ReturnDragon

34 minutes ago, Rara said:

I don't know anything about Jainism, so I cannot really compare in that respect. Also, I'm not sure the DDJ chapter really backs this up. Which part are you highlighting? 1-4 or 8?

I don't know anything about Jainism neither. I have only go by what the video said.

It is lines 1 to 4.
01. Heaven and Earth have no mercy,
02. Treating all things as straw dogs.
03. Sages have no mercy,
04. Treating people as straw dogs.

"No mercy" are the keywords. This is pure philosophical. When nature strikes like volcano eruption, flood or landslide, it will destroy anything in its path with no mercy. It will not avoid killing a good person in its way nor selectively who is not to be killed.

On a human level. Whomever breaks a law will be punished with no mercy. This is what Chapter 5 is all about.

1 hour ago, Starjumper said:

 

 

OK, playing the guitar (I speak Engrish., I think of it mainly as an elbow break, although the way it's normally done in the form its ability to break an elbow is hidden (but not in my form).  When you used the word stance I was thinking of a certain foot stance.  In my form, that elbow break  is done with the weight forward instead of back.

I don't mean to be sarcastic. If one learned Tai Chi from the masters as you have described, one should not still be asking silly question like that. Peace!

It is pity that's how you understood about Qigong on reverse breathing!
 

14 minutes ago, CloudHands said:

That's the beauty of this art you learn so much more than just fighting (if you do). Among plenty others you learn to move in a smart way, developing body's intelligence (call internal power, peng jing, ...). 

That is quite right. The art of Tai Chi is not learn to fight but it just come with the package. To fight good with Tai Chi is not mainly with the moves rather it was the combination of the "you learn to move in a smart way, developing body's intelligence (call internal power, peng jin(勁). Period.)"

I like that, you knew what Tai Chi is all about. 

The way the video described that Taoism is different from Jainism. However, if one study the Tao Te Ching carefully enough, then one will realize that Taoism is the same as Jainism as in this aspect.
 

The way Lao Tze emphasize Wu Wei is take no action to harm nature. In other words, he does not give too much credit to something that was good to nature. If the rat could be saved, a Taoist would have had saved. Otherwise, just leave it alone. Chapter Five may justify that. 
 

Chapter 5
1.天地不仁，
2.以萬物為芻狗。
3.聖人不仁，
4.以百姓為芻狗。
5.天地之間，
6.其猶橐籥乎﹖
7.虛而不屈，
8.動而愈出。
9.多言數窮，
10.不如守中。

Chapter 5
01. Heaven and Earth have no mercy,
02. Treating all things as straw dogs.
03. Sages have no mercy,
04. Treating people as straw dogs.
05. In-between-Heaven-and-Earth
06. Is like a wind box,
07. Vacuous but inexhaustible,
08. Dynamic but invigorating.
09. Excessive words accelerate failure.
10. Prefer to stay being neutral.

1 hour ago, C T said:

Many lay Buddhists that I know incorporate Taoist as well as Confucian wisdoms into their daily lives, and vice versa.

The reason for that is because during the Tang Dynasty there were many conflicts between the three religions. Hence, the emperor put them all in one room to talk things over. So to speak. Hereinafter, these three religions were sharing their philosophies and worship some of the deities.
 

1 hour ago, C T said:

It's quite common here for Buddhists to venerate/worship/accept teachings at Taoist temples, and for Taoists to do the same at Buddhist ones.

Based to my knowledge, I didn't think that was a very common practice.
 

2 hours ago, dmattwads said:

For the day's question I would like to ask between taoism and Buddhism what are your preferences and why?

My preference is Taoism, non religious, is because it has only one fundamental principle to be followed which is Wu Wei. Wu Wei is to let nature take its course with no interference. It was suggested just to let things be to avoid many conflicts in life.  

1 hour ago, GSmaster said:

 

Show me exercise that allows to do this >

 

 

Tai Chi!   Does it ring then bell?

2 minutes ago, GSmaster said:

What kind of holistic exercise breathing is that?

A holistic exercise with breathing.

23 minutes ago, GSmaster said:

 

What is yoga and what is qigong? (Fraud dragon talking about terms he knows nothing about.)

Nowaday, yoga is a holistic exercise involves with breathing. The Chinese Buddhist extracted the part of breathing and practiced by the Xiaolin monks.

The Taoist might have known the method of Qigong long time ago. At the time, it was called (吐吶)Tu Na. 

18 minutes ago, GSmaster said:

Arts existed since the very beginning. You could probably trace internal arts up to a millions years into the past.

One day I will commit to this research.

Let's do that, my BSmaster!
Why didn't you do the research before you post?
 

13 minutes ago, dmattwads said:

Hinduisms gave us Yoga, Taoism gave us Qigong.

FYI Actually, Qigong was derived from Yoga.
 

24 minutes ago, dmattwads said:

 

I personally don't think this is correct if you consider the eight fold path, especially mindfulness, but I do think this is a commonly held perception. I believe in Japan people go to the Shinto shrine for this life issues and the Buddhists specialize in funerals. Not sure how this perception came to be.

Perhaps I might say this. The Buddhist chanting is for a peace of mind in present life. Buddhists specialize in funerals is because they think life is miserable with the hardship and bitterness. The chanting is to help the deceased to clear all the sinful commitments in the past. So, the deceased will have a clear soul for the next life. Another thing, the purpose of chanting is to guide the deceased to have a safe journey to arrive in the next world.

Edited to add:
I am speaking on the philosophy of the Chinese Buddhism. 
 

Do you think a student will be good if trained by a good teacher? Don't you think that the learning ability and comprehension of the student has to do with the learning curve or achievement?

2 hours ago, salaam123 said:

wow. I didn't know that, thank you for information to both. Thanks RiverSnake, but I'm not looking for distance healing, I rather thought if someone would have an exercise so I could solve this problem myself.

Perform Qigong deep breathing.
Sit in a semi/full lotus position and breathe softly, smoothly and slowly deep into your abdomen. This a what ancient Chinese Taoist does to maintain the original chi(元氣).

If your breath does not go down to the abdomen, then just breathe as deep as you can then exhale. The stop point is your baseline. Eventually, your breath will go down deeper and deeper progressively with you diligent breathing practice.

The Taoist concerns with the present life as opposed to the Buddhist with after life. Therefore, the Taoist would perform chanting in the temple to help people to wash their sins and prolong life. Of cause, the Taoist does that with a ceremonial fee.

If one knows the birthday of someone may pay the heavenly master to cause pain on this individual by using a voodoo doll.  In addition, someone can pay a heavenly master to place a curse on a person by chanting.

This is my just opinion is because by observation. It seems to me the practitioner had used lot of energy in the process. I know I am constantly hungry from Taiji practice. My body tells me that I need to eat to replenish my source of energy.
 

1 hour ago, dmattwads said:

What about how Taoism compares to Buddhism?

I believe most people, here at TDB, talked about Buddhism was referring to Tibet Buddhism. They are more complicated than the Chinese Buddhism. 

Something we should know before we go any further.
Ref: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5908427/

1 hour ago, dmattwads said:

Since the primary school at the time that Lao Tzu was debating about Tao was the Confucians  maybe it would be helpful to contrast what both the Taoists and Confucians said about the topic? Maybe even what the Mohists said? And later Buddhist.

In the ordinary Chinese language, The character 道(tao) has one of the definitions means "principle". Thus there are two different sets of principles between Lao Tze and Confucius. 

Lao Tze: 
Tao is the principle of nature.

Confucius:
Tao is the principle of morality.

People are not familiar with the language will be obfuscated with the two tao's .  

6 hours ago, dmattwads said:

So if Tao is the source of everything and does all things and is all things, how is Tao not God? 

According to the Tao Te Jing, Chapters One and Four, Tao is existed before the heavenly god, not God. How can we verify the existence of Tao? Well, Lao Tze is the creator of Tao. Thus we must trace his thoughts, objectively, through the TTJ. TTJ has all the answers that you want. btw I am an atheist also and believe in the principles of Tao but not religiously. 

Lao Tze created Tao but didn't know what to call it. Therefore, he called it "Tao" arbitrarily. 
The idea of Tao was originated from the Yijing(易經) based on the yin-hang concept. The way of nature is evolved by the yin-yang concept. The way of nature is Tao. However, this is only one definition of Tao. There are alot more definitions for Tao in the TTJ as described by Lao Tze.
 

55 minutes ago, GSmaster said:

 

palm is the point of qi entrance / going through

 

where does it go if you have fist closed?

Your nose.

6 minutes ago, dmattwads said:

Can Kung Fu forms be done as a type of Qi gong? Do they have that effect?

Let's put it this way. Qigong practitioners may have the same effect as Kung Fu; but Kung Fu might not have to same effect as in Qigong practitioner. The reason is that a Kung Fu practitioner consumes lots of body energy as opposed to Qigong which preserves energy.
 

7 minutes ago, dmattwads said:

So I'm going to assume that whatever there was before the big bang or whatever there was that caused the big bang that is Tao. As well as the principles that continued to operate and form the universe after the big bang

Chapter 4 - The Fathomless Tao.
1.道沖而用之或不盈。
2.淵兮似萬物之宗。
3.挫其銳
4.解其紛，
5.和其光，
6.同其塵，
7.湛兮似或存。
8.吾不知誰之子，
9.象帝之先。 

1. Tao is a vessel and its function seems inexhaustible. 
2. Abyss, aha! It seems like the ancestry of all things.
3/7. Fathomless, aha! Unconscious or conscious.
4/8. I don't know whose son he is,
5/9. It seems like before the heavenly god.

Note:
***** lines 3 through 6 seem to be out of context. They were reappeared in Chapter 56*****

12 minutes ago, dmattwads said:

 

To me chapter one makes it seem like defining Tao is impossible. 🤯

That is correct. It is because Tao manifest itself in many forms and cannot be confined nor abide by one definition.