GrandmasterP

A change is as good as a rest. :-)

Alchemy is what happens when we cultivate. There was an old story somewhere about the alchemist's apprentice who was so keen to learn alchemy that he spent every waking minute and long into the night poring over the alchemical tomes in his master's dusty study. One day the master asked the apprentice... " Did you ever stop to consider why there is so much dust on those books?"

" Would you like to visit and take tea?"

" Human beings, by changing in inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives." ( William James).

Taoist-Buddhists tend to keep their options open rather than seek conclusive answers to free will and related topics. Vita contingit. Vive cum eo. (Life happens. Live with it.) There are plenty of Taoist shrines in Buddhist Temples East of Suez.

I was around quite a lot when I joined TTB and then took some time out before returning recently. Maybe it's me but TTB seems 'better' now than it was 18 months or so ago. Could be simply that my 'biggest fan' the stalker Mod seems to have either moved on or mellowed. So far ( touch wood) no unpleasant missives have arrived from that direction where previously those were a weekly, sometimes daily event.

But we can use a rose thorn to extract a rose thorn. A rose thorn is the best thing ever devised for extracting unwelcome gardening splinters in the hands.

Many a true word spoken in jest. :-)

TTC 38 Therefore the truly great man dwells on what is real and not what is on the surface, On the fruit and not the flower, Therefore accept the one and reject the other. HTH :-)

"Radical agnosticism and analysis of mind is what attracted Chinese intellectuals to the particular practice of Ch'an Buddhism, which in turn is distinctive because of its "recognition of the individual need."(49) In this respect, it is heir to a long line of mysticism shaped by individual literati who searched for spiritual guidance in Lao-Chuang and later in Buddhism." Knaul (1986) in paper Linked to via my previous post. That idea of 'heir to....'. Things evolve and change as people adopt and adapt ideas. Look at 'Western Buddhisms' since the mid 20th Century. OK we have much faster communications than the Taoists/ Chan folks did back in the day but Tao-Chan-Tao-Zen etc engagements happened over centuries and are still happening ( here on TTB for one contemporary example). No way can any of us claim that ' this is pure original Tao' or ' this is pure unmediated Chan'. It's all a gumbo-like stew of many ingredients and none the worse for it.

Removing 'identity and self from the equation' is a tough call though. If anyone has any tips on how to do that...... Mine's always there rattling around the old 'monkey mind'.

That's the third mow this month. Unusually early but it has been unusually mild so the grass grows. Only about a quarter inch off the top but it looks better for it. I 'mow high' the first few mows then take it down after Easter. Totally love my mower. It has a Briggs and Stratton petrol engine. So reliable. Hauled out from winter storage gassed her up and first pull on the cord off she went. Briggs and Stratton should make engines for cars!

http://www.thezensite.com/ZenEssays/HistoricalZen/ChangTzu_and_Chinese_Ancestry.html Useful Taoism- to- Chan paper.

I have a souvenir of Africa tattoo. Sadly the tattoo artist was a tad dyslexic ( or stoned). Apparently; according to the legend written beneath the tattoo it was done in. " Ugada"

TTC isn't about Mindfulness as such 'to me' but we each read our own interpretations into whatever we read I suppose so maybe for some it is about mindfulness in places.

Mrs GMP has petunias in flower indoors. That's early but we've had a bright late winter unseasonably mild too. Possibly the extra warm light they've enjoyed has encouraged them. Thanks for the heads up on planting out Campsis. We've a sunny side and a shady side to our back garden. the shady side is where the Buddleia are. I have spent today thus far observing the grass grow. Time now to crank up the lawnmower.. :-)

$27,000 is a nice piece of change for some pill ingredients. How much does he charge for those pills I wonder? How did your trip go and what, if anything; might you be intending to offer as a result of it CCIII?

John Chang ( Dynamo Jack) no longer teaches, performs healing for enquirers or sees prospective students. He is an elderly, retired businessman who was deeply embarrassed by the unwanted western attention of earlier years and greatly inconvenienced by resultant publicity. If your husband does succeed in contacting Mr Chang's family or former associates he will be politely told the same thing. Rather than engaging in a fruitless task your husband would fare far better by approaching one of the other teachers recommended by posters above.

Welcome to TTB. There's no 'concensus' here that I've found so far. It's a good place to find out what people think though.

Campsis ( found it). Man I love TTB! Never grown it but like the look of them so ordered three plants of orange and three of red from Westcountry nurseries. They recommend bringing them on in John Innes Number 2 compost so will give them a starter in that in the cold greenhouse. We can't trust anything new outside until after Easter as a rule. Full sun or shade when they go outside do you think MH? Apropos the Buddleia. It is just coming in to leaf and there are still some of last years seed heads . Right now the coal tits are having their lunch on those. Lovely little birds, nice song.... here's what I can hear.... http://sounds.bl.uk/Environment/British-wildlife-recordings/022M-W1CDR0001528-0900V0

Are creeping trumpets 'Nasturtiums'? Those grow for fun here and I like to eat the leaves and flowers in green salad. The flowers are sugary-sweet and the young leaves are peppery. Massive seeds easy to keep, dry and use each new season. We've not bought Nasturtium seed for years.

Yep. Me too. That's mindfulness to me for sure and it's what Thich Nhat Hanh for example or the secular-Mindfulness school boosters would say 'is' mindfulness too. Is it a bit of a stretch though equating TTC with that essentially Buddhist and root-Theravada tradition definition? I don't know hence I'm asking. Was thinking about 'stillness' as a similar concept. Taoist and Buddhist ideas of stillness for example. Are those necessarily the same things? Might those mindfulness TTC references be to something other than 'our' definition that you helpfully linked to? There are TTC experts on here who will know.

Another name for Buddleia is 'the butterfly bush'' . They are very vigorous and I have to crop ours back every winter of they'd soon take over everywhere. Maybe it's too warm for them where you are MH they are a Himalayan species originally I think so maybe prefer it cooler. They are very common here. When we lived in London there were still bomb sites from WW2 and invariably those sites were a mass of Buddleia it really does grow like a weed if left to its own devices. Nearest we can get to success with Lily-like plants is Monbretia, that comes up every year and gives a good long late show.

Welcome to TTB outis emoi y'ovoma and what an interesting post that is. This isn't an answer to your question cos I don't have one it's just a personal observation so ignore it by all means I am not in any way trying to tell you what to do. People I work with and meet in daily life have little or no interest in 'our' sort of thing and there's no point me trying to talk about TTB type stuff to them as they'd just switch off or be embarrassed . They might sense it as, and it possibly would be an unwelcome intrusion Plus generally it's not the place or time for TTB type chat especially at work. TTB and places like Dharma Wheel or Dhamma Wheel are good for online chats about mutual interests. I like meeting people in real life too and where I found like minded people was originally by doing Martial Arts and from that into QiGong. If there is a good teacher locally then she or he will have a group of students to get to know and most groups are glad of and really welcome new faces joining them. If we can join a group of like minded people that is good, if there isn't one near us to join that's not so good. Some people set up groups in their local area via online advertising but not everyone wants to do that.

Seems like Mo Pai and Nei Gong are two terms that sure do kick off some hostile postings on TTB. Mo Pai I can understand having been around in the past when that was a hot topic on TTB. Mo Pai arguments tend to run along lines that someone says they know what it is and then someone else says " No that's not what it is at all." Why Nei Gong though? From what I've seen there are Nei Gong teachers out there who have a good rep. This guy for example..... http://chutaichi.com/neikung.shtml OK so someone can say.." That's NOT Nei Kung" but we can all see what it is we are discussing from the guy's website, references, testimonials and such and he's been going for years. We can't do that with Mo Pai though because the only info we have is from a very few books in English about it from way back written in the pre- internet era.