ChiDragon

Yes, a war is always inevitable, then the most defensive system is the most offensive. It all depends who make the first move which will be the aggressor.

The United States is no longer fighting a Taoist war since the atomic bomb was dropped. BTW The art of war was written in accordance with the principles in the Tao Te Ching. The word "war" in the "art of war" may sound very offensive without a thorough study about its contents. Actually, the art of war is very defensive. If we make a comparison, we will see its principles are in parallel with the Tao Te Ching.

There must be an error about Wang Bi's year. According to my time table, it is 226 to 249 CE.

The question in the OP is very ambiguous because there was no beginning or ending. How can anyone come up with a definite answer.....???

Yes, we're screwed and confused, you bet....!!! It is not the forum that was screwed but it was the people who provide the information. The forum is only a meeting place which gives us a chance to express ourselves. It is up to a true Taoist to sort out the facts from all the misinformation and make corrections in accordance with the purest concepts. These purest concepts may be learned from the principles in the Tao Te Ching. By using these principles as a guide line, thus any misinformation or fallacy may be rejected for keeping the known facts in tact. This process was considered to be purifying the mind. Indeed, purifying the mind is the main practice for a Taoist which has been known as the Cultivation of Xing(修性). Another is the Cultivation of Ming(修命). The combination of both was known as the Dual Cultivation of Xing and Ming(DCXM). In plain English, DCXM is the Dual Cultivation of the Mind and Body. Taoists are mandatory to hold the DCXM as a standard practice. Of course, there is one more important concept which is Wu Wei(無為). Its concept is "let everything be the way it suppose to be" or "let Nature take its course". The only, and only, intention is not to interfere or interrupt Nature if possible.

By this, I practice some of the principles that Taoists do but not just other people. You mean after all this time you have been, here, with TTB and you have no idea what a Taoist is.....???

My motivation is: I want to live a life like a Taoist and do what they do as close as possible.

Go find out more about Chi Kung(氣功). It will fine tune your jing for the body. Another words in modern terms, it will help you to generate more body cells and replenish the old cells in a faster rate. That is the way how to keep your body young by getting rid the old cells and replaced with the new. People look old and feel old is because the old and unhealthy body cells were not replaced quick enough. In the mean time, minimize your desire for trying to be young to reduce your stress for a peace of mind. It is very important to keep your mind in a calm state to be free of stress.

A trivial truth is invincible. Isn't it?

The black and white are the only two basic colors for Bagua. White is being Yang and Yin is being Yin. All the other colors used are not officially known as Bagua colors.

The breathing Chi Kung(氣功) style is not just ordinary breathing; that's why it takes practice.

I don't doubt that.

It's funny that I don't have much good luck and not much bad luck neither. Somehow, the luck seems to be with me all the time. Every time when I got to a point where my financial status was at a low point, then a hidden lump sum of money just showed up somewhere to easy my situation. The hidden lump sum of money was accumulated and multiplied from something that I had earned in the past. It was neglected and untouched until the time that I really need it. I would consider this kind of luck is always with me which doesn't make me rich but helped me to get by.

The picture of dragons shown in the OP are not the Chinese dragons. However, the Chinese are always refer the dragons are golden as noble because gold color seems to be a honorable color.

The purpose of 自發功, spontaneous movements, is to let the body move by itself while the mind is at rest without thinking about anything. If one didn't try to stop thinking, then one is not doing the spontaneous movements chi kung properly.

凡事隨緣 All events will be taken place when the time comes.

The message was delivered with the indication that one is to maintain a peace of mind by living a simple life without competing with the world. A Taoist have elected to follow this principle by secluding in an isolated mountain was for this purpose. People who think this is boring because they were exposed and too much attached to the modern way of life.

I just sneezed because my nose was itchy. It was a natural nervous response, I don't think one need to learn how to do it. Breathing feels good and gives longevity, thus Taoists learn to breathe by practice Chi Kung(氣功) all the time.

No, that wouldn't work is because the outer space is within Tao.

It is obvious that the Mystic Tablet did not match the Post-Heaven Version of the Ba Gua. Don't you think...???

Sorry, trigrams are read from top to bottom. Trigrams are read inside out from the center of the Bua Gua(八卦). However, hexagrams are read from bottom to top.

One needs to have a full understanding of Chapter One of the Tao Te Ching in order to know what is the duality for the existence of Tao. There are two states of manifestation for Tao. Tao is either visible(有, you) or invisible(無, wu). These two states are considered to be the duality because they are complementary to each other. However, by definition, in terms of no-thing or nothing cannot be considered as duality because they are not complementary to each other.

They are there, one is the upside down of the other. If the two middle trigrams at the left and right were flipped 180 degrees and exchanged positions, then it would be corrected. If the Zhen(震, thunder) at the lower left corner was flipped 180 degrees and become Gen3(艮, mountain), then it would be fine. PS.... This is still not correct yet. Please wait for correction. PPS.... Now, it has been corrected.

It seems to me that the two trigrams in the middle of the left and right hand sides are reversed.