Apech

Thanks Tao99 that's really helpful. By the way does everyone know about this website: TTC translations you can compare different translations easily.

back to sleep again never liked the waking state cos it's such a yawn.

rises as mind full fresh light whips the ragged air a victory flag

As with many of these claims I often wonder why people aren't picking up Nobel Prizes left right and centre if all the claims are true. My view generally is that people cure themselves and the therapy can just give them the conditions/confidence - or release the blocks that prevent the body from doing this itself. I've seen a lot of TV programmes where a mainstream doctor says this or that is impossible because they don't recognise the mechanism. But if you start from the view that the body/being is a self healing mechanism then you can understand why/how certain things might work - but they won't work clinically because many people don't (in the centre of their will) want to be healed - they have given up at a deep level - while others perform miracle cures.

Thanks Shaktimama for that explanation. I think I can understand what is happening - but it seems a little brutal or perhaps gross (in the old sense of the word). But if it works - it works I guess. I don't think I will be rushing down to London to have a go though. Cheers A7.

Yep its the current which would do the damage since that's the actual flow of electrons. Voltage is comparable to pressure in a water system and current the amount of water flowing. Can anyone explain what it is supposed to do for you ... maybe its worth the risks (?)

The seekers whispered amongst each other - saying "we know a test when we see one". "No we will not leave," said their spokeman, " Lead us to real happiness oh wise one." "Happiness, schmappiness, well what can I do?" the Sage shrugged and raised his eyes to heaven.

First thing - buy her a nice handbag and purse - just shoving dollar bills in your bra makes you look a bit common. A nice warm thermal vest for the winter would also help.

Hey I want my 20 volts back!

Oh no!

nothing stays the same... nothing, nothing and nothing please give us a break!

Hi, Have you read Eva Wong's Cultivating Stillness. In this book the Earlier Heaven is described as follows: "The pa-k'ua of Earlier Heaven describes an ideal state of existence, when everything is in harmony and connected to the Tao." - pg xix intro In Chapter 12 "Stillness and Original Nature" it says this: "When yang reaches its zenith, yin is born. When you are absolutely still, everything is at rest. When yin reaches its zenith, yang is born. When pure yang emerges, your intuition will pierce through all that is impermanent. All meridians will flow toward the Origin, and the five virtues of Earlier Heaven will emerge." p. 76 I don't know if this helps with your question and I can't find a reference to Earlier Heaven as stillness but it seems from this book that yin and yang (or Heaven and Earth) are in a state of mutual harmony where they feed each other so to speak - giving energy and stillness together. Cheers. A.

After they sat down in a comfortable place one seeker raised his hand. "Yes?" asked the Sage. "Um ... if Bunny the librarian would like to join our quest would it be all right if she sat on my lap?" asked the young seeker. "Silly boy!" tutted the Sage.

Been thinking about straw dogs while the board was down: I would be disappointed if 'straw dog' turned out to be wrong as Taomeow suggests - but only because I think it is a very useful image. I think there is a tendency to think that it just means 'worthless' because of its nature as a sacrificial image. But if you think about it this is not quite right. If it is the case that the 'straw dogs' were made as substitutes for real, possibly human, sacrifices then they are not entirely worthless since they at least fulfil the purpose for which they are made. The time at which they become worthless is when they have been used. Then having been offered up, they are trampled under foot and forgotten, or so we are told. If they work as sacrifices, that is if they are acceptable to the gods, or thought to be so by those doing the offering then at that time they have value. I would compare this to holding in your hand a 100$ note say (I didn't say 100 GBP because you might think this is worthless anyway ha ha). The 100$ note is valuable because you can buy food, clothes or whatever with it, so if you look at it one way then it has face value. On the other hand if you look at it as an object - as a piece of paper with print on it it has almost no intrinsic value at all. The straw dog is a kind of unit of currency in the field of sacrifices - acceptable to both those who offer and the gods who are receiving the offering - but, like the 100$ note has no intrinsic value and is simply thrown away after use. Its worth is temporary and is not derived from its intrinsic nature but simply from the use to which it is put. If you read TTC 5 in this way then you could say that heaven and earth having created the 10k things because of their temporary functional value have no investment in those things once this value has been exhausted and they become disposable. There is no sentiment about these things they arise and then fall away and that's how it is. The sage deals with people in the same way. That is without sentiment. They come to him and he deals with them in a sage like manner. When they depart, they depart and the sage does not dwell on this or create any kind of attachment (sorry about the word with strong Buddhist connections I was trying to avoid it but it slipped in) to them as people. This makes sense to me - but I bow to Taomeow on the translation thing cos my knowledge of Chinese language is precisely zero (well perhaps 0.0001).

Phew! I had booked myself into rehab - the TB withdrawal symptoms were extreme - can't tell you how much I miss this place when its not there. Thanks be to Sean!

will he come back as...? an atheist who doubts all even his rebirth?

Grassicide If he had meant 'straw dogs' then would the text have been different?

every hair stands up! a vixen cries in the dark... we stop and listen.

I found quite an interesting commentary here : Friesian Tao which suggests that Ch. 5 is sometimes translated in what I would call a politically correct way because the message is so strong. I think that to say heaven and earth are 'not kind' or 'not benevolent' means that they do not bend to human sensibilities. If they did there would be no earth quakes in Haiti, no tsunamis or storms or anything that threatened human beings. The 10,000 things, the objects manifest by heaven and earth are straw dogs - that is objects sacrificed to a higher purpose ( that of heaven) - that is their value does not come from anything inherent in themselves - they are made of straw that is hollow and with little value. The sage in dealing with 'people' - that is beings who are fully identified with their egos does not pander to their selfish, greedy, jealous and petty concerns. He may teach them how to move on from this state which they find themselves in - and this teaching might be quite tough - but he does not lower himself through misplaced kindness to protect them from the affects of their own behaviour. Anyone who has met a good teacher will know that they are tough in this kind of way. Its a harsh message I suppose but that's the point!

Hi GiH, I don't disagree with what you are saying but I still think I am right in that people are using the term 'consciousness' differently and then arguing over definitions. The word 'object' is from L. obiectum - 'a thing thrown, hence put, before, hence a thing presented to one's attention ...' So the objects of consciousness are thrown or projected into view, so to speak. The 'ob' = before also means 'against' - so we can get the idea of objectors and 'to object' to something. So the objects of consciousness are those things thrown forward to be looked at. So to make consciousness an object would be nonsense, as would the idea that somehow the objective world comes first and consciousness is just a part of that.