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I understand your concern, I share it too. But I've never once found that arguing with people who have different political views than me has convinced them they are wrong. There's a thing called cognitive dissonance - people find ways to accommodate facts that sit contrary to their own views, to the point it resembles mental gymnastics. That's because there's a whole lot of ego and self validation bound up in being right, or winning an argument. Go vote or protest. Speak out and campaign for what you believe in. But - in my experience at least - it doesn't do anyone any good arguing online.

Honestly, it seems that everywhere you go, people are arguing bitterly against each other over politics. Sometimes I feel like social media algorithms have radicalised people on both ends of the political spectrum. Because social division drives 'engagement' - which is where the social media companies get revenue. Either way, it's nice to have a place where people aren't constantly kicking the shit out of each other. I was never part of current events section of the forum.

About a decade ago, I used Eric Isen to psychically 'test' the effect of various qigong forms on me over the course of a couple of years. I ended up spending several thousand dollars. I became slightly suspicious, so I asked him to test a fictitious system. To make it interesting, I made it an anagram of the words 'Eric the Liar'. He gave me a glowing recommendation for this system. I paid him, thanked him and never contacted him again.

Some of you may decide otherwise, but we are in fact STILL the same people who used to have more time to chat with you before we took on this thankless and unpaid job out of love for the board and your company. We were, and are, STILL your friends.

Easy with the half-cocked accusations @Nungali I'm not a mod, did nothing but post my reply here, and I certainly did not report any of his posts. I like old3bob, regardless of our differences, and posted what I did in support of him, and the rest of us.

For what it's worth, I feel a lot of empathy for what people are going through right now regarding current events and politics. I am feeling a lot of negative emotions on a daily basis and do my best to bring it into my spiritual practice. We are living through unprecedented times and events and I wish there was a way we could offer each other more support here. Debating current and events and politics has proven not to work out well here, but perhaps there's a way we could discuss the impact they are having on us and support each other in dealing with them as effectively as possible. To some degree, I think this thread is having somewhat of a positive effect and I appreciate everyone who added their comments and the mods keeping it open so far.

i've checked several times this morning. All of them slow in every action. Additionally got a bad gateway error at one point totally bombed. we are in conversations with the powers that be, to fix this thing again.

“In Silence, God ceases to be an object and becomes an experience.” Thomas Merton

And an extreme version:

Just as Jesus was not a Christian, the Buddha was not a Buddhist. The Buddha was one amongst countless beings that have become realized , dropped their fetters, and seen through their mistaken belief systems. Is Zen Buddhism? I'm not sure why that would matter. It IS a vehicle for realization, but it is a VERY direct one that will not suit all students. Zen DOES throw you into the "deep end", but, really, there IS no deep end. Realization is actually a very simple affair - in one moment you believe that a particular set of bodily sensations represent some kind of reality as a separate person, and then, miraculously, in the next moment you don't. In this respect Zen is far simpler than most vehicles... that simplicity isn't a bug, it is a feature. Nothing is missing in Zen (though there could be more emphasis on compassion training, IMHO), it just may not be meant for you. If one is drawn to follow a particular set of teachings they should, absolutely. Does this mean that there is something wrong with those other paths? No, not really. Having no tradition or path at all awakens "beings" all the time.

FWIW: If you're going to be getting in-person classes in Yang, I'd stick with that for a while before branching out into Chen. I'd focus on the basics (which are shared in all styles) -- if you learn alignments/centeredness, weight transfer, rooting/stable connection to the ground, silk reeling, yao/kua engagement, sung, yi (intent) and eventually some qi management, you'll be ready for Chen and able to compare which works better for you personally. But if you choose to give it a try from a video (which I usually don't find useful for beginners... but who am I to blow against the wind), my advice No.1 is, make sure you know exactly what you're doing with your knees before you do!

Tomorrow, June 20th, will be the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere, and the winter solstice for our southern friends. I always think of these yearly turning points as potent times for spiritual practice and reflection. Whether you´re experiencing an apex moment of light or darkness, I hope the day brings you joy.

Awful time of the year for southerners, winter, when nothing moves. Can't wait for it to the over, tbh. And certainly not a potent time to Fire people. Happy SS to you

daily crocheting clouds knit together, above dark waters, below

This forum (and others online) sometimes makes me incredibly sad. This is a forum of dedicated spiritual practitioners and yet we cannot get along or act like adults in the most simplistic sense: i.e., refrain from insults, refrain from trolling others, try not to hurt people, or follow a few simple rules. Creating a post takes time and can be edited or removed. Everything here is entirely intentional. So if this is the best we can do, well, no wonder the world is in the shape it's in.

Here, as I see it, is the trouble with political talk on the board. Most of us come to this forum wanting and expecting a friendly and supportive atmosphere. We´d like to be able to learn from others and share what we know in an environment where we feel respected and valued. Mostly, political discussion isn´t like this. Many people feel contempt for those who disagree with them politically. This can lead to name calling (officially against the rules), but even when Bums manage to avoid bumping up against forum policy there´s considerable disharmony and bad vibes. The bad vibes tend to leach into the board in general and spoil the experience for many. As a recipient and occasional purveyor (apologies!) of bad political vibes, I know of what I speak.

I also think no politics in this site is a reasonable approach. The only problem is the DDJ and Yellow Emperor teachings are directly concerning governance or politics; or using politics as metaphor.

wrists, very empty the crack between bones so dark that it always shines.

Interesting bilingual play of words for me. Lei is, incidentally, the Russian for "pour" in the imperative mood. Leika -- a watering can, and also the diminutive of Leia. Lei-ka -- same as lei but the imperative mood is expressed more informally.

Which way? Which way now? Why not traipse through the garden, so lovely this year?

All wisps waft away Like wishes waved by the wind Which way? Which way now?

The Patience of Ordinary Things by Pat Schneider It is a kind of love, is it not? How the cup holds the tea, How the chair stands sturdy and foursquare, How the floor receives the bottoms of shoes Or toes. How soles of feet know Where they're supposed to be. I've been thinking about the patience Of ordinary things, how clothes Wait respectfully in closets And soap dries quietly in the dish, And towels drink the wet From the skin of the back. And the lovely repetition of stairs. And what is more generous than a window?

Ah, and here it is — the inevitable derail into religious fluff. We were talking about a YouTube channel. A guy stopped uploading. Somehow that turned into Bible verses, Satan, and vague doomsday prophecies about “truth” and “science” — as if quoting scripture automatically elevates your opinion into objective reality. Let’s be real: conflating Jesus with “science and truth” is laughable. Science doesn’t require belief. It’s falsifiable, testable, and self-correcting. Religion is none of those things. So trying to frame it as if turning away from your particular belief system is turning away from “truth” is intellectually dishonest. This kind of post always reeks of projection. It’s never about truth. It’s about feeling superior — wrapping emotional bias in spiritual language and hoping no one calls it out. Newsflash: people can disagree with your worldview and not be “of Satan.” Not everyone who's tired of fairy tales is “running from truth.” Some of us just grew up. Let’s stay on topic. Damo didn’t get silenced. He just stopped uploading. No grand conspiracy. No cosmic battle between light and dark. Just a dude not posting videos.

Pragmatically speaking, the level of evil in the world today (and since time immemorial) is closely tied to the amount of unconscious fear and unchecked desire people are carrying. At its root, it’s fear of suffering—not death, but suffering in all its forms. The more unconsciously someone fears suffering, the more likely they are to engage in evil actions: exploitation, theft, abuse, manipulation, etc. And the flip side is also true—the more someone is consumed by desire, the more likely they are to harm others in pursuit of relief, control, or gratification. But underneath both fear and desire lies something even deeper: the illusion of separation. The belief that we are isolated, disconnected beings trying to survive alone in a hostile world. Once that illusion takes hold, self-preservation becomes the highest priority—regardless of who gets hurt. Layer on top of that a lack of self-awareness (ignorance), and you've got the perfect conditions for evil to flourish: people blindly reacting to internal chaos, with no understanding of the root causes driving them. Even in extreme cases—rape, torture, senseless violence—the perpetrator is often trying to escape some kind of internal torment. They’re not acting from pure malice but from a twisted attempt to feel power, pleasure, or release from their own existential pain. That doesn’t excuse it—but it helps explain it. As for whether evil has increased, who knows. The world population is at a record high, so the raw number of evil acts may have gone up, but proportionally, it may have actually dropped. Either way, the level of evil we experience is a direct reflection of how much fear, desire, and unconscious separation is driving human behavior. The less those forces control us, the more harmony naturally emerges.

Sorry--I thought you said, "face plant"!

Everywhere he looked, non-dual people living in a non-binary reality. Liminal Luke didn´t know whether to wave a rainbow flag or schedule an emergency appointment with his shrink; "oh to hell with it," he muttered as he sliced himself another slice of berry pie and put on The Bachelor. Ahh...now there was something he understood.

The Flash Meditations on Vol. 5 work better if one has done all the FP Standing Meds. in Volumes 1, 3, and 4 first...and has the Volume 4 Long Form memorized and feeling its fine benefits. I like to do them in the evenings very slowly--the first 4 meditations on Vol.7. Then I do one or two of seated MSW Mediations on Volume 2 or 7 before going to sleep (--except of course, you NEVER want to do the last med. on Vol.2 (90 80 50 20) at night--if you any intention to sleep!) I remember that around Year 2 of this thread, someone posted that the Volume 5 meditations were like "bon bons". They may seem like that to the uninitiated trying them for the first time without having mastered the preceding standing FP Meditations. But if one has steadily worked through Volumes 1, 3, 4 and established all of the Meditations, when you get to Volume 5 meditations, you will FEEL their effects like nuclear longevity pills (tan). GM Doo Wai taught the " Fei Feng San Gung" ("Flying Phoenix Spiritual Power/Cultivation" ) system to me and my L.A. cohort (from 1991 to 1998) in exactly the order as they are presented in the DVD series. In fact, the last meditation on Vol.5 with (80 70 50 40 30) is NOT an FP Qigong exercise--but a primer meditation for Bat Din Gum (8 Sections of Energy Combined, a legendary martial Qigong system that GM Doo Wai said repeatedly was "more rare than the Do Do Bird"), Out of respect and in reverence to his teachings, I placed that BDG meditation at the end of Vol.5 because that's when he taught it to me and to only two others in the learning circle. All that is to say that the none of the five meditations on Vol. 5 are "bon bons"! LOL. Enjoy your practice and stick with it. Sifu Terry ttps://www.taichimania.com/chikung_catalog.html terencedunn.substack.com

Speaking of medical Latin. I remember looking for a job, very many moons ago, and sending a resume to a place that was looking for someone with my background -- technical writing -- to create names for new pharma drugs. They specified that they needed "a genius." I was a bit upset that they didn't invite me for an interview. How did they know I didn't qualify?.. Well, today I finally understood. Remember Astra Zeneca, a one product wonder company? Try to go to Google Translate and translate from Latin to any language this spelling -- a stra ze neca. Genius!

My teacher used to torture me (in private lessons) by making me slow down the first main Chen form (laojia yilu) which at normal practice pace takes about 15-17 minutes to complete down to 45 minutes. Boy is it hard! Also another form of torture -- "square taiji" practice, where instead of flowing from one move into the next you have to stop and hold every single position after every single move "long enough to take a picture." Once you're frozen like that, anything you're doing wrong will become apparent and fixable. At a faster pace you might never find out, never notice, just rush through the mistake or difficulty instead of "spell-checking" and correcting. This, by the way, is the reason the second main Chen form (laojia erlu aka Paochui aka Cannon Fist), which is indeed physically impossible to slow down in many places, is strongly discouraged by real masters from learning before you have the first one down pat. Otherwise it will be a fully external athletic performance, with whatever disadvantages come with any sports territory and without the advantages of actually doing taiji.

Great lessons. I've learned from cats all my life, and consider my grandmother's cat, who was 5 years older than me, my first taoist teacher. Alas, I didn't absorb all of her lessons, only some. Here's what they were: 1. A balance of freedom and loyalty is the foundation of all meaningful relationships. If either component is missing, the relationship is shallow and strained and ultimately means nothing to you. 2. Morning beauty routine should be brief but consistent. 3. Don't beg, don't steal, don't go without -- let your eyes tell them what you need. 4. Tomcats come when you call. 5. Kittens are to be taken care of with utmost dedication. 6. Enemies are forever. If you hate someone's guts, they did something to deserve it. Neither seek nor avoid a confrontation -- if they cross your path, fight, if they don't, forget they exist. 7. Love is forever. If you love someone, they don't have to do anything to "deserve" it and can't do anything to lose it. (If they could you would know better than to love them to begin with.) 8. If it's careless enough to be within reach of your pounce, it's food.

my highlighting Ah to be young and to still think everyone else is to blame and not know as yet that’s a complete dead end. Happy days.

Too much Qi lingering in the head Too much thinking Liver Yang rising Heat Dampness/imbalance If you have (like most people do) any of the above or all of them (very common) anything you mentioned is going to cause you what is called kundalini syndrome, seeing ghosts, communicating with spirits and bizarre stuff which fall under the umbrella of the "ungrounded syndrome." To prevent that, do the following: 1. Leg work. Foundation exercises like low basin walking, kung fu leg conditioning work (five stances), Asian squat, closed legs squat. 2. Walking meditation with bare feet for many hours a day when seated meditation practice is heavily emphasised. 3. Hiking for many hours in the natural environment. If the practitioner suffers from being very ungrounded stop any seated meditation and work heavily on the above until the problem is corrected. This could mean months or even years depending on the length of the ungrounded state; eg. University student, academic, white-collar professional, etc. People born in Fire years or under a Fire sign like the Horse are particularly most at risk.

It means that to post on the board - his posts require a mod to approve them. He should be able to get PMs though and reply as normal.

These are fine, it’s normal to heat up from practice and have spontaneous movements This should be ok, keep practicing and just keep an eye on it. No, do 3 as instructed You can do them if you like, it won’t be bad. Just make sure you rub LDT both clockwise AND anticlockwise Probably just clearing something out. To be safe, when you practice this one keep your mind focused on LDT just to stop qi from rising.

The frontpages here are shocking to me, seems to me it's now all about the threat of war and the need to increase spending on arms. To be honest I am not coping well with it, so I have decided to limit the attention I give it.

AI (Artifical Intelligence) is not a credible or reliable source of information. It not only has (a) built-in inaccuracy, but (b) the inaccuracy increases and grows and gets worse over time. Inaccuracies and mistakes and errors not only appear, they propagate and spread and multiply over time. When information is not available, AI invents false answers and fabricates data and sources and information including URL fabrication. For instnace, research at Columbia University shows AI cites incorrect sources 60% of the time. (Researchers ran 1,600 inquiries across 8 different platforms. ) The premium paid versons delivered incorrect information more often then their free counterparts. AI can not interpret or distinguish between what is correct or incorrect information "As of 2023, a typical AI model isn't assessing whether the information it provides is correct. Its goal when it receives a prompt is to generate what it thinks is the most likely string of words to answer that prompt. Sometimes this results in a correct answer, but sometimes it doesn’t – and the AI cannot interpret or distinguish between the two. It’s up to you to make the distinction. AI can be wrong in multiple ways: It can give the wrong answer It can omit information by mistake It can make up completely fake people, events, and articles It can mix truth and fiction AI is "just mimicking reasoning, rather than actually performing that reasoning.” Reliability is just not there with AI. In March an AI tool correctly identified prime numbers from a list 96.7% of the time. Three months later in June of the same year, the same AI platform, the same task, the same list, but only 2.7% were correctly identified. AI is simply not reliable. source article 2025 "AI search engines cite incorrect news sources at an alarming 60% rate" article 2023, University of Maryland Research Guide, "What does AI Get Wrong" article 2023, Scientific American, "Yes AI Models Can Get Worse Over Time"

Leia's sweet revenge baking chocolate chip cookies and marzipan scones

I care for others, I don't care for still others -- like the falling rain.

so lovely this year draped in your mother’s curtains Luke is now Leia.

In Praise of Craziness, of a Certain Kind by Mary Oliver On cold evenings my grandmother, with ownership of half her mind- the other half having flown back to Bohemia- spread newspapers over the porch floor so, she said, the garden ants could crawl beneath, as under a blanket, and keep warm, and what shall I wish for, for myself, but, being so struck by the lightning of years, to be like her with what is left, that loving.

Y'know, not that I have any real authority, but since my OP authority is being invoked, I'm gonna come out of the woodwork here and decree that AI slop is verboten.

Beautiful. In Zen such experiences are called "makyo". Having crazy experiences is part of the path, and a fascinating one. Having them means that you have begun, and are moving forward toward understanding, but not much else generally. I would call most of these sorts of events "experiences". Experiences, like all other relative phenomena are impermanent. How do you know what is important or not? Ask yourself, has it created a shift toward something permanent? Is it something I can see is true in this moment, and in ALL moments? Real insight permanently and dramatically alters your understanding and world view. THESE sorts of experiences are the ones to ask about.

Most of us walking the world identify our "self" as a narrow selection of all of the the perceptions and phenomena in the world. So, this itching sensation is on my "foot", when I look in the world, what I see is from MY perspective, but it can be seen, even logically, that these are arbitrary. When you drive the car, is the CAR also "I"? What about when you are in dreamless sleep... when does the sense of "I" go? When one "awakens" they realize that they have been living in a created story about the nature of the reality they live in. For the most part this doesn't change the behavior of our experience of the world, just how it is understood. If someone says, "Hi John" you smile and greet them. If someone asks which kind of ice cream you prefer, you respond. The difference is that you now realize that it isn't the imagined separate entity that responds, it is EVERYTHING... or, to look at it another way no-thing. The cause of your response is the entire perceivable fabric of reality. For it to be anything truly separate from that would be impossible. To insist that people shift into addressing you in some arcane way is disingenuous and lacks compassion. Some do it, but eventually grow out of it.

It seems to me that all substance on every plane is part of a much greater cosmic entity. If so, every body is karmic. This includes the rocks and trees and clouds I was once given a blue crystalline rock. It looked very pretty but my house spirit objected to it - because of the dark spirit flowing through it. So I was going to throw it in the creek over the back fence but the creek elemental did not want it. I walked down the road past some vacant treed lots, and none wanted it. Eventually I went some distance down stream on the creek and there was a lagoon that was indifferent so I threw the stone in, noting the place in case I had to move it again. It seems that all substance is connected to cosmic purpose

I can provide the answer to your problem straight away: Never learn internal practices from a book/DVD/video/online chat/etc. unless you are an advanced practitioner and keen to learn sometime new to add some variety to the existing solid foundation built upon many years of disciplined and daily practice. You'll likely cause yourself harm if you don't otherwise.

I specified that it's about a pine tree brought indoors as a Christmas tree, not a live pine tree in the forest. I love the smell in nature too -- in fact the last thing that still remains of my once profound love of California is the smell of Torrey pines and cedars mixed with the smell of sage and the ocean on a hot summer day. When coming back from somewhere else I used to smell it even just stepping out of the door at the airport, despite many miles of highway fumes in between. BUT a pine tree that's been cut god knows how long ahead of the holidays and brought indoors is a different story. All those terpenes that give it the unique piney smell are volatile -- and largely fizzle out and disappear in transition. Fir trees, on the other hand... I don't know, they are stronger or maybe they were fresher back when I had access to them for the holiday season. That was the New Year's smell (that's what we celebrated) -- fir tree smell mixed with the smell of mandarins hung on it for edible decorations and the smell of fresh snow that intermixed with it every time someone opened the door.

People are complex and multilayered. Many of us are very good at some things, abysmal at others -- I know I am. So a lapse in one dimension doesn´t imply universal lapses in all dimensions. Case in point: teachers. How many of us have had or known teachers, even spiritual teachers, who are very good at what they teach but fall short in some areas? Tai chi teachers who are also obese. Meditation instructors who smoke cigarettes or watch porn. Demanding all around perfection is a trap.

More snake news . I was working yesterday cleaning out the shed and throwing stuff out on the driveway. Occasionally some big huntsman spiders would run out of it . One of the locals , a kookaburra, had himself perched on a nearby branch and was swooping down to get them . One time I nearly tripped over him , I walked out and he swooped by low, his wings brushing my shins This is rather common , they get attracted by digging, work or anything that disturbs the ground . ( Local tells me he was digging a hole , kookaburra kept jumping in for worms and getting in the way , he wouldn't get out at one stage ; " I had to get the shovel under him and lift him out ! " ) Another time I wrote here about one swooping me and landing near my feet and pinning a black snake to the ground that was coming towards me that I had not seen . Good boy ! Anyway, I went out and lifted up a sheet of plastic weed suppressant and there was a long thin snake under it . Probably a green tree snake ? . Kooka was on the roof , so I called him and he looked , I had a long stick and put it next to the snakes body and flicked it onto the drive . He immediately went for it . I have seen this a few times , snakes are part of their common food ; they usually dive in and with their big beak strike it behind the head and start smashing the head into the ground and thrashing it about , sometimes rather big snakes too . Not this time , I never seen this before . Snake put up a ferocious fight , kooka couldn't seem to control it , at one stage they where rolling around on the ground, kooka on its back . I thought I saw the snake strike him . That was enough , he backed off. Snake was there glaring at kooka on one side and me on the other . Me ; "Okay you win . " I let snake get back under weed mat . Kooka looked a bit stunned and flew up onto a branch . I kept my eye on him for a while , he seemed okay . Never seen a kookaburra snake fight like that before . They usually don't loose ( this one is a red belly black snake - aggressive and highly venomous ) ;

Quotes aside, all kinds of "the tao of..." thingies constitute yet another cultural appropriation (much as I dislike the glaring overuse of the concept in vogue of late, it does occasionally hit the right target), westernization, and oversimplification of the deepest insight of another civilization. Tons of books with this cute title -- The Tao of Pooh, the Tao of Meow, etc. -- created an illusion that such a thing as the tao of something not only exists but is approachable by the same cute methods as those outlined in self-help books or "get rich fast" investment plans. A fascination with sand you describe -- you can call it contemplation, introspection, study, observation... all fascinating to be sure, but none amount to "the tao of sand." Tao is not a property of sand. Rather, sand is one of the manifestations of tao, out of many. As for the sword, a sword practice is one inroad into "attaining" tao -- out of many -- and it can't be attained via contemplation, only through practice itself, but even at the highest level you would call what you attain "the gong of sword" first, mastery through dedicated practice -- and you might attain tao through that, some 50+ years down the road... or not. Also sprach Taomeow.

Actually yes, it is a simplified form based on the classical Chen forms (Laojia Yilu and Erlu), but it's a recent addition to the Chen arsenal, developed by members of the Chen family in 1983. Unlike the Yang style 24 form, which was commissioned by the Chinese Sports Committee in 1956 for mass exercise, the Chen 24 form was designed to introduce the basic "alphabet" of Chen taiji while maintaining its martial and health benefits. You can think of it as "CliffsNotes" of sorts to the real deal.