dawei

Sorry if this is in another thread of yours, but how do you define Light ?

tend to disagree... brute force is good for a good punch for a knock out. Those with martial arts have great leg kicks.. but in the early days .. "Royce caught the attention of millions of fans when he choked out guys twice his size, guys like Dan Severn and Ken Shamrock." He used more hand to hand combat style. Ergo, the closer the better. It should be no surprise that grapplers (past wrestlers) do very well because once you are on the ground, you can become toast. Their weakness is if that is all they know. But being good in grappling means to never put their neck on a silver platter... there is great game within the grapplers, I was one. It was all about appearance to the opponent. Show them one thing and yet the next step is completely different. Some achieve that in boxing but that is more controlled due to being always on your feet and you can hold, pull, hit too low, etc. The target areas are not the entire body. I went to help a good wrestler to have a chance to win the state championship. The #1 guy was always beating him. I wrestled with him in his high school practices... For an entire year, I let him take me to the mat but he could NEVER complete the takedown... I would win every encounter. One day he yelled so loud with frustration, beating the wall. So they put me with the guy 3 weight classes up to teach him... beefy and slow... easy prey. I said better to put me back with your 'star'. We went at it again for months... he never could complete a takedown on me. He became to hate something... himself.. me.. not sure.. but a fire was lite. I finally tried to counter him as an attack and threw my back out... and needed 2 months to recover. He was much younger and much stronger. I let a bit of ego sneak into the equation of 'teaching him a lesson'. I came back and we were back to the same thing... he could never complete a takedown. So why did I do this to him? He was an incredible wrestler with the weakness of impulsive and reckless attempts at takedowns. I wanted to destroy the idea of reckless takedown and instill that a takedown is an art of strategy and patience. He won the state championship. He destroyed the #1 guy and so humiliated him in a way nobody saw coming... except me. Size matters at times. But you just need to be smart enough to know how to deal with that or when it doesn't matter.

Not everyday we get a lesson on the seven deadly sins... seems a good thread idea thank you

I once broke with Dao over love.. and then confessed to Dao... Dao replied, "who and what is this Dao you talk of?"

What can I say when I am left speechless

Just realize, explanations that rely on duality is a manifest explanation... not a Dao understanding but a Dao unfolding.

My head is spinning on a topic that I usually relish... the deep discussion of proper associations and word meanings and 'verb, not a noun' are all great stuff to read. I'll try to summarize my thought: 1. Dao is not a thing. Things arise and become manifest as the ten thousand things. Something tangible 2. Dao is genderless; it contains both/and. That does not mean Dao is One ... oops , that should be a #3. 3. Dao is not One. I started this very titled thread many years ago. Dao is not form... and is neither formless. Now.. a few stated an insight which could be said that, our perception, our experience, our practice, our understand based on the previous shows us an understanding that we know from daoist cosmology: Dao is a source concept. Not quite the first mover, that would be wrong, IMO. More like Deism, whereby Dao is responsible [as a source] but does not interfere [though immanent] via an unfolding of life. The re-furl should not be missed. This is all just manifest point of view. If one can get beyond this view, then there are other 'stories to tell'.

For readers, the main implication is you need to be signed in to read it. For the thread itself, it can now be maintained like any other PPD; zen-bear can hide off-topic discussion.

What do you make of Not-Two... and then Not-One ? maybe just a reverse sequence... but of what ?

This is a two part interview with Livia Kohn. One was focused more on her life vs her works. I have moved around the discussion to be more linear as we did recorded calls and we tended to wander in discussion quite a bit despite my attempts to have an outline. I take full responsibility if I have changed her meaning or words as I have shortened our very long talk into readable print. I will apologize in advance if she or someone finds something I write is not correct. I would encourage everyone to look at her publications on Daoism and realize she was a moving force the west needed to understand asian history. I know there are a few others we could say that about, but for now, let's thank her for being open to discuss her life and works. She is the most fascinating person I have ever talked to and I could talk to her for years on end about such topics. She is a maverick in Daoist studies and it was much greater than even I expected. I hope you will see her profound influence on the scholarly Daoist community and more particularly to those who follow such things.

1. There is an automatic setting and a general setting. I wonder if there is some conflict when both are set. Maybe try to turn off the automatic settings and let your individual settings control it. 2. The Dao Bum level is Senior Bum... we just don't flaunt it

I've seen suggestions about equating Dao with God and I get where those folks are coming from; the most basic angle is they are both creators. If you leave it at that, I know even some chinese would agree, but in the west we tend to see the baggage of saying God. In my Livia Kohn interview, she said this: In essence, instead of trying to equate Dao with God she re-defined a higher level label that would fit east and west: Mysticism.

I think even Shakespeare saw this coming... All's Well(s) that ends Well(s)

ok, as I'm quoted, I'll bite.. The first chapter of Laozi told us that when a word arises, it is not the eternal meaning of the word spoken.. which my above quote was a play on. Yin and Yang describe life. If you want to just understand life, those two are enough. If you want to understand more, Not-Two... and then Not-One...

wow almost two years later and no closer to the truth Truth may vary, day by day. My 18 trips to china have taught me that the other side of the world treats truth as just a word... The ability to not reveal or hide the truth is a great art. I've seen its great art work. And understand why it occurs. Rely on your ability to know when to trust something or someone... and an untruth is not reason to untrust if you can understand why an untruth occurred. If this makes no sense... then Yin without yang and yang without yin has no meaning too? JMO

He is allowed to request re-entry as I changed the rules of banning that after a year, anyone can make the request... but the staff decides.

I think Jeff's answer would mirror mine. I would just add that a man who is more yin and a woman who is more yang can find balance... that even two who are both pro-dominantly yin or yang could find balance if their hearts are open enough to establish one to flow more yin and one to flow more yang as part of their connection. For some this may come naturally and for others they may feel a need to make it akin to needing a practice. The key is to openly not pre-determine whether you are transmitting/yang or receiving/yin but let the energy loop decide how to connect and balance each other. For example, I can be yang with one connection and yin with another.

Some server side stuff was restarted. Let me know if you still see the issue.

Yin Zi vs Yang Zi are like two states of being... At least in Light energy, Yin is an expansive energy that receives within an energy loop. Yang is a transmitting energy that sends within an energy loop. IMO, the ultimate way to cultivate either/both is with another person so as to create an energy loop... but deity cultivation is a different energy scheme. You have to understand what you are cultivating and what it means and why you are doing it.

thank you, I will pass that along

Frequently? on same OS or across them ?

I'm curious how one can not trust the earth... But I also think the topic is kind of the wrong question with a focus on trust, but the word I'll use may be controversial: Surrender. Surrender is not giving up to mindless logical understanding as it is not of the mind... it is in the heart that one finds no separation and thus the deepest trust called surrender. I was greatly affected by my Medical Qigong master who would with a completely open heart say, 'accept everything... reject nothing'... This is my meaning of surrender.

Sorry to have missed this so long ago. The point I meant to convey is that Dao is not a 'thing'... but by extension of a linear concept, it give the impetus to the arising of the ten thousand. I'm glad you mentioned not-two and not one... I've said the same here. Thanks for conveying your point

Livia Kohn wrote Sitting in Oblivion which is a translation of the text by that name. Although Zhuangzi first coined the word, it was a later work. Give this a look: https://www.amazon.com/Sitting-Oblivion-Heart-Daoist-Meditation/dp/1931483167

it is also possible that folks are trying to trick to you revealing it so they can copy the set somehow and then scam it to others. So I think you are right to not publicly show it, if you choose to do so.