Green Tiger

In that picture, Barry Carter looks kinda like Terrence McKenna.

If only water had a GPS device... but water doesn't navigate, does it? It just goes with the flows.

Nog! I thought that's why they started the Taoist Discussion forum, but . . . yeah. I would be content re-reading the Flying Phoenix Chi Kung forum over and over though, it is the reason I came to this forum and I will stick around so long as I am still practicing and people are still talking about it.

Heh . . . his mountainous sword is SOOOO hard . . . it is impervious to bullets, you know. Oh . . . what's that . . . it feels like . . . someone is tearing my mind apart

Who wants to destroy sex and lust? Bring them to me, that I might smack them across their faces! BTW, I'm not sure what sort of backwater militants you're used to dealing with, but I fear you may be taking a sword to a gunfight.

So, there's been a lot of talk on these forums about taoist sexual practices. I am pretty much ignorant of such things. My tai chi instructor has not once made mention of them. So . . . I am now offically searching for an instructor in the art of chi nookie...or whatever its called. I would prefer my instructor be asian and hott. (WITH TWO T's!!) Oh, and uh, well versed in the chi nookie ways. That is all. EDIT: Dudes need not apply.

I see seven normal dolphins and one deformed midget dolphin . . . maybe. . . also 20 dolphins dancing on the head of that pin over in the corner

Swamp gas

I think it helps to be simple.

I wonder, when you look into someone's body, does it feel more like work or play? This may be a bit off topic, but I've recently had the lesson repeated to me again and again that what is best for me is not always what is best for someone else, and vis a versa. This has especially been important in my Tai Chi form practice, where I have been trying to force my form to look like my instructor's. But my form will never be his form, and his form will never be mine.

I think the difference between love and lust is very similar to the contrast you see in zook and zeek. You know?

The hair on the right side of my head has been getting curlier since I began practicing. I have pretty curly hair, but I had noticed before that the left side is curlier than the right. Lately, this imbalance has seemed less pronounced. In fact, (now that I just ran to look in the mirror) the right side seems to be about as curly as the left. As for the numbness: I can attest to the fact that practicing both the seated and standing meditations will initiate all sorts of tingling, twitches, shaking, and numbness in various parts of the body. IME, one particular spot may fire up repeatedly for several sessions and then go away, only to be replaced by another. At first (and occasionally when they are very strong) the sensations can be alarming, but I usually feel better afterwards if I can maintain the meditation and breathe my way through it.

*sniff**sniff* Hmmm . . . would a third world war smell like beef stew?

I like creation's answer. I especially like the part that suggests there is something more than fear of death bothering you. In another thread, I recently mentioned that Alan Watts said you should seriously consider two things: 1) To imagine what it will be like to go to sleep and never wake up. 2) That your true nature is selfish. He suggested that, after much consideration, you might find that neither is completely true. But try it, and see what you find.

<object width="420" height="345"><param name="movie" value=" name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="345" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object> His movements have a really great flow to them. My tai chi instructor often tells us that our form should be like a river flowing continuously. That's what this looks like to me. His movements are like a flowing river. I don't get a sense that his movements are especially powerful, but maybe that's hidden? Like steel in cotton?

Heh . . . the show was good. David Carradine's kung fu notwithstanding. His tai chi wasn't much better, but I have to admit . . . it was my introduction to the art . . . (sort of). . . it took me only a few months to realize that tai chi should not be done in spandex.

Yeah, the full monty usually leaves me sweating pretty profusely. My ZZ is a basic sort of wu wei posture. Some of the things I try to be mindful of include: Feet about hip width apart, knees slightly bent, hips relaxed during inhale, contract on exhale (that's something I took from the golden ball exercise at the end of Jerry Alan Johnson's Chi Kung for Healing Dvd), tail tucked, anal sphincter lightly contracted, back full and straight, chest empty, head suspended, tongue against the roof of the mouth with the tip just behind the teeth. I don't sit very deeply. I try to start high and gradually relax to lower stance, but I don't end up much lower than where I start. I start with my hands at my side and after about five minutes I raise them up to about sternum height, then, after another five minutes or so I raise them to shoulder height. After about five minutes at shoulder height I drop them back to to my side for the last five minutes. Dr. Johnson has two meditation CDs. The first one is called Life Force Breathing and the second one is Eight Direction Meditation. Life Force Breathing is practiced laying down with the hands on the dan tien. You focus on the dan tien and visualize expansion and contraction of the energy (as white light). Aside from visualization, he asks you to feel the expansion and contraction of the energy. First within your body, then just outside your body, then as an expansion and contraction of the entire room. Literally, feeling the walls, ceiling, and floors flowing into your body and then expanding back out to where they came from. Pretty cool. That part is the part I've been working on mostly. There is a second half to the life force breathing where you visualize your body dissolving and then coming back into existence . . . that part is interesting but I don't have as firm a grasp on it yet and I'm not sure I could explain it very well. The eight direction meditation is a body scanning meditation. It is practiced seated or standing. You scan the front, back, sides, upside, and downside of your body in a sequential way. So, for instance you would start at the top of your head and feel that warm oil is flowing down from the top of your head to your forehead, around your eyes, down your nose and cheeks, over your lips and chin, down the front of your neck, ect, ect. I don't do that one as often as the first one, although I really enjoy both equally.

Heya, Good topic. I've been thinking of doing one o' them journals, but I feel I would not keep up with it. I have enough trouble keeping my hardcopy journal up to date. My practice begins when I wake up. If I feel I have time, I like to sit up in bed and just sit and breathe for a few minutes. (I've been working on 'letting breath happen' rather than trying to control my breath in any way.) A lot of my focus lately has just been on relaxing more. First thing in the morning seems to be a good time to just sort of scan your body and relax. Next, I like to practice the 8 pieces of brocade (ba duan jin). Again, trying to relax as much as possible. Not forcing anything. Ideally, I want to feel like the movements do themselves. If I have time before I need to start getting ready for work I'll run through the Yang 24 a couple of times. If not, I just stand in ZZ for a minute or so. In the evening I have a Tai Chi class. If it is an off night, I still try to run through the same routine we do in class. This includes 20 minutes of basic stretching, 20 minutes of standing, 3 alternating repetitions of the Yang 24 and 48 posture forms. The full monty takes about 2 hours. I usually only run through the 48 posture form once and the 24 posture form twice. Was that the sort of thing you were looking for? I also do the Jerry Alan Johnson meditation CDs a few times a week (often on my lunch breaks). I will sometimes do his Healing Chi Kung DVD in the morning instead of ba duan jin. Mix it up a bit. I've been doing this basic routine for about the last four months. In a couple more months I might switch it up. I'd like to start doing more repetitions of the Yang 48 instead of the 24. I just never feel like I have enough time . . .

It is good, I think, to consider these things. Although they are somewhat gloomy. Alan Watts said that thinking of death and considering skulls and things of that nature was good for the creative mind like manure is good for a garden. That was one suggestion Watts made on more than one occasion, in fact. He said people should consider two things: 1) What it will be like to fall asleep and never wake up and 2) That there is really nothing good that can be said about us. That we are all selfish and out for our own gain and basically total rascals. HINT: Think about them long enough, though, and you find that neither is completely true.

Whoa *wipes brain matter off screen* I think you just blew my mind. So . . . if not like a flowing river? More like . . . something else? Like a wave or something? I gotta wonder though, if they're so good at keeping secrets, how do you know this?

Hey, glad you liked it! Ti shou is the hand raise at the beginning, right? Hmmm. . . that's not one I usually give much emphasis of any kind. How would you say your emphasis is different?

Word. Thanks, Stig. Media tags with a url, eh? Obviously I am code impaired. I just do what youtube tells me.