Encephalon

That could very well be, but if you put his question in context with his others, it looks like more silly gaminess by yet another lost soul who wants to just screw with the board.

I suppose the "other" Bruce - Bruce Lee - is noted for his willingness to both incorporate and discard as pragmatism dictated, although he was eventually scorned by his teacher Yip Man for the way he modified Wing Chun and refused to teach him ever again. Of course, Bruce was a pretty cocky movie star by that point. This is a fascinating subject and if anyone's interested in a similar read there's a chapter called "Epistemological Anarchism: The Philosophy of Jeet Kune Do" in the book "On the Warrior's Path" by Daniele Bolelli. He opens the chapter with three great quotes - Whoever heeds commands does not heed himself. break, break, you lovers of knowledge, the old tablets! - Nietzsche I am a man who wishes nothing more than daily to lose some reassuring belief, who seeks and finds his happiness in this daily greater liberation of the mind - Nietzsche again I must invent my own systems or else be enslaved by other men's. - William Blake On a footnote, it's too bad he died early. He might have eventually pursued his country's internal arts and who knows what he could have taught us as an 80-year old man.

As much a freak about communicative precision as I am, I believe everyone whose native tongue is not English deserves plenty of slack. Is this the case with you, and do you belong to the Chuech of Jehovah's Witnesses, as you quote below would indicate?

How can that be? How can you have Taoist techniques that don't fall under TCM? That's what he's asking.

1988 was the last time I lived in a house where we paid for cable. With all the great stuff available for Instantwatch streaming on Netflix, we just reduced our account to one dvd at a time for $10/month. The first step of transforming delusion into wisdom is to get rid of corporate tv propaganda.

Yes, this is correct. This is why muscle-building routines begin with an olympic lift like deadlifts, squats, or bench presses to release testosterone into the blood stream for the rest of the workout. "Triggers" is the operative term. Once a critical thinking junkie, always a CT junkie. Should've gone to law school.

? ? Sorry, I was a lowly medical assistant and most recently a certified personal trainer, so my armchair endocrinology is a little rusty, but muscles don't secrete hormones. That would be a job for the ... you guessed it... the endocrine system!

I hope you'll forgive me for my brashness but your questions are real whoppers. You've been a member for 3 weeks but your questions, such as whether Mao was a Taoist or whether the Tao frowns on murder, are a tad peculiar. Now you'd like to know if their are Taoist practices, APART from traditional Chinese Medicine, that can treat hypertension, treatments for which you declare having doubts. You've got to admit, this sounds a little wierd, don't you think? The answer to your question is no. Separating Taoist practice from TCM is like asking if western medicine has a treatment for hypertension that doesn't include pharmacology, diagnostics, dietary management, and exercise. The efficacy of medical and other forms of chi kung in the treatment of hypertension becomes more demonstrable all the time, but if you doubt it from the beginning you'll probably find it useless. There are plenty of people in here ready to answer your sincere questions.

I agree with you but a bigger story on a larger scale is that the American people have been unwitting subjects in the biggest and longest running experiment of social conditioning in the history of the world, perpetrated with electronic media by state, corporate and commercial sectors. it's actually been going on since the 1880s but it really kicked in with the advent of tv. That's why leaders in the critical thinking movement only have approximations of what a truly intellectually free critical thinker would look like, someone on the order of a zen master in the midst of nirvana, because of the multiple layers of conditioning we're exposed to. KILL YOUR TELEVISION

I'm not sure about the first sentence; that would be a good research question. My immediate guess is that organic ranchers can't keep up with demand, and their smaller size keeps them from taking advantage of economies of scale. They probably don't qualify for all the water subsidies and other advantages that industrial meat producers get, such as really cheap subsidized grain that would kill cattle if they weren't slaughtered. This is where we used to get beef on occasion when we lived up in the CA wine country. (Why did I move to LA? ) http://www.chilenobnb.com/beef.html

As someone who lived in Eugene 20 years ago I'm a little surprised that Nei Kung instruction has no presence there, given the town's reputation. If you want a taste of what's ahead, the link will give you a taste of what you're in for with Lam Kam Chuen's training. There are a handful of us who practice Chu Nei Kung, a la the Book of Nei Kung, which is similar (check my link) and gets chi flow going pretty fast, and it will give you the power to manipulate chi flow with your mind. It's also really good for flexibility, stress control, and a supercharged immune system, but the dynamic aspect really helps with ironing out asymmetries in you kinesthetic ability, although I still peel potatoes with my right foot.

I too find dark humor in these rosy forecasts. We're only 7+ billion now, and that's with 3.5 billion living on $2 a day or less. It's amazing how utterly glib we can be while half of the human family is subjected to so much suffering.

This makes perfect sense if you accept the premise that what was trying to be replaced was working. It's a safe argument that things have gotten worse across the spectrum but that doesn't mean that they would not have gotten worse anyway due to the influence of other forces. I'm not a sociologist but I could come up with a half dozen plausible explanations myself with a couple weeks of writing and research. I relish the debate of this subject through the lens of social and behavioral sciences as much as anyone, but the meta-narrative underpinning this calamity is the era of cheap oil elevating consumerism to a religion, followed by the inevitable expiration of the petroleum-based consumer culture and the exhaustion of resources. Left/right arguments don't even begin to explain what we're up against, and while I think top/bottom - rich/poor arguments come closer, they still fail to adequately capture the real problem. Ecology is the only subject that really captures the essence of the problem, but it's still too young a science for people to grasp. And yet, ancient Buddhist and Taoists intuited basic and pertinent ecological facts thousands ofyears ago. The movie "Collapse" also has enormous explanatory power and is also available for online viewing.

My thoughts? Well, like any self-respecting college boy, my thoughts are standing on the thoughts of the giants writing in the field; Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Vandava Shiva, John Robbins (Diet for a New America), Marion Nestle (Food Politics). I made use of all these guys for semester projects, but one of my favorite undergrad profs taught agricultural geography and I was able to go to Cuba for a couple weeks and study their organic urban horticulture, which exploded when the Soviets stopped sending them oil and fertilizer. The subject is huge in sustainability circles too. Bottom line, industrial meat production is just as obscene as any other industrial process that externalizes costs, foists the diseconomies onto the public sector, destroys topsoils and groundwater and reduces human lifespan, all the while demanding subsidies and tax credits from the public treasury and turning around and bragging about the successes of free enterprise. Oh yeah, the systwem works really well for the relative few. It's okay though. Once the petroleum inputs dry up, we'll decentralize our food production and eat less meat. of course, with without industrial AG, billions of people will starve to death. But whatya goin' to do? Extinction is looking like it'll be a democratic process; we're all gonna pay a price.

Look for the sign, one mile from the Ronald Reagan freeway!

Horticulture? That's the practice of raising prostitutes, is it not?

JoeBlast and I agree on something? OMG! Prepare yourselves for a major rebalancing of planetary energy! Can you feel it, that ripple in the Force? But, just so you know, JoeB, the whole point about life on this planet is spirits getting to incarnate in the bodies of liberal democrats! "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"? Most people don't know that was based on a true story. The big labor unions are trying to keep this under wraps. Ask Vortex if you don't believe me; he's been following the coverup.

I have to agree. I have "Scholar/Warrior" and "Everyday Tao" but for my money, if your zz practice was well-established and I found myself in a hermitage, "365" and "TTC" would be all I'd want. How old are your kids, and how do you impart Taoist/Buddhist principles to them? PM if preferred.

At what age, and at what level of education? There's also an interesting statistic that suggests that if you grow up in a household with 500 books or more, your chances of going to college are vastly greater. (Forgive me for not being able to cite that statistic. I read it years ago.) How many books, app., did your family have? Forgive me also for not detailing my sinister agenda for why I am asking this question. Thanks in advance.

creativity goes through the roof when body/mind fusion begins to work its magic. For westerners who live in their heads, the experience of a more sensitive nervous system is... well, language still fails to adequately describe the experience!

just that balance training and certain practices of chi kung, and nei kung in particular, zero in on the strengthening and revitalization of the nervous system. try standing on the hard side on one foot. Then when, it's easy, put on a blindfold. It's like going back to Kindergarten, but the sensitivity of your proprioceptors goes through the roof, not to mention your core. Obviously, this is great for ther elderly too. A jo?

I too feel that you are patronizing me. If that was not your intention then I apologize and chock it up to the hazards of imprecise reading and writing, which are particular hazards in online forums. I'm assuming you're referring to your introductory sentence - "I essentially knew how you would respond to my post, and actually my intention in posting it was to be completely honest about my own thought process, perhaps even to set a precedent for others to do the same." Do you not see how how someone could misconstrue what you mean, especially the first part of the first sentence? What point are you trying to make by telling me you already know how I'm going to respond? What function would that point even serve? To let me that you've got some keen power of insight into my thinking? I'm more than willing to continue discussion. I've given my reasons for studying Taoism and how I perceive its value. I have little faith in metaphysics, and at 50 years of age I find it extremely boring and of absolutely no value in this day and age. What extraordinary powers we can acquire by a commitment to internal alchemy is a worthy subject, however, and it seems to be one that most of us can agree on. Cheers! After a more careful reading of your question - "Do you actually want to have a discussion with me or are you just posting your reactions to what I say because it is there?" - I have to say in all honesty that your phrasing is mystifying to me. Have I actually sought you out specifically in order to have a discussion with you? No, I guess I haven't, but then, I don't approach online discussion in this manner at all, with anyone. As I understand it, this whole thread has very little to do with evolution and everything to do with ancient arguments, dressed up in modern language, about the existence or nonexistence of a divine being and how spirituality answers either scenario. This is an ongoing discussion open to anyone. I can't imagine a forum even functioning as intended if we were suddenly expected to clarify our reasons for responding. There are a few mud stirrers on the internet who seek people out to harass for mean-spirited reasons but my level of integrity is a tad higher than that. I am responding to your points foremost, not you personally, and I would point out that you first chose to deconstruct my arguments several posts earlier with some pretty hefty indictments of my academic experience, but it's part of the process and I'm okay with it. I hope that answers the question.