zerostao

if it was a secret formula that allowed him to live to such an old age, why didnt he share that with any of his 24 wives? or any of his kids? for sure this guy did live to be waaaaaaaaay way old. who is to say the exact age tho? li himself disputes the 256 and says 197. but, however old he happened to be when they celebrated his 150th birthday--he did live another 106 years. Da Liu is who told me about Li, Li was one of Da Liu's teachers. also it was said that Li learned his baguazhang from a 500 year old hermit that he ran into out in the mountains. so 256 aint all that lol Da Liu happened to live to 96, he passed in 2000. and he never one day ever walked into a doctor's office.

it also depends on if you can maintain your root while walking. i reckon michael jordan did not have to wear air nike to soar thru the air and finish the dunk. but i am going to step out of this thread and let mudryah keep the lead here. (i was unaware that chidragon understood baguazhang stepping and the rooting associated with bagua)(learn something new everyday!) and i look to learn from Mudryah

i think what helped my rooting is walking on bricks, first single bricks, then stacked bricks. i also do qigong standing on bricks. i also feel that tree qigong and standing on exposed roots of the tree has helped with rooting. and also lower posture walking

combat wise, (baguazhang is a fighting art) you are going to have to be able to go with whatever you have on your feet at the time of conflict. uno momento please, i need to take my shoes off before we go at it,,,,, shouldnt one practice with the shoes that they normally wear?

as a mod, i find it useful to browse invisibly for a few reasons. if someone files a report and sees that i am online, they may think some quick final action is coming.and this allows me to browse as a member casually enjoying the threads- i do limit my time modding- folks knowing that i am usually in invisible mode allows that when anyone invisible is browsing any random thread, then it could appear to be a mod checking it out. i like my modding times and places to sometimes be ambiguous.

i wont comment on his stepping, i understand that he is just starting off and he is your student. but i look forward to the update a month from now and see how his stepping is then. i think this thread has great potential, thanks for starting the thread and thanks for sharing the videos.

FFS is Fu Fak Shen which is a spirit guide and Shen Xian the practice is guidance based. and not a spontaneous practice. i am not the most well versed person in relation to proper Taoist terminology. effilang and friend are both far superior to me in Taoist knowledge/terminology. i cannot really say if it was an energy transmission or the result of doing the guidance practice that has raised my subtle energies. i can tell that at the initiation the energy was felt very strongly to the point that it overcame me, the masters wife noticed and came to talk me thru it, she was sitting right beside me and i couldnt hear anything she said. the energy was doing all the talking in my mind and at that moment there was nothing else, very strong unexpected first impression that FFS made the friend that went to the initiation with me was sitting nearby and he could hear her talking the journey has been remarkable, if i openly told of some of these experiences, i feel that 96% would call bs on me, but i have no need to bs, what would be gained? i am not selling anything

if progressive is a 'dirty word' what would its opposite> regressive be considered? buts what with labels? the 'tea party' right doesnt care much for republicans either.as you point out and sure, why not just default and say fuck it all anyways? let the chips fall where they may but they aint gonna fall in any way that you might be thinking, most likely, everything just further widens the gap of disparity. this is the game going on. the richest of the rich just quite dont have enuff yet for their taste. constitution? you arnt serious are you? that old obsolete document hasnt been in effect in ages. and soon enuff that progessive magna carta will be overturned. there are two kinds of people in this world, those who own it and then there is all the rest, mostly those who work for the ones who own it. the middle class is the problem becoz they dont have any clue of which of those 2 groups that they belong to. and as the middle class tries to hold onto status quo they keep diminishing and will continue to diminish until they reach bottom. luckily i am part of the aristocracy, ok poor aristocracy, but at least i aint slaving for peanuts or visiting any doctors. while the middle class is being concerned about any crumbs being handed to the poor, the rich are robbing the middle class blind. its always about mis-direction. in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king. wake up, the rich cannot possibly gain anything from the poor, guess who the rich are gaming? the nearly rich, that is who, the poor dont invest into bubbles, the middle class does.

sure hope white man has a sense of humor http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3ismmzVAsM&list=PL48C8CA334C597307

we could use one of these?> "“Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.” General Colin Powell brian i am not surprised by your level of support to your community. and i agree , it is good to do what we can close to home. i always feel a vibe of generosity from you and joeblast. doesnt mean i will back down from pushing further tho, haha do you feel that our current level of consumerism is sustainable?

of course there is and everyone in between also.

us-985d where will it end? it wont, and what is that ancient saying? spy on your enemies, spy on your allies more, spy on your own incessantly

i agree that it can be more beneficial to give and/or offer help this way. especially on the local level. i think more important than seeing that your money was used properly, is that you as an individual put your own energy into it. and connection is made on a very human to human level. of course events can happen far from home, that should compell us to some action of helping. it could happen to anyone anywhere and anytime. calamity does not discriminate. it is easy for me to sit at some relaxed atmosphere, drinking my beer casually and amongsts friends and think, gee, what i lucky ol' cat , that i am,,,and reality should be that we use the resources of our military to assist those in times of severe need instead of expanding our imperialistic follies,,,,,eventually chickens do come home to roost,,, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/22/us/2011-ruling-found-an-nsa-program-unconstitutional.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/329391-court-reauthorizes-surveillance-program-citing-congressional-approval as far as who funded any message, i care more about the accuracy and content of the message , rather than who is delivering it or funding it. americans have lost their balls, imo, it is like someone or something has been fattening us up for a kill, slowing us down in our passion, our agility, our sense of, sense of anything-especially reality. where is the sense of urgency? where is that word that used to circulate (militant)? where is the passion? where is the life? are we all just zombies staggering along mindlessly? or is that what we are very close to transforming into? where is our hearts? this is no time or place for the feint of heart. isnt the path clearly laid out before us? http://rt.com/usa/scalia-nsa-surveillance-threats-362/

ah ah i just looked up tzujan imagine that i am a little slow sometimes lol

certainly could be ziran as well. wu wei and ziran are always complimenting each other......

interesting isnt it? that a thread about seeing wu wei winds itself to civil disobedience.......

i do not consider wu wei to be 'non-doing' believe me a plaza full of college students, they were not all 'non-doing' "Hopefully, I will narrow it down to just one final exoteric interpretation." that is highly ambitious of you to reach for the stars in such a way, but this way is as illusury as it is elusive and not acheivable. " I see that they are only your perspective" yes, and however you feel, you are using your own perspective as well. "I had diminished some of my misconceptions about the context in the TTC on a daily basis as I go." this is an illustration of your subjectivity and much of your posts suggests this. any human language is symbol and not the original, it is open to interpretation, it is arbitrary and subject to subjectivity. the only true exact language is spoken only by nature, this is why i say the Tao gets its principles from nature, or we could also say that nature gets its principles from Tao "Isn't reflection means" maybe brian , you , and me each have a slightly different perspective on what this word is trying to say? again, this is illustrating subjectivity. you are taking a very academic scholarly approach to TTC. this is fine and useful on many levels but it still has its limits. do you really think that you can know exactly what Lao Tzu was thinking in each of those chapters?

knowhope i pm you about this i am also sorry to hear of your deep loss. you seem to be going thru some type of purification process. transformational

chidragon, i see your points, i agree with you with the idea that Lao Tzu indeed wrote the TTC himself, i look at the TTC as Lao Tzu's thesis regarding his observations and understandings of nature's realities. the TTC is a superlative thesis. this is why it resonates with so many of us. even, if each of us may derive of the TTC's wisdom, clarity, and penetrating insights, thru our own unique subjective perspective. TTC is not a document that can be viewed objectively. once Lao Tzu handed over the TTC, he departed into nature, no? once Lao Tzu handed over the TTC, he himself became removed from it. it then, became the viewer/reader/studier's TTC it is us that now give the TTC its meaning and not Lao Tzu like brian says , it is a reflection also there are ancient Native American Indian ideas that sound completely Tao, you are correct in that they did not name it Tao. Tao is just a symbolic name, language itself is symbols, arbitrary and abstract and highly subjective to answer your question did i discover Tao thru nature? i have often and still do, it never stagnates and cannot be contained or confined in any one book, i experience Tao and it doesnt have to be out in the outer realms of wilderness, on campus yesterday during a gathering in the plaza, i could see wu wei i really dont read the TTC anymore, it is a remarkable document/thesis maybe i havnt read the TTC in many many moons but right now chapter 38 is on my mind wu wei is an embodiment

from nature, and nature is not confined to any one specific culture

beware the golden arrow

good luck BKA on your 24/7 meditative state, surely you have earned some merit in Tao, your service here was certainly meritorious it was a honor for me to have worked with you

it felt very sincere, open, warm, and heart felt to me. and i think you are right basher saying it shows courage/grace qualities. those are fine qualities not sure why a wishbone ash song is playing the background of my mind, hmmm oh hehe

dawei, i am encouraging aaron to post more and not fret over past mod decisions that are not held in any way against him. i used to log onto this site looking forward to some new thread/examination by 'twinner'. sometimes the 'second foul' does get the harder hit. but we could also consider that deci is often in this 'second' category. but i am not going to debate member by member , what type of mod decisions are made. here is something that you may be overlooking with "find people" ; folks are not exactly lining up for any openings that we have, we are lucky in that 2 members have expressed interest in becoming stewards, that is encouraging. we have been discussing the "real source of problems" , and there have been very recent developments that the board is not yet aware of

effi, i have to say that opening post is stunning and maybe one of the highest quality posts i have ever read here. and that is saying alot. your knowledge about Taoism is obvious. it is no accident that you were chosen to organize the london event. i know that you and friend understand the value of TYS. i could never have ever been able to express as you have. well done. i still feel like folks are not getting this, i feel like a failure of sorts, in that i am not able to express in a way that will get bums to notice that our way is beyond mind, beyond energy, we can get to wu chi and experience it my words fail to explain fully, i can talk all i want about when i meditate i become just a floating cloud, and empty isnt what one might have thought it was,and what the next dimension feels like,, these are just my words and they are insufficient to convey what i would like to express about TSM XYP TYS and FFS. i tip my hat to you effi, i think you lay it out very nicely and certainly in a way beyond my capability