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a prostitute who puts out for every client willing to pay. When margarine was invented, scores of 'nutrition scientists' were tasked with proving it's healthier than butter. For one example, around the 1980s all recipes collections and cookbooks got rewritten with margarine replacing butter in them. The French didn't buy it. But I do remember cooking with it in my younger years when I didn't know better. Live and learn. I believe nutrition as a science hardly exists. For starters it's too complex and mysterious -- the most magical transformation in existence, turning assorted not-you things into you, not-me into me... sheer magic. And to make matters worse, it pretends people didn't eat for a million years before sedentary agriculture, let alone before "nutritional science" -- and step very carefully around facts. Trying not to stumble and fall into, e.g., those fire pits that Native American tribes used for 25,000 to 40,000 years in one place (tribes coming and going, the fire pit being used continuously). They roasted their bison and buffalo whole in those. No wonder nutritional scientists of today give it the widest berth -- imagine falling into something like this and all your margarine and cereals stuffed in your learned pockets going up in smoke in an instant...

The decision of Hexagram 1: 元亨利贞 (yuán hēng lì zhēn). This is a highly mysterious phrase, appearing often throughout the Yijing. 元 (yuán) - the early meaning was that of a head. 亨 (hēng) - prosperity, success? 利 (lì) - Shaughnessy tells us it originally represented a sharp knife harvesting grain. Later it took on the meaning of 'sharp' as in 'intelligent'. 贞 (zhēn) - loyalty?

It is sort of a weird thing. I think for me, spirituality may be a thing that tends to lead to loneliness, and also overcomes it. But this may be specific to my path and my body-mind. It seems there are fewer people interested in spiritual practice, at least the kind here you practice and "see it for yourself." In my experience, practice tends to be alienating since you stop caring as much about things people are into (i.e. the world), and you care more about things people aren't into (spiritual practice). Also, you begin to operate differently than other people. It can be harder to relate, especially as the years pass by. But there is also a sense of opening and compassion that arises. I'm not sure if this is specific to certain paths. In this sense, there is more of a connection. When you talk to someone, you're not just holding your breath until you can make a point. You can let them be who they are. You may also feel more connected with other things, like the earth, the sky, animals, the lineage, etc. The whole world is alive in a way it wasn't before. For a long time, I kept looking for a live, in person sangha. One of my teachers told me there aren't any for my school the way there are for others, and that it is better to learn to practice intensively on one's own. It is harder, but it does tend to make it stronger and less dependent on externals.

You need to graciously love yourself off.

I heard an interesting podcast with Iain McGilchrist a couple of months ago. Amongst many other things he observed that biological, and particularly medical, sciences were still stuck in a particular way of thinking and modelling that likened biological processes/interactions to machines. A point he made was that there has never been a machine on this planet that wasn't built by ourselves ('Ancient Aliens' aside) - modelling biology as machinery is reductive and a way for humans to start to grasp the complexity of the situation rather than saying anything about the actual nature of the organisms in question. He also pointed out that physics has understood the equivalence of energy and matter for over a century and none (very little?) of that thinking has crossed over into mainstream bioscience yet. I work with scientists all the time. They're people just like all of us, making their way in the world. A lot of them are lovely, some less so. They all have bills to pay and many have families to feed. I'm fortunate to be in an academic environment. Once commercial pressures get applied people might behave differently. I'm not sure that's unique to scientists though.

A couple of days ago it was 39 deg C . Today has a predicted maximum of 33 but with a sheep / grazier alert . Grazier alerts are usually cold weather , so I checked ; tomorrow's maximum temp is predicted to be 17 deg C . And just as well we have AI auto weather computer phone prediction and warnings (or whatever they are ) a 'fire weather ' alert has been sent out ; Severity level .... significant threats to life and property. Urgency ..... 'the urgency of this alert is unknown . Affected area .... ' North coast ' . Great ! A significant threat to life but we dont know how urgent that is but somewhere up north near the coast . ( like those roadside signs that showed bushfire danger and warnings in an area . Some one ( usually from the bush fire brigade ) would unlock the sign and move the arrow around to the relevant warning level then lock it again . if it was up high , you knew you were in trouble . Now they have replaced them with high tech ' computery ' stuff . Half the time the signs are out or say ' Check on line at ....... ' or they work but the lowest level is high and the sign shows extreme on days when nothing happens - so people have got complacent about them ; '' Extreme danger ! '' .... nah , it always says that . Anyway ... danger ! Either from your lambs freezing ... or BBQing and a week of solid rain ... with possible bushfires .

Hi everyone, I wanted to share something that happened very naturally, and I’d appreciate hearing from those who have experienced something similar through their own cultivation. After a simple meditation where I just rested my attention in the heart — not visualizing, not guiding the breath — I fell asleep. In the middle of the night, I woke up because I felt a deep warmth radiating from my heart area. It was steady, peaceful, and so warm it felt like a small heater inside my chest. The feeling was filled with quiet love — not emotional or romantic, but very still and complete. It wasn’t something I tried to create. It just appeared by itself. I’m curious how other practitioners understand or relate to this kind of spontaneous heart warmth or energy — especially those who cultivate through stillness (neigong, qigong, or inner alchemy). I’m not looking for theories or chakra explanations — more interested in direct, lived experience: Have you felt warmth or radiance in the heart appear by itself? How did you relate to it in your practice? Did it deepen or change with time? Thank you for reading 🙏

Sri Matre Namaha and Namo Amitabha Buddhaya, Hello everyone, Just passing through. I was informed of a few deaths and saw that I was mentioned a number of times since my departure for a couple years. I was reminded of my mortality many times in my pilgrimage the last year, and immediately after while repairing relationships since then after some shifts. Here I am sharing a few insights I wanted to share that re-contextualizes past conflicts here and has vastly improved my life. 1. I was diagnosed last year shortly after turning 41 that I have Autism and ADHD--otherwise known as AuDHD. This means I am tone deaf and sound a lot angrier or more argumentative than I need to be without realizing how it would be perceived by others. My info dumping is a feature of neurodivergence, and this can be seen as being disingenuous by others, even if I and many people like me believe that clarity will help free people from wrongful assumptions and mischaracterizing my intentions. My hyperreactivity also comes from rejection sensitivity dysphoria, or RSD, a feature of ADHD. Many times I would perceive some remarks from people as a personal attack and overreact. It is better to assume good intentions and take the loss before getting into an argument since nobody wins. 2. Cultivation absolutely affects my condition for better or for worse. The right cultivation with qi, diet, and spiritual balance (separate from energy work) can moderate the physiological and neurological differences in my body. The wrong cultivation can make them worse, especially when bringing excess energy to my head. It is not my business if people want to do practices that can harm them, as they are not my students and I am not an expert, I am just a specialist at best. I don't get paid to argue and I don't teach for free. 3. Anyone and everyone can eventually be better when we yield that responsibility back to them and God/Dao/the Universe I lost many friends, including TDB member Nature Beeing or Beeing Nature, also known as Natursein on YouTube, who passed several months ago of Liver Cirrhosis around April or May as his partner informed me via WhatsApp. Some of those relationships were healed just before these people died, and some never got that resolution. As I can't wait for others to come around, it is on me to work on myself and be better instead of waiting for them to come around as a prerequisite to improving myself or reconciling. 4. Neurodivergence does make me more sensitive to energy and spirits Before my diagnosis, I noticed things in nature that I didn’t realize others couldn’t perceive. After my diagnosis, my therapist told me it’s common for us to see things and because I see better when relaxed and peaceful while when stressed I don’t perceive anything easily, I realized neurodivergence is a unique operating system, As such, I read oracles better, can notice energy quickly, and as there are several levels of third eye opening, I can sense the other side a bit better, but still need more refinement since it could be a lot more given the new responsibilities given to me by new teachers whom I have met. Anyway, that's all I wanted to say. I will stay around for a week or so to answer any questions if people had any related to my practices or me. Otherwise, you can visit my new site at innerexpeditions.squarespace.com. Thank you everyone. Sri Matre Namaha and Namo Amitabha Buddhaya.

I don't sit lotus, bad enough for me getting up from a sloppy half-lotus! Thanks for asking, about my point. The point is that it is possible to act without will, without willing action to take place. That is the action described as "wu wei", so far as I understand it. As Zen teacher Kobun Chino Otogawa said: It’s impossible to teach the meaning of sitting. You won’t believe it. Not because I say something wrong, but until you experience it and confirm it by yourself, you cannot believe it. (“Embracing Mind”, edited by Cosgrove & Hall, p 48) From Wikipedia: Wu wei (traditional Chinese: 無為; simplified Chinese: 无为; pinyin: wúwéi; Jyutping: mou4-wai4) is an ancient Chinese concept that literally means "actionlessness" or "motionlessness". The term is interpreted and translated in various ways as "actionlessness", "non-action", "inaction," "without action" or "effortless action", etc. Wu wei is effortless by virtue of it being reflex or automatic activity, even though the individual is fully conscious of it taking place.

What was your point? What do you want to say? "Zazen gets up and walks around?" I don't get it. Do you actually know what Zazen is all about? I understand that Zazen is a sitting position in three lotus styles. Zazen is not a thing that walks around. However, after the practice and getting up from the lotus position, it is hard to walk for awhile until the legs are returned to the normal walking condition.

Here's an interesting article below with a variety of interpretations depending on how you break it up. There are moral, philosophical, divinatory, etc. meanings. In the Taoist I Ching (a commentary by Liu Yiming, trans Cleary)), it is said to be a complete cycle of creation, like the four seasons or the four parts of internal cultivation. https://www.arcjournals.org/pdfs/ijhsse/v9-i11/1.pdf

I think it's one of the least mysterious statements in the I Ching. A favorable beginning (yuan), penetrating progress (heng), beneficial appropriateness (li), and steadfast correctness (zhen) -- throughout the I Ching Yuanheng Lizhen stands for the "green light" in response to your divination. A "yes," rather than what the outcome of other inquiries may be -- "maybe," "possible but not likely," "don't go there," "a hard no."

hmm, then again thoughts can be like a viscous circle if one can never take a rest from them...we are not thoughts we are really more the energy flowing through thought forms that come and go...granted it is great to have things/thoughts controlled/organized as much as possible.

They are few and far between, but a few nutrition scientists are conducting studies that confirm my beliefs about what is good to eat. These folks are OK! It´s the other ones I can´t take.

Hello, I'm interested in Daoism and traditional chinese culture. I would be happy to discuss these topics with you all! I don't have any experience with meditation or actual practical daoist spiritual training. I was wondering when will I be able to view the personal practice discussions of others? When I try to access anyone's personal practice diary, it says I don't have permission to view this content? Thanks for reading

That's imo a big advantage if you want to translate the DDJ.

Welcome! Only members can view PPDs. Should be available now.

Welcome to the forum. You might find the old posts of @Taoist Texts of interest.

Hello! I'm 45 year old, male, and I have interest in different Asian arts - especially Chinese Qigong and Nei Gong. I have trained Tai Chi, some forms of Qigong, as well a bit of Xing Yi Quan, Yi Quan, Bagua Zhang. Some Yoga in the past. I do acupuncture, I have knowledge of of traditional Chinese herbal medicine, as well as Ayurveda and Tibetan medicine. I'm deeply interested in deciphering Taoist knowledge contained in old books like Wuzhen Pian and Cantong Qi. I hope somebody on the forum could help me with that.

Welcome!

Some people find it impossible to learn to graciously accept they got it wrong.

I share it on my site, primarily. Bits and pieces here and there, either of bodhisattvahs or celestial beings. Other times I make non-linear art that comes from feelings when connected to the Akashic or after long sessions of sadhana and neigong. In future posts I will share some spirits I have seen when mountaineering...in fact, this is a draft of what I am writing now for my next post on the site.

Thoughts are your friends. They help you recognise, organise and understand both your internal world and the external world. Without them you would be lost. Thoughts are your ally, your companion, your way to wisdom. If your thoughts are conflicted, chaotic, relentless, annoying, repetitive, banal, seemingly pointless. Then it you that is imbalanced, conflicted, stupid or mixed up. Find stillness and balance and your thoughts will be healed. But do not criticise them or disown them because they are your friends. Oh but, you say, reality is non-conceptual. True. Absolute reality is non-conceptual in that it cannot be grasped through concepts. But then again is there anything that is not the Absolute? If there is then it is not the real Absolute. The Absolute is the ultimate subject of your thoughts, if those thoughts are taken to their ultimate conclusion. To define the subject we use the often misunderstood formula: S = S + P(n) where S is the subject and P is the predicate of the subject (to the nth term). Or in other words the Absolute = the Absolute plus everything. Chew on that!

Will it ever become trendy to forget about conquering the world. And focus on conquering thyself, instead.

Thank you Steve, and condolences for your recent loss as well. Thank you for your vote of confidence. As I am a professional and have changed a bit the last couple years, I would rather not get into offering my opinion on forums as much as possible unless asked because it has led to too many arguments, misunderstandings, and if not my own prior volatility, other people reading it as hostility despite my intentions to be restrained due to my tone being too robotic or my attempts at sarcasm seeming rude. People who do want my opinion can ask me or just go to my page linked above. Such is a reminder that we are not unnoticed especially in our absence! Hello, old friend! I sent an email to you earlier this year and am glad I got to hear from you during this brief visit. Glad your health is better too.

An excellent question, says grumpy old me. Here’s me: https://www.thedaobums.com/topic/55030-stranger-things/?do=findComment&comment=1066476 Seriously, it depends on your belief system, e.g. Soto Zen meditation. RC prayer.

(Haven't read the linlk) it is my experience that to be a mystic means to be on my own with my God (and to be demonised by the 'religious').

Watch out for nutrition science: ... The stand out example for me is nutrition science. A lot of the big, obvious effects have been picked through and now so much of it is simmering in noise with strong incentives to find various different things by getting significance. Alcohol/chocolate/coffee does, doesn’t, does, doesn’t, does, doesn’t cause increased mortality. I don’t know how we could expect that discipline to turn around. There is good work being done there here and there, but so much of it is GIGO. I have a paper in the works trying to sort out how we can know if a field is producing knowledge or just chasing ghosts . . . (Joe Bak-Coleman, collective behavior scientist at the University of Washington) ... Regarding nutrition science: yeah, this is another field where there’s endless crap being hyped. Also related areas in health science such as that stupid cold-shower study or all the crappy sleep research. I don’t have any sense of an escape route for all this. On one hand, nutrition, health behavior, exercise, sleep, etc., are hugely important and worth scientific study. On the other hand, these fields are so rotten, with really incompetent or unethical people deeply embedded within the system of academic publication and news media promotion, that sometimes it just seems entirely hopeless. (blog "Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science", today's entry by Andrew Gelman, professor of statistics and political science at Columbia University)

If there is proper diagnosis and early intervention with the right treatment plan, neurodivergence can be manageable and we can be easy-going. As I grew up in an abusive family and developed many traumas, my neurodivergence gives deeper wounding to an already sensitive nervous system that registers sound, light, and touch more intensely than neurotypical people. Thus, it makes me more on edge and combative due to one trauma of being unworthy and often taken advantage of, by both teachers who financially manipulated me and students who devalued me. I don’t lament my suffering and struggle now, as I see my suffering as a gift and this body as an even greater gift to burn off karma and recognize many people do not have awareness, support, resources, teachers, or drive to better themselves. So it makes me more patient and accepting of some of the posts that some have made that used to irritate me for years here. Let people go where they want and I will remain in my own lane. I will try to disengage if anyone does try to provoke me during this brief stopover, and if moderation doesn’t seem proportionate to what I hypothetically may encounter, I will just bite my tongue and return to creating content for my site and podcast, along with raising capital from investors for appropriate equipment.

Don’t ever think that you can sit zazen! That’s a big mistake! Zazen sits zazen! (Shunryu Suzuki, quoted by Blanche Hartman in the "Lou and Blanche Hartman" interview by David Chadwick, on cuke.com) You know, sometimes zazen gets up and walks around. (Kobun Chino Otogawa, at the close of of a lecture at the S. F. Zen Center, in the 1980's) They do nothing and yet there's nothing left undone. (translation of 無 為 而 無 不 為 [wu2 wei2 er2 wu2 bu4 wei2], by Cobie [DDJ ch. 48])