Rara

You need a fair amount of tension to sit upright even. I'm assuming he means extreme tension.

Jokes aside though, it is useful to try and relax when in danger/can be harmed... Tao of Gung Fu etc...

Ya. Death certainly does stiffen the body up. Best avoiding it!

Mindfulness and sinking into a good sofa. Or nice hot bath...taking it all in. Works for me! Learning to identify when you are tense is stage one. Then I practice relaxing muscles whenever I notice tension. It's taken me 4 years so far...still not perfect. But I no longer stiffen up into a board and flip out when under stress now.

Hahaha, best thread ever XD I have no problem meditating, filling my belly and having sex in the same week. Don't figure anything out...just feel. If you feel ok, you're ok. Only if you feel ok though. Not to be confused with saying you're ok to yourself when you're in agony yet leaving the house to go to work!

Amazing....first I read Kwok/Palmer/Ramsay's version (as I am familiar with Palmer's translation of Chuang Tzu) It reads very differently to the others. Crazy. What I link with The Big Concealment story is the character is what Lao Tzu describes: poor, attached to nothing and genuine. Unlearned. In the Kwok/Palmer/Ramsay translation of TTC 20, there is a really interesting thing that struck me. What is the difference between anger and pretending not to be angry? I used to think about Taoism as a way to be happy all the time. But the more I used affirmations to change my opinions on things, it worked to an extent...but it was all so artificial. And it didn't last. Whereas, if I loosen up, and let my crazy side just ring out, I am happier. And not dangerous to society, most importantly! The difference between ok crazy and bad crazy... Ok crazy = free, carefree, comfortable in one's own skin, regardless Bad crazy = surpressed emotions...desire to be someone else/confined in a society/system they don't want to be a part of but feel inclined to force it.

Will do! My version of TTC has been leant out (big mistake) ... will find a reliable online translation of the chapter!

My Wing Chun teacher's method... Shut up, focus, don't get hit. Don't think....feeeeeeeel hehe

Lol, if I eat loads of cake or normal chocolate, I stay skinny but get belly flab. Dark choc digestives, I have built up a resistence to, somehow. They fill me up and don't make me fat. This OP lad will get himself nice and strong with a protein/rice/pasta/veg diet and lots of dark choc digestives. Just don't forget the body weight exercises, at least once every two days!

Athletic is a good look. Like David Beckham etc.? Lol. Seems like you can achieve that. Eat twice as much as you currently do and just maintain some exercise/strength training. I can maintain 144 lbs these days (not sure what that is in kg) but I have to eat like 3000-4000 calories a day!!

It's very liberating stopping daily full lotus training...for me. Been a fascinating journey. In one respect, it all kept me out of trouble and in a good meditation practice. But then I reminded myself that I wasn't born into a full lotus...so why would I need to extract it from an alien culture?

Yep. A lot of role play required to be taken seriously. Or laughed at. I've stopped acting wise. I know I'm wise anyway No more 24/7 "acting" how I perceive a daoist to be...too busy just doing my thing. It's more fun...and more daoist!

Start with body weight exercise first though...push ups, squats, pull ups and a few small sets of sit ups. Ans eat, eat, eat! Protein poweders can come much, much later if at all!

Ah yes, that is quite low! I had a vegetarian stint and found myself filling up on lots of carbs. Kept getting hungry...lots of rice, oats and veg! Have you been veggie all your life? I eat lots of chocolate before bed haha...doesn't affect me as I'm so active. I eat lots of chicken, fish,rice, potato, veg etc too though! A good weight training program will help, like Mike said. Takes time but after a few months you will start seeing benefits. Getting up to a healthy 60kg should be doable at least.

Haha... I like that when I got to my Wing Chun class, we're all a bunch of white boys. Next door is the Chinese, playing badminton.

Best advice!

Yes. And he died young! What do you eat/how old are you?

I like this a lot. Though the sumo wrestler feast probably won't work. You should see what I eat before bed!!

Define under weight... I struggle putting on weight. I stopped bothering. What the docs didn't tell me was something they didn't know... I'm naturally slim...very small boned. Trying to build mass on a naturally small frame is a waste of time an energy. Enjoy eating tonnes of food. Eat what you want! What a gift!

Next time you come across some nettles, take a bunch (carefully with gloves, take and rinse the leaves, dry them out and voila! Nettle tea (strained) with lemon is great for colds. Tried and tested I drink more peppermint tea at the moment for digestion. It's very good!

Very good! Can I be an arse and say it's "themselves", not "them self's"... English doesn't make much sense, does it?

Fascinating!

But sexual desire is minimised by cultivation/over time anyway would you say? The difference between someone who has had time to mature over years compared to the dirty old man down the strip club...

Couldn't agree more. To take a "vow" of something is forced...perhaps due to some kind of guilt or insecurity. Cultivation leads to a natural understanding of one's own nature anyway...and one that knows this nature is immune to the thrills. There is no "sin"...we can only land ourselves in trouble with overindulgence.

That's the beauty in it though...careless free thought. It's not like Zhuangzi cared much for formality and structure...a collection of accounts, stories, poems, ramblings etc would be Tao