Harmonious Emptiness

Actually I've read no more than a couple chapter of Freud. What I said there about perversion was based on the studies of Alice Miller, who dealt with many many patients and discovered this to be true upon conducting research. Then you have examples like child abuse by priests and monks of various religions. Then you have the looooong list of Republican party representatives who were charged with sex crimes, mostly against children, while the Republicans are usually expected to stand up against "perversity" and sexual liberties. This is not based on theory but real life research and examples.

By the Chinese, no. By communism's anti-religious/anti-traditional-spirituality endeavours? Possibly. The state of Taoism in the PRC is a good sign that the hegemonic thinking has little respect for what Taoism is really about, beyond a few easily digestible words that bring in tourism. And I'm not saying white/anglo/etc.. Chinese people in the West are under less constraint to understand the DDJ in a dry scientist manner. The intention to suppress these "old superstitious ways of looking at the world" in a communist society does not lend well to understanding and writing about ancient mystical texts. I'm not at all saying that nothing good in this regard comes out of China, but the climate of the West is simply more advantageous to it. Especially for people who are culturally Chinese, maybe, but speaking English is not the end of the wisdom in the DDJ.

Just left a post in the topic itself, but as to the "facts" posted by WWRN, they are obviously positioned to support a bias, however, if you want to fight against homophobia, here's your chance to look at the rationale that's causing it, so that you know the arguments needed. The problem would arise if the posters just refuse to look at counter arguments, in which case their just spitting propaganda at people and nothing constructive can come of the time spent there. Unfortunately, this is more often than not what happens when dealing with ignorance, as this is how the people have managed to hold on to their ignorance/blissful illusion of being morally superior in spite of obvious realities.

So maybe of all the people having promiscuous unprotected sex, gay people make up a large percentage. But why should this be such a surprise and an issue? In the 70's, women realized they were free to do what they wanted to do sexually and did so until they got used to it and reverted back to more moderate sexual behaviour. Of course, men were happy to join them in their discovery and there was lots of promiscuity and subsequent STDs. Maybe, instead of hippies and disco kids, it's gays in this situation. When the revolutionary wave calms down, the side effects of radical change will subside as well. Shit, it's not like straight people don't sometimes have sex in bathroom stalls and do weird shit to each other in the privacy of their own homes too. Actually it's the sexually repressed who are most prone to the weirdest shit as they can't express their sexuality in normal ways so they suppress it and then succumb to gawd awful shit in secret, or at the expense of someone who they have authority over and won't or can't tell on them. Then of course they try to cover this up by taking up the cause against perversity and we end up with the people at the top of the fight coming down as offenders. People being comfortable with sex is very important. It's when people are ashamed of sex that it gets short-circuited and bad shit happens. I think that perversity whether in a straight or gay couple is a sign that something is a bit unhealthy from the holistic standpoint on rampant desires, but people are way to closed about sex and sexuality. As Taoists, the effects of over-suppression and over-laxity are especially well known.

From what I see, most modern Anglophone scholars are interested in reconnecting the DDJ with its history which has been under attack and deconstruction in China. As you may have noticed, the purest surviving roots of Chinese traditional culture had to leave the country to survive extinction in the cultural revolution. And while you're using 2 TTB members as a microcosm for 2 entire cultures, you might notice that your Chinese member rejects anything that cannot be proven within the limits of Western scientific descriptions. Hardly any proof that his race is a sign that the text will not be adulterated. Further, G.F. Feng, your so often favoured translator based solely on the fact that he was Chinese, tends to leave entire stanzas out of his translation into English. I'm pretty sure there are also many Chinese who actually find it easier to understand the Dao De Ching after it has been translated into English. Sure, they might miss some nuances if they 1) limit their study of Daoism to the Dao De Ching and 2) limit the translators they read, but if if someone doesn't get deep enough into Daoism in total, they will only get so much of the DDJ whether they read Chinese, English, or both. It makes no difference how they come across the DDJ. If they get deeper they will discover more, if they don't then the nuances they pick up will be limited. Stopping translations into English will not change that.

Render and interpret the Tao 道 character as a scene from nature such as: Been wanting to do this for a while myself but majorly lacking in drawing/painting/digital imaging skills. The clouds, waterfall, mountains, and path all seem to sort of shape the Tao character, and could be made even more so to form the character like this. There are comments about the landscape painting here. My personal impression was: "The water at the top looks like clouds, they fall down into the water below. As above, so below. The man is contemplating how he is like that water, part of the heavens and part of the earth." It's not too important to incorporate the pictograms, but they are a path on the left and bottom, with a shaman wearing antlers in the middle. The word, however, is used to mean "way" in the same ways as in English, and sometimes appears just as a grammatical particle. Another option would be to collaboratively constructing something...?

Better yet, you can learn how to do it: here.

無爲 Empty Action Hahahahahahaha.. why didn't I see this before? Martial applications Nei Gong applications comments?

Likely, you're monkey mind takes a break more often than you realize it. "Thinking arises and thinking goes away, before and after there is no discrimination." Mind Inscription Scripture

The Mind Inscription Scripture

Thennnn.... What is it not?

There is also a moral component in wu wei, of emptying the self and causing no harm, making it a part of Taoist virtue or De as well.

Yes, weird pairs of opposites there. Either in a close group resistant to involvement with the populace at large, or a people with fewer loyalties to those around them but with perhaps a stronger concern for strangers than first group. My guess would be that Christianity had a lot to do with this difference, not to look at other side(s) of it's influence. Giving charity to strangers is one of the most encouraged activities in churches, with churches themselves usually being involved in international and community charity work, as the way to "practice" love and humility. Though it can be sort of an insulated way to look at it, Christianity does tend to make Christians think "if we won't then who will?" in their sort of "it's on us to save the world since we have the answer." Of course they don't have all the answers so lots a problems there... hwv.. Right, or Chinese Christian, Japanese Christian, Korean Christian...? One eats more sushi and the other eats more chicken... What about the macaroni and ketchup Taoists? Where do we fit in?

The PRC is considered communist, which is supposed to make the government take all people as one class all deserving the same thing. This seems far more inclusive sounding than capitalism. Yet in practice, which is more individualistic? Evidently, there is no "which one" since both places are comprised of so many varying groups, ideologies, histories, etc.. Maybe there is a better term than "American Taoist" to be used for the purpose here. Perhaps "fairweather Taoist." When the conditions are nice, the fairweather Taoist accords with Taoist teaching, when conditions make these principles difficult to follow, they don't follow them. This would more than likely describe 85%+ of people who try to live by the guidance of one sage or another though, so it might be a bit too inclusive in this case...

Another side of the same coin makes more sense really... Emptiness in Tai Chi speaks about being almost like a mirage, so that when the opponent attacks all he finds is cloudy emptiness. It's not about non-action there but literal space/emptiness. There is the action of non-action (basically non-action, avoidance, passive-aggressiveness maybe); the action of emptying (of thoughts, selfishness, negative emotions); there is action which employs emptiness for force (as in the brakes example, thanks JB^). There is something more than just non-action when speaking about this from a martial perpective. There is something more skillful there, beyond merely non-doing. There is the art to "Empty Action" that Tai Chi artists are able to apply to combat. Empty action also applies to the "Shining Mind," "empty mind" or better yet "Sage Mind." The Sage Mind of the Tai Chi artists.

Beautiful Dawei ++

Thanks for responding people. If I may>> What were some of your most lasting and effective "sudden realizations" while learning Tai Chi movement (about TC movement, or otherwise)?

Warm snow yearns for spring Dry, too cold even for the snow Conditions changing

Hi Inteuniso Coming up to the Chinese New Year, perhaps there is a particular mode of operation that you should heed this year. If you're interested, send me a PM or reply with your birthdate and I'll check your yearly Bagua/I Ching position for this year and last year. Always fun (for me) to see how things lined up.

I find silence to be especially musical during meditation. I also like Wu Jinglue on the Qin/Guzheng Nawang Kechog (former Tibetan monk) on various flutes, Sounds of Peace album There's a lot of good Chinese-traditional music on youtube Tai Chi demo's too . fellow musician here too, btw

Regular standing or sitting meditation in the morning. If you're new to it then start in the evenings until you feel the benefit.

I believe Liao Fan's Four Lessons also talked about writing the mantra as a no-thought dedication and meditation. The Dharani in Mandarin syllables: 南謨颯哆南 三藐三勃陀俱胝南 怛姪他 唵折戾 主戾 准締 娑婆訶 na mo san duo nan san miao san pu tuo ju zhi nan da zhi tuo nan zhe li zhu li zhun ti suo po he

I found looking at additional grammar and sounds from other languages helpful to realize how much is taken for granted about sentence structure and word order, and the way vowel sounds can vary drastically between languages. Getting over the sounds, and word order, habit is important. The muscles in your face and mouth need to adapt too.

My tangerine kins.. Tree unites egg and seed. Earth cells; Yang juice; two in Miào (妙mysterious beauty [between yin and yang])

this could maybe be tied to engaging the hearing faculties more, as is the point to listening things at just or barely audible levels. I think there is a lot to hearing that goes on outside of the ears, such as subconsciously minimizing other faculties to give attention or energy to the hearing faculties. Generally a multi-angled approach is the best strategy for success.