Taoist Discussion and Off Topic Discussion

[sean]

I recently move two political threads to Off Topic and I wrote:

... I know it's subjective and I hear what you are saying Leo about country as context for practice ... it's one of the reasons I thought of just leaving them. I think the distinction I'm using here is that politics is cool in Taoist Discussion if we really consciously work to tie it in with cultivation, with our practice, with our bodies, minds, souls ... and not just speculative political theory. Does that make sense? It's wierd because I know technicall everything is really a Taoist discussion, but the line has to be drawn somewhere right? And especially for newcomers to the board, it's probably nicer for them to be presented with a Taoist Discussion that, like Trunk said, is clean and more directly related to cultivation practice.

 

Turbo then wrote:

You may want to consider that there are topics in the Taoist Discussion area are not direclty related to cultivation. The thing is that a lot of people simply dont look into the Off Topic area and there are topics that people are interested in discussing besides cultivation. Perhaps another area would serve the board better. Cultivation/Tangents/Fringe, or Cultivation/Non Cultivation/Off Topic, or Cultivation/Other Interests/Etc or Cultivation/Life/Everything Else. Dunno, maybe it would serve us all better, maybe not.

 

I think it's an idea worth discussing, definitely. I don't have a strong opinion about it yet and am about to run out the door but I'd like to hear what other people think..

 

Sean

[affenbrot]

I recently move two political threads to Off Topic and I wrote:

Turbo then wrote:

I think it's an idea worth discussing, definitely. I don't have a strong opinion about it yet and am about to run out the door but I'd like to hear what other people think..

 

Sean

 

maybe you could move the "off topic" from the basement into the tao lounge. Then probably more people will

notice its threads.

another idea : maybe one could keep the taoist discussion strictly on practice/philosophy, other related topics like deodorants

into another group and still leave the real off topic topics in the basement.

 

Nice new spacey blue design, I like it.

 

 

a.

[BobD]

To me it makes little difference. As long as View New Posts finds everything I don't care where they are. For people new to the forum, it may be better to split things off, but then they wouldn't see the great mix of topics we get so clearly.

 

Nice new spacey blue design, I like it.

Ditto. Its very nice indeed!

[sean]

The difficulty for me in deciding what goes where is that ultimately Taoist Discussion is anything at all that Taoists talk about. At the same time I'd like to figure out some kind of "in principle" distinction that I can make, so, especially as this forum gets more and more active, we are not faced with a situation where the first 15 topics in Taoist Discussion are on Brittney Spears, PHP Programming, Shoe Polish, etc. I'm not sure another forum would really help, I think it might just postpone the issue and even make it more complex. For example, a Taoist Cultivation/Philosophy and a Taoist Fringe distinction ... in a single topic these can easily blend together and are not even obviously separate on first post.

 

This topic is actually kind of a Taoist Discussion itself, a kind of soul searching ... The Tao is not really about being unique or making hard distinctions. But on some level what distinguishes a Tao Bums discussion from an ordinary discussion, at least on some gross level? Like, I am a Tao Bum, so in a sense everything I talk about is a Tao Bum discussion because that is the way my mind words full time, but when I am yelling at Bank of America on the phone for fucking up my account again, that's not really that exciting or relevant to a Tao Bums community discussion, you know? But I hesitate to draw the line with specific content, because I imagine that I probably could make even this more relevant somehow, perhaps if I talked about anger, and how it rises as a column of heat and tension in my body, and if there are any practices specifically designed to open, cool and ground this energy.

 

What are the unique qualities of a Taoist Discussion post? (brainstorm)

Oriented toward the spirit of our community (vague)

Some attempt is present to align with both Heaven and Earth?

 

In other words, something that avoids a flatland discussion. Per Wilber:

Wilber uses the term flatland to describe what happens when one or more of the quadrants is ignored or undervalued. Science describes our external world. Science is a world view that measures our 'reality'. Whatever can't be measured in some way is deemed to be unreal or valueless. Values, feelings and intuition have no part in the scientific world. Scientists have created a flat land where the whole left side of the four quadrants have been flattened into the right. the more science does this (thesis) the more there is a reaction from people not prepared to live in such a polluted flatland (antithesis).

 

So, perhaps a topic is more and more Taoist Discussion, the more it connects with a fuller spectrum of reality, particularly the socially undervalued interior quadrant. I mean, that's why most of us are here, right?

 

And a post is more and more Off Topic the more it is overly specific and mundane with no attempt to connect the topic to a sense of a deeper reality than what is on the surface.

 

How to properly make these judgement calls is a tough call. Some content just automatically seems to fit without any struggle. Like if you mention qigong, you're probably on topic. But what about RMAX qigong? Or what about martial arts in general? Many styles just naturally integrate Heaven and Earth, but what about pure fighting styles, "flatland" styles that leave the Heaven and Earth to you .... like is a boxing discussion on topic?

 

Interested in some feedback here, I know it's a bore in many ways, but if you think about it in terms of trying to clarify what makes something more or less aligned with Tao that is pretty interesting.

 

 

Sean

[Cameron]

I think your on the right track and Kieth has a good point.

 

Taoist Discussion should focus on spiritual cultivation and philosophy, and anything that pertains to that.

 

Off topic is just that..things that don't directly pertain to that...like our opnion of countries and Daily show footage

 

Cam

[Pietro]

Hmm, I don't know what should go in the main discussion and what shouldn't. But one thing I know. I never go and check the others. Is not a political position, is just that I am lazy. I also open maybe one thread out of 3 or 4. SO maybe my suggestion would be to keep everything in the same main place and then just have instead than 15 threads 50 threads. And if the community grows so much that 50 threads are not enough we might rediscuss it. But generally those systems tend to be self balancing, and when too many people post too many people have a hard time in keeping up and some just go away or post less.

 

I have to admit that some time ago I wished for some space to be there for diet (and I would have put the deodorant thread there, for example), and since I am now discovering that there are quite some people who have practiced things derived from Bruce work a space for that. But then I wouldn't even go and check those threads when it becomes clear that people are not posting there regularly.

 

In the HT they divided into three categories that are so all importnat that you really can't miss any. But as a mater of fact I am still using the old version because I find boring to have to check in 3 pages instead of in one.

 

Maybe giving to a lot of people the possibility to move threads (like if it was a wiki) then things would be so fluid that we would have to check all the threads just to find where the hell had that one thread we were following gone

[sean]

Taoist Discussion should focus on spiritual cultivation and philosophy, and anything that pertains to that.

 

Off topic is just that..things that don't directly pertain to that...like our opnion of countries and Daily show footage

I think Emelgee is right. I think too much.