zerostao

my chosen qigong, baguazhang, fits into the above op description qigong/tai chi baguazhang contains every element of Taoist Alchemy & higher energetics--- of course i do other practices and cannot claim that qigong alone has increased my health longevity on its own but it sure as heck has played a major role. your studies have led you to your opinion and mine have led me to mine. i say this because at the moment i am likely 30 years younger than i was 10 years ago soon after i began qigong i started doing shen gong but that was the natural progression it leads to meditative moments that get one somewhere and it can be done in basic qigong or wu chi whatever suits and i already said let's look at the situation 20 years from now

not a stringent list of qualifications imo, i know several who qualify under this list for the past ten years. check back in another 20 years and see if i still make this claim but then none of us 'qualifiers' are teachers either, so--- we do qigong and even the basic qigongs have layers and layers to work through one can go Deep with basic qigongs play with it enough and you get the feel for it

Violence is both unavoidable and unjustifiable. Virtue cannot separate itself from reality without becoming a principle of evil. We are all special cases. Ah, mon cher, you must have the essence of indifference to endure absurdity. Law, by definition, cannot obey the same rules as nature. We call first truths those we discover after all the others. the absurd is the essential concept and the first truth. I know of only one duty and that is to love. one quote is not from Camus

awesome!

now i am going to have to go read those long posts of yours

lost me with "When people are scared of children" although it may've been a crafty well thought out hook and even supported with brilliant analysis.... then, i reside in the childrenland, so yeah yeah --- yeah trolling with trombone every younger person i've encountered this week, more than a dozen less than three dozen,(the holidays have begun, so its hard to keep accurate count) have expressed to me that for them i am family. probably just holiday sentiment, but i will take it now the cob webs have shook loose i remember this morning just before daybreak one youngster played this on his smart phone, celebrating another friend's birthday--which seems appropriate to this thread not to mention this song being a better response than the future stones song,,

i've had a fascination with the trickster archetype ya know coyote, raven, rabbit, loki, monkey king, fox, till eulenspiegel etc arising from Nature isn't time the arch trickster? you think you have the time to do those things,,,, and then those d clarinets, rare, crafty, and wheedling maybe listen to the tone poem till eulenspiegel by richard strauss or

odyssey

not sure about starks, it is hard to bet against Arya --but the odds are long. hopefully Ned does not return. havnt decided about this winter's personal practice. can mention a bit about last winters. last winter was rough!! There was a flood in February, house water was froze for 3 weeks and other bitter experiences, had a lot of soul searching due to a relationship with a young lady ended with much misunderstanding, I even quit drinking from august 2017-august 2018 and the winter was the time I felt the effects of that decision most, I cannot recommend to anyone to stop drinking, but I digress.---sank into some deep dark places--however, i looked back to a short (unpublished) story i wrote (2015) Saura and the Bear which needs a major revision as bears are not really the wisest of forest creatures, ravens, squirrels, ducks, bees, not to mention owls, well, you get the idea. the bear is also not the preeminent giver of life either, none-the-less it was an impressive bear that Saura encountered that winter in that cave. so, i took the bear's advice. "That the bear was the preeminent giver of life and the wisest of all forest creatures because of this deep understanding of stillness. This stillness, practiced in hibernation, allowed the bear to spend the rest of the year in constant unchallenged movement. Bear wondered if this brave would realize the mind is its own cave, serves the same function. One should find the way of the stillness of cave hibernation in their own mind. The bear was not sure how to relay this idea to Saura." i went deep into meditation long sessions, some of which lasted all day or longer. there was a lot of garbage that needed taken out. i had fallen into nihilistic territory. later a late winter reading Don Quixote, there was the episode of the Cave of Montesino. Which was Deep and I read it at a perfect time, after much deep meditation myself. Very interesting read. I thought a lot about Death. there were spirit visitations. I was isolated in solitude. I cannot recommend the solitude either. But it was my lot. the first 30 minutes covers Quixote's Cave Results? a very unique interval of time; the practice was flawed in many respects, like the bear, after i did head out into the physical realm again, i moved like i did 30 years earlier (only better). my weight dropped from an all-time high of 215 in the dead of last winter to today's 168. of course i was influenced by Japanese studies that show that the mind alone can cause one to lose weight (or do anything basically) I do feel that my deep meditations of last winter played a major role in this transformation. last winter, while i decided that i would only do meditation and forgo physical practices, i would often wake finding myself doing other (physical) practices. I also took thelerner's advice not to take 'supplements' and should move my feet and do the work to achieve the physical transformation. I did use mind and body, probably spirit too. Practice does not have to be perfect to achieve good results. Sincerity is always the main key attribute. Like Quixote, I am the same age as the Man of la Mancha when he set out on his adventures. Like Quixote in the Cave, I am unencumbered by the shackles of reason. I opened myself to the domain of the subconscious. I opened myself to far-fetched possibilities and the Renaissance ideal of self-creation. Many fear to tread those Higher Planes (la Mancha and others) You do not have to go to the extremes of recreating yourself this winter. That is entirely up to you. I am glad that I did. I did run into the young lady again this year, late August when I stepped out to other Planes and hung out with her through the first week of October. This Winter I’ll use some moxa. And try to keep it mostly in the physical. Ole!!

Attainments are just a by product of following the Way. They are not ends to themselves. Enjoy the Journey. Carefree & Natural.

nectar

shift

in anarckia, that is considered a cardinal sin

stick with it to answer the OP, the spirit of the Dao Bums is golden

like an alkali metal sth?

“Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is.” comments?

tis a shame, really karl tried to stop it, i think roger scruton and thomas shelby too

Get in the game. Do it. DO it. DO IT. That's the point isn't it? Of course the Ancients just happened to DO IT better which is why LdV said to imitate them. I doubt LdV felt empty, although, he had an over active imagination. Empedocles. da Vinci

The turtle is a master trickster that is how he beat the trickster rabbit in the race. Remember , remember the fith of November.

Achieving being is not for the faint of heart or the feint of heart, whichever, enjoy that ignore button i would add that Aristotelian Logic is largely discredited among present scholars but that would be overkill, yet, that is the art i play with baguazhang enjoy your safe world in the mean between extremes. not giving the Ancients their proper due Respect has consequences adios and vaya con dios

You are entitled to your opinions and perspectives. Aristotle said excellence is the mean between the extremes. And that sounds like mediocrity to me. I agree with him on friendship. To truly live, as an artist (which is the highest calling) one must do edge work at the extremes. If one is always safely in the middle where are the true lessons learned in that? I am all about simplification dear one. If one is not up achieving being and merely wishes (existence) to enjoy a safe life, then Aristotle appeals. Karl Popper and Hegel appreciate the Pre-Socratics as much as I do. Pythagoras, Solon, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Democritus, the Sophists, Thales, the Seven Sages,,, and many of the earlier ancients were powerful poets and healers as well, Plato was rather conflicted over poetry going from thinking poets should be outlawed to claiming himself to be the great poet LMAO and Plato was more correct than Aristotle on several key accounts, but I digress. EDIT> I wouldn't want to leave out Empedocles. His CV consists of philosopher, POET, follower of Pythagoras, inventor of the four element theory of nature, put forth one of the earliest theories of particle physics, democratic politician, materialist, divine being, healer, mystical theologian, shamanic magician, immortal, can revive the dead, control winds and rains. An impressive resume and one that suits us well as we face down nihilism. Not only that but Aristotle credits Empedocles with the invention of rhetoric. What Empedocles brings to the table is simplicity. He gave us the four element theory (earth, air, fire, water). Empedocles tells us of a cosmic cycle of growth and decay where two personified cosmic forces compete in an eternal struggle for supremacy. We know the two competing forces as Love and Strife. Empedocles medical prescription to combat the vexation and strife of nihilism is a healthy dose of love. Still, the two personified forces compete as they cycle through. In the highest state of either Love or Strife, no life can exist in our world. For life to exist in our world there needs to be a mixture of Love and Strife in a state of flux. The two extremes: Love, Strife and Aristotle avoids them, safely (not sure if I need to cite myself) 2nd edit>> If one is adept with their meditation, the missing lines of On Nature (Empedocles) will reveal themselves.