doc benway

Who knows, maybe it’ll get me my first gran? ❤️ 🙏🏽

For sean, wishing him good health and gratitude for our little playground

My young uns are still seeing their ❤️ers. Can’t stop em, don’t wanna isolate myself. Gotta draw the line somewhere.

Meditation, both formal and in day to day activity Qigong Internal martial arts

It's wonderful to see all of the different opinions and experiences shared here. In my opinion, Daoism is flexible enough to embrace and support all of us and our various proclivities and opportunities. For the peasant in the fields (or nowadays worker in a factory) who has neither time, education, or opportunity, there can be simple religious rituals, beliefs, and prayers offering profound support. For the intellectual, Daoism provides a philosophical and scientific framework that is extraordinarily sophisticated and comprehensive. For those suited to physical training, there are wonderful practices and methods; and for those more suited to inward investigation, superb methods of inner work. Not unlike Buddhism, where there are '84,000' teachings to address all possible needs, Daoism lacks nothing and can provide anyone with support and guidance. My own teacher is from Taiwan and identifies as Daoist. He spent the majority of his life as a practitioner and teacher of martial arts and is strongly devoted to the deities and rituals associated with martial arts and his martial and meditation lineages. He utilizes methods of divination and geomancy when called for and is even a bit superstitious. He is very proud of his Daoist heritage and considers the highest possible objective of a Daoist to be personal transformation through inner work. He has little interest in philosophy and little regard for those who focus on theory over experiential practices. Consequently, my own approach to Daoism has been primarily experiential, meditation being my primary connection. Other practices are very supportive - taijiquan, xingyiquan, baguazhang, and qigong; but secondary. I have very little connection to or interest in theory, religious ritual, geomancy, divination, etc.. Not saying this is better or worse, good or bad, just how I have happened to connect based on my personal proclivities and opportunity. The beauty of Daoism for me is that through personal practice the labels and definitions of Daoism fall away and dissolve into truth, and that truth is not distinct from the truth pointed to by other Daoist paths or unrelated traditions.

"Why waste all this time in the clouds if you can dwell in the sun?" ~ His Holines the 33th Menri Trizin Lungtok Tenpai Nyima Rinpoche

One of my business partners has clearcut symptoms of Covid19 right now and tested negative. His investigation among healthcare providers at our local institutions and labs reveals that Covid19 testing locally appears to have a 20-30% false negative rate. This means that 20-30% of people who HAVE Covid19 will erroneously test NEGATIVE.

Not to change the topic or anything, but...

Who knew he was so prescient?

I clicked! And listened! The 69, or what Star and GSM might refer to as Heavenly Yin-Yang... 🙈🧐😜 🤣🤣🤣

Iron palm!!! 🤣🤣🤣

Full disclosure... the shit can be a little entertaining.... Oh wait, that’s not what I meant! 🤣

I’ll join y’all in a bowl... 🥦🔥😤😏 Oh wait... 🤣

And all that said, I still do value very much that you shared your experience. I know enough not to simply agree or adopt their perspective, therefore I can use their perspective without necessarily compromising my own. It can help me to see opportunity for my own deeper exploration.

Qi is about direct, personal experience and everyone has a unique experience and response. Given the title of this thread, a suggestion I have is to simply try it. Go for a long, slow, mindful walk with and without footwear. Of course there will be many variable but this isn't a scientific study,. just an opportunity to feel. This approach is good with everything, meaning - open your awareness, try and sense things in different ways. Awareness and Qi are intimately related. We can put labels on experience but at the end of the day, the effects relative to Qi for silent thunder's barefoot walk and my own could be completely different. It curious how often we debate or try to agree on how something affects Qi, as if it would be similar or equivalent for different people. In my experience, it's not like that at all. It's a solo path. That may be, in part, because I was blessed with teachers who insisted I do the work and draw my own conclusions rather than accept some theoretical doctrine or agree on a party line. PS - I was typing while ST posted, my words above are not meant as a criticism of his teachers' recommendations

He looks like he's not taking it as seriously as the other two

Be guy #2

One thing that made me laugh today is the ridiculous amount of time and energy many of us waste here fighting with each other. Rome is burning and we have nothing better to do than scream at each other about our thoughts for hours on end... It really is fucking hilarious!

Tibetan Bönpos also see the world through shamanic eyes. There are spirits in everything - when human activity disturbs these spirits and beings they can harm us. This is the foundation for the current recommendation that Bönpos engage in tantric practices such as the one I referenced earlier.

Unlike Covid, the viruses here are effortlessly ignored... Otherwise an apt description.

To my knowledge there are no mods currently It is a challenging position but somewhat fun and rewarding. People are deeply attached to their perspectives and entrenched in their behaviors. Some are malicious and some simply unable to change. You can't please everyone and need to simply be OK with that. Every now and then people will show some appreciation. It's also fun to get a peak behind the scenes. I was a mod with a handful of other members for a year or so. We developed a nice relationship and our friendships persist to this day. I think you have the mindset to be a superb moderator and would encourage you send a PM to @sean if you are genuinely interested. Although, I don't know what's in his mind. He may prefer to simply let things play out as is currently happening.

Dancing is great for the stress and fear

Very glad you and your son seem to have made it through! 🙏🏽 Thank you for sharing your experience.