Cymro

Thanks all! I'm feeling about 80% today, so I may ease back into things tomorrow if improvement continues. I'm taking the advice to let my body take the lead; sometimes you just need rest. We'll see what happens from here.

Ah, let me be a bit more clear: I'm in touch with my doctor and have seen/consulted her about this; I'm fine to resume a normal schedule as soon as I feel like I'm up to it. I'm more curious as to how you handle a health-related interruption in training and how you move back into a regular cycle. I hope that clears things up.

A few weeks ago I can down with a fairly serious respiratory bug. Nothing life threatening, but I've needed a lot more sleep and rest and have had to set aside some of my regular activities both professional and social. It's also affected my daily practice, eg I've been sleeping instead of doing and letting my body rest. Any advice for dealing with this would be appreciated. How do I start/ease back into a routine? Should I take some intermediate steps before jumping back in? When do I start--I'm still coughing and wheezing a bit, particularly in the mornings. Let me know your thoughts, and herbal remedies are always appreciated. Thanks!

Hello, all! Lately I've hit upon a sticking place in my endless pursuit of understanding--I'm not a very good student in this regard. The DDJ and other Daoist texts suggest that a wise man withdraws from the world and doesn't allow himself to get bogged down in worldly affairs like government and politics. Daoism's counterparts in the West--the Stoics and Epicureans, among others--offer the same guidance. The thinking behind this choice is to me obvious; don't be distracted by the passing and temporal and focus instead on living well/rightly/in balance. However, I feel like this opens up a morality question: with so much evil in the world today, I feel the need to stay engaged, informed, and active in order to try and make things a bit better. We live in the proverbial interesting times; a quick glance at the news confirms it. What are your thoughts, dear friends? Is there a balance to be struck?

I agree with Aetherous. Get enough rest, some dynamic exercise, do good work and be productive, develop your mind and just enjoy living simply and well. There's really not much more to it.

I'm trying to lead a more focused life, and toward that end I'm doing a lot of reading. The Epicureans, Stoics, and Daoists have a lot in common: the joy of a simple life, withdrawn from wordly affairs and focused on natural harmony and self awareness. However, the Daoists often speak about longevity--something more or less absent from the other two schools of thought. And then I re-read Seneca's De Brevitate Vitae, which discusses the shortness of life, as the title suggests, and goes on to conclude that any life is long enough if used properly. I'm still kicking around this idea, so I'm just looking for other opinions: should we be reading the Daoist focus on longevity at least in part metaphorically? Could they on some level also be talking about making the most of life, rather than just supernatural longevity or immortality? These are the thoughts I think with too little sleep and too much tea. I look forward to hearing your ideas.

I'm familiar with the story, and I've never quite known what to make of it. It's contemporary enough to have at least some credibility, but it's odd for all of that.

Well, I think of it like this: so much of what we read in the Daoist cannon is metaphorical that I really believe we have to consider the possibility that some of the claims made about prior sages were as well. Particularly flying--which I think is meant to mean a spiritual journey, a la King Wen's trip in the Leih-tzu. (a la King Wen? See what I did there?) Now, that having been said, I have heard credible latter-day accounts of spiritual people of many different backgrounds doing amazing things. I absolutely believe that the human mind and body can surpass many of their perceived limitations. Heck, it's part of why I'm here.

I was going to say: putting these ideas in context (I'm assuming they are part of a larger work or body of work) would probably help a whole lot. While things can exist outside of or even without context, I'm pretty sure that's not the case here.

It'll probably take longer than that...

"Do not act following customary beliefs." I'm curious to know what he meant by this one. Don't follow convention for convention's sake? I'd like to think that's a common sense principle most folks could get behind. However, the phrasing leaves it open to interpretation...

Thanks for the warm welcome! Marblehead (and everyone else) just let me know when you're going to be down thisaway. We'll figure it out from there.

Greetings! I'm 30 years old, male,single, a freelance writer, a taiji/qigong practitioner, a homeowner, a jazz lover, a chess player, a gardner, a Southerner,and a few other things I occasionally lose track of. I'm here to meet new people, swaps notes, stories and lies, and have a few laughs along the way. Feel free to get in touch about any or all of the above, or whatever else moves you. If yuo find yourself in Wilmington, NC, at any time of the year, I'll buy the first round. Cheers! Michael