madMUHHH

Where's drew when you need him?

Yo Mr P, so you are a philosophy teacher and a qigong teacher? Congratulations sir, you have now become my official role model. Edit: Oh, and to make this not completely off-topic: .

Great stuff! I've been recently digging through some Epicureanism and it's really astonisihing how similar it is to Taoism in many respects. A lot of the stuff Epicurus said could have easily been said by a Taoist just as those two paragraphs would just as easily fit into a text about Epicurean philosophy. So, if you haven't checked that dude out, you really should. I wish I could present you some awesome quotes at this point, but all the Epicurean stuff I read was written in German and I'm too lazy to translate anything right now.

By the way, what the hell is the dude/tte on the left all about? What is s/he doing there? I'm so confused.

What? Where?

Woah, dude! Just reading your stuff makes me want to learn more about TCM.

Or you could simply listen to Saul Williams instead http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77vCx_J9YyQ http://www.dailymoti...s-coded-l_music

Fair enough. Not trying to get into arguments either, this is also most likely going to be my last post on the subject matter anyways. Ok, if that's the point you are trying to make, then I guess the statistics you posted do kinda fit into the picture. Not sure I agree on this, but honestly, this is not something I'm able to judge anyways. All you US people will probably know better about your own history and current political situation than I do. Yeah, I guess we'll just have to disagree. Even though I wouldn't even necessarily disagree with you about the last point, although I'm not sure to what degree a general statement about gun control could be deduced from that. But whatever, I'm out here. Peace.

So what exactly is this supposed to imply? That totalitarian regimes like to control their poeple and don't bother too much about killing whatever part of the population is in their way. Sure, no doubt about that. That if there hadn't been a gun control there would have been less atrocities? Debatable (at least in the cases of Germany and the Soviet Union, I don't know enough about the historical circumstances of the other states to make qualified judgements about those) but possible. That introducing a stricter gun control in the US will somehow lead to more people beeing killed? That really does not follow at all in my opinion. If one were to make any reasonable guess as to what might happen if the US introduced more strict gun regulations, it probably would be more fruitful to look at political systems that are actually comparable to the US. Modern Europe for example.

Yeah, you're of course right about that, but that wasn't really the point I was trying to make. Of course a similar situation would have arisen without guns, but it wouldn't have been a situation that would require you having a gun to defend yourself. That's what I mean by trying to solve a problem with a gun that wouldn't be there in that specific way if there wasn't a gun involved in the first place. For everything else (a gun obviously wouldn't get you very far if someone planted a bomb somewhere) guns simply seem to be a defense strategy that is way out of proportion. Simple pepper spray probably would suffice in most cases (that don't involve guns). Definitely agree with that. It might have made it harder, but the basic problem still would be there, sure.

Hey there, thanks for presenting that perspective. You do have a point there and that's definitely a perspective I didn't consider before. But personally, I still think this all is kinda backwards. The only way you would ever actually need a gun to defend others (or yourself) is if the attacking person would also own a gun. So you're using a gun to defuse a situation that only exists because of a gun. Yeah, I know the argument that people who really want to shoot other people will probably always find a way to get a hold of a gun, that's simply part of our society (and especially of US society, like it or not). But to me, it appears that for every case, where a more free access to guns would help prevent greater damager, there would be at least five cases, where a more free access to guns would in some way be abused or turn a conflict that usually would have ended in a fistfight into a lethal one. That's a very utilitarian argument and I'm not the greatest fan of such arguments, but still I honestly, honestly cannot see how more guns would make society safer and I'm pretty sure that the statistics, at least when comparing US and European crime rates, are on my side. I do acknowledge that this is not the only kind of argument one could make. I think it's a valid concern to say, that one should have a right to defend yourself (or others) and that's why I think the point you made, turtle shell, is totally legit. But in my opinion one should also acknowledge that this increased freedom might also lead to increased violence. At least this is how it appears to me. And that would still be a legit argument if you say you value freedom over societal safety, which I generally do. But this seems to be a borderline case, as the price for that little bit of increased freedom (as I said, a good martial arts practice and ability to convince people should be able to take care of most problems) appears to me to be very steep.

Lol, I guess you liked my post, before I edited. Cause it looks kinda odd the way it is now. Edit: Basically I was just mirroring Apech attitude and stating my bafflement at this thread and my difficulty of me as a German with the corresponding cultural upbringing even remotely wrapping my head around some of the opinions raised here. But whatever, one thing I wanted to add to this discussion, is that I personally, whether it's legal or not, do not even remotely care about owning a gun. I simply do not want to be in the possession of an object whose single purpose it is to kill people. If that means that this will make it more likely that I'll be killed by a gunshot without being able to defend myself, fine. That's a price I'm willing to pay. (And I mean a gunshot specifically, as a good martial arts practice could take care of pretty much everything else. Not that I'm practicing any, but whatever. Actually I think a good martial arts practice should even be able to take care of most people pointing a gun at you. By means of mediation.) You might call this naive or idealistic, and you might be right about that. But that alone won't convince me otherwise.

Edit: Ahhh, forget about it.

My Sleeping Karma. A German psychedelic-rock band. Purely instrumental, trance-y and highly recommended. Check them out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLCA30YN64g http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND-5hj_2wFM&feature=share&list=PLergBbLUIXtMZlo3hImPVMCFNoOqPKjJI

So, my question regarding all this. To what degree is the whole food combining concept really part of either TCM or taoist practices. I read the book quite a while ago and to me personally it seemed a lot like the connection of food combining in the way the author promotes it and taoism is vague at best. Personally, I'm not really buying into the food combining theory the author endorses. :-/

Perhaps this is a stupid question, but is this the same longmenpai as Wang Liping's Dragon Gate Sect? And if yes, are the teachings/exercises etc. the same or are they both basically doing their own thing?

Yeah, I guess so. You pay for the flight and I'll be right there.

Hi there, I have got two questions about this, to help me better understand the concept you are talking about: 1.) So does this sequential unfolding still involve a gradual change from one species into another, as the standard theory of evolution suggests. And if yes, what exactly makes it so different from the "evolving" that is commonly assumed to take place? 2.) So does this imply a teleological process, as in that life developed specifically in the direction it did develop (and will develop) as opposed to chance being the main driver of development, as it is assumed in the standard theory? Edit: Oh and yes, prunes rule! I guess.

Well, I guess you couldn't have answered my question more perfectly.

...drew?

*poof*

This is kinda off-topic, but I still thought I might share this with you people. For anyone who thinks that there is something off both with the current scientific view on evolution (and materialism in general) and any type of creationism, this book might be very interesting. For a piece of philosophy it's also very readable in my opinion (and relatively short aswell):

Hi there, first up, I hope it is okay to post a personal health question here on this forum. I guess most people won't get too much out of this thread because of this, but I'd still appreciate any kind of feedback. So basically, what has been going on that pretty much since the time of the equinox (Which I remember Chunyi Lin saying is a time of the year, at which, due to the change of season, health problem that have been developing do tend to crop up. But whatever) my sleeping patterns have been quite weird. Actually they were weird even before that, as I had been battling with recurring episodes of insomnia for over half a year. But actually it seems like I have gotten over this as my ability to fall asleep has been quite good for the last 1-2 months. However after a few weeks of normal sleep, another strange sleeping pattern has taken its place. My frequency, duration and intensity of dreams has increased dramatically. However, when I speak of intensity I don't necessarily mean colour and sensations but rather the general complexity of the dream, i.e. the "plot", the characters, the connection to other dreams or memories etc.. Also my sleep is much lighter,often resulting in a kind of inbetween state between being awake and dreaming (I often believe I am dreaming until I realize that I am actually awake or vice versa). Also I often wake up and go back to sleep several times within a single night. So basically my question is, especially in a context of Traditional Chinese Medicine, how to interpret this issue. Initially I suspected this might have to do something with the kidneys as often, when I wake up during the night, I also have to pee. Actually I am quite certain that there is something going on with my kidneys as I have always been a person who has to urinate frequently and is also prone to having cold feet (cold hands not so much, though that too occasionally). My father shares more or less the same fate, so this most likely is inherited and an imbalance that goes rather "deep". But even though that whole kidney issue certainly hasn't improved over the last few months I now suspect that the problem might lie elsewhere, as I have recently read that intense dreaming and light sleep seem to be good indicators of a liver imbalance. And this actually makes sense in a way, because when I had a phone healing sessions with Chunyi Lin several months ago (insomnia related) he told me that I had a blockage in my liver (and didn't say anything about the kidneys, which was quite a surprise to me) and I also do experience some moderate pain in the liver are now and then, which also is a phenomenon that has only cropped up recently. To return to my initial question. Does it make sense, from a TCM standpoint, to regard this as a liver imbalance (I realize that diagnosis based only upon one single symptom is always tricky in TCM, so if you have any questions regarding my health/whatever, that might clear up the issue, go ahead). And in case that one can relatively certain about the specific imbalance that is going on here, what are specific things I could do to improve this situation? Which foods to eat, which to avoid? Which herbs would be beneficial in this situation and are there any specific exercises or habits to employ? Stuff like that.

Oh, and about that. I do think y health is quite decent and that I'm more resistant to minor external influences than most, but that doesn't meen that there still might be some major deep-rooted health issues underneah the surface, as I would assume is the case for pretty much everyone living in our current/modern society. I do make an effort to get a good amoutn of fruit and veggies into my diet and stay away from most processed food. Protein might be lacking a little, not sure and I also don't know whether the food I eat is favourable for my condition from a TCM-point of view, but apart from that, I'd say the basics are covered here. Exercise? I probably didn't get enough decent exercise over the last few months, but I have been slowly getting back into that over the last weeks.

Thanks for that. Will try. Oh, and basically I've decided to give this thing about a week or two. A lot of stuff has changed over the last days oncerning my habits, mindset and stuff. So if this is enough to make me notice some decent improvements over the next week, I'll just roll with that. Otherwise I'll see if I can set up an appointment with a TCM doctor.