i am

I try to really notice and enjoy things as I'm doing them. Especially easy with my daily hikes. I try to walk with my mind clear and notice everything around me. Doesn't always work so well... I make a point of stopping somewhere along the way, usually an open spot near the edge of a drop off, with a lot of open empty space in front of me, and stand there. Mind clear, listening to the silence and animal noises. Eyes open or closed. In my relationships I constantly practice honesty (trying to make it a little less of the "brutal honesty" type) and openness, and not being judgemental. Trying to see the world as it is, or as it must look through the other persons eyes, rather than through my biases. Trying to feel my body and keep it structurally aligned, and healthy. Trying to put things I feel good about in my body and not junk. Seeing how different ways of walking feel, like where to keep my weight and intent. Being moral. As often as possible, watching myself as though I were watching someone else, with no judgement or attachment to what I'm watching.

I have a friend who teaches bagua and taiji. But the master he learns from is in Texas (we are not). He's pretty much decided to stop teaching bagua, because he just can't get serious students. One guy isn't enough So he'll teach me some stuff here and there, but he has a full time job and family. Just not worth his time. There is one other teacher in the state. Same lineage, different town. Those are my options...or get what I can out of books. So my experience is that teachers are not available. But in some ways, the amount of books out there is due to them tagging on to the self-help new-age craze. Sifting through to find the true teachings is a hard thing for people like me... I'm almost to the point where I'd move to live near a teacher who resonated with me.

Wudang is where I learned the "empty/full" sliding the foot forward stepping...

Thank you

I'd be interested to hear more, too. I learned one kind through my "teacher", another through a master I trained very briefly with. But the second kind I learned, it's hard to say if the way he was teaching me was just a beginning thing to get me started, or the real way of stepping...there was a language barrier, and too much teaching all at once to be able to ask all the questions that have since come up... My teacher teaches driving forward, each step can be a sweep etc. The second kind was more sliding. Empty and full. All the weight in the back foot until the front was fully extended, then all the weight to the front as it plants. Never a fraction between the two feet...always all the weight on one or the other. Empty and full. But still a drive, obviously. What helped me to start getting this was to imagine sneaking my front leg out. But if someone were to kick it out from under me, it would make no difference because all my weight was still in my back foot, until I fully committed to that front foot. The full-on driving forward my teacher teaches seems to not work like this...ie you're already fairly committed once you stick out that front foot; really driving forward into it. But so much of this is my interpretation....and I'm way too green still to really understand.

You really haven't? Interesting. It seems to be more of an adolescent thing when you've got raging hormones and plenty to spare, but for me it's started happening more again in the last few years, too. Probably more commonly (at least in my experience) called a wet dream, which gets to the point a little better. Sometimes you may wake up and not remember that it happened, until you realize you've got a mess, but typically you have a dream about sex. And in your dream you climax...and also in real life. I usually wake up right at the point when the dream causes a real event in reality No "accident" about it. It's one of those powerful dreams that "tricks" your body into thinking it's really happening.

Yeah, it's just balding, most likely. It happens to some men, and not others base almost completely on genetics, with nothing to do with sexual activity or diet. Some lifestyles may speed up a genetic predisposition, but you're not going to go bald from too much sex. I'll bet if you took a survey in the "adult entertainment" industry, you'd find the same level of hair loss as in the general population.

Yep. There were days when that would have sounded great to me! No more...I prefer the slower path now! To a point... Is that down south? I went to school in Utah, and spent a lot of time in the desert. I still make mostly yearly trips down there. It's very rejuvenating for me. August, though...no so much.

I used to get such a stiff neck and shoulders from driving that it almost ruined trips. Between the way I've learned to hold my head neck & shoulders from internal martial arts and yoga (which sometimes contradict each other), its now 95% gone. If you focus enough on how to keep loose and keep from getting tense and stressing things, there will be a big difference. It crosses over from everyday life into how your posture is while you drive. But driving is still draining...

Probably, yes. Are you a troll or just silly?

Well it goes back to the main point...it's not a matter of aggression or non aggression alway being right in all situations. It's about acting appropriately in situations, and not being fake. When you're being passive aggresive you are being timid in an aggressive way. That's the issue.

Mostly BaGua. Some Taiji here and there.

Just be happy he speaks English at all! His book, The Way of Energy, is great, and worth buying. In my opinion, the videos are just a supplement to the book, and only stand alone so well. What I've learned is that his teaching is standing for health. You'll get all sorts of people saying you should be doing this or shouldn't be doing that. But the truth is that while there are standards across them all, there are different ways of standing, depending on what you're trying to accomplish. If you want to get a good practice going, gain health and build a foundation of good standing, master Lam's stuff is great.

Welcome, and expect/look forward to all sorts of "reading in" to your posts for meaning that isn't there, things being taken too literal, not literal enough, and other general debauchery!

The "stand still, be fit" videos from master Lam are good. Those are the only ones I can comment on, though I'm sure there are more. At some point you really want someone checking your posture. But as long as you aren't trashing your knees or lower back, you at least shouldn't be causing any harm...

It will of course depend on the individual, but what I personally have experienced is: More energy. Noticeably more. More relaxed posture. Grounding. Rooting. Ability to endure things like intense yoga postures etc with parts of my body screaming, but calm relaxed face and mind. Increased knowledge of my body; how it feels, moves, rests or is tense, how things line up. Difference in how I stand, walk, sit, move in general. Just like with ZZ, I'm constantly adjusting, relaxing, tensing, changing and experimenting with the way I walk. Sometimes intense bursts of energy, that can have an outlet either in mental or physical activities. The feeling that I want to find something tall and run towards it and jump in one leap to the top! Probably more but that's what immediately comes to mind. It's pretty cool. I started out about two years ago, with really no more than 5 minutes at a time. Sometimes ten. A year ago I trained with someone for a short time, and the first time he put me in ZZ, he kept me there 45 minutes. That continued for two weeks, every morning. I didn't keep that up on my own, but now stand basically every day (I shoot for every day. Maybe once every two weeks I miss a day), and I shoot for 25 minutes. I regularly get 20, sometimes only 10 or 5 if I couldn't get moving fast enough that morning before work. Just to give you an idea.

Well, as long as you're enjoying your existence. Mine is very different, and I really rather enjoy it. Have a nice day.

I get you, but the point is exactly what Ya Mu pointed out. If everyone here were as daoist as they wish they were, it wouldn't matter. As it is, we have people like "eat meat gross" who join, post a couple instigating messages pushing an agenda, then never respond. Old banned or shamed members coming back over and over with new identities, trying to stir the pot and thinking they're cool because they're anarchists messing with the "system" or something.. It doesn't work to be acting within the constructs of a society, then, when confronted on something, claim yourself to be outside of the constructs of that society and therefore "exempt". Do you have a name and identity when you deal with people in person? Then you do here on this site, too. If you're so advanced that all those things have dropped away in your "real" life, then ok, you can be that way here, too. We are all people living in a society. The anonymity here seems to make some feel as though they can "pretend", or be mean, or act in a way they wouldn't if they were speaking to your face. Showing names isn't the point. People acting the same way they would if I were standing right in front of them is the point. I don't come to the Internet to aviod reality and pretend its something different. The Internet is a tool, not a different life or reality. I'm sorry for you and genuinely do hope you find your way and get better, if you need a place to hide from real life and need a different identity on the Internet.

In most of the other forums I'm on, I have my first name as a signature n all my posts, and my personal profile page has my name and as specific of a location as I'm willing to give out. Many people on those site have their full name and location down to the town they live in, and many people have met each other in person. BUT, there is some sensitive, personal info posted on this site. And there seem to be more crazies than the other sites I'm on. S I don't know how I feel... But the more people treat this site as though they were dealing with people face to face (which real names would encourage), the less BS you'd see, and you'd see a lot less arguing, I think. If you know someone could come after you, are you going to post that stupid crap, insulting them and egging them on? If you would face to face, then yes. But most people wouldn't...so it would cut down on that. For me, I might avoid the more personal, possibly embarrassing topics if I had to use my real name. But I'd be no more or less mean to people. I do agree that the people who hide behind the anonymity the Internet creates to push an agenda or pretend they're something they're not, or to be aggressive when they'd normally be scared to be...are pretty misguided, sad cases.

The majority of the people on this site (myself included, so far), are more secretive about their identity than any other forum I've been on. Not sure what's up with that. Maybe the subject matter? Seems to have the same amount of negative, argumentative, "I'm going to try as hard as I possibly can not to get along with you" type people as anywhere else, though.

This would be an interesting topic on its own.

Might be right on, except that probably tons of things could be more developed. Balanced is right, though.

Do me! Do me! I want to know what my energetic type is well suited for and not. I'm sure some of it I know, I'm sure there's a lot that I'm blind to...

Ok conspiracy theorists, where are you?? Is this a Republican, NRA conspiracy to sway the gun control debate? "See, guns aren't the issue, people are!" I hope to see plenty of theories on how the NRA and gun right advocates in powerful places staged this attack to push forward their agenda.

Greatest conspiracy ever! I'll admit this thread is a bit childish...but it was the first thing I thought of when I heard about the stabbings, after the "ah crap, not again" wore off.