GrandmasterP

For sure anyone who cultivates regularly seems to be a bit of an odd fish ( in a nice way) to folks who don't cultivate regularly but are open to and maybe interested the ideas. I teach Mindfulness and QiGong mainly to seniors but do one class a week for undergrads and graduate age folks. The seniors enjoy the company and gentle exercise but very few 'take it further' it's a class and a bit of a 'club' they like to come to. I'm in there alongside the Weightwatchers group and a Zumba class. It's a social centre based class and almost just another thing for people to attend if they are so minded. None the worse for that and we have fun. The class I teach once a week in the college where I work though, some of those younger people really do get into it and we do have reports back now and again of how much better they are feeling or how more focused they can be on their studies. It's all entirely secular and we get people from all faith paths and none but some of them are looking for 'something to believe in' and are almost disappointed when they don't find some party line being pushed. In this game it must be pretty easy to set up as some kind of guru because that's what some people are looking for and where there's a market then there are sellers to meet the buyers needs. That whole 'spirituality for sale' schtick leaves me a bit cold. Fair play to those who do get a living by it but that's not for me at all.

MoPai is the clan. Who they are is MoPai, what they do is what they do and some MoPai will do different things and have other interests to other MoPai. The only way to be MoPai is to be born MoPai.

Yeah I met him a few years back at TiPi valley. Nice guy. My point such as it was isn't 'anti' at all simply to say that whenever he does pop up whoever promotes him seems to say that it has taken years to persuade him to come out and teach when in fact he has been teaching on and off ( mostly off) for years.

Yes, it can get cold of a winter there for sure.

Who would we trust with our Qi data if indeed it could be measured and why would anyone want it in the first place? Makes about as much sense as asking in order to be 'measuring' " On a scale of 1 to 10 how much more tree-ness does this tree have compared to that tree over there?"

Apparently most of the population of Reykjavik all live in one huge block of flats.

Yep goats climb trees. The Moroccan 'flying goats' are a tourist attraction around Agadir. They don't really fly but can be found and photographed in the tops of trees they have climbed happily nibbling on the juiciest young twigs and leaves. Seeing is believeing... https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Moroccan+flying+goats+images&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=b9SiU6PUC9Hb7Abs_YDAAg&ved=0CFAQ7Ak&biw=1024&bih=644 Ours never climbed trees but no fence could hold them if 'food' was visible. Very intelligent creature is your goat and super friendly but with damage to clothes and property, their feed plus the vets bills for their shots, dentistry and pedicures, the goats milk worked out to be costing us around £10 a pint. It is wonderful stuff though, anyone with dermatitis can do worse than drink goats milk. The district nurse used to take milk from our 'girls' for a child who got terrible red rashes and those cleared up completely.

Indeed you are right Manitou. On that same Love/Morality theme and a recent snapshot from my own little world. A Sikh male graduate student met and fell in love with a Hindu female graduate student. Both totally modern westernised young people with good careers in front of them. Both families reacted with horror and, in order not to be harassed; the couple were obliged to move to another part of the country and complete their course work by online and distance learning. They did that successfully. To each family their union was 'immoral' in light of the respective moralities of Sikhism and Hinduism. On balance the Hindu family was the most miffed but the Sikh guy got grief from his people. It was just that the lass got a lot more hassle and worse from her immediate family. Their love transcended 'tribal taboo' IMO whereas in the eyes of their families that same love 'transgressed' those venerable moral codes.

I wonder if there is more or less violence nowadays than there was in the past. For sure we get to see more of it via the rolling news channels but is there as much quantitively in proportion to the number of people alive in the world? I suspect that, since around 1947; there is less general murder and mayhem about in today's world than there was in past times and intuit that we are living in relatively peaceable times compared to our none too distant ancestors.

Excellent thread topic Manitou.. Kudos! Here's the party line chez GMP and one that's is guaranteed to pleasantly pass a complete 3-hour lecture and seminar with first year ( Philosophies of Education) undergrads. I lob it in as conclusion to the lecture and then sit back to enjoy the fireworks during the seminar. " Morality, all of it; is naught but ossified tribal taboo. We can no more adopt a common morality than we can don a collective overcoat. One sized morality never fits all. What we can all negotiate, in order to agree upon; are ethical precepts." It's that 'ossified tribal taboo' riff that sets the sparks to flying.

The clue has to be in the name. Why would anyone choose to travel to ' Ice'land? That said Bjork is a poppet.

We do "spring forward, fall back" here. Clocks go on an hour in spring and back an hour in autumn.

There is circumcision in China possibly more circumcised Chinese guys than anywhere else given the population count. Some do, some don't. All the Chinese Moslems do for sure and there are plenty of those. The messianic dudes go on for it too. Not sure about Falun Dafa. I can't see that it makes any difference anymore than someone having their tonsils removed would affect cultivation.

42 boils down to 6 though.

Our two dogs stick to GMT throughout the year so from spring to autumn they are an hour 'in front' of whatever time the clock says. Depending of the season, lunch is either at noon or 1pm clock time. In dog time that's called " Lunch Time".

Not forgetting after... 1. Greed - Wanting too much of something... There's those other guys.... 2. Gluttony - Similar to greed, but gluttony is the action of taking too much of something in. 3. Lust - The need to fulfill unspiritual desires (not just sexual desires, but this is usually what lust is associated with.) 4. Envy - Jealousy; wanting to have what someone has. 5. Sloth - Being too slow or lazy at doing something. 6. Wrath - Vindictive anger; angry revenge. 7. Pride - Being too self-satisfied Plus the support act... War Famine Pestilence Death Barry the Drummer ( but he left before they became famous)

It's a gloss edited down for the popular market and I'd agree that if anyone wants more then the big volume may be more interesting. You do realise that both the main work and the gloss I linked to are critical of alchemy and such? Both refer throughout to Feng Shui and alchemy as 'pseudo-science'. Anyone who wants a 'how to' or 'now do' guide might be better looking elsewhere. Dr J's books for example.

"Shit happens. Live with it." Works for me. That and nembutsu.

That TM seems to be very expensive. $1,500 for the introductory course and then they want to sell you more courses. Fair enough if it suits anyone and they can afford it but there are many far cheaper alternatives out there as BKA has demonstrated just this week in her fascinating posts from that retreat she's been on. That ex TM teacher guy's article makes interesting reading and if, as he claims; the idea of TM is to encourage the student to become dependant on the teacher then that flies in the face of most cultivations and teaching. The best kind of teacher hopes that the student will begin to become increasingly autonomous and able to 'do it for him or herself' and maybe even surpass the teacher.

Goats will eat just about anything. An especial favourite snack seems to be washing hung out to dry. We used to keep a couple of British Alpine nannies for the milk but they had to go as we couldn't afford to keep buying new clothes.

First viewing yesterday. Lady and her old mum. Coming back with the Mr for another look. Talk about finding out about people. The Estate Agent has put a gallows style For Sale sign up at the end of our drive but the hedge was hiding part of it so I went out there and was trimming it back. Farmer neighbour pulls up on his tractor as I'm working and says to me... " I hope you don't sell it to bl**dy Indians!" Says I. " Cowboys or Indians can have it whoever comes up with the money first." Our place is about half a mile from his! Stunted bleddy racist.

Back in school the Physics teacher told us in lesson one that 'energy can neither be created nor destroyed'. That said it all for Physics as far as I was concerned so I left it at that and didn't bother the teacher much nor he me for the next few years until they let us choose to drop science, which I did. I do think that different paths use different labels and sometimes those labels might be describing the thing. Yoga players ( for one example) use different 'language' to QiGong cultivators but by and large both are doing very similar stuff to much the same ends.

Or steam maybe?

Bit creepy that. Sod that place for a picnic!

Good call Sinan. You still cultivating under trees there? That is fine cultivation, especially barefoot.