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It's great to hear from someone who speaks from life experience. For even though i try my best to get myself the best health, because my own health has failed me in the past, i still feel the body is to be used to get what you want out of life. I especially agree with "The proper use of just anger and hatred for evil is almost as powerful in my experience as the application of love." And i think the proper use can be made more possible and accessable with cultivation. I know hatred would overcome me if somebody killed my wife and my child. It would be blind hatred whereby even if i was stabbed and knocked and bashed, i would use every ounce of my remaining energy to avenge their death. It would be impossible to ignore. And i know this is still TAO. I'm sure it's also possible that the power from negative emotions could take you over and you want more and more. But both sides of the coin are worth exploring. Some people have never 'gone crazy' after being treated like shit and it would especially benefit them.

First sorry kate i oversaw your reply i would have wanted to reply sooner but i missed it! I just looked up malaise and it says... 1. a condition of general bodily weakness or discomfort, often marking the onset of a disease. 2. a vague or unfocused feeling of mental uneasiness, lethargy, or discomfort. i wouldn't think fear is weakness, but it could be unease. Fear is quickly accompanied by lots of energy in my experience. I have/had a fobia of dogs and man when i used to see a dog i used to be revved up with so much energy i could hardly breath! I think what you say is true, a feeling can not just come from a certain organ, but by using qigong you can get the main feeling from a certain organ and grab a handle on it. And as to if i want to put fear into other people. Well i could think of some times where i would want to do it, but generally i wouldn't. Even though it's pointless to have tools you don't use, it's nice to have them incase you would like to. It's just up to the individual's character then.

Not against the tao! No way!

Yeah you are right i don't think it is sustainable either. I also agree with you with the relationship thing and also with the confidence thing, that is probably more correct than what i said. Also while cultivating bad emotions you feel crappy and it's really not a fun way to live. Not enjoyable at all. Yeah hate and rage come from energetic blockages. You block the energy and dam it up, like a river to increase the pressure and power. Maintaining that state for a long time would lead to weakness but short bursts can lead to real life solutions and calmness after the storm. If the macrocosm is anything to learn by, the earth has short storms too. Sometimes they can help. As you say the good guy thing doesn't work either all the time. Actually i don't think it works the majority of the time. Being overly nice and kind is looked upon suspiciously in the west - 'why are they being so nice?'. Or it's just asking to be taken advantage of. Infact it probably is just as damaging as being unkind and cold hearted. The thing i have noticed though is that sadness can control anger much better than courage/rightousness can (short term). Anger can make someone listen to you or change a situation much more effectively than kindness can. Blind hate/rage can let you continue to fight after you have stabbed, and i'm sure you will last longer than if you are in a state of love. In certain times the negative emotions are very effective. I remember one time when i was in china and my boss told me he wasn't going to pay me my months wage untill i came back from holidays 2 months later! i had been cultivating average about 5-6 hours a day for quiet a while and was easily able to take it well in a state of compassion but i consiously chose not to, i chose to get angry, but once it started i even scared myself afterwards. I grabbed my boss around the throat started screaming at him in his face and slapping him gently around the face (hahaha funny now i remember it). He obviously got scared and agreed to pay me and i let him go, and the next day i went around to pick the money up and it was all fine. So yeah if i didn't get angry i may not have even ever recieved my months wage (the guy was dodgy as) and although everything would have been fine in my world of compassion, i don't think my wife would feel the same way. But yeah as i said not having cultivated and learnt to play with my anger it went out of control. I think playing with negative energies could be part of overall internal growth.

You are right that anger and hate cover up fear and sadness, but its not necessarily a 'cover up' i think it's just a natural progression, thats how the TCM constructive cycle works. Something else i've just sussed out in the last day is that i think the opposite of compassion (the fusing of all good emotions) is indifference (fusing of bad emotions) Both are totally balanced. Also negative emotions can be strong, especially if the associated positive emotion was strong to begin with, and the change can be very fast. During intense meditation periods i find that it is easier to stay calm and relaxed and in a compassionate state, but if i want to become angry the strength of the anger is huge and can easily become uncontrollable as it starts to run wild. It's like cultivating good emotions is relaxing the organ, like a sponge soaking in all the water, then the negative emotion is like squeezing out the sponge. The more water in there to begin with the more you can squeeze out. Just as always squeezing with negative emotions will make the sponge dry and crack. Negative emotions get you material gain and positive emotions give everyone and everything else gain (ie. the view everyone is connected). Some people give away everything though that they finally have nothing, and that is not good. Of course then the material negative things will be attracted to them always too because they are charged full of positive energy, but this also is not a balance. Also though if the sponge becomes too full and never squeezed it could become stale with energy. It's hard to have good emotions all the time because it naturally attracts the negative. Your body wants to be in balance a compassion/indifference state. So to do qigong constantly to get good emotions is alot of hard work. Another point worth making is good women are easily attracted to bad men. Why? Because the positive and negative want to balance each other out. The difference of potential, or the difference between +ve and -ve wants to be balanced to zero. That also explains why very bad people aren't attractive to most people because even with someones positive energy, it's still not enough to balance the other person's negative energy. The balance can't be reached. Not unless someone has enough compassion to give all their positive to the negative... but yeah, thats what you will be attracting towards yourself - very strong negative energy. So those who have reached the level of compassion NEED the negative and 'evil' people to balance them. Otherwise.... ?

But some of the native indians of america and the aborigines of australia probably lived in wu wei alot of the time without actually calling it 'wu wei'. They spent alot of time doing alot of nothing or telling storys, living in the 'dream time' etc. But what happened to them, they got raped and pillaged. Fine, you could argue that they recieved a good legal system, learnt how to build railroads, and recieved all the infrastructure that the west developed over so many years.... without 'doing anything'. But i don't think they wanted it.

So I am at work, I find $200 on the ground. I know if i hand it in then most likely someone will pocket it. A kid comes up and asks if anyone has found any money, he has lost his birthday money. Well it is a kid, and it's his birthday money, and i've had someone give me back $50 i've dropped before when i was a kid, so i say yeah and give it back to him. However.... If i were to keep it, it sounds nasty but then i am a taoist - i could view it in the light that there IS NO NASTY. It doesn't matter if i keep the money or don't keep the money really, it's all the same. Things are just as they are. Everything is one, there is no dualism - no good/bad. UNLESS of course i feel guilty then i will want to erase my guilt and give him the money back. Of course this means i haven't reached the point of non-dualism yet and if i want to get there i should avoid feeling guilty, and feel the love of returning the money. I WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK.... according to the laws of karma if i didn't give back the money, and i could keep my mind blank and not think about it (or anything else for that matter -for the moment) and therefore have no bad feelings then would i have overcome any bad karma that could come back to bite me? OR could it happen that this could directly cause me to have some back luck in the future (according to some karma law) that was UNRELATED directly to this boy and then my ability to overcome any resulting bad karma would only come from my ability of keeping my mind blank or having a non-dualistic view of that resulting bad luck. So i think in essence i mean - does karma come from your own internal reaction to a particular external incident or can a particular external incident effect a different seemingly unrelated external incident which you also then need to overcome with a non-dualistic view? Thanks for your ideas in advance!

What i find strange is that most of the people with good virtues, and therefore according to the information here, those who live close to the tao die younger than those with worse virtue. I'm 28 and only 2 friends i know have died that were around my age but they are 2 people with good virtues. The people they hung around could be classified as having very few good virtues but they were like shining stars amongst them. Why have they been forsaken by the tao when they act in accordance with the tao. The tao is beyond words and beyond understanding for just about everyone. We might think we have an understanding but it's only a fragment of the tao. Sometimes i think worrying and thinking about the tao is fruitless, it's best to just do what you want, and that will be tao.

Mmmm i don't think i understand your post entirely. The roll of passiveness was regarding non duality. If everything was one then i don't think i would see the worth in the money, and therefore have no reason to pick it up any more than i would pick up a stone. Only that it would attract me for some heavenly reason. I wouldn't think ahead or plan. I wouldn't make the distinction between handing it in to lost property or not because it might get pocketed along the way. I don't think any of this would come to mind, i would only do whatever i did. Yeah i agree with this, but then like i said if i was poor and i needed the money then i COULD conceive of holding onto the money because i needed it. As you said we are all equal so if i am percieving i am needing of the money then i can keep it without any karma concequences because i truely believe i need it and the tao lucked it into my hot sweaty hands! Little bit like a talk i had with my parents last night... i was suggesting that nobody actually OWNS anything, we just think we own it and according to the thoughts in our head we then believe that we can do anything we want to the things that we own....when really we never owned it at all. But they turned my thinking around so that ownership of things is needed really so that people can live in peace together. Otherwise things are chaotic and too yin. There is however a level when ownership and preconcieved ideas become too much and the thoughts in peoples heads make people act insanely.

Yeah thanks for all your answers. I guess it seems that everyone thinks there is no cosmic bean and it's all in your own head. I guess if i was poor and i found it and then it meant i could buy some food for me and my family to eat then the fact that someone left it there would be my good karma. I wouldn't feel bad at all and feel thankful to the tao for sending it my way. If i could be non dualistic then i could keep the money but since i can't be non dualistic all the time and i have enough money that i don't need to keep some kid's birthday money i would feel guilty, then due to this it would getting myself back into a non-dualistic frame of mind would be more difficult because i would have added stress. And even more to the point if i was truely non dualistic i don't think i would have picked up the money at all, rather just watched and been passive. I think to truely be non dualistic and live in society is impossible.

Mate i have spent the last 5 years or so researching in myself the same things you have been. 1. if you eat what you say you do sounds like this is nothing to worry about. 2. I used to be a gym junkie too but now i realise i was going over the top. 2 hours a day is definately too much and will cause yang depletion. My strength is gone too but now using my awareness i can have 50% of my previous max strength just by using my body properly and with just about zero working out. 50% sounds low but i was pretty strong before and just by using my body correctly i am still not weak comparatively with others. For general health now i just walk for about 1/2 hr a day or jog (only because i like it) and stretch for about 50mins 3 times a week. 3. If you've been practicing meditation and cultivating for 4 years pretty seriously/regularaly and you say you have got good awareness of your body you should have some good techniques and i wouldn't waste my time changing them, just continue as you are. As to what you think you have (yang deficiency) and what you have are different i believe and this is what is stopping you from healing - because your brain is getting in the way. Reading all the theory etc you think you are yang deficient, your trying to become more yang by using your meditation and other eating/exercise techniques, and not getting anywhere. Body is yin. Spirituality is yang. If you have lots of energy and your body is weak i think you are too yang. Here is why. Yang needs yin to burn so that it can burn brightly. You want to have lots of energy but you have none. Like a car you want to accellerate at full speed but your petrol tank (yin) is empty. When you get some petrol (sleep/rest/eat) you zoom at full speed but after only a few hours your tank is empty again and no energy. YANG IS DEPLETED BECAUSE YIN IS DEPLETED. Yang needs to be reduced so that yin can build up and you have reserves. When you have a full tank of fuel you can cruise along comfortably at low speed and then accellerate to full speed FOR SHORT PERIODS then cruise again so your yin can build up again, but your fuel never going below half. You are older now than what you were when you were going to gym all the time (i bet you got colds often too when you were pumping gym so hard) and the yin takes longer to build now. You need to get used to resting and cruising. Living at a slow pace so the yin can build. But this probably feels totally forign to you because to you it feels normal to be pumped and full of energy. If you feel your pulse on your wrists lightly it is probably quiet strong but if you press your fingers deep into your wrist you hardly feel anything because there is no substance. So yeah... my suggestion is try to become more YIN. This is difficult because you can't "DO" anything to become yin. It is in the "NOT DOING" that you become more yin. But i'm like you i want my petrol tank full up as fast as possible! And i want my energy back. The thing i've learnt is that i will never have the energy back in the same way i used to. If i did use myself in that way again then i'll just become sick, tired and worn out again. Just the same as using my body in that way caused those problems in the first place. You need to learn to use your body in a new and correct way - in a way that may infact "feel" wrong because it's different to what you've been used to, and the wrong way that caused you to feel tired and worn out "feels right" because thats just been the way you've always used your body. However after some time of becomming more yin and getting used to it i am starting to enjoy the relaxedness and i can keep my fuel tank half full and i live a normal life. You can read up all you like about it and you can find more in some good chinese medicine books or if you goto a practitioner and get them to help you. But my suggestion is try to relax as much as possible, not do anything too hard, do yin style meditations and try to become more yin using the knowledge you already have. If after 2-3 weeks you feel slightly better then you know you are on the right path and can research it more or even ask me and i can point you to some things that helped me. Hope this helps... Also... Do you take any alcohol / drugs? perscription or just for fun? They all burn your precious yin very fast.

Rooting is purely biomechanics. Of course strong tendons, bones and muscles facilitate biomechanics and make rooting stronger/easier. Bones need to be strongest, next tendons then muscles, but this is all natural so really anyone can root well. Chi is just the connection between body and mind but it is only a tool and you could graduate beyond the need for chi, then it's not even needed. You could even root well with practice and never have even experienced or worked with "chi". You only need to know and feel where the force is comming from and resist it with your bones, tendons, and if need be - muscles. I think something thats really important if you want to improve your rooting is to not only look at what is in front of you. See what is all around you. Where is your opponent pushing from, where are his legs placed, where does his strength come from, how is the wind blowing, whats the terrain like, where is his concentration on? all of this information gives immediate feedback to your body as to where it's best position could be. It's not magic, it's really quiet simple..... just not easy to do

I know the heading sounds a bit whacky haha, BUT! Has anyone experienced any changes on the physical that can be emperically proven? Reason i post this is because i've noticed some things that happen in a pattern. I'm not always so persistant in my practice as i should be and i might have a bit of a unhealthy binge every few weeks or so but i have noticed these changes. TIME : I am a bus driver and have certain stops i have to pass at certain times. When i am in the wu wei while driving i actually get to the stops earlier. Some how... i have no idea why but i arrive there earlier even though since i am very relaxed i don't race there. I have tried it many times and when i race there i arrive later than if i am in the wu wei, not thinking about it at all and taking my time. I'm talking maybe 2 minutes difference for a 35-40 min trip without stops inbetween. Noticed the changes consistant in the last 6 months. WEIGHT: When my energy levels are high i weigh less. Like 2kgs less, consistantly. Thats from my normal 88kg, Just by practicing lots for 2 days or so i lose usually 2-2.5kgs when i stand on the scales. I don't lose any fat around my belly and i feel like i look the same but the scales consistantly show me as being lighter when my energy levels are high. Noticed this many times over the last year. I have heard of qigong masters making themselves lighter using qigong at will. I can't do it at will but i would be interested in any techniques or ways to practice to be able to do this kind of thing. Anyone know / heard of anything? My wife said she saw someone put some glass on a balloon then stand on the glass without breaking the balloon using qigong... when she was a young girl in china.

If you think you are ready you probably are. Share what you have. Learn from teaching others. Just have a go dude, you'll either do well or you won't. Then you can just keep getting better at it. Look at maccas, they were small to begin with, some tiny shop selling burgers now look at em. It hasn't been THAT many years since they began.

Sound pretty cool what you wrote in your first post. I rekon you should practice further by not listening to your heart beat, let that go too. Don't have it in your mind. Of course it is happening, like there are cars driving down the street outside and kids playing in the next room but you let it go out of your mind. Then the smell of the cat's poo is maybe a test too, let it go, don't smell it. Of course the smell is there but it doesn't smell good or bad, and you won't even notice it if you keep practicing. I remember one time practicing in the forest, camping by myself. In my tent there were several flies and to try to ignore them when they stop and walk on your face, especially around my lips, to try to train myself to not even react internally (or externally), at all, was very hard but there were times i could do it. With practice you can do it more and more and then with everything in your life. When you can do it all throughout your daily life you are free to choose how you would like to react to any stimulus, if you want to react at all. There is no automatic conditioned reaction. This is what i think it means when people say meditation can let you free yourself. But of course i guess leaving poo in your house is not something you would choose to do

A simple example similar to Sloppy Zhang's personal space thing. In Australia i don't stand close to people because it makes people feel uncomfortable. In china people stand close to each other because they are used to that. There are so many people. In trains subways and busses everyone is crammed in like sardines. They line up and push in lines. Thats how they do it. In Australia it's a sign of respect if you use people's names. In china to use someones name who is older than you is disrespectful. You must call them older sister, older brother etc. This is to the shop clerk or anyone. To say your fathers name is super disrespectful and will make them very angry. Where most people in western society have more than enough, to give someone the last bit of drink in your drink bottle... we call it the 'dregs' is like a put down - you should get them a fresh one or something. But in china to give someone the last bit of coke or wine or anything, like the last mouthful is a sign of respect and kindness. Giving the last bit to somebody to show your respect is done very commonly.

I suggest you read about ultra long wave magnetic therapy. I've experienced it an it's pretty cool. Not sure about this little thing in your link though looks nothing like what i used.

Reading your posts you seem so sure of yourself. So confident without any consideration that you may have not experienced enlightenment. That is great. For as long as you can keep that sureness in your mind and have no doubts you are doing quiet well. I think you don't need to answer all the naysayers and you don't need to help others either, just being quietly happy to yourself i think will serve you well. Surely in expressing your englightenment to others and others questioning it will finally cast some doubt in your mind even if it is not warranted. I could guess at how you feel and would suggest you try to keep the idea of this feeling in your memory and try to live with this internal feelings as long as possible. Don't reach out to help others, don't reach out for further proof etc, just be peaceful in the moment and enjoy it, for it seems to me you are very sure and theres nobody else to prove it to other than yourself. After you can keep the same feeling going for a couple of months then if you still want you can try to help others, you have a lifetime to! At the beginning the balance in keeping your state of mind is fragile. After some time it will become more resiliant.

It's all about choice. To do whatever you want to do. To live however you want to live. Of course there is an easy taoist way or a more difficult fustrating way. But everyone has the choice to do what they want. Fame, excitement and riches (in anything imaginable) are available for those who desire them. You can be remembered or forgotten. I think the great thing about taoism is that you live for the now and how you feel right now. Even in the age we live in of recorded history, even if you are some great wonder or superpower you only exert your fame among people who have interest to read or learn about you in the future. Even though everyone knows hitler i'm sure he will be forgotten at some stage. I mean everyone knows alexander the great too but its too far back to generate any real feelings within most people. Most of the famous painters (I walked through the london gallary and thats all i saw) painted pictures relating to christianity and thats why they are remembered. Is that rightous? I love taoism because when i live for now, nothing else matters. I get the most intense feelings, sensory experiences and life moments that just seem to get more and more intense. I don't care what others think, i only care what i think myself. It is my world, i make of it what i want. Life is what i see and it can become anything i want it to become. I am in control. Then maybe when my place in the world becomes less important. When everybody can learn to live like this the earth can retake it's rightful control and heal it's self. The human race then lives in harmony with the earth and they survive alongside each other harmoniously.

Yeah i agree. It's passive or active meditation and both are useful and compliment each other. One inevitably leads to the other. Active becomes such hard work that you can't be bothered doing it any more and move on to reap the same benefits with the passive while not doing anything. Too much passive and you get bored or stale and need some more active. I've done vipassana and it was so so so hard. Very good but very hard. Active mantak chia style was much easier but i didn't reap nearly as many short term benefits. But they complement each other and using both together you can benefit 100x more.

I think the main thing is there is nothing you should be scared of. Of course you will go the wrong way from time to time. It's easy to have some bad effects. But thats how you learn. If it feels good continue, if it feels bad change it. Only a moron would keep repetatively doing things that are making them feel bad. That is the problem of reading into it too much. They feel what they have read is right and correct and they think theyshould keep going and try to push through the pain barrier to make progress. This is wrong. Feel and make your own decision. It's each individual's journey!

Sounds pretty interesting.... When i was learning pinyin, the romanization of the chinese language i found they had vowels similar to us. a o e i u u. The a o u are pronounced nearly the same as they are pronounced in english and they are vowels because every word has one. I learnt french at school but i couldn't remember if they had the same vowels or not. It would be interesting if all countries had similar vowels so that each word had common sounds regardless of language. That could have some link to energetics that go way back. Does anyone know any other languages?

Ah i didn't mean to critizise i was just saying my opinion. I was trying to explain how i see runes fit into the tao and into the daily practice of improving life / mental state. Correct. I'm not living in the wu wei. I'm typing on a messageboard not just letting what happens happen. Just stating things without comparisons would be mindless mutter. I just feel comparing is providing insight into how i believe it works (Who knows if i'm right or not). Of course anything is part of the tao so it includes any and all disicplines you speak of. Perfection is an ideal but it doesn't mean it is acheiveable. Hermits living in caves may reach enlightenment but runes and talismans have been used by people living in civilization for a long time. NLP practicitioners (similar to using runes etc) use anchors to fix people of mental diseases and fobias and lots of other things. It is powerful and has more immediate use. What i talk about is my thoughts and what is best for me and why i think so. Of course it's not necessarily whats best for you because i wouldn't know. I have no idea of traditional religous taoism i have never studied it and don't intend to, i think it would lead me astray. I now prefer reading less and less about taoism things and realizing things for myself from the world around me. I think Since bringing my meditating into my every day life my realisation and understanding has increased 100 fold. Of course it's not stale nconsciousness it is unlimited potential because it has nothing blocking or filtering anything that could arise into the mind. If you are completely empty, the first thing that goes to your mind will have 100% of the focus and that is where the power is recognised because the greatest amount of work can be done most effectively. Before you have that single thought literally anything can come to mind. You don't have the preconception that an animal needs to breath air or that gravity exists. No anything is possible in your mind. Thats why it is undescribable, i believe primarily due to the limitless possibilities. Before i got into taoism i was very interested in runes but i never found enough decent information about them. Good luck to you in your adventure with runes and i'd be keen to here back from you about how you went. I'd also be keen to here your thoughts as apposed to mine as to your understanding of runes since you have studied them more. I'm more interested in your personal experiences/thoughts rather than what you've read in the books about how they're supposed to work. Reading too much of that can limit your experiences and because your brain is more full you have less 'limitless possibilities'. What do you really feel inside without trying to feel different things, just by listening and feeling. Do the different runes differ if you just start looking at them without reading the dialog below each rune. Later when you read the dialog, Do they feel the way others say they do or do you think are they individual feelings, different to each person? Good luck again mate. Edited to delete an accidental double quote

I just thought of a good example. When i was a little boy i had a teddy i loved, my grandmother bought for me. When i held it very tight i felt safe, happy.... i felt love. That is a talisman and that's what i believe people try to do with runes. That was physical. Runes are better they are mental creations, if i lost my teddy i lost my link. If you lose your rune you just write another one. Imagine you didn't need anything. Imagine you didn't need your compass to point out to you which way north was so you could begin your meditations. You could already feel which way was north without even needing a compass. And moreover you already WHERE / ARE in a meditative state without ever needing to begin or end it. It's only the beginning of the possibilities and it only takes a little practice each day. Because it's so simple you can practice it all day every day and even when you're sleeping if you wanted. That is wu wei. Of course it's not what everyone wants to do and everyone enjoys different things or has different motivations which draw them to different methods.... Just my mental mumblings

Hmmm, i can't say i've read massive amounts about runes etc but i have read some none the less. They seem similar to me as talismans. I think you're right in saying it's not the outside it's whats on the inside that counts. I think a person can associate different runes with different feelings and use the runes as triggers to acheive enlightened states, or even just different states. I think it is a strong fire method. It's a bit similar to NLP's anchoring. You can use the rune or anchor as a stepping stone to a desired state. Whatever state you've been putting yourself into and the feeling you get, just double it, then double it again and keep on doubling it. It gets very strong. That should be a similar thing to what you're trying to achieve with the runes but you don't need to rely on the runes. You can choose to but you don't need to. However i think it's more basic and infact better to go beyond runes or talismans so that you can go directly into those states. I mean how can you live in a meditative state if you need to keep the rune in your vision or even in your mind. If your talisman is lost or stolen how do you get into your meditative state then? I think it's best not to rely on anything physical, relying on a thought or word is better, but the best is being able to directly enter those different states at will. No doubt they can all be powerful and perhaps even work well in times of stress. Because you are mixing physical with spiritual it becomes easier and stronger. But i think becuase of it's strength, powerfullness etc it then serves to work as a patch. When you get in trouble you patch it up with your rune or your NLP anchor etc. Finally, with all the power of runes or these types of things, even though they can assist you or solve problems in your life, I don't think it's a way of perfecting your life. I think only that can be done by living in the wu wei. No clinging, no trying, only being. To count with the ego is to count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 To count with a rune/anchor is to count 1, 2, 10 To count in the wu wei is to count 10. You are there already, it's effortless