thelerner

I also bought Ralstons books in the early 90's. Good stuff. The writing is a bit wordy, but I like the depth he goes to on principles. The simple things, how do you walk, how do you express power. I liked watching him on the video, he's willing to move, willing to be pushed, while keeping control, balance and a sense of play. Very nice. Michael

Sure, as long as it didn't run Microsoft, cause having to reboot constantly would be a pain On second thought, I never get software or hardware ver 1.0 in any case. Best to wait til the bugs are ironed out. Still I have glasses, dental things in my mouth..so I'm moving in the cyborg direction already.

Changes take action, moving in a different direction w/ optimism. Changing the state of mind with The Secret Smile is a uniquely positive charging practice that has helped many people, if they do it regularly. I recommend doing it or a shortened version each time you use the wash room. Changing the state of the body w/ regular exercise, or tai chi, chi gung, long walks etc. Here is a link: http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?/topic/9719-dr-morriss-secret-smile-breathing-basic-kap-1-giri-for-the-tao-bumbs/page__p__116420__hl__secret%20smile__fromsearch__1entry116420 Another Post on Getting Rid of Negative Energy: http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?/topic/13624-easy-ways-to-get-rid-of-negative-energy-and-build-positive-energy/page__p__176084__fromsearch__1entry176084 Michael

My vote (most of the time) is 'chaotic pattern of human nature'. What some see as Illuminati forces at work, for example trying to take over the Middle East, can really be about an insecure son trying to one up his Dad, biasing himself toward evidence that supports his almost unconscious need. That is a conspiracy in its own way, but the roots are simpler and more pathetic then a grand unified scheme. I find the people most invested in the conspiracy camps (& I have several friends who are) tend to be poor predictors of the future. I think its because they read history through too simplistic a lense. Like religious fundamentalists the reason for big events is because THEY planned it and THEY did it. Without investigating and weighing all the elements at work, they miss pieces of the big picture. Michael

Brilliant IMHO

The Chi Nei Tsang people have a good guided meditation on bone breathing. Its 30 minutes and takes you slowly through your skeletal system, lighting it up. Indepth on the skull creating awareness of the suture's in it and how they move with the breath. Even moves and lights up (strengthening?) the teeth which is nice Here is a link http://www.chineitsang.com/cnti/Bone_Dreaming.html Michael

and the winner of this weeks Godwin's law prize goes to... Ralis Godwins: "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1." circa 1990

As far as green super foods, we tend to ignore the cheap common ones and put our attention on the expensive and exotic. I just made an avocado/spinach/banana shake. Delicious, quick and gave me the nutrient profile of avocado's healthy fats and spinach's high nutritional profile. Michael

Oldie but goodie. I read it a two decades or so again and appreciated it, but lacked the discipline. Over the years, I've seen those who 'just stand' make wonderful progress mentally and spiritually. These days I like listening to Rawn Clark's meditations in the Archaeous series and stand during the 15 minutes its on. I'll also spend a few minutes in the morning standing before the rising sun, breathing the fresh air. Michael

Minke De Vos has a CD w/ guided meditation Full Body Smile, that delves into the organs and there 'taoists' natures and is very well done. Its on her Tao Basics CD. She's at Silent Ground and is from the Healing Tao tradition. Michael

Vortex, what do you consider to be static stillness? How do you practice it? Michael

We can learn from the TTC to greet life with equanimity. But (most of us) aren't sages. My goal as father is to be a good father, as business man to be an excellent business man, etc. The universe can deal with its stuff, I'll deal with mine . Life and 99.999% of beings on the planet don't care about my day, but that doesn't effect its meaning to me, I have to create my own meanings and learn to be true to myself. Michael

I can't help but think you'd have a lot of awkward explaining to do if you started drawing pentagrams at most cemetery I like walking through cemeteries, very peaceful. It also focuses the mind on impermanence of things or as a friend said 'Reminds you to hit the bars while you can cause there ain't no beer in heaven'.

I say- I'd rather hang out with Buddha then a mad dog- and its the people I choose to hang out with, that make life worthwhile. There is something amazing about this post. Right now it shows 4 replies and no views!?? Existential indeed

I disagree, without checking on sources outside yourself, we are biased to think 'We' are right. I like Daniel Reid, so he must be right. No. Sometimes he's wrong. Unless we're very careful, what we think of as personal experimentation is an exercise in self misdirection to show we're right. Its a matter of the right tool for the right job. The doctor who Reid bases his thoughts on had a preconceived idea. He killed 100's of cats in order to prove that idea was right. Others keep it alive because it fits there preconceived ideas. I don't mean to set myself as a hard core skeptic here. I come to tao bums for uncommon sense (and I often find it), but there's something about the milk and cats study I found particularly disturbing. Like pulling the legs off a fly and deducing it keeps them hearing. Except this was killing off 100's of cats. (*&()(*& Michael

Its ironic you use a picture of Schwarzenegger as an example because he admittedly used steroids, I don't know about the person in the modern picture, but Schwarzenegger started in his teens. Secondly, may I point out that the problem with seeing healthy seniors and less healthy youngsters in the pharmacy could do due to the fact the unhealthy seniors died or are non ambulatory. Whereas unhealthy younger people keep mozying around. Still, in general our life styles and diet is probably sub par to older generations. But much of that is personal choice, a little research and will power and I'd stack this and future generations up against the best of any. Michael

I read somewhere the experiment as described in Daniel Reids book had been debunked, though I just tried to find out where in a quick search of the internet and couldn't. For the record I like Reids books, but he does over reach sometimes, cherry picking some info on mega vitamins etc. Found it: http://www.beyondveg.com/tu-j-l/raw-cooked/raw-cooked-1h.shtml Quick cut and paste: Was Pottenger's cooked diet detrimental because it was "dead" or simply deficient? One might argue in response here that commercial feeds are not simply cooked food--they are supplemented as well. But this, then, simply demonstrates it is not that the food is somehow "dead" (as raw-fooders often term cooked food) that is the underlying problem, but rather that the diet fed by Pottenger was deficient in some way. And we shall see later that cooked diets--in humans, at least--are not necessarily more deficient than raw ones. Moreover, one cannot compare pet diets--particularly cat diets--with cooked human diets, which are less monotonous and hence provide a larger variety of nutrients. (Cats are true carnivores, humans are omnivores eating a much wider range of foods.) To put it plainly: cats are cats, humans are humans, and there are significant differences between the two. Such considerations, therefore, suggest that--since domestic cats reproduce prolifically on today's cooked-food pet diets (to the point that everyone is urged to spay and neuter their cats to prevent severe overpopulation)--Pottenger's cats suffered not due to some magically bad toxic effects of cooking, or because the food was "dead," but rather from nutritional deficiencies in the diets fed by Pottenger. # The cat feeding studies were apparently never replicated or confirmed by any other study. It's worth remarking once again, here, that the reliance on old scientific studies that haven't been updated or confirmed--especially citing a single study without mentioning the context of the rest of the scientific literature on that subject--is a weakness of several other rawist arguments. Sentiment among some raw-fooders seems to be that there must be some secret scientific conspiracy to ignore the Pottenger experiment. But if the experiment has been relegated to the dustbin by science--at least in terms of its applicability to humans--the reason is far more logically the one which follows next. # Cats are not an appropriate experimental animal model applicable to humans. Even if one assumes the study to have been a valid one (as far as it went, at least), the decisive and most fundamental criticism of the validity of the Pottenger's Cats experiment is that cats are not used by researchers as an experimental model for humans because the results cannot be extrapolated to human beings with any confidence. More common animal models for which results may have greater relevance for humans are mice, rats, and particularly primates, who are omnivores rather than carnivores as cats are. # Differences between cats and humans. Cats, being total carnivores, have special nutritional needs in certain respects when compared to humans (who are omnivores): They require inositol, which is a B-vitamin; but not vitamin C; they need more protein (25-30%) than humans, a fair amount of fat (15-40%), etc. Recall that the SAD is about 15% protein, and that one can live (on a calorie-adequate diet) with 10% protein or even less without visible signs of deficiencies; and that low-fat diets may be as low as 10% fat. It is true that cats and humans do share some metabolic similarities in certain respects as well. (See Metabolic Evidence of Human Adaptation to Increased Carnivory on this site for examples.) However, given the significant differences, drawing more sweeping conclusions about human nutrition from experiments on cats cannot be given much credibility. Most crucially, of particular note are differences in taurine requirements: * Cats lack the ability to synthesize taurine and require it in their diet. One of the more striking differences between humans and cats is that the latter require taurine in their diet, which they have no ability to synthesize from precursors. While humans and cats are similar in that both have reduced ability to synthesize taurine in their diets compared to herbivores, the key difference is that cats (who are carnivores) have completely lost the ability and must obtain all that they need of it from their diets. (Humans, as omnivores, have retained the ability to synthesize taurine although it is limited and inefficient compared to herbivores.) * Heat-processing negatively affects taurine levels in cats. It has been shown [Hickmann et al. 1990, 1992, Kim et al. 1996a, 1996b] that cats eating heat-processed foods have a lower plasma taurine concentration. The explanation is probably that Maillard reaction products promote an enteric (intestinal) flora that degrades taurine and decreases recycling of taurine by the enterohepatic route. Excessive secretion of the hormone CCK due to a lower protein digestibility might also be another reason [backus et al. 1995]. (Note: "Enterohepatic" recycling occurs when food absorbed in the lower bowel is transported to the liver for storage and/or processing, some of which is released via the bile back into the upper bowel, where it can recycle again.) more then needed but thats the nature of cut and paste.

Quote the penis works in mysterious ways, often without rhyme or reason I like this one. Do you mean the sex drive is potentially still there but "hidden" somewhere? Yup, course if I knew it wouldn't be mysterious. It surges and wanes, often its a relief when its down (less distractions), though you don't want that to be a permanent affair. Time is the greater healer. Worry accomplishes little. Too often we try to fix things when the disease is the cure, telling us to slow down, get some yin. Michael

There was a demonstration at Burning Man I saw, I think by Tantra Nova(google them), of a form of two people rolling dance that was fascinating and may be what you're looking for. They mostly stayed on there feet, but always kept body contact and spun around each other. It looked like fun, but being a single I didn't join in. Michael

For whats its worth. Humor received and appreciated on this end Not every post is a deep philosophical thought. Sometimes we prattle on to lighten things up and its simply funny. Michael Stais, the penis works in mysterious ways, often without rhyme or reason. The sex drive too. There are mental and physical things that effect it, but if you're generally healthy, have faith. You're just on the low end of a wheel, and that wheels always turning.

I wouldn't support ratings. Things get contentious enough sometimes without people voting, lobbying and taking sides. The Bums have thrown the original 'Blogs' into a separate holding pen in the past. I could see doing that with old or untouched personal section blogs. Michael

Ah, Spring, where a young man's interest turns to baseball, girls and what!? I'm no expert (Trunk here has the most input & info on the question) but you seem to be pretty normal to me. I'd drop the obsession w/ retention. Some discipline is good, but at 16 don't be so worried. If there one thing the Tao teaches its that things run in cycles, hot and cold, energetic and lethargic. Westerners tend to think one is better then the other; the more energy the better, it's not always so. My advice: let it be, don't be overly strict with yourself. Go for a walk its a beautiful day. Michael

Shostakovitch was right, the 20th century was bloody almost beyond belief. But you have to look wider then that. Many many great things happening too and continue to happen. Stare too long at the abyss and you hurt your spirit. Ignore it and you lack perspective and reality. Michael Speaking of reality I was just listening to an Podcast called 'Stuff you Missed in History Class', light, short 20 minute, informative, without being stuffy. They have an interesting show called 'What really happened at Kent State'. They cover things from several sides, from who was in the crowd? Who made up the Guard, Who was shot, why.. No definitive answers, but enough depth to flesh out the human dimension.