WhiteTiger

Not to long ago someone posted in this forum a link to a page in english about Zhan Zhuang. Its pretty good stuff... I thought it was a good read hope you enjoy the link... Zhan Zhuang.

All difficult things have their origin in that which is easy, and great things in that which is small. -- Lao Tzu I'd recommend to try kicking the habit slowly. and gradually get better and better. What I mean is, say you drink 3 diet sodas a day. Drink 2 and a half a day until you get used to that. lets say that takes you 3 weeks to adjust to. Then drink 2 diet sodas a day. As you get better and better you can take a longer time to get used to it... although its often times easier to kick the habit when the addiction is much less. Start out small in the beginning is the most essential way. I did this when i was switching to all organic, whole foods, that i cooked and ate. took me a few months to get used to eating that kind of food. Although when I deviated from eating supper healthy food to just a little unhealthy food again I would get drastically sick to my stomach just for eating a little unhealthy food. (seems kind of crazy... some people hear stories like that and don't know what to believe... but I experienced it.) I'm sorry to seem as if I'm little help but the best advice is simple and easy just requires lots of work and effort.

Zhang Sanfeng Branch is a sect of Taoism? It would be interesting to understand what kinds of things are taught in the Zhang Sanfeng Branch. (No doubt I can already guess it has some extremely respectable martial arts)

Very nice video. Thank you for taking the time to share it. Peace and Virtue, wT

I humbly disagree with you Xuesheng. I think the issue is when they the intellectual pursuits deter you off your path. My understanding is you practice your practice because that's yours path, and as you progress in your practice you must understand theory. I believe in Oral Traditions (passing down the art) they teach you the theory and the practice. I don't think its a bad idea to spend time studying, contemplating, or reading other texts as long as your trying to figure out things and it doesn't take away from your practice... Although I do think it would be better to spend your time practicing because it would be more beneficial in my humble opinion. Ju Yue, Welcome to the boards, I would always recommending learning Zazen meditation. Or you could start learning Tai Chi... as long as the Tai Chi teachers start off with some form of meditation early on.

This is extremely interesting... Is it true if one has lost the courage to face enemies that are bullying, is virtue lost?

Agree! Agree! Will help others bring up the same topics also... Will help organization through as easy access to a lot important subjects pertaining to Taoism/Taobums about certain subjects on these things I formally Nominate as a sticky! (I'll also P.M. Sean about this)

Wonderfully said... Also kinda sounds like what TM was saying with her tree comment.

In Taoism its Te is talked about... it translates to Virtue... When one follows in accordance with Te they are Virtuous... many people on this forum have spoke about Virtue, or Te and how it relates to our actions... It is said that one that follows accordance with Te then one is follow in accordance with the Tao. (I'm sure their are some famous Quotes in the Tao Te Ching about this) Their are some great discussions. A person that brought up a lot of discussion about it was Stigweard... and their have been others... Anyway point is Te goings along side Tao. Suffering is created when one does not follow Te while being in the moment. Edited to add... Acting on stray thoughts while doing mind emptying meditation or Taoist meditation... and it is also seen as unethical behavior (against Confucian thought) and is not following the Eight Fold Path (Buddhism) all three schools of thought are against it.

Mak_Tin_Si what is your Religion then?

Seems to be gone.

Alright I'm looking up to all the extremely respectable TTBs that has had experiences with Multipule practices on a more in depth note. What Correlations you find with Chakras Elements (Earth, Fire, Water, Air, Eather) and Taoist explaination of the 5 Elements shown through the Wu Xing. A few sites I thought might be a little helpful for looking at purposes just to help begin the conversation Wiki Wu Xing Link Wiki explaination on Greek+Buddhism Elements Detailed information of representations of Chakras (Note: Please Enjoy the links provided as they don't have to much reading involved and lots of condensed information of Wu Xing Charts and Chakras. Understand Wiki isn't always helpful in the reading it does give but the charts and those theories conveyed are priceless imo.)

Thanks for writing some stuff on this, Fiveelementtao. I appreciate taking the time to write on this subject post. In my experience, I'm not so sure as Fire rises... but rather expands (at least in my experience... it also rises... i guess thats why you said its a superficial correlation) But thank you for posting... This already has helped me after reading it a few minutes ago.

Bump... common I'm actually interested peoples experiences and practices here. Can anyone describe the feeling of the fire as it applies to the Chakra system in Chan Buddhism and the feeling of fire as it applies to the 5 elements in TCM?

Feel free to drink whatever you like... just advice... You don't have to follow it. Although I would personally claim it would be better... Juice is fine... it would be drastically better if you made your own though... Not to much work if you add fruit to your shopping list. At the time I did that... certain situational things that allowed it easier to have such a strong will. Really its not that I'm something special... or i had such ability, although the experience was a extremely great and self empowering feeling that was indescribable.

Oh please... Don't bow... there is no need. I just really believe When there is a will there is a way.

Thanks for your post Karen... Very Insightful. I didn't mean to arouse a disagreement or anything like that. I guess in a wrong way I was just trying to point out what about the things we don't know... even in the materiel world, we know so very little. I 100% totally agree!

Its been said that Chan Buddhism is a fusion of Taoism and some sort of Buddhism with a Cultural twist on it. Edited, thanks mikaelz.

Yep... For SURE! Best advice in this manor. Although there was a little health fad that claims you shouldn't drink juice. The idea/theory behind it is everything should be eatin in its whole form. So if your looking for apple juice, just eat an apple. (Honestly... When i eat an orange i eat the skin with it... although i only sometimes eat them and they are organically grown from a good local farmers market... and even then its slightly questionable how nutrient rich our grown food has really become... I believe you can learn about Hydroponics) You mean its not gunna be much different in quality from your experience and knowledge in the matter. Why would one take out the water that accures naturally in the juice... then add our own distilled water...? Why do we do extra process to it? I don't think there is a good reason to change the form of our juices before eatting them... for that matter changing the form in any way by doing a process which can potientally be destructive to its organic form... This is where getting into biochem/orangic chem comes into play. To understand the molecular structure of something (and the process it goes through our body when its absorbed together) before its changes through a process. But Karen what about the stuff we don't know through our own science currently? You base things on what we do know but not factoring what we don't know... I'm not saying to be paranoid, but to question! Questioning is always a good thing. Most scientists are accustom to the fact that they can only base things on what they do know... While this is true functionally... this is also can be a way to nagate the disagreement that you should always question. Would you like to understand things better... or be kind of knowledgeable in many areas (I don't wanna say dumb has to much of a bad connotation but thats basically what i'm getting at) (Disclaimer: just because I'm using your quote Karen... doesn't mean in any way I'm calling you or anyone else dumb. I also acknowledge that you most likely know many more things then me.) Yep I agree... Tropicana, tastes better then most juices... it is your best bet... Although that doesn't mean their pasteurizing isn't better then others... They just one of the bigger markets label names out there sold in grocery stores... You wouldn't believe how hard it was, cooking all of your own food... making all of your own food and going out of your way to get farmer market foods in an area that's about an hour away from the farmer markets stuff... 3 times a week at the least just to make your own produce... on top of that trying to get it all organic oh man the stuff i did in the past... Although I'll tell you what... I felt more grounded then i ever did in my whole life eating that way cooking like that and so forth. Man that felt good I should start getting back to that kind of stuff now that I'm reminiscing about it.

Nicely said... You seem to impress me the more and more i read your posts. I very much enjoy your posts... and glade you took time not just to post them for me but for everyone here.

Nicely and well said. I'll take a step back for a second and tell you the only thing I think i really know how to successfully do. I would have to answer... Just practice. I would just practice to become a better person... practice, practice and practice on myself inside until I'm done with the physical concrete aspects of practice until you reach the next stage what i call the "energetic stage", where you can start to understand things that only have form or only have substance where you can understand them at least from a conceptual level and say that it is something that exists because it either has form or substance. Once that stage is mastered I would daringly to spread Human causes. I hope that this has successfully (From my experience what i would do) answered your question Stigweard. Peace, wT P.S. I think I might end up taking a big brake from TTB... for a little while I might pop my head once in a while... but hopefully for intriguing conversation and not to dilly dally around, even if i found as of lately my posts are full of substance (the quality of that substance i allow you to make those opinions but hopefully with out judgments ) I plan to be a little more satisfied with my cultivation level when i come back for the dilly dally stuff.

I Agree... and wonderfully put also! (I didn't even say it better when i tried!)

Definately, Each part says something different to give a ending conclusion of the whole picture... In the end it doesn't matter how true or untrue all of what they're saying... But it asks you specifically to question things... and actually spend time trying to understand situations... We the people (populous) base things on how deep our knowledge is instead of what people, media tells advocates us to believe... (Similar to trying to dispel ignorance.) Getting into the more depth of the political things and other religious claims that i admit i don't know enough to say anything about... The truth of the matter External Politics don't claim things over you... although as long as you adhere to the system and their rules of order... in some sort of way... Then well you can be very screwed up if things this government in the U.S. was not prepared for happens... They may use that external political things they created to hold you down... and its because of our ignorance on how the system works that they trap us. (if we allow it)