ChiDragon

Al... You are a gentleman and a scholar with an open mind.... The danger lies on: "how valid are these ideas for each one of us personally?" Personally may be one's beliefs fanatically with a high risk of misconception and fallacies. It's best not to ignore all other possibilities but with some considerations.

It seems like that "Warrior Monk" is out of phase with "Taoist". I don't see how they can be related together. A Taoist is a pacifist which is opposite of a warrior. Besides, a"monk" is applied to Buddhism; and a "priciest" is for Taoism.

Hammered it to fit....??? IMO The last part of any chapter should be the conclusion of that chapter. However, it seems to me that the last three lines of this chapter started a new theme about a sage. It may sound like it was related to the basic theme as shown in lines 7 thru 12 but it was not. 7. The basic principle, 8. Remove the excess to replenish the deficiency. 9. The way of humanity was not so. 10. It takes away where there is a deficiency to give where there is plenty. 11. Who would offer their excess to the poor in the world? 12. Only those who are virtuous. The main theme lies on these six lines. Lines 7 thru 11 sets up the conditions for being a virtuous person. It was not necessary to repeat that a sage is not vainglorious, here, because it was emphasized in Chapter Two already.

manitou.... Thank you for given me this loophole. Now, during my practice of Chi Kung, I can raise my hands to Heaven. Spiritually, I can think that I am absorbing the Chi from Heaven with my palms; while my feet are capturing the Chi from Earth. Scientifically, I can think of that I am breathing the oxygen from the air with my nose. Internally, the ATP are generated and given me the energy for metabolism and body strength....

******* Out of context ******* 13.是 以 聖 人 為 而 不 恃 ， 14.功 成 而 不 處 , 15.其 不 欲 見 賢 ! 13. Thus a sage has the ability for multiple accomplishment without being vainglorious, 14. He does not dwell in his own success, 15. He does not want to reveal his intellectual wisdom. These lines had nothing to do with given the excess to the poor.

Chapter 78 1. There is nothing in the world that is softer than water. 2. But when it strikes any rigid object nothing can beat it. 4. There is nothing that can replace it. 5. The weak vanquishes the strong. 6. The softness vanquishes the hardness. 7. There is nobody in the world that doesn't know that, 8. Yet nobody can emulate that. 9. Thus the sage would say: 10. One who can withstand a country's humiliation, 11. He may become the king of a country. 12. One who can assume the responsibility of a country's calamity, 13. He may become the ruler of the world. 14. The positive words seem to be negative. ******** 第七十八章 1. 天 下 莫 柔 弱 於 水 ; 2. 而 攻 堅 強 者 莫 之 能 勝 , 4. 其 無 以 易 之 。 5. 弱 之 勝 強 , 6. 柔 之 勝 剛 。 7. 天下莫不知, 8. 莫 能 行 。 9. 是 以 聖 人 云 : 10.受 國 之 垢 , 11.是 謂 社 稷 主 ; 12.受 國 不 祥 , 13.是 為 天 下 王 。 14.正 言 若 反

Yes, you do need to do sitting Chi Kung for internal healing of your kidney....

It would be very difficult for me to do this. You see, as I indicated before about Ci Kung, all my references are written in Chinese. They are not translated into any language. There are too many Chinese terms, characters and cultural differences which cannot be translated into a comprehensible format for the non Chinese speakers. I can only put them in my own words to explain to others. Even though I am fluent with the Chinese language; but it still took me many years to study the texts for a good comprehension. Unfortunately, this is the best I can do here to provide this kind of immanent information in my culture. What I am saying is that either you take my words for it or discredit them.

The chapters in the Chuang Tzu document are very tedious. I think we should start with describing his personality and what was his general philosophy from what we have already known about him. Maybe we can cite his chapters, individually, to substantiate our notions about him. I think Chapter One is a good place to start to see what was in his mind from his mentioning about the Peng bird and the Kun fish.

Here is how the bagua is oriented. ..............................................South East West ...............................................North[/size The layout of the trigrams was based on the geological climate location of China. 1. Heaven 2. Marsh(兌): There are lots of wetlands in the Southeastern part of China. 3. Fire(離): Fire represents the Sun. The Sun rise from the East. 4. Thunder(震): There are lots of thunder occurring in Northeastern part of China. 5. Wind(巽): It is very windy in the Southwestern part of China. 6. Water(坎): The water source of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers are originated from the Western part of China. 7. Mountain(艮): There is the Kunlun Mountain in the Northwestern part of China. 8. Earth

Green Tiger... These phrases are a famous Buddha proverb. It did not say anything about hard working. 禪 :Zen 1. 菩提本無樹， 2. 明鏡亦非台， 3. 本來無一物， 4. 何處惹塵埃。 Translation: 1. Bodhi originally has no tree, 2. A bright mirror is not even a table, 3. There was nothing to begin with, 4. Where can the dust be attracted from?

My source indicated that the last three lines were seem to be mistakenly repeated from the latter part of Chapter two. Anyway, this chapter was about the rich taken from the poor in reality. The mentioning of the sage seems irrelevant to the first part of Chapter 77.

Chapter 77 1. The fundamental principles， 2. Is like pulling the string on a bow. 3. If the tension on the string is too high, then decrease it. 4. If it is too low, then increase it. 5. If there is excess, then diminish it. 6. If there is a deficiency, then replenish it. 7. The basic principle, 8. Remove the excess to replenish the deficiency. 9. The way of humanity was not so. 10. It takes away where there is a deficiency to give where there is plenty. 11. Who would offer their excess to the poor in the world? 12. Only those who are virtuous. 第七十七章 1. 天 之 道 2. 其 猶 張 弓 與 ? 3. 高 者 抑 之 , 4. 下 者 舉 之 ; 5. 有 餘 者 損 之 , 6. 不 足 者 補 之 。 7. 天 之 道， 8。　損 有 餘 而 補 不 足 。 9. 人 之 道 則 不 然 : 10.損 不 足 以 奉 有 餘 。 11.孰 能 有 餘 以 奉 天 下 ? 12.唯 有 道 者 。 ******* Out of context ******* 13.是 以 聖 人 為 而 不 恃 ， 14.功 成 而 不 處 , 15.其 不 欲 見 賢 !

The reason that South was placed on top was because the ancients saw the Sun was the brightest and hottest at high noon in the south direction. It was considered that the South was the Yang-est at noon time. It has nothing to do with the period of the dynasties. FYI... Do you know why the Chinese carry out the execution, at 12:45pm, to chop the heads of the criminals....??? It was because that the Yang state is about switching over to the Yin state. So, it will make it easier for the prisoners on the way to hell, in a shorter time, with less pain.....

1. 天地定位: Heaven and Earth are set into place with Heaven at the top and Earth at the bottom 2. 山澤通氣: Mountain and marsh are letting the air circulated through. 3. 雷風相薄: The thunder and wind are mutually reacting with each other. 4. 水火不相射: The water and fire do not interfere with each other. 5. 八封相錯: The eight trigrams(Bagua) are located complementary with each other. 6. 數往者順知: The numbers are going in one direction was known clockwise. 7. 來者逆是: In the opposite direction is, 8. 故逆數也: Therefore, the numbers are counterclockwise then. Notes: 1. Heaven goes on top is because the top is attributed as the Yang position; and Heaven is the Yang-est trigram (3 solid lines), therefore it was assigned to the top Yang position. 2. Earth(3 broken lines) is the Yin-est trigram, therefore, it goes to the bottom(the Yin position).

Dear bubble... FYI... There is no such thing as Pre Heaven or After Heaven. It makes no sense. 1. Xian Tian(先天): Early day or early version 2. Hou Tian(後天): Later day or later version 3. Xian Tian Bagua(先天八卦): Early version Bagua 4. Hou Tian Bagua(後天八卦): Later version Bagua

1. I am sorry, that is your present belief. 2. ZhouYi(周易) is not the original version of Yi Jing. 3. What is this symbol §3...???

Well, flexibility is the characteristic of softness. However, water is not analogous to grass because it doesn't have the same resiliency of the grass. IMO softness is complementary to hardness which flexibility doesn't per LoaTze's philosophy. No....???

Dear bubbles... Please check this out. Ref link: Bagua PS... I guess you haven't noticed that "South" was on top of the Bagua. That was what I meant by "oriented". Does it make sense now....???

'darkness' seems to fit well with the two earthly trigrams Marsh/Mountain? To my understanding, the Bagua was originated from the Yi Jing(I Ching) but later the Taoist took advantage of it and used as basis for the Yin-Yang concept.

This chapter is so difficult to translate but the theme can be expressed. LaoTze was tried to categorize the softness and the hardness. He was suggesting that softness is relating to life while hardness is relating to death. He was setting up the life and death concept by using the softness and stiffness of the human body to distinguish them. In the same token, he says when a tree was full grown and strong, it is very vulnerable to be blown or chopped down for the human needs. In the example with the soft grass, it only moves back and forth under the wind but survives. In the case with a strong military force, it was the powerful image that was exposed to invite for extermination. E.g., the American navy in Hawaii was bombed in World War II. The strong military force of the Japanese was destroyed by the atomic bomb indirectly. Indeed, all these were making them vulnerable by exposing themselves. Hence, the last two lines of the chapter were indicating that softness has a high priority in survivability as opposed to hardness.

Since this is a difficult chapter, my source suggested to go to other chapters for some ideas. To have a better conceptual understanding of Chapter 76, it's wise to follow up on Chapters 36, 43 and 78 regarding to the softness overcome the hardness.

In that case, is Chi Kung a spirituality or how would someone categorize it...??? Is there a way that we can relate it to science in parallel with the spiritual aspect....???

lienshan... You know what you are right.... PS... All corrections had been made in this thread. Thanks....