries feeling them start rolling together with the eyes. Through this process a sea of sexual energy in the lower Tan Tien will transform into a lighter force flowing upward through the spine to the brain, glands, and organs rejuvenating them. AGAIN AND AGAIN, STEP BY STEP is the yin and yang mystery (the boy and the girl, the testicle and the ovaries, the mind and the eyes) continuously turning the great pumps (the coccyx and the sacrum) to make the water (arousal and orgasm sexual energy) rise to the East (the crown). Even in a lake of 10,000 fathoms (Hui Yin, where all the yin energy of the body meets at the perineum) we should penetrate to the bottom where a sweet spring flows upward to the top of the south mountains (Trusting Meridian starts from the perineum up to the crown, and spreads out from the crown like a spring fountain). THE IRON BULL TILLS THE GROUND AND PLANTS THE GOLDEN COIN is located at the lower Tan Tien around the navel connected to the spleen, ground and the earth connection to the spleen. The spleen center is the seed of the spirit and the life force (Chi). Once we are able to reverse the flow of the sexual energy, we can irrigate the dry land allowing us to till the soil to plant the magical golden sprout producing the golden round fruit THE GOLD COIN. Once the land is ready, the seed of long life and wisdom (the immortal fetus or the gold coin) can be planted. All the land and the plants (our soul, spirit, mind, organs and glands) only need sexual energy to grow. The stone carving child strings them together. In one grain of rice the world mystery is hiding as the human form is the microcosm of the universe) and once we learn to understand and control our mind and ourselves, we will understand the mystery of the universe. In a small pot (either the lower, middle, or upper Tan Tien) we can cook all the mountains and rivers forces (natural forces), stars, moon, and sun forces (universal forces) and the primordial forces (cosmic particles) and combine them within ourselves to transform them into the higher force to form the IMMORTAL FETUS.
  2. I sit uncomfortably on the fence on this issue. I don't think abortion is good. I also don't think an early fetus is a human being, but it has that potential. Yet kids will have sex, woman in there 40's who've raised there children will get pregnant. I wouldn't like to live in pre Roe vs Wade days where abortion made woman criminals and many died in back alley operations, especially the poor. How far are we willing to go to force a woman to have a child she doesn't want. Kill her? Imprison her? Should we impose babies on people at random? Or only to those unprepared or who don't want them? I wouldn't want to live in a shadowy world where woman who have abortion are convicted of murder and given the death penalty along with the doctor, nurse (boy friend survives scot free?). There's already a country in South America where woman who miscarry can be sentenced to jail if they can't prove to the courts, it was nature. The common ground is to build a society with increasingly less need and want for abortion.
  3. 30 minute 30 day mentorships

    None of your damn business. Let me rephrase: Poorly, alas the will power muscle still weak. Some stress from Wife's illness. She's better now. Also, while we don't allow the kids to watch TV during weekdays, it was a sort of togetherness thing we did. For example we loved watching the dopiest shows available and making fun of it. Finding Bigfoot was our favorite, it was hilarious to heckle. I missed it. Similarly with my wife, she'll watch the Daily show and Colbert after dinner and its nice to watch it together. But mostly I'm weak, I say while drinking a lovely cocktail of my own invention- relatively dry Sauvignon Blanc, gin, crushed ice and macerated oranges and grapes. Yes I chew up fruit spit it out into a cup add white wine, gin & ice. Its great. As per usual, consider what I say, but don't do as I do. Still perhaps I've watched less. I've missed the Bear and Bulls playing.
  4. au contraire, I tend to be too quick to anger. Thankfully I chill out equally quick and don't hold grudges. Not only did I have a long list of profanities about to launch, I also had incredibly clever lines about what a master debater he was and complimenting his cunning linguistiics, that no one could be as holy as he was. Instead of sleeping I spent hours refining a comedy routine. Sad.
  5. Saving the World & Solar Energy

    It wouldn't take a genius to design a low shower platform 8 or 9 inches high that held a medium sized extra strength (double or tripled?) garbage bag under it, that would fill during a shower. You'd have soapy water, but soap isn't all bad for gardens (in short run, longer there's mineral build up), there are less sudsy ones. The shower platform wouldn't have to be used every time. Heck if concerned you could have a little foot flipper on it so only 'cleaner' water would collect. It'd have to be emptied each time and overflow would go down the drain, still, it'd be cheap and some would use it. Some people go so far as keeping there toilet basin open so they can flush with a 1/2 gallon of water poured on top. No travel needed, water saved.
  6. Nah, its good training. There's a world of IB's out there. If you can't handle one skillfully and maturely online, what's gonna happen in real life.
  7. I now understand Limits on Editing

    After enough posts we tend to know wheat from chaff. It takes more then re-editing a post to look smert.
  8. Saving the World & Solar Energy

    If I had one wish in the save the world department, it would be this. A 2 year military sabbatical every decade. The last 2 years of each decade governments would sign a non aggression pack, no attacking, standing down for 2 years. Military's would run on skeleton crews, the vast majority put to work on environmental and civil building and repair projects. Navies would do oceanographic studies. Maybe after a few of these it'd be so obvious what could be done with 2 years of peace and trillion or so spent on long term building that long term peace would be an obvious idea. That'd be nice. Need a better name than 2 year military sabbatical though. In advertising name is everything. Can anyone come up with a better one?
  9. Questions for the scientists in our midst

    If you use a magnifying glass to burn ants (yuck) as a kid than as an adult you'd use a fresnel lense to burn giant space ants. These huge lenses that are used in large screen TV's focus the suns power in a spectacular way. Here's one site: http://www.greenpowerscience.com/ also back to original question: If you think big enough, everything is a perpetual motion device. The earth, sun, moon, meteors. Here in a heavy gravity field, with thick atmosphere, not so much. The tide, powered by the moon is.
  10. Saving the World & Solar Energy

    This is in its infancy, but its too logical an idea to stay there. Showers that suck the water back up, reheat it (slightly), filter it, re-use it, repeat. Huge savings. Clean water is no long flushed down the drain. Heat isn't continually wasted. Here is a link: http://orbital-systems.com/technology/ An illustration of the technology is shown below; Technology performance Water savingsSavings up to, and more than 90% water consumption. Due to the efficient water recycling system. Energy savingsSavings up to, and more than 80% of the energy consumption. As a consequence of our recycling and purification process that makes it possible to re-use the heat of the rinsed water. Hygiene enhancementCleaner water than regular tap water. Due to our patented recycling technology which includes purification and heat recovery in real time the water quality is ensured to be above drinking quality level. Testing at credited laboratories such as Swedish Institute of Diseases as well as Alcontrol Laboratories has been done throughout our whole development process. Example of filtration capabilitiesEndotoxin removal > 99,96 % DNA > 99,5 % Micron size particles > 99,995 % Cyst reduction by at least 99.95% Increasing comfortHigher comfort level in shower activity, both compared to conventional showers and other water saving solutions existing. Due to the precise temperature stability, water flow and pressure which are working independently from other applications. Compared to other water saving products this doesn’t decrease the water flow but can even offer using large shower nozzles for increasing the comfort which means producing a steady pressure while having a water flow over 15 litres per minute. Simple. Too expensive right now, but with a little innovation it'll get there, especially with the multiple savings and you the fact that you give up nothing in terms of the experience. And as long as you're filtering and re-using water, why not do the same for the toilet. Lose the waste and keep (most of) the water. The savings would be tremendous, nor does the water need to be restored to pristine drinking levels.
  11. TTBs meetup! :)

    If/when the idea gets off the ground and we had enough people, say over 8, it'd be great to set up a couple of 30 minute classes. Anyone with a special expertise or form they'd like to show off would set up a time and schedule.
  12. I now understand Limits on Editing

    Yeah, its disconcerting but we had a couple of experiments with a few different editing schemes earlier this year. Ultimately it was decided to leave it alone. No editing limitations. Instead we tend to throw threads that go out of control or get derailed into The Pit section. All in all I don't think it happens to often enough in the bums to warrant automatic lock outs.
  13. Saving the World & Solar Energy

    I like this article: http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21589431-bringing-end-conflicts-within-states-vexatious-history-provides-guide From The Economist Here's a bit of it: Civil warsHow to stop the fighting, sometimes Bringing an end to conflicts within states is vexatious. But history provides a guide to the ways that work best Nov 9th 2013 | BEIRUT |From the print edition WHEN Hussein el-Husseini moved into a modest flat with a sea view in Beirut in 1983, the surrounding streets were littered with the detritus of an eight-year-old civil war. When Mr Husseini became Speaker of the Lebanese parliament the following year, the war still had six years to run. By the time it ended it had claimed 150,000 lives. Yet the solution, says Mr Husseini, was clear more or less from the beginning. The country’s various religious groups, each with its own militias, had to share power. Lebanon could not be conquered by one side, nor divided among all. Its people are too mixed; Mr Husseini’s prominent Shia Muslim family includes Christians and Sunnis, and that is par for the course. “But the militias were against it,” he says. Attempts by Mr Husseini and others, notably the tycoon Rafik Hariri, to reach the obvious but fugitive solution took him to the outside powers sponsoring the militias: America, France, Iran, Israel, Syria and Saudi Arabia. He was repeatedly rebuffed until, in 1989, finally despairing of the war, the outsiders agreed to stop paying their proxies. Mr Husseini quickly convened representatives from the various communities and militias in Taif, a resort in Saudi Arabia. After a lot of haggling, they signed an accord that led to peace a year later. Ending civil wars is hard. Hatreds within countries often run far deeper than between them. The fighting rarely sticks to battlefields, as it can do between states. Civilians are rarely spared. And there are no borders to fall back behind. A war between two states can end much where it began without the adversaries feeling in mortal danger. With nowhere safe to go home to, both sides in a civil war often feel they must carry on fighting if they are to escape slaughter. As those fighting in Syria know, defeat often looks like death, rather than retreat (see article). New mutiny Yet civil wars do end. Of 150 large intrastate wars since 1945 fewer than ten are ongoing. Angola, Chad, Sri Lanka and other places long known for bloodletting are now at peace, though hardly democratic. And recently civil wars have been ending sooner. The rate at which they start is the same today as it has been for 60 years; they kick off every year in 1-2% of countries. But the number of medium-to-large civil wars under way—there are six in which more than 1,000 people died last year—is low by the standards of the period. This is because they are coming to an end a little sooner. The average length of civil wars dropped from 4.6 to 3.7 years after 1991, according to Kristian Skrede Gleditsch, a professor at the University of Essex. Mr Gleditsch is one of a growing number of political scientists studying civil wars. The field, long overshadowed by studies of superpower conflict, is coming into its own. Its participants do not claim that all civil wars are the same—the range of causes and types of conflict is obvious. But the sheer number of civil wars allows scholars to attempt, at least, a quantitative approach to the factors that affect the wars’ outcomes. And governments are keen to learn from their insights. When Roy Licklider, a professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey, was invited to the State Department this summer to conduct a seminar for officials dealing with Syria, he found that officials were “frantically trying to read the underlying dynamics.” Click here for chart 1 So far, nothing has done more to end the world’s hot little wars than winding up its big cold one. From 1945 to 1989 the number of civil wars rose by leaps and bounds, as America and the Soviet Union fuelled internecine fighting in weak young states, either to gain advantage or to stop the other doing so. By the end of the period, civil war afflicted 18% of the world’s nations, according to the tally kept by the Centre for the Study of Civil War, established at the Peace Research Institute Oslo, a decade ago. When the cold war ended, the two enemies stopped most of their sponsorship of foreign proxies, and without it, the combatants folded. More conflicts ended in the 15 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall than in the preceding half-century (see chart 1). The proportion of countries fighting civil wars had declined to about 12% by 1995. The outcomes of civil wars changed, too, according to Scott Gates, the director of the centre. Until 1989, victory for one side was common (58%). Nowadays victories are much rarer (13%), though not unknown; the Sri Lankan government defeated Tamil rebels in 2009. At the same time negotiated endings have jumped from 10% to almost 40%. The rest of the conflicts peter out, subsiding to a level of violence below the threshold of war—though where that threshold should lie is a matter of some debate (see article). The main reason for jaw-jaw outpacing war-war is a change in the nature of outside involvement. In the Cold War neither of the superpowers was keen to back down; both would frequently fund their faction for as long as it took. Today outside backers are less likely to have the resources for such commitment. And in many cases, outsiders are taking an active interest in stopping civil wars. Civil hands unclean The motives vary. Some act out of humanitarian concern. Others seek influence, or a higher international profile. But above all, outsiders have learned that small wars can wreak preventable havoc. Fractious Afghanistan bred al-Qaeda; the genocide in tiny Rwanda spread murder across a swathe of neighbours. In coastal west Africa, violence is passed back and forth between Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast like a winter cold round an office. “The best predictor of a civil war is having one next door,” says Mr Licklider. Outsiders can weigh in on one side, backing their desire for peace with cold steel. In Mali a brawl involving a mutinous army, ethnic rebels and Islamic extremists ended after less than a year thanks to French soldiers, who intervened in January and forced a partial reconciliation. Ever fewer powers, though, have the stomach for an overt armed intervention. At the same time, there is rarely great enthusiasm for following the advice of Edward Luttwak, author of a famous essay called “Give war a chance”. It is true that military victories tend to provide more stable outcomes than negotiated settlements, which—especially in the absence of external peacekeepers—often break down when the underlying problems that led to the conflict in the first place resurface. There may be some conflicts better fought to their conclusion than left unresolved. But the charms of victory can be overstated. “The violence needed for a military victory also tends to destroy the state institutions required to stabilise a country in the long term,” warns Andrew Exum, a former Pentagon adviser. And the factors that draw in foreign countries—a commitment to humanitarian values, the exhibition of diplomatic prowess, and the forestalling of contagion—also encourage outsiders to seek negotiation. Orchestrating talks towards an end like the one brokered in Lebanon requires strong nerves and stomachs. Civil wars tend to end as messily as they are fought. Negotiations often take place in parallel with combat. For years Nepalese guerrillas negotiated with the government while also pummelling it, finally signing a peace deal in 2006. The prospect of an ending can quite often intensify the fighting. Sometimes the dispute is so intractable that no agreed solution short of the break-up of the state seems possible. Wars of identity—those in which populations are mobilised by grievances that have ripened over decades or centuries—are the most likely to belong to this category. The drawbacks to partitions in such cases, especially where they require large-scale population movements, are well rehearsed. Sects and tribes are rarely neatly divided, waiting for a line to be drawn between them. Separating them, if need be by force, will make some safer, but it will cause others great misery and may well spark new conflicts. When Pakistan split from India, it was saddled with a coup-prone state and a war in Kashmir. And many nations with fissiparous tensions at home recoil from the idea of any partition anywhere, lest it be seen as a precedent. Ancient grudge Still, some break-ups do make sense. South Sudan’s government is lousy, and fighting continues along the border set up with the rest of Sudan two years ago. But most independent observers agree that the south made the right choice in negotiating to split off. The Arab elite in the north was never going to change its murderous attitude toward black southerners that brought about decades of miserable war and the death of 2m people. And there is little worry that South Sudan will look so attractive as to encourage secession elsewhere. Few minorities would accept such pain to win a seat at the UN. In talks aimed at a one-state solution, history suggests that several things can better the odds of success. The prospect of UN blue helmets is one. Combatants often require security guarantees. In Bosnia the outgunned Muslims could only imagine resting what rusty arms they had when assured of protection by trusted outsiders. In conflicts where parties agree not just to pause but also to disarm—thus further reducing the chances of more war—this is essential. Guerrillas worry that, without weapons, they will face oppression once again and stash some away. Since its founding, the UN has completed 53 peacekeeping missions (see chart 2). The 15 ongoing ones employ almost 100,000 in uniform. Civilian mediators can be useful too, sometimes opening up negotiating tracks states cannot, and being trusted to operate without their own political agenda. Another essential in peace negotiations is combatants’ acceptance, at least privately, that the hope of winning has died away. Anyone still contemplating victory will find negotiated compromises unbearable. Were fighters to listen to the experts with the databases, they would come to the table earlier; a majority of victories come in the first year of a civil war. But most cling to their original dreams long after all possibility of attaining them has faded. Only when the fighters have been disillusioned, can mediators get to work—and then only for a limited period. Civil wars unresolved for more than a decade seem to drag on for ever, with both sides resigned to perpetual fighting, too disgusted or exhausted to face their enemies across the negotiating table. The armed conflict in the dense mountains of Colombia has been going since 1964. In some cases causality may run the other way. Conflicts last because they are unresolvable. And conflicts recrudesce, too. Peace settlements can break down; indeed some worry that, at the moment, it is particularly easy for rebels to go back to war. Heavy weapons are easier to come by than once they were and insurgency tactics have been refined in Iraq and elsewhere.Glooming peace One reason for backsliding is that peace often fails to bring the prosperity that might give it lasting value to all sides. Power-sharing creates weak governments; nobody trusts anyone else enough to grant them real power. Poor administration hobbles business. Ethnic mafias become entrenched. Integration is postponed indefinitely. Lacking genuine political competition, with no possibility of decisive electoral victories, public administration in newly pacified nations is often a mess. Lebanon is a prime example. When the sects carved up power in 1989 they fixed quotas for all public bodies. Even department heads in the telecoms regulatory authority are appointed according to a religious formula. Loyalty is to sects, not the public. Services are virtually non-existent; reliable electricity supplies are rare. The latest government fell in March and nothing has replaced it. Still, many Lebanese prefer this state of affairs to the bloodletting of the 1980s. Better to condemn one’s children to a poorly run country than to endanger their lives. The question of how outsiders can push settlements along is among the trickiest in international relations. One idea is to engineer a change in leadership. Warlords who start conflicts are rarely prepared to admit that they cannot win, and their charisma can be central to the cause. The capture of Abdullah Ocalan by Turkish forces in 1999 was such a blow to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party that peace talks have been going on ever since. Peru’s Shining Path withered after the 1992 capture of Abimael Guzmán. Leadership changes are a factor in the termination of between 25% and 40% of civil wars, according to James Fearon, a professor at Stanford University. Changing leaders is not the only way to intervene. By using military power or curtailing the flow of money, outsiders can engineer what scholars call a “mutually hurting stalemate”. In this neither side can advance and the cost of holding tight is high—making peace the least bad option. The NATO air campaign in 1999 against Serbia to protect Albanians in neighbouring Kosovo is an example; bombs rained down on his capital until Milosevic caved in. In 1980 Britain ended Zimbabwe’s civil war by simultaneously squeezing the government and persuading Mozambique and Zambia to threaten to end the aid that they supplied to the rebels making gains in the field. Mutually hurting stalemates are hard to bring about. Knowing that the enemy is under the cosh can tempt embattled combatants to hold out. Separate measures are needed for the two sides. Governments often need less pressure, since they find stalemates painful in themselves. Without full control of their territory, legitimacy seeps away. This weakens them and encourages others who have grievances to make a stand, adding to the problems. Rebels, on the other hand, may require extra pressure, since they are less likely to find a stalemate intrinsically painful. Fighting becomes their raison d’être; keeping the ability to fight on is all they need. “The guerrilla wins if he does not lose,” noted Henry Kissinger. “The conventional army loses if it does not win.” The trickiest part for outsiders is getting both sides into painful positions at the same time. It is easy for the combatants to perceive advantages on their side, or the other, which are not there. It gets a lot easier when one side is willing to accept, tacitly at least, the need for a negotiated peace, and starts to act in ways that stabilise a stalemate, rather than seeking to break out of one. So its forces might conquer territory and then withdraw in order to show strength and willingness to compromise. Or it might counter enemy attacks with enough force to check them, but without following through in a way that escalates the fight. Foreign intelligence can be useful in calibrating such fine-tuned actions. Mr Husseini, who helped bring peace to Lebanon, says he knew the years of pleading were finally getting results when the militias stopped receiving money from abroad. He never won any prize for his role; the militias eventually pushed him out of politics. Sitting in his home under a picture of Pope John Paul II, he wonders how many more people could have been saved if the guns had fallen silent earlier. The imposing view of the Mediterranean he once enjoyed from his flat is a distant memory, blocked by new buildings. It doesn’t matter, he says. After all, construction shows that Lebanon has regained a measure of peace and prosperity. It even manages to offer refuge to a million Syrians who have fled their own civil war.
  14. OOahmnnn. I will try the wisdom of walking away. Though, thats not been working well this week. IB has sent me 3 PM posts in my mail box, which I haven't answered. Each tends to dwell on how much I need to be prayed for and mentions how a sand bag and bucket won't stop a tsunami. And 2 or 3 onboard posts ending similarly. Thus I'd like to say 'Fuck Off you jerk', but I think he'd welcome the attention and warmed by the thought somehow.
  15. Haiku Chain

    music to my ears bliss fills my empty bo-nes quiet mind reflects
  16. Turning vegetarian - need advice

    I'm a meat eater, no I'm a omnivore. Yet I think the vegetarian life style is morally superior. My yard stick being- If you don't have to hurt something than don't. Its a simple moral code I don't live up. I don't think Meat is Murder or people should look down on people who eat meat, but I look up to people who vegetarian. I think they cause less pain in the world. Here: I think a group that is vegetarian, one that is sensitive enough and cares enough about the welfare of animals is much less likely to treat humans so horrendously. <In advance> there's an old canard about Hitler being a vegetarian, he wasn't, he liked blood sausages. Disregarding that, I'd wager your vegetarian group is more peaceful then a carnivorous one. Undoubtedly there are exceptions, but as a rule I'm guessing. While I'm generally on the side of those who think vegetarians are better for the environment. I just saw a TED video that showed movement of large herds, were vital in keeping areas from desertification and the solution to counter growing deserts was moving large herds through dry areas periodically. Thus huge herds of cattle may well hold the power to regreen large swatches of earth.
  17. the tao bums map

    Hmmn, maybe we need a new map. I wonder if it could be owned by the Tao Bums inclusively instead of a random member (or Sean or a mod). If so we could start it on a new thread. What'ya think?
  18. the tao bums map

    Good question. In the it past it was clearly shown and easy. I wonder if google changed something? Our more advanced members are like islands onto themselves and simply float above.
  19. the tao bums map

    bump http://www.mapservices.org/myguestmap Its been a little over 2 years since the last post here. I think its time to get a few new faces on the map.
  20. Anarchy - A Way of Living

    If followed this would be the end of the cop and court TV dramas.
  21. Politics and voting

    In the past I've been against this due the philosophy there may be experienced member who get things done. Now I'm not so sure. We've got too many professional politicians. Maybe 2 term limit, 3 at the most.
  22. I've seen pages filled with different sized words, kinda like a mind map. The words are the most often used in the blog and link to threads. Not exactly sure what I'm talking about, but someone more net savvy might. If it exists and is easy to implement we could have a link to it on top. Though I fear the biggest word would be Mo Pai and The Pit
  23. Hoshin Fest 2008

    For those who may not realize it, you can highlight the letter groups, right click, then hit the 'Search google for-' and it'll dig up the youtube. At least I can with Firefox.
  24. I found some of the circular movements in GoT were close to moves we'd practice in Ki-Aikido. Very 'tenkan'-ish <entering and turn Aikido term> circles. In various practices I'd gotten a good feeling for relaxation and extension, but GoT exercises gave an unusual view on <I'm probably not describing this well> sort of resting your hand or foot firmly on the air. You can't stand on a column of air, but after the course I got a better sense of being able to use an invisible column of air to balance on. For example some of the 'bird frolick' chi gung have you standing on one leg. Which I usually did wobbly. The insight on balance helped me do such forms easier.