If I am so cultivated.... why am I tubby?

[Taiji Bum]

Some dude who wrote:

 

if you are so cultivated why are you tubby and overweight like the average sedentary american

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPJy81liv4Q

 

My response:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MeXwnWN2UQ

[doc benway]

Go get 'em Darin!

Given your early association with the Catholic Church, have you ever studied the work of Anthony Demello?

[Taiji Bum]

My sister bought me a book by him but I never got into it. I liked St John, St Teresa and those types.

[mYTHmAKER]

Some dude who wrote:

 

if you are so cultivated why are you tubby and overweight like the average sedentary american

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPJy81liv4Q

 

My response:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MeXwnWN2UQ

 

 

You have a chi belly

[Capital]

I agree with steve f. Good response.

 

Edit: verb issue

Edited November 12, 2009 by Capital

[Spirit Ape]

Sorry Darin, I dont think that is a chi belly, it is just fat, and u need to do better strength and fitness!

[Capital]

It's obvious that you use commas correctly (edit: besides one that should be a semi-colon, woops). Why is it that apostrophes- not to mention the y and o in you- are more troublesome?

Edited November 12, 2009 by Capital

[Ohm-Nei]

I'm glad you answered that question, your story was very interesting!

 

"If being tubby bothered me, would I be tubby?" - My personal response.

 

Please share your first lessons of meditation, I'd like to hear about the priest's method.

[Spirit Ape]

Im being totally honest, if a person has a belly its because of diet and or lack of physcial training. Im not saying Darin isnt cultivated but he lacks physcial health its so obvious. If was also very physcially fit and looked after yourself with your chi cultivation bigger bang for your bucks.

 

Strong body = strong mind = strong chi = strong spirit you have a belly cause your mind is not strong enough to keep your physcially fit therefore one of your elements is out of wack.

 

Ape

[WhiteTiger]

Thumbs up Darin for the response.

 

Chi belly... eh, idk.

 

Their are many practitioners that have big bellies.

They just like to eat.

 

I think the person is a extremely rude way was trying to point at something different.

I think the question that everyone should answer for themselves.

What is the definition of a master?

 

The more and more I dig the more and more I realize how much I've cultivated in the past is nothing compared to Daoists, and so forth. It is quite surprising really.

 

Im being totally honest, if a person has a belly its because of diet and or lack of physcial training. Im not saying Darin isnt cultivated but he lacks physcial health its so obvious. If was also very physcially fit and looked after yourself with your chi cultivation bigger bang for your bucks.

 

Strong body = strong mind = strong chi = strong spirit you have a belly cause your mind is not strong enough to keep your physcially fit therefore one of your elements is out of wack.

 

Ape

 

I think what Spirit Ape is trying to say that actually is such thing as a qi belly and the idea of it is much different from that of a person with fat in the belly.

 

peace,

wt

[Taiji Bum]

Ape is spot on! I am unbalanced and really unhealthy. Thats nothing to be ashamed of. I am what I am. I sit at a computer at work 8hrs a day. Lately, I have started exercising every half hour real quick at work and I havent had any fast food, sugar or Mountain Dew in a week. I am also keeping a video journal of my weight loss and fitness regimen that nobody will see until I am fit again. Back in 2005 I wore 30 inch waist jeans and ran 5 miles or more a day. Now... not so much.... but soon again....

 

I want to get back into fighting shape again. Getting thrown when your 175 is much different than when your 235! I prefer 175!!!

[Spirit Ape]

Well done Darin, no disrespect to you my friend I feel your pain cause Ive been where you are at!!!

 

peace

Ape

[Trunk]

Cultural silliness re: weight.

Lots of different people,

all shapes and sizes.

* sheesh *

[mantis]

I don't believe in chi bellies - for every master you point out with one there is 5 without. There is nothing wrong with having a gut but don't try to blame it on a spiritual practice or anything, you're eating more calories than you are burning so you got chubby.

[voidisyinyang]

Darin "coincidentally" I saw you vid linked at another blog and ended up watching your alchemy series on youtube BEFORE I saw this new post by you. I haven't watched your below response. Qigong Master Jim Nance gained quite a bit of weight during his qigong full-lotus training. He mentioned it to me in a sort of self-deprecating gesture. I responded that you never know when you might need it. Turns out that genetically humans are hard-wired to get fat if we have the caloric means to do so because as hunter-gatherers we regularly faced famine. This is detailed in Harvard biologist Marvin Kummer's classic "The Tangled Wing" on his Bushmen studies.

 

Anyway it's been proven that people eat to counteract stress because of the serotonin produced as a byproduct of food. Most of the serotonin stay stuck in the stomach though -- hence the secret behind REVERSE BREATHING! haha. hint hint.

 

Thanks for your vids though yet I couldn't help but think of my ayahuasca full-lotus trip when you described finishing your 100 day training -- haha.

 

I burn off my food fast from sitting in the full-lotus.

 

Some dude who wrote:

 

if you are so cultivated why are you tubby and overweight like the average sedentary american

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPJy81liv4Q

 

My response:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MeXwnWN2UQ

[Spirit Ape]

For me perfect practice will show! Someone that follows the path of longevity should look healthy and strong not body builder looking although nothing wrong with body building and chi kung as long as u are healthy eating, internal cleansing, spiritually sound person.

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

Tubby is as tubby does.

[WhiteTiger]

For me perfect practice will show! Someone that follows the path of longevity should look healthy and strong not body builder looking although nothing wrong with body building and chi kung as long as u are healthy eating, internal cleansing, spiritually sound person.

 

I second what Spir Ap is saying.

 

And on top of that, as long as someone is working towards doing better no matter where they are I give respect.

 

side note: saying this only further reminds me of things I should be getting on top of.

 

peace and virtue,

wt

[Spirit Ape]

Kool, white tiger i like your name are you a tiger stylist or anything with Bak Fu?

 

 

Ape

[WhiteTiger]

Oh man spirit ape. You don't remember me?

I remember you, very well in fact.

 

My energy is just changing, I mean the way I come across and so forth. I am the same person though.

 

peace,

wt

 

P.S. Nope, don't do tiger style. I am currently not doing any martial art and haven't done any in a little while. I just recently started learning some qigong. Every class lots of prep work but you gotta do it.

[Fruitzilla]

You do sound like Steve Ballmer tho....

Edited November 12, 2009 by Fruitzilla

[hagar]

You do sound like Steve Ballmer tho....

 

A real practitioner should not be judged by how he looks. Only how he smiles.

 

Sometimes I feel this forum does more harm than good.

 

h

[goldisheavy]

Whoever was trying to point out your weight haven't reach Zhuangzi. Right there it has an example of a person whose organs are bulging out, and yet they are given as examples of mastery:

 

"There's Crippled Shu - chin stuck down in his navel, shoulders up above his head, pigtail pointing at the sky, his five organs on the top, his two thighs pressing his ribs. By sewing and washing, he gets enough to fill his mouth; by handling a winnow and sifting out the good grain, he makes enough to feed ten people. When the authorities call out the troops, he stands in the crowd waving good-by; when they get up a big work party, they pass him over because he's a chronic invalid. And when they are doling out grain to the ailing, he gets three big measures and ten bundles of firewood. With a crippled body, he's still able to look after himself and finish out the years Heaven gave him. How much better, then, if he had crippled virtue!"

 

This is one (sucky, but available for free) translation from

 

http://www.terebess.hu/english/chuangtzu.html

 

There are other similar examples where regular and seemingly imperfect people are shown as examples.

 

Still, having a healthy weight is not a bad thing either.

Edited November 12, 2009 by goldisheavy

[Mal]

I want to get back into fighting shape again. Getting thrown when your 175 is much different than when your 235! I prefer 175!!!

 

That's really it. There has to be a good enough reason to have the motivation to starve yourself down. It's not easy to fight your bodies desire to eat and for many of us there is just no reason to be ultra thin outside of looks. We have money, we have abundant food, we have a sedentary lifestyle and we love eating!

 

The media also skews perceptions, we are so use to seeing underweight people on TV etc that we often don't notice the spread of body types in the general community. But speaking of Chi bellies here is a pic of one of my favorite MMA fighters

The Iceman is pretty lean in that photo and still has a belly, watching his fights I always notice that he really breathes into his belly.

 

Personally I'm fat at 112kg, I've been down to 100 and up to 130. 130 was no fun, 100 was honestly about the same as 110. For my height 5'10" apparently 74 is possible I'd be interested to see myself at 90.

 

But honestly unless I wanted to look manly naked or good in a wetsuit when surrounded by nubile young tourists while diving there just isn't anything motivating me to lose weight, except external appearance. I've been fat all my life, it's never been a hindrance to anything I wanted to do. Apparently girls like how happy I look

->

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

Taoist teacher Ken Cohen is tubby too, last time I saw a picture of him. Nobody doubts his attainment, although I don't believe he is a martial artist.