Daeluin

I tend to view governments, their presidents and ministers, as the fire, and the land as the water. The land and the king are one. Following the same principle, there is a tendency for the "king" to become disconnected from the "land," especially when the king is above the land, operating with an "upward" proclivity, while the land remains below the king, operating with a "downward" proclivity (in humility, not defending itself). Thus it seems to follow principle that many governments, especially as they attempt to catch up to "modern governments", continuously disconnect from the land and are often almost completely oblivious both to their relationship to this destruction and how this destruction affects the health of their kingdom. A great state is like a river basin that receives everything flowing into it. It is the place where all things come to rest where all the world is welcomed The low is greater than the high The still is greater than the restless The low country wins over its neighbor The still female wins over the male The Sage wants to uplift the people The people want to follow the Sage only by being low does this come to be The Sage bows to the people The people bow to the Sage And when they lift up their heads only greatness remains dao de jing 61, tl Jonathan Star Nice divination. Best of luck upon your journey, brother.

tl;dr Post so that nothing you write feels like it would require defending. If it does, change it. IMO.

One theme that arose today in another thread relates to gentleness and sharpness. When we have something to share, we have the choice to present it gently, or sharply. Sharply, we cut straight to the point with very clear and sometimes cutting words. Often this can happen when we react to something we have read that rubbed us the wrong way. Maybe it felt completely off-base and we felt violated by the intent, motive or conclusion the point stood behind. Maybe only just a part of it triggered us to react, where someone said "this is like this" but in our heart we can think of many situations where "this is not like this." Was it a blunder or wording, or did the person really intend such a strong blanket stance? Often this is the path to take to make a lot of people feel pushed away and reactive to one's words. Gently, we may present the same general sharing in a way that is not forced upon another. In a way that allows the other more time and consideration before deciding whether the content has triggered a reaction, or is able to gently flow past those who don't agree, or is allowed to be held with more care by those who want to allow it more depth within. I think gentleness in posting can be done by using words that avoid these triggers. I find these types of words often do trigger reactions:This is, this will, you are, it is, always, never, etc. While these types of words tend to soften that sharpness and absoluteness: This may be, this can be, I think this, I sense, I feel (owning it as something personal rather than projecting it as blanket absolute), Perhaps, tend to, sometimes, etc. One may be able to develop a feel for what types of things are more likely to result in reactions, and what types of things are OK to leave without softening as much. In general I find that gentleness like this allows people ample room to dismiss my content without needing to defend against it, leading to greater harmony. Sometimes I find it helpful to create an invitation for people to dismiss me. Genuine humility can be very powerful, and can serve as a pre-defense, eliminating the energetic need to defend against any posts that do find something to attack. It needs to be genuine, or one may not feel able to let things go. In the end we all have our own ways, so I hope that others won't become too caught up by my own unique perspective. I don't believe that any perspective holds an absolute truth that cannot be tripped over, or described in more accessible terms for different audiences. Thanks for the thread!

Wow... now I know why I stay out of these threads. All this hot headed energy is heating up the earth y'all.

I think that blue line marks between read and unread... at least as far as the software knows.

Friends became followers. There was the option to convert friends to followers, but this was not chosen, as we cannot know if our old "friends" would want to but suddenly bombarded with notifications of every post by each of these people, as this was not a feature of "friends" previously. Easy enough to add new follows. But no, there is now no longer a friends feature.

Many of my practices and understandings are of Daoist influence, though I find as I broaden my perspective to include other "dharmas," that daoism has not kept itself separate from these influences. This lack of walls is allowing much to fall into place, perhaps mostly because I am ready for it to. Ultimately, I don't really think I am practicing any particular modality other than: Human. (Which I hear is very similar to Tree, etc.)

Honestly I think it is more being in the right place at the right time. There have been many blocks to delving deeper into a computer career, because that is not really my path. Here I am perhaps able to do what needs to be done, and it just falls into place. More like I am just a vessel, poking in one direction, then another, to see where the openings are. The above change involved one copy-paste and one cut, and some testing first. I could do it because I had access, because I looked, and because it was easy. That is all. Recently I started poking in the direction of massage/healing arts, and found many openings there, so I am happily on the road to leaving computer things behind.

OK, hacking complete, here's what we we've got now: The activity and messenger icons that show up inside the menu were copied to the main nav bar (and the report icon if you're a mod). And the combined notifications that used to show up in the menu icon (one the right) are now disabled. The bar inside the menu was left as-is. It is highly possible this crude copy/paste of code from one place to another introduce a code-bug, if any of this code is tied into other places with expectations I'm not aware of. Please let me know if there is anything broken now!!! Also, it is possible that for users with smaller devices, the menu is more awkward... please let me know if this is the case! @Trunk Does this work better for you?

Yep needs to be done in theming, support won't help. This is more code theming than CSS, but I'll see if I can find where in the code those buttons are and try to move them... this is more code hacking, which I might be able to accomplish, we'll see!

The mobile/tablet menu doesn't seem to take advantage of the space at the top that it could; there is extra space for both mail and activity icons, but instead the notifications for both mail and activity are combined and shown over the menu icon: This makes one open the menu bar before knowing if they received mail or it it is just normal activity: I don't see any options at all related to the mobile menu / layout, so not sure if this can be changed. I'll open a support request to see if they are able to help with this. Since the Activity and Mail buttons in the menu both open new pop-up windows, I don't see why they can't both be displayed in the free space in the main menu... might be a theming thing we can get Sean to do as well, since there is no mobile menu manager in the ACP.

Crossing the river denotes a big undertaking. This could really be anything. There are four timeless hexagrams, which are in operation in every moment. Heaven over Heaven ䷀ Earth over Earth ䷁ Water over Water ䷜ Fire over Fire ䷝ Heaven and Earth, represent the original Yin and Yang of the universe; the parents of all things. The cantong qi says: "Qian ☰ and Kun ☷ are the door and the gate of change," the father and the mother of all hexagrams. Kan ☵ and Li ☲ are the inner and the outer walls, they spin the hub and align the axle. Female and male, these four trigrams function as a bellows and its nozzles. Fire and Water represent the nozzles giving momentum to the energy of Heaven and Earth. Fire ☲ represents light, the conscious mind, ego, and the general principle of combustion. Yet when it is stable, it represents clear illumination, absolute clarity, and true emptiness. Water ☵ represents heavy, the subconscious, darkness, reproductive forces, the body, desires and the general principle of densification. It is when something is heavy that it easily becomes pulled low. However this Water principle also contains the one true yang of heaven. This Yang is constantly getting pulled into things, much like the nature of human desire. Thus this eternal principle operates such as if one is able to remain centered, one is able preserve one's one true yang of heaven in the midst of forces that will draw it away. One operates in the midst of danger, yet is always able to stay centered and safe. It is like carrying a cup of water without allowing it to be spilled as one hikes up a mountain. Doubled hexagrams can represent internal and external, or body and mind. Double fire ䷝ can be interpreted as clarity of body and mind, Double water ䷜ can be interpreted as stability of body and mind. It is when we have Fire over Water ䷿ or Water over Fire ䷾ that we can see how these principles relate to crossing the river, or undertaking something great. Water has a proclivity to sinking that must be guarded against to preserve stability. Fire has a proclivity to rise up that must be guarded against to preserve clarity. When water is beneath fire ䷿, the two separate, and one must work very hard to hold the water up and bring the fire down. Doing work to keep two things from going in different directions at the same time one is unsettled and it is not an appropriate time for a big undertaking. After puberty, this is a natural human state, where the reproductive essences are easily consumed and the mind easily wanders. When fire is beneath water ䷾, the two meet each other in the middle, and are easier to keep integrated. When fire is brought below water, its heat warms the water and steam (qi) is created, sublimating the water and preventing it from leaking away as easily. When the receptive capacity of water is used as a foundation to draw in and support the mercurial and fleeting nature of fire, fire does not as easily burn things up. It is when these two meet and intermingle, that over time the state of Fire and Water, these nozzles of creation, are turned back, we take control of our own momentum and return to the state of Heaven and Earth prior to there being momentums to guard against. It is when in the state of Fire under Water ䷾, that, as things are merging together, that one is more settled within and able to navigate a large undertaking. Crossing a large river, without bridges or modern technology, is a very dangerous affair. One may easily be washed away, especially if one is trying to carry a lot across. In a boat even, one wrong turn or not paying attention to one errant wave, means the boat sinking. In modern days roads and highways are likened to rivers - to cross a highway full of traffic, one must be very careful or one will get run over. If one is unsettled in mind and body, it may not be wise to put oneself in such precarious positions, and so one is not advised to attempt the crossing. If one is in a more settled state, it may be a good opportunity to undertake such a crossing. It is in this way that the I-Ching advises when we might be able to find success in undertaking something that involves many correct steps. This could be something like interviewing for a new job, starting a family, traveling to a different country, an important business negotiation, and so on. These are not things one wishes to undertake in an unsettled state of mind and body.

If you scroll down you should have a text box for replies there by default. Only need to use quote if you need to quote. Not sure if I am understanding the issue. Did we used to have a button "Reply" that would go to a new page for adding generic replies... something used instead of the quick reply text box at the bottom? Or are you talking about something specific to replying to a certain user's post? I know there used to be a full page reply area in the old version with preview page etc, but that seems to have been all integrated into the quick-reply-box feature at the bottom of any thread page. Clicking inside expands it into a more recognizable text editor.

@Bindi OK, updated. Please let me know if it continues to not work.

We just noticed that if someone is in the groups "Nuwa" or "Anarchists" this seems to be the case. Even though the other groups you are in have permissions for this, sometimes if a group does not we think one may decide to override the other. I'm not clear on this. I'll try to adjust so those two groups have permission to edit avatars (as I think many might be trying to do after the square-to-circle adjustments) now.

As we can see, switched avatar profiles from squares to circles. By default this has no border... we seem to agree this makes it look pretty flat. Sean came up with this current border (and I've made it more consistent so it shows up the same everywhere now), but we might not agree that this is best way to do a border. Open to suggestions, though not sure if anything is permanent at this point. Curious what people think.

More like the little hobbit running errands between the Wizard and the Elves, trying not to trip over his own shoelaces.

OK, I've finished up some tweaks to the editor toolbar. The way this works in the new system is via three different toolbar sizes: Large Medium Small. In general these sizes are used automatically depending on what kinda device one uses, so Large for computers, Medium for tablets, Small for phones. But also, it seems Medium is used on computers when posts are edited instead of the Large they were used to compose the posts, and Medium is used for the Messenger editor even on computers. Because we have some members whom may be restricted to only posting from smaller devices, and thus they will never have access to the full set of features, and because the different modes use different editors even on the same device, there is a somewhat inconsistent experience with this setup. So to fix this inconsistency, and to provide full editor options to people even when they can only post from phones, all three toolbars now share the same buttons and button order: Large: Medium: Small: Additionally, the background color button was removed, as we didn't have it in the old editor (at least not in the past year or two iirc), and a point was raised about it being used to compose deliberately difficult to read posts. In general I think the foreground color option provides plenty of opportunity for creative expression. Also the "Insert Code" option was removed... it only lets someone display what the code looks like, in case someone wanted to show coding examples without them getting rendered, but that doesn't seem like something we discuss much here. As of now I think the editor should provide a more consistent experience and be a bit closer to what we had in the old version.

Meow. I saw it too... seems fixed now.

OK, hehe... it sounds like we are saying the same thing then. Though I am unclear about accepting help from another in clearing out space inside. I feel this is something I need to do on my own. Help from another may have larger results, and may allow the pendulum to swing more, and yet it may also set much more in motion as a part of this, so it is a big decision. Maybe you can share more with me in PM.

Well, my sense is that whatever is coming in through the crown is for integration, and "my" role is to help facilitate this by cleaning up space within and staying clear and empty enough for integration to occur. So creating more room for "ego-me", I'm not sure. I sense I should trust the process and do my best to "be nothing." Though I imagine that this will become more difficult to do without sensing in much greater detail as things progress.

Indeed, the celestial mechanism requires our respect before it will work with us. Presuming one can do anything at any time will get one into hot water eventually. Not all time is equal.

Oh don't mind me, I'm over the top as usual. It's the whole ego thing in general, including my own - I'd probably prefer it if people acted more like cattle grazing while watching the sunset.

Edit: Too much explanation, not enough heart. The heart is simply that I hope that all have the opportunity to learn their karmic lessons, sown already by their behavior and its consequences, without needing to also bear a brand or carry a cross. A cross that (as evident by this being our choice made here and now) becomes our burden too. As someone attempting a spiritual path, I can only make the decision - alone - to do my best to hold all within my embrace of unity and harmony.

Alexa finally left us, just in time for Baidu to arrive. There is a request in the conf for bots to wait 18s between page loads, so if they listen that should help.