DaoChild

Awww but manipulation is so fun!

The spine in its natural position has 3 curves, you should maintain those if you want to conserve the long-term health of your back. A "straight" back does not mean straight spine -- for example, while sitting, if your back hurts in the middle it is probably because you are slouching (read: you are tucking your butt and tailbone in, while in reality you should pull your butt out before you sit on a chair in order to align your spine right). If you are doing seated meditation, use a thick cushion, lean forward, pull your butt cheeks back far (as if sticking out your butt to do a squat), and then sit back into your cushion. This maintains the proper spinal curvature and you will not have to force muscles to keep upright posture.

Science tells us that loneliness is a programed condition simply because it's evolutionarily advantageous to work together, find people to reproduce with, hunt together, etc. Yes, hermits absolutely feel loneliness. I remember reading a book or two a while back about some people who went in search of Chinese hermits (Buddhist + Taoist), and the hermits enjoyed having company and mentioned that sometimes it gets lonely. It takes a lot of work and constant interaction to prevent loneliness, and even if you meditate it takes long periods of uninterupted "flow" (read Csikszentmihalyi) to prevent the mind from getting distracted. The hermit only doesn't become lonely because he keeps his mind clear. The natural state of the mind is entropy (chaos), and unless you have fine control over your mind you will naturally fall back into that state.

Sorry -- I don't know how to put multiple quotes in one post, I kept messing it up. The answer to your question: I haven't. I've only just arrived a few weeks ago and I'm going to be spending the next year training and improving chinese. I'll take it from there.

This is awesome -- the same as my personal reason for trying to teach myself to meditate starting when I was 13. "I see very few of these around if any..." Couldn't agree more, and the amount of power you carry when the inside stays undisturbed regardless of the outside is incredible.

Wudang is just as big of a tourist trap as Shaolin. It's run by the government for tourism.

What exactly do you need help with specifically?

I think there is quite a varied set of goals on this forum: I mostly see three types of people: A. People who want to improve their lives or cure some sort of problem B. People who want metaphysical explanations for thing C. People interested in metaphysics and interested in acquisition of "powers" found in folklore My question is this: For you, what's your personal reason for this interest? Having moved to China to study martial arts and taoism more in depth, It really made me realize what I really want and what i'm actually after. IMHO if you are after "powers" or 4 hr / day cultivation, having a family is probably not for you. Nor is having a vibrant social life in addition to being able to work a job. So at what point do we say "this is enough" ? I right now realize that at some point in my life I will have a family, I'll be someone's neighbor, I'll be barbecue-ing. What then is the point of this "other" stuff? Beyond the most basic/profound qualities of Taoism (inner tranquility despite what's going on outside), is anything else useful?

A common recommendation I've heard is to practice an exercise (usually in reference to a new Qigong) 30 minutes daily for 100 days to gauge its effects. Judge it from there.

It only corrects your alignment if you do it properly. Does sitting in a chair or stand or sleeping automatically fix your alignment? No, not unless you sit properly, walk and stand properly, sleep properly. It produces pain if done wrong. I don't know what "correcting your fascia" means.

Thanks for sharing. I'm going to be in Beijing a couple weeks earlier than expected, so I'm going to stop by Wudangshan and Huashan and hike around to check it out. My Chinese is upper beginner right now, 800 characters, so I'll go back to really investigate after a year or so of really intensively studying the language and see what I can find. Keep you posted!

Sure is full, I haven't choked the bald man in about 2 weeks .

Walker, thank you for the notes regarding asthma. I'm in quite good physical shape, but that could obviously determine how my trip in China (and where I live) take shape. I haven't had asthma problems very often as of late, but I am a runner as well, so it's really going to be a tossup regarding how my lungs function when I get there. Fingers crossed, I guess. Hopefully everything works out as it should though..

That about sums up my opinion too. "The great Way is easy, but people prefer the side paths..."

I've taken Mandarin for a year, so I definitely want to keep studying it.. But that's totally what some other people are telling me. I've got quite a laundry list of teachers to check out when I get there, recommended to me from people who are living in China long-term. It should be really fun getting up early to explore the parks in the morning hours.