wenwu Posted March 5, 2018 Simple question What do the terms strength, power, and force mean to you In any context you feel Feel free to go as deep or a surface as you like.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
七星門 Posted March 5, 2018 That which is strong is enduring. Power is force residing in stillness. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lost in Translation Posted March 8, 2018 On 3/5/2018 at 9:01 AM, wenwu said: What do the terms strength, power, and force mean to you Strength = durability. That which is strong lasts. For example, the mountain is strong. Power = effectiveness. That which is powerful can effect change. For example, the ocean is powerful. Force = power + intention. That which is forceful can quickly and intentionally effect change. For example, a forceful leader in business or politics. These descriptions overlap a lot. They are not cleanly delineated. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Boundlesscostfairy Posted March 8, 2018 Strength is a lasting impression in things.. A thing of noble beauty and righteousness in degrees of orders of difficulty.. Strength is true passion, and a way to show off to the world! Power is a means of applied force, or latent force in the causm; Force is how much pressure you can apply to something! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rocky Lionmouth Posted March 9, 2018 Strength sounds a lot like resilience and courage combined. Perhaps integrity or honesty relate, hard to say. Power is the ”je ne sais qui” to achieve a certain result from what is available and applicable in a given context, never mind if the desired outcome is realized. Power is also the ”JNSQ” to adapt and change/persevere if result isn’t realized. I wanna say Virtue (De?) could be described with such a word as Power. Force is technical and quantifiable. Its origin is Power and it’s product is effect, like in Watts if you will. Force is what is necessary or maybe a proposition, that can or cannot be refused. Strenght relates to Force by honesty and resilience, if not outright integrity. Reaching out with strenght has a certain force, which is primarily (in my mind at least) a gift of power towards somebody and ideally does not constitute any loss or expense. Even if that reaching out with strenght is the force of an actual agression it is still a sharing of the power to change a situation in either way. ”Proper” (sage-level) use of Power (De?) however would be done as such that it is not necessarily a loss of initiative or relational status. Maybe. Idk... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
silent thunder Posted March 13, 2018 Water is the weakest of the elements. Breaking itself on all it encounters. Yet the persistence of its weakness is evident as power, as eventually, it breaks down all boulders into sand... all fallen logs into soil. Water. Without skills, desire, or training... flows downhill effortlessly and yet generates force that sweeps away entire forests, levels hills and scours down the mountain tops. Its weakness expresses the underlying strength, power and force... undeniable. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Limahong Posted March 13, 2018 21 minutes ago, silent thunder said: Water is the weakest of the elements. Breaking itself on all it encounters...Its weakness expresses the underlying strength, power and force... undeniable. Hi Creighton, Water => weak => strong + powerful + forceful. What else? - Anand Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Starjumper Posted March 13, 2018 When I saw strength, power, and force I thought of it as vitality, energy, and spirit, something that's been on my mind for the last day or so; or for people who like to confuse themselves with foreign words, jing, chi, and shen. Strength is vitality, vitality does not necessarily mean strength to lift weights, it can also mean endurance, toughness, resilience, and being muscularly strong 'enough'. Power is a manifestation of energy, the work that energy does. In fact there is this thing called chi power, the more chi you have to work with the more powerful magic you can experience, for example. Force is spirit, a strong spirit is an effective force that can be applied to social situations and so on and so forth. 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Limahong Posted March 13, 2018 (edited) 4 hours ago, Starjumper said: When I saw strength, power, and force I thought of it as vitality, energy, and spirit, something that's been on my mind for the last day or so; or for people who like to confuse themselves with foreign words, jing, chi, and shen. Hi Steve, It is interesting that you put - (a) strength, power & force (b) vitality, energy & spirit and (c) jing, chi & shen - together in one post. In Taoism the progression for (c) has been established thus - jing => chi => shen? When it comes to (b), are you suggesting this progression - vitality => energy => spirit? As for (a), you have associated it with (b) thus - 4 hours ago, Starjumper said: Strength is vitality... Power is a manifestation of energy... Force is spirit... From your association, can the progression in (b) be this - strength => power => force? Is your association prompted by this? When wenwu asks this question, is there an implied progression thus - strength => power => force? On 3/6/2018 at 1:01 AM, wenwu said: What do the terms strength, power, and force mean to you? I agree with Lost in Translation thus ( when it comes to strength, power and force): On 3/8/2018 at 11:31 AM, Lost in Translation said: These descriptions overlap a lot. They are not cleanly delineated. From a momentary standpoint, I am of the opinion that jing, chi and shen overlap a lot and are not cleanly delineated. To cut to the chase, can I propose that - (1) I must build up my strengths (physical, sexual, mental, moral, ethical, spiritual...) to establish a personal power base so that I can be with the Force? (2) The Force is found in The Tao? Your response please. - Anand Edited March 13, 2018 by Limahong Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Starjumper Posted March 13, 2018 (edited) 45 minutes ago, Limahong said: In Taoism the progression for (c) has been established thus - jing => chi => shen? When it comes to (b), are you suggesting this progression - vitality => energy => spirit? Yes, because that's the way it's listed, and as you said, I am of the opinion that jing, chi and shen overlap a lot and are not cleanly delineated. Since the goal was to relate them to each other then that's what I done. Quote From your association, can the progression in (b) be this - strength => power => force? Yes, looking at it as meaning the same as jing chi and shen. Speaking here not so much about material physics but human cultivation. In physics the word meanings are closely related --> Force X time = power, power X distance = work (strength) F X T X D = Work In reference to internal cultivation a person can not have much chi if they don't have vitality so vitality is the first requirement. It seems to me that should be self evident. However, a person can have a lot of vitality, for example like an American style foot ball player, but not have a lot of chi. The vitality needs to be used in the proper way in order to cultivate much chi power. This brings us back to a question of yours over a year ago. When you saw my chi kung you commented that it was a fair bit of exercise and ask why it was like that. Well a new answer (I think) for you is this: it is a lot of exercise because a person needs this kind of exercise in order to develop vitality. Wimpy chi kung, which predominates these days, leads to little or no increase in vitality and wimpy energy. At the same time it works to use the vitality to create more chi. Strengthening, stretching, energy work, and meditation all at the same time. Now going from chi to shen, or energy to spirit, is tougher but lets see if I can make something up about that. If someone is a dragass lazy slug can they have a powerful spirit? It is not likely. Well that wasn't so tough. 45 minutes ago, Limahong said: To cut to the chase, can I propose that - (1) I must build up my strengths (physical, sexual, mental, moral, ethical, spiritual...) to establish a personal power base so that I can be with the Force? Yes you can propose that, and it sounds perfect to me. Quote (2) The Force is found in The Tao? Yes, the Force in Star Wars represents chi in Taoism Edited March 13, 2018 by Starjumper Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Limahong Posted March 13, 2018 4 minutes ago, Starjumper said: Yes, the Force in Star Wars represents chi in Taoism Hi Steve, Good night. - Anand Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Starjumper Posted March 13, 2018 Dayum, I was going to write "May the Force be with you" but zoned out. Buenas noches. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Boundlesscostfairy Posted March 14, 2018 So is there a possibility when your in the way that you can be weak, instead of strong? What I'm kind of asking is can you be weak with grace? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
