ChiDragon

yiming.... Be nice to rene, she sounds like she is a Cantonese too.... She may know more than we do. BTW She is right about associating "spiritual and physical" with " 有 (you) and 無(wu)". 無(wu) is spiritual because Tao was invisible at the beginning of heaven and earth. 有 (you) is physical because Tao has been manifested by all things that are being created.

LaoTze was clueless about American English alright.....

Tai chi ruler is good for concentration but it restricts the movements and the distance between the hands and arms.

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Chapter 75 以其上之有為 High above has a You Wei(有為). 有為(You Wei) : premeditated action expecting results. This is the only chapter had first mentioned 有為(You Wei), the complement of Wu Wei(無為) .

Chapter 48 取天下常以無事，及其有事， Ruling a country with no disturbance(無事) and with wearisome office affairs(有事).... 無事(wu shi): no disturbance 有事(you shi): has wearisome official affairs

Chapter 46 1. 天下有道 2. 天下無道 1. The country is on course by following the principles of Tao, ..... 2. The country is not on course by not following the principles of Tao, ..... 1. 有道(has Tao): following the principles of Tao. 2. 無道(has no Tao): not following the principles of Tao.

Chapter 32 1. 道常無，名樸。 2. 始制有名， 1. When Tao was always in the State of Wu, thus it was simple and natural. 2. At the beginning of the manifestation of Tao, the names were given to all things that are created.

1. "I" in Chinese are 吾(wu) and 我(wo). 2. How would his express that? Chapter 25 吾不知其名 I don't know its name. Chapter 53 使我介然有知 1. If I have a little bit of knowledge,

1. If you follow the TTC closely, LaoTze was suggesting to live a simple life in a low profile. BTW That's was exactly what he did by isolating himself from history. He wrote it for the rulers by suggesting them to rule with the principle of Wu Wei. 2. I think the DDC is one book but there were many copies of it. Originally, it was written on bamboo slips which made it hared to carry. So people recite them orally. However, when the text was passed by the word of mouth, thoughts so get lost during the translation. Sometimes, when people tried to write it down, they were not sure what are some of the characters should be. Thus they use phonetics which it will create some errors. It seems to be that the DDC was not written by many authors because it was written in first person. LoaTze used "I" alot in the text. Besides, there was no other literature has been written in the same way and style which was similar to the wisdom of LaoTze.

roteff.... "So i'm most curious about this falun that is being placed or grows in your dantien. I don't really know what to make of it." This is just all talks. Chi Kung is Chi Kung. When somebody put a modifier in front of it, somebody will say whatever that is will be in your dan tian. Don't worry, you will not be placed or grown something in you abdomen.

1. What is this mean...??? 01 天地不仁, tiān dì bù rén, Heaven and Earth do not distinguish between one man and another 2. 人類 "human kind" is not a classical term. It is a modern term. LaoTze talks about all people, what 100 families did you refer to....??? LaoTze had never mentioned the 100 families anywhere in the Tao Te Ching.

Why don't you quit while you are ahead and save some cyber space for the main course of the thread......

Tai Chi in small space

Chapter 43 無有入無間 The invisible force enters a none hollow space. 無有(wu you), LaoTze was using them as an invisible force because of the verb 入(enter). In order for something to enter a solid body, it has to be some kind of force and invisible. 無: none 間: space, a gap in between. Again, 無(wu) here was used to negate "space" to make "space" become solidify. Thus 無間 means "non-space".

Chapter 19 盜賊無有 There will be no thieves and bandits. The 有(you) in this chapter means "to have" and 無(wu) means "not". 無(wu) was used to negate 有(you). Thus 無有 means "not have" or "have not". Note: In general, 無(wu) means "not" is to negate any verb or change a positive thought to a negative as in any other language. However, LaoTze used 無(wu), in some special cases, in a very clever way throughout the Tao Te Ching.

Chapter 11 故有之以為利， 無之以為用。 Therefore, when there is 有(you), it is its benefit, and 無(wu) is its function. LaoTze uses 有(you) as the tangible parts and 無(wu) as the intangible parts. The 有(you), the tangible part, is like spokes and the hub, utensils, doors and windows. The 無(wu), the intangible part, is like the hollow space in the described tangible parts.

Chapter 2 有無相生 有(you) and 無(wu) are mutually engender each other. The 有(you) and 無(wu) in Chapter 2 were referred as the same 有(you) and 無(wu) in Chapter 1.

The clever ways of how LaoTze uses the characters wu(無) and you(有) to express himself throughout the TTC. Chapter 1 1. 無，名天地之始。 2. 有，名萬物之母。 To describe the state of Tao by LaoTze: 1. At the beginning of the universe, he called Tao as 無(wu). 2.At the time when Tao become the mysterious female as the mother of all things, he called Tao as 有(you).

Very good, I agreed to all with the minor correction in bold.

虛 其 心， 實 其 腹， 弱 其 志， 強 其 骨。 8. Emptied one's heart, 9. Solidified one's belly, 10. Weaken one's volition, 11. Strengthen one's bone, It was meant to be kept the people to have a pure mind, to feed them well and make them healthy. It was for: 常使民無知、無欲，使夫智者不敢為也。 Keeping the people innocent and lack of malicious thoughts, lack of desire. So, even those with cleverness in a cunningly manner cannot commit their acts.

You welcome PPagan: "isometric qigong" means slight muscle contraction like sitting down in any one of the three lotus position. The legs muscles are automatically slightly contracted. Based on this notion, any movement with the arms will contribute an additional effect of the muscle contraction. All movements must be done slowly while breathing slowly. It would be something like having the slow and deep breathing follow the movements of the arms or the movements of the arms follow the breathing. Do not pay any attention to the tan tian because the deep breathing will take care of that by itself. However, If some of the patients cannot do deep breathing, then have them breathe as deep as they can and stop there and then exhale slowly. The object is to breathe as much as oxygen as possible into the lungs for the blood to circulate it to the body cells. The reason for breathing slowly is to allow ample of time for the red blood cells to collect more oxygen. If there was not enough time given for the red blood cells, then the unused port of the oxygen will be exhaled. It would be considered a waste of oxygen from the previous inhalation. The reason for the slow movements of the arms is to have the muscles to contract slightly to speed up the rate of cell respiration or metabolism. In addition, the slow movement is to give the body cells a chance to use up the oxygen for converting the glucose into more ATP energy. Thus, this is the basic function of the human body and this is how Chi Kung works, at least, to me anyway.

仁(ren): benevolence; mercy 人(ren): people; human; person You see the phonetics are play tricks on you. Now, I see why you say 仁(ren) as "man" in your OP. Thus, with the misunderstanding of one character will send your translation ten thousand miles away from the true meaning in the context. PS... Yes, I am difficult to deal with as you said but I have my legitimate reasons. PPS... 萬人 would be one way to say "all people." I know you got the idea from 萬物(all things). Unfortunately, 萬人 does not say "all people" but it means "ten thousand people" in this case. You see, this kind of things one has to know in advance for reading classic or Chinese. My suggestion to you is not to jump into the translation so hasty but study the Tao Te Ching objectively with an open mind just like Marblehead.

When reading the Tao Te Ching, you must ask yourself. Am I going to read it in English thinking, Chinese thinking or read it as Classic...??? Obvious, the Tao Te Ching was written in Classic, then let's read it as Classic. There are certain rules one must follow in order to read it and interpret it correctly. Thus, once again, it doesn't make sense (at least in English) of the meaning to merely say "the people are treated as straw dogs." Hey, do you think that make sense to a Chinese. Again, this is Classic Chinese. The Classics are written in a paradoxical way. Anyone can read it and doesn't make sense. That is the unique part of it. To understand it is a big challenge for someone who wants to learn to read it. Classic were written in metaphors just like a riddle. In order to read it correctly, first of all, one must know the classic meaning of the terms and the punctuations at the right place. If 百姓 means "people", then it means "people", not "hundred names" even that's what the characters say. One just has to accept it as is. It you are treating it as "hundred names", then you might as well close the book and go copy somebody else mistranslation. In order to interpret "the people are treated as straw dogs", one must know what are the characteristics of straw dogs. Why did LaoTze say such thing....??? We know LaoTze is a nice guy; but why did he say something that he didn't really mean it or it was meant something else ....??? It would be a big mistake to think what I want it to mean rather than what LaoTze meant. Therefore, please don't read it as modern Chinese nor English but Chinese Classic.

Sunday.......