is it only me or the TB has lost its magic?

[Pietro]

I don't know why but everywhere I look I see the same discussion over and over again. And they go in circles. But the people who are discussing are obviously enjoying it a lot. So I am left wandering if I have grown beyond this community, or is the community that has changed so much that I don't recognise it anymore.

 

Most discussion seem to be around:

this or that teacher (this would be interesting, but maybe because I am happy with mine, I don't find them attractive),

what will happen in the year 2012 or 2020 (as if anyone had a clue)

what is reality (and ghosts-threads are under here too)

quantum-stuff

farewells

and topics more generally about what is taoism, and is this taoism, or is that taoism.

 

I am missing the kunlun's and the lizardmen which are not so high in the hitparade, but that is pretty much all.

 

And it is not changing.

 

I am not trying to be negative (maybe succeedng, but surely not trying). I just would like to have some feedback.

 

I don't seem anymore the same people (which can be good), but with them it seems that the experience also left. And I see people going around in circles. Maybe I was not the only one who got bored. I see some people leaving with great announcements (no I am not announcing my departure, I am trying just to understand). And people having probably left in a more quiet Way.

 

Had we developed any experience in those years? Have we suceeded in passing it on? Have we even tried to?

[Trunk]

Yup, kind of a dramatic lull.

[Martial Development]

No wonder nobody comes here anymore. It's too crowded!

[sheng zhen]

new-age seems to be taking over...

[Pietro]

new-age seems to be taking over...

good point!

[Taoist81]

I don't know why but everywhere I look I see the same discussion over and over again. And they go in circles. But the people who are discussing are obviously enjoying it a lot. So I am left wandering if I have grown beyond this community, or is the community that has changed so much that I don't recognise it anymore.

 

Most discussion seem to be around:

this or that teacher (this would be interesting, but maybe because I am happy with mine, I don't find them attractive),

what will happen in the year 2012 or 2020 (as if anyone had a clue)

what is reality (and ghosts-threads are under here too)

quantum-stuff

farewells

and topics more generally about what is taoism, and is this taoism, or is that taoism.

 

I am missing the kunlun's and the lizardmen which are not so high in the hitparade, but that is pretty much all.

 

And it is not changing.

 

I am not trying to be negative (maybe succeedng, but surely not trying). I just would like to have some feedback.

 

I don't seem anymore the same people (which can be good), but with them it seems that the experience also left. And I see people going around in circles. Maybe I was not the only one who got bored. I see some people leaving with great announcements (no I am not announcing my departure, I am trying just to understand). And people having probably left in a more quiet Way.

 

Had we developed any experience in those years? Have we suceeded in passing it on? Have we even tried to?

 

You forgot 9/11 etc. conspiracies. Unless you include it with ghosts and lizardmen. Other than that, yes, you are dead on. Maybe it's the economy? Or the Swine flu....?

[Yoda]

Maybe we have just dug down to the ugly truth finally?

 

Here's a poll back from November:

 

http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?showto...amp;#entry86641

 

I like the 'dramatic lull' thing...

 

-Yoda

[Pero]

I don't know why but everywhere I look I see the same discussion over and over again. And they go in circles. But the people who are discussing are obviously enjoying it a lot. So I am left wandering if I have grown beyond this community, or is the community that has changed so much that I don't recognise it anymore.

 

Could be both. The first thought I had when I saw this topic was that maybe we grew up. (well I didn't really, but maybe some of you did hahaha)

 

I don't seem anymore the same people (which can be good), but with them it seems that the experience also left. And I see people going around in circles. Maybe I was not the only one who got bored.

 

Are you sure you're bored and not just uninterested (dis?)? Because like you, I found what I was looking for, so I'm not as much interested in other things anymore. I'm not sure if that's the same as bored. Because for many things now, I take a quick look and think it's a waste of my time (though that doesn't mean it couldn't be good for someone else).

[三江源]

yesssss. There are still the great posts from the great people, but they are embedded in the turgidity that is swelling up like a TURGID HYDRA.

[hagar]

yesssss. There are still the great posts from the great people, but they are embedded in the turgidity that is swelling up like a TURGID HYDRA.

 

This is probably a sign that I'm getting old and outdated. Which is a great relief, but Pietro said it right.

 

Dont get me wrong, I enjoy this site, and since I signed up sometime in 05, have found it inspiring and informative. Yet something seems to have lost its flavor.

I probably write quite dull posts myself, yet the x-factor seems to be gone in a sense.

 

I for one miss the the really old days when people nobody here remembers anymore were having some great debates. Infuriated, but fun.

 

What was present then was a community of cultivators who had a great deal of experience, yet were inexperienced users of the internet as a communication tool. Which led to (at times) great discussions, and general eerieness at other times. And we're not talking Lizards. Just search up some of the old RJ flaming and you get my point.

 

But for the record; this is still a great site. Maybe I am just growing up, for better or worse.

 

h

[Yoda]

I like what Pero said: many bums have found what they are looking for and are "over" TTBs in a good way.

 

When I "graduated" from various schools, jobs, life eras, relationships, careers, identities, etc what was once magical was still "nice" and "good" and "fine" but the enchantment is definitely broken.

 

I bet that passing from this life will be exactly the same thing... still very precious, but the overness gets to a certain threshold and that's that.

 

But it's nice that the TTBs Alumni stop in every so often! If Sean keeps up his once a year email, that would be nice like that.

 

Yoda

[Apech]

Pietro,

 

I kind of agree with you - but maybe the answer is - decide what you want to talk about and post it. You should get some replies - and off we go again. Just cos everyone else is going round and round doesn't mean you have to.

 

 

A.

[mYTHmAKER]

I would definitely say Pietro you've lost your magic.

 

i think it's a natural progression

At some point one has to settle in and stop chasing the next great practice.

 

New people tend to ask the same questions we did when we joined.

After a while it gets tiresome to answer the same questions over and over -

especially if no one takes my advice

[trailmaker]

I don't know why but everywhere I look I see the same discussion over and over again. And they go in circles. But the people who are discussing are obviously enjoying it a lot. So I am left wandering if I have grown beyond this community, or is the community that has changed so much that I don't recognise it anymore.

 

Most discussion seem to be around:

this or that teacher (this would be interesting, but maybe because I am happy with mine, I don't find them attractive),

what will happen in the year 2012 or 2020 (as if anyone had a clue)

what is reality (and ghosts-threads are under here too)

quantum-stuff

farewells

and topics more generally about what is taoism, and is this taoism, or is that taoism.

 

I am missing the kunlun's and the lizardmen which are not so high in the hitparade, but that is pretty much all.

 

And it is not changing.

 

I am not trying to be negative (maybe succeedng, but surely not trying). I just would like to have some feedback.

 

I don't seem anymore the same people (which can be good), but with them it seems that the experience also left. And I see people going around in circles. Maybe I was not the only one who got bored. I see some people leaving with great announcements (no I am not announcing my departure, I am trying just to understand). And people having probably left in a more quiet Way.

 

Had we developed any experience in those years? Have we suceeded in passing it on? Have we even tried to?

 

 

hello pietro - enjoying your thoughts on transition.

 

i like that there's no end to it.

[sahaj]

well I've joined recently and I find the forum a fantastic resource!

[Smile]

I guess the only final outcome there is to practice and to live life.

[VCraigP]

I don't know why but everywhere I look I see the same discussion over and over again. And they go in circles. But the people who are discussing are obviously enjoying it a lot. So I am left wandering if I have grown beyond this community, or is the community that has changed so much that I don't recognise it anymore.

 

Most discussion seem to be around:

this or that teacher (this would be interesting, but maybe because I am happy with mine, I don't find them attractive),

what will happen in the year 2012 or 2020 (as if anyone had a clue)

what is reality (and ghosts-threads are under here too)

quantum-stuff

farewells

and topics more generally about what is taoism, and is this taoism, or is that taoism.

 

I am missing the kunlun's and the lizardmen which are not so high in the hitparade, but that is pretty much all.

 

And it is not changing.

 

I am not trying to be negative (maybe succeedng, but surely not trying). I just would like to have some feedback.

 

I don't seem anymore the same people (which can be good), but with them it seems that the experience also left. And I see people going around in circles. Maybe I was not the only one who got bored. I see some people leaving with great announcements (no I am not announcing my departure, I am trying just to understand). And people having probably left in a more quiet Way.

 

Had we developed any experience in those years? Have we suceeded in passing it on? Have we even tried to?

 

 

I have to say that I have been reading and very intermittently posting, first on the Healing Tao Forum and then on the Tao Bums for what must be like 10 years now....acccckkkk.

 

Over that time I have made many acquaintances in this cyber world, which is odd enough in itself. I have learned a great deal from a great many. I have practiced the art of sifting for gold dust amongst the debris. I have found many a choice nugget over time. Many things I first encountered as ideas or suggestions on this website have become part of my life and part of my cultivation.

I have met in person a total of two people who are regular TTB contributors (Hi 5ET and TM). It would be nice to meet more people, but that is a digression.

I still come here and sift, and try to contribute when I can, or feel compelled to. This exercise seems different now than it has in the past. Apparently there are a few other long time participants here who respond when another longtimer like Pietro raises a question like this.

Many subjects do come up again and again and I would hope more people would use the search functions (although I'm not too adept in that area either).

 

There is truth for me in saying that I have lost my eagerness to explore so much and have settled into my practices. This is also not true as I have explored Kunlun and KAP more recently while my practice with my primary teacher deepens further. And I will probably see what I can explore with 5ET when the time is right.

 

But it is also true that so often questions come up and I can't even bear to read them as I think "what, this again? Haven't we covered this like 10 times?"

 

Yet still I sit and I sift. Hoping for another spark of inspiration, or perhaps seeing a piece of a puzzle I am particularly suited to fill in (in my view anyway...).

 

What does it mean. Is TTB different? How could it be the same? And yet the more it changes the more it is the same. Perhaps it is meant for newbies to rediscover what TTB is or can be.

 

BTW - New Age seems to be taking over? What does that even mean??

 

I'm not going anywhere. And even if I did I wouldn't tell the likes of you people

 

Craig

[Mal]

[Birch]

I don't know. it's been pretty magic for me.

 

The only other thing i'm getting is that maybe (just maybe) it might be the old folks' turn to give something back to the n00bs.

Or a very big reference wiki site thing could be built...

[Yoda]

Sean is def focused elsewhere.

[seekeroftruth]

I guess the only final outcome there is to practice and to live life.

 

Hear Hear!

 

_/\_

[xenolith]

Become a random chat room...used to have a focus on spiritual advancement practices...significant degradation of value to me with its loss. Pop in occasionally...find increasingly less of interest...ironic and sad that the only thread of even minimal interest found in today's three page examination of thread topics was this one...expect return interval to increase.

 

"Life is Elsewhere" (Rimbaud and Milan Kundera)...with respect to TTB, for me, increasingly more so.

 

Much Later.

 

Love.

 

xeno

[Mal]

[Pietro]

well I've joined recently and I find the forum a fantastic resource!

Good! Don't be bothered about us,

we are just old farts speaking about the good ol' days.

 

yesssss. There are still the great posts from the great people, but they are embedded in the turgidity that is swelling up like a TURGID HYDRA.

It's a problem of return on investment. How much do you get back for the time you spend. We might have hit the point of limited return. When what you get out does not pay you back what you put in.

 

A problem is also that if those things are hidden it takes ages to discover them. In the old HT the structure was a tree, and you could immediately see if the people u are keeping an eye to have written something. Now you get the person who have started the thread, and the last person who wrote. Two names that I ignore, and I move forward.

 

Hi Hagar,

hope the little viking is growing up strong

 

...

I for one miss the the really old days when people nobody here remembers anymore were having some great debates. Infuriated, but fun.

I don't know what I would give for a retourn of RJ. I am starting to agree with Plato& RJ coprophila approach to the problem of noobs

 

What was present then was a community of cultivators who had a great deal of experience, yet were inexperienced users of the internet as a communication tool.

I am not sure, my sensation is that there are still great cultivators. Every now and then you see them, in the mix of the new people. But often they leave. I wonder why.

[Pietro]