Harmonious Emptiness

What about feeling relaxed and positive and able to walk amidst stress without being stressed, or to be amidst worry without being worried, or amidst despair without being despaired? If you want to become some kind of alien overlord... maybe go into costume design.?

You're probably lacking the stillness needed. Calm and patience is an essential prerequisite. If you can't turn off your desire for stimulation and be content with your patience then you'd be better to start there (if you ask me).. Or... start with some shaking (shake and loosen all the joints) to rid the body of the energy that's bouncing around and distracting your calm and patience. Some other warm up exercises will help to bring the body and mind to necessary stillness.. keep doing them until your ready to do nothing.. then you can do something with nothing, or something..

Sounds similar to some movements in the five-treasures qi gong I've been doing for a few years (with varying regularity), especially ocean-wave-breathing and some of the gathering chi movements, one which brings it up from the ground, through the body and out the top which then rains down and you gather it up again. It's a great set, imo. I've tried a few others but found that five-treasures had what I liked from the other ones and so went back to it. Sounds like this one maybe does the ocean wave breathing at each dantien. Five-treasures uses it for the ldt, and has different movements for the others, but I think the imagery here can be used for some parts of 5T as well. Thanks for sharing it .

Adding to what has been said above, the 5 senses are often called the "5 thieves" in Taoism largely because they allow distraction and thus dispersal of focus, thus dispersal of energy. One trick I've used when having to walk to work through a financial district was to "see through the ears, hear through the nose, smell with the skin, and feel with the eyes." This can also mean a "one taste" non-dual sort of one-sense, but if you switch your primary use this way then it's easier to avoid distraction from sense stimuli. If your senses flare up every time some cute girl sits down in front of you, you might realize how little your focus is being directed inward. In fact, suppressing the urge to check a girl out and putting that energy inwards can enhance the focus even stronger, like she enhanced your practice just by sitting in front of you. I wouldn't use that as a pick-up line though...

Here's a local organization that probably knows many of the local people you could talk to: http://www.worldtaichiday.org/photos/2008WTCQD/CanadaPrinceGeorgeBC.html Best of luck! HE

bought some Dragon Well, LongJing, tea yesterday. If you have not tried this type of tea yet, mmmm, must do. Also thought I'd mention something I didn't know before my first gong fu tea experience: To get the full flavour of Chinese tea, you need a small pot and fill it with enough tea that it only has to soak for 10 seconds to give a nice flavour. Then pour all of the pot into a medium cup, or into a second small pot which you use to pour into small cups. The first pot of tea does not have to sit very long, and is poured into the second pot/container to heat it up, then the container is poured over the pot and cups to heat them up. This is thought of as an offering as well. Funny how this relates to the story of "your cup is too full, empty your cup." Lol, the zen master must have been offering the first pot and overflowed the cups to heat them up, when the man couldn't help himself to say something rather than receive the blessings of this first offering. Maybe not only his mind but also his spirit needed to be silently open to the master's offer .

Was reading about fava beans and saw that they containe Levodopa (L-dopa) which is used by the body to create dopamine. Dopamine fluctuation and imbalance has been linked to schizophrenia, it also plays a large part in attention and add/adhd, depression, and all psychological addictions are motivated by the drive to produce more dopamine. Levodopa is provided in drug form to treat Parkinsons disease and the rare* diagnosis of dopamine deficiencey (*compared to its results..?). An interesting thing about L-dopa is that it doesn't provide a dopamine kick upon taking it which might cause an addictive reaction, but just keeps the body ready to provide dopamine when dopamine release is stimulated. Levodopa should not be taken by women who are pregnant or breastfeeding as levodopa is "distributed into breastmilk" (Something tells me it's usually in high-quantities..). Anyway, so people might want to make sure they eat some fava beans once in a while. Sexy.... Oh yeah, they also contain vitamin B17 (as do lentils and mung beans). Beware of immoderate consumption of fava beans however as there are some serious side effects (see half-way down the page) from allergies and overconsumption. Not the easiest beans to use anyways, but adding them to your pantry would probably be good for once in a while to make sure your body is not deprived. Again, too much (not even sure what that depends on) Levodopa can cause worse problems than too little (save some clinical cases of deficiency), but occasional consumption in fava beans is normally safe as evidenced by the fact that roasted fava beans are a popular snack in some places, and fava beans are often used to make fallafel balls in the Middle East. I don't see anything about actually treating depression or add/adhd with L-dopa, though treatments of these issues usually deal with regulating the flow of dopamine so I am really wondering if this is an undiscovered connection!? If there is a useful connection there then I'm glad to let the cat out of the bag for free and hopefully fava beans won't be made illegal (see video about , which is more easily accessible) having fewer side effects than probably 65% of prescriptions even when used improperly.

I don't mind some dubstep, but what got me interested in it was Flying Lotus, who is the nephew of John and Alice Coltrane, and the cousin of Ravi Coltrane, and he makes something in realm of trip-hop and dubstep. No surprise, he's pretty much at a level and category of his own... -- on second thought, I don't hear dubstep in Fly-lo, though he plays dubstep shows.

I like the idea of informing Anarchism with Taoist theory. They are not one and the same thing, but Anarchism can definitely be carried out in way that is informed by Taoism. For example, the yin-yang symbol can be looked at from the perspective of order or structure and freedom. Both structure and freedom have an element of the other within each. So Anarchism allows for structure that is open and flexible according to the needs of individual situations. Also freedom is free, but there is a recognized order which is respected by all participants who maintain that order in order to maintain their freedom. So both freedom and structure/order need to be tolerant of each other in order for each to enjoy this mutually perpetuating relationship and influence. Keeping in mind the focus is harmonious freedom which does not fall out of harmony with Tao and necessitate extraneous implementations.

I suggest documenting all of this in detail so that you can show the higher ups what's going on if needed. If you are in a position that you could be promoted then they may need you there when they can the other people responsible. Careful about keeping silent on this as it may be too late by the time you bring the information to their attention. I've seen this kind of thing happen a fair bit and the person at the bottom usually ends up taking the blame for someone else's ineffectiveness because they didn't want to go over that person's head and ruin an already imbalanced relationship.

Word. I was just about to make a new thread for this. I guess it will do well here though: Translation and commentary of Hui Ming Jing by James Micheal Nicholson. Makes some very interesting points about translation of this work.

Massage your scalp to improve circulation and break up waxy blocks at the hair roots. Cut down or out refined sugars, caffeine, and white flour. Eat lots of pumpkin and suflower seeds (with a bit of grain legume to complete protein).

Hello Taobum lookers! I have recently started teaching myself the art of I Ching prediction via the original prenatal-postnatal methods as taught in Seeking the Spirit of the Book of Change: 8 Days to Mastering a Shamanic Yijing (I Ching) Prediction System by Zhongxian Wu. (Excellent book, btw. Anyone with deep interest in I Ching, WuXing, or even Gong Fu Tea should definitely order it, especially if you have 8 open days to commit to reading it.) The system takes into account many factors of 5 element relations to the trigrams in order to provide more relevance to answering important questions. In order for me to become more familiar with these relations, it would help immensely it I had some real questions to try to provide answers to. If anyone has a perplexing question that they are willing to submit, let me know your question and simply provide me a 3 digit number. And of course, whenever asking the Yijing for an answer, be sure to calmly meditate on the question. When you feel comfortable that you have the right 3 digits write them down on a piece of paper. I will divide this number by 8 and take the remainder to determine which trigram to consider. Questions may be, for example: Where do I find love? When should I start or finish -- ? How do I heal -- ? Where should I move? Where will I find work? If anyone else has learned this method and would like to collaborate with me, I am open to this idea . Any other questions, comments, or helpful advice more than welcome !

Interesting idea. I think it needs to be done with a question though in order to understand the connections. As long as there is a sincere reason to ask then I think some guidance can be gained. After all, the basis is essentially the causes and effects from 5 elements theory, so figuring out the element of one thing helps to make sense of more and more relationships.

Dr. Chang's book is an excellent place to start since it delves into the unique bodily aspects of Taoism. From there you can work on energy and spiritual cultivation. I would suggest learning a qi gong style at least from a video if you don't have access to a teacher. I suggest learning qi gong before learning Tai Chi as well as you will have a much deeper understanding of why you are doing Tai Chi afterwards. Reading the Tao Te Ching will help you understand some of the main foundations to why you are learning these things as well.

I recently entered the "smart-phone" world and downloaded the DDJ to my phone. It's nice to know I can always read it just by opening my phone ! My preferred translation is most generously provided for free download here: http://www.life-in-crisis.info/shaman-flowing-hands.htm . I then just emailed the pdf to myself and downloaded the attachment from my phone via wi-fi.

Looking at your question again, I guess you meant Earth as in center of the bagua directions. I think my previous response to this question was correct, though would add that Mountain is stability, like right there as in you are your own guru when you are Earth.. Then it has Qian/mentor in the past and Thunder in the future. This could mean you have been your own guru in the past but it would be wise to go to the Thunder in the future which means shaking things up. This may lead you to an external guru, but the experience is what is needed it seems as this might "shake the mountain" and teach you new things, which, I will add, is usually much easier with the help of an experienced master. If you are concerned about going off the seemingly obvious compass lines associated with your gua number then it could also say "you have your stable ways and ideas about what you should do, but you need to shake those up if you are going to find the guru you are asking for. The mentor was mentioned in the past, and breaking up your preconceived notions will be required for you to realize this." I was looking for a book online to spend a gift certificate - was somehow connected to something else I was searching for. It wasn't like the morning when an original print of Daniel Reid's book mysteriously appeared in my building's recycling bin . I had been wondering about that book for years and it was very good timing as I was starting to learn more about energy transmutation .

cat's paw on my arm saying "don't rush mister man we've got it right here."

Passing train sunk low descending from the hilltop Here she comes again

I'm not sure what you mean exactly by that question. Do you mean, -- is your past guru near or far in the answer to the earlier answer Earth? The first answer I would say is that 687 leads to Mountain which has Qian/Heaven (can mean wise man, father, senior generation, famous) as past, and Qian/Heaven was referred to in your second question about where you should move which probably symbolized famous/LA referring to your future. Qian in the past is south. Also, Qian in the past would be right there vs. in the future, since there are no specific directions of near and far. Also, if you didn't mean the way that I read that question, then you probably did by mistake and which is why the Zhen/Thunder future says "if you ask for more specifics than that it's not going to be good." It could also mean "shake up your disbelief, have some courage and go for it." They say that the Thunder of spring wakes up the sleeping plants and shakes them up with new energy!!! Seems to me that these are the commonalities that should be payed attention to. To look at the directions under Mountain and say "that's what it says" would be too mechanical and it rarely speaks in such direct language as it did before to say "southwest." Maybe it was just being nice for my lucky 3rd question .

The beginning is basically developing and then appreciating the patience. The energies rise and fall in this state and then you're all good. Thoughts can come and go just like sounds and smells but we let them pass, like the mirror lets the images pass...

If it's affecting your life and you want to take something for it, I think the safest thing to take for ADD/ADHD is Synaptol. It's homeopathic. You will probably have to order it online. Otherwise the ingredients are on the website and some homeopathic places will put it together which costs more. Check out the pages and pages of amazing reviews here: http://www.synaptol.com/

Thats one way to start a conversation... If someone practices it as much as MMA fighters, and their up against oppenents with range advantages and they need one strike to do it, for example against muskets and they need to be moving it starts to make more sense. A ring is relatively close range.

There is also the aspect of "All is One, and One is All" sort of like light has all the colours in it though they are not expressed until the light is broken up into various frequencies. So first there was Emptiness which also contains Form, but ultimately both are the same. Sort of like someone can be silent or loud. They are neither but the potential is there for both. There is a potential to be still and to move, while there is stillness in movement and movement within stillness. So eventually these potentials were expressed. Whatever caused the divide, don't know that I've heard a Taoist theory about that. I think Buddhists would say that because we are in various states of Karma we experience these different sides of Emptiness and Form when really there's no difference. I'm not sure that Taoists have tried to explain that side of it though, as Anamatva said...

I found this book about Shin Buddhism to be very inspiring. It speaks a lot about love and connecting with the divine (Amida Buddha) which is attractive to Taoists and Shintoists alike I think. His enthusiasm is invigorating and will probably make you finish the book very quickly! Naturalness: A Classic of Shin Buddhism [Paperback] Kenryo Kanamatsu There is a preview of it here: http://www.amazon.ca/Naturalness-Classic-Buddhism-Kenryo-Kanamatsu/dp/0941532291#reader_0941532291