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  2. where is the cat thread?

    The cat thread is in the Rabbit Hole. It was originally conceived of as dedicated to what its name says -- Wild cats, but other kinds of cats show up from time to time too. Commercial cat food is a sad topic... "Research" experiments on cats is a sadder one. I try not to go there.
  3. where is the cat thread?

    Btw, we had a very good cat for 14 years but he got some type of cancer in his right shoulder and leg. A vet said he could could cut it out but that the cat would then be very crippled. We decided not to do that to him since he spent a lot time outdoors doing cat stuff and him needing all four legs to do so. Well he did not suffer too much from the cancer while still with us and continued his outdoor activities for more than year until one day he did not come home. We figured he fought his last battle with a feral cat or fox that got the better of him. I hate to think that back then we may have helped bring on the cancer since we were feeding him big name cat food!
  4. I was trying to find the cat thread started by Taomeow to post there but didn't...anyway I came across some health tips for cats that some people may be interested in, there is an advertisement angle to it but the info sounds pretty good concerning dubious big name cat food suppliers that put only god know what into their cat food being that there is little or no regulations for same! For instance pet foods with all sorts of fillers and grains that are not good or detrimental to your cats health. The vets name and cat food product is from Dr. Marty which can easily be found with a web search. And I'm pretty sure there are other vets that are in agreement with his warnings about all the fillers in cat and dog food since they are supposed to be mostly be eating like carnivores.
  5. I was trying to find the cat thread started by Taomeow to post there but didn't...anyway I came across some health tips for cats that some people may be interested in, there is an advertisement angle to it but the info sounds pretty good concerning dubious big name cat food suppliers that put only god know what into their cat food being that there is little or no regulations for same! For instance pet foods with all sorts of fillers and grains that are not good or detrimental to your cats health. The vets name and cat food product is from Dr. Marty which can easily be found with a web search. And I'm pretty sure there are other vets that are in agreement with his warnings about all the fillers in cat and dog food since they are supposed to be mostly be eating like carnivores.
  6. Today
  7. Letting Go of Good and Bad

    I am a little mercurial but I do appreciate your ideas. I think at one time I would easily agreed with you - but maybe it’s my age but now I am quite conscious of the bad in the world (not just extremes but the general degeneration of order) and have found increasingly that battling against it is important for us.
  8. Letting Go of Good and Bad

    Yep, I assumed you got my meaning and just added some characteristic -- and much appreciated -- humor. Maybe it´s the playful cat in you, smart and feisty. That´s a combination of attributes that, in my judgment (cough, cough), seems to be going around.
  9. Letting Go of Good and Bad

    Despite my flippancy I do take your point about being non-judgemental.
  10. stolen by a thief? how's that? how do you even know, you've lost it? sorry thats not my quote. these are the words of @Yae we are all in the same yellow submarine, lads and lassies both you used that word first, you did not ask me to explain it, so i did not i never say anything thats my own opinion. i just repeat the words of my teachers coming to me through their books. Hierarchies are important because a method is a tool. Dont we need to know if we are using a hammer or a screwdriver? A tool must fit the task. the discussion of xing first or ming first is a teaching device, for analysis and understanding. In practice there is no such split between xing and ming. Yet if you are interested in Xing first, for starters we can look at this passage of LYM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Yiming sure, i dont even know what ego is. glad to be of any help.
  11. Letting Go of Good and Bad

    me too - my peach tree had a sort of ecosystem involving ants and greenfly which I solved in more or less this way.
  12. Letting Go of Good and Bad

    you are wise brother Luke - I shall remember that although I charge 20 dollars an hour there’ll be no extra for the touching.
  13. Letting Go of Good and Bad

    I´m not from any Old Country, unless Placerville, CA in the 80s counts (and maybe it does!) but I remember painting our fruit trees like that.
  14. Letting Go of Good and Bad

    "(Qi) blowing differently on 10,000 things so each can be itself." -- Zhuangzi The artificially achieved commercial uniformity of fruits and the natural variety within a particular kind are as different as a uniformed and identically disciplined army is different from a group of friends brought together by similarities of interests, experiences and abilities. Tao likes variety, it's true, but it also likes boundaries -- the devil is in the details. Natural biological boundaries make sense on every level -- if you plant cabbages, you don't want to be surprised by harvesting cacti. If a couple decides to have kids, they expect (and are likely to prefer) human kids, not baby elephants, not even kittens, cute as they may be. Changes and differences within sensible boundaries are part of normal on the Way. Neither excessive erratic changes nor arbitrarily imposed boundaries are. Yes, even erratic changes are part of it, but there's a boundary for the extent and amount of those as well, and if this boundary is violated and erratic unnatural changes become the "new normal," this is a sign of a departure from the Way. Ditto the excessive imposition of unnatural boundaries. In the "old country" they painted the bottom part of the fruit trees with lime -- instead of doing nothing about the bugs or using pesticides. This imposed a sensible nonlethal boundary on many kinds of critters that would otherwise damage the crop and surprise you with a worm inside an apple. Not that it never happened, but normally you wouldn't get a worm in more than one apple out of a dozen, and it was easy to spot -- you just examined the surface for the hole and if you saw one, you cut the apple open and kicked the squatter out.
  15. Letting Go of Good and Bad

    Seems to me there´s a subtlety to the idea of letting go of judgments that I have yet to communicate effectively. I´ll try again. To me, letting go of good and bad does not mean letting go of discernment. It doesn´t mean pretending we´re all the same. It doesn´t mean being soft on crime and doesn´t lead to moral relativism. We can let go of good and bad without turning our brains off. In Breema bodywork there´s a principle called "no extra." Practitioners are supposed to touch their clients (and live their lives) with no extra. What is extra? To my mind extra is the judgment, it´s the machination of our monkey minds, always busy, always adding too. It´s a precious thing to be touched by someone without an agenda, with exquisite neutrality, alive to what is and nothing else.
  16. Intra ocular pressure

    You might want to check a couple of videos by Meir Schneider, especially those where he teaches palming and eye massage. I've met him personally and he is legit.
  17. I will share my own method for Xing-first cultivation. It's about as simple as breathing so I don't see much reason for caution for anyone considering trying it. I call it, "Doing the Microcosmit Orbit", wait for it, "While Standing Up". The two ingredients Fire and Wind as used in the Huimingjing for other purposes are used here. They are Intention and Breath. Start by circulating the MCO, while standing. On inhale, start from the base of the perineum and move your point of intention up the back of your body in a straight line to the top of your head. On exhale, move your point of intention from there in a straight line on the front of your body to the base of your perineum. Note: Make sure the tip of your tongue is at least touching your hard palate at the front of the roof of your mouth if not the entire roof of your mouth because that is where the energy moves to continue the orbit. This is one complete repetition. Continue doing this a few times and you should start to notice your body undulating a little as you go up and as you go down. This is the movement of yuanshen I guess. You have activated it. Then you may repeat a few times for a strong activation, then stop and relax in place. Allow the movements to arise. It will take control. The energy is intelligent. I don't really think there is any danger to yuan shen, yuan qi, or yuan jing being in your body. Wu Liu Pai has a method to close the process but I can't share it haha. And this is not their method. If you've done the MCO at all you've probably stimulated it before and not realized it. I really don't think it's bad. It probably disperses on its own left unchecked. The idea of this method I think is that the energy already knows what to do and it opens channels as needed and then theoretically sets the MCO in motion itself (moves the MCO considering what Taoist Texts said about it although I would like more supporting documentation), creating the alchemical pill and thereby starting the growth of the yang fetus? Although if that's true then after stage 2 the methods are identical. Let me know if you have questions about the method. I just noticed, I think the Ruyao jing zhujie (Mirror for Compounding the Medicine) might actually be about the xing-first method, not sure... That's how you look doing the spontaneous movements Commentary by Wang Jie on part 1: Magpie Bridge = Tongue on palate which connects the Ren Mai and Du Mai, the two channels composing the MCO In Heaven responds to stars = going up the back of the body the energy is inclined upwards Earth tides = going from the top of the head down, in the same way it is naturally drawn down the front like a magnet (this is explained in the commentary)
  18. But you didn't explain what sealed means. Why are you so bent on giving methods hierarchies? The only way it starts on its own would be through the xing-first method I think, whereas the method in this book would be the ming-first method. By mid-level or low-level methods, I don't know what else you could be referring to. And this method is already quite efficient considering you become an Earthly Immortal in 100 days if it's done correctly, if I'm not mistaken. Do you know of any books that discuss the Xing-first method? That would be very interesting. So far the spontaneous movement method is the only insight I have into that. It's actually extremely intuitive to activate... Also I'm not really asking your ego anything. I want textual or other valid support for your claims. That's normal for any serious student of the science of internal alchemy.
  19. Mr

    Welcome @Christiaan, Trunk
  20. stolen by a thief? how's that? how do you even know, you've lost it? (is that cause for the bad attitude against women around some newcomers? is a woman not at the same risk to a thief? why/or why not?)
  21. Flying Phoenix Chi Kung

    This is an addition to the Notice above of my Taoist Elixir Method 31 Meditations workshop coming this April 5 to 7: <•> In addition to the TTP-31 Meditation Series, during the last 4 sessions of the workshop (on Saturday and Sunday), I will also teach the Ten “Shen” Exercises, which is the next level of Tao Tan Pai Nei Gong that follows the TTP-31 Meditations. The Ten Shen Exercises, which I have never taught before in a workshop setting (but only privately over the past 40 years) is a system of 9 standing postures and one sublime, sedentary seated meditation that develops structural sensitivity to ALL forms of energy. That is, the Shen Exercises more deeply integrate mind and body and then the mind itself--so as to perfect intuition as a unified consciousness and thus make you more psychic. No speculation here. I am simply stating the truth about the result of practicing the Shen Exercises. In fact, if one then masters the Tao Tan Pai 5 Animals Kung Fu forms, then the Six Stars, then the Nine Flowers Nei Gong, and then survive the practice of the Five Dragons Nei Gong--one will become very psychic, to the point of literally seeing through one's eyes the karmic past lives of every person that one meets whom one needs to know about. One of the cultivated benefits of practicing the priestly art of Tao Tan Pai. <•> ••> Btw, to better understand what Shen energy is, redouble your practice of the TTP-31 and then read pages 166 to 196 in Manfred Porkert’s classic tome, “Theoretical Foundations of Chinese Medicine: Systems of Correspondence” (1977, MIT Press). [You can find a PDF copy if you subscribe to Library Archives.]: Just from reading the definitions of 30+ forms of Qi and understanding their inter-relationships, especially the relationship between Shen Ch'i and Ching Ch'i, you will have an accurate and precise language and vocabulary to articulate your Qigong experiences and revelations--as opposed to the muddled New Age gobbledy-gook mouthed vomit that you hear on those old cheesy Gaiam "Chi For Beginners" videos, which I hope to God are now off the shelves and gone forever. <•• Workshop details are in my posting on Saturday at 03:17 PM above and in this substack Newsletter issue. https://terencedunn.substack.com/p/taoist-elixir-method-tao-tan-pai See you on Zoom or in person at the TTP-31 Workshop! Sifu Terry www.taichimania.com terencedunn.substack.com
  22. Flying Phoenix Chi Kung

    Hello Learner, Sorry I missed seeing your question back in Oct. of last year when you posted it. Egads! Do you start to feel the energy less and less overtime? After your channels are opened? I will first try to answer these two questions separately: Do you start to feel the energy less and less overtime? No. Because I constantly practice, Tai Chi Chuan, Liu He Ba Fa, and 3 complete Taoist monastic kung fu systems and their integral nei kung subsystems, and am almost always in a meditative state of consciousness, I feel "the energy" within my body and the energies of the Universe more tangibly and profoundly over time--and especially when I practice, depending on how I focus my mind, eyes, breath, and movement or stillness. The whole purpose of training in authentic internal martial arts and their secret Qigong engines is to perfect structural sensitivity by integrating mind and body to pristine all-perceptive state and to polish the doors of perception, as Aldous Huxley had put it his writings. After your channels are opened? I can't really answer your question the way its worded. You need to be more precise. What do you mean by "channels"? Do you mean internal energy channels such (e.g., meridians) or macrocosmic channels? Based on my experiential frame of reference after 51 years of training (since 1973), I would have to answer that if one feels less and less energy overtime after one's internal energy channels are opened, that would be mean that one's mind is purposefully not paying attention to one's energy. And if one's integrated mind-body were naturally attuned to the energy of the cosmos, by definition, having one's macrocosmic channels "opened" would mean that one was in a state of Cosmic Consciousness, what the Buddhists call samadhi, and what Hindus call At-Onement. But if I had to answer your question as it's worded, this would be it: No, quite the opposite: I feel the energy within my body much more deeply and I experience the energies of the environment and of all living creatures more and more and more--and at greater distances--as I continue to expand my practices and grow older chronologically because mind, if properly trained, can bend or fold the space-time continuum. And this is true in context of any of the internal arts that I preserve and teach: Yang style Tai Chi chuan, Liu He Ba Fa, Flying Phoenix Qigong, Advanced FP Qigong, Bok Fu Pai Qigong, 10,000 Buddhas Meditations, Tao Tan Pai Kung Fu, Tao Tan Pai Nei Kung (any of its 6 levels), the vast 8 Sections of Energy Combined Kung Fu system, and the Southern Sil Lum 5 Animals Kung Fu form. Interesting question. Please elaborate further by what you mean by "channels" if you want an answer to that question. Sorry for missing your post from 5 months ago. The reason was because I was house-hunting and moving from Connecticut to my present digs near New Paltz, NY. Regards Sifu Terry https://terencedunn.substack.com/p/taoist-elixir-method-tao-tan-pai www.taichimania.com terencedunn.substack.com
  23. Dragon Qigong Video

    What other qigong styles are you doing that you think will conflict with this?
  24. Hello

    Welcome!
  25. Greetings

    Welcome, your Grace!
  26. Intra ocular pressure

    I forgot to add the following: 1. Nourish the mother of Wood, which is Water. Peak hours are 3pm to 8pm. 2. Nourish the Wood itself. Peak hours midnight to sunrise. So to benefit from that practice during those hours. Wood is intensified during spring season and full moon period.
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