thelerner

No, you're generalizing and trivializing. Unless you spend your time with people close to death or in the actual experience of dying you don't know what your talking about, seeing it through the fuzzy lense of abstract philosophy. The whole world is not a hospice. If you spent time in one, volunteered there for a few hours a week, you'll see there a vast difference. We ignore death and take life, health, time, flowers, touch sight, the sun, the wind, chocolate and a thousand things for granted. In a hospice its different. Time, health, loved ones are no longer taken for granted, mental masturbations are often dropped. You want you questions about life and death answered. Find a local hospice, roll up your sleeves, drop pretensions and go there to listen, learn and be. I guarantee you'll find your answers. <or your money back>

I'm reminded of my sister. She has an active fear of death. Because of it she volunteers at a hospice. Beyond theory and conjecture, a real practice, that puts you on the front line, no where to hide. Want to know how to die- Volunteer at one. Be with the dying. No theorizing.. being..compassion, being..real.

We might want to consider what aspect of Dying he's looking to explore. Physical, afterlife, spirituality of acknowledgement, etc., Tao can be as slippery a concept as god. Rambling on.. How to die? I didn't know how to get born either. It just happened (as far as I know). Eating, drinking, sex..happens, I learn on the fly, follow nature, sometimes get advice from a friend or a book. Death is a great unknown. It's not a horse to be ridden, its ..the opposite of birth.(?) Without experiential reference we're trusting (blindly) in a religious or philosophical source. Living with a certain awareness and calm acceptance of death may be our best bet. Though there are practices such phowa, certain dream yoga and deep taoists practices that might give us trial runs at experiencing death. Or those practices might be complicated illusions we fool ourselves with. In any case, calm acceptance is the low fruit on the tree. Simple but not easy. Where ever ones inquiry leads, I think we have to pick that fruit first.

As I understand it, Kenneth Cohen is by no means alone, traditional Taoism was decidedly anti grain. Bigu style diet? I thought bigu meant no food.

Along came Sir Spidum who sat down beside him and said..

Welcome to the board. I think your experience echoes many here. Looking at 'systems' and ending up with simplicity. One of our old members became a free lance writer. She's written some good articles on the trials and tribulations of it. She hasn't posted here lately, but here is her blog: http://yaelwrites.com/

I'd bite you. One last taste of hot flowing blood. Give me something interesting to look at as I pass away.

Hmnn sometimes on the bums we call this Tulkuism. "God is My Partner, My Lover, My Spouse" Nothing wrong with this. It's a good positive statement. Me and God we're mates. A+ then it gets darker with- "Only God is Worthy of becoming My Partner, My Lover, My Spouse" There are some great people in this world, holy worthy ones. People who could teach you and love you. The 'Only' here feels like you're closing your mind and heart to them. Mistake. Many ways to see and feel God; one of the best is to see him in others. Personally I don't think the world is an illusion, but in some ways its a mirror. "No human on earth is worthy of becoming My Partner, My Lover, My Spouse" Again closing your mind and heart to others. I don't think you mean to say others aren't as 'worthy' as you, but that's a bit how it comes across. Get too snobbish and even God won't want to be in your company , he may be picky too. Perhaps going for those Taoish types who aren't so judgmental, who sit around drinking tea and appreciating Gods green earth. "Can no human on earth understand this simple wisdom?" Grandiose statement. The unspoken is poor me, no one understands me. Grow up, take responsibility. If you want to leave society to deepen your practice, great. But this isn't it, this is shouting 'Look at Me. Look at me, a sentiment that is the bottom basement of spirituality. Is your focus God or what anonymous people on a website think?

Strange I didn't think we were talking the Iraq war. Does the Iraq war = all conspiracy theories are real in your mind? (I really hate to bring it up but if you'd studied the war you could find out who killed whom.) Similarly if one doubts a conspiracy then its time to throw up the usual smoke screen. If you can't explain yourself then cut and paste enough so that reasonable people won't argue with you because your points are all over the place. A bomb goes off, kills people. Conspiracy theorists already know the answer, before it happened, because they only have one answer. Just one, there hammer, its a government conspiracy! It doesn't matter what happened, when or what was involved they have there hammer. All who disagree are sheeple. Those who don't agree with there one constant answer don't get it. Questioned or presented with facts they trot out a trusty cut and paste which guarantees people won't answer back because it'll take too frickin long to fully answer there smoke screen. That's because history is complicated. The world is too. I find the fall back the victor writes history is a cop out. Real history can be known. Real historians do long hard study, not of the official story, but letters, diaries, profiles of the people involved backed up by learning what the times were like instead of imagining everything was just like now. Ofcourse real historians are the anathema generally of conspiracy theorist, they simple know too much, have studied history from different angles, whereas the theorists only have one. Every few months I'll slog through Jones or Ickes sites feeling like I've been slimed. To live constantly reading and believing these sites is to live in a horror show with death and deceit around every corner. Every six months its the same screaming End of the World droll.. constant.. I've charged that conspiracy theorists, particularly the 'true believers' tend to be paranoid and depressed. Am I wrong? For those who immediately jump on the Alex Jones train of conspiracy- do they thing that's true?

True, history and (at times apparent) necessity makes for strange bedfellows. The 'Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend' is a logic fraught with peril and short term thinking. The rules work both ways. Yesterdays friends are tomorrows enemies. Still we're at peace, perhaps luke warm but peace with Russia, China, Japan, Germany thats something. Europe is at peace and that's not much on the horizon that'll drag it into internecine war, that's almost a historic anomaly. It was 22 years between WWI and WWII and in the last 68 years there hasn't been a global conflagration. Though the cold war fought through proxies in the 3rd world was terrible and bloody but nowhere near what a world type war would have been even without nuclear weapons. I'd add I don't agree about the convenient scapegoats. Afghanistans were fighting a 'hot' war w/ Russia, we were fighting a cold war. They would lost or had a longer bloodier stale mate w/out American arms. We provided it, it made sense at the time. Conspiracy Theorists consider everyone, nations and people to be foolish and naive. Thus Osama Bin Laden becomes a scape goat, a stupid manipulated idiot. The fact is its not true, he was intelligent, charismatic. Ruthless and murderous ofcourse he hated Saudi Arabia and American and dreampt like many Islamist of creating a new Caliphate in the Middle East. Reality is twisted and coincidences overblown inorder to produce the paranoid outcomes.

FWIW, I think conspiracy theorists are for the most part depressed, paranoid and nuts. The 'kind' more likely to do harm by sending ricin packed envelopes like the Elvis impersonator then government officials. I think most terrorists are not in the government camp, but in yours, though the worst is probably a government official, on any side, who believes paranoid ranting that some bathe in daily. The extreme 'true believers' who are driven to murder and madness.

Seems to me there's a certain wisdom in knowing..one doesn't know. You can have a great theory, something some one, maybe wise wrote down, maybe its true, maybe not. You really don't know. I think Samurai is being simple and truthful, without theory or supposition. Also many traditions are to be at peace with death, not figure how to cheat it or get around it but enter it mindfully, see where, if any place, it takes us. Our tools are meditation, a quiet mind and contemplation of nature, change and death. Personally I often start meditation with a Vispasana practice of 'I am not my body (I am that which inhabits it), I am not my-thoughts, emotions, past, future, possessions etc., Are you aiming us at Tibetan Phowa practices? That may be the way.. or not. Without a real teacher and some dedicated decades of practice we won't know.

Does that pass the 'Opposite of a great truth is another great truth' test? I think so.

Before looking at esoteric energy problems and TCM solutions I suggest looking at the mundane. Look closely at what exercises you're doing. Maybe have an educated watch you do them and see your rep schedule. You may have a favorite exercise or system thats not good for you. Breaking your body down faster then your it rebuilds. That could be the cause of your vicious cycle. I'd start there first. People can get a little too hung up over retention issues. When things break down, slow down, take time to rejuvenate. FWIW when I had bad back problems the lasting solution I found was to build up strength and flexibility.

Good thing you're not in Tibet.

What individual freedoms are you being kept from? You want to wear different colored socks check. You want others to wear different colored socks, uhm okay you have the freedom to start a a like minded group. There's already a company called Little Miss Match that's beaten to the marketing angle. What other freedoms? You want to pay less taxes. Join the club. How much do you pay now in total and as a percent and how much would you prefer? Note if your parents or grandparents are getting Big Society benefits like medicaid and social security how much would like to cut it by? Why do you think being labeled an eccentric or hippie is bad? In the U.S being against the government is pretty much the norm. If you dress yourself, you can dress how you like. But you can't control what other people think. If they they don't like it, you can them sheeple, but you can't pull a fascist trick of declaring everyone should think just like you do.

Mwandui's?? More like Yoda's do they sound.

Mulberry's expensive? In the Midwest they're everywhere, a regular weed tree. Good eating too. The berries are dark juicy and sweet. One taste and you know they're doing something good for you.

There are those who live very well by intuition. They escape the mental clutter of- what should I do now, what is all the evidence?. They trust their gut, live in peace and make smart decisions. Its a good trick, not every can do it. Some fool themselves, live by intuition and repeatedly have bad outcomes.

You first; its not really a good look for me. Though you have a point, nudists have nothing to hide. Why not..seems to me most 'primitive' tribes wear at least something covering there privates. Probably a sexual thing, hard to be a teen boy in a naked world and it may not get that much better with age. The other side of the coin is, what's hidden is sensual. Thus woman (&men) adorn and use clothes for to display stature.

There is much disparity between religious/(traditional?) Taoists beliefs and philosophical ones. Taoism, it seems to me, contains a wide, at times, disparate group of beliefs. What are the core beliefs? Bonus question. How much has Taoism picked up from other religions, Shamanism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Shinto and how much has it influenced them?

I've seen some crazy 'testing' in upper level silat. One was jumping off a high platform. I think it was about 20 or 25 feet high. For the record the ground was probably moist with some give and the practitioners were young and very thin. Still, thats something that couldn't be faked, taking nerve and training.

From what I've heard, many times what people consider Kundalini is not the 'real thing' ie full blown Kundalini, thats not to say its not a profound experience, just not the drastic evolutionary floodgate of K. I have similar thoughts about the Microcosmic orbit. There's the feeling both internal and external from nerve activation that is similar to an open Microcosmic orbit, but its not the light up of getting the full orbit open and flowing.

Hmnn, like the ghosts in the machine are everywhere, localized fields of influence.?

Not so fast. What's Tao and Dharma; keep it under 500 pages .