Jenn

Changes and amends have been made, let's cut our blue-haired friend some slack.

A cat started it!

It's definitely not new - as long as I've been alive (at least in Canada). The real question is why do you over the pond'ers call bangs a "fringe"? 😋

Woof

It's funny, I am dog sitting right now, and I have met the dog many times over the years and she is a real sweetheart, but I noticed this time she had a lot more odd tendencies we would describe as toxic if in a person. Those tendencies unfortunately match her owners. I've been pondering the impact people have on dogs lately.

Are you on windows 10 or 11? The default photo app can do it: open the photo on your computer, then at the top, there are three dots ( ... ) there is an option to resize. Drop the percentage a bit or changing the quality from high to medium should do the trick. It will show you the new size at the bottom before you choose OK, so you can play until it is under the limit 😊. If your on apple, no idea, I'm allergic to digital fruit.

Your post made me think about this comment, does your mark look like the one in the video?

I think of it more like the shadow arises from our True Self because we suppress aspects of ourselves that for one reason or another (often simply just conditioning) we bury away and repress. And from that suppression, its opposite is created, the acquired mind and that is where we live most of our lives, safely away from all we are suppressing. Yet still completely at the mercy of our shadow self by way of automatic responses. One became two. Integrating the shadow self back doesn't hold opposites in one place or destroy the shadow; it removes the force that created those opposites in the first place. We were never meant to be a shadow and a truth, we were meant to be whole ourselves. Two becomes one, and that one is the True Self.

I wonder if it would be for similar reasons as not building the LDT near bodies of water? Maybe the pull of yin in the water from the rain overpowering the pull of the yin in the LDT so the qi is pulled outwards?

That has been my experience as well, unless you deal with the root of the problem, using willpower to overcome emotions is like a house of cards, great when there is no wind, but crumbles when the storm brews and you need it most. Like building up confidence after a difficult childhood by improving yourself, taking healthy risks, self-compassion, etc. It's good and healthy, you can rise out of your childhood and be strong and confident going forward, as long as life doesn't throw you more than you can bear and you find yourself right back to being insecure. Almost like you never stopped being insecure, you just found a way to not be affected it while times are good enough that you could persist. Digging through the tangled mess of emotions, desires, and social programming, at some point, you start finding roots, once you deal with one, poof, you are free from its influence. Instantly(Ignoring all the months / years it took you to get to that point hehe)

I have been doing a lot of shadow work, including an intense session last night. This morning I woke up early thinking about things that came out of last night and read this. The part about not just seeing / accepting but also integrating into who you are, a lightbulb clicked on, and I've been thinking about it all morning. This was so helpful and perfect timing - thanks for sharing!!

Does the gadget work on electronic devices or digital books? I noticed there is a kindle edition while looking at what this book was. On my kindle, I can adjust font size. I just read on a regular tablet with the kindle app, not sure if that would work for their needs / gadget?

Well, my hometown is supposed to become quite nice when "it all goes down". Of course, currently, we can swing between extremes of +40c and -40c annually with 1-3 feet of snow per winter, so it might be worthwhile waiting until we're deep into climate change. Incidentally, we get colder than Mars at least a few nights per winter, so if that is what you fancy, might be cheaper to live out that dream here than trust your life on something elon musk built just to find out anything colder than -40c is deeply unpleasant. I remember one year we had snow so high we could ski over the fence. In that spring we had a huge flood. I'm with @silent thunder - BC Coast is the retirement plan. I'll miss the summers, but man, to not be here for the winter... 🥰

The appropriate approach in the future is report the comment or explicitly say that the comment crossed a line and that it hurt you rather than lashing out. Never attack someone's gender, it is not okay in any circumstance. Had you responded by simply pointing out that you found the original comment offensive or reporting it this post, you would not see this backlash. Someone threw a fork at you and your responded with a nuke. Also this is a Daoism forum. Discussing whether immortality is real or not, is what this forum is for and is an attack on your IDEA not on YOU personally. An attack on someone's gender is an attack on THEM personally, not their IDEAs. Personal attacks and prejudice have nothing to do with Daoism or this forum.