ChiDragon

It sounds great with your scholarly attitude. Self discipline is important in the cultivation of mind and body. We need to learn from each other through communication. I just have a different approach. Even though we learned many things, some of the sources might not be all correct. Therefore, I go to other places for my answers. I like to learn from all source with an open mind. I can learn something from a teacher, a friend , internet, and books. If there is a discrepancy, as you said focus on the commonalities of things to get to the bottom of the truth. That is exactly what I am doing. I know stagnation of knowledge in the mind will not make progress. 海闊天空 The sky is the limit

The first thing that comes into the mind, one cannot change so quickly. That is OK. Everyone has a definition about Chi. Actually, we really don't need to know how the practicing system works as long it works. That is fine. May I ask do you practice any form of Qigong at all?

Tao Te Ching Chapter 2 Relativity 1.天下皆知美之為美， 2.斯惡已； 3.皆知善之為善， 4.斯不善已。 5.故， 6.有無相生， 7.難易相成， 8.長短相形， 9.高下相盈， 10.音聲相和， 11.前後相隨。 12.恒也。 13.是以聖人處無為之事， 14.行不言之教。 15.萬物作焉而不辭。 16.生而不有， 17.為而不恃， 18.功成而弗居。 19.夫唯弗居， 20.是以不去。 In Terse English 1. Everyone, on earth, knows beauty as beauty, 2. Then, saw ugliness. 3. Everyone knows kindness as kindness, 4. Then, saw evil. 5. Therefore, 6. You(有) and Wu(無 )mutually produce each other. 7. Difficulty and easiness mutually succeeded; 8. Long and short mutually formed; 9. High and low mutually encompassed; 10. Melodies and songs mutually harmonized; 11. Front and back mutually trailed; 12. Always the same. 13. Sage handles matters in a natural manner. 14. Gives silent instructions. 15. Let things be with no interference; 16. Grow without possession. 17. Sustain without domination. 18. Success without dwelling. 19. Because of not dwelling alone, 20. Merits do not vanish.

Dear Mod Please Delete!

Let me put it this way. You go to MacDonald's to buy a chicken MacNugget. You are really buying chicken nugget. It is called MacNugget is because MacDonald's was selling it. In Falun Gong, Falun(法輪) means the wheel of Buddha's law. Since they are selling Qigong, thus they claimed such by putting an imaginary wheel into LDT to fool the public. For those who don't know better just took it for granted! Anyway, the principle of Qigong is to learn or practice to breathe to the best possible way for the body. It is none of the BS about absorbing energy from the universe. If you stick with the definition: Qigong is about breathing deep down to the LDT, then you should not have any confusion about Qigong. No matter what they call it. For example, Cheng Man Ching(鄭曼青) learned Taiji from the Yang family. He called the Yang style as Cheng Man Ching Taiji. However, it is still the Yang style. What I am saying was that the only difference is all in the names and descriptions. The method doesn't change. It will give you the same result. It is because the human body works the same way. We all breathing same way. It doesn't matter what you call it abdominal breathing, dantian breathing, embryo breathing, skin breathing, pulmonary breathing, fetus breathing, diaphragm breathing, turtle breathing or ChiDragon breathing. They are all the same but differ in name. The reason Falun Gong was forbidden in China is because it have a larger number of practitioners. At the begin, one practitioner saw a big park in Beijing and realized it is good to practice LDT meditation or Falun Gong. Therefore, he made a few phone calls, within an hour or so more than 10000 member showed up in the park. Hence, that government saw that they have such of assembly power in a short time. It was a big thread to the government. That was why it is forbidden in China. Peace!

Question? Is the new Downvote feature really necessary for a Taoist environment? IMHO I think it creates a hostile environment among the TDB members!

@Lukks FYI LDT meditation is in all the Qigong systems. The only difference is in the name of the style. Your body works the same way. There is no exception in Falun Gong.

Thank you! No, social coercion is not the only disagreeable in matters of faith. IMO Arranged marriage, and divorce does not allowed, is not acceptable. Throughout the history of China, there were many unhappy women. Nowadays, there are some seniors still living with their partners from this kind of arrangement. Somehow, they just tried to cope with it. From the point of view of a Taoist, child policies, inoculation and isolation for public health and safety are acceptable. Social coercion if only good for the people is totally acceptable. However, in America, some people do reject it due to the bill of rights. Ofc They have their own choice to do so. Under an emperor ruler, there was no choice but to obey.

Yes, the characters 炁 and 氣 were not used very loosely. However, how Chinese thinking works is by the interpretation of the character within context other than its individual definition. The characters in the Chinese language are very flexible. Almost all characters can be used as a verb or noun depends on context. I am sorry for the westerners. As soon they saw the character chi, it was assumed as 'energy'. As result, everything was misinterpreted completely.

This is more like a cultivation of the mind other than just hand movements. The mind has the control the hands to coordinate the hand movements.

Non-violent force is when someone comes to knock on my door to brainwash me. I was told if I don't believe in God or accept Jesus as my savior, then I am a sinner. At my college period, I went to a baptist church to find out what Christianity was a about. One day, in a Sunday service, I was sitting next the preacher's wife. The speaker performing the service shouted aloud: "those who accepted Jesus as my savior please standup." All the sudden, I had felt two hands pushed me out to the isle. At the moment, I felt I was coerced to accept something against my will. Since then, I tried to act like a Christian but failed and left the church. At that time, I had met this Christian girl was very strong in her belief. She was very coercive too. I heard her said to other Christians, we must encourage him(me) stronger before his mind becomes weaken. At another time, during a night fellowship, the same preacher was staring at me and repeated a few times: "those who accepted Jesus as my savior please standup." I had a strong feeling that he was trying not to fail his power of preaching. Sorry, I had disappointed him again!

Yes, my friend, you are awesome.

Sorry, I cannot use the friendly/Taoist gesture of discontentment!

It started when this icon was introduced to the public. Please pay close attention to all my posts. You will see it happens! Peace!

I see you still cannot get over with that or you have this fact down pack in your mind already?

No, the yin-yang icon is the balance symbol indicates a friendly gesture of discontentment.

Some members are using it for amusement. Some are using for offensive purposes. I can see that someone doesn't like one individual, no matter what the individual posts will have the downvote icon on it. Therefore, I will not use it at all in the future to show discontentment.

Are you familiar with the Yijing, 易經? It seems that is where you are extracting the information from. I don't think that is supporting our original argument of interest. I think We are 牛頭不答馬嘴 (a cow is talking to a horse).

Yes, Daoist path was mostly done alone for peace and tranquillity. A Daoist does not force oneself to do something against nature.

Hi Starkadr!, welcome to TDB! Just being happy is not possible to reach enlightenment. It takes alot more than that. However, when you reach the end goal of your path may make you happy! Will power fueled with anger is the worse thing to your health. I am glad that you had snapped out of it. You have positive reasons to become someone new is good news. The positive reasons are good enough to get you started! Even sages had to go through discontent and anger but not necessary get to laugh before they are sages! Sages are human too, they also have to go through life like the rest of us too.

I knew this was coming. I should have said from now on.🤣

Thanks for the feedback! I don’t feel too bad that is because my fellow native friends have been taken it as gospel! Peace!

Anyway, I have no intention to use it anyhow!

FYI Taoism has two categories. One is philosophy and the other is religion. In the west, however, by the term Taoism was referred as the Taotist religion.

The problem with using the term Qi. Qi has multiple meanings. Qi: any gaseous substance, air, air containing other gaseous substances. At the time of speaking, it depends on what was in one's mind. The other must know what that means to continue with the conversation.