ChiDragon

Thanks for the warning. Sorry, he took it the wrong way. I thought it was impossible to have such effect in a week practice and I was expected to hear more from him which I did. My bad.

Yes, I thought you had done something, in the past, to substantiate the claim in your OP. Anyway, now, I know why that you have advanced so quickly in your qigong practice. Just keep up the good work.....

Sorry about that. I apologize. You see when people speak about qigong, I really don't know what they have in mind. Everybody seems to have a different idea. Anyway, before I can answer your question, I need to know how did you practice your qigong. I don't need to know what is your style but just tell me what did you do. Then we going from there. First thing, please tell me your breathing and health condition. How far can you breathe down like to the chest or abdomen.....???

Would you like to give it a try and see how far you get.....???

IMMHO If there is a distinction that was mentioned by someone, obviously, there are some discrepancies in the thinking among a group of people causing a split. Unless, all the people that are coming from the same background.

Begun a week ago with such efficacy...!!! WOW, you'll be a master in a month then.

So is the Capitol of California, in Sacramental, was used Feng Shui by hiring a Chinese Feng Shui Master Eagle Wong. He recruited many disciples in Southern California.

"so many Chinese people use Taoism simply as a means to money, using Feng Shui to bring money into the house, creating Buddha statues with money around them to bring in money, having Buddhist or Taoist shrines at the entranceway to businesses." I hope we meant this part. I see how things could be easily misunderstood.........

Have you ever heard of pseudo-Taoism.....???....

This is only the fundamental part of it. If one not able to grasp this much. How will you grasp the rest....??? Of course, there are lot more to Chi Kung. The thing that is can you get over the first hurdle...???.....

The bold statement says all.

非 is a negative character which negates any thought in conjunction with it. It doesn't work here. I was only translating what it says where the comma dictates. It is not logical and not proper Chinese in the phrase.

Yes, you're right. No body knows what (s)he was talking about. It is just like you said everybody just repeat what they'd read or told. There is no way one can tell when it is going normal or reverse. It is only in the imaginary.....

Ｉt is interesting to look at the fifth character at line 8, Chapter One, for both copies of MWD-A and MWD-B. MWD-A: 8. 同胃玄之有玄 MWD-B: 8. 同胃玄之又玄 有and 又 are homonyms. 有: to have 又: again; in addition to, even more MWD-A: 8. 同胃玄之有玄 8. Both considered to be profound and have profound MWD-B: 8. 同胃玄之又玄 8. Both considered to be profound and even more profound. By logic, it is obviously that line 8 of MWB-B is more correct.

Let's look at the last character in Line 6 of both copies for MWD-A and HSG: MWD-A: 6. 恆有欲也以觀其所噭 HSG: 6. 常有欲，以觀其徼。 These two characters 噭 and 徼 are homonym. 噭: yell; scream 徼: boundary MWD-A 6. ......觀其所噭 6.......observe its screams. HSG: 6. ......觀其徼。 6. ......observe its boundary. It is obvious that line 6 of HSG makes more sense. Thus the character in the MWD-A was a mistake.

A copy of MWD-A 206 – 195 BCE; 篆書(Seal style); Unearthed:1973 1. 道可道也非恆道也 2. 名可名也非恆名也 A copy of 河上公(Heshang Gong) 179 – 157 BCE 1. 道可道，非常道。 2. 名可名，非常名。 The HSG copy shows the comma and period where the character 也 is at in the MWD-A copy.

It is not if you breathe in deeply and slowly like I do all day long. If you know what the purpose for Chi Kung is, anyway, its purpose is to learn to breathe to clear your air passages in the respiratory system. As soon you have cleared all the air passages, then, you can breathe the same way as do in your practice. That was the main purpose to learn Chi Kung. It was not meant to be using the breathing method only during practice. It was meant to be do it all the time. Of course, you also need to do some small movements once awhile to keep you muscles and joints active.....

惠帝 – 劉恒 Liu2 heng2(180 – 157 BCE) The character 恆 was changed to 常 in the copies below because of the name of the ruler 劉恆(恒) in the Han Dynasty(漢朝). A copy of 河上公(Heshang Gong) 179 – 157 BCE 1. 道可道，非常道。 2. 名可名，非常名。 3. 無名，天地之始。 4. 有名，萬物之母。 5. 故常無欲，以觀其妙； 6. 常有欲，以觀其徼。 7. 此兩者，同出而異名， 8. 同謂之玄， 9. 玄之又玄， 10. 眾妙之門。 A copy of 王弼(Wang Bi) 226 – 249 CE 1. 道可道，非常道。 2. 名可名，非常名。 3. 無名天地之始。 4. 有名萬物之母。 5. 故常無欲以觀其妙。 6. 常有欲以觀其徼。 7. 此兩者同出而異名， 8. 同謂之玄。 9. 玄之又玄， 10.眾妙之門。 A copy of 傅奕(Fu Yi) 555 – 639 CE 1. 道可道，非常道。 2. 名可名，非常名。 3. 無名天地之始， 5. 有名萬物之母。 6. 故常無欲以觀其妙。 7. 常有欲以觀其徼。 8. 此兩者同出而異名。 9. 同謂之玄。 10.玄之又玄， 11.衆妙之門。 NOTE: Please keep in mind, I had specified these are various copies of the Tao Te Ching. They are not different versions as most people thought they were. There are many questionable items we have to consider to make corrections for the mistakes and errors made by the scholars in the past.

Various copies(not versions) of Chapter One: A copy of MWD-A 206 – 195 BCE; 篆書(Seal style); Unearthed:1973 1. 道可道也非恆道也 2. 名可名也非恆名也 3. 無名萬物之始也 4. 有名萬物之母也□ 5. 恆無欲也以觀其眇 6. 恆有欲也以觀其所噭 7. 兩者同出異名 8. 同胃玄之有玄 9. 眾眇之□ A copy of MWD-B 194 – 180 BCE; 隸書(Official Style); Unearthed:1973 1. 道可道也□□□□ 2. □□□□恆名也 3. 無名萬物之始也 4. 有名萬物之母也 5. 故恆無欲也□□□□ 6. 恆又欲也以觀亓所噭 7. 兩者同出異名 8. 同胃玄之又玄 9. 眾眇之門 In classic, the character 也 was an auxiliary character to act as a comma or a period. Indeed, there was no question about it; it was very obvious as a comma or period as shown in the later copies of the TTC. NOTE: Please keep in mind, I had specified these are various copies of the Tao Te Ching. They are not different versions as most people thought they were. There are many questionable items we have to consider to make corrections for the mistakes and errors made by the scholars in the past.

I agree with the former. However, I will not make an assumption as such in the latter. All the thoughts, ideas, commentaries were explicitly justified, by the author, beyond any reasonable doubt. The reason that the westerners did not get a hold of the book because it was all written in Chinese; and it is impossible to translate it into another language due to the complexity of the linguistic differences. @takaaki.... Welcome back. Thanks for the clarification and your modesty. Anyway, I knew what you meant and what dawei's intent was. It was just an extra step we took in communication but unnecessary.

The first ruler of the Han Dynasty was followed the principles of the Tao Te Ching, 無為而治(Rule with Wu Wei). Some of the characters were changed due to a tabu that the name of a ruler cannot be used in any document to honor him. 馬王堆-甲本(MWD-A) 206 – 195 BCE; 篆書(Seal style); Unearthed:1973 馬王堆-乙本[MWD-B] 194 – 180 BCE; 隸書(Official Style); Unearthed:1973 高祖 - 劉邦 Liu2 bang1 206 – 195 BCE 文帝 - 劉盈 Liu2 ying2 194 – 188 BCE 惠帝 - 劉恆 Liu2 heng2 180 – 157 BCE Therefore, all three of these characters 邦, 盈, 恆 were changed to 國, 傾, 常 respectively. As we can see in Chapter One, 恆(恒) was changed to 常. 1. The definition of the character 傾 is very limited. The change cannot be made in all area where the character for 盈. Thus some of the areas was left as is. Besides, the ruler, 劉盈, die at the age of seven. His mother, the queen, took over the throne. I guess people didn't care much about him then. 2. 馬王堆-甲本(MWD-A) 206 – 195 BCE; 篆書(Seal style); Unearthed:1973 This copy was written before the first ruler of the Han Dynasty, 劉邦, the character '邦' was used throughout the TTC. 3. 馬王堆-乙本[MWD-B] 194 – 180 BCE; 隸書(Official Style); Unearthed:1973 This copy was written after the first ruler of the Han Dynasty, 劉邦, the character '邦' was changed to '國' throughout the TTC.

FYI..... I gave a "Wu Wei" vote on this poll.

Yes, there is a such Taoist Shrine for westerners to be a Taoist priest. However, one has to pay a high price for the cultivation. "Are Westerners ever initiated into such teachings and do masters of such teachings still exist in mainland China today?" You probably see nothing but westerners in the Taoist shrines in China.

1. 道可道非, 常道。 2. 名可名非, 常名。 What is wrong with these phrases with the commas at those places. Let me justify for the benefit of the doubt. Linguistically, they are saying: 1. If Tao can be said "no", then, Tao is eternal. 2. If the name can be named "no", then, the name is eternal. Does that make any sense at all.....???

IMO You are doing fine. "But my energy should be sinking to my LDT" This is for a novice, when you had done that, it means that you have passed the beginner level. The advance level is able you to send your energy anywhere in your body as you please. "But I want to make sure that I'm not also just constantly, the whole time I'm standing, trying to sink my chi down into the ground every morning, if that's not what I'm supposed to be doing." It is correct, it will make your legs strong, stronger than before to keep you in balance by anchor yourself to the ground. Then, you will stay put on the ground against any external force that was placed upon you. Just keep in mind, the stronger your legs, the stronger resistance against any force that is pushing against your body.