Harmonious Emptiness

I've been waiting for this documentary to appear on youtube with English subtitles for about a year now. It's finally there, but without subtitles. Think Global Act Rural (though a more direct translation would be Local Solutions for a Global Disorder) The above linked part shows how organic farmers use the naturally occurring life in the soil to fertilize it and break it up, saving the need for fertilizers and even plowing! They also grow low lying plants which shade the soil, keeping water in the soil. These plants later die and fertilizing the soil! Earlier it talks about how pesticides and tractors made up for the drop in industry after WWI. The pesiticides kill the life in the soil which then makes deep plowing necessary while also destroying the soil causing erosion.

Thanks Dawei. Should we create a second thread for discussing terminology? This is getting a bit cluttered now, amusing as it might be. Then when we come to some levels of consensus someone could post them on this thread? What do you all think?

So what you're saying is that you think they studied and mapped out the constellations and knew exactly when they would be back in certain places, but they didn't realize during all that studying and notating the movements of the constellations that the North Star was always in the same place while the other stars turned like clockwork? You're sure of this enough to assert it with irrefutable authority on the subject once again? Are you sure?

fifty years ago five hundredths of a turn from the edge of the wheel (oh damn, and that was my 1200th post. The turning of the hands of time.....

Ok, Chi Dragon, I thought that I might get you to continue looking for an answer and keep an open mind towards the possibilities. I appreciate your determination to get a good translation, but I know that determination can turn into stubbornness and this can make things difficult for the cooperative. Maybe a little flexibility (water) won't hurt your determination (wood). And maybe when we're trying to change stubbornness we could have and encourage introspection (metal) rather than firey passion? Some earth element would help too Here's my thoughts on the passage: The North Star is still while the stars move around it which is how it is reliable to find North if one is ever lost. "At the consummation of stillness is the beginning of movement." I believe this is in the Lao Tzu. When there is stillness of mind, body, and energy, there arises movement, of itself, within the body. This natural and spontaneous movement, I believe, is "the revolving flow of the Milky Way." I was unable to find a direct reference to these terms, however, this explanation is well in accordance with similar Daoist writing on this topic.

I have yet to get to BC, though plan to this year. Vancouver is insanely expensive to live there, but awesome in many ways, very chill and friendly from what I hear, and of course beautiful all year round. Yukon is deeeep territory man. I'm pretty sure I knew a few people that moved there (if it wasn't Saskatchewan) and had a really good time, but they were set up from the start, one guy working at a radio station. If you like nature though, both places will deliver.

eh, yaah. Yu could get ulong greeeat with some a deh back wood folk that talk like dat fer suuure! You could even go moose hun'in er sum'm. Maybe ev'n up'n Calgeary (Calgary), er most'a the Eeast coast don'cha know!

Yes, by our secret alchemical magic, passed down from Jesus who could turn water into wine even.

But isn't the handle of the big dipper the North Star, which does not move?

Since there seems to be some interest, and I seem to be the only person born in Canada here, I guess I should mention some things: 1) the aboot-about accent is only heard on the East coast, though also often from First Nations people 2) Canadians are not all as polite as you might think, unless you go to Ottawa where people are so polite it freaks me out 3) Toronto is #1 or #2 in being the most multi-cultural city in the world, not so ironically, the area was originally known as "the meeting place" by First Nations people. This makes for excellent restaurants, but a bit of an identity crisis for the city which is also frequently used in movies to be "anywhere USA" 4) Montreal is #3 or something in the world for having the most bilingual people as pretty much every person in the service industry must speak both French and English. 5) We have socialized medicine and can get coverage for travelling. If a homeless person gets hit by a car and has no insurance, if he is a citizen he gets treatment. We can't imagine living in a country where this basic provision is only available to those who can afford it. If you go to a hospital in great pain they see you first, and there is no BS about old people not getting treatment because they are too old. 6) eh, Americans say eh too, no? 7) We drink beer in Canada. Even when we drink Budweiser we turn it into beer first at Canadian breweries before serving or consuming it. 8) Canadians used to scoff at abnoxious American patriotism, but are now so proud of their underdog country in comparison to the USA that they are at least as obnoxiously patriotic 9) We have provinces, not states, a Prime-Minister not a President. 10) The province of Quebec is French speaking. Though most people in Montreal also speak English, to expect them to is like expecting Californians to serve you in Spanish. Sorry, that's just the way it is. This may be a ploy to keep Anglophones away from all the hot women in Quebec. 11) Note to all red-state republicans: Canada is infested with rabid bears, it's -20 in the summer, the water is poisoned with um something, the air smells like mooses, and the Universities are all in French.

Do you think there's more to it here though? 问曰：何谓三田？ 答曰：脑为上田，心为中田，气海为下田。若得斗柄之机斡运，则上下循环如天河之流转也。 Question: What are the three fields? Answer: The brain is the upper field; the heart, the middle field; the sea of qi, the lower field. If one obtains the the handle of the Big Dipper and revolves it, then cycling up and down is like the revolving flow of the Milky Way.

Chi Dragon, How do you understand the meaning of "the Handle of the Big Dipper?"

The way I see it, is that when we do things we take on the energy of that action, be it good or bad. If you do something good, you carry that energy around at a (usually) subconscious level. If you do something bad, you also carry that energy around with you. By doing good things you can neutralize the bad. Also, by simply changing your attitude at a deep and sincere level, you can change your energy as well and when you have done this you will also do more good things just automatically without even thinking about it. I think the latter is by far the best of these three. The humility created by many spiritual practices is very important for this too, since it is so much easier and more rewarding to do good things for other people when our view is not blocked by a giant view of our self.

Bingo! Well said! It really depends on who distributes the teachings, and how much they really believe it is a moral issue to be subjected to the authority of these "codes." Seems most people who gain this power are just in it for the power to subject other people to their authority and will. In these cases the moral "code" becomes a stick over the head and does them little or no good. When the person appreciates the nature and life of the individual, they use these as means to fertilize a spiritual life in those who seek them out. The difference is creating more control freaks with little control over their own passion for domination, or creating spiritually enriched people who tend to life, and who foster harmony.

Hi Bai Hu, You bring up some interesting points, however, I still disagree. The fact that kings "arise" is about as natural as humans competing against each other. It just happens and always will. Even plants compete against each other. It was said that emperors ruled by divine right, but we all know they ruled by whatever means they had available, including all the unnaturally forced means of violence, fear, enforced scarcity, and on and on. For a natural leader of the people to be elected to lead the people and follow their will (ie, keep peace and harmony between humanity and nature) is not what happens with monarchies (nor in corrupt democratic systems for that matter). Also, the disorder of a country that leads to drought may be blamed on a king, but the king goes to the shaman to bring the rains back. From the perspective that one's harmony with the elements can influence a climate -- the king has never really been an adept at this, though he may have been conscious of it. Could the translation "king" be just as easily replaced with "sage"? Could someone explain the original term (by the way, would that be Mandarin, or just "Classical Chinese?")? Thanks all.. (Deci, come on back Belle!)

Hi and welcome to TTB, Searching the site you will find many topics about retention. If you really want to learn about this, I highly recommend you start with Daniel Reid's book "Tao of Health, Sex, and Longevity." There are other books about it but they are usually directed for very advanced practices which generally should not be done without very strict discipline to practice energy exercises every day. To build up sexual energy and not have a way to use it in other ways will not improve your health but just drive you mad with frustration. This doesn't mean that you won't feel more energy by conserving sexual energy, but you have to know what you're doing or you end up worse off. Again, order Daniel Reid's book "Tao of Health, Sex, and Longevity" and then you will have some basic exercises to transform sexual energy, as well as a better knowledge of how much conservation is actually necessary and useful for different stages in life if you want to pursue any such regimens to enhance your energetic health.

??? Unless you live on a farm, where do buy anything but from a merchant? You sure you meant merchants?

Right, that's the Tea Party we see now. But before Obama was even elected, when I used to read Infowars.com, there was a Tea Party movement to get Ron Paul on the ballot to run against Obama. It seems like the original Tea Party got co-opted and spit out by filling it full of so much RedneKKK mucus that the original movement just walked away bewildered. It was all about Ron Paul at first. Then I stopped paying attention to Infowars and the next time I heard about the Tea Party it was about Sarah Palin. It looked to me like all these useful idiots got thrown in a bucket with "Tea Party" painted on it and that became the new Tea Party. That's a good article though. That last part about Paladino and those emails, man, how did he not disappear under the turd he crawled out of?

Damn! you can say that again. "1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack The 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack was the food poisoning of 751 individuals in The Dalles, Oregon, United States, through the deliberate contamination of salad bars at ten local restaurants with salmonella. A leading group of followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (now known as Osho) had hoped to incapacitate the voting population of the city so that their own candidates would win the 1984 Wasco County elections.[2] The incident was the first, and single largest bioterrorist attack in United States history.[3][4] The attack is one of only two confirmed terrorist uses of biological weapons to harm humans.[5]" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_Rajneeshee_bioterror_attack

What happened with the Tea Party anyways? I remember it being run basically by Ron Paul and Alex Jones, and then all of a sudden it was headed by Sarah Palin and the overflow from the KKK rally.

I hope my comment read correctly -- that we stated the same thing.. Well, better to state the obvious than tacitly agree to an obvious falsity through our silence. You know how those shucksters work sometimes..

I think it would be well to note here that shamans fulfill more roles than healing and contacting spirits. If I'm not mistaken, it is often the job of a shaman to instruct people in how to live in harmony with nature, with each other, and with their destinies. This role falls much towards psychotherapists nowadays, but the psychotherapist is trapped in the scientific paradigm more often than not. A priest might be able to fulfill the role better, however they may also be trapped within the paradigm of their learning rather than the inspiration of Spirit and profound spiritual experiences. In this way, the Dao De Jing speaks as a shaman, providing guidance from a spiritual level and showing the way towards a personal harmony with all things. This goes beyond mere philosphy, imo, since philosophy is concerned with logic, while the profound truths of The Way are bigger than logic and cannot be contained in their entirety through logic. Philosophy means "love of truth" but I think it is only concerned with truth that it can understand intellectually. The Dao De Jing understand that there is more which logic cannot explain, and points to the ways in which we can at least be in harmony with these things. To name something is to control it by limiting it to what falls under that name. Some things cannot be named and to name them is only to fool ourselves into thinking we can grasp them when in fact they change and, like the wind, cannot be grasped. So, the Dao De Jing may appear in many ways to be merely philosophy, but it goes well beyond logic as it actually shows how to be in personal contact with The Mystery. (edit: Marblehead, now I see your post, this might be redundant, though I think there's very few people here who don't already know/agree with this)..

Youth wedgie victims coming back for revenge! Now they've got muscles! And each other! And that old piece of underwear you stretched over their heads! AAAAAHH!

you brought here with you everything you thought you knew now turned against you