If I could start over...

[Encephalon]

Any suggestions for a good program/approach if I'd like to start doing this?

 

There are two terrific sources out there with pefectly composed routines that focus on compound lifts. "Scrawny to Brawny" and "The New Rules of Lifting." Good luck.

[Tactile]

There are two terrific sources out there with pefectly composed routines that focus on compound lifts. "Scrawny to Brawny" and "The New Rules of Lifting." Good luck.

 

Thanks! Great thread, too..

[Encephalon]

Thanks. We invested in acoustic guitars last spring. Do you know of any free online guitar instruction sites? I've got a background in piano and trumpet, but I need something a little more practical to maintain my musical life.

[Reader]

[Encephalon]

I don't think I will use machine or go to Gyms anymore. Our body weight is more than enough for a good workout. Squat, Pistol, Push-up, Pull-up are enough for me. I add hours of standing stance.

 

Dump the machines. They're useful for rehab, but they part out your body. Good gyms still have plenty of freeweights, and if its an appropriate time in your life to build up a muscle base to support the body/mind discipline of your choice, then take the three-odd years it takes on average to bulk up a little bit. You'll be happy you did when your over fifty.

Then you can cut back to body weight routines that you can continue to work on your strength with, but can also include the flexibility and stamina, even cardio if you're ambitious enough. Your routine is no-nonsense and to the point. According to "The New Rules of Lifting," there are six basic movements performed by the human body -

push

pull

twist

bend

lunge

squat

 

Sounds like you could throw in some trunk rotation exercises to your 4-pk and have a perfect routine. The core is important. Deep lunges with extended static trunk rotation, with deep, full-chest breathing, is almost like getting a new axis of movement. And the effect it has on your kidneys is supposed to be magical.

 

 

Would everything be changed if you have this last point right away? I think this is very essential point.

 

I don't trust my ability to know exactly what you mean by this question. The more independence you acquire, the easier it is to simplify your life. It doesn't solve all problems, but it gives you the ability to refine your powers of mindfulness and wise action, which is why it is an essential element of most monastic environments. So, to answer your question, I certainly imagine my best chance for an enlightened and sane life to be a simpler one than the one I have now.

[Reader]

I don't trust my ability to know exactly what you mean by this question. The more independence you acquire, the easier it is to simplify your life. It doesn't solve all problems, but it gives you the ability to refine your powers of mindfulness and wise action, which is why it is an essential element of most monastic environments. So, to answer your question, I certainly imagine my best chance for an enlightened and sane life to be a simpler one than the one I have now.

 

You answered my question.

 

Thank you very much for this thread. I hope/wish many experienced guys share their thoughts and provide advices so that younger guys can learn and have a little bit of more time to plan their life.

 

This is to reinforce your thought on TV and reading books: "I find television very educational. Every time someone switches it on I go into another room and read a good book. - Marx, Groucho"

 

I will take many of your advices with me.

[forestofclarity]

I'm continually puzzled that, being on a Taoist forum, there are so many one-sided solutions. Because people tend to over think, some therefore assume we shouldn't think at all. This is especially funny related to Vipassana, because many Vipassana masters are Tipitka masters as well!

 

When some one tells me not to think, I wonder what it is they're after that they don't want me to think about.

 

Fine. I'll investigate my ego, providing that you consider the simple point that I made, which is that scholarship and formal study are not in competition with meditation as a means to first-hand experience. But you consistently imply that this is the point that I am making, while disparaging scholarship. Do you honestly expect me to believe that the Vipassana tradition is going to tell anyone to throw away their academic studies?

[Owledge]

I'm continually puzzled that, being on a Taoist forum, there are so many one-sided solutions.

It's an open forum. Expecting few one-sided solutions is probably quite a one-sided expectation.

 

Because people tend to over think, some therefore assume we shouldn't think at all. This is especially funny related to Vipassana, because many Vipassana masters are Tipitka masters as well!

Yes, I guess balance is the keyword. As I have read, the Buddha-nature includes not only an immensely cultivated heart, but also an immensely cultivated mind.

( A slogan comes to my mind: Power is nothing without control. )

[Encephalon]

I once met a couple, the male was in school for nursing, his fiancee was going to get a TCM degree. They wanted to open a clinic together. Also, in CA, TCMs can be primary health care practitioners (yes?).

 

With the declining rate of primary care physicians and increasing longevity of individuals, demand for TCMs, chi healers, and other non-mainstream modalities is expected to grow.

 

10-4. I would also add, from my Doomer geography/urban studies stuff, that when the economy crashes, all these skills will become desperately needed. This won't happen tomorrow, but a six year forecast is not beyond reason.

[Owledge]

Doomsday prophecies are almost always extremely inaccurate (many years off or flat wrong). I have learned not to do this kind of thinking. Crisis-makers are learning from the past, too, and go different ways than in history. Today they have to destroy the world in a more elegant, subtle way. Add to that humankind's collective power of survival and ignorance, and it becomes likely that people will always try to prolong desasters by plundering reserves. And there are always reserves.