GrandmasterP

My two horses ran very well. In fact I believe that they are still running. Sadly the race ended some hours ago. :-)

That is a big question and there are better qualified posters on here than me to give you in depth answers. In the meantime here 's a link to a short article with references on Taoist ethics that may give some background to what you are asking. http://www.taoism.net/articles/mason/ethics.htm Hope it helps. Best Regards GMP.

Randi is one of the good guys IMO. Not only does he debunk bogus psychics he's inadvertently helped to create some too.. His book 'Flim Flam' has never been out of print and is a manual for bogus psychics to this day. Anybody wants to learn how to do 'cold reading' and pass them-self off as a psychic- consultant need look no further. Randi sets it all out like a 'how to' manual.

Yes I agree. 8 Strands has its limitations but its advantage for the type of teaching and cultivation we do is that it is highly suitable for elderly people as it is gentle and easy to remember the sequence. Especially standing form which even wheelchair users can participate in as a 'sitting' form. No foot movements to learn and remember.

THE 5 MINUTE BUDDHIST ! Man is supreme and responsible for his own thoughts, ideas, beliefs, and actions. ! All existence is conditioned, relative, interdependent, and based on cause and effect. ! The self, the soul, the ego are mental projections, false beliefsAnatta (no- self, no-soul). They exist as conventional truth but not as ultimate truth. The Five Aggregates Being is experienced as: 1. Matter 2. Sensation 3. Perception 4. Mental Formation 5. Consciousness The Four Noble Truths 1. Life is characterized by impermanence and suffering, or Dukkha (insatiable thirst). 2. The Origin of Dukkha (suffering) is attachment to desire. 3. The Cessation of Dukkha is achieved, not by belief, but by the contemplation, understanding, and elimination of desire and attachment. 4. The Noble Eight-fold Path is the way to achieve the cessation of Dukkha. The Noble Eight-fold Path 1. Right Understanding 2. Right Thought 3. Right Speech 4. Right Action 5. Right Livelihood 6. Right Mental Discipline 7. Right Mindfulness 8. Right Concentration. The Four Sublime States 1. Unlimited universal love and good will 2. Compassion for all suffering beings 3. Sympathetic joy for the success and well-being of others 4. Equanamity The Five Hindrances 1. Sensual lust 2. Ill-will 3. Physical and mental languor and torpor 4. Restlessness and worry 5. Doubt and skepticism The Five Precepts The moral obligations of a lay Buddhist: 1. Not to destroy life 2. Not to steal 3. Not to commit adultery 4. Not to lie 5. Not to take intoxicating drink The Seven Factors of Enlightenment 1. Mindfulness 2. Investigation and research 3. Energy 4. Joy 5. Relaxation 6. Concentration 7. Equanamity

Between 5th and 6th cervical on MCO here. Blockages are pretty common. If you feel sick, stop. If it's just a minor blockage then ...... Focus 'around and through' gently. It'll shift eventually. Be kind to yourself.

Anybody can learn the '8 strands' moves we do in about half an hour. After that it gets a bit tricky though. The 'Gong's' OK , it's knowing what to do with the Qi and how. I've been at it for years and still not got it completely 'right' yet. Maybe next time around. :-)

Ah well. Maybe next year. :-(

Exhale is harder to 'get' smooth than inhale for sure. The fewer exhale 'spasms' the better the cultivation is progressing in the style we teach ( 8 Strands Silk Brocade). Even now, and after many years; if I am even a bit 'tensed' anywhere then exhale can have a slight spasm or 'wave' to it at the get go.

Teaforthree 10-1 Big Shu 16-1 I don't fancy either but those are the closest to Tao-suggesting ( to me) names of horses in the race today.

I've read a bit of Gombrich, found him hard going.A bit 'arid and academic'. His ilk are one of my 'Buddhist Clubs' like the western PL I've mentioned. For sure there's a Sangha of sorts in those clubs as they consist of likeminded people getting together to talk about and do some Buddhist 'stuff'. Like you I don't think the clubs ( my term) are sometimes considered as Buddhist, but maybe in a slightly qualified sense thus... Insofar as a Dharmic Tradition cultivator, for example your Tibetan or Thai tradition Buddhist - would recognise them as being Buddhist 'like him'. They are however a facet of modern 'Buddhisms' and none the worse for it. My approach tends towards 'let a thousand flowers bloom' . Each to her or his own and none privileged above another. The alternative at worst could be someone claiming in relation to one or other of those Buddhisms - that ,,,"That's NOT Buddhism" . Not something I'd ever venture to do. How could anyone truly 'know' for sure?

Only time I ever do above 20 minutes a time is when teaching. That said I only do and teach the 8 Strands Silk Brocade QiGong these days. As one gets older ( I am old) the sitting meditation side increases as the 'doing' side, of necessity; decreases. Anybody who is fit enough to put in above an hour a day deserves respect and encouragement. I used to cultivate ( bagua MA) for hours a day every week, every year and enjoyed it. That was my main 'hobby' , passion and pastime. Comes a time though when you just have to do less physically and more mindfully.

There's a popular maths book about Zero called... " The Nothing that is. A natural history of zero." http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/0713992840/ref=sr_1_1_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1396705308&sr=8-1&keywords=The+nothing+that+is&condition=used It's quite profound in parts. Only costs one (UK) penny plus p&p from Amazon partners if anyone's interested.

Monasticism hasn't really caught on in western Buddhisms either whereas it's almost the 'norm' in many traditionally Buddhist areas. OP wise I still think that some Buddhisms ( western mainly) might well be forms of rational atheism. Can't see any harm in that if it is the case,

Gotta be good. Anything that cuts down on sugar is a sure fire winner.

I like biographies and travel tales of people who know something about Buddhism too. Chadwick's 'Crooked Cucumber' is good on S Suzuki Zen in the USA and his ' Thank you and OK' is about his time spent in Japan studying Zen. Gives a good insight into how Zen 'happens' in Japan and it is pretty funny in parts too.

Excellent tutorial Chi Dragon. All respect. I am enjoying and learning from this thread.

Right...... Understanding - Thought - Speech- Action - Livelihood - Effort - Mindfulness - Concentration.... are pretty good targets for anyone to aim at, be they atheist or theist or anything else. Buddhism can be a secular path for sure.

' In the Buddha's Words' The Bhikkhu Bodhi anthology. It's nice to dip in to.

That'll always be the dream here. No goal, no gain. There's nowhere near enough 'holy fools' in the world. Yet.

Double digging here. We also top dressed with John Innes Number 3 for five years. At the end of each season when the planters are knocked out we riddle all that and that goes on too. We've raised the poor areas by about nine inches since 2006. I bought a Mantis tiller to save double digging a couple of years ago but it is so much messing about to get going and then needs such a lot of wrestling to keep it from burying itself that I went back to the spade.

Apologies for the colloquialism. No. Jolly as in 'very'.

Sophism originally meant 'teaching for money'. Some of us get a living doing that. Not so sure that ' If a tree falls in a forest.......etc." is Sophism as such. Our local version goes.... " If a tree falls in a forest. And no human is there to witness its fall. Do the other trees giggle?"

Sounds jolly tough. Kudos.

We're fortunate with soil. This place was a market garden ( truck farm) so we inherited some decent soil and what wasn't the best around where their glasshouses were, we've gradually improved. It drains very fast.