dawei

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Suffering is a rather universal topic which folks from Buddha to Schopenhauer have commented on. I tend to not really like the word as it seems it can be a stumbling block on some level and not get to the source issue; To me, suffering as a word is an external expression for what is an internal struggle/lost/mis-perception. So to me, I view it two ways, which are really saying the same thing depending on which side of the coin one is coming from: 1. Clinging/attaching/desiring/distinctions of things leads to suffering. There is a localized moment (we could call it now) where we interpret within eternalness something which becomes more important than eternalness. Despite calls to remain focused on now, now seems to be part of the issue on a certain level because it has been made distinct from eternalness. 2. Boundaries exist/created which cause a feeling of separation/lost. We have bound ourselves to one thing but in doing so we lost being unbound like eternalness (which one could think of as being paradoxically bound to a boundless eternalness). What is interesting is that attaching to that one thing (nowness) is really a glimpse of attaching to the ONE THING (eternalness). And yet, in my theory, the former causes the suffering and the latter is a more free state. So the conventional wisdom (and I've said it enough myself) is to get rid of the former, expunge it for the latter to work its way into your psyche... Start with sensing no boundaries, permitting anything, accepting all things, acknowledging everything instead of trying to work towards it. And yet, there is another realization regarding how our hold on the one thing is just not yet Expanded to a hold of the unbound ONE THING. In that way, one should try and see that we're just holding to a small part of eternalness at that moment. If one doesn't like the idea to just eradicate what their holding to, then work on letting the understanding of the current boundary [holding] Expand towards a hold on the unbound eternal. What one feels now is separation/lost/need for something and holding anything makes the reality of suffering more real to a degree... but expand the idea to a sense of holding the unbound in that moment... like one was given the chance to glimpse the eternal, now... nothing is lost in eternalness.

If I could bring in a similar meaning from Laozi, I would say this section touches on the idea of inner realized (attained one) with outer: Ch. 39: Those that attained oneness since ancient times: The sky attained oneness and thus clarity The earth attained oneness and thus tranquility The gods attained oneness and thus divinity The valley attained oneness and thus abundance The myriad things attained oneness and thus life The rulers attained oneness and became the standard for the world These all emerged from oneness The sky, lacking clarity, would break apart The earth, lacking tranquility, would erupt The gods, lacking divinity, would vanish The valley, lacking abundance, would wither Myriad things, lacking life, would be extinct The rulers, lacking standard, would be toppled

yea... how about: Mars=Men ; Venus=Women; Pluto=Lost identity

Here is how you do it... but it's a bit of a pain. Use 'Courier New' font and for next lines hit a hard return then use spaces: Time Required Name of Cultivation Stage Biophysical Transformations Involved 100 days “Building the Foundation” Initial transformation of jing to chi 10 months “Pregnancy” Completing the transformation of jing to chi, starting the transformation of chi to shen 3 years “Suckling the Baby” Completing the chi to shen transformation, starting the transformation of shen to emptiness 9 year “Facing the Wall” Completing the shen to emptiness transformation, and starting to abandon emptiness for the Tao Indeterminate “Breaking Emptiness and Achieving a state of neither Returning to Tao” existence nor non-existence (emptiness) Note: If you decide to copy/paste this into your post, I'll just remove mine.

Also from ZZ: The men of old dwelt in the midst of crudity and chaos; side by side with the rest of the world, they attained simplicity and silence there. At that time, the Yin and Yang were harmonious and still, ghosts and spirits worked no mischief, the four seasons kept to their proper order, the ten thousand things knew no injury, and living creatures were free from premature death. Although men had knowledge, they did not use it. This was called the Perfect Unity. At this time, no one made a move to do anything, and there was unvarying spontaneity. - Tr. Burton

I would put the translated works here: http://thedaobums.com/forum/439-miscellaneous-daoist-texts/

I think it is because our local experience wants to 'contain' what it interprets. As we talked about Chia saying the MDT is the cauldron, that is simply the level achieved so far... In another 20 years he might say it is in the UDT... and in 20 more say, none of it exists except in our minds I personally like the 'container' concept as it seems useful on a certain level. But I think what SoTG has said is closer to truth... it would be like what one friend said to me: Is Jing and Qi really inside the body? At some point, we will realize how much is just what our perception/experience creates.

I'd give a shout to Nina's translation... readable in a way that most translations seem to miss. Sometimes he is amazing... and then we have other words for him But yes... that evolved into a really great thread which deserves some acknowledgement

This is a really fascinating topic... root (creative energy) vs rapture (connecting energy) I think it would be natural to feel energy arising over the years... I was taught the chakras are on a 7 year cycle of forming and so the energy is naturally winding its way 'up'. Yes, some important gender differences. I think men do focus the energy at the expense of the female's ability to contain more energy in a wider spectrum. I look back at my progress of practices: Qigong - intense focus on LDT and grounding/rooting Medical Qigong - Focus more on MDT, Heart as the body's General which directs and heals all. Light related - Without foundational energy from LDT, one lacks energy flow; without the fullness of heart energy, one lacks unity of above and below; without the UDT, one lacks spiritual/psychic communication. I tend to agree with some of the sentiment expressed... that going 'up', although it should be natural on some level, it is often forceful (or started too early) in practices... How can it be natural and forced ? From a naturalistic perspective, our energies arise and go up and develop the upper areas. If one just allows this to unfold naturally and without much force, I think it stays in some sort of balance. IMO (!), most practitioners start around 20-40 years old and at that point, they are feeling the natural energy higher and so just "push" forward from there.. seek a spiritual path without looking back (to grounding and lower chakra issues). I would agree that to go from a naturalistic arising (more a wu-wei lifestyle) to a deterministic arising based on practices means we are going to possibly unbalance the lack of lower energy for the sake of upper energy. Our lower energies tend to help dictate how the middle and upper energies will proceed... and ultimately, the heart is the General which oversees all things.

Sounds purge; smile (with colors) tonify... They naturally combine. Out with the bad; In with the good

Because it is a custom field, we do technically have the ability to choose our own label. This is the final answer for the new third option label: "None Selected". That's as generic as it gets.

FYI: I did place the "Gender Unknown" as the first option which now makes it the default should someone not pick anything It didn't seem to boot the existing gender... so seems most of us are 'known' after all

Reboot us all into the "unknown"

But one could argue that for Age and Birthday... which are system set to an option of Unknown... And I don't think you can leave it blank or leave it alone for very long. As a new member, if you never touch it, then it doesn't show up at all ! But once you touch any profile setting and click "SAVE", it will grab whatever is in the Gender option... which defaults to Male I thought of moving Unknown to the first position but I really don't know if that will trigger everyone's settings as a new "Save".

I would think of it from the server's point of view... the website displays stored data... Anything you look at on the internet is just stored data. The server is saying, "This data {age or birthday or gender} is unknown".

After some internal discussions, it was decided that we'll go with consistency. The 'gender' field is a custom profile while Age and Birthday are standard fields. So gender is the only one which has flexibility to change easily. All three will display their {Field Unknown} for now. Age - Age Unknown Birthday - Birthday Unknown Gender - Gender Unknown

You can see the three intro/bio questions I'd like to have for each interview here: http://thedaobums.com/topic/34799-gathering-questions-generic/?p=561734 I used this approach on the Flowing Hands Interview: http://thedaobums.com/topic/36392-flowing-hands-interview-completed/ As can see, I grouped similar questions together so the order in the FINAL version is really up to you. Format it as you want. Great job to get another interview

And another find: http://texts.00.gs/Daoism_PhD_diss,_1996_late.htm

There is an old reference in The Classic of Mountains and Seas (山海经)... wonder if TaoistText would give a translation? 帝堯、帝嚳、帝舜葬於岳山。爰有文貝離俞、久、鷹、賈、延維、視肉、熊、羆、虎、豹朱木赤支青華玄實。有申山者 Added: BTW, I'm not suggesting the above has anything to do with alchemy use of the term but curious as to the reference.

Crow catches a ride on an eagle...

The reason I personally would not put it under General is that Main Forums and all their subs compete to be the last active post displayed... although I know folks may depend more on 'new content'. I actually did once move Interviews to be with Meetups as they both represent some loose form of 'meeting' someone At that time, I think I made one too many changes for Sean's liking and he preferred the original area where he located it. What I think might be interesting is a top level of "Meet Others" , then three subs "Local Meetups", "Upcoming Events" and "Interview". This would be slightly different than what I did before. And yes... more interviews would be nice

Very nice you have realized this... some of my experiences are very similar. Thanks for sharing

Wang Bi was a Confucian... and took a rather new interpretation of the LZ on some level... not to discount his young and brilliant career as he did commentaries on both.

I'll have to look at the back-end settings... but the chat is like a plug-in on some level. But you can right now go to the very bottom and it shows exactly who is in chat I think that is only at the entry screen and your idea would at least notify one at any forum/sub-forum.