Encephalon

Okay - here's my charitable, kind, and compassionate response to your query, the manner in which I should respond to links as a matter of course if I had a tighter grip on my own egotism. My initial point remains... Books exist!! Information is out there! Informed questions are rewarded, uninformed questions sometimes are not. In fact, they are intellectual targets!! In a lower -division critical thinking class, you would first clear away all your pretense, unexamined assumptions, and false information, leavving your original question to stand on its own. By your own reasoning, the following items in red are irrelevent to your question. I know Tai Chi is funner..but the subtle movements don't seem like they help the spine enough as opposed to the pain that yoga can be.. This is not a conclusion you can make based on your experience. It is pure speculation. Beneath all the subjective minutaie lies the one critical question - "what is a all around better system of energy work." As 5 Element said, pitting yoga vs tai chi creates what is referred to in the world of informal logic as a false comparison. If you want energy work, you perform chi kung, specifically, nei kung, inner chi kung. As Bruce Frantzis has written for his western audience, chi kung , in its most basic biomechanical and bioelectrical function is about acquiring conscious control of one's nervous system, that part of our physical self that exists at the intersection of body and mind. Ancient Chinese culture cultivated this technique beyond that of any other culture. Yoga, and by that I assume you mean the physical hatha yoga, makes you incredibly strong and flexible and in so doing enables you to relax so deeply that it becomes infinitely easier to calm your mind and sense your internal environment. So it is sensible to infer that someone with six months of daily hatha yoga experience is going to respond more quickly to chi kung exercises than someone who is tight and weak. I personally have the good fortune of staying strong by working out regularly with my personal training clients, and I have a very flexible schedule, but if you are pressed for time, the 5 Tibetan Rites are an excellent choice for toning, strengthening, and flexibility while supporting energy flow, and they only take 15 minutes. I move right in to my standing Embrace Horse for 30 minutes right after the Rites. One hour's time is enough to get you started toward a very palpable internal environment. The Embrace Horse link below is the best I've found on the web - It's not me.

You had it coming, pal. Do you really expect everyone else to perform ALL of your own background study? I'd like to think that we bring at least some level of reflection to the questions we pose to each other.

I think Yoda was vastly more powerful than Pai Mai. You could really tell in "The Empire Strikes Back" that Yoda like totally had his shit together and stuff. But it was definitely in Revenge of the Sith" with the spinning back kicks like Benny the Jet back in the 80s that he could kick Pai Mai's ass. Although Pai Mai's Kung fu was pretty awesome. Teaching Beatrix Kiddo the three inch punch through the wooden plank was funner than Yoda's light saber, and you could tell that his Eagle Claw was a definite advantage with his forearm development. I also think Pai Mai had a better sense of humor than Yoda, although I guess that's because Yoda was like dealing with intergalactic issues and stuff and Pai Mai was like just hanging out in a jungle retreat on Earth and only agreed to take in Kiddo because he was lonely and bored. So I'd have to say that Yoda was more developed and his clothes were pretty cool too.

I just got my Master's degree this year, so you can bow down and call me "Master." All that I ask is that you don't refer to me as "Master" in public. "Your Grace" or "Your Eminence" will suffice. I'm used to being showered with rose petals by a gaggle of screaming virgins as I walk from place to place healing the sick and killing the stupid, but I rather fancy the smell of lavender these days. Of course, I don't work for free. I have over $40,000 in student loans, but my paypal account is up and running. I accept gold krugerrands and freeze-dried food in lieu of cash. Act quicky. This offer is limited.

Your welcome. Send $$

The video link below has a good instruction of Embrace Horse with some precautionary points.

I never experienced the bliss of recovering from Catholicism, but I do believe it is closely related to alcholism.

Anodea Judith is my fave for delving into the psychological wisdom of Chakra work. There's a bunch of stuff online, but her book "Eastern Body Western Mind" digs most deeply into chakra psychology. What surprised me in my own heart chakra work was the association between the capacity to love and personal courage. I was a sweet doormat for many years until I realized that opening your heart also meant "sacking up." There are also a ton of affirmations for heart chakra work online that you can silently recite as you breath in and out during meditation. Eight affirmations per minute, times 30 minutes, twice a day... you get the point. It will have a positive effect. Once I acquired the ability to circulate some energy in the lower dan tien, it was a relatively easy task to connect this energy flow with my heart chakra. From what I gather, this is Sushumna, or Central Channel work, as applied to chakra opening. Good luck. Oh, one more thing, if you're a typical American from a typical dysfunctional family, you've got plenty of heart chakra work ahead of you. Welcome to the Club. The membership is huge!

It is a working theory of mine that imagination, creativity, and a strong capacity for visualization can compensate for poor health, and that's not only because I'm you're typical left-handed, right-brained musician ex-drunk, but it could be part of it. Anatomical awareness definitely plays a role; I've actually done plenty of sitting meditation with giant anatomy charts in front of me. How old are you? Sounds like a little nei kung could work wonders. You're not hitting the bong, are you?

Tiger Woods does chi kung. Maybe he should get his wife to study too. I didn't buy the book on the 5Rites because there's enough info online to get the routine down. i've been doing it almost daily for 8 months or so, but since I'm also doing nei kung and other body work I've no means of factoring out the efficacy of any one thing. Although my Nei kung has probably done the most. Any online scholarly entries about the Rites?

GEEZ LOUIZE... Scotty's right here. Don't solicit medical advice from this forum; it is a repository of misinformation and pissing contests. If you have critical thinking skills, are familiar with the inside of a library, and have some basic anatomy skills, you'll be in a position to ask some informed questions, at which point you may get informed answers. If you come in here your first week looking for the meaning of electrons, you will be told to drink paint thinner while standing in Tree Pose. Enjoy your rest.

Sounds like your circuits are nice and open. There are only two issues I would consider. It started up because I did the five tibetan rites about an hour ago. This is assuming that there is an unmistakable causal relation between the two. I do the Rites too, but I associate my MCO with other techniques. Could you cite references for us? This is intriguing. I warm up all my personal training clients with these cuz I treat 'em like lab rats. I am absolutely certain my Dan tien is very far from full so why is it running? What criteria do you use to make such a powerful assertion? The experience that I have had that is corroborated by Frantzis and others is that chi is subject to an ebb and flow as your entire body starts to open up according to its own rythm. I would first suspect that the nature of our Dan tien is not subject to our absolute awareness.

How do you know it is running?

I took a mere 5 mgs of my girlfriends's valium for a nasty spasm in my traps last Thursday, and repeated the dose on Fri and Sat. It now feels like my meridians contracted from "garden hose" to "capillary." I'll get it back - I'm still having some good success opening up the legs, but this was baaaad. Any other testimonials regarding narcotic pain relievers? Got any extra vicodin lying around the house?

Naw, it was a nasty spasm; a lot of us store stress in our traps. But you're right about the Mag. Scotty, I defer to Occam's razor, the least complicated explanation. Narcotic pain relievers and muscle relaxers reduce nerve conduction and pain reception. Wouldn't that be a more likely explanation? Quick, where's a pharmacist when you need one? Robert Bruce is right about chi sensation though. The more the meridians open up, the less that exquisite "golf ball through a garden hose" feeling - "Trying to get that feeling again...." Oh, Barry Manilow, take it away...!"

I'm with you here as well. How many times have we seen unschooled Westerners beating each other over the head with western scripture (the Bible)? There is an enormous amount of inner and academic work to do before we are capable of interpreting ancient texts without our own biased filters, and this becomes even more problematic when a westerner makes the attempt on texts from other (eastern) cultures. There's a reason why a PhD in divinity or theology is brutal; you have to be able to speak latin, hebrew, Greek just to ferret out original intent, and judging by some the translations available, it's clear that the process isn't foolproof! That's why I am indebted to the few westerners (Frantzis, Reid, Ming-Dao, and others) that took the time and effort to learn the language and study in China in order to give the rest of us a starting point.

This is precisely why I'm delving into more of Fritjof Capra's works, currently, "The Web of Life." It is basically Taoism as delineated by systems theory and ecology, as ecology has eclipsed physics as the umbrella science for understanding living systems. I'm with you. There is no sense in subscribing to Iron Age mythology when the intuitive arts were as highly refined and as "truth-discovering" as our contemporary scientific method. Similarly, Christians can enjoy the peace and serenity of their sacraments and still recognize the social constructs that they are. Be weller.

http://www.shallownation.com/2009/11/22/da...video-11-21-09/ I don't believe the DMB are chi flow experts - I think they like to drink psylocybin tea - but J-F-C, they are hot. Check out the bass, Steve F.

Before you ask the very pertinent question, "What does the end of consumerism have to do with Taoism?" it is important to remember that Taoism is, among other things, a lifestyle of Radical independence and self-sufficiency (so says Daniel Reid, but I believe this sentiment is registered elsewhere). Consumerism is the antithesis of self-sufficiency. In my not-so-humble opinion, Taoists are the most likely people to successfully adapt to the challenges of a post-oil, post-consumer crash, as long as they find like-minded souls to live with. How ready are you? From James Howard Kunstler - Clusterfuck Nation at www.kunstler.com How infantile is American society? Last night's CBS "Business Update" (in the midst of its "60 Minutes" program) featured three items: 1.) The New Moon teen vampire movie led the weekend box-office receipts; 2.) Cadbury shares hit an all-time high; 3.) Michael Jackson's rhinestone-studded white glove sold at auction for $350,000. Some in-house CBS-News producer is responsible for this fucking nonsense. How does he or she keep her job? Is there no adult supervision at the network? Meanwhile, over at The New York Times this morning, Paul "Nobel Prize" Krugman writes: "Most economists I talk to believe that the big risk to recovery comes from the inadequacy of government efforts; the stimulus was too small, and it will fade out next year, while high unemployment is undermining both consumer and business confidence." Disclosure: I'm not one of the economists that Mr. Krugman talks to (nor am I an economist). But it's sure interesting to know that the ones palavering with Mr. Krugman imagine that that the US can possibly return to an economy based on the fraudulent securitization of reckless debt. Does Mr. Krugman think that the production housing industry can resume paving over the nether exurbs with half-million-dollar houses (to be bought with no money down loans by the sheet-rockers working inside them)? Does he think all those people receiving cancellation notices from their credit card issuers are in a position to flash their plastic at the Gallerias this Friday? Or ever will be again? Is he perhaps misusing the term "recovery?" After all, that is generally taken to mean resuming a prior state, which is, in turn, presumed to be a healthy prior state. Is that what the economy of the past decade was? And, incidentally, what exactly is a "consumer?" And why, at the highest levels of journalism in this land, do we refer to citizens that way? As if the American people have no other purpose except to buy things? Or is that the only way an "economist" can imagine them? I'm sorry to burden the reader with so many questions, but the idiots running the mainstream news media in this land are not doing it and somebody has to. If a "recovery" is not in the cards, then what exactly is going on out there? What's going on in the US economy is a slow-motion convulsion from which we will emerge as a very different nation with a different economy. The wild irresponsibility of the media in pretending otherwise is only going to make the convulsion worse, more painful, more socially and politically destructive. The convulsion can be described with precision as one of compressive contraction. Historic circumstances are requiring us to change our behavior, to make new arrangements for everyday life in all the major particulars: capital accumulation and deployment; food production; commerce; habitation; transport; education; and health care. These new arrangements must be organized at a smaller and finer scale, and on a much more local basis. The main "historic circumstance" mandating these changes goes under the heading of "peak oil." We've come to the end of our ability in this world to increase energy inputs to the global economy. The routine "growth" in industrial activity and production that has been the basis of our financial arrangements for 200-odd years is no longer possible. Offsetting this decline in oil energy "input" with "alt.energy" is a dangerous fantasy because it distracts us from the urgent task of making new arrangements for trade, food production, et cetera - the very things that would provide jobs and social roles for our citizens in the future. We are seeing a comprehensive failure of leadership in every sector and every level of American life - in politics, business, banking, education, news media, medicine, and the clergy. All are determined to pretend that we can somehow continue the habits and behaviors of the pre peak oil era. They are all unwilling to face reality, and are all engaged in mutually supporting each other's dangerous fantasies. If we don't attend to the transformation of American life by downscaling our activities and changing the way they are carried out, and re-localizing them, we will see our society disintegrate - and I use the word "dis-integrate" with purposeful precision. Everything will come apart - our political arrangements, our households, our health and well-being. At the moment, banking is disintegrating. It's happening because the end of regular, predictable, cyclical, industrial growth means the end of our ability to generate credit without limits, and in fact we passed this point by stealth some time ago leaving the banks in "Wile E. Coyote" suspension above an abyss, where they have lately been joined by government at all levels and the indebted citizens of the land. The profound nausea spreading through the offices of America is the somatic recognition of exactly where we are in all this: off the cliff. It's important to remind readers that so-called "capitalism" is not to blame. Capitalism is not an ideology. It refers to a set of laws governing the disposition of surplus wealth. There is going to be surplus wealth somewhere in the years ahead, even if our living standards fall substantially, even under the strictures of peak oil. All the communist experiments of the 20th century produced some kind of surplus wealth. All of them were subject to the phenomenon of compound interest. What matters in the disposition of capital are the rules created for accumulating and deploying it. In the USA the past two decades, we ignored the rules, repealed some of the critical laws, and failed to enforce the existing ones so that, when faced by the historic circumstances of peak oil, we allowed fraud and swindling to run wild - just at the moment when we should have taken the most care. That is why our money system ran off the rails. We're now seeing worldwide a kind of race between the assertion of peak oil and the failures of capital management as to which will provoke a widespread convulsion first. They are obviously related and whichever gets us in the most trouble fastest, our destination is the same: the absolute necessity to reorganize how we live. Among the many elements of this is the fact that "globalism," in the Thomas Friedman sense of the word, is over. The urgent need to re-localize economies makes this self-evident. As a practical matter for us, this means committing to import replacement - making things we need in the US, probably much more regionally. "Globalism" now joins the many other fantasies that we can no longer indulge in. At the moment, going into Thanksgiving 2009, America's leadership has dedicated itself to the worst action it could take under the circumstances: a campaign to sustain the unsustainable. This is what's embodied in the foolish term "recovery." The way we try to explain things to ourselves matters, if we don't want to be crushed by history. Go back to the top of this blog and look at the things we pay attention to. Aren't you ashamed?

I would respectfully disagree, not out of my own original thinking, of course. Robert Korten, author of "When Corporations Rule the World," makes a forceful case that corporations wield disproportionately greater influence than merely a collection of individuals, by virtue of their advantages of incorporation - i.e., they only have rights, no obligations, and no accountability to anyone save that of their shareholders. Of course, it's all legal!

For me I would rather stay in any time of native American versus any time of ancient China. that's a good point. I should have said that I believe ancient China contributed more body/mind disciplines and understanding than any other culture, even India, if I may be so specific as defining body/mind practice as simply fine tuning the human nervous system for extraordinary feats. But Yeah, give me the Nuxalk Indian tribe of Bella Coola, BC any day.

I still think Kunstler does the best job of cataloguing oil substitutes and the options don't come close to supporting a population of 7 billion. You know as well as anyone that commercial fusion reactors are still decades away, which leaves humanity a lot of time for mischief, i.e., resource wars. If fusion arrived tomorrow? We'd go back to guzzling, of course! I'm really not the person to ask these questions of. I'm a cultural geographer, but I try to conceptualize my geography studies along global lines. I know full well that oil won't simply stop flowing one day; "energy descent" is the catch phrase amongst the peak-oilers, but it is entirely viable that a bankrupt America could lose the ability to patrol international shipping lanes. We're stuck with an extraordinarily inefficient energy and transportation system and we will need the remaining petrol reserves just to retool for energy descent. Oil economists don't see the world having too much sympathy for our plight. My conviction is that this planet built for 2 billion will once again have 2 billion when the cheap energy runs out, and you can draw whatever geo-political conclusions you want from that scenario. Ancient China is my favorite culture. Modern China is a catastrophe and will likely render its biologically productive land unfit for habitation. It's filthy - it already loses 10% of its GDP to pollution-related medical diseconomies - it's desertification rate is off the charts, it's running out of water, and it will try to seize Siberia in order to feed itself. It will be interesting to see how Russia responds to that move.

I think I have to agree with Pietro that it may be too early to wrestle with notions of "western Taoism," and have to agree with Steve F that the subject of Taoism is just too vast to be classified according to the cultures that it participates in. So, is the original question posed by Stig, an exploration of a working definition of "Western Daoism," a sound question? I still have to keep going back to Capra and the deep ecologists, who discover through the western scientific method the truthfulness of what the ancient Taoists detected intuitively. But that is merely drawing parallels between the notions of ecology (and general systems theory) that each tradition has formulated with its unique tools. That leaves out the other disciplines of medicine, meditation, martial arts, arts and philosophy that Taoism has unified into a comprehensive whole. An unwieldy subject, Stigweard.

We started a link a few weeks back about the effects of internal alchemy on cultivating creativity. Mostly, the TTB musicians were the ones who contributed, as I brought the subject up regarding the effects of opening the throat chakra, which is, ostensibly, the seat of creativity according to yoga. I can't say enough about Deng Ming-Dao and am delighted that his artworks are on display here, as well as the details that inspired his many published works. http://www.dengmingdao.com/