Tabula Rasa

Fun fun, thanks all, I will play around with all this!

Ut oh.....I tossed the stick...and I see that some are still looking at the finger instead of the moon it points at. I had no bad experiences, and I do not regret my choices from youth....neither the discoveries from experimentation, nor the dropping away of using substances and the choice for other types of practice. I make no judgments of other peoples choices. I return to haiku.... jewel in lotus nothing hidden to be found treasure in plain sight failing in the search beautiful moment of truth death before dying Peace, Carol

put your ego in....put your ego out....put your ego in, and shake it all about.... AC/DC blasts the best Hokey Pokey on the planet!

flow seams never ends a stitch in time joins loose ends empty buttonhole

Do you want it enough to choose empty mindful presence (meditate) every moment of every day? "Allow all mental conditions to become completely transparent, whether they appear external or internal. Do not even grasp mind with mind. Mind will then appear as a smooth wall. This alone is truly to enter the non-dual way." -- Bodhidharma, the First Patriarch of Zen Desire it as much as a drowning person desires air. Do not desire it at all. Both are true. Be Now.

jewel in lotus nothing hidden to be found treasure in plain sight failing in the search beautiful moment of truth death before dying

Greetings Freeform Taiji. I have already heard the cries of "heresy" many times over the years, and I will not debate it. However, if any one is interested in discussing the practice and art of freeform Taiji from any positive perspective, I will enjoy participating. I began diligent practice of T'ai Chi Ch'uan in 1972. My training includes Yang Style Long Form, Yang Sword Form, Twei Shou, and two person San Shou. After 20 years of formal practice, while in my 40's, I attended workshops with Chungliang Al Huang, and expanded my horizons in freeform taiji. I had already read his book years before, "Embrace Tiger Return to Mountain, The Essence of Taiji" and resonated with it. (Living Tao Foundation, livingtao.org) At that time, Chungliang had begun creating and teaching his own forms. I moved on with my path of pure freeform Taiji, and began teaching classes with a self healing perspective, as I was a practicing massage and acupressure therapist at the time. (Jin Shin Do Bodymind Acupressure, jinshindo.org) It amuses me to call this pure freeform practice, T'ai Your Own Chi. Now I live remotely in the hills and woods, on a small nature sanctuary hermitage, with two other hermits (who do not practice Taiji). I rarely leave the land, and I do not have any one else to share my practice with at this time. I enjoy the art of Freeform Taiji, both solo and two-person; and I feel that it is the foundation to my good physical health, peace of mind, and joy of being. For now, Carol

Being an old hippie I can speak from lots of experience that nope, psychedelic drugs will not give you enlightenment. After you are done with your inquiry/investigation as to whether they will; I suggest that you move on to asking whether there is any such thing as enlightenment. There is no such thing as enlightenment, so don't bother looking for it. Be now.

Anyone care to help me learn how to add photos and youtubes to a post, since for some lame reason I haven't been able to figure it out yet? Thanks much, Carol

organize your place until it's all empty space sit and take a breath

Acupressure Way of Health: Jin Shin Do by Iona Marsaa Teeguarden Excellent clear presentation, including a section on self-acupressure.

Who are these others, lol, I will keep my eyes peeled for them (ouch)! Thanks for the beautiful suggestions, thelerner.

From Wikipedia... "A moment is a medieval unit of time equal to 1.5 minutes or 1/40 of an hour."

yup.

except ewe of course mares eat oats and does eat oats l'il lambs eat ivy

Finger pointing at the moon moment....awesome....love dat.....thanks hagar! Oooo, LOL, you edited it out at the same moment that I snatched it and tossed it back in!!!! I am so happy that I grabbed the pebble from your hand before it sunk to the bottom of the pond.

feelings passing by like clouds drifting through the sky the joy of being

for seed to blossom the germ must be viable chaos reigns supreme

Excellent point, findley! I agree completely that taking this advice literally would be unbalanced, and not going with the flow of the present moment. The only possible small modifiers to this insightful criticism of Tao Cheng's poem that I can come up with are that (1) we might give it some slack for being written as a poem & (2) the use of the word preceptor in the first line, which means "a teacher or instructor", not a dictator. In addition, I don't really know the exact words of Tao Cheng, or their precise meaning at the time he wrote this, and I have no clue who did that translation! I have learned from this to see more clearly, thank you! Thanks for expanding my horizons, and best wishes while in Beijing! Thank you, woodangspirit. I know nothing about Taoist cosmology, nor am I familiar with the term "Nine Palaces", and will look them up. Anything else you have to share about your interesting points will be appreciated. Gassho, xuesheng....thank you for being an encouraging teacher. And so I take the first step, a humble beginning.... advancing - jin retreating - tui stepping to the left side - ku stepping to the right side - pan settling at the center - ding Am I pointing in the right direction? Any and all help with this effort will be greatly appreciated.