Bob H

This might be good advice for a "repeat offender" but it's astoundingly bad advice for someone's first experiment or two. Someone needs to be there with a constant sanity check handy.

I'm hardly an "old-timer" here, I registered in early 2007 after lurking a while - but, the lists of hot topics were interesting, and one of them in particular worth a comment. When I first read Father Paul's posts, I thought he was just a smartass. Maybe he was. Maybe he was just enjoying his ass-ness, but maybe he was just using a tool. After a while I realized that there was far more to his posts than was obvious. He taught me to deal with obstructions along the path - take a branching trail, go around, try another path ... but - don't ... get ... blocked. That may not have been what he intended to teach me, but that's what stuck. It is the teaching that has made all the difference. Happy pancakes to you all.

No kidding! My first JJ instructor told the class "Jiu-jitsu is the Japanese name for the art we are going to study. It is best translated as 'joint separation'".

Is there an aikijutsu school in the area? It's the "jutsu" version, as opposed to the "do/dao" approach of aikido. I studied Goshin Budo, which is similar to aikijutsu but geared more toward police work, I liked it very much. Training is fairly painful and violent, though. Ninjutsu's image has been wrecked by bad novels, movies, and comic strips. It's a shame, it's a fine martial art with an incredible amount of variety in approach and methods, and it brings deception in combat to an art form. There are quite a few branches in the US that have become a sort-of "hard style" version that I think is too much like karate, but if you can find a traditional school it's well worth a visit or two to evaluate. It's certainly not what you see in movies, I believe you'll be favorably impressed. At the very least, it's one more option.

A lot depends on what you intend to achieve. I smoked cigarettes for over 25 years, quit, then five years later got lung cancer and lost most the right lung. Of course, I didn't return to cigarettes because even if the cancer doesn't return I'm still very susceptible to emphysema and other COPDs. After a couple of years still feeling that nagging pull I discovered that it was the nicotine and aromas that I craved, since I'd gotten past the "habit" part of cigarette smoking and thought cigarettes smelled and tasted pretty bad by then. I allowed myself a briar pipe (well, you really need several) and some top quality natural tobacco, and I do not inhale. The mouth absorbs the nicotine from the stronger pipe tobacco, and an occasional exhale through the nose allows appreciation of the complex flavors of a well-made pipe blend. Most of the "drug store tobaccos" have unknown additives and the tastes are anything but subtle, but there are many quality tobacconists who will gladly mix a natural blend to suit your tastes. Now, there are even organically raised pipe tobaccos. I enjoy watching the smoke as well, and the whole unhurried ceremony is calming and centering, and I believe of very little detriment to my health - considering that I only smoke maybe once or twice a week, and then only for a few minutes. It's almost a "tea ritual for one" for me. It takes practice and skill to pack the pipe properly, light it well, and keep it burning without overheating and scalding your tongue. You can get so lost in the process that when you finally are ready to ease back in your chair for the smoke, you're in a state of calm bliss. I don't know what herbs you are considering smoking, but wouldn't they be absorbed in the same way, without taking them into the lungs?

Although I was born in 1952, a little past their 1949 threshold, I very much have an old brain. I seem to have a hearing loss when I'm around noisy things like air conditioners, heavy traffic, and television, yet when I go into the woods I hear things others do not. My sense of smell is especially keen. Now, I simply don't cope well with the "new thought/image/sound a second" of television, and I almost never watch it. I don't enjoy movies that have too many cutaways and a lot of shifts from dark to bright, so I don't watch them either. Sounds like it might be a subconscious urge to preserve the old brain ... and my sanity.

It is indeed an amazing place. I'm very grateful it is here, and that I found it...and thanks to all the posters who contribute knowledge that I would never have even suspected existed. I look forward to the day that I can understand some of it.

I will dance your dance Cringing, bad leg pulls me in circles Dragging, bad foot smears a trail Hunched, bad back points my eyes toward ground But spirit sees the joy Dim eyes note the lights Heart feels the drumbeat of feet Shoulders soften as joy arises Smiling faces lift me up Jerky dancing still fits in Soft rain falls on a weary head And I have been uplifted

How's the taste? More importantly, how's the aftertaste? I bought some plain cod liver oil. Who cares about the taste, I thought, I like fish anyway - I even buy the dried fish from the Oriental grocer to eat like beef jerky. Boy, was I wrong. The taste isn't bad, but the aftertaste/aftersmell ... whew! I can't seem to take it without getting at least a teeny drop on my lips, and that stuff stays with me for hours. That which is tolerable for a few minutes gets downright nauseating eventually. This is one time when my acute sense of smell does not seem like a gift.

There are many shades of grey between the black and the white. I did the corporate whore thing, and with all the mergers and acquisitions and flat-out bad business practices of the 1980's I ended up constantly digging for a better job or a different job or at least a soft place to land when the shit hit the fan. Finally, after getting sick of bouncing from this to that, I retrenched. I toned down my resume. I pared it down again. Finally, I cut it down to the point that any more pruning could be considered an outright lie. I let my hair and beard grow out (a drunk at a bar once referred to me as "that Jesus-looking fellow that just left"), stored my suits in plastic bags in the attic in case I needed them for a funeral, and applied for work as a temporary. I then had some of the happiest times of my work career. I didn't have much income, but plenty of time for other things, enough time to squander some on just myself for a change. I could excel at work without playing politics (who plays company politics with the mail boy?), and no one was trying to root me out. It was sweet. This, too, went bust, but not of my intentional doings. I got lung cancer, fought through that and was left with migraines so bad I couldn't hold a job anywhere and I took early retirement. Stepping out of the corporate grind-place dropped the stress until the migraines were bearable, even if I was still too much an idiot under their influence to work. I now had medical coverage, though, and enough income not to starve. About that time, I found the Tao. Evidently I was ready to receive my teacher, even if that teacher was Sifu Amazon Dot Com. I'm not a slavering capitalist. I'm not a wino bum. There's a lot of fun room in the middle, and I'm loving it. Maybe you can find your middle ground, too. I hope so, I think you'll like it a lot.

Me, I'm tired of the loudspeakers in WalMart. I suppose we all have our crosses to bear. Had no intentions of doing so, I was just asking if cod liver oil was the same as what you were calling "fish oil". There's also a "fish oil" that consists primarily of sun-rotted fish in water. Right or not, it's still labeled fish oil. I can see your perspective on one point, however - any dose of cod liver oil can be considered a "large dose", if odure is an issue.

May or may not help him, but it helps me, I have R.A. Well, "3 out of 4 doctors" say it's RA, one says it's inflammatory arthritis "but we use the same drugs you're taking to treat it". Whatever. I strongly suspect it's RA because it's largely episodal, and it attacks muscles and skin as well from time to time. The joint distress never lets up, but it has times it's much worse. Is cod liver oil the same as "fish oil"? I got a bottle of CLO because my migraines appear mostly in early winter, which is the dark time here in the Appalachians. I figured the vitamiin D might be helpful with them. I don't mind the taste, which is temporary, but no matter how carefully I take it the smell that remains on my lips is awful - if I can smell it myself I've got to assume I smell like an ocean dock at low tide to others. Well, if it helps they'll just have to avoid me or get accustomed to it. I've tried the chondroitin/glucosamine supplements for several months, and I can't honestly tell if they help or not. I live in the sticks, and can't find a TCM or similarly trained practitioner in traveling distance. I've got a bit of a "mechanical" problem right now that precludes much travel (a ruptured disc, maybe two) but when I've had that repaired I'll start looking again.I'll read your references again when my concentration isn't quite so rattled by large amounts of "owie". Thank you.

Damn, that's just plain rude. Maybe you can include some Dale Carnegie in your reading list. He wrote a book about winning friends and influencing people that's considered a classic. You might enjoy this link: http://www.masutatsuoyama.com/masoyama.htm He did not, as far as I know, "tear the flesh of the bulls" he killed with his bare hands, but he didn't try to do it either. I imagine that a man who can kill bulls with his bare hands could at least rip out the tongue barehanded for an impromptu barbecue. The average modern cubicle rat probably can't do this ... but it is within human capability. Humans aren't predators. Humans are opportunistic feeders, which places us in gustatory company with raccoons and opossums. Find something an opposum won't eat.

Father Paul, The economy of your words help me focus. It's far easier to concentrate on the details of a twig, than to make closely ordered sense of a whole forest. I hope you post here a long time. I admit my motives for that are selfish. Thank you. Bob

Going with the Flow doesn't mean you can't steer the boat.

I've seen several references to early Naturist thought, which by context I gathered was one of the "Hundred Philosophies". Since nudists have co-opted the term, I've had little luck searching the web. Anyone here know of a writer from this school of thought, preferably one who has been translated into English?

The same problem affects men, too. I have low back problems from an old injury, and wearing any shoe/boot with more than a tiny heel aggravates it immensely. I have a pair of Doc Martin's (the lightweight 1461, not the huge heavy ones) and when I first put them on they feel wonderful. The footbead is soft, good toe room, nice "give" to the soles and heels. After wearing them an hour I'm in misery. I save them for when I really need traction (cutting weeds on the creekbank behind the house) and take them off as soon as possible. Noticing that, I bought some of the new Earthshoes, I wore out two pair in the old days and loved them. They helped, but I started getting hip pain if I wore them too long. I've noticed that they are a lot stiffer and more rigidly constructed than the originals, maybe that's the problem. It seems that the solution for me is dead-level shoes - no positive heel, no negative heel. Barefoot equivalent, not the "your heels would be sinking deeper than your toes so we made Earth Shoes" equivalent. Sure wish I could find shoes made that way that weren't flip-flops.

Maybe this will be of interest:

Since I am not able to find a teacher at this time, I'd like to fill in the chinks in my library. I'm interested in works by the old masters rather than modern books, as I'm trying to get a grip on Taoism 101 as a basis for further study and practice. I have now: Lao-tzu's Tao Te Jing (D.C. Lao) Lao-tzu's Tao Te Jing (Victor Mair) Lao-tzu's Tao Te Jing (Red Pine) my favorite of the three Zhuang-zhi Vols 1 & 2 (Wang Rongpei) Lieh-tzu (A.C. Graham) Wen-tzu (Thomas Cleary) Hua Hu Ching (Brian Walker) I Ching (Wang Bi / Richard John Lynn) don't care for this version much related books Mo Tzu (Burton Watson) Confucious, Analects (Arthur Waley) Han Fei Tzu (Burton Watson) and also Road to Heaven (Bill Porter/Red Pine) Songs of Cold Mountain (Red Pine) Iron & Silk (Mark Salzman) Can someone(s) fill me in with useful ediitions of those I am missing, or better versions of those I have? I'd have to consider myself at this point a "Contemplative Taoist" rather than a religious Taoist, and I'm most interested in accurate translations rather than "well, Lao-tze says keep your powder dry" type of texts. I'm most interested in a different/better I Ching, and the Yellow Emporer. I also have a decent chunk of the Pali Cannon, several Mahayana Sutras, and some decent books on Zen; however I lose interest when the Buddhist texts get into dogma, which for me is just past the Three Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. Beyond that point, the Tao just feels more natural for me. I'd really appreciate any guidance offered. PS - Sean, thanks for cluing me in on the Hua Hu, I've enjoyed it very much. It's the only one I like better than Zhuang Zi. And thanks to all here for their many fine posts, explanations and discussions.

I found this site: http://24.97.137.100/nyc/rcny/entered.htm but it looks like you'll have to narrow it down first by topic, I couldn't get a "hit" with just the code# you gave. Good luck, Bob

Ian, Thank you! Trunk's site will keep me busy for quite a while. Father Paul, I'm sorry, I didn't express myself very well in the original post. I meant that I was looking for names of books, not donations of books. Thank you, though, for your kind offer. Bob

South of what? If you're in the U.S. South(east), I think you'll find it a good environment for a Taoist. Hell, we've been deeply committed to inaction for centuries. My boss once gave me a paperweight that said "Sometimes I just sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits".

Ack! I wasn't very clear, was I? What I meant to do is to return to your original topic. In the last sentence I meant that the "observer" is the stalker, and the "observed" is whoever in the circle he/she picked out for the stalk. That's a very good idea, and I like it better than the exercise I experienced. Better still, try both if you can find a cooperative group (which, sadly, I no longer am near).

In a martial arts school I attended we did an exercise while outside in a flat grassy area. All except one student stood spread out in a big circle, backs to the center and eyes closed. One student stood in the middle, and his/her task was to select a circle member at random and softly, silently, sneak up behind them and touch them. While doing this, the "stalker" was instructed to intentionally project chi with all the malice he could summons, if necessary visualizing violent deeds he would do when within range. The students in the circle were instructed to, as soon as they perceived they were being stalked, turn around and open their eyes. There were of course many false starts at first, but we got better and better at "feeling" the attack coming, often as soon as the stalker made his selection. Then, we turned it around. This time the stalker was told to try to "turn their chi inward", to suppress or swallow all intention. After the usual false starts, only the most experienced students ever detected the stalker before being touched. I would conclude from these experiences that the effect of observation depends greatly on the intentions of the observer and the strength of those intentions.

I have one of Yogi Bhajan's books. I like his teas very much, especially the Ginger Tea.