ChiDragon

Taoist philosophy with Wu Wei is the way to go for me.

To answer question #1 will answer all the rest of the questions except #8. I think you had said it all "body movements and breath will produce some noticeable energy movement". However, it needs to be rephrased: "body movements and breath will produce all the energy." All body movements were made up by someone or where else would they come from...??? They all cause muscle contraction which what is most effective in Chi Kung practice. It really doesn't matter what kind of movements that you do. It was the muscle contraction that was doing all the work to give you the health benefits. It goes the same to breathing, it doesn't matter how you breathe, the air goes into you lungs and collected by the read blood cells. To be more specific, actually, it was the platelets that was picking up the oxygen from the lungs and delivered to the body cells. If you are doing Chi Kung, you are doing internal arts already. If you would study the basics from physiology and how the body function you will know what I meant.

Sometime knowing the Truth hurts, what was the truth that had hurt you the most in your life time...???

Please keep in mind Qigong in Qigong. People would like you to think that theirs are different from others and come up with a fancy name. They claim they have special effects. But, hey, Qigong is breathing and body movements. What other popular Qigong do you see that doesn't do these two things.

1. I don't know. Very straight forward and honest answer. 2. Beyond that all my truths are small truths and constantly subject to change. If the small truths are constantly subject to change, then, the truth was uncertain all the time. Hence, the truth has not been found. 3. Only then can we hope to understand how to approach truth. This is seems like only a hope to understand how to approach truth but not to find the truth. 4. Being sincere, we can know the truth of who we are. Once this is disregarded, we can't know the difference between real and falseness in our own behaviour/actions and so are separated from who we truly are. This would also be the first step to being inaccessible to harmony with a more macrocosmic Truth. This seems to be very philosophical about the truth of who we are but not the truth itself. 5. "All truths are contingent upon context and consciousness" Ultimate truth is unsayable. This seems like only one's own truth but there is no real truth. 6. I am not sure about the Truth, as it is still a point of view no matter how deep. This seems like the Truth was only an opinion. My Truth is a thought that is most logical, supported by other known facts, indisputable within reason and beyond any unreasonable doubt.

Chapter 22 - Flexibility means survival 1. 曲則全， 2. 枉則直， 3. 窪則盈， 4. 敝則新, 5. 少則得， 6. 多則惑。 7. 是以聖人抱一， 8. 為天下式。 9. 不自見故明； 10.不自是故彰； 11.不自伐故有功； 12.不自矜故長； 13.夫唯不爭， 14.故天下莫能與之爭。 15.古之所謂： 16.「曲則全者」 17.豈虛言哉！ 18.誠全而歸之。 Translation in terse English: 1. Flexibility is a matter of survival, 2. Bent can be straightened, 3. Humble can be encompassed, 4. Dull can be varnished, 5. Lessen can be gained with more, 6. Greedy can become perturbed. 7. Only if a sage embrace One(Tao), 8. Becomes the model of all. 9. Not dogmatic then is more revealing; 10. Not smug then was distinguished; 11. Not vainglorious then was credited with honor; 12. Not restrained then will last long. 13. Hence, only not striving, 14.Then, there will be no one in the world to be challenged. 15. The ancient saying: 16. "If yielding is a matter of survival" , 17. How can it be just empty talk! 18. It was really can be accomplished.

zerostao.... Yes, LaoTze is very familiar with the Yi Jing. As a matter of fact, that was where he got the idea about Tao from. __ __ Yin _____ Yang Yin and Yang is Tao.

When you combine Taoist with Buddhism, then you are talking about the Taoist religion. In the religion aspect, a Taoist do teaches us to accept death as a natural phenomenon but does not teach suffering as part of life like a Buddhist. A Taoist want to preserve and prolong the life of the body and to live naturally without suffering in life. That is why a Taoist practice Chi Kung and develop medicine to cure the illness for others. I said for others is because a Taoist knows how to preserve his body and hardly get sick. However, they know people do get sick, thus they like to help to cure the people that are sick.

1. If I have a poison in me with no way out, then, the best thing I can do is to counteract it with something that is more potent. I am going to die anyway; what do I got to loose. 2. Exactly, "a tooth for a tooth" is thought of avenge, e.g. if your took my tooth, I'll do the same to you. If kill my father, I'll do the same. PS... Please note this is not what I'm advocating. It's only a matter of translation to bring the idea across. I think the forum is a good thing to have. This has an advantage for the native speakers to bring in the original characters for clarifying some of the mistranslations and interpretations which done by non-native speakers. Thank you, Sean...!!!

"道家学说" If there is such a word as "Taology" for the study of Taoism, then I would translate it as "The Taoist words from a Taologist."

By LaoTze's definition of Wu Wei is not to start a war rather settle matters in a peaceful manner. Starting a war is not natural to LaoTze. What make you think that winning a war was natural decided by Tao....??? Edited to add: In this thread, are we within the scope of the Tao Te Ching or Buddhism....???

You seems to know a lot about breathing. Abdominal breathing doesn't necessarily mean deep inhales, long exhales. That is correct, but if you do, it would be Chi Kung.

One can only breath through the nose or mouth but not the diaphragm. Breath through the nose is better because it has a filter function to get rid the impurities from the air. Breathing through diaphragm means during abdominal breathing the diaphragm becomes flatten to allow more room for the lungs to be expanded. As a result, it will increase the capacity of the lungs to hold more air when you breathe.

It seems to me it was all in your mind. Think positively, you like people and people like you. Based on what you'd said: "This is due to the fact I believe people won't like me, I believe it vehemently, I have almost all of my life that I have memory for, and this presents a few problems: the guru wouldn't take me intrinsically, he wouldn't like me, furthermore, this being such a large block in my consciousness, he would turn me down because I am not ready, since I have this block." Hence, you had reservation about the Guru. It is not going to help you in any way, I think. I think it would be a hurtle that you have to over come yourself. You must take the first initiative yourself to build up your own confidence. You must have a mind of your own to start with. It is because you can't rely on somebody else's mind to control your mind to tell you what to do all the time. Besides, any Guru might take advantage of your vulnerability. Why should you want a stranger to run your life...??? Please get a hold of yourself and be strong...!!!

HE... I'm glad that I got your attention on ATP and Chi. After all these years of practice of Chi Kung, my muscles had transformed to have fast reflex and gave me a tremendous energy(body strength) to cope with the external chores. One day it got me thinking, people always talking about energy. What is this energy and how was developed inside my body...??? I figured that it has something to do within my body. Then, I bought a book with the title: Understanding Human Structure and Function. I was surprised that in the book which mentioned something about muscle contraction requires a biochemical energy. This biochemical energy was generated by the small granules within each body cell called mitochondria. The biochemical energy was generated by a process called cell respiration. Cell respiration used the oxygen that we breathe to breakdown the glucose to produce water, carbon dioxide, heat and energy(ATP). All the muscle contractions require ATP energy. The muscle of the lungs, heart, and other organs do need ATP to function. Besides, muscle contraction, each body cell needs ATP for part of the generation of its own energy. I had done an intensive research on the ATP and muscle contraction from the Internet. These all added up and supported my theory. Since Chi Kung involves body movements with muscle contraction and breathing oxygen, that leads me to link the cell respiration process together. Hence, I had come to a conclusion it was the large amount of oxygen came from practicing Chi Kung which gives me the tremendous energy. If you study about the heart, you will find out the heart beats on its own as long as oxygen was provided. Therefore, each time when I breathe, I breathe deeply. I know the large amount of oxygen will keep my heart healthy and my blood pressure normal. At this point in time, you can call Chi whatever you want. You may think of it as oxygen or energy since it was energy related.

OK, fair enough. I wouldn't treat this as an argument rather then an exchange of ideas. I am sure it was not directed to me. Indeed, I would be a loser if I don't have any justification for my reasoning or not able to tolerate or withstand any adversity.

hmmmm...... By laoTze's definition in this chapter: 14. The auspicious position is on the left, 15. The ominous position is on the right, At formal functions, the chief should be at the left, especially, he'd won the battle. Thus his victory was considered to be the auspicious and should be placed at the left. However, LaoTze placed him at the right, the ominous position, because he has to take the blame for killing so many people for his victory. Anyway, this was an illustration for a part of the philosophy of this Chapter.

Actually, I understand what the TCM was saying; it was only the way how it was presented that makes me to think it was a myth. If you were really familiar with it, there are lots of contradictions about the functions of internal organs between the west and the east.

You already knew the answer to your own question. Young man...!!! 1. (no, guy, that means you're living! haha.. theoretically, I get it) 2. I've been to a doctor, and have been told my heart rate, blood pressure are normal. You are the one, only the one, who can put your mind at ease. Why don't you ready something, on the internet, how to heart functions...??? You'll find out that your heart beats on its own as long as you eat and breathe.

Do you ever wonder how the Qi Gong masters can elevate the temperature in their hands to near boiling...??? Do you think his physical body has anything to do with that...??? This is beyond my scope of interest for the time being. However, my focus is more practical about practicing Chi Kung and how does it give me a tremendous body strength. To me, it has a lot to do the bio-electric energy. The reason that the Western science hasn't identified Chi as bio-electric energy is because they are too hip about energy and stuck on trying the find the Chi imaginary energy. It is because they only have one definition for Chi is Energy. They don't even know what kind of energy and start looking for it. May I ask you this...?? How much do you know about muscle contraction and the bio-electrical energy, known as adenosine triphosphate(ATP).

日月... I do respect your philosophical view. Thanks anyway....

4. Gentleman take the left as the precious position, 5. Militant take the right as the precious position, 14. The auspicious position is on the left, 15. The ominous position is on the right, 16. The vice-commander is on the left, 17. The chief-commander is on the right, It was interesting about LaoTze's style of writing in this chapter. In lines 4, 5, 14 and 15, he identified the left and right position with the attributes. The main figure always takes the left, the auspicious position; and the counterpart takes the right, the ominous position. However, if we look at lines 16 and 17, then why did he place the victorious chief-commander on the right position and his assistant on the left. It is because of line 10: Victorious but not glorious. It was customary to have a parade for the chief-commander after a victorious battle. In the parade the chief-commander suppose to be at the left position, instead, LoaTze placed him at the right. Why...??? LaoTze thought, even though, it was a victory for the chief-commander; but he killed so many people to gain his victory. Thus in the parade, he should be placed in the right, the ominous position. Hence, the parade was treated a funeral to show the last respect and honor the deceased. That was how LaoTze showing his feeling about wars.

Western science can't explain why TCM works when it does work either.....??? It seems like this general statement is a little bit too broad. Can you be more elaborate on that and give me some examples. You see, a lot of people just took the words from the ancients and says OK to them it works. They cant figure it out why it works due to the lack of understanding. The ancient concepts are very macroscopic. However, it can be explained microscopically with the Western science. If one understand both systems, they can be integrated. What do you know about acupuncture...?? I know it works and I did used acupressure myself. I can use the Western science to explain why and how it works. It has to do with the central nervous system. Did you know all the acupuncture points are laid on our nerves. The ancients called them meridians instead of nerves. If you compare the meridian diagrams with the Western anatomic diagrams, you can locate all the acupuncture points on all the nerves in the body. Edited to add: You know why Chi Kung works for some and not others...??? Some people get headaches and some don't. I am more appreciative about Chi Kung; and it works for me is because I understand how it works and why.

Thank you. I was hoping somebody might ask me that. To me, "Chi" means air or breath. Chi Kung is an ultimate method of breathing to be cultivated to its perfection. Here is my understanding of the multi-definition of the character of Chi. 1. http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/the_old_myth_about_chi.html 2. http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/scientific-explanation-of-chi-kung-no-14-the-definition-of-the-character-chi-in-chi-kung-be

Chapter 31 1. 夫佳兵者不祥之器， 2. 物或惡之， 3. 故有道者不處。 4. 君子居則貴左， 5. 用兵則貴右。 6. 兵者不祥之器， 7. 非君子之器， 8. 不得已而用之， 9. 恬淡為上。 10.勝而不美， 11.而美之者， 12.是樂殺人。 13.夫樂殺人者， 14.則不可得志於天下矣。 15.吉事尚左， 16.凶事尚右。 17.偏將軍居左， 18.上將軍居右。 19.言以喪禮處之。 20.殺人之眾，以悲哀泣之， 21.戰勝以喪禮處之。 Translation in terse English 1. Military affair is not an auspicious matter. 2. People disgusted with it. 3. Thus, a Taoist not even involve with it. 4. A gentleman regards the left as a honorable position, 5. A soldier regards the right as a honorable position, 6. A weapon is not an auspicious tool. 7. It's not a gentleman's instrument, 8. Employs it only inevitable. 9. Peace is far superior. 10. Victorious but not glorious, 11. However, to a glorious one killings are joyful, 12. One who take joy in killing, 13. Cannot succeed to rule the world. 14. The auspicious position is on the left, 15. The inauspicious position is on the right, 16. The vice-commander is on the left, 17. The chief-commander is on the right, 18. It was said to be handled as a funeral arrangement. 19. With such a big massacre, 20. Thus funeral attendants with grief and sorrow, 21. Though it was a victory but handled as a funeral.