Hi Everyone,
This looks like a great community and I'm glad to be here looking to do some learning and practicing of the Way.
A bit of background and why I'm here... I'll try to keep this as short as possible.
I've been studying and practicing Theravada Buddhism and meditation for a few years now. I've found it very fulfilling and enriching up until recently. I've spent most of my life as a happy recluse so the renunciative aspect of Buddhism has always really appealed to me.
Then recently I moved across country, met up with an old love and, through a series of unexpectedly wonderful events, have started a family with her. During this drastic change in life, I lost sight of my practice as I got caught up in everything involved with a new family. That was until I got very sick a few months ago and was completely bed ridden and in and out of the hospital for over a month straight. As being sick has a tendency to do, it turned me back inward to my spirituality.
I began practicing Buddhism again, but it just didn't seem to fit as well in my new life as it used to. I also decided that an important part of my recovery needed to be regularly practicing a gentle form of exercise. I was naturally drawn to more "spiritual" forms such as yoga and qigong. Qigong has always seemed the more interesting of the two, to me, and so I decided to go with that. I also decided to pick up the Tao Te Ching again. I had been interested in it for many years and read it at least once a year even when I was primarily focused on Buddhism. This time I found it spoke to me so much more than ever before. So lately my practice has started to revolve around Qigong and study of the Tao Te Ching... which brought me here looking to learn more about Taoism in general.
I have to say that I'm fascinated and a bit overwhelmed with just how comprehensive Taoism is. In a way this makes me very drawn to it as it seems to address many topics of everyday life that, for me, could use a spiritual touch. In another way I feel a bit lost and don't know where to start. For now I'm going to continue with the following:
-Meditation on the breath
-Qigong. I'm currently learning/practicing Ba Duan Jin (The Eight Treasures) as taught in a video by Shifu Yan Lei. I'm also reading The Healing Promise of Qi by Roger Jahnke.
-Study of the Tao Te Ching (Stephen Mitchell, Thomas Cleary, and Feng & English translations) and Chuang Tzu (Thomas Cleary translation) along with the notes and commentaries in those books.
Well... anyhow, that got quite a bit more long winded than I intended, so thanks to anyone who took the time to read it. I'm definitely open to any comments or suggestions on where I might go from here.
