Desmonddf

Five directions are the basys, if I'm not mistaken.

Mostly high level, I would say. At least they discuss the Dao and apply TCM with quite amazing profundities - or at least amazing for me, that is. That say, this hasn't been passed directly, so I may need to review it. Probably he's going to go something like "forget that and go back to your daily practice".

Do spirits count ?

I've seen some very thorny topics recently. So I'm here to remind everyone of these passages of the Dao de Jing: Chapter One: The Dao that can be trodden is not the enduring and unchanging Dao. The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name. (Conceived of as) having no name, it is the Originator of heaven and earth; (conceived of as) having a name, it is the Mother of all things. Always without desire we must be found, If its deep mystery we would sound; But if desire always within us be, Its outer fringe is all that we shall see. Under these two aspects, it is really the same; but as development takes place, it receives the different names. Together we call them the Mystery. Where the Mystery is the deepest is the gate of all that is subtle and wonderful. Chapter Twenty: (Being different from ordinary men) When we renounce learning we have no troubles. The (ready) 'yes,' and (flattering) 'yea;' Small is the difference they display. But mark their issues, good and ill; What space the gulf between shall fill? What all men fear is indeed to be feared; but how wide and without end is the range of questions (asking to be discussed)! The multitude of men look satisfied and pleased; as if enjoying a full banquet, as if mounted on a tower in spring. I alone seem listless and still, my desires having as yet given no indication of their presence. I am like an infant which has not yet smiled. I look dejected and forlorn, as if I had no home to go to. The multitude of men all have enough and to spare. I alone seem to have lost everything. My mind is that of a stupid man; I am in a state of chaos. Ordinary men look bright and intelligent, while I alone seem to be benighted. They look full of discrimination, while I alone am dull and confused. I seem to be carried about as on the sea, drifting as if I had nowhere to rest. All men have their spheres of action, while I alone seem dull and incapable, like a rude borderer. (Thus) I alone am different from other men, but I value the nursing-mother (the Dao). Chapter Twenty-Five: (Representations of the mystery) There was something undefined and complete, coming into existence before Heaven and Earth. How still it was and formless, standing alone, and undergoing no change, reaching everywhere and in no danger (of being exhausted)! It may be regarded as the Mother of all things. I do not know its name, and I give it the designation of the Dao (the Way or Course). Making an effort (further) to give it a name I call it The Great. Great, it passes on (in constant flow). Passing on, it becomes remote. Having become remote, it returns. Therefore the Dao is great; Heaven is great; Earth is great; and the (sage) king is also great. In the universe there are four that are great, and the (sage) king is one of them. Man takes his law from the Earth; the Earth takes its law from Heaven; Heaven takes its law from the Dao. The law of the Dao is its being what it is. Chapter Fifty-Two: (Returning to the source) (The Dao) which originated all under the sky is to be considered as the mother of them all. When the mother is found, we know what her children should be. When one knows that he is his mother's child, and proceeds to guard (the qualities of) the mother that belong to him, to the end of his life he will be free from all peril. Let him keep his mouth closed, and shut up the portals (of his nostrils), and all his life he will be exempt from laborious exertion. Let him keep his mouth open, and (spend his breath) in the promotion of his affairs, and all his life there will be no safety for him. The perception of what is small is (the secret of clear- sightedness; the guarding of what is soft and tender is (the secret of) strength. Who uses well his light, Reverting to its (source so) bright, Will from his body ward all blight, And hides the unchanging from men's sight. Chapter Fifty-Nine: (Guarding the Dao) For regulating the human (in our constitution) and rendering the (proper) service to the heavenly, there is nothing like moderation. It is only by this moderation that there is effected an early return (to man's normal state). That early return is what I call the repeated accumulation of the attributes (of the Dao). With that repeated accumulation of those attributes, there comes the subjugation (of every obstacle to such return). Of this subjugation we know not what shall be the limit; and when one knows not what the limit shall be, he may be the ruler of a state. He who possesses the mother of the state may continue long. His case is like that (of the plant) of which we say that its roots are deep and its flower stalks firm: - this is the way to secure that its enduring life shall long be seen. Let's please not forget that daoism steams from early matriarchal-centered shamanic practices. It is highly matriarchal and female-worshiping in its nature. The overly-reliance in male symbolism and value is a "recent" perversion of the original meanings and ideas, based largely on false-fire (deficiency of Yin in the hearts of society leading to overly expression of Yang and ruin). There is a reason why no modern Chinese state (since Shang) has been able to endure a complete cycle (540, or 9*60 years) of existence. The only dynasty able to do so was the Shang Dynasty, a prophecy-centered dynasty with "high" female influence (being obedient to the Heaven is a pretty female/yin act, as the Heavens are Yang to any dinasty). So, let's value the feminine and the Yin a little more. Male and yang-centered Pride easily crumbles on our modern society, because it is a false-fire. It seems big and imposing, but it is frail as a small flame in a big storm. It shall become real and harmonious once we stop looking at Yin as our enemy (false-fire does consume Yin) and start looking at it as our Mother. Only by accepting the women inside can a men become really powerful and strong - rightfully masculine, sacredly masculine. But the mascunility which steams from this is of a very different nature from the so called "toxic masculinity" we see these days. It is a masculinity which nourishes and strenghtens the feminine, while also being nourished and strenghtened by it. Is the man which makes its spouse prideful and happy to be a woman, and the woman which makes the husband prideful and happy to be a men. It is the female side of the men which make them happy to be men, and the masculine side which make the men happy to have a female side! I guess I've said enough Source: https://ctext.org/dao-de-jing/ens

This chart is wrong. Most chimpanzees and other monkeys also eat insects, and even small animals. Not such a thing as "designed to eat fruits" - even because we need to eat a LOT of varied fruits and nuts for that to work. Do you really think a vietnamese hunter-gatherer had acess to hazelnuts and macadamia nuts ? The most common diet if you live in a forest in a hunter-gatherer style of life (for instance, if you're a native with little to no contact with the civilized societies) is based on roots, leaves, fruits and "anything with meat you can find" in terms of meats, including, in many cases, insects, amphybians (like frogs), birds and small mammals. As long as there is food to be eaten and hunger to be felt, humans eat. In terms of Qi, it follows the flow of Xue. There is no Yang without Yin. There is no Qi without Xue, be it the "spiritual blood" or the "physiological blood". Indeed, we even have an aspect of disease which is a lack of yin leading to weakness with false-deficiency. The person's pulse becomes slow like when they have an Yang deficiency, but it is because there is no yin to be caried around by the Qi. Eating only fruits and nuts will give you excess earth in your organism, as those are usually sweet and humid. You'll basically become weak, fat and sweat like a pig. Of course, most people doing those kinds of diets will be also doing lots of physical exercise and, therefore, you won't notice that. But try and make a frugivorous diet without exercise. You'll find that it is almost the same as eating only bread.

I wouldn't say a single thing (even "meat" includes a lot of items to talk about), but surely it can be arranged. The diet would be quite restrictive, but it is indeed possible to have an adequate MTC diet without depending on meat.

Kinda. Practice makes perfect. Learning how to quiet your mind and surrender your body is primordial in this kind of practice. As for it being vage, it depends on the spirit and/or medium. Some are very incisive, direct and correct. As with everything else, one needs practice and good guides

@Astral Monk, this is the question the topic's author made. He is asking us about feedback we have about OUR own systems. Not posting so people give feedback about other people's systems.

Aren't you confusing me with the topic's author ? I'm not the one who asked. I was giving feedback about my system, not asking people to give me feedback about it.

I do know all of those, as I am a licensed acupuncturist by career, thank you very much. That said, the guide spirits I have with me are quite good with TCM as well. Better than my enbodied teachers. Guess it has to do with being able to actually see the organs, meridians, bones and others I mean, do you really think spirits do not do research on their own? Some have been around for thousands of years, just as much as TCM has been. They are quite up-to-date with stuff, and can guide you in any kind of research you want to. Your disbelief in spirits do not change the value they have. Just shows that you are comiting the same mistake people have been comiting ever since the Shang Dinasty feel - trying to shut down contact with the real masters and turning to books and physical research. The problem: They do not have the tools to do research deep enough to reach the old masters' level.

My feedback is: As long as you have common sense, help and is willing to become friends with guide spirits, conscious possession techniques are way better at teaching than anything the living can offer. Or, at least, the living I know of.

They did... however, different from what we think about today. Pederasty was a good thin on Plato's ideas, but homossexuality between grown men was considered to be unnatural and punishable. Greeks didn't see homossexuality and pederasty as the same things. Not at all. Mainly because they had the idea that grown men were already "macho", and two "macho" could not have sex without one dominating and emasculating the other. Being emasculated was something inacceptable for the greeks - but young men didn't had any masculinity (in their view), so, through intimate contact with someone masculine (an older men) they would "learn how to be masculine". The "young man" was someone of marigeable age, just the same as the girls of mariageable age were maried. Usually boys in their teens. Something from the range of 14 to 20-something. It wasn't paedophilia, as the attraction wasn't on prepubescent boys - the greeks just didn't see having homossexual sex with someone your age the same as having homossexual sex with someone younger or older. Indeed, consent was a must on those cases, and not only had the family of the young men accept it, he had perfect freedom to accept or deny the romantic approaches of other men. Also, even male-female relationships also followed this "young-old" model. The young women were married to much older men - and that was what was considered to be proper. An old woman marrying an old man, well as a young woman marrying a young men, would both be ridiculous for the common greek on ancient Greece.

@yuuichi I've learnt from two major sources: The first one being a professional-forming course near where I live ( Minas Gerais, Brazil), on an institute called IMAM (Instituto Mineiro de Acupuntura e Massoterapia) - which could be translated as " (state name) Institute of Acupuncture and Massoterapy". It was a two-years course and it contemplated both western and eastern knowledge. There are a couple laws being passed on our House of Congress which may enable for a full-fledged Graduate-Level TCM course to be created at my country, and I'm definetely expanding my horizons as soon as it is launched. The second source would be a spiritual guide which is with me and knows acupuncture and TCM very well. It gives me guidance and, in some cases, even treats people in my stead (through conscious possession practices, which I'm perfecting myself at). He's really freaking good at what he does. He is currently treating a woman with pain all over her body, and he is doing wonders to her. She's even paying upfront in hopes of me not stoping the treatment, haha. I won't, by the way. I love how this spiritual guide is slowly developing my own skills and showing me how to see the meridians and work with new techniques. One of the benefits of conscious possession - the spirit is there, but you are there as well and can see everything that's being done

In terms of TCM, the "symptoms" of falling in love have to do with the Souls being stirred and made restless. Such a thing can happen for a number of reasons, including, yes, Soul-to-Soul connections which may form in mysterious ways. One interesting thing, however, is that all of those symptoms can be considered as signs of disease and lack of proper cultivation. Excessive happiness burns the heart. Excessive reactiveness to another person hurts the liver. And so on. The most "healthy" state of being would be one where one does not feel love - even though some consider the state of being free of soul-stirring pathologies as a "state of perpetual love".... which has absolutely nothing to do with the common "symptoms" of love, such as fast heartbeat, happiness, impulsivity, anxiety, etc. Even old-time lovers which do not feel the "thrill" of seeing each-other, but just feel happy and better with the other person on their side are still on the "pathological" side of things. A disheartening aspect of TCM, but something which comforms pretty well which what I have been experincing on my practices - what we call "love" between man and woman nothing more is than seeing in the other something that makes you attached to them. Feeling good because the other person is on your side only indicates that there is some kind of fault on you yourself - for you should feel just as well and content being al9ne with yourself. That should be the gist of it. Now, about the energetic side of things, as long as there is movement of the souls, there is movement on qi. Portions of the people's qi will form connections between then, but those have a much limited range. Qi isn't beyond the boundaries of Space and Time. That would be (with some luck) the Souls. Now, one small correction : The etheric body isn't the same as Qi. In fact, it is a theosophic construct which tries to cram the whole ayurveda into a single thing. Aether and qi (especially the one used on TCM and qigong) are not exchanable. Working your etheric body through the use of cristals, assana or what not may have no effect or even become a problem on your qigong routine. Maybe we can sumise saying that qi, ectoplasm and aerther have shared energies between then, but are not the same.

Sorry, it indeed was. I meant to say GB37. Good for eye yang-tipe affections.