blue eyed snake

The times they are achanging, even the Sufi's change their ways. I remember during zifa gong aka spontaneous movement I've been whirling, its an exhilarating and at the same time sobering feeling. uhm, sort of like you combine the outgoing movement with the inwards movement, the twirling in itself is an outgoing movement but to keep it up you have to sort of pull in, keep to yourself.To keep the body from toppling over. ah well...words..

have not seen the data and the research-method, not very interested tbh. But its very easy to create a self-fullfilling prophecy with a research method that leans on query's only meaning, when you first teach people something and then later you ask em about that something the only thing that gets out is whether the teaching method had good results. Not wanting to hurt any moslim reading this, really not. This is a most general statement.

he was the first I talked with here, such a nice guy

to each his own. It's not nice to trample on someones childhood favorites, furthermore mister Robert van Gulik work was much respected by contemporary Chinese, he wrote a lot more then judge Dee which was a pastime for him.

a lot of things, but I meant my younger self would have decided last year that it was time to go abroad and burn my ships behind me

thank you, i deduce you've read the judge Dee books?

Inside, incense burns it's lazy smoke wafts upwards the green tea is good.

well, living in a delta, when i was still young I would probably leave here and move to southern Germany before the shit hits the fan, that is last year. But as I am old and can hardly walk I will just stay were I am and observe what happens. Was reading a bit, scientists think that the northern part of the gulf stream ( it's much more fancied up, this is simplified) will cut off from the big loop with northern Europe becoming very cold as a result. Can't do anything else but wait and observe, will ask neighbors to get me more chords of wood this summer as a precaution. Interesting times to say the least.

yes, I know he was a dutch sinologist, that thesis though is nice, will read, thankyou

slush, lots of brownish slush. swish, swash, swush when you walk through it splish splash as a kid in winter i walked to school wearing wellies and a pair of light dry indoors shoes was waiting there for me. I guess that was the rule, remember rows of wellies standing on old newspapers. oh, and a shoesack for the indoorshoes, yes. that was hanging on the coatrack.

't were amounts of snow so unusual that it was hard to deal with. the area is flat so snow-dunes formed, railroads and highways were blocked by snow dunes. The army was called to restore accessibility so that at least doctors and nurse could go to isolated villages and food could be transported. It took 2 months until the snow-dunes were shoveled away enough for me so that i could go home by train without having to fear being stuck halfway.

yes, i get that but we can't force that to come back. I am not much of a reader in this department and my contributions were sparse, and nowadays i am becoming forgetful. My connection with Daoism stems from childhood really. My mum had the DDJ and the picture on the outside intrigued me. Mom, why is that man riding a cow. funnyly I now have a picture from the oxherding series in my livingroom. Life is like a series of evolving patterns or something. later i read van Gulik, still as a kid. Now that of course is fiction but the writer was erudite and very well introduced in the Chinese culture. at first i read them from the library , later I bought me the whole series. There are several stories and persona's that clearly show s the reader some insight in Daoism. there's one book were a Daoist "wizard" dies, the main person, judge Dee asks a peasant where master Crane is. Oh he died, bowing, we now use his little house to store wood. What happened to his body? There was no body sir, people like him only leave nails and hair. Peasant bows and walks away. of course, just fiction, but since I ve read about the Buddhist rainbow-body this part sticks. Now I wonder, has van Gulik based this story ( or rather this persona) on a story about a master Crane that is known in the classics? A master who dies alone and nothing but nails is found?

some years ago there were threads about the several classics that i happily followed, several translations, how people thought about it, how you could interpret. I liked that, also memory of @Marblehead who instigated at least one of those threads, he interpreted everything strictly rational, i am more inclined to interpret in terms of energy and reincarnation but it did not matter in the least. found it very interesting to read the different views on these old texts. and I do not think we will ever really grasp the meaning, to really grasp that you should be a Chinese person living in the time it was written, but we can learn from it and colloquial conservation about it is nice.

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I rest my case

I totally get what Keith writes, i don't know shit about Buddhism, having other interests. No beans in this particular discussion. But you come over as a know it all and when you have a different perspective you overload people with reasons why you are right. I recognize that particular personality trait and hope I managed to keep it in check now that I am older. It's hard to keep in check. I clearly remember there was a time where I practiced to say: hm, that's an interesting perspective, I will sleep on it. Or, i think I have hurt you, if so that was not my intention. Instead of getting reasons why the other must be wrong because I was right. I am always happy when out of an interaction spring new things, that associations come up on both sides , new insights arise or old knowledge gets a new shine and both partners get away from it enriched. For me that is the most beautiful way of talking with each other. That's what I am here for i think, plus the friendship i feel for some bums. Furthermore, I firmly believe there is no "truth" to be found in discussion about the path, all books are in the end, just fingers, pointing to the moon. I look at the moon and am awed, and glad for the fingers that have pointed it out for me. Some here on this forum. Look at her, the beautiful ripe roundness, the pearly sheen, the almost magical way her light makes a cave of clouds around her. beauty, to drown in. Now imagine someone coming along telling you she does not shine but reflect light and that cave is a product of reflecting surfaces too. ough

seem to remember that once, long ago the forum was chopped into subforums with one of the reasons that buddhist would have their own table to find out which of the many viewpoints is best, without bothering the other bums. The was much more traffic in those days and I really hope the bums will gather steam again But restraining yourself from getting into threads like these is a good practice which can teach you about the reasons you are attached to it. as a little help there is an ignore button which can assist your ego when the going gets tough

it's up to the bums how to post and with what, as long as were reasonably nice to each other. erhm, what was it...ah yes, there we have it Eclectic, Egalitarian, Civil. so when you post something about a Taoist topic you can hope others chime in, I might, although I am fond of several Buddhists both here and in person, buddhism gives me the pip. But don't count on me, I am an unreliable visitor

we all were i really like your post and it made me think of this little part from the golden flower. this, as all daoist texts is not so clearcut as what you posted, but it came up with me this is chapter 3 https://thesecretofthegoldenflower.com/ch3.html

that winter was quite memorable here too, I went to visit a friend in the north of my country, for a weekend, we were snowed in for 2 months. In those days snow was normal in amounts from around 30 cm, just enough to have fun. But that year it looked like this I was in the city and although there was only 1 toilet in the street still working and at a certain point there were some problems with food, there was enough but no variety so no problem really. Those are sweet memories, some people say next winter will be very cold, so I will ask my dear neighbors to get me some more wood. this what the city looked like

Not a Buddhist, thus I looked for some sort of definition of absolute emptiness. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sunyata-absolute-emptiness-jetsun-milarepa-jaume-gil-termens/ Reading this i would say oh yes, it does exist, it not just a philosophical concept although there is a lot of philosophizing and analyzing going on around these concepts. and yes, when you analyse things you can come to the conclusion there must be something like absolute emptiness when you taste it though, even the smallest sip will convince you for the rest of your life.

thats a good place to be, although it can be scary.

we'll put you on a pedestal and then you have to deal with the troubles of that.

Once, decades ago I had a conversation with the abbot of a Buddhist cloister/temple I was unexpectedly taken by strange happenings and had asked whether someone in that cloister/temple could have a word with me to help me understand and get back some balance. Thinking back to the meeting with that abbot, there's no doubt at all in my mind that Buddhism is a legit and complete spiritual path, for those practitioners that are ready to be "toppled over" it will lead to the endgame so to say. my words may not sound very respectful but I do mean it respectful. It's not my path, it has been though, I am very sure I've been a Buddhist in a former life, there are memories... but in this life it's not my path. Interestingly that is exactly what that abbot told me...: "You are welcome to stay here, for a while or indefinitely but I do not think Buddhism is your path" in this life it's the solo experience that is needed. There are many paths that we can follow, to each its own and very slowly, maybe even invisible, we progress on some hard to understand 'scale'. some "useless" paths may be very worthwhile, simply because there is no reason to travel to the city were the university is located when there is a preschool in every village. I wrote about a christian friend of mine, for me it would be one of the the worst paths I could possible take, but for her it is just right. it took me quite a while to understand that though. Also, the 'path', whatever shape it takes, is not a rational thing, precisely because enlightenment, what many people see as the endgame, is not rational. To get through that invisible "wall" you leave your attachments, your proclivities and your sense of "rational thinking" the analytical part of mind. Although, anecdotally, the people I've known that had progressed far on that hard to understand scale were all very smart. imho, in the rationalized academic mind enlightenment does not, cannot exist. Smart people can be very attached to their analytical thinking. By analyzing the steps you break the ladder, you break the possibility to leave some of your proclivities behind. . in the same way you ruin the perfect, wholesome beauty of a flower by pulling it apart. I would like to see all daobums have some respect for the path other people are walking.

meh, psychology can hardly be called scientific, apart from being lectured in universities where real science is being lectured. besides, Jung and his predecessor are typically a useful model for brainy persons, ie, only a small proportion of the population. and for me its not so much if something is closer to the truth, but which perspective fits the best with the person. The modern psychology seems to be your good fit and thus you now try to make it compatible to Buddhism, to each his own. Can't speak of Buddhism, apart from being respectful to it, it's just not my perspective. But neither psychology nor Buddhism is closest to the truth, these are the perspectives that fits the best with your ehm...personality and proclivities I do not believe in the building of models anymore, it distracts from the direct contact with the source.