z00se

I think that is the crux of it. Please discuss your thoughts.

No ... my 1 bit worth

I think it's a bit like 2 magnets near each other with a N and S pointing towards each other. THe closer you are to the N the better the N things seem and the more you want to go that way. Same with the S. If you get closer to the grounded side you will think it's great and really want to continue to strengthen it. All your senses get stronger, as with your awareness. You can actually see/hear/smell/FEEL those things that your intuition tells you. I've been there, loved it but didn't stay there. I think i'm like you, not easily grounded. When you can get there and experience it though you will realise it's not mundane, it's wonderful.

Do chi weight lifting. After your first week and after you get the hang of it, you will have less desire. You will feel great. I never got much from testical breathing. Big draw is good.

Yeah all the kids in china love hacky sack. But they have a new thing these days it's like a weighted bottom with some feathers in the top. The gym thing looks cool, especially the stick one. Would be damn hard to do what he's doing. Cool videos

I've done this several times. Minimum 7 days though up to 15 days. If you want some real benefit don't read Tao Te Ching. Even if it is a good book, Insight comes from inside. Give yourself the chance to have your own insights, then you can look at the book after and reflect on it. You will acheive more. Walking is good (don't start doing pushups or hard exercises) and you definately need a timetable. Don't want to be thinking about it when your there. Infact you want to be thinking as little as possible. Leave electronic gadgets at home. I have my own goals so my timetable is something like 6-7:30 meditate 7:30-8:30 breakfast & walk 8:30-10:00 meditate 10-11 stretch / rest 11-12:30 meditate 12:30-1:30 lunch + walk etc heaps of meditating you might notice. Prob go to bed around 9-10 with the same sorta pattern. Even though your sitting around lots it's not easy. Sometimes in the early days i shout and scream and punch the ground like i just can't take it any more. At about 6 days all start becomming relaxed and being able to persist without fustration. At 10 days it really starts to work well and you get awesome results. After that you progress still but much slower. Then it's good to try to continue to keep the same mindset but begin comming back into society and keeping the same mindset while ur at work etc. Then after you get good at it you don't need to go away by yourself, you can get the same result anytime anywhere. =]

I don't agree. Good and evil are different from desirable and undesirable. I think the sage that sits there and never moves all day has no desireables/undesireables. But there are plenty of enlightened people who don't just sit and meditate all day. There are desirable things that they want to do, that their soul desires that their material body can do to accomplish this goal here on earth. I think the difference is in the way they react to the desirable or undesirable. The reaction is different by those enlightened or not. Another point to mention is that killing or even just shouting at someone and seeming as though you are angry is necessary sometimes, or people walk all over you. Just because you act angry doesn't mean you really are angry. If someone is crazy and they want to kill your family then you kill them first. It's not evil, it's not good it just is. I think the root of what you are discussing is in the judging. It is in the analytical mind where this comes from, not from the heart.

I also must comment: Your honour and merit hold society up. Keep it proud. It is to be commended. But the state of the society isn't worried about by the taoist... nothing is. There are many things within society that can make you unhappy. Taoism allows you to live in society happily, regardless of the state of society. Good on you for trying to remove evils for those who can see. Your victories will only be short lived however. The balance of good and evil will always remain the same... a balance. When you can see beyond good and evil there only is what is. There is only left the perfection of the tao.

The tao has people like you. People who refuse to turn a blind eye even if it is for their own benefit. It needs (well not really, but i'm glad they are there) people like you. Not everyone (very few infact) can give up everything for happiness but it is those others happiness that you can bring about more easily (well only those who also cannot blend with the tao) too. I feel what you say and i have partial agreement. However that is not what those who practice the tao follow. Do what you will. The world will always shine in my eyes Peace and love to you too mate. Enjoy your day because it really is wonderful =]

'Wrong' is just your opinion as 'wrong', it isn't that anything is actually "wrong". The fact that you think right and wrong matter is slowing your development. Just give it up So what if you worked all day tirelessly to stop all these so called 'wrong doings' and if you slept only 2 hours a day, every day but you actually managed to convince every new wrong doer that they were wrong and they promised to stop. Would you be happyier then? I doubt it. You'd just see more wrong doings. Why? Because you're practicing at finding them. Wouldn't it be better to practice doing something that actually made you feel good instead? Where are you going with all this. What do you want to acheive?

I think it's perfectly normal. Don't fret, just keep practicing. Eventually you'll be so relaxed that they won't startle you as much, and finally you won't be startled at all. Later still your apartment could be shaking from an earthquake and you still won't feel startled. You will just move out of the building if you want to but you won't get this inner startling sensation. It's completely natural and nothing to worry about. If you can't practice in that environment yet move to a quieter one. But you have to start practicing in difficult environments sooner or later if you want to progress

It's not a matter of should / should not do something the fact is that "we" needn't do anything. There are plenty of others who will do that for us. We should not TRY to seek to find what is right and wrong, good or bad, deserving or undeserving. Only see what IS. To divide into these categories is to judge and a waste of effort. Effort to judge and a reduced ability to percieve at the same time. People cloud their ability to see the truth of the situation by focusing on what they want to see and missing everything else. I think trying to discuss philosophical matters is useless because it is trying to measure and give rules to the unmeasurable and unruling. It is just perfect how it is... that is all.

The Fred Hollows foundation keeps Fred Hollows immortal in a way also. The saints are immortal too because they are remembered forever. Michael Jackson could just as well be immortal too. But your memory living forever... i don't know. I'm sure there would have been "immortals" that died before anyone in recorded history that are forgotten of now. So their memory doesn't live on FOREVER. Nothing lasts forever in it's original form, not even the sun. Only the Tao remains forever in constant change. I think when you can truely realise and understand that you ARE the tao and that the tao IS you you don't live your life anymore, you live as the tao, organising it and changing it as you would wish. This is the only way to true immortality... by merging with the only thing that remains forever - TAO/GOD.

It's known that time is not linear and that at some moments time passes very fast (like when you're doing something fun) and sometimes goes very slow (like when you're doing something you don't like). When time moves fast it can seem like only a short passage of time but actually according to the external clock alot of time has passed. If you live 'in' each moment then the exists the possibility that each moment can become longer and longer, while seeming shorter and shorter. This could happen infinately. I heard on the news on the radio that reserch revealed that this percieved time does actually matter and that REAL time could be measured by it. (Of course the speed something travels effects time also ie. time stops while something moves at the speed of light so maybe this theory could have some place to play in my idea too.) So then if each moment can become infinately long, those who perfect the art of living (by living each moment to the fullest) could prevent time passing for them, while time is still passing in the outside world. This would then give rise to the possibility of immortality. Just another way immortality could be hypothesised.

WHAT IS BIGU? The term bigu denotes an advanced qigong state during which the practitioner is able to maintain his or her normal activities without eating or drinking (and sometimes sleeping) for long periods, in some cases for several months and years at a time. This link tells someones story who has stopped eating for some period of time. http://www.healingdao.com/cgi-bin/articles...mp;articleid=23 I wonder about any long term consequences of this. Maybe your bones will become brittle, or you will have health issues later in life. I think it's good to eat very small amounts but i think people should eat SOMETHING, especially since she said she was doing weight training. I mean there is mind over matter but there is science too. You can't do just anything because you 'feel' you can do it, you should always consider it analytically too. We have 2 sides of the brain we should use them both. I mean... some young kids really believe they can fly after they watch superman but they still fall off the roof to their deaths. I think if your practice is making you feel you don't want to eat that can't be good. Why are the general public unaware of breatharians? Is it because they don't want to talk about their exceptionally healthy life due to not eating food or is it just that they're all dead? If it's true that this bigu state is really possible then they should be teaching qigong to all the people in Africa that have no food instead of sending them a few grains or rice. They have no jobs, they have all day to practice, i'm sure they could become adapt at the practice very quickly and become healthy. I mean every living thing, animal and plant needs some source of physical food, vitamins minerals and especially water. It seems strange that someone thinks they can not eat and live like the rest of us.

Yes you can become better and better at this. Also watching others. Especially the people close to you because you see them often you can read them like a book. You can know when they are happy, when they are worrying, when they are lying, or how they will feel even before they do. To others it may seem like you can read their mind but you're not your just predicting their actions based on the evidence you see and your past experiences with them. Also you can gain information from up above and you get that 'ah ha' moment when you just realised something - it's like you got told it and then all of your emperical evidence that you can see just fits into place and the truth shines through. However i'm not sure it's so great. Some things are best left in the dark. Why? because you can't control it. The outcome is out of your hands. If you start trying to manipulate things you lose the ability to see whats going to come next. And should you manipulate things that would happen anyway? Apart from that if you manipulate something it's very easy to backfire and cause some other problem later on. It's like the gene giving you 3 wishes but when you wish for something, something else changes so that your in a worse position than when you started. Perhaps you can control things a little. Some people are very good at manipulating others. But it takes practice, i would feel guilty, and it's not something i would like to do lots of to get enough practice to be able to do it well. But there are definately some things i wish i had the confidence to manipulate well.

Someone at my work had something wrong with him a while ago (can't remember what) went to the doctor and doc said too many bananas. He only had 3-4 a day. After he cut back to 1 a day he got better. Balance and moderation is always the key. To be honest i'd rather suffer from a big night on the alcohol than eating too many bananas, but thats just me I've eaten raw foods and felt great from it. Cooked food does taste nicer though. It's nice to go raw during the day and have a nice cooked dinner at night. Something to look forward to throughout the day.

.

Haha exactely. What makes a dogs life more worthy than a cows life? I have eaten dog several times. It was yummy

Yep i agree. Enjoy ya life while you have it. Do what you want with it. Have that ciggy, drink that wine if it makes you feel happy. One more thing needed is listening to that voice inside that tells you "you have to stop now". Usually people get many warnings, not only one or two, but continually ignoring the warnings is to your own peril.

In china they have these cool flasks. It's just like a cup/mug that has a lid. You can get metal or glass ones. Inside the top is a mesh filter so you put your tea leaves inside, click the filter in and drink your tea. Or you can put the lid on and drink it later. Stays hot for 5 hrs =]

I read that the RDI (recommended dietry intake) amounts of vitamins and minerals are nothing to go by. The vitamin C RDI was set as the minimum amount needed before you got scurvy. The rdi's are nothing to go by if you want optimal health.

Eric, i have some comments. Many people seem to say they have excellent results with what you have said (i haven't given it much of a go myself as my own practices serve me well and now my glass is full for the moment). However... Concentrating on the nose area like you've mentioned would bring energy to that point. Whether it's energy comming from inside or outside that people are describing i feel this is not a good way for a taoist 'beginning practice' should begin. Yeah it's easy to get strong energy to the head but you need a clear way for it to go too. I feel it's not good to just let it all pool up there. I feel intent should be used and not visulization. You can't use intent if your using your brain (which becomes even harder when you've got lots of energy comming in or staying around your head). You need to let your energy sink down into the dantien so that your mind becomes empty, then you can use your intent to direct or let the energy flow freely at it's will. When you are grounded enough and have enough energy in your lower dantien you can begin bringing the higher frequency energy in from higher energy centres. I think doing your nose method makes it more difficult to develop the ability to use intent, therefore even though some people are feeling all this energy very fast they actually are going backwards because it becomes harder for them to use intent. To use intent you need to be relaxed. concentrating on a place or visualising is not relaxing. Visulization can finally open your eyes to intent but you need to get your head clear and all the energy out of it. Using the energy from higher energy centres without mixing with grounding earth energy makes your qi too hot and too high a frequency. I feel it's not much use. It's like a 1,000 volt energy without any amps. It won't do anything useful. By having large amps then adding a balancing voltage to it the power (volts x amps) becomes much higher and more useful and more safe. The reader should beware. It's natural for things that build up slowly are strong and last a long time. Things that jump up very fast are usually quick to fall down. I think if you try to jump to high frequency energy early on you will end up with nothing in the end. step by step.