Mal

Thanks manitou _/\_

I also have trouble knowing what to say, my culture has poorly equipped me to deal with death, even illness is approached in terms of "get better soon" I feel embarrassed in the face of death, am I doing or saying the wrong thing?

Just be there, provide human contact - I can remember to do this.

thank you.

^ Well said SB

So 22 pages (so far) of posts on "Trolling and Off topic discussion" perhaps show what TTB actually is, a diverse collection of people with very different views. Yet generally managing to express their views in their own personal way - insight, personal experiences, squirrels! - while being aware that others may or may not agree with them and being mindful of their feelings and personal views.

While I find it disappointing in a "spiritual" forum that some want to analyse the past, label others, demand punishments, or (in my view most disappointing of all) perhaps even be posting with the intent to cause harm to other TTB members.

- that's just me and others may not agree and that's cool as long as we are trying to communicate with each other.

Does this mean alchemical taoism is no longer resting in no form ?

I found it's retention dangers page ultra useful for ttb faq

Yes, It’s important not to starve when there is no food, or freeze when it’s cold, and using past experiences to plan for the future is certainly helpful avoiding things like that.

All we “actually experience” (as opposed to thinking about) is now.

The thread in question is worse than last night. There is clear prejudice on the part of the poster. I haven't reported it at this time given that I have no confidence in the mod's to take appropriate action.

 

http://thetaobums.com/topic/23142-right-wing-war-against-lgbts/page-3#entry401158

Bolds mine

Do you want me to report it?

If you find if insulting you can, as that is what reporting is for. I've not read the thread so I've no idea what's going on in there.

I was just wondering, since Ralis is (often/usually ?) unhappy with moderator action(s) and specifically unhappy about inaction in this case if he had brought this post to anyone's attention ... or just posted here that he was unhappy about no-action.

I'm looking for a fast switch that I can just turn on and off. It turns on with frightening ease. I remember over the weekend when somebody cut me off in traffic. I had an instant surge of road rage. And it took a fraction of a second for heat to literally shoot into my head. A fraction of a second!!! But sending it back down, well, exercising, walking, eating meat, etc, those things take some time to do, and its never complete.

 

I think that walking barefoot works because it forces attention to the soles of the feet, sending heat there. I don't do that anymore. Instead, I just heat up my feet directly, I''m pretty sure it does the same thing.

With practice you can ground/earth instantly. The feet is more of a "marcocosmic orbit" (for whatever “names” are worth, although it's worth noting these are named orbits/circles/circuits rather than "one direction")

but drop (release/direct/intend) the energy “through” your feet, i.e. out of you into the earth. Being barefoot helps this occur naturally but it’s not essential (neither is actually touching the earth with your feet)

Doing that is much faster that the other options I mentioned (post 7)

edit to add that Jumping is like Shaking and there is quite a history of traditional "shaking medicine"

And if you fully or half cook the turkey, but don't eat it or correctly store it (or throw it out) ...

i.e. if you are gathering energy you need to be also doing something with it.

While I lean towards Walkers more "practice like" translation there is "more" in Ni's

 

The old master said, "Kind prince, what do you think? Can the great space of the East be measured by the mind?"

The prince replied, "No, Venerable Teacher."

"Kind prince, what do you think? Can the space of the four directions, as well as above and below, which constitute the profound vastness of the universe, be measured by the mind?"

"No, Venerable Teacher."

"Kind prince, the mind can be just as immeasurable as the universe itself. An integral being settles his mind just as the vast universe settles itself. He unites his mind with the unnameable Subtle Origin and it's expression as the multi-universe in which there is no past, present or future. This is how an integral being deals with his mind."

 

Ni's HHC 5

But no matter how much heat I send downward, if I start at the top again there is yet more heat to send down again. How is it getting back up there so quickly? Is it being passively pumped up the back without my consent?

Basically yes, if you are alive it's always flowing, to varing degrees. So it's more like an electrical "circut" than a pipe that goes down with a "seperate" pipe that goes up.

Really quick

- if you usually run a 45 min+ of jogging (i.e you want to get in "the zone" do not do this if you don't already run)

- go for a swim in the ocean

Clearly posts such as these

Can we stick to the subject matter as opposed to summer sausage and custard.

Was the post reported?

How would we ever get to squirrels in spectacles if this rule was in force?

Well if it was my thread you could post whatever you want I'm mostly in the "don't see a problem boat" I like the cross thread chatter and (usually) humorous community feel, like Marbles if someone wants to "soapbox" I just try my best not to "react" and move on to the next post.

The whole point of moderating topics is to protect the quality of your content for the user experience to thus enhance hits.

This is a key point, and basically (IIRC) why Sean went for moderation in the 1st place, to improve TTB. While many of us are happy to just ignore, attempt to refocus the conversation, or just move on to something else. A "significant" ? number of others here seem to feel differently, and the only way I can think of to accommodate the individual differences might be to give the creator “the call” on what’s derailing a thread.

I think we see here a perfect example of what I spoke to earlier. One thought leads to another and we mention the thought which ends up taking the original opening post way off topic. That's the way real conversations happen in "real life". Casual conversations. We are not in a classroom studying a single topic, math, for example. We are having conversations in almost all threads on this board.

 

Sure, if we are engaged in a study of a particular topic it would be very helpful if we all stayed on topic throughout the study. But as soon as we start reflecting our own personal understanding of the topic there will be the likelihood that the thread will go off topic because we will have moved from a study to a conversation.

 

As everyone had different ideas about what they want from TTB what if the thread creator had "nominal" control over the thread.

People could talk as usual but if the thread creator asked "could we stick to xyz I'm not into abc" then it would be a bit insulting to ignore them especially if they were sort of leading the discussion.

At the moment once a thread is"out there" you have no options if the thread goes in a direction you have no interest in.

?

Sorry Aaron, as you probably noticed, I find the "such and such wasn't enforced" sort of comments annoying.

As for rules, I personally try and break as many as I possibly can, believing more in the spirit of the law than the letter of the law.

Although you do list them at the top of the threads I've never read them. It's just a personal thing ... At least you got a reply from Sean :-)

Namibian nights http://vimeo.com/squiver/namibian-nights

Very cool but not a substitute for the "real thing"

edit ... Hmmm keeps trying to embed when I just type the link so

Top link on goggle? https://www.google.com.au/search?q=namibian+nights&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-au:official&client=firefox-a&safe=active#hl=en&sugexp=les%3B&gs_rn=2&gs_ri=serp&tok=Cdp5pua_vraB-D1ZueAUXw&pq=namibian%20nights&cp=23&gs_id=10z&xhr=t&q=namibian+nights+on+vimo&es_nrs=true&pf=p&safe=active&client=firefox-a&hs=Zhb&tbo=d&rls=org.mozilla:en-au%3Aofficial&sclient=psy-ab&oq=namibian+nights+on+vimo&gs_l=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.41867550,d.aGc&fp=cb9df04a10e3c0b7&biw=1280&bih=885

I don't want to continue to post in the Taoist Discussion area if I can help it, since the forum rules for a discussion thread aren't enforced

Not wanting to be offensive either but that quote above is quite different to below

when we started the Tao Te Ching subforum, there was a specific set of subforum rules instituted in order to ensure the topics remained on topic (agreed upon by Sean). They're actually listed in the subforum FAQ. I would suggest as a moderator that you take a look, because that might be why there is so much confusion regarding the TTC Subforum and all the obvious violations of the subforum rules. I'm not intending to be offensive

and even then I'd still question "all the obvious violations"

So is there any way, apart from the reader skipping over posts, to keep TTB on topic - 15 pages later it doesn't seem to be so.

Back to discussions! I've got nothing on birds or squirrels but De has to buy those $500 glasses. Without that thin lenses technology her normal glass lenses are as thick as coke bottles! (those old green glass ones, not modern plastic, or even that middle period where the bottoms of the bottles were round with a black plastic base)

Try

Tap “Menu” in the Dolphin browser, select “Data Storage Settings” and tap “Clear Data” to clear your cookies, cache and browsing history.

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/instructions-dolphin-browser-android-30722.html

Ah so chrome screwed me up by pretending to be the fastest browser ... all smoke and mirrors eh?

That's what "cache" does keeps a copy of the pages you visit saved on your computer, so that you don't have to wait while it goes looking for them online.

(Clearing it was Sean's sugestion ... although I do run linux and have a motorcycle ... I'd never be mistaken for a stick figure!)

Android works too

after clearing cache, all working o.k.

Now that's weird, back at home on chrome (rebooted {only} since last night) and can't access any forums by clicking on them from http://thetaobums.com/ eg. this link http://thetaobums.com/forum/14-forum-and-tech-support/

gives

but was able to get in by clicking this link http://thetaobums.com/topic/26836-cant-access-general-section/#entry400389

I had same issue yesterday (all forums except the main page for me)

It's working fine today (10 hrs later) but I'm also on a different computer ... can't offer any sugestion except I hope that time helps you too.

No worries mYTHmAKER I just though I'd put it out there.

Remember my old avatar (with it’s really crap single whip ) I like it because I’m happy in that photo and while I might cringe now and then looking myself it also reminds me… of a time when I learnt that Lou Reid also did Tai Chi! I was very excited as I love his music and eagerly flipped to the article … and I really can’t remember anything that he said as I was too occupied analysing his poor form, shown in a photo, and busy being disappointed that he wasn’t “good like his music”

And thanks for the encouragement too, the outlook can seem rather "dark" by myself (and like PLB mentioned “rearranging my life to gain access” isn’t a priority) I've stoped teaching Tai Chi and was even considering stoping practicing, I was really just "going through the motions." Juice has inspired me to keep going and given me new things to try that are basically re-wordings of what my sifu would say.

As for Yang Chengfu's book, I don't think it is as big as what he transmitted. I read it with interest and the pictures of the complete postures are achingly beautiful. But one very interesting element to Fu Zhongwen's book is that he was trying to address what was missing in that book.

Yes, that is why I like to use them together

I feel there are a lot of great clues in Scott's book. While he said himself everything is already mentioned in the tai chi classics, I’m enjoying practicing using his suggestions. If you are looking for more internal/energy instruction, or even just a new perspective on form and push hand practice, dismissing this book because of a youtube video is a mistake IMHO

I originally read this one as an actual practice instruction.

Have we looked at the night sky, was it recently? Have people ever seen the sky at night in a desert (or somewhere with clear air, low humidity and no light pollution) If not make the time to DO IT. Even though I live in “remote areas” and the night sky is quite clear (unlike some places where you don’t even see stars at night) I remember my Dad showing me this for the 1^st time. We were driving between towns (5 hrs) in the desert, new moon. He stopped the car, got us all outside and turned off the lights.

The sky is so spectacular!

But even just staring up at the sky in most cities can give you something like that experience… and it truly does settle the mind.