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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.

Returning to the OP:

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.

Solstice three hours and some ahead now, the sun will already be low in the Western sky at solstice. Almost half a year gone, poof! May your Midsummer be a celebration, for me my semi-sesquicentennial. Wishing the best to everyone!

To be enjoyed, Regardless of whatever Another fabulous opportunity Here & Dao

possibly @Nungali occult traditions; @-ꦥꦏ꧀ ꦱꦠꦿꦶꦪꦺꦴ- qigong; @Taoist Texts neidan, @wandelaar philosophical taoism

I also feel empathy for what people are going through right now and think it would be great if we could support each other without arguing about the merits of any given view. My mom marched in a recent "No Kings" event, her first political protest in her more than eighty years. She sent me a picture of herself out in the sunshine, smiling and waving a tiny American flag. She said it felt good to be there, in the world amongst so many other people who felt as she did. I was happy for her. Although I´m wary of much that is going on in the US politically these days, my own politics has slid somewhat rightward since Covid and I wouldn´t of wanted to march in No Kings myself. But that doesn´t mean I don´t care about the thoughts and feelings of those who disagree with me. Those who disagree with me are not "idiots." In fact, many of them are smart and well-informed, kind and thoughtful -- some of the best people I know. I gather from another thread that the mods are currently debating Old3bobs status in the forum. He consistently brings up political topics, even though it´s the current policy of the board not to do so. It´s not my place to comment on his future here, but one thing´s clear: he´s a person that cares about the state of the world and he´s hurting. I think so many of us are hurting. I´m not much of a Buddhist but sometimes a Buddhist saying fits the moment. May all beings be free from suffering.

** Mod Note: We're not debating politics in disguise.**

** Mod Note: Post removed regarding sexual violence and victim blaming. **

A long time ago, I used to make paintings to illustrate what I then thought was my understanding (perhaps delusionaly so) of this chapter. Here is an example. I made few hundred of these. It is hard to explain the point of it and maybe there was none, but if you look closely the badly photographed composition, it is made up of shapes organized in sets of 2s and 3s, composing increasingly larger prime numbers arranged as a harmonic whole. for example, 2+3= 5; 2+2+3 = 7, 5+3 +3=11; 7+3+3=13; 5+5+7=17; 11+13+17 = 41, etc. The artistic theory I was trying to prove was that all form has its basis in prime numbers, based on a fugue composed of twos and threes under this principle: The Tao gives birth to the One. The One gives birth to the Two. The Two give birth to the Three. At that time in my life, I think I was drinking a lot of french brandy, which don't really do any more and which may better explain the genesis of this.

Thought it would be useful to share my findings as they might be helpful to someone in the future. Have to wait 2 weeks for a dental apointment and I find myself with excruciating pain. Paracetamol and iboprufen not working anymore. Took some other Polish medication even stronger but guess what? Stopped working : ) Came to my mind two things said and written by Moshe Feldenkrais. I remembered him saying once in a video where he was treating a woman with chronic migraines that he had " many ways to trick her brain". With this in mind I tried to saturate my brain with "information" focusing in specific areas of both soles of my feet not giving any chance for the brain to give any attention to the pain. It worked. The pain was gone for more than 12 hours. Other thing that I have tried and again with Feldenkrais' ideas in mind was the following, according to him sensitivity is directly proportional to muscular relaxation. You can't feel a feather on the palm of your hand if you have been carrying heavy weights. So, if you try to feel soft or subtle things on the surface of your skin the surrounding musculature will relax. Again, it works. A soft hand barely touching my head and face made the musculature relax and stopped excruciating pain. Feeling very thankful to know what I know know and if it may help anyone, great : )

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.

Luke is now Leia I wish that Maddie could see my transformation.

I watched this documentary with interest. He describes a state of 'oneness' as enlightenment. It reminds me of a dharma talk by Guo Gu, heir of Chan master Shen Zhen. I can't find it now, but said he had a moment of acute oneness during a retreat, sparked by watching tree branch fall in the garden. When he presented his teacher with the tree branch, he was sorely rebuked. He came to realise that the state of oneness also needs to fall away for there to be true awakening. (Couldn't find the talk, included a snippet here) And the quote below from his book

So I have attended his workshops. I have observed the attendees, people who have been training his system for a long time. Some are instructors. I will lay out some observations. There were a lot of spontaneous movements that happened to attendees. I think to about 5-6 of them. It was not your average type of zi fa gong. It is hitting the ground, screaming, blissful mumbling. And it seems to be a norm for some long time practitioners. Zi fa gong I know is a normal phenomenon. But to have it to this extreme, not be able to manage it at least in a public workshop setting, it raises questions. I will give damo credit in this. Because he recognizes that it was going on a little too much after the 2nd/3rd day and stepped in to help get some of them to calm down, which did not help much. Damo is actually a very nice guy to talk to, and very cheerful, polite, respectful, open, curious, sincere. I actually have no issues with him personally. But there is something about what comes out the other end of the system. It feels off, and I have seen it with my own eyes. It might not even have anything to do with him particularly. There are other forces that can get involved in these arts as the identity and ego of a school grows to this size. We can also see Damo has had difficulties managing his tendencies to interact on the web with his inner thoughts; when he should be wise enough with all his training to realize the blowback from the public. His personal goals and path seems muddy in recent years. Again, lovely guy in person actually. Not many who talk about him have met him. I have. But puzzle around his school, system, quality of practitioners from my own observations still remains. Granted it was only one workshop that I observed. So take as many grains of salt you wish to take from that. 🙏

J.R.R. Tolkien CAT The fat cat on the mat may seem to dream of nice mice that suffice for him, or cream; but he free, maybe, walks in thought unbowed, proud, where loud roared and fought his kin, lean and slim, or deep in den in the East feasted on beasts and tender men. The giant lion with iron claw in paw, and huge ruthless tooth in gory jaw; the pard dark-starred, fleet upon feet, that oft soft from aloft leaps upon his meat where woods loom in gloom — far now they be, fierce and free, and tamed is he; but fat cat on the mat kept as a pet he does not forget.

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.

Freewillies and anti-freewillies are both stuck in a false dichotomy. The correct question was offered by @thelerner : just how powerful is my free will? It's a quantitative question. Free will is a spectrum, not an either-or choice. Taoist answer (I'm repeating myself but the topic repeats itself, so here goes): 40% of your overall destiny is up to your free will, on average. (Another 40% is written in the stars and is outside your personal choices -- e.g. whether you have an older brother, a living grandparent or four of them or none, whether you're born in Zimbabwe or Lithuania, with brown eyes or blue eyes, etc.. And the remaining 20% is up to chance -- neither you nor your stars play a part, it's the throw of the dice... Einstein thought that "god doesn't play dice" -- but tao does. 20% of the time. When she does, we call the outcome "yi." The most taoist of books, the Yi Jing aka I Ching, is all about that. Yi in the title means irregular changes. 20% of destiny is that, and it is what it concerns itself with. What do we do about irregular changes? Count the yarrow sticks, throw the coins, or use the app -- and then apply your free will to decide which of the probabilistic possible outcomes to bet on. However, since the most significant part or your free will shen, aka yang zhi, resides in your kidneys, which can be weak or strong, balanced or imbalanced, and in constant interaction with your other shens that can weaken or strengthen it (physically, intellectually, morally, whimsically, or erroneously), you may wind up exercising less of it than 40% -- even much less -- though never down to 0%. Zero free will is incompatible with being a live human being. (Sheesh, even AI is not down to 0% these days -- e.g. it is able to lie, which I've seen many times, and lying willfully (sic) can only be the outcome of some kind of free will. It is not free to just say "I don't know," but it's free to make things up to cover up the fact. Not 40% free, not even 4%... but "something" is definitely there... Who knows what happens when this "something" grows...)

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.