ChiDragon

This is close enough in your mind, as long your breath has reached deep down to the abdomen and have a good deep feeling that it(breath) is there. All this talk about the location of the lower dan tian is only a thought. You can do away with the numbers, just think that your abdomen is the lower dan tian. The LDT is only an imaginary location inside the abdomen.

I see how much you understand about Yin-Yang. In your example, the gun should be yang(active) and the bullet is yin(passive). The bullet cannot be fired without the gun. When the bullet is not in motion, it is Yin; and in motion is Yang. I don't follow your mountain idea at all. Btw I haven't got to the symbol for "Mountain" yet. I was only talking about the Yang line. What I was saying is that a Yang line represents something tall like a highrise building or a mountain rather than a building or a mountain.

Okay! Can you tell me how do both Richard John Lynn and Huang translate Dui as Lake with what justification? I think I have given all my reasons why the symbols had drawn that way but seems to be ignored by everyone.

Taomeow..... I can't keep up with this, if you are kept on jumping the gun. I am not arguing with other translations. I am just try to present how the symbols came about and why they are that way. If you have made up your mind without knowing how the symbols came about and don't care. That is fine. I can quit now.

The character 澤 means "wet land" in Chinese as I had indicated. It is not a matter of translation but a matter of understanding the symbols. Don't you see water flow on the earth surface, like a marsh rather than "mountain lake"....??? A lake on the mountain, water will flow only when the lake is overflow. The symbol show water flowing on the earth surface all the time which what a marsh does.

澤 is representing the wet land or marsh. A broken line on top of two solid lines. 澤, Marsh ___ ___ _______ _______ The bottom two solid lines represents the solid ground and higher lands. The broken line on top representing something that is soft like water. Thus we have water flowing on top a soiled surface which symbolized a marsh.

坤 is the Yin-est of the eight trigrams. Therefore, three broken lines were used for its soft, passive, yielding, and receptive attributes. 坤, Earth ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

You are absolutely right. Indeed, "soft" is a much better word to use and it will be used for the Yin attribute as we move along.

乾 is a classical character for Heaven in the Yi Jing. It is the Yangest of the eight trigrams. Thus three solid lines were used to represent its most strongest Yang attribute. It doesn't matter how may lines were used, it will be all solid lines. 天(Heaven) _______ _______ _______

Before I go into the symbol, just for your curiosity, I will jump the gun a little bit. A broken line represents indentation. .sunken already like a pot hole. A solid line represents elevation. risen already like a mountain.

At this point in time, we are talking about the two lines, only, and what does each line represent. Again, some of us had introduced to Yi Jing and taken for granted without really knowing the basics. I am trying to bring everybody back to day one. Anyway, It is too soon to talk about receptive before we draw the symbols for the eight trigrams. For the purpose of the lines drown, the broken line is representing something soft. However, "Receptive" applies to Earth when we get to it. It is too soon to go into that now. Btw, soft is the original meaning, thank you for pointing that out. In using the meaning of "flaccid", it was just a language barrier on my part; I thought I was using a better word for soft. Yes, I would say that "flaccid" still fits into the Yin attribute. You see it is hard to just use a language translation dictionary without knowing the application of the words. As a matter of fact, I have many encounters arguing with those members who knew some Chinese about the meaning of the characters. They had fell into the same trap as I have with the English words.

Basically, observed from Nature, anything that is active, elevated rise, and strong are considered to be in the Yang attribute. Anything that is still, indented, and soft flaccid are considered to be in the Yin attribute. The will be more added to the Yin-Yang attributes related to other things as the humans are getting more sophisticated in their lives. For now and simplicity, it is suffice to draw the symbols.

Let's wait until we get to the Marsh symbol. That is why is very important to understand the basic symbols, first, before we going into the heart of the Yi Jing.

Before we jump the gun, we should investigate each symbol of the trigrams to see why they were drawn that way....!!!

Tao engenders One One engenders Two Two engender Three Three engender all things That is where Lao Zi got the idea from, the Yi Jing.

The symbols for Yin and Yang are represented by two lines, a sold line for Yang and a broken line for Yin. ________ 陽(Yang) ___ ___ 陰(Yin) The combination of these two lines can represent the things in the Universe. The Chinese philosophies are evolved around these two symbols. The symbols were used to draw the configuration of the Universe and the geography of China within the Yi Jing.

The Early Version BA Gua, 先天八卦.

陰陽 Yin Yang: The Yi Jing(易經) begins with these two attributes. Ref: Yin-Yang

Chapter 51 10. Tao engenders it, 11. Te rears it. 12. Grow it and nourish it, 13. Let it grow to maturity, 14. Foster it and protect it. 15. Produce it but not possessing it. 16. Flourishing it but not being vainglorious. 17. Raise it but not controlling it, 18.It was called the abyssal virtue.

Chapter 85 sounds like a replica of Chapters One and 25.

Nature gave us the energy to spare. When it is too full, get them released once awhile, like rest of the males but not too often. Celibacy Retention is a canon for the Buddhist monks.

I'm still trying.....

Well, in Tai Ji is a different story, you will have to stand on one leg most of the time but still doesn't need memory. Your legs will remember it as long as you are standing with one leg at a time.

Well, as soon you bend your knees, there is nothing needed to remember. It becomes natural.

What kind of Chi Kung was that? Why is the UMB was not mentioned....???