idquest

I don't see any difference or contradiction. You need material stuff - food, shelter - (nominated in monetary terms for the sake of simplicity) to sustain your living. Likewise you need to put some effort to advance in spiritual development. Some people are confused when they distinguish money and time. Both are resources. SOmetimes you have more money and less time, sometimes the other way. Just think of them as your resources, that might make things easier to understand.

I wanted to buy this DVD set but decided against it. From what I understand there were 4 DVD's on Yi-Chuan and 6 or 7 DVD's on Hsin-Yi. I wasn't intrested in Hsin-Yi so I thought it would be too expensive to pay 11 DVD's price for only 4 DVD's. Does he teach San Ti only or some other postures as well?

I'd say there are three types of taiji teachers: - those who only show you how to do it right. It's up to you to pick up know-how - those who show you how to do it right and also correct your movements - those who correct you alignments, your posture, and explain the basics/fundamental principles. I learned it hard way that the first two types of teachers are worse than useless unless you are truly gifted in body movements and alignments. If you want to begin your study under some grandmaster, keep in mind that he/she will likely be the first type teacher. And the lowest instructor will likely be a third type. The most useful IMO and IME.

I agree that effort of finding a teacher can be a necessary component of one's spiritual development. I also remember B. Frantzis's replying on a question (here on TTB) about different schools. The reply was in a sense that it eventually boils down to how full/complete a school is. Say completeness is 95% which means it would require dosens or years of full time cultivation - I'd say such a school would be a good one. And compare to another school that offers 3 levels out of 7 levels, and those 3 levels are already watered down or simplified to accomodate new age folks demand.

I'd like to add to a good joeblast's post that people often confuse money and marketable skills (that is skills that have some reasonable level of labour market demand). When somebody has good marketable skills and just a bit of common sense, they can easily adjust their requirements for a balance in life between material necessities and spiritual growth. When no skills are in place, this is when the problems start.

I remember that time very well. Virtually every one outside of the USA was against Iraq war. Bush was having hard time recruiting anybody from other countries for his anti-Iraq war. France was totally against the war, so Bush virtually declared France as the USA enemy to the extent that my investment advisor recommended buying California wine shares because French wine was unpatriotic for consumption and Californian was taking over. One of the very few USA citizens who had temerity to say anything against the war was Soros. The media treated him as an enemy of the USA. I'm from the former USSR, I know that music, brainwashing and 'enemy of the people', very familiar.

I was told that cabbalists say their connection to judaism is just nominal, they just happened to live with judaists so they masked themselves as a judaic branch. Whereas cabbala has nothing to do with judaism.

Mark, I've been trying to understand your practice to no avail so far. As humbleone has indicated, it would be easier if there were some sort of instructions or steps to follow. But if your practice is the same as zazen, then instructions might as well be totally foreign to its very nature? So far my understanding was that we are to place our focus in the centre of our mind. In other words, to activate the pineal gland and hopefully secrete some melatonin. I mean zazen could be a wonderful spiritual tradition but such a fundamentally basic function of a body as falling asleep and waking up should have some pronounced physiological backup, hence the melatonin idea. Does it make sense?

You might be interested in this analysis of the above study.

Because for most people priorities would change as soon as they become seriously ill. Although some people will maintain high spirit even when ill. Several months ago I developed several medical conditions that drastically shifted my priorities at that time. I couldn't stand wu ji because my muscles wouldn't allow me, and I couldn't do breathing practice because it triggered GERD. My main concern was to figure out what's going with me and how to deal with that. I maintained minimum social activity. I think that somebody who has ever been seriously sick will understand what I mean. At time like this, the conciousness - achieved level of spirituality - remains on some automatic level, but becomes sort of dull. I guess because all energy goes to healing rather to spiritual evolution. I hope I clarified enough.

To my view, SereneBlue has made the best point so far re her personal experiment with eggs. Her health is better when she eats eggs, her health is worse when she excludes eggs from her diet. No supplements related/derived from eggs can substitute eggs. This is an answer to the anamatva point as well: no science can tell what is better, veggie or meats, and why. Just because science doesn't know. People often forget how little the modern medicine science know. Overall, SereneB's point proves YaMu's angle that only personal experience can tell what is better for a particular person's health. Spiritual points? Can somebody be really spiritual if they are lacking basic health? I doubt that.

I hope it'll be somewhat on topic if I say that the Foundation Training loosens up internal muscles deep in the core (lumbar area but inside, possibly psoas) along with the internal muscles along the vertebrae including those opposite to chest. That was the most amazing experience for me. Of course the program works your external muscles, this is sort of obvious. But its effect on the internal muscles was totally unexpected. Huge addition to my wu-ji ZZ standing. But again, all this could be because I had a horrible posture in the first place; so if somebody has a good posture, the effect might be less noticeable.

Scotty, Would you say that McKenzie is better than the Foundation Training? Thanks to your reference, I've been doing Foundation for several months now and I'm really impressed how it changes my posture and unfolds internal muscles. A week ago I bought their DVD and it is even better than their YouTUbe page.

Yes this is exactly what I mean, the gas is much cheaper than it should be because it is subsidized. The problem with finances is that nobody can kick a can down the road forever. Sooner or later the crude awakening will come. This is what Encephalon is talking about. You can ignore it or you can listen to it and make some preparations. No, I'm not saying we should tax oil companies with some additional tax. Removing subsidies - yes. But everybody should realize that the real price of gas is higher than you can see on the gas stations today.

Meaningful financial analysis comes from accurate data. What I tried to convey was that current price of gas is misleading. Gas now is much cheaper than it should be. That distorts financial picture and makes people to make wrong decisions about their business models budgeting. I gather you don't really mind cancelling subsidies for the oil and gas producing companies. As for the wars, right now they are financed through the federal budget deficit. That is all citizens are accountable for that by means of general tax revenue. Whereas in fact, the wars were to secure oil production and delivery, that is their costs should be allocated to the oil finished products. That would make the pricing more accurate. How to do that technically is another issue. But essencially that would mean decreasing taxes in one place (general tax for individuals and businesses) and increasing tax for gas. Tax revenue neutral.

A doctor might help, but a doctor can really screw up. This is what happened to me when I took prescription prescribed by a medical doctor from the hip pain. That @#$@#@ prescription triggered H Pylori outbread in my stomach and that lead to the whole set of further problems. I became seriously ill because of that rpescription. Only after that I started to do my own research, take acupunture sessions, and massage. Now I'm a bit better. Anyway, the feet pain can be caused by several problems: muscles, tendons, bones. But the most likely reason is bad posture you might have. I suggest you read Pete Egoscue books if you haven't read them yet. If you try hard, you can find them for free. The other avenue I'd suggest is to do research on a diet. I'd suggest that you start with Conquering Arthritis by Barbara Allan. Not because you have arthritis (even though you might have) but because she describes very clearly the elimination diet. After that you might want to read further on different diets. Having a right diet is critical. As for ZZ (in a futile attempt to keep on topic), I'd follow BKF advice: stand how long you can, then sit and keep relaxing. Relaxation is the key.

Not so radical. There are new technologies coming. Right now oil companies are subsidized which in fact makes the oil/gas price lower than it should be. Let's remove those subsidies first. The next step is to allocate the cost of recent pro-oil wars (the total of $3 trillion by some estimates, and that without the coming Iran's war) to gas. That would make the gas price even more realistic. After that, all of a sudden, the alternative technologies would appear not so expensive comparing to oil/gas. That would also make a transition to new technologies less drastic, as you have noted earlier. New technology frontiers make headway for humanity, not drilling new holes in a lame attempt to pump out a few more drops of black stuff.

I agree. Anybody who lived through the collapse of the Soviet Union (anybody remember that existed at all?) and the old Eastern Europe system as a whole can attest to that. For those who haven't had such an experience, the Great Depression times would make a hint of what it might feel like. I also agree on the theory of catastrophe. The theory says (at least this is how I understand it) that the bulk of population are not ready for any drastic changes until the BIG shit hit the fan. Only when people are covered in the brown stuff from heads to toes are they ready to accept some changes. The irony is that the ruling elites could realize the necessity of the changes but they can't implement the changes without the populous support - which will come only when a catastrophe hits.

Yeah, it sounds like a bit of fresh air in the flux of bipartisan sewage. I liked that part, pretty much sums it up for me.

Getting proper alignments might sound not very sexy, but now that I have several years of practice I must say this is a single most important thing one would need as the foundation. I've taken classes with highly regarded teachers and instructors but none of them taught alignments. As a result, when I got into trouble with my muscles, only a humble acupuncturist told me my problems stem from a horrible posture, and a humble massage therapist told me one my leg is shorter for whopping 1 cm. Continue doing something like taiqi or bagua having such problems would screw me up fast.

Somebody has to issue money into the economy so that the money supply is adequate for the economy. Usually it is done by central banks; and by Feds in the USA. When you say 'returned to People', do you suggest this function be assumed by the Congress? Do you think that would be better than Feds? Because even much weaker countries than the USA realize it is much better and safer to keep the function of printing the money out of hands of politicians and they protect their central banks from the direct political influence as best as they can.

Agree that no permission will be granted So what? This is scare tactic Not necessarily, scare tactic again. Any country needs a Central Bank. So do the USA. If you want the bank system functioning in the USA you'll need the Central Bank aka Fed in some fashion. Nobody is going to dissolve the Fed. Don't really get what you are saying here. Totally agree. Transfer of wealth is the main reason of keeping the rates at zero. Fed (and those who influence it) are thieves stealing money from savers.

I didn't watch the movie but I researched the topic in the course of my study. THe market of derivatives in 2007-08 was fully unregulated; all the trade was over the counter. Nobody even knew how much of derivatives were traded. What is more, even Garvard graduates didn't really understood the pricing models of derivatives. That is everybody used the same formulas but how those formulas reflected the reality - well, now we know they didn't reflect the reality at all. Bernanke was actually against regulation. This is in addition to his famous estimate of the subprime mortgage as a 'no issue' for the American economy. And now he is building the next bubble which is going to emerge manyfold vaster than the previous (that is 2008) one.

joeblast, Do you reaaly think the current way of living is sustainable? I mean if we put all rethoric aside and just look at the facts and possible/probable implications? Sometimes I hear on Fox News that OK, oil will come to an end but the free market will take care of it. Would you say this is a reasonable expectation? After the 2008 events when big business refused to take a hit and demanded socializing its financial problems? Do you really think such kind of a market can take care of anything but for those who run it?

DO you think a taoist would be able to pick up the raw energy emanating from the Superbowl crowd? I'm thinking in line of a group meditation when a synergy qi-field is much more powerful than qi generated by one person. I must confess the last time I attended more or less major event was 30-40 years ago. I had no clue of qi back then; but I do remember some motion/move generated by the massive gathering of people.