Stigweard

Handling the unknown is an important topic. I would like to discuss this further.

Excellent !!!

Binocularity of thought ... I like

This is an interesting discussion. I would like to share my thoughts mainly to flesh out my own understanding (to which I welcome comments). To me this discussion revolves around the opening concepts in Ch1 of Laozi: Critical thinking = You ming 有名 = to have name = the known Creative thinking = Wu ming 無名 = no name = the unknown I would like to use two aspects of my own training to highlight my current understanding, namely shamanic practices and taijiquan. Firstly, let us imagine You ming / the known is an island in the midst of infinite ocean of Wu ming / the unknown. The clear and defined landscape on the island of the known is everything that we can conceptual quantify and describe (hence “to have name”). Conversely the featureless expanse of the ocean of the unknown is all that which is beyond current capacity to quantify or describe (hence “no name” or “mystery”). Keeping in mind of course that this is just a model and, though it may point the mind in the direction of the truth, I acknowledge that the “truth” is infinitely more subtle than this. Now the simple reality is that our fixations to our descriptions both of our self and our world means that we are, for the most part, very much bound and confined to Critical thinking = You ming 有名 = to have name = the known ... or in the analogy above, to our island of the known. If we were completely bound to do only what is within the realm of the known then there would be no progress, no innovation, and no change in the human experience. We could only do what we have always done before. The reality shows however that humanity does make change and progress and this happens by people venturing beyond contemporary convention and into the unknown … into the mystery of potentiality. This ability to perceive new possibilities beyond what is currently known is often called creative thinking or imagination. Speaking from the point of view of Shamanic pathworking, it is the predilection of the shaman to deliberately breach the confines of the known and journey into the mysterious unknown. Here they will gain new knowledge through the direct experience of perception interacting with universal emanations that lie outside the “known” range of perception, often called “seeing” … in Daoism I have heard this referred to as the “Eye of Dao”. However, for this new knowledge to have practical worth in the world of the known it must be “translated” back into conceptual descriptives consistent with the framework of the known. At its subtle level this knowledge exists as “knowingness” and then, as it becomes more conceptualized, it becomes apparent first as a feeling, then as symbolic imagery and then as descriptive words. In other words we voyage into the unknown to gain new knowledge but we use the known as a reference point to give that knowledge practical worth in “the real world”. Referencing shamanism once again, most commonly the shaman would translate this new-found knowledge into an artistic expression like dance, song, art, chant, or even a poem. If required the shaman may further consolidate the knowledge into specific instruction. Great care must be taken here because the more this knowingness is conceptualized the further its original context may be distorted (aka “the Dao that can be named is not the eternal Dao”). Now in terms of my Taiji practice, I believe one of the deepest levels you can achieve is when you can practice free-form Taiji … but I will follow this quickly in saying that you must have a very good foundation of understanding the fundamentals. These fundamentals become the “known” that you can return to and that gives practical worth to the “unknown,” non-conceptualized free-form movement. It is my belief and understanding that Taiji movement actually arose out of the journeys into the unknown made by the ancient forefathers of Taijiquan. Their knowingness of Dao was expressed as this natural way of movement. And so the forms and principles of Taiji become our “launching pad” into the unknown, it becomes our portal to experience our own “knowingness” of Dao. And here the Taiji practitioner is given the opportunity to create their own dance and articulate their creativity into new conceptual frameworks (it is my somewhat controversial belief that the best of Taijiquan is yet to be discovered). And so “you ming 有名/the known/critical thinking” and “wu ming 無名/the unknown/creative thinking,” though they seem to be polarity aspects to each other, are in fact synergistic and codependent elements of human perception, awareness and consciousness.

Just piping in to say I am still reading with avid interest. I have a couple of inquiries brewing but will post them when I have time to give them the proper attention. Please, please continue.

There are so many reasons to grow your own vege garden. From self-sustainability through to Eco-responsibility, gardening to me just simply 'makes sense'. More than this though, gardening promises so much learning about Dao. I recently became acutely aware at how contrived and superficial my understanding was. Gardening for me has become a new and exciting way to get 'Down and Dirty with Dao' I had a couple of considerations though: 1. Is it possible to grow all your veges in limited space? 2. How can you be as environmentally friendly as possible? 3. Can you get it all going on a shoe-string budget? 4. How do you produce maximum produce without busting your arse? Now my wife and I (mainly my wife) have been organic gardeners for years. We have had some fabulous gardens. I remember a pumpkin harvest we had one year which left a massive mound of pumpkins piled up in our kitchen ... goodness we felt rich!!! But this time we wanted to go 'hard core' because our new residence only has a small space available, at most about 200 square feet. Our previous methods certainly would not have worked, fortunately though Carol found a gem of a book written by John Jeavons. It detailed a method that blended Biodynamic and an old French intensive gardening. It quite clearly states that you can theoretically grow all the veges for 2 people in a space of 200 square feet From the intro: Sounds Dao to me So what follows is our exploration into the world of Bio-intensive Gardening.

Nice !! ... Great to see you contributing here my friend. You honor our little muck-pool

A friend of mine recently asked this question: "Stuart, I have been doing Doaist Tai Chi and really enjoyed it the most of all the things I have tried, but the class closed and now someone has offered me a class in Chen style Tai chi, what is the difference? do you know anything about these things??" Here's my reply: --------------------------------- Great to hear of your interest, I always tell my students that real Tai Chi is not the form ... Tai Chi is a way of movement and a way of being. So it really doesn't matter what form you are doing. Saying that, some schools/teachers/forms assist in the discovery of Tai Chi and some unfortunately create roadblocks in the way of this discovery. And this is where your own level of awareness and perception come in. In terms of what is the difference ... Taoist Tai Chi created by Master Moy was an offshoot of an offshoot of traditional Yang family Taijiquan. Traditional Yang family style was an offshoot of traditional Chen family style. But that doesn't automatically mean that this Chen style is the original because, even if it is called Chen, many offshoots of Chen have occurred as well. In your own mind and heart, really feel what Tai chi is to you ... what is the essence as you understand it. Then go and attend a few classes and see if the class gels with your inner understanding. But please try and keep an open mind. We must accept that our current understanding is not necessarily all there is to understand Observe the teacher closely, would you consider them an "integrated and wholesome" person. Have a look at the advanced students that have been there for 5 years or more. Are they showing clear signs of emulating the teacher's skill? Once all this consideration is done, ask yourself if this class resonates with what's in your heart. If it does then commit properly for at least 18-months ... it usually takes that long for a learner to show any signs of real progress. Hope this helps, Stuart

Cheers ... and thanks for the link.

对不起，我不知道

Excellent comments Aaron, I agree with what you are saying here. I understand the "ego" to be a sense of self-importance founded on the sum total of conceptual self-description. It is a narcissistic fixation to the conglomerate of words that define us as "this is who I am and this is my world." And yes it is merely a sliver of what you may call our consciousness, and yet it's enmeshed bonds are so tightly woven around our portals of perception, and the incessant clatter of descriptive self-dialogue is so "loud," that the greater parts of our consciousness doesn't even get a "look in". And I will also agree with you that part of any cultivation that aspires to integrate ones complete potential for "consciousness" must include an effective process of dissolving the fixations of this rigid, conceptually based "ego". I have given some of my thoughts on the matter over here: http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?/topic/16119-the-way-of-the-warrior/page__view__findpost__p__220955

Question: If contrived virtue arises simultaneously with conceptual thinking, wouldn't True Virtue be revealed simultaneously with the cessation of internal dialogue?

Very nice Steve ... but I have to ask ... is that your ass sticking out of the snow??? >.<

Just to speak to the topic, my study acknowledges that overactive sexual desire can be an impediment to one's cultivation. The instruction is quite simple from a Daoist perspective: If we keep our essence calm in the lower Tan Tien the vital energy can be refined to nurture the duration of our being. If the mind wanders, the energy scatters. If the mind dwells in its proper position the energy does the same. Your mind must always be steady and undisturbed so that your energy will not transform as thoughts and escape. Then nothing can either go into or come out of the true vitality. Master Ni Hua-Ching

Heya matey, I have hammered a "How To" instruction over here for you: http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?/topic/16490-resources/page__view__findpost__p__251036

How to use the above translation tools Let's take a complex character like De 德 found in Chapter 54. Step 1: Open up these 2 sites: http://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/chinese-dictionary.php http://www.internationalscientific.org/CharacterASP/EtymologyHome.aspx In Yellowbridge paste the character into Chinese to English field and click Search. Then click on the Etymology tab. In Chinese Etymology paste into the blank field and click the Etymology button. Results: In both Yellowbridge and Chinese Etymology we see that the character is a composite of the characters: 彳 + 悳 Step 2: Now repeat a search in each site using the composite characters (in Yellow bridge you can just <ctrl> left click on the character). Note down the meanings and the pictographic imagery. Make sure you bear in mind that some component parts of a character are use for phonetics whilst some for meaning. Results: The character 彳 is straightforward. Note down the meaning of this character. Character: 彳 Pinyin: Chì Pictograph: left half of a road intersection Definition: step with left foot / left half or road However 悳 is itself a composite of 直 + 心. So once again repeat searches using these components. Character: 直 Pinyin: Zhí Pictograph: the eye 目 which sees straight 十 Definition: straight, erect, vertical / continuous / uninterrupted Character: 心 Pinyin: Xīn Pictograph: Picture of a heart. Definition: the heart / the mind / conscience / moral nature / intention / idea / intelligence / soul Step 3: Now you can reassemble the character. Look at all the meanings and pictographic imagery to flesh out your understanding of the various implications and usage. Character: 德 Pinyin: Dé Pictograph: To walk a strait 悳 (virtuous) road 彳 Definition: Morality / decency / virtues / favor / kindness / behavior / conduct Step 4: Always cross-reference with other resources. If the character is in the Daodejing then I always use these sites: http://www.alice-dsl.net/taijiren/index.html http://wengu.tartarie.com/wg/wengu.php?l=Daodejing http://www.edepot.com/taoblank.html http://wayist.org/ttc%20compared/indexchp.htm If it not in the Daodejing I use these: http://zhongwen.com/ http://www.nciku.com/

Just wanted to say that I always read your posts with interest ;D

My online translation resources are listed here: Resources

Hehehe ... fair comment. I kinda voiced my true thought by saying: "I always tell my students that real Tai Chi is not the form ... Tai Chi is a way of movement and a way of being. So it really doesn't matter what form you are doing." Which was saying that it doesn't matter about the superficial differences, if the inner fundamentals are there then it's all good. But true as you said I didn't get into the technical differences of the 2 styles. Mainly because, even though I am familiar with the mechanics of Taoist Tai Chi, I have no way of knowing which branch of Chen style my friend was looking at. There is some pretty big differences depending on whether the teacher is teaching the Old Frame style or the New Frame or the Small Frame, or whether it is another offshoot of one of these. So being robbed of my ability to accurately compare mechanics (and even there I am not an expert on Chen style) I had to give a more general response.

LOL ... it "coulda" ... but it wasn't

Woohoo! Lookee at what I dug up: The Significance of Taoist Virtue

Haha! Just what the doctor ordered! Look what I found in the closet Mr Marbles So the options for discussion: What does everyone think of the comments: ~ "Dao begets all things, and Virtue fosters them." ~ "Virtue is the reflection of Dao, and Dao is the root of Virtue." Can the virtue of Dao and the virtue of man be one and the same? Or is there a irreconcilable difference between the virtue of Dao and the virtue of man? Are humans intrinsically virtuous but we have been conditioned otherwise OR are we intrinsically immoral and require codes of ethics or morals taught to us? Can human behavior ever be considered "natural"? If a human is acting according to their acquired world view and conditioned beliefs, is this acting according to their nature? Is there such a thing as the True Nature of an individual? And if so what is the relationship between True Nature and conditioned nature? Dig in folks ... tallyho!