daojones

Not the first time I have heard such a comparison. I think it's reasonable to assume some sino-israelite connection. Similarities between confucianism and talmudic stylings seem to be another one I've heard of.

Ya, that's what I'm saying! The body is one major factor making this world a sysphysian effort. If the first noble truth about suffering is correct, then surely we must be in hell.

Hi Gerard! Lately I've been coming to the conclusion that this world we live in is hell. And if, one may say well this world and your reality will be what you make of it - then why can't this apply to more classical definitions of hell as described in your original post. And if that's the case - then what's the difference between your hell and my hell? My main point is actually this. How do I not go to hell? Who is deciding what is right and wrong anyways? If its brahman or a mainstream theological god, then how do we know what is right and wrong really? Through religious doctrine written and propagated by man? If so, then who has really got the most True religion - because that's the one everyone should follow in order to be good and not go to hell. We all know what dangerous path this line of thinking leads to. If one is to brush aside the above, and state to be just generally be good and do no evil - then what does this really mean in terms of actions? Except via the broad strokes of the ten commandments or the noble 8 fold path, how do you really accomplish being good (and not going to hell). It seems very reasonable to assume that we all just take on some normative pragmatic and/or cultural framework and then plow on being good. However, we here at TB know life is just not that simple. I postulate that most of life is a moral grey area. A choice between evils one may say. And even if one disagrees with that statement, my original question slightly modified now would still stand unanswered: who decides what is good/right in the grey areas? I'm really not trying to be facetious. I just feel like you've brought a geniune message, and that there's a whole lot of practical and philosophical history of failure with respect to addressing the pragmatic consequences of such a message. How do you make sense of it in light of the issues I brought up? I've been feeling particularly swayed by Nietzschean thought recently. I do believe his line of thinking would represent the cutting edge of philosophical thought in this area. This sort of ties into my first paragraph. If life is what you make and/or perceive of it, then why doesn't this apply to "le good". Can we not make our own good, and then be sent on karmically according to how we did based on our own rules? p.s. I really like thanissaro bikkhu. will be reading that kamma study you posted from him! Edit: for addressing this I had a couple of friends go to wat chom tong. After 2-3 weeks of a regular meditation retreat schedule, they did 72 hours straight meditation to cap it off and felt completely awful at that point! I never made it there, but did hear good things from my friends even though they didnt feel good at the end. There's also another wat for meditation retreats out near mae hong son/pai area that I heard was very nice. I did a 2 week session at wat umong, which is on the outskirts of CM, so doesnt quite count as forest style even though theres a big forest where monks live beside the wat (there's also convenience stores around too). I averaged around 6-9 hours of meditation per day, which I know is not on par with what's expected, but it was the best I could do. I wouldn't recommend wat umong as it's not as legit as wat chom tong or others by a long shot. I still had a good experience, despite the neo-nazi monk who ran it at the time I was there (not joking). I don't think anyone can pull of 24/7 for 3 weeks though. I hope you don't see my post as over thinking things. There are serious pragmatic consequences to how one should act if kamma, hell, and morality are to be taken seriously. I'm not saying kamma doesn't exist, and perhaps meditation can and does help one realize the existence of kamma, but so what? How does one pragmatically deal with such a conclusion?

This a bit of a rabbit hole. I was doing some research on prostate issues and found out about Plato's site: http://prostatesecrets.com/ Then I did some digging and found out a whole lot more about him. He has a bunch of other sites, and in particular dealing with jaw issues and this therapy called neurocranial restructuring. I happen to have both jaw and prostate issues, so I was particularly interested in what he had to say given the relatively poor and long drawn out healing process I've been engaged in. Would be really interested to chat with him, and was hoping somebody on the board could connect me. I'm aware he's a bit of a controversial character!

I've been sent this talk by Simon Sinek by a number of people: https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?language=en It basically sounds like bullshit to me. He's just serving platitudes. At the same time, I know an area that I need to work on (for various reasons) is inspiring and leading people. I think there's lots of books and info out there that give tactics and strategies for being charming, inspirational etc...but I think these are all lies. I feel the truth has to do with your energy. All the tactics and strategies don't matter if you dont have the right energy. Curious what other Bums think about this topic. Not interested in negative comments.

I think the stick to your guns bit is true, but it's also obvious. I'm trying to understand on a deeper level than that.

@aaron any recommended versions or secondary texts. I feel like I only really understand deep texts like that once I have lived the lesson first.

I did nadi shodhana pranayama today and i think it helped for my brain fog I am experienced, which I believe is being caused by stuck/excess wind. Going to experiment some more with this, but just wondering if there's any other pranayama you would recommend.

Following. Dealing with issues there as well. Not sure what to make of it and feel like I've been at a standstill for a long time in dealing with it.

Looking to up my knowledge on the interaction between chinese astrology and personality types. In particular interested to understand how/why some personalities mesh and others don't. Pretty well have no idea where to start, and was hoping somebody could set me on the right path with a suggestion on books/sites etc...

I have had multiple minor boxer fractures since starting to box, and each time it takes longer to heal. It really sucks because I want to train..and also having an injured hand is no fun. It's not that bad, but im concerned that its taking so long to heal this time and I'm concerned about long term damage. Any tips on dealing with this to minimize long term damage?

Yup, I do that. Not that I hit that hard...but I did notice that as soon as I got my form better (and as a result started hitting harder) that's when the injury issues began.

ya, using the punch with top 2 knuckles method. I think the issue is a combination of my form and the trainer. When I trained with other trainers I didnt have this issue. But my main coach always caused this problem (hence the repetitive injury). On my side, I could see I wasnt punching accurately and my wrist was getting crunched sometimes or i was hitting with my pinky sometimes. From the coach's side, he would slam the pads into my hands when I was punching and also didnt hold the pads up high enough for me due to height difference. So I would guess a combo of my accuracy and form being not well trained and the trainer not providing a good target for me caused this problem.

I've recently found I have felt more connected to my lower dan tien and root energy after doing physical exercises aimed at my core muscles. I'm really wondering if I am actually strengthening the qi in my LDT or if I am increasing awareness. Perhaps both, although it would be great to better understand the composition. In the past I had some mantak chia exercises that involved pressurizng the lower dan tien area (I cant remember the names), and was wondering if anyone could recommend some qi gong style exercises for strengthening the qi in my lower dan tien. Am I mistaken in my hypothesis that strengthening the qi in my LDT will increase my ability to ground?

All this stuff seems really yin. I was thinking something more active/yang?

Over the past month or so I've been having issues in every facet of my life. There has been so many small and a few big things going wrong for me that it is quite clear I am in some sort of energy flow of shit going wrong. Was wondering if anyone else is experiencing this and/or any ideas on whats going on if its a theme for more people.

sounds very apt. I have actually felt very connected to saturn ove the past number of years. Curious if u could explain ur music selection here.

Everything said has been accurate. What's going on with saturn return? I definitely feel its trying to bring me in deeper to the lesson and that ya the tweaking thing is part of it.

Thanks. I'm not too familiar with astrology so was wondering if there was some thing going on. It's very clear to me why it's happening to me from a personal level. The worse it gets the more I understand the lesson. It's annoying as fuck though...but that's apparently what I need. Everything I touch basically breaks not in a major way, but in a subtle and minor enough way to cause problems and when multiplied through all aspects in my life it's well quite frustrating and stressful. I have found the length and concentration of this shit storm to be very unusual so while my personal relation to the events produced by the bad luck is as somewhat clear, I feel like there has to be some larger cosmic forces at play that I am being swept into.

Looking for input on how you or your school of thought deals with expectations. They seem very dichotomous, either you have them or not. If I have an expectation and that expectation is not met, then the result will be a negative emotion. If I don't have an expectation, then there may be a variety of other negative repercussions (relationships and just general getting things done comes to mind). If one has no expectations of oneself, why bother doing things or growing? My calculus has put me in between a rock and a hard place - anyone have a pillow? Edited: for spelling

I came here to say what NotVoid just stated far more eloquently than I would have put it. What is Te anyways? Is one not the creator of Te? For me, virtue, is more about the cause and effect of actions, as opposed to 'virture itself'. Claiming virtue itself as known is the same BS as someone saying they're enlightened. So what! I am too If a leader creates a harem from his followers, who is to say that is not-virtuous. Would it not be the tao? And how does the tao speak or pass judgement on such actions. If it is not aligned with the tao then it won't work out. If one progresses mystically to know the tao, then it would seem that the knowledge of what is a virtuous act would be clear. However, the gap between knowledge and action is one major issue. But then that begs the question, if tao and te are not aligned - then how aligned are you with the tao? Would a deep understanding not be an embodied realization, and an embodied realization would be the bridge between knoweldge and action?

I was thinking of doing a juice fast retreat for a number of days, but i have a longstanding case of liver qi stagnation and I know that fasting isn't a good idea when one has liver qi stagnation. Was wondering anyone's thoughts on if I would actually benefit from doing a long juice fast given the qi stagnation.

well said. I'm slowly coming to this conclusion myself

Haha, I came here to ask opinions on host defense. I've got a few of their products, including cordyceps. It's plant based, so it's not the authentic picked from the ground zombie mushroom others may be using. I'm totally ok with that. Just think...zoooombie mushroooom.

I'm looking to get a water filter for city water. I've looked into berkey/british berkfield...but it looks pretty skechy as to whats going on with them in terms of quality of product. In fact, I'd say the whole water filtration industry appears to have snake oil waiting in the shadows. Curious to hear any bum's experience or opinions on such things